The delicious aroma of roasting basketball.

During the course of playing Human Revolution, I discovered a back alley in the Detroit hub area that happened to have a small basketball court complete with an in-game ball. Like most players, I spent some time attempting to toss the ball through the hoop with small success. It was an amusing distraction but fairly short-lived. I moved on to whichever side mission I was working my way through at the time. But then something started slithering its way into the back of my mind, prompting me to wonder what else I could do with that basketball.

Would my character still hold onto it when moving into cover beside a wall? Could I carry it up a nearby fire escape and attempt a long range trick shot? Could I take it with me wherever I went in the game as if I were suddenly Tom Hanks craving companionship? What were the limits of this seemingly innocuous object?

This curiosity finally overcame me, so I made my way back to the basketball and began to drag it around wherever I could. I found random apartments in which I could perch the basketball on top of the toilet. I found a locked safe that I promptly hacked open so I could place the ball inside. I found a set of bicycles that I could perch the ball on top of if I dropped it just right. I found a bum passed out on the street that almost looked like he was performing a lazy “Air Jordan” style dunk while lying on the ground. All he needed was a ball to completely sell the illusion. I found a group of back street denizens gathered around a fire burning inside a rusty barrel, just waiting for me to make a small addition to their kindling.

The Tour de Basketball begins.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution has a lot to offer. It rewards creative tactics and exploration. It caters to different play styles by offering a wealth of skills to unlock and different weaponry to use in lethal and non-lethal varieties. It allows you to punch through walls, breath toxic fumes without choking, leap tall fences in a single bound, turn yourself invisible, lift extremely heavy objects, leap from rooftops without fear of dying, use pheromones to influence conversations, see through walls, and become immune to electric shock. It offers up small details outside of the main story for you to discover. It allows you to complete objectives for future missions you haven’t even found yet without skipping a beat. I allows you to sneak past guards undetected, take them out silently, or go after them guns blazing depending on whatever you feel like at the moment. The game wants you to play “your way”, and for the most part, it is successful in doing so.

Way to be lazy, Bob.

Final Grade: A-

In addition to revealing the anticipated sequel’s name and release window, the September issue of Game Informer features two different stylized covers featuring Batman: Arkham City. Seeing as how Catwoman appears on both, it is probably safe to assume that the character will have an important role in the game. Two-Face also appears on a poster in the background of one of the covers. Rocksteady Studios did a great job with the original game, and the announced release window implies that they are taking enough time to put the same amount of polish and detail into the sequel.

Before getting to the list proper, I’d like to mention a few caveats, a disclaimer if you will. I think it is only fair that I only include games that I have actually played on this list. Expectations rarely measure up to actuality, for good or bad. So while I am sure games such as Halo 3: ODST, Borderlands, Left 4 Dead 2, The Beatles Rock Band, Infamous, Resident Evil 5, and Street Fighter 4 are all most excellent, none of them will be appearing on my list. Additionally, if a game didn’t come out this year, it won’t appear on the list even though this is the year in which I first played them. Otherwise you’d be seeing appearances by games such as Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, LittleBigPlanet, Dead Space, Civilization Revolution, and Battlefield: Bad Company.

You would think these things could go without saying, and you’re probably right. However, you wouldn’t want to deprive me of the fun of writing a disclaimer, would you? I didn’t think so. So without further ado, I bring you my picks for Game of the Year 2009.

Best Playstation 3 Game of 2009
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Uncharted 2 was the only new release that I played on the PS3 this year (due to buying the system so late in the year), so it kind of won by default. Regardless, I feel pretty good about this choice as Uncharted 2 is an amazing example of an adventure game at its cinematic best. The best thing about Uncharted 2 is the interplay between the extremely well-written characters. Incidental banter goes on even while you are playing, not just in the cutscenes, fleshing out character personalities and quirks in the process.

If you could choose only one game to show off what the PS3 can do, Uncharted 2 is definitely the game you want to pop in. The game is absolutely gorgeous, almost to the point of distraction. Getting killed during a firefight because you were admiring a beautiful waterfall or strange sculpture in the background is a problem every game wishes it could have. In a world full of “great looking” titles that think muddy browns are the ultimate in artistic expression, Uncharted 2 dares to use a vibrant palette of colors heavy in reds and greens.

The greatest looking digital scenery in the world doesn’t mean that much if it doesn’t feel alive. Uncharted 2 excels in this area thanks to the amazing quality of the animation. Character movements are smooth and realistic, vehicles bounce around on bumpy roads the way you expect them to, and guns look impressive and dangerous when you fire them. The sheer amount of quality animation in Uncharted 2 is breathtaking. There is definitely a good reason behind those commercials Sony put out where some guy’s girlfriend thinks this game is a movie. Uncharted 2 is almost as fun to watch as it is to play.

Best Nintendo Wii Game of 2009
Unplayed

Unlike the PS3, the only 2009 Wii game I played this year was a big disappointment. It was so disappointingly average that it kind of soured me on Wii games for the rest of the year, causing an apathy that led to skipping games such as WiiSports Resort, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10, Dead Space Extraction, and even New Super Mario Bros Wii. Despite all the evidence pointing towards those games being good at the very least, I just couldn’t bring myself to play any of them. For that reason, this category remains empty thanks to The Conduit.

Best Nintendo DS Game of 2009
Unplayed

Some of my apathy towards the Wii bled over to the DS this year. The first half of the year didn’t really have anything that grabbed my attention. However, E3 2009 caused Scribblenauts to leap onto my radar, and I was really excited to get my hands on the game. Unfortunately, Scribblenauts ended up being a great concept hampered by poor execution, especially in the controls department. It is fun for a while as a novelty but gets extremely frustrating very quickly. As a big Zelda fan, I am really looking forward to playing The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, but it hasn’t quite been released yet, so the DS category remains blank as well.

Best PC Game of 2009
Plants vs Zombies

Some people would probably place a different game into this category, but we’ll get back to that in a second. First we’ll get to my pick for the best PC game of the year, Plants vs Zombies. PopCap has figured out some sort of magic formula for creating addictive casual games. For example, Peggle can be a huge time waster, and Bejewled has been cloned about a billion times by now. Plants vs Zombies is a charming little tower defense game in which you have to defend your yard from a zombie onslaught with a variety of cartoony plants. There are several different modes in addition to the regular tower defense mode and plenty of things to unlock, keeping you playing “just one more round” until well after the sun goes down…and comes back up. On the surface, Plants vs Zombies may not seem like it belongs in a list with a bunch of “hardcore” games, but it is just as much fun and far more addictive than many of its bigger cousins.

Best XBox 360 Game of 2009
Batman: Arkham Asylum & Dragon Age: Origins

The Xbox 360 took a much bigger overall share of my play time this year. The number of good games I played on the system made narrowing things down to one game rather difficult. Should I choose the game that surprised me the most? Should I choose the game I spent the most time with? What to do?

In the end, I cheated and picked two: Batman: Arkham Asylum and Dragon Age: Origins. While Assassin’s Creed II improves over the original in just about every way and Modern Warfare 2 is an excellent escalation of Infinity Ward’s first foray into modern day gun fights, I decided to give the edge to original titles. Red Faction Guerrilla almost made the cut as it easily dominated my playing time this summer. However, I settled on Batman: Arkham Asylum and Dragon Age: Origins for the same reason. Both games do an excellent job of creating an engrossing world and completely sucking you into it through story, characters, and gameplay.

Arkham Asylum is easily the best Batman game ever made, but you know it is special because it would be a really good game even if it didn’t star the Dark Knight. Rocksteady Studios made great use of the license in a way that turns a really good game into a great one. Sure, it’s a lot of fun to beat up henchmen no matter who you are, but doing it as the ruthlessly efficient Batman is even better. Arkham Asylum feels like a real place you are inhabiting and exploring rather than a set of video game levels. Also, enough can’t be said about including elements of Batman the Animated Series in this game. Arkham Asylum sometimes feels like a slightly darker version of that show, due in no small part to the writing of Paul Dini and the voices of Mark Hamill (The Joker), Kevin Conroy (Batman), and Arleen Sorkin (Harley Quinn).

While Arkham Asylum brings the world of Batman to life, Dragon Age: Origins brings a completely original fantasy setting to life with incredible detail, inhabiting the RPG with interesting characters and difficult choices. Some people would list this in the PC category, and I am sure that it plays very well with a mouse and keyboard. Personally, I have spent well over 70 hours playing the game on the 360 so far, loving every single moment along the way. While Dragon Age isn’t the biggest visual powerhouse, it is still very impressive from an artistic design standpoint if not polygon count. Each place you discover feels like it has a history to it, and every area feels distinct due in large part to the different designs found in the architecture, objects, and creatures that you find.

The biggest strengths of the game, however, lie in the amount of flexibility in how you play your character and the impact of your choices on the world you are playing in. There are six completely unique origin stories to play through that influence and flavor the game differently as you play through it. The thing that impresses me the most about Dragon Age is that it manages to make the game equally fun to play, no matter what type of character you are playing as. Playing as a Warrior is just as much fun as playing as a Rogue or a Mage, even though each play style is quite different. Each character type has a lot of room for customization such as what types of magic you decide to use or if your warrior uses large two-handed weapons, a sword and shield combo, or dual weapons.

Excellent voice acting and a wealth of text-based “codex” entries about all the people and places you visit are just more evidence that Bioware certainly hasn’t lost their magic touch when it comes to creating fascinating RPG worlds to explore.

—

Overall Game of 2009
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

So of all the games released this year, which one stands out? Which one has that little something extra that takes it over the top? (As if you couldn’t guess by those pretty pictures on the left.) While all of the games I’ve mentioned are excellent, Uncharted 2 gets the edge for its sharply written character dialogue and eye-popping graphics. Naughty Dog has raised the bar for what we can expect from video game characters. I hope the studio can eclipse themselves again in Nathan Drake’s inevitable next adventure. Uncharted 3 can’t get here soon enough!

The successful campaign to save Chuck last spring, which involved buying Subway sandwiches, was impressive enough to bring Subway in as a marketing partner for the show. Chuck was originally slated to return in March after the Olympics, but recent rumblings suggest that it may return in January instead. Now fans of the BuyMore have six more episodes of Chuck to look forward to. Considering that the show that was on the brink of being canceled a few months ago, things are now looking much rosier for Chuck and the gang.

(Variety)

The Lovely Bones tells the story of a young girl who gets murdered and then looks on from heaven as her family tries to deal with the loss. The movie features a pretty impressive cast, including Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, and Stanley Tucci.

To see the trailer in HD (which I highly recommend) and other smaller versions, visit Apple’s exclusive trailer page.

Note: If Apple had an embeddable version of the trailer, I would include it here. The internet being what it is, the word “exclusive” doesn’t seem to mean what it used to. I have seen that this trailer does exist in embeddable form at other sites, including TrailerAddict. For a bit of internet irony, you can go watch this trailer at sites other than Apple and still hear Peter Jackson expressly state that the trailer is an Apple.com exclusive. I chose to do the “right” thing and link directly to Apple’s page.

Alec Mason has come to Mars looking to start his life over. All he wants to do is meet up with his brother and work hard. Unfortunately for Alec, things don’t go exactly as planned, and he quickly finds himself caught up in events when his brother is shot by the Earth Defense Force (EDF), the ruling government on the planet. It turns out that Alec’s brother was involved with the Red Faction, a band of colonists fighting to disrupt the EDF’s control of the red planet. Left with little to no choice, Alec becomes the newest member of the Red Faction.

The objective of Red Faction: Guerrilla is to free several different sectors of the Martian colony from EDF control. This is done by completing several different types of available missions. All of the main story missions must be finished before completely ousting the EDF from an area, but their control must be sufficiently lowered before the final story mission of any given sector becomes unlocked. Colonist morale in a sector is also affected by Alec’s actions. Different types of missions will either cause morale to go up, EDF control to go down, or a combination of the two. When the morale of the citizens is raised high enough, they will join you in firefights and supply crates will contain more ammunition.

The currency system that is used in Red Faction: Guerrilla is salvage. Certain missions have a salvage reward for completing them, but most of Alec’s money is gained by destroying EDF property. After causing a ton of mayhem by blowing up vehicles and knocking down buildings, it literally pays to run around and pick up all the pieces of junk that are left lying around. Collect enough salvage, and Alec will be able to purchase better weapons that allow him to cause more destruction, in turn letting him collect enough parts to buy even better weapons. This cyclical system works very well, and it makes a lot of sense within Red Faction’s story as well.

So what kind of weapons can Alec expect to use against the EDF and bothersome walls that stand in his way? Well, he begins the game with a simple sledgehammer and some remote detonators. While these two things may not sound very exciting, they are actually two of the most fun weapons to use in the entire game. The sledgehammer is especially entertaining as it can smash through almost everything you come across. Need a quick exit from a building? Smash a hole in the wall. Pesky soldier getting in your way? Knock him aside. The remote mines are also really versatile, especially when combined with explosive barrels or fuel tanks. Despite the many different weapons collected while freeing Mars, I always found myself returning to these two basics.

That isn’t to say that the other weapons in the game are horrible. Nothing could be further from the truth. Thermobaric rockets are a particular standout due to their huge destructive potential. Hit a medium-sized building with one of these, and half of it will instantly be vaporized in the resulting explosion. The nano rifle is equally effective against real estate and personnel. Its rounds contain a swarm of nanobots that disintegrate just about anything they touch. Among the other weapons are a gun that shoots saw blades, an arc welder that can electrocute people (even those inside vehicles), and an assault rifle with heat-seeking bullets. Alec’s explosive arsenal offers a lot of choice in how to go about tackling missions.

