James Noir's Hollywood Crimes

I got my Nintendo 3DS at the beginning of the year, along with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. This is my favorite game of all time and, I'll admit, the only reason I traded in my DSi for the 3DS was to play Ocarina again. While I love Ocarina, it's also a huge commitment. It takes dedication, and then there are all the little side quests you can do. Then once you've completed the game you get to play the "Master Quest" version. Needless to say, I got my sword and shield at the beginning of the game and.... That's as far as I got. I wasn't prepared to dive into a game that I knew would consume my life for the next several weeks. So I began my own real life quest to find a decent 3DS game that I could pick up, play for an hour or so, and then tuck away without going into withdrawal. That game was James Noir's Hollywood Crimes.

You are a contestant in an early 1960s game show in which you compete to solve puzzles. The first week your competitor plays the game and sees how many points he can score by solving puzzles of varying difficulty. The harder the puzzles, the more points you can earn. You get to play during the second week to try to top his score, or at least garner enough points to move onto the next round. Oh, and there's a serial killer on the loose killing former contestants and you're helping the FBI solve puzzles left at the crime scenes. Everyone involved with the show is a suspect. Heck, you're even a suspect even though you're trying to help catch the murderer. Who is the killer, and will you beat your competitor to claim the top prize? Or will you die trying?

Okay, the drama here isn't exactly riveting, but more like when a sitcom tries for a heartfelt episode when the family pet dies or something. There are two reasons to play this game: the puzzles and the graphics. If you're a fan of the Professor Layton series for the DS, this may be up your alley. Granted, the Professor Layton puzzles can be a bit more difficult and offer more variety, the Hollywood puzzles can be enjoyable, if not predictable after a while. Oh gee, another puzzle where I have to slide puzzle pieces around to move one particular piece into a highlighted spot? The fun never ends! But seriously, the puzzles aren't half-bad - just don't expect a huge variety.

This is only the second 3DS game I've played, but I must say that I was very happy with the graphics. Real actors are used in the video game so it plays out almost like a movie. When they talk, their mouths move, but their words (if you can call them words) don't match the audio. It's as if you were watching a dubbed foreign film. The style is definitely 1960s from the clothes, the hairstyles, and even the opening credits of the fake game show. The 3D effects aren't as impressive as, say, Ocarina, but they were decent enough.

Although James Noir's Hollywood Crimes is worth a go-around and I've enjoyed playing it, it's not a keeper. Besides the puzzles being repetitive, there are also loads of typos throughout the game and the game itself is pretty short (you could probably knock it out in five to six hours). Sure, you could play it again to solve all the puzzles you passed up during the first run-through, but after that you're going to want to trade it in (at Slackers, of course) for something different.

Experience The Thrill Of Rise Of Flight

A major part of the allure of video games is the ability to do things we ordinarily couldn't do, or to be taken to another place and time. It's no real surprise then that sports games and shooters tend to dominate the game shelves, as we have all dreamed of being a sports superstar, or of playing the lead in a big action movie where we get to fire of huge amounts of hot lead in order to save the day.

Another genre of game that falls into the action category is war games, where players can re-live actual missions from wars of the past. While some love to get their hands dirty on the ground, other player's dream of taking to the skies to fight the battle above the clouds.

Rise of Flight is one such game that let's gamers experience the thrill of flight, whilst also taking part in dogfights, all set against the landscape of World War I. The modern day video games have become so realistic that we tend to become engrossed in the action without really paying any heed to the work that went into making them so good in the first place.

It could be argued that a simulator the likes of Rise of Flight is a much more difficult game to design, especially when you consider that the laws of aerodynamics and physics must be obeyed to make controlling the plane seem realistic.

It's not just science that the makers of Rise of Flight were up against, and they also had to take into account the cockpits of the planes, as well as the landscape that the players are flying across. It's safe to say that a lot has changed since 1914-1918, which are the years in which the game takes place. There are those who take great joy in pointing out historical inaccuracies, which means that the guys behind Rise of Flight probably had to spend some time in a history classroom; that is, when they were done with science classes.

