Tag Archive: xbox 360


Hands-On: Sleeping Dogs

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February 23, 2012

Waking Up to Sleeping Dogs

I was always a fan of the True Crime series and so, like many others out there, I was excited a couple of years ago when I heard that it was being brought back to life with a romp in Hong Kong. Then, unfortunately, after countless delays it had its plug pulled and was put on the shelf. But luckily, Square Enix saw the potential in this open world game and so their London Studios, with plenty of experience in the open world with Just Cause 2 and an assist on Batman: Arkham Asylum under their belt, felt they were ready to tackle this challenge with the game’s original developer, United Front Games. And boy, am I ever grateful for that after getting my first hands-on with the game this week.

Re-titled Sleeping Dogs, the game follows undercover cop Wei Shen who, after joining the Hong Kong police force after a stint in the United States, is tasked with infiltrating one of the most cut throat organizations underneath the Triad umbrella and taking them down from within. Inspired by Hong Kong movies like Infernal Affairs (which would later inspire Martin Scorsese’s Oscar winning movie The Departed), the folks at United Front Games wanted to bring that realistic grit and grime into the a game world while keeping up a pace of action fit for a martial arts masterpiece.

And there looks to be a ton of action it looks like in Sleeping Dogs as we were able to go hands-on with a pair of levels. The first was a street race to let us know that even in the crowded and cramped streets and alleyways of Hong Kong, there is still plenty of driving to do in the game. After ramming several opponents off the road and taking first place in what was a satisfyingly smooth handling sports car, we got out from behind the wheel and were ready to really get our hands dirty though.

In this level, we were attempting to earn the trust of some of the Triad lieutenants and so had to shake down someone who had missed a payment of his protection money. Moving through a crowded marketplace, we quickly came upon our mark. When we explained to him who we were, he bolted and a free-running sequence fit for an Assassin’s Creed game began. Immediately the interactive environments were revealed to us as I kicked a crate of oranges out of the way and each one bounced independent of each other down a flight of stairs. As I kept the runner in my sights, our climbing skills were also put to test. Unlike in Assassin’s Creed, to help convey that sense of realism and interaction, instead of automatically overcoming objects in your path, you actually have to press the jump button at the right time to run up walls or vault dumpsters. Otherwise, you’ll still traverse your obstacle, but the animation will change and you’ll be slowed as your poor game reflexes will also directly affect how Wei handles this in game. If successful, you’ll maintain speed. If not, Wei will humorously flop for a moment before regaining his composure.

Once we caught up to the runner, a handful of his friends came out of the woodwork and we were going to finally put our combat skills to the test. With clear influence from the work Square Enix London did on Batman: Arkham Asylum, a similar two button combat system was in place here. One button was for attacks, the other for counters. What was new here though was that if you grabbed an opponent, the world lit up in a flash of red, pointing out what was interactive in the environment to instantly take out a thug if we could drag them over to it. From frying them in an electric panel, to tossing them into an open dumpster, the options were near endless and I replayed the level just to make sure I interacted with every possible item I could.

“You look at a lot of Hong Kong action movies and one of the hallmarks is that they never stop. The action never stops and its flowing, very fluid. You have a lot of people running around moving to fight or take action in the scene. And one of the key things is seeing how they bring the environment into play.  Picking up objects very quickly that they can use as weapons or just the environment in general is a weapon. So we wanted to extend that core philosophy to the game. The thing is almost that the more mundane the object, the cooler it becomes because you never stop to think about how deadly some of these everyday objects can be. So everyone has a car, but smashing someone’s head three times in the door before delivering a final kick, is really going to do some damage. So it’s all there really just to help keep the combat flowing and interesting,” said United Front Games Executive Producer Stephen Van Der Mescht in a brief interview with EGM, speaking about how important environment interaction was for them in this game.

Of course, if I didn’t want to use the environment, or was too far our of place to reach my desired target, the kung-fu Wei uses felt just as fluid as Batman did in the Arkham games as I strung together a brutal string of punches, kicks, and counters that left my foes broken, bruised, and battered. And without Batman’s moral compass, with me at Wei’s helm, I often left a scene behind that would require numerous body bags as I threw guys off high rises, turned their own lethal weapons against them, or smashed them face-first into rooftop fans that gave me just enough gore to feel more satisfied than disgusted.

Although our time with Sleeping Dogs was short, there was a lot there that had me very excited to see how the game would play out. Smooth flowing and rewarding action sequences worthy of the Hong Kong cinema that inspired them, high-speed car chases, and a deep, gritty, and compelling story that looks devoid of the fantastical that occasionally seeped into the original True Crime games has me feeling that Sleeping Dogs is not a game you should sleep on this summer.

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EGM Review: UFC Undisputed 3

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February 14, 2012

Stepping into the Octagon

It is one of the fastest growing sports around the world and as it has begun to move solely from Pay-Per-View and into the primetime realm of various cable and standard channels, its move into the mainstream is all but guaranteed. Of course, the UFC knows to really grow a relatively new sport in this day and age, they’d have to have at least a small foray as well into the number one entertainment industry in the world: video games. But unlike anything else the UFC had done, they fell into a pattern similar to other sports where they tried to release a game on a yearly basis and after only two attempts they realized that was not the way to go. So they took their time on working on this new title in the hopes of silencing their critics.

Well, I’m happy to say that in many ways the extra time in the gym has really paid off for UFC Undisputed 3. This third chapter in the UFC series sees a bevy of new additions that both hardcore and casual fans have been clamoring for. The first new feature you’ll see as you soon start playing the game is the chance to pick one of two controls schemes. The first, Advanced, controls are the ones that the series used in its first two iterations, where a series of half and three-quarter right joystick turns were required in your ground game. The second, Amateur, controls though is what will make this game much easier to just pick up and play, and maybe help in the education of those more casual fans.

