Online Multiplayer  

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Online Multiplayer Ain't Easy on the Wii 

Nearly 18 months after release, players still compete in The Conduit's multiplayer. That's quite a surprise to its publisher. "Usually, online modes [on the Wii] die pretty fast after launch. Two, three, four weeks and you've got five guys left," says Sega PR rep Fabian Doehla. "We still have clans out there. The actual hours they're playing...it's kinda impressive."

We're at Sega's San Francisco office watching High Voltage Software's Matt Corso destroy bots in Conduit 2's new multiplayer mode. Chief Creative Officer Eric Nofsinger talks me through it.
Conduit 2
But grandma! What shiny, poly-carbon battle armor you have!
"Unlike The Conduit, where multiplayer came online pretty late in development. With this game we've had multiplayer since day one," Nofsinger tells me. "We've been play testing and tweaking and balancing since June of last year."
They've also bartered to get waivers from Nintendo, securing their chosen platform's permission to do the things a first-person multiplayer shooter normally does. Nintendo's strict developer guidelines can read like a determined effort to keep a successful Halo or Call of Duty-type multiplayer off on the Wii, but High Voltage is determined to work around or within those restrictions and deliver an A-class game. One refrain gets repeated often: They're keeping promises this time.
 
For starters, Corso's Wiimote features a very conspicuous WiiMotion Plus dongle. That's a big carrot for eager fans who saw Plus functionality teased then cut from the original game.

That's not the only fan-requested change. A sprint found its way into the move set, and crouches toggle on/off. More importantly, Conduit 2's environments include some much-needed variety. "We focused the first game in Washington D.C., and in this game we open it up to global locations," says Nofsinger. A war-torn D.C. is still on the menu, but now it shares time with places like Siberia, China, and the lost city of Altantis, which also serves as your hub of operations. That translates to more multiplayer maps spread across 14 different online modes.

A high-tech headquarters also means players won't be stuck with a preset arsenal. "There's a replicator built into Atlantis," says Corso. Once you find its blueprint, "You choose your loadout before each mission, not only in the single player -- but also in the multiplayer."

Those weapons, from returning bullet-spitting guns to freaky alien ordinance, are key to the new Perks system. Players score money throughout the game and spend it on boosting their character's abilities: explosives focus, ballistic focus, faster recharge on energy weapons...or a heavier, fully customizable armor." You have four slots to use, so the idea is you buy these and equip them to make your character more badass," says Corso.
Conduit 2
The do-it-yourself Disco Inferno kit.
As for who that character is, that's up to you, too. Returning hero Mr. Ford is available, but Corso's playing as a Trust solider, a member of the Illuminati-like group central to The Conduit's conspiracies. They haven't nailed down an exact number, but I'm told Conduit 2's multiplayer will offer a lot of character models to choose from, including female avatars. It's also likely the alien Drudge will be well represented.
"Later in the campaign, we introduce the concept of free Drudge, which are these aliens that have broken free, and they actually fight alongside you," says Nofsinger. "This makes the game a lot more interesting than just wave after wave of guys coming at you." Though players will get that, too, in Conduit 2's all-new "horde mode," Invasion...which only allows for local team-ups.

That's where High Voltage runs afoul of Nintendo's rules. True-skill matchmaking is easy; parties are tough. Corso's pretty sure it's against regulations to team up in any online mode, but they did secure a waver to partly bypass it and to circumvent the sticky Wii Friend Code issues.

"We have a Rival system that allows you play with people who aren't just your friends," says Nofsinger, and it will be chat-enabled using the upcoming Headbanger headset. "Not the greatest name," he admits, "but it's actually a pretty good device. Nintendo told us to not use WiiSpeak."
Conduit
I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Dave. Nintendo was very specific.
They've also incorporated an entirely new system of patching under Nintendo's watchful eye. "We had some systems in place with the first game, but this time those systems are much better," says Nofsinger, "and because we can do those updates this time around, it opens up a whole new level of things you can do."

Such as downloadable content? "We have the structure in place for DLC," says Nofsinger, "We're not announcing any DLC right now."

But you can tell he wants to. Downloadable content on the Wii for something other than Rock Band or Guitar Hero is almost unheard of  -- a lot like Wii-specific, hardcore shooters -- and would go a long way to delivering on those promises the first game made.
Even unfinished and in the middle of a major interface revamp, the visuals are fantastic and the gameplay intriguing. "We've worked closely with Nintendo to be within their guidelines," says Nofsinger, "but to also to have the best player experience possible."

At times, those might seem like two different priorities, but Nofsinger and Corso's enthusiasm for their sequel shines through. Either way it plays out, I've got my fingers crossed for them.

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja  

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Review: Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 Improves With Age

Review: Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 Improves With Age 
Sure, you've weathered plenty of ninja storms in your day, but are you prepared to face the Ultimate Ninja Storm... 2?
Developer CyberConnect2 has been telling the story of the absurdly popular Japanese martial arts anime Naruto through the Ninja Storm series since 2003. Part adventure game and part fighting game, each successive title fleshes out more of the show's plot, expanding with new features and introducing new characters with each new installment. Traditionally a PlayStation 2 franchise, in 2008 it came to the PlayStation 3 with Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm, a gorgeous title strong on style but short on substance. Now the Ultimate Ninja Storm returns with a vengeance, branching out onto the Xbox 360 and incorporating the anime's Shippuden storyline, featuring an older, wiser, and more powerful Naruto Uzumaki. Has Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 matured as well as its inspiration?

Ideal Player

Fans of the anime program of course, but also fighting fans looking for a little more adventure in their lives, and adventure fans craving some arena combat.

Why You Should Care

CyberConnect2 blurred the line between anime and video game in Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm for the PlayStation 3, though it was a little light on content. Now the developer takes a second stab at current gen systems, with a PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 sequel that promises a ton of content and introduces online multiplayer to the series.


Let's get straight to the point: Is Ultimate Storm 2 better than Ultimate Storm the first? That's a definite yes. With the stronger, more dramatic Shippuden storyline behind the game, a much larger cast of of characters (45 to the first game's 25), and a wide variety of side quests and activities to perform, Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 is far superior to its predecessor, while maintaining the same simplistic combat system that fans have come to know and love. The story covers more ground, taking us from Naruto's return to Hidden Leaf after years of training to his final showdown with Akatsuki leader Pain. Loading times have lessened significantly. Even the first game's exquisite cel-shaded graphics have improved, further blurring the line between hand-drawn and computer generated graphics. The button press-powered boss battle cinematics have to be seen to be believed.
So everything is better then? Not quite. In the course of fixing the issues I had with the original title, CyberConnect2 took away one of my favorite features of that game. The free-roaming exploration of a fully 3D Hidden Leaf Village has been replaced with the sort of static scenes you'd see in a classic adventure tale. Instead of leaping across rooftops in order to reach your objective, I'm running back and forth through dioramas. With a single-player campaign that's lasted me more than twelve hours at this point, I'm beginning to grow weary of the repetition, longing for the freedom the first game afforded.
Review: Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 Improves With AgeOf all the Tekken characters to cameo, why Lars?
So that's a game breaker for you? Oh, far from it. It's an annoyance and a questionable omission, but far from a game breaker. The free roaming might be gone, but I can still lose myself for hours scouring the maps for ingredients to create new weapons and power-up items, taking out rampaging doll versions of my best friends and biggest enemies, or going online to have the stuffing beat out of me.
Oh yeah, this one is online, isn't it? Having gotten my ass kicked by people from all around the country, I can assure you that the fighting is definitely online, and there are plenty of challengers waiting to show you just how much Ultimate Ninja skill you do or do not possess. With a solid ping the action is lightning fast, even when both sides pull in both of their teammates to gang up on their opponents. You'll see the odd spinning timer (see the gallery below) with a less-than-ideal connection, but it doesn't take away too much from the action. It's amazing the strategies players can formulate in a game with such simplistic fighting controls.

