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%

Is Call Of Duty A Suitable First Person Shooter (FPS) For Kids?

If you haven't played Call of Duty, it's a game where you kill people/computer animations and get points and xp towards ranking up and unlocking new guns, camos and perks. You get three perks and these allow you to do cool things, like sprint faster, survive explosions, and drop a grenade on death.

So what aspects of CoD are unsuitable for young people? Well, World at War features a mode called Zombies in which you blow waves of zombies to bits and see bucket loads of blood flying everywhere. Also, they drop f-bombs quite frequently. Therefore, keep your children away from everything made by Treyarch because they do not have young people in mind when they are making their entertainment. Infinity Ward is a bit better, but I would still recommend staying away from Modern Warfare 2 because it isn't a Kids first person shooter as the final kill cam shows spurts of blood in slow-motion. Children playing first person shooters is something you see commonly nowadays and it's good to see because as long as they aren't playing for the killing aspect, Call of Duty is an amazingly awesome, fun shooter for young people, and it can in fact help educate them on the brutality of war and teach them about different types of guns.

With parenthood comes the responsibility to look after your kid, but being over protective can be just as harmful as being careless with your children. Shooting people sounds like something your little ones shouldn't be doing, but if parents take a look the website above, they will find it somewhat suitable. Call of Duty 4 is the most age appropriate one from the series and it comes with an option to turn blood and language off. You really don't want your babies seeing excess blood and guts!

When you think about it, CoD is very tame as far as first person shooters go, for Gears of War, Halo, Crysis and Battlefield are all one hundred times worse. In fact, no one in their right mind should play games like Gears of War because it will scar their minds for a long time - you actually cut people in half with chainsaws! Anyway, I think that Gears of War isn't even fun anyway, whereas Call of Duty is fun and relatively tame, making it the perfect FPS for children. Enjoy playing titles from this series before they are replaced by more gruesome games.

Rayman Origins

Release Date: November 15, 2011
Publisher: Ubisoft
MPAA Rating: Everyone 10+

Rayman Origins is the latest in the long-running platforming series published by Ubisoft, and developed by their internal Montpellier studio. It's also the first game to make use of the UbiArt Framework, a graphics engine that takes a lot of the technical aspects out of creating games with hand-drawn elements. With other engines, artists have to factor in movement and scaling to keep their images from being distorted. UbiArt Framework makes a lot of these factors moot as it handles them automagically, giving artists a chance to focus simply on creating great art, and then allowing them to animate the pieces by manipulating the individual object's silhouette. The result is a truly gorgeous 2D platformer that may well be the crown jewel of the genre's recent renaissance.

Rayman's gameplay is pure 2D platforming. It's all about precision jumping and fancy footwork, navigating harmful obstacles and a myriad of colorful and offbeat baddies. All the while you're collecting coins, or rather in this case sleepy little balls of light called "Lums." Along the way you'll cross a sea of punch, explore a mountain temple, and enlist the help of a flower king. Oh, but just so you know, there are piranha in the punch, the mountain temple is infested with swarms of bat-like creatures, and when you first meet the flower king he's 25 feet tall, covered in thorns and wants to eat you. Cute and challenging are two words that would go a long way toward describing this game.

There's nothing worse than a game that's difficult enough to require precision, only to give you control of a character that floats around or whose jumps seem ever so slightly delayed. Luckily that is not the case here, as Ubisoft nailed the controls. Everything from sprinting to jumping feels tight and responsive, and Rayman (or Globox, one of the tweenies, or any one of a number of other unlockable characters) seems to go exactly where you mean him to go. Replayability is also good as completionists will find themselves playing each level multiple times in an effort to collect all the Lums, find all the hidden Electoon cages, and earn all the time trial trophies.

Amid all the stuff that Ubisoft did right with this game- and they did so much right- I think the real unsung hero is the soundtrack. From the music in the opening cinematic that instigates the Darktoons to attack the Glade of Dreams, to well-crafted scores that complement each stage's theme and worm their way into your head with their sublime quirkiness, it all complements the art style so well.

In addition to being a great single player game, Rayman also features an up to four player co-op, a la New Super Mario Brothers, allowing you and three friends to navigate the hazards out there together. Luckily checkpoints are frequent, and since players that fall or get hit are 'bubblelized' and can get tagged back in by floating close to another player, progress is possible even if you have to carry a weak link. This will prove especially nice to those of you who like to game with your kids, or who have spouses who aren't as good at games as they think they are.

All in all, I can't think of much to complain about concerning this game. It looks and sounds great, the controls are solid and replayability is high. Lots of fun, lots of challenges, lots of heart, and lots of charm. In fact, the only negative thing I can even think to say is the game is 15 years too late to be a part of the genre's heyday and get the attention it deserves. Rayman Origins has been out since November 2011, and so far its story has been one of critical success but commercial disappointment. I think that will change over time, though, because despite the decline of 2D gaming, Rayman Origins is in it for the long haul. Games this good don't go unnoticed forever. If you are a fan of great platforming in the vein of classic Mario Brothers or Sonic the Hedgehog titles, you owe it to yourself to check this game out now.

Star Wars Video Games (PSP, DS, Wii, and Xbox 360)

Star Wars took the world by storm with its intriguing plot, terrific graphics, and mind blowing action and adventure. Riding on the success of the movie and the television series came innumerable number of video games. Featuring thrilling action sequences and interactive game play, these video games became very popular among avid gamers. Two of the most popular video games are The Force Unleashed and the Star Wars Clone Wars Republic Heroes Game.

The Star Wars - The Force Unleashed Game (DS, Wii, and Xbox 360)
The Force Unleashed is a gripping video game that takes you on an adventure across the universe. Developed by LucasArts, this thrilling Star Wars video game makes use of Digital Molecular Matter (DMM) technology to incorporate physical properties to the environment. So, when a glass breaks or a piece of wood snaps, it looks and sounds very realistic. A behavioral-simulation engine known as Euphoria is also used in this action adventure game. This technology makes the characters think, react, and interact like human beings.

Set in an era between the Episode III and IV of Star Wars, this thrilling game reveals hitherto unknown secrets about the Star Wars galaxy. Bored of being the good guy all the time? In this video game, you can play the game as Darth Vader's "Secret Apprentice", StarKiller and get rid of Jedi. When it comes to powers, you will have so much that you can completely annihilate your enemies. Darth Vader's "Secret Apprentice" has four core Force powers such as repulse, lightning, grip, and Force push. Use these powers individually or combine them to completely destroy your enemies.

Star Wars Clone Wars Republic Heroes Game (PSP, Xbox 360)
The story line of the Star Wars Clone Wars Republic Heroes Game is based on the Clone Wars TV series. Set in the period between the first and the second episode of this television series, this video game sheds light on the mysterious bounty hunter Cad Bane. You can play this game as your favorite Jedi Knight or a Clone Trouper and complete the 30 missions to stop the techno assassin's plot.

Use your lightsaber and Force powers to kill the Separatist Droids and move further into the game when you play as a Jedi Knight. Turn enemies into weapons that will help you navigate levels with ease. As a clone trooper, you will have immense firepower in your hands. Use rocket launchers and thermal detonators to blast your way to the next level.

