Freeing God of War 3 from all of the hyperbole and anticipation is a difficult thing. But hype and reality can coexist if a game delivers, and God of War 3 does, it delivers on a scale that few games can. Breathtaking, epic, huge, overpowering, emotional and powerful, and this is just the opening ten minutes of God of War 3. And that is merely the beginning. The 10-12 hours that God of War 3 delivers to the average gamer exceeds almost every expectation levelled at Santa Monica Studios. Bombastic set pieces, huge impressive enemies and an expanded brawling system take God of War 3 to a place that no pure action game has ever reached.

Kratos as the archetype anti-hero over the three games of the franchise. A mortal who takes on the dominance and dominion of the Gods. Here he starts precisely where he left off in God of War 2, riding on the back of the Titan Gaia as she ascends Mount Olympus to confront the father of the Gods Zeus. Newcomers to the series are caught up on the story of Kratos’ vengeance through a beautifully crafted opening sequence that pays homage and updates the path of the fallen God of War. From these opening credits gamers are thrown into the best opening ten minutes in gaming history.

Make no mistake for that bold statement, the start of God of War 3 can rightly sit alongside the entrance in Final Fantasy VII as the preeminent starts to video gaming. Battling on an enormous, moving landscape; Kratos is pitched against the God Poseidon and his minors as Gaia is attacked approaching the summit of the God’s cradle in the sky. The folks at Santa Monica Studios make a statement in that breathtaking opening sequence, throwing down the gauntlet not only to the rest of the gaming industry but the entertainment industry as a whole. This is the power and potential of gaming in this generation, it has just taken this long to realise it.

While graphically God of War 3 pushes the limits of what we’ve seen before, taking the mantle from Uncharted 2 and sharing it with Final Fantasy XIII as best looking game on PS3, it is the way it uses those graphics to progress both the storyline and the action that puts it to the head of the class. With its fixed camera forcing the gamer’s eyes in certain directions and to certain moments, God of War 3 sets up moments of pure magic as Kratos emerges into a golden temple or surveys the destruction he has rout. Kratos himself has been given a makeover, becoming even more otherworldly and pale, like the death dealing demon that he is. His foes also move with more purpose and are more realistic than ever before.

The God of War series has always been renowned for its boundary pushing sequences (the silhouette sequence in God of War 2 gave the game an avant-garde artistic angle), and God of War 3 follows suit with stunning boss battles each of which take gamers in a different direction. Half puzzle, half frantic escapism, the God of War 3 boss battles are pure gaming bliss. Difficult but not frustrating, each requires different strategies and plans to overcome, but each fight is hugely rewarding upon its completion.

And it’s violent. Very violent. How Sony managed to fool the NZ classification board into giving God of War 3 an R16 instead of an R18 is beyond me. God of War 3 is head-ripping, body-dismembering, eye-gouging gold. Kratos is one of the angriest characters in gaming history; he feels no remorse or pity for anyone who stands in his way to killing Zeus. Within the first hour he is bathed in the blood of his enemies as he rips them limb from limb throughout the ancient world. New weapons (acquired from slain Gods) and battle moves make battles toward the end of the game works of art. Your fingers blur across the DualShock 3 inputting ever more complicated battle routines’ and throwing together hundred hit combos. With much-improved alternative weapons from God of War 2, especially ranged weapons, this third iteration makes for the most satisfying yet.

God of War 3 was a game that few thought could actually live up to the huge expectations that were thrown at it for years. But the reality of the game is something so much more. Nothing that I could say could truly convey the feeling and the joy of watching a masterpiece unfold before you.

Essentially Heavy Rain is a rather fancy point and click game like the Broken Sword series on the PSX but with much more immersive control features and very impressive emotional content that really pulls at the old heart strings. Heavy Rain is also a strong Mature game  because of violence and strong language but also because of the very realistic nudity and interactive love scene. It’s all artsy fartsy done and according to the developers its critical to the story…I dunno I just felt a tad voyeuristic.

Luckily the story is strong enough, for the most part, for the game to be more than a series of titillating set scenes with quick time events. Moreover the plot is wonderfully inticate with multiple layers as you play four different characters all intertwined around the Origami serial killer. It is a mature game and would probably not be a best fit for the avid Halo or Modern Warfare gamer because its not a quick instant game with’ instant coffee’ kills.

Heavy Rain is compelling and eminently playable because of two aspects of the gameplay. One; that the story is incredibly emotional. It is a sincere and tender but tragic story with characters you actually like and care about and fret over. It is also a cruel game because you can if you are not quick enough or make an error with the QTE’s do severe harm to any of your playable characters and/or the characters around you. Some errors can be fatal which inextricably changes the story.

