fraggs Magazine
NASCAR The Game: 2011
We Head to Daytona for the Whole Story Little Big Planet 2 Reviewed: The Sack is Back Review Blowout: 18 Games Reviewed
002 MARCH 2011
Gaming | Computers | Technology
Magazine Editor in Chief Tim Taylor
Moving Forward Greetings, and welcome to the new issue of Fraggs! We have had a crazy few months playing through all the incredible titles released lately, and we hope you have enjoyed them, too. Fraggs has developed incredibly over the time since the last issue and we hope to keep the momentum going, with your help. With a new iOS app on the horizon and many more plans in the works (I don’t want to have to kill you, so don’t make me disclose them), we are very excited to be taking such important steps forward. This month, we are bringing you a slew of new reviews, a great interview, and examining some gaming history as well. Enjoy the issue, and we hope to see you back next month for more independent looks at the gaming industry.
Tim Taylor Editor
Assistant Editor Sammi Barton Writing Staff Bryan Edge Ethan Wellman Aaron Polans Melvin Wylie Nick Vaka Jeri Klein Public Relations Michael Ireland Fraggs Intern Jared Mackey Fraggs Contributors Holt Kernodle Digital Services Provided By Apple Inc Amazon Artwork On Page 44 David Seah Advertising Manager Michael Ireland 877.896.0423 x2122 michael@fraggs.net Subscription Queries Visit Us: http://fraggs.net Email Us: subscription@fraggs.net Call Us: 877.896.0423
Tim Taylor - Editor Currently Playing: Super Street Fighter IV, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Despite being a Systems Engineer and comic book nerd, Tim still manages to spend far, far too much time playing fighting games. We are certain an intervention is in the near future. Sammi Barton - Assistant Editor Currently Playing: Call of Duty: Black Ops Although owning an NES since age four, Sammi was not fully introduced to video games until 2006. Since then she has become a full-fledged nerd with a love for comics, zombies, FPS games and countless hours on PS Home. Michael Ireland - Public Relations / Advertising Manager Currently Playing: MLB The Show 2011 When you meet people in the industry the first question that’s usually asked is “How did you get your start in the industry?” When he tells people that he started as a PR rep for the Nokia NGage, sadness instantly fills the room.
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March 2011
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DEPARTMENTS Debut Fight Nation Top Ten Fraggs Bag
REVIEWS 06 07 08 20
FEATURES Daytona 500 Little Big Planet 2 Interview: Michael Wilford
10 15 19
PREVIEWS Total War: Shogun 2 NASCAR: The Game 2011 Pride Of Nations Dreamlords: Resurrection
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Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Bulletstorm Dead Space 2 Cities in Motion DC Universe Online Magicka Dungeons RIFT Magic: The Gathering: Tactics Breach Hard Corps: Uprising Zumba Fitness Torchlight Stacking First Strike (Black Ops) Super Meat Boy: Expert Remix Noble Pack (Halo: Reach) Sumo Sway Couple OnLive In Win Dragon Rider PC Case CoolerMaster Spawn Mouse
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DEBUT A Quick Look at This Month’s Announced Games
DEAD ISLAND - Xbox 360, PS3, PC - 2011 Release
JURASSIC PARK - Xbox 360, PS3, PC - 2011 Release
GUNSTRINGER - Xbox 360 - 2011 Release
CHIVALRY: MEDIEVAL WARFARE - PC - No Release Date Announced 06
FIGHT NATION Welcome to Fight Nation, the new monthly niche column based on fighting games and the fighting scene. We will be spending a page each month going over new releases, additional characters, big tournaments, and more. Most of what is discussed here is aimed at the fighting game enthusiast, so be wary of jargon you may not know, but I hope to do my best to give pertinent information on what is going on for those that are in the scene or interested in it. Now, pleasantries out of the way, let's get to it; it has been a very busy month.
February saw the official release of Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and I, for one, was pretty
excited. Having poured hundreds of hours into Super Street Fighter 4 (as well as vanilla), I was really looking forward to playing something else for a little bit. As many did, I’m sure, I got in a few games of MvC2 prior to the release of its sequel, and immediately remembered how active and visually assaulting the game is. MvC3 definitely stays true to the nature, but there have been some pretty conflicting views up to this point.
If you have never played MvC 1 or 2, be aware that you are in for a steep learning curve. Not necessarily because the game is hard, but quite the opposite. This game is really very easy to play. One complaint I have heard often, and one I find some merit in, is that the series is terribly busy visually. And it’s true. You’ve got assists coming in all over, fast meter builds to super moves, people tagging (or being snapped) in and out frequently, projectiles litter the screen… there is a LOT going on at any given time. In other games, say SSF4 or Tekken 6, you have two characters and you are aware of what’s happening at any given moment. MvC3 is very different from that, especially when someone super jumps and your character is reduced to a small arrow pointing out your location. Some characters are massive (Hulk, Sentinel, etc.) and difficult to figure out just where their hit box is. Don’t expect to pick up the game and play
like a pro just because you’ve been good at other fighters before.
Next, Sentinel… he’s really, really good. To the point that I’ve repeatedly heard the phrase, “If you don’t play Sentinel, that means you don’t want to win.” That is, perhaps, a bit extreme. The game is new and people are finding new things in it all the time. I’m certain that, along the way, people will find decent counters to Sentinel and he won’t be looked on as quite a dominating force. I do doubt, however, that he will ever be anything under extremely good. I, for one, will not be using Sentinel, however I am also unsure just how seriously I want to take the game, so bear that in mind. Personally, I simply dislike the idea of using S tier characters. Winning with them means nothing and losing with them means you have been put on blast. My guess is that not many share my thinking, though, so plan on playing versus many, many a Sentinel. My advice? Take him to the lab and learn him, then you’ll have a better idea what he is capable of when you face him. That said, there are no plethora of 1 frame links and very little strict timing in Mvc3. Stringing together a combo can be quite accessible and the combo strings are really very open to mutation based on the situation. If someone is running Phoenix (who has the lowest life in the game, by FAR), they would be silly to open up with her. However, say you do some good damage to their first character, but instead of finishing off a combo normally, why not use a meter and snap her in? That way you can catch her on the way in and kill her before she ever has a chance. There is definitely a lot more depth to the game than you will get at first (or second, or fiftieth) glance. However, the burning question remains: will MvC3 knock Super Street Fighter 4 off the throne and be the new king of fighting games? SSF4 has come an amazingly long way, is loved by most in the scene, hated by some, but has been unwavering in its absolute
dominance so far as the de facto fighting game of choice. While MvC3 didn’t singlehandedly resurrect the fighting game craze as SF4 did, it does stem from an impressive series. Unfortunately, in my opinion, that’s not enough. While many people seem to be coming around, MvC3 has met staunch resistance since launch, being thought of as easy, wildly imbalanced, and even a talent-less button masher. True, it is more accessible than SSF4, but I think it’s true weakness lies in its unforgiving nature. Damage doesn’t scale as much as it does in SSF4. You can be severely punished in SSF4, but only the rarest of situations can you go from 100% to dead. Top MvC3 players will get to the point that a single mistake can take you from a commanding win, to a devastating loss. This will appeal to some, but for me, it’s akin to moving the first pawn 2 squares in a game of chess and automatically losing because of it. The strict nature of gameplay this will evoke will likely be met with frustration, and the more frustration, the less likely players are to stick around. Don’t get me wrong, actually playing the game is fun, it’s amusing, and often ridiculous. But with more frustration and less reward for excellent execution, I just don’t see how it will keep people’s attention in quite the way that the resurrection of Street Fighter has.
TOP 10 TOP 10 GAMING CONSOLES YOU’VE NEVER PLAYED
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Milton Bradley Vectrex The Vectrex is a rare, vector-based console built into its own vertical, monochromatic CRT display with two controllers, located and stored at the base. The Vectrex was capable of crisp lines, fluid animation, and advanced 3D gameplay via the Vectrex 3D Imager, the first 3D gaming peripheral.
7 NEC Turbo Duo The Turbo Duo, a combination of the TurboGrafx 16 and TurboGrafx CD, was essentially defunct by its US release in 1992; the market dominated by Nintendo and SEGA. The Duo featured the System Card 3 expansion, which allowed users to play Super CD games, featuring bigger sprites and higher frame rate.
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Fujitsu FM Towns Marty Although the FM Towns Marty was not released outside of Japan, it's an important piece of gaming history nonetheless, as it was the first 32-bit console, preceding the PlayStation and Saturn, by years. Despite technological advantages and quality arcade ports, the FMTM failed to succeed.
3DO Interactive Multiplayer The 3DO may not be the rarest console, however, due to its high price, few were ever owned or replaced the Genesis or SNES. The console did boast the 32-bit power to back up claims of hardware superiority to the Genesis, SNES and even Atari Jaguar, along with a massive library of games.
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SNK Neo-Geo CD Sega Nomad Instead of being a portable console with its own unique library of games, the SEGA Nomad followed NEC's line of thought and created a portable Genesis, complete with 2 controller ports and AV out so both players could play the system. Released in '95, its poor battery life and fragile design were huge disadvantages.
The Neo-Geo CD was developed to gain traction in the home market by reducing manufacturing costs for both consoles and games. Graphics and the CPU were comparable with its predecessor, the AES, however, the console was hindered by long load times.
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NEC TurboExpress
Sega Master System Seven months after the NES' release, Sega Master System was there to reap the benefits of the newly cultivated market. Though superior hardware-wise, the system was successful in Europe and S. America, rather than the US, despite being home to the first console RPG released in the US, Phantasy Star.
The TurboExpress was NEC's bid to capture the portable gaming market, in part, by being fully compatible with its home console's cartridge media. Featuring the power of the TG-16, and a backlit, full-color LCD display, it was the system's high price and poor battery life that turned off buyers.
SNK Neo-Geo Advanced The 16-bit Neo-Geo AES was SNK's home version of their successful Neo-Geo MVS arcade cabinets. Included was a memory card that allowed you to transfer progress from your home system to the arcade. Sadly, the phenomenal system and beautiful games, were killed by an astronomical launch price.
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SEGA Saturn The SEGA Saturn tops this list due to its lack of distributed units in the US, namely due to its high price point. While not a 3D powerhouse, SEGA managed to shoehorn an almost perfect port of Virtua Fighter 2 from their model-2 arcade board and was responsible for some of the finest 2D graphics of the time. Although there was a lack of a Sonic game, Saturn players did have unique franchises that justified the purchase such as Dragon Force, Albert Odyssey, Panzer Dragoon series and Nights into Dreams. Although SEGA may have shattered consumer confidence in their brand, they did manage to churn out a memorable little box.
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Daytona 500 We attend the Daytona 500 to test the realism of NASCAR The Game: 2011
Day 1: 2.19.11 6:00AM The day started innocently enough. I ventured down to the hotel lobby, our agreed meeting place. It’s there that I met Ed Martin, the Executive Vice President of Eutechnyx, the company that is developing this year’s NASCAR title. Just to be absolutely safe, before even entering the car, I verified that Mr. Martin had nothing to do with NASCAR Kart Racing. After confirming that he did indeed have no part in that debacle, his credibility remained, and we embarked on our trip to Daytona. You may, or may not have heard of Ed Martin. Even if you haven’t heard the name before, you’ve probably had your hands on his work at least once or twice. Martin once worked for a company named Papyrus, who was easily the definitive developer of NASCAR on the PC in the late 90’s. Martin also worked for Hasbro Interactive where he helped build a $30 million business across six well-reviewed number-one-selling titles. Eventually he moved on to EA Sports and had a large hand in building the very popular NASCAR Thunder series. The 45 minute drive to Daytona was an education on the sport. I’m sure he wouldn’t admit it, but Martin knows everything there is to know about the sport, company, and previous NASCAR games. All too often in this industry, you speak to people who give generic or just bullshit answers. Speaking to him you immediately knew this was not the case. For the entire drive, I drilled him with questions—some smart, some not so smart—and he had answers for every question detailed and in-depth. After what seemed to be a very quick drive to Daytona (I can’t confirm but I’m pretty sure I noticed Ed preforming a perfect 2-car draft multiple times), we arrived at Daytona International Speedway and the Daytona weekend officially started.
