Prototype

Available on: Xbox 360, PS3, and PC
Played it on: PC
Played it for: 20 hours

RATING: 3.5/10

Want a game that's just an amalgam of all the action game cliches from 2005, mushed into a badly designed, horribly executed mess of a game? Then Prototype is for you!

Yes, that's a very strongly opinionated opening, but this game is a 3.5/10 for a reason. In all my gaming career, I've rarely come across a triple A cesspool of this magnitude. Sure, it happens. Brink and RAGE do exist, and despite by best interests, I continue to play some games with very minimal research into their actual function, so sometimes I end up with garbage like this. So, to begin in earnest.

I picked up Prototype because it was one of those games that I would see in stores, but would always pass up. Back when it first released in 2009, I wasn't old enough to purchase M rated games by myself, and I wasn't interested enough to try convincing my parents to come to GameStop with me to get it. And I hadn't heard too much about it, either, since YouTubers didn't really do a whole ton of Let's Plays back then, and those who did simply passed the game up as well. So I was left with a very well-designed box art and an intriguing premise, and that was about it. Alex Mercer is infected with a virus that gives him the power to mutate his body into weapons, and the whole city is becoming infected with the same thing. And Alex can somehow control his version, when the rest of the citizens become mindless zombies. Dark and gritty, but interesting nonetheless. Boy, was I let down.

To start, the game's color palette is brown. Sometimes there's some red if you look hard enough, but even when you visit the brighter parts of the city, everything seems... washed out. Even Alex's design is boring, he wears a black leather jacket with a grey hood and light blue jeans. And this minimal color is completely overtaken by browns as the city falls more and more to the rapidly spreading infection. I get that its trying to broadcast this forced gritty-ness, but even Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 had its brighter moments. Heck, even Gears of War had more color than this. And unfortunately, it only gets worse.

I'm going to bring up Modern Warfare 2 once again, but it's because I want something to be very clear to you lovely readers out there. 2009 was the same year that MW2 released. It was also the same year in which we saw the releases of Mirror's Edge, Killzone 2, and, very notably as we move forward, the first inFamous. That's the level of graphical fidelity and animation quality we're talking about. Prototype plays like none of these things. In fact, the animation quality isn't even something that we'd see out of a game released in 2005, and often looks equivalent to or worse than Halo: Combat Evolved, which released nearly a decade earlier. The explosions are barely better than animated 2D gif's, of which you'll be seeing plenty, and the rush to release becomes very apparent when nest buildings fall apart. They just sort of collapse in on themselves while the pieces clearly fade out. And it doesn't help that they're badly textured in obvious 2D.

Now, you may be saying that because Prototype is an open world sandbox game, it needs to load more things at once, and therefore must have less to load in general. I'd be inclined to agree with you, but I already brought up something very important: inFamous. inFamous is eerily similar to Prototype in a number of ways. They're both open-world games, both feature a protagonist with strange powers who can freely move around the environment and climb buildings set in a heavy urban map, and both have a fluid combat system that requires fast thinking and good use of existing powers. But one of these games does things properly, and the other botches them horribly. Can you guess which is which? You're correct! In inFamous, the world has volume. Windows and doors are set into buildings, cars are modeled with decent care, and Cole even stands out decently well with his bright yellow jacket and shining electric powers. In Prototype, everything looks like a dirty png was just slapped on some rectangles. Nice.

Well what about all the stuff you can do within the world? Sadly, its more of the same. Alex is just a person, so I get that big monsters could realistically knock him around, but it becomes insanely aggravating when every single enemy in the game can do it, even when Alex is coated in late-game, heavily dense armor. Soldiers have rocket launcher squads, tanks and helicopters have missiles, and all the mutated infected can knock Alex around like a pinball. This seems to encourage a highly mobile hit-and-run playstyle, except anything thrown or fired can track you, so distance means next to nothing as well. And despite the fact that the game has built-in combos, you'll never get any of them off because they make Alex stand still for too long, and he'll just get the crap kicked out of him. And the only ranged abilities Alex has are to throw large objects, which don't track and rarely hit their mark because the automatic target selector is awful. Instead of aiming where the camera is aiming, Alex shoots or throws at whatever his character model is facing, which means that if you want to actually hit anything, you have to turn Alex around and aim first, breaking what little fluidity the moving combat has.

On top of it all, the story is... well, to be honest, I don't even really remember. The main problem is that while I came to care about Cole McGrath's story in inFamous, I don't care even remotely about Alex Mercer. The story strives to make him so edgy that he becomes lost in a sea of generic tropes and black leather. And unlike Cole, you can't choose Alex's path. Even if Cole only had the good and bad karma options, the fact that they existed at all made a huge difference because they affected his powers, the story, and the whole game in general. Alex is instead forced down a single, boring path that becomes obscured by all the terrible boss fights and vague mission parameters. What remains is a skeletal premise about Alex saving his sister or something, and and then fighting some infected and murdering a bunch of people. Alex himself is the product of a scientific experiment with a bunch of horribly cheesy codenames like Project Blacklight that seem ripped straight from the corniest Resident Evil storylines. And in the end, I just don't care. And that's a shame.

I could keep going about a lot of things here. The AI is horrendous, I had to restart one mission four times because three of those tries ended when my allied helicopter crashed into me and killed me. Not to mention the parts when the military will exclusively target Alex, even when a berserk boss mob is ripping them to shreds and Alex is obviously helping to kill it. The map is badly laid out, the side missions are generic and tiring, and the story missions themselves offer little to no explanation as to how anything is connected or what Alex's motivations even are. The disguise power is absolutely worthless outside of specific missions, and the game actually looks and plays considerably worse on PC than on console, seeing as the resolutions are heavily limited and the controls are pretty terrible. Ultimately, I'd suggest that you avoid this one. I realize that die hard fans of this game exist, and I apologize for my rather visceral reaction to it, but I cannot in good conscience recommend this game to any sane gamer. Play inFamous, or, even better, just play something newer and with more polish like inFamous: Second Son. This game nearly gave me any aneurysm, and I'm glad it's now off my hard drive.

Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi

Played it on: Xbox 360
Available on: Xbox 360 and PS3
Approximate Playtime: 25 hours

RATING: 3/10

Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi is not a fighting game. In fact, it's not even really that much of a game, and even though it can be an interesting way to pass an hour or two, it quickly looses its appeal.

If you're a fan of Dragon Ball games, you'll recognize the "Tenkaichi" in the name from the Budokai Tenkaichi series, a classic example of what perfect Dragon Ball games are. They had epic fights, good story modes, a great selection of iconic characters, and they felt amazing to play. This was especially true of Budokai Tenkaichi 3, and Ultimate Tenkaichi, on the surface, promises an even grander version of the PlayStation 2 classic. The fights are the most cinematic they've ever been, the stages are varied and well designed, and for the first time in a big North American release, it was possible to create your own Saiyan to be the hero of his own story. It sounds too good to be true. And that's because, unfortunately, it is

To begin with, the most important feature of any fighting game is, of course, the fighting. The base mechanics aren't too bad. At long range, pressing the attack button shoots ki blasts, and at short range it causes melee attacks. You can charge your ki at any time, and getting combos increases the super attack meter to unlock two super moves, such as the Kamehameha or Special Beam Cannon. It's then possible to use up some ki to either block a super and reduce its damage, dodge it, or intercept it and deal damage to the attacker. Ultimate attacks are only unlocked when one fighter reaches critical health so that nobody can start a fight with an ultimate attack and win automatically. It's also possible to enter a powered up mode at 100% ki, which tips the balance heavily for a short time at the cost of 25% of total ki and a short period of being completely unable to charge up. Unfortunately, most of that means absolutely nothing, as fights end up being a glorified match of rock-paper-scissors. After executing one combo (actually, only the last hit of the combo needs to land, so letting go of the block button half a second early still causes this) the game enters a quick time event with two buttons. If the defender picks the same button as the attacker, they dodge. If they pick the other button, the game enters what amounts to a cutscene where the attacker pummels them for huge damage, reducing the defender's ki and increasing their own super meter. It would be fine if this didn't happen often, but this glorified click-to-win is what the entire "fight" is. It may be satisfying and cinematic to see the first few times, but it's quickly evident that every battle is exactly the same thing. None of the characters even feel different other than their super attacks, and evolving or going super saiyan amounts to a change in character model and available supers, nothing more. Some computer controlled characters will be harder to predict when the quick time events start rolling out, but all it takes is a little memorization and suddenly every single fight is winnable. Use the QTE to max out your super meter, use it again to reduce their ki so they can't block your super attacks, then use the power up mode and hit them until they're at critical health. Once that's done, use an ultimate attack and the fight is over, usually with an explosion that could level North America or a beam shooting off into space that's wider than the Atlantic Ocean. There is nothing tactical, no strategy, and no nuances. Rock 'Em, Sock 'Em Robots is more entertaining.