The fact that Rise of Flight is one of the most popular flight simulators is a credit to the work done by the game developers, which actually stretches all the way back to 2004. It's the attention to detail that can make or break a games, especially among hardcore followers of the genre, so taking the time to get it all just right is actually very important.

There will always be those who find some fault with the design of any game, but spare a thought for the designers of Rise of Flight, who not only had to carefully render the planes of that era, but also re-created over 125,000 square kilometers of land across the Western Front. That may well have been a mission bigger than any you will undertake within the game itself.

Bikkuri Nekketsu Shinkiroku: Harukanaru Kin Medal Famicom Game Review

Japanese developers have certainly had innovative ideas when it comes to creating likeable characters that go on to form long-running, popular series of video games. For example, the Mario and Zelda series have both gone on to form thirty year long legacies that gamers of all ages can recognize. While the Kunio-Kun series may not have reached quite the same level of success, it still maintained great popularity in Japan and to some degree in America. This is seen in the numerous sports games that spawned within the series, including Bikkuri Nekketsu Shinkiroku: Harukanaru Kin Medal.

Gameplay

Bikkuri Nekketsu Shinkiroku: Harukanaru Kin Medal, which roughly translates to The Astonishing New Records of Nekketsu! Distant Gold Medal, is a Famicom video game released in June 1992. The purpose of the game is to compete in a number of amateur Olympic events that feature no rules or regulations, including events like Fighting Scene, Rooftop Jumping, Swimming, Hammer Throw and the 400 meter hurdle set between five teams as a part of a challenge issued to Jeff Crash Cooney by humiliated high schooler Theodore Todd Thornley IV.

The events are divided into two primary cateogries: Individual and head-to-head events. In the former, all players take their turns one by one with the winner ultimately decided by whoever earns the best score for the event. In the latter, the player faces off against a series of players one by one by way of single elimination gameplay. If the player can defeat both of his opponents, he will have succeeded, and he can compete against Thorley for the top prize.

Up to four human players are capable of playing Bikkuri Nekketsu Shinkiroku: Harukanaru Kin Medal, even with the limitations of the controller ports. However, the game never features more than two players competing at a time, allowing the remaining two players to alternate whenever it is their turn.

Localization

Unlike most of the other titles in the Kunio-Kun series, Bikkuri Nekketsu Shinkiroku: Harukanaru Kin Medal saw a release in North America four months later, more aptly titled Crash 'n the Boys: Street Challenge. The only real changes the NES version saw to the game were plot and scenery changes, as well as the roster for the two teams. Outside of this, the game remains the same.

Purists who enjoy playing original games would do well to pick up Bikkuri Nekketsu Shinkiroku: Harukanaru Kin Medal for the Famicom. Not only is it a fun game to play, but there is something more interesting about playing the original plot than the altered version that American Technos brought to America.

Dig Dug II Game Review

If one were to ask anybody who has spent time playing games for more than a few years, chances are rather high that they will know the name Dig Dug. After all, it was the name of a classic game that nearly all seasoned gamers have struggled against in their time at some point. Like any other video game that has seen such popularity, the developer chose to make a sequel, which was also met with a decent amount of success. In fact, if it were not for hits such as Dig Dug and Dig Dug II, then Namco would not be around today to publish other greats like Dark Souls and Katamari.

Concept

Much like the original game, the purpose of Dig Dug II is to defeat all of the enemies in the level. Touching either of the two types of enemies will cause the player to lose a life. The round, orange Pookas pose no immediate threat, merely requiring they touch the player to defeat him, but the dragon Fygars can breathe fire that will also damage and defeat the player on contact.

Unlike the original game, Dig Dig II does not take place underground where the character Taizo Hori must dig to get around. Instead, it takes place above ground in an overhead view, on an island with the water exposed on all sides.

Gameplay

Taizo retains his pump that, like the original game, inflates the enemies on the screen, causing them to explode and defeating them. In order to keep true to the name of the title, Taizo is given a jackhammer that he can use to dig faults in the island in which the enemies can fall and get stuck, making them prime bait for inflation and defeating.

The player must be careful where he digs, however. If the player uses the jackhammer to create a fault on one end of the island and connects a path from that path to another fault in another end of the island, the ocean will fill the path and drown everybody in its path, including Taizo.