2012 Is Going to Be the Best Year Ever for the Resident Evil Franchise

On March 20th 2012 Resident evil Operation Raccoon City is being released, just 1 of the 2 games scheduled for release this year. Capcom is taking a different approach in this game by changing things up a bit.

In all the resident evil games in the past except for Resident Evil Survivor, you took on the role of the S.T.A.R.S members. In this game you play the role of the Umbrella Security Service, the ones responsible for the T-Virus outbreak. Or you can take on the role of the United States Special Operations Force, which is really awesome. Depending on which side you choose, your mission will be totally different.

If you choose to take on the role of the Umbrella Team, your mission will be to destroy any evidence of Umbrella's illegal activity, along with killing any and all survivors. On the other hand the Special Operations Team has to expose the actions of the Umbrella company.

You will also be faced with some major decisions in the game such as, killing Leon S. Kennedy. One of the major characters in Resident evil 2 and Resident evil 4. The game features an amazing storyline and takes place during the events of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 Nemesis.

Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City also has a co-op story mode where up to 4 players can join in the action. Switching over to the multi player side, there is a bunch of different modes you can chose from such as Hero mode.

In Hero mode you can play as Leon S Kennedy, Jill Valentine, Claire Redfield, Carlos Oliviera, Plus Ada Wong, HUNK, Nicholai Ginovaef and a new character Lone Wolf. There is also Nemesis Mode an Xbox 360 Exclusive that allows you to control Nemesis and use him to kill the other team.

So as you can see this game is going to be absolutely awesome. On November 20th 2012 Resident Evil 6 is scheduled to be released and this game has a completely different storyline.

The year is 2013 and U.S. President Adam Benford has decided to reveal the truth behind what took place in the 1998 Raccoon City Destruction Incident in the belief that it will curb the current resurgence in bio-terrorist activity.

Due to be by the President's side is his personal friend and Raccoon City survivor, Leon S. Kennedy, but when the venue suffers a bio-terrorist attack, Leon is forced to face a President transformed beyond recognition and make his hardest decision ever.

At the same time, Bio-terrorism Security Assessment Alliance member Chris Red field arrives in the fictional city of Lanshiangi facing the same problem that Leon is dealing with.

These games sound really good and i am looking forward to both of them not to mention the movie that is coming out this fall. If you are a true hardcore Resident Evil fan like me, i am sure you are looking forward to all 3 of these titles. I would love to hear any comments you have to share, and if your not a fan than this year would be the best time to get into this awesome series.

Games That Redefined the Survival Horror Genre

There are not a whole lot of quality horror games out there since, developers and publishers feel that, the market for horror games is pretty limited, as compared to other genres. But the fact remains, that even though the fan following is pretty limited. It is loyal. Over the years, we have seen a lot of horror games come and go, but there were some, that have been able to leave their mark on our psyche. And not only that, these games have truly established themselves as milestones in the gaming industry.

Resident Evil

The franchise is one of the oldest games in the survival horror genre and was the first of its kind to attract gamers. The whole concept was fresh, original and gave the players a chance to explore a somewhat post-apocalyptic scenario, which had been overrun by the living dead. The whole idea behind the series was to give the player a chilling experience in a world with few allies and formidable enemies. The franchise has gone through a lot of facelifts, since its inception in the 90's, but hasn't lost its charm nonetheless.

The developers of the game,'Capcom' have recently made it clear, that they want to revive the game, and make it more action-oriented than survival horror. The reason behind this statement seems to be the same, as discussed in the beginning of the article. But whatever the reasons, one thing is for sure, and that is the franchise, in my opinion is not going to lose its luster anytime soon. And gamers all over the world are still eagerly awaiting the next installment in the series from the developers, which is already under production.

Silent Hill

The Silent Hill series, truly gave the survival horror genre a new innovative approach. And unlike Resident Evil, the Silent Hill franchise actually tapped into the gamers psyche, and introduced them to a world of true horror. Developed by 'Konami', the first title in the series came out in the year 1999 for the PlayStation, and established itself as a tough competitor. Silent Hill was not your typical run-of-the-mill horror game, the game's amazing use of narrative, character progression and the-never-seen-before monsters were enough to give anyone, sleepless nights. Even today, the game has massive fan following, and the latest game in the series titled 'Silent Hill Downpour' has a rating of 7.5 on a leading online gaming magazine, which is pretty good according to game rating standards.

Alan Wake

This game is truly a gem and to be really frank, is one of the only games of its kind. 'Remedy' has nailed the coffin with this title and everyone who has played this game, including me, will undoubtedly be vouching for it, "As a potential game of the year". Alan Wake is basically a psychological thriller, and every aspect of the game is topnotch. Although, this particular game took a whole lot of time to be released. The title was worth the wait.

The stunning visuals, amazing storyline, character progression and the chilling atmosphere is enough to engross the player and will actually make them feel, as if they are in 'Bright Falls' (The place where the story takes place). Alan Wake is all about exploration, and fighting dark forces, which seem to have overtaken the otherwise sleepy town. The game was originally meant to be released only for the Xbox 360. But, was later rolled out for the PC as well, which is pretty neat, as PC gamers would have otherwise missed out on one of the most epic games in the survival horror genre.

Although, there are a whole lot of other games that have redefined this genre of gameplay. I believe that these three games deserve to be here, not only because they are amazing, but because they had something new to offer... Something fresh, inspiring and creative, which I am sure, will offer inspiration to a whole new breed of game designers and developers in the near future.

Battlefield 3 - Xbox 360 Beta Impressions

Today I will give you some early impressions detailing the Xbox 360 version of the Battlefield 3 beta. Lets get some formalities out of the way early, shall we? Battlefield 3 is a modern first-person shooter developed by EA DICE and published by Electronic Arts. It releases October 25, 2011. This particular article is specifically detailing my early experiences regarding the Xbox 360 version of the Battlefield 3 beta.

Gamemodes - One game mode and that is Rush.

Rush - I played Rush many times in both Bad Company games. Attacking forces must advance through enemies defenses and destroy M COM Stations throughout the map. The defending team must protect all M COM Stations from the attackers. It's a simple game of defense versus offense and it can be quite entertaining sometimes. Most times defenders win and it seems to be that way in Battlefield 3 on Operation Metro map.

Operation Metro Map - Operation Metro map is the only map on the Xbox 360 version of Battlefield 3 beta at the moment. This map starts out in a park in sunlight but quickly turns into a underground subway battle. The early part of the subway portion is very linear. Actually, many sections of Operation Metro are linear which makes for Attackers in Rush really difficult. There are open areas in the subway section featuring escalators and open lobbies. But most of the map is train cars and linear passageways. There are also quite a few backroom hallways in the Operation Metro map.

Classes - There are four different classes in the beta including Assault, Engineer, Recon and Support. What primary guns you start out with in default depends on if your Attacker or Defender. Every class give or take has a Primary, Secondary, Gadget 1, Gadget 2 and Specialization slot.

Assault - This class starts off with either M16A3 or AK-74m for primary weapons. Sidearms are MP443 and M9 with the Medic Kit. I played with this class early and often. It feels sorta like the medic class in other games the way you can just toss around health packs to squad members and other teammates. I would say it's a good class to start with in Battlefield 3.

Engineer - Not much use for this class in the beta due to no vehicles being available. However the Engineer class has always been a favorite of mine in Battlefield: Bad Company 1 and 2. Primary weapons are M4A1 and AKS-74u. Sidearms are the same as all of the other classes. Gadget 1 is SMAW and RPG-7U2.