The physics in Red Faction are what makes the game special. There are no canned animations here. Buildings collapse, walls break apart, and fuel tanks explode in a realistic manner. Seeing a large tower collapse under its own weight after you have taken out it’s supports never gets old, and it never happens the same way twice. Taking the time to set up an elaborate chain reaction, blasting away with a rocket launcher, or smashing walls with Alec’s sledgehammer are equally viable ways of destroying a target. Of course, it can be just as much fun taking out a building with a dump truck.

Apart from the main missions, there are several types of side missions to choose from. All important EDF structures are marked on your map, practically asking to be destroyed ASAP. Specially marked vehicles need to be driven back to different safe houses. Kidnapped colonists require extraction from EDF hands. Faction members want help in assaulting EDF bases. Attacks by the EDF need to be repelled. Supply convoys need to be hit and traitorous informers need to be tracked down and dealt with. The variety of mission types offers many options in how to deal with the EDF, keeping the game interesting throughout.

Red Faction: Guerrilla also features different things to search for while traveling around Mars. Hidden radio messages from deceased colonists can be found. Every few messages that you find will reveal the location of a large bomb that can be attached to a vehicle. Hundreds of crystal ore deposits are scattered throughout the Martian landscape that provide a small amount of salvage when smashed with a hammer. Finally, several dozen billboards of EDF propaganda can be discovered and destroyed.

As if all of this wasn’t enough, Red Faction: Guerrilla also includes robust multiplayer modes. Wrecking Crew is a local “pass the controller” mode in which players take turns trying to cause the most amount of damage in a limited time frame. There are many different online multiplayer modes to take advantage of as well. Even traditional deathmatch games take on a slightly different flavor when you find yourself in a collapsing building with chunks of the ceiling falling all around you. Destruction is the name of the game in other modes, such as Siege in which the goal is to destroy the opposing team’s buildings within a time limit while they try to defend it. When the time runs out, the teams switch around and you will find yourself defending your own structures. Adding to the replayability of Red Faction’s multiplayer is an experience system that unlocks new characters and uniforms to play with as you gain levels.

Red Faction: Guerrilla is an open-world game done right. It offers a lot of freedom to play the way you want to, and there is enough variety to keep things from ever getting boring. Enough cannot be said about the physics system that allows every structure to explode, implode, teeter, and collapse in a realistic fashion. A lot of fun can be had in finding different ways to convert buildings into rubble. The single-player campaign offers enough to be a complete game by itself, so the well-constructed multiplayer components are the extremely tasty icing on a scrumptious cake.

Finale Grade: A-

Sean Bean as Boromir in Lord of the Rings

Other known cast members for A Game of Thrones are Mark Addy as King Robert, Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister (a cunning dwarf with a sharp tongue), Kit Harrington as Jon Snow (Ned Stark’s bastard son), Harry Lloyd as Viserys Targaryen (exiled heir to the former king), and Jack Gleeson as Joffrey Baratheon (temperamental son of King Robert).

The pilot is scheduled to begin shooting in Ireland this October.

(Hollywood Reporter)

The Conduit tells the story of Michael Ford, a secret agent of some type working in Washington, D.C. when the city comes down with a slight case of alien invasion. It isn’t long before Ford is swept up in the events, taking you along for the ride. Conspiracies are unmasked, allegiances are betrayed, and the capitol is turned into a shooting ground.

The presentation of the story doesn’t do it any favors. Most of the plot is revealed through scrolling text (accompanied by cheesy voiceover) between missions and radio communications in-game. This simplified way of presenting the story makes it hard to connect with the characters and what happens to them. Most likely, you won’t really care why you have to shoot everything that moves, you just will. The game also features the All Seeing Eye (A.S.E.), a device that basically reveals invisible things such as hidden messages on the walls and explosive mines. The potential of the device is pretty much wasted, and you will rarely find that you need to bother with using it.

While the story behind the single-player is fairly generic and lackluster (feeling somewhat like a Perfect Dark clone), The Conduit is still fun to play thanks to the excellent control scheme. If you have ever played Metroid Prime 3, you’ll have an idea of how the controls in The Conduit are set up. The pointer function of the Wii remote is used to aim your weapons, and Agent Ford’s movement is mapped to the nunchuk. Firing is as easy as pulling the B-trigger, making shooting intuitive and fun. Be warned however, that you will most likely have to tweak the controls to find something that feels perfect. Luckily, just about anything you can think of (and some things you probably didn’t) can be adjusted to your heart’s content. Things like pointer sensitivity, dead zone, turn speed, and whether you turn when the pointer is off-screen can all be tweaked until they are “just right”.

Once you have the controls exactly how you want them, it will take about 6-8 hours to play through the single-player campaign. Once you’ve finished it, there is little incentive to play through it again, despite the existence of hidden messages and data disks to find. The story isn’t compelling enough to entice a second go-around. The plot is wafer thin, even for a shooter. Just about the time that things start to get interesting story-wise and you think the game is about to crank it into high gear, the main campaign abruptly ends shortly after it began, leaving things wide open for a sequel.

If the single-player campaign were all that The Conduit had to offer, it would be pretty disappointing. The game also includes the option of online multiplayer that does a lot towards making the overall package a worthwhile one. The Conduit makes the most out of Nintendo’s online setup, despite the system’s inherent flaws and difficulties. In fact, The Conduit has many features that are found on FPS games on other systems. You will still need to enter friend codes if you want to play with people you know, but the matchmaking system in place makes it really easy to jump into a game with random players, up to twelve total.

Each of the three main game types (deathmatch, team deathmatch, and capture the flag) has several different variations available to play. Every player is given the opportunity to vote on game type, map, and weapon set in the game lobby before each match. Once the votes are tallied, the mayhem begins. Personally, I had the most fun with the Explosive weapons set on a level called Streets. The map is a small one, making the action very chaotic and fast seeing as how everyone is armed with rocket launchers. The available options seem pretty standard when compared to shooters available on other systems, but it’s nice to see these things on the Wii.

On a technical level, what High Voltage has been able to achieve with The Conduit is rather impressive. The game features many advanced graphical effects and techniques not commonly found in a Wii game, including bump mapping and animated textures. Unfortunately, all these effects are wasted on generic corridors and bland characters. Most of the time, the art design for the game is severely lacking in originality. There are a few moments that rise above the mediocrity of the rest of the game. Unsurprisingly, each and every one of these moments happens when The Conduit briefly lets the player outside of the generic offices and hallways and into the great outdoors.

The Conduit may be on par with Metroid Prime 3 (or even slightly better) in the controls department, but High Voltage could learn a thing or fifty from Retro Studios about level design. All of the Metroid Prime games have a great sense of “place”, really pulling you into the world. Every nook and cranny looks unique, something that isn’t the case for The Conduit. High Voltage’s world often feels copy/pasted. There were several times during the campaign that I went through a set of corridors, went around a corner, and got a huge sense of deja vu when the new area looked exactly the same as the one I had just left.

Despite its flaws, The Conduit still manages to be quite a bit of fun to play. It’s too bad that the customizable controls, graphical technology, and robust online multiplayer modes get bogged down by the poor story and bland art direction. Future Wii shooters should take note of the technical things The Conduit does right and incorporate them into a game with more creativity in the visual department.

Final Grade – B-

In Prototype, you play as a character that wakes up on an autopsy table with no memory of how he got there. Alex Mercer has been infected with a strange virus that has the side effect of giving him a ton of super powers. Alex is a little upset about his new condition, especially since the military seems to be out to kill him, so he sets out to find those responsible for infecting him and the outbreak that is taking over Manhattan.

Prototype is the latest in the run of open-world games to hit store shelves recently. Like most sandbox games, Prototype aspires to offer the player a lot of freedom in how to play the game, and it succeeds for the most part. Prototype offers several things to do on the side as well as a healthy helping of core story missions to complete.

The game begins on the eighteenth day of the city’s infection. Alex Mercer has a fully upgraded set of powers, letting you get a taste of the things to come before the narrative flashes back to the beginning of the infection. Even though Alex only has a few powers available after this, the game is very generous with upgrades, both in quality and quantity. The full list of Alex’s powers is massive, with so many combo moves and abilities that you will be hard-pressed to remember them all in the thick of battle. However, the game lets you upgrade as you wish by spending “evolution points” on whatever powers you would like, provided you have enough EP to do so. Doing just about anything will net you points to spend, so you will rarely find yourself on the poor end of the gene pool. Destroying infected water towers is a particularly good way to quickly earn large amounts of EP.

Arguably, the thing that Prototype does the best is freedom of movement. From the beginning, Alex can easily run up the sides of buildings, run at high speeds, jump long distances, and fall from great heights without penalty. It isn’t very long before the Glide and Air Dash powers are unlocked, allowing Alex to soar great distances between rooftops. Once all of Alex’s movement abilities are unlocked, traveling from one side of Manhattan to the other is a joy. It is so much fun that hijacking helicopters or tanks just to get around becomes almost pointless, despite the fact that helicopters are technically the fastest way to get around. However, hijacking vehicles for extra firepower is another story.

As the infection spreads through the city, the military is working to suppress it. This back and forth struggle is represented by different zones that pop up around Manhattan. Red zones are overrun with the virus, often housing an infected building called a hive at the center of the zone. Military bases are found in the center of blue zones throughout the city. Despite the large number of powers available to Alex, he will need a lot more firepower if he wants to take down a military base or an infected hive. This is where hijacking tanks and helicopters comes in handy.

So how does a super-powered amnesiac learn to fly a helicopter? The answer is Alex’s absorption ability. The virus running through Alex’s system gives him the ability to rewrite his DNA to the point that he can “absorb” anyone he runs into and take on their form, sort of like a deadly human copy machine. Alex gains the memories and skills of everyone he absorbs, allowing him to pilot helicopters and handle various military weapons. This ability also ties into Prototype’s Web of Intrigue feature. While the game has several hidden orbs to find (in the same vein as Crackdown), the Web of Intrigue is a much more compelling collection-based activity. Basically, there are several different people scattered about Manhattan with knowledge of the outbreak. Each time Alex absorbs one of these people, he unlocks another piece of the puzzle about what is really going on. Finding these people is completely optional, but not doing so means you will miss out on a lot of the game’s narrative. The main storyline is very well done and completely understandable on its own, but the Web of Intrigue provides a lot more plot details utilizing an interesting piecemeal presentation. It gives the feeling that you are piecing things together just like the main character.

At first, Prototype doesn’t seem all that impressive visually. However, whatever it lacks in textures and polygons, it makes up for in numbers. At any one time, you can find yourself in a fight with several helicopters, a few tanks, squads of soldiers, and hordes of the infected all at once. Prototype is able to throw a ton of enemies your way and fill the screen with mayhem with very few hiccups to be found. When you are fending off several infected hunters while running up a wall to elbow drop a tank or kick a helicopter out of the sky, you won’t be thinking about anything as mundane as a blurry texture.

Another thing I should mention is that Prototype is out to paint the town….in red. Blood and severed body parts flow freely when Alex Mercer is around. There is nothing to stop you from carving crowds of people into bloody chunks, whether they are enemies or not. If innocent civilians get in the way, Alex won’t think twice about chopping them in half to get to his intended target. Prototype is tailor made for those who prefer games that revel in causing epic amounts of gory mayhem without any apologies.

Prototype is far from a perfect game. There are only a few different character models for the military, making large groups look like clones. Enemy AI seems to be unimpressed when somebody drops into the middle of the street from several stories up or runs along a wall, yet they freak out when you pick up a random person on the street by the collar. Computer-controlled helicopters will sometimes run into the side of a building inexplicably. Absorbing a base commander in full view of all the soldiers will raise the alarms, but coming back a minute later wearing that same commander’s form as a disguise doesn’t raise any suspicions. The difficulty of certain missions suddenly jumps up to a much harder level than those immediately previous to them. There are a ton of little nitpicks like this that I could bring up, but none of these things got in the way of having fun for me.

Despite all of its flaws, Prototype still manages to create a large sandbox that is a lot of fun to play in. Tossing cars about, slicing tanks apart with a giant blade for an arm, and unleashing a barrage of tentacles on your enemies never gets old. Prototype is a perfect example of a game that is more than the sum of its parts.

Final Grade: B

Just Cause 2 is a game I never would have paid attention to if it weren’t for this intriguing video. The game looks to be loaded with a ton of cool “action movie” stunts such as a whole section of this demo where the player is hanging off several different cars during a high speed chase, not to mention starting things off witha little base jumping. I never played the original, but I am certainly considering the sequel.

—

This new Castlevania game looks to be taking more than few pages out of the God of War playbook, but the impressive voice cast featuring Patrick Stewart, Natasha McElhone, and Jason Isaacs certainly has me interested.

—

If you haven’t seen the phenomenal cinematic trailer for Star Wars: The Old Republic, go watch it now….I’ll wait. Snippets of the trailer are intercut with this interview of Gordon Walton from Bioware explaining why you should be excited for their new Star Wars MMO.

—

Several people from many different gaming sites are calling Scribblenauts their favorite game of the show this year. After watching several videos, including this live demo, I can see why. The game allows you to type in just about any noun you can think of, and it will spawn in the game world, helping you to complete different puzzles. The tens of thousands of words in Scribblenauts’ dictionary means we’ll be able to let our imaginations run wild.

—

Mod Nation Racers aims to bring the user creativity and game customization from LittleBigPlanet into the kart racing genre. This is the demonstration from Sony’s press conference in which they show off the track creator by creating a complete racetrack in just a few minutes.

—

The studio behind The Conduit revealed two of their upcoming games this week. One of them is The Grinder, a Left 4 Dead style game for the Wii in which you take on the role of a monster hunter in order to slay waves of classic monsters such as vampires and werewolves. The final game isn’t slated for release until late 2010, but the game already looks pretty promising. The demo only has one player, but The Grinder will include online co-op play for up to four players.

—

Put Nazi-occupied Paris, a race car driver, and a stylized B&W art style together, and you get The Saboteur. This open-world game features B&W graphics that are accented with the occasional splash of color. However, as you progress through the game, color comes back into the world as you bring “hope” to the people.

