This is a quick preview of an app that has appeared on the iphone and android app stores. It is called Qustodian and you can download it for free by visiting the following link:

http://uk.qustodian.com/campaign/affiliate/u61SDX

It is simply a way of mainstream organisations (big brands) telling you about the latest products and services. The best part of this app is that you get paid to receive these subtle adverts and earn small amounts of money each month to hear about them. BONUS!

Anyway, I thought it was quite interesting so I thought I would share it with you in this quick blog about it.

You can support “We Do” by downloading the application today for free! Simply click on the banner below; (Come on! It’s free!)

DeathSpank was first promoted as the brainchild of Ron Gilbert of Monkey Island fame. He left before the game was released but stated that he had finished all his contributions to the project. When the second DeathSpank was announced soon afterwards, it was revealed that both games were made in tandem, so it may be safe to assume that Gilbert had his say in the sequel as well. But The Baconing is all Hothead Games, and it shows.

The first game was a parody of fantasy games. You fought “orques,” quested for unicorn poop, and hacked up a kindly talking tree, all so you could defeat an evil king in a castle. The second game introduced more modern weapons, but it at least justified them in this fantasy world as the weapons of a grand humans/orque war. The third game, however, opens with DeathSpank overlooking a sci-fi cityscape as it gets destroyed, then suddenly he’s running around a semi-fantasy world again, albeit one with supercomputers and clone machines.

This free form approach to genre allows DeathsSpank to go to some interesting places, like inside the mind of a supercomputer that’s not all that super, but it also feels slightly wrong for the character. The first game had a consistent creative vision. Its monsters, quests, and characters were always meant to be satirical of fantasy, and even the hack-and-slash RPG controls evoked memories of other hack-and-slash fantasy RPGs. The Baconing has lost that consistency, which isn’t a bad thing per se, especially if Hothead wants to move out of Ron Gilbert’s shadow, but it does make the game feel awkward at times, as if the character isn’t supposed to be here. (That said, I do love the cyborques, i.e. cyborg orques, which is easily my favorite pun in the game.)

It doesn’t help that your path through the world is very linear compared to the first two games. You only explore a small swath of land at a time, and once you find the Bacon Fire for one area (the game’s MacGuffin), you move on to a completely separate area. Even all the side-quests are confined to their individual sections of the world, which means there’s very little reason to ever revisit old locations. This isn’t one big world, just a series of smaller maps connected end to end, which makes the game feel much smaller than its predecessors.

Mechanically, this is pretty much the exact same game that you’ve played twice before (assuming you’ve played the previous DeathSpank games). Weapons are equipped to each of the face buttons, and you get an attack multiplier for varying your attacks. When you fill a meter, you can hold down one of the buttons for a super attack. Some quests require you to combine items from your inventory like a classic adventure game, but such quests are a jarring change of pace, since they’re so few and far between.

One of the few changes is blocking. Your ability to block attacks no longer runs out. You can hold up a shield for as long as you want. Previously, when your blocking meter ran out, DeathSpank would bash any enemy nearby, knocking them back. Now you can do this move by simply letting go of the block button, so it can be used more strategically in battles as a form of crowd management.

The new co-op character, Bob from Marketing, is quite fun. He’s a hammerhead shark that shoots lasers from his eyes, can swim underground to escape danger, and can gain health by eating corpses. However, it’s sad that there’s no online co-op, so unless you’ve got someone to play with on the couch next to you, you won’t ever see Bob or Steve the Ninja or Sparkles the Wizard or Tankko the Warrior. It’s a shame to waster such fun characters.

While DeathSpank has never been laugh out loud funny, there’s enough clever wordplay and quests in The Baconing to keep you smiling throughout. The corrupt mayor who gives you a quest to stuff ballot boxes, the mind-controlling barnacle who gives you a quest to spread his spores across the ocean, the leprechaun mob boss who asks you to blow up some protestors’ bus, all of these characters are fun to talk to, even if their settings feel out of place in a DeathSpank game. Perhaps that’s why his name is missing from the title.

While DeathSpank himself is still entertaining, his gameplay is growing monotonous, and the “un-open” world doesn’t help. The second game at least introduced a sailing aspect, which didn’t change anything fundamental about the game, but it was a nice change of pace. The Baconing has nothing new like that. Sure, you can sail some more, but we’ve already seen that. Maybe next time Hothead should change more than just the setting.