Each weapon in the Battlefield 3 beta has a detailed stats page showcasing everything you need to know about each gadget and weapon.

Support - I played with the Support class and it seems like a good class to lay down suppressive fire with. Primary weapon is the M27 1AR and RPK- 74M. Secondary guns are the same as above. Ammo Boxes are the "Gadget". If you want to keep supplies from running out for you're squadmates and teammates, pick the Support class.

Recon - Sniper class, need I say more? Primary guns MK 11 MODO and SVD. Secondary guns are the same as above. The Gadget is Radio Beacon. If you played with the Recon class in Bad Company it's quite similar.

Controls - Feels similar to Bad Company 2. Only difference so far is the prone option. To prone press down the Right Thumb Stick all the way till you're prone. The controls as to be expected aren't that good due to it being a beta. Seems aiming is kinda off. It seems clunky and wunky and or jerky if I can say that. Sprinting and doing the automatic parkour moves are nice.

Custom Kits - The menu is there but I can't confirm yet if you can make custom loadouts. I haven't played it enough to unlock many options to be frank. I will let you all know later if there are Custom Loadouts in the beta.

Glitches - First game I played on my Xbox 360 it simply froze ten minutes into the match. I had to restart the console. Not a good first impression if I must say. That's not all, almost every match I played had stuttering issues and framrate drops. Connections issues in game are apparent. Finding matches were easy to find on the Xbox 360. Battlefield 3's beta does have quite a bit of issues on the Xbox 360 regarding freezing, glitching and stuttering. Good thing, it's a beta and DICE has time to fix the kinks before the game ships in a few weeks.

My Unlocks - Not much, but for leveling up to Private First Class I attained the 870 MCS shotgun.

So what do I think about Battlefield 3's beta running on the Xbox 360? It's a gorgeous game with great sound design. I do like the Operation Metro map, it's not a great map but it's a solid map. The game does have glaring issues relating to glitching, stuttering and freezing. Thanks for reading.

Resistance 3 Review

Release Date: September 6, 2011

Publisher: Sony

MPAA Rating: Mature

Having very few friends, I hadn't really been impressed with the recent rash of video games boasting cooperative play or multiplayer features. If I were more popular, I thought, maybe I'd like them. But for all the multiplayer action I usually get I might as well have just one PS3 controller. Twenty-five years ago I might have been able to get by with grabbing two Atari joysticks and playing by myself, but games like Pong don't quite match today's offerings in terms of challenge or complexity. Also, I was in diapers and didn't exactly know what my feet were.

My opinion changed, however, when I picked up a copy of Resistance 3, which was released late last year. Being a fan of the first one, I finally made my way around to buying this newest entry into the alternate-history series. The co-op aspect didn't even enter my mind at first, as I was completely taken in by the stunning graphics and the engaging gameplay. One of the strongest aspects of the Resistance series has been the melding of historical elements (namely World War II) with science-fiction (aliens that will rip your head off if you get too close, for example), and this one was no different. From fighting aliens under a barely-standing St. Louis Arch to an intense battle in the middle of a war-torn Times Square, Resistance 3 uses real life locales to push the feeling of high stakes, like you could look out your window and see the buildings around you bursting with explosions.

After finishing the campaign, I immediately started on a second play-through, but on the main menu the co-op option somehow caught my eye, and I wondered just how much different it would be to play with a partner. The prospect of saving the world again seemed much more inviting with someone to cover me. So, I dusted off my second controller and invited a friend over to play.

The co-op mode is, story wise, exactly the same as the single player. But what a world of difference. Together, my friend and I were shouting at one another to take down alien snipers, whimpering our way through abandoned railway stations infested with creatures that looked like they'd just dressed themselves for display in a butcher shop, and then awed into silence (for me a second time) when the game's stellar graphics would show us just how intense the PlayStation 3 can get. One particular scene involving floating up the Mississippi river and getting trapped under a falling bridge was particularly impressive, and by the time the thing collapsed, both of us looked like we'd just sat through a summer blockbuster.

Resistance 3 is from Insomniac Games, the same studio that produces the Ratchet & Clank series, and their influence can be seen especially in the weapons the game makes available. Several guns (like the Bullseye and Auger) from the previous two games make return appearances, but they're complemented by new guns like the Mutator, which grows explosive green pustules on enemies and turns them into walking time bombs. Also, the Cryogun gives a nice little inverse to the often played-out flamethrower by shooting a jet of ice at enemies and allowing you to smash them to pieces with either a melee hit or the weapon's alternate firing mode, a concussive blast that shatters frozen enemies to pieces.

Overall, the game itself is very impressive. It's a great title to add to your PS3 collection, especially if you're a first-person shooter or sci-fi/horror fan. But even action gamers in general will probably find something here to enjoy. And, although I was skeptical of co-op games beforehand, the multiplayer aspect of Resistance 3 turned out to be pretty fun. I'm looking forward to trying out more games with a cooperative element. Now all I need is for Slackers to sell people to come play video games with me.

LIMBO Reviewed

LIMBO presents itself as 2D atmospheric puzzle game that puts you in the shoes of a protagonist child stuck in a nightmare. For this particular Video Games Source review I played through this ambient arcade platforming puzzle game via STEAM on my PC. Upon starting LIMBO you're thrusted into the game's opening act with no warning. You see a boy wake up who's whites of his eyes are only visible. What I found peculiar about my PC copy was the fact you can't do any "PC" stuff to LIMBO regarding graphical settings. You can, and I did use my Xbox 360 gamepad for the playthrough which worked like a charm. I was still surprised that this game doesn't allow you to tweak the resolution or graphics in anyway. It was ported from the console first so maybe that has something to do with it.

I initially perceived LIMBO was a nightmare. Its a beautiful nightmare of some sort that has captured a young boy. You along with the young boy are confused while being thrusted into LIMBO. You never truly learn why until the very end of the game where you meet the young girl you were searching for. LIMBO doesn't tell its story with CGI, voice acting, cutscenes or in-game cinematics. This game doesn't really have a story per say. The story is you escaping the nightmarish trap of LIMBO which is done through gameplay. For some reason I actually enjoyed the story even though it tells its story through different means. It was as if I played a story and when I finally got to the end, the story ended.

Sound design is much like the visual's effect on LIMBO's presentation. There is no loud brash music in this game. No gunfire or sirens. The sounds you hear are soft and atmospheric like bugs buzzing, frogs croaking and crickets cricking etc. Its all about atmosphere in this game. You hear wind gusts and rain along with lightning and thunderstorms. Orchestra tunes on occasion start up when something exciting happens in-game which compliments the situation nicely.

Where should I even begin about gameplay? First of all its fun and addicting. In LIMBO your goal early on is to solve simple puzzles and reach the next chapter of the game. Puzzles early on are centered around you pushing and pulling objects to get the desired effect. Like using a beartrap to injure a giant spider that is stalking you. Physics are accurate and very important along with rhythm. Using light and memorizing where and when to leap was also big for me during my playthrough. Puzzles run the gambit regarding imagination. I had to use water, electricity, gravity in the later puzzles. Many times in LIMBO you will ask yourself "why did this huge rock just crush me?", that is OK. LIMBO forces you to think and prepare. Besides, checkpoints are liberally laid out so close to puzzles dying really isn't an issue and won't make you backtrack too much. Gameplay at times has a clear adventure vibe even with the puzzle focus gameplay.

