Heavy Rain : PS3 –

2/23 – Track your missing son through a twisted web set by the Origami killer in this Playstation must have.

Endless Ocean : Blue World: Nintendo Wii –

2/23 – Travel across the globe, dive in exotic locations, enjoy interacting with over 350 different species of marine life, and explore sunken ruins.

Borderlands : The Secret Armory of General Knoxx DLC – PC, PS3, 360 –

2/23 – More borderlands DLC!!!! WOOOO!

Last Rebellion :PS3

2/23 – More JRPGness?

Risen:Xbox 360 –

2/23 – A four chapter medieval RPG

Every once in a while a game comes along that redefines how we feel about a genre, system, or an art style. It’s rare that a game comes along that changes the way we feel about gaming. Heavy Rain is what I believe to be that game.

Playing as Ethan, a father who blames himself for the death of his son. You begin combatting rigorous trials set up by the Origami killer, who has kidnapped your sole surviving son. While Ethan struggles on 3 other characters are placed into play: a private detective, a high-end fashion photographer Madison, and an FBI agent with a bad habit Jayden. The game play progresses by moving you from character to character playing out their chunks of the story one piece at a time. Every decision you make, and every button press you mess up or miss directly change the outcome, and possibly that characters fate. If you happen to get a character killed the game doesn’t end, it simply continues without that characters presence.

Never before have I felt concern for my characters as seriously as I do in Heavy Rain, and the developers do an incredible job of putting you in the moment. There are scenes in the game where I felt emotionally strained or frustrated because I couldn’t find the person I was chasing, or get through the crowd as fast as I wanted to while trying to escape. Blending that with a compelling story, and characters who at times feel alive made this game something I could not put down. Every moment of tracking the Origami Killer was a heart wrenching experience, and to make it better, there are multiple endings. Once finishing the game you see how each decision you made will change the outcome and what you could have done better. I’ve heard the developer recommends only 1 play through but how could you?! The game is so exciting and compelling that multiple play throughs would be easy.  Every thing you do with Ethan in his Saw style massicistic adventure leads to multiple avenues, rooms simply suggest, “How will i perform this?” “with what device?” Without giving away story points or well grotesque horror that can be caused, one trial literally had 4-5 different methods you could utilize to perform the task, and you still have the choice to not do it!  You simply wouldn’t gain more information about your sons location.

Heavy Rain is a must have for Playstation Owners, leaving this game out of your library would be a huge mistake. Quantic Dream has shown us what high end technology and video games are capable of. After finishing my first play through of this game I immediately started again, and will definitely be purchasing every piece of episodic content released, starting with the Taxidermist which should be available immediately. Order from Amazon Here

Liked:

• Strong character design with gorgeous graphics, complete freedom to play the game how you would. Treat people how you would and once again feel guilty for your choices.
• Innovative contro scheme that made me feel involved in the action, more than just shooting and fighting, the controls actually made me feel the strain of gameplay during tough scenes.
• Beautifully mixed surround sound audio that makes you feel like you are in the game, rain falling from all speakers and voices coming from good screen placement, and a gorgeously composed soundtrack.
• Everything this game had to offer

Disliked:

• The thought that people won’t play this

Score:

• Graphics – 10
• Audio – 10
• Gameplay – 10
• Replay – 10
• Story -10

Overall : 10

Don’t miss this release

Star Ocean is an action RPG. It plays similarly to the Tales of Destiny games in that the level and battle systems are closely related. What I like about both of these series is that the high-action battles keep you involved in the game the entire time while giving you all the basic RPG elements. Star Ocean: The Last Hope is the fourth game in the series and is announced to also be the last. But don’t let that stop you from picking it up, because this is a prequel to the entire series and the story and world are easy to follow along with.

The other thing I like about this series is the science fiction elements.  You’re basically cruising through the Galaxy looking for new planets to colonize post World War III when the Earth was decimated. This is also where the game gets its title, The Last Hope. The main character ‘Edge’ becomes the captain of a SEED ship, and the rest of your party consists of the crew. You go from planet to planet, recruiting members, and saving the inhabitants of those worlds.

I thought the battle systems were done really well. You get four members at a time, and you choose any one of them to control yourself while the other three are controlled by an A.I. . They use an active battle system, that isn’t turn based at all. (You get to use special ability’s and attacks as often as you like provided you have the MP.) While this sounds really simple, there is still a lot of strategy required. (Especially on boss battles.)

