The voice acting is great, the quality of the audio is realistic, but like every good point, it’s weighed down with a negative. The voices aren’t believable because the syncing of the lips is completely off. The characters could be saying something completely different to the on-screen dialogue and audio. It not only comes across as a letdown, but a job half done in a way, The game, besides the major good points (which always have a downside), relies on neat little pluses. Leanord, the protagonist can turn into a giant knight when he garners enough power. Usually I’d be too distracted with the other admirable features to reflect on such a miniature feature, but there are no admirable features to hopelessly be distracted by. Some of the redeeming factors are the very interactive world. Talking to characters is delightfully refreshing when trying to garner information for your quest. The lovely, colourful and warm world I talked about earlier isn’t seen enough in the game. Cavers and such are seen as bleak, dark and dirty environments, obviously intentional, but I fail to understand why the game isn’t set more in the beautiful world they spent so much time building and growing. I guess we’ll never know the answer to that question. The thing that confuses me about the whole thing is the pre-release advertising campaign pre-Japan release. The game was touted as the “ultimate next generation RPG”, the “game to define all games” and a “brand new experience for the user”, and then they have the nerve to release the game side by side with Final Fantasy XIII. I just don’t realize it. Why tout a game so big, and the release it alongside the long awaited release of a game in the series that defines the role-playing game genre? Were the developers psychopathically convinced they would topple the almighty Final Fantasy? If they did, they must be really confident in their efforts, because quite frankly, I’m not. The game, which has some genuine delightful features, is held down by the dreaded disappointments. Sure the story is lengthy, but what’s the point if it’s no fun? The environment is rich, colourful and welcoming. But why bother making a world such as this, and set the majority of the combat peaks in dreary caverns and caves? The combat is well structured and entertaining, with some interesting creatures to take down, but why have that if you plan on making the enemies an easy takedown? Perfect reasons why there’s a catch to everything in this game. There’s nothing overly exciting to this game, and if there ever was, it was dragged to its knees by another pesky downside, and has sunk into obscurity by release. The ones that are still evident are still struggling, which, unfortunately, makes the game a struggling mess.

61/100

But does this game work well on the iPhone, does it serve value for money, is it a game you’ll be playing for a long time to come?

The game opens up with a nice video showing the heroes, Cocoto, Shiny, Neuro and Baggy who follow fairy to a new Circus in town (well in this case a green field). It’s then that Fairy is kidnapped by the evil, sinister, clown ringmaster. The game begins. There are five levels to complete, each ending with a boss fight. The bosses are quite creative with a gorilla and Zeus like god appearing.

To reach the bosses you have some simple mini games to complete, each being a variance on a shooting gallery with different criteria to meet. The first type of mini game called protect fairy, sees you protecting fairy from enemies, by shooting them before they reach her. You have a time limit in each mini game, which adds to the tension. The Ball Trap sees you having to shoot a number of targets within the time limit given this can be any thing from eighteen seconds to thirty. Kill the bad guys is as it states, a mini game where you have to hit a number of bad guys before the time runs out. The main difference here, your friends tend to run onto the screen as well, requiring careful targeting. Hitting one of your friend’s results in your score being deducted. Targets and models sees you matching the model shown to shoot the matching model, once shot the model changes to a different picture, the cycle begins again until the timer runs out. Again you have to hit so many matches to carry on to the next round.

Targets and traps see you shooting at targets, with some targets being your friends, so again tread carefully and aim for the right target.

As well as the targets appearing, during the shoot-outs balloons also float across the screen, some are good offering power ups, including extra time and multiple shots. There are also bad balloons, which penalise you with actions such as less time and a dizzy effect. The dizzy effect basically makes the screen shudder, making the targets slightly more difficult to pick out.

The levels do vary offering slight differences to the main mini games. Keeping it fresh, the graphics are well drawn with animation being quite simple yet effective. Its a nice colourful game with lots of personality. The music fits the game nicely being quite whimsical and creepy at times.

Controls for the game are very simple yet work perfectly, you tap the targets to shoot. Yes that’s it, a nice simple tap the target.

Overall this is a fun little game, nicely put together. However one does get the feeling that this has been made for the younger generation. Also I completed the game in under an hour! There are practice modes and online multi player to make the game longer, but after the first run through it can get boring rather quickly. Perfect for a five-minute session, that’s about it.

68/100

In all there are ten campaigns to sink your teeth into, three tutorials (which you must complete without feeling totally lost), the invasion of Saxony year 1756 and the remaining seven are year long campaigns. Like all good RTS games you have to manage to meet certain criteria to enable victory on your part. The depth to this game is staggering, in fact at times you can feel overwhelmed with all the options open to you. The game allows you to take control of the Soldier King, Frederick II, saving Prussia. Alternatively you can opt to destroy Prussia by taking control of the coalition forces of Austria, changing the course of history forever.

Graphically the game is nothing spectacular, it is well presented with a top down map showing all the regions. Units are displayed with either plates showing a portrait of the commanding General or as 3D models with octagonal base. The top of the screen has a panel showing weather condition, the state of roads, terrain, which faction the region is controlled by and finally your detection rating. The detection rating shows you what chance there is of the enemy detecting your forces, when entering the area. Next to this panel are icons indicating national morale, engagement points, money, conscripts and war supplies. At the bottom of the screen you have the mini map allowing for quick glances to the enemies and your units locations. Next door to this you have the unit panel which shows relevant information with regards to the selected units. Even though you find yourself in battle, you never see the actual fight, instead after the skirmish you’ll be able to read the detailed battle report after each round.

