The Gamer Issue 2

FIA World Rally Championship Enslaved: Odessy to the West Guitar Hero: Warrios of Rock Medal of Honor Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 Castelvania: Lords of Shadow Fallout: New Vegas Shaun White Skateboarding

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Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Brink Tony Hawk’s Shred Nail’d Killzone 3: Beta Assasin’s Creed 3: Brotherhood

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The First Word The News When I Grow Up...

Are you Ready to Save the World The Gamer Top 10 DigitalCamo Skin Competition The Gamer Challenge Xbox Live in RSA Pimp your PS3 2011 - The Titles of Tomorrow

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www.thegamersa.co.za/blog

Wow! Issue 2 is down and

dusted and I couldn’t be more proud. The second issue from The Gamer has almost doubled in size since our first issue and the sheer amount of work that has gone in creating this digimag for you has been immense.

The late nights have been plentiful and I must thank all my writers for getting their pieces to me with out *much begging ;) Thankfully with a bigger mag, we have also grown to a bigger team with several new writers coming on board we are no longer the little amateur start up that we presented as last month. We are now a fully fledged gaming powerhouse and we intend on using this to bring you the latest in gaming news from around the world while keeping it uniquely South African.

Issue 2 has been tough at times and laying out this whole thing on my own was maybe a bit of a stupid endeavour and I have learnt a lot along the way.

The Gamer now has full backing from Megarom, Ster Kinekor and Nu-Metro and as a result we have an absolute multitude of review titles available. What this means going forward is that we intend to also ramp up the blogging side of The Gamer website and from next month you can look forward to more reviews on the blog.

This will help to get the reviews out to you faster something that concerned us this month as we had to hold some games back.

This also means that next months issue of The Gamer will be a little more compact and more feature reach than simply a compilation of reviews.

such as PS3za.co.za or on our Blog.

Editor and Design: Abe Viljoen

Perhaps my favourite part of the mag/blog over the last month has been The Gamer Challenge.

At first the response was a little slow but as the month progressed we found our first participants and the results were fantastic.

The First match up saw two of the top local COD guys go head to head in a COD4 snipers only match up on Shipment. Swarley was able to outplay his F34R teamate Jakez and take the title of First ever The Gamer Challenge Victor.

After that we saw Silvertorch challenge Swarley in a specially created MW2 Gun Game, which saw the players level up to a new weapon after each kill.

Once again Swarley was able to come out victorious and he currently stands as the undisputed The Gamer Challenge Champion.

I must also give a big thanks to him for recording, editing and uploading both the matches.

All in all Issue 2 has been a lot of fun and we are definitely still in our learning phase. As such I welcome feedback on the mag and would be delighted to hear your thought and or suggestions.

Writer: Dieter Fouche

Writer: Ricardo Ludeke

Writer: Wayne Pretorius

You can reach me on info@thegamersa.co.za and who knows maybe next month you can see your idea’s in implementation.

Writer: Clinton Beal

Even with our current expanded team The Gamer will be looking for even more writers to help with the review load, so stay tuned for news on that on the local gaming board,

So do you think there is something you could add to our great digizine? let us know at info@thegamersa.co.za

Other Contributors: Ernst Vorndarn Karl Liversidge Faheem Abrahams Marlon Sasman Jessica Viljoen

For fans of Gears of War you’ll have to wait a bit

Some good news for Halo: Reach fans is that

In Nintendo news the release date for 3DS is Japan

In notable gaming releases for the month of October

longer next year for Gears of War 3 as it has been moved back to be released in the second half of 2011.

Epic Games Cliff Bleszinski said the reason for the release being moved back was not for more development time but was a marketing decision.

Some rumours speculate that this might be to make space for another game that is yet to be announce that the Xbox 360 might be getting next year while others say it might be just a way to increase sales of Gears of War 3 by releasing it closer to Christmas next year.

If you missed your essential gaming news for the

month of October here’s a round-up of what was what for the month of October.

By far the biggest news was Gran Turismo 5 being

delayed yet again and moved to now be launched in December much to the dismay of many fans who have been waiting 4 years or more for this release.

The creator of Gran Turismo 5 Kazunori Yamauchi is known for his perfectionism and constantly including new features but this news had only one response from collective gamers on the PS3 “release the freaking game already!!!”.

Rumours about the delay range from waiting for the new firmware to come out in December to prevent piracy, to Kazunori Yamauchi wanting to fix some last minute bugs.

In other PS3 news there were delay’s for Little Big

Planet 2 and DC Universe Online. LBP2 was delayed due to the developer wanting to make the game perfect for those players who don’t have a online connect to receive patches and they need a few more weeks to achieve this and so decided to delay the release till next year. DC Universe Online was delayed till next year so the developer could get more feedback from Beta testers and make improvements before the games release.

was announced as February, 2011 at the price of ¥25,000 (USD$300). The release for Europe and the US was announced as March 2011 though no specific date and no pricing as yet has been confirmed which has left many gamers in the west wondering if Nintendo might sell the handheld a lower price point like they did with the Wii in western countries on it’s release.

In general gaming news October saw a lot of info Insomniac the developers of Resistance 3

dropped a load of information of what to expect in the game, most notable of these is that we’ll be playing as Capelli from Resistance 2 and not Nathan Hale also single player co-op is back from the first Resistance game and weapons will now can now be upgraded as you use them more and more.

Reach will be getting it’s first map pack in November, the Noble Map Pack will include three new maps and new Achievements worth an extra 250 Gamescore points and will cost 800 Microsoft Points. The three maps are Tempest, Anchor 9 and Breakpoint.

In Xbox 360 news South Africa will be getting Xbox live locally and will be launched on November 10 also if you buy a 12 month subscription on launch you’ll get a extra 2 months free. Pricing for a 12 month subscription is R599 however if you buy a Xbox 360 console or any Call of Duty games you can purchase the 12 month subscription for R399.

being released for Call of Duty: Black-Ops and some leaked gameplay from reported stolen copies of the Xbox 360 version of the game. Apparently the preorder sales figures have now surpassed those of MW2 and might set up Black-Ops to out sell the massive game release that Modern Warfare 2 was last year. More details of the game can be found The Gamer Blog.

there was Castlevania: Lords of Shadow which got fairly good reviews from most gaming site with a average of 85 on Metacritic while Enslaved: Odyssey to the West earned its self a 79 on Metacritic.

See what we thought of both these tiles later in the magazine.

The most publicised gaming release for the month was Medal of Honor which did not fair to well with many reviews leading it to have Metacritic score of 75.

In all a very active month for gamers and it’s only gonna get better in the month of November so keep a eye on the game to give you the heads up.

News by Wayne Pretorius aka Infoguy101

Criterion have also stated that other weapons will be available for both the cops as well as the racers, such as radar jamming for the criminals as they attempt their get away.

Recent games in the Need for Speed franchise included a story, but Matt Webster, producer of Hot Pursuit said "We didn’t really think it was necessary to include a story. If you’re a cop, the aim is to go up the ranks, while a racer’s aim is to get to the highest rank they can."

It's all about; Exotic Cars, Epic Drives and Thrilling Chase Scenes. These elements are all but garenteed with the layout of the game which takes place in fictional location called Seacrest County. It is entirely open-world and features over 160km's of open road this is over four times the size of Paradise City the mammoth map with Criterion created for their last racer: Burnout Paradise.

The scenic drives of Secrest County cover a variety of locations, from Giant Redwood forests to Mojave style deserts and Pacific Coast highways.

This is largely in part to the Creative Director at Criterion, Craig Sullivan stating that at its core NFS: Hot Pursuit will remain a simple concept.

Need for Speed is one of my earliest true (as in

post famicon days) video game memories. The second in the series was the first time I played what was considered 3D graphics and I can remember as we huddled around my friends PC waiting to get a turn to pilot the amazing Mclaren. Then over the years the shine and appeal of the series seemed to fade as the corporate machine took over and multiple new itterations were forced on the gaming public, some bad, some good, but most were just a dreary ploy to make more profit.

Several years later and I as a fan of the original games once again feel like there is something to look forward to. The new Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit developed

by Criterion Games is sheers moments away and it's looking fantastic! Having cleared house at this years E3 conference, winning multiple "Best of E3" awards the scene is well and truely set and we wait with baited breath to once again feel the need for speed.

Thankfully this new itteration is returning to one of its most successful mechanics; racers Vs cops.

It's a rather basic premise, either you are tasked with fleeing at high speed or with bringing a criminal to justice. As the police in hot pursuit it is your goal to damage the fleeing criminal to the point where his vehicle can no longer take it, usually resulting in a dramatic and beautiful cinematic of said car doing multiple cartwheels before coming to a crunching halt, this is made easier for you in the fact that one of the selectable police vehicles is the Bugatti Veyron.

How can you not decimate your oppostion when you are behind the wheel of that behemoth.

But even then if you are still battling to catch your foe (some might say because you suck), the player also has the ability to call in other means to try and apprehend your target, this includes the use of spike strips, as well as calling in road blocks and helicopters.

The Interface on the left shows the weapons available to the racer, applied using the d-pad NFS: Hot Pursuit will see some never before used fully licensed cars such as the Koenigsegg CCX, Mclarens new MP-12C and the ultra exclusive Pagani Zonda Cinque.

Those however are just for the racers and the cops are packing some equally thrilling talent with the Shelby GT500, Lamborghini Reveton and the afore mentioned Bugatti Veyron. But this is only just scratching the surface of what NFS: Hot Pursuit has to offer and all in all there is atleast 68 different vehicles up for control in the game.

even better going head to head against one another.

In an attempt to tie all the online features together as one experience, the developers have created "Autolog".

Autolog is a device which attempts to take the friends experince to a whole new level. Think of it as a central hub, where you can see whatyour friends have been doing in a love stream. Autolog will recommend ways to to play based on what your friends have been doing. It will also give you updateson your friends progression in the game as well as if the happen to beat any of your scores.

Criterion have layed a major focus on the online elements for this title. They want friends to meet up to play together, forming a team to take on the cops or or working together to take down some racers or

Think of it us a Facebook for the game, the perfect place to see news, read or post comments and share pictures.

All in all the game is certainly looking good. I am glad to see the franchise return to what it does best. The graphics are looking great, proving you dont need to spend ten years make a hyper simulator for a game to look good, sure they are a bit stylised and arcadey, but thats what NFS is all about and it works. The "courses" are looking rich and nicely detailed and are fulled with the usual shortcut madness that feature prominantly in both NFS games as well as Criterions other star.

The "combat" system looks very similar to the burnout series, in that traditional bump-ems fashion.

I am not saying that is a bad thing, quite the opposite in fact as I am a Burnout fan, but in a title where the devs were looking to return to what NFS was all about, they may have wanted to try and keep is as close to a NFS feel as possible.

The demo is out now on both XBLA and PSN. Article by Abe Viljoen

The one thing I will say I picked up on is that this game is maybe a little too similar to Criterions last Burnout title and it almost seems like this title could have just as easily been called Burnout: Hot Pursuit.

Although harder to control I found the Professional setting to be the most enjoyable and in this mode the game went from stiff 90's arcade racer to slick simulator, where the fun really burst out. You can spin those wheels, dig deep and really get that tail out in true rally fashion. Hitting a long left bend at 150km/h and sliding the whole way through definitely brings a smile to your face and it was here that I felt this game probably had the most shine.

The title has all the usual features such as single race mode which encompasses everything from one track to mini tournaments.

A gentle purr, idling, clutch drops, throttle floored, a

cacophony of noise. Wheels blur off the mark as grit takes flight. This is how I see rally car racing. It's all about the power and noise of the engine, the gentle whine as you hear the turbo coming in the distance.

WRC is the officially licensed video game for the 2010 FIA World Rally Championship, as such you would expect a certain level of not only attention to detail but respect for the sport. Lets see how this title stacks up: When you load up the game the first thing I noticed was the lack of an install. Hallelujah! This has become my pet hate of late and I was glad to not have to suffer through yet another timely installation. Yet I cant help but wonder if it would have cut down on the games lengthy load times.

Mulitplayer has both local (One at a time taking turns) and online racing, but the obvious real star here is the "Road to WRC" feature which is basically the career mode.

You start off as a rookie and work your way through the ranks, purchasing cars, tweaking your vehicle and reaching new divisions. One aspect that I enjoyed in this mode is that while the simulator functions are there, they are never forced on you and its up to you whether you want to set up every aspect of your car for every race.

When you hit the first menu, you are greeted with the chance to select your level of driving skill and this will set the tone for all future races. Your options are as follows; Beginner (All driving aids are on and the opposition AI is weakened), Advanced (Only Breaking Help is turned on and the opposition AI is strengthened) and Professional ( All driving aids are turned off and the opposition is considerably more difficult). For the sake of the review I decided to start off on Advanced, even though I HATE losing, I guess I am really starting to warm to you guys...

The three different levels of difficulty are really worlds apart and it feels like you are playing three different games on each setting. The more driver aids which are turned on, the more restricted the game feels and it seems to give you this false sense that you are driving well. When you approach a corner it barely feels like you are driving the car, the cars breaking isn't just assisted, its 99% done for you.

That does however beg the question. What does WRC want to be? There are plenty "arcade" rally games out there and some great ones at that with the Dirt franchise. However I feel like WRC has tried to go the simulator route for a change. A risky move as I think today’s current trend points towards a more relaxed gameplay. In all honesty a true simulator was probably what the official WRC game deserved, but then why has Blackbean seemingly only gone at it with half power? Elements such as being able to reset your cars position ruins everything that they were trying to achieve and in my opinion is sacrilege in a true simulator. Another thing that really irritated me was that by red lining your car before the start buzzer you can get a perfect start everytime, hardly realistic and a major letdown.

As such I feel a bit confused as to how I should react to this game, at times I found myself thoroughly enjoying it, getting that back end out and pretending that I was Ken Block as I directed my car like a motorized symphony through every twist and bend only to have it all come falling down by crashing and getting respawned back in the middle of the road, losing only a second of time.

The difficulty of the game also seems to be inconsistent, when its going well it seems really easy and then one tiny bump causes you to spin out and go from 1st to 14th, when this happens on the last corner of a six minute track it can be quite frustrating, yes I know I was just moaning about the lack of realism, but this just seemed a bit harsh.

One major thing that I seemed to encounter and one that will remain exclusive to Rally titles was one created by the lack of other cars on the road while racing. In a single race with five timed checkpoints, I could be ahead by three seconds and continue to increase my lead with each zone. Suddenly on the last segment I lose six seconds and go from 1st to 7th. Yet I never crashed, didn’t bump anything and by all accounts I raced just fine, yet I lost the time. Now the problem is that without being able to see the other drivers I had no idea that I was doing anything wrong?

You finish the race with no idea how you had suddenly lost. Let his happen to you several races in a row and its quite off putting.

I think having a ghost car on the track would have been better, atleast then you could keep track of what you need to do, to ensure a win.

Thankfully ghost cars are present in the online mode, so you are able to gauge how you are doing. That being said, it's still fairly difficult to do well and I have trouble comprehending how 1st place could put a minute gap over me when the race is only 2:30min long.The online lobby is pretty easy going and you slip into a game nice and fast. I only noticed lag here and there, however considering that I am on a 10mb line, I would have thought that lag would have been non-existent considering that you are basically against a clock. The online system see's you rank up not only in personal levels but also on the global leader boards and I could see you playing forever without making it anywhere near the top, especially with the solid concrete shrubbery that can stop you dead in your tracks even when you don’t hit it.

As mentioned earlier, to me a very important part of racing is the sound of the engine.

The sound design in WRC is far from stellar. While idling, the cars engine has a few different tones and the rally gargle is there, however once you put foot, the engine noise degrades into a monotonous drillbit whine, even slamming on break and down shifting makes no change to the engine sound, very disapointing.What makes matters worse is that all the different vehicle sound the same. A sacrilege when you have a Subaru on hand.

Another thing I noticed was the lack of any music while racing, even subtle music would have added

to the experience, however the only time you really hear music is when you start the game up. One item in the sound category which needs to be applauded however is the co-pilots voice.Its not just some prerecording that blurts out instructions like a robot, rather the devs have created a human touch and its not unusual to hear your co-pilot comment on the damage on your car or compliment you on your driving after a good section.

The vehicle physics and subsequent damage which follows when they donut quite go in your favour are well executed in this title. The physics engine capture the spirit of rally car racing as you feel every bump in the road, take a corner a little fast as you glide onto a bump and watch your car get some airtime.

The graphics in this game are pretty disappointing, there isn’t even a way to really skate around the fact.

The game suffers badly from poor anti-aliasing and there were spots of slow loading textures. Once moving at full speed along the tracks the graphics aren’t that bad, even with their muted colour pallets.

Stop on the track however and you are in for a bit of a nasty surprise, the models are poorly executed and very blocky.

I enjoyed seeing my car get up on two wheels on numerous occasion and it really added to the feeling of actually piloting a powerful rally car.

All in all WRC isn’t a bag game at all, sure its let down in some departments. But at the end of the day it remains a fun game, if you are a fan of The World Rally Championship then you will likely find this a good addition to your collection, especially with all the big names on board such as Loeb and Block.

Throw in some barrel rolls and speed pitching and you have success, even more success is added when said barrel roll ends with your car upside down.

However if you are looking for something a little more relaxed and arcadey then you might want to look elsewhere.

The damage model is well implemented and the destruction to your car is believable, each part seems to take just the right amount of damage before it gets ripped off or blown apart.

Not all elements are bad however and I found the different road surfaces to be believable, with the wet roads looking by far the best. The car models are probably the best looking part of the game and they aren’t that bad, or atleast they have their moments when they can look decent.

So all in all, make sure you are driving real fast and don't scrutinize your vehicle too closely and you should be just fine!

Review by Abe Viljoen

S.M.A.R.T The first of these unique twists is the S.M.A.R.T button.

S.M.A.R.T stands for Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain and what it essentially does is turn a run of the mill shooter into Mirror’s Edge on steroids.

While playing any shooter a player will run up to a fence, wall or other piece of terrain and either hit the jump button to jump over the obstacle or crouch button to cover behind it. In Brink, however, the player will utilise the SMART button, which doubles as the sprint button, while running at an obstacle and depending on the obstacle the game will interpret what the player most likely wants to do,

Splash Damage, of Enemy Territory fame, are

hard at work on their first original IP: Brink.

Brink is set in the near future on a man-made floating island called The Ark. The Ark was originally designed as a contemporary green vision, unfortunately shortly after its construction some or other global cataclysm caused the Ark to lose contact with the rest of the world whilst thousands of refugees flooded the city; and what was originally designed to house five thousand people now houses fifty thousand. With resources like food and fresh water dwindling the Ark is on the brink of civil war between the Ark Security Forces and the Refugee Resistance.

