From looking at some gameplay videos and interviews, I thought Singularity might be a fun, original FPS, with different gameplay than the average military shooter or Halo clone. As such, I had good expectations for the game, thinking it might be more interesting than the average modern FPS.

In a time where every FPS looks and plays the same, I had hopes that Singularity would be one of the few to divert from what FPS are nowadays.

Read on and see if it ended up being what I hoped it would be, or if it went for the “we’ll be the same as everyone” route!

Developer: Raven Software
Publisher: Activision
Date of Release: June 29th 2010
Platforms: Playstation 3, PC, Xbox 360

Genre: First-person shooter
Rated M for Mature

Presentation
Brown, and darkness. Everywhere. It’s very boring to look at. There’s barely any colors, just different hues of brown. The enemy design is basic zombies/savage mutants, nothing very interesting or original. The graphics are, overall, not very interesting to look at. And it has some graphical glitches, like textures not loading and textures being super low-res when you get close to them, taking some time to get to normal.

Sounds are… basic FPS stuff… I guess the twist here is that it uses basic horror movie sound design, where the music becomes more tense in parts that the developers want you to believe there’s tension (when there’s actually not), with the classic “surprise!” sound when something “scary” pops up. Just jump scares, nothing actually scary. It’s not great, but I guess everything in the sound design is appropriate at least.

Story
You play as a soldier going to explore a weird base that has been destroyed a long time ago and, after an accident, you’re stranded there. So now you have to find out what happened, and eventually get out of there… or, maybe, try to prevent what happened in the past by travelling in time? After a bit of gameplay, you receive the Time Manipulation Device, which enables you to control time a bit, at a limit, and also enables you to open rifts through time to change the events of the past, trying to prevent the island to become a ruin.

The story, overall, is okay, but feels too linear. The whole time travel plot device is just used in a few key moments, and it never really feels like your actions actually changes anything in the game world, but instead it just feels like you’re following a script. I feel that a more open world and more freedom rather than constantly being stuck in corridors would have benefited the game a lot. Lots of games are like that, just you following a script, but here the “script” is way too ovious. This is one of the few times where I feel that an open world would really benefit the gameplay and story.

Gameplay
The basic gameplay is what you’d expect from the average modern FPS. Aim at things, shoot them, go to the next room, and continue until the end. It controls and feels just like every other modern FPS. You have a few basic weapons: a pistol, a machine gun, a shotgun, a sniper rifle, a grenade launcher… nothing special. Though one thing that is a bit different is that you can slow down time when sniping, even before getting the Time Manipulation Device (TMD). There is one cool weapothoughn , called the Seeker, which slows down time, and you can control the bullet, which always kills normal enemies in one hit (not as cool as the Redeemer in Unreal Tournament, which was similar but more awesome, but still). But otherwise it’s very standard stuff. You also have a melee attack, which is boosted once you get the TMD.

What I love about this game is that you have a health bar, rather than stupid regenerating health. You can refill it with health packs, and stimpacks. Stimpacks are instant use, and health packs are carried around for you to use when you need them. It is rather funny that the health packs are just you putting a bandage on your right wrist all the time, the devs must have been laughing their asses off at the one. So you have to manage your health instead of just having to go in cover and wait to get your health back. More modern FPS need health bars.

There’s 3 enemy types: soldiers, mutants and those small fast-moving spider things that chase you and explode on contact (they’re incredibly annoying). There’s a few different types of mutants, but they’re all similar in how they attack. And there’s a few types of soldiers, which is really just a matter of what weapon they’re using. There’s a few boss fights but they’re very easy and boring.

Time Manipulation Device
The big thing about this game is the TMD, which you acquire early in the game. It acts, basically, as a second weapon you hold in your left hand. It has various functions: you can age objects/enemies, or revert them to younger age. You can’t chose if you’ll age something or revert it, the game “chooses” for you. And there’s only a handful of objects that can be aged/reverted. Some enemies are affected differently by this, such as one of the basic mutant types that gets slowed down when you do that. Humans just die. Making objects older can break them down. The TMD can also grab things from afar, like grenades/rockets, and throw them back. It can also charge a ball of energy, which, when you shoot it, creates a bubble where time goes slower for some time, used in the same puzzle tons of time in the game, and not much else. And, at certain point in the games, you’ll use the TMD to open time rifts and go to the past.

What sucks about the TMD is that it doesn’t feel like it’s anything special. It’s just a second weapon that you’re carrying at the same time as the other. You’ll use it like a weapon most of the time, and the few puzzles you go through with it are cheap and uninventive. The TMD does nothing that hasn’t been done by normal weapons in other games, and that is wasted potential right there.

In combat, the TMD has a few uses. Aging enemies is obvious, but you can age cover to make it crumble, slow down time to flank enemies in small areas, use the aging power to turn soldiers into mutants to have them fight their allies, grab grenades and rockets to send them back at enemies… and that’s about it. Nothing that’s never been done before, and sadly the lack of imagination on the developer’s part makes what could have been a very fun device to use rather boring.

Leveling
The last element I can talk about is leveling. As you travel through the island, you find E99 tech points. Those can be used in upgrade stations to gain more health, more TMD energy, higher effectiveness of health packs, upgrades to TMD skills, and perks that you can equip (such as higher accuracy and various types of health boosts). This enables for a little bit of customization, though nothing game-changing.

You also find weapon tech points, which can be used to make your weapons stronger. Each weapon has 3 stats to upgrade, each can be upgraded twice. The boosts are rather minor though.

Overall
My hopes were that Singularity would be different from the usual FPS. I hoped it would join the likes of Mirror’s Edge, Borderlands and Portal in trying something different in the genre and doing it well. After an hour of playing, all my hopes were shattered. And none of that changed for the rest of the game . It’s nothing different from anything else out there. Like I say with so many games this generation, this is wasted potential. It could have been so awesome, but the devs decided that the best thing to do was to be exactly the same as every other FPS, and it fails because of that. If the devs had used their imagination a bit and really gone crazy with the whole time control thing, it could have been a GREAT game. Now it’s just a run-off-the-mill FPS that this generation already has TONS of.

If you’re a big fan of FPS, you should be happy with it since it doesn’t offer anything different than what you’re used to. If you’re hoping for something different than other FPS, you’ll be sorely disappointed.

Pros and Cons
Pros
- It uses a life bar! No regenerating health!
- If you like online, you should have some fun with this before you go back to your multiplayer FPS of choice

Cons
- Boring graphics
- Doesn’t try to be different from other FPS, despite having a great concept

Square-Enix sent out a press release today concerning Final Fantasy XIV.

Here’s some of the relevant information on it:

PC version:

• International release date: September 30th 2010 (Collector’s will get it 8 days early, the 22nd)
• Two SKU, Regular ($49.99 SRP) and Collector’s ($74.99 SRP)
• Languages: English, French, German and Japanese

PS3 Version:

• Release date planned for March 2011.
• Pricing to be announced.

Subscription price:

It will cost $12.99/30 days with an additional price of $3.00 per character ($2.00 more than FFXI).
8 characters maximum per account with each additional retainer at $1.00. (what is a retainer?! see below)

Retainers:

Since most people in FFXI had inventory issues most people would create new characters that would have the sole purpose of behaving as a item mule. A retainer will serve for this purpose. It is a non playable character that you store items on.

PS3 Code from FFXIII:

You can now apparently choose to apply this code to the PC. I’m not sure if this means that people who cashed this code in before will need to wait for PS3. The item you will get from this is called Asuran Armguards. It will enhance the equipped arm or tool.

Full press release after the jump

EDIT:

New image with bonus content for Collector’s Edition and Standard Edition:

FINAL FANTASY XIV FOR WINDOWS PC CONFIRMED FOR SEPTEMBER 30, 2010 RELEASE

FINAL FANTASY XIV PC Collector’s Edition to Offer Early Access to the Realm of Eorzea

LOS ANGELES (June 30, 2010) – Square Enix, Inc., the publisher of SQUARE ENIX® interactive entertainment products in North America, announced today that the highly anticipated massively multiplayer online game FINAL FANTASY® XIV is set for global release on September 30, 2010 for Windows PC.

In advance of the September 30 release, FINAL FANTASY XIV PC Collector’s Edition will offer early access to adventurers eager to embark on this new chapter in the FINAL FANTASY series. In addition, the Beta phase for the Windows PC version will begin in early July 2010.

