Tag Archive: ray carsillo


Hands-On: Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2

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January 2, 2013

You’ll Never See It Coming

When we think of most military shooters, we think of epic, Michael Bay-inspired moments and frantic, run-and-gun firefights, but sometimes you can change the world more with a single, well-placed bullet than a boxload of clips. There’s a stealthy aspect of war that’s sometimes forgotten about in the modern military first-person shooter—the men who, when they do their job right, you don’t even know they were there.

I speak, of course, of the sniper. While they’re commonly relegated to the role of a long-distance throwaway henchman in most games, real-world snipers are some of the most feared combatants in many environments, as they can decimate enemy forces before the victims even know what hit them. That’s why, when I got a chance to go hands-on with a couple levels from the upcoming Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2, I knew I was in for a very different FPS experience.

The first level had me decked out in jungle camo as we infiltrated an unspecified area of the Philippines. Working my through thick foliage and past meager riverside huts, I was quickly introduced to a variety of mechanics I don’t normally see in games. The first was the icon in my scope that let me know where my bullets would hit—and since every bullet is affected by wind and the force of gravity, it was seldom the precise spot where my crosshairs were aiming. With a quick pull of the trigger, I took out a guard smoking a cigarette and was startled as the camera violently shook. I was then informed that a smoother, slower squeeze of the trigger would lessen the recoil and make my shots more accurate, just as if I were shooting an actual sniper rifle.

The Phillippines level was a breeze for someone with as much FPS experience as me, but the devs were quick to note that I was playing on Casual, which means I had access to a few features that wouldn’t be accessible on the higher difficulty levels. On Normal or Hard, the enemies won’t be automatically marked on the minimap—I’d need to spot them with my binoculars. I’d also need to estimate the bullet drop myself, since that handy reticule wouldn’t be there to help.

Even on Casual, however, my skills were put to the test when we took on the next level, a flashback to war-torn Sarajevo in the early ’90s. Here, enemies were more numerous and frantically searching for insurgents, making it much harder to camp and take out enemies one by one. This is where the game’s heartbeat mechanic really came into play. In several instances, I found myself taking enemy fire, which caused my in-game heart rate to skyrocket. As a result, it was much more difficult to steady my rifle for a killing shot on subsequent enemies. And with only a pistol, knife, and said sniper rifle to count on, every time my adversaries tried to rush my position, I was in for the fight of my life.

This is when it really dawned on me, and the concept for the game started to come together. This wasn’t your standard military shooter as much as it was a stealth game. The scenarios you find yourself in may have the window dressing of your other military shooters, but Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 is shaping up into something more akin to Hitman than Call of Duty. Fans of the first game will appreciate a lot of the changes that were made to also prevent this game from heading down that typical FPS path, like the removal of the run-and-gun assault rifle segments in favor of more dedicated sniping gameplay.

All in all, our time with the game was unfortunately very short, but I was amazed at how much fun I was having crawling through the tall grass and lining up headshot after headshot. The new mechanics added interesting levels of nuance to sniping. Fans of the first Sniper will love the new changes, while newcomers will appreciate the breath fresh of air this gives military FPS games. I can’t wait to see the full game when Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 releases in late Q1 2013.

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EGM Book Review: Hitman: Damnation

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I’ll be Damned…

The last time many gamers saw the bald man with the barcode on the back of his head, Agent 47 and Diana Burnwood had taken down the Franchise in Hitman: Blood Money and things looked to be getting back to normal (well, as normal as they get for the world’s greatest assassin). When we begin Hitman: Absolution, however, things are far more different than we remembered, as 47 has a new handler and his new target is the previously mentioned Ms. Burnwood.

Although some of the pieces of this initial puzzle come together as you play Absolution, there are a lot of unanswered questions in regards to just what transpired between Blood Money and Absolution. Thus, we have Hitman: Damnation, a prequel novel by Raymond Benson (best known for having written several official James Bond novels) that reveals Diana’s fall from grace, introduces and fleshes out key Absoltuon characters like Birdie, Benjamin Travis, and his assistant Jade, and just what brings Agent 47 back into the ICA’s folds.

After Burnwood leaves 47 to die in the Himalayan mountains in the middle of a contract and drops off the grid, everyone’s favorite bald assassin finds himself drifting through life after recovering from yet another near-death experience. Wishing to leave the ICA behind, 47 survives on simple hits for various drug lords and other unsavory types. After all, old habits die a lot harder than most of 47’s targets.

