It’s been over ten years since the release of the original Deus Ex game launched for the PC and ever since then its fans have been craving a sequel deserving of carrying the brand name. A piss poor attempt was made with the follow up game titled Invisible War. Now here we are and its 2011 with a new developer taking on its very first project with Deus Ex: Human Revolution. The boys at Eidos Montreal had a lot to live up to as far as fan expectations go and making a transition to consoles has proven to hinder some pc developers in the past. Let’s find out if they can deliver on the hype leading up to the games release and come full circle with an engaging multi-platform sequel to the epic Deus Ex franchise.

For those that aren’t familiar with the franchise, Deus Ex is a cyber punk RPG/FPS set in a future where technology has taken over and perhaps gone too far. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is set 20 year prior to the events of the original game in the year 2027. The player controls Adam Jensen, head of security at Sarif Industries. After an attack on the labs of Sarif, Jensen’s tale begins as he investigates the reasons behind the attacks. We quickly learn that there is a division between those that believe augmentations are a crime against man and those like Sarif Industries who make there billions on selling augmentations to the masses.

Deus Ex: HR takes place in a large open world. Interacting with different people and exploring is what makes Human Revolutions worth your time. Chiming in at around 25-40 hours for a single play through, this game definitely offers a large variety of missions and side quests to keep you busy. The games story and the way it forces you to make decisions has the game practically begging for multiple play throughs. The player can also chose to not only affect the story but also how the game is played. You can go at it stealthy, guns blazing, and even use your ability to speak to negotiate your way through certain situations. Upgrades and augmentations help to aid you in what ever play style you choose. So if you want to play the game stealthy you can choose to do so and apply your upgrade points to the different stealth augmentations like an invisibility cloak to aid in sneaking past bad guys.

As far as the games overall presentation goes, I have to say that I was impressed. The games art style is impressive and despite being almost exclusively set at night time, the game manages to deliver a colorful and vibrant world. The voice acting for Deus is also top notch and the soundtrack provides a nice background for the game.

Overall I am completely enjoying my experience so far with Human Revolution. I am looking forward to a second and possibly third play through. With its stunning graphics, addictive gameplay, and fantastic RPG elements I have no problem giving this game a near perfect score. Everyone at Eidos Montreal deserves some kudos for a job well done on their first game. You can pick up Deus Ex: Human Revolution today in North America and on Friday, the 26^th in Europe and Japan.

By now we all know that the majority of movie tie-in games are mostly laden with crappy over used game mechanics, lack of development time and a distinct lack of imagination which causes gamers to want to blow their brains out that they’ve just spent upwards of £35.00 on a brand new title. Hollywood has already given them the sandbox of possibilities yet the crunch period often ruins the results. High Moon Studios are back again but this time with Dark of the Moon. War for Cybertron was an admirable effort from the development studio but is their latest title?

The game’s basic premise is to go around killing decepticons within various locations of the world. Each level on the single player involves you using a different robot and with that you’ll have different abilities, whether that be grenade launchers, armor piercing rounds, laser projectiles etc etc. The most fun part though is transforming into your disguised machine, this can be anything from a jet aircraft, suped up hot rod car or for those that enjoy simulators a big rig. It’s the transforming element of the game that yields it’s funnest moments, even if the car handling is a little sketchy keeping the driving locked in to the right analogue stick. Bizarrely though it’s in the transformed mode where arguably you are at your most dangerous. The weaponry feels ridiculously powerful considering this is the method you are using to become mobile and agile against enemy fire. It is then that an element of strategy is taken away from the game when one was added from giving us this ability. High Moon should have left the most powerful tech to the auto-bot pose, the mightiest weaponry when you are least mobile, in a risk/reward style play. Unfortunately the only real strategical element you will get from the game on the single player at least is by hiding behind cover to avoid enemy fire. Easy is too easy and medium is actually on the difficult side at times when you factor in some of the random enemy spawning, especially in locked out arena areas. Whilst the game serves up some nice moments it’s all too linear and all too repeatative. It’s quite surprising when you factor in the different robots you get to play with but fighting wave after wave of decipticon for pretty much every level in the game, within locked out areas just becomes rather frustrating and when you throw in respawning after dying several times (due to totally bullshit enemy spawning), it’s enough to drive you crazy.

The game itself is pretty short, though it’ll feel like a lifetime with the repetition going on. Graphically the game is average and the sound passes you by with some poor robot dialogue and just the audiables of the reminicent iconic theme tune from the films filtering through throughout the game. None of the music actually adds to the atmosphere of the experience. If credit is due anywhere it’s with the games multiplayer and the single player FMV’s. These are nicely rendered and engage you enough to keep you playing and was for me the only thing that kept me playing the game past the second hour mark. The boss fights within Transformers aren’t anything special but they serve up a nice inter-change from defeating the decepticons the same way, one mission involved squashing a huge decipticon boss with the foundations of a building, nice.

So that’s the single player, what about the multiplayer? I was quite surprised by the multiplayer if I am honest. The lobbies are very similar to that of COD and the ability to veto certain maps for a movie tie-in game I thought was a nice added gesture. You can customise your character by it’s liveries and weaponry and as you raise up through the ranks, new abilities and upgrades will become available to you. There several robot classes which included the transformer vehicles of rigs, jet aicraft, cars and tanks. This helped spicen the gameplay up and each vehicle you use has an individual rank attached to it. These can be switched each re-spawn should you want too as well. The ability to transform adds a half decent layer of strategy, but kills do not feel satisfying at all. It’s the spongy bullet impact that once again detracts you from fully becoming involved in the multiplayer experience. You are at times left wondering how the hell you died, even though you had a round of bullets in your opponent prior to them actually killing you. The maps themselves are pretty decent, from high rise buildings, to mountain tops, each map will give you the opportunity to cover, perch and stealthily move around undetected. There are only three multiplayer modes but anymore than that and it would be difficult to get a game. Standard DM and TDM applies and Conquest also makes an appearance. I actually liked this multiplayer experience more than Section 8: Prejudice and that deserves some praise.

Overall you could tell that High Moon Studios were pushed for time. There was never any big enough moments in the game to feel like you were really kicking ass and the moments you did spend with over robots in the single player never felt utilised properly. Destroying wave after wave of enemies works for games like Earth Defence Force but in this environment more invention wouldn’t have gone a miss. Especially considering we are looking at a movie license which has unlimited scope to what it could achieve.

In what has so far been a very slow Summer in the gaming community there hasn’t been many good games coming out. Techland looks to change that this week with the developers third installment into the Call of Juarez franchise. Call of Juarez: The Cartel looks to break away from the cowboy western style game it had previously been and moving into a modern era Los Angeles. Let’s find out together if Techland can do what it sought out to do and bring some life into a mediocre franchise.