Then there's the story mode. Now, all told, the Dragon Ball saga spans 508 episodes including Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT, with 20 movies and a soon-to-be fourth series entitled Dragon Ball Super. This should provide a long story mode with plenty of iconic fights, locations, and costumes. But what it yields in Ultimate Tenkaichi is a small collection of only the barest essentials in Z, a few movie villains that often have scripted boss fights, and the fight between Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta and Omega Shenron in GT. That, coupled with the lifeless combat, makes for an incredibly boring run of the story. Most of the actual plot is summed up in walls of text with frequent grammatical and spelling errors, and skips over some of the best parts of the series. It does win a few points back by introducing new animations at some of the most iconic points, such as when Goku becomes a Super Saiyan and when Gohan goes toe-to-toe with Cell. But while it's nice to see the animations in a crisp, updated way more than a decade after the original show premiered, they don't do nearly enough to make up for all the other problems the game has. But they're a nice addition, so they do earn some score back for the game.

The biggest asset that Ultimate Tenkaichi has is Hero Mode, which finally gives fans the chance to make their own Saiyan, with his own story. It should be a chance to make a unique hero with all the best qualities of DBZ characters: the brawn of Broly, the power of Super Saiyan 3, and the ability to fire Kamehamehas at will. But again, what it should be is nothing like what it presents. It's possible to create three separate characters, a heavy type with big muscles, a standard type with good all-around stats, and a light type with strong ki blasts. But there isn't nearly the customization that there should be. There are only a handful of outfits and hairstyles available across the three types, most of which are directly copied from other characters in DBZ, with no option to mix and match. The colors are customizable, given the usual arbitrary color wheel to give a false sense of some originality, but that option doesn't do enough to make the characters unique.

The different ki auras are available to all character types, but the super attacks are restricted to specific body types. The standard hero is the only one who can use a Kamehameha wave, while the light hero is the only one who can use Masenko. It might be better if there were a decent amount of options for all characters, but while the standard hero gets just about all the memorable attacks from the series, the heavy and light heroes are left with a meager five or ten, most of which are downright boring, involving an excruciating buildup when the attack begins - the hero charges menacingly towards the villain, the villain marvels at his power, the villain chooses which defense option he wants, it goes through a quick time event - and then when the actual super attack hits, it's just a headbutt or something similarly dull that ends in less than a second. Why? The attack itself shouldn't have been a super ability, but giving it 15 seconds of buildup for the worst payoff imaginable is utterly ridiculous. It makes many of the attacks not even worth using, which almost guarantees exactly which super attacks the heavy and light heroes will use. and makes the standard hero the only real "hero" worth using. Even still, while fans of the series got to see Goku achieve Super Saiyan form, and improve it through all its power-ups and ascensions all the way to Super Saiyan 4 in Dragon Ball GT, the custom hero only unlocks first level of Super Saiyan and somehow manages to beat the most powerful villain in GT, Omega Shenron, a creature so powerful that it takes the fused power of Super Saiyan 4 Goku and Vegeta to beat in the show, after just a handful of fights with some big name members of the DB cast. All said, it falls immensely short.

Lastly, one of the most depressing parts is the dismal show of graphics and engine power. I understand that translating something like Dragon Ball into a bunch of three-dimensional, polygonal character models and environments isn't easy, but it can be done. In fact, it can be done extremely well. Just look at the original Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm. It looks incredibly crisp and fluid, and plays amazingly. In contrast, everything in UT is washed out, stiff, and cardboard. Raditz's flowing mane of hair stays disturbingly stiff throughout fights, and there's not much of an indication of a windup or even of choreography at all. This becomes even more apparent during some supers, when it becomes obvious that all large, medium, and small characters have identical skeletons with different meshes. Some supers involve a grab or series of punches that look completely off when hitting some other characters, like when Broly "grabs" a young Gohan by holding onto the air near his body. It can be assumed, then, that the attack was meant to hit Goku and only Goku, as it looks similarly weird on other large characters when Broly stabs his hand into their chest and presumably crushes several vital organs, but looks decent when used on medium-sized characters. You know, like Goku.

I think this is the biggest problem with UT as a whole. It feels half-done, or maybe even less than that, and plays like garbage. Never mind the dismal campaign. Never mind the awful scripting. Never mind the dirty, underdone graphics and the broken netcode that makes PvP the worst thing since getting Hadoukened into a corner repeatedly. The fact is, we've seen this done better. Not theoretically, either, we've seen some amazing, fluid fighting games in recent years that have done wonders with their limited art styles and super-strong ultimate attacks. And for a game like Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations to be immeasurably better than a Dragon Ball fighting game with this kind of pedigree? It's disgracefully shameful. Don't torture yourself or your wallet with this game. Just don't.

Mass Effect

Available on: Xbox 360 (originally exclusive) and PC
Played it on: Xbox 360
Played it for: 45 hours

RATING: 9/10

Mass Effect is fantastic combination of sci-fi, RPG, and third-person-shooter elements. The story is riveting, and the game is very hard to set down until finished, which, unfortunately, should take quite a while. If you planned on doing other things when beginning the Mass Effect trilogy, prepare to be mistaken.

There's not much to say about the hero, Commander Shepard, as he or she is whatever the player decides to make him or her. So perhaps a little rundown of what Shepard can be is necessary. There is a basic morality system in Mass Effect consisting of Paragon and Renegade choices. These choices map out how Shepard is known throughout the galaxy, and how Shepard's life will change.

Paragon:
Paragon Shepard does whatever is necessary to save lives and befriend people. He or she enjoys the company of all his or her shipmates, regardless of whether they are Human, Asari, Turian, Krogan, Salarian, Quarian, or otherwise. This Shepard will never leave a man behind, and will never give up until all possible scenarios have been attempted.

Renegade:
Renegade Shepard, on the other hand, does whatever is necessary to finish the mission. Anyone in the way is an enemy, and will be disposed of. This Shepard is a hardened soldier, and is wary of anyone who isn't Human Systems Alliance Military. Uncompromising to the last, he or she doesn't care about personal image or public opinion, only service record. (BioWare says Renegade isn't evil, but this Shepard is definitely still a jerk.)

Regardless of morality or gender choice, Mass Effect is very engaging. Right from the opening cut scene, the player is given dialog choices and a barrage of information from all sides. The game doesn't nurse players into the world of the Milky Way, they're just thrown in right before a critical mission with a Spectre, a sort of galactic secret agent, and expected to perform at their best. This isn't bad, though, it actually adds greatly to the believability of the game. A commander wouldn't be stopping in the middle of a mission to go through a practice firing course, and then a tutorial about how to command squad members, that just doesn't make sense. And by not babying the player, the game comes more alive. Combat scenarios aren't meant to be easy in real life, so Mass Effect reflects this.

The way that the Mass Effect world is constructed is beautiful as well. There are two senses that permeate the game: adventure, and realism. It's not very far fetched at all to believe that in the twenty-second century, humanity will have encountered an entire galactic civilization stretching across the Milky Way, making the game very believable. While Shepard can't explore every planet in every solar system, the ones that can be explored give just enough of a taste for the galaxy to make players want to adventure, and want to believe in the Mass Effect universe. On top of that, the lore behind the game is incredibly well written, completing an already impeccable design. It's not just fun to play Mass Effect, it's exciting. It's addicting. It's everything that a good game should strive for.

The only place the game needs work is in the combat system. It doesn't work like normal shooters, more like an RPG. Which, well, it is, but this was a source of complaint for some, so I'll outline it anyway. Guns do health damage based on the gun type and location of the shot. Head shots do more than body shots, body shots do more than limb shots. When the enemy runs out of health, it dies and awards some experience. Fairly simple really, but none of the guns are memorable in any way. The combat stays a rather static element in a game that is changing constantly. All the armors look different, all the planets look different, all the characters are unique, but the guns are all the same. Damage and accuracy changes, but not the actual feeling of the gun. It's a rather small incomplete area, given the scope of the game, but it is worth noting.

What balances this out, though, are the powers. There are 6 classes that Shepard can choose from, 3 of which are pure physical, tech, and biotic powers, and three of which involve combinations of the aforementioned alignments. Every one of Shepard's abilities can uniquely influence a combat situation, and classes are geared towards fighting one type of enemy, which is where good squad judgement comes into play. If Shepard is a soldier, good for fighting living opponents, then the giant Krogan warrior, Human soldier, or Turian sniper wouldn't be good squad mates. For that, Shepard should have the engineer Quarian for fighting robots, and biotic powered Asari for support to keep balance. And because each individual power recharges separately after use, there are multiple ways to combine the powers of Shepard and his squad to overcome enemies. The combat system feels very well planned out, and works great for what Mass Effect set out to do.

The first game in the Mass Effect trilogy is staggeringly good. Excellent writing, a well thought out combat system, and stunning visuals accompany one of the most believable sci-fi universes ever imagined. And that easily puts Mass Effect in the running for the best game ever made on the 360.

Dishonored

Available on: Xbox 360, PS3, and PC

Played it on: Xbox 360

Played it for: 25 hours

RATING: 9.5/10

Corvo Attano is on a mission. Not just to create destruction and chaos, but to restore order to his country and his people. When he returns from a long voyage to foreign lands, he bears sole witness to the murder of the Empress, and the kidnapping of her daughter, Lady Emily. He is framed for both, and spends about a year in prison before, at last, he is freed with the help of mysterious allies. And now he plots his revenge against the people who murdered his Empress.

