Closing up for the day.

If you’re like me, and you’re a fan of the great Mafia 2, you’ll be happy to know that the first DLC for the title, Jimmy’s Vendetta, is coming next Tuesday, September 7. It will be available for the PS3, 360 and PC for $9.99 or 800 Microsoft points.

Here’s the part that is particularly interesting: The DLC adds leaderboards, and contains more than 30 quests… there’s barely more than 30 quests in the entire boxed version of the game! Anyway, here’s the description from 2K:

“Jimmy’s Vendetta” takes players into an alternate perspective of the mob through the eyes of Jimmy, the guy the other guys call when they need to finish the job. Players will get their hands dirty helping Jimmy clean up other people’s messes as they deal with the Italian and Irish mobsters that reside in Empire Bay. As players progress, a slew of new quests are unlocked, including assassination and timed vehicle pursuits ending in dramatic shootouts and explosive car chases. Execute with deadly head shots or charged explosives, and rack up points for precision-timed vehicular power slides, lofty jumps, and supercharged velocity. Multipliers and combos add bonus points to overall scores that will be immediately posted to the new online leaderboard system, providing extensive re-playability as players work to rise to the top of the ranks.”

I found Mafia 2 to be a complete and satisfying game, well worth its price, but I have to wonder if part of the plan for this title was to sell you the “world” of Mafia 2, and then charge you extra for the gameplay. Essentially, selling you the handle for the razor, and then charging more for the blades. If so, it’s kind of brilliant and welcome. If the story of Jimmy’s Vendetta is as compelling as the story in the boxed copy of the game, I’m totally on board for this DLC, and the next.

See below for a complete list of the Achievements/Trophies you will be able to rack up once “Jimmy’s Vendetta” hits the marketplace Sept 7th.

First Step – Complete your first mission in “Jimmy’s Vendetta” – 10 Gamerpoints

Faster than Light – Achieve a 10x point multiplier in “Jimmy’s Vendetta” – 10 Gamerpoints

Explorer – Drive a total of 1,000 miles in vehicles in “Jimmy’s Vendetta” – 10 Gamerpoints

Armament King – Kill your enemies in “Jimmy’s Vendetta” with every weapon available in the game – 10 Gamerpoints

Firebug – Destroy 100 vehicles in “Jimmy’s Vendetta” – 10 Gamerpoints

Sharpshooter – Kill 100 enemies by headshots in “Jimmy’s Vendetta” – 10 Gamerpoints

Carnappert – Finish all Call Dealer missions in “Jimmy’s Vendetta” – 50 Gamerpoints

Massacre – Kill 1,000 enemies in “Jimmy’s Vendetta” – 20 Gamerpoints

Revenged – Finish “Jimmy’s Vendetta” on any difficulty level – 100 Gamerpoints

Millionaire – Earn 1,000,000 points in “Jimmy’s Vendetta” – 20 Gamerpoints

The Crysis 2 Limited Edition, available at he same price as the regular edition, features four in-game unlocks aimed at improving the multiplayer experience. The trailer shows off what you will have instantly unlocked and how each bonus could be best put to use in a multiplayer session.

So, what exactly do you get in the LE?

• Bonus XP: Day 1 access to 5 preset classes
• SCAR Weapon Skin: SCAR assault rifle digital camouflage
• Weapon Attachment: Day 1 access to SCAR hologram decoy
• Unique Platinum Dog Tag: Display your multiplayer rank and stats

Forgotten Sands is technically the follow up to 2003′s Sands Of Time being set during the 7 years that bridge the original 2 games and sees the Prince being sent to visit his brother Malik right before the castle is attacked by Maliks enemies. After being initially separated from your kin, you seek to reunite with Malik as Malik himself searches for a hidden weapon in the castle. However in typical Prince Of Persia style, all hell breaks loose and its up to you to sort it all out again

For those that have played the original trilogy, almost everything that you loved about the original series is still in place. The prince can still run over walls, bounce between walls to get higher, slide down curtains and flip over baddies in amazing flourishes. What is new in this series is its ability to allow you to freeze water. This allows you to use it to climb or swing to places you wouldn’t be normally able to however its easy to learn and you will soon learn how to jump from a frozen jet of water, unfreeze a waterfall to pass through before refreezing another jet to carry on your way.

