New Today

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for $39.99/$59.99

The universally acclaimed 2011 game of the year is on sale! Pick up the regular edition of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for $39.99 at Best Buy. You could also pop for the awesome collector’s edition and get a giant statue of Alduin along with the game for $59.99. In the world of Skyrim, you can explore the lands, slay dragons and save maidens… or you can ravage the lands, ignore dragons and punch maidens. Whatever you prefer!

The Darkness II for $29.99

Step into Jackie Estacado’s shoes one more time for his return to the Darkness II… now for less money! Pick it up for $10 off at good ol’ Amazon and decimate your enemies with all four of your simultaneously equipped weapons!

Prototype 2 for $39.99

Are you craving some ridiculous, over-the-top action? Like upper-cutting helicopters, perhaps? Turning your arms into giant blades, maybe? Indulge in the totally excessive violence in Prototype 2, on sale for $39.99 at Amazon. You go get that Alex Mercer!

Pre-Orders of Note

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Future Soldier

Ghost Recon returns on May 22 after a too-long hiatus. Are you ready for it? How about if Amazon hands you a $10 credit for pre-ordering it? That’s more like it. Head on over and make sure you get that $10, as well as the Amazon-exclusive Drilling Ship Co-Op Map. Free things!

Metal Gear Solid HD Collection

Once you got your hands on a PS Vita, you knew you were waiting for the perfect first-person shooter to break in that sweet second analog stick. This is what you were waiting for. Metal Gear Solid HD Collection will be releasing June 12 and you can pre-order it at Amazon to get an extra $10 credit towards your next purchase. So really, we’re looking at $29.99 for two amazing games that are finally portable and playable the way they should be.

Dragon’s Dogma

I’ve never been so ready for a brand new franchise. Dragon’s Dogma is shaping up to be an awesome action game from the same minds that brought us Resident Evil 4 and Devil May Cry 4. Set to release May 22, you can pre-order it from Amazon and they’ll tack on their generous $10 credit, the Weapons Upgrade Pack and access to the Resident Evil 6 demo when it becomes available.

Ongoing Deals

Serious Sam games for 75% off

The entire Serious Sam collection is on sale on Amazon for 75% off! So that means you can pick up Serious Sam 3 for $9.99 or go old-school and get Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter for $3.74. Pick up these awesome, ridiculous action games and relive the awesome! What is it with crazy action games being on sale today?

Mass Effect 2 for PC for $8.99

Did you fall off the bandwagon after the first Mass Effect? Don’t you want to know what happens in Mass Effect 2?! Or at least run away with that swanky Miranda Lawson?! Pick up the middle stepping stone to one of the greatest action RPGs of this generation for $8.99 from Buy.com. Don’t worry–they have free shipping!

Fallout 3 Game of the Year Edition for PS3 for $11.99

You and me both know that having Liam Neeson as your father is one of the most awesome things ever. That’s why I’ll always prefer Fallout 3! If you never played it or never got all the DLC, this is an awesome deal. Discover the Capitol Wasteland while tracking down your father. You have a particular set of skills, you see…

Trials Evolution is enough of a departure from previous titles to make it feel fresh, but it manages to hold on to the core gameplay that makes Trials great.

This review is based on a retail copy of Trials Evolution provided by Red Lynx. It is an XBLA exclusive.

Sit back, relax and enjoy watching Max Payne battle both his inner demons and some gangsters. The trailer was made entirely from in game footage and it looks beautiful. You can pre-order the game today for its May 15th launch.

Rather than focusing on the plot specific antagonists Rockstar focused on highlighting Max’s person struggle. Max is seen drinking, taking pills and breaking lots of glasses. If the past entries of the franchise are any indication, Max is in for more personal pain and suffering. Luckily, he lets his pistols warm his heart and his shotgun sooth his wounds.

New Today

Minecraft XBLA for $14.99

There shouldn’t be anyone left in the world that loves Legos and hasn’t played Minecraft. If you haven’t gotten a chance to nab it on PC, now’s the time to get it on Xbox 360! It just released today and Best Buy already has it on sale for $14.99 instead of the regular $19.99. Go forth into the cubed world and punch trees! Now, with split-screen co-op!

Sin & Punishment: Star Successor for $4.99

A cult classic that once again flew under the radar to become the rare, double cult classic! Sin & Punishment: Star Successor is two parts shmup and one part Star Fox. It’s really a blast to play, especially co-op. Plus, it’s five bucks! I paid $50… and it was still worth it!

Alan Wake for PC for $14.99

This one goes out to all my fellow PC gamers. We were all waiting for Alan Wake to release with updated textures and our PCs can brute force through to 60 FPS. The wait is over and it’s way cheaper than I expected: Amazon has it on sale for $14.99, half off of the regular price.

Pre-Orders of Note

Diablo III

We’ve all been waiting 12 years for this moment and it’s finally here. Diablo III. On May 15, we will all lock ourselves in and lose our souls to this incredible game. Amazon is offering release date shipping, so don’t be afraid to order it online!

NCAA Football 13

The time for college ball is again upon us! You can pre-order NCAA Football 13, releasing July 10, at Amazon for $44.99, leaving you just enough cash to bust out the tortilla chips and chili cheese dip while you and your buddies throw down to represent their respective schools.

Metal Gear Solid HD Collection

Once you got your hands on a PS Vita, you knew you were waiting for the perfect first-person shooter to break in that sweet second analog stick. This is what you were waiting for. Metal Gear Solid HD Collection will be releasing June 12 and you can pre-order it at Amazon to get an extra $10 credit towards your next purchase. So really, we’re looking at $29.99 for two amazing games that are finally portable and playable the way they should be.

Ongoing Deals

Oh So Fine Bundle for $9.99

The Oh So Fine Bundle, consisting of  three of Double Fine’s greatest games: Psychonauts, Costume Quest and Stacking, is on sale for $9.99 on Amazon. They’re usually $9.99 each, so it’s a great way to get caught up on Tim Schafer’s recent games for a great price. You can either download the games directly from Amazon or enter the product code into Steam to play them that way.

Ninja Gaiden 3 for $39.99

Wield the Dragon Sword once again in Ninja Gaiden 3, on sale for $39.99 on Amazon. You know you’ve missed rampaging around town as Hayabusa.

PS Vita with a free copy of Mortal Kombat and 4GB Memory Card for $249.99

Upgrade your handheld gaming experience with the PS Vita and receive a free awesome game and a memory card in the process. Mortal Kombat will provide hours of gory multiplayer entertainment and the 4GB memory card will keep you afloat until the 32GB goes on sale for a reasonable price. You can’t argue with $60 worth of free stuff!

Tribes is one of those franchises that has been around forever, yet I’ve never know anything about it. I’ve seen it mentioned in forums and comment threads. Undying love has been pledged to this franchise, but I never knew why. I had always assumed it was simply a Quake or Unreal Tournament clone but with vehicles and jetpacks. I was partially correct. At PAX East 2012, I got to sit down with some friends who were, for lack of a better term, obsessed with Tribes. Tribes Ascend had a large booth with ample computers to play on and a relatively short wait. Right then and there, I was converted. Through sweat, tears, and my fair share of accidental suicides, I was baptized into the Tribes community. In the past month since PAX East 2012, Tribes: Ascend has released, and it’s all I’ve been playing. Let me tell you why.

Tribes Ascend is a lot like most first person shooters you’ve played before. There’s team deathmatch, capture the flag and territory control gametypes. There are specific classes that fill special roles on the field. Soldiers and Juggernauts are well balanced and can be used offensively or defensively. Doombringers and Engineers can set up defensive equipment to protect your flag or generator. Infiltrators can cloak themselves, making them the perfect assault group for taking out a generator. Each role is needed, and fortunately you can see how many teammates are playing which class when you spawn in. If there are several Doombringers in play, then you can safely assume that your defense is strong and you should probably head towards the enemy base to disrupt their defenses or take the flag. People who have played Tribes know I’m leaving several of important things out, trust me I’m getting to that. Right now in fact.

The first line of the last paragraph? That’s mostly a lie. Yes, Tribes: Ascend follows a lot of norms that most shooters have, but overall, Tribes: Ascend is unlike any other shooter you have ever played. The predominant mechanic in Tribes is the combination of skiing and jetpacking. Most maps, whether they are arena or CTF will start you off on top of a hill. By holding down the space-bar, your character will enter a frictionless state known as skiing. There, they will slide down the hill and pick up enormous speed. When you hit the bottom of the hill, you jetpack up the next slope to keep your momentum going. This Tiny Wings like process continues throughout the entire game. Maintaining speed and momentum is essential for escaping enemies or reaching your goal quickly. An unskilled player can keep themselves going around 90-120 km/h, while the fastest of the fast won’t settle for anything under 200 km/h. Different classes have different weight settings. Lighter classes can jetpack longer, allowing themselves to position their flight paths perfectly.

The Pathfinder class is a breed of it’s own. They’re the fastest and lightest class, and the seemingly weakest class available. They have the most jetpack energy, and the weakest spinfusor (Tribes’ iconic grenade launcher like weapon). This makes them the best fit for capturing the flag. By skiing and jetpacking through specific routes and propelling themselves forward with friendly explosions, a skilled Pathfinder can find themselves speeding at 250 km/h or faster as they zip in and nab the enemy flag. Before you know it, that Pathfinder is back at his own base with your flag within twenty seconds.

These high speed chases and maneuvers gives Tribes: Ascend the most unique combat out of any other shooter. It’s a meticulous twitch shooter. You have to precise. Nearly every class has some variation of the iconic spinfusor which throws an explosive disc out relatively slowly. The spinfusor can either be as messy as a cleaver or as precise as a scalpel depending on who’s wielding it. Gameplay insists that you shoot where your enemy will be and not where they are. There are some automatic weapons like machine guns that will constantly pressure a fleeing foe, but spinfusor dueling is where the game shines. The exhilaration of fleeing through the air at 180 km/h going backwards and shooting at your assailants without losing any momentum is unlike any other game. The ski/jetpack mechanic gives Tribes it’s identity.

Tribes: Ascend is a free-to-play game. There’s an instant reaction of disgust from that term. Free-to-play raises many concerns. You might think players who pay the gold price will unlock other classes and weapons and instantly be better than everyone else. This couldn’t be further from the truth. New players who don’t drop a cent are give access to three classes: Pathfinder, Soldier, and Juggernaut. Each class starts with it’s base equipment, but upgrades cost little XP (the free way to upgrade) and can be obtained easily. Those who pay the iron price to upgrade themselves will master the three starting classes and find a use for them in any situation. For the most part, unlocks are priced relatively fairly. Each additional class ranges from three to around ten dollars or several thousand XP. Buying thirty dollars worth of gold can give you the full game experience, allowing you to unlock all the classes and several bonus perks that can all be easily obtained freely through XP. Additional weapons, on the other hand, are overpriced and seem impossible to unlock via XP alone.

Apart from the overpriced weapons, Tribes has a steep learning curve. Matchmaking could use some tweaking. Levels 0-9 are matched together in very noob friendly games. Once you hit level ten, you’re thrown in with every other Tribes player imaginable. There are a lot of obviously stacked games where a team of level 30-somethings expertly run ski routes and defending their own flag, ending the game within a few minutes. There is no voice chat implemented yet, and no news on whether or not there ever will be, thus leaving friends to set up their own voip or mumble servers to verbally communicate. Fortunately there is another form of communication. Through a series of key commands, any player can emote pre-recorded sayings. For example, “VGCG” will announce a friendly “good game.” “VGY” makes you say “yes.” “VGN” has you say “no.” The ever popular “VGS” will be your most used voice command for the iconic “shazbot.” Through this chat system you can give commands or let your teammates know what you’re doing. If you’ve lined up a perfect ski route and are about to grab the flag at high speed, you can announce to your team that you’re heading to flag.

Tribes: Ascend is a game like no other. Traditional shooter fans may be bewildered by the constant movements and jetpacking through the air. Others will be able to find the change of pace refreshing. Tribes: Ascend isn’t perfect, and it’s certainly not for everyone. However, it is free, and everyone should give it a chance. After all, I recently hit level 11 and need some noobs to pwn. VGS VGS VGS.

This review is based on a retail copy of Tribes Ascend which is free-to-play. It is a PC exclusive.

The Microsoft Store has quite a few Xbox 360 and PC games on sale. Check out some of the games below.

Click here for this deal

• Mass Effect 3 for Xbox 360 – $35.99
• Kingdoms Of Amalur Reckoning for Xbox 360 – $44.99
• Street Fighter X Tekken for Xbox 360 – $44.99
• SSX for Xbox 360 – $39.99
• World of Warcraft: Cataclysm PC Game – $15.99
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 PC Game – $35.99
• Call of Duty: Black Ops PC Game – $25.99
• The Biggest Loser Ultimate Workout Xbox 360 Game for Kinect – $13.99
• Zumba Fitness Rush Xbox 360 Game for Kinect – $35.99
• Zumba Fitness: Join the Party Xbox 360 Game for Kinect – $32.99
• Twister Mania Xbox 360 Game for Kinect – $9.99
• de Blob 2 for Xbox 360 – $10.99

New Today

 Oh So Fine Bundle for $9.99

The Oh So Fine Bundle, consisting of  three of Double Fine’s greatest games: Psychonauts, Costume Quest and Stacking, is on sale for $9.99 on Amazon. They’re usually $9.99 each, so it’s a great way to get caught up on Tim Schafer’s recent games for a great price. You can either download the games directly from Amazon or enter the product code into Steam to play them that way.

Ninja Gaiden 3 for $39.99

Wield the Dragon Sword once again in Ninja Gaiden 3, on sale for $39.99 on Amazon. You know you’ve missed rampaging around town as Hayabusa.

PS Vita with a free copy of Mortal Kombat and 4GB Memory Card for $249.99

Upgrade your handheld gaming experience with the PS Vita and receive a free awesome game and a memory card in the process. Mortal Kombat will provide hours of gory multiplayer entertainment and the 4GB memory card will keep you afloat until the 32GB goes on sale for a reasonable price. You can’t argue with $60 worth of free stuff!

Pre-Orders of Note

Diablo III

We’ve all been waiting 12 years for this moment and it’s finally here. Diablo III. On May 15, we will all lock ourselves in and lose our souls to this incredible game. Amazon is offering release date shipping, so don’t be afraid to order it online!

Max Payne 3

Not into repeatedly clicking your mouse into oblivion? Or do you prefer to keep your soul? Don’t worry! Max Payne 3 is an incredible alternative for you! Releasing on May 15 as well, Max Payne 3 boasts incredible and realistic graphics and animation as well as bullet-time-riddled multiplayer. Rockstar Games has never let anyone down and they’re not about to start. Pre-order it from Amazon and they’ll kick you out with a $10 credit towards a future video game purchase as well as access to the Deadly Force Burst, which gives your bullets that little bit of extra “ow.”

Call of Duty: Black Ops II

The dust has finally settled around Activision’s latest Call of Duty installment: Black Ops II. Have you seen the x-ray sniper rifles?! Pre-order it from Amazon and get an exclusive awesome wallpaper to rep your Call of Duty pride.

Ongoing Deals

Buy 2 Get 1 Free Value Bundle for $30

Walmart is still offering three games for the price of two on select games. I’d go with Batman: Arkham Asylum, Soul Calibur IV and Grand Theft Auto IV, myself. Check out the full list at Walmart.

Xbox Live cards for $14.41 or $48.41

Xbox Live about to expire or–don’t say it–already expired?! It’s okay because Amazon has them on sale for $14.41 for 3 months (you save $10.03) or, if you’re in it for the long haul, $48.41 for 12 months (you save $11.48).

Mother’s Day is on Sunday!

Did you forget?! It’s cool–Amazon’s got your back. Pick up a Kindle for her, starting as low as $79. Plus, Amazon is offering an extra 30% off of select covers when you purchase either a Kindle or a Kindle Fire!

UFC 3 is by far the most immersive game of the series and for the price of a single UFC pay-per-view event you can experience dozens of unique events. This iteration of the game takes the level of detail of career mode and the fights to a new level. The game is packed full of fight clips and fighter interviews that accompany your fighter’s rise through the ranks and even their stumbles along the way. 

The expanded roster this year features more than 150 fighters from UFC and Pride. The addition of Pride mode is the killer feature of this game. The ability to take some of your favorite UFC fighters and throw them into the world of seemly no-holds-barred world of Pride adds a new layer of fun to this already solid fighting game.

Much like the level of detail that went into crafting the presentation of UFC events in the game; the designers captured every detail of the world of Pride fighting, starting with the absurdly long fighter entrance sequences that are events unto themselves. While you can skip these entrances, you should watch them at least once for the experience, plus there is an achievement for keeping your finger off the skip button. The ability to soccer kick a kneeling opponent squarely in the face is terrifying reminder of the very loose rule book used in Pride.

This year’s installment of UFC makes a number changes from the first two to make it more accessible to fighting game fans of all skill levels. The first two games used a series of intricate stick movements to accomplish standing and ground transitions to help your fighter achieve the dominant position. This time around the team at Yukes included a simplified control mode that allows players to simply push up or down on the right stick to achieve these same goals. While this isn’t as efficient as the more complicated control system, it does allow novice players to jump into the game and learn as they go along.

Another nod to the more novice players is the ability to set distribution of stat points earned in training sessions between bouts to autopilot. While more advanced players will surely want to micromanage their custom fighter’s every aspect, this option allows new players to focus squarely on mastering the fighting system and leave the number crunching to the computer.

In my opinion the only step back that the game takes while trying to cater to a wider audience is the new submission system. In a game that took many strides forward in immersing players in the world and building an atmosphere that made me feel like I was watching an actual UFC pay-per-view event at times, having a mini game popup on the screen every time I attempt to end the fight with a tap out. In previous installments players had to be not only cautious of their opponent’s submission abilities as well as their own submission defense, but also had to watch their stamina to ensure that they had enough gas in the tank to fight off an submission attempt should they find themselves in that position. Now submissions, one of the key parts of MMA fighting, have been reduced to an octagon icon that pops up on the screen with two snake-like lines chasing each other. To escape the submission, the defending player must try to avoid allowing  their snake to be overlapped by the attacking fighter’s snake for too long.

My only other complaint about this very polished MMA game is the shallow pool of fight commentator dialog. Given that a large percentage of your time will be spent in the ring working your way towards the hall of fame, I wish commentators didn’t already begin to feel repetitive before I even completed my first play through of career mode.

The game offers a number of other fighting modes outside of career mode, such as tournaments, online fight clubs, a replay editor and Ultimate Fights mode. The most notable of these is the fight clubs, which allow you to train with friends online to help hone your skills and learn tougher to master skills that the computer sometimes has difficulty demonstrating during in-game fight clinics.

Overall, UFC 3 is a good fighting game for any fan of the genre and is the best MMA game on the market. While the misstep with the submission system is unfortunate, the level of detail in the career mode really puts this game over the top.

This review is based on a retail copy of the Xbox 360 version provided by THQ. It is also available for the PS3.

For a limited time, buy a PlayStation Vita Wi-Fi system from Amazon and receive a copy of Mortal Kombat and a 4GB Memory Card. That is $60 of free stuff, and Mortal Kombat is supposed to be a delight. You will eventually need more than 4GB of space, but it certainly doesn’t hurt.

Click here for this deal.

One of the great things about Boston is it’s burgeoning independent games scene. You just have to attend one of the monthly Boston Indies meetings to see just what a thriving community there is, and it is always great to see amazing  titles come from what can truly be called a game town. Each year at PAX East, a section of the exhibit hall is dedicated to the Boston Indies showcase, and at this PAX East, the belle of the ball was Girls Like Robots from Popcannibal.

The first thing that you notice about Girls Like Robots is its immense charm. All of the art has a hand painted quality to it, and it lends the title a level of polish that one often does not get when looking at an indie title. The first words that come to mind are cute and charming. The next thing that inevitably draws you to the title is the soundtrack. All of the music is provided by the Peacemeal String Band, and they grace the game with some really incredible old time folk music. The music is great, but it especially stands out because old time folk music is not a genre a gamer would expect to find in a game.

But how does the game play? Girls Like Robots is a romance-slash-adventure-slash-puzzle game. That’s right, romance/adventure/puzzle game. That’s based around the art of seating arrangements. On paper, this does not sound like what a normal human being would consider fun. I mean, I’m fairly sure that were I to recommend a seating arrangement game to someone who’s just finished planning a wedding, they would tell me where I could go stick said game. (That place would be a bodily orifice). However, in practice, the game is quite fun, and has a certain je ne sais quoi about it which will keep players coming back.

The game starts with a fun tutorial that teaches the basic tenet of the game, the fact that girls, do indeed, like robots. You have a girl in a position? Well, what you do is put a robot next to her, and she will be as pleased as punch. Now, place a nerd next to her? She’s not as happy. The game continues and introduces additional characters such as “tennis thugs” and ladybugs just to name a few. The independent game space in Boston, as I’ve said before, is one that is quite crowded and has produced many great titles. It’s a scene that is incredibly difficult to break out of, Girls Like Robots, is one title that stands out from the crowd.

The the thing about games from independent studios is that most of them look like indie games. That’s not a bad thing, with budgets for AAA titles reaching in excess of ten million dollars, you can’t expect a few guys with laptops to match that level of production, and that’s the thing about Girls Like Robots. It has a level of polish that you would not expect from a small team. It fights above its class. That’s why it’s probably the puzzle game to watch for this year.

Girls Like Robots is due this summer on iOS, Android and PC.

“Salvation can not come from one hero alone”.

The Elder Scrolls Online Announcement trailer doesn’t tell us a whole lot. There is no gameplay to speak of. What we do get is the rationalization behind going from what has always been a single player game to a massively multiplayer game. Enemies are all around, and the only way to win through is to join with your fellow heroes.

Bethesda has revealed that an MMO set in The Elder Scrolls universe is in production. It will be available on both Mac and PC and the development is being helmed by industry veteran Matt Firor.

“We have been working hard to create an online world in which players will be able to experience the epic Elder Scrolls universe with their friends, something fans have long said they wanted,” said Matt Firor, game director of The Elder Scrolls Online. “It will be extremely rewarding finally to unveil what we have been developing the last several years. The entire team is committed to creating the best MMO ever made – and one that is worthy of The Elder Scrolls franchise.”

We will learn more about The Elder Scrolls Online in the June edition of Game Informer, which ships to subscribers and newsstands later this month.

You’re probably like me, extremely good looking, beating off suitors with a stick, and have no idea what the hell StarDrone Extreme is. This is not good, your otherwise perfect display of human perfection is being tarnished by this fact. It’s ok though, I’m here to help. 

StarDrone Extreme is my latest addiction. It is a new PS Vita downloadable title that combines a little bit from pinball, Peggle, and Pixel Junk Eden into one hodgepodge of a game. At its core it is a puzzle game. Each level has you traversing space to collect stars or pieces of a star. Doing this as quickly as possible is the point (and without dying is where the puzzleness comes from).

Flying from star to star would be no issue if you could just move like every other 2D space flight game, but thats not the case here. StarDrone is most unique in its traversal of each level. At the start of each level you launch yourself using the touch screen in a direction. Throughout each level there are grab points which allow you to lasso on  and spin around or change direction. You catch and release to throw yourself around the level. Everything is touchscreen based, you touch near a catch point to connect to it. Thankfully, you don’t have to be extremely precise, allowing you to place your finger near it without blocking your view.

Catching and releasing at the proper time is key to being successful as the levels are littered with things intended to kill you or shoot you in new directions. You can be killed fairly quickly by spikes and attack drones, but if you collect enough stars fast enough you can hit back. Most of the levels also contain slides and boosts pads. The slides propel you down them in which ever direction you hit them at. The boost pads on the other hand will propel you in a linear direction. Figuring out how to position yourself to launch you into a new area is really rewarding and fun.