Sounds like the premise for a horror movie that follows the villain, to be honest. But the plot of  Dishonored is far from some generic horror story. In fact, it's one of the most well thought out games of the current console world. Players can choose to kill enemies or knock them out, what equipment to upgrade, what powers to acquire, anything that could alter how the game is played. By the end, the player feels like a master assassin.

The narrative is great on its own, without even considering the mechanics. The characters are believable and likable, the story is extremely thorough, and the places that Corvo visits have a lot of twists and turns throughout them that lead to meeting new NPC's, all of which Corvo can interact with in any way he chooses. The missions ultimately culminate in finding and eliminating a target, but it's not like many other assassination games where all the targets are generic and evil. The enemies actually have personalities, and it really complicates the storyline when Corvo has to choose whether or not to exact his revenge accordingly. The whole thing is masterfully compiled between the pacing, character development, and player's choice, and it leaves the player actually quite satisfied.

The gameplay, graphics, and engine only help to complete the experience of Dishonored. The art style is somewhere between that of Fallout 3 and Borderlands, not quite realistic, but not quite like a comic book, either. What it does, is stand out wonderfully. The world is just believable enough to pull you in, especially with the level design and architecture, and it becomes quite addictive after only a short amount of time. Corvo doesn't have a voice actor, or a face that is shown in game, so before long, the player can actually feel like they are Corvo. The choices that Corvo makes are almost personal, and this is also compounded by the fact that the game never leaves Corvo's eyes, so the things that happen to him, from the camera's point of view, happen to the player. The game sucks the player in, and really makes him or her want to play more, which is something that many current games lack. Halo 4 may be well done, but it doesn't suck you in quite like Dishonored.

This aspect is increased because the game alters itself based on the decisions that Corvo makes. If the player decides to kill many guards, all of his targets, and eliminate everyone in his way, the game gets much darker and the city will fill with more dead and plague infected citizens. And he will become more notorious as well. Conversely, if Corvo removes his targets through non-lethal means, and only knocks out guards, he is seen as an almost Batman-like vigilante who's mission is to save the city above all else. This will lead to more healthy citizens, and a much lighter storyline. This is yet another way that Dishonored itself worthy of being one of the greatest games of the year.

A last, yet perhaps the most important, aspect of the game's inner workings is Corvo's Outsider Mark, which allows him to bend reality in a multitude of ways. There are items called Bone Charms located throughout each of the sprawling levels, and these can be used to upgrade Corvo's mark to summon plague infested rats, teleport, see through walls, cause a tornado of wind, possess people, or even stop time. These dramatically change how the game is played, and if used properly, Corvo may never even be seen during the course of the missions, especially with his array of gadgets like mines, sleep darts, a pistol, a crossbow, and, of course, his sword. Corvo is certainly on the list of the top ten greatest gaming assassins.

If you haven't gotten the opportunity to try out Dishonored yet, it is most certainly worth a try. Everything about the game comes together to provide a very unique experience that changes based on the way the player wants it to progress, which ensures that the player won't want to set that controller down until the game is over. And because of the multiple ways that the story can progress, it has a significant amount of replay value, or at least deserves to be played twice, once while saving the city, and once by causing as much chaos as possible. With all this in mind, Dishonored definitely earns that 9.5/10.

Dead Island

Available on: Xbox 360, PS3, and PC
Played it on: Xbox 360
Played it for: 40 hours

RATING: 8/10

Many people were incredibly disappointed with Dead Island for a myriad of reasons. Some were so saddened by how different the trailer was compared to the game that they refused to play the game. Some hated the mechanics of the game. Some didn't like how the difficulty curve works. But I am here to say that this game is good. No, it's not perfect, but it's worth the money in the end, and besides the broken trailer promises, it has the ability to prove its worth, unlike many current games.

Dead Island starts you off in a relatively classic RPG way. You find yourself abandoned in a hotel, you wander around a bit, and then you have your first contact with the enemy: the horde. Fighting will get you killed, so your only option is to run from the raving lunatics who want to eat your face. This establishes the enemy, and the rest of the game is spent trying to kill them all. As the player begins to level up, there are better weapons that can be found around the island, and eventually the player can make his or her own weapons that are far superior to any other weapon that can be found generically. And, as the player's level increases, so do the levels of the infected.

But this is where it begins to differ from other RPG's. Dead Island's mechanics differ considerably from games like Fallout 3, where it's possible to completely change the main character based on perks, appearance, and just about any other factor imaginable. Like a little game called Borderlands, this game begins with choosing one of four characters. The difference is that they don't have powers, but instead have specialties. The choice of character is based on a proficiency with sharp weapons, blunt weapons, thrown weapons, or firearms, and the perks branch from there. Survival strategies can be made alone or in groups, and perk choices should be based off of these decisions, not the other way around. In this way, it's actually a very team-oriented game, and is much more enjoyable to play in groups than alone.

The similarities between this and Borderlands continue, as this game also uses elemental weapons to fight the horde. Weapons can be altered with fire, shock, or poison damage depending on the desired effects. Shock and fire are obvious inhibitors to combat, but poison is perhaps the most useful, as it forces zombies to stand in place and get sick, opening the window for tons of damage on more difficult enemies. And just like elemental weapons in Borderlands, elementals in Dead Island are far more coveted than standard weaponry.

Thankfully, though, it's not just a complete ripoff of our beloved 2K classic. The way that the players go about quests and overall completion of the game is far different from the usual RPG, and the game can get extremely difficult as levels start increasing. If the player has no one to watch his or her back, they can die almost instantly in an ambush, as there are zombies literally in every part of the island. And going solo is almost not an option at all after reaching the slums, as the group needs to allocate different people to different jobs, and going solo can't accomplish all these roles. Dead Island also likes to borrow from Valve's zombie game Left 4 Dead, and introduces "special infected" later on in the game, and they range from sprinting zombies (that cannot be outrun), to charging zombies, exploding zombies, super strong zombies, and poison zombies. And that's along with the walkers, who frequently hold weapons of their own. In short, the difficulty curve skyrockets fairly quickly, and the game is not for the casual player.

To add to this, the game has a very different kind of combat system. You can't just swing around a sword and hope to hit everything in front of you. The game has a "smart" combat system that targets key points on the body of whatever the player is attacking, and that means strategy. If the player is fighting a fast zombie, attack the head and neck because they're not very strong. If it's a very strong zombie, attack the arms to try and sever or break them to make it easier to kill without getting hurt. If the player is fighting a poison zombie, attack with a fire weapon from behind. The poison cloud is combustible, and attacking from behind means the zombie won't poison you. This becomes vital in a group of zombies, as the player has to choose which zombies are the most important to kill quickly, and even more vital with another group of players, as different play styles are better for killing different zombies. This adds a ton of realism to the Dead Island world because, contrary to what most zombie games would lead the player to believe, killing massive amounts of zombies is actually extremely difficult. It's impossible to mow down hordes in Dead Island, even with guns, increasing the challenge to an even greater extent.

Dead Island does lose a few marks in mechanics. Sometimes the difficulty curve can be too intense, and cause the player to rage quit. It wouldn't be too much of a problem if it only happened once or twice, but when it happens almost every other time you play, it becomes a bit of a detriment to Dead Island's reputation. And it can be aggravating when the smart combat system doesn't do what you want it to, and you end up dead. It can also feel a little stiff and clunky, which reduces the amount of time that the player can be engaged in the game because it can get tiresome. And lastly, guns don't appear until about 33% through the game, which is a major problem for guns specialists. These are what give Dead Island an 8/10 instead of anything higher.

In conclusion, Dead Island is a good game that can be very rough around the edges. Fortunately for those who see promise in the game, the sequel, Dead Island Riptide will release in early 2013, with very high hopes for fixes to the problems with the original. And for those who don't want to wait for the sequel, Dead Island is well worth the $20.00 or $30.00 it currently costs.

BioShock 2

Available on: Xbox 360, PS3, and PC
Played it on: Xbox 360
Played it for: 30 hours

RATING: 9/10

Summary:
Welcome back to Rapture, ladies and gentlemen! The home of the greatest minds in all the world has been brought back with a vengeance! This time around, however, you aren't the sleeper agent, heroic, prodigal son returned to his father's utopian palace. You are instead, one of the great keepers of the underwater city: an Alpha Series Big Daddy, code-name DELTA. The beginning of the game shows you being forced to commit suicide by a woman named Doctor Sophia Lamb.

Ten years pass, and you find yourself inexplicably alive and well, and in need of finding your Little Sister.

Review:
BioShock likes to stand out. It makes a statement every time it releases a title, saying, "Look at me, world! I'm extremely disturbing, and I don't care!" However, the games have such good plots, and are made so well, that they simply become a good series, no matter how messed up it may be. I never thought in a thousand years that BioShock 2 would be as good as the first one, but I was quite mistaken. In fact, I thought the plot was actually better than BioShock's, as the pseudo-utopia comes more fully to life in the even more destroyed set pieces and ruined psyches of the splicers. DELTA never speaks throughout the game, but your emotions find voice in Eleanor, your now 19-ish Little Sister, who helps you through the course of your journey by giving you gifts and guidance, among other things. You can feel DELTA's pain, anger, and resentment towards Dr. Sophia Lamb as more and more secrets about your past are revealed through various means. It really is a masterpiece of story-telling.

