Super Meat Boy is quite a ride. Let me lay this out for you — It’s a fast-paced platformer where you play as a chunk of meat trying to save Bandage Girl (your girlfriend) from a fetus (with a doctorate) named Dr. Fetus who, already at his age, has a very negative disposition on the world and just seems to be pissed all the time. He walks around in a robot suit… thing.
Along the way, you are met with many different obstacles, ranging from flying sawblades to meaty enemies and quite precarious heights. It’s… Silly. And awesome.
Let me explain why.

The gameplay in Super Meat Boy is freakin’ fantastic. It’s a platformer with an emphasis on speed and precision in movements, making you rely on skill to get the job done. The learning curve isn’t too steep, in that you don’t have to learn a whole lot at once, but you are constantly figuring out new tactics and just little bits of information about gameplay that will help you out along the way. (You figure these out on your own, through exploration and experimentation — the only levels with tutorials are the first few.)

Once you get past the tutorials, the gameplay will get progressively harder, and beating levels gets progressively more and more satisfying. Completionists will have a blast with this game, as there’s a ridiculous amount of content! First, you’ve got the basic levels. No big deal there, not incredibly difficult on their own. Now add bandages, and the difficulty has shot through the roof. Some of the bandages are just found through exploration of unnecessary bits of the levels, but a lot of them are intentionally placed in locations that make them near impossible to get. I’ve spent upwards of an hour on one level just trying to get the bandage — the level itself I could beat in about ten / fifteen minutes. (But, if you’re a completionist, you have to get the bandages. Bandages unlock characters! We’ll get more into the characters later…) Then there’s also a speed aspect to it, where you’ll get a grade of A+ if you beat the level in a short amount of time, which is less and less and the levels fly by. Once you get A+ in a level, you unlock the “Dark World” counterparts to that level. There are 20 levels in each world, and the Dark World versions are essentially all of the levels with the same layout, but with lots and lots of traps added in there to make it a much more difficult experience. You’ll want to tear your hair out at some of these, but that’ll pass.
There are also “Warp Zones,” which show up every now and then and bring Super Meat Boy to a different dimension. Sometimes the art style is even different. In these Warp Zones, you’ll have the opportunity to collect bandages or unlock characters, but the levels are quite difficult. Hell, even spotting the Warp Zones is sometimes a challenge. Keep an eye out for ‘em.

Unlocking characters is an amazing feeling in this game. Not only does it give you something new to look at as you play, but each character has unique abilities that can help you overcome specific situations. It’s incredibly helpful to be able to play a level with a character better suited for getting that almost impossible-to-get bandage, rather than spend hours trying to get it with Meat Boy. Each character is fully capable of completing each level and grabbing each floating bandage, but some of them will make your life that much easier.

Now, before we proceed, let’s take a general look at Super Meat Boy. It’s a platformer with awesome physics and a heavy focus on speed and wall-jumps (which are executed brilliantly here). It’s got an unbelievable amount of content, and will take a completionist quite a while to fully experience everything that it holds. The development of such a game was, in my opinion, a very bold endeavour — it was undertaken by only two people, and it’s a very unique idea, gameplay-wise. They put a lot on the line, and it’s surely paid off, as it was one of the most popular games of 2010, winning several awards on different websites, including IGN’s “Most Challenging Game” category of their Best of 2010 awards. And not without good reason, this game is hard as hell! But it’s not, for me anyway, the kind of game that will make you ragequit and never return. Every time I died (and believe me, there were plenty), I realized that it was due to my own ineptitude. The game never feels unfair. You just have to focus and not suck, and when you finally get that bandage and you finally reach the end of the level, you will sometimes want to celebrate. That’s a milestone in your life right there.

Let me break this down for all the completionists reading this review… In Super Meat Boy, there is a total of about 350 levels. Within those levels, you will find 101 bandages, and 20 warp zones, which will help you unlock the 25 unlockable characters. There are also dark world counterparts to each of the levels, which you have to score A+ on said levels to unlock. In order to reach 100% completion in Super Meat Boy, you will have to dedicate a hell of a lot of time to playing, and you’ll have to muster up more patience with yourself than most other games require. This game is chock-full of content, and there’s even more to come.

In an upcoming update for the PC version of Super Meat Boy (which will also be compatible with Mac OS X soon), there will be a fully-featured level editor put into the game. This means that players will be able to create and upload their own near-impossible levels that anybody else can then download and enjoy, thus making Super Meat Boy a game that theoretically never ends, as long as the community picks up, which I’m sure it will. A stipulation to upload a level you create will be that you have to beat that level at least once, to prove that it’s not impossible, which is definitely a fantastic idea from Team Meat.

In conclusion, this is one of the best games I have ever played. It’s inventive, incredibly long, has awesome unlockables, and has just the right amount of frustration. I wholeheartedly recommend this game, especially for PC users who will soon be able to utilize the level editor, making the experience that much more amazing.
The story isn’t much, but it doesn’t have to be. The characters themselves are great, and the nonstop action keeps the fun going. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a game with this much content for the price of $15.
Super Meat Boy is available for PC through Steam, and on the Xbox 360. It’ll be coming to the Mac sometime in the first half of this year, but we unfortunately won’t be seeing it on the PS3 or Wii (which they had planned, but canceled).

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Game Dev Story is exactly what it sounds like. But the simple presentation is highly deceiving — this game has got a lot going for it, and is one of the most addictive iOS games I’ve ever played.