—

In Darksiders, you play as one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The problem is that the Apocalypse happened when it wasn’t supposed to. This game looks like an interesting mix of gameplay conventions from God of War, Zelda, and Grand Theft Auto.

—

Aliens vs Predator may have a bad stigma at the box office, but it has a pretty good reputation in the video game world. The creators behind the original PC game are bringing the AvP universe to the current generation of consoles. This is a live demonstration of gameplay from the Predator campaign.

Microsoft’s briefing was full of glitz, glamour, and lots of games. Nintendo’s conference was full of boring lectures, sales data, a few good announcements, and possibly take-home tests. Sony was a bit of a combination of the two, falling a bit short of the quality of the Microsoft show, but they were far more successful than what Nintendo was able to put together. Sony didn’t cut out all the sales charts like Microsoft did, but they didn’t skimp on showing great looking games either.

Sony’s briefing began with a sense of humor about all the leaks they had beforehand, saying they want to be the industry leader even with news leaks. After a little bit of sales data, Naughty Dog came onstage to show off a demo of Uncharted 2: Drake’s Fortune. The game looks amazing, especially in the quality of character animation. After that, MAG (Massive Action Game) was demoed, showing gameplay for the first time. It looks somewhat impressive, but I’m still not convinced that it will be a compelling experience.

Next up was the official unveiling of the PSP Go. The design is quite a bit different than the current PSP-3000, and it will be co-existing with the current model rather than replacing it. The PSP Go will be in stores the beginning of October with a $249.99 price tag. Coming at the same time as the PSP Go will be a Gran Turismo game for the handheld system. Hideo Kojima decided to show up at Sony’s conference this year (after appearing at Microsoft’s yesterday). This time, he revealed a Metal Gear title for the PSP, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. The game appears to take place early on in the Metal Gear story, according to the insanely long trailer that had several different endings. Seriously, the thing just kept on going.

The next section of Sony’s show dragged on for a bit with a few montages and talk about Playstation Home. The crowd had a bit of fun with the presenters when they mockingly cheered for a Hannah Montana game. On the upside, there was a quick mention of a new Rockstar game exclusive to PS3 that is coming called Agent, but little detail was shared.

Luckily Sony got back on track with a live demo of Assassin’s Creed 2. The game looks more colorful than the original, probably due to the Italian setting during the Renaissance. The game’s new lead character, Ezio, is shown climbing buildings and leaping between rooftops much like in the first Assassin’s Creed. However there were several additions and twists to the formula that were shown as well, not the least of which is using Da Vinci’s flying machine to soar over the city. Ezio also has two different hidden blades, allowing him to covertly take out two guards at once, and he can also steal weapons from enemies as he fights them. The demo ended with Ezio leaping into the river to swim away, something that would have meant instant death in the first game. Assassin’s Creed 2 looks very good, and I can’t wait until it hits shelves this November.

Sony then showed off an English-language trailer for Final Fantasy XIII, followed by the surprise announcement of Final Fantasy XIV Online coming in 2010, exclusive to PS3. Everything seemed to be on track for Sony thus far, but then Sony revealed their take on a new motion controller, grinding the briefing to a halt.

The new controller featured was just a prototype, so the final look will most likely be quite a bit different than what was shown today. The new controller basically looks like a ping pong ball on the end of a wand. It works in conjunction with the EyeToy camera to detect position and rotation in 3D space. They showed off several simplistic tech demos of the thing, but it came off looking rather cheap and gimmicky, despite working fairly well. It is supposedly coming in the spring of 2010 despite appearing like it isn’t very far along. Compared to the technology behind Microsoft’s Project Natal camera, Sony’s motion controller doesn’t seem to be quite as innovative.

Luckily Sony had more games up their sleeve after the motion controller was revealed. Mod Nation Racers is another title in the vein of LittleBigPlanet. The game is a kart racer with tons of customization options. Particularly impressive was the demonstration of the simple to use, yet robust track editor included in the game. After that was a trailer for the new Team Ico game, The Last Guardian, looking a lot like Shadow of the Colossus in its art design. Next, Grand Turismo 5 showed up in trailer form, looking rather pretty, but very light on gameplay.

And Sony ended the show right there…….okay not really. They showed off a ton of gameplay from the first few minutes of God of War 3. The game looks to play a lot like the previous games in the series, except it is a lot prettier in the graphics department. The level of detail in the environments and character models was very impressive, and I’m sure it will sell a ton of copies when it releases in March 2010.

All in all, Sony had a really good show, despite the lackluster motion controller tech demos. They showed off a lot of games and an attractive new design for the PSP, certainly a lot more content than what Nintendo had.

The short answer to the question above is: No. You would have thought that Nintendo would have learned a few lessons from last year, but their conference this year was very similar. Someone should remind the Big N that doing a Show & Tell requires you to actually show things and not just talk for a majority of the time. You may be pretty proud of what you are achieving, but that doesn’t mean we want to hear about it ad nauseam. If you are really being as innovative as you claim, perhaps it would be a good idea to show us rather than to stand there talking about it.

Nintendo kicked things off with a montage promo video followed by a lot of talk about how gaming is for “everyone”. They then showed off New Super Mario Bros Wii, a scrolling 2D platformer featuring the rotund plumber and his pals. The game is designed to be played with up to four people at once. A multiplayer Mario was a good start, but Nintendo just couldn’t seem to stop talking long enough to show many games, and most of the ones they did show were rather lackluster.

Next up was the reveal of WiiFit Plus, an expansion of Nintendo’s popular fitness software that is coming in the fall this year. After a lot of talk about the importance of interface to gaming, WiiMotionPlus is mentioned, and WiiSports Resort is shown. Some new minigames were revealed including skydiving, archery, and basketball. After a trailer for Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers it was time to move on to the Nintendo DS.

Several DS games were mentioned with a small amount of footage to go with them. Notable titles coming for the handheld include Kingdom Hearts, Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, and Golden Sun DS. Non-notable titles that still got quite a bit of attention were James Patterson Women’s Murder Club: Games of Passion, C.O.P.: The Recruit, and Style Savvy.

When Nintendo’s global president, Satoru Iwata, took the stage, I thought something good was in store. Surely he would have something interesting to reveal. Instead he took several minutes to talk about innovation only to show a new Wii peripheral called the Wii Vitality sensor. Basically, you stick your finger in it and it takes your pulse. Someone must have thought it would be a good idea to turn some basic hospital equipment into a video game accessory.

Nintendo went back to talking about games for a while to reveal Super Mario Galaxy 2. The trailer for the game looked a lot like the original Galaxy, with the addition of Yoshi into the mix. I loved Super Mario Galaxy, so a sequel is welcome news, but unfortunately Nintendo said nothing about a release date. After that, Nintendo “wowed” the crowd by talking about three third party games coming this year: The Conduit, Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles, and Dead Space Extraction. I think all three games look interesting, but we have already seen a lot about each before this conference started, especially for The Conduit which comes out in a couple weeks. Where were all the new games that we should be clamoring to play?

The show closed out with a welcome surprise for me. They revealed that Team Ninja (of Ninja Gaiden fame) is collaborating with Nintendo on a new Metroid title that is supposed to be “edgier”. It is called Metroid: Other M, and the trailer for the game looked pretty good, despite the generic title. As a Metroid fan, I’m all for a new Metroid title, and right now it is slated for release in the spring of 2010. As welcome as this news was, it was too little and too late to save Nintendo’s briefing.

Nintendo seemed too focused on talking about how innovative they are and how gaming is for everyone. Instead of showing a lot of titles, all we got were a few short trailers peppered in between lots of lecturing. Red Steel 2 was notably absent from the show, a big mistake in my opinion as it looked great during Ubisoft’s conference Monday night. The demo of that game did a lot to convince me that WiiMotionPlus is actually worthwhile, and it looks to be everything the first Red Steel should have been. Also missing from Nintendo’s show was any mention of a brand new Pikmin sequel, something that has been confirmed that Nintendo is working on (and rumored to be at the show this year). A new WiiMotionPlus Zelda title was a no-show, even though I wasn’t particularly expecting it to show up.

Had Nintendo included more games in their briefing, it would have been a much better outing. As it was, they totally dropped the ball again, in similar fashion to last year. The few interesting announcements were revealed to little fanfare, and they weren’t enough to keep the conference afloat amid all the boring lectures. At this point, Nintendo is so far out in left field that they seemingly don’t know how to create a show that actual gamers are interested in. Todays showing felt more like something geared towards investors, and I think even they would have had a hard time staying awake.

Nintendo’s conference was by far the worst of E3 this year. Even taking the talkative James Cameron into account, Ubisoft’s conference Monday night was far more successful at showing off games than Nintendo was able to do this morning.

Microsoft certainly “dressed to impress” with their conference this year. Their presentation stages are usually pretty lavish, but the stage this year seemed to have a few more lights and gizmos than years past. If anyone was worried that Microsoft was compensating for something, it wouldn’t take too much time to calm their fears.

The show started with a long presentation of The Beatles Rock Band. The opening cinematic was shown, featuring some impressive animation. Several people then came on-stage to demo the game, playing through the entirety of Day Tripper. The screens of the game looked almost exactly like Rock Band, however there were three people harmonizing, and the instruments looked rather impressive. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr came on to much pomp and circumstance, but they pretty much said “We think the game is good” and left the stage.

After a long time spent on The Beatles Rock Band, Tony Hawk came out to show off his new skateboard controller for Tony Hawk Ride. The controller features several accelerometers and even something that lets you move your foot to the side of it to accelerate, just like a real skateboard. Honestly, he should have just said “It’s like a real skateboard, only without wheels.” It would have been much simpler.

At this point, I was hoping that Microsoft would show something more impressive. Luckily the next thing they had up their sleeve was a presentation for Modern Warfare 2. After a trailer, they did a live demo of the game onstage, and everything looked very impressive. The level shown was out in the snow, and the graphical detail was very high. Snow was stuck to the characters’ clothes and blowing in the air, and everything looked very “cold”. The demo began with a cliff climbing sequence, and then it skipped ahead to a sequence set on an enemy compound during a blizzard. The blizzard provides cover, but the enemy soon discovered the player’s presence and explosions and gunfire quickly broke out. The demo culminated in an exciting chase aboard snowmobiles. Yes, you can still fire a pistol while tearing through the snow-covered countryside.

After that, the games kept on flowing. Final Fantasy XIII was demoed on the Xbox, and it looked very good. Epic Games presented a brand new title for XBox Live Arcade called Shadow Complex that was apparently inspired by 2D Castlevania and Metroid games. Trailers were shown for Crackdown 2, Left 4 Dead 2, and Splinter Cell Conviction before the latest of Sam Fisher’s adventures was demoed onstage. Splinter Cell Conviction’s live demo was very stunning in both graphics and gameplay. It looks like Sam Fisher is going to be more of a badass this time around, as a ton of bad guys were quickly dispatched during the demo. Microsoft then took some time to show off Forza 3 which wasn’t very impressive to me, but it looks like it will probably go over well with fans of the series.

Next up was Halo ODST, and it didn’t disappoint. The game will switch things up a bit, allowing you to “flash back” and play sections with different characters in different areas, piecing the story together bit by bit. Lots of things blew up, and it looked very pretty. The presentation from Bungie ended with the announcement of Halo Reach, promising to show you the beginning of the Halo story coming sometime in 2010. However, those who purchase ODST will get into the Reach multiplayer beta. Halo fans seem to have a lot to look forward to.

Next up was a game that most had assumed to be vaporware until now, Alan Wake. The game is now slated to come out in the spring of 2010, and the in-game demo of the Alan Wake looked very good. The game appears to feature a voice-over while you play like someone is telling a story, and title cards like “Previously on Alan Wake” seem to imply an episodic structure. The lighting and particle effects in the demo were particularly impressive. At one point, Alan Wake pulls out a typical flare, but when he sets it off, the flare spews out sparks and a ton of smoke, looking very realistic.

After showing off several games, Microsoft turned their attention to XBox Live. To that end, they announced that last.fm, Facebook, and Twitter will be coming to the XBox, and soon we will be able to add movies to our Netflix queues through the 360 interface. Bonus points go to Microsoft for getting Felicia Day to do the Facebook presentation. Also coming XBox Live is 1080p video content that will supposedly play instantly, and the previously announced Live Party will let you watch content with your friends over XBox Live.

Next Microsoft went on to announce their new motion control camera system, but not before a surprise appearance of Hideo Kojima to announce Metal Gear Solid Rising for the 360. The teaser trailer for the game proclaims that “Raiden is back”, implying that Solid Snake will not be in this game or at least not be the focus.

Now back to that camera. To be honest, I was a little disappointed that it didn’t seem to be that far along. Despite spending a lot of time focusing on the new “Project Natal”, everything seemed to be in the prototype stage. There was a lot of “this is what we hope to do” and “this is what we could do” rather than “this is what we’re doing”. It all seemed very hypothetical to me, and any mention of a price or release window was nowhere to be found.

Several videos were shown, talking about what the peripheral can do, including facial recognition, full body motion capture, moving menu pages with the wave of a hand, and other actions. One demo was for a game that looks very similar to the soccer minigame found in WiiFit, except in the XBox version, you are punching and kicking balls into a wall of bricks in an effort to break them down. Microsoft also showed a painting game that seemed like the equivalent of throwing cans of paint at a wall.

After that, Peter Molyneux came out to show a video of Lionhead Studios’ new tech demo, an interactive character named Milo that utilizes the Project Natal camera to interact with the player. In the video, the woman talks to Milo and he responds to her, but the whole thing felt very scripted and perhaps even staged. It didn’t help that Molyneux was in full-on hype mode, making some pretty far-fetched claims about what was going on.

