Today I had the chance to play some of Gears of War Judgment’s new multiplayer mode, “Overrun”. This is the new version of Gears of War’s previous “Horde Mode”. Here is a basic overview of the mode and it’s systems, and my first impressions.

The game mode is essentially a class and objective based multiplayer match, with two teams of players facing off; COG soldiers versus locust units. These two teams each have several classes, but differ in the initial range and availability of classes.
The COG team has four classes; Soldier, Scout, Medic and Engineer. The COG soldiers each have a unique ability triggered by pressing LB which provides the team with health, ammo, defensive turrets or a beacon to show enemy locations. The defenses set up already (barbed wire and laser fences) can be moved through by any COG units, but will stop any Locust units from moving forward. They are able to destroy them but the engineer is able to repaired these defenses.

The four COG class characters.

The locust team differs in it’s organization. Initially you have access to four types of locust. As you gather points in game (given for kills, assists and damage dealt) you can ‘purchase’ one of the four extra, more powerful locust with your scored points, allowing access to that class of locust until the unit is killed. Units include Tickers, Locust infantry and even the Corpser!

The map I played on, Skyline, is a series of rooftops. The map is split into three for the three intervals of gameplay. The first two intervals see the COG trying to protect the covers on Locust emergence holes, and the Locust’s goal is to destroy these caps. If the Locust destroy the cap the next interval begins, and the locust spawn becomes the newly opened emergence hole. If the COG can hold the emergence hole the ‘hammer of dawn’ is brought online, the COG win and the second round begins with the teams swapping from COG to Locust and vice versa.When the locust destroy the caps on two emergence holes interval three begins, and the COG must hold their generator, the final objective for the Locust.

The game mode is quite fun. The gameplay feels like a proper Gears of War game even with the new developer, People Can Fly. The graphics are a step up from Gears of War 3 and will likely look even better in the full game. The controls for the less human-like locusts has been revamped from Gears 3, making it easier and more fluid to play. Once more maps are added to the roster the variety will be much higher, and I hope to see some more variations in the objectives, but they are still quite well put together. The teams of human players and extra bots should there be an insufficient number of players works well allowing much faster game entry and less network issues. Once this game is released next week players should enjoy the new take on the fan favorite Horde Mode, marking a great new entry into the Gears of War multiplayer modes. Overall Overrun is quite a success for People Can Fly and it’ll be interesting to see how players can work as a team and strive for victory in Gears of War Judgment!

After much speculation and intrigue, Bungie has today revealed their latest game, Destiny.The game has no release date yet but will launch for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, as well as “future generation technology”. Bungie has revealed a large amount of information in regards to how this new game will play, and what we can expect to see from this ambitious new project. Destiny is a “shared world shooter”, a social and co-operative game drawing from aspects of an MMO (but is not one itself, as stressed by the developers), requiring no subscription, only a constant online connection. It will seamlessly search for players in the vicinity exploring, completing the same mission and incorporate them into the world, allowing chance meetings, partnerships and help in missions, battles and goals. The game will also support lobbies with friends and direct invites, but focuses more on a living and thriving online universe filled with happenstance and action. You can play the entire game solo however also. Non-combat based social hubs also exist, where players can relax and engage in competitive activities against one another.

One of the many vehicles that will be a feature of Destiny

As stated, Bungie developers have stressed that this game is not an MMO. Engineering lead Chris Butcher has said, “These are living, open worlds with evolving stories, changing time of day…and every one is full of players. Destiny is an always online experience, but it’s not an MMO.” The idea of using MMO elements in this game is clever, it will allow for a social experience without as much of an emphasis on guilds and organised raids, all the action will unfold differently depending on when you’re online and who you meet. The matchmaking is reminiscent of the 2012 game “Journey” where every time you come across another player you are intrigued and curious, and the newly forged ‘partnership’ can turn the tide of the game, lasting for many missions or simply vanishing into the world as quietly as they had appeared.

Now onto the storyline. The human race has been reduced to a single city after the ‘golden age’ in which humans took to the stars rapidly, with vast technological expertise. They were hit by a so far unidentified enemy, reducing them to almost nothing, saved only by the ‘Traveller”, a large sphere hovering just above the earth. The last of humanity live below the Traveller, in the last city. As they begin to rebuild and branch out they find that their old planets are now occupied by strange new creatures and forces, and now must defend the last hope of humanity, the city, from extinction. The player is a ‘guardian’, a powerful human able to wield some of the Traveller’s power. Rather than like in Bungie’s previous title Halo, the humans aren’t a dominant force in the universe. The universe is designed to be scary and imposing for the last of the humans, with imposing aliens fortresses and environments like the citadel. Bungie’s new graphics engine will also help to shape the atmosphere of the game, with increased lighting and graphical capabilities to change how worlds are perceived by the player.

