GAMES NEVER END

Men of War: Red Tide

2010-01-28T08:25:00.000+07:00

Being a Black Coat must have been very annoying. This is one of the lessons we’re taking away from Red Tide, a WWII RTS with an eye for historical accuracy and realism that focuses on the exploits of these little-known yet resourceful Russian marines. Here’s another lesson we’re taking away: the Black Coats had to quicksave all the time.

That Red Tide selects Easy mode by default is telling. While plenty of missions provide an enjoyable challenge (on Easy, once you know what you’re doing), some don’t. The astonishingly unfair second mission could put you off for life: you and eight guys are dropped in a forest outside a village with 60 or so enemy soldiers, who have two machinegun emplacements, an armoured APC, a tank and two armoured cars.

In a house is a Romanian POW. You wipe out the enemy troops, get the POW, and then a convoy rolls up and you have to obliterate it. Then you jump into some vehicles to escape, but your route is littered with obstacles. By the end of it, your eight men have slaughtered an army. Imagine an orange, and when you peel the skin off it there’s more skin underneath – and then when you get that skin off too, underneath it is a bomb. Our quicksave finger is calloused.

In what can only be a nod to the lack of professional training afforded to Russian officers, there’s no tutorial or tips of any kind. That lack of training is also re-created in your troops’ pathfinding and AI. It turns out that despite their fearsome reputation for night-time amphibious bayonet assaults, the Black Coats had great trouble getting in and out of their boats. Even on land, our marines would go for tactically unsound walkabouts.

But it feels like being a Black Coat could be a great time. The same realism and attention to detail that make Red Tide so hard also create a hugely engaging and satisfying experience that ticks over in your head long after you’ve stopped playing. Each time your plan comes together, it feels like finding a chink in the armour of some faceless khaki goliath, and the pop and slump of every felled enemy soldier becomes a balm to your soul. At these times you can relax a little and enjoy the mass of new vehicles that are Red Tide’s only concrete addition to Men of War, plus the simple pleasure of your little soldiers commandeering a big gun and blowing sizeable holes in a garrisoned building.

Shame you’ll be doing it alone. In a decision we’re not sure is historically accurate at all, Best Way have removed all multiplayer from Men of War. Gone are the host of competitive multiplayer modes and the fabled co-op, rendering Red Tide no more than a hastily put-together standalone mission pack for a better game. Twenty sprawling, multi-part missions that beg to be solved, true, but also ones that eschew a difficulty curve in favour of a difficulty mountain range.

Men of War A4, the other standalone expansion for Men of War, is currently in development. You might be best off waiting for that.

Rise of Flight: The First Great Air War

2010-01-28T08:23:00.000+07:00

In Rise of Flight the brutal honesty is confined to the physics, damage models and virtual cockpits. Russian outfit Neoqb have created a fleet of fake Fokkers, Albatrosses, Spads and Sopwiths that deceive the inner ear as consummately as they do the eye. We’ve flown every WWI sim since Red Baron and have never experienced anything quite this raw, exhilarating or believable.

The first air warriors perished in numerous hideous ways and RoF lets you try most of them. Burn alive after taking a gas tank hit, drop to your doom after shedding your wings in an over-eager dive, or break every bone in your body after spinning out of a duel. Piloting these wiry war machines is actually pretty straightforward, even with realism options such as engine management active. The challenge is flying them at their limits while some bedroom Boelcke riddles your tail with sizzling lead.

Multiplayer is at the heart of the sim, and most of the servers are ‘full realism’ and crawling with canny aces. The good news is that half those aces will be on your side. Until Neoqb patch-in a dogfight mode, all scenarios are team-based.

Sadly, there are a few lice nestling in the seams of this exquisitely stitched sheepskin flying jacket. Louse number one is the DRM. To fly RoF – even alone – you need an active internet connection. ISP playing silly buggers? Oak tree KOed your phone line? You’re grounded, old son. Louse number two is the spartan single-player mode. Call us old-fashioned if you must, but we like our sky sims to come with configurable dogfight generators and enveloping, dynamic campaigns.

A mission editor, a sprinkle of single sorties and a campaign engine that randomly generates its challenges but doesn’t encourage freelancing or foster a sense of squadron don’t quite cut it. If you demand a rich, colourful career mode, stick with Over Flanders Fields or the venerable Red Baron II, or wait and see what external DCGs the community cook up (there’s already one in the works).

You may also want to hang back if you like your hangars well-stocked. RoF ships with just four flyables: the Fokker D.VII, Spad XIII, Albatross D.Va and Nieuport 28. Extra birds such as the iconic Camel and Dr.I cost money for each. Ah IL-2, how we miss thy generosity.

Ninja Blade

2010-01-28T08:20:00.000+07:00

Urgh, what a slog. There’s just no joy at all to be had from playing this game, even though you’ve got all sorts of whizz-bang action and swords chopping at enemies with wanton abandon. But there’s no soul there, none at all.

Ninja Blade is as corporate a game as you’re likely to ever play, with virtually nothing to identify it from the hundreds of other games that block up the shelves with their inane drudgery. And, on top of all of this, it’s riddled, nay, infested with quick time events, those three dreaded words that plague all right-minded individuals.

You play a character called Ken Ogawa, who likes to wear ninja clothes and do ninja things. The question of why global organisations are recruiting ninjas to battle ‘infected’ creatures across the globe is left unanswered. (Argh, even the choice of bad guy is so thoughtless, it makes us angry just to write it.) Anyway, as our Ken chops up shambling entities, upgrades his weapons and presses Space when prompted to by the game, he has to contend with that most hideous of things: the shoddy console port effect. Yes, when you save the game it says, “Do not turn off your console”. Would it have been too much trouble to change that word to “machine”? Really?

All the controls are marked in Xbox 360 control pad symbols, so you have no idea what key you’re meant to be pressing. Yes, we could have plugged in a pad, but what if we didn’t have one or ours broke? So we had to guess which keys did what, because there’s no way the game’s going to actually make it easy for us. Press RT and move the left stick to wall run. Right, we know WSAD is the left stick, so what’s RT? Quick check of the controls reveals nothing, so we’ll just spend five minutes pressing all the keys and falling off a ledge to find out which one it is. Ah ha! CTRL! At last, you little rascal.

As you can see, we hated playing this game. The unendurable boss battles, the combat, the ridiculous American accents for the clearly non-American characters, the astonishing number of QTEs and, finally, the lack of anything approaching an original idea contrives to make this one of the most ghastly games we’ve had the misfortune to play. Refuse to accept a game with such little creative effort put into it and vote with your wallets.

God Of War Collection

2010-01-28T08:16:00.000+07:00

God of War Collection – comprising the original PS2 games, repackaged on one handy blu-ray disc and remastered in HD – looks like a PlayStation 2.5 game. It may be a purely cosmetic overhaul – astutely handled by Bluepoint Games, the developer behind PSN’s Blast Factor – but Kratos’ PS2 adventures have lost little of their brutal substance.

The disc comes with the brilliant God of War and the even better God of War II, except the visuals are delivered in 720P. Nothing has been lost in translation from the PS2 version to PS3, so it plays exactly the same. For the uninitiated, GOW set the benchmark for hack and slash ultra-violence, twinned to epic screen-size boss battles. Oh, and anti-hero Kratos is a mad man. Armed with the Blades of Chaos (read: massive slicey blades) and coated with – in a plot twist that goes some way to explaining why he’s so furious – the ashes of his scorched family, he wades through harpies, minotaurs, screaming sirens and most other mythical beasts you care to mention. He’s also packing magic spells including Poseidon’s Rage – an electric blast radius that fries all within it or Typhon’s Bane – basically a glorified bow and arrow.

In GOW he’s a mortal working with the Gods to knock Ares – the original God of War – down a peg or two. Problem is, Ares stands taller than the Empire State building, which is pretty tall. Thus begins an adventure through Athens and down to Hades in search of the tools to eff him up. In GOW II, Kratos is tricked into relinquishing all his powers by the vengeful Gods, so he teams up with the Titans to teach his old holy chums a lesson in revenge. Across both games you’ll kill thousands of enemies without batting an eye-lid. OK, maybe you’ll wince a little when he pulls an archer apart with his bare hands.

Aside from the glossy visuals, both games being on one disc and the obligatory Trophies, God of War Collection doesn’t contain anything else you could call new. But it’s not like we expected new levels, weapons and a custom soundtrack. Hell no. What we want, and what we’re pretty sure you’ll agree with when you play it, is a stunning reminder of why God of War made such an impact on PS2 in the first place.

From the opening moments of both games, you can’t help but marvel at the beauty – and scale – of the environments, reveling in glee at the undimmed, visceral brutality of Kratos’ attacks. Countless games have tried and failed to match the epic scale and stylish kills of God of War since it first appeared in 2005 and they’ve all been left bloody-nosed. But while God of War Collection highlights how some of the visuals haven’t aged well (especially the untouched cutscenes) these HD remakes still play great and don’t feel out of place on PS3. For us, the opening to God of War II, where you methodically take down a giant angry statue, stills ranks as one of the greatest openers in any game we’ve played. And with this collector’s edition’s spit and polish, it looks even better than before.

What we didn’t remember about either game is how hard they are. It seems unlikely that Sony would’ve advised Bluepoint Games to up the ante in terms of difficulty, but there’s a Trophy specifically called Getting My Ass Kicked, which is a bronze award for dying so many times that you’re offered Easy mode. We don’t remember the beasts being so tricky to dispatch the first time around, especially the super-strength minotaurs. But we see this extra difficulty as a new challenge for us to enjoy and absolutely not a steady decrease in our gaming skills.

One slightly annoying thing about God of War Collection is that once you enter either game’s menu, you can’t simply drop out and fire up the other one without quitting out all the way to the XMB. It may just be a flaw in the version that we’re playing but it’s pretty grating if you fancy a change halfway through. Another gripe is the fact that the challenge rooms aren’t unlocked from the off. These bastard-hard rooms consist of special challenges like firing a giant stake into as many undead creatures as you can in a set time limit. Or fling as many enemies off a flying platform as possible with your throwing skills. But alas, you’ll have to work Kratos’ grey dangly bits to get them.

If you’re in any doubt about God of War’s importance to gaming, let alone the PlayStation brand, here’s the perfect chance to get acquainted with the titles that pushed PS2 to its limits – uniting arcane, but precise, Japanese play dynamics with Western accessibility and production bombast. You won’t be disappointed with Kratos’ HD adventures. That ashen grey look was meant for 720P. A hulking reinvention? By Zeus’ ragged beard, no – but you’ll sure like Kratos when he’s angry. If you're in the UK, you could wait for the official release or import it (the game’s already out in the US and runs on a UK PS3).

Dark Void

2010-01-28T08:12:00.000+07:00

Groan, groan, groan to the high heavens. Is this truly all we have to look forward to for the next 10 billion years? Do we just have to watch some guy who looks pretty much the same in every single game trudging about scenery rendered in Unreal Tournament 3’s engine? Are developers deliberately failing to come up with anything new whatsoever to shape their games? And no, we don’t just mean “make the same game and then stick some bloody gimmick into it so people think it’s different from the last one.”

That’s exactly what’s happened here, yet again. Dark Void, a game that had the potential to be something special if it hadn’t been crushed underneath the hammer of unoriginality. Just because you’ve got a jet pack in the game doesn’t mean it’s going to hide the fact we might as well be playing Dark Sector, Damnation, or Terminator: Salvation or... well, you get the picture. It doesn’t help that said jet pack sections are very difficult to control effectively using the traditional mouse and keyboard setup. It’s better with a pad, but it’s still pretty weak and imprecise. We’ll concede that when it does work it feels pretty cool, but it’s so fiddly, you always feel that this facade could shatter in the blink of an eye.

The best thing about the game is the plot and setting. While the idea of “humans stranded in rebellious bondage seek saviour to break free of chains” isn’t an original one, the whole tie-in with the Bermuda Triangle is interesting. You feel more could have been made of this – why didn’t they really play on this aspect and have more than just a cameo from a scientist based on Nikola Tesla? There’s all sorts of missing celebrities they could have had, but enough of that. We could go on for a long time about it. So yeah, the setting is good and you just wish the game could back it up, as is usually the case with these over-the-shoulder titles we’ve been seeing so much of.

There’s a cover system, which is of little surprise to anyone, and there’s also a ‘vertical cover system’, which just involves flipping the viewpoint to face up a surface, and your character performing prescribed moves by pressing the C key. It can serve up some pleasant visual moments, but other than that it’s just an unnecessary gimmick.

Speaking of visuals, they are bland and washed-out, especially with the ever-present distance fog blighting the land. To add to the uninspiring visuals, the crux of the game – shooting Geth-like creatures with big slugs controlling them – is vapid and tedious too. Every enemy seems to take about 40 bullets to the face before they go down in time-honoured “stretch-the-gameplay-out-artificially” tradition until you upgrade your weapons using the obligatory upgrade system that every game has to have now. You don’t actually get to make many upgrades, as the points you collect to enable them take ages to accumulate.

There must be something good about this game, though. There has to be. As we mentioned, there’s the “when it works” air combat. Once you get used to it, it can feel fluid and exciting, but the line between success and failure is much too fine. If you’re using the mouse and keys, the temptation is always to use the WASD keys to move around – but when flying, you need to use the mouse, which is criminally sluggish and imprecise – the very opposite to what it should be. So, definitely use a gamepad, as it’s clear the mouse support was added as a very last-minute afterthought. If you can use one, or if you can force yourself not to press A or D to strafe left and right, then it’ll be good fun soaring around in the clouds. Just don’t expect to be too accurate with your gunfire and you’ll be fine.

Dark Void is a criminal waste of time and energy, as standard and generic a game as you could hope to find, with a couple of little things that raise it out of the meat grinder and back into the land of the living. The flying side of things is reasonable but not worth all the hype, as the main game is a total bore and the plot is wasted on the rest of the package. That about sums it up.

The Secret World

2010-01-28T08:06:00.000+07:00

Unlike their last effort, Age of Conan, Funcom is using an original setting for this online game: the real world. But don’t worry: this isn’t a game that has you washing +1 dishes before travelling to the supermarket to purchase increasingly nutritious vegetables. Like the classic shooter/RPG Deus Ex, The Secret World is grounded in our most intriguing urban legends, myths and secret societies. This gives Funcom the chance to create lore that’s accessible to everyone, but lets them apply their own interpretations.

Funcom’s focus is on the hidden orders popularised by the likes of Dan Brown, National Treasure, and the tinfoil-hat-wearing lunatics who fuel conspiracy theories. The factions – the Illuminati, Templar, and the Dragon – give players the chance to explore material that’s ripe for development.

Each faction will have home cities – New York, London, and Seoul respectively – based in reality, so don’t expect to see much strange architecture to begin with. Although, that’s not saying it’s going to be an everyday experience. Vampires, Atlantis, and the end of the Mayan calendar (2012) will all play a role in the game.

The factions themselves are full of character. The Templar is a modern take on the traditional crusaders, while the Illuminati are far more corporate with order and money driving their gains. The Dragon is the most mysterious, preferring to spread chaos from behind the scenes like a clandestine puppet master.

Funcom is staying coy about The Secret World’s narrative specifics, bar that its history tracks back 100 million years. There’s also the fantasy realm Agartha which will come later, although details are still sketchy on what it’ll entail. So we’ll just have to wait for the announcement of the inevitable expansion pack.

What it is sure of is the game’s combat. Your powers are identical across the factions. Swords, shotguns, and sub-machine guns all lend themselves to responsive, quick combat. Those thinking of Age of Conan’s problems with scraps will have their views quickly quashed. The combat has been built from the ground up to provide a fluid experience never really seen in MMOs before. Expect plenty of leaping, slicing, shooting and everything else that resides in between.

As your choice of faction is purely cosmetic, it means you can focus on bettering your skills rather than worrying if you’ve selected the weaker faction. Even more interesting is Funcom’s choice to do away with traditional levels and classes. Your avatar is defined by his abilities. The way you play is reflected in your skills. It leads to organic gaming where you are no longer restricted by a poor choice in the beginning. The developers are also hoping it’ll narrow the gap between new players and veterans.

Chuck in player-made organisations called cabals (i.e. guilds) and it’s obvious that Funcom is aiming to reward cooperative players. Age of Conan struggled with social interaction and it’s good to see that Funcom is attempting to rectify the mistake. That’s not saying that you’ll be forced to interact - the game has plenty for the solo player. It’s just as playable alone, but team-based quests and other community-based bonuses mean you’ll be better off if you’re social. Leaderboards and the implementation of social networks are planned – another way to let you keep track of your character’s progress.

But perhaps the best thing about The Secret World is it links to our reality. While there are plenty of mythical beasts and supernatural attacks, you’ll be fighting through the streets of recognisable cities. Abandoned cars, decrepit gas stations, and rusting scrap yards give the impression that this is a world in decay. On top of that, the scope for expansion is unfathomable. Our world alone is huge, and that’s before Funcom starts being all creative.

Dante's Inferno

2010-01-28T08:02:00.000+07:00

God of War meets Dead Space in Hell. That’s how we first described Dante’s Inferno and it wouldn’t be risking the wrath of Hell to suggest that’s how EA’s infernal epic looks now.

However, reducing the game to comparisons no longer does it justice. Sure, it plays like God of War – something the developers admitted to us – and it’s made by the same studio that handled Dead Space, but thanks to the game’s unique vision of Hell, it’s unlike anything we’ve seen before.

“When it comes to the environments in the game, we’ve tried to be as faithful to the poem as we could,” explains Jonathan Knight, executive producer on Dante’s Inferno. “Some sections, such as the Wood of the Suicides, or the Styx Marsh and the lead-up to the City of Dis, are pretty accurately re-constructed in the game, based directly upon Dante’s descriptions of what he imagined.”

To give you some idea of what that might be, the trees in the Wood of the Suicides are made up of people who took their own lives, constantly twisted and petrified in torment. The road to the City of Dis is a similarly cheery place: here, sinners are trapped inside burning coffins, eternally scrabbling to escape. Sure beats warehouses, docks and generic urban sprawls.

This adherence to the poem extends to the characters. Figures such as King Minos (judge of the dead), Phlegyas (guides Dante and Virgil to Hell) and Charon (ferries the dead across the River Styx) appear pretty much as they are in The Divine Comedy. In fact, Knight is keen to point out that “only when it comes to the story, and to the sins of Dante and his dark past, did we feel the need to really deviate and add new layers”.

He goes on to give the reason for this, saying: “We wanted to make an action game, and so it was important to create drama and conflict. Rather than a simple pilgrimage to find Beatrice, we made it into a rescue mission to save Beatrice from the clutches of Hell. We also gave a bigger part to Lucifer, made him a strong antagonist, and it sort of grew from there.”

Of course, the biggest departure from the poem is Dante appearing as a war-bloodied, self-wounding Knight of the Crusades and not a politically savvy pre-Renaissance poet. Let’s face it: sharp, 14th Century Italian literature doesn’t sell games. This is where the God of War comparisons start to kick in. Dante’s Inferno is a violent, third-person action game with a flawed hero and a slick, simple combo system. Even the buttons are the same as the ones found in God of War. However, instead of reeling in horror when confronted with the question of similarity to Sony’s multi-million dollar franchise, the developers at Visceral actually welcome the comparisons.