You start off a humble game development company, with four employees (not counting your secretary) and low review scores. But as you progress, you hire more talented individuals, level up the employees you’ve already got, and unlock many more types of games to create. Eventually, with enough patience and hard work, you’re rolling in dough, constantly bringing in fresh money from the new releases.
But… It’ll take a while.

Game Dev Story is fun as hell, let me get that out of the way right now… This game is incredibly satisfying in every way. There are random events that can, at times, be infuriating, but with enough dedication to your fictional game development company, none of that will matter.

As I said earlier, you start off with just four employees. You hire them in the beginning of the game, and can get to work immediately.
Working on a game is a pretty hands-off process… There are different attributes to a game. The success of said game relies on how high the numbers attached to these attributes are. There’s Fun, Creativity, Graphics, and Sound. Your employees are all specially-trained in different parts of creating a videogame, and will, through the process of development, increase these attributes accordingly.

The development process starts off with a game proposal. You can either have somebody create a proposal in-house or outsource, if your employees aren’t skilled enough. The proposal gives you your initial attribute points, and this sole process of development does a whole lot to decide how the rest will go.
After this, the development proceeds with your employees randomly achieving attribute points. This goes on until the game is 40% completed, at which point you exit the “alpha” phase. This step forward gives you a chance to work on your graphics.
This is very much like the proposal, in that you can do it in-house or outsource. Whomever you assign to the Graphics will primarily work on them, as such, but you’ll also get some Creativity and Fun points.
Again, the development from your team continues, up until 80%. At this point, you exit the “beta” phase, which gives you a chance to work on the sound for your game, very much in the same way.

After the development is complete, you have to spend time getting rid of bugs that accumulate throughout the developmental process. You then ship the game, titling it if you wish (otherwise the title will be “Game #x”). You then receive reviews from four different magazines, ranging in score from 1-10, all with a little comment. The higher these are, the more likely you are to ship lots of units.
You can ship a bugged product, but don’t expect great reviews.

Throughout development, you’ll also accumulate Research points. You can use these points to level up staff members, or you can occasionally use them on random Boosts.
A Boost is when an employee comes up to your desk and says “I’d like to work on improving our sound / graphics / fun / creativity.” If you agree, you spend a good bit of money to give them that opportunity. You then choose how many research points to give to their efforts — the more you give, the higher the probability they’ll succeed. (And the more skilled they are, the less they’ll need.) The maximum probability that they can succeed is 80%, so there’s always a risk. If they, by chance, happen to fail, you’ll rack up a good bit of bugs from their mess-ups. (But in the debugging process, you regain 1 research point for every bug eliminated, so it’s not THAT bad.)

As you work your way up in the industry, you’ll eventually move to a new office, with room for two more employees. Eventually you’ll get an even bigger office, with room for two more employees, giving you a total of eight workers at your disposal. Things will get done much faster, and you will be much more successful if you properly train your staff.

Another large part of success is advertising. There are many options for advertising your company and video games, from demo distribution to writing your name in the sky and more. Advertising will effect your audience — how many fans you have. The more fans you have, the more sales you’ll make.
You will also occasionally get a nice, free increase in fans. These are usually prompted by receiving a fan letter, all of which are nice and actually make it feel like you’re making these games for a reason.

Back to development itself… Something that will greatly help your development process if the items included in this game. Every now and then there will be a traveling salesman who stops in your building to try and sell you his wares… The more you buy, the more expensive they become, to be careful about the order you make your purchases.
There are several items you can get. My favourite is Dead Bull, which reinvigorates your staff so that they work more efficiently. But there are also the much more useful boosts that you can purchase and choose to use on a staff member, at the expense of some research data.
The good part is that it definitely works, 100% of the time. The bad part is that you don’t benefit as much as you do from random boosts.
The items will make your life much easier, as long as you can learn how to use them properly.

But once you get all that down — once you learn how to make a great game — there’s gotta be a reward other than virtual money, right?
Of course! Virtual trophies!
There’s a yearly event in which trophies are handed out to developers in several different categories. Winning one of these trophies will greatly increase your fandom, as well as put a bit of that virtual money in your pocket. Virtually.
The trophies alone are sometimes what drives me to make a new game. It’s very rewarding, winning one.
And if your game does well enough to win a trophy, that means it might have done well enough to make it into the Hall of Fame.
Depending on review scores, your game could make it into this very Hall. Being in the Hall of Fame means that your game will, guaranteed, do well on the market, AND you can make a sequel.
Sequels are the best. They automatically start off with a good bit of points in each attribute, so they’re much more likely to do well (and then get into the Hall of Fame so you can make ANOTHER sequel).
This system makes me feel kind of bad, though, as I realize that, in this virtual world, I’m just like EA Games is to Madden. Releasing just about the same thing every year and still making mad money.
Regardless, it keeps the people happy and it keeps my company expanding.

Speaking of expanding, once you get far enough into Game Dev Story, games may not even be your primary focus, depending on how you choose to play. You can eventually create game consoles. These bring in a lot of money, and, unlike videogames, do not go off the market ever, until you create a new one. This means it’s a steady stream of money that you can use to fund the next console development, or game development. Once you get to this point, you’re pretty much set for life.

But if you’re ever not doing so well, you can always take up contract work. You develop something for a third party for cash money. Normally it’s simple, but don’t ever accept a job you don’t think you’ll be able to complete — failing to meet a deadline for a contract job means lost respect for your company. That’s never good.

Graphics-wise, this game’s got it covered pretty nicely. It’s nothing spectacular to look at, but it’s simple, appealing, and gets the job done. Besides, most of the time you’ll just be watching numbers and reading words — the graphics honestly don’t even matter that much. But, for what they are, they’re nice.

