Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game Review

Normally when there's a movie and a game to accompany it, it ends up being utter trash. Strict release dates and short development times usually means the core experienced has a tendency to affect the games in the worst way possible. This makes Scott Pilgrim vs The World probably one of the biggest surprises I've ever seen when it comes to games based on an already established franchise. With fast, furious, yet familiar mechanics, this easily is one of the best deals of the summer.

Gameplay - 8/10

Scott Pilgrim is a series that's known for it's geek culture references. Instead of trying to design a next gen game and throwing in subtle hints towards Mario, Zelda, or whatever else, this game goes all out and embraces it, just like the material it's based around. Following the story, which a friend summed up for me as "Nerdy unintentional jerk scores mega-hottie but has to battle her seven evil exes in order to continue dating her. Hilarity ensues," The game uses Scott's quest through a beat-em-up, using the exes as end bosses to each of the levels. While a lot of games in the genre had a tendency to devolve into you maybe hitting your enemy first, but normally trading hits until you run out of lives, SP slowly expands your move list the more you play. On your first few times playing the game, you might end up getting your rear handed to you, the more you play, the more experience you earn, ultimately unlocking new moves. Taking cues from River City Ransom, you're able to defeat enemies that turn into coins, which can then be spent in stores found throughout the game for food or items that can be used to boost your experience/stats. There's also a lot of charm that presents itself at every opportunity possible. The game sports a 4 player co-op mode, a few unlockable characters, and a zombie mode, which can be unlocked by entering a code at the start screen. Unfortunately, there's no online co-op at the time of this review, which feels like a missed opportunity.

Graphics - 8/10

Since I haven't read the comics or seen the movie, I can't comment on how accurately the game portrays scenes from there, but I CAN say that SP is a gorgeous game. Using pixel art from a Mr. Paul Robertson, every single inch of the game looks like a work of art. While the developer (or at least whoever tried to describe the art style) claims it's an 8/16 bit art style, I'm pretty sure every one that plays it or at least sees the game in action will admit that the stuff here is of a much higher quality.

Sound - 9/10

Part of me feels like I should elaborate on this a bit, but there's not too much to say. In addition to some very retro sound effects from attacks, the reason this scores so highly is that the entire soundtrack consists of music created by Anamanaguchi. If you've never heard of them, they're a chiptune band, meaning they produce music that sounds like it's coming from one of the retro gaming consoles of yesteryear. Despite what your feelings may be about the genre, the best part is that every single melody is highly appropriate for whatever stage you're currently on, and it's also pretty good to listen to on its own.

Overall - 9/10

SPvTW is a game that anyone who ever had a soft spot for beat-em-ups absolutely has to own, along with people that are just looking for a good downloadable game that's a bit different from the other offerings present on the downloadable services. 4 player couch co-op makes this game an easy recommendation for anyone that tends to get a bunch of people together, even if it's only for an hour. Unfortunately, most people have traded in the social experience of slapping your friend a high-five after that tough boss fight in favor of playing games with people from across the globe. Since the game doesn't feature online play as of right now, it limits the appeal for people who claim the game is too hard or only want to play a game that they can finish with iPwNn0oBz69. Regardless, it's still a solid title and worthy of belonging on almost everyones hard drive, young and old. What else are you going to do with that cash, after all? Buy t-shirts on PS Home or Xbox Live?

Red Dead Redemption review

Every time I come across one of these great new Sandbox games, it really makes me think that we could possibly be entering a new renaissance. Back in the PS2 days, when the games first started really coming into their own, we were slammed with tons of GTA wannabes. Now, we've got all of these incredibly unique experiences and it's easy for some of them to get overlooked. What is it about Red Dead that has gamers so excited about Rockstars latest release?

Gameplay - 9/10

It feels like every single game Rockstar has worked on has lead them to this point. Taking the best cues from GTA4, a bit of Manhunt's brutality, and almost a bit of (I know it's not a R* game) Gun, all thrown into a pot and blended excellently together has culminated in one of 2010's biggest games. Red Dead Redemption probably does a better job than anything else I can remember of really recreating that wild west that we can only imagine or see in films and books. While a lot of games like open world games fall into a trap of making the world a playground, RDR makes it feel like a living breathing place by adding in tons of npc's that will approach you as you ride your horse from town to town, asking for assistance or even trying to mug you. While you could look at these elements from a distance and complain that these are boring but brief sidequests, when you're in the world, it helps to reinforce the immersion. The character of John Marston is probably their most likable protagonist ever, and one that you can truly understand the motivation for his actions without them seeming completely outlandish. Marston's adventure has him coming across some of the best developed characters in the genre as well, motivating you to keep pushing forward from one mission to the next until the spectacular ending, which is probably one of the most badass endings you'll see in a game.

Once you tire of the single player's 20-30 hours campaign and have had your fill of collectibles, you can hop into the online mode. Similar to GTA4, all of the players in each game are dumped into the exact same world as the single player campaign and are free to explore the world alone or with a posse. In order to give players a bit more of a focus, you'll occasionally come across bandit hideouts that need to be cleared, animals that can be hunted in specific ways to progress through challenges, multiplayer versus games, or you could even roll around making life a living hell for other players. Unfortunately, the last time I played the game, there were a ton of glitches that made the entire experience hard to enjoy to the full extent, but even with those in place, it was easy to lose hours at a time online just messing around, and I'm sure a lot of those have been ironed out now, especially with the new DLC packs having been released.


Graphics - 8/10

As I previously said, Red Dead does a great job of making the old west come alive with all of the wildlife you'll see flourishing in each of the areas you come across. All of the different towns and regions sport a unique feel that feels appropriate to the location and time period, and the character models look great as well. Unfortunately, graphical glitches prevent me from scoring this higher, such as the infamous horse woman and the limited number of models of some of the games classes (whores what) can take you out of the experience a tad bit, but considering the scale of the world, Rockstar did a spectacular job.

Sound - 9/10

Each character in Red Dead Redemption really comes alive with the great voice acting. It's also great to know that, yes, it IS possible to have a great male lead that ISN'T Nolan North. The subtle ambient music really reinforces that cinematic western feel, with some truly amazing songs normally kicking in once you transfer from one area to the next that give the whole thing a somber feel when the moments appropriate. There's something really nice about walking into a bar and hearing people murmur something about one of your latest exploits or a bandit that's been plaguing the town recently.


Overall - 9/10

I hate to be trite, but Red Dead Redemption is one hell of a ride. Games like this a few years ago would have been reserved solely for a big holiday release, but with all of the content in this 60$ package, not to mention the DLC that's out and the amazing stuff coming, this might be one of the best purchases you make all year. There have been complaints raised about the beginning of the game being a bit on the slow side, but it's entirely appropriate for the game and helps you out later down the line. Once you've exhausted the single player game, there's an entirely separate set of online objectives to complete for the completionists, not to mention tons to do in the world if you just want to screw around with other fans of the game. How could anyone possibly be complaining about a summer drought with great games like Red Dead Redemption having been released and giving you more than enough to keep you busy for a long time.

F.E.A.R. 2 Review

The first FEAR was critically praised for its marriage of intense firefights, ferocious AI, and creepy atmosphere. Shortly after the original game released, there was a big stir as the IP was torn between the developer and the publisher, leading to two forgettable expansions (Perseus Mandate and Extraction Point) developed by another studio since the publisher had owned the name. During all of this chaos, Monolith began work on a game known as Project Origin, and as more information became available, it was fairly apparent that this would be the true successor to the F.E.A.R. name, just possibly without that title stuck to it. Things started to fall into place for Monolith however, primarily that they earned the right to use the series name and were signed back with Warner Bros. Does F.E.A.R. 2 manage to make up for those horrendous expansions? Read on to find out!


Gameplay - 7/10

FEAR 2 doesn't really do much to differentiate it from the original game when it comes to gameplay, which is a good and bad thing. While this means that the incredible AI has made a triumphant return, it also means that the game is going to rely a lot on the same scare tactics as the original. Stumbling down hallways and looking for a door in dimly lit areas while lights flicker overhead might scare the bejesus out of you once, but by the end of the game, you'll be more surprised when it doesn't happen. In order to break up the tedium of walking through cramped areas, the developer integrated outdoor areas and a giant mech every now and then that you can pilot, effectively turning your once vulnerable hero into a clone-slaying war machine. It's a bit jarring at first, but I actually appreciated the change after a while. Many games lose their tension when you gain a super weapon like this, But FEAR 2 keeps these sections brief, keeping it from turning into some sort of Dynasty Warriors slaughterfest. The last minor, yet incredibly annoying thing that needs to be mentioned is that there are no options to customize the control scheme from what I noticed. This means that all of the crazy melee moves are rendered somewhat useless on the PS3 version of FEAR 2 because of how awkward it is to have to press in the analog sticks, jump, and tap the melee button all at once for whatever move you're trying to execute.