Title	FINAL FANTASY XIV	FINAL FANTASY XIV Collector’s Edition
Platform	PC
Street Date	September 30, 2010	September 22, 2010
Price	$49.99 SRP	$74.99 SRP
Subscription	$12.99/30 days
Languages	English, French, German, Japanese
Genre	MMORPG
Contents	Standard Edition preorders will include a reward code to receive an exclusive in-game item, the Garlond Goggles.* FREE GAMEPLAY – Free gameplay for 30 days. GAME DISC GAME MANUAL	IN-GAME ITEM – Collector’s Edition preorders will include a reward code to receive an exclusive in-game item, the Onion Helm.* EARLY ACCESS – Play 8 days prior to the release of the Windows PC Standard Edition (timing of access subject to initial server capacity). BEHIND-THE-SCENES DVD – Get an insider look at the making of FINAL FANTASY XIV, with exclusive video content, interviews and more in this special documentary DVD. SECURITY TOKEN – A FINAL FANTASY XIV–branded Security Token for use with your regular password. TRAVEL JOURNAL – Record your travels in this beautifully bound journal filled with pages of never-before-seen concept art. RIGHT OF PASSAGE – Redeem a voucher to receive your fully-personalized Right of Passage Certificate, each stamped with a unique serial number. AMANO COVER – Special PC Collector’s Edition illustration by renowned artist Yoshitaka Amano. FREE GAMEPLAY – Free gameplay for 30 days. GAME DISC GAME MANUAL
ESRB	Teen
Copyright	© 2010 SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. All rights reserved.
Official Site	http://www.finalfantasyxiv.com/

* FINAL FANTASY XIV PC Collector’s Edition pre-orders will include the Onion Helm, an exclusive in-game item which accelerates character recovery after falling in battle. FINAL FANTASY XIV Windows PC Standard Edition pre-orders will include a pair of Garlond Goggles, an exclusive in-game item which increases the speed of skill progression.

“This September, players around the world will join together to explore the fascinating and exciting realm of Eorzea,” said Hiromichi Tanaka, Executive Producer of FINAL FANTASY XIV. “We’re presenting players with a new style of online gameplay that we know will please avid fans of online games, while welcoming more casual gamers with a variety of gameplay and story-driven content.”

For additional information, visit http://www.finalfantasyxiv.com.

FINAL FANTASY XIV will become available for preorder at certain retailers from today.

Those who have registered their PlayStation® 3 computer entertainment system version FINAL FANTASY XIII Campaign Codes can now choose to apply this code to the Windows PC version of FINAL FANTASY XIV. These players will also receive a pair of Asuran Armguards, an exclusive in-game item which enhances the effectiveness of their characters’ equipped arm or tool.

The Windows PC Standard Edition will have an SRP of $49.99. The PC Collector’s Edition will have an SRP of $74.99. The FINAL FANTASY XIV PlayStation 3 system version will be available early March 2011, with pricing to be announced at a later time.

Access to Eorzea is subject to certain license agreements and, after the 30-day free gameplay period, recurring subscription fees. All new game packages come with a period of free gameplay, one playable character and one non-playable retainer character (a non-playable character that provides free item storage and in-game merchant services). After the free gameplay period, the regular 30-day subscription fee will be $12.99. Each additional playable character will be $3.00 per period, with a maximum of 8 playable characters per account. Each additional retainer will cost $1.00 per period.

Story

In the past, the city-states battled tirelessly, vying for domination and hegemony. Death-mongering beast tribes pillaged the land unchecked, leaving only destruction in their wake. Unseen enemies lurked beyond the borders, striking at the slightest provocation or show of weakness. The history of Eorzea is a tapestry woven of war and strife, stained with the blood of those gone before, and the tears and ash of fallen endeavor.

And yet the love the gods bear this unforgiving land endures, now as always. What is the allure of this seemingly forsaken place? With what hope and to what end do would-be inhabitants journey here to live out their days?

The answer lies with that which gives form to Hydaelyn and all myriad creation in it – crystals. The cornerstone of all things, it is these crystallized manifestations of the aether that beckon the people to come, risking all in the undertaking.

And so it is that adventures too have harkened the call – to bear witness to the epic set to unfold in this land. This Eorzea.

Features

· Conceived and produced by notable FINAL FANTASY developers – Produced by Hiromichi Tanaka (FINAL FANTASY I, II, III, XI) and directed by Nobuaki Komoto (FINAL FANTASY IX, XI), with art direction by Akihiko Yoshida (Vagrant Story®, FINAL FANTASY XII) and musical score by Nobuo Uematsu (FINAL FANTASY series).

· In-depth character creation – Choose a race and clan before going on to customize your avatar’s face, hairstyle, skin color and more, with subtle adjustments allowing for limitless possibilities.

· The Armoury System – With defining emphasis on the game’s weapons and tools, the Armoury System is a unique class system that influences both character development and an individual’s style of play. With it, players have the flexibility and freedom to fight, craft and gather whenever and however they so choose. Simply equipping an item will automatically cause the character to take on the class associated with it.

· Aetheryte transportation – Traverse the realm of Eorzea instantly using this seemingly supernatural teleportation system.

· Solo or party play – Adventure alone or in the company of others as you undertake quests and engage in battles on your travels through Eorzea.

Windows PC Version Beta Test Phase to Begin Early July

The next beta test phase is schedule to begin in early July. For more details on how to participate in the beta test, visit http://entry.ffxiv.com/na.

The required specifications for the Windows PC Beta Test are now available.

The requirements below may change at the time of retail launch. Please visit the official site periodically for the latest information.

Operating System	Windows XP SP3 **
	Windows Vista 32bit / 64bit SP2 ***
	Windows 7 32bit / 64bit ***
CPU	Intel® Core™ 2 Duo (2.0GHz)
	AMD Athlon™ X2 (2.0GHz)
Memory	Windows XP: 1.5GB or higher
	Windows Vista / Windows® 7: 2GB or higher
HDD/SSD Space	Install: 15GB or more
	Download: Space on the hard drive where My Documents is located should be 6GB or more ****
Graphics Card	NVIDIA® GeForce® 9600 series or higher with VRAM 512MB or more
	ATI Radeon™ HD 2900 series or higher with VRAM 512MB or more
Sound Card	DirectSound® compatible sound card (DirectX® 9.0c or higher)
Internet Connections	Broadband Internet connection or higher
Resolution	1280 x 720 or higher; 32bit or higher
DirectX®	DirectX® 9.0c
Others	Mouse, Keyboard, Gamepad *****

** If using Windows XP, the executable files, installation and version updates should be set to Administrator settings.

*** 64bit OS will run in WOW64 (Windows on Windows 64) mode.

**** The file system in the drive containing the My Documents folder will need to be set to NTFS formatting.

***** A gamepad is not required.

About FINAL FANTASY XIV

Developer:         Square Enix Co., Ltd.

Publisher:          Square Enix, Inc.

Platform:                       PlayStation 3 system and PC

Genre:                          MMORPG

ESRB:              Teen

About Square Enix, Inc.

Square Enix, Inc. is a U.S. based wholly-owned subsidiary of Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd.. Square Enix, Inc. publishes and distributes entertainment content under the Square Enix Group’s internationally renowned brands such as Square Enix, Eidos and Taito in the Americas. The Square Enix Group includes a global network of leading development studios located in North America, Europe and Japan. The Square Enix Group boasts a valuable portfolio of intellectual property including: FINAL FANTASY, which has sold over 97 million units worldwide; DRAGON QUEST®, which has sold over 54 million units worldwide; TOMB RAIDER®, which has sold over 35 million units worldwide; and other well-established products and services.

I sort of took my time before playing this, because I wasn’t sure if it would be any good, considering this is a post-Sonic 3 game in the Sonic franchise (I checked, Sonic CD was before 3), AND it’s a spin-off…

After a while I decided to rent it and sort of played non-stop since I got it… So read on and see if I really liked it or not!

Developer: Sumo Digital
Publisher: Sega
Date of Release: February 23rd 2010
Platforms: Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC, Nintendo Wii (360 version reviewed)

Genre: “Kart” racing
Rated E for Everyone

Presentation
The graphics look pretty good while you’re racing. The tracks are all based on various Sega games, and all of them are very similar in style to the games they come from. Like, when you’re in a Samba de Amigo level, it looks like it would in the actual games. But, from closer up, the character models are a bit cheap, and the textures aren’t too high-quality. And the lighting in some levels is just crazy bad. Some are too dark, preventing you to see anything, some are too bright, making the graphics look worse than they actually are. It’s not a bad-looking game overall, the style makes up for the low-quality stuff.

I didn’t pay much attention to the music here, so I won’t comment on it. What I did sadly pay attention to is the announcer. He’s constantly speaking through every damn race, and he’s completely annoying. Maybe there’s an option to remove him, I don’t know, but if there is, it’s a must. He’s constantly screaming random shit and it just annoys you to no end. The sound effects do a fairly good job at telling you what’s happening, so other than the announcer, I have no problem with the sound design.

Gameplay
The game is a fairly standard kart-racing game. You drift, boost, pick up boxes that give you items such as weapons, boosts and shields, and the goal is to get in first place. It doesn’t do much that you haven’t seen in other kart-racing games.

