Singularity takes place on a fictional Russian island called Katorga-12, the sight of radical tests of a never before seen element referred to as E99. From the game’s opening, it is obvious that the new element has caused a great amount of destruction and suffering for the residents of the island and it’s your job to find out how to contain the situation before it spills over the globe.
In a crowded marketplace, it is essential to separate yourself from the pack to garner any type of fiscal reward or recognition. Alpha Protocol leaps onto the genre-splicing bandwagon and dresses itself in a shiny new spy theme that not enough games experiment with. Having received several accolades in the past as a promising new IP, many have wondered about the menacing delays and secrecy surrounding the final days of the game’s development. Apparently nothing has changed between its preview build and retail release, and that is not necessarily a good thing.
As the titular character, Naughty Bear, it is your job to live up to your namesake. Naughty Bear is about causing chaos and scaring the crap out of as many giant bears as possible. Surprisingly, the game hasn’t caught the attention of the news media with its colorful, childlike storybook demeanor that harbors the mind of a serial killer. Unfortunately for gamers, no one thought to protest the release of Naughty Bear to the masses.
I think the title says it all. Upon opening the packaging it arrived in I was greeted with a wonderful, bright and very eye catching box and could not wait to load the game into my console.
Pretty loading screens and a HUGE character editing program accompanied by a sound track that was strangely familiar, a feeling of déjà-vu came over me!
FIFA’s World Cup and European Cup games have received a deservedly bad reputation throughout the years. They’re usually rushed out to coincide with the big event not long after the latest annual outing; often skimming over substantial features and adding nothing new to the gameplay despite their full pricing. 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa looks to break up this disappointing formula, featuring a plethora of new and unique features whilst improving upon the already fantastic FIFA 10 engine. It’s an impressive package, but whether it’s worth it for owners of FIFA 10 remains to be seen.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is easily the biggest and most talked about PS3 exclusive of the year, some even going so far to call it the best game of this generation and the savior of the PS3. Whether it’s the best game this generation so far, or even if the PS3 needs a “savior” is up for debate, but this is one of the few times in gaming where a game with ridiculous amounts of hype actually meets expectations. Much like the first game, this follows treasure hunter Nathan Drake through one of his adventures. Nathan Drake as a character is a nice break from the typical, stoic gruff voiced guys, that are the leads in most video games. While many video game leads are more of a Bruce Willis or Sylvester Stallone, Nathan Drake looks, acts, and almost sounds like actor Nathan Fillion (from Firefly/Serenity). Whose characters usually have a flippant and sarcastic sense of humor about them.
Welcome to Empire City unfortunately an explosion has just happened, we’ve been quarantined by the government, and gangs control the city; but it’s still a place you’re going to want to visit…. a lot.
You will be playing as Cole MacGrath, a bike messenger that luckily the device that caused the explosion gave superpowers over electricity to. Cole as a character is pretty generic, he’s the typical stoic gruff voiced guy from any other video game or movie; ironically he sounds like a mesh of Solid Snake and Christian Bale’s Batman. Most of the game plays as a 3rd person shooter with some platforming. InFamous isn’t usually described as a shooter, but essentially that’s what it is. Instead of shooting guns, you’re shooting lightning out of your hands or you’re creating an electrical grenade instead of throwing an actual frag grenade.
Often when something works, and works well, it will have imitators and copycats come out of the woodwork and try to capitalize on the splash made by the original. This is especially true in the media world and in video games. The hottest trend right now is an oldie but goodie: the portrayal of the possibility of a coming apocalypse, an Armageddon. There are different spins put on it from heaven vs. hell, man vs. the supernatural, or some seemingly omnipotent being needing to be stopped from wreaking havoc, but in the end it all comes down to the same basic concept. In the first quarter of 2010, we have three such games coming out with this basic theme: God of War 3, Dante’s Inferno and Darksiders with the original God of War series being the base concept.
Just because all these games may be similar in theme and execution, does not mean that they all can’t be good. In fact, sometimes the imitators will surpass the original and blow the concept out of the water. The first of these three games released, Darksiders, might do just that.
When one mentions Sega, the first thing that comes to mind, for most people, is a spiky blue hedgehog. However, Sega has taken steps over the past couple years to let people know there is a lot more to them than our super fast friend. First came Jack in last year’s sleeper hit Madworld, with his chainsaw and the game’s Sin City style sending gamers into a frenzy. Now, with the help of Devil May Cry and Viewtiful Joe director Hideki Kamiya, Sega unveils their latest creation: Bayonetta.
With guns in hand (and attached to each ankle), as well as swords, claws, and other weapons you acquire over the course of the game, Bayonetta, a 500 year old witch who escaped the witch hunts of the 15th century, rages her own personal war against the forces of heaven as she fights to not only restore the balance between light and dark, but also to restore the memories she lost when she was forced into a near five century hibernation by her fellow witches.
Heavy Rain is a game that delivers in all the ways that it wants to and does it so very well. I have never been as attached to video game characters for so long. It feels almost odd how much I cared for each one.
But let me take it one step back before I talk about everything I love about this game. For those who don’t know what this game is about let me inform you. You play as several characters in a story who, in one way or another, have ties to the serial murderer named the Origami Killer. Each of the characters has their own reasons to go for this mad man, and how they go about finding out who the killer is depends heavily on your, the player’s, actions.
This game has a lot of cut scenes where you have to press a series of buttons in order to successfully catch a running criminal, fight a thug or even shave (yes you read it right … shave). What makes this different from other games though, like God of War where you have the same idea of button presses, is that if you miss a button prompt it’s not “crap now I have to start over”. Instead, the game keeps going so whether or not that missed hit cost you, the chance to catch someone with valuable information, save someone’s life or the cost to your own life depends on how quick you are on your feet … or fingers. Also, yes, your characters can die. That means if one of the characters dies, then that’s it. The story keeps going without that particular story arc, which makes for a lot of interesting outcomes. Now a lot of these actions may feel a little mundane at first like having to use the left analog stick to put your car in park, knock on doors, or even move under an object. However, it really helps to make you feel in control and feel like you are the one making every single decision, which helped me get sucked in deeper into this world.
