The Internet froze in complete and utter shock earlier today when Valve issued a press release, officially pushing the Portal 2 release to April 2011.

Okay, not really. Well, it really is delayed again, but it wasn’t at all a surprise. Valve’s been kinda well known to pull this stuff, and boy do they know it. Here’s their statement…

Valve today announced that Portal 2 — the sequel to the ground-breaking title that won over 30 game of the year awards, despite missing its original ship date — will now be available the week of April 18th, 2011. This two month slip not only marks the shortest delay in Valve’s proud tradition of delays, it represents the approaching convergence of Valve Time and Real Time. Though this convergence spells doom for humanity, it will not affect the new Portal 2 release date.

The title of the email was “VALVE ANNOUNCES SHORTEST DELAY IN VALVE HISTORY”. See, this is why I love Valve… They make great games, and they’ve got character to boot. They’re well aware of what we say about them, and they do nothing but confirm our accusations and just play along with it.

That said, Portal 2 is definitely one of my most anticipated titles of 2011. The original Portal is tied with Diablo II as my favourite game of all time, so the next year should be pretty sweet.

They’ve altered the release date. Pray they don’t alter it any further, again.

Related posts:

1. Portal 2 E3 Event Canceled – Surprise Promised
2. The Next Year in Gaming
3. Almost All Valve Games Now On Mac

It’s been a while since I’ve made a post about Sonic 4, but I’ve been incredibly excited about it this entire time.

Well, to my incredible schoolgirl-like surprise, Sonic 4 was officially released for iPhone and iPod touch just earlier today! I didn’t even know it was supposed to, as far as I knew the release date was still “2010,” so when I saw it on the App Store, it absolutely made my day. (And was, of course, an instant purchase.)

Unfortunately, it won’t be coming out for consoles until next week — I’m assuming so, anyway. The Playstation Network updates every Tuesday, and the Xbox Live Marketplace updates every Wednesday, so that’s probably when you’ll see Sonic 4 for those consoles. (Not quite sure what the Wii’s updates are like…) But if you’ve got an iDevice, you’re in luck — You can get it now for for $9.99 USD (App Store link).

I’ve played a good bit of it today… I hooked my speaker-less first-generation iPod touch into my 5.1 speakers for the occasion. And I’m, personally, not disappointed at all. It’s met every expectation I held, and has completely blown me away, and reinvigorated the essence of my childhood in this game series that has been frowned upon so frequently and so vehemently in these years past.

To start with, the gameplay is very familiar. With slight alterations and some added features, it’s identical to old-school Sonic games — and I welcome all of the alterations and features. I see this as nothing but the continuation of the Genesis Sonic games, not a simple rehash, and all sequels are expected to have additions.

Audio-wise, I was also very much blown away. The music helps capture the essence of the series much in the way it used to, and many of the original sound effects were kept on-board, much to my delight (as well as, I’m sure, other fans). I can very easily say that I don’t just love this game for the nostalgia — that is most definitely a fantastic aspect, and my memories are very much kept intact with this great addition to the series — but even as a standalone game, it’s absolutely fantastic. It focuses just as much, if not even more, on speed than previous iterations, and now puts a large focus on score with the easy ability to play and replay levels, looking to beat your high scores. This could potentially be a very fun pass-and-play game with friends and family, even more so once it hits TV screens.

The one thing, and believe me when I say that it’s minor, that I dislike about Sonic 4 is… Eggman. Not the character. He’s great as ever, coming up with these ridiculous contraptions to kill a hedgehog when he could easily just invent a gun. No, the name is what I find issue with… This is the one thing that does not quite help my nostalgia. I remember him as Dr. Robotnik. This is how I will always refer to him… I don’t understand the renaming here, and it just bothers me a bit that they cater to old-school gamers in every way but this.

However, as I said, that’s very minor. Doesn’t affect much, it just… Irks me, is all.

This game is very much worth buying, especially, but not only, if you’re a big fan of the old Sonic games.