Running the IdTech 4 engine Brink has a distinct visual style, showing off bright, vibrant colours instead of the usual dull shades of brown, common in most shooters.

Instead of going the photo realistic route Splash Damage has opted to create something else- crisp visuals with characters that have exaggerated, almost cartoonish, features which ensures that if you see a screenshot, it is immediately clear that you are looking at Brink.

This unique visual style is a welcome change from the visual styles of standard shooters.

With Brink, Splash Damage is trying to blur the lines between Singleplayer, Co-Op and Multiplayer. Players will have the choice to play offline in a single player campaign or to play the campaigns' co-op with up to seven other friends as well as a full multiplayer component in which the player will take part in dynamic

be it vault over the fence or slide under a low beam just like Faith, (except carrying an assault rifle... ).

The SMART system lets players approach levels in an entirely new way never before explored in shooters.

Expect to see players sliding between cover, leaping onto buildings and hanging from ledges, all of which means the players will now need to steady their aim to hit enemies jumping, sliding and even wall running across the map. We are being told that this system will be easy and intuitive for newbie players while not limiting experienced players.

missions with all human players. The distinctions between online and offline are being blurred with Splash Damage’s Paul Wedgwood saying there will be no lobbies or need to form parties, with full drop in drop out support for up to seven players co-op or up to 16 players in full multiplayer. What is clear from gameplay videos is that Brink has the potential to take the online shooter genre by storm. While the gameplay in the 3 part Container City Preview video looks like your standard team, objective based, shooter similar to the likes of Team Fortress 2 or Monday Night Combat, Brink puts an interesting and unique twist to this tried and tested formula.

Squad Commander Brink is following a growing trend in shooter where players are given dynamic objectives to complete and rewarded with XP or some other form of in game currency. In Brink players will be able to choose from one of the four available classes and during any point in the game the player can open up a radial menu to see what objectives are available to them and how much XP they will get for completing the given objective.

Objectives vary from class to class and also according to player skill and location on the map. This is all handled by the AI Squad Commander which will generate these dynamic objectives on the fly during missions. For example while the majority of the team pushes forward the Squad Commander...

might give you the option of changing to an operative class and sneaking around to flank the enemy and maybe open up a shortcut for your team mates.

Similarly if everybody on the team are playing as soldiers but an engineer is required to complete a specific mission objective the Squad Commander will “bribe” players with XP to change to the Engineer class and attempt to complete the objective. If done properly this could bring an entirely new level of balance to Brink as an online team shooter since team based shooter will often descend into anarchy due to there being more sniper classes than assault classes, or only assault classes with no engineers causing objectives to go uncompleted and your team losing the match.

No "I" in Team Although the chaps at Splash Damage say that you can play Brink solo like a regular old shooter, one look at the gameplay footage is all you need to see that this is a game that is meant to be played with friends, like Borderlands and Left 4 Dead this is a game that has co- op written all over it. From what we’ve seen in gameplay footage and the E3 2010 Walkthrough, playing as a team, coordinating to take an objective or simply going back to back with a buddy to frag the enemy, is going to be the stuff of gaming legend. Brink has four distinct character classes, each with their own unique abilities. The Soldier will be on the front lines of the war holding back the enemy with the ability to plant explosive charges and to re-supply allies with ammo. The Engineer will be for more defensive minded players, able to drop defence turrets, plant landmines, buff the weapons of allies and defuse explosive

charges. The Medic will be a supportive role with abilities like Healing and Reviving fallen allies as well as buff their health. And finally the Operative, sneaking behind enemy lines disguised as a fallen enemy, hack terminals, sabotage equipment and to interrogate downed enemies in order to reveal information beneficial to your team. Each class will be able to purchase upgrades for their specific class abilities allowing players to really specialise in the combat role (read Class) which that player enjoys most. So you're not a crack shot, be an Engineer, drop some mines and turrets to take out the enemy. Don’t feel like going head to head with the other team pick Operative and sneak around behind their lines and sabotage their equipment.

Or just be a Soldier, holding the line while the Engineer completes the objective that leads your team to victory.

Its got Character Another thing that sets Brink apart from most other shooters is the level to which players will be able to customise their character. Sure, in Halo Reach you could customize your armor, but Brink is taking this concept and dialing it up to 11. You will be able to change your body type ( Light, Medium and Heavy) which will actually effect your characters abilities.

Don’t expect a light character to be able to carry huge machine guns, just like Heavies won't be able to climb like the Lights. From there you can change the way the face looks, hair, head gear, face overlays, tops, bottoms, arm coverings, voice as well as custom colour scheme. All alot more common in roleplaying games than first person shooters. The same level of insane customisation applies when it comes to weapons.

Though each faction will have the same weapons they will be visually represented differently, Security Forces will have weapons that are in pristine condition while the Refugee’s weapon will look old and worn.

Once a weapon has been unlocked the player can unlock sites (Iron, Red Dot or Reflex etc), Magazines, silencers, muzzle flashes, grips and stocks as well as custom colour schemes. All of which will help the player create a character uniquely their own.

4 Months is SOOO Long to wait!!!

Brink looks to be one of 2011’s early must own titles, for shooter fans and those new to the genre.

The one thing details are sketchy on at the moment is plot, we can only hope that there will be some sort of narrative to tie it all together and stop Brink from becoming another Borderlands. Brink launches locally in February 2011 for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC. We will continue to bring you more on Brink closer to release.

Article by Ernst A Vorndran

The Pirate

When we were but wee little anklebiters, the world was a shiny and marvelous place and we strived to fill our days with as much excitement and joy as possible. We were carefree; we could make the dullest situations an enjoyable affair simply by utilising our powers of imagination. As the years passed and our responsibilities grew, we soon found this parallel universe of Imaginationland slowly fading away, until finally, we had outgrown it completely.

However, it would seem that there will always remain trace elements of our childhood wonderland that we are unable to expel, namely: our alter egos. Yes, you all know what I’m talking about. That personality you so enjoyed embodying with your rag-tag-bunchafriends!

Be it a scallywag crew of diiiiiirty pirates or cowboys locked in a daring fire fight to save your darlin,

each of us had that one special favourite we enjoyed acting out as kids.

For me (as in my childhood years we were unable to afford a gaming system) I was usually some form of video gaming character that my friends were busy playing on their shiny little machines. Sometimes Sonic, sometimes the guys from Double Dragon, at one point I was even that dude from Karateka...but then again, I guess as were we all at one stage.

Now several years down the we no longer need to pretend. We no longer need to make cardboard cutlasses and bows from tree branches. Now we get to live out our childhood fantasies through digital landscapes, where your childhood fantasies can come true. Join us as we take a look at the top 8 "When I grow up's".

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH! Yes, the iconic throat destroying “catchphrase” all of us have come to know (and love) pirates by. For me, the life of a pirate has always been one I found completely fascinating and as my favourite it gets the top slot. Sailing the open seas, fresh cool ocean breeze on your face, always looking for adventure...it was an escape into a completely different world. One filled with vicious ship-to-ship cannon battles, swashbuckling sword fights and mountains of pirate gold.

So to this day, if a game has any reference to sailing, sword fighting, adventure or (and this is mainly the ultimate deal sealer for me) hidden treasure, it is immediately added to my gaming collection. In Red Dead Redemption I forewent most of the quest lines to first go hunt for all the buried treasure. In Heroes of Might and Magic I would skip fighting my opponent, just so that I could sneak past him to find out what item was around the corner. And don’t even get me started on Monkey Island.

Sure there were some grey areas that I chose to leave out in the childhood narration of my tale, you know, the raping, pillaging, murdering...all the things kids aren’t supposed to be thinking about. But when it came to being a pirate (with moral values) I was the best around.

I have and will always be...a dirty ol’ seadog...AAAAAAAAAARGH! AVAST YE LANDLUBBERS!

The Ninja This one happened to be my best friend’s favourite persona, so much so, that he actually ended up taking 3 years of Karate just because of this. He would dress up in his little outfit, climb trees, continuously brag about how he could make a man’s heart explode with just one punch ( if you haven’t figured it out by now, my best friend is in fact Uma Thurman).

To be honest, I think The Ninja, is a persona which most of us A.D.D kids took on at one point or another...some just took it a bit further. I mean, all of us would hide behind couches and leap attack the dog as he came walking past. Maybe conceal ourselves behind the curtains and strike your mom against the knee with a handmade fighting stick. Sure, we all did that. We all did that, right?

You know I was just kidding about the Uma Thurman thing though, right? So please don’t email me and ask for her number or anything. My best friend was in fact called Johnny, and to this day,

The Cowboy the guy is so infatuated with anything Ninja or Shinobi or martial arts in any form for that matter, that his entire house is literally covered in Asian-esque decorations.

I say Asian-esque, because I feel that might offend a lot more people by saying Japanese crap.

He has ancient swords, paper lanterns, giant posters of glossy eyed manga women with ridiculous outfits on. But most important of all, he has basically every single Ninja style game I could imagine. Ninja Gaiden?

Pha! That’s easy! You’re talking about a guy who still has his 16-Bit SNES so that he can play Shinobi.

This isn’t a persona which I was ever really fond of though. Sure, I still find myself every now and again trying to see how quietly I can walk through the house whilst wearing my slippers, but that’s just so that I can practice if I ever need to go to a LAN party and don’t want to wake up the missus when I arrive home late...a skill, which I believe every man should know.

I’m going to start this one off in the same fashion as The Pirate...YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAW! Another iconic “catchphrase” we have now associated with the Wild West, used most prolifically when a grizzly looking gunslinger would place a shiny bullet neatly through the forehead of his challenger. He would never say it though, but it would always be heard from somewhere, usually from some drunken patron hollering it from across the room.

Cowboys and Indians, Cowboys and Crooks, whatever you want to call it, I believe we ALL played this game at some stage of our lives. For me, the most enjoyable times would be when my older brother invited his friends over, I had my friends over, and an epic shootout ensued in our little suburban backyard. This entire game was however riddled with false accusations, ricocheting bullets and continued shouting of the word: GOT YOU! Even though the person you believe you did “get”, was hiding around the corner and has in fact actually shot you (as you are standing out in the open in plain sight) 5 times.

So did a lot of you carry on this tradition throughout your lives? Of course I don’t mean playing cowboys and Indians, mostly because post apartheid, anything to do with racial conflict is still a very touchy subject.

What I mean is your love for being a gunslinger... a peacemaker...the swift hand of justice...and the meanest son of a bitch the West has ever seen.

This persona is definitely in my top 3. 2nd Place I’d say, as I have always been following games involving cowboys, movies involving cowboys, even the dress style of cowboys...assless chaps, anyone?

Games such as The Call of Juarez and The Red Dead series both have a warm place in my heart. Even the Fallout series draws a strong likeness to the ways of the Old West. I think if I could go back in time, I’d probably be saddling up my horse and checking how many bullets I have left in my Winchester right now.

"When a man with a .45 meets a man with a rifle, you said the man with a pistol is a dead man. Let's see if that's true..." – Clint Eastwood. (A Fistfull of Dollars)

The Astronaut So to sum this up in the easiest fashion possible… did you ever look at the sky when you were a kid and wish you could be up there? Did you fashion a makeshift spacecraft by combining the box your TV came in with some silver spray paint and old lightbulbs?

Did you try to put an empty fishbowl on your head only to get your head stuck in there? Yup, you wanted to be an astronaut.

This is a dream COUNTLESS children across the world have every single day. I mean, how you could not? It’s like being a fighter jet pilot…actually; it’s just like wanting to fly without the use of a plane. It’s something ALL of us have always wanted to do. Simple as that. Unfortunately, this dream was shattered for a lot of us,

The Race Car Driver once we realised that we’d need to spend A LOT more time in front of the books and at the gym instead of behind our monitors or TV’s.

So there went that idea…but do not fear, for we are still able to traverse the atmosphere in our own way, with games such as Dead Space 2, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and of course (every space geek’s utopia) EVE Online.

So it’s okay…don’t cry…just because you’re not in actual space, doesn’t mean the destruction of our world won’t force all of us to have to go there one day.

The end is coming and you’ll get to see space soon enough…probably from the window of an evacuation pod hurling off to the moon though, but SPACE NONTHELESS!

Is your DVD collection littered with movies such as: Days of Thunder, Driven and The Fast and the Furious?

Do you have the full GT5 Racing Steering Wheel with the seat and like to wear a real helmet whilst you play the Gran Turismo demo over and over? Do you find yourself at times speeding like a demon for no apparent reason, the adrenaline building up inside of you, as you see how well you can navigate through traffic at high speeds? Yup, chances are good that you wanted to be a race car driver when you grew up.

This was the fate of my brother (until he decided that an accountant was a better fit for him). For my brother, racing games were the epitome of what was considered “real” video games. He would spend countless hours navigating a plethora of vehicles through different terrains and even though gaming has taken a backseat in his life, every time he comes over to my house,

he has enveloped himself into a racing game before I can even say: “Here, come on in, make yourself at home”.

I’m not a big racing fan…sure, I am good at racing games, but if you would place Call of Duty: Black Ops in front of me next to a copy of Need for Speed: Shift, I’m going to be hunting terrorists every time.

So if a Race Car Driver was your childhood fantasy and you spent most of your free time sprinting through the backyard, with an invisible steering wheel in front of you, making broooom brooooom noises, then do not despair, for Gran Turismo 5 is merely a few weeks away and it won’t be long before you will be able to reconnect with your inner child all over again.

The Soldier

The Super Spy Shaken. Not stirred, right? I have yet to come across anyone who has actually had the childhood fantasy of being a super spy, simply because I believe most of the kids who wanted to be super spies were either too cool to hang out with me or were recruited by the Government when they were 6 already.

However, it would seem that I have met quite a few guys in my life who do believe they would make good spies. So I have to believe that there are guys out there who in fact dreamt of one day having no real identity, traversing the world always with a different alias and shooting terrorists in the face.

I simply think that this is one of the least likely things a kid could have wanted to be when he grew up,

simply because the only thing bearing any resemblance to a spy we were ever able to watch as kids, was Inspector Gadget. All the really cool spies always bore that 2-16 label, closing the proverbial door on our hopes and dreams.

However, if you do own the Collector’s Edition of every James Bond film ever made, a lock of Daniel Craig’s hair, have already pre-booked your copy of Goldeneye for the Wii and know how to disarm a man in 2 blows, then chances are good you are on your way to becoming a Super Spy…either that or you need intense psychiatric help. Either way, the latter option may be a good idea.

If I had to take a wild guess, I’d say the Editor of this magazine wanted to be a soldier when he grew up. Well, maybe not be a soldier per se, but the immense collection of toy guns he had definitely made him a virtuoso on the matter (*Correction: The vast amount of "toy" guns I still have - Abe).

There has to be a very good reason why basically the only games he plays are: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 You get where I’m going with this? Abe, I could see you wearing a tactical helmet and having a SCARH flung across your shoulder right now. Then again, I know a certain little lady wouldn’t be too happy about that.

This is also another persona that I think most kids grew out of once they hit puberty. Once they were old enough to watch Saving Private Ryan and Apocalypse now, I’m going to guess what was going through their heads was this: “Did that guy just get shot through the stomach? OMG! Are those his intestines hanging out there?

Damn! He looks like he’s in a lot of pain! Did that sniper just shoot that dude through the eye? OH, HEEEEEELL NO!” If you are a soldier at the moment, then good for you (you crazy son of a bitch) you have a lot more guts and a lot less brains than most of us here. For all of you out there who do not possess the “courage” to have grenades flung at your skull all day long, fear not, for as long as there are video games, expect there to be First Person Shooters.

The Daring Adventurer Indiana Jones, Tintin, Nathan Drake, the Daring Adventurer would be #3 in my list, and a persona which I still try to include in my everyday life. Sure, bartering with fruit vendors over a bag of mangos might not be as glamorous as arguing with a Venezuelan Warlord over stolen gold, but beggars can’t be choosers.

I have always been a fan of FPS’s. After that, I’d say RPG’s. And after that, probably 3rd person action games like Batman: Arkham Asylum or Darksiders.

But above all of these genres, I’d put ADVENTURE! To this day, Nathan Drake is probably my video gaming role model. I would prefer it if any other adventure game that is ever released, simply use his tone, his style of movement and his witty remarks as the basis for their protagonists. If they could just do that, I’d be so much happier.

Now generalising the Daring Adventurer would be a complete and utter sin, so we’ll break it down into this for you: If you loved Uncharted, but hated Damnation, you’re a TRUE Daring Adventurer.

If you have watched the Indiana Jones trilogy countless times, and have never watched the 4th one in the series, you’re a TRUE Daring Adventurer.

If you just look damn good whilst wearing a leather hat and holding a whip you’re a…wait a minute, this might not be true.

Anyway, as we await Nathan Drake to once again make his return in Uncharted 3, sometime in 2012, we thankfully have Enslaved: Odyssey to the West to run around in. So for all of you out there, who still have a thirst for adventure, fear not, for it is a genre we will fight for till the end.

Article by Dieter Fouche

To this day, one of my favourite titles on the PS3

is Heavenly Sword. It was a much hyped title which never lived up to the commercial success that it truly deserved. Barring it's commercial failure, it was a game which I thoroughly enjoyed. There was just something about it, a certain charm in the story being told and a definite link between the player and the character on screen. Now, a few years later, Ninja Theory are back with a new title, Enslaved: Odessy to the West. Enslaved is loosely based on the famous Chinese legend Journey to the West and follows a story co-written by English novelist Alex Garland best known as the writer of The Beach.

It is a tale of adventure, but more so of characters and the relationships between them.The story kicks off aboard a rapidly plummeting slave- carrier space

In essence, Enslaved is a third person hack and slash platforming game, yet it doesn't really conform to either of these genres and instead creates it's own unique style of gameplay. The platforming element, while clearly prominent, is very relaxed in its approach.

Monkey is incapable of falling off the sides of platforms and will only jump if a place holder is available. Firstly, this certainly makes the game far easier. Whilst platformers are usually synonymous with try and try again, before reloading and trying again, this is completely absent from Enslaved- as I can only recall a few times when I died by falling to my death. So for those of you who look to platform games for a tough challenge, I would suggest going elsewhere for your fix.

That being said, Enslaved manages to achieve a wonderful fluidity in it's platforming where, if you get your timing right, Monkey's name serves him well and his acrobatic display can be a sight worth witnessing,

creating moments of sheer delight as you bounce from platform to platform.The control system is pretty simplistic and while I found the button response a tad slow at times, with a little practice you can create a wonderful smoothness of motion.