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 In Action

A Visual Guide To Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2

The Bottom Line

Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm showed great promise, and much of that promise is realized in the sequel. While the strange decision on the developer's part to remove the first game's free-roaming keeps true greatness just beyond reach, in its best moments Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja 2 makes me feel like I'm actively controlling an animated movie, and that's exactly what the series is all about.
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 was developed by CyberConnect2 and published by Namco Bandai for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, released on October 19. Retails for $59.99. Purchased an Xbox 360 copy of the game with my own funds for enjoyment and reviewing. Played through entire story mode, completing various side quests, unlocking new shop items, and spending my earned money on silly player cards. Played multiple matches online, losing to young teens consistently.

 

The Fight: Lights Out  

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Review: The Fight: Lights Out Swings & Misses

Review: The Fight: Lights Out Swings & MissesIf you feel like destroying something ugly, take a shot at The Fight: Lights Out, a dark, dreary brawler for the PlayStation Move that's an unpleasant blend of Fight Club aesthetics and wild, Bumfights-style fist flailing.
The Fight: Lights Out is a third-person fighting game lets players experience the thrill of brawling in underground fight club without fear of broken bone or loosened teeth. With a PlayStation Move equipped in each hand, The Fight turns the glowing wand controllers into virtual fists, your tools to pummeling dozens of grimy, greasy street toughs into submission. With more than 100 fighters to beat bloody, online multiplayer and other activities to keep one occupied between fights, The Fight: Lights Out may be one of the more robust PlayStation Move games to date—but that certainly doesn't make it one of the best.

Ideal Player

The PlayStation Move owner who's looking to build up a sweat, not necessarily play an elegant fighting game, and devout followers of actor Danny Trejo.

Why You Should Care

The PlayStation Move's mostly precise motion control detection should make for a decent brawling simulation, at least better than Wii Sports boxing and Kinect's Fighters Uncaged. The Fight: Lights Out may make a more fit you, if you have the patience for it.


Does it work? Sometimes, yes. The Fight does a decent enough job of turning your real world jabs, hooks and uppercuts into in-game punches, all with one-to-one accuracy. Blocking and body blows are also reliable. When your fighting moves get more complex, however, cracks begin to show. The Fight can be finicky in interpreting grabs, backhanded punches and some of the special moves you'll unlock during the single-player campaign and movement of your fighter can be a huge pain. The game's flaky head-tracking, dependent on your lighting conditions—mine were consistently "terrible"—is partly to blame. One would think the constant calibration required would translate into something just a bit more precise.
Review: The Fight: Lights Out Swings & Misses
So what do you do with all this violence? The Fight's most substantial mode is its plot-free single-player campaign, a mostly directionless and very long list of increasingly tougher opponents. You'll win cash from fights and the bets you can place on your performance. You'll also unlock new character customizations and special attacks from certain brawlers. While the character roster may be large, unlike the Street Fighters and Punch-Outs of the world, your competition is severely lacking in personality. But so is the rest of The Fight, which is a drab, desaturated experience throughout.
How does the fighting work? These are one-on-one battles, with the player looking at the back of their custom-made fighter for much of the match as he trades blows with his opponent. Players must keep an eye on their life bar and stamina, the latter of which drains quickly if you simply throw rapid-fire punches hoping that some will connect. There's some strategy to it all—when to uppercut, when to go for the gut—but many fights can be won by simply throwing jabs and elbows until your foe crumples. It can be satisfying to land painful looking blows on your enemies, but the disconnect of punching at air, contacting with nothing while engaged in mortal combat can be off-putting. Worse, many fights look and feel like a confused flailing of floppy limbs, some of which you can't see due to your fighter's body obscuring portions of the action.
Review: The Fight: Lights Out Swings & Misses
What else does The Fight offer? When you're not feeding lowlifes knuckle sandwiches, you need to hit the gym. Here you'll boost your strength, speed, stamina and other fighter attributes. That cash you earn in fights is spent training (as well as at the doctor and on clothing) so that you can get in time with the heavy bag, speed bag and sparring partners. Target practice and endurance sparring are great ways to practice and earn skill points needed to level up, but the speed bag and heavy bag mini-games were exercises in frustration. These portions feel more like an obligation than an entertaining change of pace.
The Fight sounds like a workout. This may be the best thing about The Fight: Lights Out. The intensity of the battles and throwing punches with heft can quickly build up a sweat. It's a better fitness game than it is a fighting game, at least, because the brawls distract from the physical exertions of shadowboxing.
Does multiplayer at least help? It doesn't hurt. Getting into matches was quick and painless, to The Fight's credit, and online fights were mostly lag-free. But I found that many online competitions quickly devolved into a contest between two men throwing punches at each other as fast and as furious as possible, with finesse or technique not considered.

The Fight: Lights Out In Action

The Bottom Line

There's not a whole lot to like about The Fight: Lights Out. This is a dank, dismal looking fighting game with iffy controls, a disconnected fighting experience and a dull single-player campaign. The most charming moments in The Fight: Lights Out came from actor Danny Trejo's campy instructional tutorials, particularly when the leathery bad-ass is holding pink and blue glowing Move controllers in each hand, mentoring you on how to crack skulls. But those moments are not worth the entry fee required to take part in The Fight.
The Fight: Lights Out was developed by ColdWood Interactive/XDEV and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3, released on November 9. Requires two PlayStation Move controllers to play. Retails for $39.99 USD. Review code was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Kotaku purchased a retail copy of the game to complete the review.

 

Call of Duty: Black Ops  

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Call of Duty: Black Ops Review

http://images4.tescoentertainment.com/Assets/82010/Xbox---Call-of-Duty-Black-Ops___512747.JPG

