When GameZone saw the game over the summer, it was treated to a fast-paced contest that knew when to go into slow motion to highlight great shots or great saves. There was the Wii-mote waggling at key moments to drives some of the action, but the game – in spite of the 11-versus-11 games – had a very arcade feel. When it comes to this particular SKU of the FIFA video-game license that is a very good thing.

FIFA Soccer 10 on the Wii may seem barebones when it comes to the modes of play offered. Hit the Pitch is the Wii version of instant play, and Battle for Glory passes as the season mode. There is also a tournament mode for those who wish to battle through a league championship series. The game also sports a plethora of teams and leagues, so those looking for action as their favorite team from the English Premiere leagues, or the Bundesliga should have no problem.

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October 28, 2009 – The GTA IV saga closes out with The Ballad of Gay Tony, an over-the-top, explosive $20 downloadable episode. Like the first episode, The Lost and Damned, you’ll need a copy of GTA IV to play the downloadable version of The Ballad of Gay Tony. For those without Xbox Live (for shame!) or who no longer own GTA IV, you can purchase GTA: Episodes from Liberty City from your local games store. The $40 disc contains both GTA IV episodes, but not the main game itself.

In The Ballad of Gay Tony, you take on the role of Luis Lopez who works for the title character. Where GTA IV star Niko Belic and Lost and Damned anti-hero Johnny Klebitz are men of little means attempting to rise up in the world, Luis has already made his transition from rags to riches. Tony Prince, owner of the biggest straight and gay nightclubs in Liberty City, took Luis under his wing and made him something. The Ballad of Gay Tony isn’t about living in squalor. You live well and you work for the richest men in the city.

You might be wondering why this episode isn’t called “The Ballad of Straight Luis.” There are two reasons for this: a) Rockstar’s smart enough not to give a downloadable episode a terrible name and b) This is Tony’s story viewed from Luis’ perspective. Luis’ rise to the top happens before the beginning of Gay Tony and just about every action he takes in the game is tied to Tony’s story, not his own. Gay Tony is more about the side characters — who are wonderfully outrageous — than it is about Luis. This makes for some entertaining cutscenes, but the story itself (which follows the trail of the stolen diamonds from GTA IV to its conclusion) isn’t very compelling. Luis is uninteresting, overshadowed by the big personalities that surround him.

Many of the missions take place in Algonquin, Liberty City’s version of Manhattan. Though there are a few early missions that tie into Luis’ old life, they are throwaways and very quickly the story focuses on the problems of Gay Tony. The missions are jobs for some of the most unstable people in the city, including Tony, the ridiculous Yusuf Amir, and the bat-s*** crazy Russian mobster, Bulgarin. While there are still the standard crop of “these guys just betrayed you, shoot your way out” GTA missions, there are a number of others that are more over-the-top than anything in GTA IV or The Lost and Damned.

Bulgarin, for example, is obsessed with owning Liberty City’s hockey team, the Rampage. So much so that he sends Luis on a few missions to strong-arm the owner. And I mean strong arm in the GTA sense — out a window. At one point, you leap out of a helicopter and parachute onto a rooftop, wax some guards, throw an innocent man out a window, then take a leap of faith from 20 stories up. Don’t worry, you have a second chute you can pull as you make your escape, landing in the back of a moving getaway truck.

The real star of Gay Tony, though, is Yusuf. This guy is lovable but completely nuts. He just wants his Arab Sheik father to be proud of him. What do you get for the man who has everything? How about stealing an attack chopper or a subway train? Or maybe you construct the tallest building in Liberty City? Money is no object to Yusuf and Luis has no objections to killing for cash. The two make an excellent team.

Of course, bigger jobs mean bigger toys to play with and The Ballad of Gay Tony is packed with weapons that give a big bang. Helicopters play a larger role, which is both good and bad. It’s certainly faster and easier to travel in a chopper and the new ones are stocked with weapons, but mid-air battles are still a challenge. Why does Rockstar include a lock-on for guns when you’re on foot but not when you’re in a helicopter? There are a few missions that require you to do battle in the air and all are a challenge simply because it’s difficult to target enemies. The high-flying elements are a welcome part of the Gay Tony storyline, but they should have been refined.

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October 26, 2009 – For many, exactly what a DJ does up in that DJ booth at the club is a mystery. But now you can find out with DJ Hero, the latest in the never-ending line of Hero games from Activision. Because this is a new type of music game, there’s a lot to explain, but let’s get this out of the way first: DJ Hero is fantastic. It’s one of the best games I’ve played this year and one of the best music games I’ve ever played. Hopefully you’ve saved space for one more plastic instrument in your living room, because you’re gonna’ want to have DJ Hero on hand for your next party.

DJ Hero goes back to the simpler times of music games before there were world tours and fans to earn. You work through tiers of songs and unlock new mixes, characters, and costumes by earning stars — but that’s pretty much all you have to worry about. This simple design puts the focus on the music, which is excellent. DJ Hero has one of the best and certainly most diverse track lists of any music game. Unless you listen to country music exclusively, you will find songs here you love.

Even better, the 102 licensed tracks have been mashed-up to create 93 original songs that you won’t hear anywhere else. 50 Cent is mixed with David Bowie, Beastie Boys are mixed with Blondie, and Vanilla Ice is mixed with MC Hammer. Many mixes were created by the in-house DJs at developer Freestyle Games, but a healthy amount was produced by well-known disc jockeys like DJ Shadow and Grandmaster Flash. The entire soundtrack is superb and could easily stand on its own outside the game. If you just want to hear the music you can enable Party Play and sit back while the mix takes care of itself (you won’t earn any points, though).