Day 1: 2.19.11 9:30AM Upon first entering the track grounds, you’re immediately thrust into the Daytona Midway, where hundreds of booths setup by large (and some not so large) companies are trying to do one of three things: show off their new model cars, harvest your personal information for marketing, or sell you something directly. It’s not as bad as it sounds; all of the major car companies are in attendance to show off their newest and greatest models. Next, you have the data harvesters. Companies willing to give you free swag in return for your name, address, email, etc. For a few lines of text you’ll get shirts and other company-branded items. The free swag of the day was the lint roller I secured, which, ironically, I didn’t have to give out any information for that swag gold. I’m pretty sure I’m the only one in attendance who gave the companies real information as I later learned fake information was common. 12
Day 1: 2.19.11 12:03PM Finally, once I finished filling my backpack with promotional swag, I found myself heading towards the actual track. An unmistakable sound hit, and it hit hard. That moment was the first time I heard a 865hp, 4-wheeled beast rip down the track; it was loud and extremely exciting. I immediately flashed my press badge and made my way up to the grandstands to get a look. Patiently waiting the 47 seconds it would take him to make his way around the track again seemed like forever. Suddenly, flying around turn 4 I saw him. He flew by in his 3400lb wheeled monster in what seemed to be a blur. After watching a few more of his practice laps, I decided it was time to find out what powered these beasts. The pits and garages I desperately seek just happened to be in the middle of the speedway. I assumed it would be unsafe to just cross over the track while racers where flying by at 190mph. Instead of foolishly sacrificing my life to the NASCAR gods, I found a security guard who told me about the infamous turn 4 tunnel. I had quite a walk in store for me.
The Fans After walking through the tunnel, which just happened to go right under the track, I found that the fan campgrounds stood between the garages and myself. Never letting an opportunity go to waste I decided to chat with some of the truly hardcore fans. You hear the stereotypes: NASCAR fans are wildly unintelligent hillbillies who drink all day and start fights. I can say, in my weekend experience, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Every fan I met was kind, talkative, and most seemed rather intelligent. I walked up to a few guys playing a sack toss type of game, which seemed to be popular, due to the campers’ spacing constraints, I met the Cooper family. Led by parents Kyle and Stephanie, followed by kids Rachel and Max. They drove all the way from Arizona to experience their third Daytona 500. To them, it’s not an opportunity to get plastered with cheap beer, it’s a family weekend. As they explained it, they use the weekend to get away from “everything else”. The racing community is unique. Being from Philadelphia, it’s common knowledge that Eagles fans don’t get along with Cowboys fans, and fights break out. When it comes to NASCAR, it’s very different. While each fan may hold allegiance to certain drivers, they’re united as one as race fans. The Jeff Gordon fans can have lunch with the Kyle Busch fans without a melee breaking out. Just walking around the track, the crowd gave off this impression that everyone had known each other for years. 13
Day 1: 2.19.11 12:32PM After I left my new friends, the Coopers, I found my way to the garage areas. While I couldn’t even try to pretend I knew what they were doing to the cars, I was immediately impressed with the speed and accuracy they worked with. They definitely weren’t your typical greased up sweaty mechanics. They were working with sophisticated computers and tools, and working fast, with what seemed to be pinpoint accuracy. With the first day in the books, I was definitely anticipating race day. Sure, Saturday was exciting, but Sunday is the Daytona 500! The premier event where 42 of the world’s best stock car racers drive within centimeters of each other, driving at speeds in excess of 190mph. What could go wrong?
Pickup next month’s issue as we closeout the story of our weekend at the Daytona 500. 14
R Little Big Planet 2 is a well-constructed platform game, with the new campaign consisting of a collection of especially thought-out levels and imaginative upgrades that help sew together the entire experience. In addition, all previously released DLC and constructed community content carries forward from Little Big Planet 1. As a package, LBP2 is everything LBP1 was, and so much more. Capable of appealing to both casual players and hardcore fans, Little Big Planet 2's campaign teaches new players the ropes while demonstrating tips and tricks of intricate map design to veterans. Each world within LBP2
D E W E I V E
focuses on a new upgrade type, with each level focusing on new tricks using the upgraded development tools available to map makers. These upgrades often appear as new weapons that can be equipped and override the default R1 button action: grab. LBP1 originally released this new type of equipment as a paintball gun included in the MGS4 DLC level pack, while LBP2 introduces several new tool types. Another of these new tools comes in the form of a non-playable character, Sackbots. These little guys are followers which can be programmed to run to and from you, as well as run to a carried
object, or perform any other such action. The later campaign levels make clever use of Sackbots, the specifics of which I will not spoil here. Mechanically, LBP2 is a platformer, much in the same vein as Mario or Sonic is. While playing with up to four players, you will navigate the environment in a linear fashion while collecting new costumes, stickers, decorations, and point bubbles, granting you a higher entry on the online leaderboards with the more items you collect throughout the level. Customizing your Sackboy or Sackgirl is a fun and expressive process, so collecting new costume items is always a cause for excitement. Meanwhile, new stickers are used to decorate your pod, create new levels, or to create custom costumes. Although one-hit kills bring a sense of challenge to levels, it is also an easy concept for casual players to quickly learn. All players share a life pool, therefore four players can quickly deplete
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all of their lives on a single tricky section; however, if one player manages to reach the next respawn point, all lives are restocked and all players respawn at the new location. Much of Little Big Planet 2 can be enjoyed by you, but players with a goal of 100% completion in mind will need some friends to help, either local or online, as many of the optional challenge rooms found scattered throughout the main campaign levels require 2-4 players to complete. In addition to inviting friends, you can join a random player’s game at any point. From my experience, these players range from the extremely helpful to the speedrunner that runs me off the screen and causes my untimely death. While I did not encounter any players using a Bluetooth headset, the game’s simple puzzles can easily be completed with the right teamwork mentality, despite lack of voice communication. My only real complaint about Little Big Planet 2 is a feature carried over from LBP1: the game’s jump controls. You may have read other reviews which label the controls as “floaty”, but I've observed several friends play, both rookies and veterans, and I think I've narrowed down the cause for the odd controls. The issue, in my opinion, is that the pressure required on the “X” button is greater than expected. There are many instances where I, and others, have jumped in an attempt to hop up onto a platform, only to narrowly miss my target. It is less an issue during frantic sequences, where emotions cause extra physicality, but in the early levels. Easy jumps used for simple level progression or exploration that require most of your power are often
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missed on the first attempt. The lack of air control is a key design decision in many platform games, but the “floaty feeling” comes from the expectation of where you think you should land compared to where you actually land. The map creation in LBP2 is expansive; however, many of the stickers and decorations needed for map design are scattered through the main campaign levels. Without a walkthrough guide, players will probably play through the campaign more than once in an attempt to gather all the parts necessary to construct artistic and visually pleasing levels. In my opinion, it is important that you enjoy playing the core game first, then delve into the level development tools. As a toolset, it is significantly expanded and more impressive than the much-hyped LBP1. It still has a substantial learning curve if you want to make fun, welldesigned levels, though. Your goal of creating great levels in Little Big Planet 2 will feel like work at times, but the interface and toolset is admirable and gives the feeling of constructing mods as much as it does levels. If this greatly interests you, dive in, but I recommend those considering a purchase to weigh the core coop experience first, as it is game you will be playing first and foremost. I truly enjoyed Little Big Planet 2, and I believe you will, too. Although LBP2 can be rather easy, the replay value is high, with the emphasis on short and unique levels and nearly unlimited community content. If you have a strong distaste for 2D platform games, this review probably
won’t change your mind, but if you are looking for one of the best games on the market to laze out on your couch for endless hours of co-op, this is the game you need to be playing.
OUR FAVORITE LEVELS MONSTER PINBALL Monster Pinball 2 is a well designed pinball game that features multiball, 4 bosses and an awesome haunted theme. It includes multiplayer, too!
PLANTS VS ZOMBOTS There’s a Zombot on your lawn. This is a very awesome recreation of your favorite PopCap game. In fact, it’s almost as good as the real thing. Say hi to Crazy Dave for us! LITTLE MEAT BOY While you definitely won’t get the same precision controls you get on the real game, Little Meat Boy definitely deserves a place on your favorite list.
TITANIC THE SHIP OF DREAMS On April 14th, 1912, the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank to the bottom of the ocean. Skip the Leonardo DiCaprio love scenes and experience the sad sinking Sackboy-style.
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INTERVIEW A chat with Michael Wilford, Chief Executive Officer and one of Twisted Pixels founding members, about the controversy of MaXplosion Man. Where and when did the original concept of ‘Splosion Man come about? It came from one of our brainstorming lunch meetings, where we bought pizza for everyone and we sat around and threw out any ideas we had. Our lead designer, Sean Riley, started joking that we should make a whole game based around nothing but big 'splosions and shattering glass, the two core ingredients to any good action flick. Everyone just kept riffing on that idea until we had a dude made out of "splosion" that went around mindlessly murdering everyone by turning them into slabs of meat. It made us laugh, and I think most of us blew that whole meeting off as a joke, but when the time came to pitch a new idea we figured “Screw it, let's pitch this!” I was scared that publishers were going to laugh in our faces, but they ended up loving it.
You’ve decided not to take legal action, why? Mainly because we're a small shop of game developers who like to make games and not pick fights with our childhood heroes. Even though they're not the same Capcom we grew up with, they're still the company that made Mega Man and Street Fighter, so in our book, they get to mess up a couple times. The community has really been buzzing with support over this.
Oh man, we pretty much pitched to everyone. It'd be easier to list off who we didn't pitch to, because I remember who blew us off.
Honestly, I'm just as surprised as you are. We made a couple late night tweets a couple nights ago, and when we woke up the next morning the Internet had ‘sploded with support. I guess people responded to the way we decided to handle the whole thing, but also they wanted to take the opportunity to voice their growing dissatisfaction with Capcom. Unfortunately, it looks like even bad press is good press because sales of MaXplosion appear to be spiking sharply the last few days. Oh well... maybe if Capcom is serious about "rebuilding the trust" of their fans they could donate some of their sales to charity.
Did you have any offers for publishing? If so, why did you pass?
Have you played MaXplosion personally?
We had several publishers that were interested, but in the end we chose to go with Microsoft. There were a couple different publishers that we almost signed with, but ultimately those deals fell through and Microsoft ended up offering great terms, plus we really dug the relationship that we had started with them during The Maw.
Yeah... I'm glad Capcom's response today wasn't an attempt to say their game isn't a rip, because after playing it myself I think that'd be a pretty hard case to make.
Which publishers did you originally pitch the idea to?
You pitched the idea to Capcom, did they give you a reason for passing? If I recall correctly, they just thought it didn't fit, given their portfolio of other games that they were working on at the time.
Recently announced Ms. ‘Splosion Man is on the way, anything you care to tell us about it? Just that it will be super awesome and that we're planning to reveal a lot more about it very soon. People should check it out, especially if they want a sneak peak into what Capcom will be making soon. ;)
Have you had any dealings with Capcom since they passed on the idea of ‘Splosion Man? The guys we pitched to are really good guys and we are still friends with them today. They are just as disappointed by MaXplosion as we are. They no longer work for Capcom, by the way. How successful was ‘Splosion Man? We can't share specific sales figures, but you can get a pretty good estimation by looking at the XBLA leaderboards, which shows I think about 380k players. How did you hear about the Capcom clone of your title? Actually, our audio engineer, Chainsaw, sent me an IM with a link to a message board where one of the Capcom EU developers was pimping the game. That guy probably hates us now... sorry dude! Have you contacted anybody at Capcom about it? No, we're not looking for them to do anything about it. It's up to them to do what's right now that it's been pointed out to them.
