The Gamer Issue 03

Assassins Creed 3 Smackdown Vs. Raw 2011 Fable 3 Apache: Air Assault Marvel Super Hero Squad Gran Turismo 5 SAW 2 COD: Black Ops Kinect Hardware

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Deus Ex 2 Warhammer: Space Marine DiRT 3 Little Big Planet 2

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Are you a Gaming Addict Getting Ganked How to be a Jedi Gaming on the Silver Screen Gamer Changers The Gamer Top 10

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That's another one down, bringing our victorious tally to a grand total of three :p As mentioned last issue, this months effort is a bit shorter. Purely due to a lack of releases this month and even the preview as January looks to be quite as well.

I must say that each successive issue is definitely getting easier as we find our stride, both in terms of commitments and deadlines but also the time needed for reviews and layouts.

This month saw the release of two juggernauts in the gaming arena with Call of Duty: Black Ops seeing an incredible reception and the long anticipated Gran Turismo 5 finally gracing our gaming delights.

These megaton releases also had other implications and both set the gaming scene alight for what seems like more negative press than positive. Looking back now I can say that perhaps Gran Turismo 5 became he whipping post for whiny fanboys everywhere. For the purists out there this gaming deserves nothing but praise as it accomplishes what it was meant to with ease and great success.

Black Ops on the other hand has become my sour point. You see I am an unashamed COD fanboy.

Prior to the start of this magazine I very rarely played anything other than MW2, I simply couldn't get enough of the competitive nature behind the multiplayer arena. So naturally I was looking forward to BLOPs like a Stormers fan longs to no longer be a loser (sorry I had to). Yet I have barely played the game. I simply couldn't be bothered to have to put up with the pathetic matchmaking and glitchy connections. Now several weeks later we still wait on the much anticipated patch while the big boys wipe their arses with $100 bills.

In my opinion its simply

unacceptable yet, come the next Call of Duty it is sure to once again break all the records. Why are we so fast to accept a broken product?

We should be demanding our money back, after all we have paid for something that does not fit the what it claims to be. Personally I buy COD for the MP and in this iteration it does not work. Therefore I think I should be entitled to my money back. Its like buying a car that is supposed to be the fastest car on earth and then discovering the gearbox is faulty and you can only drive in reverse.

Which brings me to the hot topic of late, the fact that patches are no longer just for pirates (take that in either way). The generation has brought with it the most successful online gaming experience yet.

However it has also brought the biggest fall in games yet the ability to patch games post sale.

Now developers can release unfinished games and continue to work on them once they are in the customers hands. When last did you insert a title and not get prompted to download the latest patch? It’s fast becoming my pet hate, although once again its something we seem to just accept.

Anyway, let me stop ranting, so that you can move past page 2 and actually enjoy the rest of the mag.

I want to wish all our readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. The Gamer will be taking a short break over the festive season, so we will see you all again late January to early February. But we will keep you update.

Enjoy!

Editor and Design: Abe Viljoen

Writer: Dieter Fouche

Writer: Ricardo Ludeke

Writer: Wayne Pretorius

Writer: Ernst Vorndran

Abe Viljoen Editor and Designer

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

Other Contributors: Jason Antao Faheem Abrahams Jessica Viljoen Waldo Janse van Rensburg Nicholas Bowen

Another notable game release was Assassins

Creed: Brotherhood, set to continue the story of from the end of Assassin Creed 2. The game was generally received very well by most reviewers getting a average of 91 on Metacritic. The newest feature to the game was the multiplayer which seems to be making its way into most games now as a selling point and as a way to increase the longevity of the games however most gamers still enjoy the game for its main feature being the well scripted single player story and enjoyable assassin gameplay but there still remains some issues with the combat by most gamers stating

that it is still a bit on the easy side. The game was to reported to have sold 1 million copies in its first few days of launch in Europe and with numbers still to be confirmed for the rest of the world is estimated to have sold 2 million copies worldwide in its launch week. Ubisoft have confirmed that there will be a new Assassins Creed game next year but have not gone into any detail as to what the time or setting may be or when exactly to expect the game next year but keep a eye on The Gamer to give you the latest on that.

November was a month of some huge game releases and some big release rumours for the future so without further ado here’s November’s monthly round up.

The biggest game release for the month was Call

of Duty: Black-Ops, with the massive release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 last year few would have bet on Call of Duty: Black-Ops out doing the number of copies sold by Modern Warfare 2 because of Treyarch being seen as the lesser of the two developers that make Call of Duty. Even Activision estimated that Black-Ops would sell between 10% - 20% less than Modern Warfare 2, however Black-Ops recently became the largest entertainment launch in history and not just beating Modern Warfare 2 by a small margin either. It out did Modern Warfare 2 by $100 million in the launch week for the title, raking in a total of $650. With an

average of 89 on Metacritic nothing much seems to stand in the way of the success of the title. Black-Ops however did not launch without problems as the PC and PS3 versions of the game suffered from glitches as well as an unplayable multiplayer, but Treyarch have managed to release patches to fix some of the issues suffered by many PC and PS3 gamers. These issues at launch for the title also brought into light that many gamers are seeing developers relying too much on post game patches instead of testing games before there launch, which inspired some gamers to get a petition going to get a refund from Activision for the PS3 version of the game.

On the hardware side of things Kinect was launched

but many hardcore gamers felt left out of excitement around Kinect as nearly all the launch titles where suited to the causal gamer market, most of the titles where rated between good to average by many reviewers with Kinect still seeming to need that killer app to outdo the huge success of the Wii in the motion controller part of the market. Although being heavily marketed for the causal gamer Mircosoft has said there will be titles to cater to the hardcore gamers in future.

Gaming rumours for the month mainly surround

then focuses in on the planet to a snowy mountain area with what appears to be a military helicopter moving into the distance. There are also rumours of Uncharted 3 being shown at the VGA’s and a new Resident Evil game. Sony are also scheduled to unveil a new game the day after VGA’s but it’s unclear on whether this will be to hype a game that will be revealed the night before or a total different game.

with a huge marketing push from Mircosoft, with the device being featured on such shows in the USA as Oprah and Ellen Degeneres. Kinect also had a huge launch party in Times Square with celebrities which captivated much of the media. With 17 launch titles the hardware was off to a good start by selling 1 million units in the first 10 days of its release and it seems Microsoft’s estimate of 5 million units sold by the end of the year does not sound too hard to achieve

Next in line for game release of the month was

the long awaited Gran Turismo 5 which arguably in any other month of the year would have been the biggest game release. Selling 1.8 million copies in the games first two days after launch and estimated to have sold 2.5 million copies in the first week of launch. It looks set to sell as well as previous games in the series however it did receive some slight mixed reviews from reviewers giving it an average of 85 on Metacritic. There were some issues at launch such as the data centre being set to only handle 500 000 players at launch, this was seen as a big under estimation of the number of players there would be

online at launch and since the online and offline components of the game are link to each other this effected gamers negatively. Action however was taken to correct this by setting the data centre to now handle and 1 million players and adding more capacity as needed also patches where released to fix some other minor issues for the game. The amount of hype for the game that was generate over 5 years has been met by some gamers with joy and disappointment by others, with some saying that the game is being nitpicked to death and others saying that the game should be seen as what it is a excellent racing simulator with some game elements added.

the Spike Video Game Awards, but with more than 10 games set to be revealed at this year’s awards it’s hard not to be at least a little enticed in what might be reveal on the 11th of December when the VGA’s are aired on Spike TV. The first game that was teased is a new game from Bioware who are critically acclaimed for their Mass Effect series. The teaser clip for the game see’s a man holding a fairly futuristic weapon looking out what appears to be a window, which leads some to speculate that this maybe a FPS spin-off from the Mass Effect series or even the highly anticipated third chapter in the series. Another teaser clip for a different game see’s the over view of the planet earth which is similar to the overview in the Battlefield: Bad Company series of games. The clip

With so many reveals coming in December it looks like there will be a lot to look forward to and loads of gaming news to keep an eye out for on The Gamer.

Article by Wayne Pretorius

Unfortunately, the essence of gaming is a drug which accomplishes this very easily. Games such as World of Warcraft and EVE Online allow the player to escape into an alternate universe where they are able to embody the persona of a completely different individual.

The sad thing is that an addiction to video games is almost as severe as an addiction to gambling. We continue to play simply because of the possibility that we may win. We are a group of individuals that does not take defeat lightly, which in turn forces us to not only want to better ourselves, but want to overcome the challenge at hand. The only problem is, in a massive online world such as featured in most MMORPG’s, the possible events and situations that may inspire a win are basically endless. These players become so invested in this online persona of theirs that they eventually lose touch with their own personality.

Being a gamer has always, in an awkwardly

dependant sense, been a kind of emotional rollercoaster for me. The ups & downs, twists and turns; our gaming fetish could yank us in any which way it wanted. The constant flux of emotions we experience in such random severity is mostly what urges us to strive forth through the heartache, failure and misery and continue to feed the addiction that so drives us. We hunger for those feelings. Those feelings of joy and excitement that are associated with our fictional winning or accomplishment are constantly reassured, thanks to our constant fulfilment of this digital prescription. We experience those feelings because we play games and we play games to experience those feelings.

For each person the emotions are different. For me, it is simply to suppress my vindictive sense of selffulfilment. I, as a lot of you I suspect, play to fulfil an emotional void. A black hole that is suspended inside my chest cavity...resting there...simply waiting to be fed. It is an amalgamation of my surprisingly low selfworth, my outwardly competitive nature and my need for accomplishment.

To be honest, I play simply because I need to feel a win. After a long day of work, taking the constant banter of idiotic superiors, what we really need is to just feel like we have succeeded in something. It’s about 90% of the reason why I do what I do. To reassure myself that even though my days may consist of constant naysaying and ridicule, when the sun goes down and my tie is loosened, there is a place where I can escape to, simply to vent my emotions. A place where I can be the leader...where I can shape my own destiny...where I can manipulate the outcome of any situation to suit my will.

They develop a distorted image of their surroundings which eventually drives them to the brink of living a socially outcast existence. Gaming addictions have led people to end relationships, sell most of their worldly possessions and even commit crimes such as murder.

The latter of those 3 is still very shaky ground in my opinion, as going so far as to commit murder usually means that the individual had mental health issues from the get go. Sure, gaming might have influenced his craziness, as he was struck with ridicule and constant social torture, but I still doubt that it would be enough to push him over the edge. Let’s say that the unstable mental health was the wood, charcoal and petrol soaked newspaper and gaming was the match.

What drives us differs from one person to another; however, we all need to fulfil our own need in our own unique way; that thing that makes gaming more than simply a pastime for us. That tiny little speck of dust that lingers inside of you that causes you to need to play more than want to play.

For most of the non-gaming society, this is considered an addiction, yet what they don’t understand is that it isn’t a deficiency or lack that drives us. We are not missing a piece of ourselves that society holds, we are all the same. What distinguishes us from the herd on the other hand is a subtle little word called: priority. We have elevated our love for gaming to a level where we prioritise the things in our lives to slot in gaming. It really is that simple. This ‘addiction’ that they speak of, is simply people who don’t have all their priorities straight.

I must admit that I am not the same as all individuals; therefore my circumstance may not be the same as everyone else. I am an ambitious, outgoing, active person and gaming for me is a relaxant, something which purges my daily stress. I may have my life under control but for a lot of others it is a truly difficult situation to manage. You have to understand, for each individual the range of priorities differs, so there may come a time when you are simply investing too much of your life into fulfilling your gaming fetish and unknowingly end up having a gaming addiction.

Don’t get me wrong though, this isn’t something which simply happens overnight. It is a gradual slide down a slippery slope until eventually you are in over your head and find yourself neglecting everything else in your life to feed the addiction.

Wikipedia states that in South Korea, 2.4% of the population aged between 9 and 39, suffer from game addictions. That is a sad statistic when you consider that they have a population of 25 million, meaning that in South Korea alone (which is half the size of South Africa), about 600 000 individuals are ADDICTED to games. Understand that this doesn’t mean gamers; it means that 2.4% of their society is

unable to control their urges. On the one hand, especially in South Korea, this isn’t such a bad thing as with all their gaming leagues in place these players actually stand a chance of making a living out of it.

However, probably about 75% of that demographic will never amount to anything more (gaming reputation wise) than merely being regarded as a good player.

So if having a love for gaming comes with the chance that you may fall into a vicious pit of addiction then why even do it at all? Because (in my opinion) gaming still remains one of the most fun, socially active and rewarding past times around. Yes sure, the social factor of gaming is mostly restricted to the digital world, but a lot of people who are socially inept are able to experience a level of friendship and camaraderie which they would otherwise be neglected of. Some people just struggle with social situations.

I have a friend, great guy, who is 25 and to this day still has not kissed a girl. He is not a nerd or an obsessive gamer or even a weirdo, he simply does not do well in social circumstances. What this entire piece has been about has simply been an insightful reflection. I believe that it is time that all of us gamers take a look at our lives and prioritise things accordingly.

There is an entire world waiting outside the constraints of your gaming cave and it is about time that we explore this world of opportunities…the outcome might just surprise you!

I honestly wrote this article with the intention of being both a reassurance and a warning to all gamers out there. When you feel outcast from the rest of the world because of your gaming circumstance, simply

take a moment to reflect on your life. Even though the medical institutions understanding of what constitutes a ‘gaming addiction’ is severely warped, you need to understand that there is more to life than gaming. Gaming is supposed to be something fun, something that bares reward, but ultimately something that you can share with others. I will be a gamer probably till the day that they put me into the ground, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t have people standing around my coffin reminiscing about the times they were able to share with me.

At the same time, if you are taking constant flak from your significant other, then assess the situation and make an honest decision on whether or not you have a problem. If you enjoy playing a little bit of games every night, then by all means do so. However, if your ‘little bit of games’ means that you spend more time punching the buttons on your controller than the buttons on your woman, then it’s time to take a step back and pay your relationship dues. Remember, gaming might be our muse but it is never worth jeopardising the most important thing in life…LOVE. Article by Dieter Fouche

With Deus Ex the developers are aiming to give the game the same feel, a time when we, the human race, are making startling new discoveries, not all of which will be accepted by the populace or the powers that be. The augmentation process, another key theme in Human Revolution, for example has the potential to make an individual smarter, faster or otherwise able to overcome obstacles a non-augmented individual would not be able to.

Since the technology which makes augmentation possible is still new, it is, like all new technology, out of the reach of the average joe on the street which inevitably leads to civil unrest and the question of whether man should be allowed to make himself more than human. This is the second of Human Revolution’s

The original Deus Ex by Ion Storm took the gaming world by storm back in 2000. To this day, it is still widely regarded as one of the best games of all time. This hybrid FPS/RPG was acclaimed for its focus on player choice, multiple narrative paths and branching storyline as well as the way it incorporated traditional RPG elements, such as character progression, weapon customization and dialog trees, in to an FPS. In 2003 Ion Storm released a sequel entitled Deus Ex: Invisible War, unfortunately Invisible War did not share its older brother’s critical acclaim due mainly to many feeling the game was dumbed down. In 2005 Ion Storm closed its doors and many believed that would mean the end of the Deus Ex series. In May 2007 Patrick Melchior, the director of Eidos France, announced a prequel to the Original Deus Ex, it would later be revealed that it would carry the sub-title ‘Human Revolution’ with the tag line “it is not the end of the world... but you can see it from here” and would be developed by Eidos Montreal.

The Future Begins Deus Ex Human Revolution is a prequel set in 2027, 25 years before the events of the original. You play Adam Jensen, an ex-SWAT officer handpicked for a private security position at Sarif Industries, which is one of the current leaders in the lucrative but controversial

analogies, the Greek tragedy of Icarus and Daedalus which serves as a metaphor of giving in to the desire to become something more than human.

Where the original game was set entirely in the dark to convey the shadowy world then protagonist JC Denton was wading into, Human Revolution will make heavy use of black and gold in the colour spectrum, the black representing the darkness that has enveloped the world while the gold represents the hope that remains.

Similarly, fog and smoke is used to symbolise the mystery of who is behind the conspiracy.

As far as actual visuals go the developers have opted to go more with illustration over simulations, so think Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood instead of Killzone 3.

business of bio-mechanical augmentations.

This competitive industry is known for its use of underhanded tactics to gain the edge; which is where the player comes in, having been tasked to protect Sarif Industries Scientists.

An assault on Sarif Industries by an augmented blackops team leaves the Sarif scientists dead. Adam, now severely injured, is forced to undergo augmentation to save his life.

From here the player will set out to uncover the truth not only behind the reason for the attack but also those responsible for carrying it out and become deeper and deeper involved within a global conspiracy.

The world of Deus Ex is set a mere seventeen years in our future and many of the questions posed in it may one day soon be asked in our own time. One of the main themes of Deus Ex: Human Revolution is Transhumanism, the improvement of the human mental and physical states through science and technology.

This is where the Cyber Renaissance, Human Revolution’s unique visual direction, gets its inspiration from, think of it as Ghost in the Shell Cyberpunk meets Renaissance, a kind of old meets new. The Renaissance era was when we, the human race, first started to understand how the human body and the universe works, and many other startling (at the time) discoveries were made

The Choice is Yours One of the original’s most memorable features was the ability to tackle each level in a great many ways, be it through social interactions, combat or stealth.

This is a element that will return in Human Revolution with the developers saying the way in which a player is able to complete a mission is limited only by their imagination and the augmentation available. In one of the demo screenings Adam was shown infiltrating a Police station to take a closer look at a body in the morgue. This demo shows how the player is able to talk their way into the station using social interaction or sneaking in using stealth to gain entry and avoid

detections, hacking terminals to progress deeper into the station. As always there is an option to go in guns blazing, however we are told that the game world will respond to the choices the player makes; shooting your way in and out of a police station might be fun but what repercussions could it have later in the plot?

The exact nature of how the game will respond to player choice is still unclear, but it is sure to impact the ending of the game and you can rest assured that there are at least a few of those.