Graphics - 7/10

As previously mentioned, this game still relies heavily on dimly lit environments and a clone army. On the bright side, the dimly lit environments are no longer just once office complex consisting of brown corridors. Instead, you stumble through some fairly eerie locations that all look slightly different from each other when you can actually see what's going on. While the change in color is greatly appreciated, something about the actual models looks a bit dated and you ultimately still spend a lot of time wandering down halls. Enemy designs, while effective, never really struck me as anything creative. When you consider that most of the things you face are just clones, you'll love it when the game introduces more enemy types until you realize that, yes, it's just 10 or so different types of enemies that all look exactly the same. At least the action keeps moving at a steady framerate the whole time!

Sound - 7/10

I've always appreciated it when a game nails weapon sound effects. This is the one area that FEAR 2 succeeds in incredibly well. Fitting in the the tense action sequences and creeping through hallways comes some great environmental sounds, from leaky pipes to rattling cans. The enemy voice overs in battle, although basic, still mange to add to the gameplay experience, especially when you come around a corner and hear "Flashlight over there, get in position!" and are able to get a somewhat accurate count for how many enemies you're about to face based on their footsteps in the next room. While these sounds are amazing, the voiceovers for plot points are questionable at best. I'm still unsure what kind of story they were trying to create, which is why this score is so low, but when you hear characters comparing you to pizza or making fun of other characters for being secretive, you want to let out a laugh, but it's kind of awkward in a game that made a name for itself by being a scary action game.



Overall - 7/10

FEAR 2 is one of those games, like Wolfenstein, that you could go your entire life without ever playing and might not be missing much, but if you're bored and just want something a little bit different and on the cheap side (now), it's worth a play through. If you're thinking of picking this up for the multiplayer component, you might want to pass since it's incredibly hard to find a game now, and when you do, it's just Deathmatch or Team Deathmatch. If you loved the first game, or are a fan of shooters/horror games, I'd advise picking up FEAR 2, but for everyone else, I'd say check out the demo first.

Wolfenstein Review

You ask any gamer what the first FPS was, you generally get the same answer: Doom. Sorry, brah. Wolfenstein 3D was id Softwares first game, which essentially put them on the map and allowed for Doom to be developed. The original Wolfenstein 3D laid forth the formula for the series that continues all the way up into 2009's Wolfenstein, boiling down to a bunch of Nazis that gain control of a relic that empowers them with some sort of super powers, which is ultimately taken down by B.J. Blazkowicz. How does it measure up, all these years later? Is it still fun to take down super nazis? Read on to find out.


Gameplay - 7/10

While all the previous games in this series took an incredibly linear format, this most recent release goes for a much more open hub world system. Although it's a refreshing change to the stage-to-stage format every other first person shooter goes through, ultimately it ends up with you running to an area on a map, getting a mission, then going there anyway. It's a nice alteration, but ultimately doesn't make any real difference to how you'll be going through the game. Another change I feel was made to be console friendly that probably isn't present in the PC version is that when you go into the menu to switch weapons, you set it so you can switch between your two favorite weapons, but if you want to pick a completely different one, you're going to be staring at what is essentially an equipment menu, which takes you out of the game a bit. All of these are minor issues, and I'm sure we're all wondering how this games nazi blasting formula deviates from World at War or the previous Wolfenstein games. Thanks to the fact that you're traveling through a much more believe war-torn Europe, there are tons of things in the environment that are entirely appropriate to use for cover.
These elements hold up well for the standard soldiers you come across, but it's the supernatural forces that might make you want to eat your controller a few times. After a certain point, you start coming across the trademark sexy female ninja nazis, cloaked enemies, and a lot of other things that you've got to see to believe, including one of the most frustrating end bosses I've seen in a game in years (excluding Killzone 2). While there is a multiplayer component in the game, I was unable to find anyone playing online when I tried it out, which was probably in March or April 2010, so I can't say how enjoyable that is. The last thing that needs to be mentioned is how insane the weapons get towards the end of the game. Other games settle for giving you a badass rocket launcher. Wolfenstein? Sure, feel free to take this hand-held Tesla Cannon.


Graphics - 8/10

While I was going through this game, I was wondering why some other games don't have the attention to detail in the textures that this has, specifically God of War 3. A lot of games give you decent texture work when you're playing the game, but under closer examination, such as when there are lulls in the action, it's hard not to notice blurry textures. Another thing that surprised me, considering that I'm sure a lot of people skipped this title, was how imaginative a lot of the models and environments become, especially in enemy design towards the latter half of the game. Early on, you'll be facing hordes of generic soldiers, but as the adventure progresses, you start seeing some of the things that seem like they could only come from the minds at id and Raven.

Sound - 6/10

Most of the time, you're going to be hearing the same gunshots you hear everywhere else. The voice acting is nice, although some characters feel like they might be overdoing the foreigner-attempting-to-speak-english dialect, but it's functional and probably won't bother you that bad unless you pay special attention to it. Although they're nothing new, the explosions tend to create a real sense of tension, as well as that familiar tinkling sound of a grenade rolling slightly too close. Let's also not forget how satisfying it is to come across a horde of enemies, ignite them, and hear/see them screaming in agony. It's a bit demented, but it feels like that sound is one of the hardest for any voice actor to portray right, and its more than adequate in Wolfenstein.



Overall - 7/10

Part of me wants to score this higher just to encourage people to give it a chance, but another part says that there are probably better things to spend the cash on. The sci-fi nazi twist is a nice change up from fighting terrorists in a first person shooter, not to mention how awesome it is to be using fictional weapons again instead of the standard pistol/sniper rifles that fill so many other games (don't worry, those are included in this too). The story isn't exactly full of unpredictable plot twists or anything, but it's nice to pick up a game for once and have an idea of exactly how it's going to start and how it's going to end. Out of all the overlooked shooters from 2009, this stands out as one I encourage everyone to try, especially if you can find it for 30$ and under or possibly a weekend rental.

Skate 3 Review

Skate 3 is the sequel that Skate 2 should have been. That's not to say that Skate 2 was bad or inferior to Skate, but there are a lot of additions that I'm looking at in this game that feel like they should have made it into the second game, but possibly didn't do to time constraints. All of that aside, the third game in this series worked its way into retailers on May 11th, bringing with it a hosts of improvements and alterations to the tried and true formula. Read on to find out how well the overall package came together.



Gameplay 8/10

With the original game, the skateboarding game genre was forever transformed, as evident by the number of sales against its rival that year, Tony Hawks Proving Grounds. In addition to that, the realistic gameplay, creative control scheme, and size of the open world was met with tons of critical acclaim and cemented the namesake into the hearts of gamers everywhere. The sequel improved on this formula by setting the game in the same city after a major disaster occurs, which alters the landscape a bit, giving you tons of new areas to skate, pros to meet, and an even more in depth replay and photo editor. This, coupled with more open areas of online freeskate, not to mention the addition of walking, made this sequel more than deserving as its title of successor.
Now, here we are with Skate 3, which in every way feels like the game Skate 2 would have developed into had there been more time between releases. Major changes to the game include the fact that now every single player challenge can be played online in co-op, meaning any thing you're having issues with is made a lot more tolerable by possibly bringing someone else in that is better than you or functions better than your new AI teammates. While Skate 2 had the option to drag items around and set up your own unique spots, Skate 3 allows you to use an object dropper anywhere in the world, not to mention an extensive park editor that allows for in depth customization of every single rail, ledge, ramp, or even elevation change on your own park, which can be shared with other people online (provided you buy the game new!). The fact that the entire game is entire co-op has its weaknesses, primarily coming from the team challenges that feel like its necessary for someone else to be doing with you instead of relying on the AI provided, which might be a deal-breaker for some.

Graphics - 8/10

For the first time, the game is running at a steady 60 FPS throughout the entire city. While the graphical style looks similar to Skate 2's, the fact that everything is consistent the whole way through makes a huge change in how fluid the game moves. The camera work this time around gives you a much more clean view of the world, since the series ditched that dirty looking filter and fisheye effect from the previous games, but if you desire to have them back, you can turn them on in the options, at the sake of reducing the framerate. Another huge change in the graphics is the fact that now, if you fail at doing a trick, instead of going into an automatic bail animation, there's a possibility that your skater will stumble and attempt to regain balance, which looks exactly like you'd expect it to if you've ever been the victim of this or witnessed in real life. Not only does it serve to immerse you in the sim like experience, but it helps from a gameplay perspective, as this makes it a lot easier to recover your momentum than faceplanting into the cement.



Sound - 8/10

While the previous games offered samples of other genres, it feels like Skate 3's soundtrack offers more of whatever it is that you're looking for. I can't name another game off the top of my head that can take you from Young Jeezy to Neil Diamond, then back over to The Pixies or Joy Division all within the course of 10 minutes. If there's anything in the soundtrack you don't want to hear, you can go into the menu and disable it. The PS3 version implements custom soundtracks right off the disk, meaning you don't have to wait for a patch to skate to that Rod Stewart cd you've secretly hoarded on your hard drive. For anyone that had been annoyed with the cameraman in the previous games, he's gone now and replaced with a new guy that rarely ever says anything unless you come across a really awesome spot, have an incredibly harsh bail, or pull off an insane trick. The score only gets an 8 here mostly because the sound effects from the actual skateboard just don't sound as satisfying as they did in earlier games. Maybe it's just me, but everything sounds a lot more muted now.