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We put our little helper monkeys to work each day, searching every corner of the Internet to look for consumer products that make us tingle with excitement. The monkeys don’t disappoint. Here’s what they came up with this month!
Razer Chimaera 5.1 Gaming Headset - $129.99 This 2.4GHz headset, available for Xbox 360, allows for up to 12 hours of uninterrupted gameplay without the hassle of bothersome cords. Also included is a charging dock, making countless battery swaps a thing of the past!
Chameleon X1 PC mouse & controller - $59.99 The Chameleon X1 has three purposes: mouse, gaming controller and PC remote. The X1 appears to be a simple, albeit gorgeous PC mouse. Then, when flipped over, doubles as a controller with the ability to control your iTunes, too! Buy at http://frag.gs/chameleon
Buy at http://frag.gs/chimaera
Razer Onza Xbox 360 Controller - $39.99 Featuring all of the regular Xbox 360 buttons, this controller is completed by the addition of two buttons, located above the left and right bumpers, as well as an updated, more precise d-pad. Buy at http://frag.gs/onza
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LiveScribe Echo Smartpen - $99 This pen, equipped with a mic, speaker, OLED display and micro-USB connector, allows the user to take notes with audio playback, purchase apps to translate words, or play the piano with accompanied notebooks. Buy at http://frag.gs/echo
Joystick-It iPad Arcade Joysticks - $24.99 This joystick attaches to any touchscreen tablet to add precise movement and increase your response time by replacing the game’s on-screen control pad with this retro joystick. Compatible with all touchscreen tablets including Android and iPad. Buy at http://frag.gs/joystick
Sifteo Cubes - $149.99 These 1.5” cubes wirelessly connect to your PC, and allow up to six cubes to be used together (or separately) to play games for up to four hours. With an LCD screen, 3D motion sensors, and a ragin’ CPU, these are a definite must-buy! Buy at http://frag.gs/sifteo
Wi-Fi Detector Apparel This shirt, available from ThinkGeek, allows the user to detect a nearby wireless signal, simply by walking near it. When in range, the shirt will light up, similar to the Wi-Fi icon on a router, or PC. Also available in the form of a cap. Buy at http://frag.gs/wifishirt
Kontrol Freek Product Line - $9.99+ These analog stick attachments are available for racing, FPS, or sport games. FPS Freeks are designed to elevate the analog stick, providing more control and precision. Once you try them, you won’t take them off! Buy at http://frag.gs/freeks
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PREVIEWS Total War: Shogun 2 NASCAR The Game: 2011 Pride of Nations Dreamlords
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Total War: Shogun 2 Platform(s): PC Genre(s): Strategy Publisher(s): SEGA Developer: Creative Assembly Rating: T For Teen
The Generals also have access to an RPG skill tree for picking new talents each time they level up, and the clan on a whole has a similar skill tree, like Civics in Civilization 5.
MSRP: $49.99
Combat remains decisive and heavily morale-based. It’s often quicker to break a unit's morale with proper positioning and tactics instead of killing the vast majority of the troops. With larger combat maps, moving into these positions can take some time, but with the helpful time controls to speed things up, or pause the action for orders if things are too hectic, Shogun 2 still has a great sense of pacing.
The original Shogun: Total War was released in 2000 and offered a solid mix of turn-based campaign and real-time battles when games only featured one or the other. Combined, both offer a truly epic experience while conquering Japan using your armies and diplomatic skill. Since then, Creative Assembly has brought Total War throughout various times in history, allowing players to control armies in medieval times, Rome, and the Colonial period. Most of these eras have received a sequel, even an offshoot action game with the release of Spartan: Total Warrior, but the Shogun setting was not revisited until now. Total War: Shogun 2 is finally on its way.
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Each new game in the Total War series expanded on the basic concepts established in the first title: maps became larger, unit counts were increased, and new types of units and warfare were introduced. They may have newly twisted and reversed words in the title, but Total War: Shogun 2 goes back to the small scale roots of the original entry in the series. It does not dial down the unit count or remove naval warfare, but it does bring back a confined, but personal sense to the combat and campaign map. Instead of a sprawling world, you contend over small sections of Japan. Wars for territory make every inch feel earned and troop counts do help adequately convey the scale of the battles. Dozens of equivalent units have been compressed into identifiable unit types, each that can gain experience and be upgraded for dramatic differences on
The turn-based aspect of Shogun 2 has ninjas. Although it also has territories, towns, building improvements, specific regional resources, water based trade routes, and diplomacy, a high level ninja is one of the most satisfying units to use in this game. Each possibly ability has an accompanying cinematic, visualizing the random dice thrown to determine if the attempt is successful or foiled, and, if foiled, whether the ninja survives to get away. Successfully assassinating a high-level enemy general has great impact on the gameplay, and is an incredibly satisfying way to cripple an enemy's army. Beyond the cinematic, the presentation of Shogun 2 at a technical and artistic level is amazing. The graphics make you stare in awe, as you watch hundreds of archers fire blazing arrows at enemies approaching a hillside in the snow. The music is excellent and fits the mood perfectly, with units marching to unique Japanese instrumentals with quick-paced drumming. The menu interface, however, can take a few moments to become familiar with, as it attempts to hide as much as possible using small icons. There were a few issues with the early
version I tested, including camera controls, which did not always scroll when the mouse was brought to the edge. Thankfully, the hotkeys had no issues. The AI seemed acceptable, though sometimes units would be spaced apart slightly more than the ideal distance. The game's auto-resolve option, however, felt a bit off. I often felt I could easily have won most battles that resulted in a loss or high casualty rate. Unfortunately, the auto-battles were the only obvious way to avoid the longer load times. I am hopeful that some of these issues can be addressed before its official release. Overall, I was very impressed with what I have played of Total War: Shogun 2. Some tweaks have been made to streamline the game without removing the main enhancements that have been made to the series, including the entire Naval Combat engine. The setting lends itself well as a strategy game and the gameplay remains solid, as the many sequels have proven.
NASCAR The Game: 2011 Platform(s): Xbox 360, PC Genre(s): Driving Simulation Publisher(s): Activision Developer: Eutechnyx Rating: E For Everyone MSRP: $59.99 You’ve heard it all before; NASCAR is only left turns, takes no skill, and is watched by inbred rednecks who only care about crashes and making sure the supply of beer never runs out. This stereotype is ironic. If you’ve ever watched a race, you know that it takes an excessive amount of skill, determination and patience to drive one of these 500hp beasts in tight packs, sometimes riding so close to someone’s back bumper that you’re hooked together, trading rubber between cars.
NASCAR The Game: 2011's doesn’t only emulate the actual race, but it recreate the entire race weekend experience, including a dynamic view from the garage. As your fans increase, or you start earning trophies, your garage changes to reflect your success.
Another great addition to this year's game is NXP. While years of gaming may tell you the best plan of action is to run your competitors off the road, you’ll miss out on earning NXP for good driving habits including clean passes and drafting. NXP can then be spent to unlock new cars, paint schemes, and a package of other goodies. Clean driving not your thing? Crash enthusiasts will also be pleased, as the title features some of the most realistic crashes seen in any racing game. No precreated crash animations done here, each crash is dynamic and unique. We haven’t seen a NASCAR game for a few years, so racing fans are ready for it. Will NASCAR 2011 feed the hunger? We’ll see March 29, and we’ll have the full review in next month's issue. Not sure which driver to cheer on? Joey Logano is a great choice, as his career is burning hot and he also happens to drive the #20 GameStop car.
It’s obvious that Eutechnyx is seeking realism and authenticity this time around. Each driver's cockpit is modeled to realistically represent that particular driver's view from within the car. The cockpit view also gives you the most action, as this view better captures the sense of speed and control. While your view might be hindered compared to the outside-car view, the new around-car radar gives you a great view of the positions of all the cars near you. Season mode also makes an appearance, and it’s definitely impressive. You take your created racer (or one of the licensed drivers) for a full season ride, while you fight your way up the leaderboard, tasting the asphalt of each licensed track.
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Pride of Nations Platform(s): PC Genre(s): Strategy Publisher(s): Paradox Interactive Developer: Paradox Interactive Rating: Rating Pending MSRP: N/A Reforge (or screw up) 70 years of history for any one of eight major world powers in Paradox Interactive’s Pride of Nations. Yes, it's a game with a lot of maps, history, strategy, and it might even make you smarter. Philippe Thibaut, the game's producer at Paradox Interactive, gave us a whirlwind tour of this very deep, very ambitious game at Paradox Con 2011. In Pride of Nations, you take control of a major world power: The United States, Russia, Great Britain, Germany, France, Japan, or many more, between the years of 1850 and 1920. Want to stop World War I from occurring? Or maybe turn France into a major military power and take over Germany? This is a game that lets you explore such possibilities, and virtually any others you’d care to pursue. According to Thibaut, this 70-year period was when the major powers were essentially defining themselves and “establishing their place in the world and their national identity. But you get to change it.” Like all of Paradox Interactive’s grand strategy games, Pride of Nations is all about giving you a world history sandbox and letting you forge your own path. Starting with a historically accurate world beginning in 1850, you control virtually every aspect of trade, diplomacy, colonization, culture, and politics.
Pride of Nations differs a little from some of Paradox’s other grand strategy games
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because it’s more focused toward expansion, diplomacy, and economics. Your primary goal is simply to develop your nation into a superpower. But according to Thibaut, “Pride of Nations is set during a period when private capitalization was at its best.” Though you’ll be developing and managing “the military option”, of course, you can’t just send your troops stomping willy-nilly into other countries on a whim. The only way to declare war is to essentially “engineer a crisis” (to use Thibaut’s phrase)—for example, making trade agreements and then not living up to your end of the bargain might be a good way to start. “You can only declare war through manipulation,” Thibaut tells us, “which adds significant strategy and scheming to the game.” So, basically, before the shooting begins, you might need to be a bit of a rabble-rouser, if you’re hell-bent on shooting at another country, anyway. War can and will still happen, one way or the other, and when it does happen, expect intensely detailed models and strategy. Thibaut explains, “Everything has been meticulously detailed. Even the military units have been accurately modeled, right down to their uniforms.” Prestige is essentially the game’s measure of your score in the game and how other nations treat you. High prestige means your country is well-respected. Low prestige means you’re a nation of knee-biters. Prestige can be earned by meeting objectives— “side quests” in the game, if you will—and it’s gained as your nation and its overall might continues to grow. Prestige is also the currency used in diplomacy with other nations. You can do virtually anything you want in the game—generally, mistakes may just
explain that you virtually always recover from a mistake. To keep things interesting, Pride of Nations also has a variety of historically accurate but randomized events that can throw you a curve ball now and again. For the main campaign, different nations can have different victory conditions. “For example, Britain’s goal is to end the game with two or more times the prestige of the other nations,” Thibaut tells us.
Pride of Nations spans roughly 70 years, with 1 game turn being equal to 15 game days. A complete game is 1600 turns, and that’s a damn long game, but you have plenty of options for playing shorter games. You can even play games as short as 70 turns. Pride of Nations allows you to create your own parameters for victory, and pre-made scenarios from different points in history will also be Included. You can also play with up to 7 friends in a “simultaneous turn-based” engine.