It isn’t long before the newly reformed ICA wishes to reacquire their greatest asset, though, and with the promise of finding Diana and figuring out why she left him, 47 accepts being brought back into the ICA ranks. Wishing to see if 47 still has it, the ICA wants to test the hitman before sending him after Burnwood, should they be able to follow up on their guarantee of finding her. But what starts off as your run-of-the-mill political assassination quickly turns into a conspiracy of global proportions that will push 47’s bio-enhanced skills to their limits.

Considering how much I, like much of the EGM staff, enjoyed Hitman: Absolution, I relished the chance to see several of the blanks in the game’s backstory filled in. Benson shows off his Hitman chops almost right off the bat by how he easily allows readers to jump into the head of the near-emotionless assassin. Although 47’s internal dialogue and Benson’s narration can sometimes blend together a bit too much, getting a better feel for his motivations throughout this book really helped me enjoy what IO Interactive did with the game. This chapter in the Hitman franchise is easily the deepest slice of personality we’ve ever gotten from the cold-blooded killer.

Damnation isn’t just about deepening the character of 47, though. The book may get off to a bit of a slow start, but there’s more than enough action here to keep fans interested, as Benson beautifully describes several hits in stunning, meticulous detail. For the last 100 pages or so, I couldn’t put Damnation down as it ramped up to a thrilling, action-packed conclusion. Throw in some dynamic and interesting villains and I can’t see anyone who enjoys the Hitman games not enjoying this read. This book is more than worth the price ($9.99) considering how much enjoyment Hitman fans will get from its 300 pages. Damnation would make a great stocking stuffer or wishlist addition if you have a huge Hitman fan in your household.

SCORE: 8.5

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EGM Review: Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse

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Not always lucky there’s a Family Guy

It’s never easy to capture the essence of a licensed product in a videogame. Sure, games like Batman: Arkham City show it can be done, but for every gem, you get South Park: Tenorman’s Revenge, X-Men: Destiny, a half-dozen Simpsons titles (excluding Hit and Run), and the worst of them all, Aquaman: Battle for Atlantis (just beating out the equally awful Superman 64). So, when it came time for Family Guy to take another crack at a video game, six years after their first failure on the last console generation, it was hard not to think “Here we go again.”

Inspired by the Season 8 episode “Road to the Multiverse,” Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse centers around the machinations of an alternate universe incarnation of Bertram, Stewie’s evil half-brother who was destroyed in the main Family Guy universe episode “The Big Bang Theory.” This version of Bertram has built his own multiverse remote control and vowed revenge on Stewie for killing him in any universe. Knowing that their own vast multiverse experience makes them the only ones capable of putting a stop to the plan, the show’s beloved odd couple, Stewie and Brian, embark on a quest across 10 parallel dimensions to stop Bertram from putting together an unstoppable army that will squash the Griffin family once and for all.

As a fan of the show, I admit the premise sounded promising. When you consider that the plot was written by the Fuzzy Door writing staff and that everyone from the cartoon reprised their voice for the game, the story side of Back to the Multiverse didn’t worry me one bit. And it did, indeed, deliver in most instances, as there were many moments during the game’s cutscenes where I found myself laughing out loud as Brian and Stewie found themselves in a Pirate World, an Amish World, a world ruled by handicapped people, and much more.

Unfortunately, when it came to being a fleshed-out game, I found Back to the Multiverse lacking. The third-person shooter gameplay quickly became tedious as wave after wave of cookie-cutter enemies swarmed me in each level, yet still provided almost no challenge. Surprisingly, the handful of platforming obstacles in several levels—along with one very special level with Peter—provided some enjoyable variety to the grind of shooting everything in sight, but these brief departures from the blasting bonanza were too few and far between to save the game from becoming repetitive, dull, and simple.

The game is also extremely short and linear, and in order to try to cram in a couple extra hours of playtime, each level is littered with pointless item collection side quests that reward players with nothing but concept art and multiplayer skins. Somewhere between collecting my 10th wanted poster in the Amish world and my 7th handicap placard in the “Handicapable” level, I was already done with the hoarding.

And speaking of the multiplayer, what were developers Heavy Iron thinking by not making the co-op or versus modes online capable? The multiplayer suite here is impressive, with challenges, Deathmatch and CTF, a horde mode, and campaign co-op. Though far from revolutionary, Multiverse definitely has the potential to stand up to many other titles out there, but since all the modes are restricted to local play, they quickly lose their luster. The multiplayer levels, especially in Team Deathmatch, seem better designed for larger groups of players with their scope and size. With only up to four people locally, everyone is constantly wandering around, desperate for someone to shoot. I appreciate local play as an option, but it just doesn’t work well as the only option, not in this day and age.