Like in the previous games you don’t have to saddle yourself with one particular character. This time you have three choices each of which is like a caricature of the agency they work for. The female FBI agent is Kim Evans, followed by DEA special agent Eddie Guerra, and last but not least LAPD Senior Homicide Detective Ben McCall. As in the McCall brothers. I’m guessing he is a descendent in some way of the brothers in the original games and the only reminance of what used to be an old west shooter. Playing as each character will give you a different perspective on the overall story and a slightly different ending. But the unforgettable story and underdeveloped characters hardly makes it worth your time.

The basic gist of the story is that there was a bombing somewhere, that of which a Mexican cartel was responsible. So in order to bring down everyone involved an inter-agency task force is assembled. Each member of the team has a spotty record and something or other fucked up going on in there life. Once brought together they begin shaking down gang bangers at the street level and working there way up the drug dealing food chain until they get to the top. You quickly however lose any interest in the story because of things like terrible voice acting and characters that you really don’t care too much about, no matter how hard they try at times.

The best factor of this game is without a doubt the gunplay. Shoot outs are fast and hectic with civilians rushing around to dodge your bullets. Kicking in doors becomes repetitive about mid way through the game and is almost as if you can predict what’s going to happen next. But all the while me and the friend I was playing with had a great time shooting bad guys with our silenced TMP’s that had a really pimp digital forest camo paint job on it. Thanks Gamestop! There are also a few annoying parts where you encounter helicopters, but they are easily enough dispatched if you make good use of cover. Even on the hardest difficulty I found this game to be rather easy when compared to say Call of Duty on Veteran difficulty. It was challenging, but at the same time I never felt like I couldn’t run out like Rambo guns blazing and fuck some shit up.

The multiplayer in The Cartel really surprised me. First you select whether you want to be a cop or criminal. The two game modes are standard team deathmatch and missions. Missions is like a mixed objective mode where you can be blowing up a door one minute and protecting or killing a high valued target the next. There are lots of weapons and other perks you can unlock as you level up on both sides. Overall I found the multiplayer rather enjoyable and fun. My only gripe is the game doesn’t offer a party system. Once in a game you can select a partner and stay with that person, but getting a friend in the same game as you can be like pulling fucking teeth.

When it came to presentation in the previous Juarez games, they weren’t winning any awards. And while that still may be the case there definitely have been improvement. Particularly in the area of lighting. The lighting effects throughout the campaign and multiplayer were very impressive at times. The audio is alright as well, nothing to sing about, but the game does offer a decent soundtrack.

So at the end of the day is Call of Juarez: The Cartel worth your $60? I would say no, but just for now. I would maybe give this one a rent or wait for it to drop in price a bit. I say this because most people aren’t going to play the campaign more than once and the mp while it is good, it doesn’t offer that lasting appeal of games like Battlefield or Call of Duty. But other wise this is what I would call a good weekend game. Some thing you could play through fairly quickly if you rented it and feel satisfied.

After sending this game to the United States only for customs and excise to grab hold of it like it was some anthrax package, needless to say this review is somewhat overdue. A game never intended directly to be reviewed by myself but Craig our U.S correspondent. As days crept by I had the distinct notion that the game wasn’t going to show up, so intervention was required – rental!

Alice: Madness Returns is the latest game by Spicy Horse and is a return to the series that has been left pondering whether it would see the light of day again. American McGee’s Alice (the original) only found itself on the PC at the time but the sequel fortunately is multi-platform. If the game deserves credit off the bat, it’s that any new purchase of this game comes with a digital download of the first game and as it stands you can only get this via the code as it is unavailable to buy via Xbox Live or Playstation Network. So already you are getting some bang for your buck. It is this free gift so to speak then that props the score of this game up, because the actual gameplay in Alice is very rudimentary. Fortunately the combat system is smooth and varying use of combat is required to dispose of certain enemies. Long range attacks will be required for airborne enemies and dodge and commit style of attack is required for goblins whom are protected with teapots on their heads. The range of weaponry – whilst sounds inventive are basic platformer based weapons we see time and time again but with just a re-branding of them. You’ll get to smash people with a hobby horse which works in the same way as a sledgehammer, the vorpal blade works much like any sword would. Alice also has access to a timed bomb device and of course a gun which shoots out…well…see for yourselves.

Whilst the combat is fluid and makes up the best part of the game, it’s the generic platforming sections in this game that really makes it difficult to become truly engaged. Throughout the different worlds and theming you encounter you are essentially doing the same thing over and over again, negotiating floating platforms and shooting up vaccums to take yourself higher up a level. The boss encounters are pretty fun but they lack the grandeur seen in some games such as Shadows of the Collosus or God of War. The storyline also felt a little lost on me too. It’s fair to say that Alice: Madness Returns has a story that is about as plausable as Shadows of the Damned except at least Shadows of the Damned actually had a decent level of humour about it. Visually this game ticks pretty much all of the boxes, throughout your progress in the game you’ll be astounded just how many different colour cycles the Unreal engine is pushed through, it’s a beautiful game with a considerable amount of time invested in the character and location design to step along with the odd world that Alice is experiencing. The game does have collectables which gives it some replay value, the ability to shrink alice down to walk over invisible platforms and through keyholes will help you negotiate hidden areas within the game that fortunately are not always remotely obvious. Alice can collect a variety of items but the most important of these items is teeth. Once Alice collects enough teeth she can upgrade her weapon at any time she feels necessary, none of this weight till i reach a shop or vending machine crap. I liked that upgrade ability and it proved to be very helpful as the game came to it’s end as I felt upgrading particular weapons were a strategy of sorts.

Alice is a sluggish romp (the game that is) it doesn’t grip you enough with the storyline to forgive it’s mundane platforming and the enemy variety isn’t frequent enough to really appreciate the combat to it’s core. It is then, a average game with an insanely twist – delve deeper into the rabbit hole if you dare! P.S don’t be fooled by the wonderland exterior, this game is very gruesome at times!

The game that has the pleasure of spinning in my disc tray this week is Shadows of the Damned. I have been excited to review this game for some time because of some of the legendary names attached to the project. Shadows was developed by Grasshopper Studios and designed by the man himself, Shinji “Mother Fucking” Mikami. For those not familiar with Mikami he is the creative genius responsible for the Resident Evil franchise…ever hear of it? Yeah so basically Mikami has serious style and some big brass ones when it comes to developing new and interesting ideas and introducing them to the world of video games.

Shadows of the damned sees you stepping into the shoes of Garcia Hotspur. Not much is known from the beginning about Garcia except that he kills demons with his Boner, that’s a gun not his cock. And in the very first chapter he is thrust into controversy as he finds his girlfriend Paula swinging from a noose in their bedroom. She is then taken by Fleming, leader of the underworld and Hotspur’s sworn enemy. For her suicide she is punished to Hell where she is said to die repeatedly in different manners of pain and torture. So of course Senor Hotspur cannot take this one lying down. He hops on his hog with side kick Johnson in tow and makes his way to Hell to get back is lost love, Paula.