Dreamlords: Resurrection Platform(s): PC Genre(s): Persistent Online RPG Publisher(s): Paradox Interactive Developer: Lockpick Entertainment Rating: Rating Pending MSRP: N/A
Dreamlords: Resurrection is a unique,
free-to-play MMO that combines the complexity and depth of turn-based strategy games with fast-paced, RTS combat. It’s quite unlike any MMO out there!
Dreamlords was originally self-published by Lockpick Entertainment, but is now teaming up with veterans, Paradox Interactive, to release Dreamlords: Resurrection as one of the first Paradox Connect-enabled games. Paradox Connect is Paradox Interactive’s new unified platform for upcoming online games, such as Hearts of Iron: The Card Game, Salem, and others. Dreamlords: Resurrection starts you as a humble Dreamlord with little more than underpants and a body engulfed in ethereal fire. Your newly awakened Dreamlord must then gather power, attract followers, conquer lands and enemies, and build and manage a kingdom. Although Dreamlords: Resurrection may appear to be a basic action RPG or RTS on its surface, once you get through the tutorial, there is a very deep strategy game of kingdom building, management, and questing waiting for you. Dreamlords requires long-term strategy and tactical battle prowess. This is not a game built on grinding or clicking monsters to death. The kingdom building aspect of the game requires you to attract followers, construct buildings, research upgrades, and handle tasks similar to those in games such as Majesty 2 or Stronghold.
Followers support your kingdom by completing various functions within your kingdom, as well as serve as the pool from which you recruit military units. Unlike a typical RTS, research and development in Dreamlords: Resurrection takes hours or days of real time to complete. This is affected by the number of followers you have assigned to building— the more you assign to it, the faster the research can be completed. Prepare for sleepless nights, as you can log into a portal through a web browser that lets you manage your kingdom even when you can’t log in to the game client. So, even when you can’t log in and play the game from its client, you can log in to the website and manage your kingdom, resources and other elements. Only the kingdom management aspects are playable through a browser, though. The currency and economics of Dreamlords: Resurrection are complex. There are three primary forms: Gnosis, Soul Shards, and Tributes.
one another out by providing resources, storing goods, trading, etc. Once your Dreamlord has a bustling kingdom and an army, you can travel into other lands to conquer and add to your power. Of course, other players might want that little slice of heaven you’ve had your eye on, too. Sadly, Dreamlords: Resurrection resets the world every two months as the era comes to an end. Thankfully, your Dreamlord, gear and progression aren’t lost, but you’ll need to start a new kingdom and build up again. This is the game's way of leveling the playing field. There’s a lot going on, but don't be overwhelmed. The user community for the game is arguably one of the most helpful and rookie-friendly environments out there, so even if the complexities of the game seem vast, you can reach out for help, and you might be surprised at the potential flood of veteran players who are willing to assist you. Dreamlords: Resurrection is presently in beta, available via the Dreamlords: Resurrection Facebook page, and set to release later in 2011.
Emerging victorious from battle may yield loot, resources, or Soul Shards. Items and Soul Shards can also be converted into a sort of currency called Gnosis. Gnosis is used to attract followers and is a representation of your overall power and experience. Soul Shards are a form of currency used to buy and upgrade buildings and gear. You can also convert them into Gnosis. Tributes, on the other hand, can be purchased with real-world cash for upgrades and other in-game benefits. You can also acquire some by success in the PvP part of the game.
Dreamlords: Resurrection also has a fully-fledged economy including player auction houses, where players can buy, sell, and trade resources and equipment. In addition, players within guilds—called Convergences in game—can similarly help
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REVIEWS Retail Games Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Bulletstorm Dead Space 2 Cities in Motion DC Universe Online Magicka Dungeons RIFT Zumba Fitness
30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 40
Downloadable Games Magic: The Gathering: Tactics Breach Hard Corps: Uprising Torchlight Stacking
38 39 39 40 40
DLC Call of Duty: Black Ops First Strike Halo: Reach Noble Pack Super Meat Boy Expert Remix
41 41 41
Hardware Sumo Sway Couple OnLive In Win Dragon Rider PC Case CoolMaster Spawn
44 45 46 47
Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Platform(s): Xbox 360, PS3 Genre(s): Fighting Publisher(s): Capcom Developer: Capcom Rating: T for Teen MSRP: $59.99 Arcade-style fighting games are booming once again, and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was released this month to bolster the lineup. It’s predecessor is usually hailed as one of the best and most skill-based fighting games ever made, so MvC3 has some big shoes to fill. With some pretty significant lineup changes, you choose your team of 3 from 36 total characters. Marvel favorites include Wolverine, Captain America, Storm, Sentinel, and more. They have also added some new characters, like X-23, Phoenix, Dormammu, and a surprising amount more. Capcom brings in familiar faces with Morrigan, Felicia, Akuma, and Ryu, but also newly tags in Dante, Haggar, and Arthur (from Ghosts ‘n Goblins), etc. The number of different teams you can put together is staggering and the characters vary wildly as well. Making a return is the ability to choose one of 3 types of assists for each of your characters, where they can be called in and perform a partner attack to help you keep pressure on or keep combos going. With all of this, one thing you can say is that you certainly are given the tools to tailor your 3 person team to your specific play style.
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The graphics retain a hint of the “inky” style introduced in Street Fighter 4, but also keep a good amount of the comic book feel from MvC2. As each game in this series has been, the backgrounds are full, lively, and at times even distracting. With 6 characters total per fight, expect a LOT of action on the screen at any given
moment. On the good side, it’s all very pretty and well-developed action. Most of the voice acting is fitting and there is a noticeably larger amount of it than in any of the previous games. There are a handful of people that get a little grating after some time, however, Deadpool being at the top of that list. The sound effects mirror the graphics in that it’s basically a giant action storm that’s going on, but they are still crisp and clear. The simple fact of how much is going on, however, can become muddled at times, making it difficult to fully grasp what is actually transpiring. As with most fighting games of this age, you will likely have some difficulty getting reliable and fast responses from the stock controllers. Really, they just aren’t made for this type of game. It’s doable, and if all you are looking for is to watch a bunch of pretty projectiles fly across the screen as you mash buttons with friends, it’s not so big of a deal. If, on the other hand, you are aiming to take your play online and do well or have any intention of seriously playing the game, you will have to save some money to invest. You can pick up a controller with a 6 button layout on the face for fairly cheap, but the standard fare for more serious fighting game players would be a Mad Catz or similar style arcade stick, which will run you in the area of $150. That’s not a massive amount of money, but it’s not something that’s really worthwhile unless you are planning on putting some serious hours in. As far as gameplay, the controls are quite responsive, though it will take some getting used to if you are ingrained in some of the shortcut inputs that Street Fighter 4 offered. They seem to be more strict than SF4, but that’s a welcome addition for some players. The game also does offer a “Simple Mode” for inputs, for those of you who are more interested in
having ridiculous fights with your friends here and there, but less so in actually becoming proficient with the nuts and bolts of the game itself. It’s nice to see in that it helps to keep casual players from feeling alienated, although I’m uncertain how often it will actually be used. Overall, the game is a lot a fun, it’s entertaining, and it’s a nice piece of eye candy. Despite the mode for simple inputs, however, it’s not something that can be particularly easily picked up and played well. The timing on asking your partners to come in and assist you is a big part of the game and mistakes can lead to team members being killed, even though you aren’t actively controlling them. The learning curve may be high, but if you take the time to learn the basics, the rest of the game is really pretty open to either learn 1 combo and repeat, or (for the more adventurous) experiment with putting your own combos together. If you plan on putting some good hours in, I can’t stress enough how much a fight pad
What We Liked Huge cast of characters Very pretty graphics Open-ended combo creation What We Hated Playing isn’t particularly intuitive Requires fight pad or fight stick for any advanced play
Buy
8.5
Bulletstorm Platform(s): Xbox 360, PS3, PC Genre(s): First-Person Shooter Publisher(s): EA Developer: People Can Fly & Epic Games Rating: M for Mature MSRP: $59.99
Bullestorm is a rip-roaring, leash-lashing,
mutant-mashing, lurid language-laden, entertaining escapade. It kicks the firstperson shooter out of the box and into an oncoming, futuristic, freight train of fantastical fun. Grayson Hunter is a former soldier of immense luck, countered by seemingly unending misfortune (often brought about by his thoughtless use of brute force) who hungers for vengeance against the general that betrayed him. His drunken actions in the opening minutes of the game sends his ship, and that of his most hated enemy, plummeting to the planet below. Only his injured cyborg friend, Ishi Sato, and he to survive and find a way off the world.
Bulletstorm is fast paced; cut scenes are
entertaining and informative. Dialogue is often humorous and filled with more expletives than a Quentin Tarantino film. It’s the gameplay, though, that elevates Bulletstorm above being called a high quality derivative into something special. The energy leash is what sets the game apart. Referred to as an instinct moderated weapon, the energy leash attaches itself to the left wrist of your player, allowing you to send out a stream of visible energy that wraps itself around your enemies. This gives you the ability to pull them toward you in slow motion. “Kill with Skill” is m ore than a tag line; it defines the game. You won't survive Bulletstorm by running and gunning. The only way to upgrade your weapons is by
earning points, which are gained through skill shots. You may earn more points by killing enemies in creative ways. The energy leash is clearly intended to be your primary weapon, and when used in concert with your guns, kicking, and the planet’s deadly environment, you'll gain points that allow you to upgrade your weapons and improve your ability to create bloody mayhem.
can rent Bulletstorm and enjoy its fast- paced, exciting campaign and competitive Echo Challenges. If you want to play online with friends, pay full retail price, or be prepared to purchase the privilege to play online. If you have children, younger siblings, or sensitive eyes and ears, this is a mature title filled with gooey gore and world record proportions of profanity. Consider yourself warned. This is a recommended title with the caveat it's strictly intended for adults. It's not perfect, but it’s several hours of your life well spent.
Echo is a single player game that has players running through a series of maps. Points and stars are awarded for a combination of factors, including time to completion and quality of skill shots. Each completed challenge appears on a leaderboard with your friends' scores. The more stars awarded, the more Echo Challenges are unlocked. Anarchy, Bulletstorm's multiplayer offering, was moderately disappointing. Four players battle through twenty ever more difficult waves of enemies, each wave having its own unique challenges. Bulletstorm does not include gametypes such as team deathmatch or an objectoriented battle, just Anarchy. Anarchy can be challenging, even fun, if you can overcome the tedium of playing the same map for twenty rounds. I played with a group through all twenty waves; each new wave required earning more points, which meant killing with higher point value skill shots. I just wish there was more here. The modern shooter almost demands a robust multiplayer, even at the sacrifice of length and depth of the single player game. I want the joy of leashing my friend, pulling him to me, kicking him in the head, and seeing him fly into a giant cactus. Though disappointing, it does not dramatically diminish my positive feelings for the game overall. If you don't care about multiplayer, you
What We Liked Cutscenes are entertaining Humorous dialogue and story Fast-paced gameplay What We Hated No variety of MP gametypes Mutliplayer is disappointingly tedious For mature audiences only
Buy
8.5
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with the likes of Left 4 Dead 2, but it’s still well done and holds a lot of promise, should Visceral choose to expand upon it.
Dead Space 2 Platform(s): Xbox 360, PS3, PC Genre(s): Survival Publisher(s): EA Developer: Visceral Games Rating: M for Mature MSRP: $59.99
Dead Space 2 delivers a tense action-horror experience. It doesn't deviate from the mechanics or the formula of the original, but it's terrifically fun and technically well-executed on virtually every level—even though it's not quite as scary as you might believe. Your mom will still hate it, however. The story begins with you aboard a space station, 3 years after the events of the first game, with a memory full of holes and a supposedly questionable grip on your sanity. Predictably, it doesn’t take long for the events of the first game to repeat themselves for the sequel. Basically, 1) All hell breaks loose and Necromorphs—the gruesome mutant-zombie-type creatures— overrun the place and kill everyone in brutal, bloody fashion. 2) You are contacted by a mysterious benefactor/aid who tries to help you escape. 3) You wander the halls of the industrial space station in a generally linear and convoluted plot that requires you to fix lots of stuff to facilitate your escape. 4) You kill countless enemies in a brutal, bloody, linear fashion. 5) Repeat 2-5.