Replayability is probably the only real weakness of LIMBO, its short. Its not super short though. It does last a couple of hours. It depends on how adept you are at puzzle games I assume. After you played through LIMBO there really isn't much else to do. You could replay different chapters at anytime if you choose. There were 40 chapters in all. Some longer than others obviously.

I know I am late to this party however I must say LIMBO is a breath of fresh air regarding 2D puzzle games. This is one arcade game you must try even with its low replay value. Thanks for reading.

8.5/10

Hard Reset Reviewed (PC)

Hard Reset is a throw back to over the top twitch shooters that features tons of enemies and wild explosions. You won't find any of the new stuff in Hard Reset like cover and regenerating health. This cyber-punk themed shooter paints a captivating world with its stellar visuals but falls flat regarding story and game length. Hard Reset is a single player only first-person shooter but don't expect any kind of multiplayer, its not happening. When I analyze Hard Reset's presentation it doesn't have many faults actually. It has more to do with the fact that this is an old school type shooter. This game plays like old school Unreal, Serious Sam and Painkiller games.

Hard Reset's story is a afterthought, it makes no sense and at times gets in the way of Hard Reset's gameplay. I'll give you a brief synopsis as to what this story is about. The protagonist of Hard Reset is Fletcher, proud soldier of the corporation as he calls himself. Fletcher (CLN -16) is a hard drinking and hard cussing cheesy protagonist that gets hurdled into a battle against rogue AI man killing robots. Early in Hard Reset Flecther learns about a robot invasion in his sector of the Sanctuary that he protects. After killing a few robots and investigating he learns about Dr. Percival Novak. Novak released the man killing robots into the city for whatever reason.

Music was fast paced rock and techno that cranked up when action did. Some of the weapon's sounds were interesting. The voice acting was pretty cheesy. For the most part the best aspect about the sound design was the city. The rain, the sounds of the holograph dispensors, sirens etc. The city itself presented a great atmophere due to its sound design.

The most unique aspect of Hard Reset is its reticle system. You have two primary weapons throughout the entire game, NRG Weapon and CLN Firearm. The retical changes as you change the gun's modes. Gameplay is pure quick twitch. You do not have cover or health regen so your skills will be put to the test no matter the difficulty. Enemies are robots, big, small and medium. Some charge at you while some shoot mortors. Bi-pod bots and small rolling bots can swarm you very fast in Hard Reset. Gameplay takes a hit due to level design and the charging bots. The game at times places way too many small quick bots and huge charging bots in cramped areas making it easy for them to kill you.

To take out rogue AI bots in Hard Reset you need guns. This game has you covered with a few imaginative weapons that you can perform combos with. NRG Weapons = Plasma Weapon: Plasma Rifle, Shock Blaster, Railgun, Smart Gun and Electric Mortor. Each gun has secondary and third firing elements that altars each gun. CLN Firearm: Assault Rifle, Combat Shotgun, Grenade Launcher, RPG and Proximity Mines. You can upgrade all weapons and Gear with N.A.N.O.. N.A.N.O. is Hard Reset's currency and is acquired when you kill bots and discover secret rooms. Green, Yellow, Blue and Red orbs fill Fletcher's health, shields. NRG ammo and CLN ammo. Using the environment not only looks cool but is a very effective way with dealing with bots.

After you beat the 5 hour campaign (its a short game) you can play EX Mode. EX Mode lets you play the game on NG+ with all of your upgraded weapons. Personally I don't think this game has adequate replay value since its so short to begin with. One incentive is to unlock all of the guns upgrades which cannot be doen in one playthrough. So if you want to see all of the gun's abilities you have to play the game on EX Mode.

Hard Reset has a great cyber punk new age setting with old school gameplay. The story is non existent and the campaign is way too short. However I do see some really promising aspects with Flying Wild Hog's first-person shooter.

7.5/10

Shank 2 Reviewed

Published By: Electronic Arts, Developer: Klei Entertainment, Genre: Action, Release Date: Feb 8, 2012, Rating: M, Systems: PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360.

Shank 2 is a 2D beat 'em up arcade downloadable game. It pays homage of sorts to movies I grew up watching during the 80's like Commando, Rambo and Missing in Action. Shank 2 is a bro-man game starring the duel wielding shank man, Shank! I was able to play through Shank 2 for free (its free for PlayStation Plus members at the moment). When analyzing Shank 2's presentation there is more bad than good clearly. I'll discus everything during this review so keep reading. I'll start with the menus on the title screen which includes: Campaign Mode, Survival Mode, Rebel Intel, Leaderboard, Player Stats and Help & Options. No problem navigating in Shank 2, everything is laid out in a nice ergonomic fashion.

Robert "Shank" Torres is the protagonist and ex mob hitman. Shank 2 is a story about redemption regarding Shank. He takes down a corrupted President Magnus while rescuing Elena (his mother figure). Working along side with Resistance leader Corina Shank takes down the corrupt Cartel. As far as the overall story goes it was cheesy and cliche. It was never interesting because it seems like every villain and bad guy in the game was copied from either a movie I saw or a video game I have played. It was suppose to be funny however the bad gameplay and controls kept me from laughing during my entire playthrough.

Visually Shank 2 gets a high score. The art style and animations just exude a visceral and compelling atmosphere. Shank rampages through South American villiges, resorts, ruined temples and swamps. The textures and colors pop out of the screen and every setting was rendered wonderfully. The animations makes Shank appear like a real badass reminding me of heroes like Rambo.

Shank 2 is a 2D beat 'em up that features gunplay, grenade lobbing, pouncing and grabbing enemies. There are different types of weapons that work differently in effectiveness regarding certain enemies. You have Heavy Weapons like the Chainsaw, Machete and Sledgehammer. Ranged Weapons include Throwing Knives, Pistols and a Shotgun. Munitions include Grenades, Molotovs and Mines. The latter is part of the problem. The game's controls and structure makes it near too impossible to use all weapons and items on the different enemies effectively at any given moment. The gameplay became cluttered up and by the time I tried to throw my grenade or use my heavy weapon to break a grunt's shield I was dead.

The single player campaign was ridiculously short to say the least. But lucky for me was the fact that this game has multiplayer (online and off). Its called Survival Mode and is clearly the best thing Shank 2 has going for it. The menu screen for Survival Mode featured: Local Match, Online Match, Invite A Friend, View Invitations and How to Survive. The last option shows a voiced video tutorial for Survival Mode. Survival Mode is a wave type game ala Horde mode via Gears of war 3. Shank 2 is 2D so things are different obviously. Your goal along with another player is to defend supply stations around the map. Bombers are grunts that target your supply stations and blows them up.

I rarely tell gamers to buy a game based on multiplayer. For Shank 2 I have no choice since the single player campaign was ridiculously short and problematic from a gameplay and control perspective.

5/10

Nuage Impressions

The title screen of Nuage featured menus of Play, Directions, Options, Credits and Exit. The button layout via the Xbox 360 gamepad: LS-to move and collect clouds, RT-to use rain (5 clouds needed), LT-to use lightning. Lightning gives you extra rain time. The controls are good in Nuage. The controls were good in that they caused no stress which is Nuage's presentation's angle. Judging from the buttons you can probably put together some of Nuage's gameplay. Your goal is to change the landscape by growing plants, flowers and bushes through the use of rain.