All-in-all, this game is fantastic. It’s only $3.99 on the App Store and is worth far more than that. I’ve gotten countless hours of gameplay out of this, and don’t intend to stop any time soon. I’ve completely drained my battery doing nothing but playing Game Dev Story. Very much worth a purchase, especially if you at all enjoy simulation games or the idea of feeling like you’ve accomplished something.

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Here’s our video review for the very much loved Minecraft. This is something that’s much easier to present as a video rather than text, so I’ll leave the review at that. If you want to read an overview of it that I typed last week, you can do that, too, but that wasn’t written with reviewing it in mind, and it’s not as detailed.

Now, between the time I recorded the audio for this and the time I finalized the editing, there was an update to the game. Near the end of the video, I mention that the multiplayer still has some bugs, such as chests not working. Well, they do now, as do furnaces, and your inventory does save. (Don’t think I mentioned that one in the video, but it’s worth knowing.)

Other than that, everything’s accurate. Take a look, and show it to your friends whom you wish to turn onto this game. Hopefully it’s informative enough. This is my first attempt at a video review, so any constructive criticism will be appreciated.

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Red Dead Redemption was a widely-anticipated Rockstar game that hit shelves May 18th this year. Rockstar are the same guys that brought us the hugely popular Grand Theft Auto series, as well as Max Payne, the Midnight Club series, and others. Although it is a spiritual successor to 2004′s Red Dead Revolver, not much relates back to it, other than the western setting.

You play as John Marston, an ex-gangster in the early 1900′s who is being forced by government officials to hunt down and kill the surviving leading members of his former gang if he ever wants to see his wife and son again. As such, your overall mission as John Marston is to save your family and kill your once-friends.

I’ll start off on gameplay… Red Dead Redemption is, overall, a fantastic game, and a lot of its successes and high points boil down to the gameplay elements that hold everything together. I feel that this game is the first that has gotten down the formula of open-world gameplay down to a T. In-between missions, you can do just about anything… Ride around on your horse, start trouble in towns, and even play minigames (such as Texas Hold ‘Em, Five Finger Filet, and Liar’s Dice). It all holds the gameplay together perfectly and keeps things going, even if you’re not currently interested in the story.

But I think the thing that makes this one of the best open-world games available is the random events that occur. Indicated by a blue blip on your minimap, random events occur pretty often in the Red Dead world. These include men asking you to help them catch a thief to stealing a wagon for them, and sometimes to just duel in the middle of town. This really helps the game feel more alive than anything, and gives you something to do (or even just to ride around and look for) when you’re not playing a mission.

These random events, as well as other things in-game, will affect your honour. Red Dead Redemption has a morality system that’s based on how you act toward other people. This changes how people act around you. If you’re a generally good person, you’ll be treated with respect. If you go around shooting old ladies and robbing card dealers, your presence will be met with fear.

Aside from random events, another great gameplay element in Red Dead Redemption is the gunfighting. Gunfights can escalate to huge numbers and are always a blast. There’s a quick-aim system in place, which helps a lot in the midst of battle. You can also choose to take out specific body parts to reach a desired outcome. For instance, if you’re looking to hogtie a hostile, you can temporarily take him out by shooting him in the kneecap. This will put a damper on his short-term fire as well as give you an opportunity to get up close and throw the lasso. You can also just shoot their guns out of their hands if you want to avoid any bloodshed and have enough time to get away. There are so many variables in each showdown, which keeps the gunfights incredibly fresh throughout the entire game.

A feature that will help you achieve these accurate shots with time to spare is Dead Eye. The Dead Eye targeting system allows you to slow down time (think max Payne) to take out enemies with ease, or to make your aiming more precise to fit certain situations. There are three levels of Dead Eye — In level 1, time simply slows and allows you to get a shot off with a huge upper hand. Level 2 of Dead Eye has an auto-target system, in which targets are placed on your foes as your cursor runs over their body, and you can execute the shots with a button press. In Level 3, you are able to manually seek out and place targets on your enemy’s body, and again execute the shots with the press of a button. Level 2 is a bit of a pain, as it feels like you lose a lot of control in the transition (which, of course, you do), but once you get to level 3, you’ll feel like the best marksman ever born.

One of my favourite parts in this game is also one of the most often encountered. Horse riding. It’s an incredibly refreshing break from driving a car to get from Point A to Point B. The mechanics are fantastic and it feels incredibly authentic, at least with a controller. The running animations are also incredibly well done. All-in-all, it’s a whole lot more fun than driving a car around. It’s something different, and Rockstar pulled it off incredibly well.

Taking a trip with a companion is also a lot of fun. Just like in GTA4, the mission dialogue as you make your journey differs from time to time, meaning that each play-through of each mission may contain a slightly different conversation, and it makes me want to not throw the controller at the TV when I fail a mission that had a long transmit.

When it comes to multiplayer, Red Dead Redemption delivers very strongly. You start off online in a “Free Roam” mode, which allows you to hook up with other players and cause general mayhem with formed possies battling it out or just going around shooting NPC’s and avoiding the law with a character completely separate from your campaign.

From here, you can take the battle to one of several different kinds of play, one of which is a gang shootout. This particular gametype begins with both teams in a faceoff in the center of a town. You draw your weapons simultaneously and quickly try to take out the other team. The last man/men standing represent their teams in victory, all of whom get an XP bonus. After this, you begin a typical team deathmatch kind of gameplay, but with certain elements that still help to differ it from the competition. For instance, you can still use Dead Eye in multiplayer, although it’s a bit dumbed down. There’s no slow motion, but the auto-target system is in place, allowing you to quickly acquire several targets on an enemy’s body before they’re able to aim down their sights. This is incredibly useful.