The rest is pretty much your bog standard RTS fair with a few new tweaks thrown in for good measure. There’s a new way for recruiting new military units as well as a new Hierarchy structure, giving you advantages and disadvantages in battles. All of these systems can take a while to get used to but thankfully by hovering the cursor over the item, a small description appears giving you an idea of what you achieve with the option.

Movement of units is completed fairly simply, via drag and drop. Orders can be issued via a panel next to the mini map. You can group units together under one general, as long as they have the required command points, then group these further under one general marshal (again the general in question has to have the required command points). This is where the game can get a little confusing, to be able to issue certain orders your army needs to have the relevant command points. If they don’t this can then lead to a disadvantage with certain orders out of reach and other negative points.

The controls themselves work really well, offering easy navigation and a whole host of short cuts to remember. The short cuts make sense though and prove useful to remember. The music adds atmosphere to the game, although can get annoying as it seems to repeat the same tunes over and over.

Fighting in this game like many wars is not always the best option, you can be quite sneaky throughout the game by simply outmanoeuvring the opponent. You can deny your opponents food by making deals with neighbouring countries, or you can simply capture their key resources. Reducing their morale and will to continue fighting. This adds a hidden depth to the game which proves quite interesting as you try different methods to outwit them without committing your units to battle.

Rise of Prussia proves to be quite an in depth strategy game, a game that veterans of the genre will enjoy immensely. If you are new to the genre though this game can prove quite frustrating at times trying to take in all of the information at hand, persevere though and it can prove to be quite the delight.

85/100

When you first start up GoDVD you are presented with the featured list. Showing the hottest new titles launched from blockbuster movies to the latest keep fit DVD’s, the featured list begins your tour of a massive choice of quality titles. All of the titles have a description, along with actors list , the name of the director plus a thumbnail of the cover. One of the best things about this app is the information provided relating to each title held in the database.

The simple to use interface is your general iPhone app, at the bottom you have the featured category, browse, search, favourites and about icons. By clicking on one of the icons it takes you straight to that part of the app.

You can browse titles by genre which is also subdivided into various categories for instance you choose the category TV, you then get some more choices including Classic TV, Comedy and British Television. Once you find a title you like you can then view more information by simply tapping on the picture or title, this then brings you to another screen with all the relevant details pertaining to this title. You can then buy it straight from Amazon or email the title to a friend.

You can also search the app for titles with keywords such as title, name of your favourite actor or director. The search is simple, yet very fast at bringing back the results on screen. The best thing about this app though has to be the choice, you can pretty much search for anything on here from Thundercats to The Twilight Saga. Popular TV shows, self help titles all can be found on this little app for you to research and buy. Another plus is the apps linking straight to Amazon for purchases, you know straight away that the price is reasonable and you are going to get a fast quality service.

A very nicely made app for DVD and Blu-Ray collectors out there, looking to research their next buy whilst on the move. Very clean easy to use and the best bit it’s free. Hopefully we might see more features as time passes. Perhaps trailers to watch if we like the look of a title, or even perhaps they could build their own review base for users of the apps, allowing you to see what others think of the titles, before you buy.

80%

The thing is, a GoW clone on the iPhone would be doomed for fail … this one isn’t … because it isn’t a God of War clone. But the name suggests it! Anyway, nom this isn’t a God of War clone, it’s actually a neat little platformer.

The idea is to run along collecting goodies like souls and stuff, along with avoiding obstacles by jumping over the pesky little things. It’s quite fun and offers some very quirky entertainment.

Not only that, but the game tends to offer something new with each level which is nice, but probably not enough – we’ll look at that a little later. Now this may sound like a cool little game, but the best is yet to come.

Visually, I love this game. This is another case of make-the-best-of-what-you-have. The iPhone is very limited when it comes to power for games, so it’s no secret that App developers need to make simplistic graphics to accompany their Apps. This goes beyond simplistic somehow, and allows colour to burst from your iPhone.

As you can imagine, the game is set in hell, so a red colour scheme is used. To be more specific, a lava type red colour, inducing multiple shades of lush colour as the background, with complimenting foreground visuals. Sorry for going into salesperson mode, but graphically, this game is the sex.

It does have its downsides though. One thing I mentioned above was the introduction of something new every level. If this weren’t included the game would get old quick. Even with this feature, the game gets old, but not as quick.

After a while, you’ll begin to get that dreaded repetitive feeling in your stomach that no gamer likes. It’ll soon be a case of same old, same old. There’s nobody to blame here unfortunately, the developer made a gameplay element that worked well, but didn’t work long term. It’s like a little pimple that you can’t get rid of, and it sort of spoils the game after a while.

For the time being though, along with an amazingly competitive price and a simply stunning visual element, I honestly can’t tell you not to pick up this addictive little App.

81%

Hive is very intellectual, which is a major decided point for many people. You don’t see many intellectual Apps, so this one is a nice change. I love nice changes, and it turns out that this App is full of them.

One word that I tend to identify with Apps is “polished”. It basically defines Apple, the iPhone and the App Store and content. Hive is a perfect example. Polished is the perfect work here.

The game stems from a board game, but has a polished, clean and somewhat futuristic feel to it, but still managing to stick with the original roots the game has – which is nice.

The big question here is can all theses nice touches compliment the most important thing here, the gameplay? I would say yes … after about two hours. Why would I say two hours? Because this game has a shockingly steep learning curve.

You’ll spend literally hours trying to grab the idea of the App if you’re a newbie and the helpless tutorials give some light instructions on how to play it which, evidently, doesn’t amount to much.

Once you get over this however, you’ll realise you’ve battled your way into what can only be described as an addicting turn based strategy game. You’ll find yourself playing this on the bus, in a waiting room; I even played it walking down the street a few days ago.

Another downside however is the AI. The game, even on its harder difficulty, is pretty easy. This probably helps with the learning period, but if that’s why they made it so easy, then they made a vital mistake – they left out the core element of any type of game ever: competitiveness.