Overall, I think that Microsoft had a pretty strong showing this year, despite the disappointing “what if” attitude while showing off the new camera peripheral. They showed some great looking games, and there were even a few surprises like the announcements of Left 4 Dead 2 and a new Metal Gear game for 360. They had a few stumbles during the presentation, but it never came to the point where they completely dropped the ball. It wasn’t quite the “revolutionizing of home entertainment” that was hyped before E3, but the Microsoft Conference still had quite a bit of news to share. The complete lack of sales charts was also a big plus in my book.

I’m not sure what Nintendo and Sony have in store for us on Tuesday, but I think that Microsoft left the door open for someone to completely blow us away this year. Will Nintendo or Sony be able to do that? I’m not sure, but I am definitely excited to find out. I will be back later this week to share my thoughts on each of their conferences.

Those pesky zombies are at it again. They’re shuffling across your yard, intent on eating your brains. Luckily, nobody hates zombies more than the plants around your house. They’ve taken it upon themselves to protect your home from an endless assault of the undead.

PopCap is the undisputed king of addictive casual games. Bejeweled has been cloned more times than you can count, and other games such as Peggle and Zuma are free-time vampires. Plants vs Zombies is a fairly simple concept on the surface, but the title also has more depth than you might expect at first glance.

Plants vs Zombies is an example of a tower-defense game where you place a bunch of offensive and defensive “towers” in a limited area in order to defend your base from an onslaught of enemies of differing types. Each variety of plant has a different skill to bring to the strategic drawing board, but nothing comes for free. Each plant has an associated cost for placing it on your lawn, measured in “sunshine”. You have to continuously gather enough sun to pay for all the flora you wish to plant. In addition to the initial purchase cost, each type of plant has a set recharge time before you can place another one. In general, cheaper plants recharge much faster than more powerful, expensive plants. Your yard is divided into a grid with a limited number of spaces in which to place plants. The zombies will shuffle towards your house in one of five different lanes, and your plants will only attack zombies within their range, which usually means they must occupy the same lane.

Tower defense games are all about finding the balance between different types of defenses in order to repel differing enemies. Plants vs Zombies offers up a fairly large roster of pesky zombies to defend against. Apart from the generic type, there are zombies with bolstered defense, zombies with extra speed, zombies with excess strength, and zombies with a host of other special traits. As large as the roster of zombies is, it still pales in comparison to the list of plants that becomes available over the course of the game. There are more than enough kinds of plants to defend against every type of zombie, day or night. Some plants can only be used during the day, while others, such as mushrooms, are nocturnal.

So how can a bunch of plants stop all those zombies from entering your house and eating your brains?

Sunflowers are used to generate sunshine, which also randomly falls from the sky during the day. If you don’t take the time to gather all the sun that you can, you won’t be able to build enough defenses. You start out with a basic arsenal including Wall-nuts to stop the zombies in their tracks and Peashooters to take them down. Over time, the number of available plants becomes rather large, and you must choose which of them you will take into battle for each level. My personal favorite plant type is the Kernel-Pult that lobs kernels of corn and slabs of butter.

The zombie horde has several tricks to try and make it across your lawn. Normal zombies merely shuffle forwards, but other types are a little more devious. Pole Vaulting Zombie can jump over the first plant he comes to, and Newspaper Zombie gets really angry and charges across the yard when you destroy his paper. The Dancing Zombie, which resembles a certain pop star, is my favorite.

If this were all that Plants vs Zombies had to offer, it would be a pretty solid game. However PopCap has stuffed this thing to the gills with a goofy sense of humor and more extras than you could shake a severed limb at. Each character in the game has a cartoony feel from the way they look to the way they move. Guiding you through the game periodically is Crazy Dave who wears a pan on his head and speaks in garbled grunts (helpfully translated into speech balloons on-screen). As you encounter different plants and zombies in the game, they are added to an almanac that lists strengths, special moves, and an often hilarious brief description. There is also a shop where you can buy new plants types and a few other defenses. You also unlock a “Zen Garden” where you can grow several plants that earn you rewards when they reach maturity. Apart from the regular Adventure mode, Plants vs Zombies also includes several fun mini-games including Wall-Nut Bowling and a Slot Machine mode in which you must use a slot machine to win different types of plants to defend your lawn. Additionally, there are several puzzle modes such as one where you play things from the side of the zombies trying to fight your way through a group of plants (actually cardboard cutouts so no actual plants are harmed). Finally, you will unlock the Survival mode which ups the ante a bit, making things much more difficult for your spirited band of plants.

Plants vs Zombies is a deceptive little title. It sneaks by your defenses with a cute presentation and goofy charm. You start out by putting down a few waves of shuffling zombies, and you start to think that this might be an easy encounter to win. Soon enough the game gets its hooks into you, and you’ll find yourself neck deep in a horde of zombies with tons of flaming peas flying through the air and snorkeling zombies swimming under your defenses, muttering curses under your breath as the zombies eat yet another one of your precious plants. It’s only then that you’ll realize hours have passed you by in the blink of an eye and too many utterances of the phrase “just one more”. Plants vs Zombies wears the guise of a “casual” game, but it has just as much depth, polish, content, and thoughtful strategy as any “hardcore” game. Perhaps the term “casual-core” should be invented, if it hasn’t been already.

Overall Grade: A-

And now a reminder from the NPA (Neighborhood Plant Association):
There’s a zombie on your lawn…

Bullworth Academy is home to snobby rich kids, oppressive teachers, and more bullies than you can shake a stick at. Enter Jimmy Hopkins, a rebellious teen who has been kicked out of several different schools in the past. He is dropped off at Bullworth by his mother and his brand new stepfather on the way to their honeymoon cruise (that just happens to last an entire year). Jimmy is soon working towards taking over the school in between going to (or skipping) class and getting on the principal’s bad side.

There are two classes every day at Bullworth, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Classes cycle through every few days, so you won’t be slogging through the same English class every single day. Of course, you can decide to skip classes entirely, but it will have several consequences. First, the school prefects will try to bust Jimmy if they find him being truant. Get caught, and you’ll be sent straight to the class you were supposed to be attending. This isn’t as big of a deal once the gates of the school open up, allowing you access to town. The cops there will also bust you, but there are a lot more places to hide outside Bullworth Academy’s walls.

The second consequence to skipping out is missing out on key skills that are learned during class. Gym class will teach you additional fighting moves, and Shop class unlocks better bicycles for you to ride around town. Each type of class is passed by completing different types of mini-games. English consists of a word scramble game, Chemistry has you pressing buttons to mix chemicals together, and Gym class will either be a wrestling match or dodgeball. Most of the things earned by completing classes have tangible benefits during the rest of the game.

When Jimmy isn’t attending class, he’ll probably be completing some sort of task for somebody else. It seems like he is a magnet for people that want something. New tasks are always popping up, some of which progress the story, and some of which are optional missions that net you some cash. There is a nice mix of things that Jimmy ends up doing, like sneaking into the girl’s dorm, escorting nerds across campus, collecting miscellaneous items, and pulling various pranks, among other things. Every mission is fairly short, so the game rarely gets frustrating due to failed tasks.

Bullworth feels like a living place due in large part to the interesting and humorous characters that populate the school. In fact, each character is so memorable that you will quickly begin to recognize the different students roaming around the campus. Bullworth is far from a realistic place with everyone falling somewhere between caricature and satire. For example, you will meet a fat nerd named Algernon who’s pants are always unzipped, the ultra grungy lunch lady who chain smokes and spits in the food, and the perpetually drunk English teacher.

The school is divided into several cliques that each have their own hangouts. Depending on your actions, the respect that each group has for you will go up and down, causing them them to become more hostile towards you if their respect goes down. During your time at Bullworth, you will encounter the Bullies, Preppies, Jocks, Nerds, Greasers, and Townies. Teachers fall into their own group, but each one has tendencies for one group or another, such as the coach falling in with the jocks.

Another unofficial group at Bullworth are the girls. Pulling pranks on guys is frowned upon, but harassing girls will instantly get the prefects after you. So if you’re planning on throwing a stink bomb into the middle of a crowd, it might be a good idea to make sure there aren’t any girls in the group. Jimmy is quite the ladies man on campus, and there is a tangible benefit to kissing as many girls that you can. After completing some Art classes, kissing girls will give you a health bonus, something that is a major help if you get into any big fights against multiple opponents. The more art classes that you complete, the bigger your health bonus. Of course you must get the girls to like you before they will even think about kissing you. If you’re not careful, you might just get a kick in the crotch for your trouble.

You might expect to find fisticuffs in a game called Bully, and you’d be right. Jimmy has several different fighting moves to help him deal with the more antagonistic citizens of Bullworth. More moves are unlocked through gym class, but if you want to unlock the really good moves, you’ll have to talk to the homeless vet that lives near the school. In exchange for transistor radio parts, the hobo will teach you secret moves he claims to have learned in the military. In addition to his fists and feet, Jimmy will acquire many different weapons throughout the game including a trusty slingshot. Many are classics used for pranks such as eggs, stink bombs, marbles, itching powder, and firecrackers. You will also come across some more powerful projectile weapons later in the game that pack more of a punch than your slingshot, however they lack the infinite ammo that makes your slingshot a “go to” weapon. Jimmy can also temporarily pick up disposable weapons such as baseball bats, trash can lids, and wooden planks.

So what if you just want to tool around town instead of going to classes or doing things for people? There are plenty of options in town to keep you busy. Simply riding around on your skateboard or bicycle is fun in its own right. You can also visit the several different stores in town to procure new clothes, a new haircut, or even a new tattoo. The Preppies have a boxing club in town where you can spar against several opponents. You can also find your way into the local carnival to play several different games including a shooting range and a dunk tank. The carnival also has a go-kart track with several different races to beat.

If you want to do all these things, you’ll need copious amounts of spending money. Certain missions will net you some cash, but there are also a few different jobs in town that are also a good way to make money. You can start a paper route or mow the grass in the park. Eventually, several bike races show up around town that are a good way to earn money while having a bit of fun at the same time. Bullworth also has a ton of collectibles to track down including rubber bands, “Grottos & Gremlins” trading cards, and smashable garden gnomes.

Now with all these different things to do, you might think that the quality of each activity might not be up to snuff, but you’d be wrong. Each task, job, and mini-game is well-polished and fun to play. I tip my hat to Rockstar for making a ton of disparate parts come together into a cohesive whole where everything feels like it belongs with everything else.

As a kid, almost everything has the potential to feel like an adventure, and Bully does a great job of capturing this vibe. A large contributor to this feeling is the excellent use of music in the game. In particular, the music that plays when you are riding your bicycle around captures the spirit of running off on random escapades. Additionally, different “chase” music will play depending on what clique is trying to run you down. Bully’s score also helps to set the somewhat tongue-in-cheek tone of the game. The world containing Bullworth Academy isn’t to be taken very seriously, and the music definitely fits within the humorous atmosphere.

Bully overcomes some of the inherent problems with sandbox-style games by providing a more focused experience in a world that isn’t quite as sprawling as some open-world games. The world is big enough to feel pretty open, but it is also small enough that you won’t be getting lost and it doesn’t take forever to get to your next objective. The game gives you enough freedom to play it like you want to, and there is enough variety in the missions that you’ll never get stuck doing something you don’t like for very long. Pretty soon you’ll be back on your skateboard, causing mayhem, and having a ton of fun.

Overall Grade: B+

Each level in World of Goo requires you to move a certain number of goo balls across the level into a suction pipe. Initially, getting to the pipe is as simple as building a tower made of the goo balls to reach it. However, the puzzles become much more involved after the first few levels are solved. Building bridges and towers soon becomes second nature, and figuring out the best way to reach the end of each stage is a lot of fun. The levels are grouped into five different chapters, each corresponding to a season of the year, beginning with summer. The art style evolves with each chapter, giving each set of levels a unique visual identity.

You’ll be seeing a lot of the basic type of goo. These little, blobby fellows wander around until you use them, preferring to crawl around goo structures. Each piece of goo can be attached to your structure one at a time, but cannot be removed once they have been added. The structures that you build have their own weight and other physical properties that can make things a bit more difficult at times. Being able to build stable structures quickly is the name of the game here. There will be many times that you can save yourself from death with a few quick additions to your contraption before it topples over the edge of a cliff or collapses on itself. The goo balls are also very charming and cute, due in large part to the excellent sound design. They will squeak, scream, and let out many a “Yippee” as you guide them through levels.

While the normal goo is plentiful, they have more than few different friends. There are many unique types of goo out there including balloons, explosive goo, green goo that can be attached and detached at will, and even drool. Each of them have different physical properties that you’ll have to take advantage of to reach the level exits.

Now if you think you know exactly what to expect from World of Goo, you are probably only somewhat correct in your assumptions. Just when you think you have a handle on things, the game throws a new monkey wrench into the works. Whether it’s a new type of goo ball or a different kind of level, World of Goo does a great job of continually mixing things up and keeping you on your toes. The pacing is excellently done, keeping things interesting throughout playing the game and remaining innovative while it does so. The game keeps pulling out the surprises until the very last level is finished.

The storytelling in World of Goo is another high point. “What’s that,” you ask, “This puzzle game actually has a plot?” It most certainly does. The story is fairly simple, but it is told in interesting ways. There are a few cutscenes in between chapters, but most of the story is found in the levels themselves. Each level has at least one sign left behind by the mysterious Sign Painter. Each one has a short message that slowly reveals the plot as you play through the game. Also, the design of each level is also integrated into the story. In essence, you are actually playing out the story as you rescue the goo balls. The writing in the game is very smart. Some of the messages left by the Sign Painter had me laughing out loud at their dry wit. There is more character and personality in these messages than some games give their main characters that you can actually see.

Another large part of World of Goo’s unique identity comes from the excellent soundtrack. The music in the game ranges from epic tracks to smaller, introspective ones. The main theme is reminiscent of something from a Tim Burton movie, but other tracks have different feels to them. The best thing about the soundtrack is that despite having a large variety, everything still fits into a cohesive whole that is great to just listen to. In fact, there were a few times that I booted up the game just to listen to the music. Thankfully 2DBoy has made it much easier to listen to World of Goo’s music by making the soundtrack available on their website for free.