Last year Toy Solders came onto the Xbox Live Arcade scene with its unique blend of tower defense and third person shooter gameplay. The first game took place during World War I against the evil German army. This time around in Toy Soldiers: Cold War we are given a “what if” scenario. As in what if the Cold War had escalated further and Russia decided to advance its military might throughout Europe. Let’s find out together if the boys in Bothell, Washington from Signal Studios can capture gold again.

Toy Soldiers: Cold War takes place in a large variety of settings. You will do battle against the Vietcong resistance in Vietnam and also face the mighty reds all over Europe in a variety of different gameplay scenarios, and finally in the later stages of the game you find yourself defending Mount Rushmore and Washingtion, D.C. The games campaign mode sees you battling your way through eleven different stages, increasing in difficulty and ferocity as you move along.

The core gameplay element of both Toy Soldiers games is tower defense. And what you are defending is your Toy Box from advancing troops. The way you do this is your decision. You will have a variety of different locations where you can place heavy weapons like machine gun nests, anti-tank, anti-air, artillery, mortar teams, and even a cannon that fires a poisonous gas to kill advancing soldiers. Placing these different weapons at strategic places is the key to victory. All of these weapons will work passively, but you can also take control of a particular unit at anytime and destroy your foes. Taking control of your defensive units is the bread and butter of the Toy Soldiers series and is what really sets this franchise apart from other games of the genre. The game also offers the ability to upgrade, repair, and sell your units at anytime so you can adjust strategy based on the given wave of enemies you are about to face.

Outside of building and maintaining your heavy weapon units you can also control some battery powered vehicles. These vehicles range from APC’s, Tanks, Helicopters, and you can even take to the sky in a fighter jet and do battle against Russian MiG’s! Your battery power on the vehicles is limited though, and in order to keep going you will have to search around the map for batteries, otherwise you risk blowing up and having to wait for your vehicle to recharge. Another amazing gameplay element was the barrage’s. Once in a while you will see an enemy with a star over it, and if you kill or destroy that target you will earn a random kill streak of sorts. Most of them are a wide range of air strikes, but the one that stands out the most is the Commando! When you earn the commando and decide to call him in you take control of a Rambo looking soldier with an M-60 in one hand and an RPG in the other. And for the next 30 seconds you get to go fucking nuts and blow some shit up. The Commando is unstoppable and doesn’t need to reload, he has one mission and one mission only…KILL!

A much needed addition the franchise was cooperative mode throughout the campaign. I’m happy to say that Signal Studios has heard the fans and added the desired option to jump in with a friend and defend against the bloody communist bastards. Versus mode also returns so you can go to war with a buddy or a complete stranger with the quick match option. Also making a return is the much loved and challenging Survival mode where much like the campaign you take on wave after wave of enemies. The only difference in Survival mode is that there is no end, and you must see how long you can last. The last mode rounding out the play list is a fun set of mini games that pit’s the player in a variety of shooting challenges.

The overall presentation of Toy Soldiers: Cold War is much like the first game. The colors are vibrant and each location in the game is unique and amazing in its own way. The sounds of the battlefield can be heard long after the smoke has settled, and the cries of your soldiers during battle can be entertaining. And who can forget the 80’s inspired soundtrack that sounds like something you would hear while watching Red Dawn.

Overall I have to say this game is shaping up to be another hit from Signal Studios. If you were a fan of the first you will likely love the second game. I for one enjoyed every moment of the campaign and can’t wait to revisit the game again with a friend when it launches. As an added incentive there are some kick ass avatar awards you can simply earn, such as a sweet mullet with a red bandana so you can look like Rambo. Toy Soldiers: Cold War will be available for download via the Xbox Live Marketplace starting on August 17^th for 1200 msp.

As part of the Summer of Arcade tradition, Microsoft typically waits for this time to push out their best Arcade games for the year. So far this year they have delivered upon that tradition with Bastion and From Dust. Releasing this week is a game I have been excited to play since the first time I saw it back at PAX. Of course I am speaking of Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet (ITSP), from Gagne International and Fuelcell Games. I could tell from the first trailer this was going to be a big hit and now that I got my hands on it I can confirm that this is a hell of a fucking game.