“It’s fair and flattering” says Knight. “We are obviously making a game in the third-person story-driven melee combat genre, and games like God of War, Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden are among the best in that class. We are honoured to be mentioned in that company. If the controls remind people of those games, then we hope that’s a good thing for gamers. What we’re focused on are the things that set Dante’s Inferno apart from the crowd.”

And what sets Dante’s apart? Technically, the game does look and play very smoothly. The team has already pledged its commitment to making sure it runs at a solid 60 frames per second, which – despite usually being a stat for the hardcore tech nerds – is important for reaction-based slashers. From a more gameplay-oriented perspective, Knight is keen to talk about the Righteousness system. Righteousness is morality with an action twist.

“In the game, the player is given the choice to punish or absolve the damned, the demons and the minions of Hell. This choice isn’t just made in modal interactions with the damned, it’s made constantly in finish moves in second-to-second combat throughout the game,” explains Knight. “Over time, the more you absolve, the more you’ll contribute to a Holy bar, which in turn leads to leveling up the Holy path. At each new level, the cross becomes stronger, and new abilities and modifications open up. The same is true down the Unholy path. You can level up both paths slowly, or more quickly by choosing one path or the other.”

In other words, think inFamous, only with the option to be good or a jerk built in to every significant encounter. And, much like we saw in Sony’s lightning-flinging action game, you’re rewarded with extra abilities and exclusive magic attacks the more extreme your alignment becomes. Throughout the game you find relics (unique weapons), which are either Holy or Unholy. Depending on how you’re playing the game, these relics will be more or less effective – so if you’re following a righteous path, don’t expect too much from your Unholy pick-ups.

“All the different systems are tied into this overall theme of choice: to punish or to absolve. We think it fits very well with the theme of free will, which was so important to Dante Alighieri, and it gives players more options in their play style,” claims Knight. We’re not sure choosing a preferred method of slaughtering unbaptised babies with knives for arms was quite the ‘free will’ Dante Alighieri had in mind when he wrote The Divine Comedy, but it does make for an entertainingly gruesome spectacle.

Dante in the game uses his scythe to produce the kind of finishing moves that would make even Kratos queasy. One example sees him slipping his scythe inside the body of a grotesquely fat enemy in the ‘Greed’ circle and snatching the blade back out, roughly chopping the creature in half. That’ll be an ‘Unholy’ finish, then.

However, we’ve also seen examples of ‘righteous’ finishes, where Dante presses his Holy Cross into the face of a fallen opponent and reduces them to a pile of glowing dust, presumably freeing their tormented soul. It’s all done with a Quick Time Event sequence, just like the God of War series. That seems like a bit of a disappointment considering games like Ninja Gaiden 2, and later down the line, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow have started to move away from QTEs as a resolution to epic (and occasionally not-so-epic) boss battles.

With so much violence and some downright horrific imagery in the levels (as a side note, Knight tells us that there was some material considered too nasty to appear in the final version of the game, but he won’t say what) it only seems like a matter of time before the knee-jerkers and banner-wavers start to close in on Dante’s Inferno in a big way.

EA staged a fake Christian protest at this year’s E3 games show in LA to drum up publicity for the game, and this seems to have kept other objections at bay – presumably for fear of doing EAs work for them. Knight takes an impish view on the subject, saying: “People have had 700 years to protest against the poem, and not much has ever come from that approach. The game is an adaptation of this incredible work of fiction, and that’s just what it is: a work of fiction. It’s a fantasy about a guy fighting the demons of the afterlife, as well as his own demons, in pursuit of the love of his life. What’s not to like about that?”

BioShock 2

2010-01-28T07:56:00.000+07:00

There’s more than one Big Sister. For whatever reason, 2K Marin had been leading us to believe that the lithe nemesis of BioShock 2 was a lonely thing. Sure, she’d pull you through iron doors with psycho-kinetic powers, whirling you up into a violent cloud of debris before slamming you to the floor, but there was a sense that when she wasn’t nearby, she’d be sitting alone and crying, trying to read a book but skewering it with her bayonet forearms.

But the Big Sister is, in fact, many. Now when we can’t see them, there’s the fear that they might be throwing parties and talking about how shit we are. Terror is no longer tainted by pity, and so when you do encounter one of the skittish, wall-leaping assassins, you’ll fear them completely. You’ll also be able to win, which is partly the reason why the Big Sister became a sorority rather than a solo foe.

“As of last time we spoke,” explains Jordan Thomas, creative director, “we were talking about a Big Sister who was at the centre of the fiction. There’s still a character in whom the soul of that narrative still exists, but as BioShock 2’s narrative must exist in harmony with the gameplay, we decided to give the player that feeling of victory that comes from actually defeating this foe when she comes for you. So the Big Sisters are Sofia Lamb’s, our new villain’s, mightiest enforcers. Yet as you go through the game, you’ll learn more and more about this character who is at the centre of that fiction.”

Hopefully you’re up to speed with the terminology of BioShock, or at least enough of it to not be fazed by talk of young children syringing pints of fluid from corpses before guzzling it down like sinewy Gatorade, because BioShock 2 continues the fiction in a not at all dissimilar way. The opening part of the level we played shows just how little the actual format of the game’s changed – your train journey is impeded by a door which has been frozen shut, a shifty sounding ally (Sinclair, a protege to Andrew Ryan) tells you, via shortwave radio, that to proceed you must find the Incinerate plasmid, which is hidden deep inside a wonderfully constructed and detailed amusement park.

The amusement park’s function in Rapture is revealed to you gradually through scattered audio diaries: when the children of Rapture began to ask about the surface, Ryan decided to build this place – Ryan Amusements – to make them terrified of the world above.

The park’s centrepiece is the Journey to the Surface ride, an on-rails bathysphere trip through narrow wooden streets and cardboard shop fronts. Scenes of metaphors made real judder into motion as you pass: a menacing, giant animatronic hand tears the roof from a farmhouse to steal the farmer’s invisible income while Ryan’s crackling voice echoes the same anti-Socialist, anti-tax agenda we heard during the opening scenes of BioShock.

Subtle as a wet fart in a crematorium though all that may be, there’s still fun to be had exploring Ryan’s distorted vision of the world above the waves. Elsewhere in the park, animated dioramas cheerfully detail the history of Rapture, from Ryan’s original expedition to the laying of the foundations. It’s porn for the detail-perverts, and we love every ounce of it.

You’re also a Big Daddy. Well, an early model Big Daddy, and one not as mutated as those that went into full production. It makes little difference to how BioShock 2 handles, and it’s thankfully unlike the closing sections of the previous game. You’re as nimble as you were suitless in BioShock – the only immediately noticeable differences are in the stomping sounds you make, and your giant drill arm, which replaces the wrench as your melee tool of choice.

In fact, all of the weapons you wield are beefier than most of Jack’s armoury. Your rivet gun not only fires, well, rivets, but it’s also capable of laying down rivet traps on floors, walls and ceilings. If approached, these traps will fire rivets directly upwards, downwards or sideways through whatever unfortunate sack of organic matter that happens to get in the way.

Next, your spear gun catches splicers and lifts them off the floor, pinning them to whatever they hit next. Retrieve the spear and they fall back down. Use a rocket spear and the bolt will lodge itself in the splicer’s flesh before sparking to life, launching the victim upwards or into a mad, screaming death spiral about the room. To end the show, it explodes. As you might guess, these rocket spears are as rare as hens’ tits.

As a Big Daddy, your interaction with Little Sisters is more complex than just harvesting or saving them. You’ll come across the girls in much the same way, with their clomping protectors in tow as they flit about the abandoned hallways. A new Big Daddy type is shown, the can-faced Rumbler, who can throw down handfuls of mini-turrets.

“You didn’t see it,” claims Jordan, “but I could’ve frozen the Rumbler and hacked his turrets.”

We believe him – the number of interactions between plasmids and the environment seems to have increased. You can fire an ice plasmid at a cyclone trap to turn it into a freezing wind, capable of turning splicers into flying blocks of ice. Likewise, the Incinerate plasmid will turn a cyclone trap into a blazing tornado. And you can electrocute a flying turret to short circuit it. Do this and it’ll fall, and if it lands in water it’ll zap anyone unlucky enough to be sharing the puddle. As with the first game, there’s scope for ingenuity when coming up against Big Daddies, and the world encourages it in its placement of broken water pipes and security cameras.

As soon as you’ve carved a path to a Little Sister, your binary choice is now between harvesting and adopting her. Adopt, and she hops on your shoulder and guides you to a corpse with magical pheromone-o-vision, a glittering trail of sparkles leading you to a pre-determined body.

According to Jordan, only certain splicer remains are fit to have ADAM sucked out of their torsos, and these corpses are likely to be ones 2K Marin have chosen for us. Ones that sit in well-lit rooms surrounded by enough doors and entry-points to make the inevitable siege unpredictable. They’ll also, based on the two occasions in which we found ourselves chaperoning the macabre event, be flanked by security cameras or turrets, both of which can be hacked to turn the arena to your advantage.

Hacking’s changed too. Instead of the polarising minigames of the first BioShock, in which you’d be faced with an impromptu game of Pipe Mania before being allowed to open a door or crack a safe, you’re now presented with a multicoloured bar along which an arrow slides. Stop it in the green and your hacking attempt is a success, stop it in the blue and your aim is true – you’ll MacGuyver the turret into being even more effective than usual.

Of course, miss both of these colours and not only are you really bad at a simple reaction-based game, but you fail the hack attempt. Crucially, regardless of whether you fail or succeed, the world no longer grinds to a standstill while you fiddle with objects – this explains why Pipe Mania’s been replaced by this rudimentary minigame – turrets will still tear away at you while you’re fingering their access panels, and security cameras will gleefully send teams of robots after you while you poke at their innards.

To this end we now have Remote Hacking Darts, which do exactly what you’re imagining them to. That you have to collect and ration these darts turns hacking into a commodity rather than a pure skill, and ties the stealth approach to moving through Rapture more closely to the action approach. Whereas hacking in BioShock - those times you ran through hails of gunfire to reach the safety of your frozen Pipe Mania limbo - felt entirely like cheating, it instead feels like true ingenuity and resourcefulness in BioShock 2.

Just as we prepared for Big Daddy encounters in the first game, we prepare for splicer sieges in the second. As soon as you set down your Little Sister to allow her to harvest a corpse, the deranged residents of Rapture flood into the room to... well, we’re not entirely sure what their intentions actually are. They’re certainly angry, and as our rivet traps, now-allied turrets and cyclone plasmids roar into life, the room is the scene of the most frenetic combat Rapture’s yet seen. Your preparations falter soon enough and you’re left protecting your Sister with reliable plasmids and guns. And drills.

This is where dual wielding begins to pull its weight. Your role as a Big Daddy might not imbue you with any immediate sense of physical superiority over Jack – but the ability to wield a plasmid in one hand and a weapon in the other allows for far more fluid combat with splicers, and at a faster pace too. A paralysing electrobolt followed by a torso-mangling thrust of your drill replaces a similar, wrench-based manoeuvre from the first game, while the benefits of being able to shred a screaming housewife with Gatling gun rounds while simultaneously grilling her with your upgraded Incinerate plasmid are obvious.

This is where BioShock 2 truly makes you feel powerful. A good thing too, as elsewhere, your stature as a Big Daddy – the toughest enemies from the first game – seems to have been neutered at every turn. Splicers are more powerful, as Jordan explains.

“The balance of the city 10 years on is much more feral and unforgiving than the first game,” he warns us. “The splicers you encounter have been augmenting themselves for years and years – and those who’ve managed to survive since BioShock are truly post-human. They’re able to take on a Big Daddy with ease. So you’re really fighting for survival.”

Brutes are one of these new breeds of splicer, Mafia goon-types with broken fedoras who’ve been taking strength tonics in the decade between games. They’re walking tanks – not a million miles from Left 4 Dead’s Tank in terms of aesthetics – and they’ll take a fair few smacks before they give it up.

“The Vita-Chambers,” continues Jordan, explaining the various ways this new Rapture intends to punish you, “if you die during a fight with a Big Daddy, you’ll come back to find the Little Sister has healed him. So you can’t just whittle them to death in the way that you once did.” A strange balance has been met then. You’re now in the clomping, commanding iron boots of a genetically advanced, physically-superior super-mutant, but your stomping grounds are populated by enemies more powerful than ever before.

The net total of all this line-shifting is a game that feels severely similar to BioShock in its play style, visual style, format, plot and pace, and that’s something that should cause furrowed brows among those who were expecting more of a departure from the brass-and-glass underwater kingdom.

Still, it’s the setting that will ultimately impress, and the opportunity to return to one of gaming’s most original locations in order to rummage around bits of the city that went curiously unnoticed in the first game. Ryan Amusements alone is testament to the sort of quality set-piece locations 2K Marin are capable of conjuring up - dark and twisted insights into the unhinged brainwrongs of Andrew Ryan - and places as unsettling as anything you could care to dig out of old Rapture.

That’s just the tip of this maddening iceberg too: the real thrill will be in uncovering the crackpots - the Sander Cohens - of this new world. And having had 10 years to properly marinate in their own lunacy, surrounded by naught but sea and splicers, they’re sure to be properly cuckoo.

Dust 514

2010-01-28T07:52:00.000+07:00

EVE Online is serious business for a serious number of players so devs CCP are treating Dust’s place in their universe with care. Every war fought on Dust’s battlefields will impact on the EVE universe, affecting trade, politics, and warfare throughout the space-based PC MMO.

With this power placed in the hands of console gamers, CCP are doing their best to keep the riffraff out. The first few months with the game will largely be spent in battles against AI or in skirmishes which have no effect on EVE’s universe of New Eden. Later, players will form alliances and will be hired by corporations and individuals operating in EVE Online, temporarily paid to seize control of a rival faction’s cities or military structures.

Each battlefield clocks in at around five kilometres with servers supporting a ‘significant’ number of players. Missions begin on board your faction’s War Barge overlooking the planet to be assaulted and detailing your commander’s load-out for the mission. Commanders provide shape and order to the battle – each faction’s leader remains on board the Mobile Command Centre, a sky fortress which hovers high above the battlefield. While grunts and squad leaders engage at ground level, commanders issue orders, deploy vehicles, and place waypoints, while positioning and re-positioning the MCC to keep it safe and effective.

The ultimate objective on any map is to bring down the enemy base, and battles escalate as ground forces seize objectives, earn command points, and raise the stakes. Ground assault troops will be able to lower the carrier’s shields and strike at its other defensive countermeasures to leave it open for attack, but still careful manoeuvring can keep your home base safe a little longer. Even as the game reaches its climax there’s still reason to fight on and assault the enemy’s outposts – attacking their artillery to buy your carrier a few more seconds; just long enough to take down the enemy’s own base.

Instead of a gradual crawl up an arbitrary Achievement tree as a reward, every win or loss in Dust means something to someone who has a personal stake in the EVE universe. You’ll have their gratitude; better still, you’ll have their money – to be spent on new guns and equipment.

Dust is experiment layered upon experiment. It’s a large-scale shooter from a first-time shooter dev which affects the balance of power in a game console-only gamers will never even play. It’s a tactical game without classes, only stacks of equipment and complex customisable weapons to choose from. It’s a test of how willing shooter players are to invest in a system of microtransactions to incur advantages in-game.

Toughest of all, it’s a multiplayer shooter without a real campaign element. Every time any developer tries that trick on a console, they fall on their face. Shadowrun, Quake Wars, Section 8 – all solid multiplayer shooters built without real campaigns, each failing harder than the last. Only Battlefield 1943, at bargain price, has landed on its feet. With those handicaps and the fickle console community behind the wheel, it’s not enough for Dust to be the cleverest shooter of the generation; it’ll have to be the best shooter too.

It’s unfortunately not enough for Dust to look and play as well as it should. As a pure multiplayer game, without tens of thousands of players on day one there might as well be no game at all. Picking the stupefying name of ‘Dust 514’ probably wasn’t a good start.

Aliens vs Predator

2010-01-28T07:43:00.000+07:00

In space no-one can hear you scream. But in the gaming room of Oxford-based developer Rebellion’s head office everyone can. Sitting mere meters away from the world’s largest TV screen with the lights down low and the volume up high, Aliens vs Predator is a very scary game.

It’s also a very ambitious game. Each species (humans, Aliens and Predators) gets its own campaign, control method and even screen furniture. Clearly Rebellion has gotten under the skin of these creatures to bring them to virtual life as accurately as possible. The result is a game that can by turns leave you feeling slightly sick with fear or giddy with power.

That each species has been fine-tuned for just the right balance of vulnerability and toughness is also impressive. Humans have access to greater firepower, the Aliens are quick and stealthy and the Predator is a master of the hunt. None are invincible and all can be deadly when used effectively.

It‘s a supremely authentic feeling title. There are various nods to the movies, from iconic weaponry such as the pulse rifle to the horrible clicking sound the Predator makes. There’s even a terrifying Predalien too.

So far, so impressive (our playthrough left us feeling a bit jittery with adrenaline), but questions remain. The Predator’s controls for instance feel a bit unwieldy at times and close quarters combat can be a slog. The major fear though is that the game’s chief selling point – its three distinctive campaigns – will result in each feeling too short and the whole feeling a bit, well, bitty.

That said, Aliens vs Predator is without doubt one of the most playfully inventive and exciting shooters we’ve seen for some time. We’re going to go out on a limb and say that if it were a movie it’d be Aliens rather than AvP: Requiem. The next three sections cover the three species’ campaigns, so read on to find out what we played of each.

We’re first introduced to Six, the game’s playable Alien character, as he bursts out of the chest of some poor unfortunate soul somewhere in the bowels of the Weyland-Yutani compound. It’s a sinister and unsettling scene but, oddly enough, makes us sympathise with Six and start eyeing up the evil scientists for a good mauling.

Cut to an adult Six that’s restrained in a lab and being put through his paces by a particularly sinister scientist. As more unfortunate employees of the world’s most evil corporation are marched in one by one we quickly get the hang of things.

You can’t carry weapons as the Alien, but effectively you are a weapon. Armed with vicious claws, a long tail and two (count ’em) mouths, playing as an Alien is visceral, gruesome fun. Felled enemies can even be grabbed, initiating one of several finishing moves. Our favourite? Puncturing skulls with the inner mouth.

But once Six is freed from his prison, it’s the speed of the thing that really impresses. He can barrel along at a frightening pace and takes walls and ceilings in stride. To move more stealthily he can even dodge in and out of vents and use his tail to disable light sources. And you’ll need to be stealthy too. Faced with armed guards and sentry guns you’ll be torn to acid-soaked ribbons in seconds.