What makes this game a bit different is the total lack of a brake button. Instead, what would usually be the brake button is a drift button. The drift button makes you (surprise) drift, in the direction you’re turning. That kinda confused me at first, since I was counter-steering before drifting (but that’s just a personal problem). During the drift, a small flame will appear at the back of your car. The longer you maintain the drift, the stronger the flame gets. The flame has 3 levels, it won’t go beyond that no matter how long you maintain the drift. If you hit a wall, you lose all of the power given by the drift. When you let go of the drift button, your car will boost. The higher the level of the flame behind the car when you drift, the longer the boost. It’s pretty easy to see how that can be “abused”, since you can drift again right away when you start boosting.

Otherwise, you have a selection of items. The boxing glove goes straight and bounces around, the missile is homing and will hit enemies without fault (I found no reliable way to avoid them, they’re about as annoying as a Blue Shell from Mario Kart), the shield blocks 1 hit, the shoes give you a boost, horns hit everyone that is close to you, cones are mines, rainbows block the vision of anyone who touches them, stars are homing and flip the target’s screen around, and I might be forgetting a few. Overall… well, it’s basically the items from Mario Kart with a different look. In addition to that, every character has a “unique” All-Star item. Though they basically have the same effect: they give a big speed boost, and have you spamming the A button for an attack/speed boosts, and you don’t have to steer for the duration of the item. The strength of the all-star item depends on the character. The occurence of the All-Star item depends mostly on your position in the race. If you’re in 5th or less, you have a chance of getting it, if you’re 4th or higher you basically never get it. The items are generally not too cheap, though the CPU gets all-star a lot, while you never get it because you pwn the CPU so much.

On the single player side of things, in addition to Grand Prix and Time Trial, you have missions, which have various objectives. 64 missions in total. Some require picking up items, others are races/time trials, other require passing through gates to get more time to get to the end, and various other things. They offer a bit of variety to the single player experience. And, as you do grand prix, time trials and missions, you get Sega Miles, which are used to buy characters, music and tracks for multiplayer.

Overall
Random pointless complaining about the game’s title
Why “Sega All-Stars”? They really pushed the definition of the term “All-Stars” here. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Robotnik, Amy, Shadow, Alex Kidd, Akira Yuki, and Ryo Hazuki(barely) can be considered all-stars, but the rest? I’m not denying that most of the characters are great, but some of them even I had to check where they come from. Without checking, can you tell me where Robo and Mobo, Zobio and Zobiko, B.D. Joe and Opa-Opa are from? Probably not unless you’re BIG Sega buffs. And other characters like Ulala, Billy Hatcher and Amigo are at least a bit known, but they’re not “All-Stars”… Why not just “Sega Racing”? You know, since a lot of the characters aren’t All-Stars. Especially not Big the Cat…

Impressions
As for the game itself it’s pretty fun. From what I’ve heard the online on it is basically dead, so if you want an online racing game, look elsewhere. But if you want it for single player and local multiplayer, this is actually pretty good. The single-player has time trials, 64 missions to go through, and grand prix, as well as unlockables, so with just that you have a bit of gameplay in front of you. But if you really want value for your money, getting with a group of friends and playing with them should be fun.

Not exactly a Mario Kart killer, but, if you’re looking for an entertaining kart racer and you don’t have a Wii, this is definitely something you should consider.

Pros and Cons
Pros
- Fun to play once you get a good grasp of the controls
- Good graphic style where all the levels have a similar graphic style to the games they’re based on
- Some gameplay variety
- Multiplayer is fun

Cons
- Difficulty varies too much, and is completely random because of the AI
- The AI is rubber-band, and frequently annoying, but I’ve seen worst(see Split/Second review)
- Graphic quality is a bit on the low side (character models sort of feel cheaply made)
- Lots of glitches (like racers and weapons passing through the floor)
- I can’t be the only one who thinks having accelerating and drifting on the shoulder buttons is a bad idea… it hurts my fingers after only a few races

The Save Factor
The game, as of the writing of this review, costs $30, whatever version you pick. While I feel it could be worth it at that price, the Save Factor for this one will be $20 since the online is dead.

This is the first time I played a Splinter Cell game… or any Tom Clancy game for that matter. So I had no idea what it had in store for me. But various previews and reviews made me quite interested in this one, and I couldn’t pinpoint why that was. It just looked fun.

So I decided to get it and finally see what it was all about. I don’t like playing online, so I only played the single player campaign, and a bit of single player Deniable Ops missions.

Read on and see if I liked it!

Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher: Ubisoft
Date of Release: April 27th 2010
Platforms: Xbox 360, PC (PC version reviewed)

Genre: Stealth action game
Players: 1 (There are 2-player multiplayer modes)
Rated M for Mature

Presentation
I’m never one to like “realistic” graphics.  And I don’t like them there either. Not that they look bad, and if you like games that try replicating the real world’s look, this does it fairly well. There’s some moments where characters’ faces will look weird, but overall this is pretty good quality. One thing I wasn’t a big fan of was showing the mission objectives and flashbacks projected on various walls through the game. Only once or twice was I in the proper position to actually see the flashbacks (I had no problem with the objectives), so they were rather pointless. I don’t know if any of them were important at all, nor did I understand why the objectives were shown on the walls when they could just have had text anywhere in the UI. Overall though, not a bad looking game, but definitely not an interesting graphical style.

The sound is very standard. The music is unmemorable. The voice acting ranges from sub-par to average, with only a few good voices. The rest of the sounds is gunshots… nothing very unique there.

Story
I haven’t played the previous games in the series, so I have no previous background on what the story of this series is… but damn was the story boring here. None of the characters were interesting, the plot was way too bare-bones, there was rarely anything interesting going on, and most of it was just randomly going from place to place and just progressing very slowly. But I think the biggest problem is that there’s no ending. The game just stops without resolving anything. They just kinda make us guess that everything is probably resolved with no solid answer.. It’s not as bad as the ending in, say, Modern Warfare 2, but it’s still pretty bad.

Gameplay
The game flows in a pretty standard fashion. Go to a new area, kill everyone there, go to the next area. Since it’s a stealth game, killing people without being seen is the best option. To do that, you have a few tools/techniques at your disposal.

The most important is the cover system, and I must say that I really like this one. You hold a button to go in cover, let it go if you want to move away from cover. When you’re in cover, you can point to any other spot where you want to take cover at, press a button, and you’ll speed there. It works perfectly, I had no problem with the cover system here. The shooting is obviously important too. Aiming is pretty easy, though there’s a bit of a randomness factor to it. If you’re moving, your aim isn’t as bad, and if you’re continually shooting, your aim gets worse as well. You can also zoom in your aim to boost accuracy which works great. In addition to the cover system, you can jump across short obstacles, and hang on to certain ledges to hide from enemies. Each rooms have multiple ways you can go through them which is nice.

The other important element is staying in the dark. As long as you’re in the dark, the enemy won’t see you. To create more darkness, you can shoot out lights. How that doesn’t reveal your position I have no idea, but here it’s a very good idea to shoot lights out. Even if some enemies have flashlights, staying in the dark is still a great idea, since their flashlights SUCK. Here I really like that it becomes black-and-white when you’re “invisible”, though there were a few parts where it became hard to see because of that.

When enemies do see you, they’ll start shooting at you. You don’t have lots of health (though it does regenerate… slowly), so if you don’t get to safety fast, you die. If you do get to safety, you’ll see a silhouette of yourself which shows your “Last Seen Position” , showing the last spot the enemies saw you at, which is also the place they’ll concentrate on. So you can use that “diversion” to sneak away from enemies and take them out safely.

To aid you on your quest, you have various weapons and gadgets. If I have one problem with the variety of weapons, it’s that they’re ALL useless. All you need is a fully upgraded silenced pistol and you’ll need nothing else through the rest of the game. Anything else enables enemies to find you easily, while all you need is one shot from your pistol to take anyone out. As for the gadgets, there’s some nice stuff. Grenades to kill enemies, EMP grenades to stun enemies and stop electrical objects (mostly lights), portable EMP wave generator thingy (similar effect to the EMP grenade), Flashbangs, Remote Mines and Sticky Cameras (you can see through the camera for recon and you can make it do noise to distract foes and you can remotely explode it). All those gadgets have their use, and they’re all pretty fun to use. You eventually get the signature splinter cell goggles. They enable you to see through walls and find enemies and other things (extinguishers, turrets, heavy things you can shoot down from the ceilings), which is incredibly useful. As for enemies, the goggles enable you to mark them through walls.

Speaking of marking, this game has a mechanic called “Mark and Execute”. You can mark enemies, which will give you their positioning at times. If you kill enemies with melee attacks, you get one “Execute” point (or whatever they’re called). If you get close enough to marked enemies, you can press one button to instantly take out all the nearby marked enemies. It’s a useful system. If you look under doors(I failed to mention that, did I?), you can mark enemies too, in addition to marking using the goggles, and then you can take them by surprise and take them out before they realize you were there.