Even though Dig Dug II received only modest success in comparison to its successor, Bandai still elected to bring it out on the NES, where it also received modest success. Due to its localization, there is no major advantage to purchasing the Famicom version, although collectors will want to add this title to their growing collection.

New Exciting Details About Assassin's Creed 3

Following the very successful first two installments, Ubisoft is set to again catch the gaming world by storm with the upcoming Assassin's Creed 3 revelation on March 5 2012.

Although the company is yet to announce some details about the game, some leaks have been circling the web for some time now. Here are some of the supposed leaked information we have filtered so far.

The story of the game will now be fast forwarded to the 18th Century North American cities of New York and Boston. Some historical figures such as Charles Lee, George Washington, and Benjamin Franklin will be included in the game. This information was gleaned from the latest issue from GameInformer.

According to the magazine, the name of game's character will be Connor, a half English, half Mohawk native American living on the US frontier.

Not enough information were revealed by the US magazine but historical events like the winter of George Washington at Valley Forge and the great fire of New York are some of the scenarios of the game.

A third of the game will take place on the US frontier. GameInformer claims this map will be 1.5 times bigger than the entire map of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. Obviously, there will be fast transport system to let characters traverse the vast expanse in the game.

Gameplay includes climbing trees and cliffs to get good vantage points for kills and hunting animals for resources.

Another good addition to the game will be the passing or changing of seasons after some time. Non-playable characters will behave according to the weather as well. Soldiers movement will be hampered by snow and will stumble around clumsily around frozen lakes and rivers.

Connor's main weapons will be a knife and a tomahawk. Users will also be able to perform multiple takedowns, chained kills, and double counters.

If there is a good practical thing ditched, it will be the target locking feature. The game will automatically pinpoint an opponent instead of a player manually locking the target like in the previous installments. Ubisoft wants players to experience faster and more fluid gameplay and thus the control system has been automated making combat more controllable and exciting.

Ubisoft also announced that additional platforming sections will be added this time around.

And if these scant details do not excite you that much yet, an undisclosed amount of money twice bigger than the budget for revelations according to Ubisoft has been allocated for this game. That said, we can expect a lot from Assassins Creed 3 when it comes out. This game will be one of the biggest gaming news for AC fans out there.

The Constant Evolution Of Rise Of Flight

One of the best things to come out of the video game craze of the 80's, was the desire to create and produce more realistic action and flying games.

That craze also led to developers trying to find a way to get those games into people homes, which they did with the introduction of game systems.

We are a greedy lot though, and the demand for bigger and better games meant that those systems continued to develop, until they finally reached the point where they are at today. The realism in today's games is staggering when you compare it to those early efforts, and it's hard to imagine how far they will go in the future.

Rise of Flight is a perfect example of the tweaking that goes into the games, as well as the systems they are played on. It may be an incredibly popular World War I flight simulator, but that doesn't stop the fans from wanting more. It appears that the Rise of Flight developers are in agreement that their game could be better, as they constantly seem to be adding new options, all of which are designed to add even more realism to a game that was already bursting with it.

As you might expect, the planes are the focal point of the Rise of Flight game, and while there are a good number to choose from, enthusiasts of World War I will still want to see other planes included that may not have shown up in the original version. To that end, the makers of the game teamed up with a Ukrainian software modeling team to help them develop even more methods of flight. You would think that would be enough to keep even the most hardcore gamer happy, but they still want more.

The next step for the Rise of Flight developers was to add a level of artificial intelligence that would control such things as cloud patterns, as well as the level of darkness of the night. That may sound like an insane level of detail to the majority of us, but when you are designing a game that is based on real historical events, then you will want to include as much realism as possible, all with the goal of putting the player in the middle of the action, and asking them to suspend belief long enough to believe that they are actually flying a World War I plane.

With all those little tweaks and additions constantly being made, it means that the Rise of Flight game is in a constant state of future development. That is great news for fans of the game, as it will mean that their experience will only continue to improve. In fact it might only be a matter of time before they are dodging bullets from a World War I plane while still sitting in their own living room.

Batman: Arkham City 3D Review

3D saves a PC game plagued with bugs and a missing DX11.