The Call of Duty franchise is back with their new game, Black Ops. There were a lot of expectations for this game, but Treyarch, with a few exceptions, has risen to the challenge and met all of them.
For those of you who don't know, Black Ops is a first-person shooter, set in Vietnam during the cold war. The U.S. is on the brink of war with Soviet Russia, and you hold the key to averting the crisis
Only one problem: You have been brainwashed, repeating sequences of numbers continuously interrupt your thoughts, and you are fighting through flashbacks. You have been captured, and you don't know where you are, or who has captured you.
This is how the single-player campaign mode starts off. As you are being interrogated, your thoughts trigger flashbacks, which comprise the actual missions of campaign mode.
Your first mission is to Cuba, to assassinate the infamous Fidel Castro. During this mission, you sacrifice yourself to save the rest of your team. You are captured, and sent to a Russian labor camp.
During the course of your interrogation and flashbacks, you realize that the Russians are preparing to release a nerve agent, "Nova 6", in the United States. It is this that becomes the main crisis of the story.
Although the story is a bit confusing at first, don't give up on it. Everything ties back together in the end and it all starts to make sense, producing a pleasantly unpredictable storyline.
Another good thing about the game is that real people from history are tied into the story. As previously mentioned, you are first sent to kill Castro, and you meet President Kennedy and Secretary McNamara. These real world references help you to feel more connected with the game.
What really make the game great, however, are all the details. You don't feel like you are playing a video game. You feel like you are controlling a movie. This is achieved, with the help of great graphics, by things like motorcycle jumps, prison escapes, strafing runs in helicopters, and incredible sneak attacks and hand to hand combat, just to name a few.
At the end of campaign mode, after the credits, a cut scene starts to play in which Kennedy is sitting at a table with McNamara, Castro, and Nixon. He is talking with them about burying the hatchet when suddenly loud bumps are heard in rooms next door…
Zombie mode is back! Now with new maps (including the pentagon), guns, and characters, it is just as fun as "Nazi Zombies" from World at War. In some ways, it's even better - getting to hear Nixon brag about his zombie-killing prowess is priceless.
Now for what many of you began reading this article for in the first place: the multiplayer mode
A great deal has been changed on the multiplayer of Black Ops compared with that of Modern Warfare 2.
Of course there are the standard changes like new guns and new maps, and there are cosmetic differences, for instance, the guns look a little funny compared with the guns in Modern Warfare 2, but a few changes in particular stand out above the rest.
The first is the addition of "Combat Training". This is a change for the better. Basically, it is for people new to FPS multiplayer to get them acclimated to the style of play.  You basically play a regular multiplayer match, the only differences being your teammates and the enemy team are made up of computer AI. Everything you earn and unlock, including your statistics, does not transfer to the other game modes.
The second is the addition of "COD points." This is basically a currency system that is used to buy things like camouflage, face paint, guns, attachments, and really just about everything having to do with the "create a class" option.
This is honestly a bit annoying, especially at first. Things like guns first have to be unlocked via a rank level (achieved by gaining experience points) and then "bought" with COD points to be used in game. This makes it very hard to try out all the different weapons and figure out which ones you like best.
It does have a positive side however. First of all, this means that once you have a given weapon, you don't have to wait ages before you can unlock the attachment you want to use on it. Instead, you can just buy it right away.
The second good thing about the addition of COD points is it has lead to a new class of multiplayer games: wager matches. Now you can win more than just bragging rights while playing online. You can gamble one of three different amounts of your COD points against other players in one of four game modes: "one in the chamber", "sticks and stones", "sharpshooter", and "gun game."
Other notable changes include the ability to carry out "contracts"; challenges that, if completed in the allotted time, award bonus COD points. The ability to record and view yours' and others' games, and the ability to change your characters appearance in "create a class" have also been added.
Overall, this is a good game. Although the story mode can at times be a bit confusing at the same time it is also VERY fun. The multiplayer does take some getting used to but it is still a great system, and although the currency system is annoying at times, it also allows for some very cool game modes. I would recommend this game to anyone who is a fan of first-person shooters.

 

Fighters Uncaged  

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Fighters Uncaged Review

 http://img.brothersoft.com/screenshots/softimage/f/fighters_uncaged-427381-1287024311.jpeg

If you're craving a less kid-friendly experience on the Kinect at launch, then your options are limited to just one game--Ubisoft's Fighters Uncaged. Sadly, not only does it fail on nearly every level to offer a compelling fighting experience, but its broken motion controls also make it immensely frustrating. Lifeless animation, generic visuals, and a baffling scoring system all serve to sap the fun out of playing. And, in a crazy omission, there isn't even a two-player option. Uncaged isn't so much a game as it is a way to make you want to bang your head against a brick wall in despair.

The stilted fights are an exercise in frustration.
The premise behind Fighters Uncaged is as short and generic as they come. You play as an up-and-coming street brawler named Simon, who must battle his way through other brawlers in underground leagues to save his father from a kingpin. Aside from a mention in the manual and a short cinematic intro, you hear nothing about the story once you start playing, which makes this setup completely unnecessary. The game offers up just one mode, called Fight. But, before you can get down to fighting, you must endure an excruciatingly dull tutorial that teaches you the basics in a drawn-out fashion.
You view your character from behind in an over-the-shoulder perspective, with your opponent directly opposite. To fight, you mimic the moves you want your character to perform. For example, punching out directly in front of you launches a jab, while arcing your swing launches a hook. An onscreen animation demonstrates the movement, after which you must perform it three times against an instructor before you can progress to the next move. The game handles lateral movement of your character, so all you have to worry about is performing one of the kicks, punches, and dodges on offer.
The tutorial stretches on for what seems like an eternity because you not only have to perform each move three times, but you also have to repeat the process for both limbs--it's like attending a fighting school for toddlers. Furthermore, once you've completed basic training, you then have to fight against the instructor three times in best two-out-of-three matches before you can actually jump into the leagues. There is a skip option, but using it means the game thinks you haven't completed the training, so you can't progress anyway.

Getting dropped to the floor is a regular occurrence as the game fails to recognize your motions.
While most of the basic moves are easy to learn, there is a noticeable lag between performing them and having your actions reflected onscreen. This means you often throw a punch, only to think it wasn't recognized and throw another one, causing the game to suddenly launch two in quick succession. Thus, fights quickly degenerate into the Kinect equivalent of button mashing as you swing your arms and legs in the air, trying to get the game to pick up your movements. This only gets worse if you subject yourself to the advanced training, where you're taught moves like roundhouse kicks and combos. They require much more subtle movements, such as sliding your foot along the floor for a sweep, and are rarely recognized at all.
If you somehow manage to drag your way through the tutorial, then you can take part in the leagues. You start off in league three, where you face off against six other fighters with names as cliche as Rider, Ratface, and Mover. The aim is to progress to higher leagues, where you battle against increasingly tough though no more interesting or entertaining opponents. Fights themselves are an exercise in frustration as the game struggles to recognize your moments. This removes any sort of depth because you can't plan your attacks or launch advanced moves.
One of the most confusing aspects of a fight is the scoring system, which fails to reward you for your hard work. To reach league two, you have to gain a certain number of crowns, which are awarded if you score above 6000 points against an opponent. However, how you score points is never clearly explained, so even if you beat an opponent, you might not get any crowns at all. This means you have to go back and fight opponents repeatedly until you score points to progress, without ever really knowing how you did so.

Whether you win or lose, you'll be happy that the terrible fight is finally over.
To make matters worse, there aren't even any decent visuals to look at while you're fighting. The character models are lifeless, with stilted animation and a poor design that plays off of generic street stereotypes, such as leather-clad bikers and tattooed thugs. The 2D prerendered environments just add to the misery, with little detail and no animations. Even the music is poor, with a grating 10-second hip-hop-style loop repeated ad nauseam in every menu.
Fighters Uncaged is a prime example of how not to make a fighting game for the Kinect. The presentation is poor, the scoring system doesn't reward your hard work, and worst of all, the motion controls are simply broken. There's not even a multiplayer mode to, at the very least, let you eke some enjoyment out of fighting a friend. The only thing you'll get out of this game is a sweat, as you manically punch at the air in frustration. No matter how eager you might be for a Kinect-powered brawl, Fighters Uncaged is one game that's worth leaving locked up.