World of Goo also features a few small extras if you want to keep playing after finishing all the levels. Each level also has a set of more difficult secondary goals to complete in order to earn an OCD flag. This sometimes means you need to get more goo balls to the exit or complete the level in a super-fast time. Earning these flags can be very hard, so you’ll be spending a lot of time perfecting your goo-building techniques if you want to get every one. Additionally, the balls of goo that you rescue from each level find their way into the World of Goo Corporation. You can then use the goo to build a tower, trying to get as high as you can. As you build it, scores from other players will appear, motivating you to try to add that little extra bit of height to your tower. The more goo that you rescue in the normal levels, the more goo that you have available to build your tower at the World of Goo Corporation.

World of Goo is all the more impressive when you consider that it was created by only a couple of guys. It wasn’t made by a huge team of programmers and artists, and yet it has more polish and flair than a lot of its larger cousins. World of Goo is innovative, unique, and definitely worth playing.

Overall Grade: A

Even if Starbreeze Studios had merely decided to re-release Escape From Butcher Bay with a high definition graphical upgrade, it would have been worth it. Riddick’s first video game adventure is perhaps the best adaptation from a movie license ever made. It tells the story of Riddick’s incarceration in the prison colony of Butcher Bay and the subsequent events that lead to his escape. Inside, Riddick meets several colorful characters and stirs up enough mayhem to cause the establishment to have a very bad day. Vin Diesel provides the gravely voice of Riddick for the game, and Cole Hauser also makes an appearance, reprising the role of Johns from Pitch Black.

Fortunately Starbreeze decided to continue the story of Riddick after his escape from the prison colony by creating a brand new adventure. Soon after leaving Butcher Bay, Riddick’s small vessel is boarded by a group of renegade mercenaries from a ship called the Dark Athena. Riddick is able to sneak aboard and find out that the leader of the mercenaries, Captain Revas (voiced by Michelle Forbes), is an old enemy. There is a bit more going on in the depths of the Dark Athena than is first apparent, revolving around the Borg-like drones that patrol the ship. Riddick must prowl the vessel and fight his way through the mercenaries to once again make his escape.

Riddick may be a badass, but the tank top he wears doesn’t provide much protection from bullets. Therefore, it is usually best to stick to the shadows and take your enemies by surprise. The game uses a combination of regenerating health and health bars that must be restored by medical stations. Once you start taking damage, you can regenerate it fully if you take cover and stand still, but once you lose a square of health, it can only be fixed by using any of the NanoMed stations found throughout Butcher Bay and the Dark Athena. Lose all of your health squares, and it’s lights out for Riddick. Gunfire can quickly tear you apart if you’re not careful.

There are several times during both adventures that you will find yourself face-to-face with an enemy armed only with your fists or a small shiv. For most, this would be a cause to panic, but as Riddick, these are moments to relish. The melee combat in Escape From Butcher Bay is still just as good this time around the block. In fact, I would be hard-pressed to think of any other game that throws you into a fist fight in the first-person perspective any better. Recently, Mirror’s Edge attempted first-person hand-to-hand maneuvers, but the five-year-old system from Butcher Bay is much more immersive and satisfying than anything Mirror’s Edge was able to accomplish when it comes to fisticuffs. The system works well enough to remain unaltered in the Dark Athena section of the game.

When in a fist fight, you have several options to help defeat your opponent. Holding the left trigger will cause Riddick to raise his arms into a defensive blocking position while pulling the right trigger will initiate a swing at your opponent. Riddick can throw quick jabs, uppercuts, and powerful crosses, determined by the position of the left control stick when you pull the trigger. Good timing also comes into play when countering enemy attacks. Push the button at the right time, and Riddick will perform a devastating counter move such as grabbing his opponent’s arm and punching them repeatedly in the face. Completely wearing an opponent down will also result in a final blow that is always brutal and satisfying to pull off. Every fight is to the death, so you’d better be prepared to deal out some punishment. This system works similarly when you have a weapon in hand, providing options for several types of slashes, stabs, and swings.

While there are several opportunities for staged fights, the melee combat also comes into play when you are being stealthy. Creeping up behind an enemy unaware of your presence will allow you to perform a stealth kill. These are just as devastating as the counter moves in a straight up fight. The tamest by far is merely snapping an enemy’s neck with your bare hands, but why would you want to do that when you can attack with a variety of melee weapons? Each weapons has an assortment of kill animations associated with it, so dispatching enemies from behind never gets old. The most brutal of the melee weapons are the curved ulak blades found in the Dark Athena section of the game (also seen in the Chronicles of Riddick movie). The ulaks are particularly effective because you have one for each hand, as opposed to a single combat knife or club. Unfortunately there is no tea cup.

Now if you want to get the drop on your enemies (sometimes literally), you’ll have to stick to the shadows. Make no mistake, a majority of the game is spent in areas drenched in pitch black darkness. Partway through Butcher Bay, Riddick recieves his eye shine ability that lets him see in the dark. Eye shine brightens even the darkest corner, but stare at a light and you’ll be blinded. Enemy weapons are equipped with flashlights, so you aren’t completely safe in the shadows, especially when they find you and shine their lights in your face. Luckily you are able to toggle eye shine at will. I like to think of it as pulling Riddick’s shades on and off.

“What’s with all this sneaking around?” you may ask. “When do I get to shoot somebody already?” Assault On Dark Athena is technically a first-person shooter, so don’t worry, you’ll have a wealth of opportunities to fling bullets at your enemies utilizing several different weapons. You’ll find everything you’d expect in a shooter like an assault rifle, sub-machine gun, shotgun, and a pistol. You can even find a sniper rifle if you search off the beaten path a little bit. Personally, my favorite weapon is the stun gun with infinite ammo. Shocking an enemy allows you to run up for a close-quarters kill, and it is insanely useful for blowing out lights.

On a somewhat related note, wouldn’t it be useful to hijack one of those mechs that have been hassling you the entire game? I bet that would be an insane amount of fun! I will only say that Starbreeze has you covered and leave it at that.

When you aren’t sneaking around or shooting some guards, you’ll be interacting with other characters. Prisoners in Butcher Bay have things they want Riddick to do for them, and doing so will earn you small rewards such as getting your hands on a shiv. Some requests are required to move the story forward, and some are completely optional. The Dark Athena also houses several characters for Riddick to interact with.

Every character that you encounter in the game is very well realized, brought to life by good animation and excellent voice acting. Even the minor characters are interesting to talk to, and everyone feels completely different. Several of these characters will stick with you despite showing up for a limited amount of time. The main characters are just as well done with Michelle Forbes’ Captain Revas being a particular standout. Of course Vin Diesel’s portrayal of Riddick is the cornerstone of the performances, and he does not disappoint. His dry delivery of Riddick’s dialogue is a treat to hear, making you wish he would talk more often.

The graphics in the game are also especially impressive. Butcher Bay’s hi-def upgrade helps it to stand up to the graphical quality level of more recent games with only some lip-synching problems and a few blurry textures giving it away. The level design is still great, making the prison feel like a real place. The Dark Athena segment looks just a little bit better, even fixing most of the lip-synch problems in the process. The environments may be dark, but that doesn’t mean they look drab or boring. The lighting in the game is done very well, effectively setting mood and tension. When you finally escape from Butcher Bay to see a beautiful red sunset, it feels like a relief after all the dark passageways of the prison.

Assault On Dark Athena also adds multiplayer modes into the equation, something not included in the original release. All of your requisite modes are here including deathmatch and capture the flag. There are also a couple modes that put a slight spin on things such as the Pitch Black mode that has a bunch of mercenaries trying to track down Riddick in the dark. All of the modes are fairly fun to play, but you won’t be finding anything special here. It is pretty much a throwaway feature that is kind of nice to have, but you won’t be missing anything if you skip it.

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault On Dark Athena is a great game. It is very immersive, has an interesting story to tell, and makes sneaking around in the dark a blast. The revamped Escape From Butcher Bay segment is well worth the price by itself, especially if you have never played it before. The new Dark Athena section is an extremely solid continuation of the story, picking things up right where Butcher Bay left off. The multiplayer modes seem almost like an afterthought, but their inclusion doesn’t hurt anything in the least. If you like playing a game that makes you feel like a badass, then Assault On Dark Athena should be right up your alley.

Final Grade: A-

Punch- Out!!

A new trailer for Punch-Out has revealed that the title will definitely include a split-screen multiplayer mode. This mode had previously been rumored to be a feature of the new game, and it has now been confirmed by the trailer that premiered on the GameTrailers TV show last night on Spike TV. Punch Out will be released for the Nintendo Wii on May 18th.

Bioshock 2

Also premiering on GameTrailers TV this week was the first gameplay footage of Bioshock 2. The footage looked very similar to the first game and features the Big Sister in action. Bioshock 2 is rumored to be released later this year, but a firm release date has yet to be announced.

Assassin’s Creed 2

Finally, fans of Assassin’s Creed might want to look out for the May issue of Game Informer magazine, featuring a cover story on Assassin’s Creed 2. The cover of the magazine has been posted on the web, and a clear picture of the game’s main character has also been released. Interestingly, players will not be controlling Altair this time around. Instead, the protagonist for the Assassin’s Creed sequel will be a man named Ezio Auditore, an Italian noble from the 1400s.

Note: Click on the above images to see the hi-res versions.

You start in a plane over the mid-Atlantic, smoking a cigarette and gazing at a gift in your hands. As the Bioshock logo fills the screen, you hear the sounds of your plane crashing into the ocean. After the logo disappears, you find yourself underwater and swim to the surface as debris from the wreck sinks past. It is at this point that you take control of your character, swimming through the burning wreckage to find a set of steps leading out of the water to a tall lighthouse in the middle of the ocean. Making your way inside, you discover more stairs that take you down to a small submarine. Activating the submarine takes you back below the surface, and after viewing a short tourism video from an individual named Andrew Ryan about his vision of a perfect society where “the great would not be contained by the small”, you arrive at the underwater city of Rapture.

It turns out that Rapture isn’t quite the utopia promised in Andrew Ryan’s video during your ride down from the surface. There are very few normal humans left in the city after it was ravaged during a failed revolution. Most of the people are dead, and those that aren’t have lost their minds. The populace of Rapture became a little too enthralled with commercialized genetic modifications, going insane after one too many “splices”. A man going by the name of Atlas contacts you soon after arriving in Rapture, telling you that he is trying to escape with his family. Unfortunately, he has been cut off from them, and he asks for your help. In order to do that, you’ll have to fight through the many enemies lurking in the dark of Rapture, including Andrew Ryan himself.

Bioshock could be described as a first-person shooter, survival horror, role-playing game. Most of the gameplay involves finding and shooting your enemies, but there are also several character attributes that can be improved over the course of the game, similar to any RPG. The dark setting and creepy atmosphere also invoke many of the same feelings found in a survival horror game. This blend of attributes comes together in a unique recipe that is a lot of fun to play.

Prowling in the shadows are several varieties of Splicers, the insane former citizens of Rapture. You will run up against a large number of these general enemies during your stay at the bottom of the ocean. Some will shoot at you while others will simply try to bash your head in. Splicers usually aren’t much of a threat individually, but you can quickly find yourself in trouble when attacked by a large mob of them. There is also a security system set up in Rapture to help keep you on your toes. You will find that a fair number of automated gun turrets just happen to be in your way, and setting off an alarm (usually via a security camera) will bring a swarm of flying bots after you. By far, the most imposing of the enemies waiting for you in Rapture are the Big Daddies, lumbering hulks in deep-sea diving suits. And just like the Incredible Hulk, you wouldn’t like them when they’re angry.

If you want to survive your trip to Rapture and make it back to the surface, then you’ll have to take advantage of the genetic modifications that drove most of the city insane. These come in two different forms, Plasmids and Gene Tonics. Gene Tonics are passive upgrades to your character’s abilities that don’t require any “ammo” to use. Tonics can affect many different things including your movement speed, resistance to damage, and engineering abilities. Plasmids are “active” upgrades that do require ammo to use, in this case a blue substance called EVE. When you use up all your available EVE, you must “reload” by injecting yourself with more of the substance using a syringe. Most Plasmids are used as offensive weapons, including such abilities as Electroshock and Incinerate. Only a small number of Tonics and Plasmids can be equipped at a time, although this number can be upgraded throughout the game.

So how do you go about acquiring all these upgrades? While you will find a few tonics lying about, most of your upgrades must be purchased from a Gather’s Garden vending machine. However, these machines don’t take money. That would be too easy. No, the currency of choice for these machines is the raw genetic material known as ADAM in the Bioshock universe. Unfortunately, you can’t just go out and find ADAM for yourself. The only place to find this valuable substance is within the bodies of the Little Sisters. These little girls wander around Rapture, harvesting ADAM from the dead. In turn, you must find a Little Sister and harvest all the ADAM from her body, killing her in the process, or you can take just enough to free her from the grip it has on her mind.

Oh yeah…did I mention that each and every Little Sister is guarded by a Big Daddy? When you happen upon this unusual pair, they will go about their business, leaving you alone. The rumbling brute only attacks when provoked or when his small companion is in danger. If you wish, you can choose to leave them be, but sooner or later you will have to come face to face with the Big Daddies in order to get the precious ADAM from the Little Sisters. Unlucky for you, each Big Daddy is a force to be reckoned with, packing an effective arsenal of weapons, not the least of which is the giant drill on one arm. Their diving suits also function as very effective armor, so it’s going to take a lot of firepower (and perhaps a little bit of planning) to take one down. On the plus side, if you are killed, you’ll be able to pick up the fight where you left off once you are resurrected by one of Rapture’s plentiful Vita-Chamber devices.

