Captain America: Super Soldier Review for PS3 and Xbox 360

(Simon was having trouble with his post so I had to post it for him. This is not my (Ashton's) review)

*Groans.....cracks knuckles......rubs eyes......puts the kettle on*

Ladies and gents. Boys and girls. I'm back on the reviewing train. Whether that's a good thing or not is beyond me but I can't let Ashton do all the work (even though it's fun to watch him struggle). ;-)

With the slew of amazing Marvel films lately, there was always gonna be movie-game tie-ins. Historically, games based on films (and vice versa) have been for the most part.....well......crap! Does Captain America have what it takes to buck the trend of quick cash-ins? Or will this Avenger completely disassemble (comic geek reference there) your hopes?

**Please bear in mind folks that although I'm a MASSIVE comic-book fan, I will be reviewing this as a game with only mild comparison to the comics........well, that's my theory anyway!**

Fable 3 Review for Xbox 360.

Fable 3 review for xbox 360.

There's one thing that Peter Molyneux is good at, and that is hyping his games up without meaning too. Fable is one of the most well-known RPG (lite) series on consoles. With Fable 2 being a satisfying, albeit simplistic, approach to an open-ended RPG/life-sim surely it was a case of building upon a solid foundation? After all, Mr. Molyneux had promised so much for Fable 3. Morphing weapons in real-time, touch mechanics with towns-folk and much more. Has it lived up to the hype? Read on!


STORY & PRESENTATION

+ Well, the story is a large improvement over that of the 2nd game (not exactly difficult). You play as the son of the Hero from the 2nd game and it is upto you as the son to discover that you are also a hero as your father before you. Events do follow on loosely from Fable 2 without ever having to re-tread old ground which is a blessed relief. Events quickly unfold and before you know it, you're building an army in order to take the crown from the Hero's tyrannical brother (although all is not what it seems).

= The good thing about Fable 3's characters is that they are genuinely interesting and you do form an attachment to certain characters. Having said that, the characters you meet don't have much of a chance to develop, nor do they impact the story in any significant or meaningful way.

SOUND

+ Without doubt this is Fable 3's strongest aspect. With the exception of some repeating music, Lionhead Studio's should be applauded for their sterling work on the voices and scripting. Parts of the game are genuinely funny to listen to and help add to the whimsical charm of the game overall. One of my favourite parts (spoilers ahead) is when you help a trio of wizards play a table-top RPG!! I'll say no more than that but it was definitely a highlight for me (I'll certainly have new respect for chickens)!

GRAPHICS

- Well, it certainly looks nice but it is NOT a huge graphical leap. I know the old adage of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" will be mentioned by some but for me there was definite room for improvement from Fable 2. Some of the textures can be quite bland, pop-up is infrequent but still present while slow-down and frame-rate issues popped up more times than they should during my playthrough. The real crime about these issues is that they happen when there's not much happenning on-screen so it's very baffling.

GAMEPLAY

- Well, where to start on this subject. To be honest, as much as I enjoyed myself for a while, I felt the game lacked any form of focus. Did Lionhead want an RPG? A life-sim? A simple action adventure? Fable 3 seems very unsure of itself and ends up spreading itself too thinly over several differing genres instead of focusing on a few to strengthen its appeal.

- Combat has also remained very simplistic (to the point of absurdity). Hammering the 'X' button will allow you to swing your sword/hammer, the 'Y' your guns and 'B' your magic. Fighting never feels fluid and you can quickly exploit the stupid A.I to stand in one place whilst you pick them all off. The levelling system is replaced by 'The Road to Rule'. This is where you earn Guild Seals to unlock chests that will make you stonger in different areas (magic, melee, ranged). Again, it's far too simplistic and does not live upto the promises made during the initial development of this game. Also, character/monster design is severely lacking. With only a handful of designs for both friend and foe, there is a horrible sense of apathy from the art-design team.

- There are plenty of weapons in the game but only half of them are available in your 1st playthrough, the rest have to be traded online (what about people who don't have internet?). Lionhead have only included 6 magic spells in the game and even though you can combine 2 different spells, you don't need anything else apart from Shock+Fireball to completely dominate with magic.

- You can get married, have children and buy property but the only useful one of these is the property as it gives you a steady income to buy weaponry & items. To get married, you have to befriend someone first which, in turn, means talking/dancing/hugging them until they give you a menial quest to do to earn their friendship. Why am I limited to so few expressions and actions? What happenned to the expression wheel from Fable 2?

- The quests are un-imaginative and repetitive and only serve to highlight the flaws in this game. The glowing trail makes its re-appearance in Fable 3 and will guide you (sometimes) to your next quest objective. I say sometimes though as it can dis-appear completely or lead you to a previous quest or even the long way around. Quick travel is anything but that as you cannot pin-point whereabouts in a town you wish to go to. You're transported to the general area and then made to run the rest. Why?

- You can gain employment to earn extra gold if you so wish. Pie-making, Iron Smith or Lute Hero........yes Lute Hero.......I'm not making it up!! Fun for 5 minutes before tedium sets in or the frame-rate cocks your timing up and resets your gold multiplier!! Just stick to buying and renting property!!

OVERALL

Despite all its flaws, I have enjoyed Fable 3 albeit only for the story and voice-acting. Lionhead have really shot themselves in the foot by promising so much change and delivering a watered-down version of said promises. Simplistic combat, mediocre RPG elements and a Sims-style approach to interaction are things that could've and definitely should've been rectified before this games release!! Roll on Fable 4!!

IS IT WORTH BUYING?

Sadly no. It's worth a rental at best. There are just too many things that make the game feel rushed and unfinished as a whole.

Fable 3 was developed by Lionhead Studios. Published by Microsoft Game Studios.

Lego Harry Potter review for Xbox 360 and PS3

     Take one of the most well-known children's toy and mix it with one of the most well-known characters in fiction and what do you get? A bloody good game! :-)

GRAPHICS AND PRESENTATION

= Nothing to see, move along! - All Lego games have the same graphics engine so there's not much to shout about really, although the Hogwarts school is fantastically recreated in the Lego universe. All the characters from the books are here in there toy form and, for the most part, are instantly recognisable.