Through getting kills you get experience points. With experience, you’ll level up. Your higher level will unlock you things, such as new horses. A faster ride can give you a huge advantage in the midst of battle (especially if you intend to flee).

Overall, the online play in this game is one of many elements that will force me to play it for a long time to come.

Now, if you haven’t been able to understand this yet, Red Dead Redemption is absolutely gorgeous. The immense attention to detail that the designers paid is astounding, down to the fibers in clothing and individual strands of hair. All of the animations are also excellent, and it has a very life-like feel to it.

There’s also an immense amount of variety from location to location, which always keeps things interesting throughout your multinational journey across the lands. Each town has a distinctive layout to it, with recognizable NPCs and unique buildings that really allow you to easily memorize each location. I love that.

But good graphics and gameplay can easily be torn apart by poor audio design decisions or recording issues. Fortunately, there’s none of that here. All of the audio in Red Dead Redemption is top-notch, down to the piano tunes that boom through the saloons as you drink yourself unconscious.

As far as voice acting goes, I’ve heard almost nothing as good as Red Dead Redemption in the past. Rockstar has always been known for having great voice acting, and Red Dead takes it a step further, I feel. All of the characters are incredibly believable, and I’ve actually been quite sad to part with a few of them due to the personalities they develop as you spend time by their sides.

But one of my favourite bits of audio gold in this game is the ambience as you sit in the wild at night. It has a very immersive feel to it. It’s all very realistic and well-done. If you have a surround-sound system, this is a game you’ll quickly be able to appreciate.

Overall, I have to give this game the highest possible score. It blew me away around every corner and I don’t find myself tiring of any of it. The replayability is through the roof, with the online play and the morality system to make sure this one stays in your collection.

If you enjoy third-person shooters at all, this is a game to pick up. A video game that has distractions in and of itself (comprised here of many hours of texas hold ‘em) is more than worth it’s salt.

Keep an eye out for a video review soon.

10/10

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“Skate” is the skateboarding series that overtook the subgenre of sports games, knocking Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater out of the public eye. (They also helped to do that themselves with their latest failure of a rebuttal, Tony Hawk: Ride.) With its very advanced and refined Flick-It control scheme, it eliminates the button-mashing trickgasm that once was skateboarding video games. Precision and skill overtaking randomness and luck, it gives users more control, and… Well, they like it. In fact, they love it. The Skate series has been highly praised for its addictive gameplay.

Well, EA Black Box put out another game in the series just a bit ago, and I’ve been playing it almost nonstop. In this review, I won’t compare it to the previous two Skate games too often — I don’t want to dwell on minor things, or isolate anybody who hasn’t played them. (Plus, they were very similar and I find my memories of them blending together.) So I’ll just review this as if it was a brand new game in a never before seen series.

The game starts up with a pretty nice video (not a cinematic, an actual live-action video) of skateboarders building things and creating skateboards. It’s pretty neat, and is a nice start to the game.
The cinematic ends with your character taking an incredibly harsh fall off a huge ramp, and opening his eyes to the idea of starting his own skateboard company.
You are then introduced to Coach Frank, played brilliantly by Jason Lee (of “My Name Is Earl” fame, who actually turns out to be a retired pro skateboarder). In his knee-high socks and short-shorts, you can’t take his character seriously, but he runs you through the motions of hopping on your board and banging out some basic tricks.
After learning the ropes, you can compete in a various number of challenges. Each completed challenge equates to sold skateboards for your company (sometimes in ridiculous numbers for the challenge completed), which help you achieve landmarks in sales and new challenges along the way.

In the photo challenges, you are given a very good control of the artistic direction of the shot. You can manipulate many controls, even depth of field, to get the desired shot on the billboard, magazine cover, or whatever.
Unfortunately, if you want to share your creation with the world, you’re gonna have to shell out $10. Yes, $10 of your real money. I despise when developers do this, but Black Box has chosen to release DLC that could very well have been included in the initial release, right alongside the game. For $10, you get the ability to share any photos, videos, and skateparks you create with the community. Something that very well could have and should have been included in the game.

However, I digress. As I furiously mentioned, you can create skateparks in this game. It’s pretty sweet… They give you a lot of control with what to do, and I’ve found myself able to build up some pretty hot spots. It’s much more satisfying to pull an awesome line off when you create a spot just FOR that line.
However, I only find myself messing around with the park editor every now and then. Most of the time, I like to find ways to make due with what the world throws at me. Either way, both ways of accomplishing awesome tricks have their own sense of creativity, and that’s what I love about this game.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Tony Hawk. THPS (original for N64) is one of my favourite games of all time. I had some great times with it as a kid. But the series is unable to keep up with the immense momentum that EA has kicked so hard to achieve with Skate. Everything you do feels like you actually did it, because it takes some now-how in the controls. Sure, you can randomly flick around the right stick, but that’s not NEARLY as satisfying as going and intending to do a specific set of tricks, and then flawlessly pulling them off. (And even if you don’t want to buy into EA Black Box’s profiteering to share your videos of these sick tricks with the world, you can just show them to a friend or two when they’re next to you.)

The campaign mode always finds new challenges to throw your way. I’ve found myself struggling for a while, not knowing how to do something that a challenge requires. I then go to another challenge and end up accidentally figuring it out, only to go back once more and defeat it with my fist in the air. It’s a great feeling to overcome challenges in this game.
Playing online is a whole other story entirely. My favourite game mode, by far, is S.K.A.T.E. This is very similar to HORSE in basketball, in that you have to set a specific trick (flip only, no grind or grab), and everybody else has to mimic your trick to avoid gaining a letter. Five letters and they’re out of the game.
It’s a ton of fun playing with other people, and it also leads to learning new tactics and tricks. Every once in a while I get bored with the missions. Hopping online for a while fixes that right up.