The Citadel (concept art)

The player, as a guardian, can play as one of several different classes. The three confirmed so far are the Hunter, the Warlock and the Titan. Players will create and customize their own character, gaining new armor and weapons throughout the game. They will have their own personalized character in this huge galaxy. The tower, the players home, will serve as a hub for the character, where you can gear up your guardian and organize adventures and lobbies of friends. You will also be able to buy and customize vehicles and star-ships, and space combat has been hinted at but not confirmed. The developers have said they want the characters and universe, however dark and imposing to create a sense of hope for the players. ”At its core, Destiny is a hopeful world. It’s a place worth spending time in. It’s a place worth fighting for.” says the story lead, Joe Staten. The world and game design here is aimed at keeping players invested week after week, month after month with new goals, rewards and content to experience.

Three of the classes from Destiny, the Hunter, the Warlock and the Titan (left to right)

The mission and game structure featured in Destiny will be open and in contrast to the multiplayer co-operative play for the main storyline the game will also feature competitive multiplayer modes, with credits and rewards being universal across the story and competitive parts. Even with a strong and expansive storyline the game will feature a variety of side missions and activities, from exploration to bounty hunting, all awarding the player with rewards and credits. All these missions and sections are playable with friends via direct invite and you locale will be populated with other online players that may tag along on your quest with you.

Destiny represents an ambitious and brave new step into the future of gaming, and will incorporate Destiny not only on home consoles but on iOS and Android devices, laptops and handhelds such as the vita to keep the player connected into the universe of Destiny. It’s large scale universe, bold new steps to change the first person shooter genre, and the seamless incorporation of single player and multiplayer are incredibly exciting and hopefully we see some more of this game in action in the near future. Bungie’s reveal seems to have excited many fans of Halo and Sci-fi already, and only time will tell whether they are capable of realising the dream that is Destiny.

Bungie’s full ViDoc is below:

What do you get when you take the makers of Naruto: Ultimate Ninja & Ultimate Ninja Storm, and most of the .hack games? You get a game that plays like an anime, with an very basic gameplay mechanic, and the over the topness of Dragonball Z, and you’ll get CyberConnect2’s Asura’s Wrath. An original story developed by CyberConnect2 and produced by Capcom. The story focuses on the titular character, Asura. The game melds together Hinduism and Buddhism, with a splash of Science Fiction, giving the game an interesting blend with the anime style of the game. Now all these elements turned into a game is rather great blend, but to me personally, it fell short on quite a few instances throughout the game.

I’ll start with the good. The good revolves around the amazing story crafted from the tales in both Buddhism and Hinduism, and allowing for such a colorful story to be created, and played out in Parts, each named after the level of achieving enlightenment. The story centers around an age old war of apparent evil against the righteous elected Eight Guardian Generals to defeat the evil on Gaea or Earth. The evil is called the Gohma, and they ravaged the world and destroy anything that isn’t a Gohma. But behind the scenes, the leader of the Eight Guardian Generals, Deus, sets into place his plan to gain complete power over Gaea and the Gohma as well as be sole ruler in everything. But his plan requires Asura be the scapegoat for the Emperor’s murder, having his wife, Durga, killed, while kidnapping his daughter, Mithra. After being killed by Dues, Asura is sent to Naraka. Now Asura is already an angry demi-god, but once all these events transpire, and his death over the 12,000 years causes memory loss, he begins to gain them back and what he must fight for in a blood fueled and revenge induced rage to defeat all Seven Deities for killing him and his wife and rescue Mithra.

As I mentioned before, the game is played in parts, and each part is broken into a number of episodes, this is where the anime feel of the game comes in. Each episode starts with the naming the artist, producer, voice actors, and such. And at the end of each episode, it gives you a preview of the next in the form of the cinematics that will be played at some point during the episode. This nuance is quite cool, and makes you feel like you’re playing an anime, but after the 4th or 5th episode, its gets annoying and you just want to skip it, but you don’t want to miss anything. This and the way it’s played, its more on a level of a “interactive media” than video game. As you play, you’ll either love or hate the graphics of the game, which is a blend of anime, 3D CG graphics, and cel-shading, giving the game a gritty feeling, completely matching at times the mood and feeling of the characters. The level design, is limited since the arenas you fight in, are essentially set pieces, and no real exploration is given to you, the player, at any given time. You jump from one set piece, to the next, like an episode of any anime.