Apart from what I described above there isn’t a whole lot to go on for the story side of things, instead Shadows survives on witty sexual innuendos between Garcia and his faithful companion, Johnson. The side kick is a skull that used to be a demon himself but quit because he got tired of all the evil. He now serves Hotspur and is more or less the source of power for all his weapons and abilities. He attaches himself to whatever gun you are using or your torch that you use to light your way. Johnson does a great job of keeping us entertained, despite the lack of an ongoing narrative. He is voiced by British actor Greg Ellis, whom you may best know for the role of Lieutenant Theodore Groves in the Pirates of the Caribbean series. Johnson has instantly become my second favorite side kick of all time, right behind Wheatley from Portal 2. It seem 2011 is a good year for sidekicks, who often have English accents and provide witty banter.

Being that this game was designed by Mikami, I feel very comfortable comparing the gameplay to the older Resident Evil games. It’s basically like taking RE4 and putting it inside the completely over the top “Grind House” type of world. Because a lot of the games style does draw comparison from “B” movies and Grind House flicks.

Garcia has 4 main weapons, which while are all named differently they break down to being a pistol, shotgun, and assault rifle. You also have your torch that you can use for melee combat if a demon gets too close. You also have a secondary fire on all weapons known as a “light shot.” You use this shot for lighting lanterns in dark areas or stunning enemies. It also serves as a way of breaking certain enemies defenses when they are over taken with darkness. Overall the game has some clever game mechanics that puts a new spin on an old style of shooter. As with all Resident Evil games, the shooting mechanic is similar. You are in a third person view and the way once aims is by assistance of a laser sight that you can use with precision to take off said Demon heads.

The graphics in Shadows aren’t really amazing, but they are respectable. Where the game really shines visually is the impressive and original, although definitely Japanese influenced, art style. It is like somebody took Japanese video games and mixed it with the primarily Mexican influenced Spaghetti Western movies of the 1970’s.

The audio for this game couldn’t get better. I’m not speaking about the in game gfx sounds, those are ok. But what I’m talking about is the unbelievably fucking awesome soundtrack. The games stunning soundtrack was written by Akira Yamaoka, of Silent Hill fame. And for anyone that has every played Silent Hill, they can tell you the music is nothing to snuff at. This is no different in Shadows of the Damned. Combing a definitive Mariachi style of Mexican music with his own distinct Japanese twist, the soundtrack is nothing short of a master piece. We have with out a doubt an early contender for Video Game Soundtrack of the Year.

Overall I have to say that Shadows of the Damned is a great game. I know the art style will not be everyone cup of tea, but if you are a fan of Grind House cinema and over the top characters that you might want to give Shadows a try. I for one absolutely loved every second of the ten hour campaign and only wish there was more. I hope they decide to do a sequel and don’t stray too far from the path that made this an unbelievably good game. Pick it up now at your local retailer for the Xbox 360 or PS3.

Another point and click release by Telltale Games, the masters of the genre. This time they delve a little into the more out of step area with logic puzzles taking presidence and frequently too. How does this game fare? Watch our video review.

This week I will be looking at FEAR 3, the latest installment of the franchise from Day 1 Studios and published again by WB Games. I’ve never been the biggest fan of the franchise, but I’m coming into this game with an open mind. I never played the original on PC or its later port to consoles, but I did mildly enjoy FEAR 2: Project Origins on the 360. For me it just felt too much like a PC shooter that should have stayed there. But lets jump in and see what Day 1 has brought forward this time around with a much more console friendly version of the game.

For those not too familiar with the story behind the FEAR franchise, myself included, I decided to do some research and here is a summary of what I have come up with. Nine months ago, the F.E.A.R. Point Man and his squad were tapped to stop an unknown man who had commandeered a battalion of Replica super soldiers at the Armacham research facility in the Northwestern US city of Fairport. During the mission, the Point Man learned that the man was not working alone – in fact, the very person the Point Man was ordered to subdue was his telepathic, cannibalistic brother, Paxton Fettel, and his tortured and powerful psychic mother, Alma Wade— products of Armacham Technology Corporation’s perverse paranormal experiments. Despite this revelation, the Point Man moved forward with standing F.E.A.R. team orders to stop the targets at any cost. In a last-ditch attempt to end the pair’s homicidal rampage, the F.E.A.R. team set in motion an explosive series of events that seemingly accomplished their goal, but at the cost of ravaging the city, its inhabitants and almost all of the Point Man’s squad mates.

Four months following the blast, events in Fairport have made it clear that Alma’s psychic influence survived — and worse, her paranormal power is growing and spilling into reality. Now her supernatural agony repeatedly rocks the city as she attempts to secure the survival of her bloodline and reunite her family. Armacham’s security force remains violently focused on eliminating all evidence of the events in the city, and the remaining F.E.A.R squad carries on the mission to stop Alma.

The gameplay side of things is dead on for this title, at least from a console players point of view. Fear 2 felt kind of stiff and the controls clunky to say the least. That is all gone now, swapping it out for a more “traditional” fps control scheme. And when I say “traditional”, I mean its like fucking Call of Duty. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing when it comes strictly to control schemes, at least COD did one thing right. Gun play is fast and heavy. Slow mo is back in this title like all previous Fear games, and it works devilishly good. It never really gets old watching a random soldier liquefied in slow motion by a point blank shotgun blast. A new cover system works seamlessly as you can shoot out of cover. You also retain the ability to slide and mantle your self over or under objects.

Multiplayer returns in Fear 3 and it has not only received a face lift, but a total fucking overhaul. There are four game modes that are included in the multiplayer. The four game modes are Fucking Run, Contractions, Soul Survivor, and Soul King. Fucking Run features 4 players running through waves of enemies, all the while running from Alma’s massive Wall of Death. The players start off in a safe room and proceed through levels, killing enemies within a certain amount of time. There are several safe rooms throughout the mode, and if a player is downed, one of the co-op players can revive them. If one player is killed the game is over. Contractions is a survival round-based game mode where you must barricade and stock up weapons against 20 waves of enemies from the Fear 3 single player, similar to Call of Duty’s “Nazi Zombies,” although the farther you increase through the waves the tougher it gets by adding a fog effect that creeps closer and closer making the map much more dangerous. Soul Survivor has four players pitted against each other with one player playing as a Spectre in which he or she has to possess enemies to kill the other three players and turn them into Spectres before the time runs out. Soul King is similar to Soul Survivor but with the exception that all the players play as Spectres and must possess enemies to kill each other and collect dropped souls. Teamwork and cooperation is definitely the key to winning in all of the game modes.