Secondly the QTE’s are expertly designed and crafted, the best I’ve ever seen in the video game. Sure changing a nappy using a quick time event sounds tedious and it is but its also intricate. But other QTE’s especially the hand to hand combat scenes are brilliant. The rely on quick reflexes and the flow of required button pressing actions is wonderfully organic and feels natural if you keep the default button map of course.

But if you mess the QTE’s up there can be sometimes no replay option and this really really effects the story and to be frank I found it was never in a good way for the plot, gameplay or enjoyment of the game. It’s a serious issue, not flaw, that can shorten the game. I found that once I completed a scene I had the option of going back to try and get the result I wanted but the fact I had to do that was a tad disappointing. I understand the designers made it to be used as a differing plot device and for replayability’s sake but the consequences for stuffing up just seemed to immense.

The playable characters a private detective, a desolute father, a female reporter and a FBI agent are all fun to play and are all reasonably believeable and have their own unique traits, skills and stories. My favourite and the one that seemed so well acted was the private detective. A classic noir Humphrey Bogart type character. The least favourite was probably the FBI agent he had some gadgets that were very high tech and felt a little out of place in the story setting and he was also a bit wimpy. The father is played tragically and pasionately well while the reporter is a wee bit mysterious.

And in reference to the mysterious, I come to the end of the game itself. It is an amazingly tight production that for 3/4’s of the game is an absolute winner. But as the game comes to it’s twisty conclusion the results of your choices good or bad, QTE’s successful or not really impact the game and that is where plot holes start to emerge and critical nuances and twists in the story just mysteriously and suddenly appear. It feels frightfully disjointed and unless you play through the chapters again to get the result you want it ultimately leaves a sour taste in your mouth.

Heavy Rain is an attempt to do something different and for huge portions of the game it succeeds way beyond its scope but somewhere along the way the game loses it’s way and it’s focus and unless you replay through the chapters the endings can be very morose and very unsatisfactory. Not that everything has to have a happy ending but in this instance the endings good or bad are a symptom of the issues of gameplay in the last third of the game. I still say it’s worth a play through if just for the original concept and the bravery it took to make an upmarket point and click game.

And if you think I am being overly critical of the game, you have a point I admit, but the critique is a result of how I feel about the characters and how much of a connection they made with me. I have never felt such a deep affinity to any game character as much as I do with these guys so I desperately wanted this game to succeed and I suppose if you look at it from that perspective the did amazingly well. Let me end by saying this Heavy Rain is flawed but genius.

If you claim to be a gamer and have not played BioShock then my question would be “Why not!!?” BioShock is a well deserved and well acclaimed Game of the Year in 2008 across many publications. It was an unbelievably well crafted game that bought a delicious sense of foreboding and menace in the style of a 1950’s theme farce. Set in the underwater Utopian turned Dystopian city of Rapture, BioShock was a triumph.

Not surprisingly we have returned to Rapture but some eight years after the first game and this time you play as a Big Daddy. A Big Daddy is the giant protectors of the Little Sisters in the original that can only exist in an atmospheric diving suit and the beginning plot line in BioShock 2  is that you are frantically searching for the Little Sister that you were programmed to protect.

A Big Sister

Along the way you discover a twisting complex plot by Rapture’s leader Sofia Lamb to use your Little Sister to rule Rapture and beyond forever. At her command are the Big Sisters, really really agile and fast killers in a lithe diving suit like the Big Daddys, and a collection of malcontents, splicers and scientists. Combat is again divided into the use of either genetic powers known as Plasmids or conventional weaponry like shotguns, pistols and a machine gun all of which are extensively upgradeable. Gene tonics which enhance your performance are also still in the game.

This upgradeable ability is still a huge part of BioShock 2 and is very much the prize for the effort in achieving a level complete or winning a battle. As with the original the options are exhaustive and some are not particularly useful, warranted or interesting but they are there to add to the “whole” of the game. A new feature is the ability to duel wield and battle with both plasmids and guns at the same time.  This is highly effective against some of the big Brute Splicers, other Big Daddys and the Big Sisters. My recommendation? freeze ‘em then shoot ‘em.

Now BioShock 2 in it’s own right is a very good game but in comparing it to the original highlights some issues that you could not necessarily criticize the game for but it does force you to consider “Is this as good as the original?” Now my old dad use to say to me “No form of comparison will give a positive result” and he was right because my expectations of the opening act of the game was set impossibly high because of the original and in the concluding scenes of the intro to BioShock 2 I felt a tad deflated.