But as any high budget anime from any of the major anime production companies, the voice acting is top notch, and over the top as you would expect for a game like this. Each characters personality nailed down for the plot against the Emperor, to the self loathing of Yasha, the rage monster that is Asura, and the forgiving and imprisoned Mithra. The voice actors, be it in the original Japanese voices, or the English voices, they give their all to give you the player, the complete emotion of the scene present. As I’m not intimately familiar with Japanese voice acting, I’ll mention the outstanding voice action by Liam O’Brien (Asura), Robin Atkins Downes (Yasha), Kari Wahlgren (Mithra), and David Pizzuto (Deus), to name a few.

As the game, cannot stand alone on solely voice acting, high budget, and story, the gameplay is what brings people to the table to play, and the story is what makes them stay. And the gameplay for this game runs the gambit: Action, Beat ‘Em Up, Hack And Slash, Rail Shooter, Rhythm Game, Quick Time Events, and Third Person Shooter. At various points in the game, it turns into one of the many different game types. Each with a rather basic control scheme, nothing revolutionary, by no means. Much of the gameplay isn’t amazing; it’s rather pedestrian, and just to get you through an event that requires you to utterly destroy a Gohma, or one of the Deities. The game completely encompasses an over the top action, and consistently gives the player, the feeling, everything is certainly bigger and more angry from Asura, especially with the duel against Deus… but his anger is never abated.

The game comes down to, not in this exact order: cutscene, fight for a bit, cutscene, quick time, cutscene, button mash, and burst event which triggers more cutscenes. During some of these cutscenes, you’ll have to input a button that will appear on the screen for you to continue. This is where the gameplay is melded with the presentation of the game, allowing for the most over the top fights, and the badassery from Asura, and certain characters during their interactions with each other. For instance, the fight between Asura and Augus, you fight on the moon, and Augus, uses a Sword imbued with the mystic trait of extending no

matter the length, which ends with Asura and Augus plummeting towards Gaea with Asura being impaled back towards Gaea. But guess what, this all preceded by a hot springs quick time event involving a big busty servant.

Don’t get me wrong, Asura’s Wrath is an solid game, as long as you go into it, knowing full well, that you’re more so getting anime episodes in game form, where you slightly interact with the game and various quick time events, to spice up the ride during Asura’s anger induced revenge. The story with its roots in Buddhism and Hinduism, and sci-fi twist, allow for a fresh story, not done before. The game visually, isn’t stunning, but the gameplay melded with it, gives you a sensory overload, to a degree, allowing you to watch, somewhat at a distance, but still interact. At the end of the day, if you can get Asura’s Wrath for cheap, it’ll be worth the money, but when it was first released, I wouldn’t say the $60 price tag, was worth what was given at the end of the day.

Street Fighter X Tekken is back and much better with it’s recent 2013 update. Improving the core mechanics of its fighting system and making every match more fun, Street Fighter X Tekken finally deserves the recognition it should deserve.

Upon starting up your copy of SFxT, you are prompted with an update to the game which will in turn change a huge portion of the game. For starters, the damage is more apparent as combos just seem to hurt more and it also helps that when tagging out your point character, any damage received takes longer to regenerate. It helps to alleviate the frequency of time outs that the prior version had far too many of.

There are also small changes done such as more time added to Pandora Mode, having the Fight! logo remove quicker and not having the camera pan in at the end of a Cross Rush combo. It helps to quicken up the pace while also making matches seem in better control of the player(s).

Even subtle tweaks such as gems not being so bright on top of characters helps. There are also tons of character specific changes that alter the majority of the rosters take on their matchups. I almost forgot to mention in my opinion the biggest change to the system, normally when you are attacked you have two different parts of health (yellow life & red life). The red life is recoverable when the character is not on point but now as soon as a throw is performed on any character with red life all of their recoverable health is gone along with the damage of the throw. It invokes a certain mind game mechanic in competition especially since you cannot roll safely off a knockdown.

With all these changes made to the game it helps freshen up a lifeless corpse that everyone in the fighting game community had long forgotten. But I sense a strong sense of change happening to make this dead game rise from its grave. I strongly recommend any naysayer of the game to try it again. Who knows, it might change your opinion. Plus its free…what harm can it do?