The gameplay is better, too, as the graphics and controls are more refined and flowing in this installment. Hacking is much more difficult, as the game doesn't pause itself mid-combat to hack a turret, and failure to hack correctly leads to the loss of remote hack darts, which are essential tools in a sticky situation. Of course, what you can't hack you can shoot or hit with the 6 other weapons in the game, ranging from the iconic rivet gun and drill to a missile launcher that fires heat-seeking-rocket-propelled grenades. And let's not forget the wide range of usable plasmids in the sequel, which harness the power of the elements much more fully and devastatingly, and can easily disable any robotic opponent. Or living one, for that matter, considering the flames, ice, bees, cyclones, and other assorted punishments you can dish out to splicers are not limited to any one setting. Instead, the choice is yours on what to use and what not to as you get closer and closer to your goal. As much as it tries, BioShock is still an RPG at heart.

But as much as BioShock 2 tries to be better than it's father, the two will both stand hand in hand on the top of the gaming pedestal, showing the world how different an experience it can create for players new to the series, and even to seasoned veterans like myself. In the end, it really stops being BioShock and BioShock 2, and instead simply becomes "Rapture." And now that 2K is releasing their third title in the fall of this year, how will the series be affected by the change of scenery? I look forward to the year ahead.

F.3.A.R.

Available for: Xbox 360, PS3, and PC
Played it on: Xbox 360
Played it for: 10 hours

RATING: 7/10

Summary: Alma is back for the third installment of this thrilling saga, as bio-weapon brothers Point Man and Fettel join forces to stop their mother from destroying the planet. After Point Man killed his brother, Armacham captured him and began his interrogation right away. However, it would seem that Fettel wasn't ready to sit in his grave quietly, and he comes back from the dead as a spirit to help Point Man find Alma, and to give himself ultimate power.

Review: Mildly Disappointing...
I suppose that having a shooter be impressive these days is probably too much to ask out of modern gaming. Leave the impressive, compelling story-lines to Final Fantasy and The Legend of Zelda, and let the shooters handle all the mindless BS. Fear 3 is just so... generic.

I suppose a few things need to be said first. 1. I never played F.E.A.R. or F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, so I was going into this fresh. I had no idea what stories were being concluded, and I know only sparse background on Alma and her sons. 2. The campaign is co-op for 2 people, which is something that many games are too afraid to handle nowadays. 3. I like how they incorporate the slow motion abilities of Point Man and how the Fear engine handles. And 4: Like Yahtzee, I believe that a game should be carried by campaign.

Now that that's out of the way, here's what I thought. The campaign was short. Way too short. My Xbox LIVE friend, gamertag Thiashu, and I beat it in just six hours, and to be honest, it wasn't that great. It feels a little too forced and hokey, and that's the last thing you want people to think of your game as a developer. The eight missions get a little longer with each one, with the last one taking you about 45 minutes to an hour, but it just feels rushed. Perhaps a DLC or two could fix it, but I don't really want to pay more to complete the unfinished game. I think the two words that best describe it are creepy and undercooked. And it doesn't really get a whole lot better.

The multiplayer other co-op modes are called Contractions and Soul King, and they give a rather lack-luster performance. There are only three maps playable for their respective mode, each little different from the others, and it just feels (once again) rather rushed out of the oven before it fully baked. The Contractions mode is a sort of Horde-Mode-Nazi-Zombie crossover, forcing you to defend yourselves (I say this plural because it isn't possible alone) against unending waves of enemies. Some have sticks, some have guns, some have extremely large guns, and some are demons. Between the waves you can pick up ammunition and weapon crates so you don't immediately die, and you can board windows in preparation for whatever may come next. Soul King gives you the powers of ghost possession, as you can switch bodies and kill as many NPC's as you can before the round is up. Whoever kills the most is the Soul King. The largest variable in both modes is the little girl Alma. In Contractions, looking directly at her causes blindness, limb deadness, or even teleportation across the map, and in Soul King, she spawns a super powered demon monkey to kill your current body. Basically, the other co-op modes feel sort of fun, but majorly lacking.

If Fear 3 was as simple as that, I would be going back to GameStop right now to get my money back, but that's not quite all. There are two main reasons it's gonna stay on that shelf. The first is the insane amount of replay value the campaign has. Like the first Halo, it's a game you can play again and again and again, and it will never ever get bad. It's a casual shooter, and it's perfect for just a little jaunt in death-land before going to bed. The second is what you can do when you play the campaign a second time: Fettel. That's right, you can choose to play as the ghost brother, and Fear 3 really shows you what it can do at that point. You can become the perfect weapon as Armacham soldiers fall ceaselessly before you. You can possess people, hit people with psychic bolts, or even just disintegrate them if you feel like it, and all that power is right at your fingertips. It's where Fear can truly shine.

F.3.A.R. was good, but could have been better. It has some redeeming qualities that earned it a 7, but it has a lot of work to do. Perhaps by F.E.A.R. 4 we can finally see how far the engine can be pushed and how far they can take the console with characters like Fettel. Or, the better solution, play some Battlefield 3, and you can easily get enough FPS exploding without wasting your time.

Dead Space

Available on: Xbox 360, PS3, and PC
Played it on: Xbox 360
Played it for: 13 hours

RATING: 9/10

Summary: Earth is breaking. The world has sent out hundreds of ships to mine the other known planets dry, and use those resources to fuel the dying planet. One such ship, the USG Ishimura, picked up a strange artifact with it's mining materials called The Marker. It's existence was sacred to the Church of Unitology, so it was kept on board until the ship could reach Earth.

It never did.

Engineer Isaac Clarke is sent with his team to fix the ship after it sent its final distress signal, but when they arrive, the team finds the ship crawling with Necromorphs, freakish, mutated, zombie-like beings that barely show any semblance of once being human. The ship's entire crew has been turned by the marker, and it is Isaac's job to find salvation.

Review: Space Zombies!
At some point during your Dead Space escapade, you'll probably, no, you will ask yourself who on Earth would be demented enough to not only create the idea for Dead Space, but was actually crazy enough to make it into a full game with a plot and everything. Not only do you have to fight undead in space, you frequently have to watch the transformation from human to Necromorph, and you are also forced to watch 20+ suicides throughout the 12 missions of the extensive campaign. The Marker has made you insane and given you dementia, and if that wasn't bad enough, you have to face the entire 12 hour campaign alone. To put it in basic terms, this game is not for the feint of heart...

I bought Dead Space half out of curiosity and half out of boredom. I wanted something completely different from my usual Halo FPS or Gears of War TPS or Fallout/Skyrim RPG. Something preferably scary, but not the calibur of Amnesia or SAW (though I've never played SAW, I have heard the stories). Dead Space seemed to fit right into that category, and I was completely right. Those who want a very different experience out of gaming will very much enjoy it, but be prepared for some pretty disturbed visuals. I will say this, where Amnesia is a game that relies of the psychological aspect of horror, Dead Space handles the startling part. Necromorphs can come out of literally anywhere, so you have to be prepared at all times for a battle royal. The higher the difficulty you play, the more scarce ammunition is as well, making it much more difficult to, well, live later on. I suppose you could cheat your way to the finish, as Dead Space is one of the few living titles to employ actual cheat inputs for when you pause and are bored enough to look them up, but I preferred to go the traditional route and just play it how it was meant to be played. Oh how difficult it was...

Dead Space 2 is more popular than the first one, and for good reason. It's newer, looks better, handles better, has newer and better features and the like, so many readers probably don't realize how brutally unforgiving Dead Space is compared to the sequel. It was unbelievably difficult to complete the campaign just on medium, and that was with me just pumping money into ammo at every store, and burning through weapon upgrade nodes at work benches. Even with all of this, the final mission was a tough one, forcing you to fight wave after wave of the strongest Necromorphs in the game to deliver The Marker to the giant hive mind on the planet Aegis 7, which floats gently below the Ishimura for the other 11 chapters. The part that scares me the most is that there's not just one, but two difficulties harder than the already challenging medium, one of which is so difficult it's called Impossible Mode, and is unlocked after playing through the game once on easy, medium, or hard, Gears of War style. Just for kicks, I created a new game on impossible, and it's difficult just beating the first chapter, and that's with already knowing exactly where all the Necromorphs are going to pop out. I can't imagine how ridiculous the next 11 are...

Aside from all that, the gameplay itself is fantastic. While one might think that only having seven guns in the entire game would be pointless and stupid, the weapon upgrades make it impossible to have more anyway, as  more guns means more resources to spread out, which in turn means you'll have a lot of guns, but none of them are nearly damaging enough to actually be effective past chapter 6. Unlike DS2, there are also only 5 suits, simply named level 1 suit, level 2 suit, and so forth, but this I think also makes the game more interesting, as it takes your focus off of how you look and onto how many more Necromorphs you have to kill before the next room. Actually, all of the things you can buy in the store or use in upgrades just add to the tension, as you have to make the decision to either keep your last upgrade node to open up a special locked treasure door later on or to upgrade your machine gun so you can live long enough to see the door in the first place. The game is built to put you in those positions, and it makes the experience that much more effective. In all, it's both new and quite refreshing.