That sense of “gulp” and “Uh Oh whats coming around the corner” was not there. The Splicers for instance don’t seem to be so predatory this time, flying at you from all angles is somewhat  lessened. This is all due to the fact that I’ve been to Rapture before . Familiarity breeds contempt I s’pose and Rapture just doesn’t seem to be as foreboding as it once was.

At least not initially but then it kicks up a gear as you begin to unravel the complexity of the story. The combat that had felt a bit homogenized, that is all blended to be the same begins to gather i’ts own identity. You stop wandering through endless halls and corridors only for the sake of ADAM or EVE collection and the reason for what you are doing starts to get fleshed out. The choices you make over rescuing or harvesting Little Sisters and being merciful or not over some other key characters begins to impact the game.

The enemy AI becomes more discerning and I begin to realise that after an iffy start BioShock 2 is still better than almost anything out there. You have a menacing foe and a story that never seems to be quite what you think it is. The choices you make to progress the game are leading you inextricably to your destruction if you are to save your Little Sister. What are you gonna do then sacrifice yourself or save yourself? In the end the choice is yours or is it?

Now one thing I need to warn about is the Drill Specialist Plasmid that becomes available at one point. As a Big Daddy you have access to use the Drill as a weapon and Drill Specialist plasmid allows you to become very proficient at it but if you do equip this be prepared to lose almost all other conventional weapons. Your plasmids remain but it took me some googling time to discover why I had lost my weaponry.

My favourite plasmid was the Swarm because you just send them into rooms in advance and they take out waiting enemies. My shotgun or machine gun were my firepower of choice and I used the trap plasmids and trap rivets extensively too especially when harvesting ADAM from corpses with Little Sisters that I had rescued.

The multiplayer option in the game is a new addition. It’s set during Rapture’s civil war and although still growing is a lot of fun. The civil war takes place ten years before the original BioShock and you can get out and kill your gamer friends through the Utopian device called Rapture.

BioShock 2 still looks great but I had to adjust the screen settings to make it a bit darker and the shadows a bit scarier. The cut scenes look fantastic and are critical to understanding the story. The endings, of which there are four, run in a similar vein to the original and also look excellent. I do suggest a multiple play through to all the alternate endings. From a controls point of view I played this on the PS3 and the original on the 360. I think I prefer the 360 button map for some reason although the difference is not that much.

So if you are into the Art Deco and the Big Brother is watching you thing BioShock 2 is an excellent game. It has it’s faults but for all that you will play a game that has better design and more well developed characters than many a block buster movie. As a FPS purely and simply it’s standard fare but that should not be what you play it for because BioShock 2 is more than a sum of its parts its an exercise in moralistic design coupled with the ability to effectively kill everyone and everything that cares for you or you care about. The choice over whether that happens is not entirely upto you but you play a big part.

It’s got to be bigger, bolder and brasher than all that has gone before. In many respects that’s the curse of the franchise. Ratchet & Clank is such a revered series now, that it has to succeed especially for Sony platformer fans that have seen Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter franchises go to the dogs after third party developers got their hands on them.

Not so Ratchet & Clank games which has maintained a consistently high standard of game play through the years. So what about Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time? On its own it’s a very high quality platformer, but as I said you can’t just judge it as simply as that or at least I can’t, so compared against the catalogue of Ratchet games it holds up as above average with moments of impressiveness. It’s not my favourite Ratchet & Clank adventure but is up there.

But first what’s it all about? It is the sequel to Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (my fav) and Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty, and is the conclusion of the Future trilogy. Clank has been abducted by the Zoni on behalf of Dr. Nefarious and taken to the Great Clock. Ratchet on the other hand with the help, (????) of Qwark is trying to find Clank or at least information on him and that leads to funny, weapon based adventures that has a real sense of discovery and redemption about them. Leaving any spoilers safely hidden for the gamer to discover, Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time does several things very very well.

The level of animation is outstanding, the frame rate never lags and the vibrancy of the animation is as bright and as colourful as ever. Indeed the hallmark of Ratchet games is the vivaciousness of colour and we are not let down in any way here. The quality of the animation automatically leads to another staple of Ratchet games and that is the intricate detail in the environments. Its all there everywhere you look there are things happening, regardless of whether they are crucial to the story. Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time is a busy game in that sense.

The most satisfying element of the game for me is the humour, it’s just a very funny very quirky game with a great deal of irony, huge dollops of satire and lampoonish situation comedy. Much of it is delivered absolutely over the top which is the Ratchet way as is the comedic deadpan delivery of Clank, it’s truly a joy. And then there are the weapons which are always original and madly destructive. Unusually though the weapon selection available early on is a tad sparse.