The Amateur controls replace a lot of the right joystick movement that turned the other two games into a waggle-fest for less experienced players and instead a simple flick up or down allows you to perform the transitions necessary for you to lock in some devastating holds. And speaking of the devastating holds, a new submission system mini-game has been put in place to help fans understand if they are winning or losing with their hold and how close they are to tapping or making their opponent tap out.

Unfortunately, even with the new Amateur control system, for people who aren’t as familiar to the sport and are looking to learn more about it, you will still likely have a difficult time as there are so many button and hold combinations, you might be intimidated quickly and feel like you might be better off with a keyboard in front of you than a controller just so you can quick assign your favorites instead of trying to memorize some three-button finger contortion just to pull off a feint. There is a tutorial system, but it is long and boring and will turn you off to the game in the first place if you should choose to suffer through it and so you are left really only with the trial by fire option again.

If you can get past this factor though, there is a great reward for the hard work you’ll put in learning the controls. The career mode is deeper than ever before with better pacing as now you only have to train once or twice between each of your fights and you can better see just how each exercise will benefit you. From speed punching body bags to tire flipping to sparring in the octagon at the gym, there is a plethora of new games just waiting for you to try out in between fights as you try to take your personal fighter, who you create through one of THQ’s celebrated customization modes, from WFA scrub up to UFC superstar. And along the way when you have key moments, you’ll see some never before seen interviews with some of the UFC’s best and brightest talking about how they bounced back from their first loss, how great it felt when they won their first title, or how nervous they were their first time in the octagon.

If you’re not a career mode kind of guy though, don’t worry as the online versus modes have also been fleshed out. For the first time in the series, mirror matches are allowed as well fighting tournament rules that equalize combatants stats to truly see who is the best of the best. There are also all seven UFC weight-classes available now including Bantam and Featherweight fighters. But the most exciting part, especially for old-school MMA fans, may be the new Pride Mode where you can take some of your favorite fighters from today and take them over back in their prime when they fought in Japan or even have fantasy match-ups like pitting Rampage Jackson when he was in Pride against Jon “Bones” Jones. And included in this mode are Pride’s rules meaning face stomping and punting are now allowed. Talk about a game changer.

All in all, this is easily the best UFC title yet and the new additions definitely make it more pick up and play friendly than any other in the series, but that’s not really saying much. And much like an actual fighter in the UFC, you’re still going to have to work relatively hard at the controls if you’re ever going be a force online, but at least now you should stand a chance. Plus, with the additions to career mode, the game at least offers a decent enough single player experience that should online be too much for you, especially as Advanced control schemes trump Amateur ones in lock-ups, you’ll at least get your money’s worth as it will take a decent amount of time to turn your custom fighter into a hall of famer and you’ll have a good time doing it.

SUMMARY: A new control scheme and deeper career mode should lure fans back that were turned off by the last game for one more go in the octagon.

  • THE GOOD: New amateur control scheme helps pick up and playability
  • THE BAD: Even with new controls, hard to shake that button masher feeling
  • THE UGLY: My opponent’s face after dropping a dozen haymakers in a row on them

SCORE: 8.5

UFC Undisputed 3 is available on Xbox 360 and PS3. Primary version reviewed was on Xbox 360.

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EGM Review: The Darkness II

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With Great Power Comes Great Executions

The first Darkness game introduced us to young Jackie Estacado, a mafia hitman whose usefulness had run out on his 21st birthday. Just when all seemed lost, a dark legacy that had been passed down Jackie’s family for generations came to fruition as the two-headed snake, dark elemental force that is The Darkness took control, saving Jackie. Once word got back that Jackie had survived the hit though, his girlfriend Jenny unfortunately got caught in the crossfire of the target on Jackie’s back. Enraged, Jackie fully embraced the Darkness and its near omnipotent power and brought a bloody revenge upon all those in the mob.

Flash forward two years later to the start of The Darkness II. Jackie is now the Don of the mafia. With the help of estranged occultist Johnny Powell, Jackie has kept the Darkness under wraps for almost his entire time as Don. But there are people out there who know what Jackie hides and if he isn’t willing to satiate its murderous hunger, they’ll take it from him and do it themselves.

Much like the first game, The Darkness II does a brilliant job of storytelling, opening up with Jackie sitting by himself in a dark room, acting as narrator once again between chapters, recounting the adventure we are about to play through. And what an adventure. From the opening scene with Jackie sitting in an Italian restaurant (which you just know is going to go wrong because what self-respecting Don sits with his back to the door), the action is almost non-stop as Jackie uncovers a plot to steal the Darkness away from him while also fighting his guilt driven demons that haunt him from the death of Jenny in the first game. But terrific storytelling technique aside, there is so many new elements to The Darkness II that it’s almost impossible to compare this to its predecessor aside from how it pushes the story forward.

The first change you’ll notice comes visually. Using what they call “graphic noir”, 2K and Digital Extremes hand-painted all the environments you fight through and then laid the cel-shaded characters on top to really make the game seem as if the Top Cow comic book came to life. And there are no more telling moments for this than in combat as you rip your foes to shreds. And you literally rip your foes to shreds as the combat has gotten a complete overhaul too. I will say that it took more time than I’d prefer to get used to, but once you do, you’ll be tearing through your foes like a man possessed (pun intended, pun always intended).

The major new feature that was a tad difficult to adapt to at first is quad-wielding. Quad-wielding allows you to shoot guns in each hand as well as wield each demon arm at the same time. But once you get used to it, you can literally be attacking in four different ways at once with this. Include a new physics system that allows you to interact with the environment more and you can grab a car door and rip it off its hinges and use it as a shield with one demon arm, while picking up a parking meter and throwing it like a javelin with the other demon arm, all while you’re shooting through your door-shield’s broken window with a shotgun and an assault rifle.