DJ Hero also looks great with sweeping, dynamic camera shots of the club gettin’ crunked. You can’t create your own DJ but there are a bunch of amusing unlockable characters, including superstar DJs like Daft Punk and Z-trip. I only wish the DJs’ movements were more in synch with the track, because there are times when you’re furiously scratching and your avatar somehow has both its hands in the air.

A new type of music game means there’s a new controller you’ll have to learn how to use. DJ Hero comes with the turntable controller. Half of it is the record platter with three face buttons and the other half is the mixer that includes the cross fader, effects knob, euphoria button (which enables DJ Hero’s version of star power), and the native controls for whichever system you’re playing on. These halves can be separated and flipped around for left-handed players.

The controller feels sturdy and it’s a lot of fun to use. If you’ve never laid your hands on a turntable and mixer before it will likely feel very alien, but DJ Hero includes a helpful tutorial (hosted by Grandmaster Flash) to walk you through everything and the “beginner” and “easy” difficulty settings live up to their names. Whatever difficulty you’re playing on you won’t ever fail a song. That’s not how DJ Hero rolls. If you aren’t performing so hot the sound will cut out and you won’t earn as many stars, but that’s the most punishment the game will dish out. What DJ Hero is lacking is a practice mode that lets you slow down the music and work it out at a slower pace, as you’ve been able to do in Guitar Hero for years. You’ll wish you could slow things down when you get to the Scratch Perverts mixes in the depths of the track list.

When playing a song you’ll find the familiar colored symbols coming towards you as you tap the turntable’s face buttons in time with the music. But when it’s time to scratch you have to hold down the corresponding button and move the turntable back and forth. On lower difficulty settings you can move the turntable any way you like, but later on you’ll have to follow onscreen arrows that indicate whether to push it forward or pull it back. Like Guitar Hero, I find DJ Hero becomes more fun and rewarding on higher difficulty levels.

Then there’s the cross fader, which you’ll have to push left and right in correspondence with the onscreen audio stream. Think of it like an audio gate: when the cross fader is in the center position the audio from both record A and B is allowed through, but by pushing it to either side you can close the gate on one record and isolate the other audio source.

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Uncharted 2′s storyline is more or less predictable, but excellent delivery adds some life. You once again play Nathan Drake, an adventurer akin to a cruder and more impulsive Indiana Jones. He’s on a quest for Marco Polo’s treasure, which — along with some misadventures and treachery along the way — forces him into a journey that takes him from Borneo to the ruined streets of a Tibetan city. When I put it that way, the story sounds like the premise for a cheesy and easily forgotten novel, but it’s saved thanks to wonderful dialogue that brings the characters to life, making them at once believable and fantastic. The quips they make to one another (and to themselves) convey that the amazing nature of what they see — and how they manage to make it through all this in one piece — is not lost on them. Even during the more expository portions of the story (especially the cut scenes), the banter between characters is so clever that I sometimes felt like I was watching a pair of old friends giving each other a hard time.

uncharted 2 among thieves review

Uncharted 2 also one-ups its predecessor in the way it applies its foundation of exploration and shooting to a variety of environments. Instead of just tromping through a series of jungles and ruins (which is how I tend to remember the first Uncharted), you clamber and shoot your way through moving trains, cars engaged in high-speed chases, and the ruins of a destroyed city. Running through the jungle was cool and all, but using Drake’s leaping and climbing abilities to jump between moving vehicles is much more exciting, and makes the pacing more dynamic.

While much of Uncharted 2′s appeal comes from exploring the environments and experiencing the story and characters, I was pleasantly surprised by how vastly the gunplay has improved. The first game had tons of firefights, but they were easily the game’s biggest weakness. Uncharted 2′s shooting feels much more refined, with gun battles no longer feeling like a struggle for accuracy, or the baddies like bullet sponges (with some exceptions). Whereas I found myself blasting through the combat portions of Uncharted just to reach the next platforming segment, I enjoyed Uncharted 2′s combat almost as much as I did its exploration. Uncharted 2 offers a much more enjoyable combat experience.

Remember what I said about Uncharted 2′s peaks of excellence making the annoying peaks more obvious? Well, that relates to combat as well. Generally, enemies take less damage than they used to, making them easier to kill and less annoying to fight. However, this rule doesn’t apply to bosses or certain enemies towards the end, which makes these fights feel frustrating and out of place. Supernatural involvement aside, I don’t see why I should ever have to fight someone who can take 100 bullets to the face and laugh it off. Combat generally makes me feel pretty skillful, but devolves into a simple run-’n'-gun versus the occasional enemy who’s apparently descended from the Man of Steel.

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Enemy AI is also problematic at times. In straight-up gun battles, foes are really fun to go up against — they’re tactical enough to give you a challenge, but not a kick to the groin. But during the game’s stealth segments, said enemies are sometimes less attentive than a horse with blinders. Not that I want hyper-realistic foes who smell the cologne I’m wearing as I approach, but it just looks silly when I can sneak up — to the point of touching an enemy, as long as I’m in cover — or when an enemy doesn’t notice my big ol’ head sticking out of a box. Ultimately, the AI foibles and occasional bullet resistance didn’t mar my time with Uncharted 2, but both feel so out of place when the rest of the game is so good. It’s kind of like a scratch on a beautiful car: The thing’s wonderful overall, but that one blemish is a constant splinter in your mind.

The multiplayer component.is one thing that most people expected to blemish Uncharted 2, but it actually winds up being far more than a mere afterthought. It’s as feature-rich as other multiplayer giants, complete with upgrades, the ability to rank-up (akin to Call of Duty 4), and a host of game modes that cover everything from team deathmatch to cooperative play. And while the competitive modes are a lot of fun (especially team deathmatch when everyone is armed with RPGs), the cooperative missions and survival mode (think Gears of War’s Horde Mode or Halo 3: ODST’s Firefight mode) make this some of the best multiplayer I’ve seen this generation. The co-op missions unfold in environments taken from the single-player campaign, but throw you into different (and mostly combat-focused) situations, making them a lot of fun to play with pals. And survival mode affords you substantial freedom to monkey around in the environments, adding an element not present in the other aforementioned franchises. I doubt most people will pick up Uncharted 2 for the multiplayer, but trust me: It’s well worth checking out.