The end result is a fast-paced first-person experience that plays against all your finely honed shooter instincts. Here escaping firefights by taking cover behind scenery is pointless. Instead, you’re required to climb the walls before dropping from the ceiling for a surprise attack. It’s a wrench to get your head around, but once you do, mercilessly hunting down your quarry becomes a guilty pleasure. Just as well too, as the scene ends with Six releasing his brethren and the Alien queen. It looks like there are going to be a lot more Alien attacks in mission two.

The mighty Predator’s game begins as a group of warriors descend to the planet to investigate the deaths of a pack of wet-behind-the-mandibles young Preds. The scene is set by a transmission showing one victim being latched onto by a facehugger – nicely setting up the inevitable appearance of a Predalien later on.

The game proper begins with a tutorial, necessarily so as the Predator controls are easily the most complicated of the three characters. Largely, combat is handled with wrist gauntlets - raise both of them to serve as a block that can set up counters. It’s a weighty, pugilistic system that again subverts the norms of first-person combat.

Left at that, the Predator’s game would be something of a slog. But in common with the Alien, the hunter is more vulnerable than his movie appearances would have us believe. As a result there’s a wealth of other techniques available that make for some nicely tactical gameplay.

At one point we’re charged with entering a heavily guarded human compound to retrieve the head of its commander. Simply wading in and slashing away quickly proves futile. Instead, we choose to approach things differently by enabling the cloaking device and leaping from rooftop to rooftop.

Targeting an enemy allows you to record their voice and project it somewhere else in the compound. Curious humans will now be drawn toward the sound and become ripe for picking off with a well-timed lunge or a blast from your shoulder-mounted cannons.

Despite your character’s immense power, then, the real thrill comes from approaching things tactically. Herding a soldier like a dumb cow before tearing his head and spine out is much more satisfying than trading blows for bullets.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

2010-01-28T07:35:00.000+07:00

If you’re reading this, then you’ve managed to find a spare few minutes to drag yourself away from Modern Warfare 2. Yes, we know, it’s difficult – you’ve just got the Ninja perk and launched your first Tactical Nuke. But you also have the intelligence to appreciate that Modern Warfare 2 isn’t the absolute and final word in war-based online multiplayer.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 was always likely to be dogged with comparisons to Call of Duty. But the simple fact is that the Battlefield series has always presented multiplayer on a much grander scale, and for a longer period of time.

The dusty, bleached-looking level we sampled, set on America’s Pacific coast, has typical Battlefield magnitude. An evolution of the original Bad Company’s ‘Gold Rush’ mode (now just called ‘Rush’), your mission to defend or destroy two important locations will, as always, rely as much on transport as on-foot soldiers.

Gordon Van Dyke, producer of numerous Battlefield titles, admits to us that vehicles have felt a little fragile in past games. Not so here – tanks feel thunderous and weighty (not to mention devastating), while armored trucks and quad bikes are rapid but not quite so unstable. Of course, the finely honed ‘paper, scissors, stone’ nature of Battlefield games (Bad Company 2 being “the best tuned Battlefield to date”, according to Van Dyke) means these vehicles aren’t invincible.

Each of the four classes (Medic, Assault, Recon and Engineer) has explosive methods to dispatch armor. Plus, tactically maneuvering the fight from open, treacherous land to intense street combat is a specialty that DICE have been perfecting nicely since Battlefield 2 back in 2005.

In our hands-on we got a chance to play in two teams of five (rather than the full 24 players), so the colossal maps did feel a bit empty. Respawning back in base could mean a huge trek to get back into the action if you’re an invading force. This did, however, give us the opportunity to try different approaches of attack; storming in with a tank, sneaking round the flank on an ATV or advancing quietly up through cover on foot, for example.

The two-man tank combo is as devastating as ever. With one man driving and operating the turret to take down other vehicles, the second man on the machine gun mops up any sneaky beggars trying to place charges on you. Killy goodness. The arcade feel to the driving suits the game just fine, and makes rolling a vehicle fun instead of a pain in the ass.

Like all Battlefield games, there’s a near vertical learning curve. If you’re new to the series, don’t even think about going online without some offline practice first. If not, get used to respawning and super accurate snipers. As you gain ranks, you’ll attain more ways to customize your soldier, including familiar upgrades like more grenades and unlimited sprinting.

Luckily, the early guns are relatively lethal, so a skilled player will still have a shot at beating veterans, although some might opt for support classes before attempting to take on everyone toe-to-toe. Still, when in comparison to MW2, the guns are noticeably less powerful. The survivability of everyone is necessary so that Medics actually have something to do – if everyone died in a couple of shots, you’d never get a chance to heal anyone.

Developers DICE know that Bad Company 2’s long term appeal lies in the multiplayer but are keen to stress that the single-player campaign has also been given more attention than ever. As you’d hope, Sarge, Sweetwater, Haggard and Marlowe of B-Company return but the tone is darker and the attitude more mature – something highlighted by the fact that they’re in conflict with the Russians while simultaneously attempting to neutralize a substantial weapon threat in South America. Certainly more righteous than lining their pockets with gold.

Such a mission will take B-Company across Chile – from the snow-capped mountains of the Andes, to barren desert, to tropical rainstorms in central Chile. DICE want to deliver the feeling of open-world freedom but also put you in controlled, exciting situations and from what we’ve seen so far that’s exactly the case. Bad Company 2 looks like it will be very good company indeed.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

2010-01-28T07:30:00.000+07:00

A choke hold is a great bonding experience. Not between you and the man who’s holding a gun to your head – there’ll always be a tragic, longing awkwardness in that relationship – but between you and your fellow player, the guy flitting from shadow to shadow, circling around to spring up behind your captor and snap his neck like a bony pencil.

Or maybe, if he’s got one of his execution moves prepared, your friend will poke a hole between the eyes of the guard with Bauer-like aloofness. For these situations Splinter Cell Conviction needs a Manly Hug button, because when one spy helps out another, the mutual appreciation for one another’s usefulness is almost tangible.

We’re playing the third map in Conviction’s co-operative campaign, Yastreb Complex, a small part of a five-hour long prologue to the events of the single player game. The two-player campaign is a game in itself, taking in new locations and seen through the luminescent goggles of two new characters. The story goes that Third Echelon notices that three Russian EMP bombs have vanished, and must jump into bed with their Russian-counterpart, Voron, in order to track them down and save the world. It’s James Bond in spandex with big thigh muscles.

Enter Archer, the green-goggled Fisher-lite character, and his soon-to-be best pal Kestrel, who, as a Russian man, has to wear the red goggles. Despite their chromatic differences, the two eventually become the best of friends, crow barring doors open together, planting C-4 charges for simultaneous detonations, and marking and executing entire rooms of people at once.

Gone, as far as the Yastreb Complex level tells, are the vaguely erotic acrobatic moves of Chaos Theory (the phrase “use me as man-rope you mucky cow” may never be heard again) and arriving are the well-phrased mechanics of Conviction we spoke about in our last preview, tuned for two players.

Yastreb Complex, then. Having C-4ed a bit of wall, we slither into a loading bay area shrouded in darkness. The objective is to find and interrogate one Major Rebko, and my partner in this spy thriller is Patrick Redding, game director for Conviction’s multiplayer game and in possession of the kinds of skills that only come of having demonstrated the game a thousand times.

As in the single-player game, “marking and executing” is your most effective means of shoveling out death, and to illustrate Redding effortlessly marks three patrolling guards who immediately appear on my HUD as hovering arrows. In response I clamber up a pipe. Desperate to look like I know what I’m doing up in my lofty perch, I mark three more men. All six are within our collective field of vision, and should we decide to, we may dispatch them with clinical precision.

They’ve called this, simply enough, ‘Dual Mark and Execute’. Executions are rapid-fire, auto aimed fatal shots, available only once you’ve engaged in melee with an enemy (in this way, you’re restricted from using the powerful one-hit-kill move against every guard you encounter). In co-op, executions become grandly choreographed, synchronous events. When one of us triggers an execution, time slows to allow the other player to begin theirs, and the end result is a room of six guards dropping to the floor before they realize what’s happening.

Stylish, efficient, and visually elegant, it’s a spectacle that’s rationed throughout the level, requiring co-ordination and (whaddya know) co-operation to pull off. Lone executions are still an option, naturally, as is the ability to execute targets marked by another player. The potentially intrusive time dilation only comes into effect if both players have the opportunity to simultaneously perform an execution, otherwise it’s carried out on the crack of a whip.

Yastreb Complex, along with every inch of the co-op campaign, is built from the ground up to be tackled by a duo. Multiple routes are nearly always available, and enemies often appear in formations that require they be taken out simultaneously – either hawkishly watching one another’s backs or moving in patterns that can be identified and relayed to your fellow player. As we approach our objective, myself and Redding are made to rely on communication and co-ordination. The complex’s office floor, replete with scalable partition walls and a crawl-space above the ceiling tiles, tests our abilities to work in tandem.

Redding hoists himself up into the maze of asbestos-riddled ceiling tiles and switches to his sonar goggles to highlight enemies below. I creep, otherwise blind to what’s around the next corner, from cubicle to cubicle while my teammate barks warnings and instructions: “Wait at that corner”, “The guards are chatting, move now”, “Quick, vault over that photocopier all awesome-like”. Inside, though you’d never admit it, you feel that maybe this is how real spies talk to one another. On some childish level, Conviction’s co-op is the authentic espionage experience.

When it all goes tits up though, and we’re both unable to carry out our swanky execution moves, Redding starts firing silenced shots through the ceiling tiles, a mysterious deadly hail falling on the unwitting guardians of the office. Taking aim at the light fittings, I plunge the room into darkness and turn the tide of battle back in favor of the men with the sonar-goggles. This is when the choke hold happens, I’m grabbed from behind and my perilous incompetence is flagged up on Redding’s screen. It’s the Splinter Cell equivalent of being Smokered in Left 4 Dead, or incapacitated in Modern Warfare, and Redding’s reaction – to circle around and twist the man’s head off – cements the spirit of the co-operation in a manner familiar to you if you’ve played either of those games.

Interrogations appear in co-op too, and much like in the single-player, they employ “contextual bash points” in the environment, that is, you can pin an interrogatee’s hand to a tree with a knife, or smush his face into a photocopier until both are shattered and covered in toner, depending on where you take him. Both players can have a go at hurting a man until he talks, with one doing the grabbing and shaking while the other keeps an eye out for reinforcements.

In its current form, however, the implementation feels odd. On the Yastreb Complex level, Major Rebko flops petulantly to the floor in between snippets of information in order to allow the other player an opportunity to “have a go”. And the role of scouting during the interrogation is pointless, as backup never arrives until you’ve progressed by completing the scene.

Yastreb ends with me lugging Major Rebko to an eye and fingerprint scanner with my teammate providing cover. Gunmen stream onto the mezzanine outside Rebko’s office, while Redding monkeys along balconies, popping up above the railing to grab enemies and throw them down to the floor below. Then there’s a twist, tables are turned dramatically and we find ourselves in the most Mexican of stand-offs. We fade to black. The playthrough is over. Just 20 minutes of a five-hour co-operative campaign, outside of the Fisher-focused single-player adventure. The question is: who would ever want to play single-player after that?

But this is (very almost) 2010. Multiplayer without a World at War-style Siege mode, or a Left 4 Dead-style Survival mode, would cause ladies to faint in the street, and men to start brawling and tumbling through shop windows. With this in mind, on top of a co-op campaign fledged to within an inch of its life, you’ll find, astonishingly, Deniable Ops, a collection of maps playable in four different game types with either one or two players. It’s also designed to be played over and over until our sun explodes, with Ubisoft reckoning that Deniable Ops is where players will clock up most of their playtime.

A quick and humorless rundown of the four game types then. Hunter has you eliminating all enemies on a map as quickly as possible. Infiltration has you doing the same, but forces you to avoid detection. Last Stand is Conviction’s nod to an increasingly popular game mode in which you must defeat increasingly well-equipped waves of enemies. And finally, Face-Off pits two spies against one another in a map populated by AI guards.

I’m shown the Lumber Mill map in Infiltration mode, this time in single-player. The crippling loneliness is made worse by the sense that you’re now half as effective as you were before, and with that comes the burden of having to mark your own enemies and scout your own routes – it’s a remarkably different experience. Lumber Mill is notable for all of its piles of lumber, great big trunks stacked in well-lit rows, forcing you to make daring scoots down between bright wooden corridors and clamber among the rusted machinery.

Unlike the story-led co-op mode, in which enemies’ starting positions are dictated by level designers, Deniable Ops promises “emergent gameplay”. That is, enemies will crop up in different places each time you play. This creates some interesting situations in the Face-Off games, especially when combined with one of the single-player game’s features: last known position.

Successfully breaking line-of-sight with the AI leaves behind a ghostly visage of yourself, indicating where the AI last copped eyes on you. The AI will investigate that area, or simply fire blindly at it while you maneuver yourself to a more advantageous location. In Face-Off, using your last known position to lure guards towards your opponent is also a viable tactic.

Of course, in this mode the game-ending executions are impossible to pull-off against human players. It’s also, you might have noticed, the only non-co-operative part of Conviction’s multiplayer game. Spies vs Mercs won’t appear in Conviction, as Ubisoft focus their efforts on the lengthy co-op campaign.

Tying the whole experience together is P.E.C.S. (the Persistent Elite Creation System): XP that’s earned with everything you do in single and multiplayer. Challenges are set across both single- and multiplayer, requiring you to kill certain numbers of people with certain weapons, or achieve other unlikely feats. With the XP you earn from doing so, you’ll be able to get upgrades, new equipment, and costumes for Archer and Kestrel.

Clearly, Conviction’s multiplayer won’t be a side feature. For many it’ll be the main attraction, a juggernaut of a co-op campaign bolstered by the inclusion of replayable Deniable Ops missions. Splinter Cell seems to have found a new online niche, shedding the Spies vs Mercs (sure to cause some pained howls at first) in favor of the richer co-op experience. From what we’ve seen thus far, the change in focus is paying off.

Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight

2010-01-28T07:25:00.000+07:00

Can it be true? Is this the last ever Command & Conquer? Has Kane finally met his match? Respectively: Apparently, ditto, and it would appear so. We’ll believe it when we see it, but according to assistant producer Matt Ott, “We’re really going to wrap it up this time.”

It’s mildly terrifying to consider that the first C&C game came out in 1995 but it’s one of those rare games that can genuinely claim to have pioneered a genre. Real-time strategy may not be the poster boy for the PC it once was, but the development team at EA are refusing to rest on their sizeable laurels, and are indeed introducing fundamental gameplay changes for this fourth and, allegedly, final fling.

As any fools knows, one of the key concepts of C&C is fortifying your base, hunkering down and clinging on for dear life, repelling all that the enemy throws your way. Not anymore. Step forward the crawler mobile base, which as the name suggests, can stagger to a point on the map and unpack into a fully working base. Furthermore, should your base be destroyed, you can simply redeploy the crawler, even switching to a different class. Yes, there are three classes, namely offence, defence and support. Bluff traditionalists needn’t panic however: “There’s a lot of classic elements in there,” says Ott.

“If you choose to play a defensive class you’ll be able to fortify, hold down an area, build up around it. You’ll still have access to classic buildings like super weapons: the Temple Of Nod, the GDI Ion Cannon. So that kind of bunker down and build up your base gameplay still exists in the game; we’ve just added the offensive and support classes for people who work together as a team.

“Offence class is more tank-oriented - you also have the commander unit, and the support class has access to the airport - they’re very mobile, quick, and they also have player powers that can be used anywhere on the battlefield.

“Any of those classes is going to have all the tools you need to be successful. It is possible to have a team of five offensive players and still win a match. However, the classes really play to each other’s strengths by working together as a team.”

It’s a lot to take on board at once, particularly for someone who struggled to complete the demo of the original C&C, which came on a floppy disc and was played on something called a 486. This time round, We’re on a 10-PC LAN in a disused dairy in East London, sitting next to none other than Kane himself, or at least the man who plays him, Joe Kucan.

There’s no shame in admitting that we make a pig’s ear of our time with C&C4, simply sending all of our troops to a fiery death before trying again with a different class, and similar results. It’s almost a relief when our PC crashes, sparing us the indignity of another crushing defeat. Although we later learn that we’ve been playing at level 20 – the highest. Yes, there are RPG-style levels, with persistent player progression throughout the entire game, whether in you’re in campaign, skirmish or multiplayer mode.

Although in terms of story it’s a classic Nod vs GDI scenario – The Scrin, C&C3’s purple aliens, having been dropped – C&C4 appears to be advancing the genre that the original Command & Conquer founded. The advancements will also impact on the single-player campaign, which will be fast-paced and heavily reliant on map awareness, albeit more forgiving in that you can simply redeploy your crawler, whenever your base is wiped out.

So is this really the end? Ott is adamant: “This is the epic conclusion of the Tiberian saga, the story that we started back in 1995. It’s going to be the conclusion of Kane’s plan, GDI versus Nod, the fate of the world, the fate of Tiberian, it’s all here. It’s going to wrap up the saga.”

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands

2010-01-28T07:20:00.000+07:00

Like precious drops of life-giving water in a barren, dust-strewn landscape, details on Ubisoft’s new Prince of Persia game – slated to launch across all major gaming consoles in just a matter of months – have been excruciatingly scarce. Even the teaser trailer below left fans choking in the desert sands, desperate for real information. After chatting with Director of Level Design Michael McIntyre at a recent Ubisoft press event, however, we’ve managed to scavenge a few draughts of early intel on the game to temporarily slake your thirst.

Forgotten Sands ties back into the Sands of Time trilogy and features the titular Prince from those games, rather than the rebooted Prince character from 2008’s Prince of Persia title. This new tale takes place during a gap between Sands of Time and Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. “[During that gap] there were all these adventures that the character went on that we never really talked about, so now we’re making a game based on one of those adventures,” McIntyre says. “It doesn’t have anything to do with the whole time story.”

Without going into a lot of specific detail, he outlined Forgotten Sands’ initial story premise for us. “Our prince character is going to visit his brother’s kingdom, and when he arrives he finds the kingdom is under attack. He’s essentially trying to help out this brother.” This better explains the action found in the trailer footage above, with scenes of a desert city under siege. Billowing clouds of smoke emanate from the battleground, while combatants are gutted by a surge of undead warriors. Amidst the chaos and crumbling buildings, the Prince nimbly darts his way through the wreckage and climbs to the top of a tall spire where he’s greeted by a massive, demonic-looking sand beast that towers over the ruined city. Yes, the “dark secret” the narrator professes to be hidden within the sand does not appear to be a friendly one.

As expected, Forgotten Sands won’t deviate from the action-oriented platforming gameplay the series is known for. The Prince’s acrobatic maneuvers, the puzzles and combat will all be very similar to Sands of Time. “We’re really trying to evoke the same spirit of that trilogy, so it’s all going to be very reminiscent of that,” says McIntyre. In the trilogy, the prince had a bevy of slick moves and magical, time-altering powers. McIntyre confirmed that the ability to rewind time to get out of sticky situations will return, but the remainder of the Prince’s powers this time around will focus on the elements of nature.