A great new addition to the series that I’ve been dying for since the beginning is the ability to do a darkslide grind. This is when you flip the board upside-down, onto the grip tape, and grind on that. A flip is required to get out, and it’s a lot of fun to pull off, especially at long distances.

All in all, this game is awesome. If you’ve played and enjoyed any of the earlier iterations, I highly recommend you pick this one up. I wouldn’t even bother renting, it’ll turn into a purchase.

9.5/10

See larger image Skate 3 (Video Game) List Price: $19.99 USD New From: $12.99 In Stock Used from: $12.69 In Stock Release date May 11, 2010.

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Uncharted 2: One of the most linear, scripted, predetermined games I’ve ever played in my life. Oh, and one of the best.
Normally, these qualities hit below the belt, decreasing the overall fun factor of a game. The same cannot be said for Uncharted 2. This game takes linear gameplay, mixes in lots of scripted events that happen around you to make the world come to life, and, with all of this, tells a great story that is very gripping and has very well thought out characters. The whole time, you’re aware that you’re not in control… Your’e just along for the ride in a huge cinematic experience. But the ride is freaking fantastic.

I can’t say that it’s much of a rollercoaster, story-wise… There aren’t any HUGE twists, except for one in the beginning that caught me off-guard. That being said, it is still a great story, completely separate of the first game in the series.
Seeing as I had never played the first game, before jumping into this one, I asked my Twitter stream if I should read up on what happened prior to the adventure I was about to partake in.
The response was an overwhelming no, with positive overtones. While the stories don’t connect much on any level at all, there are some characters in this one that are also in the first that give familiarity to early-series adopters. All I was told was that there was a blonde love interest in the first game… That’s all that needs to be known going into this one, and it served me well.
The story in this incredibly hyped-up game is based on false history and out of this world skepticism and superstition… Again, normally a recipe for disaster in my book, but Naughty Dog pulls it off with shining brilliance that came as incredibly unexpected.

I can’t say I really thought much going into this game… I mean, it looked alright, but I didn’t think it would be that great of a game, and that maybe all the prestigious game of the year awards that it got in 2009 were somehow misfired, and that I wouldn’t enjoy it very much.
I can honestly say that I’ve never been more thrilled to be so wrong.

With some of the best third-person adventure gameplay I’ve ever experienced, stunning graphics, amazing voice-overs that lead to believable characters, a gripping story, and fitting music… Well, there’s not much NOT to like.

The story mode of the game took me a total of ten hours and eighteen minutes to complete… All in all, not a terribly long story… I was hooked to the TV every waking hour since I got the game in my disc drive, so it took me just two days to beat it. A bit disappointing, sure, but still an amazing ride while it lasted.
Oh, and it’s still lasting.. There are some awesome online multiplayer modes, like deathmatch and plunder (pretty much like capture the flag), among others, that add lots of time to this game’s load out. Not to mention the co-operative game types, including playing through levels together (not quite the same levels as in the story, and all made to better fit multiple human players), and “Co-op Arena,” which can be most accurately described as being similar to Horde mode in Gears of War 2, or Nazi Zombie mode in Call of Duty: World at War. This happens to be my favourite multiplayer mode, and teamwork is important.

There are also unlockables, but I won’t get too much into them… Basically, you earn money, through doing things such as collecting treasure, throughout singleplayer and multiplayer modes to purchase unlockable things that really add to the replay value of the game, even if they don’t affect gameplay much at all (like concept art, which is awesome to look at).

Let’s get into one area of this game that is amazing and that I haven’t much touched down on… The gameplay.
This game has you climbing walls, making impossibly long leaps, swinging on ropes suspended hundreds of feet in the air, and solving incredibly satisfying puzzles, all while killing armies upon armies of enemies.
The controls are easy to pick up, and you’ll feel like an absolute master by the end of the first level.
And while you may get frustrated at times, nothing is nearly impossible… Just look at things with a different angle or tactic. Maybe try going loud instead of stealthy, or hang back and snipe a bit instead of rushing in, guns blazing… Figure things like this out, and it will be satisfying.
Now, throughout the entire game, I was well aware that I wasn’t in control of anything… As I said earlier, it’s incredibly scripted and linear. But it’s so satisfying, seeing the story progress, and how seamlessly the game transitions from a cinematic sequence to gameplay (similar to Metal Gear Solid 4). At times in the game, it actually feels like you’re IN a cinematic sequence while you’re playing… Things are falling down around you in a scripted-yet-beautiful manner, the environment around you moves as you fall…
Let me share with you my absolute favourite part of this entire game. It’s in the very beginning, so I’m not spoiling much here.
You’re on a train. Bleeding pretty badly, unable to move as quickly as when you are in good health.
You make your way out of the train (not by choice — it’s hanging over a cliff, and you fall out the back of it), and end up having to clim up it.
You eventually make your way into a higher train car. You start running to the opening in the front, and everything is looking fine and dandy… Until it starts falling backward. The environment around you moves as your vision shifts skyward, and you’re running for dear life to the open door just a few meters ahead of you… Just as the train and cliff part ways, you find yourself in the air, hurdling toward the icy cold, yet incredibly comforting, embrace of the snow-covered precipice that was almost your demise.
At this point, I knew I was in for an amazingly wild ride. The game failed to prove me wrong.