Overall - 8/10

While I can easily say Skate 3 is a much more refined game than Skate 2 was, it's a bit harder to recommend if you're not able to play online, and you should also be aware that if you buy it used, it disables your ability to share parks, logos, and pictures online. If you've never played a Skate game in your life before, however, the addition of difficulties, variety of landscapes, and refinements to the overall gameplay mechanics makes this easily a welcome starting area, probably even more than the first two games! The last thing I feel needs to be mentioned is that as of May 28th, 2010, it's been increasingly hard to find games online, especially considering a lot of players are probably on one of the other games that's come out this month. I'm hoping the community returns maybe during the post-E3 pre-fall down time, but I'm no psychic and this makes it a lot harder to get the full enjoyment out of the game due to the increased attention to online play.

After Burner Climax review

Remember the days when games were based around a core mechanic and lived or died by said mechanic? During that period of time, Sega birthed an arcade flight action game under the name After Burner. While the original did fairly good, when most people think of After Burner, the memories are almost always associated with the second game; holding the flight stick in the arcade while shooting down countless enemy planes at insane speed. While there was an After Burner 3, the series hadn't seen a sequel since the 90's, but all of that changed in 2006 with the arcade release of After Burner Climax. The game succeeds in catching the attention and quarters of many in the arcade, thanks to it's blistering speeds and somewhat familiar gameplay with a few new tweaks, but is it worth the price of admission to play at home?

Gameplay - 8/10

Just like Outrun Online Arcade, ABC succeeds in taking one solid mechanic and making an incredible game out of it. The default control scheme might take a while to get adjusted to, but its well worth the dedication. If it's still not clicking for you, there's a few custom control schemes that you can select from as well, which are great, but it's a bummer that you can't fully customize the layout. Once you've got that out of the way, you select your plane and take to the skies. For those hoping for a free roam flight game akin to Ace Combat, you'll quickly realize that Climax sticks to its roots and forces you to constantly move forward, allowing you to use the throttle to accelerate or decelerate, which becomes vital in dodging shots and evading enemies behind you. Although the game is constantly hurtling you in one direction, you're free to move in a fairly large area using the left stick, all while using your machine gun to take down nearby enemies or locking onto them with your missiles before letting them go. The last thing in the controls department is the inclusion of the climax mode, where everything slows down, allowing you to lock on to tons of targets at once while making some dodges that would otherwise have been incredibly tricky, then firing off a volley of missiles, taking down all of the selected targets almost instantaneously. Unfortunately, that's about as far as the game goes in terms of controls.
Due to the unrelenting forward movement, the game also normally only takes between 8-12 minutes to finish, which would be a huge problem if this was an epic first person shooter or something, but despite its simple controls and short total gameplay time, chances are that you won't be making it to the end in your first few playthroughs (JUST LIKE IN OUTRUN!), since you're initially only given 3 credits to work with. In spite of what I said about the simple controls earlier, there's a surprisingly deep combo-chaining system present here that rewards you for continuously stringing together kills before a timer runs out, meaning that you occasionally need to leave one or two stragglers if you want to continue chaining between waves of enemies. After each mission, you're ranked on how well you did, along with getting letter grades after every 4 stages or so, which usually give you a chance to take a branching path to reach the ending.



Graphics - 7/10

When you first fire it up, you'll realize how incredibly well this looks for not only a downloadable game, but also as a next-gen game. All of this will be made more amazing once you realize the game was released in arcades back in 2006! As you blaze through the games levels, the variety of environments will continue to impress you, constantly making you wonder what the next level looks like or what the other path might lead to. The planes featured in the game all sport a surprising amount of detail and the explosions all look incredibly satisfying. The more you play, especially if you go for that achievement that requires you to finish the game with a D or E rank in speed (protip: hold the brake the whole game), you'll start realizing that under closer examination, the textures only look detailed if you're playing the game right (blazing through or just slowing down long enough to dodge enemy fire). This also brings to light that some of the effects are kind of...not as detailed as they look when you're going through faster, most notably the planes emerging from beneath the clouds, but as long as you keep your speed up, none of this will be an issue at all.

Sound - 6/10

ABC's biggest weakness is it's lackluster soundtrack. While I give Sega props for including the ability to use the Afterburner 2 soundtrack in the game, it still doesn't excuse how forgettable the soundtrack in this game is. It's appropriate considering this is an arcade flight combat game, but there's definitely not any jingles that are going to be left in your head or most likely songs that you really want to hear when you're not playing the game. The game does get an extra point for having some incredibly funny dialogue going on in the background, and I don't think that it's intentionally humorous, but it's almost campy for an arcade game "WOO! I MADE IT HERE FIRST!" There's just something really charming about the banter you hear between the pilots or the lack of concern in their voices as they take down an imaginary country's entire air force.



Overall - 7/10

After Burner Climax is highly recommended that everyone at least tries out, because it's a throwback to when games were pure and lived or died on one mechanic, this one being its combo system. Fortunately, it gets the combo system right, along with having tons of unlockables, and then you have the leaderboards and a personal high score board as well to encourage you to keep trying to do better. If you're not the kind of person that is addicted to constantly trying to see how much better you can do than your own previous best, the short nature of the game might make you want to leave it behind. Again, at least give the demo a shot, leave some comments, and let me know what you think.

DJ Hero Review

It's hard to deny that Activision has essentially become the evil empire that Electronic Arts had been in the past. While in the past, they were known for rehashed Tony Hawk games and quick movie cash-ins, they also launched the (at it's release) innovative Guitar Hero franchise. While Guitar Freaks existed before it, GH was the first title to actually make it to US consoles with a music list that appealed to American audiences. While the first one was a critical success, it wasn't until the second that it became certain that Activision had managed to cement its place in music game history and inspired Rock Band and Konami to actually release its long-running Beatmania franchise here. Unfortunately, they pulled an Activision and like the THPS franchise before it, the Hero name seemed to appear on every single platform (DS?!) with several releases coming each year (4 being released in 2008). With that and Rock Band constantly competing against each others release dates, many people have grown tired of anything with the name attached to it and are slowly losing any dwindling interest in the music game genre. The most recent release with the Hero name attached to it is DJ Hero, which sounds like a quick attempt to cash in on the franchise name or emulate Beatmania. Does it actually do anything new? Is it worth the 120$? Read on to find out.



GAMEPLAY - 9/10

From the moment its name was announced, it was painfully obvious that this was another cheap move from the publisher to make as much money without doing anything new yet again. At least, that was everyone's expectation. Readers, I would like to take this time to inform you that despite the name, this is probably one of the best music games I've ever played. While the core gameplay is completely reminiscent of of the notes-streaming-down-a-highway we've all grown accustomed to, the new mechanics and controller set this apart from anything else you've ever experienced. The first assumption when touching the controller is that the buttons on the turn table are going to ruin the game, or at least detract from the feeling of actually mixing the tracks, but it adds another layer of depth while also kind of helping you to get a grip during some of those extra tricky scratches.
Instead of just forcing the player to dive in and get started, the game only has easy, medium, and hard opened from the start, and forces you to go through the tutorial first to make sure you have a basic understanding of the mechanics before you get yourself overwhelmed. After that, you've got a playlist at your disposal until you quickly start unlocking more and more sets, some with hidden songs that are only playable after getting at least 3 stars on everything else in that set. Along with the "Hero" title attached to the game, the lack of failing in the game was also heavily criticized before the game shipped, but as you progress, you'll realize about halfway through unlocking that just barely passing songs is NOT enough to unlock at least 10 of the playlists, which get progressively harder and still requiring you to get a decent number of stars to unlock even more things, which gives you something to work towards and rewards players that stick with the game long enough to start improving their scores.
The peripheral itself seems to garner people that love it and people that think its terrible. For the people that think it's a horrible piece of hardware, remember that you don't have to slide the crossfader directly back into the middle for it to count as being centered, so that argument goes away as you start playing more and more, and the grill on the outer edge of the turn table gives you extra grip for some of the quick scratches. The other major complaint I hear fairly often is that the game doesn't let you mix songs how you want to, and to that camp of people, I would like to remind you that you're playing a video game, not an actual turntable.
For those looking for multiplayer options, this feels like it was constructed as more of a single player experience (especially with the lofty price), but a few of the songs allow you to play on a turn table while a friend plays the guitar track, or even head to head battles with two turn tables. I'm not..sure..why you'd want to do that since there's all of the rewinds and samples you can throw in when you play alone, but...to each their own, I guess.