Remember those engineering abilities I brought up before? These skills will help you take advantage of the many mechanical devices lying about Rapture. Just about any turret, vending machine, health station, locked safe, or security camera can be hacked, making the machines work for you. In order to do so, you must bypass their circuits by completing a hacking mini-game reminiscent of Pipe Dream. You must swap differently shaped pipe pieces on a grid in order to redirect to flow of water to the exit on the other side. Some machines are harder to hack than others, placing alarm and short circuit tiles in your way and increasing the flow speed of the water. You can also utilize special machines to invent new ammo types, hacking tools, and even a few gene tonics. Additionally, several “Power to the People” machines are hidden throughout Rapture that allow you to upgrade the capabilities of your weapons.

Bioshock’s unique setting is the game’s strongest asset. Rapture feels like a once thriving place that has fallen into disarray. The art deco visual style and underwater location combine to create something completely different than all the shooters set in WWII or sci-fi environments. The water-drenched graphics are absolutely gorgeous. I often found myself exploring every nook and cranny just to look at all the well-crafted objects I could find. Bioshock also features some of the best water I have ever seen in a video game. All of the water in the game looks great whether it is lying in a pool on the ground or bursting through the cracks in a glass porthole.

As much as the visuals contribute to the look and feel of Rapture, it is the excellent sound design and eerie soundtrack that create most of Bioshock’s moody atmosphere. The sound effects are excellent across the board from the dripping water noises to the powerful thuds of the Big Daddy footsteps. The voice acting from the main cast is very well done, as are all the one-liners from the Splicers and the many audiotape diary entries lying around that help to fill out the back story and world of Rapture from before you arrived. Bioshock’s music also goes a long way towards creating mood and emotion throughout the game. The soundtrack is tense and creepy when it needs to be, sentimental in spots, and rousing and exciting when the action kicks into high gear. I particularly enjoyed all the jukeboxes and record players around Rapture that were still playing jazzy Big Band tunes as they helped to cement the picture in my head of what the city would have been like in its prime.

Bioshock is not the kind of game that comes around every day. Compelling gameplay elements, a unique setting, top-notch level design, gorgeous graphics, and an excellent soundscape all came together to create an atmospheric adventure that is a blast to experience. While I felt the overall story wasn’t quite as successful as it could have been, it is still several steps ahead of what is usually offered in most other shooters. If you are late to the Bioshock party like I was, don’t hesitate to take the journey to Rapture. You’ll be glad you did.

Overall Grade: A-

The first thing you will notice about Hotel Dusk that sets it apart is the sideways screen orientation. The game requires you to hold the DS on its side like a book, helping to create the interactive novel aesthetic the game is reaching for. For the most part Hotel Dusk is very successful in this respect. In fact, the game has enough nuance and story layers woven throughout its narrative that it could easily be adapted into an actual novel.

Hotel Dusk begins with a series of flashbacks. The game’s protagonist, Kyle Hyde, remembers an unfortunate incident with his former partner on the NYPD, Brian Bradley. Kyle found out that his partner had betrayed the department, and he was forced to shoot Bradley at the city docks. Bradley fell into the water and was presumed dead. As time passes, Kyle begins to suspect that Bradley isn’t quite as dead as he previously thought, a theory seemingly confirmed when Kyle receives a phone call from his former partner one day. Distraught over the incident, Kyle left the police force and started working as a traveling salesman for the Red Crown company, mostly as an excuse to search for Bradley.

Years later, Kyle is sent to a place called Hotel Dusk by his boss at Red Crown. He is told to check in and pick up a package at the front desk. On the way there, Kyle catches a glimpse of a mysterious girl standing alongside the road. She later shows up at the hotel after Kyle has checked in, and figuring out who she is is just one of the mysteries that are waiting for Kyle Hyde in the halls of Hotel Dusk. Kyle soon meets several interesting characters (including an unexpected old acquaintance) and eventually unravels the many different connections between them all.

Is Bradley really still alive? Who is the person that used Kyle’s name to check into the Hotel Dusk a few weeks before Kyle himself actually arrived? Does room 215 really grant wishes to its occupants? Its your job to find the answers to the many questions brought up throughout the game, and the various threads come together in the end, just like any good mystery novel.

If you don’t like to read, Hotel Dusk is probably not for you. As you might have guessed by now, there is a heavy amount of text to be found in Hotel Dusk. A large portion of the gameplay involves talking to different people and asking questions to find out information. You even have a notepad to write notes on, taking full advantage of the touch screen. You’d better write neatly if you want to read them later on! There are also a ton of item descriptions for just about every object you might come across.

Walking around the hotel is accomplished by dragging a character symbol around an overhead map of whatever room you happen to be in. The other screen shows a 3D view of the room as you move. Whenever you move next to an interactive part of the environment or another character, an icon will light up, allowing you to take a closer look at things or engage in conversation. When looking around, the 3D view switches over to the touch screen, allowing you to click on things that you wish to look at. Some items will only give you a text description of the object such as “Hey, there’s a mini-fridge under the TV. How’s that for class?”. Other items will zoom in to a closer view for further interaction.

When in conversation, the person you are talking to shows up on the touch screen, and Kyle is displayed on the other screen. Each character is shown in a pencil sketch style that is constantly shifting, even when the characters aren’t moving. As a conversation goes on, you can see how each character reacts to what is said. As you communicate, different dialogue prompts appear to push the conversation forward. If someone says something that Kyle wants to pursue further, a yellow hand icon shows up. You can choose to ignore this prompt, but it is usually well worth your time to try an pry as much information out of everyone that you can. Touching this prompt causes Kyle to say “Hold it!” and follow up on a character’s previous statement. Once a conversation has reached its ending point, you have the opportunity to ask any questions Kyle has thought of throughout talking to the person or from previous conversations with other characters. Sometimes you can even show an item from your inventory to a character to find out what they think of it.

Every so often, you will come across a puzzle to solve. Most of the time these puzzles are pretty straight-forward and take advantage of the unique features of the DS. Early in the game you use the touch screen to literally put a jigsaw puzzle together by dragging and rotating the pieces around. Most of the puzzles use the touch screen, but other features of the DS, including the microphone, aren’t ignored. A few puzzles left me stumped for a while, but once I figured out the proper solution, it almost seemed like it was staring me in the face the whole time.

Forward progress in the game is measured in chapters, just like a book. Each chapter encompasses a certain period of time during Kyle’s one night stay at the hotel. Each chapter usually ends with a conversation or event that is important to the storyline. Before a chapter can end, Kyle goes over the important information, turning it over in his head. This takes the form of a quiz where you must choose the proper answers before moving on. These segments aren’t very long, featuring about half a dozen questions, and they are a good way to keep track of the pertinent information from the preceding chapter. The questions are usually pretty easy to answer, but there isn’t really a penalty for getting them wrong other than having to go back until you pick the right answer.

Hotel Dusk has an overall noir feel to it that is created partly through the visuals and smart writing. However, the mood is helped along by the fun soundtrack. The track that plays during the end-of-chapter quizzes is particularly memorable. All of the music tracks from the game are unlocked on the jukebox found in the hotel bar once you encounter it in the game. The minimalist approach to the audio is probably due to the restrictions of the DS cartridge space, but it also fits into the aesthetic of Hotel Dusk quite well.

Hotel Dusk begins rather slowly as it takes some time for the different mysteries to take shape, but after a little while the pacing picks up as events and revelations start to snowball. Despite the slow buildup, the plot remains compelling, and the quirky characters help keep things interesting throughout. Hotel Dusk was meant to be played while curled up on your couch or recliner, like relaxing with a good book.

Final Grade: B+

Terminal Velocity

Terminal Velocity is an arcade flight-combat game with science fiction trappings. You can fly really slowly without falling from the sky and turn your ship instantly, so Terminal Velocity isn’t worried about realistic physics. As the name implies, the game sets out to provide high speed thrills and lots of action. You have to fight enemies in the air and on the ground while tracking down and destroying specific targets.

Raptor: Call of the Shadows

Raptor is a vertically-scrolling shooter in which you fight waves of enemies. What makes it special though is the large amount of destructible structures on the ground, lots of cool enemy types, plenty of weapon power-ups, and a large life bar. Your ship can take quite a bit of punishment, but once you die, it’s game over. Everything you destroy nets you some cash to spend between levels upgrading your ship.

Myst

The island of Myst lives up to its name by presenting an adventure with tons of difficult puzzles that could sometimes be described as “mysterious”. In Myst, you use several magical books to travel to different worlds in an effort to free one of two brothers, each trapped in a different book. Each claims that the other brother murdered their father, and it is your job to uncover the truth and decide who is telling the truth and who is misleading you. Myst has several different endings, depending on your actions in the game. There have been several sequels to Myst, but the original still feels special to me as it is an intriguing adventure that often left me stumped while I was playing it.

Solar Winds

Solar Winds is kind of a hybrid between a space shooter and an RPG. In the game, you control a small ship, flying around the galaxy in order to unearth several conspiracies. Along the way you make some enemies and have to engage in battle with other ships. You can fly your ship in any direction that you choose, and you have to choose from several attributes on your ship to upgrade such as weapons, shields, or hyperdrive.

Laura Bow 2: Dagger of Amon Ra

When you think of adventure games made by Sierra, the different “Quest” series are what first comes to mind. However, Sierra made many other great adventures, including a couple of games featuring a female lead character named Laura Bow. Laura is a young newspaper reporter tasked with writing a story about a benefit party at a museum. Things quickly go wrong as someone gets murdered at the party and everyone gets locked in with the killer. The game has a lot of great characters that are brought to life by excellent voice acting. There is one character from the game that I still remember in particular for a particular line of dialogue. When clicked with the “touch” icon, the Chinese laundromat owner, Lo Fat, says, “Please not to touch me! My wife, very jealous woman. No hanky-panky in store, okay?” For some reason, that line has stuck with me long after I played the game.

Rebel Assault II

Playing as the illustrious character of “Rookie One”, you will take on the Empire and uncover a hidden plot involving mysterious “ghost ships” that are reeking havoc on the Rebel Alliance. Rebel Assault II is set soon after the destruction of the first Death Star. The game lets you fly several different ships from the Star Wars universe, and even some created especially for the game, such as the Phantom TIE Fighter. There are also several ground-based levels in which you must infiltrate Empire bases. Rebel Assault II has a ton of easter eggs throughout the game, including a hidden cutscene with dancing stormtroopers.

Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold

Blake Stone is basically a sci-fi version of Wolfenstein 3D. The game runs on the same engine, and shares similar features including sprite-based graphics. The titular Blake Stone is sent by British Intelligence to take down a mad scientist bent on enslaving the Earth with an army of mutant aliens. The evil scientist, Dr. Goldfire, periodically shows up to hassle Blake Stone, but he is always able to escape using a teleporter in his watch. Each level has several non-hostile scientists in addition to regular enemies.

Epic Pinball

The company that would later bring Gears of War into the world published a pinball game back in 1993. The shareware version of the game only had the Android table, but the full version had several tables with many different themes. The game has a great soundtrack, and the sound effects for every table fit very well with each particular theme. Tables included the underwater themed Deep Sea, Excalibur, Jungle Pinball, Enigma, and Toy Factory among others.

Worms

Who wouldn’t want to control militant worms as they destroy their enemies using various wacky weapons? That must have been the question running through the minds of the creators of this game. Your crack squad of worms has a huge arsenal of different attacks and power-ups to help you destroy the opposing team of worms. If you ever wanted to lob an exploding old lady at your enemies, this is the game for you.

Mirror’s Edge is set in a world of totalitarian rule, conspiracies, and underground organizations. The game’s protagonist, Faith, is a Runner, someone who uses the rooftops to travel “between the gloss and the reality”, delivering clandestine messages for clients who wish to remain under the radar. Early in the game, Faith’s sister on the police force (known as “Blues” in the Mirror’s Edge universe) is framed for murdering a promising candidate for mayor. Faith sets out to clear her sister’s name and track down the real killer, hassled by the Blues at every turn. Along the way, she discovers that the truth is much bigger than what she initially suspects.

Hey! Who put me in an E-Surance commercial?!

The story sounds much more interesting on paper than it comes across while playing the game. Most of the cutscenes are presented in a Flash animation style that fails to live up to the quality of the rest of the game’s visuals. These sequences pull you out of the action when the rest of the game seems focused on keeping you firmly inside Faith’s running shoes. The few scenes that unfold using the in-game engine are much more effective at helping you experience things from Faith’s point of view, making me wish the entire story was presented in this fashion.

The rest of the game looks absolutely gorgeous. Faith lives in a city that looks like something Apple would create if the company got into urban development. Glossy white surfaces are prevalent, accented by splashes of bright, saturated color. While this somewhat simplified visual style gives Mirror’s Edge a unique look, it is also functional in helping you navigate the environment. The “Runner Vision” system causes certain items such as ladders or pipes to become red as Faith nears them, identifying proper routes across the rooftops. Early on, Runner Vision is very abundant, showing you exactly where to go. However, the system backs away a few levels into the story becoming more of a confirmation that you are going the right way rather than outright showing you where to go. However, getting lost is rarely a problem as levels are usually fairly linear. There are usually only one or two correct ways to get to your destination.

On the surface, Mirror’s Edge appears to be a first-person shooter, but it has much more in common with a platformer. Throughout the game, you are running from one end of a level to the other with plenty of drop-offs, enemies, and other obstacles getting in your way. A majority of the time, Faith is required to navigate from one platform to another, oftentimes while being chased. However, sometimes getting up close and personal with your enemies is necessary.

Kick to the face? Yes, please!