Capcom wanted to reboot the Devil May Cry games to bring in new life and a new crowd into Dante’s universe. Sarah, who hasn’t played all the way through any of the previous DMC games, enjoyed this game as a newcomer. I, on the other hand, played all of the other games and really enjoyed the series. I must admit, I was one of those people who threw a temper tantrum when I heard about the reboot and saw the new Dante. But I wanted to give this game a fair shake, so how does DMC hold up to a fan of the original? It has its ups and downs, but overall it’s a solid game that original fans should play.

PLOT

This retelling of DMC brings back first big baddy of the series, Mundus, as the Demon overlord who killed Dante’s mother and imprisoned his Father for all eternity. No longer half demon, but half demon and half angel, Dante is recruited by his long lost brother Vergil to take down Mundus and free humanity while hacking and slashing every demon in Limbo along the way. One of the best things of this story is the relationship between Dante, Vergil, and Kat. Dante comes off as punkish and uncaring at first and through Kat finds something worth fighting for. Vergil and Dante really feel like brothers here, I really loved the little banter they had closer to the end of the game one upping each other by saying how they are stronger or smarter than the other. Mundus, however, felt really bland as a villain. He has more personality than in the original game, but it’s still very cookie cutter villain. The story is pretty predictable and not great but was able to create some pretty tense cut scenes which I never saw in any of the original DMCs. But the biggest issue I had, and maybe it’s because I’m a fan of the original, was Dante. Dante was a punk and a smart ass, not emo, and that’s perfectly fine. Yet a lot of his quips fell flat. It felt like Ninja Theory couldn’t decide if they wanted their Dante to be his own man or harp back to the original. His dialogue lacked the charm it felt like it was going for. Overall, the story wasn’t great but still good.

Design

DMC takes place in Limbo, a parallel world where the demons reside. Levels are impressive, with ever changing landscapes and the world literally trying to kill you.  It makes for some fun platforming action. My favorite had to have been the club level, which looks like every raver’s dream. Yet it seems that near the end, the developers ran out of ideas and fall back on some contrive and all too familiar level design. The graphics are good and flow smoothly. I didn’t run into any lag, which is important for a combat game that moves this quickly. There were a few times when textures took a while to pop up during cut scenes but that rarely happened. Overall a great looking game

Combat

The most important aspect of any Devil May Cry game is the combat, and it shines here.  You will get access to five weapons and 3 guns over the course of the game, all of which you can switch to on the fly. This can make for some crazy combos. While the initial combat is easy enough for newcomers to grasp, veterans can appreciate the depth of the hack-n-slash of DMC. And with the new emphasis on air combo and juggling, you can literally fly upward and off the screen if you time all your moves right. Fans of the hack-n-slash genre will enjoy this game. A problem I ran into is that when you finally unlock your devil trigger, the ability to slow down time and fling all your enemies in the air to do extra damage, it takes so long to build up the meter that it becomes almost unusable. Not a huge issue but still an annoyance. After each play through you unlock more difficult settings that remix the enemies you run into and with some settings making you die in one hit. This provides moderate replayability reserved only for the most serious of DMC fans.

Rating 

Overall this game hits many of the marks it sets out to hit, while not a perfect game, its still solid and a “Hell” of a lot of fun. See what I did there?  Yes, this is a different Dante and a different DMC but long time fans should give this game a try before making their decision, you may be surprised in how much you like it. I give this DMC: Devil May Cry 8 out of 10

It’s a shame that one of if not the best kart racers to be released in recent memory isn’t getting the proper recognition that it deserves. This game won’t be getting a full review from me but I can sum up my opinion of this title. BUY IT!

First and foremost, the price tag is $39.99 in the US so it’s already cheaper than most new racing titles and it’s twice the fun. To be honest I personally hate kart racers. Mario Kart especially. It’s a fun game but the rubber band A.I. is so frustrating that I often had the urge to break my copies of the games at hand. Other generic kart racers don’t have this problem nearly as much but it can be just a tad too easy. This is the first kart racer I have played in recent memory where I am not mad at the A.I. There isn’t a “blue turtle shell” and I haven’t run into any rubber banding. The computer can just be relentless but not cheap. Once you gain the lead, you fight to keep it.

Did I mention that the visuals are outstanding a display so much by bringing nostalgia to the forefront with tracks and characters that my be obscure, Burning Rangers anyone, or just awesome memories like After Burner. Plus the stages change dramatically mid race so one lap you could be driving a kart, next lap you’ll be flying and the final lap will be in a boat. MIND BLOWN!!! There hasn’t been a racer that a done such feats…ever! And it’s seamless and awesome to look at.