A section of the game that deserves an honorable mention is the "Cloud". At these moments the game steps away from the restrictions of platforming and opens up into a sandbox of fun, but I'm gonna keep my lips shut on this one, it's worth it- and when you experience it, you are bound to proclaim it's coolness.

The dynamics work fairly well and can be pretty fun in a tag team sort of way, but at times I also found myself getting a little tired of being bossed around and I thought there could have been more sections with a larger sense of freedom.

shield breaker maneuver which disables your foes block. While a bit repetitive at heart, all of this can be overlooked in a heartbeat by some of the fight animations. After several hit combinations, every now and then Monkey will pull out a power move, where he will literally smash a Mech in half, the animation is so impressive that every time you perform this deadly move you will gush with glee and swoon with emotion, for at that moment in time you just feel so damn BAD ASS! Couple this with the fantastically animated and greatly varied timed sequences for takedowns and you have a thoroughly enjoyable combat system.

Throughout your journey you will be required to work together with Trip. She has a number of skills that she can use to help you, such as creating a distraction or setting off an EMP and you are often required to help her/use her to solve puzzles. Whether it be throwing her up to a ledge or getting her to operate certain machines.

ship. The main protagonist, Monkey, has just awoken to find himself fist deep in smoke, flames and badass Mechs. After fighting his way to the last escape pod, and literally hanging on for dear life, Monkey wakes up to discover that he is once again a prisoner.

Only this time, he is captive to the young and beautiful Trip, a teenage girl who has rigged a piece of Mech technology to Monkey's head in order to control his every move. Together they set off on their journey across a dilapidated and over- grown New York City to find their way to Trip's village. Trip assures Monkey that once they arrive at the village, she will remove the headband and set him free and so begins their journey through cities, wastelands, swamps and underground lairs.

This is just a small taste of what Enslaved has in store for the player, least of which is the amazing ending.

The battle mechanic in Enslaved is pretty standard fare and is mainly comprised of melee attacks, although you also have a ranged attack.

While powerful, I also found the ranged attack to be a bit slow on aiming and in the heat of the moment I resorted to button mashing my way through combo attempts.In a way this title falls victim to the "not enough variety in attack" problem and all too often I found myself bashing: square, square, triangle- which is fairly standard in most hack and slash mechanics. Some variety is introduced in the use of a shield, which allows you to both defend and counter attack as well as a

Another area in which the combat shined was the boss battles. Again, its a mix of good and bad, as some boss battles are just too easy, too straight forward and cliched, yet they are thorough in the way the battles end and you are always left feeling truly god-like!

For the first five minutes I looked at Enslaved, I thought the graphics were pretty lacklustre. It almost seemed like it was sub 720p. Maybe it was just the darkness of the spaceship? But once Monkey and I touched down in that over grown New York City suddenly felt differently. The stages are well designed and vary greatly and in that respect the graphics are handled very convincingly and there are some moments where the scenic vistas are impressive to the point where I found myself stopping and gazing at the vast beauty of a jungle-covered NYC. Sure the game has a few anti-aliasing issues here and there, a few sections with some frame rate drops and screen tearing. But on a whole the graphics certainly impress. The game uses the Unreal Engine and this is most evident in the impressive character model and animations.As I mentioned earlier, Monkey's acrobatic ability is superb when timed right and this is largely

In conclusion, at the core, elements of Enslaved may come across as a little weak. The platforming is too easy and the combat system can be repetitive and yet I find myself quite a fan of this game.

The fun factor is certainly there, but its the small moments that really make this title deserving, seeing that glimmer of passion in Monkey's eye, feeling his raw emotion as he tears a Mech in two or watching Trip experience trauma- this is where the game really shines. It's a fairly short play, at around 8hrs, but I almost feel the shortness in length compliments the game, it's not too long that the weak elements detract from the experience and the time given is just enough to bond with the characters. I suggest you make a plan to get your hands on this game and I promise you will be surprised by an enjoyable game that has a rather intriguing ending.

Article by Abe Viljoen

aided by superb animation. Without a doubt however, the best animation and graphics must go into the character expressions, every emotion is easily felt as the life-like models hit the mark on every occasion.

The characters are undoubtedly the strongest facet of the game and by the time the story draws to an end you will feel a definitive connection with Monkey and Trip and even, although to a somewhat lesser extent, the brilliantly conceptualised and modeled "Pigsy". The story is driven through character interaction cut scenes, where you will discover the level of detail and thought that went into the characters and how they react.

My only gripe with the characters, was that I felt Trip is a little too close in look to Nariko from Heavenly Sword and that the devs could have possibly done a better job on Monkey's hair, but now I am just nit picking.

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock; spiritually the 6th

sequential game in the series but comes in as the 10th Guitar Hero game since the franchise’ conception in 2005. 5 years on the formula has stayed the same; a selection of songs for you to play along to with the designated input peripheral. GH: Warriors of Rock is no exception; so what’s the big deal about this one and why should you buy it if you already have several of the other GH iterations, or have already downloaded a library of tracks from the GH store which you actually enjoy?

The most important thing to note is that GH: Warriors of Rock is aimed at the seasoned hardcore player who appreciates Rock and Metal music. One must also take into consideration that the songs in GH1, GH2 and GH3 were all from the variations within the Rock and Metal genres, where it was this music choice that made the Guitar Hero franchise a cult hit.

Queue GH: Warriors of Rock; going back to its Rock and Metal roots while supersizing the portion and ordered a side of Metal with extra Rock. As introduced in Guitar Hero 5 where each song has a difficulty level indicator for guitar, bass, drums and vocals by way of a vertical bar with 10 notches; majority of the 90 pure Metal and Rock tracks on the setlist are 5 difficulty notches and up across all four instruments. For the player favouring the Hard and Expert difficulty levels; there’s no shortage of tasty guitar riffs and sweet hammer-on solos, meaty drum kicks and quick hihats, powerful vocal sections,

and deep bass solos with intricate chord change-ups, pushing any seasoned player harder than before while providing hours of fun. This brings better gameplay to the player, as not only does it bring along a new challenge but also gives the player specific song challenges such as note streak challenges, alternate strumming challenges and a host of others as first seen in Guitar Hero 5. There’s just a whole lot more to do, more to strive for, and that’s without delving into the newly introduced Quest Mode. More on that later.

With that said, I have to emphasise on the fact that in my opinion; so many reviewers and players make a cardinal mistake by judging the setlist on which songs they know and which songs they don’t know.

The fact is no one knows all songs within all genres and over the last several decades of good music there’s been many gems, and quite frankly many of us gamers are too young to know that some of them ever existed. Yet upon playing them within a game like Guitar Hero; often do many of these unknown tracks become our favourites. And if you’re like me who ‘researches’ these songs you’ll find that they’ve won major awards or received nominations, or their albums have been certified platinum. The developers don’t thumb suck random songs, slap a couple of coloured notes on them and throw them on a disc.

They carefully sift through hundreds of songs of which they acquire the license to use and present them to us based on the gameplay possibilities to provide the player with the all encompassing ‘fun factor’ justifying the purchase. GH: Warriors of Rock does not disappoint in this regard.

GH: WOR introduces for the first time in any rhythm game somewhat of a storyline by way of the Quest mode, which can last up to 5 hours which is just short of some full games out today. The story involves the Demigod of Rock being imprisoned in a Stone Monument by a colossal machine known as The Beast after a losing a great battle. An un-emphasised amount of time passes and by some supernatural state of telepathy the Demigod of Rock (voiced by KISS lead guitarist Gene Simmons) calls upon 8 characters around the world who have the potential to unleash their inner Warrior, and upon doing so can combine their hidden powers to slay The Beast once and for all, such that the Demigod can be freed from his stone prison and continue to Rock the world. Or something like that. Thus, you play a segment of pre-selected songs for each character until you acquire enough stars to unleash their inner Warrior, unlocking their hidden power such as Pandora’s Star Power Nova+ (Star Power multiplier can reach up to x30 instead of the default max. of x8) or Casey Lynch’ Streak Guardian+ (protects your note streak resulting in more stars/higher score).

GH4 (known as GH: World Tour) and GH5 introduced a host of other genres with the likes of Pop, R&B and Jazz; loved by new adoptees to the game and hated by many (not all) hardcore fans due to the legacy set by the first 3 games.

It was within reason however; it brought the franchise forward as a party game that could be enjoyed with friends and family of all ages because let’s face it 14yr old Nancy didn’t exactly enjoy blurting out vocals and lyrics of an Ozzy Osborne track but had much more fun with the likes of Maroon 5, head bobbing and toe tapping away to the music while Dad/Cousin/Brother unleashed their inner rock star on the guitar.

GH5 aimed to please everyone which was a commendable attempt by the developers to appeal to a wider audience but this tactic wasn’t satisfying the core players, who end up playing their copies of GH3 or GH: Metallica for the millionth time.

With that said, I have to emphasise on the fact that in my opinion; so many reviewers and players make a cardinal mistake by judging the setlist on which songs they know and which songs they don’t know. The fact is no one knows all songs within all genres and over the last several decades of good music there’s been many gems, and quite frankly many of us gamers are too young to know that some of them ever existed. Yet upon playing them within a game like Guitar Hero; often do many of these unknown tracks become our favourites.

And if you’re like me who ‘researches’ these songs you’ll find that they’ve won major awards or received nominations, or their albums have been certified platinum. The developers don’t thumb suck random songs, slap a couple of coloured notes on them and throw them on a disc. They carefully sift through hundreds of songs of which they acquire the license to use and present them to us based on the gameplay possibilities to provide the player with the all encompassing ‘fun factor’ justifying the purchase. GH: Warriors of Rock does not disappoint in this regard.

GH: WOR introduces for the first time in any rhythm game somewhat of a storyline by way of the Quest mode, which can last up to 5 hours which is just short of some full games out today.

The story involves the Demigod of Rock being imprisoned in a Stone Monument by a colossal machine known as The Beast after a losing a great battle.

An un-emphasised amount of time passes and by some supernatural state of telepathy the Demigod of Rock (voiced by KISS lead guitarist Gene Simmons) calls upon 8 characters around the world who have the potential to unleash their inner Warrior, and upon doing so can combine their hidden powers to slay The Beast once and for all, such that the Demigod can be freed from his stone prison and continue to Rock the world.

Or something like that. Thus, you play a segment of pre-selected songs for each character until you acquire enough stars to unleash their inner Warrior, unlocking their hidden power such as Pandora’s Star Power Nova+ (Star Power multiplier can reach up to x30 instead of the default max. of x8) or Casey Lynch’ Streak Guardian+ (protects your note streak resulting in more stars/higher score).

The ultimate goal after unleashing all 8 Warriors is to acquire the Demigod’s Battle Axe/Guitar, slay The Beast in the Final Battle using the combined powers of all 8 Warriors, which will free the Demigod such that he can deliver the final blow and enslave The Beast.

The story can admittedly be laughed at but upon playing it through it turns out to be great fun. Not only are majority of the tracks as already mentioned loads of fun to play, but unlocking the Warriors’ hidden powers is quite satisfying especially once you have their powers combined, resulting in insane multipliers and loads of star power in addition to a host of other powers, along with all the zapping sound effects, lights and colours emphasizing the awesomeness. I found myself smiling throughout as it’s not just fun to play, but it’s an audio and visual pleasure. One feature that’s worth special mention is when you are pitted against The Beast for the Final Battle played to tracks by the Thrash Metal super band Megadeth, you actually have to strategise by allocating your 8 Warriors in two teams of 4; the first team to battle to the epic track Holy Wars…Punishment Due and the second team to battle to the insane This Day We Fight.

I took several attempts before finally slaying The Beast as you have to consider how you pair the Warriors’ powers together in order to achieve the required goal.

I felt it was a nice touch as it gave the game a slight RPG element without being overbearing, while still staying true to the fact that it’s a through-and-through rhythm game. Once you free the Demigod and deliver the final blow by way of a special track written by Megadeth front man Dave Mustaine titled Sudden Death (awesome song by the way), you can then move on to Dominate Quest Mode where you can replay all songs combining the Warriors powers in order to unlock even more cool stuff, over and above challenging yourself to see if you can achieve the max of 40 Stars per song.

- Alienates those that are not fans of Rock and Metal music - Might be too difficult for some that are just looking for a new rhythm game to casually play with friends - Just another Guitar Hero like all the others before it, nothing new has been implemented in contrast to Rock Band 3 - ‘New’ guitar is not worth the highlight; GHWT guitar works just as well

- No game is perfect but for a rhythm game going back to its roots which made it popular in the first place while maintaining the fun factor throughout is pure win - Oozes of quality tracks with insanely fun sections providing a good challenge - Only a handful of unmemorable tracks, quickly overshadowed by the many you might adopt as your favourite - Many songs are longer than usual therefore it’s not over too soon, prolonging the experience without songs getting stale to quickly A nod of recognition must go to the developers for the Queen song Bohemian Rhapsody, where the stage performance of your virtual rockers is homage to the classic eccentric style of Queen. They’re not doing the usual singing, drumming and guitar playing but instead are putting on a hilariously cool performance that can only be smiled at. Do yourself a favour and watch it in Party Play mode or have someone play it for you while you watch, its good fun. The graphics of GH: WOR have been improved with sharper colours and more detail; the animations of your virtual rockers have had more effort put into it by way of their stage performances and lip-syncing which is quite often very accurate and fitting to each song without much noticeable repetition.

Another small but welcomed touch is that if you end up playing a song performed by a female vocalist even though you have a male rocker as your lead singer in your band line-up; the game will automatically select a female rocker to physically song despite this.

If for example a song has backup vocals sung by male; as far as possible only a male rocker in your band lineup will visibly sing those parts. If you don’t have a male in your band you will hardly see any character lipsyncing to those lyrics, so no more will you see rockers on stage sounding and moving like their gender counterpart. It’s a very small touch that just shows the developers took note of the small things which can enhance the experience.

Am I bit of a fanboy of Guitar Hero games? Sure I am, but I’ve played enough of them to identify which ones are good and which are disappointing. Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock is – for the seasoned GH fan who appreciates Rock and Metal music – a reinvigorating iteration to the franchise that is worth the purchase and will provide hours of fun and replay value. You might be wondering why I haven’t listed any negatives; well that is summarized by the two scores on the opposite page.

Article by Marlon Sasman

According to Jane, as gamers, we have an immensely powerful force inside of us: the power to save worlds.

When invested in a game (such as World of Warcraft or most MMO’s) the player will sometimes spend hours at a time in front of his screen, simply because he feels he is accomplishing something worthy…something bigger than himself and something which deems a worthy reward.

The reward varies from person to person; for some, it is the reward of empowerment, for others it might be the reward of conquest (overcoming that which is deemed impossible).

As gamers, we all have certain responsibilities

pertaining to our digital addictions. I like to think of them as hierarchical waypoints, kind of like a set of thumb tacks in our daily reminder tablet ranging from least to most important. Even though we have the same responsibilities as most of the world; walking the dog, buying groceries, getting our hair cut, we still have this gaming responsibility to ourselves that we try and fulfil above all else. So we might find ourselves shifting these other tasks around or postponing them to a better suited timeslot, simply so that we are able to get our o-so-needed gaming fix.

This has been my case for the past 20 years…thinking back on it now, was all the time I put into gaming an utter waste of time? Should I in fact have been doing something deemed worthy and meaningful instead of rendering my eyesight and hearing almost useless?

Turns out, my school teachers were wrong and what I was doing was in fact exactly what was necessary.

Apparently we gamers might have a greater responsibility than we could ever have imagined: being the saviors to the human race.

According to Jane McGonigal, a world-renowned game designer, the responsibility might now fall onto our pailey skinned hands. Jane has won a multitude of awards from some of the most prestigious gaming institutes in the world, including: Business Week Top Ten Innovators to watch for 2009, Harvard Business Review Top 20 Breakthrough Ideas of 2008 and the Innovation Award from the International Game Developers Association. If you still cannot fathom what this means, it means she is an incredibly intelligent women doing some truly awe-inspiring things in the world of gaming…so listen up.

(NOTE: To capture the full effect of what I am talking about, one needs to watch the video.

It is 21 minutes, so of course I will not be covering each aspect of Jane’s discussion. http://thegamersa.co.za/online/?page_id=68 ) What Jane believes is that the world is changing, I know it, you know it and apparently Al Gore knows it too. However, she doesn’t see it as such a catastrophic end to our existence (as the media has labeled it)

but rather the opportunity to strive forth into a new age.

Although you might not think it, it would seem that the gamers of the world will in fact be catalysts that will chauffeur us into this glorious new age. Excited yet?

This is merely the tip of the iceberg son…buckle up your seatbelts for this next part.

The reason I believe I’ve spent all these many years behind some form of a screen, has to be because of the reward of camaraderie and leadership. In real life I have always been a leader and in gaming it was no different, so being presented with a platform where I am man’s only hope at survival is something that rings home to me. I would need to step up to the plate and lead the way for others to follow otherwise the world would crumble beneath me. My fellow gamers would look to me as a leader in times of darkness and would trust me, abide in me and honour me as their friend and captain.

Now what is so truly astonishing about Jane’s theory is the fact that we already possess the power to change the world. Right now, right here, we have the power inside all of us to literally: end poverty, corruption, war, obesity, crime, hunger, literally anything we put our minds to. What she suggests is that we harness this power and invest it into what? That’s right…MORE gameplay! Sounding good so far isn’t it?

See, each week, we spend just over 3 billion hours a week playing online games, which according to Jane, isn’t nearly enough. Yes, this statement alone might very possibly deter most of the left- wing liberals, simply because all that time could have been invested into fixing some of the urgent problems at hand, however, it would seem that this is exactly what we are being groomed to do. All the problems that we

currently have could be placed into an online environment, from where we as a civilisation, would be able to contribute to the cure. Players investing time in these games could effectively save the world, simply by the press of a button or the click of a mouse.

Jane has already created a few games, one of them being a little game called: The World has run out of oil! In the game players will be tasked with having to check online oil stock prices, coordinate shipments, search for alternative sources of fuel, etc.

Now imagine this for a second, you have an interface much like Starcraft 2 or WOW or whatever, but instead of using “fake credits” to research “ingame content”, you are using these credits that you have accumulated to research bio-energy and enhanced shipping lanes. Players will still have the interface of a game, with all the bells and whistles, but all the decisions they make are actually tied to real world events.

I can imagine that games like this will be made viable through the use of mass advertising, so the “gaming credit” that we experience, will be tied to real world money in the banks of advertisers.