Each of the characters has their own abilities and fights in their own unique way. For example, the main character is really good at close combat, whereas his second in command (A girl named Reimi) is an Archer and is better at fighting at a distance. The variations on how to use your party are virtually endless.

The first thing I noticed about this game is that it is incredibly vast. But with the active battle system, and going from world to world, it hardly ever gets boring, and it’s always a delight to look at. The models are some of the best I’ve seen, for both the characters and the enemies. I’ve mentioned in a review of Avatar recently that video games seem to be much more adept at populating new worlds with interesting creatures and environments. This video game was successful in filling many worlds with life and story, that I consider to be a much greater accomplishment.

The international version offers the ability to play in either Japanese or English, which as a Japanese language student I find to be be a really good feature. Also as a North American it’s refreshing to actually see the release of an International version in general because it is so rarely done. (I’ve been waiting for a FF7 international version since 1997.)

The voice acting was done better than some of the games I’ve played recently, and was completely acceptable. Which is saying a lot, because unfortunately now a days, bad voice acting can kill a game. Although I do have to say some of the characters mannerisms were slightly annoying, I am certainly willing to give it a pass. (Especially because the games sound-track was really good.)

Overall, this is a really good looking game that’s fun to play for many hours with a definitive ending point, and a cool story. I highly recommend it. It makes me want to pick up the other games in the series as well.
You can buy your copy from Amazon through this link!

Score:

• Graphics : 9
• Controls: 8
• Audio : 8
• Replay: 7
• Story: 9
• Overall: 8.2
  

Here’s what games are kicking around town this week.

Alien Vs. Predator – XB360, PS3, PC:

2/16 – Enter the world of AVP, featuring 3 different story modes, and multiplayer with 3 different angles. I’ll have the scoop for you later this week.

Tropico 3 – XB360

2/17 – PC strategy gone console!

Ragnarok ds:

The MMORPG hits the ds.

SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3- PSP:

2/16- More multi-player fun for the psp, woo!

Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce – PS3:

2/17 – I should have something clever to say… think…think…..uh…It’s Dynasty Warriors.

Everquest II: Sentinel’s Fate – PC

2/16 – Everquest II lives on.

Crime Scene – Nintendo DS:

2/17 – Solve crimes and investigate mysteries using the touch screen, microphone, and other DS functionality.

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles EdgeworthAce Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth – Nintendo DS

2/17 – Phoenix is back in another crime solving party. This will be good.

DSI Ware:

Real Soccer 2010
Spotto
Scrabble

Available 2/9 – Explore Rapture again, this time as a Big Daddy unraveling the mysteries behind Sophia Lamb’s cult followers.

Dante’s Inferno: PS3, 360

Available 2/9 – Loosely based on the epic poem, take Dante into hell to save his wife from it’s grasp.

World of Outlaws: Sprint Cars – Xbox 360

Star Ocean: The Last Hope: International – PS3

Available 2/9 -Remade from the 360 version this game hits 2.9 loaded with Playstation only goodies!!

Scene IT!: Twighlight – Nintendo DS

Available 2/9 – this game doesn’t get a summary. Eff sparkly vampires.

The Daring Game for Girls – Nintendo DS

Available 2/9 – Be a girl and be…..daring?

Family Party: 30 Great Games Winter Fun – Nintendo Wii

Available 2/9 – More Shovelware!

Super Monkey Ball Touch and Roll – Nintendo Wii

Available 2/9 -More monkey-ball related mayhem, sounds dirty but it isn’t.

Shiren The Wanderer – Nintendo Wii

Available 2/9 – Epic adventure

Darwinia+ – Xbox Live Arcade

Sins of a Solar Empire – Trinity – PC

Available 2/9 – mmm Space RTS.

After wrapping up the original Bioshock, I found myself drooling for more. I had escaped rapture, freed the little sisters, done all the good I could imagine, and successfully made my way to the surface. A little over two years later 2K Games is sending you back as a new character to unravel the mysteries of Sophia Lamb, and her twisted groups intent in the underwater colony.
Playing a mysterious character known only as “Subject Delta”, You begin your quest to find Eleanor, your little sister (not relative but gathering, harvesting, creep machine) who has been abducted by Sophia Lamb. With the assistance of another mysterious man by radio you begin your exploration of another huge portion of the underwater world.
The second my copy arrived for review I anxiously ripped open the package to receive what I consider to be another must have collector’s edition, (right along side the Assassin’s Creed 2 piece.) Packaged with a 180 gram vinyl LP soundtrack for Bioshock 1, the cd soundtrack for Bioshock 2, a 164 page hard-bound art book with director commentary, and 3 advertisement posters from the game, wrapped in a stylish box, the cost of 99.99 was to me a great value. If you were intuitive enough to pre-order one, or tenacious enough to find one, I doubt you will be disappointed in the items you received, I know I’m not.