+ I know that place! - As mentioned above, Hogwarts is recreated extremely well in-game but it's not just the school that has had the attention. The surrounding grounds, hallways, gardens and general background feel like they've been ripped from the pages of one of the novels. Paintings wave at you as you walk past, students perform spells, Quidditch players fly in the background. A very nice touch indeed.

SOUND

= Errrrmmmmmmm....! - I'm not sure what I was expecting here as I've played all the other Lego games enough to know what the music is like in these games. The Harry Potter theme music is present and correct whilst each specific section of the game ie: the Dark Forest has the appropriate music. It just feels a little......repetitive.

+ Zap! Crunch! - The SE's in this game are, as usual, spot-on. Although none of the characters talk, you are easily able to recognise the emtions conveyed on-screen via their mannerisms and strange grunt-noises.

GAMEPLAY

- Anyone got a map?! - Okay, I know Hogwarts is a magical place but bloody hell!! Did they have to make it so hard to find your way around?! There's no map and the school is a big place. Each door seems to lead somewhere although for the first few hours, you're never quite sure where. A ghost character leads you through the school for the main missions but other than that, you're on your own. Not great!

= So many spells, so few useful ones! - There are well over a dozen different spells to learn and buy in the game. Yet, all the ones you purchase in the shops are pointless, useless and redundant. The ones you do learn, however, are quite fun to use and you will have to know your Wingardium Leviosa from your Expecto Patronum!

+ How big?! - This is, by far, the biggest Lego game to date. With a masive hub world (where you can return to buy characters, spells etc), huge school + grounds to wander, bonus levels, character tokens to find, cheats to unlock, spells to test there really is a lot to do. And yet it never feels repetitive in a way that you get bored. :-) There are 167 characters, 20 or so cheat/power bricks to find, 200 gold bricks and that's on top of the main story missions of which there are 4 years. Each year is based upon a seperate book and is then broken up into 6 levels. So, 24 main story missions, which you can re-visit to unlock more stuff later on! Perfect. :-)

= Familiar territory. - The gameplay is similar (as expected) to many of the other Lego games. Enter a room, destroy stuff, build something, move on. Not a bad formula by any means but it is getting a bit samey. But then again, it's Lego, what are you gonna do with it if not build it?

Should you buy it?

I reckon so, yes! This really is a great value-for-money game and a worthy addition to the Lego game franchise. Easy enough for kids and addictive enough for adults.

Lego Harry Potter was developed by TT Games and published by Warner Bros. Hours played: 35+ (all offline). Review is based on the Xbox 360 version.

Achievement difficulty: 3/10. They're not difficult by any means but it'll take you a while (30+ hours) to get them all.

Super Street Fighter 4 Review for Xbox 360 and PS3

     In 1991, a game hit the arcade scene that would forever change the face of the 'beat-em up' genre. Street Fighter II was a sequel to the original 1987 Street Fighter title and is arguably the most influential fighting game ever. In 2008, Street Fighter IV was released to critical acclaim and major success. It boasted new characters, graphics, moves, backgrounds.....pretty much everything had been improved upon. So, did Capcom manage to improve upon such a fantastic game?

GRAHICS + PRESENTATION

= Same old, same ole! Nothing major has changed graphically, although the game does appear to be a bit sharper around the edges now with marginally improved lighting and textures. I guess if it ain't broke etc.

+ Look! A hippo! More backgrounds have been included and although they offer no new gameplay elements themselves, they all help bring the fighting to life that little bit more. Special mention must go to the African Eclipse background with the hippos. :-)

+ Still looking good there!! 10 new characters have been added to SSF4 and each one of them has been faithfully re-created from their previous incarnations. The 2 exceptions to this are Hakan (a Turkish oil-wrestler) and Juri (loosely based on Tae-Kwon Do) who are completely new to the series.

SOUND

++++ IT'S GONE!!! Yes ladies and gents! Never again will your ear-drums be assaulted by some god-awful J-pop lunatic singing "IN-DES-TRUCTABLE!" I can finally stop seeing my therapist now! :-)

- BINGO! What the hell is it with the Japanese and annoying voices for characters? Cody grates the hell out of me whenever he shouts "Bingo" and the screams of the female characters as they lose, make me wanna bathe my ears in razor-blades!

+ Bring the beat back! Capcom have brought back character theme music during the fights. By this, I mean they've re-mixed all the old music from SF2 etc. A fantastic little touch.

GAMEPLAY

+ Who do I pick 1st? 2 brand new characters plus 8 characters from previous SF games? Yes please. From 3rd Strike and Alpha 3, there is almost more than enough variation for SF veterans and new-comers alike.


+ Can you move like me? Capcom are spoiling us further by giving every single character 2 Ultras instead of just 1 this time around. This further opens the door for combo potential.

- "Almost" enough variation! Ryu, Ken, Sakura, Dan, Akuma. It feels like there are too many carbon copies of characters here. Compared to the uniqueness of fighters from other games ie: Blazblue, SSF4 does feel like it slightly cheats you with the character selection.


- A.I (Awful Intelligence). I'm used to cheap A.I in fighting games but SSF4 just crosses the line into down-right cheating. The amount of times the A.I will read your button inputs and then counter is ridiculous! Plus, all the A.I does is attack. You can't pressure it or condition it. This was a minor problem in SF4. In SSF4 it is not acceptable.


- Slow motion. Online still suffers from massive amounts of lag, often at the most inconvenient of times. I've also found out that the spammers are still taking advantage of this, demonstrating no skill what-so-ever and dis-connecting if they lose!


- Priority! Some moves have a very strange level of priority. For example: Chun-Li's 2nd Ultra (Kikosho) can be interuppted by a simple jab! Throws can be stopped mid-animation whilst other characters normal throws will go through Supers+Ultras!? Other special moves have been worked on such as Ken's 'Flaming Dragon Punch' which now has a ridiculously quick recovery time. Offline, this is quite annoying. Online it's an absolute f**king nightmare!!

+ Online vs. Offline. Always, if you can, play SSF4 offline against your friends! Online is nowhere near as responsive. Offline SSF4 is a LOT of fun! Online, it just becomes frustrating.