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Dead Space 2 largely delivers what it promises: more white-knuckle, actionloaded gore and dismemberment from the first game. The environments are tense and creepy, frequently leaving you in poor light and making excellent use of ambient sound to keep you guessing. Seriously, is it so hard in the future to keep the lights on? The frenetic action is well-paced and broken up with segments of simple puzzle solving. The overall pacing in Dead Space 2 does work better, though.
Like the original game, you’ll still collect credits, stuff to sell, and power nodes, all of which serve to keep you in ammo, weapon, and armor. Familiar friends such as a plasma cutter, line gun, and pulse rifle return, along with many more including a the javelin gun and flamethrower. Necromorphs are most efficiently killed when they are dismembered, so accuracy and conserving ammo are important to your survival. In addition to your arsenal of weapons, you have a stasis field you can use to temporarily freeze enemies, and you have telekinesis for grabbing things and flinging them. Telekinesis and stasis are also used to manipulate the environment and occasionally solve puzzles (if you can call them that).
Although it’s largely more of the same with some new enemies, Dead Space 2 is a refinement of its predecessor and a very well-executed sequel. It won’t disappoint fans of the original game or survival horror games in general. Your mom will hate it, but you will love it. The PC version could have benefitted from someone taking more time to modify the user interface and controls for the PC environment. It works well enough once you adapt, but still feels a little like sloppy seconds from the console world. A good gaming mouse and/or gaming keyboard can help alleviate some of that, however.
Fun though it is, Dead Space 2 never truly addresses the core problem faced by combining an action game/shooter with “horror”; you can (and must) kill everything that jumps out at you. A horror game with this mechanic ultimately loses any real sense of fear. We know that we can kill everything, so the game becomes more about mechanics and less about being scared. By mid game, you’ll be largely accustomed to the game’s cadence. Though it will still excite and thrill, it probably won’t scare you much. The linear story drives you through the game like an amusement park ride, forcing you to kill everything. But it's a task you will gleefully oblige. In other words, the ride is still plenty of fun. Multiplayer in Dead Space 2 is decent and doesn’t feel like a hackneyed add-on. You play alternately on a team of 4 Nercomorphs or 4 well-armed humans in fast-paced, objective-based matches. You also earn experience the more you play, which unlocks more weapons and gear for your loadouts. While the entire multiplayer is well-executed, it’s certainly not on
What We Liked More of what you loved from DS1 Good pacing What We Hated Doesn’t push past original’s formula Not as scary as hoped
Rent
7.0
wages, and mull economic data to determine areas for fiscal improvement.
Cities in Motion Platform(s): PC Genre(s): Simulation Publisher(s): Paradox Interactive Developer: Colossal Order Rating: E for Everyone MSRP: $19.99
Cities in Motion is an excellent city simulator/tycoon game in a genre that doesn't see many mainstream PC releases anymore. If you’re a fan of the genre, don't miss the bus on this little gem. Developed by Colossal Order and published by Paradox Interactive, Cities in Motion tasks you with building and managing every aspect of the public transportation infrastructure for one of four major European cities (Vienna, Berlin, Helsinki and Amsterdam). Cities in Motion is a pretty game with detailed 3D cities and a polished, attractive user interface. It would be nice if you could zoom in even closer to the vehicles and citizens, or take a pedestrian -eye stroll of the city, but that's a wish list item and not a criticism. The game's smooth, jazzy background music is also pleasant and evokes the relaxing, casual atmosphere of a cosmopolitan coffee shop—an interesting contrast to the hurried nature of mass transit. Better still, Cities in Motion is pretty easy to learn and play. Whether you’re laying tracks for a new tram system or pouring through financial data, finding and using information is fairly painless. The tutorial for the game will get you up and running quickly, although it still relies too much on reading through dense dialog boxes to teach you the game. Thankfully, Cities in Motion makes heavy use of mouse-over text for icons (to tell you what menu items are), and the game uses hyperlinked text in dialog boxes to immediately take you to the location on the map to which the text refers. They're
relatively minor features but thoughtful touches.
Cities in Motion may look good and be easy to learn, but underneath that attractive exterior is a deeply engaging and complex game. There is a lot of information to dig into underneath the basic transit-building and vehicle management layers. Creating a few bus lines is easy enough, but the city is very big and busses can’t handle everything. Eventually you’ll expand to trams, subways, and even ferries and helicopters. Part of the real challenge is not only figuring out which routes are the most successful (and profitable), but interconnecting them to get people where they need to go. Busses can’t do all the work, so you’ll probably need bus routes to the tram, subway station, and/or ferry docks, for example.
Economic trends (such as a recession) will occur, forcing your business empire to react accordingly by lowering ticket prices for cash-strapped consumers, shutting down underperforming lines, or even selling off vehicles and reducing services. In short, there’s plenty to keep you busy and engaged. And even if you exhaust the game’s 12 scenario campaign, you can play in a sandbox mode or build your own city with the included map editor. (We're still hoping for a giant monster or zombie apocalypse button DLC.)
Cities in Motion succeeds in one of the most important areas for city simulators and tycoon-style games: being easy to learn, complex and difficult to master, and a pleasure to play. And at only $20, Cities in Motion is an easy recommendation.
Try creating a super long bus route and see what happens. (Here’s a hint: long lines of unhappy customers who abandon your transit system, drive their cars, and speed the world to some sort of environmental apocalypse. Congratulations, jackass.) While you’re busy creating your empire and working towards your primary goal (as dictated by the campaign or your own goals in sandbox mode), Cities in Motion also keeps you busy with various goals and “side quests”. Generally the reward for side quests is a little money and positive reputation for your company. In addition, you have to tend to the business needs of your company and maintain a positive public reputation by keeping your services working well and keeping customers happy. To that end you need to support your robust transit systems with marketing campaigns, fair (but profitable) ticket prices and employee
What We Liked Very helpful interface and easy to play Ability to create your own city Polished graphics What We Hated Tutorial is far too wordy Pretty limited gameplay scope
Buy
7.5
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DC Universe Online Platform(s): PS3, PC Genre(s): MMORPG Publisher(s): Sony Online Entertainment Developer: Sony Online Entertainment Rating: T for Teen MSRP: $59.99
DC Universe Online brings the DC comic universe to life with fast, fun, actionbased game play. Ultimately, it gets more right than wrong and paves the way for a long, bright future for the game. Although there is room for improvement, DC Universe Online represents a generally excellent start for the game. It delivers a solid superhero MMORPG that is easy to enjoy in shorter bits, which may best, as you could easily hit the game’s level 30 cap in a week of steady play, if you were so inclined. The character creation aspect of DCUO offers plenty of options, but it falls far short of the customization options found in competing super hero games, such as Champions Online and City of Heroes. Perhaps the biggest problem with the character creation process is that it runs counter to the conventions of the genre. Normally, you’d think of the kind of powers you want and design a character around that conception. In DCUO, however, some of the first things you pick are your gender, a mentor, and a weapon. Power selections are also very limited. Aside from various iconic powers you can buy once you've reached level 9, you’re largely limited to elemental-based powers and you can’t customize your power effects. As you play through the game, you will acquire all types of gear that you can equip and use to change the look of your character. Alternately, you can wear the gear to receive the benefits it provides, but turn it off visually, so it doesn’t mess up your character’s look.
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Next, you learn about combat. All combat is action-based, and you can actually dodge and block enemy attacks, maneuver around them, and button-mash your way to victory. As you level up you’ll gain more powers and attack chains. Combinations are performed by simple mouse and button combinations. You also have various powers accessible via the action bar. Throughout DCUO, you partake in missions that can be played as part of a team or single-player. Generally, after a series of missions, you’ll get an instance mission that culminates in a boss battle against a DC hero or villain. Some missions are pretty short, and generally take less than an hour to complete. Just be sure to go in prepared with Soder Cola (health potions). If you die in a mission, you merely return to the beginning of the mission. Aside from boss fights, the missions don’t reset, so you don’t have to slog through them all over again. In addition to the standard story-based missions, you can also play Alert and PvP missions from anywhere in the game. Alert missions are team-based missions that consist of multiple phases and several boss battles. They take a little longer than the standard story-based instances you’ll encounter within the city, and they are designed for 4-players. PvP maps include a variety of game types where 8 villains can compete against 8 heroes in CTF, capture and hold, and similar multiplayer matches. You can also play PvP Legends in which players can play PvP as iconic DC characters such as Batman or Harley Quinn, with the ability to earn access to additional characters. Perhaps the biggest design flaw for PvP servers is that there is virtually nothing to shield the low level characters from the big dogs. Often, higher level and more experienced players will pick on the lower
level players. Although frustrating at first, what comes around goes around, and you probably won’t feel guilty when you decide it’s time for payback.
DC Universe includes achievements, Deeds, and other extras you can collect as you play through the game. You can also scour the city and mission areas for clues that give you additional information about a mission or story arc, and possible XP. DC Universe gets a lot of things right. It’s accessible, easy to learn, quick and fun to play, and encourages story-based play. All in all, DC Universe Online delivers an excellent MMORPG experience for players that may not typically like MMORPG games. However, the user and chat interfaces could use an overhaul. The Quest journal is also cumbersome, and queuing for missions seems to take some time. As long as SOE can continue adding new content, fixing bugs, and enhancing and supporting the game, DC Universe Online should have a long, bright future ahead of it.
What We Liked Easy to learn and play Fast and action-based gameplay No level grinding What We Hated Repetitive mechanics UI is confusing and unfriendly
Buy
7.0
it makes the game even more funny because of this.
Magicka Platform(s): PC Genre(s): Action Adventure Publisher(s): Paradox Interactive Developer: Arrowhead Game Studios Rating: T for Teen MSRP: $9.99 At first glance, Magicka looks like a Diablo clone, but it doesn’t play like one. You do wander around killing creatures, and there are swords and staves, but the similarities pretty much end there. In Magicka, you mostly kill things with spells that you cast by combining together eight different elements. Single-player adventure mode runs you through 13 levels of baddies and bosses to destroy, and there’s also a challenge mode to test your spell casting skills. However, online multiplayer is really where the game shines. Running around by yourself blasting goblins into little bits is fun and all, but when you throw three other wizards in the mix, mayhem and hilarity are not far behind. The casting system and control scheme are the only things about the game that left me feeling a bit discouraged. Overall, Magicka is a great casual multiplayer experience, but can get frustrating very quickly in single player. If you have watched the trailer, you know you’re in for some tongue-in-cheek humor and Magicka definitely delivers there. With references to Monty Python, Indiana Jones, and World of Warcraft, to name a few, Magicka is constantly reminding you not to take things too seriously. Which is good, considering you will undoubtedly set yourself on fire, blow up your friends, and inadvertently catapult yourself off a cliff or two before you’re finished. You are introduced to the world by Vlad, who is most certainly not a vampire. From
there, you quickly harness the eight elements that compose the majority of the game mechanic. As you explore, you find new spells, weapons, and staffs, each augmenting your ability to wreak havoc upon your enemies—or yourself and company. Which reminds me… be prepared to die. Over and over and over again, albeit in complex and spectacular ways. In single player, you’ll be pushed back to the last checkpoint and all the enemies respawn. The frustration of this is mitigated in multiplayer, since your fellow wizards not only provide additional firepower, but can heal you and resurrect you when you die. The spell casting mechanic, which allows thousands of different spells to be created, is easy to learn, yet difficult to master. A fireball, for example, can be made by combining earth and fire. Put together arcane and ice, and you’ve got yourself an ice beam. While this mechanic allows for lots of experimentation and a great variety of spells, having to regurgitate the same elemental sequences over and over again can get old. This could be greatly improved if they would allow you to set up a few spell presets so that when you want to launch a giant fireball, for example, you could hit one key rather than “fire, fire, fire, fire, earth” every time. Being surrounded by enemies and having to spend the mental time and energy to quickly tap out all the elements you want often proved to be fatal in my experience. The control scheme also seemed a bit counter intuitive, but you will get used to it. If you set aside the iffy control scheme and the need to constantly be mashing the element buttons, the game is extremely enjoyable, especially multiplayer. The graphics, while not bleeding-edge, do a fine job of conveying the carnage you’ll be wreaking upon your enemies. I found the voice-overs to be
For multiplayer, up to four players can participate. You can chat with your teammates and adjust your costume and robe color before starting the game. The adventure levels are exactly the same in multiplayer as they are in single player, but you’ve got more wizards at your disposal. As I mentioned earlier, this can be a boon or a curse, depending on who’s casting what, when, and at whom. This game is a lot of fun for what it is, but don’t expect to be collecting epic weapons and armor, or leveling up your wizard to get that latest and greatest spell. If you have the patience to die and die again, and don’t mind mashing button combos constantly, it’s a great game for the price. You probably won’t spend hours a night for weeks on end playing it, but the time you do spend will be filled with catastrophic fun and hilarity.