It is important to remember that like the original there will be a wealth of optional content for the player to

explore; hacking email accounts, reading notes hastily typed in a data pad and NPC conversations will all help flesh out the world and may yield useful information. The developer has also created around a hundred fictional brands to help add to the credibility of the game world.

A nice treat for long time fans of the original is the return of the ability to go through the game without killing a single NPC save the boss encounters.

Tools of the Trade Like in the original, the player will be able to install a series of modifications that will augment Adam’s abilities.

In the latest gameplay trailer we catch a glimpse of all the icons representing these augmentations, twentyone in total. Divided into active and passive abilities these augmentations, or Augs, will offer a variety of skills and abilities which will enhance things like Strength, Movement Speed, Cloaking Ability, Damage Resistance, etc.

Each of the twenty-one Augmentations will have its own unique skill tree which should give the player the ability to evolve Adam to suit their preferred playing style. However, active abilities will use energy of which only one bar will replenish itself naturally; the rest needs to be filled by the use of batteries or other external power sources.

Beyond his Augmentations, Adam will also be able to utilise a host of weapons in his search for the truth.

What we have seen so far is a machine gun, a silenced pistol, revolver, homing rocket launcher, some kind of laser rifle, a crossbow (which is reminiscent of the tranq gun from the original) and an area of effect energy pulse weapon that stuns NPCs, perfect for group nonlethal takedowns. Unlike Invisible War where weapon ammunition was taken from a pool, in Human Revolution each weapon will fire a specific ammunition type, there will also be different kinds of ammunition for each, such as the explosive rounds fired by the revolver.

In the Original it was possible to modify weapons with modular upgrades like scopes, silencers extended mags and so on, this is also set to make a return in Human Revolution which will further help the player into a playing style that suites them.

Future’s So Bright You Need Shades... at Night After Deus Ex: Invisible War’s failure to impress, there is a very large “should I get psyched” hanging over Human Revolution’s proverbial head, which might explain why Eidos is playing down the hype, a similar strategy was unitised before the release of Batman Arkham Asylum and that turned out pretty good.

With only a handful of actual gameplay video’s released as of yet, it is hard to really get a feel for where Deus Ex is at.

From a visual perspective alone it looks to impress with a very unique art style, but the true test is in the

narrative. If it is unable to live up to the Legend that is the original Deus Ex, it might well dissolve into obscurity. As a long time fan of the series, even Invisible War (which I agree was nowhere near as good as the original), I have high hopes for Human Revolution, all signs point to the fact that the developer is treating the IP with the respect a decade old legend deserves, while being brave enough to evolve it and do their own thing.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is currently slated for release early 2011 (January according to BTgames & 8 March according to IGN and Amazon.com) Article by Ernst Vorndran

Even worse, if the sniper at hand doesn’t manage to kill the dummy, he usually has less than 10 seconds to abandon his position before a volley of different grenades and ammunition are bombarded into his hiding spot.

Back when dinosaurs still roamed the earth and

our great civilisation was nothing more than a series of caves dug into the side of mountains, our Neanderthal ancestors brought about a style of hunting that they sourced from nature and carried forth for eons. The art of hunting in packs is seen all throughout society. It is evident in sports, films, even musicians playing in bands is a form of pack hunting. Whichever way you look at it, it would seem that one petrified individual is always left behind to fight the good fight alone, while a gang of unruly animals tears him limb from limb. And when it comes to the gaming world, things aren’t much different…if anything; the gaming world is where the art has been elevated to a whole new level.

Ganking or getting ganked is what happens when one player strays to far from the flock, much like a baby sheep wandering too far from its mother, only to be devoured by the ravenous wolves. Separated from his allies, the enemy will usually stalk its prey, isolating the poor sap (meaning you) and then mercilessly unleashing all hell upon you. This style of gameplay is commonly associated with most online games and is very prominent

in games such as StarCraft, Defence of the Ancients and World of Warcraft. Whenever you find yourself in a situation where there are multiple targets approaching your position, all of them with a look of deadly intent, you’re about to get ganked. Unfortunately for you, once you realise this, it’s already too late and you might as well grab the Vaseline so long, because the next few seconds will be nothing but pure torture for you.

The goal of ganking is too ultimately ‘feed’ or ‘boost’ off of the deaths of other players. Enemies will usually target the more inexperienced players on a team and use them as XP or kill ratio boosters, in the process gaining valuable leverage over their opposition. There is a multitude of ways in which a player can get ganked, however the outcome usually remains the same; with you attempting the superfluous task of fighting off your opposition singlehandedly, only to experience a rather rapid death. Games such as Call of Duty have become synonymous with things such as Sniper hunting, where players would use the inexperienced players in their team as dummies to lure out the snipers into revealing their positions.

However, nothing compares to the scale of ganking one experiences in games such as Wow and DoTA, where ganking is literally the name of the game.

Players will go out of their way to pick heroes that complement each other to enhance the ease of surprising the enemy. Players that are equipped with stuns and slowing spells will usually take the lead, disabling the enemy so that the more DPS (damage per second) heavy players can drop an atom bomb of pain on the helpless kid. Although ganking is seen as a rather noob way of playing, as you rely heavily on the support of your allies, it does remain a truly effective tactic and one which I thoroughly enjoy executing.

The volley of swear words that are launched your way from the deceased player provide some very satisfying comic relief and generally just make you feel good about yourself. However, if the shoe is on the other foot, this experience truly is an infuriating one.

Ganking has undergone some changes however and the new way of the samurai horde is all about the finisher…the theatrical coup-de-grace that you brand unto them. Your ganking finisher is kind of your signature or trademark; it’s what people will remember you by and what usually fuels their hate for you. Once you have killed your opponent, you need to follow up the kill with a very blatant insult. This can be done by simply typing an ‘in-your-face’ comment in the ingame chat window, but to truly mark your territory, one needs to properly embarrass the opposition. One of the most infamous across the gaming multiverse is the popular “teabagging”. It represents pretty much what you would expect from the word we have become accustomed to, Teabagging requires the player to go stand over the corpse of his fallen enemy and type the command: /sit, /stand, /sit, /stand repeatedly. Their hero will lower himself onto the face of his enemy, then get up, repeating the action over and over, much in the same fashion as the erotic version. This has now spread across to many different platforms and it is not unusual to see a group face banging the last guy in a round of SnD. Another great one (although it’s rather old news already) was the sniper kill from Call of Duty, where a player snuck up behind his opponent, opened up his Xbox Messenger, sent a text to his poor foe which when opened instructed him to turn around only to feel the wrath of his knife as he did. Things like these are what award you the rank of Ganker...the blatant disregard that you bestow upon your enemies is what will be the discussion of many a forum

and will make your enemies loath the day you were born. I must say, I’m a huge supporter of the ganking strategy…yeah, yeah, go ahead and start hating me now! The thing about ganking is, if you get ganked, it’s solely your fault. Online gaming requires one to always be mindful of your surroundings, so leaving yourself exposed to a ganking situation is simply put just a truly moronic thing to do.

If you would like to try ganking for yourself, but are still inexperienced and not sure what to do, try sticking to ‘basic ganking’ or what we gankers call ‘bunnyhopping’. Simply play tag and follow your team mates around EVERYWHERE, literally holding their hand every step of the way. If they shoot at someone, you shoot at the same person, that kind of thing. In no time you’ll be dropping surprise bombs on guys like it’s nobody’s business! Just bear in mind that Karma is a bitch…and what goes around, comes around!

Article by Dieter Foucher

Brotherhood now lets you perform chain executions, similar to that seen in Batman: Arkum Asylum. There is also a wider array of weapons to choose from. The game now also allows you to carry the larger weapons such as axes or hammers on you at any time. Also present are Ezio’s usual weapons including swords, the hidden blades, knives and throwing knives.

There is also a new weapon, a crossbow, which places greater emphasis on ranged attacks and serves to further diversify the combat. While some players are likely to find the combat a little too easy, there is a new feature, the Virtual Training, which lets the player sharpen their skills in the various aspects of gameplay, and this mode is likely to test the abilities of even the most experienced players. Another addition worth mentioning is the new mini-game whereby you recruit assassins into your “brotherhood”. At first glance this may seem like a gimmick, but it can become curiously addictive.

When Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood was first

announced little was given away regarding the game’s single player campaign. Rather, the hype surrounded its multiplayer, a first for the series. This led many to believe that Ubisoft might simply rehash many elements from the single player of Assassin’s Creed 2, while concentrating mainly on the multiplayer.

While Brotherhood still maintains many of its predecessors climbing and combat mechanics as well as many of the same characters from the previous game and the setting of the renaissance era Italy, fans will be pleased to know that there are both improvements and additions that make Brotherhood arguably the finest Assassin’s Creed title yet.

Brotherhood takes place following the events of Assassin’s Creed 2. By now Ezio is a seasoned assassin continuing his struggle against the tyrannical Borgia family. There is also the secondary storyline, which takes place in 2012, concerning Desmond and his hunt for the Apple of Eden. The game takes place in Rome, and rather than having you travel between different cities as the game progresses, the action in Brotherhood is set in a single location. This doesn’t mean that the world of Brotherhood is more limited than either of the previous Assassin’s Creed games, Rome is a vast city comprised of twelve districts consisting of urban areas, farmland and open territory.

Perhaps Brotherhood’s greatest strength lies in the freedom and variety it offers the player, to at any time explore and undertake any of Rome’s many activities.

From renovating shops, taking missions from the different

factions or simply climbing to the top of a building, Brotherhood has a kind of a kid-in-a-candy-store feel where the player can, at any time, become absorbed in any one of the many challenges on offer. It’s this quality that keeps movement through the world interesting.

Where in other open world games moving between objectives may become tiresome, Brotherhood avoids this by filling the map with an abundance of sidemissions. Coupled with fluid climbing mechanics (the best in the business I might add), you’re unlikely to ever find yourself becoming bored in the world of Brotherhood.

It would hardly be a bold statement to claim that prior to Brotherhood, most people thought that Red Dead Redemption would walk away with this year’s top honours in the design department for its stunning recreation of the old west. Brotherhood is the only other open world game this year that could prove to be a contender in this department. The scenery and depiction of renaissance era Rome are, quite frankly, some of the best design work I have seen in a while. Everything from the architecture, character design models and the physical accuracy of certain actual historical monuments is astounding. In a single word one could best describe the world of Brotherhood as being “alive”.

The most noticeable improvement would have to be the combat. Where the previous Assassin’s Creed games had a fairly simple approach to the combat, wait for an enemy to attack and counter his attack, thereby performing an execution.

While this is unlikely to blow your mind, it is one of the many small touches found in Brotherhood that make it a truly well-rounded game.

With Brotherhood ‘s step up from the other Assassin’s Creed titles it proves that the franchise is constantly being improved upon. The first Assassin’s Creed may have disappointed a few people who found much of the game to be overly tedious. The game had very little in the way of variety and certain parts could become extremely frustrating, but it nevertheless laid the foundations for Assassin Creed 2.

The second title would revitalise the series by adding more activities and challenges as well as tightening up various aspects of gameplay

Apart from being able to summon your assassins to pounce on unsuspecting guards, you also send them on missions to different parts of Europe.

You begin by saving the potential recruit from a group of guards, after this they become an official member of your “brotherhood”.

You then delegate different missions to different assassins, after completing a mission they gain experience which can then be used to level up either their attack or defence.

and proved far more successful than its predecessor.

While Brotherhood may not be as groundbreaking as Assassin’s Creed 2, it does show that Ubisoft are able to recognise where their titles can be improved upon, and then make the modifications which result in a product which is better than the last. The Assassin’s Creed series is also one with much potential given that there are still plenty of periods of human history to work with. Victorian England, Napoleonic France or either of the World Wars, we’ve seen that the team behind Assassin’s Creed are more than competent when it comes to recreating a specific period in human history and given the abundance of source material the possibilities seem endless. If the series remains consistent in terms of quality it could very well go down as one of the defining series’ seen on the third generation consoles.

When you first enter the multiplayer mode of the game, you are shown a short introductory cutscene which serves as a basis for the story behind the multiplayer.

During this cutscene you see Vidic, who many of you might remember as the main antagonist in Desmond’s timeline, speak to a group of Abstergo agents.

Multiplayer

There are three main game modes: Wanted, Manhunt (a team based mode with two teams of four agents) and Alliance (a team based mode with three teams of two agents). The mode that most people will be playing is the solitary Wanted mode. In this mode you are an Abstergo agent working on your own and you are up against other agents with the goal being to score as many points as possible before the time runs out.

Before the game starts each player chooses their distinct character model and the whole gameworld is populated by only these characters models – it is up

What sets Brotherhood apart from the other games in the Assassin’s Creed series is the inclusion of a multiplayer mode. When Ubisoft announced that the latest instalment in the series would have a multiplayer mode many people, myself included, were rather sceptical. How would Assassin’s Creed work as a multiplayer game? Turns out, it works rather well.

He explains that Abstergo have gathered the DNA from different test subjects which is used in the Animus to train Abstergo agents in the ways of the Assassins.

You are one of these agents and it is your goal to assassinate other agents during the training program.

This serves as a nice back story to the multiplayer mode and makes common multiplayer elements such as respawning a bit more realistic in that you are in a virtual training program and are therefore never really “assassinated”.

to you to use your observation skills to figure out which one is your actual target. If you kill a civilian instead of your target, you lose the contract and are assigned a new target. You have a radar at the bottom of the screen which shows you the direction of your target as well as how close to you they are. You gain points by assassinating your targets and by escaping your pursuers. You get more points for skilful assassinations such as assassinating someone from a roof or haystack.

At the beginning of each round each agent is given a target and a pursuer. As you assassinate people and climb the ranks more pursuers will be assigned to you, but you will always have only one target. If you are the current leader of the match you can expect anything from two to four pursuers coming after you at any given time. If your pursuer runs or climbs in your vicinity you will be alerted and a chase will ensue where your goal will be to lose the pursuer. This can be done by breaking his line-of-sight and using a hiding spot such as a crowd of people or a haystack.

You can also lose your pursuers by using unlocked abilities such as smokebombs or firecrackers to disorient them, giving you a chance to knock them down and escape. The other two gamemodes are very similar to Wanted except that you work as part of a team to assassinate the other teams.

The game also has a very robust levelling system

providing players with unlockables such as killstreaks, deathstreaks and abilities that can be used during gameplay. You can even unlock the ability to customise the look of your agent as well as additional character models.

I was pleasantly surprised by the multiplayer of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. It is a very nice change of pace from other popular multiplayer games, such as Call of Duty or Battlefield: Bad Company 2, that usually dominate the multiplayer market. You cannot play this game with the same gung-ho style that is usually applied to these other multiplayer games.

You have to be patient and ensure that the person you are about to assassinate is in-fact your target and not an NPC with the same character model. It takes some getting used to but once you have the hang of how it works it’s a lot fun and quickly becomes very addictive. Ubisoft have done a great job of implementing multiplayer into the Assassin’s Creed series and the robust levelling system should keep hardcore Assassin’s Creed fans playing for a long time. I for one really enjoy the multiplayer of this game and I cannot wait to see how Ubisoft will build on it in the inevitable sequel to Brotherhood.

Single Player Review by: Nicholas Bowan Multiplayer Review by: Waldo Janse Van Rensburg

3. Practice ‘Lightsaber’ skills The weapon of choice for devoted Jedi across the galaxy, the fabled Lightsaber requires both physical prowess and unfazed mental restraint. One needs to find an inner peace from where to channel ones thoughts and dreams into the unperceivable powers of the sword. Start off by finding a suitable vessel into which to direct your overwhelming energy, something resembling the same physical characteristics as a ‘real’ lightsaber...well, anything resembling a sword like shape will do really. It would seem that the majestic

The way of the Jedi is one which appeals to countless diehard Star Wars fans out there. They all constantly fantasise about the possibility that maybe one day they would all be able to make their imagination a reality, spending vast amounts of their life savings on lavish collectables and ludicrously priced memorabilia to sustain the dream. Unfortunately for them, this possibility is not something which will ever surface in their lifetime...if ever. However, we at The Gamer have decided to put together a simple Ten Step process for any fan out there, that simply cannot wait until Valhalla comes, to embrace their true lineage and walk the path of the Jedi. So without any delay, here are 10 Steps to becoming a Jedi...may the force be with you (whilst reading this)...

1. Employ insanity The first step in this imaginary exploration of visual trigonometry is allowing the departure of your mind from the platform of its physical plateau. Let your grasp on what is real slowly slip away and fade into a disillusioned mess of ridicule and ambiguity until that which is real and that which is not, slowly blends into one another

broomstick has seen quite the following as the closest protégé of the Jedi Lightsaber, so maybe this is a good platform to start from. Different household appliances may be used of course; the cardboard inners of toilet rolls (be sure to tape them together), an old-school TV antenna...even a window washing stick thingy would do...you are after all busy creating the world’s most powerful weapon so shape does not matter (this is what you should be repeating to yourself...it’ll enhance your crazy, uhm, I mean your power).

and becomes one. Once you reach the imperial spire of your insanity and in fact actually start believing Ewoks and Storm Troopers exist, then you are ready to proceed onto Step Two.

2. Learn Jedi Mind Power hand gestures The skill of mind control is a lost and ancient art reserved only for those possessing the most burlesque of mental capacities. This next step will force you to delve into a deeper psyche of hilarity and idiocy than you have ever seen before. Start off lightly by simply repeating the phrase, “These are not the droids you are looking for”, whilst making very Freddy Mercury like hand gestures and possibly wearing your grandmothers most Jedi looking wig. It would be best that for now this is practiced indoors, most likely in front of a mirror, as unleashing these awesome ‘powers’ of yours on the free world might simply be too overwhelming for society to comprehend. Do not despair, for there will come a time when those who once condemned you shall succumb to the vengeful powers of your mind...well, not really, but we’ll let you hold onto that thought for now.