You control a cloud on a nicely rendered 2D backdrop featuring trees, hills sunshine. You can see bears and foxes walking below the cloud. The cloud is the protagonist of Nuage without it you don't have a game. You move the cloud across the screen left to right, up or down to collect clouds. As you collect clouds they accumulate into a stronger cloud. Once you have five clouds you can create rain for a limited time. Rain helps plants below grow which changes the landscape of Nuage. It's a really simple game that gives you a simple pleasure just by watching the setting grow into something more beautiful.

I was unable to use lightning during my demo playthroughs so i can't comment on the effects of it relating to Nuage's landscape. I'm pretty sure lightning has a gameplay element just not sure what. The Directions menu stated lightning is used to help you create rain longer. If that is the case it doesn't seem like a big deal. As far as the gameplay is concerned its pretty simple but enjoyable. It's actually addicting but in a non-stressful way. The reason Nuage has a calming effect is from two elements, the visuals and music.

The visuals in this game exude quality. It's more art than textures i like to say. The landscape, trees and animals gave my mind peace. Nuage isn't a complicated looking game it's quite simple. However it does deliver an atmosphere of calmness. The second part of this calming effect equation has to do with the sound design. The music in particular done by Paul Collier is probably the reason this game has a legit calming effect on me. It was that good. I played so many XBLIGs and many lack quality to be blunt. Nuage isn't one of those games this one has quality embedded deep within its essence.

Well you might say how can Nuage be so fun. Its simple for me really. I love watching the environment come to life. Nuage may not be a genre-defining game however it's a game that breaks from the casual main stream video game ideas. It's a small indie game to boot which is why you gotta try it. Check out Nuage on Xbox Live Indie Games Marketplace. Play the demo or buy it for 80 Microsoft Points. Thanks for reading.

Dead to Rights Retribution Reviewed

Presentation: I played the original Dead To Rights when it launched on the original Xbox back in 2002. Fast forward to 2012 and I just finished playing through Dead To Rights: Retribution via the Playstation 3. Much like its predecessor Dead To Rights: Retribution is a gritty action brawler that features gun play while taking out hordes of mindless thugs. And I do mean mindless thugs since the AI is practically non-existent in this action game. The enemies will do either three things. Sit back and let you kill them or they will mindlessly rush you then you kill them and lastly they will occasionally shoot and kill each other. The latter is obviously a glitch but did happen throughout my playthrough.

of the game. Nothing about Dead To Right: Retribution's story will impress you or keep you engaged.

Visuals: There is nothing that stand's out texture or special effects wise in this 2010 game. However, the game does have a nice setting. Grant City looks pretty cool with its rain soaked neon lit city scape featuring a plethora of skyscrapers. There are different settings throughout the game that breaks up the murky dark metropolitan setting. Jack looks like Chris Redfield's clone from Resident Evil 5. Lay off the steroids Jack geez! A nice graphical sequence takes place near the end of the game when you put on a Heavy GAC Armor suit and wreak havoc down on GAC headquarters. You can see the Japanese influence of this game while in the suit. It was really neat and fun to use. The best way to describe the visuals in Dead To Rights: Retribution is static and washed out with a good atmosphere.

Sound: If I made a nickel each time I laughed after Jack said one of his one liners after killing somebody I would be rich. The writing and especially the voice dialog is cheesy. Its borderline comical is so bad and cliche. One voice actor who had an odd southern accent stood out (the news report lady). Her accent didn't even fit the game at all. The music was decent. It's mostly dramatic action music which goes fine with this type of game. Sound design overall not something to write home about here.

Gameplay: Dead To Rights: Retribution is a brawler beat 'em up with gunplay. The gunplay comes in the form of cover based shooting. During combat you can use Shadow to attack thugs and GAC soldiers. After they are dead you can have Shadow retrieve you fresh weapons using the d-pad. Weapons range from shotguns, pistols, SMGS, LMGS, assault rifles, sniper rifles, a weird gun that shoots electricity. Each gun runs out of ammo quickly unless you happen to be near a weapon bin. The second Jack runs out of ammo he discards the weapon. You can take hostages and use them as a meatshield to avoid taking gunfire. The enemies range from Triad thugs and GAC thugs. There are more advanced bad guys later in the game like the GAC combat fighters who have big robotic fists like fisto. Heavy enemies have a tank on their backs that you must destroy aka Killzone. There is a VTOL boss fight scene late in the game which was pretty nice.

Replayability: The single player campaign will last you 8 to 10 hours. You can and will unlock Radio Reports, Cutscenes and other Gallery items. Other than that this game has no true replay value. The achievements and trophies are easy to attain so maybe that could help with replaying the game.

Final Verdict: Jack Slate and Shadow did end up getting retribution in Dead To Rights Retribution. However they didn't get it with my review.

6/10

The Tower of Druaga - Nintendo Famicom Game Review

Many video games today features a number of secrets hidden within them, but they are usually just a source of short amusement from the developer to the player rather than essential bits of information important to the plot of the story. Even if such games did feature secrets essential to the plot of the game, the advent of the Internet has basically ruined the original intention as anybody can easily look up the answers on the first day of release. However, such was not the case back when The Tower of Druaga was released on the Famicom in 1985.

Concept

The Tower of Druaga is an action role playing video game based on maze gameplay. The thing that is most interesting about it is that it was one of the first games that required players figure out and find a number of secrets in order to complete the game; without finding these essential hidden secrets, it was impossible to finish the game. Because there was no Internet back when this game was released, it was important for friends to work together to figure out the game.

Some of the secrets that were hidden in the game included a number of different things, such as random starting positions for each maze. In other words, if you restarted a maze, you might end up in a completely different part of the map, meaning you could not just blindly use muscle memory to get through the maze. On top of that, the maze could also change entirely, though it would not randomize, just to add another challenge.

Gameplay

In The Tower of Druaga, the player takes on the role of Gilgamesh, and the primary purpose of the game is to pass through sixty floors of mazes in an effort to defeat Druaga in his demonic tower. The only equipment Gilgamesh receives is a shield and a sword, and these items allow him to defend himself from magical attacks and defeat enemies, respectively. With this equipment in hand, Gilgamesh is required to go through a maze to find a randomly placed key, which will then open the door to the next floor.

The Tower of Druaga is the game that became the precursor to roguelikes such as Nethack and the recently released and popular The Binding of Isaac. Fans of either of these two games should absolutely invest in obtaining the original Famicom cartridge, if not just for the experience of seeing from where their favorites derived.

Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer Reviewed

New to the Mass Effect series starting with Mass Effect 3 is multiplayer. The multiplayer for Mass Effect 3 consists of Horde Mode Ala Gears of War. If you never heard or read about Horde Mode its a simple Wave Mode where where you and your team cooperatively must destroy waves of attacking enemies. Mass Effect 3's multiplayer is a mash-up of wave mode, snatch and grab, hacking terminals and hold the extraction point all within a ten wave match. Its not that bad really. But its also not going to be the reason why you purchase Mass Effect 3. You bought Mass Effect 3 for its single campaign (I shouldn't have to remind you all of that). The multiplayer is simply a sideshow to the main attraction. Its fun, challenging and diverse enough to definitely warrant some of your time when you decide to take a break from the story campaign.