What We Liked Interesting magic system Multiplayer mayhem is awesome Comical writing What We Hated Would prefer click-to-move Mashing element buttons Repeatedly dying
Buy
7.0
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Dungeons Platform(s): PC Genre(s): Strategy Publisher(s): Kalypso Media Developer: Realmforge Studios Rating: M for Mature MSRP: $39.99
Dungeons is a decent hybrid game that combines elements of classic PC games such as Dungeon Keeper, its biggest inspiration, and action RPGs such as Diablo II. But like many hybrids, it falls a little short in capturing all of the magic of its inspirations. Once the reigning ruler over the other Dungeonlords, you now rule only the tiniest of dungeons, while the other Dungeonlords laugh at your ignominious fall from power. But that’s okay. All you have to do is claw your way back to the top—or in the case, the bottom—of the dungeon and reclaim your throne. In order to regain your status as the ultimate Dungeonlord, you need to spread your power and evil throughout the land. Your basic job is to act as an evil interior designer, decorating your dungeon to attract naïve adventurers into it. Tempt then with phat loot, gold, and experience points, and when they’re at their happiest, thump them, and your goblins will drag them into your prison. Prisoners are slowly drained of their soul energy, which you spend on tricking out your dungeon and bolstering your power.
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The basic mechanics of the game work similarly to Dungeon Keeper in many respects. You direct goblins to dig out rooms, which you then populate with prestige gimmicks. Each one, from humble piles of skulls to huge statues, add prestige to your dungeon and makes it more popular with adventurers. Some prestige gimmicks convert empty chambers into a type of room that
appeals to specific adventurers, such as a library for mages or a weapons room for warriors. Different adventurers have different needs to make them happy, and you want them as happy as possible so you can drain the most soul energy out of them (later in the game you can torture them and sacrifice them to Dark Gods. Woohoo!). In addition to providing you with soul energy, adventurers bring gold into your dungeon and, if you’re doing your job well, they don’t leave with it. While you’re expanding your dungeon and entertaining “customers”, Dungeons keeps you busy with achieving various goals. Some of the earlier levels simply require you to take control of areas, or use your goblins to burrow into regions so you can trash them. Your former underlings, now your bosses and the Dungeonlord equivalent of middle management, will demand tasks of you as well.
But even though Dungeons does a reasonable job of channeling its inspiration (Dungeon Keeper), its attempt to innovate with some Diablo-style action RPG elements miss the mark and mar the experience somewhat. Building out a dungeon is fun. There’s also an extensive skill tree that you can purchase from. But running around fighting adventurers doesn’t feel very Dungeonlord-like. It’s an innovative and interesting idea, but it just doesn’t seem to mesh well with the spirit of the game. Basically, Dungeons does a decent job of keeping you busy, but often feels like it requires too much busy work. It’s fairly enjoyable but still lacks a lot of the elements that would truly fill the void left by Dungeon Keeper. If you like the idea of having action-RPG elements injected into the game, then you may enjoy Dungeons more. But if you’re an old school Dungeon Keeper fan, you’ll probably feel like something is missing.
In the early game, you’ll probably need to do a good bit of your own dirty work and thump adventurers coming into your lair. After you gain sufficient strength and numbers, you’ll be able to spend more time scheming and less time getting your hands dirty. Unfortunately, Dungeons forces you to do too much yourself, and frequently you don’t feel so much like a Dungeonlord as you do an executive minion. It gets a lot of elements right, though. It’s pretty soundly executed, well-written, and captures the tongue-in-cheek spirit of the “bad is good” idea well. Adventurers are obnoxious, bratty children that smash in your doors and take your gold. The world is ruled by self-righteous and arrogant jerks. You’re not just evil, you’re a necessary evil that has to counterbalance a world of frolicking unicorns, care bears, and rainbows—and the folks that love them.
What We Liked Reminiscent of Dungeon Keeper Good satire of RPG conventions What We Hated Too much micromanaging Not enough dungeon design It’s not Dungeon Keeper
Pass
6.5
RIFT Platform(s): PC Genre(s): MMORPG Publisher(s): Trion Worlds Developer: Trion Worlds Rating: T for Teen MSRP: $49.99 Trion Worlds Inc’s new MMO, RIFT, has descended upon us. With a tagline of “We’re not in Azeroth any more”, the developers are taking aim squarely at the market currently dominated by ActivisionBlizzard’s World of Warcraft. But does this game distinguish itself enough in the MMO market to deserve your hard earned money? While RIFT has an interesting backstory, suffice it to know that you’re on the world of Telara, which is under constant siege by bad guys that emerge from magical rifts and march upon nearby cities and towns. Telara is also in the middle of a civil war, which establishes the two factions, Guardians and Defiants, for player vs. player combat and additional storylines. The urge to compare various facets of this game to other MMOs is impossible to avoid, especially when trying to describe the game to veterans of the genre. Let’s just get this out of the way: RIFT is a lot like World of Warcraft. A lot. The similarity of some aspects of RIFT to WoW falls somewhere between “standing on the shoulders of giants” and “potential lawsuit”. Taking inspiration from the world’s most popular fantasy MMO is not a bad thing though, and the developers of RIFT have created an experience that feels comfortably familiar without coming across as a clone. Any long term player of WoW will recognize plenty of the user interface (UI) and gameplay elements: clearly marked quest givers and quest map locations, loot that is color coded by rarity from green to purple, rested experience, instanced PvP areas (called
Warfronts instead of Battlegrounds), even the 5 point combo system for rogues. The first thing players will notice about RIFT is the graphics, which are astonishingly good for an MMO. The game runs on a modified version of the Gamebryo engine which powers the latest entries in Fallout and the Elder Scrolls series. Character creation follows the RPG standard: choose a race, customize your features, pick your name. You will also select a calling, which is a base archetype that will determine your class: Warrior, Cleric, Rogue or Mage. After you create your character and begin your adventures, you’ll be able to pick your three soul specializations from each calling such as Pyromancer for mage, Paladin for warrior or Assassin for rogue. The 9 souls from each calling combine to create over 80 different combinations. Yes, there are several hundred classes in RIFT. Luckily, you can unlock every available soul in your calling through a series of simple quests. Resetting the points you have spent in your souls and swapping them around costs a reasonable amount of gold. You can also purchase additional ‘roles’ which allow you to easily swap to a specialization for healing, support, or damage with the push of a button. Another impressive part of RIFT is how much dynamic content is in the game. You might be happily collecting boar snouts for farmer John when a death rift opens up in the sky above your head and a demonic invasion force pours out. Similar events, ranging from small opposing-faction footholds spawning a few enemy troops up to full scale invasions that require the coordinated effort of hundreds of players to stop, are constantly occurring in RIFT and players are rewarded for participating in them. The PvP action is fast and frenetic, and provides ample rewards in the form of
spendable currency and PvP-centric quests. The last point to highlight about the RIFT is its polish. From patching to playing, the entire experience is bug-free, stable, optimized and very well done. The list of RIFTs shortcomings is short but it’s worth mentioning a few things. The game falls prey to the time honored MMO timesink of slow movement speeds. You move around the world at a frustratingly slow jog, and there are precious few ways to speed traveling. Also, RIFT has one single sequence of areas per faction that you visit to level, making for a very boring time when you create a new character to try a different archetype. Trion Worlds has brought a fun and fast-paced game to market that doesn’t stray far from its MMO roots, while still delivering a host of clever improvements to the genre. Whether you’re looking for your next massively multiplayer fix or considering one for the first time, you will not be disappointed with RIFT.
What We Liked Dynamic invasion content Huge variety of classes/builds Great graphics and well polished What We Hated Typically slow run speed Single starting area Too many hotkeys & abilities
Buy
9.0
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Magic: The Gathering: Tactics Platform(s): PC Genre(s): Turn-Based Strategy Publisher(s): Sony Online Entertainment Developer: Sony Online Entertainment Rating: T for Teen MSRP: Free To Play I came into this game with pretty high hopes after enjoying tactics games in general, as well as having played the Magic: The Gathering collectible card game on and off for 15 or years or so. I was very interested in how the two disparate parts would blend together. On the good side, they do so very well. The game has adapted old and new Magic cards into spells or castable creatures in an intuitive way. The health and damage ratios in creatures mirror their card-
based counterparts well, and the abilities are all pretty much what you’d expect. As you gain experience, some new cards are unlocked for you, and you can edit your army accordingly. It works much like a normal Magic game, where you put together a collection of spells and creatures of your choosing, only now you use that deck to go against other people online or fight against campaign scenarios. You can get cards for free just by playing, but it takes a lot of time. Buying them with real money is just as expensive as the CCG. A problem in the CCG was the random chance to draw the right mana colors (basically types of fuel to cast spells) to fit your deck. They did help fix that problem in this game; you get mana per turn based on ratios in the deck itself. The music is appropriate, but not outstand-
ing. The creature models are very well done, but their voices can be grating during long games. The camera is quite maneuverable, but a bit slow and unintuitive. The interface is passable, but not noteworthy, and my biggest problem was with bugs. Patches come out regularly, which helps a lot, but it was frustrating as I played the early games. Then again, it’s free to play, so it’s hard to complain.
What We Liked Seeing your favorite cards animated Great integration with a tactics game Solid strategy as a tactics game What We Hated Buggy gameplay Slow camera movement Very expensive to play competitively
Buy
7.0
Breach Platform(s): XBLA, Steam Genre(s): First-Person Shooter Publisher(s): Atomic Games Developer: Atomic Games Rating: T for Teen
Infiltration, Convoy, Sole Survivor or Retrieval. While Breach sounds great, there are some issues with it. The game rarely recognizes if the player is taking cover, and one often gets shot in body parts that are not even exposed. It also doesn’t do well with accuracy; you can fire a perfect shot and it fails to even injure your opponent!