4. Employ the leadership of an old midget with a skin pigmentation disease Held in great regard for their unparalleled magical skills, the little folk have since the days of old, strived to carry on the lineage of their once spell casting peers. Their short stature allows them to enthral even the most hardened of enemies, as no person can willingly hit a midget (uhm...Little Person)...it simply does not feel right. When picking your midget, try your best to find one with a predisposition for sea sickness or perhaps one who suffers from jealousy.

These little people are warm hearted and once you have gained their trust, will willingly share their words of wisdom with you, words which will serve you greatly

in times of strain. So surrounding yourself with the mythical aura of the dwarven folk, is what will ultimately allow you to call upon these wise words in times of darkness, merely to give you that extra boost of power.

Like having The Eye of the Tiger playing in the background while you’re training for a fight or putting on Barry White just before you attempt the bedroom serenade, it allows you just that extra bit of perseverance...something which will be required for the long and perilous road ahead.

5. Acquire a hairy illiterate friend as your companion This will be one of your trickiest quests, as unfortunately for you, hairy friends with speech deficiencies are usually only found somewhere in the most desolate mountain regions...and then they are usually prone to hunting and eventually cooking you. So take care when selecting your trusty sidekick, as the process could end your galactic adventure rather abruptly.Some good starting points might be institutes for the mentally handicapped or simply psychiatric wards,

7.Shop for clothes in the homeless transsexual section as your sidekick will most likely share your enthusiasm for the great unknown and probably know a fair amount about space travel. The hard part is to then convince your newly acquainted sidekick that his primary language is Wookie...this will of course lead to him involuntarily screaming loudly and probably trying to rip your arms out of their sockets, so once again, be cautious.

The epitome of your adventure can only be reached once you have donned the necessary attire, which of course means you have another quest ahead of you, finding said clothing. This is actually not as hard as you would think, as the typical Jedi attire is mostly made up of robes and utility belts. Simply stealing your dad’s robe and attaching a bunch of random household appliances to your belt should be sufficient; however, if you are looking for authenticity and quality designs, then it is cross-dresser town for you.

Being decorated in a lavish robe and knee high boots might be your dream, but it will come at a price...bargaining with the inhabitants of cross-dresser town is truly a challenging task, as you are faced with having to deal with an individual that possesses both the mentality of a confused man and an extremely vain woman. So take heart when attempting to overcome this challenge, as it will push you to the brink of your own sexuality...a place which you might have frequented quite often already.

6.Purchase a homosexual robot Yes, robots are few and far between, and homosexual robots even less so. But one does not need to bend the laws of physics and challenge the boundaries of technology to accomplish the task at hand. There are a lot less daunting ways to go about acquiring a highly intellectual, quirky, gold covered individual.

homosexual man, then cover him in gold paint and force him to constantly talk in monotone. Being covered in shiny things is a joyful past time for many a gay man, and having him by your side will truly enhance your decision making skills when faced with your next task...

An easy way to do so is to simply employ the companionship of a quirky, intellectual and skinny

No matter how hard you try, the guy on the left is you!

8.Turn your car into an X-Fighter No man is complete without his chariot and for the guardians of the universe, nothing short of spectacular will do. This is where you can really get creative and challenge the boundaries of your creativity. Shape the constraints of your car to fit anything that you want...when it comes to mechanics, the sky is literally the limit. No, seriously, the sky is the limit. You are building a road travelling vehicle, one which would be better utilized as a collectors piece and should be left in your backyard...hidden away under a giant tarp

10.Commit incest (preferably one that is completely light sensitive). If you build something that flies, you will not be awarded the noble prize nor will you be commemorated for your accomplishment...the only prize you will receive will be the Tomahawk missiles being released from the two F16’s tracking your position as you are about to penetrate the atmosphere.

9.Battle a kid with asthma Your nemesis is what will ultimately mould you into the savoir of the universe and without him; your destiny truly is a dull one. The person who would best fit this description, is one who in fact shares a couple of things with you, mostly: your love for star wars, your perception of the space time continuum and your dwindling mental state. Once these things have been established, the rest is merely semantics.

If however your name happens to be Luke, and your father happens to have asthma, then this step could be escalated to even more epic proportions...either that or retreat back to the cavernous enclaves of your mind and convince yourself that your name IS Luke and your father DOES have asthma...remember, you have the power of mind control after all.

And the coup-de-grace of your monolithic journey at least ends in happiness...well, happiness and possible arrest. To truly emerge as ‘The Chosen One’ one needs to commit the act which still puzzles the minds of most Star Wars fans...the fabled ‘sister loving scandal’. To be honest, this is one step that I think would be best left out. I mean, sure, if you’re that far gone into the pits of insanity then this step would probably just come natural to you, but please, allow yourself to hold onto a shred of decency and restrain

yourself from becoming a ‘real’ Jedi...I promise, none of us will think any less of you if you don’t go through with it...actually, we might just give you a medal if you can restrain yourself...a nice big shiny one. Now isn’t that nice of us?

Article by Dieter Fouche

Graphics Right off the bat they have made an almost entire revamp of the graphics. The title screens look fresh and non intrusive, the menus are a lot more complicated but the wrestler animations pre-game have been brought back. The wrestlers themselves on the select screen vary, some wrestlers look exactly like their real life counterparts, others look like, well Britany Spears now compared to her original self, she and them don’t quiet look the same. Nevertheless, I hit the start button and await the entrance.

IMMEDIATELY you notice a huge difference in the way things look. They all have their trademark tattoo’s as usual but there is something else, they are super detailed. From Shaemus with his freckly skin that looks disgusting, to Kelly Kelly with her freckly nose that looks hot. Even some superstars look more “oily”, as if Johnson and Johnson sponsored them, just like there real life counterpart. In the ring they have introduced muscle physics which basically means they not just heads attached to Madigan bodies.

First thing you should know is that ever since huge

pixels and box hands on the playstation one, I have been a fan of the Smackdown Series. I remember being a young fresh faced fan waiting for my copy of “Smackdown”. It was so basic but I didn’t know better and I LOVED it. It’s all I played for over 2 years, to the point I made everyone in my house sick of playstation while strangely they all became fans of wrestling!

So we move forward to when I got my first ps2, which was for the sole purchase of getting “Smackdown: shut that mouth”. If I thought “Smackdown” was good, I was like a polar bear that found a group of paralyzed penguins, I was the classic fat kid locked in the bakery, I was that nerdy never been kissed reject from school that just walked into the playboy mansion.

I was drooling at the awesomeness of this game, and I swore never to waver from this title. I got “smackdown: Here comes the pain”, and it was like those days where we all thought Britany Spears was so hot and that there couldn’t be better, then the Katy Perry’s of the world came to the scene and well… every iteration just got better and better and every time I turned on my playstation 2 it was unicorns, rainbows and cupcakes…

…and then something happened. Something that would repeat itself for the next five years or so, they changed their name first of all to “Smackdown vs Raw”. At first I thought this was cool but it soon became the benchmark for what would be THQ constantly kicking us in the teeth.

The games that followed had fantastic innovations which were only flawed by the glitches that came with it, yes you heard me, GLITCHES. Not just, a misplaced pixel, we talking about wrestlers going through floors, graphic glitches that almost made your Playstation explode and just all round shoddiness! You’d think with Playstation 3, the game would be enormous and have a level of awesomeness that would bring those unicorns back.

What I got was what we all got when the “new” Britany Spears tried to make a comeback, we all thought,” Maybe she will be good again, YAY!” Instead we got the same old rubbish and were reminded why we didn’t want it at the first place. I think every year maybe something will change, maybe I’ll enjoy Britany Spears and maybe, just maybe I will like this year’s “Smackdown vs Raw” title. Let’s take a gander!

Their muscles actually flex and tighten like real which isn’t anything to be wowed over but it does give that more realistic feel. I first thought this is silly who would want to watch muscles flex anyway but I will admit, when a submission move is applied like an STF or pedigree finisher, you can almost feel the struggle and pain exerted since the expressions are not just corny generic expressions anymore and due to the muscle physics, those actions are clearly expressed with the body as well. As I said you can almost feel and actually see the wrestlers doing everything in their power to destroy their opponents. Diva matches are very entertaining for similar reasons but you will have to play to find that out. The graphics mixed with this new skin and muscle physics, a touch of brightened colors to introduce a more lively look to the arenas’ and players and of coursethe HD, means matches seem to look a lot more closer to live matches then a video game. So on the scale the graphics have improved.

Gameplay Gameplay has improved somewhat from last year’s series. They have tried to combine an almost story like mode which is integrated with your matches. So you still get your run of the mill six Road to Wresltemania Stories but now they have Universe mode. Basically everything you do in the ring, wins, losses and smacking people over the head illegally with chairs basically gets remembered and stored. So if you continue to beat up on a wrestler he will start to hate you, which is understandable, but there will be the added feature of your nemesis attacking you on the way to the ring or interrupting matches in rather slightly slow loading animations but cool nevertheless.

You can turn this mode off, but it’s nice that every match is placed within the actual shows that run weekly until the paper views. You can adjust everything from match types to who will be fighting. The only downside or upside on how you look at it, is that you have to wait for paper views to fight for titles, and the only way you can get your favourite wrestler is to move up the rankings, yes rankings, win matches you move up, until your number one contender. Which does make every match much more necessary to win and it’s not just a ho-hum just playing match. You earn something, a new ally, enemy or title shot.

Innovation Controls have been made simpler. As most find it hard to pickup and play, this year they have tried to simulate wrestling a bit more. ALL grapples are now one analog stick depending on the wrestler’s situation and location in the ring, lying on the mat, against the turnbuckle or groggy, it’s relatively easy to become accustomed to the controls. Some added moves which have been there for years have now been removed which may disappoint hardcore fans, new entries to this genre will be pleased. I myself have been quite happy with these changes when it comes to teaching mates how to play. It used to take a few matches to explain how everything works but that’s not a problem anymore.

Most actions don’t take more than two buttons and most combinations is based on logic, meaning if you want to hit someone while you are running, you do it in that order, you run and press the strike button which is the mainstay button for all variations of strikes. So now that’s three things that have improved somewhat.

By the way, this exclude’s Legends which seem to have been copied from the ps1 days and pasted, I cannot say who but diehard fans will immediately notice the difference. But who plays with legends anyway!!

This is where the game shines, and it’s the only part of the game where most of the glitches are easily overlooked. They have added two things to make the game a lot more interesting, firstly something called directional throws, which mean you can twist your opponent during a suplex and turn where they land as well as object physics. Meaning every object, from chairs, bells and even mops, to ladders and tables can be weapons merely by throwing your opponent on them. The tables can only be defined as uber cool and their destruction is no longer a set animation.

Basically it uses havoc physics in a way that the table never breaks the same way twice. Depending on whether your opponent lands, it can merely just buckle a leg stand, send the pieces flying, or merely crumple around your wrestler. Sometimes the pieces tend to go sailing like bullets but it is overlooked because you

too excited you managed to send your opponent through the table with an over the shoulder drop or suplex, its even greater when it’s done by accident.

It really lives up to the matches we have seen on TV where most of the match is unpredictable. There is the standard mode from last year, namely highlight reel and create a story for those who enjoy making youtube videos of their favourite match, which can be used as entrance video’s for your created wrestler.

This too has been revamped, you have so much more you can do with your created wrestler, from different clothing for entrances, to the amount of oil they have on their skin, I kid you not! Also you can create your own finishers from the front, turnbuckle and flying with preset moves that you combine to make one full move that you can call your own. That mode alone, one can spend hours on! TRUST ME I HAVE!

Sound This area of the game doesn’t do the game justice, it’s like hearing Britany Spears sing when her microphone went dead, or when she’s trying to lipsync with a song and then coughs! You think to yourself, the stage looks awesome but damn what’s with the sound. The crowd seems to be constantly booing which personally is not very nice and suddenly I am wrestling to impress. Another strange point is where men in the audience fox whistle you when you do a taunt, even when you are John Cena, which is clearly a glitch, I HOPE!

Besides that I enjoy the commentary as its very well crafted and is play by play, there are the few miscalls and incorrect move names but they are easily overlooked! So sound is average at best but it can be better. The music is basically a collection of the wrestlers theme songs which during the menu screen you basically want to stop because it’s so repetitive.

I’ve started to lip-sync Cody Rhodes theme song not because I like it, but because it’s been brainwashed into my skull.

Longevity Take all of this titles modes, such as Story Road and Wrestlemania, the creation modes and different scenario’s and you are looking at around 18hrs of game time, which is pretty decent. While the universe mode is a great addition the cut scenes start becoming repetitive and only once in a while does a new cut scene make its way through. You may eventually

you might get tired of organizing schedules but then you can always just muck around with your favourite wrestler. I can see that I will be going back to this game every now and again, just for a few rounds. In terms of longevity I feel that this title will last longest when friends are around, its perfect for playing in a group and is good fun amongst mates.

Last Words Overall, the game still has some glitches that could be annoying and they have kept the old habit of adding great things but removing previously well received staples. I have to admit though that this year they have managed to remove things that you only notice if you really looking for them, and some have been removed to make way for simpler controls.

This will be the first title from the Smackdown franchise to receive patches and also DLC in the coming months, so I hope they can address some of the issues there. So is this the best wrestling game ever, not likely, The PS2 days still have that something special, but when compare the last 5 years of really

bad titles, this is in fact the best game in the ps3 series to date and it is basically their way of saying sorry for the last five years. So basically I’d happily listen to Britany Spears while playing Smackdown vs Raw 2011 and ignore the screeching because I’d be too busy throwing someone through a table. So this may not be the break through diehard fans are looking for, you will no doubt miss a lot of functions, but for new guys in the series this is the best and easiest version of a wrestling game to get, and it really is a great party game too, even if you playing with Britany Spears.

Article by Jason Antao

To do this you will have to progress along the Road to Rule, a physical representation of your metaphorical journey to becoming the ruler of Albion. Spaced along the road are gates which are unlocked when you reach a predetermined point in the main plot, and scattered between these gates are chests. Each chest requires X number of followers to unlock and contains upgrades for your skills as well as dye and expression packs, even the ability to marry & buy property is unlocked here. You gain followers by completing quests and as a reward for killing enemies and doing other heroic deeds.

Fable III is a lot more plot focused than any of its predecessors, unfortunately so much so that the game feels less RPG and more action adventure.

Making promises is one thing, keeping them is another. The Fable saga began back in 2004 when the original Fable shipped for the Xbox. During its development old Peter M, CEO of Lionhead Studios, went all out hyping up the game, even calling it “the best game ever” along with several other exaggerated promises such as being able to plant an acorn and have it grow into a tree during the course of the game. Now obviously old Pete took a bit of a media beating about these statements. Fable: The Lost Chapters was released in 2005 and added a lot of the omitted features though the game was still far from being “the best game ever.”

Then in 2008 came Fable II, still trying to live up to the promises made by the original and still not getting it a hundred percent right, now we come to Fable III and Lionhead is still trying to deliver on the promises made back with the original Fable, but is it any closer to getting it right...

Albion has changed in the 50 years since the end of Fable II, the noble (or notorious) hero from Fable II has passed on to that giant guildhall in the sky with his eldest son, Logan, now king of Albion. But all is not well in this age of industry, unlike his Father Logan has become a tyrant raising taxes, inducing child labour and other tyrannical behaviour all of which has the

The plot leads you ever onwards towards your final goal and as in previous incarnations you are free to ignore the main quest and instead explore the world for yourself, however this option is a lot less attractive than it was in Fable II. The main plot also feels too linear for an RPG, which some players might like, as it mean they will never have to wonder where to go next while other players will long for all the times they got lost in Fable II. The side quests are drip-fed to the player meaning you will have to progress in the main plot if you want more side quests to become available . Simple fetch quests are entirely too common and though there are a few real gems, which feature some brilliant writing and an interesting brand of humour, the rest is far too

kingdom on the precipice of civil war and you, his younger brother or sister, growing increasingly concerned with his actions.

Before you can say ‘Viva la Revolution’, big brother hands in his nomination for the ‘Dictator of the Century’ Awards and you, your mentor Sir Walter and your butler Jasper escape the castle on a quest to gather enough followers to help you overthrow the ‘evil’ king and become king or queen of Albion.

boring and repetitive to encourage the player to wander far from the main plot.

The main plot, through no lack of trying, just wasn’t able to establish an emotional connection between the player and any of the characters , which is something Fable has been striving for since the original but has never managed.

The writing is by no means bad, in fact it is one of the most coherent plots to come out of Albion. However its serious tone is far too often cut short by the ample amounts of quirky humour also imbedded within the plot, for better or worse. It is hard to take the people’s plight seriously when you’re fighting the kings elite guard one minute and looking for a smack talking

gnome the next. This oscillation between serious one moment and silly the next makes the game feel schizophrenic and though Fable I & II shared a similar love of unique British humour their respective plots where a lot less serious when compared to Fable III. One possible reason for the main quest feeling so short could be due to the game being split into two parts; the road leading up to the player becoming king and then the actual ruling of the kingdom. The second part is truly where the game sets itself apart and does something truly unique. Gone are the adventuring days, the player is now tasked with raising a large amount of gold to protect Albion from an

invading army. During the first part of the game the player makes promises to his or her new found allies, during the second half of the game the player must choose to keep the promises made, at great cost to the treasury, or break the promises and gain gold.

These choices make up some of Fable III’s most memorable moments, as each choice manages to tread a grey area between good and evil even though one choice is regarded as good and the other evil. It is an interesting dynamic, especially since the amount of gold you are able to accumulate is directly proportionate to the predicted number of casualties, i.e. if the player manages to gather five million of the six and a half million needed gold only one and a half million civilians will die. Though the system is one of the best representations of a moral grey area in a game thus far, by keeping promises and being a ‘good’ ruler a lot of civilian lives will be lost and if you continue post main quest many civilians will react hostile to the player, on the flip side breaking promises and being a tyrant will result in a large number of lives saved.