The game looks and feels akin to it’s predecessor in every way. The same dark, rusted passageways, the man you’ve never met radioing directions to you. And you slowly upgrading yourself piece by piece to become strong enough to take on the splicer’s that await. As an alpha big daddy Delta can still fight other big daddy’s to claim their little sister’s. However, you can now adopt them, and use them to gather adam, increasing your own personal upgrade power, and then choose to harvest them, or release them. Based on your decision to harvest the sisters or save them, you are privy to multiple endings. Sophia Lamb is of course not ok with you adopting and harvesting or saving little sisters, so as you do so you will be attacked by her minions the big sisters. They are stronger, faster, and much harder to kill than the big daddy’s and offer a unique challenge to the game,such as…”do I really want to fight the big daddy to gather, only then to fight a big sister?”
Although Bioshock 2 does not feel much different from the first, playing as a big daddy does give it quite different way of going about combat, and the new weapons are also quite enjoyable. Whether using your trusty shotgun, or .50 cal used in the first game, or moving onto newer weapons like the spear gun, and rivet gun. Your slower movements, and increased melee damage with your drill (as well as your ability to drill through splicer’s and other opponents) show you the power of the big daddy.
The joy in Bioshock 2 is not found in what they changed from the last though. Really the story is the major pull of the game. Any redundancy that I felt, was quickly erased by the interesting environments and characters. From Grace Hollaway, to the demented Alexander Gill, I found myself excited to meet new characters and discover what they contributed to the new underwater nightmare. Guiding delta through the seedy underbelly of the world, or guiding him across the ocean floor to the next airlock, didn’t feel cumbersome at all as the story unraveled before me. The game continues to offer unexpected and well written twists, similar to the WYK ending of the first game.

Another portion of the game that really stands out is the music. The soundtrack to the game is beautifully mesmerizing. From the stylized load screen music to the great symphonic score, I feel the music from this game compete’s with the soundtrack from Modern Warfare 2. Blend the well composed music with terrifying splicers, and a beautiful underwater world, and you get the greatest overall immersion that a game can create. If anything can be said of the Bioshock team, they know how to place you in a world, that not only terrifies you, it enthralls you.
Take the great twisting story, huge pile of plasmids, 2 endings, and 12 hour play-through time for my first go, I’d say this game is a must have for the gamer’s collection. And a must play for anyone who likes a tough game with a great story. Putting the element’s that 2K has delivered together, and package it with a well developed multi-player with that same Rapture twist, and we get yet another solid entry into the q1 gaming list. It’s hard not to be a fan boy of a series designed so well.

Liked:

• Fabulously composed soundtrack, and well placed ’50s style score.
• Once again the beautiful art deco world stunned me every step of the way
• Spoiler Alert: Playing as a little sister
• Pretty much the entire game

Disliked

• I really do wish the game was longer, but even the 12 hours for my hard play-through was a blast.
• There were times that I found the splicer’s so difficult that I felt less like a big daddy, and more like the regular Joe from part one.
• The new research system, it didn’t make quite as much sense as the first, and was harder to understand if I was doing well with the camera.

Score:

• Graphics : 9
• Controls: 9
• Audio : 10
• Replay:8
• Story:10
• Overall:9

White Knight Chronicles – Playstation 3:

In stores 2/3 – This advanced action RPG, which includes a cool online multiplayer mode, and a neat avatar system where you can fully customize your main characters squire has some interesting ideas behind it. I hope it can live up to the hype it’s built since it was announced at the launch of the PS3.

Star Trek Online – PC

In stores today, 2/2. Take your Star Trek adventure into space, command your fleet, or take your away team on the ground. Pick up at your local Gamestop to receive the Enterprise Flagship Exclusive and if you find a collector’s edition you’ll get your die-cast badge and more.

True Swing Golf Express – Nintendo DSI

800 Nintendo Points

Legends of Exidia – Nintendo DSI

800 Nintendo Points

Downtown Texas Hold ‘Em – Nintendo DSI

500 Nintendo points

Zoe Mode’s Chime – Xbox Live Arcade

400 Microsoft points. More than 60% of this game’s purchase cost will be donated to children’s organization around the world.