Enemy AI “problems”
If the game has one big problem, it’s the AI. It’s WAY too easy to fool those guys. Let them see you, get your “Last Seen Position”, sneak away, and you can take them all out while they’re constantly shooting at your Last Seen Position. This is definitely not how people would react in the real world. Sometimes they do go check out your Last Seen Position and see you’re not there and proceed to search around for you, but generally you’re pretty much always safe. Sometimes they’ll flank you and such, but it’s rare.

Interrogation sucks
Really, I have no idea why they made this mechanic. It’s rather pointless, and never interesting. Walk around while holding the guy, go next to what you want to smash his face into, wait for a dialogue to go on, press a button to smash his face, repeat a few times… what’s the point? They could have used cutscenes instead, and at least those could have had interesting camera angles, maybe more movement, and overall better directing. This just feels tacked-on and stupid.

Overall
While I think that almost everything about the gameplay is really solid, the super short campaign (around 5 hours) kinda kills this game. At least there’s some replay value if you play the Deniable Ops mode (which can be played alone or online). If you play online you get a bit of extra playtime with an extra 2-player campaign… which makes me wonder, why can’t I play the co-op campaign on my own? That couldn’t have been that tough to implement….

But anyways, this is a solid, fun game, and it’s well worth playing, even if it’s not worth much more than a rent. It has a bit more of an “Arkham Asylum” feel to it than other games in the series( from the little I’ve seen of the older game), so it’s more of a “go in the room, kill everything as stealthily as possible and go to the next room” thing than a “sneak past the enemies without being seen” thing. You CAN sneak past certain parts of the game, but not too often. The enemy AI is deeply flawed as well, the enemies are rarely hard to deal with. But overall it’s a well made game.

Pros and Cons
Pros
- Unlike some people, I like the “stealthily kill everyone” style of gameplay
- There’s enough variety of missions and areas to keep the game fresh through the whole thing
- Cover system is solid
- Controls are good for the PC version
- Very fun

Cons
- 5 hours of gameplay total, even if I died a lot and took my time through most missions… that’s WAY too short
- Huge variety of guns, but all of them are useless
- The mission that takes place during a war is just lame
- Graphics are boring to look at
- The story isn’t very interesting, and the ending sucks
- Enemy AI is really stupid
- The interrogations suck… a LOT

The Save Factor
Both the PC and Xbox 360 versions of the game have a starting price of $60. And for a 5 hour game, it’s definitely too much. As much as I liked it, I can’t find any reason to pay more than $25 for it.

I haven’t played that one when it came out, because frankly I thought $20 was a bit high for something I really wasn’t sure about. But it recently went on special on Steam for $5, so I thought I’d take a gander and check it out. And at $5 it’s more than reasonable.

It got some pretty good reviews when it came out, so let’s see if it actually deserves all the high praise it has been getting.

Read on!

Developer: Frozenbyte, Inc
Publisher: SouthPeak Games
Date of Release: October 7th 2009
Platforms: PC, PS3 (PC version reviewed)

Genre: Side-Scrolling Platformer
Players: 1
Rated E for Everyone… though by the ESRB’s usual standards it would be a T normally… weird

Presentation
The graphics are pretty nice. It looks mystical, it’s flashy and… every area looks almost exactly the same, with the only differences being “Now you’re in a cave instead of outside!”. While there’s a few minor difference in every level, every place is basically the same. It’s not a really big problem, but it would be nice if there was variety in the visual design. And there’s only one enemy design, other than the mini-bosses, and it’s skeletons… yeah, just skeletons. So there’s not a lot of variety there either. The game looks okay, but it’s rather stale.

Sound-wise it’s not too bad, but stale again. The music is rather boring, and there’s not that many tracks. The voice acting is way over-acted. The rest of the sounds, such as sword strikes, arrows and skeletons appearing are good, and make it easier to follow the action. But overall the sound here is just there because it needs sound and… that’s it.

The story is barely worth mentioning, there’s no depth whatsoever. At first the three characters come together and are “combined” because of an artifact, and then they just go through various locations until they find another artifact that can separate them again. The ending is terrible as well. I was expecting a boss battle, but the death of the final enemy is done through a terrible cutscene… lame.

Gameplay
The game is basically a puzzle-platformer. You get control of 3 characters: the Wizard, the Thief and the Knight. Each of them have different powers. The Wizard can materialize blocks, planks and floating platforms, and he can use a form of telekinesis to move almost any movable objects: planks, blocks, platformers, just about anything. The Thief can shoot arrows (hurt enemies and giving momentum to movable objects), and has a hookshot that can attach to any wooden object, which you can use to haul yourself up to higher places or swing from platform to platform. The Warrior can slash his sword to attack enemies and break weak wooden planks, hold up his shield to block attacks, and swing his hammer to destroy certain obstacles and enemies. And each character can jump, just around the same height.

To properly progress through the game, you need to use all three of the characters to get through different obstacles that not all of them can go through. A platform is too high and there’s nothing to grapple to? Use the wizard to build platforms up to that place. There’s various types of puzzles, though most require summoning blocks with the Wizard, or use the Thief’s grappling hook. You have to dynamically switch between each character to get through every situation. That’s really cool. Kinda like Lost Vikings but a bit less unique.

An element here is that you find experience points, both through searching every nook and cranny of every level, and through defeating skeletons (or the very rare Goblin). Each time you get 50 Experience points, each character get one skill point. They can be put in any of each characters’ 3 skills (which can all be brought up to level 3), each time getting new capabilities or boosted power. Each character starts with only 1 skill, the rest are found through the game in treasure chests.

Speaking of treasure chests, multiple are found through the game in addition to experience points. They either have new skills, or equipment. The equipment can be given to any character, unless it’s a character-exclusive item. Equipment have various effects: boosted defense, more HP, better attack, automatic revival if your health goes to 0, and various other things. So you can kinda customize every character. The differences aren’t huge, but it can be helpful to have a little bit of extra HP or defense.

If I have one problem with the game, it’s the physics engine. Since most of the game’s puzzles are centered around the physics, they should work near perfectly. But I have seen tons of glitches with the physics. Enemies passing through floors, blocks sinking through solid surfaces, and the occasional “being sent flying through the air when jumping on an object that isn’t moving”. It’s not frequent, but there’s multiple parts where the physics engine just screws up at random, from time to time it makes your life harder.

Overall
This is quite a fun game. The platforming is good, some of the puzzles are really fun, having 3 characters to switch between on the fly is really cool, and it’s overall really fun to play.

The combat isn’t too good and the game is really short and easy, but it’s still quite worth playing.

I don’t feel the game deserves all the super-high reviews it got when it came out, but it’s still a high-quality game that people should check out.

Pros and Cons
Pros
- The gameplay and platforming is fun
- Having 3 different characters to play as adds lots of variety to the gameplay
- Some fun puzzles

Cons
- The physics are rather bad at some points
- The visual design isn’t too interesting
- The story and ending is lame
- Rather short

The Save Factor
The starting price of $20 is a bit too high. $10 would be a fine price.

Dark Void on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC was terrible. The only interesting element about it was this, Dark Void Zero. An NES style game that came out on the DSi as a downloadable game. The idea of releasing it on DSi was kinda random, considering the actual game wasn’t on a Nintendo console, and I couldn’t play it since I don’t have a DSi… So when the game finally came out on PC and iPhone I downloaded it as soon as it came out (the PC version that is).

This is going to be quite short as there’s really not too much to say about the game.

So read on, and see if Dark Void Zero is better than its horrible console counterpart!

Developer: Other Ocean Interactive
Publisher: Capcom
Date of Release: April 12th 2010 (came out January 18th on the DS)
Platforms: iPhone, PC and DSiWare

Genre: Beat ‘em up
Players: 1-2 (online compatibility)
Rated E for Everyone

Presentation
The game uses 8-bit style graphics. The look good, but not incredible. Nothing looks out of place, everything is easy to see, bullets don’t blend in to the backgrounds and the areas look pretty nice. The enemy design is fine too, though there’s not a huge variety of enemy types. There’s not much to say about the graphics here. They look like classic NES graphics, but there’s nothing really unique about the game’s look, it’s a bit on the generic side (much like its console counterpart… but better-looking).

The sound though is really good. The music is perfect. Sadly there’s not too many tracks, but each level has amazing music. Mostly reminiscent of the Mega Man games on NES. The music is fast paced and very nicely composed.  The rest of the sounds are 8-bit sounds as well and aren’t too bad, but nothing special.