For this iteration, the amount of on screen enemies have been ramped up (not hard as POP2008 gave you 1 at a time) with dozens of enemies all waiting for you to kill them. This allows you to flip, flourish and kill in God Of War style frenzies. Outside of combat, you watch as the camera pans around where you need to go to complete the section and then allows you to attempt it yourself. Once completed, the camera shows you the next section and you do it again. While this is nothing new to the series, it would be nice to be able to attempt it myself without the games cues

Forgotten Sands – like the original trilogy before it – is a very enjoyable romp in familiar territory however doesn’t really bring anything new to the actual mythology of the Sands Of Time and could easily have stood as a standalone product. I do now hope that they leave this storyline alone before they oversaturate it, and take another stab its the 2008 story that they created.

“The Prisma is the Beauty and the best”.  - We Do Tech

 Here at We Do Tech, we have the opportunity to check out the Edifier; Prisma multimedia speaker system. We’ll start with what Edifier say about there unique looking system….

An exotic looking pyramid-shaped subwoofer with super fashionable satellites from Edifier, the Prisma is a fashion statement in any home.

An audio and visual delight, the Edifier Prisma speaker system is a treat for your eyes and ears.

The exotic looking pyramid shaped subwoofer and satellites will complement modern PC and monitors styles, while the glossy white finish will suit contemporary homes.

With hi-tech crossovers for the new anti-resonant material satellites and a down-firing subwoofer driver, the sound is superb.

The ergonomic, wired, low profile control means that adjusting the volume is easy, whilst the built-in headphone and MP3 jack offer flexible listening options.

The soft touch on/off switch with ‘red halo’ lighting located on top of the subwoofer allows for an easy operation and available in a gloss white finish, the Prisma is designed to complement any home.

Features:

• Exotic subwoofer housing with ‘opera’ house look and feel.
• Wired, low-profile, rotary, master volume controller with red LED ‘Halo’ effect with built-in headphone and MP3 input jacks.
• Soft touch on/off switch with ‘halo’ red lighting located on top of the subwoofer.
• Magnetically shielded speaker drivers.
• Separate bass control located at rear of subwoofer.
• 3.5mm jack located at rear of subwoofer.

What do we think?

Our review will be here within 24 hours. Check back soon!

We rate the Edifier; Prisma a total of 4.2 out of 5

Mafia II takes place in the same location as the original game, Empire Bay. The city itself draws a lot of comparison from New York and San Francisco. Empire Bay has grown significantly since the last game, ten square miles to be exact. And you will have plenty of time to see all of the sites and sounds of the city during the games fairly frequent driving missions. In fact, driving is probably what you will spend most of your time doing. Even doing small things like going to bed can take you on a ten minute cross city journey just to catch some zzz’s.

In Mafia II you play as Vito Scaletta, a young Italian-American immigrant who has just returned home from the Second World War. Vito may have returned home a hero, but joining the Army was anything less than voluntary. After being picked up for a petty crime Vito is thrust into World War 2 Sicily, 1943. Soon after the game starts you are returning home and visiting with old friends and seeing your family again for the first time in years. It’s these interactions between the characters that really set up how you feel about this main character and everything that is to follow during the rise and fall of an American gangster.

The gameplay in Mafia II is extremely tight. With over 50 cars in the game, each one has its own unique feel and style. The big cars feel very heavy and sometimes choosing the right vehicle for a mission is essential. For a timed mission you may want to go with something a bit quicker, while if you expect to be chased by other vehicles and will be getting banged around a bit, a heavier one might be a wiser decision. The combat also feels great too. Ducking in and out of cover in fast paced shootouts and rinsing enemies through light cover with a Tommy gun feels very satisfying.

When it comes to the story, Mafia II is rich with it. Taking queues from such films as The Godfather and Goodfellas, the comparisons are undeniable. But that isn’t to say that this game isn’t original because it is. The story is engrossing and you find yourself going through the missions just wanting to see the next cut scene so you can find out what is happening with this epic character.

Open up and say AHHHHHHH PLEASE DON'T SHOOT ME!!