= Out with the old, in with the new! Call me crazy but I really enjoyed the Survival and Time Trials from SF4. I see no reason as to why they were taken out. In their place are several new online (what a surprise) features. Endless battle (replaces player matches), team battle (exactly as it sounds) and Tournament Mode (recent DLC release on Xbox Live). The trials from SF4 make a return in a new format and are slightly easier to pull off this time, but many still require more skill than many players are able to achieve!

Should you buy it?

Despite it's faults, I would say that this is a resounding 'yes'. If you've got more than one pad and more than one friend, you owe it to yourself to play this against each other. Don't worry about online play too much and just enjoy versing other people offline.

Super Street Fighter IV was developed and published by Capcom. Hours played: 100+ (both online and offline). Review is based on the Xbox 360 version.

Achievement difficulty: 9/10. It's the trials that are the real killer here!

BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger Review for Xbox 360 and PS3

Given the popularity of Steet Fighter 4/Super Street Fighter 4, many people overlooked and/or blatantly ignored a little 2D fighter called 'BlazBlue' from developer 'Arc System Works'. Given the fact that BB garnered very impressive review scores (rivalling that of SSF4) it was a mystery to me as to why many people weren't giving this game a go.

GRAPHICS + PRESENTATION.

+ Breath of fresh air. Unlike SSF4's 3D models, BlazBlue is a 2D fighter in the strictest sense. All the characters have been pain-stakingly hand-drawn in stunning detail. Each character is extremly diverse and fits the overall theme of the game. And BB is not rough around the edges either, being presented in glorious HD does nothing but make the game even more pleasing to the eye. Colours are incredibly vibrant and it feels like you're watching characters from an Anime/Manga film. Backgrounds are not ignored either. In fact, I would say that the backgrounds in BB are superior to those in SSF4 (and yes, that includes the SSF4 Hippo/Eclipse background)!

= Have we met before? For most people, BB's cast list looks very impressive (and it is). However, there are some similarities between BB and other 2D fighter ' Guilty Gear'. Although not detrimental to the game in any significant manner, it does raise the question about originality. This is, however, a small criticism is an, otherwise, superb looking game.

+ Pay attention! BB, unlike many other fighters, actually has a decent in-depth story behind it. All the fighters are inter-twined with each other which gives the game a feeling of depth that is often amiss in this genre. Every character has a colourful history and reason for fighting (rather than VF5's or DOA4's ambiguous story lines). To go into depth about the story would take a long time (and I'm at work, so my time is limited).

SOUND

+ What we know and love! Let's face it. No Japanese fighter would be complete without some crazy J-Rock! And BB doesn't dis-appoint. The theme music in each stage is a nice composition and mixture of original and jazzy rock tracks that suit the action down to the ground.


+ You said what?! What the hell? Good voice-overs in a fighting game!? Yep, both the Japanese and English voice-acting in this game are excellently implemeneted. It is cheesy at times but to be honest, that kinda adds to the charm as a whole. At the beginning of each round, certain characters will have different dialogue openings depending on who they face. My personal favourite without a doubt is Taokaka (a weird cat-lady). If she faces another female fighter called Litchi, she cries out "IT'S THE BOOBIE LADY!" Immature maybe, but it makes me laugh. :-)

- EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAARRRRGGGGHHH!!! Are the Japanese completely obssessed with making the death-screams of female characters as annoying as possible? Seriously! C. Viper and Chun-Li from SSF4 were bad enough!!!!

GAMEPLAY

+ Not for beginners! Yes, this is a plus point. To get good at Blazblue means you have to practice with your chosen character. Mashing 'Dragon Punch' motions will get you nothing a kick up the arse in this game. Combat itself is a satisfying and flashy affair with larger-than-life moves filling the screen. Occasionally it can get confusing but it's FUN!!! There is also a huge sense of satisfaction when you do connect with a move. Everything just feels fine tuned. From barrier bursts+cancels, mid-air dashes, instant blocking, counter attacks....everything fits superbly well.

= Not for beginners! Yep. Pretty much the same thing. Although BB is a purist's fighter, it can be very off-putting to newcomers. Accessability is not high on BlazBlue's priority list. The collector's edition does go someway to remedying this though by including a tutorial dvd that shows basics and advanced combos for all characters! :-)

- Is that everyone? Given the roster lists in current fighters eg: Tekken 6, SSF4, MK vs. DC, King of Fighters etc it's quite dis-appointing to see that there are only 12 fighters on offer in the whole game. As mentioned before, the characters are very original (no Shoto clones here) but it doesn't take long to grow tired of each character (especially online)!

= Plenty to do. BB doesn't scrimp on the game modes but nor does it do anything that hasn't been seen before. Arcade Mode, Story Mode (the best mode available), training, gallery and online.

- Oh look......another Jin player!! All it takes is for one person to start abusing certain move properties online before everyone realises they can get easy wins. One of the characters (Jin Kisaragi) is one such character. I played online for 3 hours solid, here's a true representation of the characters I faced:


Jin, Jin, Jin, Jin, Jin, Jin, V-13, Ragna, Jin, Jin, Tager, Jin, Jin, Arakune, Jin, Noel, Jin, Jin, Jin, Jin, Jin, Jin.


You get the point. Being beaten by a good Jin player is great but being beaten by a scrubby Jin who abuses certain moves because you can't counter online very quickly? It gets annoying. Character balance is great offline and it's recommended that this is how you play BB ie: against your friends OFFLINE.


SHOULD I BUY OR RENT?

I would defintely recommend buying this title. The production value is first class and you can see the attention to detail that has gone into creating this game. This is a worthy alternative to Super Street Fighter 4 and really doesn't deserve to be ignored.

BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger was developed by Arc System Works and published by Zen United (Aksys Games in the US). Hours played: 40+ (all modes beaten, all achievements unlocked). Review is based on the 360 version.

Achievement difficulty: 7/10. For the most part the achievements are enjoyable. The online achievements can be a bit of a grind so it's worth finding someone you can boost the achievements with.


Opinion:
C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!!!!