Story
Okay, I have almost nothing to say about this (heck, I could skip this section and the review wouldn’t change at all). It actually uses pretty much the same storyline as the console version, except this time it’s actually a lot better, because there’s no characters, no plot twists and… pretty much no plot at all! The plot is pretty much all explained in the very beginning: The Watchers opened a portal to our world, and you, as Rusty (a human soldier from the Watchers’ world) is going to pick up the portal codes to close the portal and stop the Watchers’ advance in the human world. And that’s it. It’s simple and to the point, just like a video game story should be.

It’s strange how the more developed story in the console version with tons of cutscenes is worse than this story, which is not developed whatsoever and mostly comprised of a short 2 minute slideshow you see at the beginning of the game. Simple=better.

Gameplay
The controls are incredibly simple. You have one jump button, one attack button and you move with the arrow buttons (or d-pad on the DSiWare version). The attack button shoots, and you can use the d-pad to aim your shot in 8 directions. When standing, aiming diagonally makes you stop moving. In the air, Rusty holds the direction of his shot as long as you don’t move. When you pick up the jetpack item, you can double-tap the jump button to start hovering, and that way you can move however you want in the air, and you can stop hovering by double-tapping the jump button again time. If you’re not hovering, you can also hold the jump button to quickly move vertically with the jetpack.

The level design is sort of reminiscent of Metroid. There are 3 levels, and for each of them you have one big map that you can freely explore. Just like in Metroid, you can only go through certain parts of the map when you get certain items to open doors, or certain weapons to open up areas you couldn’t access before. Each level is fairly simple. You’ll be given the location of a card key, find it, open the corresponding door, rinse and repeat until you find the portal code, go to the end of the level and fight the boss. In addition to key cards, some areas can only be opened by rocket launchers, and other areas can only be accessed using the jetpack.

There’s a few interesting elements here. For one, you don’t always have access to the jetpack, as some barriers destroy it(so you have to pick it up again), and you can’t just waltz through the game constantly using the same powerful weapon as some areas give you your old weapons back before you enter. So this forces you to constantly adapt to the situation at hand. And each level has collectibles to find. Most of which are relatively easy to find since they’re out in the open, but there’s hidden areas that have a few of them, and finding those areas will be pretty tough.

Overall
This is a very fun game. The gameplay is really fun, the controls are solid, the graphics are okay, the music is pure badass.

But the game is needlessly short. It easily could have done with an extra level or 3. 3 levels total is really not a lot, especially when they can be finished in less than 10 minutes each. But at least it offers a good challenge the first time through each level and will most likely last you for a short while. And if you’ve already finished the game, there’s more difficulty levels and maybe you didn’t complete each level 100% by finding the collectibles in it, so there’s at least some replay value here.

Despite the game being short, it’s cheap and fun enough to be worth playing. Not only is it fun, but it’s actually a lot higher-quality that the console version, and is a lot more worth playing.

Pros/Cons
Pros
- Great gameplay
- Awesome music

Cons
- Only 3 levels

The Save Factor
The game is $5 on the PC, while it’s $3 on both the iPhone and DSiWare. If you can get the DSiWare version, definitely get that. It’s cheaper and I’m guessing the controls are very good on it . The iPhone version, like any games that would require buttons and a proper d-pad, probably isn’t worth the money because the controls probably suck on it. So if you can’t get the DSiWare version, the PC version at $5 is the best option. And it’s really not expensive whichever version you get, so it’s worth it either way.

So the Save Factor for this one is $4! Most people will probably find it too short for getting it full price (which is not really high anyways), but 3-4$ is more than fair.

But I wasn’t expecting such a low number of note-worthy releases. PS3, Xbox 360, PSP and PC get no interesting exclusive releases, so we’re left with just a few interesting multi-platform releases, 3 DS releases(including 1 japanese release), and 2 Wii releases. A very slow month indeed.

It might be a small month, but still, come and check what are the interesting games coming in April 2010!

As usual, Multiplatform releases first, ordered by date, and if the game is a japanese release it is marked accordingly.

Read on!
*EDIT: Monster Rancher DS was removed from the list due to it being delayed to July 2010, After Burner Climax was added*
*ANOTHER EDIT: Trauma Team delayed to May*
*YET ANOTHER EDIT: Dementium 2 delayed to May*

MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction 4/13 Xbox 360, PC

To be totally honest, I never played a Splinter Cell game before, so I have no idea what to expect from this. But the gameplay videos I’ve seen of this one look really cool. I’m definitely keeping an eye out for it.

Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse — Episode 1: The Penal Zone 4/18 PC, PS3, MAC

And it’s time for more Sam & Max! I sadly missed on season 2, but this one still seems quite interesting, having the trademark weird humor the series is known for. Definitely an interesting release, and this time PS3 owners are part of the fun too, with the game being available on PSN in addition to the PC and MAC releases.

After Burner Climax 4/21 on Xbox 360, 4/22 on Playstation 3

It’s After Burner!! Yeah, the classic shooter from Sega got a revival in 2006 at the arcades, and now the arcade version is FINALLY coming over to consoles. The game looks great, and really fast-paced. Definitely can’t wait to play it!

Super Street Fighter IV 4/27 PS3, Xbox 360

It’s Street Fighter, so of course it gets a new version. This will surely be good… since it was good last year! There’s some pretty good upgrades though. Some characters get new moves, there’s some rebalancing, there’s a bunch of new additions to the roster, Makoto is there… Should be worth checking out for big fans of SFIV, or people who skipped on SFIV the first time, since it’s gonna be cheaper than a new game (a bit less than 40$ on Amazon).

Record of Agarest War 4/27 PS3, Xbox 360

Okay… from what I understand it’s an RPG, with an SRPG battle system, utilizing 2D sprites in a 3D environment… But when I search around for info, ALL I find is pictures like the one above… like this, or this. It looks kinda interesting from the little gameplay I’ve seen, and it seems to have cool battle animations and such, but I really don’t know much about it… I’ll give it a rental.

NIER 4/27 PS3, Xbox 360

I have no idea what this is. I’ve heard about it a bit, but not much. Then I heard something about the 360 and PS3 getting different versions(Replicant on PS3 and Gestalt on the 360), then I hear that the US gets the same version(Gestalt) on both systems… I’m not really sure what’s going on… It’s an action game, I don’t know if it has RPG elements… It’s published by Square Enix. And it’s developed by those guys who made the Resident Evil on-rail shooters for wii, that piece of shit Drakengard on PS2 and the pretty good Fate/Stay fighting game on PSP… Really not sure about this.

Final Fight: Double Impact 4/30 PS3, Xbox 360

Ah, Final Fight. One of the veterans of the Beat ‘em Up genre, and also one of the better representations of the genre. It’s coming to XBLA and PSN, with various visual options, some new filters and such. The title is Double Impact, so it’s not alone. It’s accompanied by Magic Sword, a lesser known but still very good arcade classic by Capcom. A nice little compilation, though hopefully the price isn’t too high.

No More Heroes: Eiyuutachi no Rakuen 4/15 Xbox 360, PS3 (JAPANESE RELEASE)

Currently not announced for an American release. No More Heroes was a fairly good game on the Wii. Not incredible, and it had some huge flaws, but the really good parts (AKA the boss battles) were definitely something to behold. Now people can experience it on the more powerful consoles… in Japan at least.

WII RELEASES

Monster Hunter Tri 4/20

I don’t really like Monster Hunter. I think it was the slow combat style that didn’t feel too good to me. This one seems very similar to the ones I’ve played. But its a hugely popular series, so if you’re curious it’s definitely worth checking out. And it comes with a Classic Controller Pro which is pretty cool.

DS RELEASES

Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 4/28 (JAPANESE RELEASE)

The first Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker was pretty good. I’d say not exactly as good as the original Dragon Quest Monsters, but still really fun. I actually haven’t heard about this one until… just now. This should be good, and it’s sure to sell a shitload just because its Dragon Quest. Not exactly an import-friendly game, but an interesting release nonetheless.

There’s lots of good releases, a few that aren’t too great, but overall it seems like it should be a really good month. Let’s go and see what March has in store for us gamers, shall we?

As usual, the multi-platform releases are toghether, the exclusive releases are in their own sections, and japanese releases are marked accordingly.

Read on!

MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES

Mega Man 10 3/01 on Wii, 3/11 on PS3, 3/31 on Xbox 360

Probably the month’s biggest release for me. I’m always in for some old-school Mega Man 8-bit action. Not sure why there’s super delayed releases for the PS3 and Xbox 360 (seriously… 30 days later on the 360? Why?), but I’m very excited for this, so I’ll probably get it on Wii. And the easy mode might make the game a lot more accessible to casual gamers, or modern gamers who are used to games holding their hands too much.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 3/02 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

Another sequel to the popular franchise. To me it’s just a generic war FPS, but I’m sure lots of people are hyped for it, and from what I’ve seen it looks decent.

Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition 3/09 (PS3, Xbox 360)

A new edition of RE5. The DLC comes in it, and there’s some new content as well. Not really what is new in it though. But if you loved the first version and want to see the new stuff, or haven’t played it and want to try it out, this should be well worth getting.

Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space 3/09 (Wii, PC)

Sam & Max, season 2. Made by TellTale games, this continues the famous duo’s quest of… hum… being incredibly weird and random. Should be well worth checking out for fans of the first season. Which reminds me, I should finish that first season someday…

Final Fantasy XIII 3/09 (PS3, Xbox 360)

One of the most awaited games in a long time. And one I’m quite hyped for, despite the kinda negative opinions we hear from japanese players. It still looks quite good, the combat looks fun, and I doubt it will really disappoint. To me it looks like a step up from 12. And it’s been in development for a really long time, SE can’t really have screwed it up too much, right? RIGHT?

Resonance of Fate 3/16 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

Tri-Ace’s latest RPG. I actually have no idea what this game is like. It’s probably gonna have underwhelming sales because it comes out a week after FFXIII, but it might still be an interesting game… since it’s from Tri-Ace. I’ll definitely give it a try sometime.

Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening 3/16 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

An expansion to the critically acclaimed  Dragon Age Origins. From what I’ve heard it adds quite a bit of content, so fans of the game should really enjoy it.

METRO 2033 3/16 (PC, Xbox 360)

I only saw one gameplay video for this… And I really am not impressed with what I’ve seen. Looks like it will be a boring generic FPS, with no online and little content. But I might be wrong, and might rent it if I have nothing else to do one day(and if the reviews are higher than I expect them to be). I know there’s a bit of hype on the internet for this, so I’ve added it to this list…

R.U.S.E. 3/23 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

This looks like a really fun RTS with some cool quirks and it seems to use different tactics than other RTS out there. I definitely want to give this one a try.

Just Cause 2 3/23 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

I know nothing about that one. Nor have I heard of the previous game in the series. This looks like the average open-world game where you can cause any kind of chaos you might want. I’ll probably rent it, but I don’t have very high expectations from what I’ve seen.

Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes from Liberty City 3/30 (PC, PS3)

Finally the PC and PS3 get the 2 expansion packs for the popular GTAIV. I didn’t really like GTAIV, but lots of people have, and this is a long awaited release for people who don’t have a 360.

Hokuto Musou 3/25 (JAPANESE RELEASE) (PS3, Xbox 360)
(wow, the boxart looks just like Just Cause 2′s… yay for originality?)
A Fist of the North Star(Hokuto no Ken) game, which plays similarly to Dynasty Warriors… With more exploding heads probably. Definitely sounds like an interesting idea. Hopefully there’s gonna be an American release one day.

Wii RELEASES

Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon 3/16

From what I understand, this is a sort of Survival Horror game, with anime visuals. I know nothing about it, but I know it’s quite hyped in the Wii’s “core” community.

Cave Story (on WiiWare) 3/22

It’s been delayed so much no one though it would finally come, but there it is. Unless something goes wrong again, you’ll be able to get your Cave Story action on Wii on March 22nd.

Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love 3/23

There’s also a PS2 release coming, though I didn’t list it here… Anyways, this is a strategy RPG where you control mechs, as well as a visual novel-like game it seems (which affects stats in battle). I’m not exactly sure what it’s gonna be like, but the fact that it’s the first Sakura Wars game to make it to the US makes it an interesting release. Should be worth at least checking out.

Red Steel 2 3/23 (found a second release date saying 3/26 with a WiiMotion Plus)

The first Red Steel was a pretty lame FPS. This one apparently makes use of the WiiMotion Plus to correct the original’s shortcomings. Though I have no idea if it really adds much, I have yet to play it so I have not much to comment in that sense. But I definitely want to check that one out someday.

PLAYSTATION 3 RELEASES

Yakuza 3 3/09
(I can’t be the only one not to like this boxart…)
A quite interesting release on the PS3 release. It’s a very loved series, and I know quite a few people who are hyped for it. It was still unsure for a while if it was even gonna come out in America, but there it is.

God of War III 3/16

God of War. The lower tier in the action game genre that was spawned by Devil May Cry. Featuring pathetic QTEs, one of the lamest characters in all of gaming, and boring(though good-looking) combat, it’s an example of everything that sucks in modern gaming. Yet people can’t do anything but be excited for it. I.. don’t get it. But this is a very hyped game that will generate a lot of sales, I won’t deny that. Whatever it is people like about this series, this one will have it all, and fans won’t be disappointed, that’s for sure… Since it’s exactly the same gameplay-wise as the first game, just technically better-looking.

Ryu ga Gotoku 4 3/18 (JAPANESE RELEASE)

Well, just as we get the third game in the Yakuza series over here, the fourth one comes out in Japan. Nice…

XBOX 360 RELEASE

Perfect Dark 3/02 (this comes out on the XBLA)

Well, I just found out that this was coming. I don’t know how I missed that either, since Perfect Dark is by far my favorite console FPS. This is a remake of the original on the N64. This has updated graphics, but the same old gameplay, which I think is awesome(I don’t think any modern console FPS has better gameplay than this… but that’s just me). It also has some cool online implementation which enables more than the usual 4 people in one match, in combination with split-screen play (so you can have 4 people in split-screen playing with more people online at the same time). OH, and it has multiplayer maps from Goldeneye 007 as well, awesome.

PC RELEASE

Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight 3/16

I almost forgot about that one. A new Command and Conquer game! Should be good, I might check it out someday.

DS RELEASES

Sonic Classic Collection 3/02

This includes all 4 Genesis Sonic games. 1, 2, 3 and Sonic & Knuckles (pretty sure it includes Sonic 3 and Knuckles too). It’s a nice little collection, and in total should cost just a bit less than getting all 4 games seperately on the Wii Virtual Console(hopefully, otherwise there’s no sense in buying it). Though there are so many compilations of this, some with MORE games, it might not be really worth it.

Spectral Force Genesis 3/11

Not sure what this is exactly, but from screenshots it seems like it might be a Strategy RPG… For some reason the name sounded familiar, so it’s on the list.

Pokemon HeartGold and Pokemon SoulSilver 3/14

More Pokemon! Yay! This one comes with the PokeWalker accessory, which enables you to carry a pokemon around to make it gain experience. And it’s a remake of the best pokemon games in the main series. Cool stuff.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey 3/23

From various info I’ve found this sounds a bit like Nocturne, which is pretty cool. Though it takes on a more futuristic theme this time. One game I definitely want to check out.

WarioWare D.I.Y. 3/28

I don’t like WarioWare. Not my thing really. But fans of the series can now make their own WarioWare mini-games, which I’m sure they’re very excited for. Heck, even I want to check it out, see what the various options are in here. (This is also getting a release on WiiWare)

Monster Rancher DS 3/30 (I see multiple release dates for this one including April 1st, so if I need to I’ll mention it again in my April 2010 post)

WHOA!!!! FINALLY!!!! I’ve been hoping for this for a long time. This is the second Monster Rancher game on the DS in japan, but the first never came out here, and it’s some kind of miracle that this one is coming here at all (with Tecmo thinking the fanbase is too small for the game). I can’t wait to play this one, I played the hell out of the GBA games in the series.

PSP RELEASES

Lunar: Silver Star Harmony 3/02

Another remake of Lunar. There’s been multiple versions of this very same game, though the one I played was on GBA. This features new upgraded graphics and… I don’t know what else really. RPG gamers who haven’t played any of this game’s millions of versions might want to check it out, and older fans of the game might like to revisit it in an upgraded format.

Blazblue Portable 3/09

This features new modes and new unlimited versions of characters, but otherwise it’s the same BlazBlue we know and love… with downgraded graphics.

Zettai Hero Kaizou Keikaku 3/11 (JAPANESE RELEASE) (currently known as “Absolute Hero Modding Project” in english)

Nippon Ichi’s newest game is coming out in Japan! It features incredible customization, dungeon-crawling gameplay, lots of content and it looks to have Disgaea’s trademark humor style. I won’t be playing the japanese release, since it seems to have way too much japanese text for me to handle, but people with good japanese skills who are NIS fans should definitely check it out.

Prinny 2: Toukou Yuugi! Akatsuki no Pantsu Daisakusensu!! 3/25 (JAPANESE RELEASE)

MORE NIS GOODNESS! This one features similar gameplay to the first, with some modifications, and a new “Asagi mode” with Contra-like gameplay(or at least that’s what the screenshots lead me to believe). I definitely can’t wait for the American release for that, but people who are too impatient should have little trouble playing this language-wise, since it’s a platformer. It’s sure to feature hard as nails gameplay like the first though.