 

The UnderGarden  

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The UnderGarden Review

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The UnderGarden must be what it's like to peer into the dreaming mind of a botanist. An alienlike being serves as your pollen-powered protagonist, giving you the luxury of ignoring the rules of reality that actual plants must adhere to. Instead, you breathe life into the subterranean mazes that you float through, causing flowers to burst forth from dormant seeds, transforming your surroundings into a cornucopia of beautiful foliage. It's an empowering experience that simultaneously mixes the joy of creation with a relaxing calm that permeates the atmosphere. It's easy to lose yourself in this peaceful world, watching flowers grow while the dynamic music washes over you, but this experience goes much further than its simple opening would lead you to believe. What starts as an easygoing ride through an enchanted land slowly shifts into a clever puzzle game, ensuring the net of boredom never catches you. Jarring camera shifts and utilitarian controls attempt to wake you from this soothing slumber, but The UnderGarden is able to glide past these issues to provide a calming escape from reality.


The destructive power of wind and bombs in full force.
There's no narrative linking the events in The UnderGarden together. You play as a mysterious creature with a penchant for flower breeding that would make your fellow gardeners green with envy. Pollen is where your power lies, and you collect this life-giving element by bumping into toadstools sprinkled sporadically throughout the labyrinthine levels. Once packed with pollen, you cause flowers to erupt around you by drifting past unsprouted seeds. You can move easily through the world in any direction, and you have a handy speed burst if you just can't wait to make flowers bloom. There's no way to die, nor is there a time limit rushing you along. In fact, there's only one tangible goal, and it doesn't even involve flowers. You simply have to make your way to the magic portal at the end of each stage. Without objectives or a punishment system distracting you from this dreamlike world, you can play The UnderGarden at your own pace, and with your own goals in mind.
Even though you don't have to pollinate every seed, you'll be compelled to do so because of the gorgeous visual design. A feeling of unabashed pleasure encompasses your botanical duties. Seeing the walls, ceilings, and floors explode in a rainbow of colors is a sight to behold, which pushes you to make sure every seed matures before you move on to the next part of the level. This visual beauty is linked seamlessly with a dynamic musical score that changes on the fly. Ambient sounds provide the backdrop for each level, but there are small creatures called musicians that you meet along the way that add their own personality to the music. These little beings come equipped with an instrument--guitar, bass, or drums, among others--and they jam away, oblivious to their surroundings. You have to carry them around with you if you want their companionship, and like the flowers you create, they're entirely optional. But the music they create is so captivating that you'll be hard pressed to leave them behind. The aesthetic pleasures in The UnderGarden are hard to ignore.
The first few levels are little more than a relaxing tour of the audio and visual delights that await you, but once you understand the basics, things become a lot more interesting. To make your way through these expansive levels, you have to solve environmental puzzles blocking your path. These come in a variety of forms. Some of them require special fruits that only certain trees produce. Initially, you have to collect seeds to weigh down buttons, but more diverse objectives are introduced as you get deeper into the game. For instance, luminescent seeds allow you to travel through dark places, explosive seeds destroy rock formations, and electrical seeds trigger doors. The puzzles that go along with these seeds start out easy enough, but you soon have to make clever use of powerful bombs or solve multistep puzzles using the conductive properties of electrical seeds. There are also mechanical puzzles that require you to turn cranks and you encounter air tunnels that aren't easy to navigate. The cerebral challenges mesh wonderfully with the aesthetic beauty, giving you plenty of tasks to complete while you enjoy the view.

Flowers sprout the powerful fruits in UnderGarden.
The core elements in The UnderGarden mix together well, which makes the utilitarian controls all the more baffling. Floating around these peaceful worlds works all right, but there's no joy to your movement. It's stiff and sluggish, and although you rarely have to fight to go where you want, it gets the job done without any flair. The UnderGarden is such a gorgeous world to visit that it's a shame the controls aren't able to match the other parts of this joyful experience. Furthermore, trouble surfaces as you get deeper into the game. When you grab on to seeds or the musicians, a tether is formed between your body and theirs, and it's far too easy to get caught on surfaces when you're carrying a load behind you. Sharp camera shifts also act like a slap to the face. The camera zooms in and out of its own accord, but there are times when its sudden shift serves as a detriment. It's not easy to see specific elements when the camera is zoomed out too far, and its unpredictable whims strip away the relaxing embrace of certain sections.
It shouldn't take much longer than five hours to play through the 15 levels in The UnderGarden, but it's worth going back for more. There are hidden gems and special flowers in each world, and you get a bonus for collecting every musician and causing every flower to bloom. But the real reason to replay levels is the engrossing atmosphere. The gorgeous visual design and enthralling score create a peaceful feeling that's difficult to pull away from even after you've seen everything this game has to offer. You can also play through the whole adventure cooperatively, and though it doesn't change the gameplay, it's fun to experience these worlds with someone else. It's a shame the controls can't match the joy exuded by the other elements, and the camera too often has a mind of its own, but these are small problems in a game overflowing with simple pleasures.

 

GoldenEye 007  

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GoldenEye 007 Review

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Facility, Lasers; Golden Gun, Temple. For scores of gamers, these phrases will evoke 'nam style flashbacks of entire weekends consumed by the original GoldenEye on the Nintendo 64, such was the impact of this classic. It proved that first-person shooters could work on a console; that ventilating your friends in split-screen multiplayer provided limitless fun; and that film-licensed games could be as dramatic and as competent as their Silver Screen counterparts. In fact, it's still arguably the best game based on a movie, ever.

So this time around, Eurocom has some impossibly big boots to fill with its Wii remake. Wisely then, the single-player mode plays more like a homage to the original than a flat-out remake. Pierce Brosnan's suave mannerisms and over-the-top gadgets (the laptop gun was a stroke of genius) have been replaced with Daniel Craig's Bond, full of thuggish violence and equipped with modern, practical tech (one very smart smartphone).  The original author of GoldenEye's screenplay, Bruce Feirstein, has even tinkered with the story and characters to bring them more in line with the most recent Bond films.

The overall effect of all these changes is that the game feels completely fresh to fans of the original and relevant to those who have never played it. There's even a smattering of references to the original to keep diehard fans sniggering - my personal favourite being where Bond descends upon an unsuspecting guard sitting on the bog from an air vent. Though it has to be said that Daniel Craig's straight-talking, no-nonsense dialogue lacks the charm that made Brosnan so much fun to play in GoldenEye.

The gameplay has been similarly reworked. Bond can now look down his gun's sights to quickly lock-on to an enemy and fire more accurately - a feature that will feel familiar to anyone that's played the Modern Warfare series. This becomes such a prominent feature of the gameplay that you can't help but be constantly reminded of the Call of Duty franchise. Add to that the grenade markers, custom weapon loadouts and a multiplayer XP system, and the game does start to feel a little like Call of Duty: GoldenEye.

That said, Modern Warfare isn't exactly a bad game to emulate. In the end, the core gameplay is hugely satisfying with brilliant sound effects (the silenced PPK is particularly good). There's also a massive armoury waiting to be discovered, with each weapon feeling markedly different than the next. And somehow, Eurocom has managed to make every single weapon fun to use. The gameplay is only ever really let down by the lovably dim AI that will perch behind cover with their heads out, walk in predictable circles and just run about pretty aimlessly in general. This effectively means that you're only ever in danger of dying when you're massively outnumbered - Bond can regenerate health when not under fire in the easier difficulties.