All in all, I think this is a step towards a phantasmagorical new world and if it means that the games we are currently playing evolve to a level of substance and grandeur, then I am all for it. I mean, the gaming community is a following which is literally as big as the music fanbase. Did you know that 19.7% more people will play a game than watch a movie this year? So if we have this enormous source of untapped energy, then why not use it for the good of mankind?

How fantastic would it be to be able to know that your gaming is leaving behind a better life for your child?

That your efforts are literally saving the world! I would advise any gamer to watch Jane’s video and really take what she has to say into consideration…we might just be the rulers of this planet soon.

Article by Dieter Fouche

which included calling critics “snarky” the title continued to accumulate negative reviews. Now the truth is, as much as I dreamt of getting my heals on one of those decks, I never did… but I can’t say I’m not relieved, as this game apparently failed across the board (get it?) from physics to menus and even price, this thing really bombed out and bombed out HARD. Even the difficulty settings that basically implied either allowing the game to play itself or being completely impossible to control unless you were the Hawk himself, added to the annoyance of the gameplay for both casual and hardcore gamers. In other words Tony Hawk's Ride succeeded as an innovative gimmick that was good enough to keep the niche market of toddler or younger gamers busy for hours, as the deck could take more abuse than a toilet after my mom’s mince curry.

Some of you true skaters out there may have

already heard of Tony Hawk’s latest skating game intended for the PlayStation3, Xbox360 and Wii consoles, entitled Tony Hawk’s: Shred which utilizes the ‘deck’ peripheral from Tony Hawk’s: Ride.

Unfortunately you may also remember the aforementioned title... Now for those of you who know the details surrounding Ride, you can skip a few paragraphs ahead and find out more about Shred… for those who don’t, well before you make your preorder, I suggest you read on and find out a little more.

The truth is that everyone who is anyone that has had any remote relation to the gaming industry over the last fifteen years, would without hesitation confirm the importance of the Tony Hawk gaming franchise. The revolution of extreme sports arguably began with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. From there the franchise went from strength to strength with almost every subsequent iteration, delivering great titles on both the PS1 and PS2 until the ‘controversial’ TH: Underground 2.

Personally I was a fan until Underground 2 arrived, at which point I lost interest when I discovered that I could skate a lawn mower. But many true believers stuck it through. Then a bombshell landed in the skate game community in the forum of EA Game's Skate. Skate

revolutionised the genre and showed where the games could and should have been. Before long, the skatergame world was divided into two camps between hardcore TH fans backing titles like Project 8, American Wasteland and Proving Ground against the Skate crowd who where after the more realistic experience.

Finally last year, Mr Hawk and Activision attempted to redefine the popular extreme sport skating genre with a fresh and innovative new title, Tony Hawk’s: Ride.

The game incorporated a brand new peripheral in the form of a skate deck.

The deck was literally as the name implies a rather durable skateboard deck that incorporated some state of the art motion-sensing technology. It allowed players to drop their traditional controllers, step up off their couches, climb on a skate decks and ‘Ride’. Now if you’ve been living in a cave somewhere in Afghanistan or lost in a forest in the World of Warcraft, then you’d be forgiven for not having heard about it.

Before its release, Tony Hawk’s: Ride and its new deck was all the rage for a short stint but unfortunately after its release, (as overly expressed by critics) was quickly labeled as an epic fail. Despite Tony’s strong reactions to the title’s bad press,

And so we come to the premise behind Tony Hawk’s Shred. A game that drops any delusions of reality as skaters pull off insane big air tricks from the tops of buildings, create craters across the roads as they land and play through levels that look as if they belong in a Sonic The Hedgehog title.

This is because the developers quickly became aware of Ride’s success with a younger audience who generally don’t nitpick about the finer details like a more mature crowd would. They seem to have opted for a comic book style approach in the graphics department, with stylised character models and a cell shaded feel. The tracks/courses/parks are typically Tony Hawk in feel and in my opinion it works for their style. Let those who do ultra realism stick to their methods and let a title like Shred stick to its feeling of over the top fun and comic book doesn’t necessarily mean bad.

Activision have stressed that they’ve improved the algorithms that detect user motions upon the deck to be more intuitive and contextual… basically meaning that if you move the board just before you hit a rail, the software will assume you’re trying to ollie onto the rail. I’m sorry but this still seems a bit a bit too computer controlled to me. The general level design has also been tweaked and thus instead of a ‘freeskate’ world, you’ll be facing a more downhill-styled course which really means that you’re looking at a linear skating gameplay, similar to the board peripheral based games which you found in the arcades a few years back.

In other words Shred has become a colourful arcade ‘fixer’ for a younger audience that also boasts a new gaming mode, which allows players to snowboard.

Now although for the more cynical this is really just skating downhill on snow, at least Shred follows in the tradition of its predecessors by including a number

it will incorporate some other new innovations like the typical customizations that most new titles seem to include. For instance I’d like to see if you could use your PlayStation Eye or XBLA Cam to capture and add your own skate deck. I do think its pretty sweet that the official Shred website has dozens of great instructional videos for gamers that will have players pulling off and carving some slick moves before they get too frustrated.

One of the things that I always enjoyed in THPS games were the killer soundtracks and I am happy to announce that in this respect Shred is far from disappointing.

With tracks from Alice Cooper, Circa Survive, Deftones, Jimmy Eat World and Yellow Card, the beats are definitely there to pump of your session of Shred.

Basically it seems that Activision hasn’t quite set their tasks at completely developing Ride beyond its shortcomings but rather took note of its strengths and played to that.

of legendary snowboarders from the X-Games, such as Travis Rice, Louie Vito and Torah Bright among many others and throughout the game you can unlock live action videos of these superstars performing some insane tricks in real life. Personally I am a fan of snowboarding and it comes as a half and half welcomed addition to the game, half in that it will be sure to increase the fun and replay value but the other half worries that maybe they should just concentrate on getting the skating aspect down.

The title does include a number of other fixes, ‘party modes’ and cool features. Xbox players will be able to import their avatars while Wii versions will support the Nintendo Mii application as well as include the Mii avatars of all the pro athletes in the game. Activision have also stated that the new title bundled with a cool fresh design deck will retail for at least twenty dollars less than the Ride bundle. I’m still waiting to hear if

Personally I’m a wee bit disappointed considering how stoked I’ve been to get this deck and bust some digitally vicarious skate moves indoors rather than bailing and collecting some scar tissue on the streets. But then again, if this ‘childish’ version is even remotely as fun as old Tony and Activision say it is, then I’m keen to act my shoe size and rock some no-brainer skating peripheral awesomeness later this year. I must admit while skeptical with where they seem to be taking it, I am intrigued...that board does look fun. Perhaps even fun enough to briefly overlook what the game could have been.

All in all I am a little unsure on this title, its not quite what I was expecting when I was tasked with this preview. Lets hope that by the time the finished product hits us that we see a little more polish and maybe the game can pull it off.

Article by Faheem abz Abrahams

Compared to a title like PURE, the point of the game will focus on speed rather than busting tricks. Races will be predominantly point-to-point based where each track will have a number of route choices that could take you down a shortcut or through a side path that could possibly have you in a rendezvous with the cast from Lost. The side paths are so plentiful in fact that developers decided to leave out the usual integrated GPS system or minimap since it would probably just end up looking like a pot of bubbling two-minute noodles in your screen corner.

As usual with these kinds of titles, you’ll be able to personalize both your character and vehicle in the customization menus although it’s not yet clear as to how extensive this will be. As you can imagination this means you’ll be unlocking various items of

Pick any gamer at random, that’s if you can pry

them away from their favourite past-time and they will tell you that the common denominator as far as gaming draw cards go, is the ability to vicariously live out your dreams of the impossible, illegal and fantastical. Now my personal preference usually leans toward any kind of action-based game that allows me to shoot, stab, spell-cast or klap the snot out of my enemies, be they mutants, martial artists, demons, soldiers…well you get the point. Maybe I’ve got some anger issues but hey sex and violence sells so I’m gonna keep stocking up on shares.

Every once in a while though there’s a great sport title or driving simulator that pops up and gets me about as excited as any South African on National Braai Day. Now usually realistic driving simulators tend to bore me but then again I’ve never been much of a petrol head. I did enjoy classics like Excite Bike, Outrun, and a few fun hours on Motorstorm or a little GT4. But the kind of motor sport games that have really stuck out and had me salivating in ways that mimic a patient with rabies, have always been the ‘lets-put-fun-over-realism’ titles like Mariocart, Road Rash, Carmageddon (for obvious reasons), TrialsHD, Pure and other similar titles.

So when developer, Deepsilver began projectile-ing marketing sputum all over the interweb about their first off-road title, Nail’d, I can’t say I raised an eyebrow.

Then I came across some screenshots of a bunch of ATV’s flying through hundreds of feet of air, as if launched by NASA themselves with a cloud of dust, dirt and turbo booster flames following close behind… my interest grew.

Set to be released later this year, Nail’d is one of those off-road arcade-racer type titles that allows you to ride or in this case virtually pilot a number of ATV quad bikes and MX motorcross two-wheelers across exaggerated courses. The courses are based loosely on actual geographical areas. The game is said to feature four different zone locations based on these areas, each featuring a number of racetracks. In other words you’ll be able to check out the scenic and picturesque landscapes of Yosemite National Park or the Mediterranean coastline, even if the hills and jumps are complete fiction and only there as an excuse for you to attempt all manner of ridiculous jumps. Jumps which don’t just bend, but completely ignore the laws of physics.

Again and again I can’t stress the lack of realism in this title, but that is very far from being a bad thing and it looks just too insane not to be super addictive .I have been lured into these addictive style racers before and I can see that Nail'd will be another of these titles, where playing against friends will be just plain EPIC. Being able to catch a lift on a train to outrun your rival, dodging ridiculous obstacles like circular saws and jet engines or giant wind turbines before leaping through a ring of fire for an added turbo boost off a colossal mountain-top-leap-of-faith, are just a few elements that line this title up as a contender in the fun catagory. All this before engaging in even more absurd feats that should splinter a normal human’s pelvic area and turn your digital self to human soup.

Nail'd is not about silly weapon and such but rather focuses on speed allowing you to pick up turbo boosters and build your turbo meter. You can even boost, crash or bump into you opponent and send then flying off the blind-side of a mountain or into an on-coming...urm...

awesome throughout each of the games modes.

The game will run on the same engine that powered Techland’s Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, unusual to see a FPS engine running a racing title but apparently the engine is capable of powering twelve racers in both single and multiplayer modes so it sounds does it does the job. The visuals are looking pretty damn good, and if you can take even the slightest break from the break-neck hyper speed, perhaps at the top of a jump, you will be able to see exactly what we are refering to. The stages are fulled with awe inspiring vista's that really seem to push the graphics engine for all it has.

‘speed hump’ of instant death and destruction.

Fear not though they’ll quickly respawn after a short stint of watching their characters bounce around the mountainside like a pinball and be back in the mix for more battery.

The before mentioned fire rings tend to bait players into finding the faster route through the course and thus add another factor into the course navigation aside from having to align your vehicle in mid-air for one of the infinite ridiculous jumps in order to safely land without obliterating your vehicle.

Some of the harder sections in the course will actually display in which direction players would have to arch their crochrockets in order to avoid those pesky but entertaining crashes.

The official website lists some of the other features that Nail’d has to offer. As an example, different classes will be able to compete simultaneously on the same track and there will be extensive online leaderboards, global ladders, tournaments and achievements. The original soundtrack will also feature members from world renown bands like Hatebreed, Static X, Deftones and Fear Factory who have composed new music specifically for this game.

To round off, Nail’d probably won’t have much of a stick-around time in the single-player campaign mode or a massive replay value across the bored unless they keep updating it with new tracks and gear in the form of DLC. Games of this nature usually and quickly become repetitive for me and its not long before its relegated to the hardest to reach spot on my shelf and gathers dust.

Then again if it is as much of a non-stop adrenaline orgy of awesomeness as Deepsilver are hyping it up to be, then I reckon you will end up getting it for the endless hours of multi-player brilliance. From the looks of things it's going to be the kind of game that everyone from casual to hardcore will be able to enjoy.

So instead of having to argue about playing a FPS or a fighting game with a steep learning curve, then maybe Nail'd is for you. Or if you are tired of your girl button mashing her way to victory once again in Tekken or of listening to some noob cry in Black Ops then again, maybe Nail'd is for you. It is supposedly harder, stronger and faster (than Pure) and is available on PlayStation3, Xbox360 and PC later this year. So far its looking pretty good and is definately worth keeping an eye on.

Article by Faheem abz Abrahams

Turbine Concourse SE-6 : Only one word describes this map: Jetpacks! Yet another awesome new and much talked about feature to the game makes its appearance in this map. As you guessed this map is also quite big, but jumping around with a jetpack adds a new dimension. The largest element to the map is the huge circular EMP

One of my all time favorite experiences on PS3 has

to be Killzone 2's online multiplayer. No other game offered the same unique experience and when Killzone 3's BETA arrived I jumped at the opportunity to be one of the first to experience it.

It was not a hard task getting into the BETA,

generator in the middle separating the Helghast and ISA forces. Once that bad boy goes off all electronics, including jetpacks and your HUD-map is fried for 30 seconds.

10 000 subscribed PlayStation Plus members in the SCEE and SCEA regions, respectively, could download an exclusive Killzone 3 theme. After downloading the stunning theme, Sony sent out emails to those fortunate enough containing the winning numbers, ...no not the lotto numbers, your redeemable voucher code for the BETA.

The Classes The Maps All three maps are absolutely massive, much bigger than any of Killzone 2’s multiplayer modes.

The multiplayer will require you to spend a healthy amount of time familiarising yourself with these large levels or you will be lost wondering where the party's at. Lets take a closer look at how these maps are layed out.

Frozen Dam : A unique and stunning new map with snow. The design is very innovative and quite simply its huge!

There is a great balance among open areas, narrow corridors and many rooms to explore creating the

perfect recipe for close combat shotgun action or long range domination.

Corinth Highway : Even bigger than Frozen Dam, Corinth Highway is just as unique and visually stunning. The map is designed around fallen city ruins with large open spaces, yet it still carries the a good balance for close quarter action. This maps also features another new unique element to the game. Players can now jump into a Exo suit, a big robot-like machine with even bigger weapons, and really dominate the map by traveling long distances and carrying great fire power.

The classes have also undergone some make-overs.

There are only five classes in the game, with the Soldier and Assault class from Killzone 2 now removed. The boost ability from Killzone 2 has been removed or rather, replaced by the sprint ability which is exclusive to the Infiltrator class.

Engineer: Can deploy turrets and the main objective is to control the map. Equipped with both LMG’s and SMG as primary weapons and a Pistol, Battle Pistol or Shotgun Pistol as secondary weapons.

Field medic: Can revive fallen soldiers and has a little airbot following him offering some fire support. Equipped with a SMG, Shotgun, and M82 rifle as primary weapons and a Pistol, M4 Revolver or a Machine pistol as secondary weapons.

Infiltrator: Can disguise himself as the opposing team and has the sprint ability. Equipped with a Shotgun *Evil smile,* SMG or Helghast assault rifle as primary weapons and a Pistol, Battle Pistol or Rocket Launcher as secondary weapons.

Marksman: Can cloak and scramble radar. Equipped with STA14, SMG or Sniper rifle as primary weapons and a Pistol, Shotgun Pistol or Machine Pistol as secondary weapons.

Tactician: Can capture spawn points, which is truly the game deciding ability. Equipped with a SMG, LMG and STA14 as primary weapons and a Pistol, M4 Revolver or Rocket Launcher as secondary weapons.

Guerrilla has introduced some new weapons to the game. The devastating WASP launcher, Machine Pistol and Shotgun Pistol which as the name suggests will require you to get close to cause mass destruction.

The Battle pistol fires grenades. The M82 and Helghast Assault rifles are no longer the starting weapons, each class can choose from three primary weapons and three secondary weapons and six special abilities. You still earn Ribbons for performing specific feats in game.

Another noticeable and pleasing new feature to Killzone 3's gameplay is the controls. Some people feel Killzone 2 was too slow, but Killzone 3 seems to have perfected the feel. It still has that weighted feel from Killzone 2, but it's a lot smoother.

Leveling up is as simple as ever, however it is different in comparison to Killzone 2. You earn points by killing enemies and at the end of the game your performance relates to the total number of points you get. Like Call of Duty your score pops up on the screen when you kill an enemy or achieve a certain task. Once you level up to a new rank you receive a single point that unlocks a new ability or weapon for the class of you choice. There are tons of Ranks to achieve and even more weapon related achievements that will keep you playing for days on end.

There are also two new game modes in the BETA. Guerrilla Warfare is a Team Deathmatch type of game where your objective is to kill some ISA scum or to obliterate Helghast booty.

Rounds are quick and the battles are intense to stay at the top of the scoresheet. Operations mode starts with a cool cutscene in the BETA where the Helghast have to defend their base from an ISA attack, and both teams are given objectives to accomplish.

Warzone from Killzone 2 is back, which offers dynamically changing objectives, ranging from Assassination to Search and Destroy, across the entire map.

The top players will be featured in cutscenes and its truly rewarding seeing yourself in the action.

The above images are all in game screen grabs

In three simple game modes you have the world of choice and a totally different experience in each game. This variety, I am sure, will have you glued to the screen for months.

The Squad system from Killzone 2 is still there, but the BETA doesn't offer an option for clan games, yet. There is no doubt that clan games will be added to the final game, as it is one timeless feature to the game that keeps players going back for more.

Guerrilla Games seem to have the most polished netcode out of any developers out there, It’s P2P based and supports 24 players in Killzone 3, with little to no lag in international games. This alone makes Killzone 3 multiplayer feel much better than Killzone 2.

The most unique new feature to the game has to be the insanely cool, yet ruthless Melee system. Killzone 2's Melee system was nothing special and looked quite stupid, but now Guerrilla has made the Killzone 3 melee system a masterpiece.

If the perfect opportunity comes forward and you hit the melee attack a random animation will come up with some of the best melee action seen in a game to date. You will be looking for a reason to use your melee attack for a rewarding animation showing of your awesomeness.

Killzone 3 has the perfect balance for everything, from the design of the maps to the layout of the weapons and abilities, to each class and the objectives, to each game mode. Guerrilla has gone all out.

The game is easy to pick up and play and still has the same classic Killzone feel despite all the updates.

Killzone 3 has evolved and has the potential to take over the PS3 FPS-scene once again, it isn't going to be easy however with the Black Ops behemoth about to take off, but I have a feeling, that this time, Guerilla might just pull it off.