In ITSP you control a tiny space ship in a side scrolling adventure style game with fantastic puzzle elements and lots of gameplay hours for the completionist. You basically buzz around and engage in combat, solve puzzles and unlock new abilities that will grant you access to new areas that beg you to go back to earlier areas of the game for things like collectibles. The core gameplay is something very simple, but the experience of exploring and finding new things is so addicting that you won’t be able to put the controller down. I found it best to compare this game to Solar Jetman for the original NES. It is essentially the same type of game with enhanced graphics and abilities.

The addition of cooperative play has also been brought into the Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet universe. In the games fun and exciting Lanter Run mode, up to three friends and yourself can play together in a variety of gameplay scenarios. The mode is especially fun if you can communitcate with everyone, so make sure you can find some friends to play with.

The visuals in ITSP are vibrant and play a role in helping you navigate between different areas. The boss battles are particularly good looking and always helped to reinforce the fact that you are controlling a tiny space ship in this huge world. The audio is also extremely good, thanks mostly in part to the soundtrack which was done by the Norwegian black metal band, Dimmu Borgir. The amazing music does a good job of immersing you in this world that begs you to keep playing.

Overall I have to say that Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is a must purchase. It is this years Limbo or Shadow Complex. I would look for this to be an early contender for Arcade Game of the Year. If you play this game and don’t enjoy yourself you should seriously check for a pulse. You can purchase ITSP on the Xbox Live games marketplace starting August 3^rd for 1200 msp.

A simulator game that is worth buying? For the first time since German Truck Simulator, a simulator game has come out with distinguished build quality and is actually allot of fun to play. Astragon’s Demolition Company: Gold Edition does that very well indeed. Check out our comprehensive 16 minute video review that will no doubt have you walking down to the local Gamestation and picking up your most unusual game purchase yet!

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.

 2K Games announced today that The Darkness™ II, for all previously announced video game consoles and PC, is now planned for release on February 7, 2012 in North America and February 10, 2012 internationally. Currently in development with Digital Extremes and based on the supernatural horror comic book series created by Top Cow Productions, Inc., The Darkness II delivers a brutal and personal narrative as gamers take control of Jackie Estacado, head of a New York crime family and wielder of an ancient and ruthless force of chaos and destruction known as the Darkness.

Additionally, 2K Games announced their presence at San Diego Comic-Con and will co-host a special panel featuring The Darkness II™ entitled “Spreading The Darkness: From Comic Book to Video Games and Entertainment,” in celebration of the 15^th Anniversary of The Darkness. The discussion around The Darkness II will feature top talent from Top Cow Productions, including CEO and co-creator of The Darkness, Marc Silvestri, and President and COO of Top Cow, Matt Hawkins; developers from Digital Extremes; and in-game voice of the Darkness, Mike Patton (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle and Peeping Tom). The panel will take place on Thursday, July 21, 2011, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. PDT in Room 9 within the San Diego Comic-Con convention center.

2K Games will also have eight playable demo kiosks of The Darkness II in the Top Cow booth (#2629) on the San Diego Comic-Con show floor for fans to descend into the gritty and visceral mind of Jackie Estacado.

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.

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.

James reviews the latest table release for Marvel Pinball and Pinball FX2, the Captain America table. This one has plenty of bangs and whistles so take a look at our video review to see the table in action!

Hello kiddies, it’s your good old pal Joker back with another review. Today we will be looking at none other than the Dukester himself. That’s right, after over a decade of development and dozens of delays we finally get our hands on Duke Nukem Forever. DNF promises to be bigger and badder than any Duke title before it. I mean I am 27 years old now, and I have fond memories of my father teaching a far to young Joker how to tip the strippers on our old IBM 386 in Brooklyn.

Before I begin, one thing needs to be gotten out of the way. I will be looking at Duke as if it was a standalone game. Reviewing a game like this can be very tough because you want to compare it to previous titles. As a reviewer I feel this is a bumpy path that many other people in the business fall prey to, and quickly judge the game based not on its own merit, but the merits of the previous blockbuster hit in comparison. Now that we have that little business out of the way, lets jump into Duke Nukem Forever with both feet!

Duke Nukem Forever kicks off on familiar ground. In a football stadium, battling a gigantic monster with rocket launchers. A nice way of reintroducing old fans of the series to the new control scheme by having us repeat the final boss battle from Duke 3D. The game at first feels familiar and is really fun. I Halo-jumped around the big bastard aiming for the eye and running to pick up ammo as I dodged his attacks. Finally big boy fell and I stood victorious after kicking said eye through the uprights with the power and accuracy of Sebastian Janikowski (Oakland Raiders Kicker).