Just like the original GoldenEye, sneaking your way through a level will mean you'll run into fewer bad guys, and generally make life easier for Bond. A more heavy-handed approach will set alarm bells ringing, sending a flood of henchmen your way. On the easier settings either approach will do, but on return playthroughs your spy skills become imperative.  This happy balance between the two styles means that you're never forced to play one way or the other, which effectively takes the pressure off both. The stealth mechanics are also easy to pick up and well paced so you'll never find yourself sitting around twiddling your thumbs or feel hard done by when you're caught out.

In fact, the game is brilliantly paced throughout. Gunfights and stealth sections are interspersed with cinematic chase scenes and the kind of dialogue you'd only find in a Bond film. Overall, this is a very hard game to put down between chapters. Once you're finished, there's plenty of alternative corridors and avenues to explore as well as side missions that will keep bringing you back for more.

The multiplayer side of the game fails to live up to the high standard set by the single-player campaign though. Without the Bond storyline, online play quickly starts to feel like any other FPS, only with poorer graphics. Although there are fun tributes to Bonds of Olde in the shape of the Oddjob character model and the Man With The Golden Gun game mode, GoldenEye suffers from a serious identity crisis online. The XP system and custom loadouts do add some depth, but there's nothing really new here to convince you to invest your time in more than a couple of games. Even the novelty of using the Wiimote to aim (you'll want to switch to the Classic controller for serious online play) wears off pretty quickly. That said, it's still one of the best online experiences the Wii can offer.

Nevertheless GoldenEye for the Wii does its name proud. The single-player is a breakneck ride through classic Bond territory that makes you feel every bit the spy. It's filled with cinematic touches - like music in a club scene drowning out the sound of gunfire - that help you to forgive the less immersive graphics. The multiplayer meanwhile will have Wii owners finally putting their console to good use. It would have been easy money for Eurocom to simply remake the original frame for frame. Instead they've dared to create a modern interpretation of a classic that will inspire nostalgia of its own
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Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X 2 Review  

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Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X 2 Review 

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Aerial combat games are steeped in a history that goes all the way back to the mid-80s: from arcade games like After Burner and Top Gun to flight sims such as F-15 Strike Eagle and Gunship, this genre was once a valuable cornerstone of the games industry. These days though, After Burner and Top Gun remakes sit unremarkably on XBLA, PSN, and the iPhone, while flight sims are a dying (if not already dead) breed. What remains in your local game shop are the likes of Namco Bandai's Ace Combat and Ubisoft's HAWX series - games that are an inoffensive mixture of arcade and sim which, as a result, can come across as a touch bland at times.

Why? Because they neither require you to read a 50-page flight manual before playing (the classic flight sim joust), nor demand the hand-eye coordination of an actual fighter pilot to complete the game (like After Burner). Both the original HAWX and now this sequel seem gleefully happy to sand off the sharp edges of their predecessors by providing the sort of experience that the 'average gamer' wouldn't instantly dismiss out of fearful discomfort at the learning curve and difficulty. The average gamer, it would seem, is much happier to shoot at unthreatening, highlighted boxes for hours on end with little threat of these targets actually managing to kill them or make them think on their feet for a moment.

It's a bland, plodding format for a game. Whenever you do bite the dust it's usually because of attrition: a hundred too many bullets in your fuselage or a handful of missiles right up your jet engine that could've been easily avoided, only you couldn't really be bothered to avoid them at the time because there was no urgency to do so. You rarely die in HAWX 2; instead, you fail. Let's say, as an example, there's an AC-130 plane that you've got to defend from enemy fighters... the onslaught begins with tens of bogies buzzing around the gunship like flies on dung and you've got to take them out before the damage percentage of the AC-130 drops to zero. It's a timed exercise essentially - you fail because you didn't kill all the bogies in time, not because they managed to kill you.

This is HAWX 2 in a nutshell, and also the reason why we wouldn't necessarily recommend it to anybody who wants a different challenge or some kind of novel experience out of a game. If, on the other hand, you just want to pretend that you're Top Gun's Ice Man (not Maverick mind you - he's too edgy to characterise this game), then HAWX 2 is driven fairly well up your street. There are certainly  plenty of moments where you'll take a mild thrill out of pulling a 10-G turn on your adversary and then nailing him with guns at close range, or making a skilful night-time landing on an aircraft carrier (unlike its predecessor, HAWX 2 features takeoffs and landing, albeit fairly simplistic ones).

Ubisoft Romania does a fairly good job of varying up the missions too, thereby keeping the action plodding along without getting eye-gougingly repetitive. There are a few examples of missions where you take control of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) and complete tasks like tracking enemy vehicles and listening into their conversations, marking designated targets with infra-red beacons, and firing rockets at installed bases. By themselves these missions aren't anything particularly special but do offer a welcome change of pace nonetheless. Likewise, there's one Modern Warfare-esque mission where you man the guns of an AC-130 gunship and, again, it's nothing particularly remarkable (Infinity Ward's execution is certainly preferable) but does serve as light relief from the standard fare of cockpit-based action.

HAWX 2 also does a decent enough job of using the game's story to provide context for the missions. In turn, this engages you in the experience a little and makes the missions more involving than just repetitively destroying ground and air targets. Having said all of that, it's not as if the story itself is anything to write home about. Thinly veiled American imperialism, a condescending take on Russian self-destruction, and some of the worst voice-overs for British characters that we've ever heard in a game don't reflect particularly well on HAWX 2. Nonetheless, it's still preferable to the storyline of the original game, which wearily addressed the actions and ethics of private military companies (as was the gaming vogue at the time).

From the cut-scenes that depict this story to the gameplay itself, HAWX 2's graphics are no advancement on the first game. Environments are out of scale (some airports have traffic cones taller than your plane which explode at the touch of a wing), buildings are fairly non-descript and uninspiring, and ground textures are the usual job of pasted satellite images. The planes themselves are definitely the most visually stimulating part of the game, although even these lack finesse compared to the models in Namco Bandai's Ace Combat games. If all of this doesn't make HAWX 2 the most appealing game though, at least it's fairly well stocked with content.

A campaign that's knocking on the 10-hour door in terms of length is then fleshed out with additional 'Survival' and 'Arcade' challenges for each story mission that encourage further playthroughs. Multiplayer is also well catered for with 4 player co-op and an 8 player adversarial offering similar to the first game that should please dogfight junkies. The XP system underpinning all of this is the same as the first game though, which means that planes are unlocked for use in the multiplayer via progress throughout the whole game (including the single-player). More importantly, most of the harder to attain fighters are also the best performing ones, which makes HAWX 2's multiplayer matches a painfully frustrating experience for newcomers.

Football Manager 2011  

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Football Manager 2011 Review

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Last year Sport Interactive saw off resurgent rival Championship Manager with an impressively polished iteration of its footy-franchise. With Eidos' sim now out of the picture for the time being (on the PC at least), it seems the Football Manager team have been content to remain in the comfort zone this season.

Perhaps we should have expected as much when the most trumpeted new feature for the 2011 version was the dreary sounding 'dynamic league reputation'. Sexy new updates are at a premium, and it's mostly more of the Football Manager that we know and love.