Without any challenge, who would want this? But don’t worry, it isn’t easy either, I just feel it could be a little more challenging.

Overall I think it’s a very good game, the only things that take away from it is the steep learning curve and the easy AI after you get through the learning process. Other than that, I can’t fault this as it’s addictive fun, and after playing it, you can boast to your friends your “intellectual”.

77%

Well we may as well do things backwards and start off on a good ole’ positive. The game is long. It stretches to over thirty levels, which is impressive in comparison to some of the shameful Apps populating Apple’s store.

The quantity is clearly there, but I’m afraid the quality is absent. The game touts a number of negatives that just sort ruin the game without meaning to whatsoever, and I think I know why. The developer, in my opinion anyway, went for the retro look. You know, that trend where a game looks so old it’s cool? Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out like that, and it resulted in falling under “cools” ugly sister: the “we tried to make it look cool by incorporating oldie features, but instead made it look stale and cheap” sibling.

So what old features are here? Well for one, you’re greeted with the music, which is like a tossup between retro games that were bad and an auto-playing midi track on an amateur website. Again, the developer got this blatantly wrong here, and if I can see what angle they were going for that turned sour, how come they didn’t see it?

So graphics and sound are gone, surely the gameplay element can revive this? No, not really. The core idea of moving around is as dodgy as hell. The character moves way to fast, and getting him to turn his head is a bloody challenge. There’s a nice little “X” to the right of the screen, which is the trigger for the gun in a sense.

I understand the developer, I really do. I know exactly where they wanted to take this game and the type of feel it would ultimately have, but it’s non-existent. Instead, we’re left with a heap of failures that maybe could have been avoided. Maybe some updates can save this from utter failure, but until then, I’m not at all convinced.

[review pros="Lengthy game, which is nice." cons="The developer has great ideas, but the execution is poor, leading to a damp FPS experience." score="61"]

A pleasing App indeed is the one up for review today. This little gizmo is called Calorie Tracker Pro, and upholds both the quality and diversity spoken about earlier.

So who exactly is this aimed at? At first, I honestly imagined only consciously overweight people would find this useful but I was wrong. One of the review requirements is to actually use the App for some time, and give it my verdict so I started logging my meals into the App and such thinking I’d get nothing out of it.

This is where my first concern was dismissed. Just to clear something up, I am in no way overweight – I am happy with my weight and food regime and didn’t for the life of me think this would come in useful. It did. For the first day or so, I would feverishly use the App to track how many calories I’ve consumed and such.

My second concern, however, wasn’t dismissed. Don’t take my word for this, as quite frankly since I wouldn’t go out and buy this for obvious reasons, but I found myself forgetting to use the App after a while, leading to the accuracy going out the window and ultimately I abandoned the idea of adding food.

The idea is great, and it’s executed really well, but whether it can hold onto users is another story. Overlooking this however, you have a solid, useful and easy-to-use App with some nice features (such as the ability to view how many calories you’ve gained by looking at the number over the icon) and it’s one of the better iPhone Apps.

[review pros="Really nice interface, and very useful." cons="I'm not sure if people will use this after the first week or so." score="78"]

The story follows four main characters, developing their background stories, whilst investigating a series of serial murders committed by the “Origami Killer”. The story sees you following the four in overlapping stories, investigating crime scenes and questioning suspects. There are fights, love scenes, car chases and more unusual trials to complete, before uncovering the identity of the “Origami Killer”.

The main characters throughout the story are:

Scott Shelby: A forty five year old retired cop turned private investigator. Investigating the killings on behalf of the victim’s families, searching for the truth and justice.

Madison Paige: Sexy strong willed photographer who becomes embroiled in the investigation through a chance meeting.

Ethan Mars: Architect and dedicated father, who is suffering after the death of his eldest son. Looking for redemption Ethan soon becomes an integral part of the “Origami Killers” proceedings.

Norman Jayden: FBI profiler sent to investigate the murders, dedicated and thorough Jayden has the benefit of using a new technology called ARI. ARI stands for “Added Reality Interface”. Comprising a pair of glasses and a special glove, this new technology allows Jayden to investigate crime scenes more thoroughly, picking up evidence normally missed by normal human eyes, including blood trails and pollen trails. This technology however does come at a price.

All four characters look great; the facial expressions are amazing to watch with the voice acting being the icing on the cake. Throughout the game you get to know each character intimately, which buttons push them, the background story of each character evolves along with the story. This all adds and helps propel the story along, getting you more involved, wanting to uncover more about them. The only weak link is Jayden, who in comparison to the others doesn’t quite grab as much attention from you as the other players in this fine story.
The locations are wonderfully drawn and brought to life, shadows, shades; it’s a graphical behemoth wanting to suck you in. The atmosphere created is wonderful and Quantic Dreams have managed to capture the whole “Noir” setting wonderfully.
All of the characters be you encounter through out the game ooze personality, thanks to the wonderful rendering and voice acting. You can see the whole thing has been created with great effort and a love for the whole package. As they talk and emotions become apparent the facial expressions are out of this world. You end up believing in these characters and questioning their motives just as you would a live film.

The atmospheric soundtrack complements the game well, helping to build the tension as you try to talk yourself, or fight your way out of a situation. At other times it helps tug on your emotions with a nice sad tune playing as characters cry or something even more dramatic takes place.
The controls are very different to other games and at first can get some getting used to. To walk the character you hold down the R2 button, using the left analogue stick to change direction. A bit like driving on the opposite side of the road this soon becomes second nature. When looking around icons will appear showing actions you can make, the icons will indicate either the button to be pressed or the motion needed on the right analogue stick. For instance to open the fridge an icon will appear showing the right stick being moved in a quarter of a circle. Do this movement and the the character will open the fridge door, you can also control the speed of the animation by making the gesture on the pad slower or faster. This is critical to get used to as in parts of the game you are required to make the movements very gently and slowly. You can also learn more about the characters by listening to their inner thoughts by pressing the L1 button. A very nice touches and really allows you get to know the characters.