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Minor complaints aside, Uncharted 2 is the single best PS3-exclusive title to date. I love the voice acting and characters, and I can honestly say that the multiplayer is something I see myself returning to again and again. If you bought a PS3 because you wanted to play games that you couldn’t play anywhere else, then your time has arrived — go forth and buy Uncharted 2.

Original Review

A complete reimagining of the system, the PSPgo is a drastic departure from Sony’s slow and steady redesign philosophy, ditching the original form factor and proprietary UMD media format in exchange for an uber-compact design and support exclusively for digitally distributed media. With the fresh new look of the PSPgo, Sony is hoping to entice existing PSP owners and tap into a whole new market of casual and intermediate gamers, but is the new design and limitations of its all-digital format too radical for most consumers to take the plunge for? Find out in our full review.

There is no question, the PSPgo is by far the most visually appealing PSP yet. With a 56% smaller design than the original PSP and a sleek slide-out screen, the PSPgo is quite alluring at first glance. However, upon further inspection and use, the imperfections of the system’s design begin to become apparent. For anyone who has owned or used the previous PSPs, the PSPgo’s compact design is a bit of a tactile shock. The PSPgo takes over an inch and a half off of the width of the PSP-3000, and trims a few extra millimeters off of the height and depth. The width reduction ultimately has little effect on user experience in terms of ergonomics, instead, problems arise when the thickness of the unit is split in half when the collapsible screen is extended. When the screen is in the open position, the amount of grippable real estate is reduced to a little over a quarter of an inch, giving users very little to wrap their hands around. To offset the thin, flat lower half of the PSPgo, Sony incorporated thin, low-profile rubberized grips on the rear panel, but they offer little help to the average user, whose fingers will likely extend far beyond them.

The tough gripability of the design is further compounded by the PSPgo’s high-gloss finish, which is as slippery as it is prone to collecting dust and showing fingerprints. Even those with the most stringent hand-washing regiments will smudge every inch of the PSPgo’s body within minutes of first picking it up. Needless to say, the PSPgo’s sleek design loses a lot of its allure when its coated in fingerprints and dust particles. The high-gloss finish also raises problems in terms of screen reflectivity. Although the screen retains the brighter, more vibrant color range of the PSP-3000 (which we are happy to report is seemingly without the interlacing problems we had experienced with the PSP-3000), users will find themselves noticing their own reflection or of the environment around them more often than not. Of course, when you’re concentrating on the game you’re playing the reflectivity becomes less apparent, but it can be plenty distracting under certain circumstances.

A couple of other notable additions to the PSPgo include the new calendar and clock functions when the device is in a closed position. Although neither are particularly useful in terms of interactivity or programming, the clock and being able to browse a basic calendar are nice little extras. Perhaps later down the line Sony will enable users to add relevant dates to the calendar or program several time zone clocks, but those are really just minor gripes at this point. Another noteworthy feature with the PSPgo is its built-in Bluetooth chip, which allows users to use wireless headphones and microphones.

But with added features like Bluetooth, the on-screen clock, and heavy Wi-Fi usage, the lifespan of the PSPgo’s batterylife does take a slight hit. The average lifespan of a PSP-3000 during consistent gameplay ranges from 4 to 6 hours, in the case of the PSPgo, we’d say that depending on settings and use, gametime ranges from 3 to 5 hours. Again, user experience will vary depending on whether you have Wi-Fi enabled, are engaged in online matches, or are utilizing the go’s Bluetooth functionality.

As far as the control layout is concerned, it should come as no surprise that many of the buttons and switches have been reorganized to accommodate the new design. The thumbstick, D-pad, start/select, and action buttons are all located on the lower collapsible panel as opposed to the previous design which had them on either side of the screen. The closer proximity of all of the controls has little impact on user experience as the thumb reach distance is comparable to previous iterations. The controls are slightly smaller and significantly lower-profile, which, when paired with the thickness problems mentioned before, makes getting a strong grip on the device somewhat difficult. Fortunately, despite the smaller surface area and low-clearance of the buttons, the PSPgo’s controls are still plenty responsive and the thumbstick received a nice bump in resistance. The shoulder buttons are probably the weakest aspect of the control design having been constructed from thin plastic and having a very loose depression mechanism.

The volume, screen brightness, and sound buttons have all been relocated to the top of the PSPgo, which can be accessed with a quick extension of your index finger from the shoulder buttons. While this is handy for on-the-fly changes, we would have liked to have seen the controls placed somewhere on the front panel of the device for visual recognition. On the bottom side, users will find the headphone jack and the system’s new all-in-one proprietary connector, which serves as the port for the power-supply, PC transfer cable, and video output cable. The new connector’s multifunctional design significantly reduces wire clutter and opens the door for new charge and sync-type peripherals, such as cradles and integration with multimedia systems. But, despite the various benefits of the new proprietary connector, there is still the inherent danger of using a new, exclusive technology — you have no alternative.

Unlike before where if you lost your USB transfer cable, you still would retain your ability to charge and use your PSP with the AC adapter, and if you needed to sync with your computer, you could use a standard USB A-to-Mini-B cable that comes bundled with the PlayStation 3 or just about any digital camera currently in existence. Now, if you lose or misplace the all-in-one cable, you have no way to charge your system without finding or purchasing a new cable, which also means that you’ll have to pay Sony’s first-party premiums to get it as the company is unlikely to lend the technology to third-party manufacturers, at least not initially. When you do know where the cable is and/or you haven’t left it behind at a friend’s house, the PSPgo is a cinch to use when syncing with a computer.