If you are pleased that the humour is still there and the quality animation is still there as in previous games you may be please to know that much of the game play is still the same. For me though the most disappointing aspect was there was not a lot of original input into the game, there is definitely a ‘same old same old’ feel about it. Some may consider the manic combat scenes and the puzzling puzzles that are ever present in the games would have to follow the Ratchet & Clank formula. Not me I think with the production values this high, given how good the game looks there could have been more innovation.

Now don’t get me wrong the combat and the puzzles are all of a standard that would put most other platformers to shame but my bar for a Ratchet & Clank game is a lot higher. For instance the time based levels with Clank are well crafted and are quite original but there is not enough of that freshness that a series like Ratchet & Clank, which has been around since the PSX days, needs and deserves.

From a control point of view it’s stuck with the familiar and that is where they should be, accessing all the differing menu options should be one of the things that is never tweaked too badly. But sometimes a tweak is required and dare I say it but the camera and the angles it takes you to are in desperate need to be tweaked. The whole area of sound and voice acting is typical Ratchet fare, lots of clunks and boings and destructive noise. And the characters we know and love and laugh at are played again with absolute relish.

Apart from the couple of concerns mentioned that in reality are not enough to really throw anybody off enjoying this game immensely Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time is a tremendous addition to the franchise. Who knows it may be it’s finale given it’s the third in the trilogy. If it is then most who love the guys will be reasonably satisfied and for those who pick it up for the first time they could do far far worse.

• Uncharted 2: Among Thieves – PS3
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – PS3, Xbox 360, PC
• Borderlands – PS3, Xbox 360, PC
• Batman: Arkham Asylum – PS3, Xbox 360 ( Blame the Joker plus more to do than Uncharted 2)
• Aion: Tower of Eternity – PC
• Killzone 2 – PS3

Best Gratuitously Violent Game of the Year:

• Borderlands – PS3, Xbox 360, PC
• Left 4 Dead 2 – Xbox 360, PC  (The perfect zombie game)
• MadWorld – Wii
• House of the Dead: Overkill – Wii
• Demon Souls – PS3

Most addictive Game of the Year

• DJ Hero – PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii (Messes with ya brain)
  
• Patapon 2 – PSP
• Wii Sports Resort – Wii
• The Sims 3 – PC
• Brutal Legend – PS3, Xbox 360

Most ridiculously Overrated Game of the Year

• Halo ODST – Xbox 360
• Grand Theft Auto IV – PS3, Xbox 360 (c’mon admit it it was naff really compared to Vice City)
  
• Resident Evil 5 – PS3, Xbox 360
• Street Fighter IV – PS3, Xbox 360
• Halo Wars – Xbox 360

Most anticipated when the heck is it released Game

• Alan Wake – Xbox 360
• Gran Turismo 5 – PS3
• Starcraft 2 – PC (South Koreans and higher IQ RTS Fans only)
  
• God of War 3 – PS3
• BioShock 2 – Xbox 360 (Everyone else but the Koreans)
  

The Why did they bother Game of the Year?

• Wheelspin -Wii (any of these could have won this but this drew the short straw)
  
• Wheelman – PS3, Xbox 360, PC
• Damanation – PS3, Xbox 360, PC
• Shell Shock 2: Blood Trails – PS3, Xbox 360, PC
• The Conduit – Wii

Who would thought this would be any good Game of the Year?

• UFC Undisputed – Xbox 360
• Brutal Legend – PS3, Xbox 360
• Punch out – Wii
• Fat Princess – PSN ( This is just crazy fun)
  
• The Beatles: Rock band

Ho Hum Game of the Year

• Halo Wars – Xbox 360
• Ghostbusters The Movie Game – PS3, Xbox 360, PSP
• Prototype – PS3, Xbox 360, PC (zzzzzzzz)
• Wolfenstein – PS3, Xbox 360, PC
• WET – PS3, Xbox 360

Ok that was just plain weird Game of the Year

• The Conduit – Wii
• Terminator Salvation – PS3, Xbox 360, PC
• The Conduit – Wii
• Terminator Salvation – PS3, Xbox 360, PC
• Eat Lead: the Return of Matt Hazard – PS3, Xbox 360 (avoid it)
  

If you played the original Assassin’s Creed, and let’s be honest why wouldn’t you if you could have, then you will know that it’s a gorgeous spectacle and a real triumph in, at the very least, graphical quality and artwork.

It is a beautifully rendered game, but for all that the original had its faults and I’ll address these shortly because Assassin’s Creed 2 has pretty much fixed all the issues the first game had whilst also improving the game play experience.