The soundtrack is just right, with songs that fit the stages perfectly and accomdate for the intensity of the race. Plus the racer roster is huge and there is potential DLC for the game that was chosen by the fans! (I’m still pulling for Segata Sanshiro)

I just think this game is totally awesome and I know it was not on a ton of people’s radar but it deserving needs to be. I forgot to mention the feature that made me most happy as soon as I booted up the game. You can play any and all modes with up to 3 of your friends locally. That means online, career, battle, single, grand prix! And there are sweet unlockables that give that kart mods to make the race feel completely different! *sigh* just go buy the game now! BUY IT!

Release your inner “badass” with Platinum games latest title, Anarchy Reigns. This title is a third person brawler that features Jack Cayman from their previous Wii title “Madworld” along with a bevy of off the wall characters in this post apocalyptic setting overrun by goons, ninjas, robot drones, crazy “Death Proof” esque cars, mutants and tons more.

STORY

The campaign is split into two different parts referred to as Black Side and White Side. In the Black Side you control Jack in his quest to find Maximilian for his daughter who paid for you to retrieve him. In the White Side you control Leo a BPS soldier who is sent to retrieve his mentor, the aforementioned Maximilian. In a way these two stories intersect with one another whilst trying to make the entire storyline seem relevant. Unfortunately  it doesn’t. In a game where the combat doesn’t take itself to seriously the plot sure tries…sort of. For the most part, I was just confused. It jumps from place to place, introducing several characters without really ever explaining their purpose. The story is so irrelevant that it might as well not have been included. The only thing it does is it gets you adjusted to the combat and features a few fun modes of play that cannot be experienced online. Nevertheless, it’s a boring and uninspired single player romp that is only worth playing through once just to unlock all of the extra characters.

GRAPHICS

This section is going to be very short and sweet…they suck. There are better looking games on the SEGA Dreamcast and that says a lot. The characters and their special effects seem to be where all the graphical attention went because the level design is atrocious. I thought that I would never ever dislike grey as much as I did before I played this title and boy was I proven wrong.

AUDIO

This department fires on all cylinders with some great sound effects for the brutal and visceral combat accompanied by an awesome soundtrack that is somewhere along the lines of House Rap and Drum & Bass. It’s pretty cool. It reminds me very much of “Madworld” especially since this game is the spiritual successor to it. At any rate, you’ll be remembering several tunes every time you think of the game.

GAMEPLAY

Ahhh…the most important piece of any game. Thankfully this game make a pretty good effort in delivering a satisfying combat system. While there isn’t any advancement in the combat that you have there is a hint of depth along with the delivery in how you handle encounters and dealing damage. Everything is fun since you feel like a massive powerhouse and every punch and kick is delivered with such force, often at times either decapitation or explosion. It’s just satisfying.

REPLAYABILITY

Here is where the central focus of the game obviously went into. There are so many modes with so many options of how to play that this is where the majority of the time should be spent. But will you is the question. I more than likely won’t touch it often. It is interesting the first few matches and then frustration builds as you get swarmed with mass amounts of chaos, static camera angles deterring you from fighting your opponents, kill stealing and all other sorts of dumb things that could happen that are more than likely out of your control. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing quite like it and it still has it’s charm. Unfortunately, i’m unsure of how long that will last.

With a less than stellar single player campaign, very poor graphics and somewhat lackluster replayabilty Anarchy reigns is a game that could easily be passed up. The main attraction to this game is that the price point in the US is $29.99 which is a steal. Plus, there aren’t many games with as much charisma as this one. But, it is a venture that some will not be willing to take.

6.5/10

It’s the days after Christmas. You have gift cards abundant and games coming out for all girls and boys. But what can you get? With all the choices lying ahead?

Have no fear, with all the bundles abound, waiting to be found, I got the ones with the most “extra” kick aside from the gaming bit (Sorry for my cheesiness).

Tomb Raider Collector’s Edition 

First and foremost, I love Tomb Raider, so I had to list it first. It doesn’t have the best content, but I believe it has the most bang for your buck. It includes:

• A realistically rendered Play Arts Kai Lara Croft figurine approximately 8 inches tall
• Weapon pack DLC
• 3 iron-on experience shield badges
• Tomb Raider soundtrack with 10 songs
• An Endurance survival tin made to look like it was recovered from the shipwreck
• 5″ X 7″ Lithographic print
• A double sided poster with an island map and the box art
• Access to the Tomb Raider Scavenger Hunt to participate in challenges for prizes and more

I simply love the Lara Croft figure, it’s so detailed and perfectly muddy not getting it would kill me. I hope the DLC weapons are exclusives to these game copies with the collector’s edition to get my money’s worth, and the CD is a nice touch (I legally download all my music).