Though we weren’t fortunate enough to steal a glimpse of the game in action, the trailer shows the cel-shaded visual style from the recent Prince of Persia game has been ditched in favor of a look that better matches the Sands of Time series. It’s pretty slick, and we’re anxious to get our hands on some Princely action soon. Forgotten Sands is scheduled to launch in May 2010 for consoles and handheld gaming platforms alike. Keep your eyes peeled here for more details as they come out.

Supreme Commander 2

2010-01-28T07:15:00.000+07:00

A Monkeylord has steamrollered the front lines, Titan bots are overwhelming your point defence, and a Sky King Extreme just pelted your Commander so hard he had to eject his own head to survive. And your secret weapon, an automoton the size of the Empire State, is only 70% complete. In any other RTS, game over. In Supreme Commander 2.

“Activate.... the Universal Colossus!”
“But sir!” your robot engineers would say if they could, “it’s not ready yet! It’s never been field tested! There could be catastrophic consequences we-”
“SILENCE! You have your orders!”

It stirs. It turns. It stomps. Lasers shoot from its eyes, obliterating whole lines of enemy units. Graviton generators in its hands suck tanks into the air and crumple them. It goes toe to toe with the damaged Monkeylord and smashes it into a burnt-out wreck. And then, it stops. It’s crashed.

SupCom was good at two things: massive experimental units, and making you feel inadequate about your PC. SupCom2 is no good at the latter: it runs faster on a given PC than its three-year-old predecessor (as for Xbox 360, well we haven't seen how it runs yet). But it’s gone nuts with the former: it has 27 Experimentals to the first game’s 9, and you can Half-Bake one before it’s complete. The result is fully functional, but every ten seconds it runs the risk of complete and permanent failure.

There’s often something you want in a hurry. SupCom creator Chris Taylor showed us the mobile Bomb Bouncer, a device that projects an umbrella over your other units and absorbs everything aerial units try to rain on them. It can turn that stored energy into an energy blast to take down enemy planes.

Then there is the Loyalty Cannon. It fires loyalty. It looks like one of Supreme Commander’s characteristic stadium-sized artillery pieces, but it zaps nearby enemy units with a beam that rewires them to fight for you. We watched it neutralise a whole incoming army, turning the front lines against the rear, then turning the rear lines too.

Unlocking Experimentals means spending research points to climb one of four tech trees: Land, Air, Sea, or Structures. Other options in these trees upgrade certain classes of your existing units. To unlock the hilarious Unit Cannon – a structure that fires the bots it builds at the enemy – you need a few of the upgrades in the Structure tree.

It’s no longer a case of "What’s the best thing I can afford?," but "What do I fancy specialising in?" With three different factions, each with five different tech trees and nine unique Experimentals, every commander’s answer will be different. Watching those answers wreck each other is going to be fun.

Twin Sector

2010-01-28T00:14:00.000+07:00

Twin Sector is doubly disappointing. It begins by stealing some of the best ideas from other physics-based puzzle games, which would be bad enough, but then it adds an extra layer of aggravation by not actually doing anything interesting with those ideas. The end result is an exercise in wasted potential, where the few small bright spots that you do stumble across are quickly obscured by sloppy mechanics, a dull story and a succession of boring environments. The sad part is that there really are the makings of an enjoyable game here, but it fails on nearly every level.

You begin the game with a very stiff and awkward cutscene that sets the tone for the game's tedious story. It seems that all of humanity has been placed into cryogenic suspension to wait out some sort of crisis. The player takes on the role of Ashley Simms, a star athlete and hero of a recent cave rescue, who is awoken from her cryogenic sleep by OSCAR, a HAL-like computer program, who warns that a generator failure will soon cut of life support to all the cryo units. Ashley has ten hours to get down to repair the generator before all of humanity dies. Of course, a series of twists and new challenges will appear along the way to drive the story in a new direction.

The story itself is pretty thin and the exposition doesn't really give you much to go on. The unexpected developments in the story aren't really that unexpected. A sentient computer program wants me to run an errand? And seems completely unable to turn off the automatic security defenses along the way? Having never seen anything like this before in my life, that sounds totally reliable to me. By the time you reach the first big twist halfway through the story, you'll hardly care.

A big part of that is due to the ridiculous circumstances you'll find yourself in, but it's also due to the terrifically awful voice acting. While I get that OSCAR is supposed to be a sort of lifeless computer program, that doesn't mean the voice acting has to be totally flat. Compared against the writing and acting of other memorable AI programs like HAL, SHODAN or GLaDOS, OSCAR has absolutely zero personality. Given that he's the only character you'll be interacting with for almost the entire game, it's hard to care at all about the story. What's more aggravating is that Ashley's voiceover seems only slightly more human.

You'll be tempted to turn the sounds off altogether and rely on the subtitles alone. Even then, you're not safe from the writing, which features such classic lines as using fire to "lit up a bottle," "Did this thing just moved?" and, my personal favorite, "From where is all this trash coming from?" At this point, there's no compelling reason to stay invested in the story.

Even if you manage to get past the thin story and monotonous voice acting, you'll find just as little personality or appeal in the generic and repetitive environments. The layouts are very linear with lots of big, pointless rooms and plenty of hallways that go nowhere in particular. It's as if the levels are designed without any regard for the purpose of the actual space, so you'll find yourself confronted with an arbitrary assortment of fans, locked doors and crates. I mean, what's the point of a glass walled room filled with motion-tracking turrets? Or the endless moving laser fences? Or chutes that automatically spit out water canisters or explosive barrels? There's no reason for any of this stuff beyond the demands of the gameplay. There's no sense of purpose or consistency in it.

So if the story and setting are uninspired, the gameplay must be awesome, right? Well, if not outright awesome, the gameplay is at least a mixed bag. Ashley makes use of two telekinetic gloves in Twin Sector; the left one attracts objects and the right one pushes them away. Simply hold down the appropriate mouse button and you can charge up the ability to deliver a super-powered push or pull. An overcharge system appears later in the game that gives you even more power.

You'll use the gloves in one of two ways. First, you can use them to attract or repel objects. Use the left glove to pick up a barrel, then charge up the right one to fire it at a distant switch. Or charge up the left glove to pull a water canister through a fire to extinguish the flames. Use the right glove to push away the electrified tracer drones that hunt you down in some of the levels. Or use the left glove to pick up a crate and shield yourself from a turret.

One of the problems here though, is that the crates you'll be using are so big that you won't be able to see anything when you're holding them. This makes them ideal shields against the turrets and lasers in the game, but makes them tough to aim as projectiles. Trying to aim a massive crate at a small grate or button or tracer is more about luck than skill. Though you can rotate the objects in your control, it's nearly impossible to orient them properly when working in the close confines of the levels. It's also a problem in the few instances where you're required to stack objects on top of each other.

The physics are also a bit crooked in places. Bottles can jump and spin and ricochet around from the gentlest of pushes and crates can bump into one another in ways that make stacking them particularly frustrating. The upside to that is, of course, that you can simply pick up a crate and walk into the turrets to knock them over.

You can also use the gloves to get around the environment. Simply charge the left glove and aim it at the wall to pull yourself up into otherwise inaccessible locations. Or use the right glove to cushion yourself from a fall that would otherwise have killed you. Believe me, until you get the hang of this one, you will be dying from lots of very short drops.

All in all, the puzzles presented by the game are fairly satisfying, but OSCAR usually gives you enough information that the puzzles are more about execution than thinking. There are some bright spots where you'll have to be a bit more logical about things, and even a few spots where I was happy to discover an improvised solution to what appeared to be a very scripted problem, but these moments were brief reprieves in a succession of puzzle cliches.

Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter

2010-01-28T00:03:00.000+07:00

If you're tired of all the sophistication and nuance in modern first-person shooters, you may want to take a trip back to simpler times with Serious Sam HD. There is no cover system, no elaborate story, and no characters to care about. What it does have is testosterone to spare and plenty of cheesy action movie one-liners delivered by our meathead hero, Sam. All you do is run around blowing the crap out of everything in sight, an activity that remains entertaining some 15 years after we first blasted our way through Doom's corridors. The whole thing has a very low budget B-movie feel to it and, despite the title, it definitely doesn't take itself too seriously.

Monsters from another dimension are here to kill us all, and Sam 'Serious' Stone is the one-man wrecking crew who will save us. You'll guide Sam through mostly linear levels set in ancient Egypt, stopping to solve only the most simple of puzzles along the way. In the spirit of Wolfenstein 3D, though, there are plenty of secrets to find.

As the focus is on shooting stuff, there are several fun weapons you'll find lying around. In addition to your standard shotguns and machine guns you'll find a Predator-style portable mini-gun, an effective laser blaster, and a cannon that shoots giant cannonballs that instantly take down just about anything. Regardless of your weapon of choice, fallen enemies explode in a very satisfying splatter of meat and gore.

Enemies swarm at you from every direction almost constantly, but there are only a handful of bad guy types so you're basically being attacked by never-ending waves of clones. This is one of those games that locks you in a room and keeps respawning enemies for way too long -- a mechanic I've always felt was lazy on the developer's part. Serious Sam is pretty challenging, but too often it's because of these cheap gimmicks.

Aside from the shiny new high-definition graphics the only other new component to Serious Sam is the four-player co-op mode. It can be fun to blast through the game with three friends but the framerate drops pretty seriously. Other than that, there are no new levels, enemies, or weapons to be found. In fact, the 16-player Deathmatch mode from the PC version has been removed here, which is a disappointing move considering the excellent Battlefield 1943 has been hosting 24-player online XBLA battles for over six months now.

With so little in the way of new content, players who already blasted their way through the adventure eight years ago might not find enough here to bring them back for another go round. But if you're a shooter fan who missed Serious Sam the first time, now's your chance to see why it's a cult favorite.

This XBLA version includes a very handy auto-aiming option that makes it much easier to hit your target. Some gamers might find it a little too easy, actually, but I appreciate it.

The Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood

2010-01-27T23:48:00.000+07:00

You are about to enter the first true battle of what will likely be our last war in Middle-earth." With that pronouncement, you enter the Mirkwood. From the golden shores of Lothlorien, we cross to the eastern shore of the Anduin where the forests have been corrupted by the forces of Sauron. It is a dark, dreadful place, filled with patrolling goblins, orcs, poisonous spiders, dank forests, and murky swamps. The foothold the elves have carved out is a pitiful bridgehead barely holding its own and we are assisting the elves in assaulting the orc fortresses and defending the ground they have gained.

The content in The Lord of the Rings Online is much more linear and focused on narrative than many other MMOs, based as it is on the works of Tolkien. There is an overarching storyline to follow in the War of the Ring, and Turbine has done a great job in bringing the story and the atmosphere of it to The Lord of the Rings Online. From the Shadows of Angmar to the Mines of Moria, Turbine has created a game and a world that is at once both familiar and unpredictable. The Siege of Mirkwood is no different. The next chapter of the story as it were, we are brought into Southern Mirkwood. Dol Guldor is occupied by one of Sauron's lieutenants and that is what we are pushing for.

Turbine has created a sense of impending doom as we move from the glorious sunlit wonder of Lothlorien, right into the frontlines of the battle. The atmosphere, the ambient sounds, the music, the immediate quests, all assist in creating that visceral urgency of being in the frontlines of a war zone. This then, is what we've been training for. All through the Shadows of Angmar, even through the "long dark" of the Mines of Moria, the War of the Ring has been a backdrop to our adventuring, but this, this is the frontline. No longer are we singing to trees; now we are patrolling the pickets, defending camps and assaulting the enemy.

The Siege of Mirkwood has been termed a "mini-expansion" by fans and certainly, it seems to be that as there's only one region, Southern Mirkwood, with nine areas within it. They are all dark, even in the day cycle, but still quite different from each other. Canyons and valleys and ruins mark one region, putrid swamp gases rise from another and the sense of being watched is high as you encounter goblins and orcs behind dead tree stumps and rocks. A high level expansion, The Siege of Mirkwood raises the player level cap to 65 and the Legendary item cap to 70. It also brings with it, several welcome changes to the game.

Legendary items, introduced in the Mines of Moria, are equipment that changes with you as you level. The Identify skill now gives more information about the Legendary item so players will get a better sense of where the item is headed before they invest a great deal of time into it only to find it less than useful later on.

Mounts have become a skill rather than an inventory item, freeing up an inventory slot, and in exchange for a long summon, players can interact with NPCs while mounted instead of having to dismount each time and you can ride them through portals and stay mounted when you zone.

More important is the change to combat. A change to the queuing of skills vis-a-vis auto-attack has made combat feel much more interactive and live, firing off when the skill is activated rather than a second or two later.

This expansion also brings a new feature to the game, Skirmishes. Skirmishes are combat instances that can be run solo or with a fellowship. Accessible via the UI, players can choose between eleven different maps and set the difficulty level between one and four. It is an alternative path for advancement from level 30 on up, and designed to complement Session play. Both are deeply entwined into the lore and further develop the story of Middle-Earth. The tutorial for example, takes you back to the brigand invasion of Bree with you defending the Prancing Pony. They are replayable and contain enough randomized elements that each instance feels different. One of these random elements is the placement and types of Lieutenants (mini-bosses) that may enter the fray, and another is the additional objectives that show up as you play through the instance.

A feature of Skirmishes is the minion system. Each player is provided with a soldier that they can train, advance, pick traits for and assign roles to. However, the soldier is not a pet. Usable only in the skirmish system, they are AI controlled and can sometimes seem to run around aimlessly. They are meant to complement the player character and can be used as a healer, archer or warrior, etc. The Skirmish system has a separate reward system. Different types of Skirmish marks are earned and these are used to upgrade your soldier and to purchase rewards from vendors in Skirmish camps found outside major cities.

A number of these Skirmishes are also part of the Epic Book and they feel more like full-scale battles than mere a mere skirmish. This sense of scale is greatly enhanced by the presence of soldiers together with your fellowship and their pets. A twelve-man instance can have twelve soldiers as well as the Captain and Loremaster pets, creating an allied force of over twenty-four.

The Lord of the Rings Online always had beautiful graphics to complement the gameplay and this expansion is no different. The dark atmosphere of Mirkwood greatly enhances the immersiveness of the game. The graphics and animations of creatures such as the spiders, Orcs and Felbeasts are also second to none, and there are plenty to be seen, both in Mirkwood itself as well as in the instances. Turbine has also managed to do wonders with contrast and color saturation so you aren't just tempted to crank up the gamma on your screen. It's not all browns and grays. There are colors and shades of browns, greens and grays as well as intense black contrasting with the more subtle shades.

Lest you think this is an entirely outdoor zone, we then get to the end objective of Dol Guldor. A massive structure inhabited by one of Sauron's lieutenants and his Fell Beast. The walls and towers of Dol Guldor loom menacingly in the distance long before you reach them. The Hell Hawks circling the sky, the eerie silhouettes of dead trees, the tendrils of fog that creep along the ground, all contribute to the feeling of dread even before the beast flies overhead and your character cringes in response. There, players will raid in the sword halls and dungeons of Dol Guldor, and in the chambers of the tower itself, all the way up to the final tower raid for a 12-man raid against the Nazghul on his Fell Beast. If that isn't challenging enough, there's also a "challenge" mode in the Dol Guldor instances. Light the challenge brazier and the instance becomes much harder. More NPCs perhaps and/or more mini-bosses, or even all the mini-bosses at once and again, there is the randomization factor for replayability.

Batman: Arkham Asylum

2010-01-27T21:03:00.000+07:00

How many games are using Batman as the main character and how that success? That's the first question that arises when we read the news about the plan-making Batman Arkham Asylum game a year ago. At that Eidos still has not purchased by Square Enix and staying as the game publisher. Answering this question, it's rarely the caped crusader has a successful game based on human imaging. Most of the Batman games on the market success story and the runway wearing character from Batman The Animated Series. Perhaps this is because the character of Batman illustrated considered difficult to form realistic in video games. Batman Arkham Asylum will change that view by presenting gameplay and a very neat story and an epic for the human form of Batman, not the animation.

Batman Arkham Asylum story opens with a scene that Batmobile raced toward Arkham Asylum, in the Batmobile looks chattering Joker figure is not clear in the conditions attached. Batman figure apparently was transporting eternal enemy to Arkham Asylum, where dangerous criminals undergoing therapy. After arriving at the Arkham Asylum Batman met with commissioner Gordon, the figure of the anti-corruption police and a close friend of Batman. Batman felt something was wrong from the beginning of their visit to Arkham Asylum, Joker too fast for him giving up just yet damaging Joker Blackgate prison. This is what makes Blackgate jail inmates transferred to Arkham Asylum and Batman did not like it.

Sure enough when the Joker left entirely to the guards Arkham Asylum, Joker immediately fled to the Arkham Asylum who had been commanded by Harley Quinn. Joker also announced that he had put a bomb at some point the city will he destroyed if the police or regular army had set foot in Arkham Asylum. Faced with unfavorable conditions choose to pursue Batman Joker in Arkham Asylum, and this is where your adventure as Batman begins.

Batman Arkham Asylum have story ideas fresh enough for a Batman game. How it would be like a Batman must fight in a place that it was full of people who hated him. Not just one but all the enemies of Batman's enemies, the Joker as the main enemy of both the core story.

Plus the first value comes from the gameplay. Batman Arkham Asylum has a hodgepodge gameplay. This game has some freedom style games that use the concept of an open world, the concept is supported by some secret and hidden content that we can access when we are reaching or have certain points in the game. This causes us to often check the area around or back and forth to the area previously explored. So for the problem Longevity Batman Arkham Asylum game is guaranteed.

Above plus the new terms of the area and how to play, wait until you're faced with the enemies and fought with them. Batman in this game has three basic movements to fight. The first movement is to attack, then counter attack and the last is the stunt attack. Every movement can be combined in such a way that could produce enough destructive attacks. Try to do counter then forwarded to the stunt followed by a long combo. Certainly you will see the final attack that pretty cool. Combo-combo-owned batman we can also upgrade experience acquired as Batman, so start simple combo movements to the complex combo is here.

We had also had a chance to tell you that Batman Arkham Asylum gameplay mixed enough, never in the battle hodgepodge elements had already seen. The reason we are given many options to defeat the enemy. Starting from frontal attacks to attack crept Solid Snake style. Rocksteady Studios also not forget to add sliding movement which followed a typical style kick Batman. So Batman is in this game is not a figure of Batman reliable gadgets gadgets-for battle. Batman is very strong power even with his bare hands could rip Batman iron lid that blocks the vents, so why are we not using energy to kick Batman's enemies?

Another plus comes from the characters and the voice of business in the in-game voice. For this one advantage we have to thank Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill and Arleen Sorkin managed to turn the character of Batman and his friends very well. Watching cutscene in Batman Arkham Asylum was like watching a scene that was Batman The Animated. So for now forget about Christian Bale's voice growling or late Ledger's sinister chuckle, because Batman Arkham Asylum is a different world with The Dark Knight. For the business vote, Batman Arkham Asylum has everything you need to pamper your ears. All material sound in this game has a quality that can given two thumbs at once, especially when combined with the ability to voice the character, Batman Arkham Asylum atmosphere became very wearing. Ever listen to growl Crocc Killer in Batman Arkham Asylum? I swear, we do not want to see the creatures at night.