Other than the main story there isn’t that much to do in Empire Bay. This is possibly one of the games only drawbacks. There aren’t any stranger missions or bounty’s that need hunting in this game. The story is extremely linear, and in a way that I haven’t seen before in an open world game. While there may only be a few reasons to return to Empire Bay after the credits roll, like achievement/collectible hunting, this shouldn’t make you question whether or not the game is worth your money.

The visuals in this game are frequently, jaw dropingly good. With era specific vehicles and architecture that looks and feels very authentic, there is no doubt 2K went all out with the games engine. While driving around in snowy weather, you will even begin to notice snow piling up on the car.

If there was anything wrong with the way this game looked, it would have been saved by the amazingly atmospheric sounds. Especially the music. From the moment Vito steps out of Joe Barbaro’s car, and begins walking through the snow to his mothers house with Dean Martin’s “Let It Snow” playing I was hooked. I could have ran, but I didn’t. I wanted to walk like a real person would and soak in every bit the ambient sites and sounds Empire Bay had to offer.

In the end Mafia II is such an impressive package and an act of such effective mood that it never impeded my desire to see what happens next. Audacious in its design and story choices, Mafia II shows new possibilities in the medium and merits interest by anyone wanting an adult change of pace.

The few bits of gameplay I have seen for Vanquish since E3 look very promising. But as SEGA has a spotty record, to say the least, I am eager to check out the demo to help make a decision as to whether this game is worth my money.

Let us know what you think. Do you think Black Ops is shaping to be better than Modern Warfare 2? Or will it be a massive fail for the ages?

Bungie has an elaborate “Player Reward System” in the game, where you earn credits from everything you do in the game, even working in Forge. You can spend these hard-earned credits on armor upgrades that become available to you as you level up. These items are opened up by the community at large as well, and Community Lead Brian Jarrard’s hypothetical example was, “When the community collectively kills one billion grunts, a new tier of armory options might become available.”

You can choose to save your credits and purchase special items like Armor Effects and Firefight voices. It determines whose voice you hear while you’re playing first person in Firefight. These brand new, newly-recorded voices include Buck (yes, Nathan Fillion is back), Sergeant Johnson (“Suck it up, Marine!”), Cortana (that’ll be strange) and … Master Chief. In fact, Master Chief has more lines in this game than he did in any of the other Halo titles. “You’re going to hear him talk more than he ever talked in the original Halo games.”

So, there you have it. There’s some brand-new Master Chief content in Halo: Reach, but you’ll have to pay (by playing) to earn it. Although I personally think he will make a cameo in the campaign towards the end as a replacement for Noble 6. I know some people are speculating that Noble 6 is in fact Master Chief, but I highly doubt it. I guess we will all have to wait until September 14th to find out together.

Monday Night Combat is a very basic concept and is split into two different modes, each involving protecting and/or destroying a moneyball. In Blitz, which can be played solo or with up to three friends/strangers online, as well as local split screen, is a type of horde mode where you are required to defend your moneyball from progressively difficult enemies. You and your three friends won’t really be alone though as there are plenty of turrets you can build and upgrade to aid in your defense.

Moving up the lines!!!

The other game mode is a competitive multiplayer mode called crossfire. In crossfire each team has a moneyball and whoever destroys the other teams ball first wins. The way you destroy the enemy ball is by ushering bots up the left and right sides of the map so that they get to the enemy ball and bring down the shields so your team can begin rinsing the moneyball with every bullet, grenade, or swipe of the sword your team can throw at it. In each match you are given 15 minutes to take down the ball otherwise the game goes into two minute overtime where everyone’s skills get increased and both moneyballs drop and no longer require bots to bring them down.

When playing either mode, the most important strategic decision you will be forced to make is selecting which of the six diverse classes you will choose to be. First off we have the assault class. Basic run and gun class, features a jet pack, machine gun and grenade launcher. The assassin is a class that allows you to take the fight up close and personal with melee attacks and sneaky invincibility. Then there are the two heavy classes, the tank and gunner. Gunner acts like a mobile turret, while the tank shoots a focused type of laser beam. Rounding out the classes are the sniper and the support classes. Support class can build, hack, and repair turrets as well as heal teammates.

Six Classes to Choose From

The graphics in MNC are terrific. Animation and art style, which is undeniably inspired by Team Fortress, are fresh and vibrant. The textures all look really polished, and apart from a few rare frame rate issues, the game engine holds up really well even during intense online battles with tons of bots on the screen at the same time. The sound in the game is extremely entertaining. Fun cartoon sound effects fill the atmosphere and the over the top commentator at times is side splittingly funny.