With the launch of the PSPgo, Sony’s Media Manager software has been replaced with Media Go, an enhanced, rebranded variation of the software, which allows users to sync music, videos, playlists, games, game data, and podcasts with any PSP or other supported device. While many of these features were present in the Media Manager software, Media Go can now integrate with the PlayStation Store for game and media purchasing, backup, and restoration. Unfortunately the Media Go software is Windows-exclusive at the moment, but there are plenty of Mac-alternatives available; without PS Store integration, of course. For Windows users, however, the software is impressively streamlined. Installation is a breeze, and adding localized media is fairly simple. We did experience issues where the the Media Go software accused us of having multiple PSPs connected when trying to download and sync PSP games and demos, but after a restart of our computer the problem seemed to go away.

Perhaps the biggest utility of the new Media Go software’s integration with the PlayStation Store is simplifying the all-digital nature of the PSPgo. One of our biggest concerns with Sony’s move to cut out the UMD drive and integrate fully with digitally-distributed games and media was the inconsistency of Wi-Fi connectivity and subsequently inferior transfer rates. Fortunately, through the use of Media Go, users can utilize their PC’s hardwired connection to download games, demos, movies, TV, and more with higher efficiency. In this regard, downloading and synching games and media is quick and seamless. Any concerns about not having enough space to store content on either the built-in 16GB memory or expandable M2 memorystick slot are also resolved by the Media Go software. When your internal or expandable storage gets filled up, you can remove media and software and store it on your PC for later use. But despite the added ease and utility provided by the Media Go software, the question remains: will the PSPgo’s all-digital platform satisfy gamers?

Unfortunately, the answer relies heavily on whether or not you’re coming from the perspective of an existing PSP owner or a newcomer to the platform. When the product was first announced, Sony representatives had told IGN that the company was investigating methods for existing PSP owners to port their UMD games to the system, however, all hope was lost just this past week when Sony confirmed that no proposed porting solution would be put into action. There is no doubt that such a system would raise many licensing and ownership problems, however, the fact remains that previous PSP owners are left with a library of titles they cannot play on the latest system without repurchasing in a digital format. When you consider the handheld’s inability to transfer UMD software and its hefty price point of $249.99, you can’t help but wonder why Sony would think the system would be appealing to existing PSP owners. Like any hot new product, there are always going to be those who upgrade immediately despite the launch-range premiums and bugs, but we’ve got to imagine that Sony is banking on newcomers to the platform.

From the perspective of a PSP-newcomer, there is a lot to love about the PSPgo. Despite our ergonomic gripes, the PSPgo is easily the most compact current-generation handheld and its place as the first all-digital gaming-exclusive platform tickles our techie sensibilities. When the system launches, Sony will be expanding their roster of available content on the PlayStation Store to offer plenty of tasty downloadables for early adopters. Starting this Thursday, the PlayStation Store will be refreshed with a wealth of new titles available for download, including major PSP titles like Gran Turismo, MotorStorm Arctic Edge, and God of War: Chains of Olympus, and 2,300 rentable and downloadable movies and 13,300 TV shows. Plus, as we mentioned accessing and synching this content is fairly quick and efficient (so long as you aren’t a Mac user) with the Media Go software.

When it comes right down to it, we aren’t exactly sure whether to love or hate the PSPgo. Sony certainly has their heart in the right place — technologically advancing mainstream handheld gaming to a purely digital plateau — but it seems as if the idea wasn’t fully realized when it comes to mainstream viability. Relying on users to disregard their previous UMD libraries or perhaps even alternate between the hard-copy and digital platforms is a pretty big gamble, especially considering that they are asking users to pay an extra $50 for it. Furthermore, the PSPgo’s dependence on a Windows PC and/or Wi-Fi connectivity is a matter of concern. While both Windows users and readily-accessible Wi-Fi are more and more common these days, neither is universal. By limiting accessibility, Sony has made the user experience dangerously inconsistent and makes the value of such a device questionable.

Original Review

Graphics are an important part of a video game, because no matter how good the gameplay is and how deep the storyline is, it’s better if it looks good too. But many of the developers don’t start developing a game by creating their own engine because it takes more times and of course, why would you waste time with originality when someone else did a good graphic engine and they’re selling it? Throughout the gaming history, some graphic engines became quite famous, being used for a lot of first class games. But which ones are the most successful? Keep reading to find out.

5. Aurora

The Aurora Engine isn’t really that famous, but it’s the engine that gave life to some of the most amazing games ever released, all RPGs. Bioware created the engine to use it for Neverwinter Nights, and we all know how that turned out. NWN is one of the best RPGs out there no doubt about that and Aurora really helped it. Featuring a classic top-down view, the effects, shadows and animation was really above it’s time. Knights of the Old Republic 1&2 used an upgraded version of this engine too, called Odyssey Engine. Also, CD Projekt heavily modified it and used it in The Witcher.

Some of the games that used it: Neverwinter Nights + Expansions, Neverwinter Nights 2 (updated version called Electron Engine), Knights of the Old Republic 1&2, The Witcher

4. id Tech 3

The 3rd edition of the notorious game engine was developed by id Software for Quake 3, but at the time it looked so good, that many other developers bought it for their own games. id Tech 3 came with a lot of improvements and a greater detail level and fancy textures, but it’s greatest achievement was the animation capabilities. The models were now formed from 3 different parts “glued” together, used of course for the animation of the human/creature bodies.