Pressing the L2 button can change the camera angles. This is the second and final bug, in an otherwise perfect scenario. The camera angles at times can feel disjointed, placing you behind items unable to see everything clearly.
With combat situations or action segments the controls will appear as above but you will have a set time to complete the movement. Missing it means the character gets hit, or if climbing loses their grip. You then have to start again. With other parts of the game there will be a sequence, which you have to follow, holding the desired buttons at the same time as beginning to press others. This can sometimes feel like playing twister, as you already have one finger on the X, L2, R2 and then it asks you to begin holding down the O button.
However once you have gotten used to these controls it does become second nature and feels a lot more natural than originally thought. It does however leave you sometimes wondering how much control you actually have over the character and whether or not you can actually change the story. Thankfully these moments prove very few and between, so don’t end up spoiling the game as much as it could have.

The main focus here though is the story, it’s the story that drag you in, keeps moving you forward. It’s a story filled with twists, shocks and awe, you will sit there and think, “What the hell just happened? I can’t believe it”. It’s this and the little moments such as tucking the kids in and preparing dinner that makes this an experience to enjoy, an emotional roller coaster. The whole package comes together to make a remarkable playing experience; a new genre has been created. I’d rather call it an “Interactive noir thriller” rather than a drama. With a more mature theme than normal games, the story delves into us and you do begin to ask whether you would do the same as the characters, bringing moral choices I never thought I’d ask myself to the forefront begging to be questioned.
The whole package comes together, creating a wonderful original gaming experience worthy of your attention. Sure some people wont like it, they will see this as a big cut scene, however it is something that needs to be played at least once, to see what Quantic have attempted and for the most part achieved. A joy to behold.

However is it another Dragons Lair? I know a lot of people have compared the general game play style to this game, people who worried whether it would look and sound great but play terrible. The answer is a very simple no. Quantic Dreams have managed to make the game a lot more interactive than Dragons Lair ever was, and taken everything that tried to be and improved it tenfold.
Will you play it more than once? I think the answer is yes, there are several different endings to enjoy, parts of the game you do sit up and wonder whether you did the right thing, should I have gone with option A rather than B. You will want to see which path the story takes by going through the other routes.
Quantic dreams have come up with an original, novel new way of telling a story through gaming, bringing the barriers between movies and gaming down a little more. Now all we have to do is wait and see whether other developers sit up and take note finding their own, new ways of bringing an “Interactive Drama” to our consoles.

[review pros="Amazing story, good soundtrack." cons="A sometimes dodgy camera angle." score="94"]

This review was by Paul Everitt. Check out more of this stuff here.

The short answer is no, this game didn’t match my expectations. It delivered to my expectations and was a whole lot better than I ever could have imagined. Before I go any further, I should mention that Mass Effect 2 is a bloody good game that no other Xbox 360 game can rival and the majority of this review can easily be mistaken as a praise-fest where I just compliment the game on all it’s positives and look down with a disgusting look on the ohM-so-rare negatives.

The Mass Effect trilogy is being set up to be one of those epic series’ that everyone needs to play. I always regard the second game in a trilogy to be the utmost importance for the simple fact that it has the hard task of not losing the gamers attention between the start and end of the plot. This, my friend, is where Mass Effect 2 is most effective (see what I did there?).

The story of Mass Effect 2 is gloriously put together. Being part of a trilogy, the most important part of the game is the story. The story gets off to an explosive start. Normandy, the very humble and homely ship is destroyed in a very cinematic attack. It becomes unclear if Shepard is to survive or not, but one thing is for sure: Normandy is history. Say what you like about this next comment, but I experienced the utmost disgust at the fact that Normandy, the greatest piece of machinery to appear in gaming ever is destroyed.

Enter The Illusive Man, head of the organisation called Cerberus, a pro human colony who is out to fight against the Collectors. The Collectors are your biggest enemy and what this game is all about. Encompassed in this intertwining story is the simple fact that your job is to destroy the collectors.

To do this, the idea is to collect up your team of macho monsters and wage war on the Collectors. These tasks will occupy you with your first batch of missions – find the Illustrative Man’s recommendations, and recruit them. In most games, this will probably seem boring, but not in Mass Effect 2. BioWare once again have put their genius minds on a pedestal again by making the most boring and repetitive tasks seem enjoyable.

How, you curiously ask? Because each level is unique, designed to beautiful perfection in the utmost of care from BioWare. I imagine the BioWare team have treated this game like a baby because no stone is left unturned and this is where it’s most expressed.

Telling this epic and legendary tale isn’t a problem either. The cut scenes are beautiful and BioWare’s unique take on enemies are ingeniously interesting. Not only are the cut scenes well paced, to the point and self-explanatory but the voice acting to accompany such masterpieces is also polished quite thorough. These are just some of the RPG elements that BioWare are celebrated for and it’s nice to see the show their face in ME2.

Your recruits are quite dispersed, ranging from galaxy to galaxy so it’ll definitely be hard to travel, especially when the eventual battle commences. At this point, it’s quite clear that Cerberus isn’t some cheap and shabby company. They were quite kind to Shepard, by rebuilding a new ship for all his travel needs – an exact model of the original Normandy. If that wasn’t good enough, Joker, the original Normandy captain makes an appearance and Shepard and Joker decide to fittingly name the new ship Normandy. As though we didn’t see that coming.