The real question is what kind of message is Fable III trying to send....

Albion is still a beautiful place to behold and it is incredible how familiar yet different all the locations are. Stepping into the Bowerstone market is immediately reminiscent of first seeing it in Fable II. Though the odd graphical glitch does slip in, the overall look and art direction for Albion is spot on, it does feel like 50 years have gone by.

Sound design is also phenomenal, from the large list of A-list names in the voice talent, Sir Ben Kingsley, Simon Pegg and John Cleese to name but a few as well as the musical score which manages to keep pace with the onscreen action.

Lionhead has gone all out to streamline the mechanics of Fable II which would have been all well and good had they made them better. The replacement of XP with Followers works well in theory but in practice it falls short; you gain followers for everything from completing quests to dealing with those pesky bandits.

One of the main quests was to gather 200 followers in Bowerstone, not wanting to progress the main plot too quickly I made my way to another area to do some side quests only to have the followers I gained by

completing the side quests there, added to the main pool making the original location based quest redundant. Fable II’s renown system would have been a far better fit, everyone in Albion seems to share the same set of likes and dislikes and since you don’t lose followers the entire idea of having people look to you as a leader falls apart.

Similarly, combat, skill progression, NPC interaction and even item management and the purchasing of items has been stripped back ‘streamlined’.

The four way XP (Melee, Ranged, Magic & General) has been combined with followers and unlocking the four different levels for your melee, ranged and magic mean progressing down the road to rule, which translates to progressing in the main plot. Skill trees have been completely abandoned so say goodbye to shooting bandits in the crotch or watching their heads roll down the hill after blowing them off. The only skill which is actually better after this ‘streamlining’ is magic; each spell now has an accompanying gauntlet and later during the game the ability to wear two different gauntlets is unlocked which leads to some interesting combinations.

The ability to learn expression from reading books has also been dumped in favour of spending followers to unlock it on the road to rule which greatly reduces the player’s ability to simply wander round Albion doing their own thing with the base expressions get old fast.

Interacting with NPCs in Fable has never been like any other RPG; there are no dialog boxes or speech trees only expressions (Heroic Pose, Vulgar Thrust, Farting ect). In Fable III a new form of expression has taken the kingdom by storm... touch. Instead of locking onto an NPC and then performing silly, romantic or rude expressions to impress them you now get to go in for a bit of one on one time where you shake their hand, dance, or perform any other expression that you have unlocked back in the old Road to Rule. You can hold hands to lead an NPC where you want him or her to go. Had all this simply been build on top of Fable II’s expression system it would have been perfect, instead the ‘touch’ system is so overused that it becomes a joke.

One series of recurring side quests has the player tracking down ‘dangerous’ criminals and then ‘dragging’ them back to the guards, only problem is, once you catch them they gladly hold your hand like you’re going for a romantic walk in the forest until you get close to the guard before starting to struggle, which has little effect on the player.

Shopping also went under the knife; In Fable III each item the player can buy is displayed on a shelf or in the stall. Players purchase these items by walking up to them and pressing the A button. Unfortunately the player is still unable to purchase several of the same items at the same time, each item needs to be selected and confirmed individually. There is also a pawn shop which is the only place a player call sell their unwanted goods. The amount of items for sale is also greatly diminished compared to Fable II and I felt it was much harder to create a unique look for my character.

Combat, especially melee combat, still feels clumsy and can jump between painfully easy to outright infuriating. This is mainly due to the one button control scheme; tapping X results in a melee attack, holding X blocks and holding X while pushing the left stick in a direction results in a charges attack. Assigning block to the same button you need to attack is a bad design choice, especially when you consider that both the

triggers now do nothing. Similarly, Y controls ranged combat which can also be charged by holding Y down.

But the ability to target a specific body part is suspiciously absent and zooming in on a target for a long range shot is now tied to the time the shot is charged.

Closing Comments: Fable III isn’t a bad game; unfortunately it’s also not an overly good one. ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ is a line someone should carve into Lionhead’s front door.

A lot of the mechanics from Fable II didn’t need to be changed and others which could have done with more attention, such as combat, have been brought over almost exactly from Fable II. Though some players will be disappointed with some of the design choices made, the game deserves praise for the Sanctuary as a menu-less start menu/inventory/log, its brilliant voice acting and delivering a game that is very open to newer players.

There is still some replay value to be hand and many players may find themselves playing through the game several times to explore all of Albion, those looking for a deeper RPG experience might want to look elsewhere unfortunately.

Article by Ernst Vorndran

Global Sales: StarCraft was never really expected to have an impact on the gaming world. Blizzard was a fairly new company and had mammoth franchises like the Command & Conquer series to contend against.

Blizzard’s other franchise, Warcraft, was still standing strong, with games such as Total Annihilation simply dominating the market. Needless to say, the future of StarCraft might have been a short-lived one…but it would seem the fates were wrong.

Thanks to its unique camera style and the diversity of units, StarCraft quickly gained a very devoted following. In its first year the game sold just over a million copies, making it one of the fastest selling franchises to date, blowing the C & C series out of the water. In fact, the only other games to ever surpass StarCraft in sales were two of Blizzard’s other titles,

A young man steps through the shadows as he slowly

scuffles down a narrow corridor. At the end of the darkened passageway we can hear the incessant chanting of a crowd driven by relentless passion, and hiding underneath the deafening sound, the faint beats of Asian nu-metal. The man lets his hand slide against the cold concrete; the sound of the crowd grows louder and louder with each step. A commentator with an overexcited tone rambles over the PA system, as if shouting orders to a horde of shoppers on a Black Friday sale. The crowd responds and starts slow clapping in unison as the young man gets closer to the end of the tunnel, sweat slowly building on his brow. He swallows what spit is left in his mouth in a dry gulp as he pauses for a second in front of a kaleidoscope of colour creeping through the curtains covering the entrance.

He steps out and breaches the ominous wave of chanting, emerging into an arena filled with adorning fans, all screaming at decibel shattering levels as the man appears. Like an American wrestler at the heart of a glitter-glazed Royal Rumble, he strides down a ramp towards the stage.

Amid a blaze of flashbulbs and indoor fireworks he climbs the steps, exulted by the thronging crowd, their screams not dimming or dropping for a second. Only twenty years old, and with no less than half a dozen TV cameras tracking his progress, this bizarre figure seems to be unfazed by his predicament. He walks out onto the centre of the octagonal stage and awards his competitor with an honourable bow, much like a Samurai preparing for battle. Numerous sponsorship badges adorn the sleeves of his jacket and confidence exhumes from him in excess…this isn’t the first time he’s seen

World of Warcraft (and all its expansions) and subsequently, StarCraft 2 (which to this day is still the fastest selling game in history).

Over the past 12 years StarCraft: Brood Wars has sold well over 12 million copies globally, with a whopping 4.98 million of those copies being sold in Korea. For a game that is essentially 12 years old, the franchise still continues to sell. This is unheard of in the gaming market where the average lifespan of most franchises is usually about a year.

But the popularity of StarCraft in Korea far exceeds just the number of copies sold. StarCraft was Korea’s new addiction and they had very big plans for it.

this stage, nor would it be the last. This is the life of a professional gamer in Korea...the tale of a child living in a country no one believed would ever be a gaming superpower, yet 12 years later, here we are.

Welcome to South Korea, a densely populated, technological mammoth society that houses almost 24 million people. South Korea is about a quarter of the size of South Africa, yet has almost half of our population (with SA boasting 49 million people) meaning life in Korea is a rather cramped existence and generally one which leaves little room to individuality. However, underneath this blanket of social ambiguity there is a national phenomenon which has put South Korea on the map in substantial leaps and bounds. A PC game which grew to notoriety in such a short time span that it has been compared to games like Texas Hold-Em Poker and Sudoku. The game required superior strategy, constant focus and unparalleled devotion to multitasking, all of which had to be utilised constantly and at lightning speeds. The game of course was none other than space-warfare RTS: StarCraft.

The Korean StarCraft phenomenon started about 12 years ago in 1998 when StarCraft first landed on the native shores of Seoul. Since then StarCraft has grown into a beast of epic proportions and it would seem the Koreans cannot get enough of it. The statistics of how religiously this country follows StarCraft is shocking, yet at the same time riveting, when compared to the focus that gaming receives around the world. But there are some factors to consider in what I am now labelling: The Korean StarCraft Boom!

Professional Players: StarCraft enabled the world’s first pro gaming league, Korea Pro Gaming League (KPGL), to be formed in Korea in 1998. Even though the league no longer exists, it allowed a trend to be born with the ability to grow into an almost religious state. There is not one but two cable television channels solely dedicated to broadcasting matches between pro gamers, often playing StarCraft, which are streamed live, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Apart from that, there are live matches in specially built studios or stadiums which sometimes draw as many as 100,000 people. These spectators will even queue up outside the night before the event, just to make sure they get good seats. The events also appeal to all gender and age groups, with 35% of the supporters being female and of this 35%, 15% are above the age of 25.

Professional StarCraft players are as much a household name in Korea as Peyton Manning or Tom Brady would be to an American. Players such as Lee Yunyeol, or [RED]NaDaTerran in-game, reportedly earn somewhere in the vicinity of $300 000 per year. That would make him a multimillionaire for essentially playing games all day…great life hey? He plays a twelve year-old RTS for fame and fortune and is an inspiration to a vast majority of the Korean population, being featured in the newspapers weekly and constantly giving talks at schools, conferences and even big industries.

Fuelled by the people’s love for the game and the publicity that it drew, the StarCraft machine soon grew into a self-sustaining beast that rose to epic

proportions in a very short amount of time. People talked about the game because it was on TV and the game was on TV because people talked about it. But what were in fact the embers that started this technological fire? In all honesty, it was an entire smorgasbord of events that happened to have fallen into place at exactly the right time; yet two things describe it best for me. The one is listed below: "Many Koreans easily become obsessed with activities or games that test their ability to think and react rapidly, and excelling in such activities for competition during youth is highly encouraged," says Nick Rumas, a South Korea-based filmmaker and writer. "This can range from math to science to Rubik's Cube, and while StarCraft generally is not a 'recommended' pursuit, it falls under a similar obsessive mindset."

The other, came with the birth of a new technological trend in Korea…

The PC Bang Phenomenon: Don’t misconstrue the word Bang here! Bang is in fact pronounced like the Afrikaans adjective for scared (“bang”), which in Korean means room (i.e.

PC Bang = Internet Café). In the late 1990’s, the Korean economy underwent a major overhaul, leaving

countless Koreans out of work and with nothing to show for it. People needed to eat, but there were no jobs, leaving them hungry and desperate. So they started looking for new opportunities and the PC Bang Phenomenon was born…

The proliferation of PC Bang has much to do with Korea’s small business environment. One very important factor to keep in mind is that Korea is a country where not too many people get to “retire” as Americans or Europeans get to do. Korea does not have guaranteed social pensions like Europe, nor has it encouraged everyone to save for retirement like America (until very recently). The group that was affected by this the most where Koreans in their late 40s and 50s who began their career in a system that guaranteed continued employment, but then had the proverbial rug pulled out from underneath them.

So once people got wind of the trend that online games including StarCraft, where getting popular, they started looking into the opening of PC Bangs. Soon, PC Bangs began to mushroom everywhere in Korea. Once the boom began, the larger PC Bangs began to turn into a franchise and began to share the cost of computer maintenance and repairs, as well as create a unified interior design, which in turn made opening a PC Bang even easier. The cost of opening a PC Bang became even lower as computer-leasing business began to

take hold. In less than a year, Korea was littered with PC Bangs, with Korea now having nearly 25 000 listed PC Bang’s, all of them hosting state of the art computers with stylish interiors and free snack bars…Korea had literally been converted into a gamer’s paradise.

as well as leak replay files of their matches to said gambling groups. But it wasn't just a few current players involved in the deceit -- evidently the widespread match-fixing involved retired players and coaches who helped the gambling rings get in contact with the current players in the first place.”

Scandal:

If you still cannot understand the seriousness of StarCraft in Korea, maybe you can picture it this way: The Korean StarCraft scandal is being compared to the 1919 Black Sox scandal, in which several Chicago White Sox players were discovered to be throwing matches during the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds. Yes, this is that serious in South Korea.

But alas, no fame can come without Scaaaaaaaandal!

The franchise that had now put Korea on the map (figuratively of course), had grown to such proportions, that the inevitable was bound to happen. One would simply never imagine this happening in a gaming community, match throwing, bet rigging, and maybe there were even some dog fights or underground catch mages …we’ll never know.

Apparently, reports of widespread match-fixing and illegal betting had surfaced, rocking the Korean pro-gamer StarCraft community and in turn shaming some of the most popular professional StarCraft players into retiring. Gaming website, GamePron, reported as follows: “Various pro gamers were involved in rigging their matches in coordination with illegal gambling groups, having some players intentionally lose their matches

StarCraft is more than merely a pastime in Korea. It has become a cultural stereotype, where one thinks of Korea, one now thinks of StarCraft. I can only wonder if South Africa will ever find something that is loved so immensely, something that isn’t either a form of sport or the exploitation of people’s inadequacy at singing…I guess only time will tell.

Article by Dieter Fouche

You start the game off in Training mode automatically as your first “mission” consists of familiarising yourself with both the aircraft as well as its weapon systems.

At the time I thought the training mission was fairly successful, but only because you don’t know what’s missing until someone tells you. It was only in the next mission when I encountered my first locked on missile that I discovered I had no idea how to deploy the flairs, it was made worse by my inability to find any sort of control mapping screen, so as of this moment I am still a sitting duck. A few hours after the flair incident I discovered that it was possible to fly in a variety of cockpit views, proving the trainings inefficiency once again.

I remember the day clearly; I was in Grade 8 and a

Let’s see what the game has in store for budding pilots.

bright eyed and bushy tailed member of New Forest High “A” class. You see the problems is I have never thought of myself as one of those stereotypical brainiac (read nerdy) kids and so being in the A class resulted in many problems. On this particular day our teacher had asked us to stand up and share a few words on what we wanted to be one day. After sitting through nigh on an hour of Nuclear Physicists, Oncologists and Proctologists, finally the Teacher made her way to my name nested deep in the back of the class.

The big debate in flying games is always “arcade” vs. “simulator” and in Air Assault it feels like they have tried their best to give you both. You can either play on training mode, which while more arcade like in its approach is also fairly limiting. You chopper feels like a shoe box with a brick in it and if the time comes to pull off an evasive maneuver you may find yourself struggling. What this mode does do is allow you an easier option and definitely helps in the weapons side of things, getting your rockets and guns on target is certainly much easier.

I stood up and proudly announced my dreams of being a Military Helicopter Pilot, after the sniggering from my class mates subsided, I returned to my seat to contemplate why my words had been so amusing. It would seem this career which I had thought to be rather selfless and heroic didn’t quite hit the standards of my pretentious braniac class mates. But I digress, fast forward a few years and several trips to the local amusement park later and I decided I didn’t quite have the stomach to be flying around… Thankfully I decided to follow my artistic passions instead and now you all have this magazine instead.

The reason for all that rambling is that although I didn’t follow my initial passion, the idea of flying has always been something I hold close to my heart, with special interest in aircraft such as the legendary AH-64 Apache.

So when I received Apache: Air Assault I was understandably excited. This game does some things really well, while other just seems lack luster.

On the other end of the spectrum is Realistic mode, here every micro twitch of the controller will have your chopper reacting. It understandably takes a while to get used to this set-up as it is very true to the real thing.

Put slightly too much yaw into a sweep over and suddenly you will find yourself careening straight into a mountain side. I must say that even after several hours of play, I still found it difficult at times; keeping your chopper in the air, can at times be more difficult than the actual missions. For me this is both a positive and a negative, it’s great for the hardcore fans, the flight sim guys or the Apache nuts. If however you are a casual gamer looking for some fun flying a bringer of death, then you may find it a bit taxing.

Through all this however something has to be said for the ability to barrel roll through a missile barrage while you narrowly make it through a rocky mountain pass.

The feeling when you get it right is simply unbelievable.

After the training you hit your first real mission, where you are given a briefing/back story and a short FMV sequence introducing the action. This I thought to be a nice touch, until I discovered that the FMV isn’t present before every mission. The story as a whole is a fairly generic affair and reminded me a lot of HAWX, where the briefing/story is more just an excuse for the skirmish you are being sent into and it doesn’t really serve much purpose. It’s a pity, yes we are looking for a simulator game filled with lots of action, but it doesn’t mean you have to tack the story to the missions, when it should in fact be the other way around with the story leading the missions.

The graphics in the game are decent enough; while the chopper models themselves are good and the dust/smoke particles look cool, the surrounding landscapes and structures leave a fair amount to be desired. Apparently the maps are based and textured on real life satellite imagery which makes sense. As the ground really does look like you are looking at it from outer space, although with what seems more like a handy cam rather than a military satellite. The biggest disappointing for me however has to be the crash animations. Crash into the ground and suddenly the camera has zoomed out, all trees or buildings have disappeared and you witness a pathetic little boom.

While not quite in the same department as graphics, the deformability in the game was another disappointment for me. At first I couldn’t seem to destroy any buildings, but when I eventually did (using missiles only) instead of seeing a pile of rubble or a collapsed structure there was just a horribly flat piece of ground with a PS2 scorch mark denoting the previous existence of a building.

The weapons and targeting systems are pretty good, although perhaps a little limited in selection/choice.

One of my favorite elements in this game is the in gun view, much like the AC-130 targeting system seen in MW2 its good fun. Park off several kilometers from the incursion, switch to gun mode, which includes both standard targeting and FLIR (heat signatures) and light some enemies up. The realism factor is high, having to take both your movements as well as the enemies into account allowing the proper lead or your foe will

escape unharmed. There is something very satisfying about taking out a personal truck hiding in the trees using FLIR and seeing hot pieces rain down. Another element of the targeting system which I enjoyed was the traditional aim over the shoulder view usually only seen in third person shooters when zooming in, it’s a nice little touch which I haven’t seen in a flight game before.