Some of the games that used it: the first ever Call of Duty, Return to the Castle Wolfenstein, Star Wars Jedi Academy/Jedi Knight Outcast II and Medal of Honor Allied Assault + the two expansion packs (Spearhead and Breakthrough)

3. Source

The Source Engine is already a legend amongst the gamers.  Valve originally created Source Engine for Half Life 2, but then used it for all their games to this day. It was so advanced for its time that it was on the cover on every PC gaming magazine when it came out, after 5 years of development and postponing. The engine is capable of rendering amazing shadows and effects and  the latest versions offer HDR and all kind of new age effects. The perfect word to describe it would be revolutionary. Not to mention that it was used in Vampire the Masquerade – Bloodlines, one of the best games of all time.

Some of the games that used it: Half Life 2 + Ep1&2, Left 4 Dead 1&2(to be released), VtM – Bloodlines, Team Fortress 2, Portal, Counter Strike Source

2. Unreal Engine 2

The second version of the Unreal Engine is definitely the most successful engine of the last generation of video games. A humongous number of classics used it, simple because it was almost perfect. It worked for everything, from FPS to MMORPG. Epic games created it for Unreal 2 The Awakening, a game that received many prizes for most astonishing graphics of 2003, but a lot of other games used it to obtain fame: Lineage 2, the whole Splinter Cell series and SWAT 4 are just some of the masterpieces that used it.

Some of the games that used it: Unreal Tournament 2003/2004, Unreal 2 The Awakening, Splinter Cell, Splinter Cell Double Agent/Pandora Tomorrow/Chaos Theory, Lineage 2, Men of Valor, Brother in Arms – Road to Hill 30, Postal 2, America’s Army etc…

1. Unreal Engine 3

Well well… I highly doubt that there’s anyone in this world who doesn’t know about Unreal Engine 3. Epic Games made this awesome piece of engineering for their third installment of the Unreal Tournament saga, but that was just the beginning. Since then, more than fifty games used it, lots of them being AAA titles such as Bioshock, Batman Arkham Asylum or Gears of War. It’s the most popular graphic engine of our time, and probably the first choice of every developer. It looks amazing, it’s optimized for older graphic cards, it’s high-end, it’s all you need. Unreal Engine 4 is on it’s way, and we can only hope it’s going to live up to its predecessors.

Some of the games that used it: Unreal Tournament 3, Bioshock 1 and soon 2, Gears of War 1&2, Mass Effect 1&2, Mirror’s Edge, Tom Clancy’s Endwar, X-men Origins Wolverine, Section 8 and so on.

Original Article

Yes, Spider-Man, Captain America, and Iron Man are back to remind you that pounding your controller’s face buttons while monitoring health bars and stamina meters is actually quite a bit of fun. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 takes the tried and true formula of taking a team of four heroes into battle and leveling them up via orbs and XP and tosses in some brand new Fusion Powers that allow you to unite two of your characters in one massive attack.

The trouble is, beyond that, there really isn’t that much new under the hood.

Ultimate Alliance 2 actually combines two of Marvel’s best, fairly recent storylines — Secret War and Civil War. The game opens with SHIELD Badass Nick Fury leading Captain America, Wolverine, Spider-Man, and Iron Man into Latveria to take down the new prime minister. Seems even though she’s been making nice with the U.S. brass, Lucia von Bardas has really been supplying villains with deadly technology. Trouble is, Fury didn’t mention to the supers that this wasn’t a government-sanctioned mission, so when Latveria retaliates by attacking New York, people kind of flip out about the team’s “Secret War.”

With feathers ruffled over the terror attack, people begin kicking around the idea of a superhero registration act that would require capes to register with the government, give up their secret identities, and take orders from commanders and such. Anyone who refuses to register would be a criminal, and suddenly, we have the superhero world split in two — there are the people ready to fall in line with the law and those ready to go underground and fight it.

You’ll play through all of this with a superhero squad of your choosing. If you somehow missed the first three games using this setup, you’ll constantly be in control of a team of four characters. At any time, you can switch which member of the team you’re controlling, and most of the time you can swap in and out any number of the 24 heroes and villains there are to unlock in the game — folks like Venom, Hulk, Daredevil, Penance, Ms. Marvel, and more

Putting a wrinkle in this formula is the fact that Civil War breaks the hero community in two. There’s going to come a point when you have to decide if you want to give up your identity and register with the government or if you want to go be a fugitive. When you make that choice, you loose access to a certain number of heroes. Captain America, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist are always Anti-Reg, so if you side with Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic, Cap and company are locked out and vice versa.

The typical MUA2 level has you and your other three teammates storming though an environment from an elevated, behind-the-back perspective and tearing everything apart — boxes, cars, and anything else you can find usually hemorrhages experience points and health when destroyed, so get to smashing. Occasionally, you’ll run into bad guys and use the moves you’ve been perfecting on inanimate objects on them. Now, there are normal button commands such as light attack, heavy attack, jump and grab, but the real fireworks come when you combine those buttons with the superpower shoulder button.

When you start up the title, most characters come armed with two superpowers, but as you play and level-up the characters, you’ll unlock the two additional ones. These four moves are the ones that make me feel like the hero I’m playing as — Iron Man’s repulsor blasts, Spidey firing off a ton of web balls, Iceman creating ice spikes, and so on. Not every one of them is a winner (Captain America just running into people isn’t going to turn heads), but the majority of these are really cool. Watching Deadpool plant his feet, cross his wrists and blast fools until he runs out of superpower juice is a sight to behold.