This game has a feature called detective mode. With this feature we can see through walls, see what our enemies, to see what weapons they had brought, seeking a way out and many more. This game also has exploration system that is easy to understand, you simply turn on detective mode, all objects that can be invited to interact can be seen. This game also has a relatively easy puzzle, the article several places that have made platformer elements quite easily with the hook grapling firing features.

The only weakness in Batman Arkham Asylum game actually comes from the Unreal 3.0 engine which is very famous. Rocksteady Studios because it seems less mastered the use of these engines. If at first glance Batman Arkham Asylum has incredible graphics, but try to see detailed textures and lighting that is sometimes too vibrant. Also this game suffers the same disease with the other games developed using the Unreal 3.0 engine, the shadow moving irregularly. So practically Batman Arkham Asylum has graphics are ok but not exceptional. It was graphically presented Batman Arkham Asylum graphic is only equivalent to Gears of Wars was released three years ago.

Need For Speed: Shiftt

2010-01-27T20:52:00.000+07:00

The Need for Speed has always been guaranteed a certain quality racing game for a decade. But although the Need for Speed series is very well known, in the era of PS2 and PS3, games Need for Speed flying less than the PC era. When Need for Speed: Undercover sales drop, the more convinced that EA NFS fans needed something new. To meet these demands return back EA Need for Speed series to the most basic roots, and so was born a Need for Speed is a racing circuit with simulation gameplay.

Unlike the series of Forza and Gran Turismo is the initial target was already racing simulation, Need for Speed: Shift start everything from scratch. EA seems to not want to throw all typical Need for Speed, for it retains EA development base gameplay is arcade, but adding elements simulation

When I first played this game, you will undergo a test lap. When I drive a car is very rough and uncontrolled, then this game will suggest the type of easy to use, packed with aid so that you can keep playing. But if you successfully complete the lap with perfect, this game will offer advanced settings you use. Despite its advanced control, simulation elements offered by the Need for Speed: Shift is still far below the Forza and GT series.

Weakness in the apparently intentional, because playing Need for Speed without seeing a car pull unreasonable or Nitro is too fast. The cars in Need for Speed: Shift does not have realistic damage. You can make a BMW car dented, but the damage was limited to mere cosmetic. With the features in this game is not wrong, when NFS: Shift could be called the perfect marriage between arcade and simulation gameplay. All were supported by a balance between these two elements and the gradual pleasure of simulation and arcade elements.

Need for Speed: Shift wear RPG gameplay element. In essence we will get EXP which depends on the time your performance race. If you managed to constantly be in the prescribed lines and turned steadily, surely you will get high points as an accurate driver. Whereas if you hit enemies with aggressive and turning the barbarian way, then the points will increase your agresif. Until a certain point these two points we can see the results, whether you're a driver or an agresif rider accurate.

If you have an orientation to drive with accurate, then you will get the design and the additional equipment based on these points. Whereas if you drive carefully and you will get points accuracy. Both these points have a different way so if you want to get them the only way is to repeat the game with a different playing styles.

Because a system like an RPG game, then you will have a level indicating the level of your level. Unfortunately, the level provided by the NFS: Shift only reached level 50. When you reach that level there is nothing you can do. Fortunately, the disappointment is slightly relieved by the presence of 70 + cars that can be used.

Another disappointment is in NFS: Shift is, the same mode short career with the time you take to raise the level. Imagine to finish this game 100% you only need about eight hours. Eight-hour time was very briefly when compared with the experience of playing Need for Speed series of options.

Online mode in NFS: Shift is fun to play. There are two modes that we can use to play online. The first mode is a versus mode that allows us to quickly collided with seven drivers at once. The second mode is the Duel mode drivers. In this mode we have to catch drivers in front of us, pursuer and pursued buffer replacement switch play. If you win a lot of events there is a possibility Duel driver you can follow Duel Driver Championship.

Need for Speed: Shift is an interesting improvisation of the NFS series, ranging from the visual, cars, circuits, they have added details and effects. Remarkably, all these additions are not sacrificing framerate. NFS: Shift also has a scene that decorated prerender throughout the game. Prerender scene is very cool and detailed, unlike the previous NFS NFS, which tends to look like a cartoon. NFS: Shift smoothly collection of generic NFS soundtrack that you would not have felt out of place with its genre. For sound business NFS: Shift has an amazing collection of sound, imagine every sound machine has characteristics of each, so that eventually our goal to listen to the Ferrari engine sound across.

Heroes Over Europe

2010-01-27T19:08:00.000+07:00

Before you start playing a game, maybe this is a question we must ask first. Are you the type of gamer who wants to know everything in detail, from the dashboard of a boat until the buttons are detailed in a plane or you are the type of gamer who just wants to use a simple controller, flying straight away and finish enemy after enemy visible? All that really depends on the mission given in the game. For a more casual gamer, it might be more interested to play this game with a similar playing style as well as arcade game. Well, Heroes Over Europe is more focused on style arcade game, where you only need to direct the enemy planes and dropping away. Unfortunately, because the game is not too good, plus a few specific errors in this game, has made games that should be good, be not too good.

Before you start playing the online mode, there are 14 missions that you can run. Serving the picture was still impressed though not good enough really. As a game, you will be given a direct order and characteristics of each person who gave the order you can hear directly from his voice and the history of that person.

Game for themselves do not follow the chronological storyline there and they prefer to go through a couple of years there just to tell the story and that of course would be a bit troublesome for people who are trying to find out how the story goes. Each successful mission you complete, will automatically open the new ships, which each has its own characteristics. There are more suited to be the engine of air combat and there is also a more suitable vessel used as a tool to remove the bomb and ran away just like that.

As usual, given the mission would surely have known by the veterans of this game like a plane. You will be assigned to protect certain forces, destroying ships at sea, killing a soldier and AA guns in the mainland, mainstay kill enemy soldiers from the air and dropped a bomb straight into collection tanks there. Sometimes, you also will get a mission where you have to fly through the streets and undulating flight between the existing buildings.

The mission provided here is actually quite a standard for simulation games flight, but unfortunately, this type of mission is too often used so it will seem a bit bland though you've managed to run the mission. Very often you will face a situation where you have to feel safe, but you will come back again another same enemies, but with higher numbers, or sometimes even come back the enemy with a body size much bigger for you beat.

Even so, there are some additional given here. Supplement is you can get some special attacks that can instantly kill and clean the ceiling of the enemy aircraft. By directing you to the enemy target that is, automatically there will be a gauge that is slowly but surely began to fill. As already half full, it is possible you can enter Kill Ace mode. In Ace Kill, time will slow and allow you to direct your weapon and kill the enemy. Of course it would be more stable again if you can meet the first gauge. Because the gauge is full, even if you've managed to kill some enemies, Kill Ace mode will not go away immediately.

Keep in mind, AI here is less reliable, so you have to do it all their own. With a game like this, do not be surprised if up to a point, gamers are bored and do not intend to continue the game anymore.

There are other several other elements that make us somewhat disappointed with this game. These elements is when you're riding bomber very large, bi-planes or planes that have a high level of agility, it just feels the same and there is no difference at all. Well, for gamers who want to feel he exclaimed full control plane, there is an arcade mode and professional mode. By activating the professional mode, then automatically you will get the freedom to control the aircraft in full and in accordance with your wishes. But according to our advice, should not have tried. The reason, given the level of difficulty because some games are not very fit, will surely make things more difficult, unless you really are a seasoned pilot.

Once again, as we said before, the graph is here is not too well. Starting from the blast effects, the effects of damage to the ship, model ship to the environment around you look very ordinary and even music can not make a gamer is not going to feel something good enough to remember. This game really did have something to be proud of, but unfortunately not supported with lots of things that make this game fail.

NBA 2K10

2010-01-27T17:22:00.000+07:00

Although until now EA Sports has always been a pioneer in most sports games, the NBA 2K franchise is still remains a game they have unmatched quality. With a very good picture, games outside and inside the field of fairly steady and the number of features available, NBA 2K is always successfully put its competitors who always tends to produce games that are not too good. Now, after 10 years to act in the world of gaming, 2K Sports will still seem to continue their dominance in the sport. After all this time, 2K Games is also getting help from the Sony, so this game will certainly have a very big improvement and will not disappoint gamers as well.

Of course for the veteran NBA 2K9 will always questioned how the game of basketball itself as being in the field (in the NBA 2K10). We must admit, this game has one game tempo is faster and good enough to play. One change that must be recognized by gamers of all is the turbo system or run fast no matter if you are in defensive positions or attack. 2K10 has added a new energy system where you will be running by relying on two bars given in the game. This bar has two stages. The first stage of yellow and blue second stage. Yellow is a bar that shows you the energy to run and the blue color is your stamina. If you spend a second bar, the characters are you using it will need a break before starting to play again. This is a pretty good way to keep the game will not be like the basketball version of the arcade game where the characters can be used continuously as if spurred not have the stamina.

Changes are also made on the playcalling system (a system where you will provide specific instructions to change the way you play). When the NBA 2K9, there were only 8 types of commands you can use, so this time you will get 24 types of commands you can spend to change the game so that you can turn the situation around the game. It's just that, with the existence of too many choices is, of course, will require some time to choose what order would you use. As it will be as vulnerable enough for you because the enemy can easily win you the ball and put the ball into the hoop without any means of your obstacles. So, it's good you own the right to determine what command would you spend.

There are also some things that seem not changed by the 2K Games. In the previous game, gamers can easily put the ball lay-ups or put the ball in the style of jumping. But this was not maintained in the NBA 2K10 because very often we get the ball we were holding and while we were doing lay-ups, the ball should bounce into it instead of the ring and actually taken by the opponent. Things like this will surely damage the glorious moments of you and it is not impossible that such a destructive and even demoralize you. This time, when you look at the game in this game, every time you want to do a movement that suddenly, the opponent can easily steal the ball and immediately took him away.

Speaking of defense issues, this time feature lockdown defense is back again and this time even more better when compared with the previous. Of course this will only happen when you watch someone who was holding the ball. Well, when your opponent was carrying the ball, you can keep the enemy with a very tight and if you can guess the direction of the enemy fled, it is not possible you can force him to do the double team or even out of the field and lead the team moved the ball to you. Only the biggest problem here is the ball carriers tend to be more straightforward and fast in this game and even they often do not need help from anyone.

For a given AI problem, actually we think AI here is pretty good and effective. But they also often make stupid mistakes that could result in defeat for you. If you ask AI to keep one of your opponent, sometimes he'll just stand still and not doing anything against the holder of the ball. Even the AI is also often movements headaches. Take, for example, AI justu often give the ball to another player who was in a position out of bounds. It's confusing.

Another problem emerges here is 2K10, which very often can damage your timing has been set up in such a way. If you're carrying the ball in the field or are trying to make shots while jumping, this will not be a problem. But the difference as if you've moved to the bottom of the ring, his framerate sometimes be decreased in such a way and will cause you confusion and it is not likely to cause you to lose the ball. This really feels conspicuous in Xbox360 console.

NBA 2K10 for this, one thing that really made us chuckle was amazed offered graph. This time, not just the players look so realistic, but almost every move they do look solid. All things start from the pass from behind his back to attempt to steal the ball is falling freely look so natural, cutscene before the game started well and looked so good when it is animated on the field was quite stable and did not disappoint at all.

Other elements can also be an additional value for this game is the reaction from the audience when you're playing. If you managed to score three in one shot, then the audience will be instantly cheered. If you are a guest team and the position you now is to win, then you will often hear a groan from the audience or even the audience was silent instead. When this happens, usually the speaker will try to improve the spirit of the audience. So extraordinary is not it?

Latest features attached to the NBA 2K10 NBA Today that can provide the latest news, info exchange of players, status and many more topics of conversation are given here. That way, Harlan, Kellogg and Miller will look much more natural and not so rigid anymore like the previous version.

One mode else can you use as a place to develop characters that you use the development mode leagues and teams, which allows you to develop and prepare your team to play together with other gamers. Then there are modes where you can create and shape the careers of the characters that you create and train a character in order to compete with the mega star. If you still had the ability not good enough, eventually you will be sent back to the development league team to improve your skills again.

All these modes are given a fairly exciting fashion and fun to play. The challenge that you will get more and more and you can also create and train your character to become a star in the world of basketball as Michael Jordan or any other characters.

Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince

2010-01-27T17:09:00.000+07:00

Harry Potter: The Half-Blood Prince is the sequel to 6 of 7 books authored by JK Rowling and should be recognized, both the novel and the movie is selling like peanuts. In addition to his debut in a book or movie, Harry Potter, of course, is to debut in the world game and has recorded a 6 game with the same title with the movie. Admittedly, too, that rarely made a game based on the successful film version. Fortunately this one is not included in it.

Harry Potter: The Half-Blood Prince told him about the 6th year Harry at Hogwarts wizarding school, where he will be back adventure in a world filled with shades of magic along with his friends, Ron and Hermione. This time, besides having to deal with the enemy, Lord Voldemort, Harry must also deal with romantic nuances that have started burning inside him (not surprising, considering the age Harry was hit puberty).

For gamers who read his book, of course will know with certainty about the way the story of this game. But we will try to translate it as accurately as possible about the 6th year at Hogwarts Harry. But definitely, everything in the series to-6 times this has begun to be serious. As usual, Harry's archenemy, Draco Malfoy is still the culprit of all the fad for so long. Not anymore.

Notes for gamers who have not read the book, maybe this game will not be able to tell more clearly about what is happening. So, advice from us before playing this game, gamers should read it before playing the game fun and have been made with this in such a way that can have its own appeal.

Like in previous games, you will do a lot of activities related to the magical world, ranging from making potions, learn magic to defend themselves, fly using broomsticks, wizard-style duel with another character and do a lot of exploration to reveal very very secret at Hogwarts this many (if gamers still remember the words Dumbledore himself said that he did not know all the secrets at Hogwarts).

In between all these activities, perhaps our activities according to the most unique and exciting is the activities you to create potions. In this activity, you will have 16 kinds of materials you can use to create a potion that you want in a first person perspective. When you play, you'll get an indicator on the right that shows what material you use, and until the stage of colors do you have to stop pouring the material. If you pour excess material required, you will be a screen full of smoke and you'll be prompted to press LT and RT buttons simultaneously for a while to remove all the smoke.

Another element that is not less interesting here is flying. In the Half-Blood Prince, Harry has been appointed as captain of Quidditch and of course have a duty to try to bring his team to victory. In contrast to some previous games, this time all you have flights arranged by the computer and you just try to adapt your movement to try to sort through the star to be getting closer to the Snitch (which is usually golden ball into decisive victory or a decisive completion of the game). If you can not follow the path that has been given by this game, slowly but surely, you will be asked to repeat the game because you have been deemed a failure. So do not look lightly on this one.

Elements of the fight in the wizarding world is also quite interesting. If the fight earlier in the Order of the Phoenix extremely difficult, precisely this time a little easier, but still is far from word perfect. Here are 6 magic tricks you can use. There Stupefy, Protego, Expelliarmus, Petrificus Totalus, Levicorpus and Charging and everything was arranged with the help of your controller. Also different from previous versions, this time you will find the bar before the blood that is not included here.

In addition, now you will receive assistance from Nearly Headless Nick to find the way to your destination. Different from the previous where you only get a few footprints will take you there. Now Harry is already able to run, an additional unique and good enough. We never try, where we made Harry ran at full speed but because it collides with another student who was in the vicinity, Harry actually fell.

Need to be recognized that Harry Potter game is far from word perfect. It is true that this game has a design environment is a very good school, but unfortunately the face of each character that is sometimes just looks like a robot who is learning to speak. But only up to our disappointment there alone, because in general this game is good enough for a standard game of Harry Potter.

Make Unlimited Health For Vehicles In GTA San Andreas

2010-01-27T16:03:00.000+07:00

For fans of GTA, of course, has never played GTA San Andreas game. In this game, we can freely drive all vehicles in the game there is. But, if you feel annoyed when he was driving a vehicle, the vehicle then exploded after suffering damage?

If so, I will give you the cheat to make these vehicles will be damaged if you crash the vehicle with anything. This cheat may have much to learn. But I gave it to cheat players who do not know.

Well, I just tell. When you are driving a vehicle, type the following cheat "JCNRUAD" (without the "). Then enter the vehicle, and then type the cheat again. Done, then your vehicle will be resistant to any damage. Repeat these steps each time you change your vehicle.

The Saw

2010-01-27T15:48:00.000+07:00

Who is not familiar with the name Jigsaw? Jigsaw is not the name of a puzzle used by the children to play. In this case, Jigsaw is the pseudonym of someone who has felt the cruelty of the world on him that has a lot to do good for the people. That person is John Kramer. Which became the beginning of all this is when his wife who was carrying her first child, suffered a miscarriage due to the action of a bully who can not get away from drugs. Because the sense of profound sadness, he was separating himself from friends and his wife.

Any misfortune befall John continued. At times like that, she had been diagnosed with cancer that can not be cured. In sadness and fear that he suffered during that time, he also made observations of those around him and just see that people around him just not showing gratitude for the life given by God to them, even though he himself did not get it from God's goodness.

Starting from there, he began to give them a test and the test is more likely to resemble as the rehabilitation rather than examination. Although said to be the rehabilitation of John, but this test uses the lives of its main stake. As already gamers know, John was finally getting the nickname Jigsaw because he always took the pieces of the victim who did not successfully pass the test. These pieces illustrate that something is missing from the victims who had died and John called it a "survival instinct".

Well, in a game which will also bring you face to face with Jigsaw, you will act as Detective Tapp. In the story, when Tapp realized, she realized that she had been fitted with an iron helmet, and if not successfully released on time, then loses his head Tapp. From here, you're going to start the first game you are trying to escape from the iron helmet. The first exam was not too hard and still you are going through. But should we admit, when we started this game, feeling tense already started creeping ourselves and we were quite excited to get through this ordeal.

Soon after he was free, Tapp realized that he was one of the many people who are trapped in the house (or room) and he has become one of the toys from a murderer. The man who kidnapped her is the one who had always pursued by Tapp, Jigsaw. During this, he always claimed that he never committed murder, and he has always given a choice for them to stay alive and so far, the victims are rarely willing to take the painful choices (mutilation, suicide and murder). In addition, they are also often faced with a series of puzzles that will make you fear and panic.

In the game, you'll meet a lot of obstacles that would kill you instantly killed with a single subject only. There is a trap (the most we have encountered here) shotgun, and there are also traps in the form of electricity. For a shotgun trap, this trap will be difficult to see, especially if you're not careful. A touch of the cable into the main trigger, loses his head Tapp. Therefore our advice is, be careful.

The problem is, just be careful is not enough to guarantee the safety of you in this game. The reason, Jigsaw has placed a key in the lock Tapp and is the key to free the prisoners themselves that there is there. Jigsaw has made Tapp became the most sought-after in the place and unfortunately again, everything has a purpose to kill Tapp in order to get the key. To make the game exciting enough, you'll be presented with a variety of puzzles that enough to make your brain spin fast and under pressure from the death of more and more approaching. But after all this time we play the Saw, this game was beginning to feel a little boring with the collection of the puzzle is likely the same. Luckily the lives at stake here made this game a little bit of life and more stressful.