Related posts:

1. Sonic 4: Returning To The Second Dimension
2. Plants vs Zombies On The iPhone Makes Devs Rich
3. Sonic Unleashed Coming This Christmas

The Playstation 3 has long been the unhackable console of the current generation, with the Xbox 360 and the Wii being modded from early on. However, ever since a jailbreaking utility was released roughly a month ago (and then went open-source so you can jailbreak with all sorts of devices, including different phones and even calculators), the homebrew community has taken off, adding more functionality to the console in a way that can only be described as “amazing.”

The main functionality is obviously playing backed up PS3 games. Legally, you shouldn’t install any game to your Playstation 3′s hard drive that you don’t own. You can install a game to your internal hard drive on the PS3 using an application called “Backup Manager.” You can also get games off of the internet and place them on an external hard drive to play directly from that, or even transfer the games via FTP (using another PS3 utility) directly to the internal drive.
However, this is far from the only benefit of jailbreaking your console. A week ago, an SNES emulator was released for the PS3. It was even updated just today, to add a new feature.
Just a few days ago, we saw the release of a Sega Saturn emulator. There’s also a Dreamcast emulator in the works, although current performance is spotty (as shown in the video).

All in all, it’s shaping up to be a pretty awesome homebrew community. If you want to get in on the fun, as I mentioned earlier, it’s possible to jailbreak your PS3 with a wide variety of devices. There’s no hardware mods necessary — it’s all done on the software side.
I personally jailbroke mine with my first-gen iPod touch, which was a surprisingly quick and painless. I normally have all sorts of problems with this kind of stuff, but this flew right by.
With some modding skills, you may not even have to have anything other than your PS3 and a controller — a video of a jailbreak using nothing but the sixaxis controller was released yesterday, with a tutorial posted shortly after. Unfortunately, you do have to modify the hardware of your controller, but a mod like this would make life much simpler, as you have to plug in your jailbreak device every time you start up your PS3 (and it’s a bit of a pain to have to do so with an iPod or a phone).

So far, there’s unfortunately not a whole lot of custom homebrew games — just a Pong clone, but at least there’s potential. If nothing else, the emulators will keep coming, which has been my favourite thing about having a modded PS3 so far.

The one downside to modding your PS3 is that it’s currently only supported with the 3.41 PS3 firmware. This means if you’ve updated to 3.42 or 3.50, you’re out of luck. Even if you haven’t, though, you won’t be able to once you jailbreak, if you wish to keep it modded. This means that you can’t connect to the Playstation network to play games with other people, or make purchases on the PSN store.
But if you weigh the benefits with the downsides, I think you’ll find it worth trying. The emulators alone are worth jailbreaking for. (Unless, of course, you play online a bunch. Then I’d skip this until the current firmware is supported.)

Related posts:

1. PS3: To Update, Or No?
2. Geohot Follows Through (Playstation 3 Custom Firmware Demoed)
3. Sony’s PlayStation Network Plagued by a Y2K-like Glitch

I’ll give you a list here of some of the more notable games coming out in the next year that I’m really looking forward to. It’s shaping up to be a great 365 days. (Note: Some of these might just have a “2011″ release date, but I’ll count them in anyway.)

Portal 2 (X360 / PS3 / PC / OS X)

Portal is my favourite game of all time. (Actually tied with Diablo II for that title.) The clever puzzle mechanics, hilarious omnipotent narrator, and surprisingly in-depth story (if you choose to look far enough into it) all make it a fantastic game that anybody who hasn’t played should be ashamed. Portal 2 is a sequel (previously rumoured to be a prequel) that’s up for release in 2011. (Hopefully early 2011. Or hyper-early 2011, in that it’ll be released in 2010.) There will be behind-the-scenes areas of the game, as well as GLaDOS making a return with co-operative mode.
I can’t wait to see how the co-op shapes up. The puzzles will likely require massive amounts of teamwork, which will be satisfying. I just don’t want to share the cake.

Star Wars: The Old Republic PC

Being a huge Star Wars fan, any Star Wars videogame tickles my fancy quite easily. But a Star Wars MMORPG? Hell. Yes.

The Old Republic looks pretty awesome, from what little gameplay footage has surfaced. All of the classes that will be available just make me giddy, not to mention the fact that any class will be fully customizable. So, if you choose a Smuggler, you can still train your fighting skills as well as anything else you’d like. You’re not locked into a specific skillset, which I like. It’s already won a couple of awards from GameTrailers for its E3 appearance, and shows a lot of potential as not only a Star Wars videogame, but a game changer in the MMO industry.