After playing through the first 20 or so levels, things did start to feel a little repetitive, but it’s fun, cheap, and something new for your PS Vita. If you’re into physics/skill-based puzzling, do yourself a favor and play this game.

This review is based on a retail copy of Star Drone Extreme provided by Beatshapers. It is a PS Vita exclusive.

Walmart is offering three Xbox 360 games for the price of two. Choose from the games listed below.

Click here to get this deal

• Warhammer 40k: Space Marine
• Batman: Arkham Asylum – Game of the Year Edition
• Driver: San Francisco
• Plants Vs. Zombies (With Peggle And Zuma)
• Alpha Protocol
• De Blob 2
• Blue Dragon
• Call of Duty 3
• Crackdown
• Dead Rising
• Dreamcast Collection
• Duke Nukem Forever
• EA Sports MMA
• Grand Theft Auto IV
• Iron Man 2
• Kinect Deepak Chopra Leela
• Kinect Game Party: In Motion
• Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4
• Lost Planet 2
• MindJack
• Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
• Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing
• Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection

ThriftyNerd.com is looking for a writer, preferably on the West Coast, to cover video game news and events as well as write reviews for games and hardware. You should live and breathe games, be an excellent writer and be comfortable interviewing developers or appearing on a podcast.
Desired Qualifications:
- Know what is happening in the video game world, beyond what games are releasing that week
- Ability to write a compelling news story
- Ability to write critical and fair game reviews and to clearly express your experience with the game
- Self-starter who always meets deadlines
- Basic image editing skills
- Sense of humor
Email the following info to jobs@thriftynerd.com:
1. Links to previous writing samples. If you don’t have any writing samples, you will need to write up two or three example news stories.

2. What websites do you currently read? Do you listen to podcasts? Which ones and why?

3. What games are you playing right now? What is your favorite game that you have played in the last year?

4. What platforms do you own? PC, Xbox 360, iOS, etc.

5. What else do you think we should know about you?

Compensation
- Chance to cover E3 2012
- Possible trips video game press junkets
- Review copies of video games.

Get out your stone washed jeans and ask Guy Fieri if you can borrow his sunglasses–Serious Sam is back. Serious Sam BFE seems like it was cryogenically frozen in the early 90s and has just been thawed out. The Serious Engine 3.5 does give it a new coat of paint, but doesn’t do anything to help the aesthetics of the game. 

Very little has changed with the Serious Sam gameplay. Modern ideas like regenerating health and eye-popping set pieces are shunned in favor of health packs and seemingly endless waves of enemies. Thousands and thousands of them. There is something satisfying about mowing down mountains of aliens and squeaking by on your last little bit of health. The throwback gameplay is the most successful aspect of BFE. It’s refreshing and bit nostalgic to need the kind of concentration it takes to make it through a level alive, but that feeling wore out very quickly for me.

The weapons haven’t changed much either. The familiar shotgun, rocket launcher and minigun are all here. There is an assault rifle with a scope though, so that is new! Sam can also do a one hit melee kill, replete with brutal animation. With the number of enemies you need to get through though, it ends up being more efficient to just fill the baddies with lead.

Were the testosterone-fueled and hyper-macho one-liners your favorite part of the Serious Sam of yore? Well you are in luck, because they are certainly back! I’m assuming Sam’s IQ-withering quips are meant to be campy, but they are just the worst. The best thing I can say about the dialogue is that it doesn’t stray into the realm of Duke Nukem hate speech.

Serious Sam BFE boasts a number of multiplayer modes. You will find your standard Death Match, but there is also a Survival Mode which will challenge you and your teammates to survive as long as possible against wave after wave of enemies. You can even take on the campaign levels with up to sixteen of your friends.

Serious Sam BFE has been out for a while now, and plenty of people absolutely adore it. I get it! Serious Sam BFE sets out to recreate an old school shooter, and it does it swimmingly. You will need all of your hardcore skills to make your way through to the end, and that can be all the reward you need. Maybe you just miss backpedaling while blowing up dozens of screaming headless kamikaze troopers. If that is the case, this game will delight you. Personally, I found it to be a grueling slog. Maybe Sam’s douchebaggery soured me from the beginning, but I’m happy to leave these kinds of shooters back in the 90s.

This review is based on a retail copy of Serious Sam BFE provided by Croteam Ltd. It is a PC exclusive. 

Light and unobtrusive are the hallmarks of Plantronics’ latest Bluetooth stereo headphones. The BackBeat GO’s, which weigh in at just under half an ounce, are a great wireless solution for people looking for a stereo Bluetooth headphone setup paired with an in-line microphone.

The headphones’ key feature is that they are merely two ear buds with a small wire attaching them. Within the two ear buds is enough power to keep them running for four hours of use and a micro USB cable for charging. The inconspicuous wire, neatly hides behind the user’s neck while in use, also contains an in-line microphone that has basic phone and music controls.

The set features Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR and A2DP for streaming from all of your smartphones and tablets as well as an AC charger, three sizes of eartips to ensure the proper fit and a pair of clip-on stabilizer for those looking for a more snug fit.

While the headphones lack the bass found in your standard corded headphones, the comfort and unobtrusive design more than make up for that single shortcoming. I wouldn’t recommend these headphones for an audiophile or someone focused solely on music, but for a busy commuter or person constantly on the go with the desire to quickly flip between tunes and talking, these are perfect.

When paired with an iOS device the headphones display a battery gauge next to the standard Bluetooth icon, while when used with the Plantronics app running on an Android 3 or 4 device they feature one-touch syncing and the battery display.

Where these buds really shine is allowing you to perform any number of tasks that would typically end up with a set of corded stereo headphones snagging on whatever you are working on and getting ripped from your ear; trust me, not a fun experience. The ability to work without the constant fear of yanking an ear off, while being able to effortlessly switch between the music or podcast you they are listening adds piece of mind. I know that stereo Bluetooth headphones are nothing new, but the this design that sheds the typical heavy battery pack that rests on the neck or behind the head is a major step forward.

The long battery life and light design allows you to quickly forget that you are using a cordless product and instead focus on the task at hand. Using these headphones I was able to do a quick network cable run for the bedroom that my wife had been after me to do for some time; without once accidentally kneeling on the cable while crawling through the attic, plus I was to quickly take a phone call from a client while in the darkened crawlspace.

Overall I would recommend that anyone looking for a simple stereo Bluetooth headset for their iOS or Android device look no further that the BackBeat GOs. They filled all the needs I had been looking for in a wireless headset with microphone. They current MSRP for the headset is $99.99, right on par with their comparable counterparts.

*Review based on hardware provided by Plantronics.

The Runic Games team is inching ever closer to the release of Torchlight 2 with the announcement that they are now accepting pre-orders for their highly anticipated sequel.

You can currently pre-order Torchlight 2 from Perfect World Entertainment or Steam for $19.99, with the later netting you a free copy of the first game. There is also a $60 4-pack bundle available on Steam that basically gives you a free copy so you can crawl the dungeons with your friends.

The Darksiders 2 team has launched a new line of equally cute, yet disconcerting Xbox Live avatar costumes, props and pets to help add a touch of death to your digital you. The items, which are currently available on the Xbox Marketplace, range in price from 80 to 400 Microsoft Points ($1 to 5.)

In honor of their arrival on the Xbox Marketplace, THQ is giving away a limited number of male and female T-shirts for your avatar designed by Joe Madureira. All you have to do to claim your free gear is head over to their Facebook page and click on the like button to grab a code while they last.

It is not often that someone recognizes my Herculean skills as soon as I press start in a video game, but Retro/Grade chose to honor me. As you start out you kill the final boss of a space invasion to save the earth. Credits roll as this mighty beast falls before you and a temporal anomaly in space and time opens. Before you can say “celebratory parade” you are forced to “replay” your victorious conquest in reverse. I am a spaceship artist so this challenge did not phase me. 

When you first see Retro/Grade you assume it is a standard shoot-em-up but then you notice that bullets are coming from both directions of the screen and the ship is purposely connecting with half of them. Then, more importantly, you notice the game is being played with a guitar. It is a truly unique game and it justifies the plastic toys that you have scattered about your living room.

Since your piloting skills were almost too good in defeating the invading enemy you are now tasked with reliving all of your previous battles, only this time your goal is to keep the space-time continuum intact. Travelling backwards through time means that you need to avoid paradoxes by ensuring that you pilot your ship in the path of your previously fired shots. They come down lanes just like in Rock Band or Guitar Hero so you should feel at home if you already own a guitar for either of those games. To further complicate things you must ensure that enemy shots that missed you in the past reach the enemy ships that fired them in your new reverse-present.

If you miss too many of your shots or you get hit by enemy shots you thankfully are able to wham (?) on the whammy bar to make time go forward again giving you a second chance. Retro/Grade starts off easy, think the beginning songs in Rock Band, then adds more complex shot patterns and additional mechanics. Eventually, you will be able to unfire missiles or energy beams. Again, the presentation is stunning.

It is hard to describe, but Retro/Grade plays amazingly well. The soundtrack is heavy on the electronica but you are also building it as you collect your previously fired shots or avoid the enemy’s past-attacks. The whole thing simply works on several levels. Be sure to check it out when it comes out on PSN sometime in our forward moving future.

The indie game market has seen a splurge of content in the past few years. Where they were once restricted to malware riddled flash sites, they are now a force to be reckoned with. Between Steam, Xbox Live Arcade, the Playstation Network and Wii/DSiWare, the one time flash game makers are now major figures in the video game industry. The Behemoth (Alien Hominid, Castle Crashers) is at the top of the indie developers’ mountain. What started as an account on Newgrounds.com has surged into some of the most iconic game moments the past ten years, and we’re here to tell you what’s coming next. 

Castle Crashers took four years to develop and release, and even then it had some problems, yet it still remains one of the best co-op beat-em-up games available. The Behemoth’s newest title, Battleblock Theater, looks to be taking the same pace, and if what we saw is any indication, it will be just as fun.

After being betrayed and captured by some cat overlords, your character must navigate his way through a two dimensional puzzle word at the behest of your new feline fuhrers. The stages are composed of blocks of different matter. Blocks of lava will propel you through the air. Blocks of water will drown you instantly. Cloud like blocks can be jumped through, allowing movement from underneath and above. These puzzle worlds set up by the cats are meticulously designed to kill you at the slightest false movement. Players must jump, double jump, climb and fight their way through enemies, traps and constantly shifting blocks towards the exit of the stage, always hopeful of getting closer to their freedom.

The single player campaign is enjoyable in its own regard. It will put you to the test as you act as a marionette for your tyrannical wardens. However, the co-op campaign is where the game will truly shine. Up to four players can play locally, yet we only got to see two. Co-op is absolutely necessary to reach higher platforms or cross light blocks that are activated by switches. The griefing  vs. cooperation is balanced with quick respawns and puzzles designed for two. This way, you can still push your buddy into a pit of acid and not feel too bad about it. Hopefully, he’ll be a good sport and wait until the next trap to try to kill you. There’s no real benefit for griefing your partner other than it is hilarious. (Note: I’m a terrible co-op partner)

The game currently doesn’t have a release date. The Behemoth is only composed of roughly twenty people who all happen to be perfectionists. Their limited numbers mean that creating something as large as Battleblock Theater, which is claimed to have hundreds of levels, can take some time. BBT looks to be another must have title for XBLA whenever it does launch.

By: Michael Dao

Watching the game industry for the past few years, there is one thing that is glaringly evident, and that is the fact that the face of free to play titles is changing quite rapidly. Free to play used to mean a shoddily built game with paywalls and content locks to ensure that people who were only playing the game did not get to see all of the content available or were put at a severe disadvantage to customers that did pay. Times, they have changed. The first wave started with traditional MMORPGs, with titles such as Dungeons and Dragons Online, and Lord of the Rings going from a subscription based model to a free to play model. Soon followed other genres. Tribes: Ascend and Firefall are two first person shooters that no one can deny are both AAA titles, and they are both free to play. Now, we are currently looking at the trend reversing itself, and bringing us the next generation of MMORPGs, which feature two distinct characteristics, the first being that it’s free to play and the second being that they are, for the lack of a better term, action MMORPGs.

The action MMORPG is a direct result of what some would call the stagnation of the MMO market. Gamers complained that the basic gameplay has remained unchanged, the player controlled a character than roamed their environment, hit tab to select a mob and then simply spammed a few keys with abilities until their target perished. It’s repetitive gameplay like this which is one of the reasons why hotly anticipated MMORPGs such as Star Wars: The Old Republic has had the number of active subscribers atrophy from launch.  It’s the advent of the action MMORPG that seeks to breathe some fresh new life into stale gameplay.

The question to be asked is, “What is an action MMORPG?” At this time, the best way to describe one is to define it as a massively multiplayer game that takes place in a persistent world, that is action based. The player controls every action and movement of his or her character, and there is no such thing as an auto attack or auto targeting. Attacks land because the player closed with an enemy and performs an attack, and in the same vein, the player dodges and avoids damage by actually moving his or her avatar out of the way of incoming attacks. This style of gameplay could possibly be a double edged sword. The question to ask is if this will either bring in a new generation of MMORPGers who considered tab targeting and auto attacking boring, or if it will alienate current MMORPG die-hards. Neverwinter, the next title from Perfect World and Cryptic Entertainment attempts to appeal to both crowds.

It’s a tough thing trying to live up to the Neverwinter name. It’s a franchise with a rich history in computer gaming, including one of the first MMORPGs, the original Neverwinter Nights, which happened to be my first MMO. The setting for the game stays true to the lore, taking place a bit in the future, after an event called the Spellplague. It was a cataclysmic event of sorts, and the city of Neverwinter seemed to escape its ravages intact, only 25 years ago, a volcano erupted nearby causing damage to the area. Now, with much rebuilt, the current Lord has put a call out for adventurers to assist, and this is where the player comes in.

Included in the game is a character creator that Cryptic promises will live up to their name,  and some assurances were made, as all developers that make free to play games are wont to do. Free to play, not pay to win is a term often bandied about. Although Cryptic is being mum about the revenue model they are pursuing with Neverwinter, they have given assurances that someone that is interesting in experiencing the game will be able to do so without paying, that there will be no content blocks based on whether a player is a paying member or not. This is all well and good, but how does the game play? Fairly excitingly, it looks like. The demo took place with a caster type class, specializing in ranged combat and at her disposal were some ranged spells and other timed abilities. What was especially impressive was what would be called her daily power, which ripped all of the weapons out of the hands of the enemies in the area towards the caster, surrounding her, only to shoot out again, in an explosive blast, doing massive damage to everything nearby.

The environments through which we travelled looked great, and were what we can call “themed”. The area we saw, the Tower District, was overrun by orcs and could be quite aptly described as dilapidated and war torn. This game shows exactly what a fan would expect from The Forgotten Reams setting, and makes the player truly want to be one of the many adventurers vying to bring glory back to Neverwinter.

However, the most interesting feature which will truly set this game apart is what Cryptic is calling The Foundry, and from it’s name, you can probably guess its purpose. This free to play MMO is offering user generated content, something that has been a hallmark of Neverwinter games of old. Details are slim, but Cryptic is looking to implement sort of a content hub, which will allow players to both access and differentiate content and dungeons from Cryptic and those that are generated from the community. It is expected that this will take shape in a similar manner to Star Trek: Online  which already has a good amount of user generated content, that is both peer-rated and peer-reviewed. This could create an amazing platform for people to create and share their adventures.

Neverwinter is at the very least incredibly ambitious. Making an action RPG in the MMO space set in a cherished and legendary setting will get many fans interested in the game. The game looks great, and the gameplay is fresh. The ability to experience user generated content may be what shakes up this genre, and will be a feature eagerly anticipated by content designers and content consumers both.

Neverwinter is scheduled for release Q4 2012.

Hit the link to see what GameStop has on sale for PC Downloads. Batman: Arkham City for $14.99 seems like a pretty darn good deal to me!

Click here to get this deal.

After an absence of almost 10 years, Max Payne is back. Remedy is no longer working on the series, but they have been part of the creative process, and they are onboard with the new direction for Max. The company that is developing Max Payne is Rockstar Games. The development duties have been spread across all of Rockstar’s various teams, so much so that they have adopted a new moniker for the entire group – Rockstar Studios. 

Max Payne’s noire story makes perfect sense for Rockstar. They have more than proven they can tackle the genre with games like LA Noire. If anything, Rockstar’s ability to tell a story should help to bring the series to new heights. The new Max is older, and completely world-weary. I won’t spoil his back story for you, in case you want to go back and play the earlier games, but it is safe to say his life has not gone as planned. The story begins with Max in a Hoboken bar where he has been trying to crawl into a bottle – a shell of his former self.

Things end up going even worse for Max, and he has to get out of town if he wants to stay alive. He ends up taking a job to protect a family in São Paulo. The wife gets kidnapped, which is a common occurrence in São Paulo and Max needs to get her back. Everything about Max Payne 3 is gritty. James McCaffrey is back to play Max, and lends plenty of gravel to the voice. Rockstar’s RAGE engine, which is typically used for open-world games is able to focus on much smaller areas in Max Payne 3, which allows the environments to echo the gritty feel of the story line.

The gunplay feels much better than in previous Rockstar games, which is a good thing since Max tends to express himself through firearms. “Bullet-time” – which was made famous by Max – is back of course. Even in multiplayer! I will need more time with it before I can properly judge, but it seems like Rockstar has come up with a novel way to implement bullet-time without breaking the entire multiplayer match. Basically, if you are making eye contact with another player, then their world will be slowed down as well as yours. They can turn to be released from the effect, but by then, it might be too late.

The biggest impression that I had with my hands-on time with Max was how cinematic it ended up feeling. Staying in cover just doesn’t cut it. You need to keep Max moving, or you will be dead. I could even feel myself being enticed to pull off more stylish maneuvers just because they looked cool, even if it wasn’t the most direct or even the smartest way to take care of a situation. Max Payne will be shoot-dodging his way onto consoles on May 15, 2012 and PC on May 29.

After a haboob of massive proportions, Dubai rests in sandy ruins. A small squad of Delta Operatives, led by Captain Martin Walker, are sent to search for survivors after receiving a distress signal. Turns out the signal is a hoax. Dubai is in bad shape, it’s true, but the signal is being broadcasted by a group of rebels and army deserters. Walker needs to find out what happened to a CIA operative named Konrad. In short, it’s Heart of Darkness, but with lot more guns, explosions, and the occasional wub wub. The most impressive part of The Line is the setting of a haboobed Dubai (that’s mostly because I like typing haboob). 

Spec Ops: The Line is a third person cover based shooter from Yager Development and 2K Games. The squad hits Dubai, navigating their way through a maze of abandoned cars. After coming across a dead soldier and MacGyver’d radio tower, some rebels get the drop on you and your squad. With yourself exposed, your squad attempts to talk down the rebels. They’re not having it. Noticing a bus full of sand (it was a really big haboob) behind the rebels, you take a few shots at the windows and unleash the wave of sand on them. This gives you enough time to hop into cover where the rest of the skirmish plays out like any other third person shooter. Poking your head out of cover occasionally while constantly flanking your opponents. Once the brief firefight has ended, you continue your way through the maze of vehicles. The squad turns a corner and becomes pinned down by a turret. This is where Spec Ops: The Line‘s squad commands come into play. By selecting an enemy, you can command your squad-mates to take out high priority targets. Along with taking out individual targets, you can also issue commands for flash bangs, reviving fallen team members and other equipment that hasn’t been shown yet.

Walker’s controls are a bit clumsy. Hopping over cover, and switching from post to post becomes slightly awkward due to a non-standard control scheme. There’s no option for maneuvering along angles of cover, forcing players to stand straight up and move to the other side manually. Shooting isn’t about ultra precision, which works well since only a couple bullets are needed to drop foes. Destructible environments are in the game, but so far they only appear to be set pieces rather than a natural part of the world. Squad tactics and commands appear to be essential to survival since most snipers and heavy gun wielders will target Walker first. That, and your squad-mates can soak up a lot of bullets before being knocked down.

The destroyed Dubai is beautiful. The enormous skyscrapers are always visible, and there’s a nice contrast of a blue sky to the perpetual brown of sand. There’s sand literally everywhere. Wind effects look spectacular as small clouds of sand sift through the air. Overall, The Line looks well made and polished with some interesting story beats. Whether it or it’s unseen multiplayer will pan out has yet to be determined.  Spec Ops: The Line is set to release June 26, 2012 on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

Amazon’s Lightning Deals are back for another day of video game sales. The best deal of all might just be the Goldbox though. Mass Effect 3 has been marked all the way down to $29.99! Today’s deals appear to be very Playstation Move heavy with some fighting games and sticks thrown in for flavor.

Click here to get these deals.

• 6:00 AM PDT – Clue: This wireless gaming headset is powered by state-of-the-art 2.4/5Ghz Dual Band WiFi radio technology that virtually eliminates wireless interference
• Guess: Ear Force X32 Headset
• 8:00 AM PDT – Clue: PlayStation Eye
• Guess: PlayStation Eye
• 9:00 AM PDT – Clue: Get your PlayStation 3 system moving!
• Guess: PlayStation Move Controller
• 10:00 AM PDT – Clue: PlayStation Move Navigation Controller
• Guess: PlayStation Move Navigation Controller
• 11:00 AM PDT – Clue: This attachment is perfect for arcade style shooting games.
• Guess: PlayStation Move Sharp Shooter
• 12:00 PM PDT – Clue: SNK’s flagship fighting game for the PS3!
• Guess: The King of Fighters XIII
• 2:00 PM PDT – Clue: Catch “Lightning” with this deal
• Guess: Final Fantasy XIII-2 or Final Fantasy XIII
• 5:00 PM PDT – Clue: Created to appeal to the serious fighting game enthusiast, a FightStick that is made to bring the arcade experience closer to home
• Guess: Street Fighter X Tekken FightStick Cross/Line
• 8:00 PM PDT – Clue: Set sail for a LEGO adventure on your Nintendo DS.
• Guess: Disney Lego Pirates of the Carribbean

If you aren’t familiar with 1C, they are a Russian company that publishes really interesting games from Eastern Europe. If you are looking for something a little different, then you could do much worse.

This week on Amazon, not only are 1C games on sale for $5 each, but when you purchase, you will get a $5 voucher to purchase a second 1C game. There are 73 games to choose from, but personally I’ve been meaning to check out Cryostasis, and King’s Bounty: Platinum Edition looks quite interesting as well!

Click here to see the entire list.

Maybe it was the art style seemingly lifted straight from the “I Spy” books of my childhood that initially pulled me in to the world of The Splatters, but it was the simple addictive gameplay that kept me playing. 

The Splatters is a fresh new Xbox Live Arcade game that uses the ritual suicide of goo monsters to dispose of bombs left haphazardly around what seems like a child’s room. I have only seen Hurt Locker once but I think that is what they are going for. You launch these goo monsters on top of the bombs, and then the bombs can safely explode without harming any kids. I should mention that there are no children in this game and they didn’t specifically say that the goo people were bomb diffusers or suicidal, but this is my interpretation of The Splatters’ tableau.

The challenge comes in when the goos have to jump extremely far to eliminate the bombs using a set of special combo moves that will allow them to spread enough of their life essence to cover all the scattered bombs. Initially you only have one or two special combo moves but as you progress you unlock additional powers that you can use on previous levels to get even higher scores. The special combo powers range from being able to launch your goo monster again while in the air, the ability to reverse you current momentum, or even ride a slide! Mastery of all these powers is critical to achieve both your bomb diffusing goals and your high score desires. It should be mentioned that text does not do the game justice.

Just like many casual games today, you are attempting to earn a high enough score to get a number of stars. I do not say casual in a pejorative way, but The Splatters seems to be trying to get some of that Angry Birds money on the XBLA. Continuing in its trend of borrowing from the casual market’s powerhouses, The Splatters uses Peggle’s congratulatory spirit. When you complete a level, loud swelling music plays over a plethora of fireworks as your score is tallied. It is effective every time and helps cement your feeling of accomplishment.