Chances are you know who Batman is. If not, he's this dude who wears tights and likes to swing around tall buildings. Not to be confused with Spiderman, who also wears tights and likes to swing around tall buildings. Chances are you have also played Batman: Arkham Asylum and know the score. If not, Batman Arkham Asylum is a third-person action-adventure game based on that Batman guy. Batman: Arkham Asylum was developed by Rocksteady Studios and was released in 2009. It was a good year to be a Bat, and the game was met with rave reviews and its fair share of awards.

Batman: Arkham City is the sequel to the successful Arkham Asylum. Arkham City is a maximum security prison for the nastiest criminals that Gotham City has to offer. As chance would have it, Bruce Wayne gets his ass tossed into Arkham City for opposing the new prison's existence, and is forced to go all "Escape from New York". Within moments, Bruce manages to score his crime-fighting equipment and become his alter ego, Batman. We all watch TV, anything can be got in prison if you know the right people. I don't want to get all nuts with spoilers, so let's sum up the story by saying that Catwoman drops in, Batman runs into an old flame, fails to get laid, Robin makes a brief appearance and Alfred is only a radio signal away. On "team naughty", Batman bumps into a load of our favourite baddies, including Harley Quinn (damn, she's annoying), Two-Face, Mr. Freeze (possibly the toughest boss fight of the game), The Joker, Penguin, Hugo Strange, Poison Ivy, Clayface and plenty more crazies.

Batman: Arkham City is a single-player game with a main storyline which sees Batman seeking a cure to a disease which could wipe out a superhero or two. In addition to the main story, you will regularly unlock side missions, which can either be completed right away or put aside for later. The side missions are just as good as those that are included in the main story, which makes for a lot of awesome added game play. In addition to the side missions, you've got the Riddler to contend with. Cataloging and collecting Riddler's trophies is an addictive game within the game. Then there are the challenge maps, which make for some excellent mindless melee fun. Challenge maps are unlocked as you play through the game, and more are available in DLCs. There are three funky flavours to hone your Bat-skills with, including ranked leaderboard combat, timed campaigns, and custom rules.

Technical

In Arkham City there is always a superhero around when people need one, in real life there certainly was no superhero around to help me gain access to the game. First you enter your key on Steam, then you enter your key for SecuRom (if you're lucky it accepts it the first time; I was not lucky), then you have to tie it all together with Games for Windows Live. GFWL was the primary bottleneck. I spent an hour trying to log in to GFWL as it gave me some song and dance about needing to update. Like really, what's the point of this kind of layering? The games are going to get pirated all the same, and according to many, the reason the PC version of Arkham City was delayed was so that they could maximize sales from the console versions first.

When Batman: Arkham City was released just over two weeks ago, PC gamers were disappointed to find out that DX 11 was buggered. Upon launch Rocksteady immediately recommended DX 9, as reports of DX 11 performance issues began making the rounds. People wondered how something like this, a selling point like DX 11, could have made it through testing and out the door for launch. It took a couple of weeks, but a DX 11 patch was finally released. The outcome was not really worth the wait, and many are still plagued with low FPS and game-breaking bugs. I consider myself one of the lucky, as I only spent about four hours dealing with crashes and bugs that would not allow me to proceed further in the game.

Arkham City comes with a built-in benchmark tool, so using both that and Fraps I grabbed some quick stats to share. Right before publishing this review a patch was released for Batman: Arkham City, which in part addresses the DX 11 issues. Running Alienware M17x laptop /w NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M and 6GB RAM / 3D Vision (not 3D Vision 2), at 1920 x 1080. Both DX 9 and DX 11 were run with all settings max, including detail level, tessellation and PhysX.

The DX 11 patch seems to be hit and miss. For many people it solved the issue of poor frames while running DX 11. For others it buggered things up even more. For me, the patch DID improve FPS in DX 11, but oddly lowered frames with DX 9. Go figure.

On my system the best settings for performance and aesthetics are DirectX 11 (very high) and PhysX set to "Normal", this works out perfectly both with and without 3D Vision enabled.