I’ll give you a second to pull yourself back together after your head exploded from the awesomeness that was contained within that last sentence. And speaking of making your head explode, the new executions you can do with the demon arms are absolutely brutal. From the wishbone that tears guys apart right down the middle to more classic decapitations, Jackie knows no mercy.

Now, you’re probably thinking that this could get monotonous as time goes on. How many ways can you skin a cat and all that. But in that comes another new RPG-like feature where for every execution Jackie does you earn “dark essence”. Dark essence allows you to improve upon Jackie’s abilities and you can gain more essence by getting more creative with your kills and also eating enemies’ hearts (which also regenerates health in a pinch) or unlocking and then using a plethora of special moves.

As time goes on, you’ll definitely need to learn new and more harrowing moves to even the odds as your enemies start to get very creative very quickly in combating you. Yes, you are no longer just facing some mob grunt with spaghetti stains on his shirt as the A.I. has clearly been improved as well. The Brotherhood, the folks looking to take the Darkness from Jackie, is prepared. Along with having some nasty mumbo jumbo of their own up their sleeves, they are also armed with light cannons, grenades, and other weapons that can temporarily debilitate The Darkness and leave you wide open for feeling the pain.

But what kind of Don would Jackie be if he didn’t have a few friends? And one in particular just happens to be of the demonic kind. Unlike the first game where you could wield a small army of Darklings, now you are limited to but one little chaos-causing imp, but with it comes a bevy of new powers for him, too. From throwing him across the room as a distraction, to taking over control of him and gauging out the eyes of your enemies with his thumbs, this is no ordinary Darkling. But Jackie has some human friends, too, and there are going to be some tough choices for Jackie down the road that will really have an affect on things. But that’s all part of being a Don, right? Needing to make the tough choices? The bottom line is that all of the new and improved combat features fit very nicely into the game and offer enough variety that will keep you from being desensitized as you’re constantly splashed with enemy blood in a bevy of ways you didn’t think possible until playing this game.

There are a couple of small things that irked me the wrong way with The Darkness II though. For as good as all the combat is and as much as I wanted to really love the story itself and not just the way it is being told, Jackie himself gets on my nerves. He tries to be a pitiful character, but he is not a good guy. He killed people for a living before wielding the Darkness and now you expect me to believe he has a conscience and he’s depressed because his girlfriend is dead? The dichotomy of the character just doesn’t work for me and I often wanted to reach through the TV and smack him and be like “YOU HAVE AN OMNIPOTENT DEMON INSIDE YOUR HEAD AND ARE A MAFIA DON. STOP WHINING AND GO KILL MORE THINGS AND LIKE IT!”

Another minor negative is the demon itself. Mike Patton returns to voice The Darkness (Kirk Acevedo is no longer voicing Jackie, instead replaced by Brian Bloom) and the scratchy, almost gurgling voice of the demon is like nails on a chalkboard every time he screeches out a command. If you’re trying to tempt me into embracing you again, don’t try sounding like Krang from the late 80s-early 90s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon. I think they replaced the wrong voice actor there.

And speaking of replaced, the versus multiplayer from the first game is gone. Admittedly, it had its problems with lag and what not, but we’ve come a long way in four years and I would have liked to have seen what the versus multiplayer could’ve done now, especially with the quad-wielding and the fact that the game is a first-person shooter at its core. But, in its place at least we have the new co-op mode called “Vendettas”. And Vendettas is pretty sweet. Taking place at the same time as the single player campaign, Vendettas is its own standalone story where you can choose from one of four colorful characters who all wield a small piece of The Darkness and represent one of the powers that Jackie can wield himself. And if the single player campaign is an action drama, then Vendettas is a dark comedy and is a great change of pace from the main game. So much so, it feels like it could have been on a separate disk itself or as a DLC addition and it would have been worth it.

All in all, Darkness fans will likely have a field day with this game as the extra time between titles (four, almost five years at time of release) seem to have been well worth the wait considering the polish that this title exudes.

SUMMARY: Better A.I. and combat mechanics than the first Darkness, gorgeously painted environments, and the same ol’ omnipotent snake-headed dark force makes for one heck of a game play combination.

  • THE GOOD: The “graphic noir” backgrounds make the game feel like a comic come to life
  • THE BAD: Jackie isn’t the most lovable of protagonists and so it is hard to root for him
  • THE UGLY: The remnants of the poor cat your Darkling skinned to make a hat

SCORE: 9.0

The Darkness II is available on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. Primary version reviewed was on Xbox 360.

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EGM Review: NeverDead

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Fall to Pieces

There are many people out there who wish they could live forever. But Konami and developer Rebellion show that 500 years really can take its toll on a person. And unfortunately it doesn’t do any favors for game players either.

NeverDead is the story of a demon-slayer named Bryce who in an epic battle with the demon king Astaroth, loses his wife and is damned to walk the Earth forever. Five centuries later and Bryce spends most of his time now drowning his sorrows at the local pub in between wreaking his own bit of vengeance as a freelance hunter, trying to keep demons from overrunning the modern world.

The most interesting aspect of his curse is that Bryce may walk the Earth forever, but in his line of work, you’re due to take your lumps, especially when you’ve been doing it as long as he has. So when he gets slashed by weird four-legged demons with giant knives on their heads (ironically named “Spoons”), Bryce doesn’t really take damage in the traditional sense, although he does go to pieces. Literally. You see, as Bryce takes damage, he loses life AND limb until he is just a decapitated head sputtering around the battlefield trying desperately to put himself back together.

What is great about this concept is that it provides a clearly unique challenge you won’t find in any other third-person shooter out there, and fits in with the wonderfully abstract character designs you’ll see throughout the game, from the colorful demon lieutenant Sangria to the twisted demon minions you’ll face in every level. And the physics system is phenomenal as explosions scatter your parts to the winds and you can find some twisted humor in trying to roll Bryce’s head around the level trying to find them again before some smaller demon finishes you off.