It’s release date is set as “2011,” but I’ve also read “Autumn 2011.” Hopefully it comes earlier in the year, but we’ll see.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II (X360 / PS3 / PC / Wii / DS / iOS)

(Sorry about the logo for the first Force Unleashed — I couldn’t find one for the second that fit the format.)

As I mentioned above, I’m a huge Star Wars fan. As such, I greatly enjoyed The Force Unleashed through-and-through — The story was fantastic (and the main character’s name being “Starkiller” was also awesome, as that was Luke’s last name in the first draft of the A New Hope script), the gameplay was awesome, the force upgrades were useful, and it all tied together perfectly. My brother, also a big Star Wars fan, says that he’ll have to buy a PS3 just to get this game. (He played the first on his Playstation 2.)

The story in the second title will focus more on Starkiller, which I think is awesome. He’s a very good character, but he wasn’t developed quite as much as I would have liked in the first game. The plot will focus on deception, betrayal, and revenge, much as part of the first game. Seeing as this takes place just a year before A New Hope, I’m hoping that most of the loose ends in the story will be tied up, otherwise that we’ll be left open for yet another sequel. (Maybe some of that’s already been done in the novel / comic books, I don’t know. I haven’t gotten around to reading them yet.)

Torchlight 2 (PC / OS X)

Torchlight was a fantastic game — it’s created by many of the same men and women that worked on Diablo and Diablo II, so it clones the series incredibly well down to town portals and identifying items the exact same way. I loved the graphical style as well as the pets system… It served as a great distraction while I wait for Diablo III to never come out. (I’m not even going to bother posting about Diablo III here, that seems too hopeful…)

Well, a sequel was recently announced. I think my favourite part of this announcement is the inclusion of co-op gameplay. (Finally!) While I love lone dungeon-crawlers, it’s always more fun to play through with a friend, and it’s been a rumoured upcoming feature of Torchlight for a while now. Well, it’s coming in the next game.

There will also be added mod support, which will blow the possibilities of this game open wide. The modding community on the PC has always been huge and incredibly crafty, so I naturally can’t wait to see what they come up with to make this game even better. We’re set to see all of this come Spring 2011. (Let’s just hope its release doesn’t interfere too much with that of Diablo III, or the developers may find themselves poor.)

That pretty much sums up the games I’m most looking forward to within the next year. There are a few that I’m also excited to see, such as Black Mesa and L.A. Noire, but the above titles are the ones that I’m phenomenally excited about… The ones that will make my friends and family wonder if I’m dead, not seeing the light of day for weeks.

Related posts:

1. Star Wars Fans Rejoice For Steam’s LucasArts Week
2. Valve Announces Portal 2 Delay (Again)
3. Torchlight – Worthy Diablo Distraction

The Scout can be a hard class in Team Fortress 2 to get used to, but it’s incredibly rewarding when you do. The Scout is my favourite class, by far, and as such, I’ve decided to write a little guide to help out anyone looking to get a jump-start with the class. I’ll go through things with as much detail as I feel necessary to give you a general idea of how things work.

General Tips

Before I get into anything too deep, I feel it’s necessary to start you off with a few basic tips.

First off, embrace the double-jump. Double-jumping is a special skill that only Scouts can use. It allows you to jump higher and gain further distance with your leaps. Simply jump, and then jump again at the height of your ascension. It’s as easy as double-jumping in anything else. Also take notice that you can change direction mid-jump. For instance, jump to the left at first, and then as you reach the top of your jump, perform a double-jump, but shift your direction to the right. This will become incredibly useful in confusing enemies, among other things.

Another general tip is to make good use of your pistol. Don’t underestimate it. It’s great for harassing enemies from a distance or destroying sentries. If your target is immobile enough, or your aim is good enough, you can even take them out with the pistol from fairly great distances no problem.
It’s also a huge help when it comes to sentries. Try and peek around a corner just enough to see the enemy’s sentry without it seeing you. Using your pistol, take as many quick shots at it as you can. If its father engineer is around, take him out first, otherwise he can just repair the damage as you deal it. This is enormously helpful in clearing areas from annoyances.