Monday Night Combat has 12 achievements which add up to the typical arcade game total of 200 potential gamerscore. Most of the achievements are pretty simple. The skill ones might be a little hard for some if you aren’t a top of the leader board type player, but luckily if you are desperate you can boost any achievement in a private match with a friend or by yourself with a second controller. Two avatar awards are also here which include an MNC t-shirt and a mask like the games mascot wears.

JUUUUUUUUUUICE!!!

While being compared to a legendary game like Team Fortress might have put MNC in a position with some big shoes to fill, but Uber Entertainment delivers. The Horde mode is engaging and a lot of fun with friends. The multiplayer is extremely fun and rewarding. With a leveling up system and unlockable pro tags, similar to Modern Warfare 2’s titles, this game will keep you coming back for more beyond just picking up an easy 200 gamerscore. The only area this game falls short is in the lack of variety. Not having a few different types of multiplayer modes is the only thing holding back Monday Night Combat from being a perfect game. That aside Monday Night Combat is a lot of fun and should be enjoyed by everybody. If you don’t believe me, just go check out the trial which even lets you jump in to a game with your friends who may already own the game. And don’t forget, Bacon FTW!!! Just play it, you will see what I mean.

The campaign comes equipped with four difficulties; Casual, Normal, Hard, and the ever so inviting sound of Brutal. The story takes place four years after the Brood Wars with Jim Raynor leading a revolutionary group, who call themselves Raynor’s Raiders, to overthrow the Dominion Emperor Arcturus Mengsk. The game opens up with Firefly themed western-scifi cutscene of a rather rugged Raynor in a slum pub drowning his memories with alcohol whilst a news broadcast of a rebellion is playing on the TV.

The first mission throws you right into the action with your rebellion by liberating a local population from the dictatorship of Dominion, propaganda is painted all over the town, feel free to destroy holoboards of Mengsk.

As you free the civilians, they’ll join the fight to free themselves by tossing firebombs at the Dominion troops; it’s a pretty awesome sight. The objective for this particular mission is to destroy the logistic headquarters, do that and you’ve completed your first victory towards the step of freedom and clearing your name! With each mission you complete, the news will show how heavily censored it is with each broadcast slanted towards the Dominion and further trying to prove you to be a terrorist by ignoring the reporters details. It’s pretty entertaining, I found myself wondering “How will the slant this one?” each time. If you destroy all the Mengsk holograms, and let Raynor acquire five kills you’ll get a couple achievements for that. It’s easier to send Raynor in first with each battle; he’s pretty powerful so you needn’t worry about his status too much.

Tychus Findlay joins the fray with a small introduction and catching up between Tychus and Raynor. Tychus informs Raynor that he has a job to do for some buyers, steal an artifact Dominion has been digging for for quite some time. They think it holds some sort of secretive power, and it’s worth a lot of money so Raynor agrees and this begins the second mission; you’re first taste of the strategy Starcraft is so well known for.

You must destroy the Dominion forces and bases to take over the crane and grab the artifact for yourself, so you’re placed with a few SCV’s to begin building your forces. Once you place down some barracks and supply depots, head off to your thieving and thus dealing another blow to Dominions grip over the people.

While this mission was exciting, the next one is even better.

Once you have the artifact in place, you’re waiting for it to be picked up but instantly attacked by the Zerg! Pick up is in twenty minutes so you must hold off for that long, with each ticking minute the attacks become more and more intense. If you’re great at defending, you won’t have any problems, you’ll only need to press an attack if you want to save some civilians when they call out for help.  After the twenty minutes are up, you’re treated to a sexy cut scene of the Hyperion flying into the fray and raping the shit out of the Zerg. It’s a beautiful site.

The game then takes you into the battleship Hyperion with a news briefing showing that Kerrigan was in fact behind the random Zerg attack. The story takes an epic turn from here which I’ll spare you the details for obvious reasons. It’s easily one of the best stories I’ve ever played in a video game and a fantastic ending to this chapter of the series.