The rest of the story will be revealed by a simple search on Google but right now I want to praise some other things (what did I tell ya? Praise fest, I know).

Jacob and Miranda quickly join Shepard and Joker. Jacob is quite negative at the start, but as his dedication grows more and more to the story, he begins to really have faith in the mission. Miranda on the other hand is quite feisty from the get-go. You’ll quickly be joined by a host of other interesting and diverse characters to make up a great, well designed and close nit cast of characters.

They’re not all good though. The enemies are unique and diverse, and you won’t get tired of blasting those pesky mechs. If mechs aren’t your thing though, you’ll be pleased to know that a host of different enemies are all readily available to implant bullets into.

One thing that RPG games need is a good, interactive environment. Mass Effect 2 executes these perfectly. The beautiful and big-number spanning environments really need a standing ovation here. Not only are the gorgeous in a unique sense, but also it’s not the generic theme of destroyed game worlds we see way too often.

You’ll probably ask what my favourite environment is (or maybe not) and I’ll tell you hands down, it’s Normandy. I never really undertake the role-playing aspect of the role-playing game genre. I don’t find adapting the life of a videogame character appealing, especially when my real life is quite busy. I would however, spend countless hours walking around Normandy, as the commander and pretending to boss people around by initiating conversation and then respond with a snotty remark such as “Do you think I have time to be talking?” – how enjoyable.

But in all honesty, the Normandy is slick, advanced and very homely. I just love wandering around, directing my view to all the complicated buttons in the cockpit. That probably sounds strange and that’s maybe because if it was any other game I’d also think it was strange but Mass Effect 2 has an environmental attachment I can’t quite put my finger on.

Not only does Mass Effect 2 do all of the ME2-exclusive stuff right, but the general gameplay standard has risen tremendously with this release.

The cover system is by far my favourite of any game. Some things are left out, such as the ability to tumble but sliding to cover or just popping up for a quick fire of your gun before retreating to safety is easy and effective. You can engage in cover from mostly any part of the environment for those quick enemies that come out of nowhere – the nice and easy gameplay is evident right here.

Shooting is as easy as it is effective. Dropping enemies is quite satisfying and the guns you get to play with are also nice. Everything from grenade launchers to pistols make an appearance, each one bringing something new to the table.

So, what do you buy the man that has everything? What downfall does this seemingly perfect game have? It has to have one at least right?

___________________________________________________________

Well technically yes, I did notice a few graphical glitches, and sometimes the menu interface can get annoying to some extend due to the loosely based selection tool but other than that, no. The game, in a gameplay sense at least is simply perfect. The environments are beautiful and attaching and the same can be said for the dedicated, quirky and close-nit cast of characters who fights the impressive list of enemies. This game is one tiny distance from video game perfection.

[review pros="Amazing, open worlds. Great cast and environments." cons="Annoying menu and minor graphical glitches." score="98"]

Remember those early previews, how 256 players would battle it out, and they’d take orders from the team leaders, making strategic plans to outperform the other team? Having a rock solid game plan to ruffle the opposing players? How organised matches would be one of the best experiences known to gaming? Well if you manage to get a game like that, count yourself lucky.

So why aren’t we suing Zipper and Sony for this blatant slander? Because quite frankly, it isn’t slander. On the other hand, the chances of finding your way into a game such as this is simply ludicrous, trying to get 256 players all playing together in a tactical form to create an intense match is like trying to get 256 children to go to school on Saturday – it isn’t going to happen.

So, is that the one and only positive depleted? The whole “strength in numbers” game has been thwarted, to leave a not-so-good shooter behind? No, there is some amazingly distinctive positives about the game, but unfortunately it’s overshadowed by the, as much as I have to use the word again, negatives.
It takes everything your household FPS does, and does it badly. The shooting is bad and irritating, the grenade system is like a lottery and the respawn locations are way too far from the action. Yeah, that’s a snippet of the negatives. You can read more about them later on, but let’s look at the positives! Don’t worry; you won’t be waiting that long, this’ll only take a second.

We’ll take graphics to start. The lighting in this game is amazing, and it executed it so well in battles that you fail to not notice it on every game you’ll play. Texturally beautiful would describe everything from the terrain to the bullet battered walls best.
The thing this game does best is taking the basics of the first person shooter genre, utilises them, and then adds new elements to expand the series. The camera is very good and works excellently, the gametypes are well paced and the weapons are top notch and well suited.

One thing that I adore in this game is the bleedout system. Every developer of an FPS game should release an update to include this, as it’s so useful and effective. For those of you who don’t know what this bleedout system is, it is basically a feature where when you are shot down, you’re not dead – but severely injured for a short period of time. During this time, you have the option to press X, give up and respawn or else you can wait, and one of your teammates are able to revive you, and you continue where you left off, and it doesn’t count as a death. It’s perfectly executed as your teammates will also be busy killing and it makes the revive/die balance perfect.

In reality, Zipper has a great idea with MAG, and in a perfect world it would be a perfect game but unfortunately it isn’t. It’s like Call of Duty in the lobby. There are lots of kids shouting their ass off about how great they are. I even heard a squeaky voice shout, “Whoo got a kill. Haha Noob!” – on launch day. Chances are the guy who was killed was caught off guard and has been playing FPS games while the squeaky voice was in nappies. Yeah, these things to annoy me and one thing I was hoping for was a mature experience which would indirectly lead to a game that is valuable due to a close battle.
If these are the opinions of the general gaming community, then how will this game survive? This game has absolutely no offline mode to back it up if the community diminish. Zipper says it’s all down to the factions. By factions, I mean three classes that a gamer must choose from. Each have their own different pros and cons, and each will participate in a leaderboard – this leaderboard is the tool to keeping an active community.