The sound in the game is pretty much restricted to the sound of your rotors and it’s a pity the cheesy movie style battle music only plays pre mission as it could have upped the drama level a little. One element which deserves an honorable mention is the co-pilot voice.

While this would usually consist of an out of sync annoyance, in Air Assault the co-pilot gets it right 95% of the time and will even scream out in excitement when you pull off a killer maneuver.

Ultimately to really enjoy this game you need to be a military chopper nut and you need to be looking for a simulator. In similar fashion to the Gran Turismo review this game is for the fans, it’s not for your average shoot em up gamer. Even myself as someone who always aspired to fly these machines in real life found the missions a bit tedious at times. If you are a casual gamer I would suggest you stay away from this title, while fans will enjoy the game as well as all the little extra’s, such as the hangar where you can study the helicopter models in great detail and even add a few custom touches to them.

Article by Abe Viljoen

I was faced with one major problem when reviewing this game. It was not what I was expecting, at all! I hadn't heard anything about the game prior to the disc sliding into my console. As a result I was expecting kind of an upgraded version of Marvel Ultimate Alliance, instead I was greeted with something very, very different and as a result I was literally shocked at just how bad this game actually is. For a brief moment I thought that perhaps I hadn't been paying attention and that this game was in fact a Playstation 2 game. Yet when I ejected the disk to check I came to the realisation that someone had actually developed this for the PS3.

Everything about this game reeks of PS2, its not just the graphics, its the whole production value. I mean even the loading screens, which feature fictional comic book covers are rasterised and extremely weak. I quickly came to the realisation that this game has definitely been made for children (although rated 12). However it begs the question, just because this game is made for kids, should they have to endure a lesser product.

Sure my perspective of a 12 year old might be a bit off, but I just can't imagine a kid of that age who is already starting to mature really appreciating this game.

Lets start with the most noticeable thing first. The graphics. Yes they really are THAT bad, the character models themselves are about the only thing that looks like they have had anytime spent on them.

Even then they aren't the traditional character designs, but rather cartoonish, shrunken, midget like versions.

Which I get as I learnt this game is based on a cartoon series which features similar character design. The problem with that however is that it does make the graphics look weaker as the cartoonish look does subtract detail from the only graphically "next gen" items on the game.

The stage designs are poor and extremely linear and the stages are littered with badly made objects. Barrels are no longer round, but instead are like the PS2 barrels of yesteryear, where they are made up of five/six sides.

Everything in this game is chunky and looks like it has a total polygon count of seven. Again I know its for kids, but common, why do we want to insult them?

I can see a child of 8-12 enjoying the storyline, its pretty basic, but fun none the less and the jokes and humour are thrown at you constantly.

Most of the jokes are pretty cheesy, but I am sure your child will delight in repeating them for several weeks after playing this title. Which brings me to probably the best property of this game, the voice acting.

The main mechanic in this game involves running through the stages beating up baddies and solving puzzles with an ai controlled partner and switching to control that partner when you need their desired unique ability.

All the characters are voiced by their cartoon series counterparts and the work they provided is pretty good. They interact pretty well together and the dialogue is decent enough and I am sure the youngsters will enjoy it, although I cant help but feel a bit sorry for the guy who voices The Hulk as he seems to only be able to utter "Hulk Smash" in a goofy voice.

The concept is good, but the gameplay fast become very repetitive as you are rather limited in the variety of attacks and at times it feels like you are just pushing the same button over and over.

The game is really easy and your kids should have no problem getting through the game.

You are presented with three difficulty levels in the beginning, but I can assure you that they are all very much the same. When I say the game is easy, I mean it and you will have silver trophies popping up without even trying. Which does raise one point.

I had a look through the list of trophy and discovered that a few of them are maybe a little complex for your average kid to figure out. Maybe the devs were hoping that the dads playing along would go after these?

After all we all know of the trophy whores out there.

I'm not sure what to say next as this is the first time I have reviewed a kiddies title like this and I think I may have garnered a misshapen perspective on the game due to my expectation of it being a regular title for mature gamers.

The bottom line is that if you are older than 13 don't buy this game for yourself to play, you may want to give it a play, through the allure of getting to control your favorite superhero character but don't be fooled, it will not be worth it.

This game is made for kids and as an adult it got old very quickly. Having said that if my kid was a little older (currently 5 months) I would have probably gotten it for her. Kids will enjoy it, they will enjoy the silly humour and light story line and its easy enough that they can probably finish it. Just be sure to tell them just how powerful your PS3 actually is or they may forget ;) Article by Abe Viljoen

This is good news; the WarHammer series has

Fuelled by passion or capitalism (which is basically passion for money) It was not too long after this point where developers, Relic (Homeworld; Dawn Of War; Company of Heroes) and publishers, THQ (50 Cent Blood in the Sand; Blood Bowl; Destroy All Humans) came along with what I’m sure were ‘stim’ packs borrowed from StarCraft (I honestly think the marines in this game were modelled on Raynor and his raiders) and injected some RPG styled shooter awesomeness into the franchise.

With its roots stretching back to the days of bright shoelaces, white socks with black pants and women running around dressed in accessories (yes I’m speaking about the 80’s) with the game originally starting off as a dice-based board game in ‘87. Eventually this board game ate a microprocessor and evolved into a pcbased real time strategy title and gave birth to a number of iterations including the better-known Dawn of War series. This version eventually sprouted a number of expansion packs and eventually even a sequel.

As far as the narrative for WarHammer goes: the series is set in a futuristic space-aged dystopia set in the 41st millennium. Humans have once again colonized far beyond their home planet, Earth and obviously come across a number of other races. Some of these other races either have a distaste for humans or on the contrary, a strong taste for human flesh.

finally broken through its shackles of PC Real Time Strategy and has leaped into the realm of consoles as a third-person shooter. What’s that you haven’t heard of the series? Well don’t be concerned; that just means you’re actually not alone, although hugely popular amongst its massive cult following, until now the title has remained a relatively unknown phenomena to the rest of the world.

Whatever the reason, it’s enough reason for you to pack some heat, right? Either way, humanity is again threatened with extinction and it’s up to the superhuman Space Marines to kick ass and take names against their enemies. The various races include the Tyranids; a bio-engineered swarm, an ancient race called the Eldar; a robotic race enslaved by another referred to as the C’tan; a younger race called the Tau and the genetically engineered Orcs bred for the sole purpose of warfare. Oh and just so everyone’s on the same page here, Space Marines are genetically engineered super soldiers that stand seven feet tall and have undergone severe augmentation. They are also intensely trained and swear their loyalty to the God-Emperor, his laws and the ‘Imperium of Man’. So all-in-all expect a mash up

of Decepticons, The Borg, those blue guys from Avatar, The Zerg, The Fellowship of the Ring and Halo amongst many others… exceptional.

In WH40k: Space Marine, you take on the role of Captain Titus an Ultramarine placed on a planet that serves as an Imperials Forge. Basically this hunk of rock was developed as a weapons and armour factory for the “Imperium of Mankind”. The planet is then invaded by the biggest army of Orcs you’ve seen since the Lord Of The Rings, except these crazies come equipped with clubs, blades, assault rifles, and all sorts of other violent toys and some even have rockets strapped to their backs so they can zip around and cause even more havoc while you reminisce on your Duck Hunt days.

While officially announced at E3 2009, there is still not much info about the title available to the general public. Basically the game plays off like a more fantastical Gears of War but with cleaner look to the characters. In other words you wont’ be playing with bulky murderous humans clad in rough watered-down Mad Max costumes but rather bulky murderous humans clad in cleaner StarCraft marine armour knock offs.

The gameplay however will feature a more squadbased experience that will have you control one character, Titus out of four others. All four characters will also be completely upgradeable and you can expect to see mods to armour, weapons and special abilities as staples. In my honest opinion I worry that compared to all the customisations which a title like Brink is offering, I doubt this will be able to compete

unless it seriously raises the bar. As mentioned, the game is said to be a strong action-based shooter but will feature a heavy emphasis on melee combat as well which means you’ll be carrying some classic weapons from the WarHammer universe like Bolters, Thunder Hammers and Chainswords. Thus the developers have decided to go against the typical cover system of many shooters of this nature and have stressed that the pure fantasy of being a Space Marine doesn’t involve taking cover but rather charging into enemy cover positions and hopefully smashing their cover to bits.

The game was originally announced for release on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation3 but in July of this year, the title was also announced for the PC. The truth about this game is a little blurry due to leaks and press statements from the developers and there is much

speculation throughout the blogosphere as to which details of the game are official and which are merely rumours. The title is apparently being developed on an enhanced version of the same engine Vigil Games used for Darksiders and I have to say, judging from the trailer video and the screens, it does looks pretty awesome. Although nothing completely incredible or groundbreaking, its still looks as if though it will have a few jaw dropping moments of graphic beauty, especially with regard to those beautifully industrial and gothic sci-fi environments.

Overall I’d have to say that I’m weary of the title’s potential success as far as implementation goes, considering it’s the first time developers are taking it out of the series’ comfort zone. On the other hand since I’ve never been too familiar with the series, this

looks promising… ridiculous… but promising. The real kicker about this game though is that none of my sarcasm in this article is real… oh no not at all… I intend to get this crazy smash up of insane proportions because any game that goes this buck wild, has Orcs that have freakin rockets attached to their hind’s people! And mimics so many great games, movies and other pop cultural mythologies has to be played if not for any other reason but just pure unadulterated interest. A third person shooter with RPG elements and strong melee weapon game play in a wonderfullooking world… bring it! Stay tuned to future issues of The Gamer for more details on this upcoming title.

Article by Faheem Abrahams

DiRT 3 is on its way and this time it will boast more cars, more locations, more routes and more events than any other game in the series, including over 50 rally cars from over five decades of rallying madness. Codemasters are hard at work with their latest off-road masterpiece. For the racer gamers out there that just can’t stick to clean cut track racing and rather want to get down and dirty in the extreme sport of rally, then this has got to be on your list of wants.

For DiRT 3 Codemasters is taking on the big boys of racing games. The racing seems to be as good as it has ever been with up to 60% of DiRT 3 focusing on point-to-point rally, featuring pure bred rally cars that were icons from the sports history.

Driving the iconic Group B Audi Quattro through Finland’s woods is a experience balancing on the fine line between terrifying and insanely fun.

DiRT 3 will focus more on a sim-type campaign, than the arcade style play we have seen before. The cars are set to feel more realistic and there is also more

feedback from the track resulting in a ride that keeps you busy as well as entertained. Together with the iconic cars and the great driving experience you will feel like one of the great rally legends.

The iconic cars include: Paddy Hopkirk's Mini Cooper to the all-conquering Lancia Delta HF Integrale 8V with some vava voom in the form of the RS200 for rallycross events.

The eighties were the glory days of rallying and with this car line-up we’ll all get the chance to relive this sports most epic moments.

Glory days and legendary tracks... The track list is just as amazing, moving away from the US-only tracks from DiRT 2, with the addition of Finland, Kenya and Norway. Adding to every bit of realism the game now includes the scattering crowds from the legendary old-school rally days as fans put themselves in the firing line of the Group B cars.

Now you must be wondering why I’ve been going on about the 80’s if DiRT 3 is supposed to be bigger and better? The most exciting advancement in the genre has to be Gymkhana. No idea what Gymkhana is about? Then check out the video below...

If that doesn’t impress you, then you were probably one of the frugal bandwidth monitors that downloaded the lite version of the mag. You are seriously missing out! Gymkhana looks insanely fun! The way Ken Block moves that car is bringing a whole new element to the rally scene and personally I cant wait to get my hands on it.

Gymkhana will see you racing a make-shift free form track made up of pillars, diggers and steel containers to move around in the quickest time possible, with a full scoring system as you go along. The challenges range from easy tasks like drifting through a concrete tube to some harder challenges such as doing donuts around a digger and placing the car in the right spot with pin point accuracy. Think of it as the Street Skate competition of the racing world. Gymkhana is totally different from the split second racing of the rally world

and focuses on fast paced pin point precision driving, while trying to wrestle the brute force behind that Fiesta and still finding the first place podium. For new comers there is an assist mode called “trick-steer”, taking the hard work of throttle and steering balance to help make controlling the fierce Fiesta an easier job. Its not all easy peasy and crashing out will be as spectacular as ever as Codemasters improved damage model will make mistakes very costly.

As the skills come together the addictive gameplay of gymkhana will become intuitive. Popping a donut will be as simple as pounding the handbrake or the throttle and getting the rear-end stepping out, making you a gymkhana master, like Ken Block, in no time.

Gymkhana is certainly something new and bold to and racing genre, tied in with the traditional and historic greatness of Group B rallying from the 80’s, DiRT 3 looks like it will be the complete rally package. DiRT 3 will be available on PC, PS3 and Xbox in 2011, I for one am already in line!

Article by Ricardo Ludeke

This isn’t a bad thing and if its simulation you want then its SIMULATION you will get. The cars handle and behave like real cars, go into a corner too fast and you will go head on into the barrier.

The driving in this game is like conducting an orchestra and every note has to fit the symphony perfectly or everything will fall apart, you are forced to not only drive like a real racer, but you also have to think like one.

This is an element that I have really been enjoying, standard racing games see you driving around with little effort needed, yet while playing GT5 I find myself getting so intensely into it.

This was always going to be a tough review, for many reasons. It is an epic game, a game that has been heavily anticipated for several years, a game which has a legion of loyal fans willing to lynch even the most honest “negative” review. Add to that the sheer size and scope of this title and I find myself at easily the most difficult review I have ever been faced with.

The truth is that so far I have really thoroughly enjoyed this game but at times I may have a rant as I do believe that there are a few issues. Just because I have a few negative points doesn’t mean it’s the worst game ever, so take a deep breath and listen to what I have to say…

Let’s start at the very beginning, the install.

Let’s not beat around the bush, it’s an excessively large install, yes the game has 1000 cars and an equal amount of track assets but at the end of the day if other devs can play a game off the disk with no issues then I expect the same from a game which has been in development for several years. My major issue here is that I have a 60gb console and at the time of loading the disk I only had about 2gb remaining and I didn’t want to delete anything, so I skipped the install.

Or did I? In the next few weeks while loading, I noticed that the game was installing bits and pieces on its own and it wasn’t long before I had run out of space, my console then froze and I had to do a hard reset. When I turned the machine back on I was informed that I only

had 32mb of space available and that I had to delete something if I wished to play any game. Pretty irresponsible of Polyphony Digital, to allow something like that to happen. Thankfully I found my installation of Prologue and deleted it, although it did raise a new question, in that weren’t we supposed to be able to carry our cars and cash over?

Linked to the installation is obviously the load times, yes they are very long and having to wait for a few seconds as you go from menu to menu is quite frankly inexcusable and yet, the longer I spent playing this game the less I actually took notice of the load times and after a while they aren’t that big of a deal.

Although when coupled with something like the stupidly designed car delivery systems which see’s you having to load one car at a time, the load times can get frustrating. Still, not as bad as everyone makes them out to be.

Now let’s get onto the stuff that actually matters… Gran Turismo 5 isn’t just a car game, it’s not another Need for Speed title where you can hold down accelerate and boost the whole way around the track. This is a serious simulator and for better or worse it treats itself in that same manner.

In fact this iteration of the series seems to have taken itself so seriously that it almost plays out like a JRPG.

The licenses return once again and the nostalgia when playing these was brilliant. The memories of playing through the night on my memory card-less PS1 came flooding back as I once again cursed upon missing the gold by 0.01 yet again!

You start out your career in the A-spec, this is the traditional GT racing as we know it and now runs next to the new B-spec. A-spec see’s you making your way through the levels, in various events, such as Pre 1980 Japanese Classics or Supercar Nostalgia which will have you behind an old Lambo or Ferrari. There are forty events in total, which may seem like a lot at first, but it seems to be a common complaint that gamers are looking for even more variety in the form of some DLC.

I think one of the major problems here as well, is that the experience earned from each race isn’t quite enough, which is resulting in guys having to grind their way to the next event. The same can be said for cash, with many gamers falling short of the amount needed to get that race winning car.

As a whole I would say that although challenging, the level of difficulty isn’t that strenuous and even a relative noob such as myself, has little difficulty in winning 95% of the time.

B-Spec is a new addition to the franchise and was well touted before the launch of the game, but I am afraid the hype simply does not live up to the claims.

The problem is it is boring and seems more like a chore than the fun it was meant to be. Unfortunately it’s necessary to compete in B-spec if you want to earn enough cash to survive in A-spec which is a pity.

B-spec see’s you in pit command of a driver, you tell your driver to race and then throughout the race you are able to issue commands of what he must do. The problem for me is that I bought GT5 so that I could

race cars, not so that I can watch someone else race cars, what’s the point of that? B-Spec could have been fun, but the fact that you can only issue four commands, which your driver won’t follow anyway, is a bit of a failure. Add to that, that your driver is pretty useless and likely to spin out for no reason on the final corner of the last lap, then you have a mode that was probably better to have been left out.

The special events are probably my favourite aspect of the game. They bring something a little more fun to the title and are also a little more challenging than your standard A-spec races. Each event is fun and exciting and the rally stages are an absolute blast, nothing like getting that back end out around a long sweeping corner. My only fault is that they could have maybe made the Top Gear challenges a bit more unique or interesting.

Perhaps the biggest talking point of this title is the graphics. They are absolutely stunning, by far the best looking racer I have ever seen and a definite contender for best looking game of all time.

Well at least this is true seventy percent of the time…

The premium cars look beautiful, they are 100% realistic representations of their real life counter parts, take these cars into photomode and you have graphics that can easily pass as real life. Simply incredible.

Photomode is great fun and the ability to show off your prized cars with your friends is a nice touch, hell I can even spend hours trying to take the perfect shot. For someone into photography like I am, I find it a pretty faithful representation of the real thing.