The Splatters is fun and with three modes, leaderboards and a replay feature called SplatterTV, there is plenty of content. Unfortunately, I did eventually get bored with it. The Splatters fails to expand its initial creativity to new areas, choosing instead to tweak its previous gameplay concepts. The starter mode is a straightforward score attack mode that earns you the additional powers mentioned above. Completing this unlocks two additional modes, Master Shot and Combo Nation. Both follow the same premise but tweak it in their own special ways. Master Shot makes you use a specific combo power while Combo Nation is all about maintaining a high combo streak. Both modes offer more of the same but if you like what The Splatters offers, more is good.

If you are in the market for a skill based puzzle game that does not take itself too seriously then The Splatters may be just the thing you are looking for. Its puzzles are often mind bending without sacrificing precision gameplay. It eventually lost my interest, but I can see myself returning to earn higher scores. It’s a shame that so many goo monsters died in vain.

This review is based on a retail copy of The Splatters provided by SpikySnail Games. It is an XBLA exclusive. 

GameStop is running a bundle deal for the PS Vita. You get a free case and the game of your choice (from a very limited group of games).

This adds up to a $60 savings, and let’s face it, you are very likely going to need a case to avoid scratching the heck out of  your beautiful new piece of hardware. The three games you are choosing from aren’t horrible, thought I would avoid ModNation Racers. Wipeout 2048 and Hot Shots Golf are both very solid options.

New Today

Mass Effect 3 for $39.99

Mass Effect 3 is on sale at Amazon for $39.99, matching yesterday’s Best Buy deal. This is the conclusion to the beloved Mass Effect series made by the also beloved Bioware. There has been some disappointment over the ending, but Bioware is releasing a patch that should make people happier. If you have been a fan of the series, or good games in general, there is no way you can miss this one.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 for $45.98

Apparently Tiger is no longer PR poison, as he back on the cover of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13, which is on sale for $45.98. Get your swing in order with the only golf game worth its salt.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) for $7.99

The uber version one of our favorite movies, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is back on sale for $7.99. Watch Michael Cera play Scott Pilgrim as he takes on the  seven evil exes of the girl of his dreams.

Pre-Orders of Note

Diablo III for $50

Newegg is running a promotion for Diablo III which is launching on May 15 (of this year!). You will need to use code EMCNFJC22 to get this price. Sorry, this deal is only available for the regular version of the game, no collector’s editions.

Prototype 2 

Prototype 2 is launching on April 24, and which there isn’t much in the way of pre-order credits, there are still some incentives to buying early. If you order from Amazon, you will get and get upgraded to the Radnet Edition, as well as a Prototype 2 Digital Comic Book.

Max Payne 3

It is all but certain that Rockstar Games will once again own May. This year they have Max Payne 3, after getting my hands on it at Pax East, it looks like it will be another huge game. If you pre-order from Amazon, you will get the Deadly Force Burst, which provides higher damage bullets in multiplayer. Oh, and bullettime works in multiplayer. How crazy is that?

Ongoing Sales

Turtle Beach Ear Force X41 Wireless Headset for $119.99

You are probably saying something about $120 is a lot for a headset, but the top of the line Turtle Beach Ear Force X41 Wireless Headset is normally $200! This XBOX 360 headset features 7.1 channel Dolby surround sound, XBOX LIVE chat and a digital RF wireless connection for crystal-clear game audio. You deserve nice things.

Game of Thrones (the game) for $59.99

Order Game of Thrones and get the Game of Thrones: Visuals from the RPG art book that offers sixty-four full color pages of sketches, renders, photos, game developer commentary, and other rare materials. The hardbound 8.5″ by 11″ art book is printed on premium stock and is a true labor of love worthy of the series and its fans.

SteelSeries MMO Gaming Mouse for $73.99

I don’t even play WoW and I want this mouse! The SteelSeries World of Warcraft Cataclysm MMO Gaming Mouse is just plain cool-looking. Though I think it would be just as at home in Rapture as it is in Azeroth. Plus, you save $26!

The year is 2018. A meteor shower has struck earth. Aliens are in the meteors. Surprise! Around the main impact craters are large luminescent domes that have become known as the anomalies. It’s up to you to lead your platoon into these anomalies, find out what’s at the center, and in most cases blow it up. 

Anomaly Earth Warzone is a tower defense shooter in reverse. Rather than strategically placing gun turrets to ward off an incoming caravan, you play the caravan; strategically maneuvering around the well placed gun turrets. Well, not the caravan itself, but the platoon leader. You have free reign to run around the map to collect/deploy power-ups and draw fire from some of the more formidable turrets.

The setup for gameplay is simple, which lends itself well to the experience. Anomaly doesn’t have to be a high stress strategic nightmare for budding Pattons. It can be a relaxing tromp through destroyed cities while blowing the crap out of alien invaders. As the commander, it is up to you to plot the route for your caravan. Some streets have more turrets. Some turrets can be easily defeated if you attack from a certain direction. It all comes down to risk versus reward. If you destroy more turrets, you’ll gain more money for upgrades and new units. At the same time, you’ll take more damage which will deplete your power-ups.

There are four power-ups: repair, smoke, decoy and air-strike. Power-ups are single use items with varying areas of effect. The repair power-up, perhaps the fastest and smallest, raises the health of any vehicle within it’s area. If your caravan is within your smoke cloud, turrets will have a more difficult time targeting you. Decoys have the largest radius drawing enemy fire from nearly every visible turret. Air-strikes are quick support for larger groups or turrets or valuable targets.

Apart from the cookie cutter story and some atrocious voice acting, Anomaly Warzone Earth is presented well. The brightly lit alien turrets stand out well against the rubble and debris of the former cities. The caravan, though small, is detailed enough to differentiate a tank from an APC. The different cities, unfortunately, look very similar. Their only difference is that certain cities have a blue tint while others have red tints. There are fourteen total missions which become quite repetitive.

It’s hard to put a new spin on tower defense. “Blow everything up,” or “blow certain things up, but you can blow the other stuff up too if it’s on the way” are the only mission parameters for the fourteen missions. Enemy turrets are varied enough: small gun turrets, big gun turrets, turrets that slow you down an even turrets that hack your caravan. However, when it comes down to the nitty-gritty, you can use the same formation of three or four vehicles, repair them enough time and utilize your smoke screens and decoys well enough that you won’t have any trouble with the game. Anomaly Warzone Earth is fun for the campy story, ridiculous voice accents and European idioms. There just isn’t much variety to the game, but mass destruction rarely gets old.

This review is based on a retail copy of Anomaly Warzone Earth provided by 11 bit studios. It is also available for PC. 

The Thrifty Nerd podcast is back, and this week we have the ridiculously good fortune to be joined by special guest Chris Kluwe. If you aren’t familiar with Chris, he occasionally writes for Game Informer, is a regular guest on KFAN’s “Video Games Weekly” radio show, he is the bassist for Tripping Icarus, he makes excellent brownies, oh, and he is the punter for the freakin’ Minnesota Vikings!

The boys talk about PC gaming, Skyrim, table top gaming, going to Pax East and other various nerdy things.

Sleeping dogs has had a long and most likely painful history. You wouldn’t know it by playing the game though – it is gorgeous, controls well and feels polished.

Sleeping dogs started its life as a game called Black Lotus which had a female protagonist. It was changed to have a male protagonist because Activision bizarrely believed that a female lead wouldn’t work. It was then renamed to be part of the True Crime series and eventually dropped by Activision completely. Happily, the game (though not the True Crime IP) has since been picked up by Square Enix, and is now called Sleeping Dogs. With so much turmoil in its past, you would think that game has problems, if the parts that I played are at all representative of the whole, that is far from the truth. 

You play as a San Francisco cop, who comes back to Hong Kong to go undercover as a member of the historic gang, the Triads. United Front Games did more than a little research in preparing for Sleeping Dogs. They took 10,000 photos on their trips to Hong Kong so that they could capture the look and feel of the city. They also met with cops who deal with the real Triads, and even met with some of the gang members themselves.

When I got my hands on the game, the first thing that struck me was that the city really felt alive, and even crowded. The density of people, activity and organic nature of the buildings and shops lent a feeling of reality that other open world games have always failed to create. This feeling was multiplied even further when I hopped on a motorcycle and started weaving in and out of traffic. Getting around is one of the most important aspects of an open world, and United Front Games’ history with racing games shines through. Getting around on foot is fun as well, as there is a free running system as well.

Besides being an open world game, Sleeping Dogs is also a brawler. MMA fighter Georges St-Pierre was consulted during the creation of the fighting system, and it is appropriately brutal. Combos come naturally, and there are loads of nasty environmental take downs. In my short time with the game, I held an enemies’ head to a gas burner, pushed another onto a spinning circular saw and mangled a third’s face on a vent fan. The animations were absolutely over the top. Shooting feels good too. Time slows down as you vault out of cover to take down your enemies. Very cinematic!

It’s hard to properly judge an open world game when you have only spent a little time with it, but I am excited to get my hands on Sleeping Dogs when it comes out in North America on August 14 of this year. The combination of the exotic locale along with the interesting combat and racing look to set the bar for open world games.

Loadout is an upcoming Free-2-Play PC game from Edge of Reality. With a heavy emphasis on mayhem, and an absolute buttload of guns at your disposal, Loadout takes the arena shooter and amps it up. The cell shaded, cartoon-ish graphics gives Loadout the look of the lovechild between Borderlands and Team Fortress 2. I played a collection game where one lead player per team was collecting blue diamonds (bluetonium) and disposing them in their required drop spots. There are promises of other gametypes that run the typical gambit of shooters. CTF, King of the Hill and good ol’ deathmatch. 

Where Loadout differentiates itself is with the sheer customization of the weapons. You build your gun. From scratch. Different stocks, ammo types, trigger types, barrels, and sights. You can make a rapid firing guided rocket launcher with a sniper scope. It’s not very effective, but hilarious nonetheless. VP Mike Panoff says that there are a billion different guns to be made, and they’re working on the character customization as well.

The cartoon art style lends itself well to the experiences as fountains of blood pop out of a freshly stemmed neck, or the general popping of enemy combatants. With the outrageous weapons and sheer amounts of gore, blood, and explosions, Loadout looks to be capitalizing on pure chaos.

Though what we saw was rough, it is in beta after all, Loadout looks like a promising game for those who want to turn off their thinkers and just blow stuff up. Loadout plans to release a beta in the near future.

Randy Pitchford graciously invited us into his drop pod to view a new demo of Aliens: Colonial Marines. The demo goes throughout the first level, and has everything you could expect and want from an Aliens game. A gruff sargent barks orders at you as you make your way across a space “umbilical” cord, a tubed tunnel connecting your ship to the Sulaco (the marine ship from Aliens). A massive explosion from your destination sends bodies and shrapnel cascading into your glass tunnel. The cord seems stable and you progress to the Sulaco which, if you haven’t been paying attention, just had it’s ass kicked. 

The Sulaco, for the better part, has remained untouched since Ripley threw an alien queen from the airlock. Bishop’s lower torso is still on the floor. That was quite the crowd-pleaser. The marines need to collect the flight data of the ship, and find out what happened to the marine team that was sent in before them. Spoiler Alert: it was aliens. All that’s standing between them and the flight data is a massive nest of Xenomorphs. The atmosphere is thick (literally and figuratively) as you enter the nest area. The metallic walls of the Sulaco have been covered in the sticky Xenomorph excretion. Several dead marine bodies are webbed into the walls with the oh-so-familiar holes in their chests.

After prying a live soldier out of the webbing, you continue to forward with your new A.I. partner. Pitchford took the time to remind us that the entire campaign would have drop-in/drop-out co-op, and having a partner can be extremely beneficial. Obtaining the flight data is easier than it appears. A few brief skirmishes later, you and your newly freed buddy are headed back to the Sulaco’s hangar. The other marines have held themselves up behind a small barricade of supply boxes as they wait for the alien’s retaliation. You grab a smart gun (a large auto aiming hip mounted gun) just as the first wave arrives. Wave After wave of Xenmorphs rush the marines, but the smart gun makes quick work of them. It highlights and snaps to each alien, and brings them down quickly with a few of it’s large calibur rounds.

After a brief quiet moment, the marines head back into the umbilical to their own ship. That marine you cut out of the nest? He starts to feel a bit ill. You know what will happen. You know what does happen. As he realizes what happens he pulls out a grenade and decides to take his own life just as the chest-burster bursts. This means, the already fragile and damaged tube is torn in half, and your marine must climb up the wreckage as the vacuum of space attempts to pull him into the dark void. With the path to their own ship cut off, the small ragged marine platoon is stranded on the Sulaco. Game over man.

Hands on time with Multiplayer

We got the chance to sit down and be eviscerated by the Gearbox team in Colonial Marines‘ multiplayer mode. Team deathmatch was featured – pitting us, the marines, against the Gearbox devs, the aliens. Our team chose from three unlocked classes with the standard weapons: assault rifle, SMG or the satisfying shotgun. All the weapons were equally effective against the fast crawling xenomorphs, but the shotgun had a certain panache as its rounds tore into an alien at point blank range. Marines were a bit clunky, as you would expect a heavily armored person to be. The left bumper quickly brought up the iconic motion tracker with the familiar beeps of moving aliens. The motion tracker became essential as the Xenos began attacking from every direction. Bringing up the tracker limits your view, and prevents you from shooting, but is vital for survival.

We started alright. We did our best to stick together and take out as many Xenos as possible. For every two we took out, we only lost one. Their coordinated attacks made the Xenos seem to have limitless supplies and instant re-spawns. We were holding our own, until a mammoth of a Xenomorph tore through the room and our defensive circle. Special Xeno-types are treated like equipment. Alien teams can find and pick up powerups to more powerful forms just as a player would pick up a coveted rocket launcher or mega health.  When I asked if “face-huggers” were playable Xeno-types, I was answered with a grin and a “no comment.” Fingers crossed.

Getting the chance to watch the Gearbox team play as the dreaded Xenos was amazing. Just as the zombies in Left 4 Dead, Xenos are granted x-ray vision to easily spot their prey through walls. Their attacks are swift, and quick, but they are low on health. There does seem to be some awkwardness as players switch surfaces, but their movement is effective nonetheless.

The game looks polished, well presented, and feels great. Colonial Marines has decades of lore to pick from and a rabid fanbase that will eat up every moment of the experience. Colonial Marines still doesn’t have a release date. The best we can hope for is fall 2012, but after getting a chance to play it, I can say for sure that this is for real and isn’t just another bug hunt.

If you are reading this late review of Michael Jackson: The Experience, then you are either a pretty big fan of the King of Pop, or you want to read about how horrible this “game” is. If you are in the latter group, sorry, it isn’t bad. That being said, if you don’t at least have some fond memories of Michael Jackson, then there is nothing here for you. 

Naturally, Michael Jackson: The Experience is a rhythm game. It ignores all of the buttons on the Vita, and sticks to the more casual-friendly touch screen. You perform specific gestures that correlate to dance moves in time with the music. At its best, the swipes, taps and circles can feel almost like you are dancing with your fingers. These moments only happen occasionally, but are pretty great when they do. Most of the time, it feels like a standard rhythm game, and with the control scheme, I often found myself thinking that Michael Jackson: The Experience could easily be found on iOS, instead of being a $40 Vita game.

What the MJ Experience does really well is recognize its audience. The barriers to entry are kept at an absolute minimum. All of the songs are unlocked from the start, and the player isn’t bogged down with things like a story mode – they can jump right in. There is no failure state. If you are having a hard time, the worst thing that will happen is that your score won’t be very high. There is even a mode that will let you watch a song and the MJ Experience version of a music video without having to interact in any way. Fun!

If you are up for a challenge, there are higher levels of difficulty to take on. The gestures start requiring more dexterity. For instance, you might be required to use two fingers to complete a maneuver. You are awarded extra points for timing your moves perfectly, and you will receive score multipliers for not missing anything. Each song also has a “freestyle” mode, where Jacko can perform any move you like, including some special signature dance moves. You can tilt the Vita to make him spin, or move your finger along the rear touch screen to have Michael move around the scene.

The points gained during each song are used as part of an experience system. As you level up, you will unlock additional modes, and you can gain alternative outfits and even extra gloves to wear. Each song also has its own set of challenges. You might need to get the maximum combo on medium difficulty, or finish the song three times on expert. Completing these challenges will get you additional special effects for that song. For instance, on Thriller, you will gain zombie background dancers.

The Vita version of Michael Jackson: The Experience seems stripped down. Console versions of the game shipped with 30 songs, while the Vita only has 15. Only the main mode has any real substance. There is also the “watch an animated Michael Jackson video” mode, and a multiplayer battle mode that only works ad-hoc. Good luck finding a local friend who owns a Vita and a copy of this game.

I have to admit that even though I’m not a big Michael Jackson fan, I found myself getting nostalgic playing some of his bigger hits. Overall the game is well done and polished. I imagine the venn diagram of Vita owners and rabid Michael Jackson fans only has a small overlap in it, but for those people, this is your game. If you grew up with Michael and like some of his songs, then this would be a good game to pick up when the inevitable sales come. One final parting thought: the character model for Michael Jackson looks weird and a bit like plastic. I’ll let you go ahead and fit your own joke in here.

This review is based on a retail copy of Michael Jackson: The Experience provided by Ubisoft. It is also available for Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, PSP, DS and 3DS.

Trials is back with a whole new level of craziness in tow. Trials for the unfamiliar is a side scrolling motorcycle game based on real-ish physics and crazy-ass jumps.

Trials Evolution’s single player is a more of the same affair. There are 60 single player tracks ranging from easy to carpal tunnel. You move your rider from left to right trying to get to the finish line quickly with as few faults as possible. The main difference between HD and Evolution is the craziness of the obstacles you’ll face. Tracks are no longer limited to a straight line. You turn in and out of the world while explosions and destruction rain around you. The best part is that all of this can be played with friends. 

There are two multiplayer modes. The first is played on the single player courses. The other players are shown as ghosts and you race to the finish. The other mode is “Super Cross”. In Super Cross, the track is four lanes wide allowing for all of the bikes to be on the same course. This can be played locally or online. Everyone shares the same camera and if you fall behind it counts as a fault. If that happens, you will be send to the next check point, allowing you to continue. The winner is first determined by the fewest faults, followed by time. This mode includes 15 tracks, but with the new level editor, you could download thousands.

Trials HD also allowed you to design your own tracks, but limited you to trading them with your friends. Now you’ll be able to browse a list of all the best tracks including tracks picked by Red Lynx. There are two track editors – a basic and a complex. The basic editor allows you to draw out a track and start adding jumps. The complex editor is a whole other beast. There’s a whole swath of switches you can use now which is basically like a visual scripting language. The possibilities are nearly endless. One example was actually a first person shooter which you can see in the Trials Evolution trailer.

With the editor, new single player, and multiplayer I don’t see my self ever stopping when Trials Evolution comes out April 18 on Xbox Live Arcade.

By: Michael Dao

The X-Com franchise is certainly one with a rich pedigree. The original, X-COM: UFO Defense was released back in 1994, and it is considered one of the best video games ever made. It’s sequel, X-COM: Terror From the Deep was lauded by critics as well. The bad news is that with each further iteration of the game, it got worse. Years passed, and fans who loved the game called out for a sequel or an update. Sadly, no sequels or updates came. Sure there were games made in the franchise that had specific aspects of the game, such as X-Com: Interceptor and X-Com: Enforcer, but there was no true successor. 

Six years later, Mythos, the company behind the original title announced that they were working on a remake of X-Com, and that it was going to be called The Dreamland Chronicles: Freedom Ridge. The story was that the player had to lead a small resistance group called the Terran Liberation Army after the end of a war against alien invaders in which humanity lost. Unfortunately, the game was put on hold in 2001 after the studio failed to failed to get a publisher. The rights were sold and another studio took up development of the game, and two years later, the game was released with a new name, UFO: Aftermath. Unfortunately, this game merely left fans wanting more. Years passed, and there were forever rumors that some studio was going to take up the reins and deliver its devoted fanbase what they’ve wanted this entire time.

Fast forward to the present day, and the rumors started to become more and more pronounced, and finally it was announced that there was going to be a new game belonging to the X-Com franchise. Only it was now going to be a first person shooter from the folks at 2K Marin. It was to be a reimagining of the series set in the 1960s covering the genesis of X-Com. The game was originally scheduled to be released in 2011, but was delayed until March of 2012, and now it is mysteriously delayed for a period ranging in between one and twelve months, meaning it could arrive either this month, or in the spring of 2013.

Many had given up on ever seeing a remake of one of the most critically acclaimed games ever made. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, news came out that someone was working on a turn based strategy game based on the original X-Com. The fans were skeptical, as was their right to be. They had experienced heartbreak before, but additional details were coming to light. The game would be developed by the masters of turn based strategy, Firaxis, and the new title would be known as, XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

One of our goals of attended PAX East 2012 was to wring out every single last bit of information we could from Firaxis and 2K. When speaking with the members of the team responsible for the game, their passion for the source material was as clear as day, and their mission is not to just create a game in the universe, but to create a game that was a worthy successor to a title that people loved 18 years ago. These were people that grew up playing the game, and one of them during their panel confessed that it was this game that got him studying Computer Science and lead him to his involvement today.

Seeing the game in action, it is clear that Firaxis has so far been able to keep the spirit of what made the original such a success while modernizing the game and removing outdated gameplay concepts. Gone are those Time Units. In the original, each solider had a number of Time Units that they could spend moving, shooting, or performing other actions with. That has been simplified into a system where each person can either move and shoot or perform some sort of action, or move really far. The old system encouraged players to be conservative and the design decision here was to force players to be aggressive and make hard decisions. Another impression that is seen right off the start is how much more action packed the game is. The original title, due to the limits of the technology of the time, had very little in terms of detailed animation and graphics – now, as players move and shoot, occasionally there will be what the developers call, “glam shots” graphical sequences which cut to a shot of your solider and the aliens showing the action in detail.

When discussing the game and the changes that were made, a there is a common thread that links all of them. One of the producers remarked that gamers don’t have a problem with difficult games as long as they are fair. One example that kept coming up was how in the original game, a not uncommon occurrence would happen where the player would lose several soldiers in the first turn due simply to bad luck. An enemy throws a grenade that rolls up the ramp into the player’s dropship, or the rookie you brought along for this mission with a rocket launcher gets mind controlled and fires the said rocket launcher while still inside the dropship.  In the new game, Firaxis is working to avoid these situations. The game is centered around the soldiers that the player controls. It consists of the tactical combat, and the main base where they return to when missions are finished.

Truth be told, a lot of the mundane issues that were a part of the original game have been removed. You now can only take a maximum of six soldiers into combat, a decision that was made for reasons of game balance and to encourage risk taking. There is also only one major base. Base micromanagement has gone by the wayside, and the new base looks amazing. It is no longer displayed from a top down view as it has in the past it now is a cross section, much like an ant farm. The comparison made is that it is just like the G.I. Joe aircraft carrier, the USS Flagg, that the rich kid who lived down the street from you had. The level of detail here is amazing. Upon closer inspection, when zoomed in, the player can clearly see activity going on in the base. Wounded soldiers recuperate in the infirmary while their mates sometimes visit. Soldiers can also be spotted having a drink in the bar, working out in the gym, or even just hanging around in the barracks. For the first time in an X-Com game, the base truly feels alive. Clearly seen are scientists researching in their labs and captive aliens stewing in their cells.