The visual presentation in Fear 3 is certainly not the best out there, but that shouldn’t scare anyone away. The graphics are good and the gory blood effect look particularly good. Don’t look for this one to win any awards for graphics, but it can certainly hold its own. The audio on the other hand is phenomenal. Weapon sounds are great and unique to each individual gun. The accompany music sound track is eerie and atmospheric. There also the sometimes overdone screeches from Alma to send a chill up your spine. Audio needs to be done right with survival horror games, an Day 1 really hit a home run with this game.

At the end of the day I found Fear 3 to be a great early summer release title. There aren’t too many games coming out this summer, so Fear 3 should definitely be on your list. A revamped control scheme that runs smooth and a much better story narrative than previous titles makes this one a must own. Plus there is a kick ass co-op/multiplayer attached to the game.

Hello again, I’m back with another review and since it’s a slow time for games, as is typical every summer. I am going into my back log of video games for a review and today I will be tackling Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, developed by Namco. I bought this game last October on its launch date along with the latest Castlevania title. But because of the busy month with Medal of Honor releasing a week after and a slew of other games, I pushed Enslaved to the back burner. But now here it is 8 months later and since I just hit 1,000 gamerscore on Duke Nukem Forever, I don’t have much to play so I decided to get back into Enslaved and I am glad that I did.

Enslaved is set in a post-apocalyptic future where the planet has been over run by Mechs, and the few humans that remain mostly reside in make shift cities and scavenge around for whatever they can find in regards to food and other resources. You play as Monkey. Not much is known about the games main character except that he can climb like a mother fucker and his hair looks like ice cream coming out of the cone. Your side kick and slaver is Trip. This sexy little red headed number is escaping eminent death from the Mechs and while doing so slaps a headband on Monkey that more or less turns him into her little bitch. If Trip dies, so does Monkey and if you stray too far away…are you getting the picture? Besides these main elements not much of the story is explained until the third act which builds up into an epic finale.

Later in the game you encounter a character by the name of Pigsy. He is one of my new favorite video game characters. You come into contact with him around chapter 9 and he stays with you all he way until the end. However, since launch Pigsy has gotten his own mini campaign in the form of DLC. Pigsy’s Perfect Ten launched a few months ago on the Xbox Live Marketplace and PSN. And I’m telling you right now, as soon as I get a chance I will be purchasing this and reviewing it. You can pick it up now for 800 msp or $10 at the Playstation Store.

The best way to describe the gameplay of Enslaved would be to say it is like the Uncharted series if your guns were taken away and in its place you had a bad ass retractable staff that has the ability to fire plasma blasts. Ammo is fairly scarce though and most of your combat will be melee. Fighting with the Mechs is hectic and difficult, but before you long you will learn the weaknesses of the well varied enemy types. Another key element to the gameplay is the platforming. You more less bounce between stretches of combat and platforming. The only gripe I have with said platforming is that it is far too easy. It is literally impossible to fall. You can try, but you can not do it. The game is designed so that you can only jump when it wants you to. But that’s not to say it can’t be fun. In the later stages of the game you actually encounter some environmental hazards that add slightly to the difficulty, while still being fun.

I really can’t say enough about the beautiful presentation of this game. The art style is fantastic, colors are vibrant, and the character models are quite remarkable. Every aspect of this game has its own unique look from the level design to the characters. I really loved the overall visual styling’s presented here in Enslaved. The audio is top notch as well. There isn’t a lot of music, but the songs that you do hear are great. Voice acting in un-fucking-believable. I loved the voice acting throughout the entire game and when the credits rolled I loved it even more. I learned that the voice of our main protagonist Monkey is done by none other than the legendary voice actor Andy Serkis. Mr. Serkis in case you didn’t know was responsible for the voice work of Gollum in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. His work as Gollum to this day is considered a bench mark for voice acting, and I absolutely love everything he is in.

Overall in case you have guessed this game is a must own for fans of the Action-Adventure genre. With its diverse combat, fantastic story, and beautifully done presentation, there are few issues if any to take with Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. And now that the game has been out for nearly a year, I am certain you can find used at your nearest game retailer for a real value. If memory serves, I believe I saw at Gamestop for $17.99 the last time I shopped there, a real bargain for this one. Really make a point to get out and pick this one up guys, you won’t be let down. And I really think we should be on the lookout for Namco, because they may be back on the rise.

With the Call of Duty and Battlefield franchises dominating the First Person Shooter market due to their accessible and arcade style gameplay, developers Codemasters made the bold decision of resurrecting the famous Operation Flashpoint series back in 2009 with their title Dragon Rising which received a very respectable 77 out of 100 on Metacritic.com. Gamers responded well to the change of pace, but unfortunately for Codemasters, Dragon Rising failed to knock the big two off their perch. Fast forward two years and Operation Flashpoint is back for another bite of the cherry with Red River. Could another installment with some added features be enough to mount a serious challenge for the First Person Shooter crown or will the serious come up short once again?

The series’ motto “It’s not the soldier with the most expensive gun or the biggest heart who wins on the battlefield.  It’s the smartest.” rears its beautiful head once more as you make your way through the bloody battlefields of Tajikistan in the games Campaign mode playing as part of the United States Marine Corp. If like myself, you’re used to running into combat like a headless chicken, spraying a machine gun and hoping for the best, you’re going to get a huge shock to the system when you play Red River. The enemy A.I is absolutely brutal and relentless in their task of taking you out. If you don’t scout every corner before bravely traversing around it or planning your route across the map, expect to be punished by a sneakily well positioned enemy; all which seem to have an unbelievably accurate and deadly shot.

To aid your quest you are in charge of a team of 3 soldiers which can be used to flank the opposition, suppress fire whilst you move to a better position or simply try and do all the work for you whilst you sit back and sip a cup of tea. You control your team mates via the Right Bumper on your Xbox 360 controller, where you are able to select from 16 different options such as “Follow me” or “Move there” when you’re looking at a desired location. The mechanic may take a few tries to get used to but is easy enough to promptly carry out your orders; well, this is when you’re A.I team mates actually pay attention to you. I lost count of how many times I would order my squad to move to a certain position on the map or to follow me, only for them to sit there like a lemon and completely ignore my orders. Trying to lead a bunch of school kids who won’t listen into battle against the relentless A.I isn’t much fun.

Fortunately Codemasters have jumped on the extremely popular co-operative bandwagon and have included 4 player online co-op for the campaign, and this is where the game really shines. Take out the stumbling A.I and replace it with 3 of your friends who can actually listen to orders and you have the potential to have some real fun taking out the enemy with a well oiled unit. The use of good communication is essential as you venture throughout the campaign as flanking and working as a team is the only way to succeed. There are 4 different classes of Soldier to play as and these are Grenadier, Scout, Rifleman and Automatic Rifleman. Each class has its own strengths and weaknesses and therefore must be used in the correct situation; running into a gunfight with a long range sniper rifle won’t be a good idea.