Sure, these feats are eating up the blue stamina gauge on your HUD, but that refills over time and you can always spend your Ability Points on your powers so that they eat up less juice and you recover stamina faster. From the powers menu, you can put these points toward the power’s damage, your character’s ability to resist attacks, and so on. Aside from those Ability Points, you’re also going to be earning Power Points. These doodads are added to your superpowers so that the damage inflicted is increasing and the cost to use is decreasing. Of course, you’re also earning XP as you play and this boils down to your character’s specific level. Although one Power Point equals one increase in your power’s strength, you’re going to need to be a certain level to get your powers amped up. Awesomely, you can redistribute Power Points however you see fit, so if you want to pour all your stuff into one move, you can as long as your level is where it needs to be.

All that ability and power management sound like a drag? You can turn autospend on and let the computer do the work while you focus on bashing the hell out of everything you see. You can even do this with the Team Boosts you’ll find and earn throughout the game. There are 200 of these bad boys and they’ll grant your Fusion powers extra damage, add ice to your melee attacks, and so on. These are a nice touch, but they’re pretty forgettable. I played my first game on the hardest difficulty available from the start, and I stopped worrying about the Boosts pretty early and never really needed to tweak them.

Outside of those individual super-moves are the Fusion Powers. Here is where you can take any two heroes/villains and combine their powers into one awesome effort that’s either a clearing, targeted, or guided attack. Clearing moves are similar to the Wolverine/Iron Man combo. Here, Tony fires his repuslors into Logan, who uses his adamantium to reflect the blast back at the baddies and clear out a large number of them. While the animation’s going on, it’ll be up to you to tap a button and increase the radius of the blast. Take out the maximum amount of people, and you’ll get rewarded with a healing token that can — duh — heal the people on your team or bring them back if they’ve fallen in battle. This relationship is good for the other two types of Fusions as well.

A targeted fusion — like Spider-Man swinging Wolverine around by a web for a modified Fastball Special — has your two heroes begin a move while you move some crosshairs around to the target you’re looking to hit. These are perfect for targeting the games bosses such as Titanium Man and the Tinkerer. Meanwhile, a guided fusion puts you in the driver’s seat as you run around clearing clocks — like when Wolverine and Captain America run around side by side mowing bad guys down.

With the exception of the jogging attacks like that Cap/Wolvie one, Fusions are pretty cool. You’ll have to wail on bad guys to build up a meter so that you can actually pull the moves off, but watching Deadpool toss grenades into Storm’s tornado and Gambit hurl explosive cards into a chunk of rock the Thing is about to toss is pretty cool. Add in the fact that you can still have friends drop in and drop out on your console locally and play online with pals, and the ability to work together is even sweeter.

At least at first.

See, one of the main problems I have with Ultimate Alliance 2 is that it just feels a bit flat. Even though the idea of every character being able to fuse with every character is cool, you quickly realize that you’re seeing the same stuff over and over. Iceman and the Human Torch do an attack where they shoot their powers at each other and you can then walk them around mowing anyone who gets in the way of their clothesline — Captain America and Iron Man do the same thing with Tony blasting Steve’s shield. Spidey hurls Wolverine for that Fastball Special, but every other big guy throws him just the same way. Lots of people are using that tornado fusion I wrote about earlier. Everything starts to run together and lose its luster.

In a similar vein, while it’s awesome to be able to earn the game’s extra costumes, it kind of stinks that there’s just one for about every character. In the original Ultimate Alliance, there were three to earn for just about every character and the suits came with different bonuses such as allowing you to gain more XP. That’s not the case here as each alternate suit is simply a skin; you could argue that the team Boosts make the old suit boosts irrelevant, but they made switching costumes strategic. Also disappointing is how long it takes to load one of these costumes. Switching Deadpool, Iron Man, and Spidey suits all took about seven seconds each on the PlayStation 3. That’s seven seconds of just staring at a star spin on the screen. Similarly annoying is the six to seven seconds it takes to swap out characters. If you want to drop Wolvie and add the Invisible Woman or anyone else for that matter, you’re going to be staring at that spinning star again. For the record, the Xbox 360 shaved about three seconds off that load, but that’s about the only major difference between the platforms and it still seems like it should be an instantaneous switch.

These loads aren’t huge issues, but they are a bit glaring when you’re talking about the overall polish and presentation of the game. The same can be said the way conversations are handled in Ultimate Alliance 2. When you choose to talk to someone in Stark Tower or an underground SHIELD base, the character will begin yammering and then the camera will turn to you to choose one of three responses — Aggressive, Diplomatic, or Defensive.

This is cool because not only are you getting to choose the mood of your character but you’re also watching a meter fill. Say enough Diplomatic stuff and you’ll get one kind of Boost whereas enough Aggressive responses will bring about a different Boost. The things you’re saying don’t really matter because Nick Fury’s always going to give you a cranky answer, but what really hurts this give and take is that your character just stands there like a zombie while you choose the response, and then it jumps back to the NPC for their response. I mean, go look at the video review above and watch the part where the Thing is just standing there like a brain-dead beast. Lame.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that the trivia game and mission simulator are back and welcome distractions, but they’re presented in the same way as the original game. It eventually gets to the point where you have to scratch your head and wonder why this game took three years to produce when it’s so similar to the last one. There are some new audio logs, but they’re nothing to write home about seeing as how the voice acting here is pretty bad. I mean, Thor is terrible every time he opens his mouth and the Incredible Hulk radio show that’s embedded in the credits is downright awful and a clear indication that the emotional toll of the Civil War storyline was overlooked for this game.

Closing Comments
There’s no denying that leveling up Iron Man, unlocking Deadpool, and getting Spidey’s alternate outfit is fun, but we’ve done this so many times before. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 adds in Fusion powers, characters, and a bunch of boosts, but in the end it’s not enough to keep this from feeling like extremely well-worn territory. I don’t have that spark to see and do everything because I feel like I’ve seen and done everything before. The Stark Tower hub is nearly identical, the cutscenes don’t look good, the audio logs to find aren’t interesting, and the presentation of the Civil War really doesn’t do the emotional storyline justice.