Moving on.
You’ve got a handy dandy notebook / journal where you archive all sorts of information that comes in handy at various parts of the game (which definitely adds to the overall feeling of immersion), and is just really fun to flip through and see all the different pages.
I’ve found myself laughing out loud at some of Drake’s notes. The writers of this game really did an amazing job at making Drake, plus all the other characters, seem really… Well, real. With most of them, I was able to go “Oh, man, so-and-so is just like that person!” This definitely isn’t a game filled with cliches that lead to unbelievable situations and characters (within the realm of the plot).

And… Well, that’s about all I can really say about this game without going insane or spoiling anything.
Don’t let the hype fool you — this game is worth every penny you can spend on it, and more.

WRAP-UP
——

The Good
__

- Great story, completely detached from the first game.
- Eye-popping visuals. (I spent a good ten minutes looking at hair.)
- Amazing voice acting and music / sound effects
- Superb gameplay
- The most cinematic video game I’ve ever played
- Great online multiplayer (regular game types as well as co-op).
- High replay value

The Bad
__

- Somewhat short single-player mode
- No local multiplayer

THE VERDICT – 10/10; One of the best games I’ve ever played.

See larger image Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (Video Game) List Price: $29.99 USD New From: $13.99 In Stock Used from: $9.39 In Stock Release date October 13, 2009.

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It took 3 years of developing, and for the fans 3 long years waiting on the end, but now the wait is over, and God of War III has arrived, bringing us the grand finale to Kratos and his relentless quest for revenge. God of War III may not be the last installment of the series that continuously hovered in the top 3 on many gaming fans wish lists, it does bring the final part to this story.

There aren’t many changes made to the game play, just a little bit of polish here and there, but basically everything works pretty much as it has been working in all 3 parts of the game. Gamers, that were hoping for ground breaking new features, will be disappointed. On the other hand, why try to fix things that are not broken?

The graphics have always been one of the key features in the God of War games, but in this last part, the creators really have outdone themselves, leaving us with eye candy that takes our breath away. This is an M-rated game, meaning lots of blood and gore being shown throughout the game. It is safe to say this game is not for the weak hearted (Or youngest among us.)

The only downside to this otherwise awesome game series, was that, though there are many weapons that can be picked up and used throughout the game, the swords pretty much seem to be the only weapons that are useful in just about any situation. No more in this last part, where there are at least two other types of weapons that are equally useful then the blades, if not more useful in certain situations.

The only thing that provided a minor annoyance to me was that the new weapons are very similar to the swords, which does little for variety. But that’s just a very minor annoyance.
Overall God of War III turned out to be a game worthy to the series, and will be in the familiar top 3 on many gamers wish lists, just like the other installments to the series.

See larger image God of War III (Video Game) By (author) Unknown List Price: $29.99 USD New From: $21.95 In Stock Used from: $14.99 In Stock Release date March 16, 2010.

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As one of the greatest shooting games ever made, Call of Duty Modern Warfare seemed to have it all; great graphics, an exciting story line, awesome gameplay, and cool multiplayer features. Now after high anticipation and much excitement Activision has finally brought us Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 which has completely blown away the original Modern Warfare game. Modern Warfare was full of dramatic moments, action packed scenes, and intense game play, Modern Warfare 2 has brought this back and made it 10x better. The graphics are amazing, the story is awesome, and the multiplayer gameplay is to die for. Also newly added in Modern Warfare 2 is a new campaign mode called “Spec-ops”, which has received a lot of attention since the games release, and is a great new mode for the game.

Storyline

The storyline of Call of Duty Modern Warfare pretty much starts off where the events of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare left off.

Even though Zakhaev, the ultra-nationalist Russian leader, has been permanently dealt with, his lieutenant, Vladimir Makarov has managed to get control of Russia’s military forces and is now an even bigger threat to the world then his predecessor ever was. International intelligence agencies have received credible, actionable intelligence that Makarov is aggressively extending the reach of his influence well beyond the borders of Russia.

This has caused a huge dilemma in the international community, resulting in the deployment of an elite multinational task-force codenamed “Task Force 141″, consisting of Navy Seals, Delta Force teams, CIA and British SAS units. If playing the single player campaign mode, you play as Sergeant Gary “Roach” Sanderson, whose mission is to eliminate Makarov and his henchmen at any cost, regardless of where the battle takes place.

Cooperative “Special Ops” Mode

Special ops features independent missions similar in design to the “Mile High Club” epilogue mission from Call of Duty 4. These are “campaign inspired” missions which are not directly related to the story of the campaign itself.

This great new mode allows you to pay in solo mode, split screen with a friend, or go online for the full experience in two player co-op warfare, giving you and your friend a chance to go on many challenges together. Special ops mode encourages you to learn tactics and maneuvers to successfully complete your challenge.

There are five special ops mission groups with a total of 23 missions, each of which can be played at different difficulty levels of regular, hardened, or veteran. One to three stars are assigned after successful mission completion, with the number of stars awarded based on the difficulty level chosen. More missions are unlocked as the player earns more stars.

Some of the Special Ops scenarios include capturing an enemy compound, one player providing air support from an AC-130 gunship while the other player conducts ground operations, seek and destroy operations and even a snowmobile race between the two players.

Multiplayer Mode

The multiplayer mode in the 2nd version of Modern Warfare is outstanding, with the only downside being on the PC version of the game since dedicated server support was removed, thereby eliminating the ability for mods or user-created maps to be used, which has angered many PC gamers.