In the end, this game is like many of those other licensed products that have come before it. There’s a very solid core here, with the visuals and the humorous writing capturing the animated heart of the show. If the fat from the single player had been cut out so there was only maybe only five or six more polished and varied levels, I could see this being a great downloadable or budget title in the $20-30 price range. For a full $60 though, Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse is far too flawed to be worth it for all but the most passionate (and delusional) of Family Guy fans, as this falls into place with the rest of the long list of other mediocre adapted media property video games out there.

SUMMARY: A solid comedic core cannot save what becomes tedious gameplay as you move through the 10 different dimensions of the Multiverse. Throw in the mind-boggling lack of online multiplayer for a suite that clearly could have benefited from it, and Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse should only appeal to fanatics of the FOX animated sitcom.

  • THE GOOD: Much of the game captures the humor of the show.
  • THE BAD: No online multiplayer, tedious side quests.
  • THE UGLY: Amish women. What? It’s not like they’re going to read this on the Internet or something.

SCORE: 5.5

Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse is available on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. Primary version reviewed was for Xbox 360. 

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EGM Review: Red Bull Crashed Ice Kinect

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Crash and burn

Up until yesterday, I had no idea what Crashed Ice was. If you came up to me on the street and asked me, I’d probably say it was some sort of alcoholic beverage. And considering Red Bull puts on the event, I may start experimenting with that one later (I’m thinking some blue grenadine and vodka needs to be in there). But, no, Crashed Ice is actually a winter extreme sport involving skating downhill at breakneck speeds while dressed as a hockey player on a closed track. So, considering my love of hockey and my unfortunate experience playing many Kinect, sports, and Kinect sports games over the past couple of years, I figured “How bad could it be?” Famous last words if there ever were ones.

Released to coincide with the first event of the 2012-2013 World Championship season, Red Bull Crashed Ice Kinect allows your avatar to don pads and blades and try to become the faster skater out there as you avoid various real-life and in-game exclusive obstacles. Featuring avatars based on actual Crashed Ice competitors like Kyle Croxall and Jasper Felder, you and three others race to the finish in each event, just like in the actual sport. Being that the game is Kinect based, you’d expect maybe some leg movement, but instead of moving your legs to gain speed, you just swing your arms back and forth as fast as possible in a motion that is more reminiscent of skiing rather than skating. And, unfortunately, Red Bull Crashed Ice Kinect happens to be yet another prime example of a game that fails primarily because the Kinect sensor can’t pick up your motions a majority of the time if you go too fast, obviously defeating the entire purpose of what a race is supposed to be.

The controls aren’t the only failure of Red Bull Crashed Ice Kinect, however, since it’s not like there’s much strategy to this game. The entire concept is “you go downhill as fast as possible.” The faster you swing your arms, the faster you go (if the sensor picks you up), and so the challenge centers more around your level of aerobic fitness than anything the game actually throws at you. Sure, some sensationalized jumps and a Hulk-like stomp move to help knock your competition down to try to give the game a fun, arcade-like feel. But again the Kinect often fails to pick up the rare moments you need these over-the-top maneuvers to advance through the game.

Of course, it’s not like there’s much of a game here to begin with, either; the game consists of only five events. And given the brevity of these races, you can blow through the entire campaign in less than an hour. Even with online leaderboards and the ability to download ghosts of friends or top racers to go against, the game basically equates to a dollar per track. You spend more time on load menus than actually playing this game. So, with the control problems and lack of depth—and the fact that most people don’t even know what Crashed Ice is—this game could be free instead of $5 (400 Microsoft points) and it still wouldn’t be worth it! After putting in far too much time with this, I can say it’s a game everyone should avoid—and that I need to go comfort myself by experimenting more with my Crashed Ice drink recipe (maybe I should put some Natty Ice in there?).

SUMMARY: Even with its cheap price of only 400 Microsoft points ($5), when you combine the game’s poor recognition of your body movements and a severe lack of content, there just isn’t enough of a game here to warrant any sort of purchase.

  • THE GOOD: Head-to-head racing with ghosts.
  • THE BAD: Everything else.
  • THE UGLY: This may be the only skating we see this year with the NHL labor impasse (I miss you, hockey!).

SCORE: 2.5

Red Bull Crashed Ice Kinect is an XBLA (Xbox 360) exclusive.