AWESOME NEWS!!!

Twisted Pixel’s Splosion man will be on sale for 400 points this week as opposed to it’s usual 800 points. as well.

Thexder was originally released for PC’s in 1985. You play a robot that shoots a laser, and turns into a fighter jet! This is an enhanced remake put out from Square-Enix for the PSP, and just last week to the PS3.

I was turned on to this title when I watched the trailer, because the graphics were reminiscent of the remake of Gradius. (Which is excellent!) Just like all video games of this era there is absolutely no plot line. Although the transforming ship is one hell of a gimmick.

The PSP version of this game isn’t very big, (the PS3 version is supposedly longer.) But they are only asking for $9.99 to play it, which isn’t a large investment. It does have different difficulty settings, and some online play features. Even still, I can’t see spending more than a few hours of playtime on this title. Although, I would still be interested in trying the PS3 version that was released last week.

The gameplay and strategy system was good. You maneuver through levels that resemble mazes, 10 of them in total, and you fight enemies all along the way. In this game your laser,  shields, and HP are all attached to a single meter, and when that meter gets to zero you die. I liked that your laser drained your HP, but it was a little annoying that your weapon never changed throughout the whole game. Another slightly disappointing aspect was that there was only a single boss battle.

Overall, I think this is good fun for a limited amount of time. I understand that they were remaking a classic game, but when they are enhancing the graphics to the point of looking as cool as these, I wish they took some liberties to upgrade the game as well. And make no mistake, it looked great.

It’s a fun action game for the PSP, but now that the PS3 version has got its release, that’s supposed to have some extra levels, I wouldn’t recommend buying the PSP version. If you want to buy this get it for the PS3!

A Zombie’s Perspective:

Capcom’s latest addition to the vs. series puts their wide line-up of characters against an anime company that I have never heard of. Although the Tatsunoku side consists of a good group of interesting character’s I’m sure American sales of this title will be hurt by the lack of recognition.
Upon booting this game I didn’t think too much of it, pretty standard intro (although their theme music is MUCH better than SF4). Basic character select screen, and away we go picking our two and beginning the combat. Round 1, Arse-Bot vs. a beginning Zombietron. Needless to say I lost several times, but slowly began to pick up on the combo system and how fluidly the game allows you to move from point to point.
Playing on a standard Wii-mote the folks at Capcom have given a very easy control scheme, forward and 2, forward and 1, and the list continues with all directions.  This for most learners was pretty easy, but I gotta say, when the battle gets intense, it’s hard to make sure you’re hitting the correct combos when you only have six button choices. Taking these and add few combos like the usual DFP for Ryu’s Hadoken, and the game quickly falls into the standard fighter category with mostly solid controls. Using a classic controller it then begins to play like the Capcom fighters from the SNES days, which once again is easy to adjust and just as fun to work with.

Where I think this game shines as opposed to some of the other members of the vs. group, is the attentiveness to balance the game has. Every character has a strategy, and every character has a weak point you can exploit to win. (ask Mexicus about the upper-cut super counter). That being said through the hours we battled, Tatsunoku seemed to have the advantage in speed, power, and over-all character quality. It simply felt that taking a Capcom character against the futuristic weapon-toting Tatsunoku crew could be considered a mistake. But I still found myself pulling out the wins when it really mattered.  It was nice to see even the giant characters namely px-40 and Lightan (also known by the BSR crew as “The Waffle Iron Dude”) were limited in speed, and you could choose only them, instead of your usual two choices.  AND THEY WERE BEATABLE, unlike the sentinel MVC2.
All-in-all, Tatsunoku is a solid line up of good characters, interesting arenas, and a great time blasting away at your friends.  It has a good technical side for the hardcore fighting kids.  This game is worth a buy, it will even be featured in Evo this year. I say high-five to Capcom for giving Wii owners a game to compete on!

The Zombie Score:

• Graphics: 8.5
• Audio: 8
• Controls: 9
• Replay: 9.5
• Zombie’s Overall : 8.75
• The Composite : 7.75

The Doctor’s perspective! (In other words the correct perspective!)

Dr. Cyborg here, Just got done with a bout on the newly released Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom! The new fighter from Capcom exclusively for the Wii. I found this to be a game that needed to be done for a long time, as this is the first fighting game I’ve purchased for the Wii. (Excluding Smash Bros. which doesn’t count at all, you idiots!)