That's not exactly a bad thing, and Football Manager is one of the PC's most successful franchises for a reason; every year developer Sports Interactive deliver a virtual version of the football world so detailed that real clubs use its database to scout players. Marry this scope and detail to an intuitive interface and you have an experience so engrossing and ridiculously addictive its responsible for more break-ups than the combination of cheap beer and rampant libidos.


Impressive bump-mapping and tri-linear filtering not included.

This version is no different. Our first sitting - at the helm of unlikely relegation candidates Liverpool FC - ended up lasting five hours (and resulted in one very angry girlfriend). All the features you'd expect are present and correct, and the polished-looking interface introduced last season remains as simple to pilot as ever. On first impressions you could be playing last year's game - which is all well and good until you encounter some of the weaker elements of the series that SI has once again failed to update.

For example, press conferences remain as dull and repetitive as previous years. They involve answering effectively the same questions from Football Manager 2009 with the same unsubtly tiered responses. In a game where everything else is so customisable, and a world where our sense of a manager's personality is defined by their dealings with the press (think Jose Mourinho or Ian Holloway), such neglect is baffling.

Ditto team talks, which again involve selecting one of five rallying cries to bellow at your players (in our experience it's usually "Do it for the supporters!"). It's a tedious element of the pre-match rigmarole and it's not clear or ever quantifiable what effect they have on your team.
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Another misfiring element Sports Interactive appear content to sweep under the carpet is that damn 3-D match engine - which remains as worthless as ever. Some new player animations have been added and it looks marginally better than before. But it's still uglier than Blackburn vs. Stoke on a wet Tuesday night and generally gets switched off mid-way through the second pre-season friendly. It's about time SI devoted some serious time to making Football Manager's 3-D worthwhile.

Luckily there are a couple of fairly ingenious new additions to be found in Football Manager 2011 that help atone for its oversights. One favourite is the new way of negotiating contracts; as recent events at Manchester United have shown, getting big name players to sign on the dotted line can be more difficult than teaching Joe Cole how to do long division.

In previous versions contracts were sorted thus: you would offer a player terms, and a few days later his agent gets back to you either agreeing, refusing or continuing negotiations in order to fund their addiction to high-end sportscars/mock Tudor mansions/elderly prostitutes. Now this process has been changed into a much quicker back-and-forth between you and the agent as terms are hammered out; sometimes they play hardball and ask for ridiculous money, only to climb down if it looks like they won't get it, and sometimes they are eager to do a deal if you offer terms quicker than your rivals. It's a step forward and it certainly feels more realistic and exciting.

Speaking of agents, this time around the most loathed specimens in the football universe are now not just nameless abstract entities but distinct personalities in their own rights. The hundreds of agents in the game (sadly all made up as far as we could tell) all have lists of clients, as well as stats for their willingness to tout players, the fees they demand, and how much patience they have in talks. Our favourite was Rodolfo Paz - a fiery Uruguayan (or so we imagined) - who aggressively pimped his roster of Latin stars and stormed out of negotiations if you didn't give his clients exactly the terms he wanted.

A similar approach has been taken to the way you communicate with your players. Again the Football Manager team has essentially taken the same options you had before when talking to a squad member; 'recommend me a player', 'don't shoot on your weaker foot' etc, and made these questions the basis of a more natural conversation.


A spreadsheet, yesterday.

This extends to when your players are unhappy with you. For example, during that ill-fated spell in charge of Liverpool, Fernando Torres knocked on our virtual door and told us we showed him a lack of respect after he received a rollicking for a listless performance against Slovak minnows FC Zilina. Our retort: "Maybe we should both get on with our jobs". Shame-faced, he replied "Perhaps I've made too big an issue of this."

It's not the deepest of banter, but it's more personable that's what's gone on before and it makes managing your player's happiness a much more involved process. It also highlights the different personalities in your squad more clearly. We discovered our underperforming reserve left-back Danny Wilson had a massive ego when he demanded a transfer after an innocent request to stop bombing forward so much.

It's a feature - as with the new contracts - that injects more personality into proceeding and helps sustain the illusion that you're in the real-life football world, not a turn-based spreadsheet. It points to potentially what the future of Football Manager holds - maybe players will get the chance to natter with a Project Milo-style Danny Wilson in FM2020.

It's just a shame SI weren't so bold with the rest of the game. The basics of Football Manager are so right, and the title sells so impressively, that it's understandable the developer is so careful about tinkering too much. Nonetheless, it would be refreshing if Sports Interactive threw off the shackles and attempted a few more radical shake-ups of the Football Manager formula for 2012.
Closing Comments
For the time being, this is still the best football management game on the planet. Its depth, realism and sheer addictiveness are unrivalled, with additions like the real-time contract negotiations offsetting some familiar flaws. But this isn’t doesn’t hide the fact that the series has begun to stagnate. Football Manager remains the Chelsea FC of footy management sims: all conquering at present, but in need of an overhaul in the not-so-distant future.

 

Games Faery  

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Faery: Legends of Avalon Releases Today on Xbox Live Arcade

PARIS, France - Faery: Legends of Avalon is available today on Xbox LIVE Arcade! It will also be released later in December on Playstation Network. Faery: Legends of Avalon is a new RPG packed with a unique atmosphere and stylish graphics, only available for digital download. Faery: Legends Of Avalon Screenshot
Magic, battles against fearsome monsters, original creatures, colorful characters, a great story to support the main quest and many side quests, for 10-15 hours of gameplay... Faery is an original RPG that is available to Xbox gamers today for only 1200 MS points! The new images released today perfectly illustrate all of this. Discover some of the terrible dangers the players will face along this great adventure!

About Faery: Legends of Avalon
Faery: Legends of Avalon is a great role playing game packed with unique atmosphere and graphic style. Play as an Elf or a Fairy and discover the fantastic world of Avalon as well as the incredible creatures that live there. The game offers a solid gaming experience for the players, between 10 to 15 hours to complete the main quest, and much more thanks to many additional, side-quests. 

Faery: Legends Of Avalon Screenshot

Hero of Avalon, you will have to understand why this magic world is dying, and save the kingdom from certain disappearance. During a thrilling adventure, where your choices will shape the story, you will develop your character, his abilities and special powers, as well as his equipment through the victorious battles and accomplished quests.

Numerous dangers await you and the battles against some of the creatures and monsters of the game promise to be formidable. In order to overcome all those dangers, you will have to gain power and experience, but also to assure the support of friendly companions you will meet through your journey. All companions have their specificities, their strengths and weaknesses, but also their own characters. Be sure to carefully select who will fight at your side, and live the incredible experience of being accompanied by a dragon, a troll, fairies and other fantastic creatures!