Faith has the option to pick up dropped weapons, but the game actively encourages you to use non-lethal means to achieve your objectives. To this end, you have several options that allow you to disarm and incapacitate your enemies. When Faith gets close to someone, they will attempt to hit her with their weapon. For a split second, their gun will flash red, indicating when to attempt a disarming maneuver. A successful disarm results in impressive animations where Faith grabs the weapon and uses it to knock out her adversary. Different weapons result in different take-downs. For example, Faith disarms a shotgun-wielding enemy by kicking their gun into the air, catching it, and cracking them upside the head with it. The window for disarming enemies is pretty small, but Faith can also slow down time momentarily, provided that the ability is fully charged, giving you a bit more time to react properly.

Taking on multiple adversaries without a weapon is a big no-no and will quickly get you killed. However, sometimes you don’t have a choice, and you need to take out enemies quickly. Walking up to them and throwing a lot of punches will eventually get the job done, if you don’t get shot to death beforehand. It is much more effective to run up to an enemy and attack them from the air or from the ground. In general, the more momentum you have going, the more effective your attack will be. A few areas even lend themselves towards literally getting the drop on someone by jumping down from above and landing a well-placed kick to the head. The places where you are able to combine acrobatics with combat are much more enjoyable than taking on enemies in more open areas. For instance, running along a wall and jumping off to kick a guard, spinning them around in the process, never gets old.

Wheee!!

While Faith has many avenues available to her for engaging enemies, sometimes the best option is to run away. Running is what she does best, after all, and this is where Mirror’s Edge absolutely shines. The game does an excellent job of simulating movement to the point that it is a joy to navigate the environment, and it becomes a hassle when you have to slow down just to take out a couple of guys in your way. Unlike most games shown from a first person perspective, Mirror’s Edge does not merely feel like a floating camera. Faith’s arms and legs are visible when she is pulling off spectacular maneuvers, and the camera bobs and weaves to her every movement. The game even goes as far as flipping your view over when Faith performs a forward roll. At first, the immersive style can be a little disorienting, but the simple control scheme goes a long way towards making you feel comfortable in Faith’s shoes.

All of Faith’s acrobatic moves are divided into two simple categories: up and down. Upward moves are assigned to the top shoulder button on one side of your controller, and downward moves are triggered by the bottom shoulder button on the same side. The shoulder buttons opposite these trigger Faith’s melee attacks and a 180 degree spin. Placing all of the major functions completely on the shoulder buttons helps give Mirror’s Edge a unique feel while playing. There aren’t many games that allow you to almost ignore the face buttons. Using different combos of shoulder buttons allows you to perform different moves, creating a surprisingly deep system of movement.

In order to be successful in pulling off proper moves, you must keep up Faith’s momentum. For example, hurdling a medium-sized obstacle will give Faith a small boost while sliding under it will slow you down. It doesn’t take very long to get the hang of things, and keeping Faith at full speed becomes second nature. Part of maintaining your rhythm and momentum is learning to recognize different features of the environment and how to best take advantage of them.

See a couple of small boxes stacked next to each other? Use them to get a large boost in height when you jump off them. Need to climb to a platform above you that is too high to jump straight up? Run up the opposite wall, spin around, and jump to it with ease. Falling from a ledge slightly too high up? Trigger a forward roll just before you hit the ground to break your fall.

Neo said it best: Whoa.

Despite having plenty of moves available for almost any situation, you will find yourself missing plenty of jumps and falling to your death. Luckily Mirror’s Edge has a very good checkpoint system, so you will rarely have to replay large sections of the game over again. When you are running full tilt across rooftops, making death-defying leaps, or hitching a ride on a subway train, Mirror’s Edge is at it’s exhilarating best. The times when you are forced to stop and take out enemies are where the game can get somewhat frustrating, especially if you are attempting to play through the game without using any weapons. The game is made much easier when you actually use the guns taken from your enemies, even though they are only good for a few shots before becoming useless. There are no boxes of ammo lying around, so once the clip goes empty, you’ll have to acquire another weapon if you want to continue shooting. Holding a weapon also restricts Faith’s speed and her ability to climb, adding a little extra incentive to get rid of a weapon quickly.

Apart from the main story, there are several other modes to play through. Each story level has three hidden messenger bags to collect, and speed runs for every segment become available after your first play-through. Additionally, there are several videos, music, and pieces of concept artwork to unlock, but the meat of the extra content is found in the time trial mode. The time trials feature several courses running through bite-sized chunks of the different levels in the game. Depending on how fast you complete a course, you will earn a rating of one, two, or three stars. It is very likely that you will fail to meet the base time your first few times through a course until you discover the optimum route, something that isn’t always obvious from the get-go. To help with this, you can download and race against a ghost of any of the one hundred fastest times from the online leaderboards. Doing so will reveal the fancy moves and routes through a course that others have used, provided you can stay close enough to their ghost to see what it is doing. The good thing about the time trials is that you don’t have to worry about any enemies bringing your momentum to a screeching halt, but a lot of the courses can be fairly difficult to finish with even a one-star qualifying time, so expect to spend a lot of time trying to shave few seconds off your best time.

This should be easy...

Mirror’s Edge is difficult to pin down. It does so many things right that should add up to something great. In particular, the freedom of movement in Mirror’s Edge is unparalleled by any other first person game out there. Despite several aspects of the game bogging it down from being the free-flowing experience it should be, the game is still a lot of fun to play and well worth checking out.

Final Grade: B-

Commander Keen

Robots, smiling slug-like aliens, lollipops, cans of Pepsi, pogo-sticks, ray-guns, slices of pizza, and teddy bears? It must be Commander Keen. Racing to reacquire his stolen rocket parts, Commander Keen must defeat his Vorticon enemies in order to make it back to Earth before his parents get home and find him out of bed. Commander Keen is a goofy platforming game geared towards a younger audience. His ray-gun allowed Keen to zap his enemies, and his pogo-stick allowed him to jump higher than normal, letting him get to out of the way areas. The game has very cartoony sensibilities from Commander Keen’s yellow and green football helmet to the comical “Zot!” that appears whenever Keen zaps his enemies.

Note: Above screenshot is from the Commander Keen sequel, Goodbye Galaxy.

Duke Nukem 1 & 2

Whenever Duke Nukem is mentioned, most people initially think about Duke Nukem 3D. However, Duke first appeared in a pair of side-scrolling platformer games made by Apogee Software (now 3D Realms). Both games required Mr. Nukem to save the world by climbing and jumping through levels while zapping any enemy that gets in his way. Duke could pick up many different character and weapon power-ups to help him “kick butt, and be on my way”.

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

When talking about modern games, one of the aspects often discussed is what the graphics look like. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is not one of those games. HHGG is a text-based adventure in which you must type commands to accomplish anything you want to do, kind of like an interactive Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book. This game is arguably the best text adventure ever made, and it is also known for being very intricate and unforgiving. Some tasks required you to input a very specific sequence of commands with a limited number of tries to do so. Even if you took advantage of the built-in hint system, the game was still very difficult to complete without re-trying certain sections several times.

Lemmings

Lemmings has spawned almost as many different iterations of itself as there are of the little creatures in any given level, but the original release is still a great puzzle game. Each level presents you with the challenge of getting a certain number of Lemmings to the exit door. You are given different types of upgrades for the little guys to help them get there. You must dig holes, build bridges over gaps, use umbrellas to survive long falls, and direct Lemming traffic. If you find that you have screwed yourself over and need to restart a level (or are just in need of some mildly sadistic fun), you can just blow up all your Lemmings en masse and start again.

MegaRace

In retrospect, this game isn’t really that good, but it has a certain sense of B-movie charm to it that is hard to deny. Instead of trying to describe it myself, I shall defer to the Master of Cheese himself, MegaRace host, Lance Boyle.

—

One Must Fall 2097

Who doesn’t like fighting robots, especially when they are hundreds of feet tall? One Must Fall 2097 is a traditional 2D fighting game that pits giant robots against each other in varied arenas. Each match you win earns you money to upgrade your bot or buy a brand new one altogether. The game has a very catchy synthesized soundtrack that fits the game perfectly. One Must Fall 2097 was made by then Epic Megagames, the same company that went on to create a couple of small gaming franchises you may have heard about, Gears of War and Unreal Tournament

Sierra’s Quest Games

Other than perhaps Lucasarts, Sierra Entertainment was king of old school adventure games, embodied by the several “Quest” game series. Personally, I spent a lot of time with the Police Quest and Space Quest games, although I have played some of the King’s Quest games as well.

Space Quest follows the misadventures of Roger Wilco, Janitor Extraordinaire. The original game begins with Wilco missing an attack on his spaceship because he was taking a nap in a closet. When he wakes up, he must escape the ship to the planet below, make his way across the desert to a small town, find out where his enemies went, buy a new spaceship (and a robotic pilot), and track the attackers down. Each game after the original got progressively goofier as they went. The first game required text inputs, but the games would later adopt a point and click interface.

Police Quest 2 was the first Quest game that I played. It follows Detective Sony Bonds as he tracks down escaped convict Jessie Bains, the criminal Bonds arrested at the end of the first Police Quest. The game has several different sections to it including a scuba diving portion that you would only participate in if you picked up your diving license from your desk drawer early in the game.

Rick Dangerous

Rick Dangerous is one of the first computer games that I ever played. At the beginning of the game, Rick’s plane crashes in the jungle, and you have to guide him past rolling boulders, vampire bats, angry natives, and different varieties of booby traps. Rick has a six-shooter and sticks of dynamite to help him defeat enemies and clear passageways. After escaping the jungle, Rick must make his way through an Egyptian pyramid, a Nazi stronghold, and a secret missile base. The game is made very difficult by only giving you a very limited number of lives, and I used to sneak out of bed at night to see if my dad had reached a level I hadn’t made it to yet. Rick Dangerous was made by Core Design, making it a semi-precursor to the early Tomb Raider games.

Scorched Earth

Scorched Earth is a DOS-based, strategic tank command game. You take control of a tank, judging the angle and power of your shots in order to take out the other tanks on the screen. There were a ton of special weapons to unlock, including ones with multiple warheads, larger explosions, and even a weapon that exploded in a ball of dirt, allowing you to bury yourself or other tanks.

ZZT

Even further back in Epic Games’ history is a little game called ZZT. Created by Tim Sweeney, one of the founders of Epic, ZZT is a DOS-based adventure game in which the graphics are entirely made up of ANSI characters. In the main game, you play as a smiley symbol making it’s way through four different worlds. Along the way you must kill or avoid enemies (such as bullet-shooting tigers), unlock doors, and solve fiendish puzzles. However, ZZT is mostly known for its ground-breaking level editor which even included its own object-oriented coding language. The level editor is so powerful that there are still people making ZZT levels to this day.

The Facebook Factor

XBox Live already has several social aspects to it, most of them revolving around your Friends List. You can see when your friends are online, and you can see what they are currently playing when they are. You can browse through achievement lists and send messages. All of these things are nice, but there is room for more depth here.

I’m always checking to see what my friends are playing when they are online, but it would be even better if I could see the amount of time my friends spend on each game. Heck, it might be nice to see it for my own games, especially the ones that don’t tell you in-game. Live could then take this data and compile a chart or graph of player stats, tracking the type of gamer you are. You could quickly look at your friends and see that they spend a majority of their time playing RPGs or the amount of time spent playing multiplayer vs single player games.

Another addition to the social aspect of Live would be the ability to gift Marketplace points and/or content to your friends. Did you just download and play a really cool Arcade game, and you want to play it with your buddies? Rather than begging them to purchase it from the Marketplace themselves, it would be nice to be able to just send the game to them. Of course should this gifting feature ever be implemented, it should also come with the ability to create a wish list so your friends know what you want.

There are other possibilities as well. What if XBox Live allowed every user to create a homepage similar to those found on Facebook or MySpace? What if you could create specific challenges for your friends, similar to existing achievements? What if you could post tips, tricks, and random discoveries on games you’ve played for your friends to read if they wanted some help? What if you could sort your friends list into different groups such as “family” or “halo people”? There are dozens and dozens of small things that could be added to enhance the social aspects of XBox Live.

Notifications

I spend a lot of time browsing gaming related websites, but there are a lot of people who don’t. I am able to keep track of new content for the games I own fairly well, but it’s still easy for me to miss things that fly a little under the radar. If you don’t spend very much time online reading about games, you probably won’t know about very much of the new content available for your games. Currently, your XBox will notify you of title updates when you boot up a game, but it doesn’t really tell you about content that isn’t required to run the game.

What if your XBox would send you a message every time new content for the games you own is added to the Marketplace, whether you boot up the game or not? The system already keeps track of all the games you play for achievements. It shouldn’t be that difficult to send out a message about new DLC to all Live members who have save data for that particular title on their system. If more people knew about new content for their games, Microsoft might sell a few more content packs to customers who don’t actively seek out new game content.

Netflix

The capability to stream Netflix Instant View titles was arguably the best addition that came with the dashboard overhaul last fall. The feature has proven to be great for both Netflix and Microsoft, but it could be improved a bit. I understand that the two companies want a simple interface for this new content, so adding all the features from the Netflix website is out of the question. I’m not sure that I would want to search for titles without a keyboard anyway. However, I would like to be able to re-sort my queue list within the XBox interface. There have been several times that I have wished I could bump a title up to the top of my list (especially TV series) so that I don’t have to scroll through the list so much. By the time I go to the Netflix website, I have forgotten all about it until the next time I go to my queue on my XBox. Microsoft could easily add a couple sorting functions without sacrificing the streamlined interface.

Patching

Do you own The Orange Box for the 360? If so, have you noticed that the PC version of the game has received a ton of updates since it was released? Are you wondering where that content is for the 360? Restrictions on how they can patch their titles causes some developers to not even bother to update the 360 version of their games. If they do update a game, it can sometimes be delayed for a lengthy period of time. Developers will sometimes package a bunch of updates into one large package which means that the update will come long after the smaller updates on other versions of a game. If developers were more easily able to create multiple small patches for their games, they might be more willing to put the effort into doing so.