The layout of the missions throughout the 10-12 hour campaign will likely cause a few arguments throughout your squad over who gets to choose the longer range classes due to the maps being expansive and often perfect for long range combat. Whilst this can be fun for players who enjoy sniping, you then have to traverse the environment on foot which can result in you holding down the left stick in for minutes at a time; not a fun experience and one that often slows the games pace down to a halt and discourages you from continuing. Checkpoints are found few and far between throughout the long campaign missions and these can cause for some serious frustration if you die as you may have to replay a large chunk of the game. On a plus side however, this makes the combat more intense and will really encourage you to work as a team so you get it right at the first attempt.

Another major annoyance of mine throughout the campaign was the briefing you seem to get before every mission from a captain who needs to learn when to shut up. You’ll find yourself sitting in a jeep for 10 minutes at a time (that’s being kind rather than exaggerating) listening to a foul-mouthed bloke trying to be funny and poorly explain the story when all you really want to be doing is taking down the Taliban and having fun online with your mates.

Receiving credits after every mission so you can upgrade your soldiers abilities to run faster, reload quicker etc and also unlock and purchase new weapons is a nice addition to the game and can provide some much needed motivation to complete the missions. Another nice addition to the game and one which helps re-iterate Red River’s realism is that you have to physically heal yourself every time you get shot or otherwise bleed to death. This is a nice change to the normal wait and sit behind a rock for the red blood to disappear off the screen. If you’re in a particularly bad way, your team mates can patch you up, but if you’re unfortunate or even stupid enough to allow the enemy a headshot on you, have fun restarting the game at what could be a far away checkpoint.

In addition to the campaign mode, you are also able to play through a number of Fireteam missions which are more shorter, sharper encounters; these include storming a village and taking out all the enemy occupants or protecting a convey as it makes its way towards a location. These Fireteam missions takes away the tedious traveling and waiting around that the campaign provides and offers a different, more action approach, and in my opinion more enjoyable experience.

Red River will fail to impress you from a graphical perspective. There’s certainly worse looking games out there but Triple A titles such as Call of Duty and Battlefield undoubtedly have the graphical edge. Sparse and lightly detailed environments fail to make those long and tedious runs you’ll be made to make throughout the campaign less entertaining. Aside from the ramblings of your leader, the audio is well done in Red River and does its job adequately.

On the achievement side of things, you shouldn’t have too much trouble gaining the full 1000 Gamerpoints in Red River. The majority of the points are awarded to you for just completing the campaign and the Fireteam missions, along with playing as each of the four classes of soldier and ranking up your soldier’s skills. The list is pretty uninspired from Codemasters but that won’t deter you from the game if you’re after some fairly easy achievement points.

Operation Flashpoint: Red River certainly isn’t a game for everyone. The game’s realistic take on modern warfare can be extremely punishing and requires good teamwork, with most of the fun coming from playing co-operatively over Xbox Live or the PSN with upto 3 other players or the more action-based Fireteam missions. If you’re bored of the Call of Duty and Battlefield franchises and are looking for a more realistic approach or just want a new shooter to play around with, give Operation Flashpoint: Red River a try.

This week ladies and gents I will be reviewing DiRT 3. The latest installment of the old Colin McRae’s Rally series and third game of the Dirt franchise, which dropped the Colin McRae tag some time ago in the American versions of the game. Hopefully Codemasters can continue to capture lightning in a bottle with another stellar racing game. In recent memory every time the boys at Codemasters have touched a racing game it has been amazing across the board.

When it comes to outright gameplay Dirt 3 is in a class of its own. The time behind the wheel part of Dirt 3 is, as has become the franchise norm, phenomenal. Codemasters continues to walk the fine line of arcade and sim racing expertly, giving Dirt 3 just the right amount of speed, aggression, and power beneath the pedal to counterbalance the rigid set of simulation rules.

The meat of the game will be spent in the Dirt Tour. This is basically the games single player campaign. You start out with a few vehicles and begin unlocking more sponsors and vehicle types as you level up. You earn experience by doing the normal routine of winning races and completing challenges. Perhaps one of the best features to be brought into this years game is the new Gymkhana mode that puts players in obstacle courses, challenging them to perform various tricks to earn points. In the Gymkhana events you get to free roam the Battersea Station located in London. This is the very same location our own James Ireland had the opportunity of visiting a few months ago as part of a promotional event for Dirt 3, where he personally got to see none other than Ken Block tear up the course just as you can in the game.

The DiRT franchise was a bit slow off the mark when it came to online gameplay this generation; DiRT’s online multiplayer can be neatly summed up as glorified real-time time trials. Not fun. Now Codemasters have come full circle – DiRT 3 comes bearing zombie cars, cats and mice. Fun. They’re part of a new collection of online multiplayer modes drawn together under the title of party games. They’re mostly fun diversions (diversions being the key word here). Not entirely fleshed out (only a handful of limited maps) or balanced (rarely will the uninfected win in a packed zombie game, for example), but fun and bursting with potential. A stepping stone to greater things in the future, I hope, be it in the form of DLC or in their next hybrid racing title (give us GRID 2 already). I can even see Top Gear’s rendition of car football slotting perfectly into the mix.

Infection (zombies) is initially the best of the lot, but grows old much faster than Cat and Mice, where the Cats chase down the Mini Cooper Mice and attempt to hold up the opposing team’s mouse so that theirs can get to the finish line first. Transporter (capture the flag) is also enjoyable, though I would have preferred the team version of Transporter to have been a more classic version of ‘capture the other team’s flag whilst they go for yours’, with a large map and each team based at either end, rather than the ‘hectic free for all on a tiny map’ that it is at present. Invasion is easily the worst: hit robot cut-outs for points, avoid the cityscape cut-outs which deduct points. Meh.

All of the single player racing types can be played in multiplayer – even the DC Compound and Gymkhana – both competing solo or as a team, with up to 8 players, online multiplayer or offline split-screen. There’s also a non-HUD, assists-free and forced camera ‘Hardcore’ mode. My only value complaints rest on the number of locales – a few more would’ve been great – and the way the party games don’t yet feel fully fleshed out.

DiRT 3 continues Codemasters’ reputation for making absolutely stunning racing games; the graphics are exceptional. It’s a cliché to say that you were so distracted by the visuals that you crashed out, but this truly happened to me towards the end of one of the Finnish tracks. I can’t help but feel the vista was positioned there for that precise reason. Landscapes are lush, all of the tracks absolutely beautiful and stunningly lit, and the plethora of weather settings – snowy, windy, rainy, dusty, rainy, sunny – are a sight to behold. The more extreme ones – like snowstorms, or night time races – are marvelous and introduce new challenges thanks to the way they obscure your vision.