Price: $99.99

Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm Collector’s Edition

Starcraft is an MMO with its own fanbase, so I listed it mainly so Starcraft fans can assess if the collector’s edition is worth the extra money. All of the great additional merch that comes with the game seems reasonable to me, especially with the extras for other Blizzard MMOs you might play.

• A behind the scenes DVD and Blu Ray 2 disc set
• Heart of the Swarm Art Book
• Collector’s Edition Soundtrack
• Zerg Rush mouse pad
• Exclusive in-game content

The in game content includes a Torrasque Ultradisk and portaits in Starcraft II, pet banneling in World of Warcraft, and blade wings and a banner sigil in Diablo III.

Price: $79.99

Aliens: Colonial Marines Collector’s Edition

I don’t have much hope for this game except for the fact it’s made by Sega, but because this list is about the extra and not the game itself, it earns a spot. This game has some very good extra content.

• Resin Powerloader figurine in a limited edition Xeno Hive box
• USCM Dossier, iron-on badges, and graduation certificate
• Recruitment card
• LV-426 Recon photo
• USS Sephora schematic
• Mission brief

But this is just physical extras. The exclusive in-game content includes:

• Four playable movie characters
• Extra game level
• Additional Marines character customization features
• Exclusive multiplayer weapons
• Sonic Electronic Ball Breakers
• Phase Plasma Rifle
• Ripley’s flamethrower
• USCM Academy firing range

Price: $99.99

Bioshock Infinite Premium Edition

This bundle definitely comes with awesome stuff.

• Collectible mini edition of The Art of Bioshock Infinite
• Exclusive digital soundtrack
• Murder of Crow keychain
• Handyman figurine
• Lithographic print of propaganda

It also comes with a gear pack that gives three exclusive power ups in the game.

• Bull rush: Sprints become melee strikes and can knock down enemies
• Extra! Extra!: Audio logs give “Silver Eagles”
• Betrayer: In the PC game causes possessed enemies to explode once you kill them. In the PS3 you get Bioshock Infinite themes. The XBox 360 players get Booker and Elizabeth avatar costumes.

There is a way more costly bundle that costs $70 more. What’s the difference? It comes with a Songbird statue. You must really really want that figure to spend so much money for the Ultimate Songbird Edition of the game.

Price: $79.99

God of War: Ascension Collector’s Edition

The God of War franchise has outdone itself with this beautiful pre-order which includes:

• An exclusive 8 inch Kratos statue
• Premium Steelbook case
• Digital game soundtrack
• Multiplayer Double XP unlock
• PS3 Dynamic theme and PSN Avatar pack
• A pass for all future DLC

The last perk seems very promising.  Especially since I don’t like always paying for future DLC.

Price: $79.99

This is the best of the best I’ve gathered so far. I hope as the year reveals more new games to try out, they come out with more tempting bundles like these.

I’ve been playing Far Cry 3 (FC3) from Ubisoft since it was released and I’m very impressed.  I mean really, it’s rare for a game to come along and take some of the best ideas from other titles and successfully meld them into a cohesive story.  While Far Cry3 isn’t perfect (almost), it sets the bar for what a developers should strive for when creating a gaming experience.  This is also a long adventure with a ton of replay value to keep you coming back for more.

Unlike the unnamed African country in Far Cry 2, Far Cry 3 takes place on the Rook Islands.  It a set of tropical islands in a far off place where people go to get away from civilization, explore, and (unfortunately for our protagonist Jason Brody and friends) get kidnapped by the craziest pirate I’ve seen in a game in a while.   What starts as a vacation with a group of friends clubbing, diving, and skydiving quickly turns into a nightmare of pain, blood, and revenge.

 Pirates want to extort money from the parents of the groups’ survivors and then sell them again into slavery once they have the money.  Jason and his brother escape the pirates and make for the jungle.  Along the way Jason becomes injured and wakes up under the care of Dennis Rogers, a friend of the local Rakyat tribe.  He acts as your guide through Rook Island.

Far Cry 3 is an open world adventure and it’s hugely open.  It reminds me of Skyrim as far as the sheer scope of the terrain.  See the mountain in the distance?  You can walk there, drive, swim, boat, and even zip line from the top of one of the many radio towers you need to activate to get there.  If walking the lush jungle isn’t your idea of fun you can also fast travel to any outposts you have liberated.