Some of the more popular titles to come out could also use dedicated servers for playing online. This could help ease stress on the network and prevent possible crashes of Live during a large influx of players. After a certain amount of time (or relative lack of use), the games could revert back to the normal servers.

Small Potatoes

A slight thing that will probably never happen is to be able to choose your startup menu panel, sort of like a home page. Would you rather your system show the games or video marketplace when your system starts up instead of the spotlight? It doesn’t really matter all that much, but some people, including myself, would probably enjoy having the option.

Gold subscriptions could be linked to your system instead of a gamertag. That way, any profile on the system can use the online features without having to use the specific profile registered on Live. They could even keep things the way they are now but add a “My Circle” type of function where you can link several other profiles on your system to the XBox Live account. Having to switch to another profile to access Live content can be a little annoying at times, so it would be nice if you didn’t have to.

The ability to straight-up purchase items in the marketplace rather than being forced to buy a certain amount of points would be a nice change. Making sure you have enough points in your account to buy content can get to be a hassle. Sometimes I just haven’t bothered with getting something because I don’t want to add a ton more points than what the content actually costs. If I could have purchased the content without adding a ton of extra points, I probably would have done so.

While we’re at it, I say Microsoft should get rid of the points system altogether in favor of listing normal prices. Nintendo’s online store also uses a points system, but at least their points easily translate into the corresponding dollar amount. Five dollars equals five hundred points on Nintendo’s system, but Microsoft points are a bit more convoluted where five hundred points actually equals $6.25. Microsoft’s points system seems a bit misleading as it is now, and I think it could use some revamping.

Written by PolygonWizard and SaberJ

The DSi is the third version of Nintendo’s dual-screened handheld following the original design and the wildly popular DS Lite. The new hardware will remove the GBA slot in the front of the handheld in order to facilitate the system’s slightly slimmer design. However, the DSi will add two cameras (one on the outside and one facing the player), more internal memory, support for SD cards, and the ability to play music (in AAC format). The platform will also feature the DSiWare application, a downloadable game store similar to WiiWare.

The DSi will retail for $169.99, a fairly significant increase over the DS Lite’s $129.99 price tag. The new system will only be available in black and blue when it first launches.

I tend to gravitate towards arcade-style racing games. If I wanted to experience reality, I’d just go drive my own car. I like playing games where I can crash into things and generally drive like a maniac without having to worry about tinkering with my virtual ride to improve performance. Burnout Paradise fulfills these inclinations in spades. If you aren’t burning through traffic, flying off ramps, and crashing through billboards, you aren’t experiencing all of the addictive fun that Paradise City has to offer.

Multiple Cars + High Speeds = Car-Flipping Fun!

It’s a good thing that the collisions in Burnout Paradise look really great because crashing into buildings, trees, signs, fences, and other vehicles is a frequent occurrence. The physics system in place assures that every single crash looks completely different, so it never gets old seeing the carcass of your former vehicle bounce and hurtle down the street. The game achieves a great sense of speed as you race down the street, making collisions that much more thrilling when they occur and avoiding crashes just as nail-biting. You will often find yourself flying through traffic, jockeying for position among a group of cars racing for the finish line, and having a blast doing so.

The entirety of Paradise City is there to explore from the beginning of the game, and it takes a long time to find every single nook, cranny, and shortcut. The city is a very large and varied place containing many different areas including downtown high-rises, beach front property, curvy country roads, railroad tracks, and a packed freeway. Some areas of Paradise City seem to be perpetually under construction, providing many ramps, drop-offs, and shortcuts to take advantage of.

There are many ways to experience Paradise City. Each stoplight hosts one of five different types of events to participate in, should you choose to activate it. The Race event is fairly self-explanatory, although there aren’t any set routes. Instead, each race ends at one of eight different landmarks throughout the city. How you get there is up to you as long as you cross the finish line first. Marked Man events are a variation on a normal race in which several cars are trying to take you down before you can reach the finish line. The goal of a Road Rage event is to take down a certain number of cars within a set time limit without totaling your car in the process. Complete as many tricks and jumps as you can for big points in Stunt Runs, and race against the clock using a specific car for each Burning Route.

Discount airlines can be a little scary at times.

The open world design of Burnout Paradise lends itself towards cruising around the place looking for things to do. Paradise City is chock full of events and challenges to complete, but the game is still fun to play even if you are just speeding around from street to street. Burnout Paradise encourages this by letting you “own” every individual street in the game in two ways. It will keep track of your fastest times racing down a road and your highest scores in Showtime mode on each street. In Showtime mode, your car is sent careening down the road, and the object is to cause as much damage as possible to other cars and the environment before your car comes to a rest. Using your boost will keep your car twisting and flipping down the road, making it possible to crash for several minutes at a time. Once you have the fastest time and the highest Showtime score on a road, you “own” it. This feature of the game is especially fun when you have several friends that also own the game because all of your scores are uploaded to Burnout’s online servers. This means you will get a fast time on a street only to find that one of your friends has beaten it the next time you boot up the game. Every time you turn onto a new street, the game displays who owns the road, setting up competition with your friends, even when you are technically playing offline.

If you don’t want to participate in any events or compete against your friends’ best times, there is still plenty of fun to be had in Paradise City. There are 400 gates to smash down, 120 billboards to crash through, and 50 Super Jumps to discover. These things are hidden all around Paradise City, oftentimes in places that lie off the beaten path. Finding all the gates, billboards, and jumps is an especially good way to learn the ins and outs of Paradise City, giving you more of an edge during events. There are also about a dozen parking garages throughout the city that provide several opportunities for catching big air.

Sometimes a single wheel is all you need.

At any point while driving around the city, you can bring up the online menu with a quick tap on the right of the D-pad. Regardless of what mode you choose, you seamlessly jump into an online game wherever you are on the map. You can choose to join a specific type of event such as a race, but the real fun comes from Freeburn Challenges. As the name implies, Freeburn allows a group of players to cruise around Paradise City doing whatever they like. The mode includes a long list of challenges for everyone to attempt based on the number of players available. Some challenges are competitive, pitting everyone against each other in a race to be the first to perform a task such as taking down a number of other cars or drifting for a particular distance. Other challenges are cooperative, tasking the entire group with completing objectives. All of the online features in Burnout Paradise are well-implemented and fun to play.

There are three different classes of cars in Paradise City that cater towards different types of driving. Speed cars are good for getting somewhere fast, but they also crash much more easily than the other two types. The boost for this type of car cannot be used until it is filled entirely, but boosts can be chained together by holding the boost button down. Aggression cars are tough vehicles that are good for knocking other cars around, but their top speeds aren’t as fast and they generally don’t handle as well. This type of car gains boost by taking out other cars and knocking things down, usable as long as there is boost left in the tank. Stunt cars lie somewhere in the middle, traveling faster than aggression cars and taking a bit more of a beating than speed cars. As the name implies, flying off ramps and performing other stunts will gain you boost to use whenever you like. Each car in your junkyard is rated according to its speed, boost, and strength abilities. As you progress through the game, you will unlock better and better cars, soon finding a few favorites that you will rely on for most of the heavy lifting.

When this baby hits 88 miles per hour...

If the original game wasn’t packed enough for you, Criterion Games is raising the bar for studios supporting their game after it hits retail. After it was released early in January 2008, Criterion released several free updates for Burnout Paradise throughout last year that added a ton of content to the game. The Bogart update fixed several early bugs with the game. The Cagney update added several new online challenges and made Stunt Run, Road Rage, and Marked Man events available to play online, along with several other tweaks to the game. Later in the year, Criterion released the Bikes pack which added a dynamic weather system and a customizable day-to-night cycle to Paradise City in addition to adding four motorcycles available to ride and several new challenges based around the new vehicle type. Soon after, trophy support was added to the PS3 version of the game. Recently, Criterion released another free update that further tweaks the game, including the ability to restart events, the most requested feature since the game was released.

This year, Criterion is beginning to release premium content for Burnout Paradise, continuing their support of the game. The Party Pack has already been released, featuring a “pass-the-controller” party mode for people playing the game together on the same console. The Legendary Cars pack will be released soon, making four different vehicles based on famous cars available to drive. These new cars were based on the DeLorean from Back to the Future, Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters, KITT from Knight Rider, and The General Lee from Dukes of Hazzard. Criterion has already announced several other premium content packs planned for release throughout 2009 including Toy Cars (another car pack), Big Surf Island (a new playable area added to the game), and Cops and Robbers (presumably a new event type).

It’s hard to find another game that offers a better value than Burnout Paradise. The original game was packed with features, and Criterion Games continues to support their game long after it hit shelves by providing a ton of new downloadable content. Paradise City is a fun place to play, and it should continue to be so for a long time to come.

Final Grade: A

God of War III – Kratos will be bringing the pain to his enemies once again, this time in high definition on the PS3. It is rumored that Kratos will be trying to kill Zeus himself in this supposed final entry in the popular franchise.

Resident Evil 5 – The undead are up to their shenanigans again, and this time it’s up to Chris Redfield to stop it. Taking place roughly ten years after the original Resident Evil, Chris is trying to track down the T-virus in a fictional African desert with the help of a new character to the series, Sheva Alomar. RE5 places a large focus on co-op play. If you don’t have a friend to play with you, the game will take over the control of Sheva for you.

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned – Play as a member of The Lost, GTA IV’s motorcycle gang, in this XBox 360 exclusive DLC, released February 17th.

At the beginning of the game, Samus tracks a distress beacon to a derelict spacecraft in orbit above a planet called Tallon IV, landing her ship on the outer hull before making her way inside to investigate. She discovers evidence of biological experiments gone wrong, culminating in a battle with a giant parasite at the center of the ship. Defeating the creature has the unfortunate side effect of further damaging the vessel, sending it hurtling towards the surface of the planet below. Samus is forced to evacuate back to her ship outside. She is able to escape in time, but not before her equipment and armor is severely damaged by an electrical explosion on the way out.

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow...

As she is escaping the wreck, Samus sees a large dragon-like creature emerge from the smoke and fly towards the planet. Those familiar with Metroid history will recognize Ridley, but those who aren’t only know that Samus decides to pursue an “enemy” to the surface of the planet. Samus loses track of Ridley and lands her ship on the rainy surface of Tallon IV to investigate things further on the ground. Samus soon discovers a hidden operation run by her old enemies, the Space Pirates. The pirates are using a volatile substance found on the planet to biologically alter their test subjects to create super-powerful soldiers. When she discovers their intentions, Samus sets out to defeat her enemies once again.

Metroid Prime may seem like a first-person shooter at first glance, but several differences give Prime its own distinct flavor. First and foremost, Samus Aran has the ability to lock onto her targets, taking aiming almost completely out of the equation. Being a skilled bounty hunter has many perks, locking onto enemies being one of the most useful, along with unlimited ammo for your beam weapons. Second, most normal enemies aren’t a big threat to Samus, especially after you have collected a few armor and weapon power-ups. While there are many enemy encounters throughout the game, there are also plenty of times when Samus is completely alone, exploring her surroundings. Finally, the planet of Tallon IV is a large interconnected place, and you will travel to (and through) many of the same locations several times, especially if you attempt to collect all the hidden power-ups in the game. Bottom line, shooting at enemies is certainly a part of Metroid Prime, but it is not the sole focus of the game.

Progression through Prime is made by recovering your lost equipment and discovering new abilities during the course of your investigation into the Pirates’ operations on the planet. Each upgrade you find allows you to reach previously inaccessible areas. You begin on Tallon IV with your weapon’s default Power Beam and a visor for scanning items of interest to enter into your log book. By the end of the game, you will have four different beam types, four different visors, a missile launcher, upgraded armor, and Samus’ morph ball ability, among other things. Samus’ suits allow her to roll up into a ball, letting her roll through tight spaces and activate certain switches. There is an amusing computer entry partway through the game describing the Space Pirates’ attempts to reverse engineer this technology and the unfortunate results of these experiments.

A grand adventure isn’t complete without a few boss fights, and Metroid Prime features several iconic encounters that you will still remember long after you’ve played through the game. Each boss is designed very well, and the methods for defeating them are sometimes rather clever. You must use all of Samus’ abilities to exploit their weaknesses and take them down. Some of these fights can be rather difficult, even if you know exactly what is required for defeating your foe. The Omega Pirate (a giant, super-powered version of the normal Space Pirate enemies) is my personal nemesis as it is the boss I have the most trouble beating every time I play through the game.

Are you lookin' at me?

From the moment Metroid Prime begins, it exudes a strong sense of atmosphere and “place” that sets it apart from most other games. Every single area is completely unique down to the cracks in the walls and overgrown vines. The game has an astounding amount of detail in every nook and cranny that is still very impressive, even when compared to more recent games. The detail isn’t limited to just the environments, however. Samus will slightly recoil from nearby explosions, raising her arm in front of her visor, and you can briefly see her face reflected in the glass from the bright light. Raindrops will bead on her visor and steam vents will fog up the glass, temporarily obscuring your view. Part of the immersiveness of Prime comes from these different effects that place you squarely inside the armor of Samus Aran.

The atmosphere of Prime is enhanced by its moody soundtrack. The music perfectly complements the environments and situations you will find yourself in. Each area in the game has a specific theme tied to it from the floaty tones and lilting piano in the snowy Phendrana Drifts to the driving percussion of the lava-filled Magmoor Caverns. Each area has its own unique sound, yet all the tracks fit together into a cohesive whole that I think is one of the best video game scores ever made. The excellent soundtrack is a big part of what propels Metroid Prime into classic territory.

Metroid Prime pulls you into its world and does a great job of keeping you there. You can spend hours exploring Tallon IV trying to find every last item and still want to continue playing the game after the final confrontation. Samus Aran’s first foray into the third dimension is a compelling adventure where all the ingredients came together to create a near-perfect experience.

Final Grade: A+

You might say that Metroid Prime rocks! *rimshot*

My nemesis.