Faery: Legends of Avalon will be available today on Xbox LIVE Arcade for 1200 MS points, and beginning of December on PlayStation Network.
Faery: Legends Of Avalon Screenshot
About Focus Home Interactive
Founded in 1996, Focus Home Interactive is an independent French publisher based near Paris, France. Known for the quality, diversity and originality of its catalogue, Focus has published and distributed original titles that have become benchmark titles worldwide -- such as Blood Bowl, Sherlock Holmes, TrackMania , Runaway and sports games like Cycling Manager and Virtual Skipper. For additional information about the company and its

Faery: Legends Of Avalon Screenshot 


The Fight:  

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The Fight: Lights Out Review

There's a lot of guilty pleasure to be had from watching the lowlifes in The Fight: Lights Out recoil from the impact of a mighty blow straight to the forehead, but it's also a lot of hard work. Sweat and soreness are practically guaranteed thanks to the game's admirable re-creation of basic brawling, forcing you to deliver your punches with force instead of fluff to make any decent contact. But the foes aren't limited to the dozens of hobos, drifters, prisoners, and other scumbags lining up for an in-game beating; the Move-based controls also put up a fight, with the game mixing up the more complex attacks and requiring recalibration far too frequently. The Fight's narrative and presentation, too, have all the impact of an uppercut from an asthmatic 5-year-old, making it difficult to muster any enthusiasm for return bouts. This game can be a good option for those wanting to work out and lift their heart rate, but when it comes to fun, The Fight swings hard but fails to connect.

No fireballs. No spinning bird kicks. Just fists.
Here's a piece of advice before you strap on the virtual knuckle-dusters in The Fight: warm up. Just as in a real brawl, it takes a lot of aerobic ability to keep swinging, and throwing real punches--hard, fast, and often--is this game's main prerequisite. The Move controllers act as your fists, and while the game can be played with one Move and a normal controller, none of the one-to-one movement tracking is available when using a Sixaxis or DualShock, meaning you're left with one hand that can do only simple jabs and uppercuts. When you use two Moves, your in-game avatar mimics your upper body's movements with a good degree of accuracy, and while there's a very tiny amount of delay between your movements and those on screen, it's not particularly noticeable when you're in the midst of a brawl.
Watching your in-game avatar mimic your movements closely is initially quite impressive, and The Fight's basic controls are extremely intuitive. Want to throw a punch? Just punch forward with your fist. How about an uppercut? Then swing your fist in an upward arc. Want to block an attack? Just hold up your arms with the Move controllers in hand to ward off the blow. The Fight also takes velocity into account, meaning that you have to put some heft behind your strikes to get past an opponent's guard and do real damage. Simply swatting at the screen or ineffectually jabbing won't do much--you have to punch like you mean it, which results in a pretty hefty workout that's bound to leave you puffed and sweating after a few fights. The game also uses the PlayStation Eye camera for head tracking, which allows you to bob, duck, and weave your head to avoid hits. When it sticks to the basics, The Fight can be fun. Throwing jabs, haymakers, and uppercuts and generally trying to find defensive weak points in an opponent is engaging, and there's quite a bit of simplistic joy in watching your foe's head snap back after you deliver a vicious and well-timed straight fist.

If the elbow worked in Double Dragon, it should surely work here.
This brutal glee is short-lived, though, with The Fight tangling itself up in the ropes when it comes to any of its more complex moves. These moves--which you earn as you beat opponents in the game's lengthy single-player campaign--are performed by holding down the trigger on one (or both) of the Move controllers and moving your arms in a specific motion. Elbows, for example, are done by holding the trigger and thrusting one Move forward, while backhands are done by holding the trigger and sweeping your hand in a backwards motion in front of you. The game will often mix up commands, coming out with a backhand when you're trying to do an elbow hook, or will even fail to register inputs completely, such as with a windmill punch that never seems to work. These special moves can be useful in getting past some of the tougher opponents, so it's frustrating when they don't work on a regular basis. But it's not just special moves that The Fight gets wrong. The game regularly loses track of your movements, forcing plenty of recalibrations in between bouts. Head tracking is easily lost as well and often won't work if the game deems your backing wall too bright or dark. Even with a "mini" calibration taking place before each fight, the game often gets it completely wrong, starting the match with your fighter's arms held up high in what looks like a premature celebratory gesture.
While it's possible to play through the game by sticking to basic punches and jabs, it's extremely repetitive and dull (as well as a good deal tougher), giving you little incentive to get back into the arena past the first few rounds. The Fight's story, too, does nothing to hook you in. In fact, there's no explanation as to who you are or why you're competing in a series of potentially deadly illegal fighting tournaments to begin with. There's a basic character editor for changing the appearance of your pugilist, and you can also improve his stats by working out in the gym (that is, perform some Move-based exercises such as punching a speed bag or sparring), but that's the limit to your character's depth. Your opponents, too, have little personality, let alone any real ties to your character to explain why you need to beat on them so bad. The only bright spark is ex-con-turned-actor Danny Trejo, who makes an entertaining appearance as your in-game mentor and tutor. Trejo's main job is to show you how to fight using the Move controllers, although this comes with the sad realization that if a tough guy like Trejo can't look tough when pretending to fight with two glowing Moves, there's very little chance that you won't look ridiculous busting out the same motions.
With more than 100 fights against colorfully named characters like the Violator or the Preacher, there's a lot of single-player content to be found in The Fight. This brawler also goes online, with the option to play ranked or public matches and even to watch and bet in-game currency on other players' bouts. Fighting online proved to be stable and lag-free, although finding ranked matches during testing proved to be tough. The online provides much the same experience as offline (that is, uneven), but it's a little worse because there's no way to recalibrate mid-match should the controls go awry.

Win cash for punching!
Because the entirety of The Fight takes place in dark, dank environments, there's not much light or color, which gives the whole game a dull, monochrome vibe. The character models are also unattractive, and it doesn't help that the game's design ethos is to make all of the fighters look like weather-beaten hard men with heads like bags of hammers. It's hard to tell one fighter from another, which is somewhat fitting given the game's problems with differentiating some of its own moves. The Fight does provide some fun when it comes to basic brawling, and it will definitely make you sweat if you stick with it, but its uninvolving presentation and control problems mean that the battle to stay invested is as tough as any opponent you find in the game.

 

Call of Duty: Black Ops Review  

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 Call of Duty: Black Ops Review

When a franchise consistently delivers massively popular, high-quality games, each new entry in the series comes laden with expectation. Call of Duty: Black Ops has some big shoes to fill, but it does so admirably. The engrossing campaign is chock-full of exciting, varied gameplay and drips with intrigue and intensity. The excellent multiplayer boasts some invigorating new features, and the new combat training mode finally gives novices a way to enjoy the competitive action without suffering the slings and arrows of outrageously skilled veterans. Cooperative zombie killing and video editing tools help make Black Ops the most robustly featured game in the franchise, and though you may have expected it to be the case, this is undoubtedly one of the best shooters of the year.


Just a typical afternoon's jaunt through the Russian countryside.
The single-player campaign is set largely during the 1960s and takes you to Cold War hot spots like Cuba, Russia, and Vietnam. You are an elite covert operative, and your globe-trotting adventures form pieces of a puzzle--a puzzle that your mysterious captors are trying to put together by interrogating you. Each excursion into the field is a memory, and these missions slowly come together to build momentum as each interrogation cutscene puts another piece of the puzzle in place. It's not a very original mechanic, but it gives a coherent context to the action, and a few strong characters and dramatic moments give the story some genuine intrigue. The blurry edges of your consciousness conceal information that must come to light, and the erratic visual effects and eerie audio echoes that accompany your interrogations sometimes bleed into your mission memories, which creates a great tone of uncertainty that plays out in surprising and satisfying ways.
Your interrogation-fueled flashbacks are not beholden to the linear flow of time, allowing your missions cover a wide variety of geography and gameplay. A dramatic breakout from a brutal Soviet prison is one early highlight, and later missions feature frontline conflicts, urban firefights, and mountainous incursions. The environments are richly detailed, and though the campaign is not without a few technical hiccups (like occasionally problematic checkpoint markers and the odd teleporting ally), these moments aren't likely to hinder your enjoyment. In addition to the on-foot action, you use a number of vehicles to achieve your objectives. Some put you in the gunner's seat while others put you behind the wheel, and though the vehicle handling is unremarkable, the thrill of blowing stuff up and speeding through hostile terrain is undeniable. The core running-and-gunning mechanics remain as exciting as ever, and the gameplay variety throughout the campaign keeps the action moving at a great clip.