During the game, Tapp could be arming themselves with various weapons that are in place, ranging from broom sticks, iron bars and a revolver is quite deadly. For Melee weapons which we have mentioned above, the weapon did not have the effectiveness that we expect from a weapon. The main problem here is that every time we are faced with new enemies and start swinging a weapon, the enemy often had launched an offensive to Tapp and lead our attack failed. That is why, during the game we prefer to use my bare hands than Melee weapons are completely ineffective it.

You will also get some other things like blood bars, equipment you can collect to make a trap or lock of some object locked here. You also need to be careful of broken glass which will also very often you meet. Unfortunately again, this is sometimes broken glass you can not avoid and you must pass with bare feet. Every time you pass the broken glass, you will lose blood.

For business graphics, this game has pretty good graphics. Starting from the surrounding environment that is designed in such a way as to cause fear and tension, coupled with a grim design and dark from every room you enter (just look around you are filled with dead bodies, blood, body parts hanging pig, a former corpse people who previously had been the victim of Jigsaw, a pool of blood and many more). Yes, indeed this is a game that managed to make us feel tense and worried because every step that one, either from you or from the way the puzzle provided by Jigsaw, then this means "instant death". All this is also supported by the placement of a suitable voice and distinctive style Saw.

FIFA Soccer 10

2010-01-27T15:41:00.000+07:00

Is not an easy task to try to exceed the previous games that have been successful. Instead, most developers just failed in his efforts. But it was not the case for the Electronic Arts pan more successful at developing sports franchise to franchise. Look at games like NHL 09, NBA Live 09 and now, FIFA 2010 which has been developed by Electronic Arts with a very neat and nice. It is no big secret, if the gamer talk about the latest franchise, they will ask for an increase in the graph supplied by the game, FIFA 2010 did not disappoint in the affairs of a given graph.

Let's try this game with Virtual Pro mode, where you will start the game by creating a player, design attributes of these characters that can match your desires, make changes to the face can be adjusted to your liking or maybe just make the changes odd-odd, depending on your wishes. Mode this one works very well and even how it works can be said more perfect when compared with the previous version. Even you also can use GameFace feature to upload your own photos and put it directly in the game.

Once finished with figures of your character's body, it is time you tried the player's ability on the field. This is where the difference between Virtual Pro with Be A Pro mode in the past. This time, rather than just being a football player who has the full capability, you can directly use the products of your character in any mode available in the game. You can just bring the character into the arena of practice and try to sharpen your skills, or you can also go straight into Play Now mode. If not, maybe you want to try your luck in Manager Mode, or try to play online and live play Club Pro Championship mode with other gamers. All of these modes you can use to improve your performance as a football player. To help improve your characters abilities, there are some specific goals that you must fulfill and all that is included with the game just perfect. There are developmental in nature is only temporary and there is also a nature to eternity.

One problem that may also be felt by all gamer Be A Pro mode is that you can only develop one character and only one character that is all you will train and develop you. Unlike the case with Virtual Pro mode that lets you do whatever you want and this is certainly pleasant enough. In addition to creating a character and develop the ability to attribute that you want, you can also create a set-piece in accordance with your imagination. A feature that certainly is very suitable for a Kotaker who was a football enthusiast and has its own fantasies about the set-piece like what is most suitable for the use of a team.

Manager Mode still remains to be one part that can not be removed from this game and frankly, this one mode does not disappoint. You can make the transfer of players, you can make observations of other players, to upgrade some of the staff team by using the money you have you get from ticket sales and of course you will be required to meet the expectations that have been given by the ranks of the club owner where you work so that you can survive. Even sometimes you will also get input from the two commentators in the game and they will provide comments and input for you to be more successful.

For issues commentator, two commentators are certainly familiar in the world of football, Andy Gray and Clive Tilsley is doing its job very well and they really can produce sounds that really add to the spirit of the game. Certainly not the commentators are forever making mistakes such as giving a false observation. But that does not mean that their comments will not be useful and in our opinion, they are still able to comment that could help add keseruan in the game.

Player movement provided by Electronic Arts this time also has experienced a remarkable development. If the previous character you can only run in accordance with the eight wind directions are available, so this time you will see movement very smooth and flawless, so you can add the ability to attack and defense with more perfect. You can move in any direction you like, move a foot to the strong or weak, depending on the angle when you're in a position to attack and do some really cool motion.

Performance during the game has been developed in such a way that in accordance with the attributes it has in the real world. Our point here is, if a small football player, so he will not have a strong endurance and will not be too strong when invited to fight for the ball. Unlike the case with a football player high and strong. Of course, this footballer would be difficult to overcome and win the ball he was sleigh. In addition to all the movements you can see it, you'll also witnessed a few scenes where the characters you will lose control and for a short time, they will drop or even lose the ball (it is quite common in the real world).

Unfortunately, the performance of AI given us here still feel inadequate. Although the EA has said that the ability of AI has been improved, we still often find several instances where the AI is just not react to the ball that happened to be in front of them. But, it must be admitted that they have the ability to run a very solid and very often they will ask for the ball to us if they feel their situation is safe enough. It's still a lot of shortcomings here and there, but still changes given here is quite satisfactory.

Graphically, FIFA 10 only gives a little change, but performance is in FIFA 10 is already enough to make you spellbound with admiration. However, it is undeniable that so far, only Electronic Arts who can present a graph that can spoil the eye and combined with a very attractive game.

Way of the Samurai 3

2010-01-27T15:35:00.000+07:00

Way of the Samurai is a typical game that uses Japan where the samurai era is still the dominant community. During their work in the game (which already had two games), this game is one game that is interesting enough to play. The main core of the game here is that you control a samurai who will start the journey and tried to broker from two different clans.

You're free to do whatever you want, whether it is talking with people, helping them to do a job, join one of the parties and help so that they can win a war or a party favor and try to knock all the people in these places. In this game, you will be asked to play the game a few times and tried several different things every time you play it.

Unfortunately, there is no franchise Way of the Samurai who could really use a full idea of what was above it and even they did not succeed spawned something quite special. Likewise with the Way of the Samurai 3. Although this game had entered the next-gen consoles like the PlayStation 3 and Xbox360, there is absolutely no new anything that could improve the quality of the game itself.

Like I said before, you can do almost anything that you want to do. When you talk to someone, you can choose to fight with them directly in the middle of conversation, no matter who they are and it seems that in this game, you can kill anyone you meet, except the children. When you attack someone who is dead, then for all these characters will never appear again (during the game). But there are also characters who have been murdered earlier though, will still come back alive again and replace the previous one had been killed. For example when you kill someone in charge to do recruitment. When he was murdered and you go back to the place, it will be no substitute for that person and it will continually repeat.

Another case when you talk to the leader of a clan and then kill him and his colleagues. After they die, then they will die and you can choose to be their leader. Pretty cool? Yes, the idea of becoming a leader for a group sounds pretty cool. But unfortunately, not many changes that occur during the game, but later his subordinates you will bow to salute when you pass. That's it.

Even in this game, where you can explore the relatively very little. When calculated in total, you only have about 8 places you can visit and all those places you can easily explore without the need for a long time. There is no such thing as doing exploration to other countries, looking for new places, or the like.

Then there are also problems with the mechanics of the game. There are some tasks you have to do and actually quite simple task. Take for example when you are asked to catch a thief. We pursue these thieves, characters that you will use it and this sword is the problem. Although you do chores to help the villagers, but the guards in this game will come after you and at the same time, the population is around even become afraid of you. Villagers who do not have a weapon, it will immediately run away as soon as look at you and it will be difficult course.

If you want to try to do a task that is not too sadistic and cruel, you might choose to do the job as a message or search for specific items to residents around. That way, means that you use the sword it will only serve as decoration only and will not make much sense when you play a game with the theme of war. Unfortunately again, in this game you can only run one mission every time and you can not collect a large number of missions and work together.

The battle is not too good here. Every weapon that you have had a statistically separate attack and defense. If the defense you were lower than the level of enemy attacks, then you will not be able to resist the blow. Even so, this game does not mean it contains the problem. As we said before, the idea used here is good enough and the consequences of the mechanism used here can be regarded as a pretty good idea.

Borderlands

2010-01-27T15:31:00.000+07:00

From the beginning of the game, you'd be taken straight to a world of open-world, with a large number of missions and some groups of criminals who are ready to do anything to prevent that you do not kill their leader, killed a large number of members of their group, steal documents and objects, Other important objects. In addition, you will also be equipped with an old weapon for a start. But you do not need to worry, because as a game, you'll find lots of lethal weapons ever created by humans, ranging from shotgun, sniper, SMG (Sub-Machine Guns), handgun and a rocket launcher. Each weapon also has its own effects that will give the effect of each of the enemy. Not only that, you will also find a weapon powerful aliens that you can use.

Of course, as the game and the higher your level, you will also continuously change your equipment with more powerful equipment again. As for skill trees are full of passive skills, each class is to have one main style that must be used once you wear during the game. Hunter classes will often ask for pet birds to attack from afar, Berserker class will immediately forward to attack and kill enemies by using his strong hands, Siren class will change to become invisible for a while and the Soldier class could be asked for assistance in the form of a turret to help his fight. Well, to strengthen each of the passive skills, you can reinforce it with the points you get from each time you level up.

But, with so many weapons that you can use, maybe you'll soon forget the fact that this game actually has elements of a game like Diablo because actually, most of the time in this game would you spend to kill the enemy using these weapons. Even for the character customization process just seems so shallow, though still quite good. For character customization, you can just change the name and also your clothing color. It's not something that is varied enough, but we think it is quite interesting.

Now start the pull. One aspect that makes this game was very interesting was his enemy. The first enemy you'll find here are of course common enemies are weak. But the longer, the greater enemy, the brutal and certainly will bring a weapon much larger and deadly. If for small enemies, most of them will arm themselves with a shotgun, someone using a sniper from a distance, someone using a shield and a lot more enemies that will make you a hassle.

You're not just going to fight against humans only, but you also will fight against the horrible dog who can jump, throwing dangerous liquids and attack you with it. Anyway, this dog is one of the most annoying creatures we've encountered so far. There is also a creature called Pitch Black Winged could fly, then immediately attack you from the air with the goal of course is to kill you. Worms Burrow is also a creature that was quite troublesome, because these creatures attacking you from below ground and there are also insects that can be used protective projectiles fired at you.

Not enough to make you even more stressed by the enemies, you also will meet with soldiers far more trouble again. It can be seen from all of their equipment much more sophisticated. Is that right? No. That was only a part of the common enemy and you find there are so many enemies that you'll find. For the record, the enemy will not attack you with just a half-strength squad-half, aka they will always attack you with full force. That's just common enemy we share. What about the boss? Do not be surprised if later on you will be faced with the bosses of large and deadly course.

Graphics business, we think this game could be said to offer one of the best graphics we've ever seen. The view you get in a dungeon, dungeon really look fantastic. Even the scenery during the day and night were also seen very clearly. Transportation vehicles is also quite exciting, because in addition to speed the journey, you will also get cool weapons you can use. A maximum of two people who can drive a vehicle, which means you can play this game with your friends in multiplayer mode, another aspect which is also the advantage of this game alone.

It's an adventure to explore the world alone, the mission and strengthen your character can sometimes seem quite exciting. But if you continue like that, we think over time would also seem quite boring. Well, this is the role of the multiplayer modes. In this mode, you can play together with your friends. But, along with joining your friends in the game, enemies will be stronger too, and the items they drop will also be better. Because of that, maybe you want to start considering more often play together with your friends to get things much better. Not only that. If on one occasion you have started dying or even dead, your friends can help bring you back and that too can be done without using any special abilities.

A maximum of four players who can immediately play with and it is recommended, because this is a point that can make you very very addicted to the game, especially when you see it from the combined classes in four-person team. Oh yes, before we forget, every object that was dropped here can freely be taken by anyone. So, if you and your friends like to compete for a falling object, then we suggest that you want to move quickly in order not to be preceded by other gamers.

The Saboteur

2010-01-27T14:38:00.000+07:00

The Saboteur can be regarded as the last work of Pandemic Studios, the new studio was soon dissolved by its parent company. For information, Pandemic Studios has also previously issued games are pretty good as Mercenaries and Star Wars Battlefront. As with Mercenaries, The Saboteur is also using the open-world elements. Only, in our opinion not very good results.

Settings used in this game is set in France that was invaded by the Nazis and you will act as Sean Devlin, a seducer of women and also great drinkers. Actually, at first it was just Sean Devlin who is not too concerned with the situation around him and only cares about what's in front of it. At first, he had only one intention which is to follow the race which was held in the Grand Paris. One of Sean's competitors is Kurt Dierker. In the event the race is held, Kurt cheating that makes Sean irate and he plans to ignorant to Kurt. But, all his actions just ignorant even penetrated into a big problem and makes Sean vowed to kill him with a Nazi as well.

Now, when we talk about the difficulties in making an open-world game, of course, we'll talk about how if a person free to act in the game. The Saboteur successfully achieve all that. Every time you get a new objective, you will immediately get assistance in the form of yellow spot on your map, so you can more easily find the location you are headed. Now, in order to achieve this goal, you must have the appropriate weapons to carry out your mission and you must have guessed what you need to do. Now the choice is up to you, whether you want to play this game without following the plot or are you going to follow the story that it has been given by this game.

Starting from here, all kinds of shortages began to appear. As a man, Sean has immune highly unreasonable. To kill a Sean, it takes about 50 shots before he died and that too is still supported by the speed of regeneration is very fast and includes unreasonable. That means, all of the features provided such features for cover and the like are not really work anymore because of this body endurance. Sean can be regarded as a super soldier is hard to beat. The core story, this game is pretty fun to play, but not too much hope on this game.

If you want to try to kill the enemy silently, this game provides these features. But there is a problem here because the wrong steps, you'll be chased by dozens of bullets whizzing behind you. Yes, the enemy suspicion indicator tends to rise quickly and if the limit is reached, then the alarm is sounded and you can do is run away before your body becomes a beehive. When the alarm was sounded, then you should immediately turn off the alarm if you want to run your mission calmly and was also one of the biggest problems that you have to face when compared with the current mission you are running.

Here, you not only can kill the enemy with it quietly, but you can also become one of the undercover Nazi soldiers to avoid suspicion by the other Nazi troops. The problem is, you disguise it will not last long and the problem was compounded by the fact that there are some special soldiers who can recognize you and cover to turn on the alarm. It only takes a few missions just to make us feel that the features of this sink in disguise and less exciting. Another thing we also feel are disturbing enough, with only one eruption capital weapon, whether it is killing people around or not, the Nazis would have scrambled to come to where you blow up your weapon.

Just as the game-open-world games in general, you can drive anywhere you want and you can save your favorite vehicle in the garage for your use later. Only here the vehicle control was a little too stiff so that it can seem a bit difficult than fun. In addition, Sean, too, can climb any building as well as Assassin's Creed. Unfortunately, an animation when Sean was climbing seem strange and not visible as smooth as Assassin's Creed. In general, it is to climb here features work well enough, but still there was a feeling of satisfaction when he saw Sean's climbing, especially if you've played Assassin's Creed 2 earlier.

One of the main features offered in this game are white, black shades covering the city. Black and white is intended to indicate that the communities around living in fear because of the Nazis. Every time Sean successfully completed its mission in a certain area, you'll see colors again appear in the area indicating that hope has reappeared in the population.

Indeed this game is not a completely disappointing game, but we feel this game could have a better offer than this. Overall, if you only have to run its main mission, you will take about 13 hours to finish the game. In addition, there are also some side missions are quite interesting to you playing.

Guitar Hero: Van Halen

2010-01-27T14:25:00.000+07:00

There are few rock stars who may not know when it was appropriate to resign and retire from the world of music. There are very many bands always tempted lure of money and immediately agreed to do so despite the risk that there has been enormous. One example is the Guitar Hero: Van Halen, a game that uses one of the famous band in the 80s, but the result instead is a disaster.

By using big bands like Van Halen, of course, Activision hopes to re-boost the popularity of Guitar Hero which is slowly but surely this has begun to decline. Although there are appearances from members of famous bands such as Eddie Van Halen and David Lee Roth, this is still not very helpful.

If you claim to be a Van Halen fan and feel that this game is one game that is suitable for you, maybe you'll soon rectify greeting you after playing this game. The reason is, almost half of all the songs are there (a total of 45 songs), not the song ever sung by Van Halen before this. Instead, you will only see the names of other bands that appear in this game. Call it Weezer, Blink-182 and Fountains of Wayne, which is actually the third band did not have anything to do with Van Halen.

All this is exacerbated by the fact that Activision is not trying to get a copyright on the songs Van Halen, especially after the age in which David Lee Roth left the band. Perhaps it makes sense, given the many calls that after Lee Roth left the band, the band had not called the song a true Van Halen. But would not that be better than just relying on songs from other bands?

The only positive value of this game is the song that was a song from Van Halen himself. Their songs quite enjoyable and challenging to play. Even so, the fact that the songs are still not enough to form an album itself, there must be many who Kotakers wonder why Van Halen is not made into a downloadable version of the content (DLC) for the game just another Guitar Hero.

There are other other failures seen in this game. Guitar Hero is, it should be a game that made separately reminiscing and showing the original form of the singers are famous in their time. But what you get in this game, it is a member of Van Halen that has begun with age. To be able to get the appearance of Van Halen when they were young, you have to play the career mode there first before I can get it. Only, we believe at the time you've got the classic version of Van Halen, maybe you already do not have the interest to play again. If you still intend to try, which would you get is the movement of the Van Halen that was very stiff.

Then, whose name is Career mode can also be said quite deceptive. Why? Because here, you're not going to play the Van Halen group through all the steps there as they have traveled before. You only have to pass a number of songs and collect the stars. After everything was over, it was done. You will not find anything related to Van Halen.

In addition, this game still provides a lot of disappointment at gamers. You will not find any features for downloadable contents. There is no option to remove songs from Guitar Hero 5 others. There is no such thing as Party Play again, where you can play together with your friends. Perhaps the only consolation here is a feature of GH Studios, where you can try to create their own favorite rock song for you, then you share with other gamers.

Darksiders

2010-01-27T14:18:00.000+07:00

Darksiders is a game that is a combination of God of War, Devil May Cry and some elements from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Darksiders Although not as good as those games, but we think Vigil Games managed to develop this game so that could be a game quite interesting and unique and great to play.

In general, this graphics from Darksiders looks quite smooth and sharp. His voice is also quite adequate and there was fitted with the game, plus the length of time you need to finish the game, which is about 15 hours to complete the single-player mode itself. There are many tools that you can gather, the weapons you can upgrade, combos to learn and also special items you can find. Enemies will you encounter also very diverse, existing dungeon full of puzzles that challenge and there are many hidden things which you can find, it's become a special reason for you to keep coming back to play this game and look for objects these hidden objects.