Classes: When you first log into Mass Effect 3's multiplayer you are immediately enlisted as a N7 Special Ops Team member. Regarding classes much like the single-player campaign you have 6 classes to choose from including: Adept, Soldier, Engineer, Sentinal, Infiltrator and Vanguard. For my class I chose the Vanguard since i already beaten Mass Effect 2 on its most challenging difficulty as a Vanguard. I like the up close and personal approach even if I get killed a few times. Not only that but I anticipated everybody else would either be Adept, Soldier and or a Engineer which ended up being the case. Every match I played nobody choose Vanguard which made my decision more important since classes on teams should have variety since this is strictly a cooperative multiplayer.

Characters in Mass Effect 3's multiplayer are spread out between classes. Each class has a Human (Male) and (Female) who have the exact same default biotics and weapons for each class. There are also two Aliens per class assigned who come equip with different biotics and weapons for default. Unlocking Aliens take XP or can be bought with in-game credits via special Packs in the Store (if you're lucky). Alien characters like i said differ per class and include: Krogan, Quarian, Drell, Tourian, Salarian and Asari. For my character I stuck with my custom Human Male (Vanguard). I had unlocked some of the Alien characters already. It shouldn't take the average gamer that long to do so.

Customizing your character for matches comes next after you choose your class and character. You can change your Primary Color, Highlight Color, Secondary Color, Pattern, Pattern Color and Lights. Some of those options above are locked when you first start playing and become unlocked as you level up. The customization is deep enough so that you can make sure your character doesn't look exactly like everybody else's. My Vanguard turned into some gold colored greenish guy. It looked pretty good actually. I was basically mixing and matching my suit's colors.

Character: This menu breaks down into Powers, Weapons, Appearance, Equipment and Store. You already know what the Appearance section is all about. The Weapon section lets you add mods and set your preferred guns to slots. The guns you have depends on the class and whether or not you unlocked them. The Equipment section of the Character section keeps tracks of all of your perks and equipment. They are called Supplies and my Vanguard had after two matches: Cobra Missile Launcher, Thermal Clip Pack, Ops Survival Pack and Medi-Gel. There are also Bonus slots for the following: Ammo Bonus, Weapon Bonus and Armor Bonus. Consider the latter perks you can activate once in a match.

Maps: Ontaram: Firebase Dagger, Benning: Firebase Chost Tuchanko, Firebase Grant, Cyone: Firebase Reactor, Sanctum: Firebase Glacier, Novevia: Firebase White. And just like with any multiplayer some maps are good and some are not. I'm sure DLC was made before Mass Effect 3 released so we will get new DLC maps over the next few months most likely. The maps are of a base configuration and don't differ that much in design but more in settings.

Make sure you visit the store first so you can get your Starter Pack (free). They also sell Recruit Pack (5000 credits), Veteran Pack (20,000 credits) and Spectre Pack (60,000 credits). You can make at least 10,000 credits each match (I did). The packs are completely random regarding items, perks and weapon mods you receive. The more expensive the pack the better swag you will get no matter what. The Free Pack gave me Thermal Clip Pack (pistol), Medi-Gel, Ops Survival Pack, Sniper Rifle Spare Thermal Clip and a (unlocked) Asari Vanguard. Keep in mind all of the packs are random and you never know what you'll receive but 9 times out of 10 its something you and your team will benefit from while playing. The items and perks you receive can be mapped to your D-pad (Dual Shock 3).

To sum up my matches they have been fun, challenging and diverse. The diversity in Mass Effect 3's multiplayer comes in the form of different objectives WHILE facing waves of enemies. At this point I will say the objectives are randomized to my knowledge for the most part. Objectives that the 4 man/woman team must complete range from hacking terminals (4) and they are scattered around the base. Holding extraction points (usually wave 10). Your team must fend off either Geth, Reaper or Cerburus attack till extraction comes. Regular waves are the bread and butter though and where you rank your XP up. Make sure you stay with your team the entire match and revive them as needed. Stay near ammo crates that are scattered around each base. Know where they are at the beginning of each match.

Mass Effect 3's multiplayer suppose to effect the ending of the single player story campaign. I'm expecting it to be a small impact if anything but I have no real idea since I'm still playing the campaign. The presentation is good for this game's multiplayer. However there are some connection and stuttering problems but no disconnects or freezes to report. Mass Effect 3's multiplayer is a third person over the shoulder shooter. Using your biotics and guns while roll strafing is fun. I am still surprised bioware added multiplayer to a RPG like Mass Effect 3. With that said the multiplayer is decent. It's not the reason you buy Mass Effect 3. It's a sideshow to the main attraction and that's all it is. The main attraction being the single-player story campaign. Thanks for reading.

Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari for Famicom Review

All video games released today have their own roots that have greatly attributed to its production over the years. This also includes every beat 'em up video game that is released in modern times, such as Castle Crashers and especially Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Video Game. In the case of these two, Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari is the main influential game that defined the genre.

Concept

Released in North America under the name River City Ransom, Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari is a beat 'em up style video game released for the Famicom in April 1989. There are a number of properties that greatly set this game apart from other beat 'em ups, but the primary one is its non-linear nature, allowing players to fully explore an open world instead of following a set path like Double Dragon. Players take on the role of Alex and Ryan, two high school students traversing River City in an effort to rescue Cyndi, the girlfriend of the latter as she is captured by gang member Slick.

Gameplay

As players travel across River City to rescue Cyndi, they come across a host of different enemies looking to stop them, each of which are a part of their own named gang, such as The Squids, The Jocks and The Frat Guys. While this was hardly the first beat 'em up to feature unique characters, the way Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari differs is that each group of gangs actually have some varying personality to them. Perhaps the most notable way of proving this is in the way certain gang members would shout Barf! once the player had defeated them. As enemies are defeated, money is collected.

Every so often, the player can enter the town and use their collected funds to purchase power ups and other items that can assist them along their journey. This is something also used heavily with Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Video Game as Scott goes to prove his love for Ramona. Similarly, Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari brings you face to face with the leaders of the gangs you are fighting, and these leaders act as sub-bosses or regular bosses, adding an extra challenge to the game.

Though it is not inherently necessary to purchase the Famicom version of Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari, it is still a nice piece to add to a collection for those interested in expanding their Famicom collection. Those on a budget can instead choose to purchase the Virtual Console version, available in America since April 2008.

3 Best Games for iPad

First it was car phones, then mobile phones with color graphics; next touchscreen came and revolutionized mobile gaming forever. The possibilities have become endless and options limitless, and everyone with a creative side can now make a classic game for the iPhone.

With the release of the iPad back in 2010, and a staggering 3 million purchases during the first 80 days, and 14.8 million units bought throughout the year, Apple came to dominate the tablet PC market in just one year. People realized the iPad was the best device to best exploit applications.

1. World of Goo

What better way to test the iPad's ergonomic display abilities than a physics game developed by independent game developers? The foremost objective of the game is to get a required number of goo balls through a pipe representing the exit. This can be completed by using the balls to create bridges, towers and tons of other constructions that will help users to overcome the gravity problems that come with the various terrains in the game, like hills, spikes, cliffs and many others. The iPad version of the game is said to be an improvement thanks to the iPad's one-of-a-kind touch controls, as opposed to the mouse on the PC and remote-based controller on the Wii. Costing just at $4.99, this game is number one for all iPad owners.