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EGM Review: HISTORY: Legends of War: Patton

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November 21, 2012

All Blood, No Guts

George S. Patton was one of the United States’ greatest generals of all-time. Although a bit eccentric, his strategic mind and ability to inspire his troops by weaving colorful tapestries of profanity, akin to Rembrandt painting a landscape, was the stuff of legend. His leadership and larger-than-life persona in the North Africa campaign of World War II would position him to play a key role in Operation Fortitude, the critical deception of German military forces that led to the Invasion of Normandy. After Normandy, Patton would remain at the helm of the US Third Army and lead them across France and strike suffocating blows against the Germans, maintaining a ratio of killing 13 German troops to every one American lost through the rest of the war.

Because of this storied military career, there was no better choice to inspire a turn-based strategy game. HISTORY: Legends of War: Patton follows Patton’s Third Army in their march across Western Europe. Divided up into 21 missions, you’ll move your troops expertly through mid-20th century France and Germany as you do your part to disassemble Hitler’s war machine while commanding various Allied tanks, planes, and soldiers.

Right off the bat, Legends of War does a fine job of maintaining the historical accuracy of many of the battles that the Third Army fought, with only some minor dramatization done for the sake of providing an assortment of missions for you to partake in. The variety of missions you will be tasked with range from searching for and destroying key German installations, protecting or eliminating several high-value targets, or the more standard annihilation of all your enemies on the map. This array of different missions is supposed to help keep the game play fresh and fun. Despite a wide range of objectives, however, Legends of War quickly finds more ways to lose your attention that grasp it.

One of the primary flaws of the game comes with the lack of fluctuation in the action. Every battle and conflict plays out relatively the same even with the aforementioned mission variance. Whether it is a Bradley tank or a sniper, each unit you control (a maximum of eight per battle) only has one or two attacks. This removes much of the strategy from each conflict, especially with your troops able to one-hit kill many enemies, while surprisingly they can take a barrage of bullets before succumbing to their own demise. This reeks of poor balance and pulls you away from the realism of the mission scenarios.

Another problem that crops up is the control scheme. Not surprising really considering this is a strategy game, a genre that plays better 9 times out of 10 on a PC. But with several other games in the genre having overcome this dilemma over the past few years, its always disappointing now when a game comes along that falls into the same old, stereotypical traps of camera issues and unit placement. Along with this, the game’s textures are sub-par at best for any modern system, console or PC. How a game is allowed to ship looking and controlling like this is beyond me.

There are a couple of minor bright spots to the game play at least. The game’s economy and upgrade systems are as clear-cut as they come and make it easy for the users to prepare before each new mission. And as you complete missions and unlock more unit types, Patton can also level up in a plethora of different categories that can bolster everything from the offensive or defensive capabilities of your troops to the amount of money and prestige Patton receives with each ensuing victory. I have to say though that even the unit purchasing stinks from a lack of attention to detail at times as each new unit has a back story and name, but after just a couple of purchases, they start to repeat. I had three Donald Aldrich and two Charles Kelly in an eight-man group at one point!

When it comes down to it, HISTORY: Legends of War: Patton does not live up to the great general’s legacy. There is a solid core here for strategy enthusiasts, but there are far too many flaws that were easily avoidable to make this worth most anyone’s time or money. If Patton were here right now, someone would be getting slapped for making this game.

SUMMARY:  The historical accuracy and details of the game are a testament to arguably the greatest general the US has ever had. HISTORY: Legends of War: Patton, however, falls flat in many aspects of the basest execution we would expect from a current console game and this keeps it from fulfilling its true potential.

  • THE GOOD: World War II buffs will appreciate the attention to historical accuracy and detail
  • THE BAD: Makes classic console strategy game mistakes
  • THE UGLY: Not enough soldiers getting slapped by their generals anymore

SCORE: 4.0

HISTORY: Legends of War: Patton is available on PS Vita, PS3, Xbox 360, and PC. Primary version reviewed was for Xbox 360. 

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EGM Game Over Podcast 015: Nintendentious

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November 20, 2012

EGM Game Over Podcast 015: Nintendentious

The EGM crew brings you the Game Over Podcast, our end-of-the-week conversation where we discuss some of the biggest recent events in gaming.

[Hosts] Brandon Justice, Andrew Fitch, Ray Carsillo, Josh Harmon, and Eric L. Patterson
[Date] November 16th, 2012

[News] The Wii U’s about to launch, THQ is in trouble, Silicon Knights’ games sentence to death, Call of Duty: Black Ops II hits $500 million on its first day, and Xbox Live turns 10.

[EGM Reviews] Halo 4, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Wonderbook

Want to send feedback to the show? Drop us a line on Twitter: @EGMLogin

[Subscribe via iTunes] http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/egm-radio/id538629924
[Subscribe via Feedburner] http://feeds.feedburner.com/EGMRadio

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The Sleeper Hold – Episode 15

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All the fallout from Survivor Series, including both CM Punk and Big Show retaining their respective titles and Team Foley going down in a blaze of glory, came to the forefront on Monday Night RAW as it went on the air from Dayton, Ohio.