The best news of all was that Firaxis has committed to making their game as challenging as possible to make veterans of the franchise feel at home. The toughest difficultly level offered is called “Classic”, and for every single of difficulty, the player has the ability to engage “Ironman” mode, which turns off the ability to manage one’s saves. In short, the game will handle saving, taking away your ability to reload from the last save if you make a terrible, terrible mistake. Firaxis has also put a limit on the number of troopers that a player can send on a mission, they’ve capped it at six to ensure that there is no cannon fodder – that each soldier is important. Another reason for this choice is that with a large number of soldiers, the player actually plays more conservatively, whereas the designers want the player to be aggressive and to make sure that each decision made has real consequences.

Another fun feature that has been improved on is the customization that soldiers will have. You can now customize their appearance, as well as the flag that appears on their armor. The names of your soldiers can be changed, as well as their nicknames, something new to this installment of the franchise. The developers reminded us that you are more than free to name them after friends and family to feel extra guilty when a mistake is made and they end up dying. You can have a Brazilian Sniper, or an English Assault class if you like – and yes, there are now classes. The game currently has five, Rookie, which is a recruit, Assault, a class good at dishing out and taking damage, Heavy, wielding your heavy weapons, Sniper, able to use sniper rifles, and Support a class that makes your other classes better. As soldiers level up, they can unlock perks and abilities, making them even more individualized than before.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a project that has been kept under wraps for three years, it has finally seen the light of day. It is quite clear that Firaxis waited until they had something incredible to show, and incredible it was. From just a first look, it is clear that this game was a love letter to fans, and will hopefully be the strategy title to watch this year.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown is due out in fall of 2012 on the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

By: Michael Dao

Mass Effect 3 is not only the culmination of five years and three games’ worth of storytelling, but an experience that has set the bar in video game narrative. Mass Effect 3 does manage to do new things, and the game does manage to pull at the your heartstrings, but at the end, it also leave a lot to be desired. 

Storytelling and narrative from video games has come a long way since the early days of gaming. No one would ask for the characters’ motivations in say, Pong, but in this day and age, such a critical eye is turned upon all of the latest titles. In many regards, Bioware has shown in Mass Effect 3 that they are the undisputed masters of the craft. They’ve managed to create a trilogy in which one can not help but be drawn into and not care just about the characters they control in the game, but the universe in which the characters exist, as well as all of the non player characters that also reside in it. At its best, the writing would stand up against any writing in any form of media, and at its worst, it is still competent. The voice acting is still competent, with some varied performances but is at the level that one would expect from a AAA title.

The most unique thing about this franchise is how it is the first modern game where the choices that the player has made creates a unique narrative. Mass Effect 2 imports the player’s save game from the original Mass Effect and 3 does so from 2. What this accomplishes is something special. This was first felt in the second game in the series, and it was, for the most part subtle. Characters that died in the first of the series don’t make an appearance in the later two. Actions and decisions made in the first game make their presence known in a multitude of different ways, in how certain NPCs react to you, and sometimes, in how certain scenes play out. Those that own the first two games in the trilogy, will find extra incentive to play the first two games because for the first time in a video game, the player has the opportunity to rewrite canon. The fact that the third game probably has thousands of dollars worth of content a player will never see due to the choices that they’ve made will drive any completionist back to the first game in order to get their story exactly the way they want it to be.

It’s how Bioware makes the player believe that every single choice they make has an effect on the universe around them, and makes the Mass Effect trilogy feel personal. Through a number of rather simple dialogue trees, the player is given the feeling that their Commander Shepard is unique, that the choices that they’ve made in this futuristic universe are different from not only the choices that the player will make in a separate play-through, but unique from the choices of every single other person that has purchased the games. Every single person who has enjoyed the first two games has formed an incredibly personal relationship with both the universe and the character they’ve spent five years with.

It’s that personal relationship which makes the end of the game a disappointment to so many, and which has caused such a backlash, that Bioware has announced that they will be looking to do something to appease all of those that were upset. Going into the game, players knew that this was going to be the last game of the series. Earth had been invaded, and it was the job of your Commander Shepherd to do whatever it took to get help, a storyline most likely un-coincidentally similar to that of Dragon Age: Origins. Throughout the rest of the game, hard decisions had to be made, choices that players will agonize over. Choices, though one may appear to be good and the other bad, that you are positive will have far ranging consequences beyond what any one person could imagine.

But that’s the problem – when one finally does reach the end of the game, it presents the player with a final task – one that was central to the game, and that is to make a choice. What has disappointed so many people is that this final choice is irrelevant to the rest of the game. It sends the player the message that all of the tough decisions that they’ve made in the past didn’t mean a thing, that the relationships they’ve formed with other characters in the game, the enemies as well as friends made – that they are irrelevant.

Though the final experience is a let down, the build up truly is something that will convince people that games should be considered art. The narrative manages to evoke emotion and tension in a way that many would not believe possible. It is that ability that leaves the conclusion wanting. Regardless, Mass Effect 3 remains a game that is very easily recommendable, and will only be more so once Bioware does rework the conclusion, and gives us all the ability to give our own Commander Shepard a proper send off.

This review is based on a retail copy of the Xbox 360 version of Mass Effect 3 provided by the reviewer. It is also available for the PS3 and PC.

A Valley without Wind by Arcen Games is what happens when you try to make a Super Nintendo game today. A super polished limitless 2D metroidVania adventure game.

Everything in A Valley Without Wind is procedurally generated. The game pulls from known assets to create vast continents to explore. Each continent is made up of variety of land types. Moving into them throws you into a 2D side scrolling world. In each world you’ll find enemies, items, new spells, caves, and dungeons to explore. 

There is an action bar at the bottom showing all your currently equipped spells similar to an MMO. You move and jump with the keyboard and aim with the mouse and use melee skills and ranged attacks to dispatch enemies. The game isn’t a typical action RPG. You don’t gain levels but you do find more powerful spells which act as your measure of progression. Getting the right spells and using them on the right enemies is key. Getting trapped by enemies without the right spell can mean instant death. I know this all too well after my brief time with the game.

Killing isn’t everything – there is a huge crafting and building system to entertain you. Each continent has a settlement which can be build it up with the materials you find in the world. While exploring you need to use your building skills to traverse the world, placing platforms and building other things to overcome obstacles.

The most exciting aspect of the game is the multiplayer. You will be able to explore and build these worlds with your friends – and everything is more fun with friends. The game comes out April 23 on Steam and I can’t wait to explore everything it has to offer.

With the introduction of a new mobile platform, you can be sure Game Loft will be there with another installment of their generic dungeon crawling adventure series Dungeon Hunter Alliance. The series that got its start on the iOS and eventually PSN is here to try and scratch that Diablo itch on your Playstation Vita. 

In Dungeon Hunter Alliance, you awake after being dead for years. You slowly begin to remember what happened. Back in the day, your beloved queen passed away. So you did the only logical thing and turned to dark magic to resurrect her. Well, what do you know, she was evil and decided to kill you. That evil temptress has now thrown the land into ruin and its up to you to set things right.

Dungeon Hunter Alliance is very much your standard Hack N Slash. All the classics classes are here, Warrior, Rogue, and Mage. Each of these has a unique special ability, but that doesn’t matter much as it all really boils down to running around and jamming on buttons to kill hoards of creatures.

The one unique aspect  is your fairy. You start out with a lightning fairy and you can collect others that give you different special attacks. This little guy is controlled by the right thumb stick or the back touch. The back touch can be annoying if you have large hands like mine. If you accidentally graze the back touch, your littler fairy will fly off leaving you for dead.  Using them is pretty simple, they can fly over to a pool of enemies and let off an area attack. This is helpful in stressful situations, but I often found myself forgetting to use it due to the less than intuitive conrtols.

The leveling mechanic is pretty standard – you put points into strength, dexterity, endurance, and energy. All of which effects your abilities, hp, and mana. Nothing new to see here. As you get new abilities, you map them to the face buttons and hammer away. This is pretty much the entire game though all 12 acts and 75 levels.

The one nice thing about the game is multiplayer. If you can actually find three people to play with, it can be fun to explore the dungeons together. This allows you to leverage each class’s strengths to really fly through levels.

Unfortunately most of the dungeons and quests are pretty uninspired. Everything is drab and ruined. That’s not to say the graphics are bad, they are actually quite crisp on the Vitas screen, they are just generic.

The fact that it’s so generic is the main flaw. Everything gameplay wise, is solid. The questing system could also use some work. It’s very difficult to understand what you are doing and where you are going. I found myself just traversing dungeons until it told me I completed a quest. If you’ve played any dungeon crawlers in the past year, you can probably skip this, but if you have three friends with DHA, it’s worth a go during the Vita game draught.

This review is based on a retail copy of Dungeon Hunter Alliance provided by Ubisoft. It is a PS Vita exclusive.

In Assassin’s Creed III you play as an assassin named Ratohnhaké:ton. I’m not sure how you pronounce the colon, but thankfully he also goes by the name Connor. He is half British and half Native American and will apparently be killing templars on both sides of the conflict in the American Revolution. 

The level we saw takes place during the Battle of Bunker Hill. Connor is attempting to assassinate the General of the British forces. The first thing that you notice is the “epic crowd” of British soldiers lined up on an opposing hillside. All of them firing muskets in your general direction. Previous games could only show around 200 characters on a screen at any giving time, but Assassin’s Creed III has bumped this number up to over 2,000.

Assassin’s Creed has always pitted your character against guards armed with simple weapons like swords and bows. In Assassin’s Creed III you will be taking on soldiers armed with muskets. At range the soldiers will attempt to form up into a firing line. There are multiple ways of dealing with this new strategy, but the one on display in our preview was using a human shield. Connor grabbed a nearby soldier, used him as a shield, and then closed on the group of soldiers before they could reload.

Connor is a great hunter, and some of the new weapons in AC3 reflect that. At one point in the demo Connor was perched on a tree branch as a group of soldiers walked underneath. He shot one of them with something called a “rope dart”. It attached to the soldier, and at that point Connor dropped down forming a pulley with the rope and branch. The result was the soldier flying up in the air in a very satisfying way.

A great deal of attention has been paid to how Connor moves through the environment. Revolutionary America is quite a bit different from the European cities of the earlier games. In the Battle of Bunker Hill, rooftops have been replaced by trees as the main mode of traversing the level. The dev team worked hard on making moving from limb to limb seem natural, and made sure to avoid having it look like you are Tarzan.

One of the most impressive sections had Connor scaling a very organic looking cliff. Gone are the unnaturally “gamey” ledges. Instead Connor can use things like vertical fissures between rocks to make his way up. Ubisoft has done a lot of research on real climbing, and the animations of Connor scaling the cliff looked more natural than anything I’ve seen in a video game before.

The final section of the demo had Connor working his way through a “stalking zone” to get to his assassination target. The stalking zone was basically an area of brush and bushes around the British camp. As long as you move slowly, Connor becomes nearly invisible in the foliage. Once he was close enough, Connor performed a “running assassination”. In one continuous set of fluid motions, he was able to take out two soldiers and take a running leap at the Templar General on his rearing horse. The scene was amazingly cinematic and has me counting the days until October 30.

Alan Wake’s American Nightmare might not be the full fledged sequel that gamers are looking for, but it is does manage to scratch that Alan Wake itch and continue the story of the writer, Alan Wake, in an interesting way. American Nightmare is an Xbox Live Arcade downloadable title and doesn’t require the original game to play. But with Alan Wake as cheap as it is, you really should start there instead of jumping right into American Nightmare.

The basic gameplay mechanics are almost identical to the original game. You still face off against the Taken, who are humanoids shrouded in a field of darkness. You are armed with a flashlight and an array of weapons. You must first flood your enemies with light to remove the darkness, and then they will be vulnerable to good old firepower. There are a decent number of new Taken to, um, take on. One variation splits into small and less powerful versions of itself when hit with light. Another can transmogrify into a flock of ravens when it’s in trouble. There is also a somewhat generic big, giant guy with a chainsaw and a taken that shoots darkness grenades. Finally, the first non-humanoid enemies in the Alan Wake universe are cat-sized darkness spiders that tend to come in herds, but can be defeated with either your gun or a good dose of light from your flashlight.

To combat all of these new enemies, Alan has a much larger array of weapons, including a combat shotgun and even a nail gun. The more powerful weapons have to be unlocked, and to do so you need to collect missing manuscript pages that are scattered throughout the levels. The collectables are limited to these manuscript pages, which is a great choice. The coffee thermoses in the original game were random and pretty pointless. The manuscript pages each have a bit of interesting info, or insights into Alan’s psyche. They are also reasonably easy to find, since they sparkle in the dark, and will even show up on your mini map if you are close enough to them. The end result is an excuse to wander off the beaten path and do a little exploring.

Alan Wake’s American Nightmare takes place in a small town in Arizona that seems to exist partially in the real world, but also in the world of darkness which Alan has been trying to escape since the end of the original game. This town also seems to exist in Night Springs, which is this world’s version of the Twilight Zone, and also happens to be a show that Alan used to write for. Alan is trapped in Night Springs by his evil doppelganger, Mr. Scratch, who has apparently found his way into the real world.

The interactions with Mr. Scratch alone make this game worth the price of admission. Throughout the small town, you will find televisions that you can turn on. Each time you do, you will get an FMV (full motion video) message from Mr. Scratch. This works remarkably well, as you are watching the real life actor that Alan Wake is based on. Being addressed by an actual person that is the spitting image of the character that you are used to seeing digitally adds a level of surrealism that is pitch perfect for Night Springs. On top of that, Mr. Scratch is wonderfully creepy and sadistic as he threatens to do awful things to your friends and loved ones.

American Nightmare is contained within three locations. There is a motel, an observatory and a drive-in movie theater. The areas are open, and make for less linear gameplay than the original game, but I would much rather have seen more. Traveling between the three areas takes place during loading screens, and you will end up going through each area multiple times in what ends up feeling like padding the game for length despite the clever narrative reason for going through the areas again.

The new characters introduced are similarly disappointing. Each area has a single attractive female that Alan Wake must interact with. The characters are paper thin, and come nowhere near the brilliance of past characters like Alan’s manager Barry Wheeler or Alan’s nemesis Mr. Scratch.

American Nightmare introduces a new mode called “Fight ‘Till Dawn”. It’s basically a single player Horde mode where you play as Alan as he fights through increasingly difficult waves of enemies over a ten minute period. The lack of multiplayer is really disappointing, but you can at least try to beat your friends’ scores on each level. All of the new weapons in American Nightmare come in handy in this mode, and you will want to unlock as many as you can before spending any real time here. Fight ‘Till Dawn is a fun little diversion, but ends up not being nearly as interesting as the continuation of Alan Wake’s story.

American Nightmare doesn’t reinvent Alan Wake, and it has about the amount of content that you would expect from a downloadable title. What it does is give us a little more Alan Wake, which is a welcome thing. On top of that it’s expertly paced despite retreading the same areas, and fleshes out the character of Mr. Scratch who is a wonderful and inventive villain. American Nightmare isn’t the full blown Alan Wake sequel that we want, but it’s hopefully enough to get us through until that that sequel emerges from the dark.

This review is based on a retail copy of the Alan Wake’s American Nightmare provided by Remedy. It is an Xbox Live Arcade exclusive.

Much like the train industry preys upon those who fear flying, the survival horror genre has taken advantage of their customers by offering increasingly laborious experiences. Do you know how long it takes to get across the country in a train? It takes forever. Do you know long it takes you to find anything worthwhile in Silent Hill Downpour? I sure don’t.

This most recent Silent Hill opens with an interesting enough bang, being that you are forced to murder a fat man in a towel, but the intrigue does not last long. You play a prisoner named Murphy who eventually gets trapped/ stranded in Silent Hill. For the uninitiated, Silent Hill is an evil-ass town. Think Celebration Florida after the local raccoon population has declared martial law for about a decade. You, the player, are constantly trying to figure out a) what is going on in Silent Hill and b) what is Murphy’s past. All the while horrific monsters are trying to kill you.

The atmosphere is moody and dark and a feeling of loneliness settles upon you as you discover more about Silent Hill. The town is mostly run down but a few residents have stayed seemingly stuck in their existence. It appears that you are not the only one trapped in this cursed town. I will freely admit that the atmosphere of Silent Hill: Downpour is its best feature. Little bits of information are spread around to give you just a taste of the strange and twisted nature of Silent Hill. It actually feels a bit like an adventure game since you are collecting data and solving puzzles across the world. Find a power cord, use it to turn on a coffee maker that steams up a window giving you a passcode for a safe. These little touches kept me interested in Murphy’s plight, but the general lack of polish and the awkward combat system soured the whole experience.

Typically I am not a graphics snob, so when a game looks a little ugly I don’t mind. The issue for me is when poor graphics become distracting. Perhaps graphics is the wrong word to use here, but Silent Hill looks lazy and thrown together at times. The player’s job is to suspend some of their disbelief in order to become afraid of the enemies. We know they can’t hurt us but we allow the tension in anyways. The developer’s job is to provide us with believable threats to aid us on our personal path of fear. This is especially critical in the survival horror genre. If you are not the least bit anxious when a specific enemy attacks then the developer has failed to draw you further into their game. In Silent Hill this is especially true since the enemies look laughably bad. When I fought them nothing inside my brain screamed, “run away.” But eventually I started running away because the combat was so boring.

In a perfect world the combat in Silent Hill would not be its strong suit but it would be engaging. However, in our current flawed world, the combat is the worst part of an already mediocre game. Murphy attacks slowly with a limited set of animations and the enemies react the same no matter if they are hit with an ax or a stick. It would feel right at home on a PlayStation 1 but it is 2012 and we have evolved as a people. To make matters worse you are attacked more when it is raining and difficult to see. It does not create tension but it sure does serve up some grade A frustration.

To go along with the lack of polish in the combat department, the sound design is equally hit or miss. Some characters sound as though they were recorded in a tin room while the person they are talking to sounds perfectly normal. Since it is supposed to be a scary game there is that constant whisper going on in the background but I found it to be more distracting than eerie.

There are not many games released each year for fans of survival horror, so some just take what they can get. This seems to be the driving force behind Silent Hill: Downpour—just get it done so that we can release it and say we are still catering to our audience. It feels more like a checkbox on an earnings sheet than a proper entry in the series. If you are a fan of the genre you should still avoid buying this game. If you do you will be poisoning the survival horror well from which you are attempting to drink.

This review is based on a retail copy of the Xbox 360 version of Silent Hill – Downpour provided by Konami. It is also available for the PS3.

This week’s downloadable PC game deal is a vast assortment of THQ properties and downloadable content. There are some fantastic games here at absolutely silly prices. Check out our favorites below.

Click here to get this deal.

• Darksiders – $4.99
• Metro 2033 - $4.99
• Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine - $9.99
• Saints Row: The Third - $24.99
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl - $4.99
• Red Faction Guerrilla - $4.99
• Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance - $4.99

The long awaited dimensional shifting platformer, Fez, has finally been given a release date and price. The indie game has an unusual release date of April 13 (it’s unusual because that’s a Friday) and will be set at 800 Microsoft Points. We’re eagerly awaiting the chance to change our perspective and switch our own lives from 3D to 2D.

Source: Polytron Corporation

Via: Joystiq

In slightly more than a week gamers from around the world will descend on Boston to check out the latest wares being shown by gaming companies large and small. While many of us are old pros at attending events such as this, we thought it would be helpful to gather all the information you may need to help you ensure your time in Beantown is unforgettable … for all the right reasons. 

The first step to having a great weekend is ensuring you pack all of the essentials. The folks over on the PAX forums have an extensive list of items broken down into three degrees of importance. Speaking from personal experience, a few things outside of the obvious include packing extra socks, having plenty snacks and having an external charging device. The ability to slide on a fresh pair of socks can make you feel like a new person, especially as the weekend wears on.

Once your bags are packed, take a few moments to download a few apps and a map to help you navigate the show and city. Not only does PAX have an official set of apps for the show to help you locate your favorite vendor or panel location, but the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center also has an app available on multiple platforms that will help you find the bathrooms, ATMs and other amenities within the venue.

Now that you’re properly prepared and in Boston, it’s time to talk transportation. Even if you drove, you may find yourself in no condition to drive after a long night of friendly conversation at one of Boston’s many local pubs. To help aid in this, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has a variety of apps depending on your smart device or transportation needs. The public transit system is a great cost saving alternative to take cabs from the airport or around the city. The PAX organizers also setup a shuttle to pickup attendees from many of the local hotels.

Once you’re settled into your hotel room there’s no reason to just sit there and countdown the hours until the show doors open Friday at 10 a.m. There are a string of events, tweetups and parties throughout the week, starting Thursday night.

The Brattle Theater is showing Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, followed by a Rockband battle of the bands competition. Tickets are required for this event and it sold out days in advance last year, so you may want to get yours ASAP if you plan to attend. If rocking the stage isn’t exactly your scene, the PAX forums has a growing list of events throughout the event. Be sure to check to make sure you meet any age restrictions for the venue before heading out.

Once the show starts all your hard planning will fly right out the window as your brain is overwhelmed with the awesomeness that is PAX. Be sure to jot down any panels or events that you really, really want to see and arrive well in advance to ensure a spot. The PAX Lines Twitter account is a great resource for those that are trying to cram in as much of PAX in a single visit as possible. The PAX Twitter account is also a great for announcements and changes during the event.

One last piece of advice: try and leave as much free space as you can in your luggage. PAX is full of vendors handing out swag by the handfuls as well as tons of discounted hardware and software. If all else fails, you can ship your extra stuff bag at the onsite FedEx store.

The biggest thing to know upfront is that there is no way you will ever see everything that PAX or Boston has to offer. With that bit of knowledge, just have as much fun as possible and plan to attend next year.

The Thrifty Nerd team will be there for the duration, so be sure to follow the @ThriftyNerd account if you want to see what we are covering and where we are hanging out in the city. See everyone in a week!

Growing tired of curb-stomping grubs on the same maps day in and day out? Have no fear. Gears of War 3‘s newest DLC, Forces of Nature, has arrived through an emergence hole near you. The DLC features three new maps: Aftermath, Artillery, and Cover along with two remakes: Jacinto and Raven Down. So what’s natural about these maps you coyly ask? Each map assults you with the…forces of nature via a snowstorm, rainstorm, fog, flooding city and imulsion. Along with the arenas are four new multiplayer characters: The Savage Hunter, a new Commando Dom, a new Mechanic Baird and a Savage Grenadier Elite. But wait! There’s more! 250 points worth of achievements. All this can be yours for the price of 800 Microsoft points, or for free if you’ve purchased the Gears of War 3 Season Pass. Five maps with new environmental hazards plus four new character plus new achievements equals a gory good time.

Source: Xbox.com

There is a fantastic selection in Amazon’s current Buy 2 Get 1 Free sale. See some highlights below.

Click here to get this deal

• Mass Effect 3
• SSX
• Super Mario 3D Land
• MLB 12 The Show
• Metal Gear Solid HD Collection
• Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City
• Uncharted: Golden Abyss
• Rayman Origins
• Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2
• Twisted Metal
• Dark Souls
• Kirby Mass Attack

I’ve loved baseball as long as I can remember. Despite being the “American Pastime,” I get that it isn’t for everyone. The pace of baseball is from a bygone era – slow and deliberate. It is chock full of statistics – sure you have batting average, but there is on-base percentage, slugging percentage and more recently OPS (on-base plus slugging). Then there are the tiny details – how big of a lead are you taking at first base? Is the infield playing in? Does the pitcher have a hitch in his windup? Maybe he throws off batters by delivering sidearm? 

When baseball is great, it is all about tension. The excruciating wait between pitches, the endless mind game of what pitch is coming next and then the explosion of action when a ball is put into play. This is all great stuff, but for me the problem with video game baseball has always been that the real game of baseball is a marathon. Real life games can last four hours (thankfully the video game versions can be sped up quite a bit) and there are 162 regular season games each season. Playing an entire season in video game form is a monumental commitment. Sure you can play a shortened season, but then all your stats will be thrown off. How many home runs can you possibly hit in a 16 game season?