Once you choose your faction, there’s no going back. Unless you create a new character, so you should choose wisely. These three factions will be competing against each other all the time, which means you’ll never be fighting someone within your faction. Each time a faction wins a battle, it adds to the factions score, and the faction with the most score is top of the leaderboard, and so on.

Zipper say that players will be fighting for their faction and if they check their PS3 and see their faction has fallen into second place, then they’re want to play to help their faction regain glory. But again, this is where MAG is too ambitious. The chances of the factions being neck-in-neck is very slim, and at the time of writing S.V.E.R have ran away with first place and there’s a lot of reports of players losing heart already. So is this doing the opposite? Players in second and third and no way of rising to first losing heart and leaving MAG, and then our beloved S.V.E.R bored of having no competition and also leaving the game to return to something else?

By no means am I purposely hating this game, I actually really wanted to like it, and maybe I fell into the trap of believing what was being said, but it’s only now that I realize how silly I was into thinking we’d all be organised armies fighting it out in a tightly fought battle, trying desperately to help our faction raise in the ranks.
This game has unlimited potential to be amazing, it really does. If and when Call of Duty fanboys disperse and leave the small minority of sensible and mature gamers that are left alone, this game can multiply in quality tenfold. That’s a big if though. I won’t pretend I’m disappointed, but it does the basics so well, and has some superb features such as the bleedout system but it when Zipper warranted both 256 player matches and organised, communication battles they shot themselves in the foot.

7.4/10

Due to the nature of this game and the feedback in the comments section, the reviewer has written and published a delayed opinion entitled MAG: One Week Later. To get the full opinion of the reviewer, we highly recommend you read this article too.

Despite this, I always give special attention to strategy games that try to do things a bit differently (and yes I recognize Dawn of War II isn’t exactly a traditional RTS, but the mechanics are similar enough for me to not enjoy it). The Unholy War, a fairly middle-of-the-road PlayStation strategy game, held my attention for far longer than it should have. Games like Final Fantasy Tactics, though not groundbreaking by today’s standards, forever changed my expectations. And so it is with great pleasure that I introduce King’s Bounty: Armored Princess – a very special game.

Well, for the most part.

Armored Princess is the standalone expansion to King’s Bounty, a game that, for the most part, is the longer, slightly less refined version of this product. You take on the role of Princess Amelie just in time to witness the near destruction of your father’s kingdom. Obviously, the only way to rectify the situation is to use a magical doohickey to travel to another dimension in search of some guy who can make everything all right. And of course you weren’t supposed to be the one backpacking through portals, but hey, who wants to play as the senile wizard instead of the buxom warrior princess, who must be casting her own breed of spells to keep that chest piece on? You’ll meet colorful characters and walls of text as you set out on your very original journey.

To be fair, the writing is actually quite good. The game takes itself just seriously enough and does a decent job of incorporating humorous dialogue in what would be just another kingdom-on-the-brink fantasy yarn. Which is good, because you’ll be doing a lot of reading. There is no voice-over work and all quests are presented in that just-show-me-the-accept-button style we’ve all come to know and love in MMOs. Are the sound effects and music any good? Fairly, though the overly epic score does lose its luster rather quickly. The noticeable sound track restarts will likely become annoying to anyone with a musical ear as well. The sound is, in two words, quite average.

But honestly, you’re not here for the sound effects and music anyway. No one would blame you for playing this game with your headphones off and the latest Seinfeld rerun blaring in the background (you haven’t been to payroll yet?) And you’re definitely not here for the graphics either, which aren’t anything special. If you’re anything like me, you’ll think your World of WarCraft suddenly became plain old WarCraft with a very tiny splash of Diablo, and then you’ll end up confused as to why that actually makes sense. Indeed, this isn’t a game that’s going to floor you with any sort of visual tour-de-force. Animations are a bit stiff and textures aren’t anything special, but the style is pleasing, even if it is fairly standard fantasy. There’s not a lot of screen tearing or other graphical oddities, but there is occasional slowdown. Again, very average.

Combat and world exploration are the meat and potatoes of this experience, and whether or not this game’s approach to both gels with you will determine whether you drop 40 bones or uninstall the demo in disgust. As a warrior princess, you have the ability to gather a whole mess of troops and lead them on the battlefield. You have a set amount of leadership to disperse, which you can increase as you level up or through skills (more on those later). If you have a loyalty of 100 and a particular troop costs 10 loyalty per unit, you can have 10 of those units with you. If another unit costs five per, you can have 20 of them. Rinse and repeat until you have a maximum of five groups (plus two in reserve). The power of each squad is determined by their base stats and the number of units composing each grouping. Think of it as an expanded game of Risk: If you have a troop with 10 units against a troop with nine, the troop of 10 is likely to win, although you’ll lose units, and power, in the process.

You’ll explore the world from an isometric angle with all enemies viewable on the map, meaning you can pick when and where to fight. The world is composed of various islands, each filled with merchants, pirates, priests, kings, and lord knows what else, all willing to sell you units, items, spells, and give you quests. The object is to explore an island until you find a navigation chart (usually guarded by a very difficult group of enemies) that allows access to another island, where you begin your search anew until you reach the end of the game. Defeated enemies do not respawn, which creates an interesting dynamic as far as experience points and gold are concerned. Because your income is limited, each troop lost is just that much more painful. Spending 15,000 gold on a Black Dragon is a very big deal, and the loss of said dragon will send you into a quick-loading frenzy.