Article by Ricardo Ludeke

of the Templar Order. In his fleet-footed pursuit of vengeance, Ezio will stalk, climb and kill (with some major emphasis on kill) all those who stand in his way, to finally loosen the Borgia’s foothold over Italy.

The city of Rome has been gloriously reconstructed and players can expect to see all the landmarks they have become accustomed to when thinking of The Holy City. Rome is almost 3 times as big as Florence (the city featured in Assassin’s Creed 2) so content shouldn’t be a problem, as Ubisoft have promised that AC3 will literally keep players busy for hours on end.

Each area of Rome is unlockable and allows the players to intricately investigate every nook and cranny, from the inside of the Colosseum to the

Italy has been engulfed in a sea of corruption, the

lines of moral integrity blurred and all of the major cities slowly crumbling into a deceitful pit of malice and hate. Everywhere people are left in fear of their lives, constantly hiding from the powers that are supposed to protect them, whilst in the background, a deviously sinister plot unfolds. As the people of the old world watch their civilisation burn around them, they choose to do nothing, but not everyone will succumb so willingly.

From the shadows a legion shall arise and they will strike with a brutal force unlike the world has ever seen before. When no one else has the strength to stand, The Brotherhood will raise them from this sorrowful fissure and take back that which is rightfully theirs…the right to live.

It would seem that the time has come for the Eagle of Florence to once again bear his fearsome talons and step in as the saviour of Italy, in Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, a direct follow up to last year’s entry. In the latest addition to the series, players can expect to see a fresh faced Ezio take flight into a world filled with cunning killers and ruthless politicians, much in the same style as the previous titles.

With each new addition to the series has come some greatly superior improvements, so don’t expect Ubisoft to short-change you this time around, with the numerous announcement and screenshots proving that the third installment might very well be the best yet. As you all know, Ezio Auditore is a soul willing to kill in the name of destiny and justice. He has led a brutal life filled with betrayal and loss, so this time around Ezio will stop at nothing until he has claimed his vengeance and has

seen his beloved city restored to its once glorious splendour. But Ezio will not take on this colossal task singlehandedly...he is assembling an unstoppable army of assassins to stand by his side and help him clean up the corruption in Italy once and for all. The last remaining cities are about to be consumed by a tyrannous force fuelled by greed and a lust for blood...and they will stop at nothing until they see you and your brother’s annihilated...it’s up to you to decide the outcome of the battle.

Singleplayer: Assassin’s Creed 2 saw players take on the role of a new hero, Ezio Auditore, in his quest to rid Italy of the deceitful grip of the Templers. Players will once again be playing his character; however, this time around things are a bit more serious.

With the threat of the Vatican finally dealt with, a battleweary Ezio returns to Montero Teoni, only to see it raised in swift retribution by the Templar army. The cruel outcome sees the Templar forces, led by its latest successor Cesare Borgia, make away with the recently proclaimed piece of Eden, leaving only a formal declaration of war sealed in blood. Forced into hiding and faced with his greatest challenge yet, Ezio must step forward as the leader of the Assassin order and confront the Borgia Dynasty once and for all.

In Assasin’s Creed: Brotherhood, players will find themselves on unfamiliar ground, as the entire game takes place deep within the enemy territories of Rome, a once great city now decrepit under the corrupt rule

steps of the Pantheon, nothing is out of bounds.

Players will also be able to once again utilise the inventions of fabled inventor Leonardo da Vinci, but this time the revolution comes with a price. See, the Templers have gotten hold of some of Leonardo’s inventions and it is up to Ezio to find the blueprints for these contraptions, because understanding the functionality of the machine is where its ultimate destruction begins.

Do not despair however, as players will still have the ability to use all of these nifty gadgets (like the parachute and the mobile cannon) to swiftly remove their enemies from the face of the earth.

There have been quite a few additions to the side missions, one of the new additions being Tower Siege. The Borgia Army’s power is represented on the map by looming towers overlooking each zone and players will be tasked with having to leave these atrocious eyesores in ruin. With every spire toppled comes the opportunity to bring Rome back to its once former glory, bringing to mind rebuilding the Vila in Assassin’s Creed 2. Rejuvenated scenery and renovated shops are rewards for a job well done, but the gratitude of the people extends far beyond mere material possessions!

They’re mad as hell...and they want to fight by your side. And so the brotherhood is born, as Ezio takes up the task of rebuilding the debilitated assassin order. Citizens willing to take up the cloak are recruited, trained and sent on missions, completely separate from your own to prove their worth, accruing experience, skills and gear...willing they live long enough to make the trip back. When the time comes to taste the fruits of your labour, you can instantly summon your disciples for stylish contextual assassination assists. If the situation seems dire...help is merely a bird’s call away.

Though your newfound allies provide extremely effective means to dispose of your foes, Ezio himself is a force to be reckoned with. The master assassin’s new abilities push the general feel of combat towards the offensive.

Kicks break an enemy’s guard, pistols can be worked into combos and weapons snatched away from your assailant can be hurled back at their owners.

Leveraging the first strike in combat also lets Ezio chain assassinations in quick succession, leaving a swift trail of bodies, as long as there is something nearby to stick your hidden blades into.

When it comes to mobility, horseback travel in town provides for new avenues of assassinations and escape routes alike. But if getting away on foot is your only option, new environmental elements add yet another wrinkle to the series prominent parkour aspect. [ What we’ve already experienced, gives us plenty of reason to rally behind Ezio’s new creed, but the things we have yet to see can prove equally interesting. An increased emphasis on achieving perfect synchronisation encourages players to replay sequences for unlockable hidden memories.

Meanwhile, blazing trails with Desmond in the present may finally shed light on the mysterious prophecy delivered at the end of Assassin’s Creed 2.

The road to revenge will be a perilous one indeed...will an army of assassins be enough to see Ezio’s dangerous mission through? Train your eagle vision to your nearest gaming store as Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood will be hitting your shelves in less than 2 weeks time.

Multiplayer : While we’re certainly anxious to see returning creed protagonists Desmond and Ezio Auditore find new uses for their lethal skill in Brotherhood’s campaign mode, a colourful new cast of characters are already leaping into action in the Assassin’s Creed Multiplayer Beta. initial character types are stepping up to the chopping block; everyone is equalled in basic ability, however, each individual possesses a unique kill style to suite their personality. Some characters include: The Priest, The Nobleman, The Prowler, The Courtesan, The Executioner and The Doctor (amongst others). The Courtesan for example, sensually slits throats with a bladed fan, where as The Executioner brings brute force and a brutal axe to the party.

To add some substance to your chosen style, you can customise you profile with an assortment of abilities and perks you’ll earn as you accumulate points and level up your profile. Sprint boost, smoke bomb, morph, disguise and hidden guns are some of the many skills players will be able to utilise to stop the ticker of their online opponent. They all have a substantial impact on the way you go about your dark business, so players will need to pick carefully and use their skills wisely, for the

wrong choice will evidently lead to your own demise.

There are also a set of kill and loss streak perks which you can equip to your advantage, but before you reap the rewards, you have to get out there...and do some killing.

For now, the beta offers a single gameplay type: Wanted. It’s a strict kill or be killed game of cat & mouse, wherein contracts are randomly issued to your character, with your target displayed in the upper right hand corner. Don’t be fooled into thinking this is a HUD...merely the players name and appearance will be displayed to you...it’s up to you to find him in this vast landscape. On top of that, at any given moment, there could be multiple targets poised to take your life or multiple assassins racing to kill your given target. It’s a constant battle between wanting to remain undetected and actively seeking out your target.

Clones of the 8 archetypes flesh out the crowd to populate the beta’s two maps: Rome and Castle Gandolfo. You can’t get ahead by killing innocents, so you are essentially forced to sift through crowds of carbon copy look-alikes, roaming as you intend to pin point your target. It is only once you get near your target that an indicator will notify you of his presence (much like the single player campaign highlighting an important kill), but don’t be fooled, for it will only do so for a moment.

After that, it is up to your keen eyesight. A trained

eye will be able to spot the difference between a live player and an NPC, but it’ll take some practice.

With all the skills at a player’s disposal and him being able to cloak himself in a crowd, an assassin can literally sneak right past you without you even batting an eyelid.

including haystacks and high perches from which to ply your deadly craft, but there are also new features.

Special doors automatically slam shut behind you, which give you a bit of precious space if you’re being pursued and when in Rome (no pun intended) you’ll find a quick rope that’ll swing you to the rooftops.

If you can stay alive long enough to pinpoint your prey and they don’t humiliate you by striking first with a non-lethal countermove, you’ll want to eradicate them with style. You’ll earn more points by performing aerial assassinations and stealth based kills, so the more obscene...the better. If you fail to kill your target or accidently strike down an innocent, the game brings you back to square one with a new contract.

Anyone who has gotten their hands dirty fulfilling contracts in the past will have no problem assimilating the beta into their genetic memory, but there is no denying that Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is trying something fresh and new with multiplayer. The Hunter & The Hunted mechanic makes for dramatic action sequences, especially when you are faced with having to make a decision as to which carbon copy hidden amongst the masses is your real mark. The beta is poised to add new maps and modes in the future, so be sure to pick up your copy of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood to delve right into the throat-slitting online action without delay.

Of the two currently available maps, Rome is larger in scale and sees its fair share of rooftop action thanks to its vertical nature. Castle Gandolfo is a tighter, more intimate focus that can create a more tense and deliberate pace. Maps still have the familiar touches you’d expect,

Article by Dieter Fouche

Playing the game on hard was no real challenge and can be done without dying once. Shooting the enemy is like shooting fish in a barrel, yet even they are smart when compared to the squad you play with. If you run passed an enemy your squad will follow you, without taking out the enemies or dying themselves which leaves you with enemies getting you from behind far to often.

Another issue I found during the campaign was that at a few times during the game you are left wondering what to do, as the objective often requires you to stand in a specific spot or complete a specific task without any clear indication of what you should be doing.

Tier 1 mode is a pleasant addition to the game, adding deserved play time to a game that has so much more potential. In TIER 1 mode you are faced with the challenge to complete each mission in the single player campaign against a par time.

Medal of Honor looked like it would be one

memorable game in 2010. In this I think it succeeded, but for all the wrong reasons. I will have a look at the game in two parts, as they were infact developed by two different teams and run on two different engines.

The Simgle Player campaign stretches over nine short missions, split among three characters, Duece, Rabbit & Dante. When the action sets in, the game is quite addictive and keeps you entertained but it is short lived because before you know it the game is over.

Medal of Honor is set in Afghanistan. You are part of the American Military submerged in intense firefights against the Taliban forces taking place in war torn Afghani cities you've likely seen or heard of before.

The missions are set in various regions from dry rocky mountains,

blown up airfields to Afghani towns that light up easier than a one year old's birthday cake. There are many memorable missions in the game. Because it is quite short you should enjoy them all. A good example of this is a mission called Gunfighters Village has you in control of a blazing US chopper blowing up make shift Taliban mountain camps and a small Afghani village.

The mission ends with a cutscene where enemy forces aim their anti-aircraft weapon at your chopper but then gets taken out by a friendly sniper on the other side of the canyon leading into the next mission where you then snipe their socks of.

The missions are well thought out keeping you entangled with one of the three characters, but at times it feels that you aren't really being pulled into the game and it all feels a little superficial.

There are no checkpoints so dying is not recommended which can be very frustrating as after blazing your way through 95% of a level you shouldnt be surprised if a reandom bullet finds your head.

Getting multi-kills and headshots in Tier 1 will slow the clock down to allow you precious extra seconds to finish the level, otherwise you will need to get your aim on, pull those socks up and cannonball your way through if you hope to be able to finish this mode.

The campaign runs on the Danger Close engine and Graphics are pretty good most of the time, with a warmer texture and richer feel than Battlefield Bad Company 2. I say most of the time, because at times it felt like they had forgotten to polish it a little and things went a bit pear shaped.

The best part of the campaign has to be the outstanding sound effects, the cracking music and the kick-ass cutscenes. The sound really is phenomenal and really helps with emersing you into the action.

Even with all its critisicms, this title still succeeds in being a fun game wich will keep you entertained, its just a pity that it falls short of what it could have been, but if you enjoy war themed first person shooters, Medal of Honor is definitely a game to add to you collection.

Multiplayer Review The single player was nothing worth writing home about, but you are probably wondering how the multiplayer turned out. After 15 minutes a trophy popped up, for being bad-ass at dying and getting stuck in rocks or crates. So I picked up the game case expecting to see a big "Made in China" sticker on the back, but the multiplayer was actually developed by DICE. Yeah, the same developers who made the awesome Call of Duty alternative Battlefield Bad Company 2.

The mechanics of Medal of Honor are rock solid as seen in the various trailers before release. It is however the lack of content that might be its downfall. The game has a shallow ranking system and only eight maps and without a steady stream of DLC from DICE Medal of Honor's arsenal seems to be a little weak and in multiplayer replayability is king.

Playing online is unique. The menus are beautifully designed, have a modern simplistic look and doesn't really have a lot of features... just like your weapons and classes.

To start of you will find yourself in one of the two opposing forces, The OPFOR -representing the Taliban or COALITION - representing the US troops. There are three classes, each with different weapon layouts and player skins to set you apart from the other classes.

They are: Rifleman: Equipped with assault rifles like the AK-47 for the OPFOR and M16A4 Assault rifle for the COALITION. Special Ops: Equipped with close-quarter specific weapons like the AKS-74U for the OPFOR and M4A1 Carbine for the COALITION. Sniper: Equipped with long range domination weapons like the SV-98 Sniper rifle for the OPFOR and M24 Sniper rifle for the COALITION. Each weapon has its respective counterpart on both teams, although the stats for that weapon might be slightly different. Each class has certain unloackable weapons and upgrades that range from extra ammunition, red dot sights and infra red range finders to suppressors allowing you to go behind enemy lines without waking the neighbors. You will unlock these upgrades as you progress with the different classes.

Once you reach level eight in any class you will reach TIER 1 that gives you a different appearance.

There are five game modes to keep it fresh and interesting on the eight different maps in the game ranging from desolate mountain tops, COALITION base camps, to war torn local market places with narrow walkways, rooftops and market stalls to deserted airfields with scrapped planes and hangars that once housed the flying terrors of the sky.

The five different game modes to choose from are as follows: Combat mission: The COALITION has to fight through a campaign of five objectives, heavily defended by OPFOR forces.

Team Assault: A Team Death Match type of game where the team with the highest score wins.

Sector Control: A Domination type of game where opposing teams battle to secure and hold flags for score.

Objective Raid: The COALITION has to defend two objectives from OPFOR saboteurs.

Harcore: featuring Team Assault, Sector Control and Objective Raid with hardcore settings.

Gameplay has the same feel as Bad Company 2 but graphically Medal of Honor does look pretty good.

The game has rich, organic environments with a warmer feel compared to Bad Company 2. The great sound from the campaign was not carried over to the multiplayer however , which is disappointing considering just how good the sound really could have been.

Controls are easy to use and shooting an enemy is as easy as point and shoot. Earning consecutive kills without dying gets you a score chain,which will then

earn you a choice of an offensive support action like a mortar strike or missile attack or a defensive support action such as intel or ammo. That all sounds quite good, but...

There is a serious lack of weapon recoil, maps have millions of little hiding spots and there is no kill cam.

With this and the over powered Sniper class you will soon hate those pesky campers. There are more than a few bugs within the game. From games crashing, getting stuck in strange places to the lack of voice chat in lobbies. This has been a basic addition to many games for the last couple of years and ironically DICE seems to have lost this war from a lack of communication.

At the end of the day Medal of Honor Online is a good idea that I feel has not shown its true potential yet.

Graphically its looks great competing with AAA titles out there, the sound is hot as Justin Beaber (If thats your thing) and the gameplay is sharper than Tiger Woods "putting" skills and yet its just not there, when it just feels like its about to break out as a wonderful title it suddenly falls flat on its face. It also seems to have the ability to be extremely irritating, but it also succeeds at getting you coming back for more and more every day! I would suggest you Go out and buy Medal of Honor, because despite all the hickups it is a great game and at EA's new pricing it is well worth it! Catch you on the battlefield soldier!

Article by Ricardo Ludeke

So I have come to the conclusion that today’s youth blindly follows the principal of: monkey see, monkey do. They have grown accustomed to our way of speaking, so much so, that they believe it is expected of them. They are constantly in a heated battle with maturity and the only way for them to prove their worth is to mimic the style that they are surrounded with constantly…our style. But don’t distress, I am not saying that it’s only us to blame, though I do think we play the biggest role of all.

Parents can only monitor their children to such an extent after all. What their kids say or do behind closed doors is an ambiguous cloud that they cannot penetrate. Kids will be kids of course.

But the slipper is still on our foot in this twisted fairytale and for good reason. See, most gamers will continue being gamers for most of their lives. I know I for one am chalking up gaming in the same category as smoking…I’ll stop when I stop enjoying it. Because we have carried the gamer torch with us since our young days, we are now thoroughly invested in a pool where the age criteria’s are immensely varied. There are no 2-16 ratings anymore and kids are pretty much free to indulge in any game they want. The only security they have nowadays is the prerogative of their parents and whether or not they actually care about the content their children are exposed to. And even if a parent does curb what his child is exposed to, with the internet now having such a wide reach, sheltering them completely is near impossible. If they want to play something, they’ll find a way.

One of the lessons I was taught as a naive adolescent

was to above all else…honour thy elder. I was never a kid to simply play by the rules, it just wasn’t in me to conform. However, I upheld my side of the communal bargain and stood true to my moral standings and the wishes of my parents throughout most of my childhood days. Yet, as the years progressed and my arrogance grew, I began questioning my surroundings more and more, and in doing so, questioning my peers. My interrogation skills would be elevated to a whole new level once I had left puberty behind and it was only once I hit University, that I really caught my stride. I was talking back to everyone and always finding fault in those I confided in, my cocky meandering of the truth growing to the point where, on one fateful day, I would take my father on in a head-to-head confrontation.

Needless to say, it’s never a fun thing getting a hiding on your 22nd birthday.

However, I don’t ever recall verbally assaulting another person with such belligerent disregard as we gamers are faced with today. I am of course talking about the non-stop pwning banter that the youth of today likes to throw around so loosely. I came to this realisation the other day whilst locked in an online head-to-head match with an American FIFA player.

Starting the game up, the conversation seemed civilised and friendly. We were idly mocking one another, tossing around playful banter and generally just having fun.

To me, it was a game and one which I was very much enjoying. This was of course until I scored my first goal.

Needless to say, the profanities that spawned from this child’s mouth after this point were enough to put a hardened sailor to shame.