GRAPHICS - 7/10

This section will be kept as brief as possible since the main features of the game are its soundtrack and gameplay. The graphics work. That pretty much sums up what you expect from a music game anyway, right? While you can't create your own character, there's probably about 15-20 (including actual djs) that you'll have after you unlock all of them, with plenty of alternate costumes, custom decks/headphones, and venues that you earn the more you play, which helps with the variety. At the same time, all of the created male dj's feel ridiculous, especially when placed in the realistic looking locales (such as the mansion), or actual DJs included in the game. The crowds also seem to have this weird 2D or simplified 3D rendering that gives the illusion of tons of people gathered around watching you, but then you realize the crowd is constructed of like..3 models that are incredibly jaggy whenever you get a real view of them, but works since you spend most of your time staring at the notes streaming down the screen anyway. The noteskins and everything gameplay related work just as expected, which is to say sort of flashy to give it a bit more flare than the lines from Beatmania, but don't distract you from the overall gameplay experience. Despite my criticisms for the way the crowd looks and some of the bizarre male characters, there's still some sort of atmosphere of almost being on a stage in front of tons of people because of crazy lighting effects and the sheer size and variety of venues.


SOUND - 8/10

I'm not going to lie: the soundtrack in DJ Hero isn't going to please everyones tastes. At the same time, if you're upset that Metallica or Johnny Cash isn't in DJ Hero, you might have bigger problems than worrying about the music selection that IS available. On the disc, you've already got 93 mixes to play through, and while there might be a few weak mixes, you still have probably more than twice as many songs than what was available in Rock Band 1. That's an insane number of songs to be included on the disc in a music game. While some of the songs seem to get reused pretty frequently, the mixes still sound amazing if you can open your mind to the entire mashup genre. After you accept the fact that you're scratching at places the person that mixed it would scratch and you get to hear the full thing, there's tons of moments where you'll realize that these two songs you didn't think could work together mesh perfectly. Who would have ever thought MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice were possible to unite without the entire world being reverted to the 90's?



OVERALL - 8/10

For music game fans, regardless of your musical tastes, DJ Hero is an absolute must-play. For everyone else, you'll probably have tons of fun if you can accept the song list, and it's a completely different feel from anything you've ever played with the heavy emphasis on the scratching and crossfading, not to mention the ridiculous songs towards the latter half of expert that are incredibly rewarding once you start getting higher scores. Thanks to the tons of things that are left to unlock even after you get all of the songs, there's TONS of replayability in DJ Hero. The multiplayer feels kind of forgettable, but for those of you who want to try it out, there's online versus even though there's almost no one playing it. The biggest reason this didn't get a 9 however, is that even though I think this is probably one of the best music games I've ever played, there's the fact that it costs 120$, which makes it hard to recommend to anyone that's not a hardcore music game player. It's a shame because this is definitely one of those games I think everyone should at least give a chance, but thanks to everything else that's coming out or already came out this year, you've probably got tons of things to do to pass the time until the price inevitably goes down after the holiday season.

Lost Planet 2 Multiplayer Demo Impressions

I realize this quick-look at the upcoming Capcom action game is probably 2 months late at this point, but better late then never, I always say! Lost Planet 2 is clearly the follow-up to the early 2007 sleeper hit, which took place on a distant planet that humanity was looking to colonize, yet had to compete against tons of space pirates and the native life forms, not to mention the incredibly harsh environment. The core gameplay was almost a blending of old-school mechanics with cutting-edge graphics and newer 3rd person shooting action, mostly set in frozen environments, but with volcanoes, abandoned facilities, and caves thrown in for variety. While it did fairly well, it never caught on well enough with the mainstream to warrant a sequel in my opinion which is why it's so shocking to find out that not only is Capcom working on a sequel, but they're throwing in more of the gigantic boss fights, 4 player co-op, and even more varied locales thanks to the aftermath of the original game.



The new demo for Lost Planet 2 highlights the 4 player co-op while showcasing one of the gigantic new bosses in a familiar frozen environment for fans of the original. With all the co-op functionality included in most games at this point, it would be fairly easy to assume that this is just another quick cash-in, but it's well worth sticking around to find out just how crazy and useful having 3 other teammates there with you are. The boss still has the same gigantic glowing orange weak spot that was in the first game, but it's worth pointing out that he completely towers over you and the other players. As everyone quickly scrambles around, searching for their weapon of choice, activating spawn points, or just trying to find a good spot to begin the beat down, you'll sooner or later learn that the size of the boss isn't one of those things that just intended to intimidate you. With a well timed approach while the enemy is crouching down, you can actually manage to get ingested inside of the creature and fight off tons of enemies as you work your way through its digestive system until you eventually come across the heart of the beast and have a few moments to attack it through its ribcage until you're inevitably forced out the butt of the thing, then can rejoin your teammates outside or attempt to start the cycle all over again.




While this was probably one of the coolest boss fights I've played in a while, it's worth noting that if you have a team of people that aren't very good at the game or don't want to help out, you'll probably die off really quickly, making this the ideal game to play with people that you actually game with on a regular basis that you know you can depend on to save yourself a lot of frustration. After the end of the boss fight, you've got a few seconds to run around and gather up points and ammo before it shows you with a ranking screen and exits back out to the main menu. If they can keep increasing the creativity of the boss fights throughout the game and the co-op includes...you know...levels and is NOT just a boss rush, along with bringing back the addictive competitive multiplayer from the original, this is totally a day one purchase for me. On the other hand, if you're not a fan of trying to find gigantic glowing weak spots, or you're looking for a more narrative driven game, it might be best to try out this demo first or wait for a review after the full game comes out, since the first one definitely wasn't for everyone and the demo feels the same way.

Red Faction: Guerilla Multiplayer Demo Impressions

Wow. Red Faction's single player demo didn't really make me care for the game. If anything, it kind of turned me away, but I've heard that it was a bad point in the game to showcase since it's so limited. The Multiplayer demo on the other hand features the Damage Control mode, which is just a standard multi-point King of the Hill similar to Conquest mode in the Battlefield games. WITH A TWIST!!! While you have to capture and hold points and you're thrust into a large Martian landscape, you've also got the hammer, different movement packs (jetpacks, faster movement, etc), explosives, several different guns, a nice ranking system, and the entire destructibility element that's always been the major selling point of the franchise fully present without any limitations in multiplayer. Instead of just running over to a point and standing there to capture it, then defending it, in order to capture a point, you have to pull out your repair gun and construct a satellite device to capture it, but only after annihilating the other teams previous one to make them lose their capture by any means necessary. There are several buildings that make perfect spots for snipers, but if you've got the time and communication, you can actually topple an entire building, completely destroying that snipers nest, and then later use your repair gun to build it back up or just leave it alone and destroyed.



Unlike most games, when you take down the supports for a building, there's a chance that the building will crush under its own weight, destroying it completely for that game unless someone rebuilds it, but it's also incredibly likely that the building will drop a few floors, maybe have a few walls get crushed along with the roof collapsing, but you're still able to jump into the remaining areas and use the rubble for cover instead of it just becoming some modeled pile of rubble that you can walk through that eventually fades away. It's also incredibly likely that you'll see a guy jumping from a building with a jet pack, applying it when they're right on top of you, and shooting electricity from a gun while you're frantically running to avoid them while shooting back with whatever you've got or maybe even jumping into the sky and smacking them down with a hammer. The sheer randomness of every match makes each game pretty unique and it feels like different groups of players, when working together, might take on the same level in completely different ways. Once you capture the points, your points slowly start to go up, with your goal being to reach 500 before the other team. The easiest way to do this is of course to have your team divided into either offense or defense, all out one way, or split into groups, which is pretty awesome since the game does reward players extra points for getting kills while near other characters. While I’m still not particularly excited for the single player still, I’m thinking of picking this up for the multiplayer as long as I can convince myself that people are going to be playing it online for a long time, especially since there’s nothing else like it out right now.

Doom 3 review

Sometimes I happen to actually finish games in my backlog just a few years after they were released. Doom 3 is the most recent title that falls into that category. Back when the game came out, it offered the most amazing visuals seen on PC until that point and kept gamers tense with its quick action, creepy atmosphere, and sudden surprises. For those of us that are trying not to spend as much right now and want a good, cheap game to play, could Doom 3 possibly fill that hole?