Main Plot Overview: The biggest result of Sunday’s Survivor Series PPV, traditionally one of the most controversy laden events of the year, saw CM Punk miraculously retain the WWE Championship after three NXTers interfered and put Ryback through the announce table during the triple threat match. This led to one of the most over-the-top celebrations in WWE history as CM Punk’s title reign officially reached one year, only the eighth time in history that has happened.

Ryback, none too happy about being screwed over again however, decided to crash the party. But just when Ryback looked to feed his hunger, the three NXT upstarts appeared again and performed a Survivor Series encore, again putting Ryback through a table.

It also seems that John Cena is starting a feud with Dolph Ziggler and therefore being slowly worked out of the main plot for the first time in a while. More on that though later!

Match of the Night: I have to say that aside from the stupid AJ/Cena drama and Punk’s weekly gloating, last night’s RAW saw the best all around wrestling card in quite a while, making this a difficult decision. With push coming to shove though, I had to pick a PPV main event caliber match that was almost buried in the very middle of the show.

Continuing the rivalry of Randy Orton and Alberto Del Rio in a fight to see who is truly the WWE’s “Apex Predator”, Del Rio and Orton were placed in a Best 2 out of 3 Falls Match. In a surprising call, and to probably hasten the pace of what can be a marathon match inducing stipulation, Del Rio quickly disqualified himself when he refused to stop using the ring post to smash Randy Orton’s arm.

Of course, this was in the hopes of weakening it to more easily lock in his patented armbar submission, which is exactly what Del Rio did to score the second point of that match, his first. Tied up at 1 fall apiece, Orton was in trouble with his arm devastated. But you only need one arm to land an RKO.

After Del Rio missed his Enziguri finisher and Orton countered a second armbar attempt into a pinning situation, Del Rio’s frustration was clear. So much so that he attempted to use Orton’s own RKO against him, but Randy countered it into an Irish Whip followed up by his vintage middle rope suspended DDT. After this, Orton hit the RKO himself and won in what was a spectacular show from both men and has me interested in a non-title rivalry for the first time in quite a while.

Promo of the Night: After AJ and Vickie had their typical spot where Vickie was trying to prove that AJ and John Cena were an item, finally the dam broke and AJ and John locked lips right there in the ring. But it wasn’t this moment that made this situation the Promo of the Week.

As AJ and John made out, Dolph Ziggler made his way to the ring and ambushed John. When the tides turned, Ziggler made his way up the ramp to escape and John attempted to follow, but on the way out the ring, it looks like Cena twisted his ankle. At first, I thought he might have been legitimately hurt as replays show John did indeed twist his ankle and you can’t really fake that.

Officials later claimed it was more of a knee injury, but here is why I do not think it was serious. If it had been, John’s night would’ve been over and he’d likely have gone to this hospital. Instead, AJ busted into the Men’s Locker Room and confronted Dolph. This is when it got good.

Dolph then proceeded to belittle poor AJ, even calling her a piece of trash. AJ then freaked and started smacking Dolph. Cena then busted in to break it up, but Dolph then kicked the “injured” knee of John Cena as the two proceeded to have one of the best backroom brawls we’ve seen on RAW in a while, even smashing each other through a bathroom stall. This conflict combined with Dolph’s amazing heel speech is what made this series of events the Promo of the Night.

Shocker of the Night: We have a Great Khali sighting! I suppose the WWE’s ratings in India have dipped as the only reason why you see the Punjabi Playboy is to boost international appeal, as he is the worst wrestler on the roster by far. So this was an easy Shocker of the Week for me because I can’t remember the last time I saw Khali “wrestle”.

Of course, he still didn’t really wrestle as all he did was hit Primo and Epico, his handicap match opponents, with his big fist once or twice and the match was over. At the very least the match gave us an excuse to see the amazing Rosa Mendes come to ringside again though.

Cheap Pop of the Night: With Mick Foley not around that much anymore, it’s hard to call what was the Cheap Pop of the Night as I do not recall anyone blatantly pointing out the WWE’s presence in Dayton, Ohio. Because of this, the Cheap Pop of the Night actually goes to CM Punk for his new “I’m a Paul Heyman Guy” t-shirt (available now on WWEShop.com of course!) that cheaply plugs his legendary manager. This isn’t to say it’s not an awesome shirt as I think I know exactly what I’ll be buying on Cyber Monday next week now, but it just goes to shop a pop doesn’t always have to be for the hometown crowd.