The campaign runs you about twelve hours to beat it once, and I'd say that's fair for a standard shooter. I would have liked the campaign to run closer to thirty, but you begin to wonder at some point when it's all going to end, and therefore the game actually raps itself up quite nicely by the end of chapter 12. It's got descent replay value as well, as long as you play it on a harder difficulty each time, and is something that you can easily go back to and play for a few hours after your first go round. All in all, it's a good and different game that's probably worth your time.

Halo: Combat Evolved - Anniversary

Only Available on: Xbox 360
Played it for: Well, if you include my hours into just Combat Evolved, I would put the total around 50 hours.

RATING: 8.5/10

Summary: The Pillar of Autumn has come out of slip space to see if they escaped the Covenant on Reach. They did not. So, it's time to call out that famous Spartan soldier John 117, otherwise known as Master Chief, to fight the good fight once again.

Review: Oh boy...
I loved Halo: Combat Evolved. It was fun, addictive, had an amazing plot, tight controls, good graphics (for the time, obviously), and great gameplay overall. Now, I didn't quite get the full experience out of Halo for the first go round, as I played it last year on the very computer which is now publishing this review. The game wasn't meant for PC, though, so the controls kinda, well, sucked. Still though, it was an awesome game for a bored high school Sophomore, and I spent plenty of time with it in my off periods. So Anniversary is rather a nice throwback for me to a time when I was much more stupid.

You might think it a waste of your $39.99 plus tax to purchase a ten year old game, and you may be right seeing as I didn't spend the $39.99 plus tax, and instead am enjoying it as a Christmas gift, but I would call this game worth it, especially now that I'm getting the full console experience after playing the ported PC version. For those who don't know, 343 Industries kept all the same programming, just with a re-skin of graphics, so it plays the same and feels almost the same, but looks so much better. It's really wonderful to crash on the Halo and see it how the developers meant it to look. I think that the Pillar of Autumn and 343 Guilty Spark are the missions where the changes are the most noticeable, as the ship is completely re-vamped, and the swamp at the beginning of 343 looks truly incredible. The sniper rifle is probably the most notable gun change, as it actually looks like a menacing weapon rather than a tube with a scope and a trigger.

I suppose that really isn't much of a review, but the game itself will be covered when I review Halo: Combat Evolved, and seeing as this is the same game, just re-skinned, I can't really find anything else that is prudent to remark about.

Those dedicated Halo fans can rest easy as well, as the game itself plays the same as it did in 2001, but for those who got on board with 3 or Reach, I highly suggest you play this game so that you can see where it all began.

Red Dead: Redemption - Undead Nightmare DLC

Played it on: Xbox 360
Available on: Xbox 360, PS3, and PC
Played it for: 30-40 hours

RATING: 9/10

Summary:
What if.... there were zombies...... IN THE 1920'S WILD WEST?!

Review:
This game is pretty interesting to say the least. Zombies, lever action rifles, six shooters, and a whole lot of mayhem surround you as your family turns into ravenous monsters, and you search for clues to the cure. The DLC is set after the events of the original Red Dead: Redemption, and John Marston has returned to his family after his adventures in New Austin, where his wife and son are attacked by their uncle, now zombified. The game spends no time on useless tutorials or scattered plots like the original, which was my biggest complaint, and the zombie aspect fills in the gaps that all the normal missions left blank with boredom. It's nice to have something to occupy the wastes between plot lines, even if that thing is unbelievably scary. As the game goes on, the zombies also get tougher and tougher, making it difficult to travel the wastes, but it balances out with the locations you can fast travel to, so it just seems well thought out as apposed to it's brother.

However, the game poses incentives to continue crossing the wastes and facing the zombie threat head on. Throughout the land, one can find "Mythical Creatures", otherwise known as the Four Horses of the Apocalypse, which can be tamed and ridden. The first two horses are War, a black flaming horse, and Pestilence, a sickly white horse who bleeds from the eyes. The next horse can be found in Mexico, and is known as Famine, and is a black and white, gaunt looking, starving horse. The final horse is Death, and it can be found anywhere on the map, but can only be located after finding and taming the first three. Death is the most powerful horse against the undead, because while Pestilence is extremely strong, War can burn enemies, and Famine can run quickly, Death can kill the zombies with just a single touch, making wasteland travel a breeze. However, what is the other way to travel without getting hurt? Run faster than everything else, of course! After taming the Four Horses of the Apocalypse, you have the chance to obtain the most prized of all steeds: a Unicorn. Yes, yes, I know, but bear with me. If you obtain the Four Horses and kill the Chupacabra in Mexico, you can tame the Unicorn, which is the fastest horse in the game. Quite literally nothing can catch you. Not to mention, like all the mythical steeds, the Unicorn has infinite stamina, so you can run forever and ever and ever...

(Plus, it's a hilarious contradiction running around on a Unicorn who spreads rainbows and butterflies while blowing off zombie heads in the middle of the wild west. It really is just so wrong it comes full circle and becomes right again.)

So, is the DLC ground breaking? No. Does it add actual merit to the original? No. IS IT WORTH THE MONEY TO RUN AROUND ON A MAGICAL UNICORN KILLING UNDEAD WITH MOLOTOVS AND DYNAMITE? OF COURSE IT IS!

The game is wonderfully pointless, and worth the $10 to buy the DLC on a separate disc. You might want to at least rent the original to understand the back-story with Marston and Bonnie MacFarlane and the town Armadillo, but you really don't need to. Just enjoy the zombie killing, and you should find the game well worth your while.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Played it on: Xbox 360
Available on: Xbox 360, PS3, and PC
Played it for: 60 hours and counting

Rating: 10/10
BEST RPG OF THE YEAR

Summary:
Tamriel is in turmoil.
It has been 200 years since Emperor Uriel Septim VII was assassinated in the name of Oblivion. With Oblivion Gates opening all over the continent, he passed on his faith and his amulet to the last hero of Tamriel, the lucky prisoner who occupied the cell of the Emperor's escape route. This sparked the beginning of the Fourth Era. Since then, Morrowind was destroyed by a natural cataclysm, forcing most of the Elves to migrate to neighboring Skyrim, and now civil war has plunged Skyrim into chaos. The armies of Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak have declared war on the Empire, and killed Skyrim's High King. The rest of the Jarls had to make a choice to back Ulfric or the Empire, and the country split. As the game begins, you and your partner have been caught in a stealing heist against the Empire, and have been apprehended. When you regain consciousness, however, you find that the Empire has captured Jarl Ulfric, he is in your same cart, and you are all heading towards execution. But with the return of the Dragons at hand, what will fate have in store for Skyrim's last Dragonborn?

Review:
This game is amazing.
Bethesda knew after Oblivion that they wanted to make another Elder Scrolls title. But how do you make a new game with the same graphics and physics, and somehow make it better? The answer: re-write the entire engine. Skyrim is based off of completely new graphics, physics, rendering, and AI, and it makes full use of all of it. I am continually blown away by the amount of time Bethesda put into this game, because it is truly remarkable how much of a change there is between this and Oblivion, and even between this and Fallout: New Vegas. Every dungeon is different, every city is unique, every part of the province of Skyrim is one of a kind, and it just never gets old. On top of that, you have a myriad of different skills, from armor to smithing to magic and to archery, totaling 18 skills, each of which have 100 levels, which contribute to your overall experience until you reach the level cap of 50.

50 levels also means 50 perks, which are chosen to shape your character into what you want. These perks aren't like the Fallout perks, and instead contribute to overall gameplay in a less drastic way. Basically, when your level is high enough in a certain skill, say smithing, when you level up overall, you can choose a perk such as Dwarven Smithing, which allows you to make your own Dwarven armor if you have the right materials on hand. Some of the higher perks are quite enticing, such as being able to smith Dragon Bone armor from the scales and bones of dragons you have felled, or being able to put two enchantments on a single piece of armor or weaponry, perhaps making it do both fire and lightning damage. One of the most useful perks is for Heavy Armor, called Conditioning. It removes all weight of the armor from your inventory, and makes it so that Heavy Armor doesn't slow you down when worn. When all is said and done, you'll have to play through quite a few times to aquire every perk, because you can only max out three or four of the skill tiers before you can't level up anymore.

The gameplay itself is incredible, and really draws you into the Elder Scrolls world like never before. The world of Skyrim is very vast, and has hundreds of locations to discover, with miles and miles of underground dungeons below the world of mountains and plains. I think what impressed me most though was the sheer amount of possibility. Sure, if you really wanted to, you could go explore every dungeon on your first go, join all four guilds, gather all the spells, become a supernatural being (Werewolf or Vampire), gain all 20 shouts (all 60 words), and make all the best weapons and armor and enchant it all, but unlike Fallout, you don't need to go through every single freaking subway tunnel to get anywhere, and you don't need the most amazing stuff to get to level 30 (the level cap, for those who never played Fallout 3). Plus, there's no more moral system, which means you don't have to watch your morality meter every time you finish a quest to see if you're still good, bad, or neutral for the achievements, and instead if you are apprehended for stealing or killing, people remember what you did, and get more cautious around you, perhaps remarking that they don't like you every once in a while. It makes the game more realistic, and adds to the overall immersion and fun. I think the final thing I would add to that is that you no longer get experience from doing quests, and instead only get it from leveling up your skills, which means that if you don't want to do hours and hours of fetch quests, you don't need to, and it has no bearing on anything for the future.