Gameplay - 7/10

While Doom 3 visually looks like a dramatically different game, as you start exploring the facility, everything seems oddly familiar if you've played any of the previous entries into the series. One new aspect is that there actually IS a story this time that you see in game, even if it is essentially a more in-depth rehash of the same fundamental story in every Doom: Humans are on mars, humans dig too deep into Mars, ancient demons awaken and slaughter/zombify everyone, etc. Instead of just restricting the storytelling to cutscenes, you'll occasionally encounter living humans who might have a bit to contribute or data/audio/video discs that you can read in your handy-dandy PDA whenever you wish. It's executed in a manner that fits the game, since if you don't want to know anything about the story, you could pick up the discs strewn about the facility and never read or listen to any of them and you'd be perfectly fine for the most part. Occasionally, you come across a locked door that you'll have to look through a certain PDA entry to find in order to progress and sometimes you still have to find an item that is essentially a key card in order to get through a locked door, but none of it feels intrusive and since you're going through twisting corridors in an abandoned facility on Mars, most of them are fairly linear in where you need to go to find them. As far as enemies are concerned, there really aren't too many things here that are completely new, but that's perfect for Doom 3. All of the weapons perform just like you remember, which is incredibly comforting when you're staring an imp with a fireball glowing in his hand and you just instantly know that switching to your shotgun and blasting him in the face will stop him in his tracks. In terms of scares, the experience starts off well and they do a few things throughout the game to keep you on your toes, but one feature that might get a lot of people more frustrated than creeped out is the games dependence on what are literally monster closets. You'll find yourself walking down a hallway time and time again and...BAM... you see a door to your right slide open, a monster pop out and hit you, then you kill it. It's cool the first few times, but after playing the game for 6+ hours, you'll start to grow tired of it since it seems more like a cheap attempt at increasing the difficulty. Of course, no game like this is complete without boss battles, and Doom 3 has several. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on what kind of gamer you are), all of the bosses are defeated by the classic formula of circle strafing and shooting tons of bullets into it or something nearby, making the boss battles against artistically epic enemies last about 2 minutes.


Graphics - 9/10

Looking back at this game in 2009, it still holds up remarkably well. At the time, I remember this was graphically that year’s version of Crysis, the ultimate test for any pc. Now that many of us are capable of running this game maxed out and in any resolution desired without any major framerate issues, it’s an impressive technical feat. While the outdoor environments might be a bit bland, the indoor locations look eerily haunted, with steam busting out of pipes as you walk through a metallic hallway with a few dim lights flickering on and off. The character designs and models look extremely well, especially with all of the shading effects on them to create a more realistic (or haunting in the case of enemies) setting. All of the animations look extremely fluid, making this easy to go back and look at without you having to make any concessions to the time period.

Sound - 8/10

I’ll admit, there were several moments in the game where I was positive I had killed everyone in a room and I’d hear a howl from behind me and actually jump in my seat. Unfortunately, most of the gun sound effects aren’t as well done as the environmental sounds, but it does make pretty good use of surround sound if you’ve got it. The voice acting is pretty solid which helps to give the illusion of the NPC’s that actually sounding like they’re interacting with each other instead of being in separate rooms reading a script. The one downer about the voice acting is that nearly every PDA recycles a few voices, but each one is acted incredibly well and helps you get a sense for what that character might have been going through when they recorded the log.


Overall - 8/10

For about 20$, you can now pick this up on steam and if you love mindless shooters or just creepy games, you definitely need this in your collection. It’s just long enough so it doesn’t feel like you’re getting ripped off while also cutting off just before the monster closet + shotgun to face combo starts to get old. It DOES have a multiplayer component, but I was unable to test it out so that might be worthwhile for some of you out there looking for an extended experience. Once you’re done with the game, you unlock an extra difficulty as well, so you’re definitely going to be getting a lot of bang for your buck. While the game itself doesn’t feel like it gets stale, it is a bit of a downer when you walk into areas and you’re able to predict exactly when something is going to pop out of one of the monster closets, which kind of destroys the atmosphere. All in all, it’s a solid package and something some people might be able to finish in a weekend since you’re more or less facing the same types of enemies with all of the classic weapons and they all work exactly like you remember and expect them too.

Left 4 Dead update review

Yeah, I know I already did a full review for Left 4 Dead, but now that the new patch is out that's added official support for the other two campaigns in versus, adds in the new Survival Mode, and then an extra map for that said mode, I feel it's worth it to update everyone. Since it's just an update, this isn't going to be as in depth as the stuff I normally do, but then again, this isn't a full retail game unless you count the Game Of The Year package, but...don't do that. Anyway, for those who never tried out the versus mode, I highly recommend you do, but make sure you play with friends because it requires an incredible amount of cooperation and communication to ever actually win on either side. While it was a bit controversial when announced that they were just adding support for the last two campaigns, when you consider that it's 10 more maps that you get to play on, it feels like you're getting an incredible deal, especially since it's all available for the low, low cost of free. Both campaigns feel incredibly unique now that you're able to control the infected on them, especially with certain sections of Dead Air, particularly the lobby moment. While the controls are still the same and there wasn't a graphics overhaul or anything, once you actually give the two campaigns a shot, you'll realize that it's a pretty sizable bonus for free that almost dwarfs anything else that you can pick up as a map pack for 5-10$ on xbox live at the very least. The last additional component and arguably the highlight of the patch is the new Survival Mode. Typically games that have survival modes are more of a test of your patience than actually feeling like you're fighting to survive. Left 4 Dead's view is the exact opposite. Instead of gradually increasing the numbers of infected and special infected attacking, from the moment you start the event, you are completely bombarded from all directions, and for the first few times, you'll probably die in the first minute or two. As you progress further and further into the mode, the game starts spawning special infected at a faster and faster rate, until eventually there is no respawn timer between them. One of the neat things that definitely doesn't happen in other games or the campaigns/versus for Left 4 Dead is that, basically, no spot is safe and the moment you think everything is fine, something's going to happen which forces you to constantly be ready to move to a new location while pushing your way through the hordes. It's also worth mentioning that there isn't really a noticeable break between waves, meaning that not only do you need to stay alive, but you've also got to take down everything as fast as you can while still trying to keep up with your ammo. For people with the PC version, if you have the game installed, Steam now does an automatic update, meaning that your copy of Left 4 Dead should already be set up for this and 360 owners, I believe it's a 100ish mb download, but it's well worth every byte and if you had any fun at all playing the game ever, you need to get this installed.

Street Fighter IV Review

Street Fighter IV has been out for over a month as of the time of this review. Instead of trying to write about the game before investing serious time with it, I decided to hold of and let the dust settle so I could look past the hype and nostalgia and evaluate this for what it is. The series has always been one of those things that a lot of people have fond memories of playing arcades or against friends on the SNES/Genesis, but it’s always had that hardcore crowd that’s been there since then playing every version, mastering every change, etc. For those people, Street Fighter IV might be exactly what you’re looking for, especially if you preferred Street Fighter II to the III or the alphas. For other people that are looking for a good one to start on however, you might do better just picking up HD Remix or any of the other re-releases.

Gameplay – 8/10

Before the game came out, the developers and various people in the press that had spent a lot of time with the series were talking about how they were going to try to capture the more simple style of Street Fighter II over the complexities of SFIII with a few new tweaks to make things a bit more balanced. In addition to tweaking fight mechanics, all of the characters people remember from the Street Fighter II series have made a return along with 4 all new characters. There’s also 9 unlockable characters for people that invest the time in finishing the game under certain qualifications, mostly from the alpha series with the exception of two brand new characters. Fortunately, instead of just being reskins of the old characters, each one feels like they’ve been in the series the whole time and have the same easy to learn, but hard to master special moves. In the special moves department, for all of the classic characters, every move you remember is back in the game with the exact same command as before. Instead of just stopping with special moves though, Capcom has included an EX version of all of them (similar to 3rd strike) where you can hit two punches or two kicks as you execute the actual maneuver to perform a more powerful version of that attack. This adds an extra layer of depth to the game since there are various situations where you can actually cancel out a regular attack by doing one of these, allowing you to develop some pretty interesting combos. To combat all of the new offensive tweaks, there are focus attacks, which have the ability to absorb one hit (with a few exceptions that are learned from playing) and crushing the opponents guard. If you think your opponent is going to counter this, however, you can quickly cancel out of it by performing a dash in another direction, adding more depth to the game. As is becoming customary with fighting games, there’s a training mode that’s got a lot of combos to help you come to grasps with the mechanics but do little to explain them other than showing you what buttons you have to press. There’s no demonstration of the moves, meaning you’re going to be spending a lot of time just doing trial and error to figure out exactly when to cancel out something or the timing of that last hit. For hardcore players, this probably isn’t a problem but instead of helping, it alienates newcomers who are just coming to grips with how to perform special moves. Beyond that, there’s the standard survival and time attack modes, an arcade mode that has a storyline with anime cutscenes for every character, various unlockable costumes, and a basic online component. The only other downside I can think of is with the online play; a lot of the features that were huge in HD Remix are absent, most notably the quarter match mode. Supposedly, these are coming as DLC in the future, but it’s definitely a downer that this isn’t included on what would otherwise be a stellar offering. One other gripe I have is that a lot of the balance changes made in HD Remix were completely removed for whatever reason in SF4, which makes the tiers about the same as they were back in SF2 for people that aren’t going to be taking the time to learn all of the new stuff are basically just going to be playing Street Fighter II again, but with prettier graphics.