Another quick tip… Stay on the move. Your major advantage with the Scout is that you’re the fastest class in the game. Make use of this as much as you can. Swerve, jump, zig-zag, do whatever it takes, but always stay on the move. You will have to improve your aim to be able to take out enemies while moving so haphazardly, but it’s a very useful technique that will keep you away from their bullets, as well as those from other enemies (especially snipers).

Facing Enemies

Figuring out the different kinds of interactions you’ll have between different classes is essential. Learning what to avoid, and how to prosper when you dive right in.

Let’s start with the offensive classes.

Offensive Classes

There are three Offensive classes… The Scout himself, the Soldier, and the Pyro.

Dealing with other Scouts

Duking it out head-to-head with another Scout can sometimes be tricky. Good aim here is absolutely essential, as is staying on your feet. When it boils down to it, this battle is decided by nothing but which player better understands the ins-and-outs of the class.
Make good use of the double-jump to confuse your enemy Scout. A few meatshots (shots to the body) with your Scattergun should send them to the floor, but if you find yourself having to reload, you have two choices.
1) Find a temporary safe area and reload your scattergun.
Or,
2) Quickly take out your pistol and hope to god that one clip finishes the job.
If number 2 fails, see number 1.

If you get a jump-start on this faceoff with the element of surprise by sneaking up behind your opponent, you can likely get in a good meatshot or maybe even two before they’re aware of your presence. This will give you a huge advantage.

Play the field here. Remember that in this faceoff, you lose your biggest advantage — your speed. They’re just as fast as you are. Circle around them, and try your best to get any health kits before they can.

Dealing With Soldiers

This encounter can be a tough one. Soldiers specialize in mid-range warfare, while you, as a Scout, excel when close enough to pulverize the opponent with your Scattergun.
The element of surprise is your biggest friend here. Try to find a Soldier who’s not looking and deal as much damage as you can, as quickly as you can. If you’re unable to do enough damage to conceivably kill them with one more shot by the time they’re looking at you, retreat. Even at close-range, Soldiers are dangerous. Most will not hesitate to damage themselves while killing you, and that means a close-range rocket for all parties involved.

If they’re further away, you can harass them with your pistol. But this won’t get you much of anywhere. Your pistol may do a bit of damage from a distance, but it won’t hold up against their rocket launcher, and the splash damage from a rocket is dangerous enough to avoid any kind of encounters from afar, even if you think you’ll be able to get in cover.
Approach with caution.

Dealing With Pyros

One word: AVOID. A Pyro is one of the Scout’s worst enemies. You both excel at close-range battle, but he can do damage to you long after the tussle is over with afterburn. In other words, you can get a few good shots in, but at the end of the day, he can set you on fire. This will deal a good bit of damage to you over time, and will likely result in your death.
Your only way to stop the burning is to get more health or jump in a lake. If you know you’re going to die anyway, you can stick around to try and get in as many shots as you can, but this just means you’ll die sooner from the direct damage of his flamethrower.
All-in-all, this is an encounter to avoid nine times out of ten.

Defensive Classes

There are three defensive classes… The Demoman, the Heavy, and the Engineer.

Dealing With Demomen

Demomen can be a somewhat dangerous encounter, due to their specialty in explosives. Just as with Soldiers, most Demomen will not hesitate to damage themselves if it means finishing you off. This recklessness spells danger for any close-encounters opponents, which you, of course, are. However, their explosives have a delay if they’re not already set. This could give you enough time to jump around them, avoid explosions, and land enough shots to severely hurt or even kill your opponent, while keeping minimum damage to yourself.
This is not an encounter for beginners, but if you’re experienced enough and know how to handle the double-jump well enough to avoid bombs, I say go for it. Just be careful.

Dealing With Heavies

Heavies are about the most dangerous class in the game. Their high tolerance for pain, coupled with their Medic buddies who heal them constantly and their amazingly powerful gatling gun, make them a tough nut to crack. You are most useful here in taking out their Medics.