The marathon aspect is why I personally have never been able to get too deep into a video game version of baseball. That is until I tried MLB 12 The Show’s “Road to the Show” (RTTS) mode. This feature has been around for a few years, but it is new to me, and it was a revelation.

In RTTS you create your own player, pick a position and are given an allotment of points to apply to a large set of baseball skills. There is everything from “power vs. left hand pitching” to “drag bunts” to “throwing accuracy”. You start out on a AA baseball team, and work your way up to the Majors and hopefully do well enough that after you retire you will be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Everything is done from that player’s point of view. You take all of his at-bats and handle any fielding duties. The rest of the game is mercifully skipped. You can plow through a game in a few minutes instead of the normal 30 to 45 minutes a regular game might take. On top of that, you get a level of detail you wouldn’t get otherwise. In the field you might need to position yourself properly for a cut off throw. If you get on base, you will find yourself staring at the pitcher’s back leg to see if he is going to push off to pitch or take his foot off the rubber to throw over to first. This abbreviated view ends up feeling much more authentic than your typical role as puppet master of the entire team.

I ended up becoming emotionally invested in my player, and sank hours and hours into helping him progress. It helps that he sort of looks like a more athletic version of myself. Also, his name is “Michael Dinardo” which was the closest I could get to my actual name. I just went with the idea that the announcers had a hard time pronouncing it.

There are plenty of other modes besides RTTS. Season will let you play through a year of baseball, which you can make as short as 14 games. Franchise will have you controlling every aspect of the club of your choice. Everything from the financials of the team to making trades. The goal isn’t to win the World Series, it is to build a dynasty. There is also a Rivalry mode that allows you to play a series with your favorite team against their nemesis.

New to The Show this year is the Diamond Dynasty mode which lets you customize your own team and then either take it online or play against CPU controlled MLB teams. You will need to name your club, give them a hometown, pick colors and customize uniforms and create a logo using up to 1000 layers of graphics. Playing games will earn you in game money which you can use to buy packs of random player cards to build up your team. You can also auction off players to other users online or send real life money to buy more packs.

I could see myself getting sucked in by the Diamond Dynasty mode. You should see my amazing orange and red uniforms, and that logo! Unfortunately when I took my team online, I had some serious issues with how the game handled. Hitting was the biggest problem. The animation seemed to stutter and not line up with the buttons I was pressing. Everything seemed to work, but it was very disjointed. It would look like I had swung through a pitch, and missed it, but a fraction of a second later, the ball would go sailing into the outfield. Offline the game handles so perfectly that it make these jitters and disconnects pretty much intolerable. I’m sure you could adjust eventually, but why should you have to?

PS Move support has expanded beyond the Homerun Derby this year, and can be used throughout. Using the Move is good for a laugh, and hitting is especially fun, but overall it is clunky enough that few people will choose using it over the standard controller.

There are a variety of control schemes to choose from, including the analog pitching and batting from previous years. I found the new “pulse pitching” worked well for me after a little practice. You are presented with a circle that is pulsing back and forth between large and small. The more endurance and confidence your pitcher has, the smaller the circle will get. You move the circle to where you want to throw your pitch, and depending on how well you time your button press and the state of your current pitcher, you can have anything from pinpoint accuracy to a pitch that can end up anywhere. It gives pitching a real sense of unpredictability which brings quite a bit of realism to the game.

For batting I favored “Timing plus Zone”. If you want a more casual experience, you can go with just timing, and all you need to do is swing when the ball gets to you. The addition of zone means that you will need to use the left analog stick to position a “sweet spot” in the batting zone. If the ball is coming inside, you will make much better contact if you move the sweet spot to counter.

Before you swing you will need to get into the head of the pitcher. You can guess what pitch he is throwing, and where. On screen cues will tell you if you guessed correctly, and give you bonuses for how well you hit the ball. There are also three different swings. There is the general “all purpose” swing. If you are down in the count, you can use the contact swing to fight off bad pitches and stay alive. If the count is in your favor, or if you are feeling confident, you can swing for the fences.

One of the coolest features in MLB 12 The Show, is the ability to save RTTS, Season or Franchise games to the cloud, and then transfer them over to the PS Vita version of The Show (see our review). Not many people will want to shell out the cash for both versions, but for someone with a long commute, or who just enjoys a change of scenery, this is an amazing thing. Read our review of the Vita version of The Show to get all the details, but the short version is that it plays almost identically to the PS3. You absolutely can take your game with you.

What MLB 12 The Show does better than anything else is capture the feel of baseball. It is all there, from the high level ideas to the tiniest details. The stadiums are gorgeous, the players move the way they should. The presentation will have you swearing you are watching a TV broadcast. The depth is also amazing. Of course you have the major league teams, but you also have all of the AAA and AA minor league teams. The only gripes I have offline are the lengthy load times, even with the optional five gig installation. Online play, sadly, is unacceptable in its current state.

This review is based on a retail copy of the PS3 version of MLB 12 The Show provided by Sony. It is also available for the PS Vita.

In 2012 MLB The Show has made the leap from the PSP to the PS Vita, and all the extra power has done wonders. The Vita version plays so much like PS3 version, that I’m actually going to ask you to read our review of the console game because the sentiments there almost always apply to the Vita version as well. This review will focus on the differences between the two games. 

While it is true that the Vita version doesn’t have the graphical fidelity or the TV style presentation found on the PS3, it is still drop dead gorgeous. It is safe to say a handheld baseball game has never looked this good. Somehow, SCE Studios San Diego has managed to cram ALL the baseball into that little package. All the animation, all the stadiums, all the tiny little details are present. If you own both versions, you might miss feeling the controller rumbling to mimic your heart beating during an important at-bat, but otherwise you aren’t going to feel like you are having a lesser experiment.

Missing from the Vita version are the Rivals mode and the interesting Diamond Dynasty mode which allows you to build your own unique team with card packs. I would have been fun to take the “New Jersey Thrifty Nerds” along with me on the road, with their awful orange uniforms and their weird hot dog logo, but this mode is new to the PS3, so it is understandable that it didn’t make the cut on the handheld platform.

The “Road to the Show” (RTTS) mode is in full effect on the Vita, and it is really the ultimate mobile baseball game. The bite-sized, five to ten minute games are the perfect length for your mobile outings – like riding a bus, or waiting in line, or, um, killing time in the bathroom. Everything from the PS3 version is here. You follow a single player as he starts out as an 18 year old kid on an AA ball club, and watch him rise to the majors as he hopefully has a Hall of Fame caliber career.

You will also find fully fleshed out versions of Season and Franchise modes on the Vita. Maybe the most exciting feature is that you can save your PS3 game to the cloud, and then pick up where you left off on the Vita. It’s a pretty big investment to purchase both versions, but being able to jump back and forth between the two with one save file is like something out of a sci-fi movie.

Control schemes are almost identical on the Vita, at least where it really counts. The second analog stick means that you will have no problems using the analog batting and pitching. The only real difference is the lack of a second trigger. This only affects base running and diving for balls when you are playing the field. I actually found the streamlined controls on the Vita easier to use. The Vita also adds some touch functionality, which you can use for picking pitch location, or guessing zone locations while batting.

Just like on the PS3, the online multiplayer leaves a lot to be desired, and I mostly avoided it. It’s hard to count this against the game since there is enough single player content to keep you occupied until MLB 13 The Show is released. Load times are long, and they become more pronounced when you are burning through a bunch of quick games in RTTS. It is a bit annoying, but when you consider the amazing things taking place on your handheld, it is worth the wait.

Most people won’t be able to buy both the PS3 and Vita versions of MLB 12 The Show. If you own a Vita, and are trying to choose between the two, I suggest getting the Vita version over the PS3. It isn’t quite as beautiful, and it only has most of the gameplay modes, but it is so darn close, that the freedom of having it on a handheld easily wins out. Maybe next year when owning a Vita is more common, it will be a harder decision, but for now, go with the Vita version all the way.

This review is based on a retail copy of the PS Vita version of MLB 12 The Show provided by Sony. It is also available for the PS3.

Snowboarding games, my long lost love, you have finally returned. The past SSX games were great, but with this new iteration, things are brought to a whole new level. The jumps are bigger, the tricks are crazier, and the graphics are gorgeous.  This is the kind of game that will ruin your life under the right circumstances. Or if you’re good enough, your friends will ruin themselves trying to take you down. There is no greater joy in video games. 

If you’re not familiar with SSX let me break it down for you, SSX used to stand for Snowboard Super Cross, but in this iteration they have attempted to make it more edgy and hip by calling it ‘Snowboard, Surfing, Motocross’ which is the dumbest thing on the whole damn planet. That doesn’t really matter though; the game is still snowboard super cross in every other aspect. You are racing down ridiculous courses trying to go as fast as possible, get as many points as you can, or just survive the descent. Each mode works the same with different ways of determining who won. As you are going down hill you do tricks, doing tricks builds up your boost meter. If you fill it up enough you go into tricky mode. This gives you unlimited boost and allows you to do crazier tricks. If you fill this meter up, you go into super tricky mode which gives you even crazier tricks. This is all done by default on the right thumb stick. If you’ve play EA’s skate, it shouldn’t be too hard to comprehend. Pull back and push up to jump, press left to grab the left side of your board etc. The key to winning the events is getting into tricky mode, keeping it there, and chaining as many tricks as possible as this keeps your boost alive and your multiplier climbing.

This all may seem pretty standard for an action sports game, and honestly it is. What sets this game apart is the execution. Everything is so smooth and the tricks you’re doing look amazing. From your very first run, you will feel like a badass. This might lead you to believe there is a shallow learning curve, but that isn’t the case. Perfecting the game takes a massive amount of practice and skill. So much so, that you don’t even realize it when you first start playing. The nuances of the game flow naturally. For most action sports games, you will never get to the level where you can see these. There’s a good reason for that, they didn’t have SSX’s leaderboard system.

The way SSX has handled competition is the crowning achievement of the game. It has lead me to play more and become better. The real meat of the game isn’t the mediocre story mode, it’s the explore mode. You can travel to the different mountains and do runs,  but there is also a board showing you everything your friends have done. Which runs they’ve done, where they hid collectables, and what contests they are competing in. When you’re feeling like a challenge, you find a friend who’s completed a run and go after their score. Your friend’s ghost will be on the course giving you some hints on how and where they got their points. You can keep playing the run until you beat them, giving them a nice shiny notification saying their high score has been toppled. Beating your rival also gives you a nice bonus of credits, while simultaneously giving them credits each time you lose to their ghost.

The credits are used to buy gear for your character. Each character has ten levels with gear for each. When you are about to start a run, you can shop for gear. The shop presents you with five choices. In order to see more gear you have to buy one of the items already on sale. You can buy snowboards, clothing, gear (wing suites, armor), geotags, and mods. There is a pseudo RPG system to the gear as well. You can find rare items for a limited time that have massive stat boosts. Finding all the rare items will take a lot of time and credits. If you’re winning a ton of money each race, you won’t be too strapped for cash, but EA does allow you to buy credits with real money. This is devilishly good business for EA as the mods you buy are one time use and can get expensive. The mods give you a bump in speed, boost, rewinds, and gear related stats.

Regular ole races and trick sessions aren’t the only way to get credits. If you run out of friends to race, you can enter global events. These are contests that have thousands of riders. Everyone does a specific course under certain restrictions to get placed in a prize pool. You set your time and walk away. After the contest expires (some last weeks while others last hours) you get a notification of which tier you ended up in and you get your winnings. Getting a huge prize is an amazing feeling.

Global events, along with beating your friends scores to a pulp is such a good motivator to keep playing, that you’ll be racing for weeks. Even if you lack friends to play against, the game is great on its own. It’s easily my favorite SSX game to date in terms of gameplay, and when you look at the whole package, it’s easily one of my favorite games of all time.

This review is based on a retail copy of the X360 version of SSX provided by EA. It is also available for the PS3.

War…what is he good for? Death is now the central character in the Darksiders’ series and he brings a whole new bag of tricks with him as well as a bit of a attitude. The latest installment in the Darksiders’ story finds us taking control of Death as he attempts to clear the name of his brother War.

Darksiders 2 replaces the sluggish, wing-equipped horseman of destruction, War with the his more nimble and parkour-ish brethren Death.

Darksiders 2 continues the same dungeon crawling, button mashing fighting, treasure chest finding action that the first did, but with a much larger presentation. Each section of the area felt significantly bigger thing its predecessor. Each area of the game feels larger than the initial game, but the developers went on to say that the area we played was bigger than the entire game world of the original Darksiders game.

The world presented me with new traversal challenges that forced me to tap into Death’s natural parkour abilities. The jumps and wing floats that fans of the first game were accustom to have been replaced with wall runs and ghost hand arm-swings, reminiscent to Bionic Commando.

This horseman’s MO is running up and around walls as well as clearing large gaps with his ghost hand. That is what he will be doing when he isn’t battling persistent forces in the ever fragile outer world.

Thankfully the design team anticipated that not everyone would conquer the new wall-climbing tactics of this game right off the bat and included a great save mechanic that allows players to play at a fast pace without the worry of losing significant portions of progress. If a player finds themselves even deader, the game rewinds them back to the previous auto save point, which typically only leaves the player redoing the previous one to two minutes of game play.

When you’re not traversing the puzzling environment, you’re battling the leagues of enemies attempting to stop you from completing your journey to clear your brother’s name.

The fighting mechanic is a mix simple button combinations that activate of weapons and abilities attacks. The weapon, armor and abilities are one of the major changes from the original Darksiders’ formula. A variety of weapons can be found during the game and each one is tailored to a specific type of fighting style.

Random loot drops throughout the game allow you to upgrade and customize your character and is a nice touch in the days of tightly scripted games with very specific item drop points.

The new skill system allows players to unlock and tune Death to match their style of game traversal. Players can focus on a specific style of play or mix and match between a combat heavy style and a magic ability focused style.

One trouble spot I encountered was Death’s pet bird. Based on Death’s dialog when the bird is activated a player would expect the little guy to help lead the horseman in the right direction, but unfortunately the game doesn’t always take in to account what items or quests in the “open environment” have been acquired or achieved.

I noticed a large amount of screen tearing during intense action areas throughout the preview event, hopefully this is something that the team is able to remedy prior to the game’s June release and doesn’t detract from a really fun game that fills the needs formerly filled by games such as Zelda and Diablo.

In the end Darksiders 2 looks and feels like a vastly expanded version of it’s previous self. The larger dungeons and world, expanded combat system and loot system are important improvements that make this installment feel fresh and original. Look for Darksiders 2 to hits shelves in June.

*THQ provided travel and hotel accommodations for the reviewer to attend this event. 

Grab Angry Birds Space for $0.99 right now on the iTunes Store. Or spring for the iPad version which will run you $2.99.

Via: Joystiq

Shoot ‘em ups (shmups) are a tricky genre. They require fast reflexes, quick eyes and patience and determination when failing time and time again. Unfortunately, I lack all of these qualities. I know shmups aren’t my genre of choice, and Grasshopper Manufacture and Digital Reality knows that I’m not alone in this. Luckily, they made a shmup that can be enjoyed by the novice, a shooter that satisfies both the hardcore fans and the curious casual gamer.

The environments in Sine Mora are beautifully rendered down to the last detail. Players are given a chance to appreciate the models of bosses and large structures as pilots circle around the 3D environments. The dieselpunk world is full of uniquely crafted mechanical monsters and ships. From the bright blue skies to the dark industrial levels, Sine Mora  has a wide range of locations, scenery and enemies. Bullets and lasers are brightly colored and draw the focus of your eye. Problems occur in some of the industrial zones as your dark plane flies through dark areas. More often than not, you can lose sight of your enemies as well as your own ship. Boss characters are a marvel to look at. A skyscraper tall mech, a blimp sized robotic wasp and an enormous excavator are some of the more memorable mechanical monstrosities.

Gameplay is exactly what you would expect from a bullet hell shmup. Quick responsive controls allow you to fly around the screen and unleash a constant barrage at your enemies while you dodge patterns of bullets. Dodging precisely is key and often leaves you concentrating on where you are rather than where you are shooting. The unique device of Sine Mora is time control. Should you ever find yourself in a situation where there are too many bullets coming your way (roughly every two minutes), you can speed your self up to help dodge. Speeding yourself up effectively slows everything in your environment down to crawl, allowing you to maneuver as usual through the walls of bullets and lasers. When the constant barrage becomes too much or too bland, gameplay difficulty will automatically adjust for both veterans and novices. This was a very helpful device for newcomers to the world of shmups such as myself. The final unique mechanic of Sine Mora is the timer. For all intents and purposes, you are invincible. Instead of a health bar that can be replenished with power-ups, you have a timer. As you blast the countless enemies out of the sky, you’ll be rewarded a few more scarce seconds. If you get hit by a shot then you’ll lose a few seconds. If your timer hits zero then you’re done. This introduces an interesting risk vs. reward tactic. Is it worth it to throw yourself into fire to pick up an upgrade so you can more effectively gain time,  or should you save the time you have by dodging fire? Keep in mind, this is a bullet hell shmup and you’ll never be able to dodge all of the incoming fire.

Sine Mora’s world is inhabited by anthropomorphic animals at war. Simply put, the story is mature and extremely convoluted. All I was able to gather from playing the game is that one character, Ronotra Koss, has a son who was killed by his flight crew for disobeying an attack order. Koss’ son, Argus Pytel (different last name and different species), had raped a young mechanic shortly before his murder. Koss kidnaps the rape victim and uses her to hunt down those that betrayed his son. What the other half of the cast is doing is beyond me. I had to go to the game’s website  to really understand who they were and what they were actually doing. Together, the cast is a band of rebels fighting against The Empire. How the war started, I don’t know. Why are they fighting? Who knows. The story is presented via subtitled dialog boxes and in cryptic intermissions between each level that will leave you scratching your head.

Sine Mora has been one of the most accessible bullet hell shmups I have experienced. It is a genre that I tend to avoid, but this is one that drew me in. The presentation was gorgeous, the music was hypnotic and the time mechanic worked well to draw me into the game. The story, however, added nothing of interest. If anything, the story pushed me away from the fun I had with Sine Mora. Despite the convoluted story and mishmash presentation, there is still fun to be had with this accessible, but by no means easy, shmup. Bullets that explode into more bullets multiple times along with a boss that shoots a beam that covers the entire screen is not easy to deal with on any difficulty setting. Novices should enjoy their experience and veterans will find a steady challenge. To its very core, Sine Mora is a shmup, and a well produced one at that. There is replay value in harder difficulties and leader boards that will keep the dedicated fans occupied forever. My one real complaint is that I haven’t found Mora’s hypotenuse or opposite angle. (lol, math jokes)

This review is based on a retail copy of Sine Mora provided by Digital Reality and Grasshopper Manufacture. It is an XBLA exclusive.

There have been nearly 30 Dynasty Warriors games, and I hadn’t played a single one of them. Most of the criticism of the series seemed to be that they keep making the exact same game over and over again. That being said, there are quite a few people I know, whose opinions I respect, that love the franchise. When I set out to review Dynasty Warriors Next on the Playstation Vita, I didn’t really have any idea what I would be in for.

For those as uninformed as I was, at its core, Dynasty Warriors is a hack and slash action game that has you playing as the general of an army as he mows down hundreds, if not thousands of enemies. The game juxtaposes the “Three Kingdoms” era of medieval China with (in my opinion) a hideous cock-rock soundtrack. You take on literal hordes of enemies, killing dozens of them with each swing of your weapon as a guitar solo continuously squib-a-dee-dos in the background. Combined with the silly and fully voiced character dialog, it gives you the sense that this experience would never, ever be made by a western developer. The extra strange thing is that when you combine these seemingly bizarre elements, you actually get something very cool.

Besides murdering scores and scores of enemies on the field, there is also a higher level of strategy going on. It starts before the battle begins. You are presented with a map of China which is split into territories. Sometimes there is only one option, but often you are given the choice of which surrounding territory to invade. You also get a choose a “stratagem” before each battle in the form of cards representing each of your generals. The lands you control give you a certain amount of income, which you can spend on these cards. The cards can give you bonuses like boosting your attack or defence, or even having additional bases under your control when the battle starts.

For the sake of historical accuracy (I guess?), you are stuck with a specific general for some battles, but other battles will have you picking your general, along with several other characters you can bring along with you. You also have the chance to equip your general before you start. There is a reasonably deep loot system that will have you finding upgraded weapons and items to customize your character.

Once you are on the field of battle, you need to take over enemy bases, while making sure that the bases you have conquered aren’t reclaimed by the enemy. To take over a base, you need to be within its boarders, and kill a certain number of enemies. Once the counter goes down to zero, the base is yours.

The order in which you tackle these bases is important since the bases themselves will give your army, or the enemy army, different bonuses. Bonuses can be everything from giving you additional troops to supplies to having packs of tigers and pandas fighting by your side. In my experience, it was pretty pointless to try to take over the main enemy bases before you had taken over all of the supporting bases. You can also order your companions to take over bases or defend your bases that are under attack from enemy generals. This is all done with the touch screen on the mini map, which ended up being very intuitive.

Dynasty Warriors Next takes advantage of all of the Vita’s bells and whistles. You will be using the front touch screen and the rear touch screen. You will use the gyroscope to swing the Vita around to spot enemies (which is especially fun to do in public).

Most of the touch functionality takes place in mini-games that happen either between, or in the middle of battles. In battles, the mini-games tended to be things like ambushes, where you would need to quickly swipe at a handful of enemies in time or take damage. These ambushes seem pretty shallow, but aren’t offensive in any way. Typically each battle has you “dueling” the main enemy general, where you need to swipe across your screen at varying intervals, or tap to block attacks. These encounters didn’t ruin the experience, but they were so different from the core gameplay that they seemed really out of place.

The mini-games that showed up between battles were the ones that I dreaded. There were several horse races that I found a bit awkward, and also a handful of variations on a mini-game where you are swarmed by hundreds of enemy troops that you would have to slash, or tap then slash to defeat. These encounters didn’t seem to add to the experience, other than adding feature bullet points to the back of the game box.

If you have a Vita, and you are looking for a hack and slash action game, then Dynasty Warriors Next should do the trick. Being new to the series, I had a pretty darn good time with it. As a handheld game, what they have accomplished is truly remarkable. The game is beautiful, it’s fully voiced, and the combo-based action is more than a little satisfying. The only problem is that if Dynasty Warriors has already worn out its welcome for you, then Next isn’t going to do a single thing to change your mind.

This review is based on a retail copy of the PS Vita version of Dynasty Warriors Next provided by Tecmo Koei. It is a PS Vita exclusive.

GameFly is doing another huge used game sale. All games are guaranteed to work. Below is just a sampling of the games available. Some of these will sell out quick. If you have been a GameFly member for a while, these prices will be even lower. If you are interested in getting a membership (which we recommend) you can do that here.

Click here to get this deal.

• Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood [PS3] – $12.99
• Battlefield: Bad Company 2 [X360] – $8.99
• Captain America: Super Soldier [X360] - $8.99; [PS3, Wii] – $9.99
• Crysis 2 [X360, PS3] - $9.99
• Dead Space 2 [PS3] - $12.99
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution [X360] - $9.99
• Dragon Age II [X360] - $12.99
• Driver: San Francisco [Wii] – $9.99
• Duke Nukem Forever [X360, PS3] – $7.99
• Dungeon Siege III [PS3] – $9.99
• El Shaddai: Ascension of the Megatron [X360] - $9.99
• Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion – Game of the Year [X360] - $14.99
• F.E.A.R. 3 [X360] - $9.99
• L.A. Noire [X360] – $7.99; [PS3] – $8.99
• LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean [X360] - $12.99; [Wii] – $9.99
• LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars [Wii] –  $12.99
• Major League Baseball 2K11 [X360] - $9.99
• Medal of Honor [X360] - $9.99
• Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit [Wii] – $12.99
• Portal 2 [PS3] – $12.99
• Rage [X360] - $12.99
• Shadows of the Damned [X360] - $12.99
• SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy SEALs [PS3] – $14.99
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon [X360] - $8.99
• Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine [X360, PS3] - $9.99

Oil up your mouse and start doing calisthenics on your fingers because Blizzard has announced that Diablo III is merely two months away. On May 15 you will get to return to the world of Tristram and fight evil. The game is currently available for pre-order and pre-download the game over on Battle.net. We’re looking forward to the highly anticipated sequel; especially since some of us went bankrupt after the SoJ market crash of ’03.