I mean, this kid was actually using words that I would be ashamed to even mutter in the most obscene of situations. So I have to wonder, what has happened over the past 10 years that there has been such a colossal shift in our youth’s perception towards their elders and why have they received a general influx in their list of profanities? Sure, we can blame television or rock music or even the games they play, but to be honest, I think the finger is ultimately pointed in our general direction.

As you all know, smack talk is pretty much the staple diet of any competitive person and seeing as though online gaming is more or less nothing more than a pissing contest, we gamers tend to have the loosest lips when it comes to laying down the spoken law. I for one (as most of my Modern Warfare comrades will agree) have a very unique choice of words that I like to toss around whilst engulfed in a game of Search & Destroy. As the tension grows, so does my level of crudeness. Sure, I’m not always proud of the things that spew forth from unhinged yap, but I am a competitive person…that’s just how I am.

So because we won’t change, they won’t change…it’s as simple as that. And trust me; they feed off of your back-talking. Each word that you return in anger simply gets countered with something even more disgusting. There is no winning against an angst ridden, socially inept teen, so the quicker you realise that, the better.

I believe the best way to look at it is, that this pool we are all swimming in now is literally like a massive ball of tense energy that gets yanked to and fro. Almost like constantly dating high school girls: you age, yet they all stay the same. What stays the same for them is the anger and repressed frustration. Being the gamer kid in school is never an easy path…we all know this. So they lash out all their frustration in the best possible manner: by doing so in a world where they are able to voice any of their opinions and objections to an opaqued individual without restraint or consequence. I mean, what better way is there to badmouth your bully, then to store that energy for later, and release it in an arena where you ‘can’ actually ‘beat someone up’?

So at the end of the day, if we look at it now, will the gaming community ever really progress into an arena where everyone is civilised and treats their fellow gamers with respect, even whilst in the wind of a loss? Do you think this would ever happen in a real sport? There’s your answer…

The coup-de-grace to this article of mine is the fact that there is the possibility that these actions that we endeavour, in fact allow these children to mature faster. They are exposed to real world material a lot quicker than we were, so in the end, they have a better understanding of their surroundings from a younger age. So don’t feel bad when you let the tongue slip, only to get lashed back with some obscene comment about your mother’s birth canal…they are merely busy growing up, and there will be a time when the shoe is on the other foot and they are forced to take wave after wave of adolescent potty-talk.

Remember: the wheel always keeps turning and what goes around comes around. Karma is of course the mother of all bitches.

Article by Dieter Fouche

The Blades of Chaos - God of War Series

The Rail Gun - Quake 2

The Crow Bar - Half Life Series

The Portal Gun - Portal

The Gravity Gun - Half Life 2

The Ion Cannon - Command and Conquer

The Blue Shell - Super Mario Karts

The Redeemer - Unreal Tournament 03

The Lancer - Gears of War Series

The BFG - Doom Series

In all honesty, the ‘Pro Evo Revolution’ is not one which I have ever been a follower of, so coming into the series (and being a long-time follower of the FIFA games) I was bound to be biased in my decision.

However, I have decided to leave my love for EA aside and present my opinion to you with a clear conscience.

Starting up PES11, I was very hopeful. Being a big fan of soccer games, the chance that there might be a new franchise to add to my collection is always something I look forward to. The graphical interface seemed nice, the navigation was rather easy to adjust to, and being able to select the same button configuration as FIFA was definitely an added bonus for me. So we started with an Exhibition match between Spain and France. The first thing I noted was the graphics; they seemed crisp, detailed and truly immaculate.

As the sun rose on the 23rd of November 2001, the

birth of a rivalry began which would span across the following decade. As each year came and went, the rivalry would undergo a metamorphosis and evolve in its strategy. Certain aspects would be manipulated and enhanced, one side continuously striving to outdo or best the other. It has now been almost a decade and still the rivalry rages on, yet it would seem that one side has finally triumphed over the other and it might finally be time for someone to surrender their struggle and admit defeat. This is the battle of Konami vs. EA Sports and the clash of their titan franchises: Pro Evolution Soccer and FIFA… which (in my opinion) has now finally come to a dismal end.

The stadiums carried a feeling of colossal grandeur and made the player feel like he was really invested in something majestic.

However, as I was not used to thestandard PES camera, I changed it to something a little closer to home, namely the Wide option.

Upon doing so, the game started to very closely resemble my ‘fanboy favourite’ and the ecstatic feelings that I had before, slowly started to fade away.

Mostly because I was now tasked with having to actually endure this game riddled with its horrific gameplay mechanics and mediocre player animations.

The horrific gameplay mechanics that I speak of are mostly the pace of the game. It is so slow, that it feels sluggish in its entirety.

Most fans of the series will eviscerate me after this review. They will loath me, despise me and generally hate my guts, yet I am going to be as honest as I possibly can. That is why I am starting this review with a statement: The war is over. Konami, you have lost.

This statement is based purely on which company has presented a better game, and even though every instalment of FIFA usually feels like a rehashed version of the previous, PES11 is so far from good it’s shameful.

This is truthfully because after playing PES11 for almost 5 pain- inducing hours, I realised that it is more of a Soccer Simulator than it is a soccer game. Konami tried so hard to make the game as ‘realistic’ as possible, that the game is an agonising endeavour. Each action in PES11 is gauged by a power bar, and with this great power literally comes great responsibility.

Players have to direct passes, lobs, through balls and shots at goal to such a degree, that even the most minute of errors will end in failure. I promised I wouldn’t compare this to FIFA, but I feel that this is a point that I need to.

The game simply doesn’t have the fast passing, quick dribbling, intense action play that I have become accustomed to.

Dribbling in PES11 seems clumsy, almost as if my player shouldn’t be allowed to control the ball, but of course passing it is out of the question, as that would be even more work than running with it.

Moving around from side to side while handling the ball is very badly coordinated and sprinting with the ball feels like a runaway train aimed at a canyon.

Players are not able to make decisions in such split second circumstances such as they are in FIFA, so navigating around the pitch required a lot more planning and finesse. Instead of setting up beautiful throughballs or glorious shots at goal, most of the times you will find yourself hoping that your pass goes the way you want it to go.

GRAPHICS: Apart from that, everything ends up feeling like it is a massive learning curve and actually accomplishing anything worthy of celebration tends to be something which never happens.

To wrap the gameplay up, it is not meant for newcomers at all and the level of user-friendliness is nowhere to be seen. You simply feel lost in the vast, mentallychallenged machine that is Pro Evolution Soccer.

Even my buddies who have never played before learn it easily”.

I can promise you, this was not the case with PES11…either you have been a fan since the start and, in doing so, become accustomed to the torturous gameplay of PES or you have never played a good soccer game before and therefore have no idea that you are playing something which is in fact terrible.

My one friend (who helped me test the game for reviewing) made a very viable point by saying: “I don’t like this. The reason I like FIFA, is that I can stop playing for 5 years, pick up a controller, and still not be too bad.

The best way to sum up this review, is to give each facet of the game its own section, and point out the mistakes from there. I have already slated the gameplay to a great extent, so here is:

Although at times the graphics do have some really astonishing textures to them, it all falls to the wayside when compared to the magnitude of mistakes that PES11 has. One rotten apple spoils the whole bunch, right? Player realism is one place where I will give Konami points, as the textures invested in player realism are spectacular.

Stadiums are also another aspect which they have clearly taken into account and it is evident once you step onto the pitch.

Crowd texture has never been something any of the sport franchises really focus on, simply because the pitch is where the real action is after all, so don’t be over enthusiastic when it comes to crowd realism.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The rest of the features can be grouped into a generalization simply because none of them are truly ground- breaking.

The game features enough Game Modes to keep any die-hard fan of the series happy, the multiplayer modes are adequate to what you would expect from a sport game and the newly added features, such as a 360 degree ball control, don’t seem like they are something memorable.

The game in all its entirety seems like it has stagnated over the years and finally allowed itself to be left at the wayside when compared to EA’s monolith franchise. I would have wished that Konami could have presented something which was equal if not better than the current offering, yet it would seem that this old dog has no new tricks.

I would suggest that unless you are a fan of the series and deem my review hogwash or prefer soccer simulators as opposed to actually enjoying yourself, to steer clear of PES11 at all costs.

Article by Dieter Fouche

SOUND: From the bat, the sound couldn’t keep up with the magnitude that EA Sports had brought to the table. Commentary sometimes lapped over one another, giving the illusion that the programmers had just recorded a bunch of comments and programmed them to trigger at certain events.

The commentators don’t feel like they are actually invested in the game, however, this might simply be

because of Gremlins in the PES11 system (which could be fixed with a future patch). The authenticity simply isn’t on a level such as FIFA’s (and I am sorry that I am once again leaning to one side, but it’s true).

Soundtrack was sub-par, crowd noise was mediocre and the commentating was riddled with mistakes and amateurism, not something that you’ll easily find in FIFA.

Got Beef? Want Revenge? Need to silence "that" guy once and for all? Then we have great news for you!

Whether you simply want to challenge a friend or silence the "Best" then The Gamer Challenge is what you have been waiting for.

Where all the glory, misery and bad-assery will be made even more epic, with player profiles, smack talk and all the results.

Challenge your rival to a one-on-one in MW2, Fifa, Street Fighter 4 or any other game you desire.

Every Month, you and your friends will get a chance to submit your match-ups, then The Gamer will select three random match ups.

Humiliate your opposition, or just challenge your friend to a friendly game.

If he accepts your challenge and we pick you in one of the three match ups, that’s when things get interesting.

The Gamer Challenge has already seen a few epic match ups and now its time to step it up. We even have someone who can spectate your match and record it, so you can share your victory with the world!

Setting up The Challenge is easy, simply email your match-up to Challenges@thegamersa.co.za Include your PSN name and the PSN name of your rival (and any forum names) as well as your reason for challenging them and the game title in which you wish to compete.

which you must complete your match and depending on the game title possibly a set of rules which you will have to follow.

We will go through all the challenge submissions and select three match-ups. If you are selected then we will contact you with further questions, a time frame within

No matter your title, or platform, all gamers are welcome to participate in The Gamer Challenge. The more challengers the better.

Will you take up the challenge? Will you rise to the occasion? Will you make him cry for his stuffed teddy?

Unfortunately however you cannot explore much of these stunning landscapes because the game is very strict about where you can go and how you get there, leaving you with the false illusion of freedom only to be stopped in your tracks by invisible walls. It would have been a great addition to the game if you were able to explore the surrounding areas or taking your own route through the story.

Although you can not choose how you get there, the story has a typical save the world from evil plot that works just perfectly.

Gabriel is part of the Brotherhood of Light, a group of knights that have the skill and power to protect the world from evil. The evil force known as the Lords of Shadow have cast a dark spell stopping the souls of the deceased from leaving earth, while evil creatures inhabit what remains, attacking the people that are

In Castlevania Lords of Shadow you will play as Gabriel Belmont who finds himself equipped with great combat abilities allowing him to slay huge beast with his bare hands and more than enough special skills to fight the forces of evil and avenge the death is his loving wife.

The most striking feature in Lords of Shadow has to be the breathtaking graphics. Right from the get go you realise that the game is graphically beautiful with expansive landscapes and scenery competing in the

ranks of Uncharted. Everything from the beautiful landscapes, ranging from icy lakes, magnificent waterfalls, overgrown forests and decaying aged cities to the brilliant character designs are down right gorgeous.

It's a pity that you run passed these beautiful areas so quickly, because sometimes you just need to stop and appreciate the amount of effort that went into the design of the surroundings environments.

left. Gabriel realises he can still save his wife from the dead with the use of one of the two powerful masks in the game. Gabriel then sets out to defeat the three powerful forces of the Lords of Shadow, to gather the broken pieces of the mask and to bring back his deceased wife.

Throughout the game the developers have done a good job at setting the scene of what is going on and explaining why Gabriel would be fighting massive boss battles and hordes of werewolves, vampires, zombies and other creatures from the horror era of Castlevania.

There are a lot of cutscenes putting you right in the story, helping you understand what is going on and leading you through the progression perfectly. The many custscenes do not take away any value from the game as it is an unexpectedly long game with many levels and tricky challenges with a great variety that will keep you busy for hours.

Obviously games that keep you busy for hours will have its good and bad moments and for Lords of Shadow those good moments are greatly entertaining and will have you begging for more. Kicking the game off with a boss battle and slaying my first Titan was quite rewarding, making me want to rush on for more, but the bad moments are definitely there and can be very frustrating.

that you cant reach or a timed puzzle that needs you to move in a way you weren't intended to. Although Gabriel has no issues with getting around...

Annoyingly the tutorial subtitles that are provided to guide the player in the start of a game in navigating challenges or obstacles, simply stick with you for the entire game, kind of destroying any real difficulty or puzzles. Strangely there are also areas without hints which were seemingly created just to irritate you. A few other negative elements include camera angles obscuring the enemy attacks in a battle, to a ledge

Armed with his combat cross and a chain like whip weapon, Gabriel performs two different kinds of attacks, short and strong or sweeping but weak strikes that you can mix up with jumps, grabs, blocks and rolls to literally make mince meat of your enemies. Racking up combos makes the combat aspect fun and rewarding.

Nothing looks as cool as ripping a troll apart and killing his friends with grenades dropped from his corpse. Talking about corpses, through the game you will come across fallen knights hiding collectable’s on their bodies. Gabriel will use these collectable’s in many ways, from gems increasing his health to scrolls helping him with the many puzzles in the game.

As said, there are many clever puzzles, exciting climbing sections and impressive boss fights against huge enemies. Apart from these bits to keep you busy

The core combat mechanic in Lords of Shadows is well executed and has the same great hack and slash feel, that similar titles like God of War 3 uses to its advantage.

there are also level specific challenges and collectable’s that will be unlocked after completing a level adding some extra replayability As you venture further on in the story Gabriel will also unlock more weapons such as daggers, holy water, fairies and a crystal that unleashes a mystic creature capable of wiping out nearly all enemies with a single hit. As you defeat enemies you will earn points that can be used to buy more combos for you weapons as well as skills for Gabriel making you feel even

more bad-ass. However there are many unlockable skills that aren't really needed as you only really ever need them for solving environment related puzzles.

The basic combat skills are more than enough to stop even the biggest Titans in their steps. Whether you mash those buttons or tactfully plan your attacks make no real difference and either way remains fun enough to keep you going back for more!

Adding to your growing inventory of the game Gabriel also has two kinds of magic that he can make use of called Light and Shadow magic. When activated, Light magic, heals him while attacking enemies and Shadow magic causes more damage to enemies.

Another impressive aspect to Lords of Shadow has to be the epic soundtrack. The sound fits perfectly to the game and the main battle soundtrack keeps you entertained, although it does end up getting a little too much near the end and it is sad that there is not a bigger variety.

There is just one thing that bothers me about Catlevania Lords of Shadow. The game just doesn't seem to have its own identity borrowing a lot of elements from games like God of War, Shadow of the Colossus and other games, but it has to be said that it takes a lot of skill to make it work and Lords of Shadow did a stunning job at that indeed. The battle mechanics and boss battles are memorable, but the adventure aspect of the game seems like nothing more than just an idea from another game. Can the developers only do so much with a certain genre or could they have done more with some original ideas?

Catlevania Lords of Shadow is a great action adventure and if you are a fan of the genre it should be in your collection. Packed with stunning visuals and an entertaining story that will keep you busy for hours it certainly is one of the hidden gems of 2010.

Article by Ricardo Ludeke

But to follow this route without wandering off the beaten track is the most heinous of crimes a player can commit towards a game that offers as much as Fallout New Vegas does. It is quite possible, and very advisable, to simply pick a direction and set out, before long the player will encounter someone in need of some sort of help which will often lead to getting even more lost in the engrossing world of Fallout New Vegas.

Side quests are plentiful in the Mojave and many of them have deep branching story lines, some of which are almost more compelling than the main plot. Each quest, whether part of the main quest or a simple side quest, is open to a variety of different approaches. Don’t have the Speech skill necessary to talk your way past a guard, that’s OK, let your guns do the talking.

Do not however be fooled into thinking the main plot is anything to be laughed at, even without

"War. War Never Changes". The iconic words first

spoken by Ron Perlman in the opening narration of Fallout back in 1997. Since 97 the guys over at Black Isle, which unfortunately shut its doors back in 03, have gone on to form Obsidian Entertainment and after more than a decade since Fallout 2 finally got to develop another Fallout game, Fallout New Vegas.

Vegas... What a Town New Vegas takes place in 2281, some 4 years after the events of Fallout 3, and is set in the Mojave Wasteland which is made up of Las Vegas and its surrounding desert. Players take on the role of a courier for the Mojave Express, a kind of postapocalyptic UPS if you will, who gets ambushed enroute to make a very important delivery and is shot in the head and left for dead in a shallow grave. By some miracle the Courier survives and after being rescued by a mysterious robot awakes in the offices of a local doctor.

From here the player goes through a character creation process near identical to that of Fallout 3. Once gender and physical appearance is finalised the player gets to set their primary attributes, which once again is based on the SPECIAL system (Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck), as well as 3 tag Skills and up to 2 traits, which make a welcome return to the series having been absent in Fallout 3.

touching side quests the main quest, its sub-quests and branching choices will keep most players busy in excess of 20 hours, with several very interesting choices open to the player which all influence the outcome of the plot and as a result the ending of the game, of which Fallout New Vegas has quite a few depending on the choices made and the factions supported.

It is however a lament that once again the level cap is 30, as it was in Fallout 3, and that after the completion of the quest it is not possible for the player to continue exploring the Wasteland completing unfinished quests. A problem which will most probably be fixed with the inevitable DLC but still a shame.

Even if not able to continue after the main quest why not include a feature for players to restart the game will all their equipment and experience intact?

For those who missed Fallout 1 & 2, Traits are similar to Perks in that they modify different aspects of gameplay, however unlike Perks each Trait has a positive and negative effect such as the Kamikaze Trait which give players 10 more action points but as a result the player also receives a -2 on their damage threshold. There are 10 Traits to choose from, or not as they are optional, however Traits can only be selected at character creation.

Once this is done the player is ready to head out into the big bad wasteland. There is an optional tutorial quest-line to help players become familiar with combat, both in and out of V.A.T.S, as well as New Vegas’s other new feature; a far more extensive crafting system which we will get to in just a moment.

Get Out There, Explore Experience...

This is where the guiding hand of the game releases its grip and lets the player choose how to continue and therein lies one of role-playing games biggest strengths; the ability to play the game your way. This has hardly ever been more true than it is in Fallout New Vegas. Sure the main plot does an excellent job of leading you the long way through the Mojave, slowly introducing you to the different factions before finally delivering you to the Strip.