     Our first opinion post! This is where you get a split take on the written review. Why an opinion? Well Simon's done a damn good job on this review so I don't think there's a need for a second one. There's just one thing I'd like to chime in on though. 
     Have you ever played fighting games and just felt that you weren't really good enough to tangle with the vets? Were the mechanics too much for you to grasp? Well BlazBlue is your game! The aim of BlazBlue has been to simplify the mechanics of the genre while retaining the depth of a complex fighter. There's no l/m/h. punches or kicks, just 4 simple buttons. You have the A, B, and C attack buttons and a special D button. 
     With the majority of the fighters, you can get an easy combo off just by pressing the first three in succession. The D button activates a character's "Drive" attack. The idea of the Drive is to allow newcomers to perform what would normally be a command special attack with just the push of a button. It's works 100% differently for every fighter and serves to also give an idea on how a certain character should be used. With such controls in place, it's easy for anyone to feel that they've really got the hang of the game and it instills great confidence. After that point, you will then be sent down the road of complex mechanics such as bursts and rapid cancels.
     So in my opinion, BlazBlue is indeed a fighter for beginners but also intricate enough for a hardened veteran of the genre. Go pick it up and have some fun!

-Ashton

Iron Man 2 Review for Xbox 360 and PS3

     Iron Man is one of my favourite comic-book characters. I've followed Tony's exploits for many years now. Even when he was being a complete and utter a**shole in the 'Civil War' story arc. The original Iron Man movie game was met with a lot of negative responses and reviews; Poor flight controls, shabby combat system, dodgy in-game cameras.....the list goes on. So have any of these probems been rectified in order to make Iron Man 2 a decent stand-alone game rather than a shameless cash-in?

GRAPHICS & PRESENTATION

- There's pages missing! The game's script is written by a Marvel writer which makes this even more painful (as a ling-time comic fan). The story takes place after the film of Iron Man 2 and centres on the villain 'Ultimo'. To be honest, I could've written a better story. Nothing holds together and there is no cohesion between plot points. It's like they brought in a dozen different writers and took the worst bits from all of them to create the story. Stan Lee would be ashamed!! I'm not going to go into depth about the story because, quite frankly, I can't. The story is THAT shallow and un-finished.


- Rust bucket! IM2 would be hard-pressed to be accepted even as a Xbox 360 launch title on a graphical basis. Like the script, everything feels rushed and un-polished. Textures are rough and look like they've been ported from a PS2. Lighting is basic and merely highlights the lack of attention that the developers gave this game. This game also suffers from a ridiculous amount of clipping and glitching (explained more in the gameplay section). Character models are beyond awful. Pepper Potts (played by Gwyneth Paltrow in the film) and Black Widow both look like they've suffered an allergic reaction to a bee-sting! Their faces are swollen and dis-proportionate. Tony Stark and James Rhodes look okay-ish whilst Nick Fury is the most believeable.


- Suit up! There are several suits of IM armour to unlock through the game but thanks to the graphical problems listed above, you don't really care. Even rabid fans like me fail to get excited about the visuals on the armour and that's a kick in the teeth.


- These are not the droids you're looking for! Wa-Hay!! No rushed comic game would be complete without..........yep you guessed it.......GENERIC ENEMIES!!!! Is it really that hard to design a few different enemy types?! Apparently so.

SOUND

= Sounds funny to me. Sound is definitely hit-and-miss when it comes to the voice talent. On the plus side, Samuel Jackson and Don Cheadle reprise their roles as Nick Fury andWar Machine respectively. Robert Downey Junior does NOT voice Tony Stark but whoever it is does a really good job, getting Tony's mannerisms and little idiosyncrasies just right. On the bad side, Pepper Potts+Black Widow sound like they're trying to stay awake during each scene.

- Another rock track. I love rock as much as the next person but since AC/DC provided the soundtrack to IM2 (the film), everyone seems to think it's okay to use just that type of music. Here's a hint for you developers: IT'S NOT OKAY!!!!

GAMEPLAY

- Lights, Camera.....I said Camera dammit! IM2 should win many awards for what is, quite possibly, the worst in-game camera in any computer game to date!! I cannot express to you all just how much the camera sucks in this game. I nearly gave myself a bloody aneurism due to the camera doing whatever the hell it wanted. "What's the problem?" I hear you ask. Well, the RB button is your lock-on button whilst the Right Analogue Stick (RS) controls the camera manually. The problem is that the RS also acts as a 'switch-between-enemies-whilst-locked-on' control. When you're surrounded by enemies and you desperately need to target the big robot behind you but you can't because the game will only let you switch targets that are in front of you..........! Not only is that bad but, the enemies will often fly past you leading the camera to completely freak out. This led to me dying more often than I should have. It also led to my fiancee telling me off for using the 'F' word every 5 seconds!!


- Faster, FASTER!! The IM suits can fly at supersonic speed and yet there is absolutely no sense of speed in this game. Double-tapping the LB button will result in you zooming off at a snails pace. Also, once in-flight, it's very difficult to put the brakes on. Combine this with the dodgy camera and you've got a flight/camera system designed by Satan himself!


- Lots of stuff! After each mission you will earn credits that you use to upgrade your equipment and armour. This sounds great in principle but unless you're achievement hunting, there's no reason to buy everything. 


Iron Man+Lasers+Piercing Ammo+Ultimate Module = WIN!! 
Or: 
War Machine+Twin Gatling Guns+Piercing Ammo+Ultimate Module = As above!! 


Also, the different suits offer NO difference in strength, durability, speed etc!!! Pure laziness.


- JUST. HIT. HIM!! You can unlock different close-quarters combat combos but I can almost guarantee that you'll just mash the X button before reverting to your guns again. The CQC combat is beyond bad and has had as much effort put into it as the camera!!


- Ready, steady...GO....and stop! Holy crap this game is short! I'm talking 3 hours to play the game through start to finish. Then another 2 hours to do it again on Formidable (Hard) difficulty. Again, there's no reason to torture yourself unless it's achievements you're after.

SHOULD I BUY OR RENT?

Rent if you have to but this game really isn't worth your time. Poor controls, horrific camera, dodgy visuals. For achievement hunters only!

Iron Man 2 was Developed and Published by SEGA. Hours played: 6 (3 on Easy, 3 on Hard). Reviewed on the 360 version.