To preface, I’m a big fan of both Street Fighter in general, and all the Marvel Vs. Capcom games. TVC, is a sort of blend of these games, but not really like either. Thankfully it has the same type of look as SFIV, but the dual battle system of MVC. The biggest variation from both titles is the controls. You can play with a Game Cube controller, the classic controller, or with the Wii remote itself. I’ve found I like the classic controller the best. But that isn’t what separates the controls, it’s that they’ve designed a whole new system. Now rather than having 2 or 3 kick and punch buttons, they’ve combined the buttons. So now your light, medium, and hard buttons throw different types of attacks in different situations. For example, if Ryu is in the air and you press your hard button, it will be a kick, but on the ground holding forward it might be a punch.

It sounds complicated, but in all actuality it simplifies things. I think it makes the game playable to a larger audience, but it’s still complicated enough that if you aren’t skilled, you are going to get your ass kicked. I find myself sentimentally attached to the old system, but I like how easy it is to learn a new character with this decrease in controls. Honestly it’s intimidating to try a new fighter in Street Fighter IV, but in this game every character has their own strengths and weaknesses, but has basically the same controls as everyone else.

To wrap things up for doctors, I’m just going to spout off a few sentences! There’s plenty of playable characters in this game, but I wish there were a few more. (Most notably Ken.) I’ve only played through the arcade a few times, and the computer can be pretty challenging. All of the characters endings seem to be pretty ridiculous. The online play seems awesome if it isn’t lagging out too bad. I find this to be highly enjoyable, but easily not the best Capcom fighting game on the market. (I’m now much more excited for Super Street Fighter IV.)

Overall I’d give it a 7.75/10 (Completely different than a Zombies 7.75)

P.S. Q: What do you call a lame brain that couldn’t think their way out of a super market? Give up?

A: Zombies!

Dr’s rule suckas!

Last week the good folks at Zipper gave Playstation owners a chance to jump online and kill each other in a better way than ever before. Mag is an incredible feat of technology, running anywhere from 64-256 players at one time, with no lag. I was a doubter, I didn’t believe it could be done, and they did it. Six hours of Mag and not a single frame drop, incredible.

Mag is built on the idea that your entire squad MUST work together to succeed, and what’s even better about the idea is that the community playing is actually supporting this theory. Entire clans following one mans strategy to take out object points, destroy data uplinks, or simply kill off the opposing faction one member at a time. One game our whole team was lead to victory by one guy barking orders and us scrambling to follow him.

The game doesn’t have quite the shiny graphical edge that Call of Duty and others have shown, this is probably where they sacrificed to make the server response so clean. It did however look good, the character’s moved like real soldiers, died like real soldiers, and felt like real soldiers. The action kept me tense, and excited for every encounter, the melee kills felt real. The only real complaint I could find was sometimes I would hit these wierd patches where the game felt silent.. Awkwardly silent, and I found myself thinking, “Hey…Why is it so damned quite on this battlefield?”.
As far as the shooting nature of Mag is concerned, it is much more difficult than Call of Duty or any game containing auto-aim for that matter. The lack of auto- aim, and the experience based leveling did make me feel quite over-whelmed through my first few experiences. I have a much harder time keeping my Kill to Death Ratio in the positive, and as you can see by the video below, I’m not the world’s greatest shooter player. MAG is by no means an easy shooter, it is, however, gracious in letting you learn how to play. Before you enter into the main fray, you are encouraged to take a training course on using the basic set up of the game, weapons, repairs, grenades,and after the training you are unleashed with whichever faction you have chosen to go to war.

The factions felt very balanced and even, I chose SVER, and didn’t find myself outgunned by the Raven, or Valor. Using my maneuverability against their better armor, and weaponry I was able to hold my own. (Even though I found myself begging to have their sniper rifle, that didn’t seem to miss.)

If you’re not one for story, if you grab Call of Duty, and jump right into Multiplayer then MAG is for you. It may not have as much flash and dazzle as Call of Duty, but It does have more polish, and a new way to experience online multiplayer. I didn’t find people sticking to walls, or glitching out. In 7 or 8 games I saw ONE body floating around in a glitch after dying. Yet another impressive feat for the game.

This squad based game really impressed me, and I hope Zipper can continue to push the online experience further with their understanding of online, and mastery of technology. Go SVER.
Pick up your copy of MAG here

Score:

• Graphics : 8
• Replay : 10
• Controls : 8
• Audio : 7
• Overall: 8.25