A close second was when Paul Heyman called out the WWE Universe for chanting “ECW” in prior weeks, but not really understanding what that meant as the current WWE audience could never handle the glory days of ECW brand wrestling, or him spinning tales of how he used to hang out with the legendary Bruno Sammartino when he was a boy.

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EGM Review: The Walking Dead: Episode 5 – No Time Left

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For Clementine

Back in April, gamers had a chance to start an epic journey—one that involved being thrust into the midst of Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead universe via the start of a five-episode game series by Telltale Games. On this journey, the unlikely relationship between an 8-year-old little girl and a man turned convict after a crime of passion would consume everyone who played this landmark game; protecting this child quickly became the center of your apocalyptic world. Now, seven months later, Telltale’s episodic roller-coaster ride looks to come a halt, as Lee and Clementine’s adventures in the zombie apocalypse are all but done for the time being.

Admittedly, it’s hard to talk about a game such as this for several reasons—chief among them being that gameplay centers squarely on the story. Many gamers will have different situations going into this final episode of Season One due to the branching paths caused by the countless decisions made over the course of the previous four episodes. And because of this, the last thing I want to do is spoil any of the insane surprises in store for you in this episode. I can assure you, though, that if you thought the heart-wrenching moments and plot twists were going to slow down with this final chapter, you thought wrong.  There’s some resolution, but all I can say is that every decision has a consequence—and Lee’s sins will come back to haunt him in powerful, terrifying ways if you weren’t careful over the course of your playthrough.

I’ll also say that even though this episode may be the most emotionally charged, it’s also noticeably the shortest of the series. That’s not to say it’s not worth your money, since everything you’ve worked toward comes to a head here—but, clearly, not everything can burn at the high this particular episode does for as long as the previous episodes ran.

Aside from the emotionally charged story, this episode also features some new and tweaked gameplay elements that count on players knowing the controls. Fewer prompts and more frantic instances tested my reflexes more than any previous episode—while also heightening the tension of the events transpiring around me while I looked for Clementine.

At the end of the day, enough cannot be said about Telltale’s The Walking Dead, whether you’ve been with it from the beginning like myself and downloading the final episode today or purchasing the fully compiled season on disc on December 4th. It isn’t the most involved of videogames in terms of gameplay, but it’s truly an accomplishment in game storytelling—and this episode only continues what Telltale started while leaving plenty of questions swirling around to ensure the already confirmed second season will kick off with a bang. If you’re a fan of The Walking Dead, point-and-click adventure games, or just intricate storytelling, this series is a must-have and should be in everyone’s game-of-the-year discussions. You’d be doing yourself a disservice not playing this game.

SUMMARY:  Right from the start, this episode cranks up the tension to 11. Unfortunately, this may also be why it burns itself out as the shortest episode of the series. However, it’s also one of the most satisfying, as everything you’ve built up to finally comes to a head—and in the end, you’ll do whatever you can to protect Clementine in this accomplishment in videogame storytelling.

  • THE GOOD: Leaves itself open enough for a second season.
  • THE BAD: Shortest episode of the series.
  • THE UGLY: Human nature.

SCORE: 9.0

The Walking Dead: Episode 5—No Time Left is available on Xbox 360 (XBLA), PS3 (PSN), and PC. Primary version reviewed was for XBLA. 

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The Pullbox – Issue #14.2

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It’s been a long time coming folks, but I’ve finally gotten ahead of my backlog of comics and so I’m thrilled to finally present to you another Pullbox! The Marvel NOW! Initiative is under way (a clear reaction to the New 52, but at least the continuity has remained the same), and with it comes a flurry of new directions, writers, artists, and team-ups for our favorite heroes. DC meanwhile has a pair of smaller events under way with “Death of the Family” in Batman and “Rise of the Third Army” with Green Lantern. But most excitedly may be the start of a new limited run of origin stories from IDW based on the Borderlands video games! With that, here is this week’s Pullbox!

IDW – Borderlands: Origins #1: “Roland” – Everyone knows how much of a bad ass Roland from the first Borderlands game is, but little is known about his time as a Crimson Lance soldier with The Atlas Corporation. This story takes a look at just how he fell out of Atlas’s grace and what happened that turned this supreme soldier into a Vault Hunter.

Written by Gearbox Software Creative Guru Mikey Neumann, this first of four origin stories does a great job of expanding the Borderlands universe even further and holds a special place in my heart because I played my first playthrough of the original Borderlands as Roland. The only thing this comic lacked was how Roland acquires his patented turret. Otherwise, fans of the series will not be disappointed by both the tremendous art stylings of Augustin Padilla and how Mikey begins to further flesh out the characters that started it all for this fan-favorite shooter franchise. Great story, great action, great art makes this an easy addition to anyone’s Pullbox this week!