But having the game play revolve around this concept does have its drawbacks. It becomes irritating that there is no way to really strengthen Bryce so that he’ll fall apart less often, and as the enemies become more difficult, you end up spending more time trying to put yourself back together than actually fighting demons because of it. And with the two-bit voice acting that is wrought throughout this game, including no more than a handful of nickel and dime lines that Bryce says whenever you put him back together, this mechanic will soon become the bane of both your and Bryce’s existence.

Speaking of strengthening Bryce though, there is an RPG system where you gain XP by obtaining collectibles or striking down foes, but it feels more like a tacked on system that came in later than being a game play pillar from the beginning of development as there are several seemingly useless powers and it just seems too easy to gather the XP you need to get the handful of good powers that are offered to you.

This also leads us into the enemies and how you combat them. I will say that the boss battles are some of the more ingenious and entertaining boss battles you’re likely to find in any game. They feel like a reward for working your way through each level. The problem is they feel like such a reward because the levels themselves are cut from the same uninspired cookie cutter design and each room you enter consists of the same pattern. Kill enemy spawn points, kill enemies that spawned before you killed spawn point, repeat. Over and over again.

And the weapons you use do not help break up this monotony either. Bryce can wield a bevy of modern day weapons in each hand, or use his patented Butterfly Blade. But, and this is especially true in the early levels, Bryce’s Butterfly Blade is so much more powerful and effective than many of the firearms offered to you that there is little to no point to ever not use your sword. And this turns the already monotonous levels into an even more monotonous hack ‘n’ slash fest. Of course, you also later learn how to use Bryce’s body parts as projectiles, but doing this defeats the purpose of trying to keep yourself together if you actually use it in battle and so only is useful in solving the handful of simple puzzles scattered throughout the game.

When all is said and done, there are some glimmers of great things in NeverDead. An interesting life mechanic, solid physics, epic boss battles, and colorful characters. But monotonous combat, boring level design, and tacked on game play elements keep this from rising above mediocrity.

SUMMARY: NeverDead is a classic example of an interesting premise falling flat on execution. A brilliant exercise in game physics and boss battles, this game is weighed down mostly by the mundane combat across nearly a dozen dull and uninspired levels.

  • THE GOOD: Great physics and boss battles that feel like the reward they should be
  • THE BAD: The grind that is working through the levels leading up to said boss battles
  • THE UGLY: The toll 500 years can have on the human body

SCORE: 6.0

Neverdead is available on Xbox 360 and PS3. Primary version reviewed was on Xbox 360.

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XBLA “House Party” 2012 Lineup Detailed

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January 26, 2012

THE BUZZ: Microsoft announces the full lineup, prices, and “extra incentive” if you purchase all games for their Xbox Live Arcade “House Party” promotion for the first-quarter of 2012.

EGM’S TAKE: Similar to their “Summer of Arcade” promotion, Microsoft is looking to make a splash this first quarter on Xbox Live, keeping up the trend we are seeing of major releases coming out shortly after the New Year instead of sitting on them.

The “House Party” promotion will start on February 15th with the release of Warp from EA for 800 Microsoft Points. Here you play as Zero, a lovable orange alien killing machine with a score to settle. Captured and imprisoned in an underwater facility, you must use stealth and your wits to overcome the harrowing puzzles and lead Zero to freedom.

Next comes a very highly anticipated game here in the EGM office, Alan Wake: American Nightmare for 1200 MSP on February 22nd from Microsoft and developer Remedy Entertainment. Jump back into the shoes of horror writer Alan Wake as new enemies, games modes, and firepower highlight one of the creepier experiences you’re likely to face on your Xbox 360. For our full preview on American Nightmare, click here.

After that you can celebrate the Leap Year on February 29th with Nexuiz from THQ for 800 MSP. This arena based first-person shooter has you take on your opponents in ever-changing hostile environments and mess with the laws of physics.

Finally, wrapping up the event is I Am Alive from Ubisoft on March 7th for 1200 MSP. A year after a worldwide apocalyptic event wipes out most of the world, a man struggles to find his missing family while battling against other survivors in this desolated, dog eat dog world laid out before him. For our full preview on I Am Alive, click here.

Coming to a total of $60 dollars (4000 MSP) for all four games, you’re looking at a pretty quality haul here if you should decide to purchase them all. And if you do, again, much in the same vein as the “Summer of Arcade” promotion, Microsoft will throw in an extra bonus, this time of a credit on your account for an additional 800 MSP that you can use in any way you see fit as an extra reward.

It’s great that Xbox does things like this to really highlight the online marketplace and the fact that they can do it twice a year now shows how much developers are taking it seriously as well. And by putting out such high quality titles like this on a consistent basis, it implores the gamers to actually explore and check out the marketplace a bit more often for those hidden gems that sometimes fall under the radar of events like this. All in all, this looks like a winning lineup for everyone who takes part in it.

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EGM Review: Choplifter HD

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Get to the choppa!

A big trend in gaming recently has been “what is old is new again” as we’ve been seeing a lot of classic franchises get HD remakes to fit in new levels, modes, and whatever else they couldn’t the first time around on top of a new coat of HD paint. Well, Konami and inXile Entertainment have gone a bit further by digging up a game from a by gone era that many modern gamers may not have even been born for, never mind missed playing it the first time around.

Choplifter HD is the spiritual sequel to the early 1980s Apple II, Atari 5200, and arcade game, Choplifter. In this game, you play a helicopter pilot and must save stranded soldiers and civilians from various opposing military forces as quickly as possible by clearing the area of enemy soldiers and touching down on the ground to pick them up before returning them to your base. In this sense, the main purpose of this remake is still very true to the original. But, aside from just rescue missions, there is a lot more here that proves this a far cry from the original Choplifter of 30 years ago.