What I love the most when playing in multiplayer mode are the Kill Streaks. Everything is pretty much the same as in COD4 when it comes to kill streaks with the exception of several hot new features. There are new Killstreak rewards which unlock weapons drops and air strikes. To be exact, there are 15 different kill streak rewards which can be unlocked by the player. Some of these new rewards is the ability to receive a supply drop after achieving four kills in a row, calling in a missile strike after five kills, you can even call in an AC-130 gunship to strike death from the skies after achieving 11 kills.

Players also are given substantially more options when it comes to customising their multiplayer experience with new character classes such as Ranger and Overwatch, as well as some bonus unlockable classes like Riot Control. In addition, you are now able to unlock the option to create your own classes, which opens up endless possibilities of new ways to enjoy this great mode.

Since COD4 some of you may have noticed that you are walking around like you have a huge bag of rice on your back, well, this is because the great developers at Infinity Ward have added more realism to the game; this way you would walk and run at a more realistic pace, but after about 5 minutes you will probably get used to this and won’t even notice it. Another thing which has added quite a bit more realism is Frag Grenades, which are my personal favorites. The explosions have been toned down a bit compared to COD4 but this really does make it much better, it also means no more spawning then dying.

But what have I not mentioned about Modern Warfare 2 yet?      Guns… Now no need to get overly excited, but I love the guns in this game, for primaries there are: 9 assault rifles, 5 sub machine guns, 5 light machine guns, 4 sniper rifles, and the Riot Shield. All of the primaries (except for the sniper rifles) have 10 different weapon customizations (scopes, gear, etc..) to choose from. There are even more, secondary weapons, we have: 4 machine pistols, 6 shotguns, 4 handguns, and 5 launchers!

Now that is a hell of a lot of fire power for one game, and all you bad ass gamers love it! This gives you so many ways to customize your profile (weapon and perk preset) and then gets straight into the game and start killing that one guy who complains all the time.

We all know that COD4 had some networking issues, these have all been resolved by now, and something much better has been added. Remember in COD4 when a guy couldn’t take being killed over and over again and left the game, only to find that he was the host and the entire game ended for everyone?
Well no more, the new in-game host migration feature gives you a small pause while it looks for a new host, you than get a 5 second countdown so you can get ready to start exactly where you left off!

Now as maps are concerned in Multiplayer get ready to be lost, many of the maps are very big, but great fun to explore and find all your new sniper spots, but do not worry as with the large number of players that can fit into a match (up to 18) you will never find yourself on a corner with no enemy’s.

Campaign Mode

We have covered the cooperative and multiplayer modes, and now it’s time for the long awaited campaign mode! The campaign mode takes you through several exotic area’s including Rio de Janeiro’s favela’s and through the cold terrain of Russia. Campaign mode still had me dazzled with the falling ceilings, exploding walls, and other scripted events. Not only where they well timed, but the graphics where absolutely impeccable. Infinity Ward and Activision decided to keep co-op out of campaign mode this time, and honestly, after playing through I couldn’t agree more. The dialogue is best suited towards 1 person and not 2, for example, on one of the first levels Makarov betrays you and ends up shooting you after you have helped him through the entire level. That one moment would only suit one person, if you deployed another player into that scene it would have ruined the atmosphere it had created.

Campaign mode only takes around 6 hours on average to complete, but since the very first Call of Duty game, the campaigns seem to be getting shorter and shorter. With multiplayer mode, however, I think we can forget that one downside about the game, because the rest of it is so well done, even if I did complete it in a day or two Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 still stays within my top 3 games for my console.

Bottom Line

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 easily gets into the must have category of video games as it is the finest game in its genre. It offers an unmatched first person shooter experience, an excellent story mode, slick mini missions and an unparalleled multiplayer experience. Anyone who considers themselves a fan of first person shooter has definitely got to pick up a copy of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2.

See larger image Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Video Game) List Price: $29.99 USD New From: $16.99 In Stock Used from: $10.00 In Stock Release date November 10, 2009.

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3. Review: Battlefield Bad Company 2 Demo

Now, I know that this is just a demo, so it doesn’t really deserve a review, but it’s a pretty hyped-up game, so I figured I’d give it one anyway.

The demo hit the Playstation Network today, and I grabbed it as soon as I could. After the long download, and the short-but-seemingly-endless installation, I jumped right on in.
I’m actually playing as I type this up… Taking breaks in-between sentences. I can’t put this controller down.

Alright, match over. Time to take a break.

As you may know, a beta for this game hit PSN a while back. I participated in the beta, but only played one round and put it down because of how terrible the map was. I really didn’t like the map, and it ruined the beta for me.
Luckily, the demo has a much better map to play on, so I was able to give it a better shot.

One great thing I noticed right away was the simple system for the online play. I think one of the main reasons the Modern Warfare series is so successful is because of how straightforward and simple the online system is. There’s not much to figure out, and it’s easy to jump in and play.
Bad Company 2 matches the simplistic system, and it works out amazingly well. I was parachuting into the battlefield in a matter of seconds.

The graphics in this game are outstanding. I personally feel that they’re better than the graphics in Modern Warfare 2, especially the lighting. (Please excuse all the comparisons to MW2, but… Well, that will happen.)
One thing that I know is better is the sound design. The sounds in Bad Company 2 didn’t disappoint me… They were amazing in the first game, and they’ve gotten even better. All of the sounds are incredibly crisp and unique, and really help with the overall immersion of the gameplay.

Speaking of gameplay, you’ll be happy to know that it’s… Well, it’s great! Everything feels responsive, the controls are sometimes a bit irritating when you spend so much time play MW2, but not too difficult to get used to.
There’s a very nice feeling of satisfaction with just about any kill in this game. It takes more than it does to take someone down in MW2, and I feel very accomplished every time.