Source:Blizzard, Battle.net

By: Michael Dao

With Mass Effect 3 just released, gamers who were fortunate enough to have the time to have finished the game already may have wondered what is next for the master storytellers at Bioware.

That suspicion has been somewhat confirmed today. The Baldur’s Gate website changed a number of weeks ago, and has now been replaced with a countdown clock counting down to tomorrow afternoon.

Whatever is going to happen, we will know soon.

The webpage also details some clues – if the page source is viewed, commented out are the following lines.

<\!– March 14, 2012 –>

<\!– Shadowy Figure- Raise Dead : Infinity Engine –>

<\!– It is coming. –>

Speculation seems to suggest that at the very least, Baldur’s Gate 3 will use a brand new engine.

This page will be updated as more information is available.

Baldur’s Gate was Bioware’s second game, published in 1998, known for it’s adoption of the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition ruleset, and started a revival of video role playing games. It was succeeded by an expansion pack, a sequel and a spin-off series.

View the countdown clock here.

Update: Atari currently owns the rights to Baldur’s Gate. The developer is unknown at this time.

There’s a lot of content in the Mass Effect universe. A lot. You’re so busy saving the galaxy and stopping the Reapers that you’ll never have chance to just sit and enjoy the codex. Enter the Mass Effect 3 Datapad, a portable app for your iOS devices. The Mass Effect 3 Datapad gives you access to the codex, private messages from your crew, tweets from other players, videos, screenshots, and an interesting mission system that raises your galactic readiness.

The mission system allows you to send a crew to a different planets to preform operations that will net you credits and some galactic readiness. The downside is that these missions can take several hours. So, wherever you are, be it at work, on the bus, or in the “captain’s cabin,” you can help prep your Shepard for the assault on the Reapers.

The Mass Effect 3 Datapad is now available for free on the App Store.

Source: iTunes

With the first flicker of the Vita’s back light, an entire world explodes out of the tiny handheld’s body. The vistas go on for miles and it will amaze onlookers as they wonder how they fit an entire Uncharted world on such a small system. The graphics, the guns, the amazing leaps, and of course the breathtaking set pieces all scream “THIS IS UNCHARTED.” While the initial impression is one of amazement, you have to wonder, can the rest of Uncharted: Golden Abyss live up to this? 

Uncharted: Golden Abyss is made for Uncharted fans. The game takes from all three games which will definitely give fans some nostalgia. While these homages to previous installments give the game a great balance of over the top action and fun exploration, it also brings some annoying aspects. The dreaded “stop on a 3 foot wide beam and balance” bit is back, and there are other similar annoying  features that feel like they were only included to check all the boxes on the back of the Vita case.

While traversing the levels, instead of moving and jumping, you can just draw the path and Drake will follow it. However, doing this kills half the fun of the game. While some people would complain about the lack of movement, I chose a different path. I didn’t use the feature at all. It really was that simple. Don’t use it and you have all the fun of a classic Uncharted climbing section.

Then there are the Vita features you can’t skip, like the charcoal rubbings. Uncharted: Golden Abyss  is full of collectibles, and some of these collectibles and required quest items are meaningless charcoal rubbings. When you find an artifact, you will have to rub the screen to make a charcoal imprint. There is no skill, it is not fun, and going as fast as possible will only bring on masturbation jokes from your companions. Thanks Sony. While the rubbing mini game is annoying, it doesn’t take too much away from the gameplay as it can be completed rather quickly when required. When you’re done with that you can get back to the best part of Uncharted: Golden Abyss–the combat.

Yes, you read that right, the best part of Uncharted: Golden Abyss  is the combat. Unlike every other Uncharted game, the combat isn’t limited to arenas. Instead, you are usually working your way through paths and corridors, which means you don’t really get surrounded. This new combat setting also allows for a lot more stealth kills. Skulking through a level and sneakily killing everyone was a blast, and when you do have to pull out a weapon, it isn’t a chore like previous titles. On normal difficulty, enemies are not bullet sponges–they take a couple of shots and then they are down. Luckily, this change means more killing and less finding ammo.  The difference in enemy fortitude may have been included to compensate for the Vita controls; it is more difficult to get head shots with the tiny sticks, but being able to kill easier makes up for it.

The only really disappointing thing about Uncharted: Golden Abyss  is the locales. The game is long, you would expect for there to be lots on interesting settings, but almost every environment is in a jungle or cave. In fact, there seems to be a lot of recycling throughout the levels in general. Often you will play levels twice, once forward and once backwards. While this doesn’t ruin the excellent experience, it is a tad disappointing that there wasn’t a more grand adventure with more variety.

Overall, if you’re a fan of the Uncharted series, I would call this a must-play for Vita owners. While it doesn’t add much to the canon, it is a blast to play. If you’re not already a fan of Uncharted, I don’t see Uncharted: Golden Abyss changing your mind.

Sumioni: Demon Arts is an action/platformer for the PS Vita that is inspired by classical Japanese “sumi-e” ink art, and boy does it look gorgeous. The game will rely heavily on the Vita’s front and rear touch screens to create ink strokes that the player can interact with or use to destroy their enemies. Check out the announcement trailer below to see the game in action. 

Sumioni: Demon Arts will cost $20 and only be available digitally through the Playstation Store.

The best way to describe Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning would be to say that it is a mix between Fable and World of Warcraft with a little bit of Elder Scrolls thrown in for good measure. That is not to say that Reckoning isn’t inventive, because it certainly is, but sometimes it feels like it lacks some freshness that a new IP should contain. Perhaps Reckoning’s original content is stretched too thin. In the end, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning never gives you a compelling reason to go save that farmer’s daughter from bandits, which is a shame, because those bandits are definitely going to kill that girl. 

The world of Reckoning is its strong suit. The history was penned by famous fantasy author R.A. Salvatore to give it an extra level of depth. You can tell that this is a land that has existed for thousands of years when hearing descriptions of its locations and peoples. Reckoning even breaks from its fantasy peers by saturating the world with beautiful, bright colors, abandoning the normal pallet of greys and browns. The lush greens of the Fae cities tell their own story through architecture and aesthetics, serving to bring the player farther into the land of Reckoning and perhaps urging them to save it.

Once the effect of the world sinks in and you are no longer impressed with the textures on the mountainsides, Reckoning loses a bit of the pull that it (possibly) had on you. You go from town to town collecting quests and fighting a handful of monsters. Like most open-world RPGs you want to complete quests and kill these monsters to strengthen your character and get loot. You have the ability to map a different weapon to each of your attack buttons which succeeds in keeping things interesting from a combat perspective. Depending on which tree (might, finesse or sorcery) you level your character in, you will also have an arsenal of powerful abilities or magic spells. Towards the end of the game I was a god of death who switched between fast weapon attack and overly destructive magic explosions. The combat is one of the stronger points of Reckoning and kept me playing long after I completely lost interest in the story.

The world is embroiled in a war between the Tuatha and everyone else. The Tuatha are a heretical branch of the Fae, immortal embodiments of magic, who worship the god Tirnoch and who are working towards its eventual return. You are a result of a science experiment gone somehow right. The mortal races have been trying to unlock the secrets of immortality in order to even the odds against the Tuatha and you are the first successful test subject. Furthermore, it turns out that you are unbound by fate. Fate controls both the mortal and immortal races of Reckoning to such an extent that you meet several characters who already know when they are going to die. The Winter Fae in the House of Ballads live their lives over and over again reenacting their stories. Being unbound by fate means that you are the only hope for winning the war. But first, you need to go find this farmer’s daughter.

I understand the desire for developers to cram as much gameplay into their games as possible, but Reckoning is proof that quality is preferable to quantity. For the first dozen hours the war is barely mentioned and you are left to fit the pieces of the world together at your own pace. Most of the time I would have done as many quests as I could before I would enter a new area, but Reckoning became so repetitive and uninteresting that I started skipping huge sections. Granted these were all side-quests but the feeling of running through an entire new zone without completing a single quest was more than a little off-putting. I tried being a completionist for a long time. I gave the various factions and guilds a shot and yes, I even saved that farmer’s daughter, but it was not fun.

When I was thinking about the lasting effect of Reckoning I knew it wouldn’t be for its writing. Once you get past the history and setting the conversations are unappealing. The loot you get from completing quests and killing powerful monsters was lackluster as well. So, yeah, who cares if you can create potions or swords after you invest in a particular crafting skill when a majority of the quests are unappetizing. Once I focused on completing the main quest I started enjoying Reckoning more and was surprised to find the last third was a vast improvement over anything shown previously. This is because they finally showed you the why you had been tapping X,X,X, but it was a little too late for me.

Very few games deserve to be trimmed of content as much as Reckoning. The inevitable plot twist only mustered an “Oh neat” out of me after so many hours of mediocre gameplay and story. There is a fun game to be found within Reckoning, but without a guide you would have no idea which quests you should spend your time on. It isn’t that Reckoning is terrible; it is more that it falls short of most of its peers and what goals it sets for itself. Games shouldn’t have to be played in a narrow, specific way in order to be entertaining. I had high hopes for Reckoning but the overstretching of its content really bummed me out.

This review is based on a retail copy of the Xbox 360 version of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning provided by the reviewer. It is also available for the PS3 and PC.

What more can we say? There’s a new Sim City in the works. It’s expected sometime in 2013. It’s coming to PC. Why waste your time torturing an individual family in The Sims when you’ll be able to terrorize entire cities again? Check out the trailer below.

Source: EA

Via: Joystiq

Inventory: Two cans of food, one fruit cocktail, three pieces of burnt rat meat, one bottle of water, one piton, machete, bow with one arrow, and pistol with three bullets. This is the most prepared I have been in my experience with Ubisoft Shanghai’s post-apocalyptic survival game, I Am Alive. A year after a worldwide cataclysm, Adam Collins has walked cross country to his home city of Haventon. There he hopes to find some clue of his wife and daughter’s whereabouts. You take control of Adam and set out on one of the bleakest worlds I have ever seen in games. The experience is austere and intense. It is also one of the most remarkable games I have ever played.

Haventon is about as bleak as it gets. Skyscrapers have been ravaged by numerous earthquakes. Streets have been torn asunder or blocked off by abandoned cars. With all the debris, everything has been covered in dust. The world is washed out and palette-less. The environment is downright depressing. Moving two blocks down the road becomes an arduous task. Obstacles block nearly every street corner, so you’re forced to climb over the shattered remains of the world. Traveling on the streets can be just as perilous without the climbing. There is so much dust in the air that you can only spend a limited amount of time in the thick cloud before you begin losing health. A second cannot be wasted. A second must be wasted since the dust cloud prevents you from seeing past three feet in front of you. It is a terrifying and isolating experience being lost in the cloud. Running to your destination will only hurt your health and stamina more. You’re forced to take things slow and soak in all the dismay around you.

There is hope though. Adam stumbles across a little girl no older than six. The child, Mei, has gotten separated from her mother and needs help finding her. Mei becomes your guide through the game. She knows the destroyed city better than Adam did when it was a functioning part of civilization. She hangs on your back as you climb down broken bridges or go through the subway system. She’s a constant reminder that there is a small bit of hope in this world. I have no experience in being a parent, but Mei was voiced and animated so well that I would throw myself in front of anything to keep her alive. Whether it is her giggling when she finds a teddy bear, or her screams when you get into a fight with another survivor, Mei’s presence is a stark reminder of the deplorable acts you must commit to survive.

I Am Alive’s characters and combat had me dreading every encounter with a hostile person. Not because combat was difficult, but because they were human. My first few encounters with other survivors were a significant change from any typical game experience. Enemies feared their own death. An unloaded pistol can be a big enough threat to defuse most oncoming attackers. They will stop dead in their tracks at the sight of a gun being pointed at them. Pulling a gun out lets you lock onto enemies allowing you to strafe around them. Since bullets are such a precious commodity (having on average only one or two at a time), the locking on is incredibly useful. Any missed shot is a waste that could result in your death. Your typical encounter with aggressive survivors involves surprise attacking one with your machete, and then holding off the rest with your pistol. Strafing around the enemies and ordering them to keep back allows you to position them. This way you are able to dispatch them using the least amount of resources. Hesitate too long though, and they might determine that your gun is empty and rush in to kill you. There are a small variety of enemy types. There are those who don’t actually want to fight you. You can hear the fear in their voice. There are enemies with handguns themselves, or larger thugs who don kevlar and must be taken out with precise shots to unprotected areas. Eventually, you come across a bow and arrow. While it is nice to have a ranged weapon with ammunition that’s easy to replenish, the arrow draws out the foe’s death. They squirm and plead not to be left to die. Their words struck a chord with me every time I heard one break down and cry as they passed away. With each enemy fearing their own death, and Mei’s screaming as I fight them, I began to dread encounters because I felt remorse for those that I killed in order to keep myself alive.

Aggressive survivors aren’t the main enemy in I Am Alive. That would be the environment. The city of Haventon has been almost reduced entirely to rubble. The streets are littered with abandoned cars and barbed wire barricades that were set up during the initial cataclysm. Climbing paths are intricately designed into the structures. At first they are hardly noticeable apart from a ladder and some red rails, but by the end of the game you’ll easily be able to recognize the path you must traverse before you grab hold of the first railing. It is imperative to plan your climbing path before you start your ascent. Adam has a limited amount of stamina. This stamina is depleted whenever he runs, climbs, fights, or is stuck in the dust on the lower levels of the city. Simply resting on stable ground, or hanging from a piton while climbing will refill your stamina. Certain resources such as water or fruit cocktails will boost it as well, so you always have a saving grace should you take a wrong turn as you climb up the side of a toppled tower. Should your stamina fully deplete before you can reach a safe spot to rest Adam will continue climbing as you mash on the R trigger to stave off falling to your death. As you perform any arduous task, your stamina capacity will begin to drop. Before you know it, you will have reached a safe spot halfway to your destination, but only have half as much stamina than when you started. You’re forced to consume some of your precious resources to regain your full capacity. To put it simply: Stamina works as a timer. At full capacity, you have thirty seconds with which you can climb. Should you exceed that thirty seconds, you can carry on for an additional fifteen seconds at the cost of your overall capacity. The next time you start to climb, you’ll only have fifteen seconds. If you exert yourself past your capabilities, you’ll either fall to your death if you’re climbing, or begin to lose health if you’re stuck in the dust clouds. As stamina reduces, violins shrill. This makes simply walking through the dust an intense experience.

I Am Alive may have drawn inspiration from a great deal of sources, but as a game it is an experience like no other. The fear of killing another human being, and the satisfaction of giving a dying survivor their last cigarette before they shuffle off their mortal coil are powerful events that are often never even considered in games. Holding a man at gunpoint and kicking him into a fire isn’t something I thought I’d never do in a game. What was unexpected was the impact he had on me as he pleaded for his life. I Am Alive isn’t an action game. It isn’t survival horror. It is merely a survival game. Down to it’s very core it is all about survival. It raised many questions for me. If the apocalypse came tomorrow, how far would I be willing to go to survive? How far would I be willing to go to help the others around me? I Am Alive doesn’t try to scare you with cheap thrills. It is a depressing and shocking experience. It is a game that sticks with you. Everyone who died at your hands will stick with you, and every giggle Mei lets out is a treasure to be cherished.

This review is based on a retail copy of the Xbox Live Arcade version of I Am Alive provided by Ubisoft. There are also plans to release I Am Alive on the Playstation Network.

By: Michael Dao

Syndicate was announced by Electronic Arts and Starbreeze Studios in September of 2011. There had been rumors floating around for years about the possibility that somewhere sequestered in an nondescript office park was a team hard at work on a reboot of this cherished franchise. And then the announcement came. The game would no longer be an isometric three dimensional tactical strategy game, but it would be a first person shooter. Worry started to seep in that this would be yet another beloved franchise ruined by a reboot -  a Transformers, and not a Star Trek. But with the announcement came a trailer that featuring gameplay footage, as well as a track from Skrillex. It was at this point that cautious optimism took over. The combat depicted in the gameplay was raw, and the music, though still some variety of dubstep, managed to capture the atmosphere from the first game. Just when the title started to generate some genuine enthusiasm, it was revealed that the game would be released in February, five months later. An absolute minuscule amount of time in game development. February has come and with it the release of Syndicate. As it turns out, the game is quite different from what was expected, and not in a bad way.

Syndicate takes place in a universe where corporations reign supreme. A universe where the haves are connected to their version of the internet via hardware implanted into the body and the have nots live in the fringes of society. It is a world where multinational conglomerates have surpassed governments and the world is now ruled by these city-states. In the original game, the player controlled a team of four agents kidnapped and then cybernetically augmented. This team was used to fulfill missions for their corporation, ranging from assassinations, rescue attempts, to the kidnapping of scientists. The game was notable in 1993 for its graphic violence, but even more so in the fact that it let the player truly be a bad person that did bad things in a believable context.

The troubling thing about Syndicate is that it is a title that at its best, provides a risky, fresh, fun, and engaging multiplayer experience. At its worst is the single player campaign. It is of a standard length, and it does provide some fun – there are a number of sequences that are enjoyable, and the boss battles are tense and have genuinely fun mechanics. There are incredibly gratifying sections where the player is using skills one after another, killing everything in sight, only to be followed up with some sequences that have laughably simple jumping and switch throwing puzzles. One is forced to compare it to 2011’s franchise reboot, Deus Ex: Human Revolution. When compared in such a fashion, Syndicate’s story is humdrum at best, and stupid at its worst. The inevitable plot twist was ridiculous and almost caused a controller to be launched out of a third story window.

The game itself has a lot going for it. It looks great, and the environments are gorgeous. It manages to immerse the player, and each level has a distinct yet unifying style. The world Starbreeze has constructed here feels fully realized – one where corporations are as pervasive in our everyday lives as can be. There are a lot of bits of lore to collect, and each piece brings us further into the universe. The writing is top notch and each piece is worth reading unlike the lore that is found in other games. The game also feels good to the player. Control is sharp, and the cover system is intuitive. Crouch and move against an object, and it becomes cover. The weapons are solid, look good, are suitably futuristic, and generally have a secondary fire mode which makes them even more useful. The basic assault rifle’s secondary mode turns it into a single shot penetrator, making it a useful jack of all trades weapon. The agent’s abilities are all a result of the Dart 6 chip that has been embedded in their skull. Dart mode can be activated with the right bumper and with it activated, time slows down in a Max Payne fashion, and the player will do additional damage, as well as take less damage. With upgrades, Dart mode can also regenerate health, but all of these benefits do not last forever – as the chip will run out of energy. It does recharge easily, as the stress of killing people by the score is converted into energy that powers the chip. Even more power is generated if you go on a “Rampage” and kill multiple NPCs within a short period of time – bonus points for headshots. The game feels familiar and that’s not a bad thing. The one gripe is with grenades – to wield one, the Y button must be held. This is an issue because if the player had never picked up a grenade and read the piece of lore attached to it, they would have gone through the entire game without ever knowing how to throw a grenade. Also, this does not allow a player to toss a grenade in a pinch. One would contend that if a person needs to use a grenade, they need to use it quickly.

However, the most confusing part about Syndicate is the multiplayer. It is a seminal step forward in multiplayer for first person shooters. It so outshines the single player experience that the campaign, which on its own, would be called dismal to fair, looks embarrassing in comparison. There are no adversarial modes. That’s right, none. The entire multiplayer experience is a set of ten multiplayer missions designed for a four person team to tackle. Each mission is a series of set-piece encounters that include minibosses, special encounters and a final, difficult boss. The closest analogy that one can make to this is that Starbreeze made a game that consists of ten MMO-style instances, and then hastily slapped on a single player campaign, as opposed to a lot of other games released that feature a hastily designed multiplayer experience slapped onto a tight single player campaign, simply to hit a bullet point on a marketing checklist.

The comparison to MMORPG instances is the best way to describe the ten cooperative multiplayer levels that ships with the game. Each mission varies in location and objective. Although most missions boil down to an assassination or killing a number of specific targets, there are notable variations where the objective is to retrieve some servers from an installation, or a number of organs. (The human body kind.) It is here that Syndicate shows its brilliance. Four strangers just running and gunning can probably do moderately well in any of these scenarios, but the boss encounters are difficult, and incredibly so at the higher difficulty levels. A team of four that works together well will have much greater success. Teams that take up roles familiar to the MMO player, tank, off-tank, healer and DPS will find their hard work very well rewarded. It often feels as if Syndicate is not so much a game but an engine for the creation of awesome moments of awesome teamwork. There may be no greater moment of multiplayer gaming when three members of the team I was playing with distracted an automated turret, while I dashed into a security room to hack its controls, turning it to our side.

There is also progression in the multiplayer side of the game. Every action taken earns the player experience points, and actions at more challenging difficulty levels earn even more points. It is these experience points that level your character up, and with each level the player can choose a chip upgrade on a board with a grid of abilities. Weapons and applications upgrades follow the a similar path, to that of MMOs. When your team kills a miniboss or a boss on a level, their chip is extracted, and everyone involved receives a number of tokens that can be used exclusively for weapon or applications upgrades. After the mission, these tokens are used to unlock upgrades. Once unlocked, they can be researched. Each upgrade has an experience point value associated with it, and they have to be selected to be researched. Once selected, any experience earned will go towards research of the application and or weapon until the value is maxed, and poof, the upgrade is yours.

This system is actually amazing for the game in a very subtle way. By allowing players the ability to improve weapons and applications without actually having to use them, it ensures that everyone in a group will be as effective as possible. No one wants to do an instance on a tough difficulty to find out their fourth player is packing a pistol because she needs to level it up. Another nice touch is the ability to queue a second skill to research – this stops players from ditching games as soon as they earn enough XP to complete research of an item.

Though much fun is to be had with Syndicate, it is not without its share of problems. As of the writing of this review, there appears to be some bug involving the game and Xbox Live Parties. If a player is in a party with other people, your Xbox may lock up. During one review session, there were no less than six lockups requiring a restart of the console among all four participants.

Syndicate remains an engaging title with a multiplayer component which is entertaining, challenging, and wholly unique. The multiplayer of Syndicate is such a fully realized product that it could stand as a retail product on it’s own, and therein lies the biggest issue with the game. Syndicate suffers from multiple personalities. On the one hand, the multiplayer experience that it delivers is so unlike anything currently seen in a shooter today. However, we have a single player campaign whose shining moments are mediocre at best, and whose core is mundane and forgettable.

This review is based on a retail copy of the Xbox 360 version of Syndicate provided by the reviewer. It is also available for the PS3 and PC.

There are plenty of big games on the Playstation Vita. There are ports and new entries in blockbuster franchises that feel like they belong on consoles. It’s amazing that the Vita can handle these console-style games, but what about the smaller, indie games? How will they fare on the Vita? Unless Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack is an anomaly, they should do just fine. 

Mutant Blobs Attack is one of the only bite-sized indie games that you will find on the Playstation Network store, and it is currently the cheapest at $7.99. Drinkbox Studios’ second entry into the Tales from Space series has you shlurping along as a mutant blob, absorbing anything small enough to be engulfed in your slimy embrace.