Firstly though…

Assassin’s Creed 2 is set in the 15^th century, the Renaissance period in Italy, and you play a young nobleman, the son of a banker-turned-assassin named Ezio Auditore da Firenze. Like the original it is a 3^rd person action adventure game and it allows the player to freely roam the Italian setting whilst in the pursuit of revenge and the answer to several mysteries both relevant in 15^th century Italy and the present day…and 12^th century Palestine (3^rd Crusade in the Holy Lands)

By now most will know that the game has a sci fi bent to it, which is still a bit awkward to be totally convincing but nevertheless the game is based around a young man named Desmond Miles who is living in today’s world (which is 2012) and his connection to the past through a machine called the Animus which although difficult to take seriously is a machine that can access the genetic memories of your ancestors in your DNA and place you back in time into their lives and you play as them (awkward pause).

Putting that aside, the game, despite the difficult plausibility of the Animus, plays very well as a historical adventure and the whole sci fi bent does actually factor strongly and integrate into the game very well.

Assassin’s Creed 2 is a mission based game that has a non linear progression to the plotting and at least half of the 200 missions available are directly related to the core of the story.

It’s a story that is part hack’n slash, part RPG, part platform, part stealth, part puzzle/strategy and dollops of intrigue and mystery and indeed all rolled into a great adventure.

The game will take you on a gorgeous tour of the countryside and visiting wonderfully detailed cities of Florence and Venice to name a couple. Venice is exceptional but as good as the architecturally accurate cityscapes are the graphical beauty of the game is best shown in the countryside I felt. The rich Tuscan scenery is artfully done and the depth of field view is fantastic. That’s not taking away from the cities they look and feel very real, raw and with the same slightly washed out appearance of the original. Graphically the game has not taken that next step but it didn’t really need to either.

But Assassin’s Creed 2 has fixed some of the frustrations of the original namely:

The loading screen that you seemed to be in every five minutes in the original is very minimal now you can actually spend a lot of time searching, playing etc without the need to go into the that white, deserted loading screen.

The missions are much more varied, in other words you don’t only seek out targets, assassinate them and run and hide from the authorities until everything is calm. There are racing, spying and courier missions essential to the story and similarly side missions not connected to the core of the story. There are puzzles to find, artifacts to collect, errands to run, tombs to raid, a city to manage, renovate and improve upon, people to bribe, people to protect, people to escort, people to save, oh and people to kill for sure…

The monotony of the same assassination mission but just different targets is gone and the game is instantly better off for it.

Along the way you build up relationships with people close to you like your spoilt sister, a young Leonardo Da Vinci, lot’s of young nubile ladies (discreet sex scene in the first few minutes it’s an R rated game people) and your uncle Mario (check the Nintendo in joke when you first meet him)

You also make some nasty villainous enemies along the way which you usually kill eventually…possibly. Assassin’s Creed 2 is a game about relationships though and the ties that bind us and make us who we are. Or it’s just one big adventurous, mysterious kill fest…

Moving on, the way you assassinate has been improved and you have bigger range of weaponry and can set up some gloriously spectacular kills now. The basic old method of run in stab and disappear is a thing of the past…pun intended. You can also now disarm and steal an opponent’s weapon and kill him with it which is a bit mean spirited… Mention weapons and Leonardo Da Vinci designs some pretty good ones for young Ezio and the game makes you return often to Leonardo’s workshop as a critical part of the story. He is indeed a type of James Bond’s Q and supplies you with some interesting gadgets apart from weapons.

Blending into the crowd has improved, no longer do you have to wait for a gaggle of monks to do so, you can now blend in with any group and move unnoticed through the city. This is important because the new notoriety function means that if you become “known to the authorities” they’re going to pick a fight with you.

Blending in allows you to stealthily move around the city. Or you can let a bunch of hookers escort you around by paying them and they’ll distract all the unwanted attention and when I say hookers I mean courtesans. Money does play a bigger part in the game as it can now be used to not only buy new weapons but bribe people hire a mob or a group of the “lovely ladies”…or even toss on the ground to divert attention away from you.

There are a number of ways to go around unnoticed but what you really want is to get less notoriety and you can do that by bribing the heralds, killing the appropriate government official or tearing down the wanted posters of yourself that become scattered all over the city, That’s the easiest way I found.

Combat has pretty much stayed as it was with slight tweaks to allow for different weapons but the more compelling change with combat is the different strengths of combatants. The big ugly heavily armed “Brutes” class take a lot more killing that the run of the mill guys. Combos are still important and rely on good timing more so than getting the button pressing correct. There are also “Seekers” who will stick there sword into the hay carts you can frequently hide in.