To do this, you have to be unseen until the attack. Medics will quickly alert their Heavy patients if they fear either of their lives are in danger, so you have a small window of opportunity in which to take them out.
Your best bet is getting behind them. Landing a few meatshots should take care of them, just be sure to be quick. And once they’re dead, don’t get full of yourself and go after the Heavy. Even without the Medic, he’s a very dangerous foe. Seeing as your health is much lower than he is, you will likely die before him in a one-on-one brawl. By taking out his medic, however, you open an opportunity for other teammates to more easily take out the Heavy and clear the area of their annoyance for as long as possible.

Dealing With Engineers

A Scout facing an Engineer should have no problem whatsoever. Your Scattergun is far superior to their shotgun, so you should easily be able to take them out.
That is unless, and this is far more likely, they have a sentry guarding them.

An Engineer’s best friend is his sentry. A sentry is an automated turret that shoots at enemies as soon as it sees them, and it can take you out fairly quickly. It’s hard to avoid them, but if you happen to find yourself behind one, a few shots from your Scattergun should bring it down, no problem.
But that’s highly unlikely. Your best bet to take out a Sentry is with your pistol, from just around a corner where it cannot see you. This is a hard situation to put yourself in. But once there, you can just pound a few clips from your pistol in to the Sentry to take it down.
But if the Engineer is guarding their Sentry, they’ll be repairing the damage as you deal it. So take them out first if you can.

All in all, Engineers are tough to face if they’re hiding behind a Sentry (which a lot of them happen to do). You’ll save yourself a few deaths and much frustration if you avoid Sentries until somebody better suited (such as a Spy, Demoman, or Soldier) takes it out, leaving the Engineer himself to suffer your wrath.

Support Classes

The final type of class, Support, consists of the Medic, the Sniper, and the Spy.

Dealing With Medics

Medics aren’t too difficult to take out if they’re not attached to a Heavy or another formidable foe. They have slightly more health than you, but you have a stronger weapon. Use your speed to your advantage, running literal circles around them as you blast them with your Scattergun. They shouldn’t last too long without a buddy to help out.

Dealing With Snipers

Snipers are a long-range enemy, which makes them a bit difficult. You don’t stand a chance from a distance.
But if you find yourself next to an enemy Sniper, you have a much better chance of staying alive. Just a few blasts should do it. A lot of the time, they’ll be zoomed in on their scope, so they won’t even see you coming. This makes it especially easy.

If they notice you, however, look out for their Kukri knife. It can do a fair amount of damage, especially if they’re swinging like wild in your general direction. In this situation, double-jump like crazy and keep moving around them, shooting them as you go. It really shouldn’t be too tough.

Dealing With Spies

As a Scout, you have the biggest advantage against a Spy. This is because you can check for them more efficiently than any other class (save for Pyros).

When running into a teammate, you’ll go right through them. If you happen to be stopped dead in your tracks, start shooting — they’re a spy, disguised as one of your own. Your speed allows you to Spy check very quickly.

However, if a spy comes up behind you and stabs you in the back, you’re just as screwed as anyone else.

Conclusion

In conclusion, being a Scout isn’t easy by any means. It’s a very difficult class to get used to, and in a lot of situations, without the right finesse, you lose. But you also have many advantages over other classes, mainly being your speed, double-jump, and your effectiveness at close-range.

Keep everything here in mind when you go out Scouting. Developing a strategy and sticking to it is essential, and will save you a lot of rage.
It’s a very effective class, but only if you use it right.

Related posts:

1. Team Fortress 2 for Mac Available Now
2. Team Fortress 2 Hitting Mac Tomorrow
3. Bad Company 2 – Strategies To Improve Your Game

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

Related posts:

1. Red Dead Redemption – First Impressions
2. Review: Battlefield Bad Company 2 Demo
3. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Review

With the 20th of July as the release date for the online racing multiplayer game: Need for Speed World, EA, has gone all out and made the beta version open to all.

With only three weeks to spare EA intends to iron out the kinks, quirks and bugs using the feedback, and data from all who will be playing the beta version. Since today the massive multiplayer game’s beta version has be open to all, and many players have since been behind the wheel and got a first feel of what the official beta testers had experiences all this time. Gamers who want in on this can sign up at the Need for Speed website, and get a piece of the action.