In order to lose your precious troops you’ll need to engage in combat, which is turn-based and takes place on a hexagonal grid. Every unit has a speed that determines the order of attack, and after everyone takes a swing the turn is over and another begins. Each turn you’re able to cast one spell, which vary from direct attacks to status ailments, and initiate one dragon attack. Yes, that’s right, early in the game you get your very own pet baby dragon, complete with his or her own set of special attacks and experience gain. Smack or get smacked by an enemy to build up your rage meter, which always you to call your dragon forth to do some truly devastating damage. In fact, the dragon is your most powerful asset, which is both a blessing and a curse. While early only he’ll jump in to drop a lightning orb or simply kick someone in the face, his later area-of-effect attack, Dragon Dive, is absolutely essential.

Besides your good buddy, you’ll need solid diversity amongst your troops’ ranks in order to stay competitive. Thankfully, there are plenty of troops to choose from. On the first island alone there are at least a dozen different units to choose from, with each progressive island introducing more. Move your troops across the field, bonk the other guys on the head and move on to the next fight. Considering the array of spells and skills at your disposal, combat is as deep an experience as you want it to be. Prefer to have a line of meatheads charging blindly into battle? There’s enough variety amongst the goblin and pirate hordes to make it happen. Want to throw in a few archers and healers? I’m certainly not going to stop you.

This, unfortunately, introduces one of the reasons why this game doesn’t come with a “guaranteed fresh” seal of approval. Let’s say you have 10 units, all of whom you take into battle. After celebrating your victory, you come to realize you only have two left. Two, unfortunately, is too few for the next battle, so you decide to buy more. Trouble is, this particular unit is only available on another island. So, back to the boat you go. Open up your map, click on the desired island, find the store and travel back. After. Every. Single. Battle. Obviously, this gets a bit old.

At the beginning of the game, you select to play as either a mage, warrior or paladin. Every class has access to the same skill trees, but each class gains a different amount of runes upon leveling up. A particular mage skill might take 7 blue runes to level up, but, as a warrior, you might only receive one blue rune per level. Sure, you’ll find a few scattered about the world, but nothing to make the grind any less painful. And, since enemies don’t respawn, grinding in the purest sense of the word just isn’t possible. This creates a balance issue between classes, as warriors and paladins get easier access to loyalty and power upgrades. The most obvious problem of them all is that your dragon’s rage meter is tied to the warrior tree. Why is this a big problem? Because at some point it becomes possible to upgrade your dragon skills too far. When your dragon levels up, you are presented with the choice to level up one of three skills; some might be brand skill while some might be upgrades to a current skill. Let’s assume your rage meter has a maximum level of 15 and your Dragon Dive skill uses 13 points to execute. Upon leveling up, you accidentally choose to raise Dragon Dive, increasing its usage requirement to 16. Oops. Until you increase your rage capacity, you won’t be using that skill anymore, and that might make any progress next to impossible.

That’s not even mentioning the fact that you can recruit a companion to hold extra items and train your troops, or that you can outfit yourself with a plethora of items, some of which you can do battle with to upgrade – a mechanic you should recognize from the Disgaea series. This, the troop buying and the potential to screw up your character make this a surprisingly hardcore experience, and you can’t fully developers for adopting this approach. So, while I can’t say this is a game everyone will love and adore, I can say with certainty that those looking for a hybrid strategy game that features a surprising amount of depth and a lengthy story could do much, much worse. If you’re more of an RTS player, there’s nothing special here. If turn-based games are more your speed, this is one you should certainly take a look at. Is it a classic? No. Is it decent fun for 20 to 30 hours? Absolutely.

Note: It should be noted that I did experience occasional computer-locking crashes during the course of playing. Due to the game’s fairly frequent auto saving and my usual quick-saving ways, I lost only a few minutes of playtime at most. Still, crashes are crashes and they are certainly annoying. I don’t know if this is a problem with the game as a whole or if it’s due to some reaction to my computer’s configuration, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention this potential problem.

[review pros="Well-written dialogue, solid presentation, deep customization, engaging combat" cons="Graphics and sounds aren't anything special, constantly restocking troops gets old, story is a bit linear, possibility of borking your character if you're not careful is higher than it should be" score="70"]

After a brief montage showing our post-apocalyptic future, you are given a mission (the first is to save three people and kill 100 zombies) and put into a 2D city world setting, driving around in your car, ala the early Grand Theft Auto games.  Your car handles fine using keyboard controls, and is basically indestructible, as far as I could tell.  Aside from running over zombies, you can run into walls of houses, hit cars and make them explode, and your car comes out fine.  You do have to navigate a bit, but you never have to worry about being damaged by anything other than zombies.  The music appropriately drives the action (no pun intended), and the sound effects are perfectly zombie-esque.

Unfortunately, after a short time, the action gets very repetitive.  Sure, you can eventually shoot zombies, and get weapons, but the 2D zombies are barely identifiable as anything except little living things that turn into blotches of blood.   The retro style of the graphics doesn’t quite work for this type of game, with so many 3D zombie shooters and driving games out there, and it’s too limited a world to really be a sandbox game.   So the post-zombie killing adrenaline energy you are hoping to get is pretty minimal.  And since the gameplay is low on depth, you’ll soon tire of driving around the empty world of the game.

I guess if you’re looking for a time-killer, a game to play for a night, this wouldn’t be a bad choice.  But there are plenty of zombie shooters out there, or drive-around-and-be-brutal type games, that you could easily make a better choice.

[review pros="destruction, zombies" cons="repetitive" score="60"]

The answer to that question? Sort of. Certainly, if you’ve played a Diablo game, you’ll be right at home as soon as you start up Torchlight. Click enemies to begin the head bashing process, gather loot, complete quest (sometime by accident), level up and start the cycle all over again. For people who have never played a true dungeon crawler this may seem like a repetitive formula; however, the hours will soon melt away as you continue to mutter “Alright, just one more level, and I’m done” to yourself over and over.