MSRP: $15, 1200 MSP
Breach is a first-person shooter for the
budget-conscious gamer that may be looking for a new, fresh shooter game. The major attraction to Breach is destruction. If you come across a building or a bridge, you can simply blow it up! However, if you’re looking for a solid campaign with a great story, character development, and enticing music, you stumbled upon the wrong game, as Breach is multiplayer only. Players can choose one of five classes and the game modes are probably familiar to FPS veterans, with Team Deathmatch,
Hard Corps: Uprising Platform(s): XBLA, PSN Genre(s): Action Publisher(s): Konami Developer: Arc System Works Rating: T for Teen MSRP: $15, 1200 MSP
Hard Corps: Uprising is, quite possibly, the new Contra for XBLA and PSN. While
published by Konami, it was developed by Arc System Works of Guilty Gear and Blaz Blue fame. You can play as a number of different people, but the main character is Bahamut, the villain from Contra: Hard Corps. I can’t say I saw that one coming. While it may not be Contra in name, it certainly is in gameplay. It’s a 2D, sidescrolling, run and gun with no dearth of projectiles being shot at you from every
The destruction aspect of Breach is really the only factor that wowed me. Sadly, once players learn that hiding in a destructible building can be a hazard to their health, they often don’t return. The most enjoyable experience was just destroying buildings, platforms, and bridges, but that’s only fun for so long. Breach has a progression system, but it doesn’t hold up to any other progressive FPS. The amount of time it takes to obtain experience points and rank up is rather unforgiving. The list of game issues goes on and on. Breach feels unpolished and unfin-
corner of the screen… in essence, orchestrated chaos. New abilities have been added and you can dash, both in air and on the ground, double jump, and reflect bullets with some careful timing. There are a number of gun upgrades that drop as you play, including the iconic Machine Gun and Spread weapons, but also a pretty upset flame thrower, a homing laser, and more. The game offers a new mode, as well; Rising Mode. Characters are given varying numbers of hit points per life, later stages can be chosen as starting points (once unlocked), and you accumulate points to spend on character upgrades. For the hardcore (no pun intended), Arcade Mode is offered as well, and with single hit deaths for characters and limited lives, expect a staunch challenge. The music is a throwback to the oldschool Contra feel, but cleaner and more enjoyable. Graphics are thoroughly anime,
ished. I was comparing Breach to $60 retail blockbusters, but I realized that’s not fair. However, even when comparing it to other $15 Xbox LIVE Arcade titles, it falls short in every way possible. It truly feels as though Atomic Games attempted to make a game which would kill Call of Duty with the same budget as your local high school’s production of The Wizard of Oz.
What We Liked Destructable objects were fun to destroy What We Hated The maps were boring, generic, and uninspiring Bullets don't seem to hit their target
Pass
4.5
but crisp and pretty to look at. These are good things, because this game is HARD, so expect to spend many an hour yelling at the screen. Single player can be repetitive, but add a friend (either online or offline) and this game really shines. I’m not a fan of the 1200 MS points pricing lately, but this game certainly warrants it. If you enjoyed any iteration of Contra or another 2D run and gun, mark this game down, it’s a must-buy.
What We Liked Old school Contra feel Great music and art style Tons of fun in co-op What We Hated Can be frustrating in difficulty Achievements are mostly very hard Not a ton of single player fun
Buy
9.0
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Zumba Fitness
Torchlight
Stacking
Platform(s): Xbox 360, PS3, Wii Genre(s): Fitness Publisher(s): Majesco Ent. & 505 Games Developer: Pipeworks Software Rating: E for Everyone
Platform(s): XBLA, PC Genre(s): Action RPG Publisher(s): Runic Games Developer: Runic Games Rating: T for Teen
Platform(s): XBLA, PSN Genre: Adventure, Puzzle Publisher: THQ Developer: Double Fine Productions Rating: E10+
MSRP: $49.99
MSRP: 1200 MSP
MSRP: $15 PSN, 1200 MSP
There are currently two things taking the world by storm: Microsoft Kinect and Zumba, which is the name of a dance fitness program, created by dancer and choreographer, Alberto "Beto" Perez in Colombia during the 1990s. The program combines Latin and international music with dance in an effort to make exercise fun.
Torchlight may not be the newest game
Stacking is an adventure/puzzle game
Zumba Fitness features nine different dance styles: Reggaeton, Merengue, Salsa, Cumbia, Hip-Hop, Mambo, Rumba, Flamenco and Calypso, which all seem to be very fact-paced, as you watch your onscreen Zumba instructor and try to mimic the dance moves. Even with Pipeworks Software, including a Learn the Steps training mode, the game still often assumes you’re a Zumba pro and gets frustrating quickly. A bit more explanation would have been nice. The Kinect sensor works fine with the title and it did an acceptable job of picking up the player's actual dance accurately. The game also features multiplayer support and even some online options.
The most obvious comparison is Diablo 2, but the game easily stands on its own as a random-generated dungeon crawler. I’m going to make a bold statement that will probably get me hate mail, fired, and maybe even deported: Torchlight is superior to Diablo 2. It’s definitely smoother, simpler to play, and is more accessible to the casual gamer.
Torchlight skips the long, drawn out story and lore, and gives you what you want: a simple story that has you traversing the mines, one floor at a time, with each floor getting tougher and tougher. The leveling system works fine, as does the talent tree. You’ll feel more powerful and hit harder with each level. The game never seems like a prolonged grind, which is nice, too.
The graphics were sufficient for the title as it gives you that dance feel with bright, vibrant colors that you’d expect to see at a club.
The major change from the PC version is the controls. Runic had to redesign the controls to work on the Xbox 360 controller and they did a great job. Controls are very smooth and responsive.
So, is Zumba Fitness worth the pickup? If Latin Dance interests you, and you like to sweat, then give it a go! You may be surprised how much you actually move.
So, is Torchlight worth the points? It’s safe to say it’s worth it for new players, and previous players who just want to revisit the mines and bash goblins.
Pass
6.5
The puzzle aspect of the game was very surprising; already the first objective, I was scratching my head feeling stuck. Once I completed the challenge, however, it was a very rewarding experience. However, Stacking is riddled with cutscenes. Thankfully, over time, and once the tutorial and story have been laid out, the cutscenes seem to dissipate. Overall, Stacking is a highly addictive game with many puzzles, objectives, and an interesting and engaging storyline. Although seemingly odd at first, Stacking will grab your attention and keep it.
What We Hated Character moves rather slowly Objectives not difficult enough
Inventory management Fishing seemed out of place Always emptying inventory
Buy
Charlie completes his tasks by stacking into the bodies of larger dolls. Stacking is rather simple, and once inside, you gain the larger dolls abilities. At first, Stacking seemed a rather silly concept for a game, but upon second thought, stacking one doll into another is actually a quite genius way of disguising your character without cliché and silly masks, cloaking devices and other such methods used in other adventure games.
Highly addictive with hours of fun Many puzzles and objectives Music and graphics fit game’s era
Dynamic dungeons Grinding not required What We Hated
What We Hated Assumes you’re a fast learner
using Russian stacking dolls as the characters. Set in an industrial era, Charlie Blackmore, the youngest child of the Blackmore family, has come upon a substantial debt after Charlie's father vanishes. In order to repay the debt, the Blackmore children are forced to work for The Baron. Upon discovering The Baron won’t let anyone go, Charlie sets out to free all the children and put an end to child labor.
What We Liked
What We Liked
What We Liked Quite a workout Graphics suitable for game genre Good multiplayer support
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released, as it saw a PC release in January of 2010, so how can you justify spending your hard-earned MSP on a game that came out last year? It’s surprisingly easy.
8.0
Buy
7.0
First Strike
Expert Remix
Noble Pack
Game: CoD: Black Ops Price: 1200 MSP DLC Type: Maps Value: Moderate
Game: Super Meat Boy Price: Free DLC Type: Maps Value: High
Game: Halo: Reach Price: 1200 MSP DLC Type: Maps Value: Moderate
Maybe One of the season's top first-person shooter games, Call of Duty: Black Ops, has released its first downloadable map pack, entitled First Strike. First Strike features 4 maps for online multiplayer: Berlin Wall, Discovery, Kowloon and Stadium. Berlin Wall and Stadium's environments should appear obvious by their titles. Discovery, however takes place in an abandoned German research station in Antarctica, while Kowloon is located upon the rooftops of Kowloon City, with sniping spots aplenty. There is also a map available for the zombie mode, called Ascension, where a Soviet launch station has been overrun by the undead. Overall, these maps are very well done. The detailing in the environments, complete with trash in the stadium, empty soda cans in Kowloon, and rusted beams in Discovery, all make each map a believable and enjoyable location. The maps provide many areas to gain cover, several camping spots, sniping towers and tunnels or hideouts. Some maps, such as Berlin Wall, are rather large, while others, like Stadium are smaller and provide quarters for combat of a more personal nature. Altogether, the Call of Duty: Black Ops First Strike map pack is probably worth the money, assuming you spend enough time playing the game in the first place. It definitely helps the player to gain the full soldier experience in Call of Duty.
Download The smash platformer hit from last year, Super Meat Boy, is back in the news again. Instead of passing words with PETA, however, they are offering the players some more free new levels. The Expert Remix Chapter includes 20 reworked levels from the game which are now, you guessed it, harder. The game wasn’t exactly a cake walk the first time, and I recall many a moment I wanted to break the controller as I played it for the first review. Team Meat managed to push a fine line with the original release, between a solidly challenging game (unlike so many of the snooze-filled button-mashing fests out these days) and a game so hard that you quit out of frustration (and the need to patch the new controller-sized holes in the wall). Honestly, I was a little concerned that the release of even harder levels would risk pushing that too far. However, despite the harder difficulty, the level redesign was so well done, I found myself repeatedly working on the levels with even less of a sense of frustration than before. Don’t misunderstand me, they are very difficult, and you may well need to take breaks after dying a ridiculous amount of times… but you will come back to it, as the sense of accomplishment in completing these levels is a great reward. To top things off, well, it’s free. It’s pretty difficult to find a reason to recommend not playing free additional content for an already outstanding game. If you were a fan of the first one, grab the update, and be prepared to cuss up a storm.
Maybe Halo: Reach invaded the 360 last September 14th and was definitely hailed by fans and critics as the best Halo game in the franchise. In an attempt to keep the game fresh and the gamers playing, we’re introduced to the Noble Pack. The pack comes with 3 maps priced at 800 MS Points. While Anchor 9 is the hangar of a massive space station, the level is pretty small. The map is built for close combat battles, so prepare your shotgun. The truly adventurous players can travel outside the space station and experience zero (or, at least, less) gravity. Tempest is the medium-sized map and it may remind you of Hemorrhage. The map features two bases on each side and a large chunk of land mass in the middle, with rocks sporadically placed for cover. You’ll find plenty of camping spots and jump locations in each base. The battle can get pretty heated in the middle of the map, while less action happens at the bases. Breakpoint, the final map, is the largest of the bunch. In fact, we’re told it’s the largest map in the history of multiplayer Halo. Each side of the map features its own facility with a underground tunnel linking the two buildings for some stealth fragging. The middle landscape is packed with Banshees, Ghosts, Wraiths, and Warthogs. You’ll find some frantic driving action, along with the snipers taking out said drivers. Even being such a large map, it’s very action-filled and one of our favorite maps in Halo history. So is the Noble Pack worth your $10? If you play Halo on a nightly basis, you’ve probably already purchased it. If you’re a casual Halo player on the fence, the map packs are well designed, balanced, and deserve to be played. If you’re new to Halo: Reach the map pack is still not a bad purchase. Breakpoint is easily worth the price of admission alone.
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Sumo Sway Couple Manufacturer: Sumo Product Type: Furniture Target Consumer: Anyone Buy From: http://frag.gs/sumo MSRP: $279.99 Beyond your games, television, and Hot Pockets; seating is probably the next most essential piece of any gamer’s cave. Surely you’ve used one of those “other” bean bags chairs before. Generally purchased at your local discount store, the cover made from a cheap pleather Material, and stuffed with even cheaper Styrofoam beads that, without fail, leak all over. Sumo comes to the rescue with their own variation of the classic bean bag chair. It’s true what mom said, you get what you pay for. With the Sway Couple you’ll definitely get your dollar’s worth, as the seat features high quality material that works in every way imaginable. You’ll be sitting in a sturdy, supportive, and confortable chair made with the best materials.