Securing a hospital and staving off a zombie invasion (yes, there are zombies, much like in every other game out there), destroying a dozen AA turrets to clear a path for your forces’ military jets, or just hightailing it out of there in a mad dash to the finish line with a dozen soldiers in tow definitely deviates from the original game’s simple, fly along a straight line, arcade style and provides the mission variety that you need to have nowadays to try to keep people interested. Unfortunately, even this unique mission variety can get dull as the game does start to repeat itself well before you complete all 30 missions that will be available to you. If you’re like me, by the time you make it through the first of the game’s three major campaigns (not including the obligatory tutorial campaign), you’ll find yourself tiring of how the game really just ups the difficulty by throwing more enemy soldiers in your path, no matter what the objective may be.

Another interesting new element added to the game is how you can rotate the chopper with the bumper buttons to attack enemies now stationed in the foreground. This added depth of field, taking advantage of modern processing power, makes it sometimes difficult to tell if an enemy on the ground, as you of course spend most of your time in the air, is in the foreground or the main ground though. And when you combine this with a poor control layout as you try to fly, aim, change perspective, and fire all at the same time, there is almost too much going on at once.

Aside from your 30 campaign missions, the game does offer some limited replay-ability as you can unlock a dozen or so different helicopters, all with different weapons strengths, top speeds, and person carrying capacity. And going back and replaying a level with a new chopper can help you climb the online high score leaderboards. After all, it wouldn’t be an arcade classic if it didn’t have high scores. The game also features some solid visuals worthy of a modern console with a bright color palette and fun and entertaining banter between the pilot and co-pilot to help keep you entertained and break up what will become the monotonous task of rescuing downed soldiers.

When all is said and done, for $15 (1200 MSP), this isn’t a bad game, but it is not spectacular either. Choplifter HD fits into the mold of classic arcade games of the 1980s and much in that vein, can become tedious and repetitive if played for long periods of time, especially considering there is a good amount of length here for the price tag. But if you’re looking for just 15-20 minutes to kill at a time between now and when some more AAA titles begin to drop, this might be a decent distraction as it can provide some old-school arcade style fun in short bursts.

SUMMARY: The fun of this arcade classic remake fades quickly as repetition leads to boredom, but its unique objectives might make it worth looking into if you have some time to kill and cash to burn.

  • THE GOOD: An old-school arcade game brought back to life in an entertaining way
  • THE BAD: Repetitive missions can cause the experience to become boring quickly
  • THE UGLY: The Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder you’ll develop if you leave too many men behind

SCORE: 6.5

Choplifter HD is available on Xbox 360 (XBLA), PS3 (PSN), and PC (Steam). Primary version reviewed was on Xbox 360.

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Hands-On: UFC Undisputed 3 – Career Mode

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King of the Octagon

Up to this point we had seen the new Amateur control scheme and the Pride rules set for UFC Undisputed 3. But the elephant in the room had been “What about the career mode?” since we all knew that would comprise the bulk of the game. Well, the elephant is loose and I had a chance to go hands on and try to tackle the behemoth that this mode has become with all the changes that have been introduced to it.

The first thing you’ll notice when entering career mode are new live action movies that highlight everything you do. From first deciding to become an MMA fighter, to your first victory, to your first defeat, to your first championship, all the major moments of your career come with a short video revolving around a similar moment of either a UFC Hall of Famer or current superstar. Some of the footage has been repurposed from previously released UFC DVDs, but some stuff is completely original for the game.

We then entered into one of THQ’s staple character customization modes. Whether tweaking every fine detail of our fighter ourselves, or using a new “quick face” turn wheel with hundreds of pre-set faces laid out on it, the customization process has never been smoother. After choosing our weight class, we were then asked to select our MMA background. Whether we wanted to be a karate master, a Muay Thai monster, or an all-around MMA all-star, the choice was ours and different moves and move sets we would start with and could later learn would be affected by our choices here.

After deciding what path I would walk down, with UFC Play-by-Play man Mike Goldberg talking us through every moment, we learned about all the in-depth options we now had as we crafted our Ultimate Fighter. The first new feature was “Creds”. By participating in fights, and more so by winning them, we would earn Creds, which basically serve as currency in the game to unlock new gear and sponsor logos and better sparring partners and training equipment in order to increase the ceiling of where we could boost our stats to.

Then came the actual training. With 14 new mini-games, seven in the gym and seven in the octagon with a sparring partner, we could begin working on our stats. From tire lifting, working the heavy bag, and sprawl drills to working on our takedowns and clinches with our partners, the choice was ours in what areas to work on and when.

We were then shown six real world camps, including the legendary Greg Jackson’s American Top Team, where we could learn new maneuvers. From simple things like spinning back fists to more complex submissions, depending on where you study depends on whom you work with and what moves you can learn. After trying all the gyms, you’ll be locked into one and by training loyally at that gym you’ll unlock the right to learn even more involved moves.

Once learning some new moves, we were shown the game plan mode where instead of training, you could come up with a strategy against a particular opponent and if you succeed in the subsequent training, you’ll receive a huge boost to one statistic for one match. For example, if you choose the “Aggressive” game plan, you could end up with a +12 to your punches and kicks.

After all this, we finally got into the octagon and began our careers and played the game as normal. What is great though is that after you go through all the tutorial stuff of each activity you can do, you’re only allowed to do one or two of those listed activities above before your next fight. This still gives you the sense of control you’d want in personalizing your fighter, but it also keeps the action coming at a good pace so you don’t drown in mini-games trying to improve your submission defense stat or trying to learn a spinning back kick.

As you begin advancing up the ranks, that’s when things get the most fun as you start in the WFA and then you start getting a lot more choices about your fighter than the last game’s career mode. More opportunities to change weight classes along with the chance to go into the UFC or even Pride, which has been resurrected at least in this game, and earn their respective championship belts offers you the career management aspect many people have been looking for.