It’s not to say that this is the standard Diablo formula through and through. A few changes have been made to the gameplay to make it different from its older brother and to bring it up with the times. A pet has been added, giving you a companion to play alongside with. Your pet serves multiple purposes – pack mule, attack companion, and broker. Your pet (you can choose from either a dog or cat) isn’t a powerhouse by any means; some of the more difficult enemies will barely link an eye when Scruffy or Mittens goes to take a bite out of them. The real value of the pet appears when it comes to inventory management. Your pack will quickly fill with goodies, some of which you’ll want to keep and most of which you’ll want to sell off. We all know that trips back to the city are a pain when you’re in a groove and Torchlight makes it easy to get rid of your trash loot. Simply throw the items into your pet’s inventory, click the button to send it to town and in 30 seconds it will return with gold in hand (paw?) for all the items.

The dynamic between your character and your pet is also expanded by a fishing/feeding system. As you traverse through the layers of the dungeon, you’ll often find small rippling bodies of water. Click on it and your character will begin to fish, similar in fashion to World of Warcraft. Once the fish is in your inventory you have the option of feeding it to your pet. You won’t feed it to make it happy – the fish have effects that alter the molecular structure (ok, I made that part up, but how else would you explain it?) of the animal to turn it into something else. Give it a Web Fish and it turns into a spider. Give it a Murkfish and it turns into a Goblinhound. Give it a Firefish and it turns into a Fire Elemental, you get the gist.

The artwork and graphics in the game, although not Diablo 3 quality, have a lightness to it that lends well to the game, especially with your pet turning into all sorts of crazy creatures after you’ve fed it a fish you’ve caught. Most of the environments are fairly detailed and have nice touches that differentiate each level from the others but it would have been nice for a few outdoor maps, as almost all of the game takes place in the underground (because that’s where scary things live). Anyone with a fairly modern PC should be able to play this game to its fullest potential – something that it accented by the fact that the game comes with a “netbook mode” for those 9AM Philosophy classes.

Character models are fairly similar to each other, and while the game does try to differentiate your three choices with a pseudo “class” system, each of the characters basically can specialize in either branch of combat (magic, melee, and range). Basically your choice is to pick which one you’d rather look at for hours on end since they all tend to meld together into a single hybrid class a few levels deep.

The one area that really hurts the value of the game is the glaring omission of multiplayer. Dungeon crawlers, in their barest essence, are basically built for cooperative play. Including a pet system to have someone to take along with you on the trip fixes the issue of running through a dungeon by your lonesome, it’s still more fun to play with another person. The feeling of showing off an epic piece of loot is something all gearwhores cherish and it just doesn’t have the same effect when you’re mailing a screenshot over.

While not everything is perfect in the game – you’ll often run into a few graphical glitches, the pathing for enemies and NPCs is downright idiotic at times, and lack of any true story – it’s still a game that is worth a try for anyone who longs for a dungeon crawler or would like a primer before Diablo 3 is released. For the retail price of $20 it’s hard not to recommend to anyone, even if it is a single-player only affair. The game isn’t ridiculously hard by any means and the accessibility of being able to play even on a netbook, perfect for plane rides or long car trips, paired with exceptional artwork and gameplay make this a title that is placed in the upper echelon of action RPGs.

[review pros="Great graphics, sound, and gameplay" cons="Lack of multiplayer, no real classes" score="85"]

Everyone should definitely play this game, as it flawlessly melds different genres such as action, puzzle and adventure, weaving them together into one very functional and cohesive unit with rich storytelling and plenty of unlockables to keep you playing for hours on end. However, there is something that must be said about this installment, as hard as it is. Read on.

A good sequel always has to do things that its predecessor did not and they must be done for the better. And so, I’m torn. Assassin’s Creed II is a great game and has much added depth over the original, but somehow, for all its innovation in how it tells the story, the story itself feels lacking. Altair and his plight seemed more heavy-handed, serious and important. Ezio’s character is that of a happy-go-lucky Italian who seems to just be taking on the secret family business in order to avenge his father and brother. The overall plot will more than hold one’s interest throughout as it progresses beyond Ezio; it just lacks the feel of sole responsibility in comparison to the first. In large part, this is from the amount of characters you encounter. They add depth while at the same time detracting a bit of focus from Ezio. Being a noble from Renaissance Italy, Ezio’s abilities to build wealth and own property make sense, but Altair’s lack of want or need for money made he and his story pure. Being part of the Assassin’s order as Altair was simple: do your duty and you earn what’s yours, with no want or need of unnecessary material things. Altair also had authority within his guild to deal with and he gained allies instead of money by way of his actions, making his currency respect rather than coin. Altair’s lack of involvement in certain worldly distractions or any economic system made him more believable as an assassin. Ezio’s being a noble does help him blend into society, but somehow, he seems less an assassin than Altair as a character. It is more fun to play as Ezio for his abilities, new weapons, wielding two hidden blades instead of one and more cinematic kill animations, but feeling equal rather than subject to those that came before, such as Ezio’s uncle, just feels too easy.

SLIGHT SPOILER ALERT!

The ending leaves a question in my mind as to how promising the storyline will be in Assassin’s Creed III. There are a couple of ways Ubisoft can go with it, but I sincerely hope that we as assassins primarily continue to seek out and maybe somehow more publicly expose the world leaders that wish to enslave men with the Pieces of Eden as we destroy them and their propaganda. Chasing the knowledge of when the world is going to face another cataclysmic change will hopefully be put to the back of our minds, as it is inevitable. Isn’t it?

[review pros="Great storytelling, thought-provoking puzzles and riddles along with many new and fun side missions" cons="The focus on the main character is less and takes away from the feel present in the first game" score="90"]