Nothing like a remote control car strapped with C4 to ruin your enemy's care package party.
Though the campaign is a rip-roaring good time, it clocks in at a mere six hours long. The mode that will likely keep you coming back to Black Ops for months to come is, unsurprisingly, the competitive multiplayer. At its core, this is the familiar top-notch Call of Duty action that players have been enjoying for years. You earn experience for doing well in battle, and as you level up, you gain access to new and powerful ways to customize your loadouts. New weapons and maps freshen things up, and one of the new killstreak rewards--an explosive-laden remote-control car--is a delightfully deadly device that embodies the frantic, slightly goofy side of virtual online combat. The key new element, however, is currency. In addition to earning experience for your battlefield performance, you earn Call of Duty points, which you can then spend in a variety of ways. Most perks, weapon attachments, killstreaks, and equipment items are available early on, providing you shell out the points to equip them. Guns are still unlocked as you level up, but again, you have to pony up the points to put one in your loadout. Customization options like face paint, player card backgrounds, and the new create-your-own-icon tool are all accessed by spending points. Having to pay your way gives you more loadout options at lower required levels than in previous Call of Duty games, and the fact that points are so crucial to improving your arsenal makes them as just as sublimely satisfying to earn as experience points.
Call of Duty points also enable two cool new mechanics, the first of which is contracts. These are like the many multiplayer challenges that reward you with experience points for completing combat goals, only you have to pay to complete them. If you do so within the allotted time period, you receive a tidy payout. For example, if you pay 50 points for the stab-a-guy-in-the-back contract and make good, you'll earn 100 points for your troubles. If time expires before you get stabby, you're out 50 points. Tougher contracts cost more, but they also have bigger payouts (get five headshots without dying, cost: 250 points; payout: 3,500 points and 3,500 experience). You can have up to three contracts active at a time across three different categories, and the available contracts change regularly, potentially ensuring a good amount of variety as the weeks pass. Contracts offer a nicely incentivized version of challenges and can give you something fun to strive for if you get in a rut, but don't expect these small gambles to make you rich.


Uncle Sam considers it impolite to use the door during a hostage rescue.
If contracts are gambling against the house, then wager matches are gambling against other players. In these matches, you pay an entrance fee of 10, 1,000, or 10,000 points, depending on how deep your pockets are, and then you get to play the most unique game modes that Black Ops has to offer. One mode gives you progressively better weapons for each kill you tally, while another gives you a pistol with one bullet and only three lives to live. At the end of the match, the pot is split proportionally among the top three finishers, and everyone else comes away empty handed. Wager matches are as exotic as Call of Duty multiplayer gets, and they offer a great change of pace to the familiar frantic firefights.
And for those who hanker for something completely different, the popular four-player cooperative zombie-killing mode that debuted in Call of Duty: World at War has returned. The fight to stay alive against wave after wave of shambling undead is still a tense and bizarre endeavor, and new maps and playable characters take the oddball humor of the situation to a whole new level. Nevertheless, at its core, this is the same frenzied action as found in its predecessor, and each play-through quickly begins to feel much like the last. This is the only proper cooperative mode in Call of Duty: Black Ops, supporting four players online or two locally. Two local players can also play split-screen competitive multiplayer online, while four can divide the screen equally among them and set up competitive local matches.
There are two new modes that help make Black Ops the most fully featured Call of Duty game yet. Combat Training simulates a competitive multiplayer environment with AI opponents and allows you to set the enemy difficulty to match your skill level. You gain experience and unlock gear in the same way, and though this progress only applies within Combat Training, it's a great way to get the excitement and challenge of competitive multiplayer without submitting to the vicious predations of actual humans. The other new mode is the Theater, which lets you view replays of your games, take screenshots, and edit clips to share with the community. You can string together a number of different segements from a given game, and even render a video lasting up to 30 seconds for upload to the web, though the rendering feature is not fully functional at launch. Reliving moments--both glorious and shameful--is a lot of fun, and the community has already started cranking out content for your viewing pleasure. And though it may only apply to a small percentage of the population at this point, you can also play Call of Duty: Black Ops in stereoscopic 3D, providing you have the proper cables, required glasses, and a compatible television. The effect is novel and fairly intriguing, though it takes a significant mental adjustment and may not be comfortable for many players.


BURN.
While it may not take the signature Call of Duty action to dizzying new heights, Black Ops is a thoroughly excellent game. New modes and mechanics give a jolt of energy to the lively competitive multiplayer, and the engrossing new campaign develops into one of the best in the series. Combat training allows anyone to enjoy the thrills of arena combat and the satisfaction of leveling up, and the opportunities for cooperative play, local competition, and community video creation provide even more outlets for entertainment. Call of Duty: Black Ops lives up to the top-notch pedigree that the series has earned, giving players an awesome new shooter to enjoy just in time for the holidays.

CALL OF DUTY SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

MINIMUM CONFIGURATION

  • 3D Hardware Accelerator Card required – 100% DirectX® 9.0a compatible 32MB Hardware T&L-capable video card and drivers*
  • Pentium® III 700 or Athlon™processor or higher
  • English version of Microsoft® Windows® 98/98SE/ME/2000/XP
  • 128MB of RAM
  • 8x Speed CD-ROM drive (1200KB/sec sustained transfer rate) and drivers
  • 181MB of uncompressed free hard disk space (plus 200MB for Windows swap file)
  • 100% DirectX® 9.0a compatible 16 bit sound card and drivers
  • 100% Windows® 98/98SE/ME/2000/XP compatible mouse, keyboard and drivers
  • DirectX® 9.0a (not included)
Important Note: *Some 3D accelerator cards with the chipset's listed here may not be compatible with the 3D acceleration features utilized by Call Of Duty. Please refer to your hardware manufacturer for 100% DirectX 9.0 compatibility.
SUPPORTED CHIPSETS:
  • ATI® Radeon 7200, 8500, 9000, 9500, 9700, 9800
  • All NVidia® GeForce™/Geforce FX chipset's
RECOMMENDED

  • Pentium® III 1000 or Athlon™processor or higher
  • Graphics NVidia Geforce/ FX or Ati Radeon = 128 mb or higher
  • English version of Microsoft® Windows® 98/98SE/ME/2000/XP
  • 256MB of RAM
  • 52x Speed CD-ROM drive
  • 100% DirectX® 9.0a compatible 16 bit sound card and drivers
  • 100% Windows® 98/98SE/ME/2000/XP compatible mouse, keyboard and drivers
  • DirectX® 9.0a (not included)

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