The game plays sort of like a side-scrolling Katamari with platforming and physics-based puzzles that need to be solved in order to access more “food” for your blob. There is a great variety to the game play – the core concept is that you need to make your blob big enough to absorb the thing that is barring your way to the next level. Oh the things you will absorb and the places you will go! Frat house? You will start there. The moon? You will go there, and you will manage to come back too!

Your blob can do a whole lot more than devouring anything in its path. He can squish through tiny openings or do a power slam through breakable floors. Certain materials glow purple, which means they are magnetic and your blob can either attract or repel them. Most of the time, you use this ability to stick to surfaces and avoid obstacles, or push your blob to new heights that are otherwise out of reach. You can also use your blobish magnetism to push small objects over traps so they form a bridge. Late in the game you will find yourself needing to use both the push and the pull to levitate yourselves through areas where both the ceiling and the floor mean death. Drinkbox Studios does a great job of taking a simple game mechanic and exploring all the possible options.

Just when things might start getting stale, you are given a new ability, like being able to fly in certain areas (fun!), or manipulating objects via the touch screen (less fun). These sections are mostly great, except for some instances where you need to be touching an object on screen and using the analog stick to move your blob at the same time. It just ends up feeling awkward, and in some cases where you need to use multi-touch it can become frustrating.

There is a whole set of levels where your blob acts as a marble, and you use the Vita’s gyroscope to tilt him through a maze while avoiding holes and gobbling up odds and ends. These levels tended to feel out of place as well as being a lot clunkier than the rest of the game. However, they are completely optional, so they don’t detract from the overall package.

Beyond the simple, yet engaging gameplay, the world of Mutant Blobs Attack is pulled directly from a 50s style monster movie and is a ton of fun. Drinkbox Studios even plays with the frame around the outside of game space so that it looks like you are playing on an old, convex TV with rounded corners. It is the attention to details in Mutant Blobs Attack that shows how lovingly it was crafted.

The Playstation Vita is very lucky to have such a fun experience at launch. Anyone that has picked up the new handheld system needs to own Mutant Blobs Attack. You won’t be able to find a more joyful experience on the platform, and it just so happens that it is also the cheapest game you can currently buy.

This review is based on a retail copy of the PS Vita version of Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack provided by Drink Box Studios. It is a PS Vita exclusive.

We know that Assassin’s Creed 3 is set to launch October 30. We know that it will involve stabbing people. There have always been rumors of when and where Desmond’s next ancestor would take us, but one theory just got a lot more believable. Leaked images from a Best Buy employee suggest that AC3 will take place during the American Revolution. Additionally, it appears our new assassino will be of Native American descent, though we can’t be certain. After all, this could just be Paul Revere with some traditional Native American garb.Along with the Best Buy leak, Gamer Informer had a banner ad on for just a moment before it was curtly pulled down. Fortunately, someone was able to save the image and post it on NeoGAF.

All of this evidence seems to be setting the pieces in place for the American Revolution. Think about it. Instead of Leonardo Da Vinci, you can get your new gadgets from friendly ol’ Ben Franklin. Rather than help the Machiavelli family, you can help historical bad-ass, George Washington. There seems to be a great deal of potential for this setting, but we can’t help but be upset about not having it take place in Downton Abbey. We were really looking forward to stabbing Thomas and hiding his body in a pile of hay.

[UPDATE 3/1/2012 12:45 PM EST]

Ubisoft has released the official box art for Assassin’s Creed 3 which features the same garbed assassin scalping a red coat. This confirms the aforementioned rumors.

Sources: Kotaku, NeoGAF, Assassin’s Creed Facebook Page

Amazon is running a promotion on Xbox 360 accessories. You can get up to 30% off on some of the most necessary gear around. Maybe that 4GB Xbox 360 bundle is leaving you feeling a little cramped? And please tell me you aren’t still sticking batteries into your controller.

No, this has nothing to do with Gears of War.

Click here to get this deal.

• Wireless Controller – Glossy Black – $36.99
• Wireless Network Adapter A/B/G & N Networks  - $49.99
• Quick Charge Kit – $19.99
• 320GB Hard Drive  - $99.99
• Silver Controller and Play & Charge Kit – $47.99
• Wireless Speed Wheel  - $39.99
• Wireless Headset with Bluetooth – $39.99
• Xbox LIVE 12 Month Gold Starter Kit – $57.94
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Wireless Headset with Bluetooth – $49.99

By: Michael Dao

This holiday season is looking to shape up nicely as Ken Levine and the rest of the boys and girls have announced a release date for Bioshock Infinite, the third game in the franchise, of October 16, 2012. The game, set in the flying steampunk city of Columbia is to be released on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 in North America. International gamers will have to wait until the 19th.

There are no current pre-order bonuses from Amazon, but we will keep you updated when they inevitably come.

Preordering from Amazon is up right now at this link.

Have you finished weaving your own strands of fate? Have you exhausted every enemy in every dungeon? Do you sit around Amalur thinking, “I wonder what happened to that guy from GoodBurger.” Then look no further than the date of March 20, 2012.

Legend of Dead Kel will take players to the mysterious island (that’s really the best kind of island) of Gallows End. There will be more enemies to fight and more dungeons to explore. Players can also acquire Gravehal Keep, a massive estate. Between Gravehal Keep and the new dungeons, Amalur itself is expanded by 15%. So if you’re in Amalur right now, wish that there were new enemies, more dungeons, and you just want a bigger house then The Legend of Dead Kel can be yours in just a few weeks. The date is set for March 20, 2012 and priced at 800 Microsoft Points or $9.99 for the PSN.

Source: EA

Via: Joystiq

There are a lot of versions of the hit board game, Monopoly. Star Wars Monopoly, Rasta-mon-opoly, Galip-olopoly, Edna Krabappoly and now a Street Fighter Monopoly. While we’re sure that a Street Fighter edition of Monopoly will have great real estate locations like Shadowloo HQ, or that awesome volcano, we’re thinking about holding out for the inevitable Super Street Fighter Monopoly or even the Hyper Street Fighter Monopoly. Capcom is currently holding a poll to see which of your favorite Street Fighter characters will be turned into the tokens for this game of real estate dominance. Whatever you do, don’t put Ryu next to the car. That dude will tear up a car.

Source: Capcom-unity

Image Source: Capcom-unity

I know we are a little later then I wanted to be into the new year, but it is time to start up our Thrifty Thumbs community game night again. After more than a few grudge matches between the Thrifty Nerd staff we decided to invite you guys and gals in on the fun. To this accomplish this we are going to host an NFL Blitz tournament on Xbox Live. The tournament will get underway March 5.

Sign-ups begging now and will run through March 4 at 7 p.m. CST at which time we will draw the initial pairings. From there we will run the tournament until a winner is crowned. There will be prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place, so join in on the fun and compete against the Thrifty Nerd staff.

To enter the Thrifty Nerd Blitz tournament leave your name and Xbox Gamer Tag in the tournament forum post. If you have any questions let me know on twitter at @JohnParie.

It appears as though Amazon has decided to lure the seldom seen Feb. 29 out of hiding with a collection of video game deals today. We’ll be with you throughout the day to help decipher the clues (hopefully before they are revealed) to ensure you can grab some of today’s gaming deals.

Click here for these deals

• 2 AM PST: Clue – None
• Star Wars: The Old Republic $39.99 ($10 off) – Link
• 6 AM PST: Clue - Make hell your battleground in this hot release for the PlayStation Vita.
• Our research suggests - Army Corps of Hell
• 8 AM PST: Clue - Grab your eyepatch for this PSP adventure
• Our research suggests - Lego Pirates of the Caribbean
• 10 AM PST: Clue - The latest installment in the world-renowned series, which has shipped over 100 million units worldwide.
• Our research suggests - Final Fantasy XIII-2
• 1 PM PST: Clue - Turtle Beach’s top-of-the-line XBOX 360 headset
• Our research suggests - Turtle Beach Ear Force X41 Headset
• 3 PM PST: Clue - Get a total body dance workout on the Nintendo Wii!
• Our research suggests - Zumba Fitness 2
• 6 PM PST: Clue -Its getting dark in here… Again
• Our research suggests - The Darkness 2
• 8 PM PST: Clue - Play with all your favorite toys within this DS game
• Our research suggests - Toy Story 3 [DS]

It wouldn’t be Sony hardware if it didn’t have a Lumines game on it. Mechanically Lumines Electronic Symphony for the Playstation Vita is nearly identical to the original PSP release. This might sound like a criticism, but more Lumines with the core mechanics intact and lots of extras is a good thing. 

If you are new to the Lumines series, it is really pretty simple. You are working with two colors of blocks. These block colors will be randomly arranged into squares of four and dropped from the sky, à la Tetris. The goal is to arrange the blocks so that you match up at least four color squares. From there you can rectangle off in any direction to match additional block and get bonus points. All the while a line is progressing across the screen to the tempo of the music and clearing blocks that you have matched. The game continues until unmatched blocks reach the top of the screen.

One major addition to the formula is the experience system. Your inevitable hours of Lumines play now translate into levels which you can show off to your friends along with your high score. Each new level will also unlock new avatars and “skins” which are a combination of a song and new set of visuals.

The avatars you unlock each have a special ability for both single and multiplayer modes. These abilities can be anything from slowing down time before the next block drops to the new block shuffling ability which can turn a mountain of unsorted blocks into tons of bonus points, if you are lucky. Each time you use your ability, you will need to build it back up again. You can do this by getting matches greater than four or by tapping the Vita’s rear touch screen. Tapping is easily the more efficient way to go, but in my experience was annoying to the point of being detrimental to the overall experience. In theory you could tap along to the beat of the song, but that just didn’t work for me. The associated sound effect just doesn’t go with the music, and even tends to drown it out.

Lumines Electronic Symphony defaults to “Voyage” mode, which will take you through a series of skins, with the difficulty ratcheting up along the way. There is also a more challenging “Master” mode, a time-based “Stop Watch” mode,  a “Playlist” mode which allows you to arrange skins in your own order and a two player “Duel” mode which is sadly only local. An online Duel mode with a voice chat option would most likely have me never leaving the house again.

The World Block is a brand new concept for Lumines Electronic Symphony. Every block cleared by a Lumines player contributes to whittling away at a giant, shared World Block. If the World Block is completely erased, all contributing players get an experience bonus based on the number of blocks they removed.

Everything that has made Lumines great since the launch of the original PSP is back. The trance-inducing combination of visuals and music is better than ever with over 30 new skins including Aphex Twin, Air, The Chemical Brothers and many more (see a complete list here). Be prepared to lose all sense of time with Lumines, which is a must-have for anyone who owns a Vita and has even a passing interest in puzzle games or electronic music.

This review is based on a retail copy of the PS Vita version of Lumines Electronic Symphony provided by Ubisoft. It is a PS Vita exclusive.

The red and blue tight wearing smart-ass superhero is back this summer. The rebooted film franchise The Amazing Spider-Man has it’s own game tie-in. We’re always cautious of games from movies since we’ve been burned in the past, but the premise of returning to an open New York City as our favorite webslinger has us excited enough to give it a shot. As the trailer above shows, The Amazing Spider-Man game will drop (the beat) on June 6, 2012.

Source: IGN

Via: Shacknews

I heard all of the critics raving about how wonderful Rayman Origins was last fall, and I wanted to pick up it up and give it a try, truly I did. Sadly it was released right in the middle of one of the busiest holiday gaming seasons in recent memory. When I saw that it was coming to the Vita as a launch title, I made it my mission to seek it out. Boy am I glad that I did. The almost universal praise for Rayman Origins is well deserved. 

Rayman Origins is a 2D side-scrolling platformer that is a reboot of the classic Rayman series. There is a story in there somewhere – maybe something about Rayman’s buddies snoring too loudly? There are also captured nymphs, and adorable little electoons to be freed. It’s all nonsense, but it’s wonderful, whimsy-filled nonsense.

The amount of creativity poured into this game is astonishing. The music is FREAKING ADORABLE without ever getting saccharin or annoying. There is an entire level based around a didgeridoo. The hand-painted visuals are nothing short of luscious, and work wonderfully to show off the Vita’s amazing five inch OLED screen. Each world is magically unique and interesting. Trust me when I say that you will never be bored.

The overall pacing of Rayman Origins is also brilliantly done. You gain a new ability in each of the first five worlds, building up your repertoire of skills at a reasonable pace, so that by the time you reach the second half of the game you have everything you need to get through the more hairy platforming sections. If I had a complaint about Origins, it would be that the last few levels ended up going from challenging to frustrating. Typically the levels have generous check points that keep you from feeling any frustration, but in a few cases, when the game designers decide they really want to turn the screws, they are notably absent. One particular level had me completely flummoxed. Maybe it had something to do with me playing it late at night, but after about an hour of trying to get through a one minute segment I had to give up in a fit of a rage. Of course the next morning I beat it on the third try. The anger from the previous night was washed away. I just can’t stay mad at you Rayman!

You are most likely wondering about the differences between the Vita version and the original console versions. From my research and from playing a demo on Xbox Live, I can tell you this – it’s smaller. Everything else seems spot on.

Beyond how the game looks and plays, there are some differences in modes. One of the big selling points for the original Rayman Origins was a four player co-op mode. Sadly this mode is absent. It is worth noting that the original mode was couch co-op only, but it would have been an excellent upgrade if Ubisoft had given us a co-op mode to play with our friends over the internet.

Replacing the missing co-op is a new ghost mode. This is essentially an asynchronous race mode. You can send your best times to your PSN buddies, and they can race against your ghost and try to beat your time.

Another new feature is a type of collectible called relics. They are scattered throughout most levels and when you find them, they open up a piece of wall mural that explains more of Rayman’s origins. The thing is, even if you are looking for them, you will never see them. They are meant to be difficult to find, and by the time I had finished the game, I hadn’t found a single one on my own. If you are lucky enough to find a relic, you can share it via the Vita’s Near functionality, the idea being that the community could work through finding relics together. I have since improved my relic hunting skills – the trick is to listen to for their rattling and knocking sounds.

The Vita’s touch screen also comes into play, albeit in completely optional ways. When Rayman hits an enemy, they become “bubblized”, making them harmless, but if you can hit them a second time, you get a little point bonus. In the Vita version you can also tap the bubblized enemies on the touch screen to pop them. Another touch-related function is the ability to pinch the screen to zoom in and out. Mostly this is just a nice way to zoom in and really appreciate the lush surroundings. You can also zoom all the way out to find secret areas, or zoom way in to help with your relic hunting.

If you have a Vita and didn’t try out the console version of Rayman Origins last fall, I urge you to pick this up. It is pure fun, top to bottom, and really shows off what the Vita can do. If you already played Rayman Origins, there isn’t enough new here to compel a purchase, unless you just want another run-through of the wonderful world of Rayman – and I certainly wouldn’t blame you.

This review is based on a retail copy of the PS Vita version of Rayman Origins provided by Ubisoft. It is also available for the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii.

It appears the rumor from earlier this week was true. Successors to Pokémon Black and White have been announced. Opposed to the typical “enhanced” version that seems to follow every new pair of Pokémon games, two new titles have been announced. Pokémon Black Version 2 and Pokémon White Version 2 will be the first numerated sequels for the main Pokémon franchise.

A rough date of June 2012 has been given on the Pokémon website for Japan, but there’s no date for North America or Europe. The games will be available for the DS and compatible with the 3DS in plain ol’ two dimensions. No other details have been given, so we’re left to our own assumptions. We’re guessing there might be some new pokémon in this game, but we can’t be certain. We also assume that there will be pokéballs, possibly some pikachus and perhaps even some tall grass in which wild pokémon hide. But we can’t be certain. These are all wild guesses.

Source: Pokémon.com (Japan) and Pokémon.com 

New Today

PC Games Sales

Amazon is saying Farewell to February by offering a huge list of downloadable PC games that are up to 75%. While there are a ton of savings, these six are our favorites.

• Trine - $1.24
• The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings: Digital Premier Edition- $14.99
• Saints Row the Third- $24.99
• The Darkness II- $24.99
• Darksiders – $5.00
• Driver: San Francisco: Deluxe Edition – $24.74

Find the full list here.

Pre-orders of Note

Mass Effect 3 is one of the most anticipated games of the year, and it is only a few short weeks from release! March 6 is the day and there is still time to pre-order and get the M55 Argus Assault Rifle and a $10 promotional credit at Amazon.com.

SSX Killer jumps, phat beats, sick tricks and carving into fresh powder are all coming back to your home in the new SSX game February 28. Pre-order now to receive a $10 promotional credit at Amazon.com

Borderlands 2 Get ready to go back to Pandora with a cast of four new characters and the lovable Claptraps. Getting to The Vault is an arduous task, but a $10 credit for pre-ordering at Amazon.com should help. Lock and load September 18.

Ongoing Sales

Buy 2 Vita Games, Get 1 Free
The Vita launch sale continues on Amazon. Provided you have a Vita, or are planning on getting one soon then take advantage of this sale that incorporates ten Vita launch title here.

12 Month Xbox Live Gold for $35.99. Xbox Live Gold underwent a price hike last year, but you can still find it on sale for under the asking price of $59.99. You’d have to be a fool to pay full price for Gold.

PlayStation Vita is finally on the shelves. Whether you’re a gamer on the go, or just want to experience console level gaming anywhere throughout your life, then the Vita is an excellent choice.

Once Again With Feeling

• Mass Effect 3 PS3, Xbox 360, PC, PC Download – Amazon – $10 Credit – 03/06/2012
• SSX - PS3, Xbox 360 – Amazon - $10 Credit, 02/28/2012
• Borderlands 2 PS3, Xbox 360 – Amazon – $10 Credit – 09/18/2012
• Buy 2, Get 1 Free Vita Games
• Trine - PC – Amazon – $1.24
• The Witcher 2- PC – Amazon – $14.99
• Saints Row the Third- PC- Amazon – $24.99
• The Darkness II- PC – Amazon – $24.99
• Darksiders - PC – Amazon – $5.00
• Driver: San Francisco: Deluxe Edition - PC – Amazon – $24.74
• Up to 75% off PC Downloads
• 12 Month Xbox Live Gold - Amazon – $35.99
• PlayStation Vita - Amazon – $249.99

We’d be lying if we told you we weren’t fans of the Battlefied series. While last year’s Battlefield 3 is still a staff favorite (it made it into our top ten list), we can’t say that it is a perfect experience. Needless to say, there are a lot of problems in the game. DICE has heard the complaints, and they are rushing to fix everything possible. Everything. DICE has released a list of over a hundred problems that they plan on addressing as soon as possible. While hundreds of problems seems astronomical, these are mainly balance tweaks of weapons and respawn times. To see the full list, check out the update on the Battlelog.

Source: Battlelog

Via: Joystiq

By: Michael Dao

Robot Entertainment proudly announces an update to their latest success on iOS, Hero Academy. With this update, players now have access to a third army, the Dwarves for the price of $1.99. For players that are a bit more thrifty, this update does have more to add. There’s a new map that’s Dwarf themed that includes squares that can teleport the player, plus Game Center achievements and leaderboard support.

There are some bugfixes as well, the most notable being that music now continues to play when you start the app, and there are enhancements to the game, such as a next game button when submitting a turn. Many precious minutes have been wasted refreshing game lists between games.

• Explosive New team available: Dwarves!
• New Dwarven-themed playfield featuring Teleportation squares – FREE to all players!
• Game Center achievements and leaderboards
• Less Waiting for Games to Load: New “Next Game” button goes right to your next active game
• German language support added, more languages coming soon
• Your music continues playing when entering the app
• Auto-forfeit if no turn is submitted – 7 days for random games, 14 for custom games.
• Double-tap items, units, and premium squares for help
• Balance changes to the Knight, Wizard, Necromancer, and Void Monk
• Various stability and functionality fixes
• BUG FIX: All chat bugs should be fixed with international character sets.
• BUG FIX: Submitting a Win at the end of a game, but getting a Loss instead because of bad network lag.

Read it in full from Robot here.

Here is a bonus for consumers – giant game rental services occasionally have to get rid of extra stock at extremely low prices. GameFly has some fantastic deals going right now, and subscribers can get these for as much as 10% off the already silly prices. Keep in mind these games are guaranteed to work. Check out the list of highlights:

• Deus Ex: Human Revolution – $12.99
• Crysis 2 – $9.99
• L.A. Noire – $7.99
• Catherine – $14.99
• Captain America: Super Soldier – $9.99
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon – $9.99
• Dungeon Siege III – $9.99
• X-Men: Destiny – $12.99
• Call of Juarez: The Cartel – $7.99
• SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy SEALs – $14.99
• Brink – $6.99

2k Games and Gearbox have finally announced the release date of their eagerly awaited sequel, Borderlands 2. Coming to the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on September 18, gamers can expect more of what made the first game loved by many, only better. Also announced are the preorder bonuses and  in-game items. Promised, is the Gearbox gunpack, which contains a number of starter golden guns, and a special golden key used to unlock a special chest. The belle of the ball, however, is the Vault Hunter’s Relic, which improves the loot finding abilities of the player.

Also with todays announcement is a new trailer that features the best ironic use of dubstep in a game trailer yet.

You can catch our previous coverage of Borderlands 2 here.

Amazon currently has a 10 dollar credit if you preorder. You can do that here.

What is it?

The old school (it wasn’t that long ago) snowboarding series has undergone a reboot. Bright colorful snowboarders carve their own paths into some of the world’s most trecharous mountains to the tune of some phat beats and sick tricks.

What’s it about?

Players get access to two courses. One course for racing, and the other for performing tricks. A mirage of techno, dubstep and the requisite RUN D.M.C. sets a fun lighthearted tone for the game (a welcome change from the game’s initial reveal back in 2010). In the final build, it appears that were will be over 150 drops to snowboard down. Each drop either focuses on speed or high scores from tricks and combos. Low times and high scores appear to net you some form of currency that you can spend on gear and upgrades. Unfortunately, none of that is available in the demo.

Is it fun?

This vibrant (even in the dark) experience is pure joy. Tricks are easy to pull off with the new controls. Utilizing either the four face buttons or the right thumbstick, you’ll be pulling off multiple flips, spins, and grabs from a single jump. The game is by no means gritty and realistic. Instead, SSX sticks to the series’ roots of buoyant snowboarding.

How big is it/ how long is it?

The demo is 1.3 GB, a standard size. With it you only have access to two drops, one for racing and the other for pulling off as many tricks as possible. There are two videos that explain the online features. RiderNet is a recommendation system that allows you to show off your times and scores to your friends. You’l be able to race a ghost of your friends’ runs. Explore mode, the only mode available in the demo, will keep track of your high scores and fastest times while comparing you to your friends. As versatile as the online features are, there are still only two courses to play in this demo. Don’t expect this demo to satiate any hunger for the game. It will only whet your appetite for the release on February 28, 2012.

This preview is based on the Xbox 360 demo available now. A demo is also available on the PSN.

The Darkness was a first-person shooter developed by Starbreeze in 2007, and while it wasn’t a blockbuster hit, it definitely struck a chord with quite a few gamers. Though it took five years, but The Darkness is finally back and this time it has been developed by Digital Extremes. It isn’t surprising that this made fans of the series nervous.  Digital Extremes is mostly know for doing ports and the occasional clunker like Dark Sector. However, this anxiety was unfounded–The Darkness II is wonderful. 

If you didn’t play the first game, you should give it a shot. I played it recently, and while it is a bit rough in some areas, it still holds up. If you don’t have the time, The Darkness II has a “previously on” segment which will get you up to speed. We pick up the story of The Darkness two years after the events of the first game. Jackie Estacado has become a New York mob boss, and has managed to keep The Darkness sealed up inside himself. That all goes out the window when Jackie needs The Darkness to keep himself alive during an attempt on his life.