Today, with mobile technologies taking over mainstream marketing, and with people always on the move, developers have identified a way to make the most of those moments where people find themselves travelling from place to place.

Therefore, there are millions of games available to buy or try, and so here we introduce the top three must-have games for the iPad:

2. Angry Birds

By far the most talked-about game that has been created for mobile devices, the number-one paid application throughout the world is one of the most unique puzzle games ever made. Angry Birds provides hours of gameplay, it's entertaining and challenging, its' physics engine is superb, and it possesses great replayability, since players will want to come back to previously completed levels in order to achieve the impossibly hard 3-star ratings in every stage.

3. War Pinball HD

The creators behind the acclaimed Pinball HD have just recently published a new game that has a original new twist to it. Thanks to motion-controlled tilting, more advanced physics and graphics, and three new themes, based on three legendary war movies: "Platoon", "Missing in Action" and "Navy Seals", War Pinball is a huge improvement over its predecessor. Most gamers will concur that a pinball game on the iPad is hardly a waste of space, and nor will the commitment to playing it be wasted. Pinball games have been popular ever since gaming was first invented, why should it be any different now?

Reckless Getaway iPhone and iPad Game Review

Reckless Getaway sees you driving away from robberies at crazy fun speeds in a couple of different vehicles. The vehicles handle in a skiddish manor adding lots of fun. Currently 17 creatively designed levels are available to drive through but more are coming in the future with updates. All levels are uniquely designed and set in different areas and terrains, from the dessert to icy snow. The mixture keep it fresh and appealing.

The main idea behind each level is to collect up to 4 golden stars. These are obtained by collecting coins and performing stunts, overtakes of other motorists, crashes etc and this also puts up your score which can be shared with the world via Game Center. Coins are placed in very hard to get to areas the further you go through the game, such as on trains tracks which you have to dodge in sequence due to trains coming and totaling your car which loses you a possible star to obtain making it only possible to get three. The cops also play a huge role with constant shoving into your vehicle damaging you and getting you of course from obtaining the stars.

The default controls are really simple to get use to with left and right virtual on screen buttons and that's it. No accelerator, brake etc is required making it very easy to play. Different configurations for the controls are possible with an option to use the accelerometer but this clearly isn't designed to take use of that quite well enough yet. The default controls work flawlessly though!

Graphics are cartoony and makes the whole game work very well. This wouldn't be anywhere near as fun to play if it wasn't for the funky physics and innocent visuals. Buildings, roads, cars etc are all designed in this cartoony way. Crashes and explosions are also consistent. The physics are crazy fun with you being able to just steer into other cars on the road and smash them off a cliff or into a building and then stunts such as jumps are also very over the top.

The audio tracks are well suited and catchy. The sound effects are very cartoony just like the visuals, with big explosions and smashes, o and not to forget constant police sirens.

Awesome graphics, funky audio, great controls, creative level design and epic fun make this an App not to miss this summer.

Why I Found NBA 2K12 To Be On Point?

Hey everyone, I would like to just try my best in giving an honest critique about the new and I think, fresh NBA 2K12 video game for the X-Box 360 that came out on October 4, 2011. The staff at 2K Sports did a dynamic job in bringing one of the best simulations ever for NBA basketball, which does happen to be one of my favorite sports. So if you do not mind a little bit of knowledge on the game, just sit back with your seatbelt as we get ready to drive into the lane on this exciting game. First of all, I am going to start with the point of when you first turn the game on. The introduction starts out showing all the NBA greats all through history from Pistol Pete Maravich, to Dr. J, to the Big O, Oscar Robertson. It also helps with the mood to groove to the old school tune, "Basketball", by one of the best in old-school hip-hop, Kurtis Blow. Also, with the recent NBA lockout ending on November 26th of last year, I think that it will appeal to others who may have just drawn interest to "The Association".

Now, you are going to take over the game of basketball, and you can decide if you want to just play one quick game for fun, start a draft, create your own players, play online against more beginners or die-hard basketball fans, or start your own customized NBA season to hoist up your own Bill Russell championship trophy. If you are kind of or real rusty when it comes to knowing what buttons to push on your controller, you can refer to your "basic" manual that initially comes with the game. And I say "basic" because if you wish to know the more "advanced" controls, you would now have to download the entire manual. The link for that is..... www.2ksports.com/manual/NBA2K12 (sorry ladies and gents, boys and girls, gone are the days of getting a full guide with your game purchase)!! So, as far as the gameplay, the graphics are mind-blowing, from the detail of the stadium fans, stadium music, home crowds are very loud when the home team is ahead, they also boo loudly when you are losing at home also, in-game commentary, which is not repetitive at all, and the fluid movement of the players along with coaches on the sidelines. This to me is a top-notch simulation of b-ball, it may help motivate you to want to get on the court. Well everyone, I hope that you enjoyed my bird's eye view of this game, may it bring you to the point of remembering, "It's the NBA, and I still love this game".

Foosball HD iPad Game Review

Foosball HD is a pretty easy and straight forward setup with the exact same elements as of a real foosball table including a goalie and rows of men. A choice of two modes is available with either two player mode or you can play against your iPad in either hard, medium or easy options. Playing against the iPad is a great way of learning how to use the game and is a huge amount of fun but playing against a person is even better. The screen is plenty big enough for two lots of hands and therefor works fine.

The controls took me sometime to master and when I first opened up the App I was immediately annoyed and frustrated with Foosball HD's control setup. However with a bit of persistence I got the hang of it and the fun was found. To actually control your men you simply swipe down on one of the three rows which triggers movement and you can swipe on them in either a left and right direction to hit the ball. The faster you swipe the further the ball goes and the degree of accuracy is very realistic. Once you get a real feel for the rows you begin controlling two or all three at the same time which it's completely designed for.

From the menus to the gameplay graphically it's quite quirky and I like that a lot. Illusion Labs didn't go for realism and instead dived into a cartoony modern look which it's definitely better of for. All action is fluid and sharp and the physics of the ball is very realistic with little bounces towards to screen when huge impact has incurred. I think Illusion Labs really understand how to create an interactive fun experience on our iOS devcies.

The sound effects are very realistic with kicks and ball bounces of the side of the fine detail of the reflection in sound when spinning the rows fat different speeds. Everything is very precise and tight and I especially enjoyed all the background music built into the game which is a rarity.

Overall Foosball HD is a very well made attempt at bringing a digital version of Foosball to the iPad. The controls are great and very responsive, the graphics are charming and the sound effects are realistic. If you like Foosball i'd highly recommend picking it up at just $2.99.

Review - Dead Island

What originally turned me onto this game was one of the best trailers that I have ever seen. It depicts a reverse time scene of a man and his wife trying to save their daughter from the infected in the hallways of the hotel where you start. Even better, is that in the beginning of the game, you can find this couple, dead on the floor, holding hands. Which is nice, in that it adds a touching moment to an otherwise brutally violent and kind-of silly game. What worried me about it was the fact that it was a CGI trailer and I worried that the game wouldn't really look that good.