Achievement Difficulty: 3/10. Would've been lower but the camera makes things harder than they really are!

Free Form: Achievement points. Why oh why?

Well, if it's good enough for Ash to do something like this then it's good enough for me. :-) Basically every gamer around the world is aware of the reward scheme within the Xbox 360. There has been a strict divide within the gaming community when it comes to achievement points in games. My question is what makes AP's so important to gaming and gamers as a whole?

I have a theory! Remember back in the day (bear in mind I was born in 1980 so my "back in the day" may be a bit earlier than yours) when you went to the arcades or to a friends house and you spent hours and hours trying to beat each others high-score/lap time? Well, to me, AP's are just that. They are my high-score for the current generation of consoles.

Now I know some people are addicted, almost literally, to gaining as many AP's as possible by playing anything and I admit that I have fallen into the trap of playing a crappy game in order to gain more points (Sherlock Holmes, King Kong). So why do we put ourselves through it? Let's face it, you can't redeem the points and in the grand scheme of things they mean very little. Or do they? Remember that they are called "Achievement" points which is a very clever form of psychological phrasing (I'm studying to be a counsellor so I have a knowledge of Neuro-Linguistic Programming - NLP). Regardless of how mundane the achievement, there is always a sense of satisfaction to be had when we "achieve" something and gaming is no different.

Aside from the obvious satisfaction, do they actually add anything to the game or improve gaming in general? My answer is: yes! Aside from the reasons I've listed above, I've found myself playing and enjoying games I never thought I would. I've also found myself re-visiting games to "mop-up" AP's even after I've completed the game several times. To me, this gives games a sense of value.

Like nearly everything in life though, there is always a negative side. For me, personally, I think some game developers rely on AP's to shift their games (regardless of whether or not they're any good). Avatar is a classic example of this as you can gain all 1000 AP's in less than 5 minutes!! It took me about 3 minutes.....I'm a bad person! Lol! :-)

There are also AP's that are extremely tough to get. Now, I like to think that I'm an above-average gamer but my time these days IS limited (I work, I'm going back to college, I do charity work). I like the sense of achievement that comes with unlocking points but I get slightly annoyed when developers really want to test you. Ninja Gaiden 2 is a good example of a game that just takes the p**s! I do not have sufficient time to really plow all my efforts into getting even a few achievements for just one game. Whereas something like Oblivion is perfect as it kinda drip-feeds you the points throughout the game. That, to me, makes more sense.

Well, I think I should stop here or I'll just end up ranting. I hope I've given you something new to think about in regards to AP's. What are your thoughts though? Let me know. :-)

Forza Motorsport 3 Review for Xbox 360.

The Forza series has always prided itself upon it's uber-realistic approach to the racing genre. Forza can be simply described as the mirror-opposite of racing titles like Burnout and the upcoming Blur & Split Second: Velocity. For the true petrol heads out there, you may not want to read this review! :-)

GRAPHICS & PRESENTATION

+ Wax on! Wax off!! Graphically, Forza is an absolute delight to look at. Every car model is rendered with painstaking detail. Each race track, from New York to the Nurburgring, has been recreated in perfect detail also. There is very little to criticise. Lighting is put to excellent use with shading and light sourcing hitting the cars and tracks at the correct angles at all times. Reflections are virtually jaw dropping with every car having a crisp visual sheen.

= You're so vain! This may just be me being picky but, as nice as Forza looks, it does seem a bit sterile in places. Now maybe this is because I prefer tracks that have been created from imagination and not reality but everything looks a bit too clean for me.

SOUND

= I've heard it all before. There's nothing bad about the SFX or music in Forza but there's nothing that really stands out either. Each car sounds like they should from small engines to muscle cars. Screeching tyres and revving engines sound like....well....screeching tyres and revving engines. It's all appropriate but nothing outstanding. Music is fairly un-inspiring stuff and I found myself hitting the mute button after 10 minutes and listening to my MP3 player instead.

GAMEPLAY

+ Look what I made! One of the first things that needs to be mentioned here is the level of customisation. There are 400 cars in the game and every single one of them can be tuned and tweaked to racing perfection. From tyres to suspension to steering, there's enough here to keep the most ardent car-fiddler happy for hours on end. And once you've finished tinkering with the inside you can then customise your ride with a paint job of your choosing. Forza's paint+vinyl editor is so detailed it boggles the mind. If, like me, you have no interest in fine-tuning but want your car optimised for the races ahead there is a very handy quick tune tool before the beginning of the race! :-)

+ It's just like Ebay! After certain races and events you'll be given cars as prizes but if you're really impatient you can always go into the in-game auction site and try and win cars there for a fraction of the original price. Not only cars but custom paint jobs are available too. You can place your own items for sale and make yourself a few credits in return.

- This isn't an RPG. After each race, you're given a set amount of XP which is determined by the position you finish in, the difficulty you raced on and the amount of damage to your car. You can reach level 50 for your driver and level 5 for your chosen car. This is okay in itself but when you constantly have to race and re-race the same tracks it becomes very boring, very quickly. Turn 10 games claim to have over 100 tracks in this game but many of those are simply shortened or reverse tracks of the originals. And when there are 6 seasons in career play which contain an ever increasing amount of races....well, you do the math! Grinding, thine name is Forza 3!!

- Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz! I like to think I can give games credit where it's due but I'm making an exception here. I'm not sure what happenned during development of Forza 3 but someone, somewhere forgot to make this game FUN. Y'know, what games are meant to be. I have never played a game that is so emotionless, lifeless, stark, sterile, humourless and boring. Please bear in mind that I am NOT biased against realism. I used to play all the TOCA games on the PS1 and since then have played many games that are realistic. Forza 3 just doesn't feel like an involving racer at all!!


SHOULD I BUY OR RENT?

Definitely rent first. I cannot, in all good conscience, recommend buying this game.


Forza 3 is an Xbox 360 exclusive. Hours played: 40+ on medium difficulty (Realism mode is for sadists and masochists)! Developed by Turn 10 Games.

Achievement difficulty: 5/10. The only reason it's a 5 is because the 'Solid Gold' achievement will take you a VERY long time! Every thing else is easy.

Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper review for Xbox 360

I love Sir Arthur Conan Doyles' books about the great London Sleuth. So I was pleased when I heard that they would be releasing a puzzle game based on the infamous Jack the Ripper case from 1888. If this introduction to the review seems very basic and bland then it's because the game is just that!

+ I'm gonna start with the positives........which won't take very long. A few of the puzzles are genuinely enjoyable. That's it! Now onto the bad things. This could take a while so you'll have to excuse if I rant.

GRAPHICS

- Graphically the game is beyond poor. I would expect this from a PS2 launch title and even then the graphics would suck! Everything from lighting to textures, character models, scenery. It's all bland and un-inspiring. The character animation is so lazy it beggars belief. I clicked on a light-switch in one point of the game which was shoulder-height with the character. He reached upto the ceiling! The game developers haven't even tried putting effort into this!

SOUND

- Sound. Oh my god! What the f**k were they thinking? It's not even passable as 'Resident Evil B-Movie cheese'. It's just horrible. I could be here all day trying to explain but it wouldn't even scratch the tip of the iceberg. Holmes sounds like he's got a blocked nose, Watson sounds like he couldn't care less and please, for the love of all you hold dear, don't get me started on the children in this game. My ears are still bleeding from awfulness of it all! The game does have sub-titles, so if you do play this tragedy of a game, turn the volume down. Music is repetitve and cliched and the ambient sounds of Victorian London are virtually non-existent.

GAMEPLAY

- Gameplay......HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!! *Ahem* Yeah right. What bloody gameplay? This is meant to be a point and click. I'm a huge fan of point and click games. Broken Sword, Monkey Island, Beneath the Steel Sky are all amazing games. This is not! You move your character manually and only click on clues which couldn't be any more obvious if they had a big neon sign above them. There's no 'run' button so you move at a snails pace everywhere you go. You would've thought that with a psychotic killer on the loose, they'd move a lot quicker.

- The game is also ridiculously linear with no exploration of any kind. The puzzles, as mentioned before, are sometimes enjoyable but for the most part are just bloody stupid! For example, I came across a door that was locked. In order to unlock it, you need to pick up some tarpaulin from the ground and use it on the door..........WHAT THE HELL?! Wire maybe but tarpaulin?! What were the developers thinking?

- There is no replay value. Trust me, you wouldn't want to play this through twice. I honestly can't explain how bad this game is. I wouldn't pay for this if it came out on the PS1. Seriously, it's THAT bad! One of the worst games I have ever played.

SHOULD I BUY?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Don't even rent this garbage. Instead, put your efforts into getting a petition going so we can burn every single copy of this piece of crap!!

Hours played 8+. I want those 8 hours of my life back. Achievement difficulty: 2/10.

Darksiders Review for Xbox 360 and PS3

"War! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!" So sang James Brown back in the day. Well, as it happens I agree with Mr. Brown, in that, War is good for nothing. Just this once though I'm gonna make an exception.

Darksiders places you in the shoes of War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (and the eldest of the four). Armageddon has come to Earth early and to put it bluntly, mankind is completely buggered!! For those of you who don't know, the 4 Horsemen (in historical context) should only be summoned to Earth to address the balance between Heaven and Hell. To summon them, 7 seals need to be broken, so War is just a little bit p*ssed off to find out the 7th seal was never broken!! So who was behind the deception? Sorry, I'm not spoiling the story for you. :-)

GRAPHICS

= Graphically, Darksiders has as many good points as bad. The visual style is very reminiscent of the Mid-90's X-men comics with big, bulky characters, vibrant colours and some decent character design. Earth looks okay but a bit too intact considering it's the end of the world. Animation is basic but workable whilst the game camera can be a bit erratic. However, the biggest problem (on the 360 version) is some pretty horrendous screen tearing. This really shouldn't be there and does annoy throughout.

- Although War looks the part, as do many of the main characters, a lot of the enemy models are repeated constantly. This is a shame as the developers (Vigil Games) could really expand on different enemy types. Bosses look good although one of them is nothing more than a giant sandworm which reminded me of Beetle-Juice.

SOUND

- In regards to the sound, again this is a mixed bag. Firslty the bad. Voice samples are used over and over in battles whilst the music is pretty un-inspiring stuff.


+ On the plus side though, sound effects are nice and throaty with all the appropriate clangs of metal and armour. The best, by far though, is the voice acting for the cut-scenes. Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker, Joker 
- Batman: Arkham Asylum) plays a major role as The Watcher who is bound to War to ensure his loyalty. However, in my opinion, Liam 'O Brien pulls a stellar performance as the mean and moody War.


GAMEPLAY

= The scripting and pacing of the story are fantastic although this isn't always portrayed as well as it should due to the lack of flowing gameplay. And the gameplay is probably the most controversial part of this game. Here's the sum for Darksiders: God of War + Legend of Zelda + Legacy of Kain + Portal + (insert game of choice here) = Darksiders. Seriously, this game borrows, begs and steals elements from all these games. That in itself is a good thing but the game can occasionally seem a bit confused as to what it wants to show you although it soon becomes clear that the combat takes a back seat compared to the puzzles. This really niggled me. "I'M WAR!! 1st HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE!! I'M GOING TO.......push and pull levers for hours on end?" Doesn't seem fitting somehow.

= Combat is also a missed opportunity with only a couple of buttons used. You will however be hammering the X/square button like it's going out of fashion. Again, this is a shame when compared to recent games like Batman: AA and Bayonetta. Most of the weapons you get, you'll very rarely use unless, like me, you're achievement hunting. Wrath Powers (magic in any other game) are next to useless as is War's Chaos Form. Despite all this, I still found myself enjoying the simplistic gameplay. However, I am aware that I was playing for the story rather than the gameplay.

= The game is a reasonable length if you hunt out all collectibles. It took me 20 hours on normal due to the fact that I went out of my way to get all the achievements. I then replayed the game on the hardest difficulty and completed it in 10 hours. After that, there is NO replay value what-so-ever. Nothing, nada, zip, zilch, zero!!