NFS World is EA’s very first online only multiplayer game and is under development by the Canadian EA division in Vancouver. The game is free to play, and will remain so when the official version gets released, until players reach the tenth level. Players can also pay into it, purchasing a starter pack for approximately $ 20 and enjoy lots of extras, including 50 levels instead of only 10.

Need for Speed World will have approximately 150 miles of road players can burn rubber on and also has a complete night and day cycle.

The racing will occur through the scenery of Rockport and the streets of Palmont City. we have seen those before in previous NFS installments, so in a way it will be a familiar setting for most NFS fans.

Related posts:

1. Star Wars MMORPG enters beta stages
2. Starcraft II Beta Launched!
3. Steam for Mac Private Beta Leaked

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The rhythm gaming industry (in which Guitar Hero and Rock Band are the most prominent contenders) has been getting more and more complicated since its introduction. The genre that originally started as just a plastic guitar and a few buttons has now expanded to include drums, a bass guitar, and a microphone. The drums themselves have even garnered recent complexity with the introduction of additional pads that sit higher than the others, acting as symbols.
But how complex is too complex in a widely-enjoyed genre played by people of all musical abilities? Well, Rock Band is going to try and push the limits.

They have announced, as I’m sure you’ve heard, that they will be including a fully functional 25-key keyboard, as well as the option to purchase (separately) and use an actual guitar that has been licensed by Rock Band to play in the game. To be more specific, it’s a Squier Stratocaster. With strings. Yes, a real guitar.

But is this too much? This genre has been viewed as a very casual gaming genre for a while now, with it being popular at parties and in arcades. This new compatibility may be intimidating to non-musicians who just want to pick up a guitar-shaped controller.

However, this fear is combated by the fact that it’s completely optional. Still want to use the controller? Go right on ahead! Nobody’s stopping you. Plus, the ability to buy this guitar for use in-game also means that you’ll be obtaining an actual guitar that can be used anywhere for any purpose. Gone are the days of looking like a loser, tapping away on your Guitar Hero or Rock Band controller in public to the sequence of memorized songs. I feel this will also attract musicians who felt the controller downplayed the difficulty of the activity, bringing in a whole new realm of players without alienating any more traditional gamers.

The keyboard peripheral is also one that will most likely prove popular. It, as well, can be used as a standalone instrument, so you’re making a musical investment that can expand due to growing talent brought on by the game itself. (Which makes me wonder if these real-life instruments being used as peripherals will usher in an era where musicians learn how to play not by going to lessons, but by playing videogames. Simulated tutors, if you will.)

With the keyboard peripheral (not sure if this applies to the guitar as well), there is a “Pro” mode that can be enabled and disabled at will. Without Pro mode being activated, the game holds back, only requiring you to use the five-button system you’re used to. Once you turn Pro mode on, though, the game can make you go from one end of the keyboard to the other, no holds barred.

The gap between videogames and reality is becoming ever-thinner, however the entry price may be a hefty one. Since you’re purchasing actual instruments here, the costs will probably be more akin to those of actual instruments instead of your clunky controllers. I’d be willing to bet they find a happy medium between controller prices and instrument prices, but regardless, you may have to bust open your piggy bank to be included in this phenomenon.

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The original Kane & Lynch game, entitled “Dead Men,” came out late 2007 to much critical insult and generally negative reviews, both among popular outlets and individual reviewers. It was praised for its cinematic stylings and fun multiplayer game types, but bashed on a constant basis for outdated gameplay and lack of depth/polish. Many reviewers agreed: It would have been a decent game if it had been worked on a bit longer. It had potential, but failed to live up to it.

Well, Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is looking to patch up the title after three years since the initial release. The second iteration focuses more on gritty realism and, without a doubt, looks to improve gameplay elements that were so frustratingly used to advise against purchase back in ’07.

They released a new trailer today for the second game, and I’ve gotta say… It looks pretty sweet. You can check out the trailer at the bottom of the post, but first, allow me to delve into it a bit…

Now, I’ve never played the original, mainly because of the bad reviews. It doesn’t seem like something worthy of my money, and so I haven’t picked it up. But going off nothing but the reviews, it seems as if the second game has improved a good bit above the first, which is evident even in this trailer.