Damage physics and modeling, which the EGO Engine is famous for producing, feature in all their glory. You’ll lose tires, doors, windows, bonnets, and scraps of your car; dent, mark and deform your vehicle, and truly enjoy the game all the more for it, doubly so if you’re using the superbly detailed in-car view. The flashback feature also returns, which allows you to watch those fatal, glorious crashes over and over again (and you will, trust me), before restarting at a point of your choosing sometime before your demise. Twinned to this, you can also upload clips to YouTube, if that’s your kind of thing.

‘So it’s perfect, right? Why haven’t you given it a 10 for presentation?’ Trust me, it would’ve been a tempting proposition, one that I would have agitated over for some time. Unfortunately, sound design and certain areas of menu presentation are so frustrating that they made it any easy decision not to give it top marks in this department. In-game, everything is great; engines roar, purr and whine appropriately, tires screech, and there’s a great licensed soundtrack which plays when you’re working your way through the menus.

The negatives are all outside of the gameplay. Unfortunately, Codemasters have sought to introduce the dreaded beginnings of a story, or at least characters and dialogue, to the series. You have a team, you see, of advisers and annoyances, and they see fit to hold your hand through every new section of the campaign, as if you’re too stupid or dense to figure anything out for yourself. These portions of unnecessary, tedious and slightly cringe-worthy dialogue are, alas, entirely unskippable, so as soon as you’ve finished playing a personal game of ‘guess the horrific accent’ you’ll be more than fed up of waiting. Note to Codemasters: less hand holding, peddle back on story elements, only introduce dialogue if it’s absolutely necessary and let us skip the tutorials, thanks.

Always a joy to look at and enjoyable to play, thanks to its superb visuals and tightly honed gameplay, I highly recommend DiRT 3. This is, without a shadow of a doubt, Codemasters’ most packed racer ever; from the single player (campaign, time trials, single race, DC Compound and stats galore) to the multiplayer, it’s brimming with content and adds more than enough to the franchise to justify a third entry this generation.

Ever since the dawn of man there have been nerds. And since the dawn of these nerds known typically in its Latin name Nerdus Maximus, required some sort of outlet to allow them to live out their fantasies of trolling around dungeons so as they could slay Goblins, Undead Skeletons, and of course dragons. It was a long hard road for the nerd as it waited year after year until finally on a cool misty morning way back in the year of our lord 1974 the call was answered. Dungeons & Dragons was its name! And while John Travolta was busy looking like a fruit cup on the dance floor, nerds were silently rejoicing in basements and YMCA leisure rooms everywhere.

Now here we are in 2011, D&D is alive and well as ever. In the near four decades since its original conception it has since spawned several revisions in the form of comic books, action figures, cartoons, full length featured films, and last but certainly not least Video Games. Some of the most early renditions landed on some ancient platforms like PLATO, Intellivision, and some very old home computers. Since then it has moved on bringing us games like “Pool of Radiance” for the NES, countless renditions for PC & Mac and now finally D&D receives and HD coat of paint in Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale. Developed by our mates over at Bedlam Game Studios out of Atari, promises to be a dungeon crawling good time.

The game takes place in the Forgotten Realms on the fictional continent of Faerûn in Daggerdale, a region in the Dalelands. Players will enter areas such as the Tower of Void and the Mines of Tethyamar. Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale centers on the desperate struggle to defeat the evil Rezlus and his Zhentarim in their attempt to invade and conquer the Dalelands. Players are charged with the task of restoring order to the Dalelands by unlocking the secrets of the Mines of Tethyamar, defeating the evil within the treacherous Tower of the Void, leading to the final confrontation with Rezlus himself.

The first thing we are going to want to do before setting out on our epic quest is to create a character. All the classic types are here; as you can choose from being a Dwarven Cleric, Human Fighter, Elven Rogue, or the Halfling Wizard. No matter which character you choose you will be able to kit him or her out with a wide assortment of weapons, armors, and clothing to make the character really feel like your own. Starting off I am choosing the Elven Rogue since that is the character I typically play in RPG’s like Dragon Age: Origins which on a side note has many similarities to the gameplay aspect of Daggerdale. But more on that later.

Once you’re done selecting your race/class and abilities, weak though they may be, that will change very soon once you begin leveling up. The actual gameplay is like a perfect marriage of Origins and Diablo. Combat is fluid and fast-paced without being over the top. Lesser enemies can be dispatched with ease and great cunning. As a Rogue I was easily able to switch from melee combat to the use of my short bow so as to keep distance from much more alarmingly sized foes. Overall I would have to say the combat is great. It’s engaging and most importantly fun. There is an noticeable pick up and play quality present here that you don’t see too often in role-playing games.

While this is definitely a hardcore dungeon crawler it didn’t skimp on the RPG elements. Upgrading your character is done via earning xp, which you receive for killing enemies, completing side objectives and handing in quests. With leveling up comes unlockable weapons, armor, and abilities to make your character stronger for the much more difficult enemies that lie ahead. The games flawless inventory system works very well and it is easy to manage. If you are new to these types of games I don’t think you will feel over whelmed with the amount of customizing that takes place.

On the presentation side of things Daggerdale is surprisingly pretty damn good. The environments are beautifully done, however repetitive they may come. But that is expected in a dungeon crawler. The game takes place in a dark place similar to that of the Deep Roads. And while some areas are re used for different missions, I never got tired of going back to loot and pillage more coin and upgrades for my character. The audio is good as well. It creates an atmospheric feeling that reinforces the simple fact that you are in a gigantic fucking cave where voices tend to echo and the constant sound of dripping water is ever present.

If you are feeling lonely and don’t want to tackle this game on your own don’t worry because you are in luck. Daggerdale not only has a split screen option to play with a friend or spouse, but you can also jump online with up to three additional players. You aren’t aloud to repeat any classes in the online though. The game has 4 specific classes/races and you may only select one of each. So if your with a group of dicks fighting over who get to be what, than find a new group of friends mate. The cooperative drop in/out mode is completely seamless. A mate can drop in to assist with a few quests and then pop back over to their game and bring along any goodies they picked up while playing with you.

All in all D&D: Daggerdale is a complete RPG experience with all the dungeon crawling elements the series is known for. The best way to describe this game is if Bioware’s Dragon Age got together with Diablo and had some sort of super baby that retained both parents best qualities, you would wind up with D&D: Daggerdale. And with a campaign that covers four chapters it should take around 12-15 hours to complete the main story, but the life of the game is easily extended if you choose to play through again with different characters. This game really does offer an uncanny amount of gameplay for an Arcade release. I would have been happy paying for a full version of this, so 1200 msp or $15 is great deal. You can pick up Daggerdale now on the PC and Xbox 360. Presumably if Sony ever gets their shit together you could get it on the PS3 too. Cheers and Happy Dungeon Crawling!