The Darkness manifests as two tentacles on the right and left of the screen, and are controlled with the right and left bumpers. The left tentacle can grab items and people as well as throw, smash and destroy at will. The right tentacle can slash horizontally and vertically when using the right stick along with the bumper. A good deal of your time will be spend grabbing enemies with the left tentacle and doing unspeakable things to them with the right. Meanwhile Jackie can hold rifles, or duel-wield pistols and machine guns with his own hands. Jackie tends to deal with enemies in the distance with gunplay, while using The Darkness up close. Essence can be used to upgrade or add new darkness powers to your arsenal.

Using Jackie’s Darkness powers has an advantage over shooting in that you will gain more experience, and eventually the choice of additional health, ammo or even a darkness shield after each execution. The Darkness II has a solid RPG style leveling system based on “essence” gained through combat and finding dark relics scattered through each level.

The gremlin-like darklings also make a return in The Darkness II. In the first game you could call on up to four darklings with various powers. In the sequel you have just one darkling, but he acts as more of a developed character, to the point that you actually start caring about the little bugger. At certain points in the game you inhabit the darkling who has his own gruesome execution animations.

Other darkness powers include the new “gun channeling” and “swarm” abilities as well as the ability to create black holes and even pick up your darkling and fling him at unsuspecting enemies. Gun channeling allows Jackie to have unlimited ammo and do additional damage for a short period of time. Swarm stuns nearby enemies allowing Jackie to get the drop on them. All of the abilities end up being very handy  and are utilized for most of the game. Nothing feels wasted or extraneous. You will be able to get enough essence to fill out one or two of the ability trees in your first play through, which is a nice incentive to go back and play through the New Game Plus mode.

The Darkness II has a gorgeous new aesthetic which is meant to resemble the comic book art that is the original source material for the game. Jackie’s darkness powers can only be used in the dark (go figure), which you would expect to make for a very dark game. The game ends up being surprisingly bright and colorful, with darkness powers taking on a purple glow. It’s as if the designers flipped light and dark on their head. You are perfectly comfortable in the dark, while you will be blinded if you find yourself in bright light.

The dialogue and voice acting is also top notch. Mike Patton returns to voice The Darkness in the weird and creepy way that only he can do. I can absolutely see Mr. Patton’s voice work being too over the top, or even goofy for some people. I’m a huge fan of his special brand of crazy, so I loved every minute of it. Another character, Johnny Powell steals the show as the premier expert on The Darkness (and absolute paranoid nut-bag). After you collect the relics scattered throughout the game, you can listen to Johnny explain their significance. What is typically a dull affair in many games turns into an absolute treat.

Beyond the single player campaign, you will find a co-op campaign called Vendettas. One of the main complaints about The Darkness II is that the single player is short, and it is, though I prefer to think of it as succinct. Either way you can burn through it in around six to eight hours. The Vendettas allow up to four players to take part in a side story that is running parallel to the single player. The characters you pick from could be described as stereotypes. There is a Japanese guy with a samurai sword, an African-American voodoo witch doctor, a Scottish soccer hooligan and a former member of the Israeli Intelligence Agency. Each character has the ability to use one of Jackie’s darkness powers, but with a little twist. This section has some of the best/silliest dialogue as you listen in on the stereotypical Italian mobsters interacting with these extreme characters. The mode ends up adding quite a bit more content to the otherwise short game.

The Darkness II is brutal, crass and probably not everyone’s cup of tea. It is also gorgeous, smart and a big improvement over the original in terms of game play. The narrative is constructed in a very interesting way that I don’t want to spoil for you, but it will keep you guessing right up to the end. This game takes what was interesting about the original, and builds upon it while also streamlining the experience. The Darkness II is going to hold a special place in my heart just like the original. I just hope that I don’t have to wait another five years for The Darkness III.

This review is based on a retail copy of the Xbox 360 version of The Darkness II provided by the reviewer. It is also available for the PS3 and PC.

Amazon has matched the GameStop and Target sales currently going for PS Vita Games: Buy Two, Get One Free. Unlike GameStop, Amazon has a much better selection. Check out the list below:

• Uncharted: Golden Abyss
• Rayman Origins
• Lumines: Electronic Symphony
• Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3
• Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational
• wipEout 2048
• EA Sports FIFA Soccer
• BlazBlue: Continuum Shift EXTEND
• ModNation Racers: Road Trip
• Dungeon Hunter Alliance
• Little Deviants
• Asphalt: Injection
• F1 2011
• Michael Jackson The Experience
• Ben 10 Galactic Racing

Red and Blue had Yellow. Gold and Silver had Crystal. Black and White have…zebra? Gray? We really don’t know. What we do know is that there’s a rumor floating around that a successor to Pokémon Black and White will be announced this Sunday during the airing of a new episode of the Japanese show Pokémon Smash. During a Q&A session, Junichi Masuda of Game Freak suggested that Pokémon fans watch the new episode of Pokémon Smash, the Japanese Pokémon musical show, after he was questioned about a successor to Black and White. 

Whether you live in Japan or not, expect to hear some Poké related news this weekend.

Source: Youtube

Via: Andriasang

There is nothing worse than having a shiny new system, and nothing to play on that. GameStop has a solution for this problem. Buy two Playstation Vita games from a select group and you can get a third game for free. There are only five games to choose from, but the list is a good one.

Click here for this deal.

Available games:

• Uncharted: Golden Abyss
• ModNation Racers: Road Trip
• Hotshots Golf World Invitational
• Wipeout 2048
• Little Deviants – PS Vita

New Today

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West for $7.60

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is a retelling of the classic 400-year old novel “Journey to the West” set in a post-apocalyptic world. One of the most cinematic games you will every play with characters that you actually care about. Andy Serkis is heavily featured, and his talents don’t go to waste.

Rayman Origins for $29.70

Michel Ancel has crafted an absolutely gorgeous platformer in Rayman Origins. I understand if you no longer have joy in your heart, but if your soul hasn’t completely left your body, you will be delighted by this title.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 for $39.99

You may have heard of this little game called Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3? One of the things CoD games are known for in thrifty circles is keeping their value. Last year’s game is still selling for around $50, so you may want to jump at this one will it is still being discounted.

Pre-Orders of Note

Diablo III Collector’s Editions [PC] $99.99

A fallen star burns across the sky, signaling the rebirth of a long-forgotten evil, and calling mortal heroes to arms once more. This limited edition collector’s set commemorates your return to the darkened world of Sanctuary. Inside, you’ll find a treasure trove of rare and legendary items to aid you in your apocalyptic battles at the End of Days.

PlayStation Vita 3G Launch Bundle 

Are you in the market for a Vita? Our thrifty experts tell us the very best way to go is the PlayStation Vita 3G Launch Bundle from Amazon. It comes with an 8GB Memory Card, DataConnect Session Pass, CTA Digital PS Vita Screen Protection Kit and PSN Game. You get everything you need for $299.99. Sure, we would like a larger Memory Card, but with the 16GB going for a ridiculous $60, you might as well use this free 8GB Card until the prices inevitably drop.

Mass Effect 3 with a $10 Pre-Order Credit

Mass Effect 3 is one of the most anticipated games of the year, and it is only a few short weeks from release! March 6 is the day and there is still time to pre-order and get the M55 Argus Assault Rifle and a $10 promotional credit at Amazon.com.

Ongoing Sales

Skylander’s Spyro’s Adventure Starter Pack [3DS] for $45.27

Skylander’s is by far the hugest kids game out there, it is nothing short of a phenomenon. Probably because the game is fun for both kids and adults. Once you catch the fever, you will want to start collecting the figures… all the figures. The 3DS version is a different game than the console and PC versions, but it uses the same figures! It comes with it’s own portal, and even has a unique skylander that you can’t get anywhere else.

Dungeon Defenders [PC] for $2.99

Dungeon Defenders is absolutely chock-full of content, and really fun content as well. It is a deceptively deep RPG with the ability to find loot, upgrade your loot, character, pet and towers. It takes team work and some serious strategy as well. It has oodles of modes that can keep you busy for dozens and dozens of hours.

Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom for $6.58

Dear lord! Look at that price! For the same amount as you would pay for a value meal, you can get a very solid game that is bright and colorful and not just the same dreck you’ve been playing over and over. Give Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom a shot!

Once again with feeling:

• Enslaved: Odyssey to the West - X360 – Amazon – $7.60
• Rayman Origins - X360 – GameStop – $19.99
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - X360 – Amazon – $39.99
• Diablo III – Limited Edition - PC – Amazon – $99.99
• PlayStation Vita 3G Launch Bundle - Amazon – $299.99
• Mass Effect 3 - X360, PS3 – Amazon – $59.99
• Skylander’s Spyro’s Adventure Starter Pack - 3DS – Amazon – $45.27
• Dungeon Defenders - PC – Amazon – $2.99
• Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom - X360 – Amazon – $6.58

Joystiq reports that Assassin’s Creed 3 received its release date of October 30, 2012. There’s been no word of the setting for the new installment.  Ubisoft has reported before that our  Italian assassino, Ezio, has completed his story. After all, Ezio was looking pretty aged in Revelations. That leaves us wondering where AC3 will take the franchise. Revolutionary France? Colonial America? Downton Abbey? We’d love to see Thomas get stabbed.

Source: Joystiq

You and your friends decide to go off the grid for a while. Just go and explore the wonderful world we live in. You get a boat, and find an island that doesn’t show up on the map. That’s cool. Go check it out. Oh, there’s people on this island. Awesome. These people carry automatic weapons everywhere they go. That’s cool. You’ve always been a supporter of the Second Amendment. It’s probably a good idea to just start taking shots with these friendly pirates/guerrillas. What’s that? Things have gone bad? Some dubstep should help. Cool.

That’s a synopsis of the new trailer for Far Cry 3. Not only are we promised dubstepped adventures, but we get a release date of September 4, 2012 for North America with some extra missions if you pre-order at GameStop.

Source: Ubisoft

New Today

Dungeon Defenders [PC] for $2.99

Dungeon Defenders is absolutely chock-full of content, and really fun content as well. It is a deceptively deep RPG with the ability to find loot, upgrade your loot, character, pet and towers. It takes team work and some serious strategy as well. It has oodles of modes that can keep you busy for dozens and dozens of hours.

Skylander’s Spyro’s Adventure Starter Pack [3DS] for $45.27

Skylander’s is by far the hugest kids game out there, it is nothing short of a phenomenon. Probably because the game is fun for both kids and adults. Once you catch the fever, you will want to start collecting the figures… all the figures. The 3DS version is a different game than the console and PC versions, but it uses the same figures! It comes with it’s own portal, and even has a unique skylander that you can’t get anywhere else.

OCZ Technology Agility 3 SSD – 90GB for $99.99

Are you still using a hard drive with a spinning disc? Lulz. C’mon dude. Get the OCZ Technology Agility 3 SSD and Windows will load up in a blink. You know how loading screens in games are annoying? You will hardly notice them!

Pre-Orders of Note

PlayStation Vita 3G Launch Bundle 

Are you in the market for a Vita? Our thrifty experts tell us the very best way to go is the PlayStation Vita 3G Launch Bundle from Amazon. It comes with an 8GB Memory Card, DataConnect Session Pass, CTA Digital PS Vita Screen Protection Kit and PSN Game. You get everything you need for $299.99. Sure, we would like a larger Memory Card, but with the 16GB going for a ridiculous $60, you might as well use this free 8GB Card until the prices inevitably drop.

Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational for $29.99

Hot Shots Golf is typically a safe bet for any console or handheld (you really don’t need to be a golf fan to enjoy it), but Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational for the PS Vita seems to be the way to go for when picking up an extra launch title for your new Vita. Amazon has it for $10 less than retail, and so far the reviews have been some of the best any Vita game has received so far.

Mass Effect 3 with a $10 Pre-Order Credit

Mass Effect 3 is one of the most anticipated games of the year, and it is only a few short weeks from release! March 6 is the day and there is still time to pre-order and get the M55 Argus Assault Rifle and a $10 promotional credit at Amazon.com.

Ongoing Sales

Star Wars: The Old Republic for $49.99

Okay, maybe Star Wars: The Old Republic hasn’t toppled the World of Warcraft juggernaut, but it is the first MMO that has given WoW a run for its money. If you are in the market for a solid MMO with tons of content, and an actual story, this game is worth a shot.

Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom for $6.58

Dear lord! Look at that price! For the same amount as you would pay for a value meal, you can get a very solid game that is bright and colorful and not just the same dreck you’ve been playing over and over. Give Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom a shot!

Rayman Origins for $29.70

Michel Ancel has crafted an absolutely gorgeous platformer in Rayman Origins. I understand if you no longer have joy in your heart, but if your soul hasn’t completely left your body, you will be delighted by this title.

Once again with feeling:

• Dungeon Defenders - PC – Amazon – $2.99
• Skylander’s Spyro’s Adventure Starter Pack - 3DS – Amazon – $45.27
• OCZ Technology Agility 3 SSD – 90GB - Amazon – $99.99
• PlayStation Vita 3G Launch Bundle - Amazon – $299.99
• Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational - PS Vita – Amazon – $29.99
• Mass Effect 3 - X360, PS3 – Amazon – $59.99
• Star Wars: The Old Republic - PC – Amazon – $49.99
• Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom - X360 – Amazon – $6.58
• Rayman Origins - X360 – Amazon – $29.70

Having trouble playing classic arcade games on your iOS device? We all are. Touch controls simply aren’t the best option for many games. Sure, there’s the iCade, a cabinet built for an iPad, but what if you’re on the go and playing with your phone? Introducing iCade’s 8-Bitty controller, a wireless retro themed controller for your iOS device. It pairs with your phone and is compatible with a “growing list of hundreds of retro game apps.” The controller will have an open system interface, allowing any developer to utilize it for  either iOS or Android. The 8-Bitty controller is due later this year at the reasonable price of $24.99.

Source: Think Geek

Double Fine (Psychonauts, Iron Brigade) have reached out to their fans to help fund a new point and click adventure game along with a documentary about the game making process. The original goal of $400,000 was met within an astounding eight hours, and the funding just keeps climbing. Now at more than double the original goal, the Kickstarter program still has a month to go. Double Fine plans to use the excess money to make the game and documentary better, and the excess funds will allow the game to show up on more platforms. We’re not sure what the game will be about, but the age old equation of ((Tim Schafer + Point and Click)/Fan Base = Awesome Games ) reassures us that this is money well spent.

Source: Kickstarter

I do not consider myself a fighting game expert. I wouldn’t even say that I have a minor degree in fighting games. After a year of brutal defeats in Super Street Fighter IV, I have begun clawing my way to the occasional victory and a new appreciation for the fighting genre. If you are a tournament level fighter then there are other publications that will better suit your needs for a review for a fighting game. If you’re new to the genre then please, keep reading.

The SoulCalibur franchise has been a safe haven for me. It has always been an easily accessible franchise that let even the simplest minded players enjoy the occasional victory through a constant barrage of button mashing. That’s what SoulCalibur has been to me, the controlled art of button mashing. It worked with SoulCalibur II, and much to my delight, it still works today.

Right off the bat, you’ll notice some pretty dramatic changes to SoulCalibur V. Your favorite character may not be there. Classic characters don’t control the way they used to. You now have access to ultra moves. You’ll still notice some similarities too. You’re still able to make a comeback with a deadly combo. You still can guard break and use edge attacks. Voldo will still disturb you to the very core of your being. Is it a reboot? No, but it feels more methodical. You can still succeed with button mashing, but SoulCalibur V is more about honing your skills.

SoulCalibur has always had a myriad of single player content that could keep players occupied for hundreds of hours.That is what I need. When I fight a computer, I am the most skilled swordsman in the world. When I fight other human beings, I am a child with a stick. Where there was once a hundred hour campaign and various trials that altered the rules of the fight, there is now barely anything. Single player has been butchered into a short incoherent story. The main story mode follows the path of Patrokolos and Pyrrah, the children of Sophitia, as they are reunited to use Soul Calibur (good sword)  to destroy Soul Edge (bad sword). It only lasts roughly three hours. The story is told through a story board and some well produced cut scenes. Fighting games have never been renowned for their intricate storytelling or plots, but SCV makes no sense in almost a stereotypical fashion. There’s alternate planes of reality and characters who add nothing to the story besides their presence. By the end of the campaign, you’ll be scratching your head. There’s the criminally short Arcade Mode that pits you against six A.I. opponents and records your time to completion. That’s it. Other than one on one matches and training, that is all that there is to SCV’s single player modes.

With such a limited experience by myself, I took my blade online. There are the standard modes of ranked or player matches which pit multiple players against one another. Winner keeps playing, loser goes to the back of the line just like an arcade. Global Colleseo puts you into an enormous lobby with dozens of other players. There you can either be assigned a random opponent, set up your own lobby and await challengers, enter tournaments, or challenge other players to a fight right then and there. All the while, you are able to voice or text chat with other players in the lobby. The text chat, unfortunately, relies on an in game keyboard, so unless you have a USB keyboard hooked up to your console you won’t be using that feature too often. Global Colleseo is a great addition to the series, and I hope it is something that will be adopted by other fighting franchises. It vastly reduces the time between fights if you’re prone to losing like myself.

Just as it’s predecessors had, there’s an in depth character creator in SCV. All options in the creator are purely aesthetic. The only thing that effects how your players fights is the weapon set you give him. Certain weapons, like Ezio’s, are locked out of the creator. The aesthetic designs are quite in depth. Through my travels online I found a convincing Dante from Devil May Cry and some even more disturbing Voldos. In the end though, all you’re creating is a funny looking clone of another character. There’s no sense of ownership to the monster you may create.

SoulCalibur V does a lot of things right, and several things wrong. You’ll see many new faces, and you’ll be missing even more. This iterations’ token character, Ezio, is a fine addition to the series compared to Darth Vader or Yoda. The online modes are functional, and they give the player something to do while they wait for the next fight. Combat has changed from the fast paced slash fest to a slower more methodical fight. The single player content is extremely lacking compared to previous games. In the end, you’ll still be clashing swords, juggling opponents and doing your best not to be knocked out of the ring. SoulCalibur V is, at heart, a SoulCalibur game, just not the one that I want to play for an eternity.

This review is based on a retail copy of the Xbox 360 version of SoulCalibur V provided by the reviewer. It is also available for the PS3.

Inspired by one of the webs most charming comics, Scary Girl finally gets her own console game to show off all that beautiful art direction. Coming into this game, I had two questions. Is she a girl and is she scary?

Sadly, no, I don’t think either of those things are completely true. Well, she is a girl/monster (More monster than “girl”). She has been raised by a giant squid named blister her whole life. Now I see what you’re saying, that doesn’t make any freaking sense. Yes I know, but you see, she was adopted. So that makes it better. It actually doesn’t. Not a lot in this games makes sense. There are crazy things happening all around you, but its all part of its whacky charm.

As for the second question, is it scary? No, just no. It’s more odd than scary. The world is populated by monsters, but they are all fairly tame and artsy. They are colorful fantastical creatures. They look pretty great, with interesting art direction, but no, not scary.

So if she isn’t a girl and she isn’t scary, what is Scary Girl? Scary Girl is a very solid action platformer. The game features 3D worlds with the gameplay being mostly limited to a 2D plane. Travel consists of moving left to right with branching paths at multiple points. The levels are varied enough, but most of them feature a similar gothic ascetic. That isn’t to say they aren’t impressive. You travel to some unique looking locals. But the gameplay in each of them is pretty similar with some minor variations.

The gameplay is more of the action variety than the strong platforming kind. You have a heavy and light attack with multiple combo variations. As you play you collect gems allowing you to upgrade certain aspects and get new attacks. Scary Girl also has the ability to grab downed enemies with her hook arm and use them as projectiles. When jumping she can spin her hook arm around to hover or grab on to branches and swing.

None of this is terribly original which is the main downside to this game. It all feels samey. Every aspect of this game has been in other games before. Beyond that, the implementation isn’t very polished. Fighting can be extremely chaotic and frustrating at times. If I knock an enemy down and they fall on top of me, I shouldn’t start to get hit by them after an arbitrary amount of time because they are next to me. This fact alone limits your fighting choices. This is just one example of the odd quirks this game has that so many similar titles solved years ago.

So aside from the rather familiar gameplay, I also did not get sucked in by the story. The art direction is great, but the story never sucked me in. Scary girl is on a journey to find her destiny or something. Unfortunately I couldn’t care or not if she got there. That is the one requirement a story should have. Make the player want to see the end.

All and all though, the game is not bad. It is solid in most aspects. If you are a fan of Scary Girl, you will probably love this game. The unique art direction and style is translated very well and the action and upgrades do make it a worth while game to check out if you’re into action platforming.

This review is based on a retail copy of Scarygirl provided by the publisher. It is also available for PC and PSN.

The space combat genre is not an overly crowded scene. In fact, it is haunted by a few great games of the past while we, stuck in the present, have to contend with mediocre games that try to capture the nostalgia of Freespace or X-wing vs. Tie Fighter. I am a fan of flying around in space while maintaining my ship’s speed and shields, and, unfortunately, Sol: Exodus does not fulfill my needs. So like an unsatisfied lover, I dream of the past or maybe what the future will bring.

Sol: Exodus is a mix between Battlestar Galactica and basically any space combat game. Imagine that the main character’s name is Starbuck or Apollo and you will instantly feel at ease while piloting your starship through enemy space. Earth has become uninhabitable and it is up to your team to find a new Earth. Unfortunately, a militaristic cult has taken over the various colonies and space stations scattered throughout the Sol system (you knew we lived in the Sol system right? [Our Sun’s name is Sol]). The previously mentioned cult destroys your fleet and you must lead the resistance to victory. The whole experience is a bit of a letdown, but we will get to that later.

The space combat starts off fun but gets old quickly. Most missions task you with getting into dog fights with a handful of fighters and destroying them with either your machine guns or missiles. It controls tightly and offers controller support but I found the mouse and keyboard to be easier to manage. The UI gives a nice unobtrusive display of your ship’s stats (shields, speed, missiles and etc.) and also provides an “aiming ring” that shows where you should be shooting in order to hit your target. It was a nice touch that helps boost your accuracy while fitting within the game world.

There is some variety in the enemy’s ship design, but not much. You eventually fight elite versions of the standard fighters you were previously facing as well as bombers. The elite fighters fire missiles that hone in on your ship forcing you to shoot the missiles before you blow up. This actually added some variety to the missions since you would have to abandon whatever you were fighting to defend yourself from the oncoming projectiles. It was stressful and I like stressful.

Sol: Exodus also has a neat hacking minigame that you use to destroy large enemy ships. You target an exposed hacking node and input a series of “decrypted” letters to access the ships vulnerable bits. Just like the homing missiles mentioned above, the hacking portions made the combat more engaging. You have to watch the letters while avoiding enemy fighters and missiles.

After a few missions I had upgraded my ship enough to feel a difference. You can upgrade your ship’s guns, shields and engines. The guns and engines allow you to use them more before you overload, and the increase to shields allow you to, naturally, survive longer. Those are the only upgrades though…robbing me of my much desired vehicle customization, a feature sadly lacking from Sol: Exodus. When you have fully upgraded weapons you have more missiles and can hold down your machine guns for a longer time, but they aren’t any stronger and it is hard to see a difference between one level of upgrades and another.

I think it should be said that at the time of writing Sol: Exodus is $10. I don’t like to justify a game’s issues by its price, but I would have loved to see what a more fully featured Sol: Exodus would have looked like. They got the basics of space combat right but failed in whatever keeps you wanting to play more. Repetition mixed with a weak story and a lack of vehicle customization kept Sol: Exodus from being more than a somewhat entertaining distraction. Space combat fans will find a lot to enjoy, but others may be put off by the lack of polish. It turns out that in space no one can hear you scream for Freespace 3.

This review is based on a retail copy of SOL: Exodus provided by Seamless Entertainment. It is a PC exclusive.