Graphics – 10/10

Every Street Fighter title seemed to be pushing more and more towards capturing an anime style, but the actual art style, while incredibly vivid for a 2d fighter, never seemed to be as fluid as what’s been present in the King of Fighters and Guilty Gear series offerings. Instead of retreading old ground or trying to make something similar to last years hit Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, the game sports a completely new look that I’ve never seen anywhere else. It’s really hard to describe with words since it blends so many styles developed over the year’s together, so I’ll just go with one word: beautiful. Everything seems to be moving at a steady framerate the entire time, allowing for frame counters to be in complete heaven since they don’t have to account for any hiccups, while the average player will simply appreciate how cartoon-like the game feels. There’s nothing quite like pulling of an ultra combo and watching the enemies eyes get large as they prepare for the oncoming beatdown! While none of the stages from the classic games have returned, many of the new ones have a feel similar to the classics, such as Guile, Chun Li, and even Zangief’s stage with various effects going on in the background that are directly affected by the player’s actions. All of the old characters are pretty much the exact same as they were back in the old days, from Zangief and his bizarre body hair to Ryu’s signature headband. The best part of all the characters though is that even the new characters received just as much attention, making them welcome additions to the franchise. Some characters, such as El Fuerte capture the more down to earth craziness of the Street Fighter franchise, but combine it with a luchadore to make 100% awesome, while you have other characters that are just flat out insane (Rufus). As previously mentioned, all of the new characters feel like they could have been done in 2D before in some unreleased Street Fighter game and just brought back into the limelight with this title. As far as the HUD, it’s pretty similar to what you’ve grown accustomed to, but as the saying goes “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” The graphical direction of SF4 is completely out of the blue, but for some reason just feels like a logical progression of things. There are definitely bonus points here for originality, especially since it seems the graphics appeal to newcomers and veterans alike instantly without being intrusive to the gameplay.


Sound - 9/10

Hadouken! I probably don’t need to say much else than that for this paragraph for people that have been playing for a long time! There’s an insanely catchy menu song (I’m not sure if that’s a plus or minus for you), and while the individual songs for the stages aren’t as memorable as stuff from the past, they all fit in pretty well. If you couldn’t tell from the first word in this section, all of the sound effects are still here since if you’re going to shoot fire out of your hand, just out of common courtesy, it’s nice to let the other person know ahead of time by announcing it. One change that’s kind of a negative is the new voice acting for losing fights. None of the voices really fit the game (“My prize moneyyyyy!”…really, Balrog?), but after completing the game one time, you do unlock the ability to change them to Japanese. What you may be unaware of is that if you do actually turn on Japanese voices, it changes the theme song to the exact same song, but in Japanese instead of English. The voice acting in the cutscenes is pretty well done in my opinion, but it’s just weird to hear some of the weird stuff people yell out. In..des..structible. Trust me, after playing this game for a while, you’ll definitely be at least humming those lyrics, there’s absolutely no way around it.


Overall – 8/10

For people that have the time or have been anticipating a new Street Fighter for years, you’re definitely going to be pleased. All of the tweaks to the combat system effectively help to rebalance the game and add some variety. The graphics are amazing to look at, you’ll instantly know how to pull off a flash kick with no problem at all, and the ability to cancel out certain moves into other ones or just dash away gives you some amazing combo options. On the opposite end of the spectrum, people that have never played a Street Fighter before are probably going to be playing this game the exact same way people had been playing SF2 all those years ago, and for those people, you might find a better value in HD Remix, especially since it’s a lot cheaper. All of the new characters here fit in perfectly, with the old ones working just like you remember and the addition of ultra combos is a pretty welcome change without being overpowered. The downer that’s unavoidable to mention is that a lot of the balance changes from HD remix are completely absent, and the online play is pretty basic, with many of the modes people grew to love absent and no official date on when they’ll return. If you’re looking for a solid fighter and you’re willing to invest the time to learn what makes this game so great, you’re going to be getting a great deal for your dollar, but for everyone else, you might want to just save some cash and pick up HD Remix instead.

Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix

Street Fighter is one of those franchises that it seems like anyone that's ever played a video game has either played or at least knows about, which it's legendary "Hadouken" becoming one of the most memorable quotes from any game that's ever existed. As the years have gone by, it's seen tons of sequels and spin-offs, but after all these years, one of the finest versions has finally received an amazing overhaul, both visually and mechanically. SSF2THDR represents a culmination of fighting game enthusiasts dreams (rebalancing, tweaking and adding in moves, etc), while giving the game a much needed graphical overhaul to make it home on next gen consoles while still managing to capture the true spirit that made the original release of SSF2T so great in so many players eyes.

Gameplay – 10/10

There’s a reason why every Street Fighter game is highly anticipated, then continues to be the fighting game to beat for years after it comes out. Super Street Fighter II Turbo was the pinnacle of everything we thought a 2d fighter could be back when it came out, and though many new mechanics have been introduced over the years, SSF2T continues to be one of the highest regarded fighting games ever. The original kept the combo system introduced in SSF2, but added an extra layer of depth by allowing fighters to pull off a devastating super move after accumulating enough energy in a gauge in the lower corner of the screen, which was strong enough to turn the tides of battle in a players favor, but took a while to charge which kept it from being cheap. Still, despite that huge gameplay addition back in the day, little was done to rebalance the game. Enter our challenger, SSF2THDR. Instead of just altering the graphics and keeping everything the same, various characters were rebalanced and had some moves and frames changed to make every character seem a lot more worthwhile if you invested the time. While they could have called it quits with the amazing new art style and the moves, there’s an added online mode that allows you to play ranked and unranked matches with people from all over the globe. The two most creative however are the return of quarter matches (2 players fight, winner stays, loser goes, and next in line challenges them) and tournament mode (…it’s a tournament mode.), which gives you tons to come back for especially if you don’t have any friends that are actually willing to come by to play in person.


Graphics – 8/10

Playing the original Street Fighter II series on an HDTV just doesn’t hold up as well as one might wish, which was why this game received a complete graphical overhaul. The art style captures a more comic book art style instead of being anime influenced (ala Guilty Gear, King of Fighters, etc), which looks great on any tv, especially if yours supports any HD mode. On the downside, while the art does look great once you adjust to it, some people are going to have a hard time accepting the fact that the game has an almost cartoon look to it, but once you accept that, you’ll realize that all of the hitboxes and everything is pretty much the exact same. The backgrounds were all redone too, and while there’s nothing new here, what is there is very easy on the eye and actually works perfectly fine in widescreen hd resolutions, meaning that your fights will take up the whole screen instead of having random background images there.

Sound – 8/10

There’s no denying that the one of the most remembered phrases in all of gaming is that arcade staple, the hadouken. All of the sound effects that have lodged there way into your hearts and brain over the last 20+ years are all back, meaning that you’ll still get a kick out of trying to figure out what in the world Ryu and Ken are saying when they do their hurricane kick. While the sounds may all be the exact same, the soundtrack itself is the most notable feature here. As the years have gone buy, the ladies and gentlemen over at Overclocked Remix have constantly put out some amazing songs either based on games or remade songs that they’ve really latched on to, with some of them actually sounding superior to the original composition. A while back, they put out a Street Fighter II remix cd, which is what the score for HD Remix happens to be, fitting in flawlessly with the redone art style with all the songs still sounding somewhat similar, meaning you can still hum along to your favorite characters theme. Personally, I love the soundtrack, but it might be a disappointment to some who were looking for the original versions of the songs.


Overall – 9/10

Since I’m writing this a few months late, Street Fighter IV has already hit store shelves and been snatched up by the masses, but even among all of the excitement about the new game, HD Remix feels like it’s going to be a game people will continuously come back to since it’s almost an unchanged experience compared to the original with enough tweaks to the gameplay to make it feel like it’s the finest moment of the Street Fighter II series. The online options are actually more extensive than what’s currently available on SFIV, and the simplicity of knowing that everything you loved about the game back in the 90’s is still here, before the genre was introduced to parries, reversals, and the like might actually make this a much better purchase for many people. While some may be put off by the price tag, you’ll eventually realize that your money was well worth it as you slowly start losing hour after hour to this title, playing against either friends or competitors from all around the world and learning how to benefit from all the new character changes made here.

Skate 2 Review

Who would have thought that all it would take to dethrone the Tony Hawk franchise from the the skateboarding throne was a little realism and a new control scheme? When you look back at every game that went against it one way or another (Thrasher, Grind Sessions, MTV Sports Skateboarding, etc) and you see all of them were completely destroyed, when buzz first started about some crazy new skateboarding game from EA was in the works, almost everyone dismissed it as them trying to cash in on the Pro Skater style of gameplay finally and started to ignore it. When the day finally came, not only did the original Skate destroy Proving Grounds in sales, it also forced Activision to pull the franchise back to restructure it. Skate 1 was a breakthrough success that shows how one solid idea can completely reinvigorate what everyone had slowly accepted as being a stale genre. Not only was it a breath of fresh air, but there was a strong community built around the game that never faded away, and when EA announced that there was going to be a Skate 2, it was probably the first time that a sequel from them had more excitement in the air for all the potential to change things from the first game, but no one was sure exactly what could be done to change the actual gameplay itself without convoluting the stellar control scheme. Did they actually manage to beat the high standards set in the previous game while throwing in enough stuff to keep things fresh?