For their 1st game, Vigil have done a decent job of introducing a new IP to the game market but it just lacks the polish to make it a classic. The story is enough to pull you through the game but I'm hoping that Darksiders 2 addresses all the problems listed above.

SHOULD I BUY?

As much as I enjoyed this game for the story, I would defintely recommend renting this first. Unless, of course, you're achievement hunting! ;-)

Game played for 30+ hours on Normal and Apocalyptic difficulty. Achievement difficulty: 4/10.

Batman: Arkham Asylum review for Xbox 360 and PS3

And I'm back! Many apologies, ladies and gents, for not posting up reviews for a while but here goes nothing.

First of all I'd like to say that I've been reading comic books for over twenty years now so this review may seem biased but I assure you I'll give it a fair trial.


Batman has, once again, captured the Joker and has transported him back to Arkham Asylum (a nut-house for the mentally insane and super-criminals). Things quickly take a nose-dive as you find out that Joker was counting on being taken back so he can act-out his newest plan to defeat Batman and destroy Gotham City (guy needs a new hobby if you ask me).


It's then up to you, as Batman, to track Joker down whilst beating several other recognisable faces (Poison Ivy, Killer Croc, Scarecrow etc) along the way. Well, that's the story and, in all fairness, it's not the most complex of storylines but when the game is as good as it is, it doesn't need to be.

GRAPHICS

+ Graphically this game is a visual feast! For anyone who's read Arkham Asylum by Grant Morrison, you'll have a rough idea of the visual style. A very dark and gritty pallette has been used to fantastic effect. The scenery design, as well as the game design in general, is simply stunning. Eidos have really created a superbly dark and moody atmosphere within the twisted walls of Arkham Asylum. Character models are brilliant (for most of it) although the henchmen are a generic character model but it's a small price to pay.
Action takes place all over Arkham Island and you'll find yourself in Botanical Gardens, Intensive Treatment Plants, Medical facilites and much more. Each location just feels right and never out of place. The level layout is open without being daunting. There's lots of little hidden areas that just dare you to find them but are never necessary to the game as a whole.
     Batman, himself, moves with all the grace and power we've come to expect from him whilst other characters are portrayed just as well, if not better. From Harley Quinn's schoolgirl-ish swagger, Ivy's seductive poise and Joker's frantic movements. Even the every-day cops seem to move with purpose. This isn't just a game of Batman, you're entering into the world of Gotham. :-)

SOUND

+ All the characters have brilliant voiceovers. The exception to this is Batman who can sound a bit wooden at times. The voices compliment the visual movements and styles of the characters perfectly. Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker from Star Wars) reprises his role as the Joker and is, to put it simply, magnificent!! Ambient noise and music is also used to great effect without ever becoming intrusive. Combat noise is damn-near perfect and feel like they were ripped straight out of a Detective Comics issue.

GAMEPLAY

+ Gameplay could be described as simple yet satisfying but I feel that this would be doing the game a dis-service. You're given an XP system that allows you to unlock one of Batman's gadgets per level gained. This could be throwing multiple batarangs, extra armour, more comat moves etc. Speaking of combat, this is how it should be done!! Punching two goons, countering another, performing a takedown move on the next before leaping up and flying across the room to kick someone in the head, launching a batarang before using your grapple hook and explosive gel to take down crowds of enemies. Combat really feels fluid and makes the game even more enjoyable.
     Some sections of the game will have you picking off armed guards in true Batman style as you stick to the roofs and the shadows. A gung-ho approach WILL get you killed very quickly so don't try it!! However, the best part of this game (for me) were the set-pieces. By this I mean, certain cut-scenes that normally led-up to a boss battle. Never, will you look at the Scarecrow the same way again!! :-) I really want to say more but I would spoil what is a great piece of the game!
     There is also a lot to do once you've finished the game, not to mention free downloadable content from Xbox Live! Combat challenges, Predator Challenges, riddles to solve, trophies to find. Batman offers a lot of value for your hard-earned cash.

= During your adventure around the Asylum, you're given access to certain gadgets such as electronic doorhacking, grappling hooks etc. One such gadget is the ability to enter into Detective Vision. This is esentially X-Ray vision which is absolutely vital in the game. It also shows you the enemies heart-rate and emotional being (ranging from calm to terrified). This is a great touch but I found myself with Detective mode turned on for the majority of the game. This is a shame as it has a tendency to detract from the amazing graphical surroundings.



- You're Joking right (pun intended). The last boss fight is fairly lame. Almost as if the developers didn't know how to live upto the rest of the game. Such a shame. Thankfully, it's more of a missed opportunity than an out right game breaker.


Should I buy?

Oh hell yes!! Okay, so I'm biased but doesn't stop Batman: AA from being the best game of 2009. There is so much to do even after the main game has finished. Regardless of whether you've read 100+ comics or are stepping into the world of the Dark Knight for the first time, I think you'll be more than impressed.

Dante's Inferno Review for Xbox 360.

Dante Alighieri was born in the mid-1200's and is, without doubt, responsible for one of the finest pieces of literature ever written. The Divine Comedy was Dante's personal interpretation of hell. Or to be more precise, the differing levels of hell where the souls of the damned suffer. Anyone who hasn't read The Divine Comedy, I urge you to find a copy of this haunting masterpiece either before or after you've played Dante's Inferno.

Dante's Inferno is based upon Alighieri's masterpiece. Dante's Inferno (or DI for the sake of this review) is an action-adventure game with some platform and puzzle elements. You play as Dante (shocker), a crusader-knight (and not a very nice person to be honest) who has rushed home from the Holy War to protect his beloved wife: Beatrice. He returns home to find his wife and father dead. To make matters worse, after discovering Beatrice's body he then finds out that her soul now belongs to Lucifer. I won't say how or why here as it will spoil the game later on for you. Certain liberties have been taken in creating this game. In the book, Dante was a simple traveller, not a warrior. However, this is forgiveable given the context of the game.