Combat

Combat in Arkham City is ridiculous, while also being ridiculously fun. Here's the ridiculous bit... there were very few times during the game that I needed any sort of strategy in order to win an encounter. A couple of bosses had an attack pattern that had to be learned in order to defeat them, but outside of that you can literally finish the game by repeatedly hitting your left mouse button. In fact, I broke a mouse playing Arkham City. Yup, button-mashed it to death. While using special attacks makes combat more fun, it isn't actually necessary. Now for the ridiculously fun part... combat is an absolute joy to watch, and even if you don't have mad take-down skills, the simple act of punching, kicking and evading is wicked fun. That said, if you want to kick ass on the challenge maps then you'll need a bit more than button-mashing. The challenge maps are slightly more skill-based and if you want to rank then you'll have to use combos and special moves.

Sometimes I thought I preferred combat while playing as Catwoman, because she's mean, lean and fast as hell. But after a while I'd sort of start missing the Bat. Both characters have their own missions, skills and gadgets, but the character I really would have liked to play is Robin. While the Robin Bundle DLC will allow you to play the Boy Wonder, you will only be able to do so on challenge maps. I'd rather be able to play him in side missions, like you can with Catwoman. Sadly, Robin's appearance in the game was very brief, and although he was looking buff, tough and not at all like the Robin we all grew up with, Batman simply bitched him out and told him to piss off. So that was that.

NVIDIA 3D Vision

One of my first experiences with 3D was seeing Friday The 13th Part 3 in 3D. I walked five miles through the snow with no shoes to see it at the theatre. It was crap, but exciting at the same time, and it was the best we had. For the next quarter century I would associate 3D with eye strain and headaches. Whenever I post about 3D Vision on VE3D the post is met with comments like "I'm too old for 3D, I don't need the eye strain" or "3D gives me headaches". Exactly the things that I had always associated with it. Well Toto, it looks like we're not in Kansas anymore! This ain't grandma's 3D. I'll admit that I've reached the age where reading glasses come in handy. I didn't have much interest in 3D. Mostly I was afraid to try it because I thought my head would explode. I guess I had read into the old school hype a bit too much. But I survived 3D, and am loving every second of it. Eye of the tiger baby, eye of the tiger. Plus I look cool in the glasses.

Since I just recently began gaming in 3D, my experiences are limited. What I have noticed so far is that 3D Vision adds an extra layer of realism to games. 3D games come alive, giving you a greater feeling of actually being there. In Batman: Arkham City this is especially true, particularly when grappling around the city and using gadgets. Even cut scenes are great in 3D. All of the villains in Arkham City look amazing and force you to keep watching, even if you don't normally enjoy cut scenes. Graphics look sharper, and cleaner, and flaws that you would see while out of 3D tend to get smoothed over. If I was to slap a number on Batman: Arkham City without 3D Vision, the game would land a 7/10 (70%). While Arkham City is a truly entertaining trip through the gutters of Gotham, the bugs and the graphic issues that the game shipped with are not acceptable. Waiting over two weeks for a half-assed patch is also not acceptable.

Because 3DV enhanced my Arkham City experience, Batman: Arkham City 3D is a 9/10 (90%), and worth its weight in guano.

What I Liked:

• Gloom and doom atmosphere makes for some very immersive gameplay.
• Story is actually interesting, you'll want to watch the cut scenes.
• Both Batman and Catwoman show wear and tear in their costumes as the game goes on.
• Catwoman side-missions, it was fun to take a break from Batman and spend some time crawling on ceilings.
• Challenge maps are a good workout and a nice change of pace, actually requiring some combat skill.
• Voice acting is great.
• I can't wait to get back in and collect more Riddler trophies.
• Arkham City is totally engrossing, and the experience is even further enhanced when playing in 3D.

What I Didn't Like:

• A three-layer activation process.
• No side-missions for Robin.
• Getting stuck to my Batarang on a block of ice for two hours.
• Spending another two hours trying to figure out why I couldn't dive-bomb.
• I would have loved to see Arkham City in the daylight.
• A little too much travelling back and forth across the city.
• Combat, while fun to watch, requires no skill.
• Crashing during the closing cinematic.
• Finishing the game before a DX 11 patch was released.
• Trying to find a good tutorial on 3DV video rendering.

Rating: 90%