A Busy Wasteland The Mojave is far from being desolate. There are 3 main factions; Mr House the enigmatic ruler of the New Vegas Strip, The New Californian Republic (NCR) a coalition of 5 states who seek to restore order and organized government as well as “old world values” to the wasteland, Caesar’s Legion a merciless army who enslave conquered tribes and recondition them into their ranks. There are also 4 Minor factions that can be recruited to your cause and 13 other smaller factions.

The player can establish a relations ship with any of these factions and while positive actions towards one will raise the players reputation with that faction it will also lower the players reputation with any

faction who is at odds with the other faction. This leads to an interesting dynamic which will ask players to make as choice as it is impossible to keep everybody happy. (it is however possible to make everybody hate your guts) The faction reputation system also forms part of the morality system taking away the traditional good, bad and neutral and replacing it with what is good or bad for your reputation with a specific faction.

This may sound as though there will be many grey areas as far as choice is concerned, unfortunately as Karma is still around it destabilises the idea of grey area’s since killing a member of Caesar’s

Legion will cause Karma to be gained while killing a member of the NCR will lead to a loss of Karma, which brings the entire thing back to black and white choices. Sure the player is free to ignore Karma and do exactly as they please but the little message that pops up to remind you that you just did something “Evil” by shooting the NCR trooper in the head does make it feel as if there is no grey area, only what the game defines as good or bad.

The Factions are also a clear indication that the franchise is back in the hands of some of its original creators with factions like the NCR and Crimson Caravan Company making a return from Fallout 2 while others like The Followers of the Apocalypse and The Gun Runners from the original Fallout.

While those that joined the franchise with Fallout 3 might not find this anything to write home about it brings a tear to the eye of long time Fallout fans who have fond memories of fighting the Master under the Followers of the Apocalypse's cathedral in Fallout 1 or negotiating with the newly formed NCR’s leader Tandi in Fallout 2.

The Plot Thickens....

Beyond the Courier’s quest to catch up with the person who tried to kill him the plot of Fallout New Vegas centres around the conflict for the Hoover Dam, which supplies New Vegas with electricity and clean water, between the NCR, Caesar’s Legion and Mr House who are all vying for control of the region. The player will become a key player in the shaping the future of New Vegas and its surrounding areas regardless of which faction the player chooses to align with.

Although this creates an interesting setup for some choices which the player to will have to make (which faction to join, if any. What acts to committing on behalf of that faction) The factions feel a little too clearly defined. Caesar’s Legion are baby eating evil while the NCR is setup to be portrayed as the undermanned fighting force who seek to restore law and order while Mr House wants to get humanity “back on track” but his methods remain shrouded in mystery.

In the early hours of the game the faction do show some signs of grey but as the story progress they are cemented into predefined roles, which is a shame as the in game choices could have been alot harder had there been something to admire and despise in each faction.

With Fallout New Vegas the franchise also reasserts itself as mature, dealing openly with issues such as drug abuse, gambling, prostitution and slavery.

The writing also features more of the dark humour Fallout 1 & 2 become famous for while its inhabitants are a lot more foul mouthed than their Capital Wasteland cousins.

Viva New Vegas Obsidian have taken what worked in Fallout 3 and brought it over almost exactly to New Vegas. As such anyone who played Fallout 3 will immediately be familiar with the look and feel of New Vegas, similarly the controls remain pretty much the same.

What Obsidian did do, however, was add in many features that where only incorporated into Fallout

3 via its extensive modding community or that got left out during the transition from Interplay to Bethesda.

As mentioned before the simplistic crafting system in Fallout 3 has been reworked and now features a very large variety of items the player can create, from crafting special ammo or converting 20 gauge shot gun shells into 12 gauge to creating custom weapons like the much loved “Rock-It-Launcher” as well as medical supplies like Stimpacks and food items. The player ability to craft items lies in their Repair, Science and Survival Skills, with a vast number of schematics and recipes for the player to discovery out in the wastelands of New Vegas.

Fallout New Vegas also add the ability to add modifications like a silencer, scope, extended magazines or increased fire rate, to the large variety of weapons. There mods can be purchased or may be found while “prospecting”. Considering the amount of caps (in game currency) it will cost the player to fully upgrade their favourite weapon, the mods encourage players to pick a specific gun and stick with it instead of jumping between weapons

of convenience, as a well maintained weapon will save your life when a group of raiders decide to help themselves to your belongings. During my play through I found myself sticking to a set of about 4 different weapons, a hand gun, a shotgun and 2 different rifles. There is however so many awesome guns that the player may find it difficult to settle on which one to use, mostly the choice is made for you by which ammo is available.

To improve the shooter side of gameplay it is now possible to aim down the guns iron-sites for player who like their combat real-time. However with the excellent V.A.T.S and its brilliant slow motion cinematic camera going in comparrsion to the poor real time shooting mechanics there is little use for using the iron-sites at all.

To add to the wealth of dead dealing instruments there are now multiple ammo types, another return to series routes, with each ammunition type having its own armor piecing and hollow point as well as regular base variances.

The Companions in Fallout 3 where mostly tied to a quest and was for the most part very linear. In New Vegas they return with the former glory of the Fallout 2 Companions.

There are 8 companions in total each with their own personality and can give the player access to companion perks such ad ED-E’s Enhanced Sensors which help the player identify enemies.

A Player can have 2 companions at any given time, 1 humanoid and 1 non-humanoid, each companion can also carry items for the player which helps to expand the players limited carrying capabilities.

Giving commands to companions has also been made easy with the companion wheel which lets players set the companions combat style, inventory, following distance and aggressive/passive AI. Each companion has a recruiting quest and then another optional quest which will reward the player with a specific upgrade for the Companion.

The different types of munition isn’t just for show though as Obsidian has brought back another feature from Fallout 1 &2, Damage Threshold (DT) which was replaced with Damage Resistance in Fallout 3. Damage Threshold is how much damage armor stops, if a attack on either the player or an NPC is equal or less than the DT (Which can be increased by wearing armor) the damage will be replaced with 20% of its original damage. This is indicated in game by a red shield appearing next to an enemies heath bar. As a result using Armor Piercing rounds will cause more damage where as hollow point rounds will cause more damage on unarmored opponents.

Each weapon now also has a base damage and a DPS (Damage per second). Weapons with high DPS have lower base damages while weapons with lower DPS has higher base damage. And this can also have an effect on how much damage the player inflicts.

The Skill books from Fallout 3 have also been reworked and grouped into two catagories.

Magazines, which only give a temporary bonus to skill, and Books, which give smaller but permanent skill boosts. While magazines are rather common Skill Books can be particularly tricky to find.

Another new feature is Hardcore Mode which lends some realism to the game. In Hardcore mode players need to Eat, Drink and Sleep or face penalties and eventually even death. In Hardcore mode Stimpaks, RadAway and food items do not heal instantaneously but over time. Also crippled limbs can only be healed by a Doctor or the use of a Doctor’s Bag. Companions are now mortal and ammo suddenly has weight, meaning players can no longer carry enough ammo to start World War IV. If a player is significantly starving or dehydrated fast travel is also disabled.

While this certainly add a few more fun challenges to the regular game play it becomes entirely too easy to remain hydrated and well fed as both drink and food are in ample supply. On Hard or Very Hard difficulty, where these items are a lot less common, Hardcore Mode starts becoming more... Hardcore.

Bugs.... Big Radioactive Bugs For all Fallout Vegas’s brilliance, for all the immersion it offers and the depth of its gameplay there are two things that bring it down.

The first is the insane amount of bugs and visual glitches present on all platforms. Within hours of the game’s release players across all platforms where reporting a host of bugs, from the now infamous Doc Mitchell Spinning head (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMHkFUQiQzo), to corrupted save files, game crashes and players getting stuck in terrain. There are also plenty of visual hick-ups, from scenery simply popping into existence, NPCs and wasteland wild life becoming stuck in each other or in the terrain.

Fallout is a game that offers such immersion but nothing breaks the experience like coming across a squad of NCR troops caught in some sort of temporal flux or being attacked by a scorpion that is actually under the ground, worse of all some of these bugs remain even after a patch.

Obsidian has said that it is natural for a game of Fallout New Vegas’s size to have a few bugs slip through the net but from personal experience there seems to be more than a few bugs that slipped through. In a age where most video games are a multi-million dollar project releasing a game in a state such as Fallout New Vegas was in upon release is almost unacceptable.

The second thing that brings it down is the visuals or more specifically the game engine. Character animation, though improved from Fallout 3, is still stiff and almost unnatural. Similarly the character model still look horrid with hair that looks entirely to solid and clipping issues galore. It is also still near impossible to create a pretty player character, the character creation tool is in need of some serious upgrading and Bethesda should maybe go take notes from the likes of Bioware and the ease with which it was possible to create a decent player character even in the original Mass Effect.

Yes New Vegas has had some visual “upgrades” in the form of better lighting and some texture improvement but overall the Gamebryo Engine, which has been in use in its current for since Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, is showing its age.

In closing Fallout New Vegas feels more like Fallout 3.5 than Fallout 4 but this is not a bad thing as Fallout 3 was a great game. Even with its bugs, glitches and occasionally stupid AI, Fallout New Vegas is still a must not only for Fallout fans but for any gamer looking for a long, deep and saticfying RPG experience. With the first DLC already in production we can only hope that Obsidian will not only give new content with the DLC but also a few more sorely needed fixes.

Fans of the series are also in for a treat with the sheer number of fan services Obsidian incorporated by entwining New Vegas so entirely with the larger Fallout universe. I for one hope this trend continues and that when Fallout 4 comes around we will have an even larger interconnected post-apocalyptic universe to explore.

Article by Ernst A Vorndran

Have enough flow and a street can become a full on skate park as vert ramps, transitions and unbelievable shaping rails will appear.

This is the main mechanic in SWS and it is by far the hardest thing to try and explain. As you ride the streets you will see outlines of ramps, if your flow is high enough and if you hits them the road beneath you will become the ramp. These are known as "Shaping Objects" and the Shaping rails are simply awesome, the first time you hit one it starts as a little arrow, grind onto it and suddenly you are flying off into the skying on a luminous rail.

I must say I was pretty impressed with the concept, its something new and they were gutsy to go a different route, but I don't know, it just seems to fall a little short.

This morning I was watching a replay of the 2010

X-Games Vert Final. Shaun White was leading for most of the round and was seemingly dominating the other competitiors, suddenly Pierre Luc Gagnon busted out two EPIC runs and that was all that was needed to leave Shaun White with the Silver Medal. Now I find myself reviewing the new Skate game attached to his name and I am left wondering if this game is even worthy of the bronze.

You see there are arguably two staples in the skate gaming genre with Shaun White's offering now making up the third. For years all Skating titles fell under one roof and were connected to Mr Skateboarding; Tony Hawk. The man of legend was the first to bring us the 900 and a few years later brought us the Tony Hawk Pro Skater franchise. For a time, all was good and the people of the gaming kingdom were happy. Each new title in the series brought more of the solid, over the top and all out fun gameplay.

Then suddenly something changed, it all went a bit skew and the king fell from his throne. The people were terribly distraught and longed for something new to lift them from sadness.

In came the second staple and what is now considered the benchmark, the new king of the land. EA's skate revolutionised everything we knew about the genre. It not only revitalised the feel, but gave the genre what it needed, a realistic control scheme, that gave skaters what they loved from the real world counter part with out the risk of a crushed skull. It was the realism, the difficulty, the ability to be able to go out and skate a solid session just how you would in the real world.

Taking an hour to get your line just right before banging ou the perfect nollie tailslide down the big set.

Now the new challenger, not only needs to exceed the former fun, of King Tony, but also needs to topple the realistic perfection of EA's Skate.

Shaun Whites Skateboarding (SWS) is no ordinary skate game, that is clearly evident from the first moment you start playing.

For one SWS follows a very clear story line, this isnt some generic "you've been in jail now you need to refind your skill" story as seen previously in the genre, this time you have a fully fledged futuristic concept. Sure its not going to win any oscars for writing, but its something different and frankly I found it a nice touch. The game starts off with headlines of Shaun Whites capture, you see you are now an inhabitant of a greyed out society, where creativity and emotion has been outlawed (think Equilibrium). Everything is controlled by an evil corporation known as The Ministry.

Who have taken White into custody after he was attempting to "liberate" parts of the city using his skateboard. Now its up to you, you are given a board and tasked with setting the people free.

This is where the story begins to tie in with the gameplay...performing a trick will not only set nearby people free, it will help to recolour the otherwise grey enviroment around you. Bust out a wicked 360 Judo grab and watch as the walls are painted, the sidewalks sprout trees, and birds start singing.

This is refered to as your "Influence" on the world, which not only helps restore colour and happiness but is your main weapon in setting the people free.

Your influence is directly linked to your "flow" and its your flow that really gets the game into it own league.

Busting tricks, creates flow, the more tricks you unleash the higher your flow meter will get.

Keep increasing your flow and suddenly the world will become your playground as your flow helps to reveal objects around you.

The innovation levels in this game are probably its strongest suite and you can see that they have tried to create something new instead of going head to head with other titles in the genre. In my opinion this is both a good and a bad thing.

The idea's are certainly fresh, clever and entertaining and yet I am left feeling like I just bought a cheap gimmick. Certain elements of it just arnt there and it feels a little clumsy. Maybe a little unfinished, almost like if they had just spent and extra hour brainstorming then some very annoying things could have been avoided.

One of these things is the shaping rail, what a great concept, yet once it has been ridden the shape remains i.e. you can now see the rail where ever you are and it acts just like any other rail in the game. What this means is that you now have a complicated, twisting rail that is almost impossible to grind all the way through.

Then when you consider that some of these rails need to be re-ridden to get to objectives, you are left trying to grind the same segment over and over and over only to keep failing.

The control system, while not quite as brilliant as that of EA's Skate isnt thaaaat bad and is a kind of marriage between THPS and Skate.

You use a combination of both the square, triangle, circle and x button as well as the analogue sticks to perform your tricks of which 80 are boasted.

It feels a bit wishy washy at times and sometimes the same button combinations can result in three different tricks although this isnt a foreign problem to Skate players either. Its like they both wanted to do if for you and for you to do it yourself.

Its not terrible though and good enough that the game can remain enjoyable.

Probably my biggest issue with this game however is the graphics. They are quite simply lack lustre unpolished and amaturish.

Some of the models appear to have a total polygon count of five and no PS3 game should have a car that looks like a PS2 modeled shoebox.

Creating your character is one of the first things you do in the game and sadly it shows you really early just how bad the graphics are and the limit on customisation just makes it that much worse. A few short moments later and you will be entertained with the first cutscene.

As per the industry standard these days the cutscenes run on the ingame engine and as a result the quite simply suck.

The people looks like puppets and I kept thinking that the man guy who guides you looked like the leader of Team America.

The lip synch is shocking and their putty faces will leave you disapointed. Good thing then that these games are meant to be about the skating then, right?

All in all its not a bad game at all even though it is let down terribly by the graphics. If you have gotten a little tired of Skate 3 and are looking for something new then Shaun Whites Skateboarding isnt a bad option. The gameplay is fun and innovative and its almost nice to have a bit of the over the top fun back in the genre. So if you are a fan of skating or the man with the red mop then go out and get it.

Article by Abe Viljoen

How to Migrate your Account: Before you start with account migration there are some important things you need to know: • Some services may not be available in your country • Previously purchased or download content (e.g. videos, games, add-ons) will not be downloadable again after migration at this point in time, so remember to save your purchased content to your hard drive or a USB flash drive.

• The account migration process is not reversible To migrate your account you will need to follow these steps: 1. Sign in to Xbox LIVE and go to My Account page 2. Click on Account Region 3. Select your country

The local South African “Xbox 360” Community have

been holding their breath ever since a seriously exciting announcement was made earlier this year at the annual E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) expo, which is widely considered to be the ultimate expo in the video game industry.

The announcement was that 9 new territories would be receiving Xbox LIVE during the course of this year.

On October 12th Xbox 360 South Africa announced the all important date for when South African’s will be receiving Xbox LIVE. The much anticipated, seriously way overdue, “full LIVE experience”. The date is to be the 10th of November 2010. “XboxLiveDay”.

The “Xbox 360” Community has been waiting for this day for over four years which saw numerous petitions, online campaigns, emails, emails and more emails to Microsoft South Africa asking, demanding, begging, pleading, basically crying for Xbox LIVE to be supported in our country.

Finally, this day is now upon us. With less than a week to go, Xbox 360 South Africa is having a combined launch in Johannesburg for the all new Kinect and of course, Xbox LIVE. One would think the gaming community would be overjoyed with this news, but it looks like there are two distinct separate groups. Why is there a split amongst the local gamers?

Let’s quickly take a look shall we? This is what Xbox 360 South Africa has announced will be available on launch day (10th November): “For launch we’ve focused first on delivering the core gaming and community features that have made Xbox LIVE the world’s premier online gaming destination.

Those with a free Xbox LIVE subscription (broadband internet required) get to earn Achievements, and receive access to free game demos as well as Xbox LIVE Games Marketplace including Xbox LIVE Arcade games and Game add-ons like new songs, characters and map packs [Games and add-ons sold separately].

Upgrade to Xbox LIVE Gold and play multiplayer games online, video chat with friends in the living room with Video Kinect and watch for exclusive discounts and offers for our new market members.”

The above is only possible once the gamers has “migrated” his or her exciting Xbox LIVE gamertag.

4. Follow the steps outlined. Remember to re-download your content to a USB flash drive or your hard drive before continuing 5. Read and accept the Terms of Use 6. Your account will now be migrated to the LIVE offering in your chosen country 7. Select membership level: Silver or Gold 8. For Gold membership you will required to enter your billing information 9. You are now a member of the official LIVE in South Africa Congratulations!

Now gamers are up in arms about this and here is why: Quote extracted from Xbox-360.co.za/forum “R599.00 for local 12month gold subs and R299.00 for 2100 ms points!!! compare that to the UK price of 40 pounds for 12month (about R440) and 17 pounds (about R190) for 2000 points!!! so we paying 36% to 50% more once again! Whats there reason this time???

There is NO import cost?

The scary part is that there is almost no major benefits to us locals joining up to local xbox live. 36 to 50% more expensive and for what? Advantages: Better local match making (theory), use of credit cards (points cards are cheaper anyway), downloadable content for mature games(may be possible with a international account from the 10th november anyways) Disadvantages: no support for additional features (such as Netflix, Zune, Facebook, Twitter) loss of undownloaded content and let me repeat this: 36 to 50% more expensive!”