Gameplay - 10/10

With the original, not only did they manage to completely alter how people percieved skateboarding games, there was plenty of content, and entire city with 5 very different areas in between, loads of events to participate in, an excellent multiplayer component, and one of the most in depth replay editors anyone had ever seen in a console game. Who would have thought that not only would they completely obliterate that ridiculously high standard set in Skate, but expand on everything everyone loved, mix in old and new environments, and throw some solid co-op in for good measure? Skate 2 is the perfect example of how to make a sequel. Instead of trying to change everything up, they kept the flawless controls intact, threw in loads of new tricks for those that want more to sink their teeth into using some of the extra buttons, altered the event progression, and upped the framerate from 30 fps to 60, making everything buttery smooth. If you missed the original skate or tried it and thought it was fun but never invested time into it, you might do yourself a tremendous favor by starting here. Since it's a skateboarding game, there really wasn't much of a story to speak of other than trying to become a pro by doing various things to get featured on the Skateboard Mag and Thrasher, ultimately striving to earn a cover shot and a chance to show what you learned at the x-games. If you're looking for the crazy destructive antics of the Tony Hawk games, then stay far away, but the sheer number, diversity, and freedom in the events is impressive, not to mention that you no longer have to do events you don't want to unless you're trying to get all of the achievements. The size of the city is just as impressive as before, and it's a nice touch when you're skating through the New San Van's downtown area for the first time, setting up for a massive 360 flip across a familiar stair set only to realize at the last minute that the old landing area has been altered just enough to make everything feel fresh yet still staying away from the arcade-like nature of other skateboarding games. Just in case you get tired of hitting the same old 10 stair or ledges repeatedly, you're now able to freely walk around the city (no grabbing onto ledges here!) and while the controls aren't spectacular for this aspect, it's designed to let you run up different stairs or possibly set up some dumpsters to jump across so you can reach that ledge you've been dying to drop off since you first spotted it. The fact that you actually can move many of the objects in the city and there are ramps stashed in various places that you can move and set up anywhere is an amazing addition that means the diversity of terrain is limited only by your own imagination. If you set up a particularly nice location, you can go into the new spot editor, save it and set a score, then upload it for anyone to try out. Taking a cue from Burnout Paradise, by hitting the back button anywhere in the city, you have access to a map, options, your friends list, and the ability to create an online freeskate session in that location without ever having to return to the main menu. On top of all of this is an enhanced replay editor that lets you control the camera, meaning you can finally make videos that are on par or better than those shown in the intro and trailers for the first skate finally. The only downside to all of the freedom here is that they removed the filter effects that might be added as dlc later, but it's still an amazing package and I can guarantee that you're getting much more than your moneys worth with Skate 2.


Graphics - 10/10

Skate sported one of the sleekest art styles to be seen in a skateboarding game. With the vivid, yet realistic colors of the city and the realistic design of the city (what was with Project 8 and stores that happened to be shaped like halfpipes anyway?) along with some nice work done on models and textures, it seems there were lofty heights to reach if Skate 2 was ever going to improve. Thankfully, EA has some of the deepest pockets in the gaming industry along with some incredible talent, meaning that the framerate was upped, the city's design is similar, yet almost feels completely different, and the small tweaks that you'll have to see to believe. With the ability to freely move the camera around in the replay feature, the models look just as good up close as they do at a distance. While one of the features a lot of people enjoyed were the bails, you always had some people complaining about how your skater never looked like they'd been physically hurt or anything. To anyone that's thinking of making a skater with short shorts and no shirt, after a few bails, you'll see blood dripping down your body, or if you're wearing clothes, you'll notice dirt accumulating the more you hit the ground. Not even the wheels are immune to the realism, with them getting oil all over and the deck showing scratches as time goes by. There's the addition of female models as well, which received just as much attention as the males. That same effect of the world looking more vibrant is back as you get a higher multiplier, which is almost encouragement for trying to make sure you're doing good. Car models look a lot less blocky and overall, everything looks like it had a few extra months to get the extra attention it needed to make this worthy of being a sequel instead of just Skate 1.5

Sound - 9/10

After playing Skate It on DS and having to deal with the same 4 songs over and over, it was nice to see that they put just as much work into the soundtrack here as they did with the original title.There's a nice mix here, meaning that there's something for everyone and the songs all sound like their full versions. The city is full of all of the sounds that made it feel so alive, from the honking of horns as you try to skate across the street to the pedestrians yelling praise or complaints as you skate by them after pulling off a massive trick. The one downside for some people is that supposedly, the sound effects of the board snapping when you pop an ollie has been turned down some, along with the sound of your trucks grinding against different obstacles, which I never really noticed but feel it is worth mentioning for any audiophiles out there. I've got a 5.1 system that I used to test the mixing on and it sounds like everything was done better, such as being able to tell when that security guard is getting dangerously close to my rear right, but I'm not sure anyone was actually saying anything about that in the first game. On the downside, part of me wishes the soundtrack had been a little bigger, but I'm not sure that would have been possible without some aspect of the gameplay having to be sacrificed. There's always custom soundtracks for when you get tired though of what is offered!

Overall - 10/10

I'm simply amazed with the fact that not only does skate 2 stand up well to skate 1, it makes it hard to go back after experiencing it! It's very rare that a sequel manage to simply be a better game than the first but somehow, they pulled it off. Whether you're a hardcore skater or someone that tried out Tony Hawk 2 and thought it was alright, skate 2 is one of the must have games on 360. The sheer size of the environment is impressive, since no area feels like it was neglected. There's plenty of hidden spots to be found, an excellent multiplayer, a trick guide for if you're having trouble with the controls, and one of the strongest communities that's popped up in a long time. If you're picky about graphics, while skate 2 doesn't look as well as Killzone 2 supposedly does, it's surprisingly well done. The entire package is so much more than just a rehash in a new city, meaning that anyone who loved the first game should already have this and it's well worth the 60$ admission tag. Just in case the controls and depth aren't your bag, there's always the hall of meat that's dedicated to wracking up as much damage on your skater as possible. If you don't have the cash to buy it at full price, at least do yourself a favor and rent it, this is the perfect example of how not only to make an excellent sequel, but sets the new standard for action sports games.

Left 4 Dead Review

Fast zombies + friends = win

Survival Horror is one of those genres that refuses to evolve. On one hand, it's mastered its art of having tense atmospheres, creepy monsters, incredible soundtracks, brilliant sound mixing, and so forth, but it's very rare that a game comes along and puts it own unique twist on the genre. The first major evolution to survival horror happened in Resident Evil 4, which focused on a more controlled experience by allowing free aiming, a user friendly camera angle, and a twist on the narrative. The recently released Dead Space offered another twist, giving the player much more control over themselves and focusing more on managing your own inventory, precision aiming, and picking how you're going to take down the incoming mutants. Between Dead Space and Left 4 Dead, 2008 was a major and much needed evolution in the genre, Left 4 Dead taking a completely different approach than anything previously seen in games (4 player co-op first person shooter against hordes of zombies), and while it may be a short experience, it's one that is radically different depending on who you're playing with and each time you go through it, making it a must buy for any fan of the first person shooters or survival horror games.

Story/Presentation - 9/10

Left 4 Dead has a unique concept. Instead of focusing on one solid narrative, you're essentially playing through four different films, each involving the same characters, but in completely different locales, with no two campaigns feeling the same. For anyone wondering if the game has a tutorial, in one sense, it doesn't. The developer instead opted to include a cinematic cutscene at the beginning, and if you watch it, you get clued in on different aspects of the game. The terror of coming across a witch in an unexpected place and how to deal with it, the panic that sets in when a large and powerful zombie knows as a tank shows up, even down to the bone chilling howl of an approaching hunter, it's all right there. If you decide not to watch this for whatever reason, between loading screens, tips are shown on the bottom of the screen, and as you come into situations (such as finding weapons, downed friends, etc), the game tells you exactly what to do in the situation. It's all incredibly well done and keeps from breaking the immersion. Each of the characters has a distinct personality, from the tough-guy Francis, grizzled war vet Bill, the tough but cute required woman Zoey, to the token black guy Louis. All of the stereotypical characters from horror movies are portrayed here without being annoying and actually helping to immerse you in the world. Occasionally, during quiet spots, you'll hear a character comment about the current situation, including your own, and all of it comes off as being incredibly well done and natural feeling. There's a bit of film grain thrown into the game for good measure to further indulge you in the movie fantasy. While the story itself isn't incredibly compelling, you do get a strong sense of motivation to push on through each area and while each campaign isn't too long (40 minutes-an hour and a half normally), they feel like they're just the right length. There are plenty of different visual and audio clues that keep you engaged and let you know what type of situation you're about to get into, from the sudden orchestral blares and the accompanying scream of zombies when a horde is about to rush you, to the red glow of a witch's eyes as you walk through that room with your flashlights off, hoping to escape without her noticing. You'll quickly find yourself completely immersed in the world of Left 4 Dead, and the only downside is that there isn't more there, however what IS present is more than enough to keep you engaged for months.