 To broaden the map and make things more accessible there are outposts and radio towers to clear/activate.  When activated, radio towers will highlight the surrounding areas so you can see terrain, objectives, and even improves items in the shop at cleared outposts. Outposts are scattered throughout the islands and are controlled my enemy factions.  To clear an outpost you simply have to eliminate the enemy presence within.  Once eliminated the outpost becomes populated with friendlies so you can use it as a fast travel location and resupply depot.  In terms of clearing hostiles FC3 gives you lots of options for combat.  You can run into an outpost guns blazing or revert to stealth tactics.  You can take guards out with a silenced weapon (sniper or bow) from ¼ of mile away, use foliage for cover, lure guards to brutal takedown kills, or use my personal favorite… animals.

That’s right; Rook Island is full of wildlife.  They took a page from Red Dead Redemption and Assassin’s Creed 3 and implemented a hunting scheme to level up and make money.  Not only can you take the skins from the animals you’ve downed and trade for money, but also the skins themselves are requirements for crafting new equipment belts.  You can equip up to 4 weapons and 2 different explosive types but to be able to do so you need to craft holsters to carry additional weapons.  The further along the progression the more rare the animal hides needed to improve your holsters, weapons pouches, and syringe packs.   The animals vary from chickens all the way to bull sharks.  The animals are no push overs either, and will sometimes turn the tables on you when you least expect it.

I was trying to take down an outpost and was hiding in the bushes about 30 meters away from a target when I started hearing a hissing noise.  Thinking it was just amazing audio from the surrounding jungle I continued to stalk my prey.  After a second it started getting louder, and I wondered what was going on?  Right about then is when 4 komodo dragons ambushed me.  Dead.  Respawn.  That’s when I started thinking.  I restarted and began looking for my dragon friends.  I was about to give up when a rather large leopard caught my attention.  I loosed an arrow in his direction and turned tail for my target outpost.  I’m not sure what surprised the NPC’s more; me sprinting headfirst into a bunch of guys, or the REALLY mad cat that laid waste to the guards and their dogs.  Outpost cleared.

On top of the crafting gear you can also make syringes, which are constructed from the various colored plants all over the island (think Resident Evil herbs).  As you progress you unlocking recipes to help with exploration, combat, and even wildlife.

 All of this part of a very lengthy single player campaign.  With that in mind, there is also a co-op campaign, AND a multi-player aspect.  The co-op is pretty well done and tells a separate story with different characters.  You can join with up to three friends or three strangers.  The multi-player is rough if you’re coming in as a level 1, but I noticed if you play co-op with your friends the XP carries over to your multi-player session.  That way you can level up your perks and get unlocks prior to joining up with live folks online.  The multi-player is your typical Call of Duty style maps and game modes.   That being said the multi-player is a bit laggy and the audio reminds me of the issues from BattleField 2, lots of microphone crackling and popping and if a person quits it will reset the match.  One nice thing about multi-player is the kill cam, instead of watching whoever killed you again; you get to see a 3^rd person representation of your character (frame by frame) getting struck by the rounds that killed you and the trajectory they entered and exited.

I could go on and on.  Far Cry 3 is one of my nominees for Game Of The Year and is technically a pretty impressive achievement.  The audio is authentic, the visuals on the island are breathtaking, and the open world freedom to just go and do what you want is refreshing.  With all the linear, stale, First Person Shooter adventures out there you should take a vacation… and this gamer knows of a good island.

The annual franchise, that will always undoubtedly, gross more than some B-rated, and flops at the box office, Call of Duty returns. And as developers switch off each year, its Treyarch’s turn with, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. Many fans clambered over the course of MW3 year long reign to fix multiple things and Treyarch, seemed more than willing to make them. The game was hyped, most from the robust YouTube community that was used early on to secretly give gamers hints at what would be in the game. For example, a possible joint venture between FPS Russia and WoodysGamertag, with the former using the quad rotor, which would be called Dragon Fire, in game, in one of his videos, and the latter, talking about it being connected to Black Ops 2. But lets move along to what your really here for.

Just as Treyarch is more known for having a story in their Call of Duty games, Black Ops 2 is no stranger to that. The story continues with Alex Mason, and him being thrust back into the duty after the events of Black Ops, and the rise of the main villain, Raul Menendez in the past. Additionally, it throws in Mason’s son, David, codename Section and him dealing with the angry Raul and his plans for domination of the World Powers, in the current times. The story is well done for a military epic, dealing with both the past and the present. Also, it explains quickly, how Woods survived his explosive encounter from the climax of Black Ops. The game throws tons of gunfire and enemies at you, at any given moment, which will frustrate anybody playing on the highest difficulty.