From there you are slowly introduced to all the games mechanics. I will say that DNF wasn’t 100% what I expected, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t good. As I previously stated I am judging this game on its own merit. And on its own, its pretty fucking kick ass. Combat is smooth and satisfying. The executions are fun at first but can grow tedious. Enemies are well varied and almost every stage ends in some over the top huge boss battle which makes the game feel like a real throwback to old school shooters. Too many games now feel super linear and there is a lot of hand holding. Duke isn’t like that. There aren’t that many hints as to how to complete any given area. It usually requires you to look around and use your brain a little. I know this is new for the younger generation of gamers, but don’t worry it won’t hurt you.

Graphically DNF isn’t going to win any awards. There is a definite grainy texture going on, that may or may have not been intentional. We may never know. There a few more bugs that need mentioning like the stuttering frame rate that you may get from time to time. It doesn’t occur when there is a lot of stuff going on, it just seems to happen randomly, like when your walking down a hallway or something. One more thing that really got my panties in a wad were the obscenely long load screens. Whenever you die you have to wait a solid 30-45 seconds before respawning. This can become increasingly bothersome on harder difficulties as your chances of dying become more frequent.

As far as the audio goes, you don’t get much better than fucking John St. John, the voice of the Dukester. Duke’s catch phrases have filled the air waves of Xbox live parties and game chat since its inception, and this time it is no different. The accompanying metal soundtrack is great too.

I need to mention that I was unfortunately unable to try out the multiplayer side of the game, because as of right now my internet access is extremely limited. But I have to say from the few videos I have seen it didn’t even look worth mentioning. The other Duke character models on screen looked flat and texture less. The movement of the player also seemed very stiff and just didn’t look very fun. But like I said I haven’t played it, but I watched a lot of videos on it, and my judgment is usually pretty good when it comes to games, if I have only watched gameplay videos.

In the end is Duke Nukem Forever worth your sixty clams? I would say…maybe. For long time fans of the series who just want to play anything with Duke attached, than this is a must own. For newcomers, it’s a tough sell because like I stated there are some graphical bugs in the game and some people might not be able to look past it. As a purely standalone product I would rate this game at slightly above average, but still an ass kicking, titty squeezing, ball punching, huge ass mother fucking explosion of a good time.

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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

Well boys and girls, it’s May 24th and that means DiRT 3 is out. After tons of coverage by our very own James Ireland after attending the press event in London just a few short weeks ago, finally the game is here. This is just a quick unboxing of my copy. Sorry about the terrible quality, but I was using a cell phone and for whatever reason it looks like shit upon uploading. But never the less here is the unboxing and expect my review to be posted up soon. Ciao!

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.

A website set up by Sony to allow users to reset their passwords following last month’s hack attack is itself subject to a security alert.

A Sony user discovered an exploit on the site that could have been used by hackers to impersonate users.

Password resets have been necessary following the exposure of 77 million Sony PlayStation users’ personal details.

Sony admitted the sites were insecure but said no hack had occurred.

In its blog it said: “We temporarily took down the PSN password reset page. Contrary to some reports, there was no hack involved. In the process of resetting of passwords there was a URL exploit that we have subsequently fixed,” Sony said in a statement.

It will be further embarrassment for the gaming giant and more inconvenience for its users.

“Anyone who has already reset their password is still able to gain access to the PSN but for those who haven’t they wont be able to reset it until the servers go live again, which will be shortly,” said a Sony spokesman.

Wesley Yin-Poole, news editor of gaming website Eurogamer explained what had happened.

“There was an exploit that allowed anyone to reset your password using just your e-mail address and date of birth, effectively locking them out of their own PlayStation account,” he said.

E-mail addresses and dates of birth are some of the personal details thought to have been stolen by hackers last month.

“This is just another embarrassment hot on the heels of the hack attack. It is nowhere near as serious but will be another headache for Sony,” he added.

Sony Boss - Howard Stringer

The majority of PlayStation users are able to reset their password through their consoles rather than by going online.

On 20 April the Japanese electronics giant was forced to shut down its PlayStation network, after what has been described as the biggest hack attack in history.

Yesterday, Sony boss Howard Stringer said the firm did act quickly enough to tell users about the problems.

Sony has offered users a year’s free identity protection and free games in order to persuade them back to the network.

Credits to BBC Tech
Edited and Posted by Stephen Joell-Ireland