The health or injury component of the game is also better. As stated different opponents have different strengths and can hurt you in varying degrees, synchronizing with the Animus will help minor wounds and a visit to the market doctor for medicine will sort out more serious health issues…

Lastly in the more easily identified improvements over the first game is the fleshing out of the complex story line itself. Most people I know who finished the first game was left wondering what the heck is going on and what are all the blood stained markings or cuneiform on the wall in Desmond’s living quarters. Well that is explained really early on and the story while still retaining its intrigue is more organic and understandable this time around…but expect another twist at the end it’s a biggie…well I thought so!

Overall Assassin’s Creed 2 is a wonderfully immersive game because of its setting, the art that is the game is just a highlight and the incredibly detailed environs you find yourself in give a real sense of authenticity which is only aided by the educational pop ups that give a historical account for some of the buildings you see or the people you meet.

On a number of occasions where the platforming part of the game comes to the fore, that is jumping from platform to platform to negotiate a way up or down or around obstacles there is a real visceral sense of risk especially when you are high up and in one instance going up the inside of a Florence cathedral I actually felt an uncomfortable sense of vertigo so high up was Ezio and in the end I climbed up on top of very highest point, a cross, and did the whole Titanic ”I’m the king of the world” thing!

As good as the design is I’m still nonplussed as to why the hands and some of the up close character features look a tad blocky, that’s a minor criticism I know but coupled with that are the two other issues I have with the game and that is the free running element which at times has a mind of its own where you can blindly jump the complete opposite way you intended and off a building to your death.

There are also the persistent annoying troubadours or city square singers who pester you in groups to sing a song about you. It’s not in keeping with the style of the game I think and they can impede your progress and give you unneeded notoriety at the most inconvenient times. They are almost used as comic relief but they just don’t fit.

Looking at the controls, the default button map is pretty good, combat is tidy except the ability to counter has to be a quick tap of the square button usually or you will fail with the counter move. Accessing you weapons menu through the R2 button can feel awkward if you are fighting and want to quickly change your weapon. The eagle vision is in the 3^rd

Person is easily accessed and enables you to target the specific person you are looking for.

Sound from the voice acting to the musical score is top notch and I love the authentic Italian spoken, I’m assuming it’s authentic as its portrayed as such, intermingled with the accented English dialogue. The acting is appropriate and never over the top except in some of the more pleading moments that some have when trying to bargain for their life.

In essence the whole game is a triumph like I said; it is the exact direction the game needed to go from the original and to be honest I enjoyed it better than Uncharted 2 mainly because of the whole cinematic experience.

Borderlands is so good that it’s kept me away from “Game of the Year” Uncharted 2 for over two weeks. And it’s not like Uncharted 2 is a poor game, it’s not, but Borderlands (and let’s keep this between you and me), Borderlands is better.

Borrowing a large chunk from last year’s “Game of the Year” Fallout 3 but making it an easier but no less compelling thrill ride of a game, Borderlands is a gem of a game. The comparisons between Bethesda’s Fallout 3 and Borderlands are inevitable and unavoidable but what sets Borderlands apart from the 2008 masterpiece can be summed up in one simple word: fun. It’s not that Fallout 3 isn’t a fun game, but Borderlands is a tour de force of a good time. Easy to get into and hard to stop, Borderlands is like your best friend who buys all the beer, brings all the pizza and has a hot sister.

Coming from Gearbox Software (the team behind the under-appreciated Brother’s In Arms series), Borderlands is all about attitude. From the very opening cinematic featuring Cage The Elephant’s perfectly placed Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked, Borderlands’ world of Pandora is a dirty, rough and badass place to be.

Borderlands opens with players given the choice to play as one of four different character classes (you’ll choose Roland, everyone does). Players can choose between Lilith (agile), Mordecai (sniper), Brick (melee) or Roland (the guy you’ll pick) and enter into the vast desert world of Pandora.

The game eases you into the combat and the weaponry beautifully. Easily dispatched enemies are encountered around the first corner and the immense satisfaction of annihilating your vicious opponents is immediate despite your severely underwhelming initial firepower. As you explore the desert world more maps, locations and missions open up around you and the enemies become more intelligent, accurate and armed.

As the world becomes more hostile, so does your character become better equipped to deal with it. This is where Borderlands shines as a hybrid RPG-shooter; leveling up is simple and meaningful, gamers can notice a profound and pronounced difference between levels. You deal more damage, get access to more powerful armaments and generally become the most badass mo-fo on the planet.