Now, I’m a sniper. I love sniping… It’s what I tend to stick with most of the time in first-person shooters. I’ve become so used to the sniping in MW2 that Bad Company 2′s sniping is just… Incredibly easy.
I haven’t decided yet whether that’s good or bad, but it’s definitely fun. This game takes out the realism of breath patterns and holding in your breath to get a good shot. It’s always just like your rifle’s being suspended perfectly in the air in front of you. It’s an incredibly steady shot. And while it is easier than in MW2, it’s still very satisfying to get a good headshot.

And if you don’t get a headshot? Say you shoot a guy in the chest, and he manages to get away. Some other guy comes up behind him and blows his brains out. Now, he had barely any health at that point… You did most of the work. In Modern Warfare 2, it doesn’t matter; you get a standard assist no matter what.
Now, this is something that I am loving about BC2… So far, I’ve come across two assist severities. That’s probably all there are, but I’m not sure. There’s a standard “Assist,” for which you get 10 points (a kill is 50), and a “Critical Assist,” which is when you do more damage to your enemy, resulting in you banking 30 points. While you still don’t get credit for the whole kill, you’re definitely treated better as an assist killer here, and it feels nice.

Speaking of things feeling nice, nothing feels better than blowing the cover from in front of an enemy. This game brings with it the brilliant destructible environments from the first iteration, and they feel even nicer.
I’ve seen several buildings actually collapse in on themselves entirely, swiss-cheese walls buckling under the pressure of the roof they’re supporting, and just giving way to the force of destruction. This was not possible in the first game, and it adds a whole new sense of realism and “Oh my god, that was awesome” moments to the game.

This game feels very polished. I’m enjoying the demo so much that at this point, after spending less than a day with it, I know for sure that this is a must-have game of 2010 for any first-person shooter fans. How it stands up to MW2? It’s too early to tell right now, but it’s looking good. And this is coming from a huge Modern Warfare fan.
To sum this review up, I’ve gotten several messages from friends of mine on the Playstation Network, asking “Is it good?”, as they see that I’m playing the demo. I’ve replied to every one with “Dude, amazing.”
Download. This. Demo.
I’m not going to give this game a score out of ten yet, because… Well, this is just a demo, and I don’t want to be mistaken as judging the entirety of the game. But I will tell you again and again that this game is a freaking blast. This is worth your time.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 is due to be released on March 2nd. Pre-order your copy today, I know I did.

See larger image Battlefield Bad Company 2 (Video Game) List Price: $19.99 USD New From: $15.49 In Stock Used from: $4.15 In Stock Release date March 2, 2010.

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James Cameron’s Avatar Game was one of the games I had to buy after I had seen the outstanding movie, 5* rating on the movie.
The game was a big let down considering the movie was amazing, I mean overall the game looked really good visually but the game play itself was not as good as it could of been had they had put more thought into it.

This game really reminds me of Prince of Persia but in the way that Assassins Creed doesn’t, the way the character you play moves and in combat is very much the same, but much less free running compared to Prince of Persia or Assassins Creed.

I would say its a game worth getting, but only if you have a very good graphics card, if you get it for any other platform apart from the PC then it really is not worth your money, but then again that is my own opinion, you can still get the game to try it out.

Anyway, this game takes place 2 years before the movie story, and if you haven’t already seen the movie, the game is about 2 races, the Humans (yes your brothers and sisters) and the Na’vi, the Na’vi is like a super race, very strong and very fast, they are at sanctuary with the environment around them.
If you have played World of Warcraft, as soon as you see these guys you will immediately think OMG they are half Draenei and half Human; or you may think they look like blue space goats.

Now back to the game. You start off as a Human, and you get put straight into a Na’vi, where you go through a small walkthrough and then dive straight into the missions, where you can enjoy exploring, killing things and driving around, but after a short time the game takes a twist and you find yourself choosing to turn into a Na’vi and fight against the Humans to save the environment, or you can become Human and try to kill all the Na’vi for the land.

If you choose the Human side your thinking more along the path of a Third person action game, but if you go for the Na’vi your going more along the line of an Adventure game. If you enjoy the game on 1st play through you should try going for the other side on a 2nd play through.

This game is also available on the Ipod and Iphone, which is a fun little game to pass time, through school or even a meeting, as long as you don’t get caught that is.
The creator’s of this game said it was supposed to change the entire world of gaming, they mentioned how this game would have no boundaries and you would be able to explore anywhere, but as I got into the game, I came across a boundary, you know the annoying invisible wall blocking off the sacred area you wish to step on.

This game thought it could be like some of  it’s very strong competitors; such games as Oblivion or Fallout 3 which are my favorite single player RPG games, both created by Bethesda. I very highly doubt that any single player RPG game created by a different company would be as well made as these 2 games are.

Avatar, has amazing vegetation and the scenes you will see are outstanding, I absolutely love the visuals in this game, it may be the best I have seen (for vegetation anyway)and is what keeps my rating of this game up, but after playing this game, which might keep you busy for 10-20 hours per campaign (remember you can play two campaigns, 1 for the Human side and 1 for the Na’vi) so this give about 20-40 hours of gameplay.

A good time passer waiting for a new game, but not something to get terribly excited about, i give this one a 4/10 mainly for the Graphics, the gameplay unfortunately makes this game feel like a bad copy of good games.

See larger image Avatar (Video Game) List Price: $19.99 USD New From: $13.94 In Stock Used from: $8.25 In Stock Release date December 1, 2009.

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