Not only did it meet my expectations, it surpassed all of them. Dead Island is a game that somehow manages to blend the feel of an RPG, the hack and slash of an adventure game, the loot grabbing of a dungeon crawler, and the feel of a George Romero film. All of this is wrapped in an idyllic setting that lulls you into a false sense of security before throwing hordes of infected at you. As you wander the lush beaches and beautiful jungles you must always be on the lookout for an infected lying in wait. Even amongst the turmoil of the infection and slaughter, you will find yourself pausing just to stare at the beautiful scenery.

Unfortunately for Dead Island, this beauty is both a blessing and a curse. It is plagued with laggy visuals, horrendous texture pop-ins, and numerous graphical glitches. Whenever you exit a loading screens, you will have to deal with texture pop in that can take up to a minute to take full effect. Even after this time, you'll come across alleys with stuttering floors, or zombies that rapidly switch colors. Unfortunately, this mars the otherwise beautiful game and can really break your immersion and bring you out of the gameplay.

Fortunately for Dead Island, these graphics glitches don't really impact the mechanics of gameplay in any way. They frequently look beautiful, and when they look bad, usually you can get over it. I say usually because several times in the course of my game, the textures would not pop-in at all and I would have to quit and reload in order to make them work. Other than that, all of the graphical glitches are not game breaking at all, just immersion breaking.

Primarily a melee based game, you are able to target specific limbs and cripple them either through breaking or cutting, allowing you to limit your enemies combat abilities. To cut, you use a bladed weapon, and to break, you use a blunt weapon. Every time you perform these crippling moves, you earn extra experience than you would if you had just cut its head off. The best part of this system are the animations that accompany these moves. When an arm is broken, it just hangs limply down, flopping around uselessly whenever they try and use it. Break a leg and the zombie will collapse to the ground. If you don't do this, you will find yourself overwhelmed very easily, maybe a little bit much so. The reason for this, is the fact that the enemies level with you, so no matter what, the zombie you are fighting is going to be plus or minus two levels from you, making every fight the same.

In addition to the melee combat, guns are available later on in the campaign. The guns are broken down into three categories: rifles, pistols, and shotguns. When you finally do acquire one of the guns, you will find that ammo is exceedingly rare, and really the only way to acquire any amount of it is to buy it, make it, or scavenge it off of the dead humans. The downside is, these guns are ridiculously underpowered, sometimes taking as many as five shotgun shells to the chest to kill one zombie, where a single machete blow will do the job.

Normally this combat system works fairly well, but after a while, the combat becomes slightly repetitive and stale, broken up only slightly by either a firefight with some uninfected humans, by throwing weapons, or by using your "rage" ability. This ability is unique to each of the four characters and allows you to enter a super human-esque killing spree for several seconds after you "rage" meter fills up. For example, the character I played as was a throwing specialist, so when his meter filled up, I pulled out a handful of throwing knives and went to town. Another character pulls out a pistol and guns down everything in front of her, and a third uses something reminiscent of a beserker from Borderlands, forgoing weapons and using his fists to beat down his enemies.

These powers are unlocked through a skill tree, which is basically the same as any skill tree you've ever used. There are three separate columns, with each either benefitting your combat skills, rage skills, or survival skills. Combat usually increases damage, rage increases the duration and damage of your rage, and survival increases heath, rare loot chance, and luck. These trees allow you to slightly customize the way you play, allowing you to either DPS, tank, or maybe be more of a ranged character. No matter what, it's up to you.

One of the most important things in a Diablo type game is the loot, and here it is as plentiful as I've seen in any game, save Borderlands of course. The weapons are color-coded by rarity, with white being the most common, and orange the most rare. Usually, the more rare items are received as quest rewards or found in containers that are scattered around the world. Once you have these items, you can bring them to workbenches and customize them to the way you play with various weapon modifications that range from fire, electricity, and poison. With these modifications come millions of possible ways to customize your load out, and you obtain these mods either as quest rewards or in prespecified locations in the game world. Each requires certain bits of items, from batteries to duct tape, in order to build them.

The quests really can be broken down into either fetch quests or kill quests. Hey, ________ (insert player name here), I need you to go _______ (location) and get/kill/talk to _________ (item/zombie/NPC). But even with that dynamic, I find myself falling into the one more quest mentality, spending hours playing when I had originally planned to spend only minutes. I just wish that there was a little more variety in the mission type.

Add a shoddy driving mechanic, where it is nearly impossible to steer anything at top speed, and a okay voice acting cast and you get what seems to be a terrible game on paper. But it's not. I love this game. For all of its fault, I love it. I love the repetitive quests and combat, I love the bad driving, and I love the voice acting. I dumped hours upon hours into it, and I don't regret a single second. It's a good game on the brink of being great, but graphics glitches and repetitive game play mar this game irreparably. I love it, but that doesn't disguise the fact that it is flawed.

8/10

Touchgrind HD iPad Game Review

Touchgrind is available for the iPhone and iPad where you take the role of a virtual tech deck which I'm sure nearly all of you have done physically before. I had a couple in a pencil case at primary school and got pretty good at performing tricks with it. But it's been such a long time since I have used one I have no idea whether Touchgrind is truly realistic. But who cares it's awesome fun!

The version I'm reviewing is specifically the one made for the iPad 'Touchgrind HD'. As you'd imagine this is upscaled from the iPhone version so you see a much wider view of skate parks and surroundings but the skateboard size stays the same so it's not like your going to have to relearn what you've done on the iPhone version if you have already played that version, if anytime it makes it a lot easier to play.

Three main modes are infused. The first being free style where you just play around with your board but you can't rack up any points. The next mode is Jam Session which is where you skate without any time limit but your score only increases if you pull of tricks worth more than the last. The final and main mode is competition where by you have a set time limit of about two minutes to perform the highest score possible. The higher your score the more boards you unlock which helps you perform even better and this score is in literal competition with the world via Game Center. All modes are a blast to play and performing tricks gets easier and easier as you go through. Kick flips to rail slides to an ollie are all easy and with all the buckets of tricks you learn, they help provide you with big scores so you can begin to exploit them and pull of awesome combos using various obstacles such as ramps and rails which are the real big scorers. The more impressive your tricks become Touchgrind will reward you with trick scores performed at that time doubling to quadrupling and it can go ever further. But if you fail to land correctly this perk just completely disappears.

The controls are really easy to get the hang of. You have precision control of the board so to perform basic skating you have have one finger on the board which should be your finger next to your index and then you will use the index to swipe beside your board which will create speed. So your emulating your feet in effect. Flips are performed by swiping a finger along the side of the board and a a basic ollie is performed by having two fingers on the board and lifting the front one just before the rear. All this is dependent on the speed of which you do it and that of course effects the speed of the trick in question. The controls were very solid indeed and were a lot more suited to the 9.7 inch screen.

Graphically this reminded me of Mirrors Edge for some reason, I think it's due to the color scheme and textures but never the less everything is sharp. The surrounding and boards are crisp and realistic too. The shadow under the board is also really well done.

Sound effects are exactly as you'd expect. When the board goes onto different surfaces the sound reflects that with hollow ramps and solid stone. I really like the sound effects with tricks, it just makes it more satisfying. You can also play your iPod music in the background.

Overall Touchgrind HD is definitely a better version of the game. It's just more enjoyable to play with the bigger screen of the iPad. It's one of those Apps which your just going to pop in and out of time to time to get a bigger score and to have some fun. I'd recommend it to all iPad owners.