There are tidbits of what appears to be gameplay shown throughout, mostly at the end. The cinematic quality of the trailer is fantastic. One thing that bugs me, however, is their censorship… I’m fine with censoring your trailers. I’m even fine with you adding content to the trailers, knowing that it will HAVE to be censored. But be consistent with it!
Through the trailer, several “bad words” are bleeped out. Except for at one point, when one of the characters manages to scream out “DON’T F*CK WITH ME!” after throwing an explosive. This came directly after like, two or three bleeps, so it confused me a good bit.

Past that, the gameplay actually looks pretty fun. It looks like it has a pretty good cover system, which is important in any game that relies even a little bit on cover. The sound is also superb throughout. Great-sounding gunshots and breaking glass plague this trailer, along with cinematic “swoosh”s that help carry things along.

And the graphics look fantastic! Honestly, even though I’m aware most of this is probably pre-rendered, it all looks great. The clothing has amazing detail in it, and the environment around our characters looks amazing (especially one part in the trailer, where they’re in a kitchen. Everything in there looks freakin’ beautiful).

One thing that still confuses me is why IO Interactive went from the clever stealth series Hitman to a blatantly over-the-top action series such as Kane & Lynch. Put more work into Hitman 5!
That aside, this game really does look pretty sweet. This is one that I’ll probably sit on for a bit before getting it, to see if it’s been improved, but when it comes down to it, I could see myself getting this game.

After some searching, I can’t seem to find this trailer on Youtube, and can’t get the GT.TV video to embed correctly, so just click here to be taken to the trailer.

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I may be a tad late to the party, but I just picked up Rockstar’s wild wild west take on sandbox third-person action games, Red Dead Redemption, today. While you can clearly see the influence that Grand Theft Auto had on this game, it also has many of its own factors that make it a title completely separate from any previous Rockstar work.

Now, this won’t be a full-blown review. As I said, I just got the game today — I haven’t had time to play through, or to even touch the multiplayer. But I’ll fill you in with what I’ve played so far and how awesome it’s been.

Let me start off by saying how overly impressed I am by the voice acting. As with most Rockstar titles, the voice acting is absolutely superb and really contributes to the overall feel of the game. It feels much more authentic than it would if some other company (say, Quantic Dream) was in charge of voice acting. This is in addition to all the other excellent sound design in this game that pull together the whole package in a way that creates an unforgettable audial experience. (I didn’t even know “audial” was a word until Chrome didn’t correct me…)

This also comes together amazingly well with the incredibly visuals. The landscapes are fantastic and even up-close, all the textures look amazing. The animation is one of my favourite bits in the game, with all movement, including that of horses, being incredibly realistic. Rockstar takes full advantage of the Euphoria physics engine with Red Dead Redemption, making fantastic looking weighted ragdolls out of dead bandits.

The gameplay in this game is also pretty fantastic. Riding the horses feels great. I heard (in a review somewhere, I can’t recall) that Rockstar had completely separate motion capture sessions, just for the horses. It’s not hard to believe, watching them gallop with amazingly detailed animation. And as bad as it feels to kill an animal in this game, shooting a deer in the leg just makes it collapse in a freaking awesome way. I love these physics.

Not much has been revealed to me of the story yet (and what has been I will not spoil for you), but I really like the characters. The incredible voice acting leads to believable-sounding characters. A lot of random people actually make you want to help them. And not for your own needs, but out of compassion for their situation.

That’s another thing. The morals system is awesome in this game. You can be famous, feared, and everything in-between, all depending on actions that you take and decisions that you make throughout the game. I’ve chosen to make my first run-through mostly based on how I actually feel about the situations. I’ll try to put myself in a more role-playing kind of mood the second time through to convince myself to be evil. But it won’t be easy.

The missions are always a load of fun. The only kind of mission thus far that I’ve found to be even a bit tedious is the herding missions. Getting a huge amount of animals to all follow what you want them to do and go in a certain direction can be hair-pullingly frustrating at times. Most of the time it’s not so bad, but it does have its moments.

So far, with the little experience I have with this game, I’d say it’s a definite buy. But stay tuned for my full review sometime in the future (as in, whenever I have time to fully explore every exponent of this game).

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