My one critique is something that has plagued Bethesda's RPG's since Fallout 3: the save system, or lack thereof. Skyrim has almost no autosaves, which means that you have to pause and manually save every 15 feet, lest you get mauled by a bear in the 15 feet following, and have to re-start your journey 4,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles away from your last autosave when you last opened a door, losing all progress of experience. This can get very aggravating, and I admit, I ragequit once because of it. However, if you set the character menu to autosave you when you open it every 5 minutes instead of the default of 15, this shouldn't be much of a problem.

Overall, Skyrim is a fantastic game. Everything about it is insanely impressive, and I would say that it is the best game Bethesda has ever made. I'm really looking forward to the next Fallout if they make one, because these graphics and AI would be perfect for another Fallout title. Congrats on another win, Bethesda.

Crackdown 2

Only Available On: Xbox 360
Played it for: 20 hours

RATING: 8.5/10

Oh my God! Two posts in one day?! He must be crazy! No, but I do have a hefty list to get to before the New Year, so when I have the time to throw down a few reviews, I take the opportunity.

Summary:
You are a cybernetic clone, born and bred to be an agent of The Agency. These blue wearing super-humans bring violent justice to those who commit crimes, and oh how much crime there is. CELL has put up strongholds all around Pacific City, and are using these to hold up Agency operations. At the same time, freakish mutated humans known as Freaks are rampaging throughout the city at night, and cause havoc to those few citizens unlucky enough to be caught in the middle. Use your vast arsenal of weaponry to remove CELL and destroy the Freaks, and steadily rid Pacific City of it's problems.

Review:
How much fun would it be if your city was infested with zombies, you were a superhuman, and you had a vast arsenal of very powerful guns that can make these zombies disintegrate in less that half a second? Very! Yes, the game does have a campaign with at least a semi-decent story, but with the hours and hours you will spend just screwing around, you hardly even notice. I mean, really, who is going to pay attention to orders when someone hands you an rpg and says, "Go kill things"? The game works at a very basic level. Shoot stuff to unlock more things to shoot stuff with, run over stuff to get more cars to run over stuff with, blow stuff up to get more powerful blowey-upy things, punch stuff to get more...fist, and climb stuff to be able to climb higher stuff, all while avoiding zombies and killing criminals. To be honest, I really can't say any more about it because that's the whole thing right there. I mean sure the graphics are interesting and the physics can be rage-inducing, but it is one of the most basic stress relieving games I have ever played. I think the only way you could get more simple is Mortal Combat. Therefore, those of you who are looking for a good third person shooter with a complicated plot and complex RPG gameplay should go play Deus Ex: Human Revolution somewhere else. If you like pointless violence, on the other hand, this game is for you!

Sorry for the shortness of this one, but I can't really think of anything else to say. The game is really good and really fun, and will keep you laughing even after hours of zombie murder. There's no tactical gameplay, no amazing technological achievements, and no promises of being the greatest game you will ever play ever. No, this game is just fun.

Battlefield 3

Played on: Xbox 360
Available on: PS3, Xbox 360, and PC
Played it for: 20-30 hours

RATING: 9.5/10

Well, I'm back after my little creative break, and I'm ready to get started on that list I posted on Saturday. So lets get started with a little FPS fun!

Summary:
The year is 2014. The United States is at war in Iraq, and things are starting to heat up again. A group of Iranian militants known as the PLR have begun to spread their reach beyond Iran's borders, and are becoming more and more aggressive with the US Marines in Iraq. You play as Sargent Blackburn, a Marine who is the only person in the world who knows that the PLR will be attacking New York, and the game switches between you being interrogated by the C.I.A. and carrying out missions as you tell your tale. Unfortunately, it seems that through varying circumstances, some caused by fate, and some caused by yourself, you will have to stop the PLR alone.

Review:
The game is extremely good. In fact, there is not much that I can say to contradict that statement at all. Yes, the campaign was a little cliche, but how the missions play, how the physics engine works, how the graphics look, how the gun physics work, are all just so smooth and intelligent. As many of you probably already know, the Battlefield 3 engine was completely re-vamped, and is now called Frostbite 2. I wasn't initially sure of how the game would work differently because it was still a Battlefield title, and that means less in your face cataclysms like Call of Duty, and more actual gameplay and story like Halo and the previous BF's. However, the graphics are so much smoother that they were in Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and the reactionary events are much more present like in Medal of Honor. Honestly, they did a very good job blending up the core aspects of the game and giving them a new form, and I think that this is probably the second best shooter I have ever played. (Most of you will probably hate me for my favorite, but it's true)

Campaign:
I would have liked it to be a little longer
The campaign only lasts you a good solid day of playtime, and that wouldn't really sound appealing to most. "Oh boy, another shooter that only lasts six hours, woop de doo..." However, this is not the case. I said one solid day, and that means I played it from about 10:00 in the morning to probably around 7:00 at night, and that means that it took me about nine hours. I also had already played through the first three or four missions, so that adds an extra one and a half to two hours, making the total come to somewhere between ten and a half and eleven hours. So yes, Call of Duty, this campaign is almost three times as long as yours. (Activision announced this week that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will have a six hour long campaign, and I think I'll probably finish it in four.) The missions are mostly varied, and just to take a snapshot of that, the first four missions have you being under attack by the PLR and having to defend yourself from their onslaught, then sneaking through the streets at night trying to find your squad and get to safety, then working as the co-pilot in an F-15 as you rain hell down onto your enemies, and finally leading a full frontal assault on a PLR stronghold. For the rest of the game you will work as a Russian agent, drive a tank to save your fellow Marines, and then eventually save the world. When all is said and done, it's worth your while.

Co-op:
The game also leads you through a series of co-op missions, similar to some of the campaign missions, and has you do this and that to save the world again. You really do need a good friend to help you play through the co-op, as these missions are surprisingly harder than those in the campaign, and you need a good amount of teamwork to get them done. Unfortunately, the only good friend I have who owns BF3 never seems to get on at the same time I do, so it's hard to co-ordinate playtime. Therefore, I have only played two of the six co-op missions. I don't think these were quite as fun as the singleplayer, but they were still good.

Multiplayer:
Ah, yes, the legendary multiplayer... Battlefield multiplayer is famous for being unique, and this game is no different. The maps are quite heterogeneous (for those of you who don't know what that means, they are very different from each other), and there are quite a few of them. While the core gameplay for each of the game modes stays the same, the maps add a lot more variation to the multiplayer that keeps the game alive and, well, not boring. The guns also work really well this time around (unlike the terribly unbalanced BC2) and have an unlock system that is fun and enjoyable to use (hint, hint MW2...). Basically, for every ten kills you get with the gun, you get a new attachment, regardless of the attachments you are currently using. In other words, you don't have to use a red dot sight to get a holographic sight, and instead can use whatever modifications you like best. Not only that, you can have three of these little gadgets on your gun at any time, putting one on the sight rail, one on the barrel, and one on the under-slung rail, unlike Call of Duty, which seems to think that it is physically impossible to fit more that one attachment to your gun unless you are a high ranking officer, in which case you can have two as long as one of them isn't a grenade launcher. But I digress, ranting on CoD will come soon enough... I suppose to summarize, The multiplayer is balanced and enjoyable, with noticeable improvements from previous games, and new tweaks that keep you coming back to it for more.

Gears of War 3

Only Available On: Xbox 360
Played it for: 50 hours and counting

RATING: 11/10

WARNING: SPOILERS FROM PREVIOUS GEARS OF WAR TITLES IN THE SUMMARY SECTION, AND GEARS OF WAR 3 SPOILERS IN THE CAMPAIGN REVIEW.

Summary:
Humanity is dead. After the end of the Pendulum Wars, the Locust came to try and destroy humanity. They wanted the resources of the above world, and they were going to take them by force. Feeling a need to defend what was theirs, the humans, under the leadership of Chairman Prescott, Commander in Chief of the Coalition of Ordered Governments, or C.O.G., took up arms as COG Gears. They began to use weapons of mass destruction called the Hammer of Dawn, an orbital laser designed to burn anything in it's path. Much of humanity did not survive these "hammer strikes," and any that did went underground, and became labeled as Stranded. When the hammers didn't work, the humans used a Lightmass Bomb, Sera's form of a nuke, and launched it strait into the Hollow - the Locust stronghold. Not even this could end the Immulsion War. Finally, at the end of the second game, the humans sink Jacinto, the last bastion of humanity, in order to flood the hollow, and bring the city toppling down onto the Locust Queen. The war was over, but now humanity had to survive.

Review:
Every once in a console's lifetime, there comes a game that can make the console bloom in a way it never has before. It has impeccably rendered graphics, a soulful storyline, a perfect physics engine, no glitches, and is challenging enough to keep you coming back again and again. For the PlayStation 1, this was Final Fantasy 7. For the PlayStation 2, this was Final Fantasy 10. For the Xbox, it was Halo 2. And for the Xbox 360, it is Gears of War 3. Basically what I'm saying is that 11/10 you see at the top of this page is not going to come back until the Nextbox comes out, making this is a very special review. So, without further ado, I give you the best of this console generation.