In this game, you'll play as War, one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Its power is well known and he is very respected by even those who are the characters of the most powerful enemy even. Although in appearance he is not a typical character that has a hero in general. Everything was caused because the personality of the War itself can be said not too concerned with all things around him.

If you've ever play God of War, then this one element must be very you know very well. After some time you attack the enemy, later on the enemy's head is displayed the image of a button (X button). If at that moment you press the button in question, then WAR will immediately kill the enemy with brutality. Is the movement will always be the same? No. Animation at the time you defeat an enemy is weak and strong enemies will differ from each other. Of course, in this case, while killing the enemy is stronger, War movement animation will look more complicated and cool.

For gamers who are quite proficient at playing games like this, might be interested to increase the difficulty level of the game. We need to admit, the level of difficulty in this game was far less when compared with the bout in the Devil May Cry is comparatively very complicated and even the enemy who came out they were not too challenging as well as God of War. Here, you will not need a high reflexes. So anyone who can actually play this one game easily and effortlessly.

During the game, you'll get three weapons you can use to fight, from the sword that has become your primary weapon, a scythe and a large Gauntlet all that you can use according to your fighting style. One thing we also need to admit to this one game is, this game is not a game intended for those who are already very skilled at playing games like this.

During the game, you also will collect the soul that uses the form of a green ball. The function of the soul is to buy weapons, upgrade your weapons and get a new movement that is more deadly than the stance that you previously had.

Above, we have explained briefly that this game also has elements similar to the game The Legend of Zelda. What's similar? We'll explain here. As a game, you will find a lot of dungeon-dungeon full of puzzles. In each puzzle there, there are weapons or equipment that will allow you to explore locations that previously could not you explore it and even it is not impossible if you will go into a room where there dwells a boss. There are so many things you can find here, from the dungeon map, box prices, a key intended for a particular door and bombs you can use to destroy the wall of red crystals. War will also be accompanied by a horse named Ruin he could ride. As long as he was riding Ruin, of course he could also cut both the enemies around him.

If traced more clearly, this game really did not present an original thing. In addition, there are also some other aspects that make us feel this game has certain shortcomings. One of them is the setting used. This game has one of the darkest setting is there and the world that you meet here can be said is arid and almost not feasible to be occupied again. Everything on the surface is the monsters and demons. But unfortunately, the game failed to create an atmosphere that supports these conditions.

Mass Effect 2 DLC Delayed

2010-01-27T14:03:00.000+07:00

There are some parts of Mass Effect 2 (in the form of downloadable content, or DLC) that seem to be available in the next few days.

BioWare has announced via its official forums, that the character assassin named Zaeed not be able to play with using Cerberus Network until Wednesday or Thursday this week. While others said DLC is still in the development process.

The studio itself had been having a little problem with the DLC for the Dragon Age: Origins, Return to Ostagar. In the end, the DLC is directly lifted from the Xbox LIVE after previously appeared on the market for some time. Until now, the DLC you can still download.

Hopefully BioWare DLC could solve this problem quickly so that gamers will not be disappointed.

Dragon Age: Origins

2010-01-25T20:21:00.000+07:00

A traditional formula where you can create a character, a hero and save the world is not a new thing for BioWare. Not surprisingly, given BioWare is a company with a lot of experience in this regard. Look at games like Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect. Now, BioWare again presents a new game with original designs and attractive enough, the Dragon Age: Origins. With a cocktail of different game themes, and more intended for the adult gamers, gamers BioWare again indulging in character design and background of each character is unique enough to enjoy all the gamers.

Way of the Dragon Age story itself was so detailed and filled with a very clear detail. The result? An old game with the game long enough. Everything you've done before, will be counted and will each provide a different game flow. The main core of the story itself is about the threat from Darkspawn to Ferelden. Darkspawn This is a race of beings who are born by their magic users who intend to become a god, but ultimately condemned for their purpose. Led by an Arch-demon is very strong, these monsters got up from underground every few hundred years in the form of the plague known as the Blight.

The plan of this Darkspawn would have succeeded if not a barrier from the Gray Wardens. Gray Wardens consists of race officials elves, dwarves and humans. Wardens Gray has a goal to pursue any existing Darkspawn no matter wherever they go. Now, have for centuries since Darkspawn appear and straw in a new Blight more difficult because of the number of Gray Wardens of diminishing. To aggravate the condition, Ferelden also divided due to internal wars that hit.

The world is what will be the origin of the heroes of the world you create, a world that has a picture similar to the products of Tolkien's world. Even so, it does not mean this game has no shortage. As with most games, the story elements here are still suffering from the same deficiency, namely repetitive. Problems that you'll find still ranged from murder and treason. Fortunately, every action you do can bring changes in the way of the story, so that repetitive elements is no longer a major problem.

At the beginning of the game, you will start making things with the character. There are three races you can choose, ranging from the human race, elves and dwarves and also three classes of characters you can choose, ranging from the warrior, rouge and mage. Characters you will also have a general ability and the unique abilities other you can only get from a particular race. Of course there are some tricks that you can only get when you learn it from certain characters from a book or manual that you get. At the end of the game, your character will look like a legendary Gray Warden ever.

When you select a race and class from the existing character, it will automatically select one of the six main stories given in this game. Choose the criteria you want to be careful, because this decision will affect you how the world receives and see you. Along the way, your character may come back to the land where it all began and the people there will respond to you according to what you've done before.

Dragon Age provides some customization features quite a variety. Thus, it is not impossible if you create two characters are exactly the same, but you develop a character that has a completely different abilities. You just need to try out just what character best suited to your preference and you live by expanding it.

During a game, this game will continue to present a large number of choices that will affect the flow of the story of this game. There are several options which will affect the world and sometimes there are options that can even change the flow of the story itself. For example, if you can convince the community that exists to protect the city that was attacked by the enemy or they prefer to run away and escape from an enemy attack? All that will have its own influence in the game, which we think is very great and cool.

Decisions you take will not only affect the world around you alone, but also affect your team members. It could be all the decisions that will change your view of the team members become more positive or more negative to you. There are gamers who might assume that this feature is just a side feature to add a little spice to the game alone, when actually not. There are several reasons for that. First, in line with the increasing opinion of the members of your group for you, then you will get the bonus of a permanent status rutama characteristics. Second, the more group members who trust you, then they would also be more open and will provide a number of side missions that can help strengthen your friendship and allow them to teach you some of their tactics. Third, depending also on how strong the relationship between you with team members, you also can establish a romantic relationship with them.

Connection string for the problem, drawing elements of love feels a bit stiff here and there are so many things that are censored in this game, so make things seem a little odd. But more does not make sense anymore is, members of your group can be regarded as a member of the matre. Why do we call matre? Because only a gift of capital alone, no matter what you've done to them, they will still give a positive assessment of the gamers.

Dragon Age is not a mere romance simulator game. You will still fight with a large number of enemies that await. You can strike directly at the enemy, retreated while to determine what tactics work best for you to use before the attack and set the settings of the characters that you want to fight with the enemy. Noted for players who already feel professional in RPG games, it may be useful to increase slightly the level of difficulty of the game to Hard or Nightmare difficulty because the level is easy.

If you have a group of characters who have terbina well, relying on teamwork is good, you can defeat any enemy effectively and create deadly combo to finish off your enemy. The battle in this game look so fantastic, especially with a very nice graphic and beautiful. When you finish off enemies with a final blow, or when you decapitate an enemy, it all looks so fantastic and very good.

Wings Of Prey

2010-01-25T19:54:00.000+07:00

Wings of Prey is a game of air combat simulation that displays an accurate historical content, visual quality, and flexibility of the various flight modes that allow players of all levels to enjoy it properly.

Wings of Prey offers dozens of aircraft that can be selected by the players. Although felt called to fly the B17, I-16, Ju87 and the Hurricane, some players may feel a bit disturbed by the fact that the campaign focus in this game just to have some type of aircraft.

Campaign undertaken by the various chapters which consists of several missions. Players will start from the Battle of Britain, then moved to Stalingrad, Sicily, Korsun, Bulge, and Berlin. Players must play them all in one sequence, which may be annoying some players, but it is useful to maintain the continuity of the war. Unfortunately, the story elements in each chapter quite thin, so players will only be more likely to feel the action in every mission.

Outside the main campaign, there are many missions that allow players to climb the German planes and Italy. Such missions in the campaign, these missions also have a narrow objective, such as a ground attack, Recon, and others, but the advantage is the players do not need to waste time searching with unclear objectives.

Various flight mode in this game quite satisfactory. Visual realism and arcade mode allows new players to immediately fly the aircraft without having to worry about small details. While simulation mode provides space for hardcore pilots who love a challenge in the preparation and setting the aircraft, G-limit, and the temperature of the radiator.

Outside of these modes, there are some things that may frustrate the hardcore players. Forced to launch a mission directly from the air is what the fans hated the simulation. The nice things about fighting the enemy aircraft was then climbed melepaslandaskan aircraft as quickly and efficiently as possible. The same is true in landing after a mission, fortunately it was a choice. It all was just a matter of taste, there are some players who want to direct the battle and shooting mamasuki enemy aircraft.

Aspects of visual presentation of the most impressive of the Wings of Prey is the mainland. While the planes, lighting, and the condition of war usually get the greatest attention in the appearance of a simulation, the display quality of the land and waters of great influence in making this game look real. In flight, players can see the ground covered by a pile of hay and farm houses, go to the streets in urban areas between the rows of houses are detailed. Atmospheric effects are also very attractive with clouds in the sky.

Above all, Wings of Prey is a great attention to the planes. Used oil in the fuselage, cockpit three-dimensional, the smoke trail from a broken machine, splash water from the landing, all the things that makes this game has an amazing visual achievement. Saw fire and smoke that slowly emerged from the damaged engine will provide an attractive landscape for the players.

The sound in this game was mediocre. Music and sound effects in this game pretty good, but the level of sound volume up and down and inconsistent. Radio chatter is also sometimes overlap and repeatedly impressed.

Army of Two: 40th Day

2010-01-25T07:30:00.000+07:00

Army of Two: The 40th Day can be said a combination of Bad Boys by 2012. Broadly speaking, this game is more inclined to film a natural disaster because every five minutes or so, there will be something here and there exploded or started slowly but surely, collapsed. All it managed to provide a certain level of tension in the game you fight an enemy or trying to escape from all sorts of things thrown at you. This game has a game element that is far more developed than before and this shows that the EA Montreal really notice what is lacking in its predecessor game. Although there are shortcomings, but this game is still fun to play.

Unlike the first game, which is several years and also use different settings area, The 40th Day this time will take place in Shanghai setting. Rios and Salem come back again, on a mission for a private military company, Transworld Operations. They took a contract that was very simple: to kill a few guards, put some given objective and get money very much. But once they finished their mission, the chaos suddenly happened in Shanghai. Buildings began to explode here and there, airplanes falling from the air and the chaos that really serious. Salem and Rios have to try to stay alive to find out who the perpetrators behind all this.

Now, the game mechanism is still not much changed from its predecessor versions. On the contrary, the game was even more profound and more interesting than ever before. One of the most interesting element of this game is the option to customize your weapon, a weapon or cartridge change your weapon coated with gold to make it even more effective in fighting you. There are many choices that could paint you choose, there are many options to modify your weapons and you can even change your Melee attacks depending on your equipment. For example, fill your gun with a screwdriver or a kitchen knife and then you will see for yourself what we mean here. Customization process here is very interesting, but unfortunately the second feature for the weapons here too limited. You can only choose one of three weapons that you can choose.

The existence of support given box here to add the option in the game. This is a new addition to the game and during the game, you will find these boxes scattered in each level there. If you do not stop the enemy before they even call for reinforcements, the coffin will be permanently locked. But, if you can move quickly, so you can steal money and also parts of the enemy's weapons, which will mean additional challenges increased.

Aggro system is also coming back here and this time even better. You will return to work together, one person will serve to distract the enemy and his colleagues surrounded and attacked him from behind. But now, Rios and Salem have a GPS, which can be used to mark the enemy and help you find a way out. Once an enemy is marked, you can see where their presence, even when they're hiding behind a wall though. This will further expand your tactical choices along with the efforts you and your colleagues to try and destroy your enemy.

In the first game, single-player mode that is added is actually quite good and co-op mode and multiplayer even better. All this is because AI is given here is not as good and as powerful as a man of course. Well, in 40th Day, AI has given far more powerful than ever before. If in one opportunity you had to hurt the enemy, but not to kill him, then later his colleagues will try to heal him.

Only, AI here is also still has weaknesses. The enemy is less aggressive in pressing you. If Rios need Salem assistance, it is possible that AI will just stand and look away and wait for Salem came to help. Sometimes, there are also problems where the enemy will not attack you first before you attack them. But this is rare and generally, AI here was far more powerful and intelligent when compared to the previous.

AI is more intelligent that it can also help you. On one occasion when you try to use the sniper, then you will partner do the same with you and he will shoot when you shoot. If you pretend to surrender to the enemy, someone you will also follow what you're doing it until you decide to start attacking the enemy. In addition, you can also save the prisoner, so they were influential in the new morality system that will determine your character sebarapa well do this.

This indicates that you have several options you should choose. You can try to escape you and destroy all the objects that move or try to save the captured enemy prisoners and there. If you save people, you will get money or weapons parts. If you kill them, then you lose the opportunity to get it all. In the end, all the decisions you make will affect anything that you get during the game.

Graphics is also one of the main strengths here. Although this game uses only one location, but you will feel yourself how the atmosphere around you look very different and it was all influenced by the game itself. From the beautiful city of Shanghai, turned into a devastated city. There are so many cool effects are provided here as sand and debris that fell from the building, the electrical spark from a broken electrical connections and also the smoke of the explosion.

The design does not sound too good to lose. Voice actor who played a role in filling their voices have been doing so well and the result is a game with a very clever dialogue and has elements of comedy that is always issued at the appropriate time. Most recently was given a multiplayer feature where you can try the three modes are given in this game.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II - Chaos Rising

2010-01-25T07:14:00.000+07:00

Warhammer 40.000: Dawn of War 2 is a game Real-Time Strategy is just fantastic, unfortunately single-player campaign is in the game seem somewhat repetitive. Although the game featured a small squad tactical combat is interesting, like the campaign is a series of "go from point A to point B, and the boss appears, and then beat boss to death". It is one of the first things improved in the expansion pack that will come, Warhammer 40.000: Dawn of War 2-Chaos Rising. This time, the developer, Relic, trying to ensure that any mission of a total of 15 missions in single-player campaign has a different objective and eliminate the impression bored.

That is one of the major enhancements in the Warhammer 40.000: Dawn of War 2-Chaos Rising, along with a new army (Chaos Marines), and several new units for the old army. Chaos Marines present at the Dawn of War the first, but removed at the Dawn of War 2 for the presence of Tyranids. Chaos Space Marines are the Marines who worship the Chaos Gods, they are the Space Marines of the possessed. They make single-player campaign becomes more attractive because they have similar weapons with players, but they also love a dirty fight, they like to ambush players suddenly or use the teleport ability to attack players.

Relic also increase troop levels to limit players from 20 to 30. Of course, more levels means more capacity. Associate Producer, Jeff Lydell, saying that players can now go out to the other skill tree or the tree remains in the same skills for more focused. Descriptions of any equipment that is now more detailed. Usually there is only a statement that the gun produces 100 damage, but now, his statement was a produce weapon damage to 100 Infantry, 50 damage to the armor, and 125 heavy damage to Infantry.

The last thing I added is for the Space Marines themselves, which is a new spellcaster unit. Single-player campaign introduces a Librarian named Jonah as the new squad leader. Jonah improve combat tactics, he has a lot of direct damage spell or buff, debuff, and healing capabilities. Other additional items in the way affect the ability of the troops, he'd be able to use a psychic hood which makes Ignite Soul (Fireball spell) becomes more powerful, if the enemy, the enemy was going to explode and injure his own friends. This attack is suitable for dealing with weak Infantry in close formation.

Single-player campaign in Warhammer 40.000: Dawn of War 2-Chaos Rising displays more variety than its predecessor, and various equipment and new capabilities to make this game quite expected.

James Cameron's Avatar: The Game

2010-01-25T01:47:00.000+07:00

Surely you already know a reliable director named James Cameron. Director of this one was pretty good at his work, especially in terms of film. Just look at the movie Titanic won awards and it proved very popular. Well, soon her new film with sci-fi genre has come out, that is Avatar. But before you saw the movie, maybe you can try to play the first game for which was released some time ago.

Game settings used here is before the plots in his movies and of course the game here is the planet Pandora filled with flora and fauna are very charming, but also dangerous. You will not find a voice like Sam Worthington or Zoë Saldaña, the protagonist of the film Avatar in this game. But you will find Sigourney Weaver's voice and he only very briefly, that is, at the beginning of the game. He will explain a little about Na'vi, being residents of Pandora.

Not long after the game, you will begin to control a member of the RDA (Resources Development Administration) called Abel Ryder, a military member who had just joined the military and have an Avatar. After that, you will immediately be asked to choose between one party Na'vi or RDA. If you choose to fight for the RDA, you will automatically play this game in the mode or third-person shooter that offers you a large amount of weapons and fighting machine that you can use to destroy the environment around you.

If you choose to fight for Na'vi, then you will only equipped with primitive weapons such as clubs, sticks and knives. In addition, you can also use weapons such as arrows for distance attacks. Overall, in fact each have their respective advantages, but in the end, they just offer the feel of the game is very much different.

When finished struggling with conscience to defend the party which, ceritapun road starts. In this game, told that the human race is still as ever, underestimate the surrounding environment. Pandora own planet has become a place of humanity and all research was led by an organization calling itself the Resources Development Administration or the RDA.

Now we will immediately discuss a little about the mechanisms of the game in Avatar: The Game. The game was actually not much different from most games by genre or third-person shooter which was released earlier. Also note, Avatar is a game that focuses only on the battle stories and collecting things. If you expect to find a puzzle, you will not find it. So this Avatar is really just talking about the battle and the battle alone.

Of course, for shooting things, it is also one of the most important thing in a game like this genre, and unfortunately, lack of Avatar just touch on it. You will continue to face with an enemy that is not inexhaustible, and also many obstacles that impede such as plants continue to attack you by using acid or directly attack you with sulurnya and continuous wolf emerged with a very high speed. Beyond that, you also will be faced with a Na'vi the true inhabitants of this planet. But with their primitive weapons, of course it is not a difficult thing for you to kill them. Especially if you've got a vehicle that is equipped with a number of sophisticated weapons, killing Na'vi society has become as easy as turning the palm of his hand.

The game included experience point system. With more and more enemies you kill, you will automatically receive experience points to develop the ability and prajuritmu can constantly get the armor or a better weapon. As a military member of the RDA, of course, all things will become easier and you will be transformed into a force that will not be stopped, especially with advanced technologies that you use. Every time you destroy the environment around you, whether it be plants, fungi, trees and a variety of other living creatures, you'll get a small amount of experience to help you increase levels.