Other than the vehicles themselves, the stages are equally beautiful, sure there are a few lower quality assets here and there, but when you are speeding along at 300km/h they are hardly noticeable. If anything I often find myself having a good ol drive admiring the scenery as it whizzes past.

The reason however that I said the graphics are only brilliant 70% of the time, are due to the “Standard” cars, yes the devs warned us that they would be there, but they do detract from the overall quality of the graphics.

They aren’t bad, but they are far from being good looking in comparison to the other titles out there.

Perhaps the biggest flaw in the graphics department are the shadows, they are very blocky and they could have and should have been better.

Another new element to the franchise and another which affects the graphics is your ability to damage your car. While gradual in its implementation as you level up, it is well done. Although one might argue that only bringing in true damage at level 40 is a bit silly, yes I get what Kaz is trying to do. But how many average gamers are really going to grind away to level 40?

So for the better part of the average games time spent on the title they will be damage free, which seems a bit of a waste. It’s the same for the opposition AI as they get stronger as your level progresses, which is understandable and makes sense, but perhaps is a little slow to filter through as it feels like it only really gets competitive late on.

Tuning is another aspect that makes a welcome return and although there has been some disappointment in the inability to upgrade your breaks, on a whole it is as good and in depth as ever. You can tweak everything from your gear ratio’s and suspension height to your camber and dampers, hell you can even change your acceleration sensitivity. Be warned however, if you don’t know what you are doing then you also have the ability to royally muck things up. At one stage I was able to take my savage ’70 Dodge and completely destroy it. Thankfully I was able to figure it out and soon my muscle car beast was doing wheelies off the mark once more.

While it may seem like I have a lot of negatives and issues for this game, I really don’t. It’s a fantastic game and most of what I have mentioned is merely nitpicking and should be overlooked in the greater context of a fantastic game. Take a look at the sound for example.

While the game is filled with cheesy Japanese lounge music (porno) it doesn’t detract anything and while some may find it annoying, I feel it adds to the typically Japanese feel of the game. All of this falls by the way side and becomes a non point when you get into the car and hear that initial roar and they hit the engine sounds pretty damn spot on.

All in all this is truly a fantastic game, but the truth of the matter is, that it won’t appeal to everyone. Some people prefer to have a cop chasing you while you

fire your nitro boosters off a jump, which is fine. But that isn’t what GT5 is all about; this game is for the car enthusiast, for the guy who wants to feel like he is actually in the cock pit of the larger than life Veyron.

For the guy who drives in cockpit view and loves every line of stitching across the dash. It’s for the guy who wants to throw a rally car around a long left curve with nothing but the sound of his co-pilot’s voice to guide him.

This game truly is the “real driving simulator”, sure it has some issues and things like the standard cars are disappointing, but once you are in that car the realism of it all, replaces everything in your mind, you don’t have time to think about the jaggies on the wheel arch, you are too busy concentrating, feeling your heart pound and putting every ounce of mental strength into hitting the apex perfectly.

At the end of the day I am actually surprised at how much I ended up enjoying this game. Normally I have a very short attention span on games and if it isn’t immediately entertaining I lose interest. Yet I find myself spending an hour on a single license test, edging off 0.1 seconds at a time, just to hit that gold medal. If you want a challenging, realistic representation of what it would be like to be a professional racing driver then this is the game for you.

Article by Abe Viljoen

Fallout The end of the world has been a prominent theme in almost all mediums for the past decade. Books, movies, songs and games; it would seem that the end of us all is in fact something we can sell.

People want to fantasise about their existence coming to an end, and even though Hollywood has ripped the nuclear spine out of most of the franchises by bombarding us with heaps of overdramatized crap, there remains one post-apocalyptic title which could actually prove to still have a hint of promise.

civilization entrenched in political turmoil & brutal warfare. The intense gunbattles, combined with an adventure tale that will keep you on the edge of your seat at all times, mixed in with a dazzlingly annihilated landscape is something which appeals to any action lover out there.

Main Actor: Sam Worthington (the main protagonist from James Cameron’s Avatar & Clash of the Titans.)

Director: James Cameron

The Fallout series, if done correctly, could be something truly riveting. Imagine massive battles between the Brotherhood of Steel and the Mutant Horde, filled with nuclear rocket launchers, mutated scorpions and a

As you all might know, there have been quite a few

games that have traversed onto the silver screen and attempted to diversify the franchise by appealing to a wider global market. Unfortunately, the majority of these films fail miserably, much in the same sense as most of the comic book film adaptations do (Daredevil anyone?).Fortunately, we at The Gamer are not ready to give up on our beloved gaming monoliths so easily.

We believe what the entire genre requires are merely people who actually understand what they’re doing and are able to execute it to perfection. Therefore, the following is a list of the most prolific games that might actually make it to the red carpet, paired with the best suited actors and directors. So pop some popcorn and enjoy, because first up we have:

Metal Gear Solid Solid Snake remains one of the most hardcore soldiers; however, to impersonate him correctly would require a deep sense of humility and the ability to pull off a decadent mess of curled locks.

Honestly, that’s about the extent required. Unfortunately, this is something not a lot of the actors out there possess (strangely enough). The actor would need to be able to portray a super spy, alone behind enemy lines, in the most aggressively perfect manner. So who would be able to play a buff spy, with a thick husky voice and ruggedly good looks...someone who is actually able to break someone’s neck with just his left pinkie in real life?

I can honestly say that there is only one person who could REALLY pull this role off correctly. I can already imagine the massive scenes filled with hand to hand combat, gigantic robots firing volleys of rockets, genetically enhanced super soldiers telepathically ripping a room apart. Oh, the sheer moments of epicness that could erupt if this franchise was finally adapted correctly!

Main Actor: Hugh Jackman Director: Christopher Nolan (Director of The Dark Knight & Inception)

Dead Space Apparently, the film adaptation of this popular space shooter is already on the way. However, we as gamers have become accustomed with the disappointment and let-downs generally associated with exciting announcements. Too many times have we got our hopes up when we hear Hollywood has actually listened to our prayers only to scrap said project at the last moment.

DJ Caruso (director of Eagle Eye & Disturbia) along with his shaggy haired sidekick, Shia LaBeouf, are apparently set to release the film in 2011.

I will believe it when I see it. If I had to picture a semibuff scientist, donning a heavy armour space suite and splitting the skulls of many a wall crawler, then these would be my picks to orchestrate the massacre:

Main Actor: Jake Gyllenhaal Director: JJ Abrahams (the man who brought Star Trek back to life)

Half-Life

Uncharted The almost flawlessly executed storyline of the Uncharted franchise was brought to life thanks to the witty charisma of an unforgettable protagonist, Nathan Drake. The debonair swagger that he resonated in his whimsical one-liners led way to many a chuckle, whilst at the same time commanding the demeanour of a rugged brawler, so pretty much an Indiana Jones clone (which I’m not complaining about for a second).

I had to think long and hard about this one. I believe that the only actor that could embody the role of Nathan Drake perfectly is one who in fact shares his first

name. Although he might be a bit older than Nathan Drake and might not possess his classically good looks, the name Nathan Fillion is synonymous with hilarious quips and a generally sarcastic tone. Throw his personality together with the man that created Sahara, and you just might have the recipe for a winning adventure title.

Main Actor: Nathan Fillion Director: Breck Eisner (director of Sahara & The Crazies)

Over the years there have been quite a few attempts at making a live action version of the Half-Life universe, all of which failed rather miserably, mostly due to misdirection and lack of funding. If the right people were sourced and the project properly executed, we could have a film which rivals the brilliance of Avatar on our hands...so then why hasn’t it happened yet?

Director, ladies and gentlemen, what this franchise really needs is a brilliant director!

Someone who has lived and breathed film for over 25 years. Someone who understands human struggle to the minutest of details. Someone who has made movies involving lots of guns and aliens would be even better.

But who? Who holds such a title...think...think...well,

STEVEN SPIELBERG OF COURSE! The man has brought us films such as Minority Report, War of the Worlds, ET, Saving Private Ryan. The list of greats continues.

Pitting the great Edward Norton (star of films such as Fight Club & The Incredible Hulk) along with ol’ Stevie, might just be the start of a glorious relationship and one which could see Sierra’s pride and joy finally grow into a flourishing reality.

Main Actor: Edward Norton Director: Steven Spielberg

Bioshock Submerged in an underwater city lost to time and filled with secrets, a life suspended on a tightrope dwindling across a vast chasm filled with evil, the plot of Bioshock truly is a demented little puppy. The corridors of Rapture are infested with creatures that have been tortured for decades and the rusted and decrepit feel of the once glorious city has a rather sinister tinge to it. It oozes conspiracy and leaks a vindictive past from every loosened bolt and cracked wall...this city has bore its bounty of hushed words and dark truths...and you can feel it breathe down on you as you creep through its hallways.

That was the feeling the player had whilst playing Bioshock. The misrepresented imagery of a tainted past littered the sinister hallways of Rapture, to the extent that the player was constantly on the tip of his toes and the edge of his seat. Having this come alive on film could very possibly be one of the best eerie tales of suspense to grace Hollywood in a very long time.

Main Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio Director: Martin Scorsese (Director of The Departed, Shutter Island & Gangs of New York)

Killzone

God of War I might be slaughtered for suggesting Vin Diesel as the Ghost of Sparta, but in my defence, there simply is not anyone better suited for the role. Who else could be a buff soldier, covered in tattoos, with a deep angry sounding voice and a shaved head? Stone Cold Steve Austin? Goldberg? No, this movie could just very well be Vin Diesel’s grand return to Hollywood fame.

exactly this before. Zack Snyder rocked the world with his release of 300, a film which saw a small group of soldiers stand tall when faced with certain defeat.

Therefore, he seems to be the perfect candidate to bring the spirit of God of War to Hollywood and if he had to ever direct this, it would most surely be a must watch film.

Seeing as though God of War was built on the premise of overwhelming battles where the protagonist prevails when pitted against a foe far greater in stature than himself, the perfect man to bring this vision to theatres everywhere would have to be the man that has done

Main Actor: Vin Diesel Director: Zack Snyder (Director of 300, The Watchmen & Dawn of the Dead)

Imagine an existence where earth has long been destroyed and man was forced to find a new place to call home, somewhere out in the far reaches of space.

Now imagine if for some reason, another human civilisation on the other side of the galaxy decided to declare war on this peaceful society of yours. This was the setting for Killzone, a game which saw the Interplanetary Strategic Alliance (or ISA) pitted against the merciless Helghast, inhabitants of the malicious world, Helghan.

Governed by a power-hungry dictator, the Helghast declared all-out war against the ISA’s home planet, Vekta, leaving them crippled with a hunger for revenge.

Killzone has always kept the player enthralled by literally surrounding him with constant warfare. There were

never any moments in the game when the player felt like he could take a moment to relax or was carelessly jogging from one checkpoint to another. The essence of the game was a planet engulfed in war, ravaged by death and left wanting revenge; the perfect setting to unleash director Pierre Morel then, wouldn’t you say?

Killzone would need to feature record scale amounts of fast paced action, lined with magnificently overwhelming scenes of gunfire along with the intricate tale of a small band of soldiers fighting for hope, valour and the survival of the human race.

Main Actor: Gerard Butler Director: Pierre Morel (director of Taken & From Paris with Love)

Starcraft The Starcraft universe tells a tale which is so vast and vivid that there are almost countless ways in which the lineage of Blizzard’s mammoth title can be adapted.

One I would personally like to see surrounds the character of Jim Raynor, the main protagonist of Starcraft 2. The Starcraft campaign has always been filled with battles of epic proportions, focusing on a civilization threatened by two alien civilizations, i.e. the bloodthirsty Zerg and the technologically advanced Protoss.

The story would follow the struggle of soldier Jim Raynor as he is forced to lead his forces into the deadly bowels of the alien empire to eliminate the threat at its source.

Monkey Island A story littered with betrayal, mass genocide and big robots battling swarms of aliens. I can already picture a mass of Thors taking on a never ending wave of Zerglings, their massive cannons firing round after round into the approaching horde. Much in the same style as the robot battle from the third Matrix, this movie in its entirety (if done correctly) could honestly be one of the best game adaptation films ever.

Main Actor: Bruce Willis Director: Neil Blomkamp (director of District 9)

For a lot of us who were born in the 80’s, the Monkey Island games hold a very dear place in our hearts. Good ol’ Guybrush Threapwood knew how to yank at our heart strings and continued to do so for many years to come as we were awarded with memorable game after game. I still find myself reminiscing about carving a mask out of nacho cheese, only to sacrifice it to a lactose intolerant volcano. The series featured one of the most hilariously written storylines, so turning it into a film would be a rather daunting task, as capturing the witty remarks of Mr. Threepwood isn’t the easiest thing.

Alongside him he had Mr. Ron Gilbert, writer & creator of Deathspank, which really helped the series live up to its potential. So it’s obvious that these guys should be writing the script, but who would be able to embody the scrawny, inwardly flamboyant and ridiculously awkward Guybrush Threepwood? Digging deep into my bank of film knowledge, I believe that there is an actor who was labelled the best physical comedy actor (meaning he uses himself to make jokes...his body...he jumps around a lot, okay?) that could very well be just the man for the job.

That is simply because of the brilliance of one Mr. Tim Schafer, the writing genius behind games such as Brutal Legend, Grim Fandango and Psychonauts.

Main Actor: Jim Carrey Director: Andy Tennant (Director of Fool’s Gold & Hitch)

Throughout the story, you will be faced with various puzzles, but even these cannot out right kill you unless you do them too slow. These puzzles range from gathering clues, to unlocking pad locks, to moving circuits around, to unlocking doors or playing little games to reach the objective... In the beginning it's interesting and keeps you engaged, but later it starts getting repetitive and almost feels like you are wasting your time with these tasks. The major puzzles where you need to save a character from death are also included in the game. These are quite unique, but failing almost always results in death and once again this gets quite irritating, quite quickly.

The name Saw II: Flesh and Blood clearly says it all. Fans of the series will feel right at home in the gruesome world of Jigsaw. For those of you that do not know anything about the Saw series, Jigsaw wants to play a game...

The campaign starts off not holding back one bit. You wake up in a chair with one of Jigsaws famous devices around your neck. Scared as you are, a tape starts playing. Just like all the victims before, your life is filled with wrong doings and you have now come to a point where you need to make a choice, live or die. Will you shed some blood to save your live? This is the question that everyone faces. You are in a room, Jigsaw's basement clearly an eery environment with x-rays of a skull with a key underneath the eye socket. You find yourself in an eye opening situation where you literally have to cut open your eye socket to get the key, and save your live. Just in the nick of time you release yourself from Jigsaw's device as it slams closed as you take it off.

The world of Jigsaw almost always works like this.

Keep to his rules and you will live.

Needless to say, you carry on trying to escape from Jigsaw's lair while solving various puzzles and facing enemies in different forms along the way, from direct combat to cunning skills to escape tricky situations.

Unfortunately Jigsaw's games are a bit crappy. Saw II takes place between the second and third movie. You play as Michael Tapp, who is trapped in the serial killer Jigsaw's maze of traps. The story might not make any sense, but throughout your journey you will find various case files that will shed some light on the story, but unless you are planning on doing a lot of reading, you will feel a little lost along the way.

At least the horror aspect would attract some players, right? Well no... Sure the game is gruesome, but not scary. Traps are littered all over, from axes that swing into opening doors, to roofs and floors that cave in on you. All of these traps can be missed by the simple press of the prompted button. These traps get repeated way too often and eventually you will anticipate them and easily escape death. The very notion of a timed button sequence takes away any fright you may get, as you are basically prompted to react before anything happens.

At first the game seems dark and eery, maybe a tad scary, but as you continue with the game you realize that nothing will ever jump out of the dark and kill you, without an on-screen prompt coming up first. If an enemy or a trip wire is triggered, the on-screen prompt will allow you to get out of the dangerous situation with ease. Luckily for Saw II the dark and gloomy environments of the game do not just set the scene for a horror game, but also hide the horrible graphics, bad character models and bland environments. The environments are scattered with fallen furniture, file cabinets torture devices and the usual stuff you would imagine to see in a SAW game.

The character models and really bad and their movement is not even close to comparable with other titles available at the moment. So yea maybe the darkness is a good thing. About the most dangerous thing you will encounter in the dark is broken glass as Jigsaw seems to collect shoes, as you are barefoot through the game.

a sequence of buttons are pressed that leads to a quick time event and another and another. The cinematic events look good, but the player is not directly involved and it's not nearly as much fun as you would expect taking all the suspense out of the game because you would always know when an enemy is about to attack.

Do not worry about getting lost in the dark either.

Being barefoot and alone in a serial killers lair without a map is not as serious as it sounds, as this serial killer has built his lair to be very linear and you will always end up going to the right place.

Saw II: Flash and Blood is directed at the fans of the series. Gamers these days expect a lot more than a budget title that just doesn't match up to recent graphic or story standards. If you don't like SAW steer clear and avoid the disappointment, but if you are a fan of the series, you will enjoy playing through one of Jigsaw's classic stories.

The combat is utterly disappointing. You do not physically do anything more than pressing a few buttons when you are prompted. Instead of mashing the buttons unleashing a fury of attacks on your enemy,

Article by Ricardo Ludeke

God of War The Ghost of Sparta is one of my own personal heroes.

To this day, God of War (in my opinion) remains one of the best games ever featured on the Playstation, and for a reason. The cinematic intensity that was introduced into the game involved the player to a degree never before seen in games.

The outcomes of actions rested on the back of the player’s timing and consistency, which forced him to constantly be involved in the game, for his actions would bear consequences. I am of course talking about the timed button pressing, but more than that, how it was executed.

As in life, there are certain trends or fads that come

along, that simply disrupt the conventionality that is expected from those social norms by introducing something which is completely unprecedented and wildly different. Mxit did it when they brought chatting to phones, the bomber jacket did it when they made a reversible jacket (even though no one would ever be crazy enough to wear the orange on the outside) and as such, gaming too has found itself periodically experiencing life altering game dynamics. Those things that make a game simply unforgettable and are so immensely brilliant that the competitors have no choice but to play follow the leader and copy the style of these brilliant gaming virtuosos.