Marvel – X-Men Legacy #1 – Legion, one of the most powerful mutants on the planet and Professor Xavier’s prodigal son finally shows his face again. While the Avengers and X-Men fought over the Phoenix Force, Legion continued to fight his own personal demons in the Himalayas. With the aid of an old friend of his dad’s, Legion constructs a psychic prison that keeps his most malevolent personalities at bay. But when Legion is overwhelmed by the psychic outburst that occurs when his dad is killed by Cyclops, there is a prison break.

Legion has become one of the most interesting characters in the Marvel Universe over the past few years as the shades of gray become even more vague with him as he slips further and further into himself. To continue to see the ramifications, however, of Professor Xavier’s death and tie it directly into him makes this a storyline to watch. I can’t wait to see where Legion goes from here and I’m thrilled that he is being brought back after sitting out the Avengers vs. X-Men event. A strong start to this relaunched title, no doubt.

Marvel – All-New X-Men #1 – New mutants are popping up all over the world and Cyclops is trying to outrace Wolverine’s Jean Grey School in terms of recruiting them. Meanwhile, Beast is facing a terminal illness on his own as he refuses to share the burden with his friends and so before he leaves this plane of existence, he needs to make things right with Cyclops. Not necessarily the one of the current time, however.

This issue got off to such a strong start with Beast’s illness and Cyclops recruiting new mutants left and right. Then Brian Michael Bendis decided to send Beast back in time. Just because. There is nothing I hate more than time travel as a mechanic to kick off a new book because you are just trying to set a tone for why people should read this and time travel always ends up confusing people. Time travel and parallel universes are the two things that need to be held off of more often because they can end up with so many ramifications and therefore should be saved for major events. It even led to a confusing first-issue cover with the original five X-Men that almost made me want to pass up this book. Issue #1 and Bendis is already jumping the shark. Damn him and his time travel.

DC – Batman #14 – Alfred has been abducted and Commissioner Gordon is next on the Joker’s list as he wishes to remove all distractions from Batman’s life in order to harden him into the person he once was. To do this, Joker has finally deduced who the people are under the masks and is re-enacting all his first crimes with Batman, but out of order to keep the Dark Knight on his toes.

This is the best story in comics right now. After lying dormant for a year, the Joker has returned with the ultimate scheme. And for once it has purpose that even we can understand. Not only to hurt the people of Gotham randomly, but to drive a stake through Batman’s heart in the process by eliminating all those around him. You can’t stop turning the page to see what the Joker does next and how he will inventively eliminate his targets. Not only is he forcing Batman back to the way he once was, he’s also changing himself by ostracizing Harley and riding this scheme out solo. I look forward to every one of these chapters each week and get giddy just thinking about what I may read in each one. A must read for sure.

DC – Green Lantern Corps #14 – Guy Gardner and his troops fail to overcome the Third Army soldiers with only Gardner escaping the unfortunate fate of assimilation. The Guardians quickly change their plan, however, and turn this minor setback still into a victory by then revoking Gardner’s ring and sending him back to Earth. With only two original Earth Lanterns of Sector 2814 left, The Third Army may be poised to carry out the Guardians’ mission of complete and total emotional annihilation.

This story is moving along at a snail’s pace right now as each issue is the slow, methodical elimination of the main Lantern threats for the Guardians. It is setting itself up so that once the action does start, it’ll be hot and heavy, but as it is all this table setting is starting to bore me. Stay with this a few more issues folks to see if it starts to get good, but if The Third Army ends up leaving a sour taste in my mouth like the Blackest Night and Brightest Day events, this could be the end of my following the Green Lantern books. Step on the gas with this one DC!

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EGM Review: New Super Mario Bros. U

Filed under: EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly), Written — 1 Comment

Trouble with Koopalings

There’s been a lot of talk lately in the game industry about sequels and what we expect from them. How much they need to change or raise the bar to keep people coming back for more. How they need to break the mold so it doesn’t seem like each game is just cut from the same cloth over and over again. One franchise, however, never felt it needed to do that. It just kept churning out sequel after sequel and rarely changed a thing. A few new powers here, a couple new worlds there, but since the very beginning, everyone’s favorite plumber, Mario, has really never changed. And somehow, he’s still as fun as ever.

To put it simply, as Mario approaches his third decade of relevance, his games continue to define platforming perfection, and New Super Mario Bros. U is the new pinnacle of his long and storied run.