But unfortunately, a game that should serve as an interesting game and fun to play, not developed by Ubisoft managed properly. It is true that you can use a large number of combat vehicles, fighting with a large number of enemies and you can select one of the parties there, but unfortunately given the mission is not too diverse. Total there were only about 3 or 4 types of side missions that you can only find here, namely search and destroy, base protection, on-rails shooting and free-flying mission.

Besides all that, if prior to playing or watching the Avatar we've thought of using an Avatar, you will be disappointed to know that if we only get a couple of occasions it from beginning to end. Not only that, even the movement of the Avatar itself is also not as fast and as smooth as we expect. Not to mention the fact that they did not have complete equipment and really weak.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

2010-01-24T14:11:00.000+07:00

STALKER: Call of Pripyat was the third game of the series Survival FPS STALKER The events in Call of Pripyat occurred after the end of STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl. After learning about the open path to the Zone, the government then held a large-scale military operation to control the CNPP. The group's first military conduct air monitoring to know the details of the land. After that, the main military forces would be deployed. While preparations are very mature, the operation failed. Most observers falling helicopter. To gather information about the cause of this failure, the Security Service of Ukraine to send its agents into the Zone. After that, it all depends on the player.

Like games S.T.A.L.K.E.R. previously, Call of Pripyat is an FPS game that is filled with RPG elements. Players completed the quest from the NPC's scattered in various places, gain new weapons and armor stronger, and generally trying to make him stronger for the adventurous in the Zone.

The entire world in Call of Pripyat are divided into several separate zones, and at the beginning of the game players will start playing in an area called Zaton. Players will begin his adventure with carrying an AK 47, a pistol, ammunition, and some basic treatment. Players will walk through a ghost town that was once alive with people.

Entering the old buildings, some NPC assembly and to offer such a quest to find missing objects or checking the odd circumstances, but only a little information relating to the helicopters are gone. The NPC also sells a variety of goods and equipment upgrades to provide the players. AK 47 for example, players can pay to increase the capacity of its magazine, reduce recoil, increase the rate of fire, grip and durability. Some upgrades, such as changing the caliber of the ammunition of a pistol, can reduce durability.

Zone is a dangerous place. Everywhere there are pockets of strange energy that could explode into flames if touched by the tower, so players must be careful in choosing the way he is going through. Another strange energy able to teleport players to the near collapse of the helicopter. But the place was filled by creatures of human form is crawling like a mutant spider and howling like an animal. In the darkness, the player is difficult to see them before they enter into the reach of the player flashlight. Sometimes they directly ambushed and attacked players with their claws.

Call of Pripyat display graphics created as closely as possible to their original places, like the city of Pripyat, the station Yanov, factories Jupiter, Kopachi village, and others. This game also features sleep function, the new player interface, and the possibility to continue the game after finishing freeplay mode.

Left 4 Dead 2 Review

2009-11-23T09:00:00.000+07:00

Finally, after one year since the release of Left 4 Dead, a sequel to the best-selling game has been out. If there are doubts about the quality of the sequel to one of the games first-person shooter ever selling then you no longer need to hesitate with this one. Left 4 Dead 2 we can say even as an almost perfect game and far better when compared with its predecessor. But, should we tell in advance, that in this game you will not find anything new in addition to previous features that have been upgraded and improved so much.

The results we feel now after playing Left 4 Dead 2, we found it difficult to return to the first Left 4 Dead without a sense of disappointment. Keep in mind, the first Left 4 Dead, there are 4 campaign you can play and there is only 2 campaign which you can use to play a versus mode. Unlike the case with Left 4 Dead 2 which has 5 more comprehensive campaign and has more cool setting and a variety of action-action that cool and look fantastic, characters look more animating provided, there are more modes you can play. In short, this game will provide more features than its predecessor.

For you who have never played this game, we will describe a little about Left 4 Dead. This game tells of chaos on earth, which is now filled with zombies and you'll play as one of four people who survived and were trying to escape through a bunch of zombies that can run fast and try to escape to the next area. This time the sequel use the settings in South America, and this time the characters used here seemed more alert and aware of the situation right.

In Left 4 Dead 2, you will not be able to live if you just put yourself just to be safe. You have to work together as a cohesive team (the team consists of 4 people) and you should always communicate with other players to inform you the conditions now and ask for help on another friend when you're in trouble. Once again, the difference is with the first Left 4 Dead, where each level you pass, the game will feel the same, Left 4 Dead 2 has a special AI which would set the difficulty level of this game, depending on how you pass each level there.

Remember, too, especially for you the first time playing this game, the zombies will attack you without any warning and you will be forced to always be alert to the situation around you. There are several levels of difficulty in this game, which is normal and expert. The normal difficulty level is the level of difficulty is most suitable to be played by those who are beginners, and as usual, the expert difficulty level will be a meal for those already familiar with this game.

When playing anything, you can join your friends the other and play together to pass a bunch of zombies are waiting and looking for opportunities to attack you. Until a time when there is someone you know who already do not want to play anymore, then you do not need to worry. After the friend left, then he uses karater it will soon be replaced by AI. Fortunately. AI this time has a solid enough ability to do his job. He can shoot accurately, exchange weapons, other characters heal the wounded and the exchange of goods if necessary.

Another mode is also quite challenging here is the versus mode, where you will play together with your friends as one of the two existing parties (human or zombie boss) and dealing with four other players who played one of the parties, depending on what choices you . Boss zombie we mean here is a zombie who does have a unique ability and different from zombies in general. Examples are Tanks, Boomer, Smokers and Hunters. In addition, you will also find a new boss as Spitters, Jockeys and Chargers. Even their boss who is here will have their ability. Spitter for example, has the ability to create a pond filled with poison to cause damage to those who entered the pool. Jockey, such as name, will use his ability to drive one of the survivors and drive in accordance with your wishes. If you can manage with good strategy, it is not possible you will win the battle against the enemy.

Biggest changes not only the mechanism of the game and the boss, but also in graphic design offered here. If previously you would only fight against the zombies in dark places, so this time you will get a chance to fight in other places more exciting again, starting from the swamp, where the circus, to the construction site was bathed in bright light beam. To make the game becomes more complicated and more exciting, you will also find a large number of weapons you can use here. If previously you could only use the rifle fire alone (with a very limited type), so this time you will find a variety of cool weapons you can use. There are a number of gun fire that you can use as a variety Rifles, SMG (sub machine gun), shotgun and sniper that you can choose. Not only that, this time you will also get a chance to use a Melee weapon to beat the enemy and some types of bombs you can use to kill the enemy. Melee weapons examples given here is a dagger, katana and chainsaw. This new addition will certainly give the sensation of its own called for this game.

There is one extra that we think is a pretty solid addition, but also dangerous. Is the presence of additional Grenade launcher. This is an effective weapon to destroy a group of zombies who come in clusters, but the problem is, this weapon can also cause damage to the friends around you if not careful. Perhaps as an alternative to this Grenade launcher, you can use a tank of gas spread throughout the level to eliminate the enemy. So much safer right?

A fast tempo game, attacking the enemy quickly and boss characters that can come without any prior notice, it will make the adrenaline in you to move quickly. Not to mention, sometimes appears difficult enemies as Jockey. So you must be careful not to get caught by the enemy on this one or you will lose your life if someone else could not save you.

Talking again about the graphs, grapich for Left 4 Dead 2 is clearly better when compared with its predecessor. Perhaps this is due to the full level setting with the sun. The result, which came zombie attack would look more real and scary when compared with the previous. One more thing we need to remind you, this game is a sadistic game where you will take out enemies with a very cruel and you will often see the mutilated zombies here and there and the spilled blood here and there.

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Trainer

2009-11-21T07:39:00.000+07:00

There are 3 trainers for Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Trainer with 3 option.

Trainer with 7 option.

Trainer with 8 option.

Fifa Manager 10 Money Cheat

2009-11-21T07:20:00.000+07:00

This is the money cheat for Fifa Manager 10.

Find the 'object' file of FM10 program files, then find the file 'house'. Open it up in notepad as the administrator. Find the line that says Palace, and replace the number on that line with '-1000000000000'. Then buy the palace in the game, then you have enough money to buy the club you manage. Donate some money to your club afterwards, then you have enough money to do anything.

If you buy your clubs, then you will not wait for the money you sent to the club. But, if you do not buy your clubs, the money you send will not be directly sent to your club.

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Review

2009-11-21T06:07:00.000+07:00

For many years, Call of Duty franchise has never lost his touch, especially in the genre of game that is borne by the franchise of First-person shooter and not to mention the added elements of action-filled game. Even be said also that this franchise has become a pioneer for other games that ever existed and brought the same theme. So, when Infinity Wards decided to switch from World War II era to a more modern era (in Modern Warfare), looks a pretty drastic change.

It all began from the removal of the existing historical elements in the game and added the number of new characters and include elements of the world's most advanced military in this game. Now, after a long time to wait for this one game, the question appears. Does this game deserve to look forward to? After we tried this one game, we must say that was all the waiting worth it.

Modern Warfare 2 can be regarded as a franchise of the Call of Duty the most traditional to the core game is split into three parts. For those who prefer to play this game alone, there are main campaign mode. If you are the type of gamer who prefers to play this game by working with someone else, you can find fashion Spec Ops new here and certainly not least he said the multiplayer modes have returned and became even better than before. Actually, quite a lot of content to feel his own worth playing, but since each mode is a stand-alone mode, then you'll get three different game sensation in the same game.

For the first thing we discuss is the campaign mode or single-mode playernya. Admittedly, this one including one of the most exciting game we've ever felt. You can just feel myself just how much growth experienced by this game simply by looking at all the location shown in this game like a favela in Rio de Janeiro, snowy mountains located in Russia, dusty roads in Afghanistan and many more other locations you'll find. In terms of graphics, 2 Modern Warfare has undergone many improvements, ranging from the environment around you see more detail, which included weather effects, the objects you can destroy and all the elements of action and chaos that is served. Even suarapun be one positive point is there in this game.

But unfortunately, the campaign mode provided by the game's too short. Back when we were playing Call of Duty 4, we take about that long enough to finish this game and the harder difficulty levels you use, it will be the longer the time you need to finish this game. But it was not the case for Modern Warfare 2. For the first game, we only take about 5-6 hours to complete the entire campaign provided. It must be admitted that the situation in the Modern Warfare 2 is far more chaotic and all that could be said thanks to the new visual effects that are used and supplemented with high enemy AI and scenario design that makes it difficult to make this game more so challenging.

Luckily this game does not have an existing problem on its predecessor where the enemy will continue to appear endless. During the game, you will be guided by a guide who will advise you in any direction that you have to take. Moreover, there is even a conversation in this game sounds so realistic and amazing. When you compatriots (in game) to shout a code phrase, then that is what should you watch it carefully. Example, when a friend said that there are enemies in the back with a vehicle, then there must be no enemy who was waiting. So this time, all the conversations that you hear is not just a decoration only. Only this does not mean all these things will eliminate one of the problems that often you find, the movement of AI friends who often hinder you. But at least, for the time it all seemed so much better when compared with the Modern Warfare.

One more element is also important in this game is how they tell the story in this game. Although this time there is no more history that can be used as the support of the plots, Infinity Wards able to present an interesting storyline, touching and easy to follow. Only, there is a weakness that is owned by Infinity Wards. That is their tendency to assume that every gamer who plays it knows only one character in the game and automatically ask you to find his own road story. In addition, there are quite a lot of weapons that you can use in this game and the game concept is very supportive of the game. Although in the end, the game will still return to the main point of each game with the same genre, ie following the instructions given in this game and finish well without killed.

As far as we can point out to this game, Modern Warfare is more is more fun when played with friends or play online in a fashion Spec Ops. Spec Ops Mode (short for Special Operations) is a mode similar to the arcade where you can play this mode alone, even though the game is designed to be played by these two new people will feel much less convenient to play along with your friends.

We believe that this mode will make you addictive and hard to forget this game. Mode is just one more time when compared with single-player modes are given and also a version of a massive upgrade from version Modern Warfare Arcade mode first. Well, as we said earlier, this mode is designed specifically to be played by two people together and it's proved very important. There was one time where you will be asked to control a helicopter and machine guns on helicopters to assist one other player who was besieged by the enemy. You should be able to help a friend in order not to have been killed by enemy soldiers and they were not going to do it successfully if you do not work with your friends.

Meanwhile, for online game modes, what else can we say? This time the whole thing is in this mode look so perfect and nearly flawless. Lots of effects given in this mode, the car explosions and the number of electrical devices will you find here feels like the original. No wonder given there are a special team from Infinity Wards mode handling this one specifically.

Infinity Wards have also tried to balance the game in this game by listening to feedback from the gamers who have played the first Modern Warfare. Class system has returned, as well as a number of weapons and other equipment that will be one of the attractions of this game. Perhaps we can say online mode in Modern Warfare is mode 2 is the most balanced online we've played so far, because every gamer will have its own role and they will contribute to the team with his or her own way.

Last comment from us, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is one of the first-person game the best shooter we've played so far and all the aspects given in this game was perfect. Unfortunately, it is not supported by the existence of a dedicated server which we think is the biggest mistake made by the Infinity Wards. In addition, single-player mode is provided also felt short (completed only in about 3-5 hours). However, this game really was spectacular. While having some shortcomings, but this game still is a fantastic game that should not be released just like that.

Assassin's Creed II Review

2009-11-21T05:29:00.000+07:00

Remember the character named Desmond Miles, a bartender who was abducted by a large company called Abstergo and eventually used as guinea pigs in their efforts to control the minds of mankind. In the first game, Desmond forced into the Animus machine, and finally back to the Altair, where his ancestors were.

Now, we'll be back again with Desmond's adventure in uncovering the secrets of the past and this time he will serve as a young man who eventually turned into a killer named Ezio Auditore da Firenze (henceforth, we will use Ezio name only, because of his full name is too long ). For this one game, it appears it will be more focused on revenge for the death of his father and also his two brothers who have been betrayed by his own friends. Before we proceed any further, please note that Ezio is one of Desmond's ancestors, too.

Settings used in this game is the end of the 15th century and early 16th century in Italy in the Renaissance, approximately three hundred years after the events in his first game. In Assassin's Creed II, you will be given an open-type game world, where you will be able to freely roam around and do all of you with a free action. A total of 4 areas you can explore here is, Venice, Rome, Florence and the Tuscan. This time, you will also have the ability to swim and use a canal in Venice as a place to hide from the pursuing enemy and you can even use to draw the enemy who happened to be passing by you to kill him.

Do not miss too, you also will meet with one of the characters from the world history would have you know, the Leonardo da Vinci. In this game, Leonardo also has a role big enough, where he will be a supplier of weapons for use by Ezio. In fact, Leonardo was the change weapon knife owned by Ezio so as not to give up the ring finger, as done by Altair in the previous game as proof that he is a member of an organization's killer.

You will also find lots of weapons can you use like halberd, hatchet, spear, sword, short sword and some other sword that you can use in accordance with your wishes. For extra, you also will get six additional weapons that you can go when you've finished Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines with the connection between your PSP with your PS3. To make this game more exciting, you can also use the weapons being used by the enemy to kill them (backfire). In fact, later you can also kill the two enemies directly by using a hidden sword in hand Ezio. Indeed the Ubisoft has promised an additional lot for this game and we must admit is very satisfied with the Assassin's Creed II.

For those who have never played the first game, we will describe some of the features included in this cool game. The first feature is a feature where you can try a method to blend in with those around you in order to deceive the guards who were chasing and looking for you. The second feature is the existence of hidden weapons there in Ezio powerful enough to be used here. The third feature is a feature where you can use any means to divert attention from the guards from you in a way that is quite unique and we will not reveal it here because it will be a surprise in this game no longer exists and there are several other features which will also be very interesting for you find here.

Along with the increasing number of missions have you lived, the more popular also (increasingly being pursued) the Ezio this. So the only way to reduce the level of suspicion of Ezio was bribed by some stakeholders, tore the posters wanted Ezio and kill witnesses who witnessed the earlier you act. Ways reasonable and sufficient to give the impression of reality in our world.

You can also perform some other action that is exciting. For example, you can steal from passersby in the street and you can even go to buy armor and weapons for your own self. For each armor that you buy and you are using, then it will also change the appearance of both this Ezio. Then you also will find some place to hide (the majority is shaped like a pile of hay) that you can use as a place to hide. Just do not be too sure that the hiding place that you use is secure. In Assassin's Creed II this, there is no safe hiding place. On one occasion, when we were trying to escape from the guards in pursuit, we try to enter into a cart full of straw in the hope of escape from them. But just when they were looking for it, there was one guard who came and jabbing their swords brought into the straw Ezio hiding place. The result? Ezio caught and we had to flee again.

Not finished with it all, when we were trying to climb the wall to reach the roof, a few guards who recognize the existence of this Ezio immediately took a few ways that we think quite unique. There are some guards who went straight to the nearest ladder and climbed to the roof where Ezio be. In addition, there are also other guards who immediately took a stone and threw Ezio. Result, direct Ezio fell and was forced to flee further. It really gives the impression that the game we play is a very exciting game and very original.

Now, after playing this game for a while, we realized there was some movement Ezio unique and really gives the impression of reality (though not all). By the time you've changed your clothes to cloak an assassin and find a hidden sword in the hand of Leonardo, the moment was walking on a public street, Ezio will always cover the hand where the sword hidden in his coat which he used to avoid attracting attention from the crowd. Pretty cool. But the strange thing is when we've killed a guard who was on the roof. At that time, we deliberately raised the corpses of the guards and throw it straight from the roof. The result? People who are under just cried out in surprise. After that, there is no other response, as if the bodies we just throw it all just a doll.

Missions are presented, the average is also quite interesting and very challenging. Many missions are forcing us to test our ability to control Ezio on the roof. On one occasion, we met with a thief who challenged Ezio to get past the record he has to pass a certain checkpoint in a given time. If you are not familiar with a given movement, then we can guarantee you will be a little difficult to resolve. But over time, we are also very confident that you'll be getting used to the controls provided by Ubisoft is in control Ezio.

Overall, we did not feel the difficulties and peculiarities (except when you throw the bodies down and the people around just shocked and did not do anything) and we think personally, this game should be played by those who are first-time play this game as well as those who have followed the pursuit of his first game since Desmond.

Need For Speed:Shift Trainer

2009-11-17T10:25:00.000+07:00

If you need a Need For Speed:Shift trainer, there are 4 trainers.

Diablo III Will Not Be Released In 2010

2009-11-17T10:19:00.000+07:00

At the BMO Capital Markets Digital Entertainment Conference in New York, Thomas Tippl as Chief Financial Officer of Activision Blizzard announced a few games that have been released and plans to release other games, including Warcraft and Starcraft II. But it was not the case for Diablo III, which originally had planned to release next year. Surely this news into a separate blow for gamers who have long waited for.

Both Starcraft II and World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will be released later in the year 2010. Only in a slide that was shown there, seen that Diablo III was in column for the game to be released a few years and not in 2010 as previously expected.

"Diablo III is not a problem. Blizzard have the expansion pack for Starcraft II, which is under development," said Tippl.