In the end, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is fun at times, but it’s nothing impressive overall.

6.5     Presentation
The Civil War paint is nice, but it’s clear this is still just the same ol’ Marvel action RPG. Your character just standing there while you choose a response is one example of the ho-hum presentation.
7.5     Graphics
The cutscenes do not look worthy of a current-gen title, and in a game featuring Marvel’s best stories, that hurts. In-game models look good and most Fusion powers are cool.
6.5     Sound
Thor’s voice is bad; it doesn’t sound like a God. Everything else is there but just barely.
7.5     Gameplay
It’s button-mashing, but it’s fun. Upgrading your powers is good times. Sadly, it feels like well-worn territory.
8.0     Lasting Appeal
It took me more than 13 hours to complete my first play-through, but then I needed to go again to max out my character’s powers, unlock boosts, and get the other side of the Civil War story.
7.7
Good     OVERALL
(out of 10 / not an average)

Original Article

Still, I held out hope that the folks at EA could come up with something at least decent. They did not. G.I. Joe is an unattractive, repetitive and humorless videogame with only a few bright moments.

The core idea for G.I. Joe is sound. Create a modern-day version of Contra with the Joes as the central figures. The first issue with this is that EA is hampered by the feature film. The movie strips away the unique outfits of the Joes and so the game has some very bland looking character models. Gone is what made G.I. Joe so memorable for kids of the ’80s. The personality just isn’t there. The characters look boring as do the environments (snow level, jungle level, desert level, lava level, bored-out-of-my-mind level).

The gameplay is simple. Move forward through linear levels, hold down the trigger and shoot everything in your path. Like Contra, there are some tough moments that require you to dodge incoming fire or risk death. Unlike Contra, it’s just not very fun after the first hour. Destroying the same enemies, conquering the same obstacles and running through the similar levels gets old. G.I. Joe is a lengthy game and will probably take about eight hours for most people to finish. But I wish it was half that length, because it gets bogged down by its repetitive structure.

Often the G.I. Joe game seems trapped by the ideas put forth in the new movie. Case in point, the Accelerator Suits, which are a major feature in the film. When you’ve killed enough bad guys, you just have hit a button and activate the suit. The suit makes every character look the same and gives each identical attacks (and a manly voice). So if you thought the personalities were already being muted, just wait until they are fully stripped bare by these stupid suits.

EA has thrown in some of the vehicles from the old toyline including HISS tanks and the Trouble Bubbles, which are welcome additions. You also get to drive a number of Joe vehicles. But instead of having the sensation of driving a Warthog in Halo, it feels as clumsy as if you were steering one of your old toys by hand. Part of the problem is the static camera, which is an issue on foot but tends to be more troublesome once in a vehicle.

There is offline co-op on the same system. It’s nice to be able to play with a buddy (why should one person suffer alone?), but online play is pretty standard these days. This is a full-priced retail game. It’s ugly and not very satisfying; the least it could do is give gamers a feature-set equal to other titles.

Playing solo, you can switch back and forth between characters with the tap of a button. This becomes a necessary survival skill. G.I. Joe features a regenerative health system that recovers quickly if you use cover (what’s the fun in that?) and slowly if you play out in the open like a normal person. On casual difficulty, dead characters instantly respawn. On medium, you recover a downed hero at the checkpoint (most levels have three). And on hard, once someone dies, they stay dead through the rest of the level. Though it is marketed as a game for a general audience, G.I. Joe is surprisingly unforgiving. I never want to shift to “easy” difficulty, but for me, medium stopped being fun halfway through the game. The first rule of game design: You never want your game to stop being fun.

A big part of the issue is that G.I. Joe betrays the long-held conventions of “checkpoints.” For the past few decades, when the player sees “Checkpoint Reached” on the screen, they know that should they fail, they restart at said checkpoint. G.I. Joe has a new innovation where checkpoints don’t do squat. If you fail on medium or hard, even if you’re three checkpoints in and at the final boss, you have to begin the entire level over again. Checkpoints aren’t safety nets in G.I. Joe, they are actually just load points for the next section of the level. Don’t call it a “checkpoint” if it’s not actually a checkpoint. It’s a betrayal of the faith gamers put in a developer.

For all its many issues, there are some things G.I. Joe does well. Every character has their own weapon and special attack. That seems like a minor thing, but it can prove important in battle. You may find yourself playing characters you never liked in the cartoon (or whom you’ve never heard of) simply because their special attack is more effective than that of Snake Eyes or Duke.

Expect plenty of unlockable Joes (a dozen in all) along with four playable Cobra villains. Each level is packed with collectibles, including file cards similar to the old G.I. Joe’s back-of-the-box details. You’ll find several PSAs taken straight from the cartoons. None of the Public Service Announcements explain the “other” half of the battle (is it lasers?), but at least each one drops some knowledge to make you 50% prepared for war.

Also, there are some Joes not in the movie brought into the game. These characters, such as Wild Bill, are truer to their old selves since they aren’t weighed down by any baggage from the film. And the story, which takes place after the events of the film, plays out like one of the week-long sagas from the cartoon. Cobra is collecting pieces from around the world to build the mysterious MASS Device and the Joes must go globetrotting to stop the international terrorist group. It’s a goofy plot, but a good fit for G.I. Joe.

Closing Comments
As a fan of G.I. Joe, I expect a videogame version to make me feel like a Real American Hero. This didn’t come close. The gameplay is unexciting and the visuals uninspired. There are moments when I found myself enjoying G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, but those moments didn’t last long. I wish I could give this a “Yo Joe!” but all I can manage is a “Yay, I’m done with this.”

by Hilary Goldstein

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Anyway, still here? Awesome; Ghostbusters: The Video Game is very good.