I played the demo for this game, and let’s just say I was less than impressed. It went from a “possible buy if I find it for 20$” to a “maybe I’ll rent it one day”. The demo, to be totally honest, was terrible. This brought down my hype for the game to zero.

So when I rented it (using GameAccess, a Canadian equivalent to GameFly), my expectations were as low as can be.

So does this surpass expectations, or is the final game just as lame as the demo? Read my review and see! (hint: it’s not a positive review)

Developer: Airtight Games
Publisher: Capcom
Date of Release: January 19th 2010

Platforms: PS3, Xbox 360, PC (PS3 version reviewed)

Genre: Third-Person Shooter
Players: 1
Rated T for Teen

Looks and sounds
Well… if this game came out in the first few months of the Xbox 360, it might have looked only slightly below average. By today’s standards, it’s quite bad. The best parts are when you’re flying, the scenery is quite well done, despite being incredibly repetitive (literally half the flying stages have the same look). And the enemy models generally look quite nice, I think they’re good.  Otherwise… the character models are quite low-quality. The character design is as cliché as it comes (the helmet Will gets some ways through the game just makes things worst… just look at the box art, it’s bad). The enemy animation is a total mess, sometimes with enemies completely skipping complete seconds of animation. I understand enemies coming out of cover, but sometimes they skip from out of cover instantly. The overall animation is not too great either, and frame-rate drops are relatively frequent and noticeable.

Sound-wise… Well, the music is cliché, boring and unmemorable. The voice acting features Nathan Drake…. I mean Nolan North, and he offers an okay performance, not spectacular but not bad. The rest of the voices range from average to bad. My big problem with the sound is that it glitches. During bigger fights with lots of flying enemies and allies and lasers everywhere and such… the sound breaks up almost constantly. Maybe I was just unlucky, but I had 3 full missions with sound breaking up all the time, it was incredibly annoying.

Story
The story is a big mess. It starts in the real world, where you get a jetpack from Nikola Tesla. After fighting alien creatures for a while, you get sucked into The Void(a “world between worlds”). There, you’re found out to be the chosen one to stop the alien’s attack, as told in a prophecy… Nothing is really explained properly, unless you read the journals. There’s a few plot-twists, all of which are easy to predict from the start. And then ending is probably the most anti-climactic ending I’ve ever seen… Not like there was much of a climax to begin with, you just get to the final boss at total random, and there’s no rhyme or reason for the rest of the game before that… It’s like they had a few interesting ideas, and jumbled them together at random. Doesn’t make for a good, or even coherent story.

Gameplay
The game is divided in 2 segments: Flying and Third-Person Shooter.
The game starts you off without a jetpack (after the short and boring opening segment with a jetpack). After a while, you get a weak jetpack that can only hover. And after another while, you get the final jetpack. Through the game, you can power up your weapons, using points you get from killing enemies, or finding them scattered around the world. This will either boost their damage or area of effect. The jetpack’s weapons can also be boosted. Both play styles let you use turrets too, which can be really useful. So on to the 2 different play styles!

Flying
I wonder… did NO ONE play Star Fox 64? After all these years, I feel not many games surpassed, or even came close to having such good flying controls. Dark Void, like most games of the genre, doesn’t get the controls right. The biggest problem is the movement(no, not the fact that it’s inverted, I’m totally fine with that in flying games). It’s incredibly loose, and really not precise. Aiming at enemies or various other targets requires good precision, but that’s never easy when the crosshair always undershoots or overshoots the movement you want it to make. That’s partly due to the fact that, when you move and stop moving the joystick, you still continue moving for a moment. So to actually be able to shoot at anything. you have to aim in the general direction of what you want to aim at, and then carefully adjust your aim until it’s centered. Which is no fun at all when you’re in a fast-paced dogfight with tons of enemies everywhere. I also wonder what’s the point of “rolling” (using the right stick), when it could have other uses then that.

Another problem for me is the “special maneuvers” you can do in the air. I have no problem with boosting and braking, those are well mapped. What I have problems with is barrel rolls and u-turns. To do them, you have to press R3, then move the analog sticks in various directions. The 2 sticks in the same horizontal direction does a barrel roll, and the 2 sticks in opposite vertical directions for a u-turn. I can’t be the only one who find this completely stupid. L2 and R2 are completely useless (you can “lock-on” on enemies with L2, but it’s stupid because it only makes the camera point at the enemy in question, and R2 gives you a freeform camera control, which is useless since you have a radar), which not use those buttons for this?

And another thing that could have been cool but ended up sucking is hijacking enemy vehicles. I mean, there’s some uses, letting you take a bit more damage (not that it matters since you have regenerating health anyways), and it gives you missiles which deal extra damage. The hijacking itself is a really badly done QTE-like sequence where you hold Circle on a metal plat up-front, and you move left and right to avoid getting hit, and then you randomly move the left stick around to kill the enemy. The animation is always the same, and the hijacking isn’t fun to do. But there’s problems here too. While you’re hijacking the ship, you can get shot at and die, or the ship might get blown up by an enemy or ally and kill you in the process. In the end, just shooting with the jetpacks normal guns is a lot safer, less time-consuming, and just as effective as hijacking. Though you can take control of ally ships, that’s not very useful either since you might as well leave them to help you out instead of losing the aircraft when you exit it.

Overall, the flying segments are bad, no ifs or buts about it.

TPS
Imagine any good, or even below average TPS that came out this generation. Now imagine if they removed the fun factor from them. That’s basically Dark Void. I’ll admit that the aiming is leagues beyond that of the flying levels, but it’s not incredible either. And I like that you can cook grenades, and the visual representation showing you how close it is to explode is quite nice. There’s not many weapons, 6 of them in total, and only 3 of them being useful (the basic machine gun, the disintegrator(basically a rocket launcher) and the sniper). The rest aren’t really useful, but they can be upgraded to have a bit more use. Now on to the bad in the TPS segments (AKA most of the game).

Enemies don’t always show reaction when you hit them, which just leaves you wondering if you actually did anything. That coupled with the fact that enemies take a TON of bullets to kill makes killing them annoying. And explain that to me: How can 50 bullets not kill something, but 1 punch can? What kind of sense does that make? The melee attacks are awkward, but they’re pretty much your most useful weapon against small enemy groups. The attacks themselves require being close enough, and pressing the melee button starts up a short 2-3 seconds animation which really breaks up the gameplay. The cover system isn’t too great either. It’s not bad, and I’ve seen worse, but there’s always a lot of you poking out, so you’ll always be getting hit. Using grenades while in cover is suicide, since you’ll never actually throw it outside of cover, it just hits what you’re covering behind and stays where you are, hurting/killing you. And enemies are terrible at taking cover, they’re always really easy to hit behind cover.

Speaking of which, the enemy AI in general is terrible. It happened in multiple occurrences where an enemy, sometimes even more than one, instead of attacking me, or moving to more advantageous positions, just stayed in one spot looking at me, not doing anything. Sometimes they’ll get close to you, when it’s obviously a bad idea since you can kill them in one hit with a melee attack. They don’t really form strategies, or actually display any kind of AI, they just… do stuff at random. Also, I don’t understand why they don’t react when you take out a grenade(can’t they see that glowing thing in your hand that you’re obviously about to throw?), instead just reacting when the grenade bounces next to them.

The most interesting element of the TPS segments is using the jetpack to jump higher, attack from the air and “flank enemies”. It’s actually the funnest thing in the game. Too bad it’s ruined by terrible camera when you’re aiming, making actually using the element effectively isn’t the easiest thing, though you can get used to it relatively easily.

The last thing I can talk about here is the “Vertical Combat”, which the developer was putting so much faith in. Well, to put it simply… it sucks. It’s like a super dumbed-down version of the normal TPS segments of the game. It’s easier, for one. You can literally go through all those sections using only melee attacks. In those segments, you “latch on” to a platform that’s on a wall/cliff, move along that wall, and drop down to lower platforms or boost up to higher ones using the jetpack(just requires pressing on Square to do it). When going down, sometimes you get “latched off” from the platform you were previously latched on to when you go down, which is a bit annoying. No such problem going up. As for the actual “Vertical Combat”, all you actually need to do is go up to each enemy separately, using your melee attack on each of them. It’s very rare that you have to do anything else, and you’ll never die in those segments since they’re so easy. So basically “Vertical Combat” is like the normal TPS segments, except you very rarely have to shoot, and you have less liberty of movement. I’m VERY disappointed by that.

Overall… if you want to play a decent TPS… pick up something else, like Gears of War or Uncharted (or their sequels). This disappoints a lot if you’ve played either of those.