Campaign:
Truly Incredible.
I really give props to the guys at Epic for this writing. For the first time in the saga, we see less of a focus on the gratuitous violence, and far more of a focus on the progression of the characters. To put this into context, while the deaths of previous Gears characters came as a shock, they were relatively easy to get over. In this third installment, we witness the death of the main character's best friend, something that was completely unprecedented, and definitely evokes plenty of emotion for the rest of the game. Not only that, but we also get a sense that Marcus has some emotion other than anger this time around, and it gives a depth to his character that hasn't been seen before in the franchise.

Other than the incredible writing, the story was also the longest of any Gears game, with five Acts, and seven or eight chapters to each. It really gave a scale to the Gears world that we haven't had the ability to see thus far, and it is much appreciated. It was nice to have a modern shooter that didn't take me less than three days to finish.

Multiplayer:
Better!
The multiplayer on Gears 3 is much better than the previous two, and is much more enjoyable to participate in. Instead of running around with a sniper shotgun, (which is not to say that no one uses the shotguns anymore) we find that the multiplayer has much more of a sense of balance, making the Lancers actually useful, and giving people a chance to actually play the game without rage-quitting. The maps have also been re-designed to be symmetrical, which, while a bit un-original, gives both sides an equal chance at winning.

Horde Mode 2.0:
An Interesting Twist.
The original Horde Mode in Gears 2 never really lost any appeal, no matter how much it was played. However, not wanting to simply copy/paste, Epic decided to integrate some very interesting features into Horde 2.0. First off, the objective of survival is still the same, so there's no need to worry about that. However, what Epic did was to change the means to accomplish that objective. Now you can build spike strips, auto-turrets, mounted turrets, dummies, and a Silverback (a large mechanical suit, similar to the first Iron Man suit that Tony Stark built from scratch). However, every 10 waves is a boss fight, in which Brumaks, Berzerkers, and various mutant versions of these come out to play. It makes Horde far more engaging, and definitely makes the original look almost boring in comparison.

Beast Mode:
Beast Mode is the opposite of Horde Mode 2.0, and puts you in the shoes of a locust trying to eliminate various human survivors. This wouldn't have been very fun in Gears of War 2, but the fact that the humans can build their own bases adds to the challenge. Beast is much shorter than Horde, lasting only 12 rounds where Horde lasts 50, but the last wave can prove troublesome, forcing you to down every survivor before killing them. Wave 12 also gives the humans the most powerful weapons in the game, and these make it easy for them to halt your assault, even if you choose to spawn as something as strong as a Berzerker. In the end, I think Horde and Beast both hold the same amount of appeal, and I applaud Epic for the idea.


As I stated at the beginning of this review, I think Gears 3 is the pinnacle of what the Xbox 360 has to offer. I look forward to what Epic does next, and I hope that whatever they do will be just as exciting as what they gave us last month. I would like to congratulate Epic on how far they come, and I wish them luck in the future.

Battlefield 3 Beta

Played it on: Xbox 360
Available on: PS3, Xbox 360, and PC
Played it for: 5-10 hours

RATING: 7/10

Review:
Well, this is glitchy.
Also, I didn't bother with a summary on this one, as the only thing in the Beta is the multiplayer.
The game is looking to be very good. While the graphics aren't as incredible on console as they are on PC, I can say that I was very impressed with the overall feel of the game. It is an interesting mish-mash of Call of Duty, Halo, previous Battlefield titles, Counter-Strike, Medal of Honor (2010), Crysis 2, and Homefront, taking elements from each, and combining them into a modern war game. With that said, I think the three it most resembles are Homefront, Crysis 2, and Medal of Honor (2010).

With respect to the actual gameplay, (minus the physics and graphics and all that), it plays most like Medal of Honor (2010), and this makes me very happy. Unlike many CoD addicts, I thought Medal of Honor was the epitomy of what it meant to be an FPS, and the work that EA put into it really shows. The way that many guns handle in the BF3 Beta is very similar to MoH in recoil, damage, and firing speed, and the map included in the Beta (Operation Metro), has the feel of the MoH map Helmand Valley, my personal favorite.

But enough about comparisons. While the BF3 Beta appears to be very good, once you begin playing, you realize that the game is far more glitchy than you would anticipate. There are multiple sections of the map where it is possible to go below the ground when laying down, and kill people by shooting upwards out of the Earth. In addition, the lag throughout the servers can get unbearable, forcing you to quit. If that wasn't enough, the flashlights that you can strap onto the end of your gun seem to work even better in the day time than at night, somehow managing to put off light comparable to that of a few large suns. This is incredibly annoying when you are working on an objective, then all of a sudden find yourself blinded by someone across the map and killed. The lazer sights operate on a similar principle, except they give you instant eye cancer, followed by a few bullet wounds in your face. My final complaint about the current working physics is the shotgun. It is understandable that in real life, a shotgun has more range than just the few centimeters that CoD gives you, but when using a shotgun with a lazer pointer and red-dot sight in the BF3 Beta, you essentially become the finger of death, and can kill anyone within a 17-mile radius.

To summarize, Battlefield 3 promises to be a good game upon it's release in the next couple of weeks, but if they actually plan on anyone playing the multiplayer for more than five seconds, they have some serious problems they need to fix first.

Crysis 2

Played on: Xbox 360 (yeah, I know, I do it a lot. I don't have a PS3 yet...)
Available on: PS3, Xbox 360, and PC
Played it for: roughly 20-30 hours

RATING: 7.5/10

Summary:
Humanity is falling. There are radical terrorist groups infecting all the major cities across the world, and they are far to powerful to be dealt with by any existing military. If that wasn't enough, the entire world is undergoing an epidemic far more potent than any other current disease, and there is no cure. Humanity's very existence depends on the use of one technology, a technology that can both end the terrorism, and, with some more research, eliminate the bacteria. The Nanosuit. You play as "Alcatraz," a military grunt sent in to help fight the war in New York. However, when you arrive, you are blown up. Yep, pretty instant climax. But don't worry, the game doesn't end there. You are saved by one of the last remaining super-soldiers, one who wears the Nanosuit, and as his last parting gift, he puts his suit onto you to save your life, and kills himself to sever the symbiosis between himself and his Nanosuit. He was going to die anyway, he had the disease.

Review:
It seems a bit old.
Crysis 2 came into the world claiming it would solve all of game-dom's problems. It was going to be revolutionary; it's multiplayer would make CoD commit suicide, and it's campaign would solve world hunger... well, all hyperbole aside, it really didn't do much. As the sequel to the original Crysis, a game that really blew my mind, I was really hoping that this game would be just as awe-inspiring as it's prequel. It left me a bit disappointed. I mean, sure, anyone expecting it to be better than Call of Duty: Black Ops would definitely be satisfied, but it can't really come close to titles like Gears of War or Mass Effect. The problem is that it tends to only exist for effect. Every chance it gets, it blows up in your face and throws an invisible alien down your pants, and it leaves itself no room to be dynamic. The thing I really enjoyed about Crysis 1 was that you could do it anywhere between guns blazing and stealthy as a snake in the night, and you wouldn't have a hard time completing it. But even if you don't compare it to its father, Crysis 2 just comes off as being overused, and dare I say it...bland.

That is not to say, however, that it doesn't have any redeeming qualities. At least it does quite a good job of combining Call of Duty and  Halo. It has a lot of the more quick, in-your-face events like many of the recent CoD campaigns, but it is like you are playing it as a Spartan. The ability to use armor mode and cloaking are also more Halo-esque, but you can also activate these at will instead of needing to activate them by finding power-ups. These, combined with the Nanosuit's "Nano-catalyst Upgrades" offer an adaptability that neither Halo nor CoD can give. Originally, I played the game on the easiest difficulty, and found it a bit boring, but I have since gone back and played it on "supersoldier" (the hardest difficulty) and it came across as much better and the upgrades were more necessary.

Multiplayer:
Seems like an extension of campaign.
I suppose that the multiplayer combines several good things about different games. It tends to take on a more Halo-type feeling with the multitude of abilities offered by the Nanosuit, just with modern weaponry. It tends to play more like Homefront or Battlefield: Bad Company 2 than anything else. However, even though it is different, that does not make it better. It still leaves room for people to play like a jack*ss, and camp in a corner with an LMG and cloaking, but I digress. Xbox Live will be Xbox Live, and no one can change that.

Crysis 2 was good, but not perfect. It still could have used some fine tuning before release, and the whole experience should have been more like Crysis 1, but it was good for what it was, and it is probably worth buying.

NOTE ABOUT THE NEXT REVIEW:
The next review will be the Battlefield 3 Beta! I haven't had the opportunity to review a beta so far, so let me know if I miss anything/should include other things/etc...

Second note, I know I have been putting off the Gears of War 3 review, but that is because I haven't had the time to finish the extensive campaign yet. I thought it would be better to review several games quickly just by taking a few hours to revisit them, then writing my impressions than to take more than two weeks to get out the one for Gears 3. I can say with confidence that the next review after the BF3 Beta will be Gears 3.