Set in 1991, two years after the events of Ghostbusters 2, this title finds the boys in gray moving onto the next chapter in the world of paranormal investigations and eliminations — namely, expanding the team. You’ll join the squad as an experimental weapons technician with the sole purpose of testing Egon’s latest Proton Pack modifications. Within moments of showing up on the job, a strange wave of ghostly energy emanates from a museum packing a Gozer exhibit and spreads across New York City. The spiritual spike gets every ghoul in the five boroughs riled up, the boys get to work and a devious master plan is set in motion.

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No, that’s not an official subtitle to one of EA’s most recognizable titles.  Chances are you’ve heard of this life simulation game where you can create your own family and help them grow up well, meeting their needs and finding time to achieve their dreams, whether they have their sights on knowledge, family, or earning Simoleans.

Now, the Sims is back with the third installment of the most popular PC game of all time.  If you don’t have the Sims 2 already, then getting the Sims 3 is a no-brainer, go out and get it today!  But what if you already plunked down all the money for the Sims 2 and all the expansion packs and “stuff packs” and aren’t really sure if you want to start all over?  Does the Sims 3 offer enough to entice you to buy it?  Read on and find out what’s better, and what’s missing completely (so far).

What’s Better?

·    The graphics have improved a lot, which is always a consideration for a game, but especially important in a simulation game to help you really feel the world is alive.  No PC world feels more alive than in The Sims 3.

·    Less loading screen time.

·    Streamlined needs.  Sims 2 featured 8 “needs” that you had to tend to regularly in order to keep your sims healthy and happy.  The latest in the series reduces this to only 6 and, in general, you’ll spend a lot less time meeting needs and a lot more doing the things you and your sims actually want to do.

·    Way more visual customization options.  In addition to all the staples of Sim creation, you’ll have a lot more detail editing which will be apparent as each hairstyle has not one but 4 color selections, and not a few color options but a color wheel allowing for just about any saturation, hue, and tint combination.

·    Instead of choosing an Aspiration, two turn ons and a turn off, you create an actual personality by combining up to 5 traits for each sim.  How they combine will affect what your sim likes to do, how quickly they learn skills, and who they get along with and find attractive. There are 65 Traits in all.

·    Moodlets.  In Sims 3, almost any interaction can get you a moodlet, a short or long term mood adjustment based on things you’ve done.  For example, now when you allow a Sim to sleep until they are fully rested, they receive an 8 hour mood boost.

·    Convenience.  Now all young adult and older Sims carry cell phones, so you’ll never miss a phone call.  Bills can be paid without first dropping them on the ground or a nearby table.  If you’re using a computer for one activity and want to use it for another, now you don’t have to stand up to cancel one action in order to start the next.

·    Opportunities.  Occasionally you’ll get opportunities, which are kind of like “side-quests” which challenge you to complete a task before time runs out.  You might have to fix a neighbor’s tv, or cook award winning food for someone across town.  You can ignore these if you want, but you will get lucrative cash rewards for your troubles if you can complete these in time.

What’s missing?  Well, most of the things found in expansion packs in the Sims 2.  There are no pets yet, no running your own business, no sending your teens to college, etc.  I wouldn’t hold it against them, however.  I’m sure they’re on the way, and there’s more than enough content to keep any Simmer busy til then.  The add ons that are coming (and they will be coming) will keep this game fun and exciting, with new stuff to discover for years.

Fun factor: 9

Difficulty: 4

Bang for the Buck: 10

The Sims 3 is fun for almost everyone, there’s a ton of things to discover and do and doesn’t get repetitive.  The game isn’t too difficult for anyone to play, but trying to manage all the needs of a large family with free will turned off could get quite hectic.  With so much to do, a sandbox feel, and no real “end game” you never have to stop playing.  The game would easily score a 10 overall if it weren’t for all the things missing from Sims 2 expansions, I’m sure, in time, they’ll add those options as well.

By:

Edward McGuire and Jessica Kosinski

Overall: 9.5

As players explore the icebound ship, the frozen corpses of her crew demand closure. By touching their lifeless bodies, players can relive their late owner’s last moments. These brief vignettes involve overcoming fear or cowardice, sacrificing oneself for the good of others, or otherwise being a more moral human being. Upon completion, whatever mistakes made in the past are rectified and a portion of the ship returns to heat and life. The quality of these episodes is uneven, but overall this unusual mechanic is used quite well.

Parallel to the revivification of the ship, a fable is relayed to the player via scraps of paper that kick off narrated illustrations. This story of a primitive tribe fleeing enemies through a hostile, ancient forest is a clear allegory to the trials of the icebreaker’s crew. As heavy-handed as the moralizing can be at times, this secondary tale provides a useful additional perspective to the main story.

An excellent, visceral presentation ties all of these elements together into a powerful interactive experience that pushes storytelling in a direction that would be impossible in another medium. Full-screen visual effects like freezing fog and frost rim your view, and the crackle of crisp, hard ice combined with the audible shivering of your avatar, hammer home the idea of deadly cold. In contrast, the warm glow of a fire and the babbling of free-flowing water elicit primal relief. Few games have triggered such a strong emotional response in me, and that list is filled with classics like BioShock and Baldur’s Gate II.

Unlike those timeless titles, Cryostasis fails to deliver engaging gameplay to accompany its story. The demon-like enemies, while apt enough in their personification of the evils that the crew brought on themselves, are brainlessly simple to slay. Similarly, the puzzles cleverly illustrate elements of the story but require little creative thought to solve. Go into Cryostasis with the right attitude, though, and you’ll be well rewarded.

Review written by: -ADAM BIESSENER at Game Informer