Gearbox has declared that Borderlands features more weapons than in every game ever made for next-gen consoles to date. And while this claim may seem preposterous (and almost unprovable), you will come across literally thousands of weapon variations with thousands of different possibilities of arming your characters. With a number of different weapon classes (from Sniper through to assault weapons), gamers can approach missions and battles in a number of different ways. You could just as easily snipe from a distance or assault from close range to overcome your opponents, the choice is yours.

And choice is what Borderlands is all about. Across huge, daunting maps and through tight, enclosed bunkers, Borderlands gently pushes the player forward without making it necessary to actually go forward. Want to just complete the main storyline? You can. Want to tank through every mission available? Easy peasy. Want to just go and shoot up a whole bunch of shit? Hell, Borderlands encourages it. By combining the best elements of the role-playing genre with the fast gameplay of a shooter, Borderlands never feels like a chore.

Make no mistake about it, Borderlands is my game of the year so far. And with only a scant few titles remaining to come (Assassin’s Creed II and James Cameron’s Avatar looking the most likely), it may take the crown come December 31^st. This is a game you owe it to yourself to get. In a world where 4-hour long single player games become the fastest selling-title ever made, Borderlands is day’s long gaming utopia.

BIOWARE ANNOUNCES MASS EFFECT 2 COLLECTORS’ EDITION

Special Edition Includes Exclusive Armor and Weapons,

Comic Book, and Bonus Content

Auckland, NZ (November 6, 2009) – Recruit your crew and fight for the lost! Leading video game developer BioWare™, a division of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced that the internationally acclaimed Shooter RPG Mass Effect™ 2 will also be released as a Collectors’ Edition in limited quantities.  Available on January 29 in New Zealand alongside the standard edition, the Collectors’ Edition of Mass Effect 2 comes in a premium, tin case and includes the full version of the game, a 48-page hardcover “Art of Mass Effect 2” book, Issue 1 of the Mass Effect Redemption comic book, and a bonus DVD with behind-the-scenes and making-of videos. In addition, the Mass Effect 2 Collectors’ Edition will include unique in-game weapons and armor that can only be obtained by purchasing this version. With its larger-than-life hero Commander Shepard, intense shooter action, nuanced characters and a rich storyline, Mass Effect 2 is one of the most anticipated titles of 2010.

“We’re really excited to roll out this Collectors’ Edition featuring so many unique items, including special Collectors’ Edition armor and weapons and content that will surprise Mass Effect fans,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, co-founder, BioWare and Group General Manager of the RPG/MMO Group of EA. “The limited edition comic book and bonus DVD will really enhance and expand the overall Mass Effect 2 experience.”

The Mass Effect trilogy is an emotionally charged science fiction adventure set in a vast universe filled with dangerous alien life and mysterious, uncharted planets. In Mass Effect 2, players will once again step into the role of the heroic Commander Shepard, commanding their crew of some of the most dangerous operatives from across the galaxy on a mission so challenging that it’s potentially suicidal. Featuring intense shooter action, a rich futuristic storyline, space exploration and emotionally engaging character interaction, the game delivers an unparalleled cinematic experience.

Mass Effect 2 will be available on the Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system and PC. Mass Effect 2 assets are available at info.ea.com. Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/masseffect2.   For more information on Mass Effect 2, go to http://masseffect.bioware.com/.

You may not own a PS3 or you are more of a 360 fan but I beg you…nay I implore you to just play for five minutes of Uncharted 2 and you will realise that nothing will ever be the same again.

More than any game I have ever played before Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is a true interactive game/movie. It has received amazing scores from reviewers worldwide and is worthy of all its accolades. Its developers Naughty Dog have truly made the game of the current generation. Surely as night follows day other games will come that will play as well, look as good and be even better scripted than “Among Thieves” but for the here and now there is not a game on any platform that can hold a candle to it.

Its greatest strength is probably the story itself, a plausible, thrill a minute ride that if I could be a tad critical follows broadly its predecessor in at least function. That is a search for a lost city. In Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune you were on the prowl for the city of gold El Dorado in Uncharted 2 it’s Shamballah or Shangri La the Utopian city of joy and happiness which according Marco Polo legend is where he hid the Cintamani Stone, a stone that grants desire and wishes according to Google…

The game is told in chapters that initially move back and forward in time showing how Nathan Drake got in the predicament he presently finds himself in…that is covered in a lot of his own blood, in a carriage of a train that’s precariously balanced on the edge of a snowy mountainous range. What follows is just a taste of the stunning visuals the game will bring you. They are crisp, amazingly detailed and beautiful.