My personal opinion is this: We are getting exactly what we wanted all along.

1. We asked for LIVE – We’re getting it!

2. We asked for account migration. – We’re getting it and this has never been done before, not even for the Americans.

3. We asked that our games include DLC codes within the box – We are getting it!

4. We asked that we don't get blocked when wanting to download DLC. – We are getting it!

Alright so now on Tuesday Xbox 360 South Africa is holding an exclusive launch event where Kinect will be on demo as well as Xbox LIVE. Xbox 360 South Africa have announced some fantastic launch specials too which should get gamers excited as well as those not already on Xbox LIVE to want to jump in.

1. All 12 months subscriptions will get an additional 2 months free (at launch) 2. If you buy any Call of Duty game or bundle, you will be able to purchase a 14 month subscription (12months + 2months) at R399.00 (R200.00 off) 3. If you buy any Xbox console, you will be able to purchase a 14 month subscription (12months + 2months) at R399.00 (R200.00 off) I personally will be ready to hit my migrate button on my dashboard on Wednesday and will be virtually relocating from California (where I originally stayed in order for me to make use of the US locale for Xbox LIVE) and now moving back to Cape Town, South Africa and making use of our local Xbox LIVE. All virtual of course!

I am positive with this launch we will see a boom within the gaming industry and more specifically for the Xbox 360 gamers out there.

Jump in and be the controller!

This Article was written by Glen ZA, local Xbox ambassador and Xbox Xpert.

Single Charge Station If you are a PS3 owner with only one Dualshock controller then this is a must have hardware accessory; the LED controller charging dock. A stylish little device that charges your controller whilst making your PS3 setup look even more pimped out. The docking station conveniently connects via a USB slot and is ready to use immediately. As the title suggests, this product allows you to “dock” your controller into a solid base, rather than having your controller lying loose somewhere vulnerable to fall and eventually break.

Once the docking station is connected, simply connect your controller downwards into the dock and charging will commence.

Pimped LED USB Cable This is something that I added to my online basket at the last minute, a spur of the moment choice before checking out on Take2's website. A USB cable to charge my Dualshock controller. Now you may ask "why order another USB cable?" Think of this one being a pimped out version...

For a start this is no ordinary USB cable, its not only a cable that will replace your lifeless current one but has some funky features aswell. It's longer, re-inforced and has LED's, not only is it better quality than the one which came bundled with the console, its also down right sexy. This product beats any other USB cable out there in terms of quality and overall appearance, definately a pimpworthy addition to your setup.

The cable includes a tight coarse grip that runs around the entire length of the cable from the one terminal to the other, it acts more of a protective sleeve that is solid and difficult to bend, an advantage if your kids

like to hover around the TV and stand on your cables.

Each terminal is also gold plated which creates a better signal.

Now for the products main feature, the LED's. Each terminal lights up with a bright blue glow after being connected to a "live" USB slot. Both terminals light up brightly even if you just connect the one end into your console. The LED's are a nice touch and emit a constant flow of blue essence to your gaming rig. Also bear in mind that this product can not only be used to charge your controller but all other peripherals that have the same USB slot type, for eg. wireless controller keypad, bluetooth headset etc. I like to use it in conjunction with my controller docking station (see last months issue) which makes it stand out even more complementing any PS3 setup.

The docking station charges your controller while looking good with glowing bright LED’s. The LED’s glow various colours, namely blue, orange, yellow, pink, green, purple and red. The colours slowly change and merge into each other and can be disabled at anytime, not affecting the charging process in any way.

The feature I like the most about this product is that you can choose what colour you want your docking station to glow ie while it slowly scrolls through the colours you simply press the “change” button and it will keep that selected colour glowing constant, press it again and the LED’s will continue to automatically

End of the day its just a cable but a cable with a difference. Overall its a wicked product, adds that little bit extra to your setup and creates a focal point for your gaming buddies to admire. Think of it simply as an upgrade from your standard cable, simple but effective!

change from one colour to the next. It is however not necessary to have your controller mounted in the dock to enable the LED’s to function, the docking station will continue to show off its LED’s while you use your PS3.

The dock’s glowing panels, mounted on the front and back, are clearly visible no matter which way you have the dock facing.

The docking station also houses an additional LED situated in the middle of the unit,which shines red when the controller is charging and green when the charging process is complete.

The base of the product includes three rubber feet which will prevent the dock from slipping off and scratching any smooth surface you put it onto.

The product comes with a USB cable, so you can use the default one or pick up the cable as mentioned above. It is important to remember that your console must be powered on for the product to work; it requires a “live” USB slot to function. If you have no USB slots available on your console you can simply connect this product to your PC or laptop.

Overall this is definitely a tidier solution to charging your controller. I am very pleased with it and I highly reccommend it.

Crysis 2

With good ol’ 2010 finally starting to come to an

end, we look back on the year that the World Cup finally came to South Africa and ask ourselves: is that really the only exciting thing that happened this year? The short answer? HELLS NO! When it comes to gaming, we’ve had an orgasm inducing release year, with titles such as the aweinspiring God of War 3 making its debut on the PS3 and new comers such as Darksiders and Red Dead Redemption rocking the socks off the gaming community.

So as the embers of 2010 start to dim and the new year begins to rear its eventful head, we wait in anticipation at that which the future holds...and we know you do too. Hence why, we at The Gamer have decided that Christmas should come early and thought, just because you’ve been such faithful gamers and continue to download our magazine, we should give you a little treat. So here is the Top most anticipated games of 2011, as according to the global gaming community. Go ahead; rip that wrapping paper off this one! We can’t wait either...

Killzone 3: I distinctly remember the day that Killzone 2 was announced for the PS3. All the gaming blogs were littered with comments from Guerilla Games and they seemed to have this kind of cocky attitude about them, almost as if KZ2 was the reason to buy a PS3.

The game was released and needless to say, it was a very, very, VERY good reason to buy a PS3, so this time around I’m making sure my anticipation and eagerness dials are set to 11.

Killzone 3 once again plays off on the devastated world of Helgan, but things have changed since you last stepped foot on its unforgiving surface. This time around players will be thrown into a malicious beast filled with cruelty and hateful intent…and revenge shall be served… (queue Stephen Seagull voice)…with bullets. Killzone 3 will begin where the last iteration ended, with players standing over

the corpse of Emperor Visari, who was of course killed by you mere moments ago. However, this war is far from won. In the wake of Visari's death, Helghan has devolved into a world of political scheming, rapid infighting, and murder. Now, the two most powerful men on Helghan are fighting for complete and utter dominance while Visari’s vision of Helghan is in jeopardy. With limited supplies and no re-enforcements, the ISA must now fight not to win a war, but to survive a lost one.

KZ3 is rapidly outgrowing the shoes of its predecessor by exponential leaps and bounds and is set to be one hell of a memorable game, so keep your eyes peeled, because February is right around the corner.

Release Date: February 11, 2011.

The game that forced most PC gamers to upgrade their desktop monsters has now made its return to a new breeding ground, namely: The Gaming Console. That’s right boys and girls, the game which won countless awards and literally pushed the boundaries of what was considered possible in terms of graphics and hardware utilisation is now bringing its hotter, younger, extremely naive sister to our sleepover party. Oh, the things we are expecting to happen.

Crysis 2 boasts the much anticipated CryEngine 3, which apparently hosts some of the most realistic gameplay physics developed to date. Players will find themselves in a devastated New York City

where a highly advanced alien life-force threatens all the remaining life on earth. It is up to you to once again don the super suite from the previous games (with a few intriguing additions) and step up as mans last hope.

With a fully destructible environment, dynamic AI (meaning they’ll adapt according to your movements) and some absolutely gorgeous visuals, Crysis 2 is shaping up to be another Game of the Year for sure.

Release Date: March 24, 2011.

Infamous 2 If you enjoyed skating around on power lines and using your electricity filled hands as weapons, then do not fear for Cole is making his return to the PS3 in 2011 with Infamous 2.

LittleBigPlanet 2 Writing this simply puts a smile on my face. Being a huge follower of the LittleBigPlanet series and being absolutely infatuated with the previous game and all its DLC, I am as excited as a nerd at a Tron convention as the release of LBP2 draws near.

That such a simple game could in fact be so challenging, so in depth and so intensely addictive is something that, in my opinion, is very rare to achieve in gaming. And of course, the fact that my better half was actually willing to play it with me was an added bonus. So yes, I am completely in love with LittleBigPlanet and it couldn’t get here fast enough.

As expected, players will once again jump into the woven body of Sackboy, an overly-enthusiastic sockpuppet with a love for adventure and puzzle solving, as you guide him through a plethora of challenging levels and unique stories.

With the story shifting over to a new realm, namely: cultural high points in history, there are sure to be some levels that inspire sheer optimism or intense laughter...or both! The main thing that has me excited about LBP2, is the freedom a player now has.

You will be able to link levels together, meaning you never have to visit that darn pod and sit there waiting, or you could check up on your friends PSN status, and drop into any level he is busy playing at any point in time. This will come in major handy when facing an area that requires 2 people to complete and you are stuck at home alone.

Keep an eye out, Sackboy hits your shelves on: Release date – January 23, 2011.

Dead Space 2 I hope you have stocked up on spare underwear, because the time draws near for players to once again take control of Engineer Isaac Clarke for another blood-curdling, mind-defiling adventure in Dead Space 2, the sequel to the critically acclaimed horror adventure.

After waking from a coma on a massive space city known as "The Sprawl," the lone survivor of a horrific alien infestation finds himself confronting a catastrophic new nightmare.

Battling dementia, hunted by the government and haunted by visions of his dead girlfriend,

Isaac will do whatever it takes to save himself and rid the city of the gruesome, relentless Necromorphs.

Equipped with a new arsenal of tools with which to dismember the foul beasts, Isaac will face the challenge head-on, and for one am rubbing my palms together in anticipation. Players will be taking on bigger, scarier and more epic monsters, so expect to be kept on the edge of your seats at all times. Dead Space 2 is set to bring the psychological thrills of deep space to a terrifying new level.

Release Date: January 25, 2011.

This time around, the game will open in Empire City moments after a massive explosion has ripped through the town signalling the birth of a new evil.

Nearly escaping death by the hands of a dark entity known only as The Beast, Cole decides it’s about time to get out of dodge and get out fast. So he hightails it down the coast, but in his absence The Beast has destroyed all of Empire City and is moving down the coast fast, hunting for Cole and annihilating everything in its path.

So in an effort to stop The Beast from destroying mankind, Cole heads to New Marais in search of a scientist who is believed to hold the key to defeating this dark entity. As the mystery of The Beast unfolds, Cole must learn to harness the power coursing inside of him, for the sake of mankind hangs in the balance.

Release Date: TBA 2011

Gears of War 3

Metal Gear Solid: Rising The gaming franchise which made Solid Snake a legend has once again made its return, but this time around, Snake will be taking a seat on the bench to allow a new player to show off his killing moves.

Enter Raiden, a highly advanced cyborg with a seriously wicked katana and aerobatic moves that would make the Moscow Circus jealous….and boy are we keen to split the superbly rendered wig of many a foe.

Now as all of you know, the Metal Gear Solid series has always allowed players to stealthily make their way through the games without killing a single fool. So for all you tree hugging gamers out there, that don’t believe in killing things (even digital people), the upcoming Metal Gear Solid: Rising will continue this proud tradition and allow you to sneak around like a cat-burglar and leave all the little terrorists alive…but with a bit of a twist.

See, Metal Gear Solid: Rising is all about slicing stuff up with your katana.

People, cyborgs, buildings, sushi -- nothing is unsliceable. Raiden, is almost the total opposite of usual MGS protagonist Snake and his style of stealth will be quite different. Raiden is a very acrobatic ninja, so while Snake would wait patiently for an enemy to walk by, Raiden won't be standing around twiddling his thumbs. He can move undetected and easily sneak up on enemies while remaining in stealth mode. Konami calls this "hunting stealth." This is all in line with Konami's attempts to make Rising a friendlier game to pick up, hopefully making it more attractive to a wider audience.

So if violence in videogames is not your thing, don’t despair, as we expect you to still be using your katana a lot…just maybe not to completely eviscerate guys as most of us gore junkies would.

All I know is my katana & I will act as the swift hand of justice and when it comes to terrorists….I aint leaving no man standing.

Release Date: TBA 2011.

I will still stick to my opinion that Gears of War still remains one of the greatest games I have ever played on a next-gen console and that it is undeniably the worthiest reason for anyone to own an Xbox 360. The gameplay and storyline has always been so immaculate that finding a flaw in the game was truly a challenging task. Needless to say, if you haven’t played Gears of War yet, then the next addition to the series is as good a time as any to jump in with both feet and get your chainsaw on.

In Gears of War 3, players will once again take control of Marcus Fenix, the grizzled war hero and leader of Delta Squad. Eighteen months have passed since the fall of the last human city and what is left of the human race lies scattered in ruins, however, in this dire hour the war against the Locust rages on.

Meanwhile, deep beneath the surface, a fearsome new threat is infecting the planet from within.

With mankind’s last hope of survival dwindling by a thread, time is running out for Marcus and his comrades as they fight to save the human race from complete extinction.

Gears of War promises to once again plunge you into a harrowing tale of hope, survival, and brotherhood…so lock and load and get ready to massacre you some locust because the time for revenge is nigh!

Release Date: Q3 2011

Diablo 3 The game which most RPG lovers have been talking about for almost the past 12 years is finally nearing completion and the final product is looking like it could possibly be one of the best RPG’s to date.

Diablo III picks up the story twenty years after the events of Diablo II. Mephisto, Diablo, and Baal have been defeated, but the Worldstone, which once shielded the inhabitants of the world of Sanctuary from the forces of both Heaven and Hell, has been destroyed, and evil once again stirs in Tristram. Playing as a hero from one of five distinct character classes, players will acquire powerful items, spells, and abilities as they explore new and familiar areas of Sanctuary and battle hordes of demons to safeguard the world from the horrors that have arisen.

Don’t think for a second this game will be anything like the previous games though. Blizzard have flipped the table this time, and come up with something that will be intensely challenging and astonishingly robust. The game has been moulded in such a way that it is always changing and always adapting to the choices a player makes. So don’t expect to ever have a game which follows the same path as the first run through.

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier Each time a player enters the world, certain elements will be manipulated according to numerous factors such as: the decisions he makes in dialogue, side quests he does or does not complete and even how he fights. The AI is now able to see a player’s weakness and hammer at that, so repetition will be impossible, as a player will constantly have to adapt his strategy according to his opponent.

Also, expect to see the addition of companions (much like in the second game); however, this time around your companions will have their own in-depth backgrounds, personalities, items, style of dialogue and sense of humour, like a real companion in a real world would.

Diablo 3 is nothing like you have ever experienced before and Blizzard has vowed that it will go over and beyond that which fans have been wishing for from the series. If RPG’s aren’t your thing, this might be just the game to bring you over to the dark side…

Rumoured 2011

The Tom Clancy series has been around probably since I first sprouted hairs in awkward places and have since spawned enough sequels and new additions to the series as I probably have hair in those places.

However, it would seem Clancy has finally started pulling his military grade socks up and started giving us something to remember him by. With the release of Rainbow Six: Vegas, H.A.W.X and now Splinter Cell: Conviction, everyone who is (or has now become) a fan of the series is waiting in anticipation to see what Tom has left in his satchel.

It would seem our wait has in fact been worth it, for the next game in the Ghost Recon franchise is shaping up to be a kidney shattering, knee-buckling, cranium disrupting belter of a game. Providing yet another new direction in the Ghost Recon series of military games, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier promises to go beyond the core Ghost Recon franchise and deliver a fresh gameplay experience unlike anything we’ve seen before.

The game features cutting-edge technology, prototype high-tech weaponry, and state-of-the-art single-player and multiplayer modes.

Players will each be able to select specific load-outs for their character, each load-out being designed for a specific role in the battlefield and in doing so, execute their job to perfection. Snipers will be equipped with light-bending camouflage which is able to shield a player from watchful eyes completely. Heavy Gunners will be fitted with shoulder mounted rocket launchers (much like those seen in Predator) which can target multiple targets from across vast distances and leave heavily armoured vehicles in ruins by the mere blink of the eye.

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier promises to be one of the most advanced, challenging and veinpoppingly awesome games from Tom Clancy yet.

Release Date: March 2011

Resistance 3 Resistance 3 has been announced and for all the die-hard fans of the series (such as the Editor of this magazine) the next game in the franchise promises to go back to its once brilliant roots.

Resistance 3 will star Capelli (the fellow soldier who took Hale's life in mercy as he finally succumbed to the Chimeran virus at the end of Resistance 2), but the rugged fighter is a changed man.

Following his final battle with Hale, Capelli defected from SRPA (Special Research Projects Administration) and started a family in hiding. The United States, and the rest of the world, has fallen to the unmerciful might of the Chimera, and only pockets of humanity remain. This setting for Resistance 3 takes place approximately four years after the conclusion of Resistance 2.

At the beginning of the game, Capelli's home of Haven, Oklahoma is attacked by Chimera. Capelli fights to defend his wife Susan and their son Jack, but Jack is already ill from the frigid temperatures that the Chimera have brought to the planet. Susan asks her husband to search out Dr. Malikov, an important figure in the Resistance story, and travel to New York to save the human race. Malikov apparently has a cure for the Chimeran virus and it could be the key to keeping mankind alive.

In terms of gameplay, unlike Resistance 2, Resistance 3 will not have weapon restrictions, meaning players will be able to carry more than two guns at a time.

This is excellent news, as Insomniac is known for their fantastic weapon design and having access to more at once means more complex gameplay. So expect to see the return of the fatal favourites: The Marksman, Magnum, Bullseye, and the Auger as well as a new addition to the Resistance arsenal, the Mutator, which will infect the Chimera with a deadly toxin causing them to pop like overinflated balloons.

Two last little tit bits of info to throw your way has to be the fact that players will be able to upgrade all of these weapons. So expect to be able to wreak some true havoc with your new boomsticks! Secondly, you all remember how awesome it was being able to run through the single player campaign alongside your buddy in Resistance: Fall of Man, only to have it ripped out in Resistance ? Well, it’s back! Resistance 3 will once again allow players to play the single player campaign together, as well as allowing players to drop in and out of their friend’s campaigns at any point in time via the online interface.

All in all, Resistance 3 is quickly shaping up to be one of the most anticipated titles on Sony’s nextgen console and I for one, am as ecstatic as a 5 year old kid on Kentucky night.

Release Date: TBA 2011 Article by Dieter Fouche