All in all, the Career Mode in UFC Undisputed 3 looks to have finally found that balance of fighting, character management, and customization that should allow players to feel like they are truly in the octagon themselves. This is shaping up to be a simulation worthy of making your wallet tap out and cough up some cash when it is released in February.

So what do you folks think? Are you pumped for the newest chapter in the UFC franchise? Are you excited about the new layout to career mode? Let us know with your comments below!

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Alan Wake: American Nightmare Preview

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January 15, 2012

After the end of the first Alan Wake and its subsequent DLC, as players, we definitely had more questions than answers. And while Alan Wake: American Nightmare, the downloadable sequel to Alan Wake that will be out from Remedy Entertainment sometime in the beginning of 2012, may finally answer some of those questions, I wouldn’t be surprised if true to form, the game only continues to deepen the mystery before us. Of course, this only made me all the more excited when I got a chance to get a preview of the campaign and the brand new “Fight Till Dawn” mode.

Where the first game took place in the picturesque Pacific Northwest, now Alan finds himself in the deserts of Arizona, and the color palette before us, exploding with reds and oranges, definitely let us know we were in a new locale. It was explained to us that Alan is now living through an episode of Night Springs, the fictional TV show introduced in the first game, that he happened to guest write when he was still starting out as a writer.  Only by going into this previous work of his does he hope to catch Mr. Scratch, a bogeyman in some ways, a charismatic but psychotic serial killer in others, who we first saw in the last Alan Wake DLC. Being an episode of Night Springs, I was also pleasantly surprised to hear that Alan is no longer the primary narrator, but instead the Night Springs narrator will serve that role for the game.

Another key fact I learned was that in the time between games, Alan has come to grips with the fact that he is now a “Champion of Light”, thrown into this surreal war between light and dark, day and night, and he must act as the counterbalance and defeat Scratch, the “Herald of Darkness”. Part of being this champion though is that somehow his words can take on a reality altering effect now, making those missing manuscript pages from the first game even more crucial in this one. The manuscript pages have become so important in fact that aside from being a collectible or adding to the back-story, they actually are key for driving the game forward now.

This page importance played out in the very first objective I saw in our demo, which required Alan to rescue a lady who had locked herself in an auto garage after being chased by the Taken, the darkness possessed individuals from the town, for she had found one of those pages. Something I noticed immediately in our first encounter here with the Taken is that there is several classes of Taken now to provide greater game play variety. Some even have powers, like one I saw in this first batch split up into two and then four copies of himself when light was shone on him. Luckily, I was armed with Alan’s new favorite weapon, a nail gun, and were able to deal with them just as easily as regular Taken, although they did eat up quite a bit of ammo. Another tidbit that really became evident during the first battle was the changes made to the HUD. Alan now has a life bar, a clearer GPS radar, and a larger ammo and weapon icon to help keep track of the item you’re currently using and it was definitely an improvement over the first game’s.

After saving the lady, I learned just what we were able to do with the manuscript pages. Because of Alan’s reality altering powers, aside from predicting events that were about to take place with the pages like in the first game, Alan could now interact with the world around him, taking clues from the pages to instead change things and solve puzzles in the world around him in order to better suit his needs and open up new paths. These paths are also unique as unlike in the first game that had a more linear feel, Alan will set up shop at a central location that will act as a sort of level hub and then go explore his surroundings from there, affording players the chance to explore and re-explore some areas even as necessary.

As I was moved to a further point in the game, Alan was beginning a trek up towards an observatory where he was looking for an astronomer who has clues as to what was going on in the town. Here, I saw the environment begin to have an effect on game play like in the first game. Dead cars and other debris on the path came to life and began to fling itself at Alan, and since the darkness has only been growing stronger since last game, it even tried to bring a chunk of mountain down onto our hero. Since the environmental graphics have been improved since last game, there is actually a lot more stuff that can be flung at Alan now while he travels through the world and so a greater level of suspense is reached as every inanimate object now can become a threat.

Once I reached the observatory, I came face to face with the latest variety of Taken introduced to the game and what the boys from Remedy lovingly refer to as their “answer for Angry Birds”. This new Taken can transform into a flock of crows and quickly move all over the area. He also isn’t nearly as weak against light as many other Taken, but more powerful items like flashbangs, flares, and another new weapon in the crossbow, which can act as a one-hit kill on most enemies, can still dispatch him for you.

After clearing up the mess at the observatory, my story mode demo was finished, and I was salivating for more. Although there was a clear emphasis on more action this time around, the atmosphere from the first game still comes through strongly to give it a bit more of a pulp comic feel and it should be interesting to see what else unfolds in Alan’s world when the full game is released.

But I was far from done. Whereas the first game was all about the story, American Nightmare features a new mode called “Fight Till Dawn” along with what Remedy believes will be a 5-hour campaign. I was able to go hands on with this new mode and true to the game’s atmosphere, it is a one-player mode with Alan fighting for his life. What it really reminded me of though was the challenge maps from Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City as the premise of the mode is for Alan to work through as many waves of enemies as possible in a 10-minute time limit by himself. If he can survive that long, the sun will rise and you will survive.

This game mode is score based though, where you can build combos for every enemy you dispatch and attack you avoid, so if you really want to do well and work your way up the online leaderboards, you’re going to want to try to mow down as many enemies as possible. And with each wave getting harder and harder, you’ll have an interesting dilemma on your hands as you try to decide on whether or not you should run away and try to preserve yourself or dive head first into the fray in order to try to get the best score. Especially since there is a limited amount of items around the map for you to collect and wield against this army of Taken. Remedy also confirmed for us that there would be 10 maps total for the mode at launch, five normal maps and then five Nightmare versions of those maps.