Also on a quick side note, Atari has announced that Daggerdale is the first game in a planned trilogy, which is amazing news. I can’t wait to see where the franchise goes next. As of now there hasn’t been a release window given as to when we can expect to see the Daggerdale sequels, but stay tuned to wedogames.net regularly and we will be sure to let you know anything that comes along. J

Just like their recent release of Yar’s Revenge, which was reviewed by our very own Andrew Wylie, Atari seem intent on traveling even further back in time to plunder their back-catalogue for ideas. The original Star Raiders title was released for the Atari 800 in 1979 and has been long forgotten by just about everyone (save perhaps those who engaged in Microsoft’s ill fated Game Room). Now it’s truly been brought into the 21st Century for PSN and XBLA.

As with Yar’s, this version of Star Raiders is more of a re-imagining than a sequel. The evil Zylons are threatening humanity and it’s up to the player to take control of part of the space fleet and fend them off. I say fleet; however it seems to consist of several large battleships but only the player’s small craft. It’s almost as if someone went batshit crazy with the military budget and built as many massive interstellar ships as they could, before suddenly realizing they didn’t actually have any fighters to put in them. The end result is that, despite a very muddled intro-movie which depicts the player as part of a close-knit group of fighter pilots fresh out of the academy, the player will be engaging in interstellar dogfights alone against the seemingly endless hoards of Zylons.

So it’s just as well that the ship is actually three in one, again proving that whoever was in charge of the purse strings for the space fairing Navy didn’t quite grasp the economics of building three separate ships, versus one expensive transforming one. The different modes include the standard fighter, a more streamlined version which is faster and more maneuverable, and a hovering configuration which is useful for breaking away from dogfights and strafing stationary targets like reactors or gun turrets. The player can switch between these as the situation dictates and each type can also be customized with different weapons. These are purchased by salvaging parts of destroyed enemies or mineral rocks and there’s even a ship AI to be upgraded to increase defense and accuracy.

For a large part of the game the missions involve guiding your craft around the stage and shooting enemy ships and gun batteries until you meet the quota needed to complete the level. In others you’ll be tasked to take down huge enemy Cruisers by destroying key parts, or required to protect your own warships so they can power up and escape. Regardless of mission structure it quickly becomes clear that all you’ll really be doing is twisting and turning through the vastness of space, attempting to shoot something, whether that something happens to be attached to a ship, attacking a ship or attacking your ship. And unfortunately it’s as simple as just holding down the fire button until you run out of ammo, at which point you can either resupply at a drop point or just burst into a fiery ball of death to gather more. Due to one of the most visible cracks in the game design, allowing infinite re-spawns, it’s actually easier to die rather than hoof your way across a stage to get more ammo.

It may control quite well and the space-vista’s are certainly eye catching, but Star Raiders biggest problems are caused by the culmination of some clumsy design choices. Couple the confusing map screen and button layouts for the menus with swathes of eye-achingly small text that’ll have you squinting at the screen like you should have gone to the Optometrist, and it all stacks up against the title.

Ultimately it feels like the game falls between two ideas; it’s certainly not fast and loose enough to be an Arcade shooter, but neither is it complex enough to be something like EVE Online. It all leaves it rather aimless and mastering no particular aspect in the process.

Perhaps the biggest problem is that by three or four stages in it becomes massively repetitive and more than a little boring, meaning only someone who still longs to be in an episode of Battlestar Galactica (and uses the word `Frak` in general everyday conversation) will get something out of this. For everyone else it’s probably best leaving Star Raiders confined to whatever dusty, rose-tinted part of your mind it may have been confined to.

After nearly eight years in development the time has finally come and we as gamers get to play the 1940’s detective epic that is LA Noire. There aren’t going to be many opportunities for us as gamers to experience a completely new genre of gaming. LA Noire offers this and much more in a familiar style of gameplay. Noire may be an open world game, but it is nothing like its GTA counterpart or last years smash hit Red Dead Redemption.

In LA Noire you play as Cole Phelps, a decorated World War II veteran and a young beat cop on the rise. You begin your journey as a relative noob on the job as you walk the beat playing a uniformed police officer. Things start to change quickly for Cole as he gains notoriety for his ability to put the pieces together from a crime scene and incredible interrogation skills. After solving a couple of murders you get a promotion and a new partner and begin working as a detective within the Los Angeles Police Department.

What LA Noire does different from other Rockstar titles is that it’s much more narrative driven. There is a great story to be told and Team Bondi didn’t want us straying to far off course. So if the elements of GTA like being able to do whatever you want than Noire might not be for you. You don’t go out bowling or playing pool with your cousin Roman and you certainly don’t go around shooting civilians for the fuck of it. But that isn’t to say you can’t do a bit of exploring. The boys over at Team Bondi have done an incredible job recreating 1940’s Los Angeles. You can drive around all 8 square miles of this marvelous city. Playing the game almost makes me wish I was from LA just so I could visit the street I lived on and see what certain areas looked like back in the day.

Other than the main story which should take around 15-20 hours to complete there are 40 side missions which are street crimes. You receive these missions as you drive around the city over your car radio. These can involve anything from bank robberies, suicide jumpers, and a man wearing a pot on his head to block radio waves from seeing his thoughts while beating a gas station attendant to death with a baseball bat. All of the side missions only take but a few minutes to complete, but some of them are rather memorable. You can also go around and find collectibles in the city to extend the life of the game and replaying missions to get a perfect score is important if you plan on getting all the achievements.

Enough really can’t be said about the graphics in this game. The character models faces are stunning. Rockstar has set the bar and over the next few years I would expect nothing less than this type of technology being in every game. There is so much information from the graphics alone that the game spans over 3 discs on the Xbox 360 version while the PS3 is on a single blu ray. I am reviewing the 360 version and I have noticed a few times where the frame rate dipped and some tearing was visible. I have installed all three discs to my hdd and it took up over 20 gigs of space. I can’t speak for the PS3 version as to whether these graphical hiccups are taking place, but hopefully this can be sorted out down the line with a patch.

When it comes to the audio side of things LA Noire comes up aces in all categories. The voice acting is top notch and probably some of the best ever to be featured in a video game. Smooth jazz and other music of the 1940’s fills the air creating a beautiful atmosphere to immerse yourself in. All the cars and weapons also sound great, with one exception. As part of my pre order bonus I received a code for the Chicago Piano Gun which is basically a Thompson with a drum magazine. The first time I pulled it from the trunk of my car and fired it the audio never stopped playing. I reloaded the gun and then threw it on the ground but the audio glitched or something and I repeatedly had to hear the gun firing until I restarted the disc.