Each mission has a set of 10 challenges, which will throw a monkey wrench for those who love to platinum games. Some of the challenges range from what you’d normally do during the mission to, specifically using a certain weapon during a certain moment, or maximum effectiveness. As you progress, you’ll come across at least three missions, that’ll give you a commander’s seat to battles that will determine the path of the story. Also, during these missions, you can take charge, in the classic sense of Call of Duty by controlling one of the squads or one of the many mechanical units you have at your disposal. As those have bearing on the story as do choices throughout, that will determine, for the first time, multiple endings in the game. A different pace and storytelling for a Call of Duty game, but it’s nice, that Treyarch cares about their story mode, when most FPS just have gathered weird elements together for single player experience. 
Multiplayer is the main reason, why any and everybody will buy BLOPS 2, and the reason it grossed $500 million in just 24hrs. Treyarch has a tendency to listen to the community and fix what the masses has a gripe with from the previous game (Modern Warfare 3) and its own, Black Ops. Well… In my honest opinion, Treyarch did some things well, and the rest, well just fell flat. This could have been due to Activision, the publisher, rushing the product, and that may have been the cause of multiple systems, both PlayStation and Xbox, to crash or force restarts when the game freezes. Also, the graphics and textures are rather bland, and just blah. Treyarch did add more color schemes and are far from the bland and earthy tone of every level in Black Ops. Additionally, as you play, you’ll greatly and slowly realize, every level is huge, compared to both MW3 and BLOPS, and the small ones are just a cluster f*** of grenades, shock charges, bouncing betties, SMGs, and scorestreaks. Last gripe about BLOPS 2 multiplayer, every person favors the guns with higher rate of fire, so bring in the SMGs, and even if you get the drop on the person, lag compensation comes into play and you’ll be dropped, and they’ll get the kill.

But minus all that I have picked at, it does provide a great time when you play with friend or solo. Scorestreaks are the replacement of Kill Streaks, which, you get your extra fighting power by killing, capping, defending, and collecting tags. You get points, for everything, for instance, you kill a player you get 50pts, but if you get the tag, you get 100pts, so Treyarch, is making people play objectives. Treyarch has made some leaps on the field of fixing spawns that allow people to spawn trap or spawn kill. Although, domination is trap the other team first, but that’s understandable. Multiplayer rarely has any frame hiccups, when so much can be going on in either a 6-on-6 or even a ground war, team deathmatch game. I’m not going to say the game is completely balanced, but I will say, even for it being unbalanced, it’s still a great play. With intense firefights and close quarter, depending on the level, fighting. O, and before I forget, those who were lucky enough to preordered, anywhere, Nuketown is back, in its kill your K/D completely, with a few game modes attached to it besides, TDM, Kill Confirmed, and Search & Destroy.

The most evenly dispersed, you and your crew against the zombie horde moved to the 21st century, and it’s fun from start to finish. Zombie mode returns to bite you at every round, and the hidden story reveals continue from the previous games. It smooth, promotes cooperation between all players, awareness of your surroundings, and steady aim for smooth headshots. As you play in three modes, Tranzit, the story mode of Zombies; Survival, stay in one place, and fight to your heart’s content; and newly created, Grief, think, your group, against another group of human players, and the zombies, last team standing wins. The primary focus of Zombies is Tranzit, the story, finding clues and assembling the new play mechanic pieces ala Dead Island, to help counter the growing masses of zombies, as you travel via bus or foot, if you’re bold enough, run, from five different locations. The other two are self-explanatory from what I’ve told above. It’s still fun to play and find out if your friends would help you in dire straits. But Zombies isn’t perfect, the player characters constantly comment on various situational points, for example, running low on ammo. This’ll get annoying by round 7 or maybe round 1 if you’re doing the story elements. My last little thing about Zombies is be aware of the annoying, “O I took that zombies head off.” Only to be downed by a headless Zombie that’s still moving for only a few more seconds.

All in all, Black Ops 2, isn’t a horrible game. Or a game that should be thrown to the backseat of a car and driven off a cliff. It’s just a little broken, and there is no doubt in my mind, that Treyarch will slowly, but surely fix all the problems with the game, over the course of its life time. Which should top out around 3 years. The story mode for a FPS, well done, multiplayer, hell of a lot of fun, and action, but will make you rage, at least once or twice an hour. With Zombies being a shambling good time! I’m sorry I had to have a zombie joke, somewhere. If you’re a fan, go get it, you’re not, seriously keep your thoughts to yourself, unless someone asks, and if you’re indifferent, just play what you want. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, is a must have for those who love the game and know what they’re going to get out of it.