It’s hard to describe how good the visuals are by using words so maybe the best way to show how impressive they are is by booting up the game and letting the game speak for you. Depth of field is…breathtakingly panoramic…unbelievable. Images I’ll put on this review don’t do the visuals any justice.

Gameplay runs roughly similar to the original, which for me was a smidgen too much shooting anybody, except “Among Thieves” brings much more of an exploration and puzzle aspect than before. For sure there is a lot of shooting at people and being shot at but its feels much more balanced and the running and covering up aspect is more prevalent. Gone is the all guns blazing rush in where angels fear to tread tactic coz you’ll die too easily.

The dry humour is also back and more sly and more biting one of the best examples of this is in the first twenty minutes where Nathan and Flynn are scrambling over roofs and Flynn warns Nathan “there’s a guard above you, a guard above you” Nathan drags him off the roof and throws him down several storeys to the ground below where upon Flynn quips “there’s a guard below you, a guard below you”.

Combat has been improved slightly so that you don’t have to empty several clips of ammo into everyone you shoot at and in fact head shots are so much more effective as well as body shots. Weapon of choice will vary but the old revolver you begin with is still a trustworthy fall back from say the somewhat awkward handling AK47 with its aggravating recoil.

Combat comes in waves and also set pieces that although you may feel you are in the middle of cuts scenes are very much game play and the ability to run away from advancing trucks, tanks etc while vainly trying to fire back is one heck of a ride. Targeting is again touchy and although damage done by shooting someone is greatly increased targeting remains a frustrating exercise in control because of its finicky nature. It’s nothing that you won’t see in most shooters now where auto targeting is giving way to a more skill based operation.

The old team is back too with Sully an Elena and added to the eclectic mix is another good looking gal Chloe…but all is not what it seems and “Among Thieves” is true to its moniker, that being there is “no honour among thieves’ Lots of double crossing and inferred  double crossing.

The voice acting is spot on with all the main protagonists with the possible exception of the main baddie Zoran Lazarevic who is not entirely the most original megalomaniacal gaming villain. He’s sufficiently loopy and vicious but not unique as you can grab many a villain from many newish games like Killzone 2, Metal Gear Solid, Mass Effect, BioShock etc and Zoran Lazarevic would take a bit from all of them so that was disappointing because villains should be stars of the games I reckon in a antihero kind of way.

Nonetheless I’m being deliberately fussy because as a whole package Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is close to perfection as a video game. It achieves everything it is meant to do and then some. One overseas review said this “Forget Game of The Year. This is one of the greatest games of all time!”

Melodramatic; yes maybe…accurate maybe…but let me give VGNZ’s own ridiculous hyperbole…ahem. “ The only downfall in an otherwise stellar game is that it ends” and that will be about 10 – 12 hours after you first tried to escape from a railway carriage, bloodied and dangling off the side of a snowy mountain.

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If you are a watcher or a fan of Batman: The Animated Series you will be thrilled to know that both Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill, who play Batman and the Joker respectively are the voices of the two central characters. What that means is we get the best ever Joker portrayal possible from a living actor. Heath Ledger, you still rule.

The game starts slow but with plenty of humour that only the Joker can deliver and boy does Mark Hamill revel in the role, he was good in the cartoon he’s sick in the game. Freed from the conventions of kiddy TV he brings the same warped and perverse spin on the green haired one that Heath Ledger did in the Dark Knight.

The Batman role is also darker more sinister than many would expect and has an added element of returning the character to his analytical detective roots. The detective mode serves a critical purpose throughout the game helping the dark knight out of many a conundrum but the challenge to gamers is can you succeed by turning it off after learning the intricacies of the game?

All the essential elements to a Batman game are there including gratuitous violence for the sake of a supposed higher moral code or higher cause and maybe because of the very real need for Batman to vent…Combat takes either the in-your-face grisly violence road or the more traditional in the shadows stealth road which is better for dealing with guys with guns. Either way it’s deeply visceral and rewarding

There are also the villains, the delicious villains, villains almost unparalleled in comic book lore. All your old favourites are here and some of them can really mess with your mind and your senses…if you know who I mean.

A view from the outside

I’ve said this before in reviews but for me villains or the baddies make a game, I want mine warped, nasty and clever…funny too. I get my fill in Batman Arkham Assault and then some. I’ve always loved the Riddler and I have to mention him here just to say he steals all the scenes he is in just as the Joker does in most of the game.

Batman Arkham Assault is a violent game, a menacing perverse but accurate take on the Batman universe. It plays well, looks fantastic and has a great reply value. This is a must have game for 2009, you will not be disappointed.

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