The Hyperion is a pretty awesome setting for the game; you have several places you can visit after a few side missions. The side missions aren’t mandatory but incredibly helpful as you’ll gain new units, and earn extra credits for improving said units. They vary differently and aren’t the usual “HALP US OBI-RAYNOR UR OUR ONLY HOPE!” generic shit. One will involve you destroying buildings and civilians that are plagued with some sort of Zerg infestation, whilst another is rather crucial and gives you your first new unit, the Firebat.

The four places on the Hyperion you can visit include the Cantina which is just a bar if you don’t know what a cantina is, here you can talk to Tychus, buy Mercs from Hill or even play an arcade machine.

The game is called The Lost Viking which, if you know your gaming history, is an easteregg to Blizzard’s classing Lost Vikings. Instead of playing as a real Viking, you play as the ship Viking in a top-down scrolling shooter in glorious HD. It’s incredibly fun and a nice break from doing missions. If you’re familiar with games like 1942, Raiden, or Gradius, it plays very much the same.

The Bridge is basically where you’ll grab your missions. You can view the star map and get a detailed look into each planet, talk to Matt Horner or a little more with Tychus.

In the Armory, you can upgrade your troops and bases using credits. Each unit you acquire will be viewed standing in the base and clicking on them will bring up an animated detailed look into a short history and their stats.

The laboratory is where you’ll get to talk to the super nerdy Stetmann whose voice actor also did Kevin French for the cartoon Mission Hill, pretty much uses the same voice. He’s done many other characters as well.

Anyway, here you’ll use the Protoss and Zerg training you find throughout missions to gain extra features in the game. It opens up much like a talent tree in most MMO’s with a list of skills, what they do, and a clip demoing the skill in action, it’s fucking awesome. Some skills will include a turret atop bunkers, drop ships to move your troops more efficiently, and a tower that mind controls enemy units to your command.

Overall the games campaign focuses mainly on Raynor and his crew, reveals a secret mission Tychus has kept from everyone until the end, awesome twists and great cinematics. The game is broken up into a trilogy with the next title releasing being dubbed Heart of the Swarm which focuses more on the Zerg, and Kerrigan, with the third and still unnamed title being the focus of the Protoss. Both will naturally include new units, updated multiplayer changes and thankfully priced as a regular expansion pack.

The multiplayer is where I fall short. I don’t particularly play well in competitions with this sort of genre as I’m the type who takes their time gathering resources and forces and because of this I usually just play with my personal/online mates; playing a randomly matched player results in me getting my ass handed to me with my pride and confidence shoved up the colon like some sort of stuffing in a turkey.

For obvious reasons, many of the single player features with the units and base upgrades are not available in the multiplayer. It would leave the game incredibly broken since all the upgrades are for the Terran and would leave Blizzard to reveal what the Zerg and Protoss units have in store for the future additions to the game. But because of this, the multiplayer rather bores me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still as wonderful as ever but after getting a taste of pyromaniac marines and panther/wolf like units that decimate everything in its path with a fury not even a roid raged Chris Benoit could match up to left me a feeling of an understandable watered down Starcraft. Many would disagree as they purchase this game mainly for the multiplayer but that’s just my take on it. I’m hoping after the final expansion is released, the multiplayer will include all updates to units and buildings that the single player wonderfully tickles our naughty bits with. They really are spectacular.

Some of the multiplayer features an achievement system, which is always nice; stats to keep track of how you play, wins and losses, and the usual stuff like that. You can play versus an AI by yourself or cooperatively to hone your skills, do 1v1, 2v2 or 3v3 with friends and ranked matches for their new Leagues & Ladders system. Everything is set up for the ideal multiplayer experience that you’ll be enjoying for years to come.

It’s been a great pleasure to review this huge and highly anticipated release of the year and I very much enjoyed every minute of it. I look forward to bringing you reviews of the remaining releases in the future. Purchase this game immediately if you had not done so already, you won’t regret it.

You being the game with the option of customising your avatar’s looks and clothing options. Those expecting Sim’s style 3D realisations will be disappointed as in Kudos 2, everything has a comic book look about it. You have a selection of facial shapes to choose from before picking from a small selection of clothes to wear. You also have access to a colour selector for every option allowing you a lot more customisation that I actually expected.