Gameplay - 10/10

It's never felt so good in a game to be completely terrified by not knowing what was going to happen next. Just when you think you have the jump on situations, the AI Director throws in something unexpected. You could be staying back and shooting at zombies in the distance when a smoker appears from the trees and pulls one of your survivors in, rendering them helpless until a teammate rushes to their aid, meanwhile a boomer sneaks up on another person and vomits on them, triggering a rush of zombies, when you finally hear that chilling scream of a hunter that you can't see since you're so occupied with everything else. Left 4 Dead does an excellent job of keeping you on your toes. It's a nice touch that the included bots are incredibly solid and never seem to do anything stupid (aside from ignoring you when you try to direct them to a molotov or pipe bomb that's out of their visual range). The controls are precise, and while many games nowadays are reliant on Ironsights, the developers behind this title understood how chaotic things can get and give you incredibly precise aim by just shooting from the hip without ever having to raise your aim. Instead of having aiming as a secondary fire function, you've got a melee attack that's used to bat away enemies, giving you a few precious moments as they stumble away in a daze to get off that needed headshot. While some would complain about how you can't do anything when three of the super infected have you in their grasp (Smoker, Hunter, and boomer, for a moment), that's part of the fun. Instead of letting you try to fight against a hunter that's pinned you to the ground, the camera is pulled back as you see it beating you fiercely, forcing you to call out for a teammate to come to your aid. If they don't make it, instead of just dying, you're gone for awhile, and then you'll randomly appear in one of several closets located around each map. It forces you to keep alert and constantly think about what you're going to be doing and what the costs could be. There are several different weapons that you'll come across, each having their own strengths and weaknesses that become more and more apparent the more you play the game. Just to give you a clue, in a 4 player game, it's incredibly useful if you all have different weapons, or at least the 3 main ones. Last, there's the multiplayer game, which allows 4 humans to play as the survivors, and the other 4 to play as super infected, choosing where to spawn and forcing them to coordinate since each one has a powerful attribute, but suffers from at least one glaring weakness. Teamwork and communication is vital to overcome a team of crafty survivors, but the game is far from unbalanced when you're playing with people you know or can at least strategize with. A nice addition is that each of the trophies is pretty fun to earn, such as hitting a hunter with a melee attack as he's preparing to pounce, to killing a witch with a single shot. While you'll be able to get some of the achievements from simply completing levels, to make the most of the game, you have to do some things that you wouldn't normally think about, but quickly becomes fun to do, such as trying to singlehandedly take down a tank. Everything feels incredibly well in the gameplay, from the execution of the concepts to the controls, even down to small details, such as the lighting effects of the flashlights to the distinct looks of the super infected in comparison to the normal ones, not to mention the loads of replayablity between the campaign and co-op modes, along with the promise of downloadable content in the future.

Sound - 10/10

You're creeping through an abandoned warehouse, looking down at your life to see how much health you have left. The rest of your team was taken down in the last major attack. In the distance, you hear a deep bellowing yell, from something incredibly large. Suddenly, you feel the earth shaking around you as a timpani drum beats. You check your ammo counter and reload your shotgun, listening for all of the shells to be inserted and that locking sound meaning you're ready to go. At this moment, you hear a human voice yelling for help somewhere behind you. Standing for a few moments, you turn on your flashlight and fire a few shots into the darkness, then turn as you hear the powerful footsteps from something unseen approaching behind you as you rush to help whoever it is that's trapped, in hopes of getting some assistance. As you reach them and hear the door click, you turn around and hear the sound of earth being ripped up behind you. Instantly, you know that it's a tank approaching you and your friend, when from out of nowhere, you hear a haunting chorus of screams, then the dramatically swelling orchestral soundtrack well up. Not only do you have a tank on your hands, but you've also got a horde of zombies approaching from somewhere, as your teammate mutters something under their breath. Moments like this are what make Left 4 Dead's audio shine. Not only does the game have very solid sound effects, from the distinctive sounds of each weapon to the positional audio setup, but the subtle, yet well laid out soundtrack works to enhance the tension. Each of the super infected has a certain song that plays, indicating when they're approaching along with their own distinctive sounds they make, from the cry of a witch to the coughing of a smoker, you'll quickly finding yourself listening for those sounds amidst the chaos of hundreds of zombies regular screams. The weapon sound effects all give you a real sense of power, and while they don't have any real brands of guns, who cares when a sniper rifle is a sniper rifle and an auto shotgun is just that? That's what it all comes down to at the end of the day, and trust me, the sounds in this game will continue to haunt you even when you're no longer playing the game. The voice work is excellent, and it's nice that they went for creating personalities for each character by giving them dialogue that fits their look instead of trying to hire some random professional actors. There's a lot of small effects present, such as the coughing from when you walk through the ashes of a recently killed smoker to the screams for help if they manage to get you in their grasp. Each character also yells out automatically when you come across an item the team may want to pick up, along with giving you details on their status "Cover me, I'm reloading!".


Graphics - 9/10

For being four year technology, it's amazing how Half Life 2's source engine is constantly being pushed beyond what we though was previously it's threshold. There are lots of excellent lighting effects, dynamic shadows, flares, animations, and other things that really help give Left 4 Dead its own identity, elevating it far beyond just looking like a Half Life 2 mod. If you check out the developers website, they also mention that there were many choices they made in the game to create a more tense, yet fair experience. Originally, the areas you were walking through were darker, relying on pure lighting to let you see what was happening, but throughout testing, they found it was a complaint that kept arising. To fix the issue, they opted to use dark colored fog, which lets you see some of what's happening in the distance while keeping you guessing as to what's lurking out their in the fog, and it's still a pretty dark game. Another change that shows the attention to detail is that, in order to enhance the feeling of each area being an abandoned and forsaken place, the world itself has a pretty downtrodden feel to it. In the No Mercy campaign, instead of just putting you in an urban environment with abandoned houses, they threw graffiti on the walls, have a lot of slick looking textures in the outside area's, giving the illusion that there was recently rain, cars placed sporadically, especially police cars and those with alarms, which helps to enhance the feeling that something is incredibly wrong with this town and you might want to take heed and follow what everyone else did: Leave while you still can. The graffiti on the walls, if you have a moment, involves more of the humor that was shown in Portal, while other things reinforce the feeling that something went horribly wrong. The models for the survivors and infected are all incredibly well done, and the rag doll physics help as well, letting you know when you pulled off a powerful shot by sending a zombie spiraling through the air or off the side of a building. There's a film grain effect applied over everything to give the illusion that it's almost like watching or living a horror movie in a first person perspective. Since you're going to be spending a lot of time looking at your gun in the game, it's nice to know that all of the weapon models are well done. The flashlight and shadows work to not only to let you see what's coming up, but almost plays a psychological game with you as you enter an area with it on and see a shadow up ahead, only to find out it was cast by a bottle.Speaking of the flashlight effects, instead of just having a flashlight attached to your eye or something, which is how most games feel, L4D attaches it to your weapon, meaning that if you're reloading, it's temporarily cast in a different direction, leaving you vulnerable to the front if any danger approaches. Whenever you die, you get to watch the chaos happening to the other players in a third person viewpoint, giving you a different view of the action and it's actually kind of fun to look at. While many of the levels involve a house or some sort of indoor environment, they did an excellent job of varying the textures and placing of items, keeping each one feeling fresh and new and really letting you kind of get a hold on where the good hiding spots are after a short while. The only downside to the graphics, which is understandable, is that if you're running this game on a pc, the framerate will drop down (it's still completely playable and not everyone is going to notice it) during some of the more chaotic scenes, such as the finale chapter of Dead Air, so just be prepared for that.


Overall - 9/10

A 9/10 for a game that's only 4 hours long?! How can that be possible?! Simple. Left 4 Dead takes that 4 hours, gives you 4 different difficulties, a compelling survivor vs infected multiplayer game, the promise of new content in the future, and an amazing AI director system that changes up the placement of things to keep everything fresh every time you play. I can promise you that you will never have the same experience twice, and it's further elevated when you're playing with friends or people that know what they're doing. It's still a blast to play with people who are either new to the genre or aren't as skilled, since the director always seems to throw out just enough craziness to test your limits, occasionally pushing you past them when you're faced with improbable odds, but it rarely feels unfair. The only times that are guaranteed to happen are the major triggers which the game alerts you of right before you activate them by telling you "press the switch and prepare for the horde!" The sound, multiplayer, graphics, controls, and everything feels well done, well implemented, and well thought out, opting for a fun gameplay experience that sticks to the quality over quantity approach. While some of you may be put off by how brief it is on your initial playthrough, you'll find yourself constantly coming back for more, and it's nice since it's the kind of game where each chapter has a definite beginning and end and it's brief enough so that if you pick it up and play for an hour or so, you actually get to feel a sense of reward at the end. Left 4 Dead is definitely a must buy title for any gamer, regardless of if you're a fan of first person shooters or not. It's almost guaranteed to have something here that you'll fall in love with and find yourself coming back for more zombie action when you least expect it. Just remember to turn off the flashlight when you hear that innocent cry. There's a reason why they call her a witch.