With the mass of games released over the past 10 years, we at The Gamer felt that there were only 8 games that truly deserved our respect, and even though we respect many of the great things that other games have brought to the table, they unfortunately didn’t make the cut. The following list is intended to focus on games that shook the gaming world with such an immense force that it rendered their genres forever changed…let the nostalgia and goosebump moments begin.

This is a feature which was unheard of in games before, but would pave the way for games such as Conan, Heavenly Sword, even Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Pressing the correct button at a pivotal

moment allowed the player to be enveloped in the instance and feel like he had accomplished a truly magnificent feat and that his actions held true worth.

It escalated the normally boring sequences to cinematic proportions and caused the entire flow of the game to be shifted to a new gaming parallel, namely: putting the power back in the gamer’s hand, which in turn, would allow him to experience even more reward.

Santa Monica studios…you guys piss brilliance and I for one, salute you.

Grand Theft Auto 3 When this game was first released it hit its loyal followers in the chest with a force more devastating than a sawn-off shotgun with bullet penetration…and for good reason. Conventional Third-Person titles had always featured set level designs, with A-toB programming and linear collision detection.

You would follow your path from start to finish, with pre-programmed obstacles in between, and that was that.

Rockstar then knocked our socks, underwear and beanies right off our astonished bodies, by giving players that which we longed for the most: freedom.

GTA 3 was set in a world where the player

Portal could do whatever he wanted. Sure, there were consequences to your actions, but even that could be dealt with in whichever way you deemed fit. The police are chasing you because you stabbed a hooker then drove over a granny? *fires shotgun…

Oh, my mistake, no they’re not!

Players were able to navigate to any crack and crevice of Liberty City and play the game as they deemed fit.

This opened up the doorway for the basis of basically ALL games now. Prototype, Infamous, World of Warcraft…Rockstar might very well have been the inspiration behind the birth of the MMO and the revolution of open-world gameplay.

Even though Portal didn’t have mind-blowing graphics and wasn’t marketed to the point of being a movie premiere, it still found itself having a very devoted following in an insanely short amount of time. In a mere matter of months, more people were playing Portal than were playing Resistance or even Ratchet & Clank for that matter. Forget the fact that it was available on multiple platforms, the reason why Portal sold well and was such a revolutionary game, is because Valve focused on one simple aspect: gameplay.

Gameplay was something that we as gamers had lost touch with. With the introduction of next generation gaming platforms and graphical interfaces now being elevated to mythical proportions,

the gaming community forgot what essentially makes a game great: gameplay! The joy experienced when actually just playing a game. Forget all the graphics, sound and narration (of which Portal had plenty regardless), and simply focus on making a game fun. That is what Portal achieved…something that reconnected us with our gaming roots. I honestly believe Portal was one of the big inspirations for the influx of portable games, PSN games and Xbox Marketplace games we have seen in the past two years. I just hope Portal 2 remains true to that which made it great and does not buckle under the pressures of the generally adolescent, new school gaming trend of powerful graphics minus the fun.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Probably one of the most infuriating things for us gamers is the art of making mistakes. Gaming in all its entirety is almost purely focused around a learning curve. We continuously fail until eventually we succeed and in so doing, progress to the point where we tend to make fewer mistakes. But what if there was a game which allowed you to erase the mistakes you had made and use them to your advantage, all in real-time?

This was what Prince of Persia did with its time manipulation mechanic, which essentially allowed players the opportunity to right their wrongs on the fly.

So instead of missing that jump, plummeting aimlessly to your death and then having to basically

Max Payne start your challenge anew, Ubisoft afforded players the opportunity to make mistakes. With the press of a button, players could rewind to before their fatal mistake and simply try again.

This dynamic would go on to be used in numerous games thereafter, such as: Braid, Singularity and Dead Space (with the slowing down of time). Ubisoft delved into an entirely new facet of gaming and raised the roof for future genres to follow, much like Vampires did for movies. Now if only we could go back and erase some things from history in real life, such as Alan Donald’s run in the Cricket World Cup or the Twilight series ever being created.

Guns blazing in all directions, blood spattered against walls, corpses filled with lead…action and massive gunplay has never been new to the gaming world. That was until the team at Finnish gaming studio, Remedy Entertainment, decided to manipulate the basic elements of guns and glory with the introduction of (hands-down) the most fun, epic and astonishingly brilliant gameplay dynamic to date: bullet time!

Bullet time allowed the player to slow down time, while continuing to move around and fire weapons. This meant that the player was able to evade the oncoming fire of enemies, simply by slowing down time and either strafing or diving out of the way. The immense fun that spawned from this gameplay dynamic was uncanny, and one couldn’t believe that simply diving and shooting in slow motion could be so insanely addictive, yet it was.

Gunfights were overdramatized and escalated to epic proportions, with the addition of more enemies in challenging locations (causing the player to mind his surroundings when initiating bullet time) and then also (because of your bullet time amount being limited) picking the time to initiate your bullet time sequence to the best of your abilities.

This gameplay dynamic would later be included in almost countless franchises, with more noticeable games such as John Woo’s: Stranglehold literally copying and pasting the engine, and games such as Resistance: Fall of Man taking a more subtle approach, by allowing the player to slow down time for a brief period when gazing through the lens of their sniper rifle. All in all, the addition of bullet time made Max Payne a franchise that won’t soon be forgotten and players are already biting at the nip as Max Payne 3’s release date draws near.

Metal Gear Solid Solid Snake still remains one of the most bad-ass soldiers around. Not because he kills every person that crosses his path with the mere blink of an eye, but because he is able to, yet chooses not to. He prefers sticking to the shadows and incapacitating his adversaries in one silent and paralysing strike.

Much like Chuck Norris, he is not someone you would want to be left alone in a room with. The Metal Gear Solid franchise introduced a style of gameplay which had never been truly prominent in the gaming world (unless you consider dodging barrels in Circus Charlie as stealth).The game allowed players to shoot their way through everything, if they chose to do so.

However, remaining hidden would prove easier and more rewarding.

More shooting of course meant more enemies and with only a limited amount of ammunition, the fewer enemies you had to deal with, the better.

Gears of War The game allowed the player to become fully immersed in the role of a spy going behind enemy lines and trying to save the world singlehandedly. Things such as using boxes as cover to sneak past guards, luring enemies with distractions and trying to constantly remain undetected; all added to the experience of being a lone soldier, yet being completely prepared for the situation at hand. This is another style of gameplay that would be adapted to countless future titles such as: The Saboteur, Velvet Assassin, Splinter Cell, Hitman and literally almost hundreds of others.

The stealth dynamic (in my opinion) was put on the map thanks to the Metal Gear Solid franchise and is now something almost every game features, even more aggro happy games such as Batman: Arkham Asylum. Metal Gear Solid: Rising is going to be a truly riveting experience, as it will be the first time we experience intense melee action emulsified with deep undercover stealth tactics and I for one cannot wait to get into some Raiden action ASAP!

Where do I even begin? Gears of War, winner of numerous gaming awards, brought about the dawn of a style of glamorised warfare gaming that had never been done before. Cover systems had generally been limited to crouching behind boxes or walls or simply running away from your pursuers. Shooting tended to be rather simplistic, in the manner of pointing in a direction and pulling the trigger until your enemy stopped breathing, and never had there been a game that actually caused you to want to get right up in your enemies face with a chainsaw. The team at Epic Games ripped the proverbial head off of the 3rd person action genre and threw a grenade down its throat for good measure, by bringing us the most fast paced, gritty, intense action system EVER created.

Gears of War allowed the player to experience firsthand what a battlefield really feels like. Running at full pace, then sliding into cover as a Locust fires a rocket over your right shoulder made your anus clench about 3 times tighter each and every damn time.

Blind firing from cover, moving from one cover to the other simply by pressing one button, I literally cannot summon the words to describe how much better Gears of War was than any game before it. In my entire playthrough of Gears of War I think I lost a few things, namely: 5 kilograms thanks to all the sweating from stress, my fight in saying there is no good reason to buy an Xbox 360, and the will to ever want to play a game that didn’t use GOW’s style of cover.

The Gears of War cover system went on to be utilised in basically every single third person action game after that, and to this day, there is basically no game that doesn’t evidently draw its cover style from Epic Games’ monolith franchise.

Gran Turismo Even though the Gran Turismo franchise killed two birds with one stone by introducing a truly realistic game simulator along with virtually unprecedented graphics, it managed to clip a third bird along the way in the form of car upgrades. Players were able to race for money and then invest that money into upgrading the performance of their vehicles. Things such as turbo chargers, racing tyres and differential gearboxes are but a few things players had at their disposal along with a plethora of engine enhancements.

More than simply rewarding players with the feeling of having a personalised supercar it presented them with a platform where racing was actually educational as well. Players learned more about their cars because they actually had to ‘work’ on their cars.

Although this is something which had featured in games so far back as 1982’s Hot Rod, the Gran Turismo series is the first game that really delved into the intricacies of engine modification.

Players could fine tune the newly added parts until their car purred like a humming bird.

This gameplay engine would be introduced in numerous racing franchises, with games such as Need for Speed: Underground and Juiced, riding the Gran Turismo wave all the way to the finish line.

Article by Dieter Fouche

Coming in as the biggest entertainment launch of all time and easily the most anticipated title of the year (edging Gran Turismo 5, due to cross platform) I decided that The Gamer would take a slightly different approach to the review for Call of Duty: Black Ops. Instead of just having myself write a review and risk it being biased, i decided instead to pull in two other guys to also give their perspective. As such we now have three reviews packaged together as one, this way you can get a better view of the game.

I am the "biggest" COD player of the three and I have quite easily spent more time playing MW2 that the other two guys combined. In fact I am such a huge fan of the series that this year saw my PS3 being almost exclusively a single title machine.

With MW2 staying in the drive for months at a time. As such I was understandably hyped about the game, now normally I don't really follow games before launch for that very reason. The hype monster can be a cruel and unforgiving beast, yet this time I let it in and two weeks before the launch I was so amped for the game I had seen every trailor and video out there. This game just looked to good to fail, everything about it was exciting and it looked like once again COD would dominate my machine.

Now almost one month after launch and I have barely played the game. At times it has been simply brillant, the best COD I have played, its fun, exciting, well balanced and heck even almost camper free.

Treyarch have gotten many things right in their multiplayer offering. The weapons are balanced and their is enough variety to keep everyone happy.

Personally at this point I feel like I should give the multiplayer component a big fat four out of ten, as it fails at what it is sold as. I am sure at some point it will be patched and fixed, but it has just taken too long. One month to fix the biggest selling game of all time is completely unacceptable and for once I agreed with the crazy Americans wanting to sue for their money back. We all paid our hard earned cash for something that doesnt do what it is supposed to and yet I hold on with this glimour of hope, for I can feel the potential. I know that deep down inside this can be my favourite MP experience ever. I will end the MP scoring with a hesitant 7/10, it doesnt deserve it, and yet I can bring myself to score it any lower.

game universe and on a large scale the title succeeds with great enthusiam, ziplining through a window in slow motion while unleashing the fury from you automatic weapon is dramatic, thrilling and these moments are just plain epic.

The single player element of BLOPs is a strong as ever before, the game carries the same granduer as loved by so many in previous itterations of the franchise. Every scene, gunshot and explosion is created and directed for complete emmersion into the

Other situations when the emmersion is suddenly taken away include various glitches, such as getting stuck on objects or enemies being stuck inside walls, where they can fire at you and you can not kill them,

On the whole the graphics are pretty decent, at times I was really impressed and they far outshined MW2 and then suddenly you would have a cutscene that looked very very poor.

All in all the single player campaign is strong, I have heard some say its the best COD SP Campaign yet, while others still hold the Modern Warefare series in a higher regard. Personally I feel that BLOPs has a few more impressive/awestruck moments, while MW2 feels like a tighter campaign as a whole. It scores a solid 9/10 no problems.

For me BLOPs has been a bit of a failure, purely due to my huge disappointments in the MP aspect.

Frankly I find it unacceptable that we still have a largely umplayable game. And yet as a complete package BLOPs really is good. if we overlook the MP short comings for a moment, add it to the great SP campaign and then start adding in elements such as Zombies and even the "secret" console hack and suddenly you actually have a game that far surpasses MW2. Lets just hope that Treyarch are going to jack up and fix the MP so BLOPs can take its rightful place as the best COD yet, for now however it gets an overall score of 7/10.

There are however a few issues that pull you back to reality at times. The AI is far from spectacular and even on veteran both your squad mates and the enemy are pretty stupid at times.

Your squad will seemingly fire infinite rounds without ever actually killing anyone leaving it all to you which can be frustrating when you find yourself in a tight situation.

The inclusion of a third tactical device is a welcome addition as is the new melee projectiles, which come in the form of the tomahawk, balistic knife and not really in the same catagory but equally fun crossbow.

Treyarch seems to have really listened to the community in creating BLOPs and in most cases the gripes from MW2 have been addressed and rectified. The most noticable of these is probably the fact that kills gained from a killstreak, no longer count towards your next killstreak. A nice touch which definitely cuts down on the campers.

So if Treyarch have gotten so much right, then why has this game received so little of my playtime?

I play COD almost exclusively online in the multiplayer with other local South African gamers, yet this time around the match making and lobbies are so broken that it leaves the game virtually unplayable. If by some miracle that you happen to get a full South African lobby going, good luck in getting the game to actually start, for I fear instead the dread "Transmission Error" will surface instead. Or perhaps you would like to get booted randomly to the Combat Training Mode or to a scrambled screen forcing you to restart you console.

I must admit however that I have only really battled with this problem when it comes to local lobbies and thanks to my 10mb line I can play internation games with little to no lag most of the time and I havent even been subjected to the "jitter" that everyone complained about.

So its an experience of two halves, I can play international no problems (most of the time) and its very fun, really fun, but I still know deep down inside that I could be having even more fun playing with my local friends. Infact it was this local competition that kept me comig back in previous itterations.

By Abe Viljoen

Section 2 Over my past few years of being a game writer and reviewer, I have had the utmost pleasure and unfortunate pain of playing a lot of games. I say pain, for a vast amount of the games I was tasked with reviewing could literally induce a comatose state of boredom. One that I could not easily be awoken from yet had to endure, as the duties of a real reviewer are to withstand the trials and tribulations of horrendous games without too much prejudice. Fortunately for me, Call of Duty: Black Ops is not one of these games…

In general, First Person Shooter titles (or FPS’s) tend to be rather overdramatic or “gunhappy” in a sense.

The style of gameplay is rather linear, with the player merely pointing their weapon in a direction and pulling the trigger. Moments after said “trigger” was pulled, the enemy would collapse to the ground and you would venture forth in your journey, unfazed by your actions.

Black Ops (or BLOPS as the gaming community has labelled it) changed this dynamic drastically by being one of the first games (in my opinion) to truly capture the reality of gunfire and the impact thereof on the human anatomy.

At first, I thought it was just a strenuous task to kill an enemy, but it was only later on that I discovered it was not because of the difficulty of the game that my enemies

refused to die, but because of the realism of the gunfire.

Shooting an opponent in the leg would actually cause him to react like someone who had been shot in the leg, slowing him momentarily but not stopping him altogether. Also, because the enemies that you are going up against are also obviously wearing body armour, it would take a few bullets to bring them to their knees.

Once I had realised this, the game underwent a metamorphosis in my mind…and one for the better. My gun battles suddenly received a new style of strategy and my overall gameplay had to be adapted to that of a real soldier. So no more blatant running and gunning for me…finally, war had become “real” in the gaming world. I would approach a room filled with enemy soldiers with severe trepidation, making sure that my entrance is planned with intent and perfectly executed.

Flash bangs or smoke grenades would serve as my opener, an almost necessary task, as I would emerge through the chaos, my rifle rattling away, pumping round after round into my enemies before scrambling into cover to evade the enemy fire. This is what almost every minute of Black Ops feels like…like I’m actually in a real war and each decision bears consequence.

There weren’t a lot of times when my heart wasn’t racing and adrenaline wasn’t pumping through my veins…this was what I had been waiting for and finally it had arrived.

To add on to the realistic gameplay of the Call of Duty franchise (and surpass it in a sense), the developers neatly wrapped it in an intricately woven storyline that managed to captivate and intrigue the player to a whole new degree. The previous titles have all had very detailed storylines, with Modern Warfare and it’s follow up title, Modern Warfare 2, both winning Game of the Year awards. The Black Ops campaign follows the distorted memories of retired soldier, Alex Mason, as he is strapped into the condemning hell of an electric chair, forced to relive his memories of warfare via electrocution, the most grotesque form of torture. This sets the scene for vastly different landscapes perfectly, as our soldier of fortune has seen many a battleground, allowing us the opportunity to relive those epic battles and play it out accordingly.

The campaign mode very much follows the same style as we have come to expect from the revamped Call of Duty series, with intensely dramatic scenes involving some form of theatrical climax.

Either a mountain would collapse behind you, sending an avalanche your way, or you would rappel down the side of a skyscraper, these types of ‘over-the-top dramatics’ are what have won the COD franchise so many awards. The story is very much strung together from one ‘climax’ to another, with some intense gunplay thrown in between and a good helping of brilliant voice acting for measure.

The dazzling graphics and inspiring soundtrack perfectly complements the already stunning gameplay, crossing all the t’s and dotting all the I’s necessary to make a truly great game.

In the truest essence, trying to make a list of things wrong with Black Ops would be pointless, as it would always be crushed under the sheer magnitude of the list of things right with Black Ops…better to just lock and load and fight the good fight…the “world” depends on it. But alas, there is one imperial flaw that has always reared its ugly head in the Call of Duty world, and this time around things aren’t much different.

The Achilles heel of Black Ops rests in one truly frustrating mistake, namely; the online experience.