Overall I have to say I am really enjoying LA Noire. Rockstar games have been getting better with each title they put out and it’s the same this time around. I do recognize that this game isn’t for everybody, but if you ever wanted to be “that guy” who solves murders and gets the bad guy at the end of the day than LA Noire is for you. I for one love watching police dramas like Law and Order or CSI, so far me this game is right up my alley. You can pick up LA Noire now for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 in America. If you live in the UK or anywhere else in Europe you will have to wait until Friday the 20^th to get your hands on this goodness.

Released this week alongside Brink was the eleventh installment of the Lego games series. Of course I am speaking of none other than Lego Pirates of the Caribbean. Get ready me hearties as we swashbuckle our way from Port Royal, through Davey Jones’ Locker, and finally end up doing battle with Black Beard on the high seas.

I am a huge fan of the Lego series and when I heard that Traveler’s Tales was choosing to attack Pirates of the Caribbean as their next project I was wetter than a Mermaid’s twat on a hot July afternoon. In Lego Pirates you start in Port Royal and once completing the level the whole Port is available to you. Certain areas must be unlocked by playing through the game, but once you open them the amount of exploration that can be done seems endless. Port Royal follows in tradition of other titles where your home base can offer up as much gameplay as the story for completionists like me. Dozens of characters can be unlocked and collectibles are around almost every corner.

If you have played Lego games before than the gameplay here won’t offer too much in the realm of surprises. Platforming and sword play is similar to the Lego Star Wars games. Certain characters are required to unlock secret areas and collectibles. Jack Sparrow also has his special compass which like in the movies can help you to find what you truly desire. The compass plays a large part in solving puzzles and finding collectibles. Another cool element new to the series is the ability to start a sword fight with anyone in your party. So if your getting bored, whip out you cutlass and start hacking at Will Turner and he will actually begin to fight back.

If you have kids and like to play games yourself, than you really need to pick this game up. The split screen works exceptionally well. In Lego Star Wars 3 we were introduced to the new co-op camera system which allows your partner to wander off to other areas without it affecting what you are doing. The split screen works seamlessly. It’s a shame that the game doesn’t allow online cooperative play. Online has been missing since the first Star Wars games and it really needs to make a comeback, although I doubt we will see it anytime soon. Recently in an interview one of the developers said they thought the game was best played with two people on the same television. But if you ask this reviewer, it sounds like a load of bullshit. I think it’s just cheaper to leave off the online component so they can try and turn out as many Lego games as possible.

Nothing has changed much in the graphics department. Traveler’s Tales started using a new engine back on the Lego Harry Potter game which really helped make the colors vibrant and add some gorgeous textures to the environments. This is all on display in Lego Pirates. Every back drop in the game was done extremely well and the water effects are fantastic. The outstanding audio track also really adds to the feeling that you are in this pirate world. All of the licensed music from the films can be heard playing during the game. I really get pumped up when I hear the Pirates theme song going off while I hack and slash through enemies.

Overall it’s more of the same from the Lego series. If you like Lego games than you will probably like this game. I am quite happy with the amount of content in the games and it should provide close to 50 hours of gameplay to get everything done. Lego Pirates is a near perfect game and if it had the online co-op I would probably have given this game a perfect score. A quick side note I would like to add is that Traveler’s Tale are presently in development of five more Lego Games. Shrek, Spy Kids, Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter: Years 5-7, and Lord of the Rings are all set to be getting their very own coat of Lego paint in the coming years. No release dates have been given yet on these games.

Abandoning their traditional modus operandi of large open world RPG’s like Fallout and the Elder Scrolls series, Bethesda this week brings us the highly anticipated first person shooter with extreme parkour elements that is Brink. Let’s find out if Bethesda’s leap of faith in the multiplayer shooter genre pays off or falls flatter than Paris Hilton’s tits.

I would have to say the biggest element in Brink outside of the gameplay is the incredibly deep level of character customization. You can change every part of your character so that your unique personality can come through in the immersive shooter. Starting out you may not have many clothing options, but you will quickly begin unlocking items to change your character in both the multiplayer and single player offerings. Customization doesn’t stop at your appearance either. You can swap different types of weapon setups, attachments, and character abilities.

Now that you have your character created it is time to jump in and play. Brink offers a unique story style that allows you to play in co-op or versus multiplayer. You can also avoid the online and go at the game solo if you want. I will warn you though that playing with the AI is a bit risky because while the enemy AI can seem extremely smart in their tactics like abilities to flank and suppress, you bot teammates aren’t so adept. They seem to keep going the same routes again and again only to be repeatedly mowed down. And in a game where team work is essential, I would say playing with a group of friends is your best option.

The objective types vary, but should be familiar to hardcore shooter fans. You aren’t able to search for games like a traditional shooter. There is no TDM or objective based modes to select from. Instead each level has a specific set of mission parameters which can range from planting explosive, protecting a VIP, or hacking systems. You can also easily locate side missions with you objective wheel. Performing such actions like cutting off a supply station or blowing up a stair case to change the route your enemy is taking.

One thing I found in the game that I thought to be quite cool were the different types of controls you can change to in the options. No matter what game you are most comfortable playing; whether it be Call of Duty, Battlefield, Gears of War, Halo and a few more, you will be able to use that particuliar games control scheme. Each one is aptly named something cheeky in reference to the game it hails from. You also have the abilty to make a custom setup and map controls to a button of your choosing.

Further adding depth to the game is the fun and engaging challenge modes. These allow you to run through some training simulators like parkour courses designed to improve your in game abilities as well as teach you about all of the games amazing mechanics. Completing these challenges also can net you a nifty xp bonus as well as some unlocks for your character.

The graphics in Brink are good at times and poor in other areas. The cut scenes can be gorgeous to watch and the character models in the customization screen look fantastic. When you get in game though a lot of the textures look flat. The audio is rather good, you can clearly hear enemy footsteps and every gun has a distinct sound and feel to it.

Overall I have to say Brink delivered the goods. It may not offer a traditional type of single player experience, but then again it never promised to. I knew what I was getting when I picked up Brink this morning. And while it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, it certainly tickles my pickle and fans of other great games like Team Fortress and Monday Night Combat should feel comfortable with Brink. Hope to see you all online soon. Cheers.

The king of Tennis games is back! Virtua Tennis 4 shoots out of the serve machine with a huge swinging kick! Sega have once again shown the world how to make tennis games right and boy did they do it again this time! With the exception of the rubbish motion controls – Virtua Tennis 4 is back at number one seed!

James Ireland takes a look at the latest release from Valve and the return to the mind bending world of Portal. Portal 2 is back with a bang and with some damn fine voice acting from Stephen Merchant too. Jump right after this and take a look through the wonderful world that is Portal 2.