Glitchy game is glitchy
Other than the sound not playing properly, the game has a few gameplay bugs. I already mentioned the crappy AI that occasionally just looks at you, or generally isn’t any good, but there’s more. Those are just 2 bugs I experienced, but I know that if I actually looked for bugs, I would have found more, easily. The first one was in the prison escape mission (I think…). After fighting a group of robots by throwing one grenade at them, I find on the ground a round-shaped item I can pick up, which is a fusion grenade. I pick it up. I look at the grenade counter just to find it’s gone. Ammo crates don’t give me any, weapon lockers don’t give me any, and obviously there’s none on the ground, and the grenade button doesn’t do anything anymore. And killing myself doesn’t correct the bug, only finishing the mission does. The other bug is after I liberate some prisoners. I go in the next room, where an enemy pops out of thin air instead of already being there (but that’s not the bug, the actual bug is a lot worse). There’s a gun on the floor, which I have to pick up and use to progress through the level. After 10 minutes of screwing around, I can’t pick it up, no matter what random things I try. So I kill myself. Only then was I able to pick it up and continue playing.

I don’t mind when there’s glitches in a game. But here there’s no rhyme or reason behind the glitches, they just happen at total random. As I said, there’s probably more to be found, considering how stupid and basic the glitches I got were. This really makes me believe that actually testing the game was not a priority, and it’s the proof of a poorly made product.

Overall
This is the second time Capcom has made this mistake. First with Bionic Commando, now with this one. Instead of making the game themselves, they gave it to an American developer with next to no experience. With Bionic Commando, it was Grin, who barely made anything beforehand(none of which was great), and with Dark Void it’s Airtight games, who has a few members from the team who made “Crimson Skies”, but, as a company, has no experience whatsoever. Both times, the games were bad. While I just want to bash the game, I see this as a good lesson for Capcom: DEVELOP GAMES YOURSELVES!  Or at least give projects to companies that have experience, and that have previously made good games. Giving projects to developers that have no experience is almost a near surefire way for the games to fail (I say “near surefire” because of Arkham Asylum).

Not to say Dark Void is ENTIRELY bad… it has a fun concept… And that’s about it. The controls are very way too loose, the flying stages aren’t fun, the TPS segments pale in comparison to any of the good TPS games this generation, the story isn’t good, the presentation is subpar. There’s basically nothing about the game that’s really well done. It had huge potential, and I’ll admit I was mildly interested in playing it before I played the demo, but it ended up not being a really good game.

At least it did generate something good (haven’t tried it yet, but I’m guessing it’s good from what I’ve heard)… Dark Void Zero, which is stupidly only on DSiWare.

This game shows the reason why I love demos: They prevent me from buying bad games.

Pros and Cons
Pros
- Cool concept
- Only around 5-6 hours to complete, so you don’t have to suffer for really long
- The enemies look pretty cool

Cons
- Glitchy
- Sound breaks up
- Very below average graphics
- Lame gameplay
- Boring story
- Only one boss fight, and it’s terrible
- Really easy despite the controls being less than desirable
- “Vertical combat” is just a very dumbed-down version of the normal TPS segments
- Big monsters and hijacking is just big badly-made QTEs
- No multiplayer, removing any possible replay value

The Save Factor
Hum… The game has a starting price of $60 ($40 on PC). And that’s WAY too high. If you insist on buying it, wait until it’s $10. Or just rent it, whichever is cheaper.

As usual, I’m not listing all the games coming, just the interesting ones. And no, there’s no interesting Xbox 360 exclusives in February as far as I can tell.

Read on and see what February has in store!

Multi-Platform Releases

BioShock 2 02/09 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

The first Bioshock was a pretty fantastic game… apparently. I only played through a very small portion of it and it did seem like quite an interesting game. Playing as a Big Daddy might be a nice change of pace from the first. One of the Behemoths this year, that’s for sure.

Dante’s Inferno 02/09 (PS3, Xbox 360, PSP)

God of War done right? Seems like it. The demo left a much better impression on me than the whole of the God of War series, that’s for sure. Will it be a good adaptation of the original poem? Probably not, but it doesn’t seem too bad. The PS3 gets a special edition for the same price as the normal 360 edition too. There’s also a PSP version coming, but it looks pretty terrible in comparison.

Aliens vs. Predator 02/16 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

I don’t know about this one. All I really saw about it was a few screenshots, and the special edition. What I’ve seen of the game itself looks fairly generic. The Hunter Edition includes a FaceHugger though… Interesting… too bad it’s not a live one.

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing 02/23 (Wii, PS3, Xbox 360, DS)

A kart racing game with Sonic and other Sega characters. I do wonder why Sonic needs a kart at all… Anyways… it looks pretty fun. Probably won’t be better than Mario Kart Wii, but whatever. Also, the Xbox 360 version includes Banjo-Kazooie as playable characters… too bad it’s their lame design.

Nintendo Wii Releases

Shiren the Wanderer 02/09

The DS version was a sub-par Dungeon Crawler. I didn’t really enjoy it. I don’t know what the Wii version brings to the table, but it might be interesting.

Data East Arcade Classics 02/16

A random collection of arcade games by Data East featuring: BurgerTime, Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja, Burnin’ Rubber (Bump n’ Jump), Caveman Ninja, Crude Buster, Express Raider, Heavy Barrel, Lock ‘n’ Chase, Magical Drop III, Peter Pepper’s Ice Cream Factory, Secret Agent, Side Pocket, Street Hoop, Super Real Darwin, Wizard Fire. Not much I really recognize, but it might be a fun little collection.

Playstation 3 Releases

White Knight Chronicles International Edition 02/02

Whoa, it’s actually coming out? That took a while. Looks like it could be one of the heavy hitters on the PS3 this year. It seems like a very interesting RPG.

Star Ocean The Last Hope: International 02/09
(don’t even know if this is the actual boxart, I saw like 3 different ones…)
The Xbox 360 version was quite good. Yes, it was actually good, despite what… just about everyone thinks. The combat was quite fun, the story was not too bad, and it was a good experience overall. This one adds more characters and… I have no idea what else. But it brings the experience to PS3 users, which is a good thing.

Heavy Rain 02/23

I’ll be honest and say I have no interest in this game. A game completely based on QTEs doesn’t really feel compelling to me. It has some interesting story-telling elements that sound pontially interesting, but the gameplay itself looks meh at best. I’ll probably rent it…

Last Rebellion 02/23

A turn-based RPG by HitMaker. You can switch between 2 characters during battle, both with different movesets and effects (one attacks physically, the other uses magic). And each enemy have different weakpoints, with different reactions when you hit said weak points. This could be interesting. ALSO, it’s gonna be $40 new. Sounds good to me.

DS Releases

Yu-Gi-Oh! World Tournament 2010 02/06
(didn’t find a box art, so I found a card featuring a wombat instead)
The Yearly Yu-Gi-Oh game. Hopefully this one doesn’t have any FUCKING motorcycle stages.

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth 02/16

An Ace Attorney game with Miles Edgeworth as the main character? Very interesting. This one seems to concentrate a bit more on the investigations segments though (as the name suggests).

Ragnarok DS 02/16

I actually did an import review of this one. It’s an okay take on the Ragnarok gameplay, but this time it’s single-player instead of the usual multi-player online gameplay. There is SOME multi-player if I recall correctly.

Estpolis: The Lands Cursed by the Gods JAPANESE RELEASE 02/25

The Lufia 2 remake. Really hoping for a US release, but fans of the series who have good japanese skills should definitely give this a try. I definitely can’t wait to play this, even with the completely new gameplay and modified character designs. The orignal Lufia 2 is still my favorite RPG, and taking another stab at it is a great idea.

PSP Releases

Armored Core: Silent Line Portable 02/04

I’m not very familiar with Armored Core. I played part of For Answer, and thought it was pretty fun (though I never got very deep in the customization), with fast-paced gameplay and nice robot designs. This actually seems like just a port of a PS2 game, though I’m not 100% sure.

SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3 02/16

I had no idea this was coming. SOCOM was never a very interesting series to me. Maybe it’s because I don’t really like “realism” in games. I don’t know…

Metal Slug XX 02/23

It’s Metal Slug. This time with 6 playable character (and Leona as a seventh downloadable character). Should be good, just like previous Metal Slug.

PC Releases

Star Trek Online 02/02

I have no interest in this game and its high subscription fees, but Trekies finally have an interesting MMO to call their own. And from what I understand it doesn’t look too bad. Yay?

NES Release

Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril (February 22nd)

Is it cheating to add this to the list? Kinda. It’s a homebrew game, made by one guy. All the graphics, music and level design all made by him, as well as all the programming. It will come on  an actual NES cartridge (no ROMs will be publically released for a while because of a contract with the site that will be selling the game), which is awesome since it’s gonna be playable on the actual NES. It’s gonna be sold at RetroZone, so probably around 32$ for the game. The game basically seems like I Wanna Be The Guy, but easier, and a bit more fun. Check out the trailer!. And here’s a demo(requires an emulator). I’m pretty excited for this.