Upon completion of your avatar, you are greeted with a diary entry explaining your goals for the game. Fame, Fortune, and/or Happiness awaited however you begin the game tired, hungover and forced to go to work. From here your choices will lead you through your life. Upon getting home from a day at work waiting tables, you are given your first set of choices. You could sign yourself up for evening classes, hang out on your own, go out with some friends, or spend the night looking for another job. Each choice will effect you in some way. If you want to get a better job or look for a career then you will need to study either by taking up evening classes or buying books and studying at home. Doing this could turn you into a bit of a reculse as your friends will become annoyed that you don’t want to hang out with them. Then again, you could become a social butterfly with friends everywhere but stuck in a nowhere job to pay for your lifestyle. You are only allowed 1 activity every weekday evening (but 2 at the weekend) meaning that its all about finding a balance between friends and work which is made all the more difficult when you have to take into account your mood and theirs. Hanging out while in a bad mood can influence your friends mood but on the flip side, their characteristics can effect yours. A dishonest friend can make you more dishonest yourself.

The first thing I did was look for a better job and applied for a position as a stock assistant and woke up the next morning to find my weight had gone up due to sitting at my PC all night and I was grubbier. On the next day I went out with Mario for a Mexican and became more optimistic, persuasive and relaxed due to being with him (although I did put more weight on from all the food, and woke up tired from a night out). I returned home later on and found that I was offered the new position. From here, the game could spiral off in a million different ways all depending on your choices.

Everything in Kudos 2 is directly in front of you, which allows you to know at a glance what stats are dropping dangerously low, or which friends like you more. The activity options open a little pop-up to the side that allows you to see who would be interested in each particular activity and with the game being turn based it means that you have all the time in the world to make your choices.

One thing that niggled me about the game was the initial rate of pay you received from working, Working a full day shift would not even cover the cost of a beer in a local bar that evening. I can understand that the pay rate would be scaled down to make it harder but it took a little bit of reality away. Also the work section is a little bland and is soon clicked straight over.

However even with these flaws, Kudos 2 shines and should be considered by anyone that has ever played The Sims. Oh and for those that wondered, Clarence socialised a bit too much ending up an overweight drunk who spent a lot of nights playing video games with his male mates and stocking shelves during the day.. RESULT!!

Kudos 2 is available from: http://www.positech.co.uk/

I was just at my local GameStop and my friend who works there showed me the email he received today from Activision regarding details on the Prestige Edition. In the e mail were a lot of cool close up shots of the RC car and the medal that comes inside. Also in the details was a section that was listed as, “information not be revealed until notified”. The information listed here confirmed what a lot of people suspected, and that is that Nazi Zombies, or given the time/location of this game, Viet-Nombies will most definitely be included. Also, the 4 exclusive co-op maps included with the Prestige Edition are the four original zombie maps from Call of Duty: World at War. Not all that exclusive if you ask me. I already shelled out thirty clams on DLC content for World at War, specifically for the zombie maps, and now the only “exclusive” thing in the prestige edition is something a lot of us already own.

2K Games and Irrational Games Announce BioShock® Infinite

BioShock Infinite is in development for the Xbox 360(R)
video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation(R)3
computer entertainment system and Games for Windows(R), and is not yet
rated by the ESRB.

The Call of Duty: Black Ops Prestige Edition comes with:

• RC-XD Video Surveillance Vehicle
  • Fully custom RC vehicle modeled after in-game RC-XD Killstreak Reward
  • Video camera to send wireless video to Transmitter
  • Microphone to send wireless audio to Transmitter
  • Digital proportional steering and throttle
  • Independent suspension
  • Display stand
• RC-XD Transmitter
  • 2” backlit TFT 220 x176 color screen to receive video from car
  • Integrated speaker to receive audio from car
  • Custom pistol grip style RC controller
  • High and low speed settings
  • Up to 200ft control range
• Includes the full Call of Duty: Black Ops Hardened Edition
  • Limited edition Black Ops Collector’s Medal w/display case
  • 4 extra playable co-op maps not in the standard edition
  • Black Ops Xbox Live avatar outfit
  • Premium, special-edition SteelBook™ case
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops full game

[UPDATE] Since posting this it has been revealed that the 4 extra playable co-op maps included with the prestige and hardened additions are the 4 original nazi/japanese zombie maps from Treyarch’s Call of Duty: World at War.