All in all, if you were a fan of the first Alan Wake you’ll probably be surprised by how much content Remedy is fitting into this downloadable sequel to the first game, but still enjoy how far the story will progress. With a stronger emphasis on action though this time around, this could also be a great point to jump into the series for newcomers, especially with less of a financial commitment since it is going to be an XBLA title. All I know is that I can’t wait for American Nightmare to finally be fully playable within the next few months.

What do you folks think? Are you amped for the new Alan Wake game? Are you surprised by it going to an XBLA format? What do you think about the Fight Till Dawn Mode? Let us know with comments below!

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EGM Review: Gears of War 3: RAAM’s Shadow DLC

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December 14, 2011

Shadow of the Past

He was one of the bigger and uglier Locust that we had seen up to that point. His stoic ruthlessness was evident from the first time we saw him as he laid waste to Gears left and right, protected by an all consuming cloud of Kryll that he could control with a flick of his fingers. Only after a barrage of Torque Bow arrows into his thick hide could we finally claim a small victory in the war for Sera. And even though he never spoke more than some unintelligible grunts, his mere presence and difficulty catapulted him up as one of the better video game villains we ever had to face off against. But so many questions always surrounded the great Locust General RAAM. Until now.

The first campaign based DLC for Gears of War 3 is a prequel that takes us through events all the way back before the very first Gears of War. Shortly after E-Day, Gears everywhere are trying to find survivors who cannot defend themselves and get them to safety. This is where we find Zeta Squad, comprised of some old and new faces alike, as they try to evacuate a city before an approaching Kryllstorm that will consumes all human life, paving the way for the city to become yet another Locust overrun fortification. The Kryllstorm is being led by General RAAM. Opposing him directly in Zeta we have Minh Young Kim from the original Gears, Tai Kaliso from Gears 2, Barrick from the Gears comic books, and the new Alicia Velera rounding out the squad.

What is great about this DLC is that while it is telling the story of some great characters who we only had fleeting moments with in the main trilogy and fleshes out their stories, you’re basically getting an additional Act with 3-4 hours of content that fits perfectly into the Gears mythos and that alone makes this worth it for Gears fans.

But what really makes this DLC special is how it takes Gears 3 attributes and mixes them with Gears 1 moments that make perfect sense. Representing Gears 3, we were given segments to actually play as RAAM and finally feel the true power of the Locust General as we control the Kryll now, giving us the balance we found in Beast Mode vs Horde Mode. Meanwhile, we’re thrown back into Gears 1 situations like plugging emergence holes and ducking and dodging RAAM’s Kryll, giving us that strong sense of nostalgia that makes us appreciate even more how far the franchise has come. There are other little moments that remind us of scenes and scenarios from both ends of the franchise, but I’m not going to spoil any of the surprises that the DLC has in store for players.

Along with this, there are the infamous multiplayer features that are staples of Gears DLC. With the pack comes the chocolate weapons skin option, basically making your weapons a rich, dark brown color and making you almost want to take a bite out of your Lancer Chainsaw Rifle yourself. Not recommended in game, of course, although Epic may want to look into chocolate Lancer licensing for real for next Easter. Those Peeps will never see what’s coming to them. Unless they’re Locust Peeps shaped like tickers…

Anyway, another key component for the DLC’s multiplayer additions will be to actually play as RAAM and the members of Zeta squad in multiplayer versus and Horde modes and allow those fans of Minh to maybe exact revenge on RAAM or simply re-enact that grueling scene from Gears 1 where RAAM shows off his brutal might against Minh.

All in all, if you are a Gears of War fan, this is a great little untold story in the timeline of the series and when you throw in new characters and weapon skins for multiplayer, this is a must have for all fans of the series and is most definitely worth the price tag.

SUMMARY: An entire new act in the Gears’ universe highlighting some old favorite characters is more than worth the price for anyone who is a fan of the series.

  • THE GOOD: Fan favorite characters return to flesh out some more of the Gears’ backstory
  • THE BAD: Being a prequel, you know how the story already has to end
  • THE UGLY: The exploding human bodies after they are swarmed by RAAM’s Kryll

SCORE: 10

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Hands-On: The Darkness II – Vendettas Mode

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Embrace the Darkness

Jackie Estacado may be the current prime Darkness wielder, but it’s corrupt taint is centuries old and has been influencing man for far longer than anyone can imagine. And as Jackie just learned in the comics after a confrontation with his estranged sister, he isn’t the only one with the ability to tap into its dark power like he had previously thought. Building on that idea, 2K gave us a preview of a new narrative cooperative game mode for The Darkness II called Vendettas, where four other Darkness wielders are teaming up to bring the fight to the Brotherhood and lend Jackie a hand he may not even realize he needs.

Once we picked real life co-op partners and settled into our chairs in front of some consoles, the new characters we could choose from settled into their own chairs around a poker table and began to plan their next move on how they would assist our dear Jackie’s fight while remaining hidden to him.

Starting off, we were introduced to Dr. J.P. DuMond. The descendent of a Creole family who settled in New Orleans over a century and a half ago, DuMond was a respectable doctor. But he was also a curious man and wished to re-discover some of his family’s roots by practicing a form of Louisiana Voodoo that he would use to heal his patients of their dark energies and store them in dolls. After some time though, he had accumulated a few too many dolls and was forced to keep them in a black metal box, which he nicknamed his Box of Tricks. When even that became too much, DuMond buried the box, hoping returning the evil to the Earth would rid him of the horrors he had compiled. Then a hurricane happened to hit New Orleans and the box was unearthed and came to the attention of the Brotherhood, who were drawn to this psychic sickness and its weaponization possibilities like moths to flame. Burdened with this responsibility, DuMond fights to protect the box and unleashes some of his “tricks”, upon those who would use it for nefarious means. DuMond’s favorite? Black Hole, which opens a vortex up in time and space and unleashes dark magic upon all those nearby and consumes them like maggots on a carcass. DuMond also has his Midnight Stick, which he uses as his Dark conduit to heal his allies as well as inflict harm on his foes as he can use it to wield what some would say is low-level telekinesis.

