Video Games

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II Review

I had pretty high expectations for The Force Unleashed 2. I was a big fan of the original and despite some big flaws it was still one of my favorite games of this generation. When a sequel was announced it seemed too good to be true, a chance to fix all the mistakes in the original while potentially improving on everything I loved about the first—Yes please! Unfortunately The Force Unleashed 2 fails to deliver on those ambitions.

The story opens with Darth Vader’s signature Tie Advanced landing on the stormy world of Kamino. We learn that Vader has been trying to clone an improved version of the Starkiller from the original game—And unsuccessfully at that. It seems that due to the accelerated cloning process each previous clone has succumbed to madness because of residual memories from the original Starkiller. In fear of being the next clone Vader casts aside, The cloned Starkiller lashes out against Vader and manages to escape the cloning facility in search of the Rebel allies from the first game.

Fallout: New Vegas Review

As Bethesda and Interplay continue to squabble over the rights of the Fallout license, gamers who started Fallout 3 back in 2008 have finally played through most of what the game and its DLC content has to offer. The stage is set for a new adventure to follow up one of the best action RPGs released in the past decade. Fallout: New Vegas takes players from Washington D.C. across the country to Nevada where the nuclear apocalypse was less severe. People have started to pick up the pieces and build a life similar to the wild west of the 1800s. Players must now adapt to their new surroundings and fight, help or become the new sheriff in town.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Preview

With the end of October just around the bend, Call of Duty: Black Ops is on the horizon and has been widely touted as a quality successor to the Call of Duty franchise. As the seventh instalment in the series, Black Ops follows a variety of Special Forces operatives over the length of the Cold War as they participate in secret missions behind enemy lines. The characters players inhabit will have their own voices and shadows, adding a level of development that is commonly not in Call of Duty, a series that often makes the choice to make the player feel like a faceless observer in great historical events (although the new focus on a more individual story in MW and MW2 reflects a change in direction). However, Treyarch’s Black Ops marks a return to the original mold as it seeks to continue the pedigree set by COD: World at War, a Pacific WWII-themed title, a game that is more in line with the missions in Call of Duty 2 rather than the more contemporary and plot-driven Modern Warfare 2.

Halloween comes to Team Fortress 2

This year’s Team Fortress 2 Halloween special is filled with a few special tricks and treats for players to discover. Looking at the latest blog post you can get the general idea of whats going to be going down this Halloween. Much like last year there’ll be a new map, Mann Manor, which will feature a Haunted Halloween Gift box which will randomly drop around the map for players to pick up. However, the map also features the Horseless Headless Horsemann. Basically its exactly what it says on the tin, a Horseless Headless Horsemann who’ll run around trying to kill players with his giant axe. Manage to kill him though and you’ll net yourself a tastey achievement for your trouble.

WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2011 Review

In the past few years, the Smackdown! vs. Raw games have entered a niche market that has been near impossible to break out of for the developers. In last year’s installment, it seemed like they had completely given up on getting out of that market by delivering a game solely for wrestling fans. Its introduction of the WWE Story Creator mode was probably the best thing to happen to the series in a long time. In this year’s installment, THQ introduces WWE Universe among even more additions. Some of which work out fine, most of which fall slightly short.

The aforementioned WWE Universe is by far the biggest addition to WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2011. It takes all the matches you perform in single player (excluding Road to Wrestlemania ) and blends them together to form storylines, and help people rise through the ranks to the point where they eventually earn title shots.

Is There No End to the Halloween Sales?

Halloween sales keep coming at PC gamers like the endless armies of the Netherworld.  All week we’ve been covering the relentless march of consumerism on Halloween, and today we have yet another horde of sales clawing at your credit cards in search of money.  However one game company has actually learned the true meaning of Halloween and is giving us the best kind of treat- A free game!  The generous (And attractive) folks at Telltale Games are 

The PS3 Team’s Favorite Horror Games

It’s almost Halloween, which means everyone is thinking about costume parties, candy, and their favorite scary movies. There are plenty of scary games too though, and we thought we’d get in the spirit of the season by talking about some of our favorites. Not all of these are necessarily horror games, but they at least have a spooky theme that reminds us of the season.