The online experience Several years have passed and a multitude of Call of Duty games released, however, it would seem that the guys at Infinity Ward & Treyarch still lack the mental capacity to present us with a fluid online experience.

The online section of Black Ops has more holes than a wheel of Swiss cheese, the most frustrating one being the lack of dedicated servers. Because of this, we here on the other side of the world are forced to endure painful lag issues and constant connection fluctuation.

No matter how good your line is, you are still forced to kneel before the almighty American bandwidth. We simply cannot compete with them, and it carries over

to our gaming experience, as there is but few a time when I am not getting gunned down by guys, simply because they do not experience that second or 2’s worth of lag. I can in all honesty say if Treyarch were to just fix the online experience once and for all, and allow us to enjoy a ranked game without suffering from horrendous pings, then they will most certainly have the best franchise to date. However, I feel that this is but a pipe dream which this gamer will have to endure for a very long time…

By Dieter Fouche

time around you will earn 'CP' currency, or CoD Points as well as experience as you progress through the ranks. The same great games that we all love from the MW online experience return, with some more in the mix. Added to the mix is the new game mode, wager matches, where players can play various fun and exciting game modes while gambling some hard earned CP. Wager matches are truly unique as one mode will see players playing with all 20 weapons in the game.

If the multiplayer experience seems to daunting to new comers Treyarch also created a new mode, called Combat Training, where noobs can train against AI to build some skills before taking on the men online. There are now 15 Prestige levels and 50 ranks per prestige.

The killstreaks are new and improved and more fun than ever as you are able to physically control more of the killstreaks this time. One of the best killstreaks has to be the drivable RC-XD, a radio controlled car packed with an explosion that will kill any enemy. Although the multiplayer experience is a bit different from Xbox to PlayStation, Treyarch seem hard at work fixing the problems PlayStation users are experiencing.

As if the campaign and multiplayer is not enough, Black Ops holds even more in the form of Zombies. The World at War favorite returns with some new maps!

Downloadable W@W maps were included in the Collectors and Prestige editions to give an even bigger experience to those that bought one of these versions.

Zombies see you and up to three friends running around the map fighting off hordes of zombies.

The two maps included in the normal edition include a busted up theater and the Pentagon. You still buy weapons of the walls and zombies are still as addictive as ever! If you have never played zombies make sure to check this out! It's a great addition to an incredible game!

Treyarch went through a lot of trouble with Black Ops and it’s clear in the smallest place, the main menu that they planned this all really well. They main menu is unlike anything you have seen before. Alex Mason is strapped into a chair in a CIA lab surrounded by screens with flashing images. One of the screens directly in front of you, holds the main menu. What makes it special is the fact that you can look around and actually break free from the chair and run around in the lab. In the lab there is a small computer that can be accessed and two extra games and more can be unlocked via this terminal. This adds a truly unique feature to the game and is unlike anything I have ever seen before.

Ultimately Call of Duty Black Ops is a great game with a solid campaign, and amazing multiplayer and some super addictive zombies! Black Ops has a great story by including real world history in the mix and incorporating it throughout the game. The graphics are great, the sound could have been better, but the voice acting is phenomenal. Gameplay is the same great formula we all love, although various issues on PS3 have some fans crying, it is still good. Overall score 9/10

By Ricardo Ludeke

Section 3 Call of Duty Black Ops was the highlight in my gaming calendar for 2010, a game that promised to blow our minds, break records, sell millions of copies and keep us entertained with so much more than just a regular first person shooter, with a dull campaign.

You play most of the Campaign as Alex Mason, after waking up to find yourself being held hostage by unknown enemies, while being interrogated about black ops you have participated in.

Treyarch took the highlights that made Modern Warfare 2 brilliant and brought us Black Ops, a Call of Duty that will surely blow your mind!

The story unfolds and like MW has you controlling multiple characters along the way, while driving and controlling the highest number of drivable vehicles in any Call of Duty. If you liked Modern Warfare you will love Black Ops.

The campaign is set in the late 1960's but still feels quite modern as you guide predator missiles to blow up tanks and call in helicopter strikes to successfully pull you into the game that is set in an era most of us only know from songs like The Summer of '69. The story portrays a fictional tale in real world history focusing on secret CIA missions or Black Ops.

The Multiplayer has some great new and interesting features. Customizability has to be the key word.

Everything can be customized, from your emblem, playercard, weapon camo, face paint, cross-hairs and so much more that you will spend hours on finding for yourself. Multiplayer works the same as before, but this

Jill Valentine - Resident Evil

Crimson Viper - Street Fighter

Nariko - Heavenly Sword

Rikku - Final Fantasy

Lara Croft - Tomb Raider

Cammy - Street Fighter

Tifa Lockhart - Final Fantasy

Morrigan - Darkstalkers

Faith - Mirror’s Edge

Chun Li - Street Fighter

In terms of the physical construction the Kinect is a sturdy piece of equipment with the only sensitive part being the motorized tilt-motor which automatically adjusts the Kinect so it keeps the player in frame. The material used seems to be the same sturdy plastic from which the new Xbox slim is made. It also has a weighted base to keep it from tipping over while the tilt-motor adjusts.

The Setup The Kinect comes in a deceptively weighty oblong box which contains the Kinect Sensor, a copy of Kinect Adventures, a power supply and two sets of Xbox-toKinect cables. For those who didn’t succumb to the temptation that is the Xbox Slim, an additional power plug will have to be sourced out as the USB ports of the Classic Xbox does not provide enough power to

Motion gaming had its claim to fame with the release of the Nintendo Revolution, more commonly know -by probably the silliest name to ever grace a gaming platform- the Wii. Unlike its distant cousins, the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3, the Wii was aimed at a broader audience, not the hardcore fanboys with their Halos, Uncharteds or Gran Turismos but more the doeeyed casual market.

This caused the Wii to be largely regarded, by more ‘hardcore’ gamers, as a gimmick console with silly ‘arm waving’ controls which no self respecting gamer would try, let alone buy. Now in its fourth year since release the Wii has managed to carve out a significant piece of the gaming pie for itself, with unit sales amounting to almost as much as the Xbox 360 and PS3’s sales put together, a whopping 75.9 million units as of 30 September 2010.

Obviously the two other competitors for our hard earned moola, namely Microsoft and Sony, were understandably eager to to tap into this apparent source of ample sales which is the casual market. In the fourth quarter of this year, Microsoft and Sony each released their own motion control peripheral in hope of securing themselves a piece of the pie. Sony, with the Playstation Move (Released September 2010), and Microsoft, with the Xbox Kinect (Released November 2010), each allowed the owners of the two consoles to experience ‘arm waving’ controls, but with better graphics than the Wii.

bring the Kinect to life, which is where the small power supply comes in, while the USB connection simply transfers the data.

If, however, you are the lucky owner of the gorgeous new Xbox Slim, a single plug above the Ethernet port on the back of the machine will provide the Kinect with ample amounts of power as well as data.

Next up is placement; now the Kinect can be placed above or below your television but should be at least one meter off the ground.

Then there needs to be two meters of open space in front of the sensor, a perfect excuse to “relocate” that hideous coffee table your mother in-law gave you as a “gift”, in order for the Kinect to register your motions effectively. Microsoft also advises players to play in rooms that are bright and evenly lit. (Bright rooms and gamers!? Do they know us at all?)

Microsoft chose a unique approach to the whole motion gaming experience. The Kinect’s rectangular black body with its three lenses and little green light hides a positive gold mine of impressive technology; a four way multiarray microphone, an RGB camera and depth sensor which allows the Kinect to “see” in 3D and if the sales talk is to be believed; “Track up to six people, including two active players at any given time.” And while the components themselves aren’t all that impressive, the way in which they are combined is.

What all this means in laymans terms is that instead of having to hold a ‘wand’ which a camera tracks in order to translate the motions to game controls, the Kinect tracks they user’s body and translates these movements into controls for a game, so in a matter of speaking it is the true ‘arm waving controller’.

Kinect also features voice control, which isn’t as yet available in SA unless you’re on a UK Xbox Live account, headset-less in game chat and facial recognition to log into your profile. There is also Kinect Video, a video chat function that brings Xbox Live and Windows Live Messenger together and allows users to chat face-toface while still able to watch videos, browse Xbox live content and use other Xbox live functions.

With the state of South Africa’s internet infrastructure, at time of writing, I am unsure if this function is available or even viable locally.

Once you have set-up your Kinect, rearranged your entire living room and opened the blinds, the calibration of the sensor begins. A rectangular cardboard card, which is included in the box, is used, and calibration is done by simply holding it up to the sensor and aligning the graphic on the card with the one displayed on-screen. Should there for any reason be difficulty in calibrating the sensor in this way, the player can open up the Kinect Tuner for some fine tuning. Setting up the facial recognition is a bit more complicated, during this process the player will be required to stand in several different locations and strike a variety of poses. Unfortunately, this may have to be repeated should the player change hair style or the Kinect be moved to a different location.

There is a slight problem with this process though while a tech-savvy person like myself who has been using consoles and other electronic devices for some time, may have found it simple and straight forward, Microsoft’s target audience, the casual market who may have little or no technical knowledge, may find it a bit intimidating, especially if they got their Kinect with a brand new Xbox.

Then again, anyone who truly expected an impressive piece of technology like this to be like plugging in a new controller should be kept far away from tech.

Going through the Motions The measure of any motion control peripheral is in how it captures the movements of its user, it can be handcrafted by the Dwarfs of the Deep Roads and be as easy to install as falling down the stairs, but if it fails to accurately capture a players movements it is little better than a giant paperweight.

Those who have been following the development of the Kinect since it was still known as Project Natal, will be keenly aware that since then one key component has been removed from the Kinect; an integrated processor of its very own. As a result of this, presumably done by Microsoft to reduce the Kinect’s already staggering price tag, is that the Kinect now relies on the Xbox’s CPU to process of the information gathered by the Kinect and this in turn has caused an infinitesimal delay between action executed and the resulting onscreen action.

The exact amount of input lag seems to depend greatly on the software, as with some titles the delay seems to be no more than a fraction of a second while with others the delay becomes a lot more noticeable.

Input delay notwithstanding, the Kinect does what it says on the box; it accurately captures the user’s movement, even slight ones, and translates them into on-screen actions, but this can be influenced by a number of different variables. During multiplayer sessions when the players might get too close, it sometimes confuses the two players’ motions; input

delay and even lighting can affect how clearly it interprets player movements. While this may be a bit of a deal breaker for more hardcore gamers, its target audience won’t even notice, they will be too busy having a blast while laughing at how silly they feel.

Shortcomings While it is true that the Kinect is aimed at the casual market and that they are a lot easier to please than the hardcore crowd, the Kinect does have a few shortcomings that are worth mentioning.

The space requirement is by far Kinect’s biggest issue, the simple truth is that not everybody is able to clear a 3 meter long 2 meter wide block in their living rooms in which to play for a few hours. I do feel that this is a software shortcoming that can and should be addressed as the device ages. The Kinect also ventures dangerously close to the complexity line. The bundled manual is good for little more than making spit balls and a lot of the needed information is gathered by trial and error, or displayed in loading screens. Had Microsoft opted for a calibration process which doubled as a brief tutorial into controlling the Kinect it would have been squarely back on the familiar green grass of easy to use and enjoy.

Then these is the lack in control complexity or the lack of input method, since there is no way to input character movement controls into a title, how far could we really push this? As it stands, whenever a character is required to move it is on-rail with Kinect Sports Running being the sole exception to this and even then the

player remains in their narrow path, unable to venture off. Even in the kart racer, Kinect JoyRide, acceleration and braking is handled by the game while the player handles steering and the firing of weapons, where is the fun in that, how could you adapt a more core racer like Forza to be controlled with the Kinect? How could Kinect be used in say an FPS capacity, how would a player make their avatar move? Sure, a rail-shooter is easy but I can’t help but feel we are a long way off from where a player will be playing Halo with only the Kinect.

Lastly, the amount of factors that could possibly ruin a planned hour of gameplay is too large. During one particular session the Kinect would loose sight of me everytime I jumped over or ducked underneath an obstacle in Kinect Adventures, or would simply refuse to recognise me as a result of the bandanna tied around my head to keep the sweat from running into my eyes.

This is however, I am willing to wager, more a shortcoming of the software than that of the hardware and one that will hopefully be rectified in due course.

Closing Comments The initial pull of the Kinect for many will be the sheer ‘sci-fi-ness’ of it. The ability to scroll through menus with a simple wave of the hand or being able to use only your voice to pause, stop or fast-forward a video, feels like something out of science fiction yet here it is, ready for you to take home and enjoy (it’s what sold it for me). It is a good bet that this ‘sci-fi-ness’ is what sold that first million units.

However, the actual experience depends greatly on the software one uses with it and while the delightful line-up of family friendly mini-game compilations are fun and entertaining, especially with friends, the wealth of untapped potential that Kinect offers is simply staggering.

There is little doubt that as developers become more familiar with the hardware, the experience will only improve because as it stands currently, and judging by the available titles, the Kinect has fallen far short of what it could achieve. The bundled Kinect Adventures is fun, entertaining and can even be a bit of a workout, but offers little in terms of longevity. The same can be said of Kinect Sports, Kinect Joyride and even Kinectimals, not to mention the complete disappointments that are Motionsports and Fighters Uncaged. Yes there are two dedicated fitness titles and two dance titles, but is the price tag of the Kinect really worth a game or two?

If Microsoft wants the Kinect to become more than just another discarded gaming peripheral left to gather dust, they will need to encourage developers to come up with titles that will appeal to both the core gamers as well as the casual market.

Whether or not the Kinect is worth its price tag is a question each potential buyer will have to weigh up for themselves. Make no mistake, there is fun to be had from it, it’s just a question of whether to be an early adopter or see where the technology goes.

Article by Ernst Vorndraan

When I finished LittleBigPlanet I knew I needed more. So when LittleBigPlanet 2 was announced I was just one of the many fans the world over which rejoiced at the thought of more sack-person fun and almost immediately we started speculating about what we would see next. LittleBigPlanet 2 will support all the creations from the first game, will look better and will add a lot more variety to the platform game by Media Molecule. The home-made look and feel and LBP’s “play, create, share” philosophy created a unique and extremely fun experience unmatched and unrivalled by any other game ever made.

Adding to the mix over 2.8million user created levels to LittleBigPlanet, countless awards and a special community of players, LittleBigPlanet 2 has a lot to build upon. LBP 2 will introduce new gadgets, new ways to play and new ways to invent

LBP2 will be jam packed with new toys and gizmos.

The Grapple tool might seem like a gadget you would see Bruce Wayne use to swing from gargoyles and it will now allow Sackboy to swing from attach-points.

The Grapple tool falls in the same arsenal as the Jetpack and will allow some interesting physics-based puzzles and a lot of opportunity to grab onto other players and drag them around or even saving them from a perilous drop of doom. Initially the Grapple tool will be used to move around and for getting from point A to B, but later on it will become super useful tool for moving objects, solving puzzles and becoming an extension of Sackboy himself.

Sackbots are another new addition. Square headed automated characters are programmable sac-robots that can be customized and accessorized like a

Media Molecule has been listening to the fans and have made some great adjustments to change LBP 2 from a platform game to a “platform for games.”

LBP2 will close the gap between different genres by being a platformer, shooter, puzzler and racing game all in one...

Another rad innovation that Media Molecule has added is social integration. Although it might not seem as exciting as new designer toys or creations, getting the right people connected with the right content will play an important role in LBP2’s success. A new website will provide each player and level with a simple url. From here others can view your creations and add them to their stream so the new additions are ready to play the next time they launch the game.

This will serve as a nifty canvas for you to show off your hard work to friends.

Sackboy and programmed with certain behaviour, like following a determined route or being electrified, before setting them free in a level. This essentially leaves you with endless possibilities of what you can do with these little Sackbots.

Related to Sackbots are Circuit Boards. Circuit boards will allow players to create a complex layout of connections and then hide them away. Circuit boards also form the brain of each Sackbot and can be tweaked to achieve a certain behaviour. Other objects can have a Chip attached, allowing access to a Circuit Board and its suite of behavioural programming. This enables expert creators to make “Artificial Intelligence” chips for certain enemies or bosses and then share them with the community. It also makes it possible to run "navigation Artificial Intelligence challenges,"

where programmed Sackbots must navigate their way out of a maze unaided. It sounds like the possibilities are endless and I can only imagine the creations we will see coming from this.

Another astonishing gadget is the Director Control Seat gadget, which allows you to control objects in the environment directly rather than with Sackboy’s direct pushing and pulling. Although it sounds useless, this adds a lot of possibility to what can be achieved in creating games. For instance, putting together a rocket ship and connecting the Direct Control Seat allows you to play through an entire stage controlling the rocket.

Add some enemies to fire at and you have turned your platform game into a shoot 'em up.

This means that you can literally make a vehicle out of anything and I mean anything. You can even add a Director Control Seat to another Sackboy and control it with your own Sackboy.

LBP 2 will allow you to import all existing costumes, stickers and download old content straight into LBP 2.

It is said that all of the imported content will also look better with advances in alpha channel and

transparencies. So LBP 2’s visuals and theme will be recreated. LittleBigPlanet’s monster history will be replaced by periods. These new and alluring periods include: Techno renaissance, Steampunk and cake, Neon propaganda, Fluffy high tech, Designer organic and Handmade arcade.

It might seem like there is too much in LBP 2, but different people will take advantage of different areas or tools in LBP. Different players have different developments or interest and create diverse creations that the community can use and try out till these creations are moulded into masterpiece. Some players enjoy the experience, of level-journalists who publicize the good content, of electrical-engineers who create the artificial intelligence, of novice-players who benefit from their simpler tools and of storytellers who use the game to create films rather than to play. LittleBigPlanet 2 truly looks promising and will have something for everyone with release early 2011 this is a PS3 exclusive you shouldn’t miss!

Article by Ricardo Ludeke