Next was Shoshanna. An agent of the Israeli Intelligence Agency, Mossad, Shoshanna is as by the books as they come. Israel has been aware of the Darkness for decades and has been training operatives to deal with it, and the Brotherhood, as necessary to prevent any type of worldwide conflict where it could prosper. She wields the Arm of the Night, a sawed-off shotgun infused with Dark essence. A heirloom that has been in her family for over 75 years, the Arm is interesting as it has unlimited ammo, but only four bullets a clip and is slow to reload so is best used for only dire situations. Her accompanying power is Gun Channeling. The Darkness’s infatuation with death-dealing technology allows Shoshanna to fire an even more powerful blast from the Arm, often dealing a one hit kill.

Next we came to Jimmy Wilson who looks like he belongs more in the WWE than fighting the Darkness. Not much is known about Jimmy and you don’t need to know much. He looks like WWE Superstar Sheamus except he’s Scottish and not Irish. But he hates the English just as much and believes the Brotherhood is simply the English trying to take over the world again. Whatever his motivations, Jimmy is an excellent fighter and uses his Darkness infused hand axe to deal death up close and afar when he flings it like a boomerang. Jimmy is actually the closest to the Darkness of the four, but is often too drunk to understand as he can motion his axe to summon darklings to his aid. Jimmy simply thinks of them as his special drunken fairies though and lovingly refers to them as his “Little Jimmys” (suddenly sounding more like WWE wrestler R-Truth) when he sends them into the fray.

Finally we came upon Inugami. Although he may not be as connected to the Darkness as much as the others, Inugami’s sword Kusanagi has been feeding on the souls of the innocent and the damned for more than 2000 years now. The ancient beginnings of the Brotherhood would use the sword to perform countless innocent sacrifices to their Darkness infused priests and soon the sword became as possessed as the wielders and would search for souls to feed on. It is said that the Darkness will leave the sword once it has feasted on 10,000 damned souls, the same amount of innocent souls it consumed while in Brotherhood hands. Looking to fulfill this curse, Inugami is on a thankless quest to bring death to those who would wrong others. But, there’s a catch. For every night he fails to kill an evildoer, the sword takes a small chuck of Inugami’s life force equal to one year off his life. So far, the sword has sampled Inugami 17 times. Inugami can call upon the Darkness in the sword to perform Swarm, an attack that sends a cloud of miniature demons after enemies and tears them apart like locusts on crops.

“This was a great opportunity to grow the universe. So we went to Paul Jenkins, who wrote on the comics and wrote both games, and told him to make whatever he wanted for four new characters. Our only direction was we needed four and that they needed to be strong enough that they could support a game all on their own. And at first he seemed intimidated by that, but then he realized the opportunity as well and just ran with it,” said 2K Producer Seth Olshfski on the idea of creating these four original characters.

Once settled in, I picked J.P. and my partner picked Inugami. Playing through the first two levels of the co-op narrative we began with rescuing a character who isn’t necessarily Jackie’s favorite person in the world, but figures he owes him one and so once rescued by the four, will serve as your “handler” of sorts as his Darkness knowledge has made him invaluable to many and will send you on missions looking for ways to harm the Brotherhood’s operations in New York. Although not as cool as Jackie’s quad wielding Darkness abilities and set up as more of a traditional two-handed first-person shooter, the need to work together and the clear differences between each character are evident from the get go. And the banter between each character adds a unique comedic twist to the story that compels you to push forward to see how everyone will continue to interact with each other.

“We knew the single player game would be heavy. Jackie’s life is not easy. And the things that happen to him are not pleasant. Jackie’s stories never end with puppies, rainbows, sunshine, and happiness. That’s what you want for single player. But a game you’re playing with friends? You don’t want that strong emotional moment while you’re on a headset with other people. You want more of a gallows humor you would have talking about how you’d blow up when the grenade came down while you’re fighting in the trenches. And that idea of a dark comedy helped inspire where we went with the narrative co-op,” said Olshfski when speaking about the tone of Vendettas.

After completing our pair of story missions, we were introduced to the Hit List mode, which are separate missions from the main co-op narrative campaign, but still fit in to how the four work together and how they face off against the Brotherhood. We were shown a middle level Hit List mission where the four must take down a Brotherhood big wig that works for the local news station. Unwisely, my partner and I chose new characters to get a different feel of the game with, me going with Shoshanna and him with Jimmy. I say unwisely because the difficulty level definitely spikes as you progress further in the modes and not having leveled these character up like we had J.P. and Inugami left us at a distinct disadvantage when Brotherhood minions began swarming us for the climatic final battle of the mission on the news building’s rooftop. After several deaths we were able to overcome the level, but clearly leveling up your character’s powers in earlier missions will be key to progressing through either Vendettas or Hit List. An interesting note we learned while playing this mission though was that although you can play Vendettas by yourself if you so choose, there are many missions in Hit List that require the co-op assistance of a friend. Looks like I had better go back to work on actually leaving my hole in the ground and making some friends then!

“Vendettas as its own game, is enough of a game that you could put it in its own box and sell it. Early in development, we felt the core pillar we needed to support was in service to the story. We talked about competitive multiplayer and some other things, but narrative based co-op was it because we could tell a really interesting story. A lot of people tack on the multiplayer aspect at the end because someone says they have to. This was our plan from the very beginning,” said Olshfski when I asked him about just how much of an experience people can expect from this new mode. If that is true and The Darkness II is akin to two stories in one with this new, intriguing, and highly polished mode, then I think this is going to be a game that will please a very wide audience for a variety of reasons and I can’t wait to personally embrace the darkness come February 2012.

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