Naruto: The Broken Bond

Only available on: Xbox 360
Played it for: 40 hours

RATING: 6.5/10

Summary:
Naruto: The Broken Bond follows the story of the original Naruto series by Masashi Kishimoto. Naruto Uzumaki is a wild child, seeking to become the next Hokage (leader) of his village. However, while Naruto has a lot of ambition, he is quite lacking in skill. As the game progresses, Naruto and his friends and fellow squad members, Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno, go on many missions together, and continually improve through hard work and dedication. Eventually, Naruto is taken under the wing of a mysterious Sage Ninja named Jiraya, and Naruto finally feels that he can surpass his greatest rival, Sasuke. However, just before he can issue a challenge, Sasuke leaves the village in search of a dark power.

Review:
This game is very iffy.
While I am a Naruto fan, this game just doesn't do it for me. I will admit, the very open and large campaign world did impress me a lot, and it is definitely the most open Naruto game I have ever played, the rest of the game comes across as very... mediocre. First off, the graphics are quite bad. It seems like Ubisoft didn't really spend much time on this, and just tried to release the game on alpha software. The characters faces don't move at all when they are speaking except for their lower jaws moving up and down in the same motion, without even a hint of forming actual words. Second, for those who want to play the game with English voices, the mouths of the characters are timed to the Japanese voices, so this just makes it look even worse when someone is speaking. The movements of the characters also work in a similar fashion, looking stiff and controlled, and nothing like they should.

VS Mode:
This is the worst part.
The fighting mechanic works as if it was an afterthought. It's almost like Ubisoft had a week until the release and said, "Hey, uh, you know we just came out with a fighting game, right? Well, we forgot to include any fighting in it, so uh, whoever can come up with a shoddy, but working fighting mechanic in the next hour gets a cookie." The character controls are even more stiff in the fighting portion of the game, and the controls get incredibly sticky and unresponsive. If that wasn't bad enough, the enemies in the game know how to work the system perfectly, using substitutions and jutsu time after time. What ends up happening is you just continually pressing the same combination of XXXY, and spamming the enemy until they can't stand anymore. Honestly, it gets very boring.

I understand that Broken Bond was only the second Naruto game that Ubisoft had published, but they really should have just left it to the the pros at CyberConnect2 and BanDai. If you want a good Naruto game, quite literally any of the Ultimate Ninjas for PS2 or Ultimate Ninja Storms for PS3/Xbox would do you well.

Gears of War 2

Only available on: Xbox 360

Played it for: Minimum of 60 hours and counting

RATING: 10/10

WARNING: SPOILERS FROM GEARS OF WAR 1 IN THE SUMMARY SECTION

Summary:
 You play as Sargent Marcus Fenix, a Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) Gear. Several years ago, the planet Sera was attacked by its former residents, the Locust. The humans fought back. The current residents of Sera, the humans, were undergoing a brutal civil war, known as the Pendulum Wars, as the Locust began their assault. This left them battered and low on supplies to begin with, giving the Locust an immense advantage. In the first Gears of War, The COG used a form of nuclear weapon called a "lightmass bomb" in order to finish the war. Unfortunately, this was not enough to kill off the remaining locust, and the war continued. This is where Gears of War 2 picks up. As the war continues, you and your best friend, Dominic Santiago, will undergo many hardships of war, including the incredible pain of loss and the awful brutality of the Imulsion Wars.

Review:
There is a reason this game has a 10.
The guys at Epic really pulled it together for this massive release. The stellar graphics and seamless control handling are just the first of many compliments I have for this game. The graphics blew me away. It has been a long time since I have seen a game with this much originality of engine, and it is a very refreshing change. While Call of Duty and Halo continue to update their graphics in minute ways, Gears just went all out. The update from the first game is astonishing, not to mention the fact that the controls just work so well, unlike many of the games coming out today. There is no confusion, and no "throw your controller against the wall" rages. To put it simply, the game just...works. The campaign is a bit bland at times, taking on a more over-scripted tone, but the cinematics and actual gameplay more than make up for it.

Horde mode: Exceptional
While the first ten waves are a bit trivial, the next forty can prove quite challenging, as the Locust gain double health, double accuracy, double damage, then 2.5x all of the above for the final ten waves. However, even after one beats all fifty waves of horde, playing it all over again from wave 1 is just as fun, and this is the best part. The need for survival never gets old, and this is what makes horde a true masterpiece.

Multiplayer: Eh, needs a bit of fine tuning.
This is quite literally the only criticism I have on Gears 2, and it is not really enough to put a dent in the rating. The Lancer Rifle is much more downgraded in multiplayer, and the Gnasher Shotgun is far too upgraded. However, as long as you know how to use a shotgun you shouldn't have much of a problem.


Even though the game came out several years ago now, I felt it was my duty to put in my two cents worth, seeing as Gears 3 will be the subject of my next review. I still avidly play Gears 2, and it is one of my favorites. I will be surprised if the trilogy does not become a vintage classic within the next two years.

Brink

Played on: Xbox 360
Available on: PS3, Xbox 360, and PC
Played it for: roughly 20-25 hours

RATING: 3/10
This game is terrible. Just...don't.

Summary:
Bethesda's first try at a generic FPS puts you in the position to choose the fate of the future of the planet. The Arc is the last bastion of humanity, and it has fallen into political turmoil, with riots across the city and no order anywhere. The people living in the slums have taken up arms against the government, and your choice is to act as a member of The Arc's military or as a rebel seeking to leave The Arc.

Review:
Well, it could have been good.
There are many very detrimental problems with this game. First, it is a complete rip-off of Team Fortress 2. At first, this doesn't really pose a problem, as you can choose to be something like a Heavy Medic, (presuming that you have unlocked the "heavy body type") and continually buff your own health. However, no matter how big the health bar is, an SMG can still take you down in just a few shots. Yes, this game falls into the trap of "SMG's are the greatest guns on the planet, and cannot be beaten, even by a 300lb minigun." However, unlike Call of Duty, there is no compensation for this in Brink, and this is the second pitfall. Even if you yourself pick up an SMG in order to beat the AI, you find that your's is majorly downgraded, and it can sometimes take up to a clip and a half of ammo to put down even one enemy, while it takes only six or seven shots for you to die.

Thirdly, the AI difficulty is just wrong. The enemy works objectives like clockwork, setting up a defense full of mines, auto-turrets, miniguns, and SMG soldiers so that not even a fly can get past. Your team, on the other hand, only shares one single brain cell, and sprints around the map taking secondary and tertiary objectives that have no relevance to the primary one that will finish the mission.

Finally, the graphics and controls just don't work. The controls are very sticky, and the layout is a bit troublesome on console. Once again, this would not pose an incredible problem, however the graphics ruin the experience. It is very difficult to pick out much beyond roughly 15 meters in front of you, and this is incredibly difficult when you are trying to get to an objective. If this weren't bad enough, the good and bad guys (red and blue for the militia and security, respectively) have so many outfits that they are nearly impossible to tell apart in the heat of battle. This poses a large problem when you realize that the person you were shooting at is your teammate, and the person standing next to you is about to kill you.

All in all, Brink could have been good, but it has so many factors that just ruin it. Poor engine mechanics, hastily put together graphics, and a horrendus AI make the experience just...bad. If you have bought the game, trade it in at a GameStop or sell it online, and if you are thinking of buying it, DO NOT DO IT. It is a waste of both your time and money.

Red Dead: Redemption

Played on: Xbox 360
Played it for: roughly 10 hours

RATING: 7.5/10

Summary:
You play as John Marston, a former outlaw who is searching to right his wrongs, and seek out the former gang member who is causing him trouble. After your first confrontation with the man at the beginning of the game, you are shot, and wake up to the rough cowgirl talk of Bonnie MacFarlane, the woman who saved you. As the game progresses you find out how to shoot a gun, ride a horse, and do other odd jobs for Bonnie and others around the Old West to get the money, supplies, and man power to fight your old gang, while helping to either clean up the West, or turn it into Hell on Earth.

Review:
I only gave this game a 7.5. There are several good reasons for that, though, so don't get all riled up with me. First of all, the campaign has absolutely no direction to it. I understand that the game is supposed to be free roam, but to me, that should mean that while the campaign is open, it also has some bigger goal to work towards. The best example I have ever seen of this is in Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. While you could just go around shooting stuff, there was really no point unless you had something else to work towards, like a new gun or the progression of the campaign. Redemption seems to take the opposite path, and forces you to wander aimlessly with no purpose. The multiplayer has no direction, and simply ends in hundreds of Old West shootouts that result in the winner skinning the horse of the looser.

If I was to rate the game only on this, it would get a 4. However, it does have plenty of factors that bolster its rating. The graphics are fantastic. I commend RockStar on the work they put into this game, because it is quite impressive. The voice acting is also fantastic, and the controls work very well. While the horse controls are a bit sticky, and it can only run quickly on the set horse paths, everything else works like a charm.

To summarize, Redemption was a massive project which had a lot of potential, all of which was wasted on poor campaign development and no direction. In the end, RockStar went from Grand Theft Auto: IV to Grand Theft Louisiana Purchase. Nice try, but be more different next time, guys.

FINAL NOTE: I did not include the Undead Nightmare DLC in this review, because it is basically its own separate game, and will be treated as such. The UN review will be live in about another week