Video Games

Batman Arkham Asylum Review

When many of us gamers hear about a video game coming that’s based off a licensed property, we may initially dismiss it or expect mediocre at best results, but that’s far from the case with Batman Arkham Asylum. This is one of the few times in gaming where you can tell the licensed game was built by true fans with love and knowledge of the source material, and simply not a thrown on gimmick to sell extra copies.

The basic premise of the game is that Batman has caught The Joker after one of his plans seemingly goes awry. Batman then delivers The Joker to the psychiatric hospital named Arkham Asylum, once on the island The Joker takes control of the facility and reveals to Batman that was his plan all along. With Batman trapped on the island with hundreds of thugs and several super-villains the player takes control of Batman and must stop The Joker’s plan.  From there the story goes fairly deeper and starts to incorporate other super-villains as well.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Review

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.

Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 – A Bit More Rearmed

As most people know, the only real good Bionic Commando game to be released in the past few years is Bionic Commando Rearmed. Since the developer, GRIN,went under, we figured we’d never see a sequel to the great PSN/XBLA game. Luckily, Fatshark AB (developers of the new Wild West shooter, Lead & Gold) has proven us wrong.

The most exciting addition so far to Rearmed 2 is the ability to finally jump. While it may sound like a minuscule addition, it’s sure to change the way you play the game.

Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 is scheduled for release in 2011.

InFamous Review

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. 

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Review

The biggest game of the year is finally here, but did it deserve the hype? Modern Warfare 1 (MW1) pushed the Call of Duty franchise to an all time high, garnering it the same level of prestige as the other top series in gaming. Though it’s up for debate, MW1 was followed up by the sub-par sequel World at War. Luckily, Modern Warfare 2 (MW2) is a return to form. Like the other Call of Duty games, you take the perspective of different soldiers in different units throughout the world. This time you bounce between a Marine unit and a Special Forces unit, which also has Sgt. Soap from MW1 in it. The two narratives with these units are much more significant than in previous COD games. This time instead of taking the role of a random soldier and experiencing the war through their eyes, you’re actions are much more instrumental to how the entire war pans out. This installment overall feels much more “action movie” than any other COD game. Since the game does this in a none cheesy and clichéd way it feels fitting, but those looking for a realistic experience maybe turned off. If MW1 was parallel to the TV series 24, then MW2 is more like the movie The Rock, especially towards the end.

Gears of War 3: Ashes to Ashes

There are some games that people can’t wait for a sequel to, and Gears of War is without a doubt one of them.  They have created a series that has created a large fan base very quickly, and it only continues to grow.  Everyone already knew a third installation was going to be made; we all just had to wait quietly for some actual details about the game.  While we haven’t gotten any real details from the developers they have released a trailer, Ashes to Ashes, and for a short one minute trailer it shows a good amount about the game.

Splinter Cell Conviction CE’s Price Lowered

When Ubisoft was performing “random sampling” on the Splinter Cell Conviction Collector’s Edition, they found a percentage of the USB drives packaged in the CE were defective. This resulted in Ubisoft lowering the $80 price tag down to $70. Ubisoft refuses to comment on what percentage of the USB drives will be defective, but the good news is that on April 15th, instructions will be released telling you how to receive the bonus content should you have a defective drive. Ubisoft also refuses to say what is specifically wrong with the drives, only that “We do not have that information at this time.”