PRESENTATION

+ We're not in Kansas anymore!! Wow! Just......wow! The scenery and presentation of this game are superb. The art team from Visceral Games have some really screwed up imaginations and I'm all the more thankful for it. Every circle of Hell you traverse through is stunningly grotesque. From rivers of molten gold, in the Circle of Greed, where the dead wade in constant agony to the River Styx where statues of the damned pose in intolerable suffering. This game drags you kicking and screaming through it all. Even the most basic of walls is a disturbing sight, with the souls of countless people trapped within, writhing to break free from their eternal suffering.

= This is on the 360 right? Although the presentation is spot-on, the in-game graphics are a slight let down. They look like high-end PS2 in the same vein as the God of War series. It's not game-breaking but it is a missed opportunity to really push the graphical power of the 360 and bring Hell to life even more.

+ Saturday night at the movies. CGI cut-scenes are pretty at the best of times, DI's CGI is nothing short of bloody breath-taking!! Never have I seen character emotions portrayed so well in Full Motion Video! Do you hear that Final Fantasy? This is how it should be done!!! Although the CGI scenes are few and far between, they are done so well it would be a crime not to give them the credit they deserve.

= Not one for the kiddies! DI is graphic in the extreme and is definitely not one for parents to buy their children. Nudity, language and violence.....oh, and more nudity. Parents, you have been advised! :-)

- You again?! Ah yes, DI falls into the same trap as many other games. There are only a handful of demonic designs to contend with. Considering you're travelling thorugh 9 circles of hell, you would've thought that their would be more variation. Apparently Satan doesn't like change!

- Where are we now? Although the 9 circles of Hell look fantastic, the transition between each one feels forced and un-necessary. There's no gentle flow between each circle and you'll know when you're descending to a different area.

SOUND

+ Rinse and repeat. Anyone who's read one of my reviews should know that I detest repeated voice and sound samples in games. It's just a bit lazy in my eyes. I'm now going to eat my own words and say that DI uses repeated sound loops to absolutely magnificent effect! The groans, tortured howls and pleading voices are both haunting, disturbing and upsetting in equal measure. It really is a perverse pleasure to listen to the agony of the damned until you release that if you fail in your mission within Hell, you'll be one more voice to the choir! ;-)

= You said what?! I'm really not sure what to feel about the voice acting in DI. Dante and Beatrice are okay while the Bosses in the game are defintely the strongest aspect. I can't put my finger on what's missing but it just feels like some of the scripting doesn't quite "click".

= Where's Beethoven when you need him? Same problem as the voices. There's nothing wrong with the music but it doesn't grab you like you would've hoped. Maybe it's just me! :-)

GAMEPLAY

- Are you sure that's right? Okay, minor spoiler here!! At the beginning of the game, you beat up and (kinda) kill Death. Yep, that's right.....DEATH!! You know, the man with a big scythe. One of the most powerful mythical entities EVER!! Just doesn't seem right. Visceral Games should've chosen another way for Dante to enter Hell.

- You're not the boss of me! Perhaps I've been spoilt by games such as Shadow of the Collosus but I really was expecting same amazing boss battles in this game (c'mon! I'm in Hell dammit). Alas, it was not to be. :-( Some of the bosses certainly look the part ie: Minos and Cleopatra but everyone else is a let-down. Attack patterns that even a blind monkey can see coming do not help matters either.

= Kratos is that you? I promised myself I wouldn't join the masses and compare this to God of War. Sadly there ARE a lot of similarities between DI's combat system and GOW's. It's not a bad thing as it works fairly well but at times it feels quite clunky compared to GOW. You have a standard light and heavy attack plus a grab button which will allow you to absolve or punish certain enemies. What does that mean? Read below!

+ I DECIDE YOUR FATE! One of the guilty pleasures of combat is grabbing an enemy and deciding whether to absolve them of their sins or punish them for trying to stick 3 metres of steel into your head! Initially it is very tempting to just punish but there is an upside to doing both. DI gives you 2 skill-trees. One Holy, one un-Holy. Each tree will give you different advantages and upgrades. The Holy tree is generally useful if you want to upgrade your Cross attacks whilst the un-Holy side is useful for making your scythe attacks more powerful.

- But I want them all! Sadly it takes 2 playthroughs to max out both sides of the skill tree. You will definitely want to max out Holy first as it makes achievement hunting easier. ;-) It's just a shame that the player cannot have the best of both worlds and is essentially made to choose.

+ A present? For me?! Throughout your adventure you will come across, and collect, Relics. These items can be equipped and levelled up to give you more of a chance of surviving the denizens of Hell. Abilities such as: more powerful attacks, unable to be interrupted during combos and even absorbing damage are here to make things that little bit more interesting for you. They work well without upsetting the balance of the game too much and are a welcome addition.

+ Abracadabra! It's GOW comparison time again but this time DI comes out on top with it's use of magic. I actually used the spells in this game!! I barely touched the magic in GOW so again Dante does something right. From magical shields to a smart-bomb style spell, there's something for everyone here but it is worth mentioning that there are only half-a-dozen or so spells in the game.

= Do you know War, perchance? What is it with this type of game and puzzles? They're almost insultingly simple and not necessary in this game type.

- Hop, skip and......bugger!!!!! The jump mechanics in this game are bloody awful. It's hard to gauge distancing which means you're gonna die a few times trying to do the most trivial of tasks. Sounds like a small gripe but when you've traipsed through a level only to make the tiniest of errors and re-start from the last save point........well, you can imagine how frustrating it becomes.

- Speaking of which. The save system in this game is horrible (as hinted at above). There is no checkpoint system as such. If you die, then it's back to a save point with you. This wouldn't be so much of a problem but any items you collected before dying will have to be re-collected! Saving is more of a relief than a necessary feature of any game!!

= Wait. That's it? DI is a short game. Plain and simple. It took me 10 hours to do everything this game had to offer although there is DLC coming in the future. That's little comfort for those who paid full-price for this though. I think Dante's Inferno is best summed up as: short but sweet.

Should I buy this?

No. Don't get me wrong, despite all its little faults, Dante's Inferno is a really good game and I thoroughly enjoyed playing it to the end. But when a game is 10 hours long with 2 playthroughs it is advisable to rent first.

Dante's Inferno was developed by Visceral Games and Published by EA Games. Hours played: 10+. Review is based upon the Xbox 360 version

If you're interested in reading another opinion, check out Ashton's review here