Bowser kidnaps Princess Peach for the 143,658,903,279th time, and it is up to Mario to once again stomp on the seven Koopalings, Bowser Jr., Kamek, and Bowser himself across eight themed worlds in order to get her back and save the day. Moreso than any previous Mario game, New Super Mario Bros. U is the perfect love letter to the era I consider the franchise’s heyday—Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World.

Wily old Mario veterans will immediately recognize the overworld map, which has shades of Super Mario World written all over it. Then there’s the item system, where you have a stockpile that you can reach into and arm Mario with before each stage, was a Super Mario Bros. 3 invention. It’s a departure from the more recent outings, where you could only have one item in storage but were able to use it mid-stage—presumably because that approach made the past few games a little too easy. Mario wants you to hone those jumping skills again!

And it’s not just the item system that will make you want to brush up on your platforming skills, as every Mario baddie worth his salt returns to get in our mustachioed plumber’s way and make things even more perilous. The level designs are also a bit more abstract this time around, so if you think you’re going to just stockpile dozens upon dozens of lives like in the past few games, you might want to think again.

One returning element that helps counteract all these changes, however, is the our good friend Yoshi. You’re still unable to bring him with you from one stage to the next, but he’s a huge help on the levels you can use him, as they seem specifically designed for Yoshi’s unique attributes, including his new power where if eats enough fruit, he will actually…uhhhh…produce power-ups.

We also see the return of Baby Yoshis in blue, magenta, and yellow varieties, each of which provides a special ability for Mario as he carries them through a level. Yellow lights up dark caverns, Blue shoots bubbles that trap enemies and turn them into coins, and  Magenta can inflate like a balloon and carry Mario for short distances. Although they never grow into full-sized Yoshis, these babies can also eat anything that gets in your way, making it worthwhile to lug them through as many stages as possible.

Aside from a lot of features from the past returning, there are also a few new additions that might make you “oooh” and “aaah.” The most obvious is the much ballyhooed (and somewhat belated) transition to full HD graphics. Simply put, no Mario game has ever looked this good. Some of the world backgrounds are so vibrant that they look as though they’ve been painted onto your TV. They’re so gorgeous, you almost want to take a pictures and put them all in some sort of incredibly dorky museum.

We also get a new power-up in the form of the Flying Squirrel Acorn, which joins old favorites like the Fire and Ice Flowers, Invincibility Stars, and the Super and Mini Mushrooms. It certainly isn’t my favorite power-up of all-time, since you can’t really fly with it like you could the Tanooki Suit or Raccoon Leaf. Instead, you just glide gently across the stage, which isn’t nearly as useful. Still, the Acorn did help inspire a new enemy to add to Bowser’s hordes, and there’s also a much more useful P-Acorn variant (like the P-Wing from Mario 3), where Mario can infinitely glide if you perform a spin jump at the right time. I  also would’ve loved to have seen the Penguin and Frog Suits return, but with a limited item storage system, I can see why the lineup has been cut back some.

There aren’t just changes to the single player game, though, as New Super Mario Bros. U also features three multiplayer modes. Yes, you and four friends (one person can now use the Wii-U remote’s touch screen to place helpful Boost Blocks to help their friends cross especially hard gaps) can still move your way through the single player stages together and cause craziness as you “accidentally” push each other into bottomless pits.

Specific to multiplayer though is a revamped Coin Battle mode, where you and your friends compete to gather the most coins as you work your way through a level. There’s also a coin editor system, so you can design your own stages for the mode. Another multiplayer mode is Challenge Mode that offers unique obstacles for you and your friends to overcome, like seeing who can earn the most lives or get the fastest time in one run. Rounding out the multiplayer is Boost Rush, where you try to traverse scrolling stages that scroll faster and faster as you progress.

All things considered, even though Mario hasn’t really changed that much after all these years, he finds a way to keep himself just fresh enough while still maintaining the high gameplay standard that keeps us all coming back for more again and again. New Super Mario Bros. U doesn’t disappoint and is a must have launch title for anyone picking up the Wii U.

SUMMARY: A love-letter to the days of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World, New Super Mario Bros. U’s multiplayer modes, insane platforming, and beautiful HD graphics offer more than enough to provide hours of fun for gamers of all stripes.

  • THE GOOD: Same classic formula with a fresh coat of paint and puzzles.
  • THE BAD: Tanooki Suit > Raccoon Leaf > Flying Squirrel Acorn.
  • THE UGLY: The unbearable pain Yoshi must feel when he craps Fire Flowers.

SCORE: 9.0

New Super Mario Bros. U is a Wii U exclusive. 

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