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When the box showed up at our office you could just see the hatred on the delivery driver’s face; the box was gigantic.
The shipping box was sturdy and the contents were definitely secured. After finding a co-worker to help pull the chair out of its shipping container, I was sad to discover how small it was. It seemed tiny... until I broke the vacuum-sealed polyethylene bag and the chair expanded to a healthy 51” wide, 44” long, and 33” high, totally overwhelming the space we set aside for our new furniture. It may have arrived small, but once unpacked, it was a beast. The first thing that comes to mind when sitting in the chair is comfort. The microsuede (also available in corduroy) material is a definite improvement over the usual sweat-inducing pleather covers. Right out of the box, the chair was shaped properly, providing plenty of support for the spine and back. After a long gaming session, I can definitely say it’s a comfortable seat that will surely hold up for those gaming all-nighters. While the experience has been very positive, something that bothered me was that, while the product is called the Sway Couple, the beanbag just doesn’t fit two normal sized people comfortably. Technically you can squeeze two on there, but I seriously doubt you’d be able to catch a full movie in comfort, unless you both went on a serious diet.
Is adding the Sumo Sway Couple to your gaming den worth the $279 you’d have to part with? If you’re looking for a confortable seat that molds to your body while giving you the proper support, you can’t really go wrong with the Sway Couple. I’ve reviewed plenty of seating options marketed towards gamers before, and Sumo easily takes the trophy for the most comfort. The free shipping helped too.
What We Liked Quality materials Very sturdy, but also molds to body Free shipping What We Hated May not fit all couples Not for budget-minded gamers
Buy
8.5
OnLive Manufacturer: OnLive, Inc. Product Type: Hardware/Software Target Consumer: PC Gamer Buy From: http://frag.gs/onlive MSRP: $79.99 We have come a long way from our years of Pong, Atari, and local arcades where you pump quarter after quarter into those beautiful cabinets. Nowadays, the internet can allow you to do almost anything. So, let me introduce you to cloud gaming, an on-demand service from a company called OnLive. I’ve had the privilege of testing it out, and it’s rather impressive! Think of OnLive as Internet-based gaming. Essentially, the games are stored, accessed and played via the Internet. So, no more running out to the closest store in the pouring rain or downloading hundreds of GB's worth of games! This is a huge benefit and a great addition to the gaming industry, in my opinion, because now gamers who are dying to play the latest and greatest PC games, but have a lower-end computer, will be able to enjoy the same games as everyone else! In addition to being compatible with your computer, OnLive also works on VIZIO VIA Plus Tvs and Blu-Ray players, Android tablets and smartphones. If you don't have a computer that meets the requirements of OnLive, you can use the system's wireless controller and console, called the MicroConsole TV adapter, which can be connected to your television and directly to an OnLive service. This set-up costs $99, and you score a free game, so it's really worth it! Sadly, OnLive is not for everyone. OnLive has been pretty clear: in order to receive high-quality service you must be located within 1000 miles of one of its data centers, which are located in Virginia and
Santa Clara, California, with plans for three additional facilities in Dallas, Georgia and Illinois. OnLive does a great job of trying to offer a gaming experience to all who are wanting to enjoy a good game, but the lack of data centers throughout the US are a definite downfall. In fact, OnLive has been fighting an up-hill battle against skeptics since their announcement at GDC 2009, as critics failed to believe in the success of such a gaming system. Many critics, including game journalists, are now stating the service preformed above expectation and are looking forward to seeing upcoming improvements. Although this gaming system is not perfect, it is evolving and improving. Currently, some games which require a lot of rendering experience lag, and occasionally, the game skips. I also experienced some data issues in communicating with the server; when I exited a game, it sometimes got stuck, causing me to exit the program via the Task Manager. Also, while the games included are enjoyable and playable, they do not compare with console gaming. One piece of advice: before you make the leap to purchase, OnLive offers a free trial where you can play a game for 30 minutes, so you should check it out. Once you decide to purchase, you have several options. You can choose to purchase the full game, or have a 3- or 5-day pass, similar to a game rental. Although the costs vary depending on the game, the passes are less than $10. It’s obvious there is a market for OnLive, which will only grow stronger once they overcome some technical hurdles. Currently OnLive is only available in the United States, but they are looking to expand to other countries in the near future, so keep an eye open for OnLive.
What We Liked Easy to use A decent list of new games Can play new games on older system What We Hated Experienced some lag Slow rendering on fast-paced games
Buy
8.0
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In Win Dragon Rider PC Case Manufacturer: In Win Product Type: PC case Target Consumer: PC gamer Buy From: http://frag.gs/dragonrider MSRP: $149.99 The In Win Dragon Rider is a massive, well -designed, black beauty that is easy to work with and provides ample elbow room and expansion space for demanding enthusiasts. In Win’s Dragon Rider chassis is basically the big brother of the In Win Dragon Slayer, a micro ATX case. In addition to its vast interior, the Dragon Rider is very well laid out and thoughtfully designed. It’s easy to work with, and it boasts several nice features to help keep the interior of your PC clean with good airflow. With that in mind, here’s the rundown of its essential physical specifications and features: ATX Full Tower Case Material :1.0 - 0.8mm SECC Steel Power Supply Mounted: Bottom Motherboard Compatibility: Micro ATX / ATX / Extended ATX 5 x External 5.25" Drive Bays 1 x External 3.5" Drive Bays (Includes FDD Cage x1 (5.25" converted into 3.5") 6 x Internal 3.5" Drive Bays 1 x Internal 2.5" Drive Bays 8 x expansion slots 3 x 120mm Fans (1x Rear, 1x Top, 1x Front) 1 x 220mm Fan (Side) with Blue LED and power switch Dimensions (L x W x H) 22.8" x 9.4" x 21.9" In addition, the Dragon Rider features front/top connectors that include the following:
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2 x eSATA 1 x IEEE 1394A×1(FireWire)
2 x USB 2.0 HD/AC’97 Audio 2x USB 3.0 The Dragon Rider is designed so that you’ll rarely require the use of tools. Generally speaking, you’ll only need a screwdriver to mount the motherboard and the power supply. The side panels are removed via simple thumbscrews, and the front of the case is easily removed by simply pressing at its top while lifting from the bottom.
panel you can use to turn it off. The Dragon Rider is outstandingly welldesigned and a pleasure to work with, and even though $150 is a lot to pay for a PC chassis, the Dragon Rider is worth it. It provides plenty of expansion space and its tool-free design makes installing and upgrading components a cinch.
A selection of drive rails are stored inside the case, and they snap easily onto 3.5” or 5.25” drives, which can then be slid into any of the Dragon Rider’s many drive bays. In addition, there’s a single 2.5” drive bay adapter for SSD drives, and a single 5.25” to 3.5” cage if you require a 3.5” floppy disk drive or other 3.5” externally accessible drive. The Dragon Rider features a generous amount of space between the side panel behind the motherboard, plenty of holes for routing cables out of the way, and In Win even includes some adhesive-backed cable-routers to further tidy up the cabling. You’re still limited by cable length and may not be able to take full advantage of all of these to create a completely uncluttered case, but they are still very nice to have. There’s even a removable fan filter that sits below the power supply fan—a nice touch and another way the Dragon Rider helps keep your PC’s interior clean. Despite its large array of fans, the Dragon Rider is very quiet. The side panel with the 220mm fan is lined with soundsuppressing material, which helps. Subjectively, the Dragon Rider is barely any louder than the In Win Dragon Slayer. The fans on both sides also sport blue LED backlight, and if you don’t like the backlighting, there’s a switch on the side-
What We Liked Tons of space Quiet, and easy to work with Little need for tools What We Hated Sock Monkey not included Somewhat high price
Buy
9.0
CoolerMaster Spawn Gaming Mouse Manufacturer: CoolMaster Product Type: mouse Target Consumer: PC Gamer Buy From: http://frag.gs/SpawnGaming MSRP: $49.99 CoolerMaster is best-known for their PC products, such as cases and cooling fans. CM Storm is essentially their 'gaming arm' brand. The CM Storm Spawn is a budgetfriendly gaming mouse designed for ‘claw’ style gamers. Although it doesn’t pack a lot of extra features, the CM Spawn is comfortable, sports all the fundamental features of a good gaming mouse, and is small enough to be a good notebook companion. The CM Spawn’s primary features are its 3 DPI settings and 7 fully programmable buttons (3 standard mouse buttons and 4 extras). The buttons support macros, a relatively rare feature for budget gaming mice, although the Spawn's macro capabilities are very limited compared to more expensive gaming mice. The CM Spawn sports 3 different resolution presets: 800 DPI, 1800 DPI, and 3500 DPI. In addition, the CM Spawn is ‘hard wired’ to 1000 Hz polling rate, the highest rate typically supported by standard gaming mice to provide maximum responsiveness. The DPI Settings are fixed, though you can change the order that you can step through them, or disable one or two of them altogether. The CM Spawn also supports DPI switching on-the-fly via the two buttons on top of the mouse (behind the scroll wheel), which by default are assigned to DPI Up and DPI Down commands. The two thumb buttons default to the ‘forward’ and ‘back’ commands in your Web browser, a common configuration/default for mouse thumb buttons. However, all of the buttons on the CM
Spawn can be re-configured as keystroke replacements, macros, or one of several preset commands. Macro functionality is very limited and the CM Spawn only supports macros up to a maximum of 5 keystrokes. The macro recorder doesn’t record delays between keystrokes nor allow you to specify delays either. The CM Spawn also has on-board memory for storing configuration information, thus you can use it on computers without the CM Spawn drivers installed and still use your configured macros and presets. Despite its small size, the CM Storm Spawn is still quite comfortable. Its shape is very similar to the SteelSeries Cataclysm mouse. The rubberized-side grips on the mouse provide a very stable, solid grip that feels good under your hand and fingertips, and the scroll wheel is very firm and provides excellent, accurate tactile response.
disadvantage of its small size is offset by its portability. In short, the CM Spawn is a solid recommendation for a budget gaming mouse and well worth checking out if you're in the market for one. CM Spawn Technical Specifications 3500 DPI optical sensor 800, 1800, and 3500 DPI Presets Max. Speed: 60 IPS Max. Acceleration: 20G Image Processing: 6400FPS (frames per second) Image Processing: 5.8 Megapixels/s Mouse Settings Storage: Sentinel-X TM 32 KB Polling Rate: 1000 Hz USB transfer rate Right-hand ergonomic claw-style 7 fully programmable buttons Durability: precise, long-lasting mouse buttons and scroll wheel Ultra-swift teflon feet Cable length: 2m Gold-plated USB connector Anti-drift control sensor
In addition, the CM Spawn’s primary mouse buttons are a little firmer than average and also provide good tactile response. Given the CM Spawn’s small size, placing the thumb buttons further back toward the rear of the mouse might have been helpful, at least for those with larger ‘claws’. Although the CM Spawn is on the small side, and might not be good for gamers with big hands, it’s very portable and a good travel mouse. The CM Spawn performs quite well, although a DPI setting in the 1200 range would have been appreciated. Going from 800DPI to 1800DPI/3500DPI is a bit of a dramatic jump. 3500DPI is best reserved for general computer usage, provided you have a fairly large monitor running at high resolutions, otherwise it may seem a bit fast. Overall, the CM Spawn is comfortable, capable, and sports just enough bells and whistles to give it an edge over other mice in the budget price range, while the
What We Liked Rubberized side grips Firm buttons and scroll wheel What We Hated Small for a desktop mouse
Buy
7.5
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