Borderlands is a ‘Mad Max’ style post apocalyptic shooter based in the barren wasteland of Pandora, Continue Reading

Seems today everyone wants to shoot at the Russians and again you see this apparent in this ultra realistic War Sim from Bohemia Interactive Studio, Continue Reading

Fuel is a free roaming racer set in a world destroyed by Global Warming. It is from Codemasters, the ones who brought you Continue Reading

Silent Hill: Homecoming has been out in the US for a siginificant amount of time now, so being the Silent Hill fanboy that I am, I decided to import it before it’s initial UK release on February 27th. It was definately worth it!

I am not going to give away any of the story, so I’m going to keep this short and sweet and stick to the mechanics of the game. The game keeps up with Silent Hill tradition and is VERY atmospheric. Although you don’t start off the game in Silent Hill, you are in a very similar town, and it’s still creepy as hell. The movement is fluid and the controls are handled very well, with inventory screens being opened by holding the L1 or R1 buttons and a map (seeing that you have found one) being opened with Triangle. Combat controls are also very easy, with Square being heavy attacks and X being quick attacks, combo’s are put together quite easily. Gun controls are what you would expect with L2 being used to aim and R2 to shoot.

Graphics wise, the game is good, but not what it could have been given the PS3’s full potential. Since the game is mostly set in fog or darkness you can put that aside though. The area’s look great, and so do the character’s. The enemies are looking as good as ever, and are getting even stranger, and harder to kill. Although the Feral’s look strangely similar to those in Resident Evil.

Overall, Silent Hill: Homecoming sits in a very good position in the Silent Hill series and is a great debut on this gen of consoles. The graphics are good, but not to what the PS3 is capable of (Siren: Blood Curse, Dead Space). The cutscenes are excellent, and the story is spot on. Controls are easy to pick up, and this overall is a very enjoyable experience for Silent Hill fans and newcomers alike.
The game is Trophy free at the moment, with possiblilty of a patch from Konami in the future.

8.5/10.

Being a huge fan of the original Killzone I was wetting myself waiting for this to come out. As soon as I jumped into the demo, I was blown away by the graphics, they really need to be seen in person to believe, amazing stuff. The sound is also very well done, with explosions going off around me through my surround sound. The Hellghast look awesome, and still have the strange creepy cockney accents. The guns are perfect, and the control layout is very well put together, and comfortable to play with.

I did feel that the controls did need a LITTLE fine tuning, so I set my Y and X axis sensitivity up to almost full so I felt more in control of the weapon I was shooting. There were also a couple of glitches in the demo, for example a soldier running around in circles repeatedly, and a chair blocking my way into a room i needed to go in, but it’s a demo, these things happen, right?

The game looks to be sweet, everything about it is awesome, and the multiplayer looks set to be something else. Lets just hope those little glitches are fixed by the end of the month!

Demo – 9/10

When I purchased Conquest, I was expecting very good things. The idea seemed awesome, and the demo was excellent, especially online. It’s just a shame that it stopped there.

The first level is probably the best level you will get to play (the same as the one in the demo). Slashing up orcs is great for half an hour, but once you realise that all the other character classes apart from Warrior suck, then the game starts losing it’s appeal. The gameplay is very dull and repetitive, especially when all the enemies seem to do is block. The level layouts are designed horrifically basic, and often have you ending up dying by accident by falling into water (yeah, you can’t swim!) or falling off a cliff because your flame attack throws you that way. There is nothing to explore, just a linear path with some open area’s in the middle. The missions range from destroying things, to killing a main character with another main character, even though half the time you die and have to do it with a normal class.
The concept is amazing, especially the Rise of Sauron campaign where it plays as though Frodo didn’t destroy the ring. It also pieces together parts of the film to make it go with the story, which works very well. It’s just a total shame that the gameplay cannot back it up.

The graphics in Conquest are nothing compared to what the Xbox can, and has pulled off before. Maybe if this was released in 2006, it would have been overlooked, but living in the times of graphically superior games like COD4, Mirrors Edge and even Burnout Paradise, you would expect Conquest to be brilliant, especially where the Lord of the Rings world is so mind blowing in the films.

When playing the game online, I found it frustrating that it was only possible to get a kill by either luck, or being the asssassin and becoming invisible. The game modes are okay at best, the Deathmatch mode is boring, even the Capture the Ring mode sucks, and that’s what I was looking forward too most. Most of the matches were laggy, and had characters jumping around everywhere, which caused me many times to just take out the game and punch it, repeatedly.

The game was such an awesome idea, and had me excited about it since it was announced. It’s such a shame that it was obviously a rushed, money making attempt at making one more Lord of the Rings game. The gameplay is rubbish and stressful, and the graphics are laughable. The online play is not even worth looking at, and will probably be dead within a couple of months. If you want a half decent Lord of the Rings game, you’re better off trying the film tie-ins on the PS2…99p on eBay!

4/10

Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher: Ubisoft
Genre: Action/Adventure
Available on: Xbox 360/PS3
Reviewed on: Xbox 360
Official Site: http://prince-of-persia.uk.ubi.com/
Fan Site: http://poplegacy.planets.gamespy.com/Links.php
Release Date: 12/12/2008
Reviewer: Dave (Rand0mpanda)

I had never played a Prince of Persia game before this one, so I was not sure what exactly to expect from it. I saw it up on Play.com for £17.99 and decided to give it a go, and I’m actually quite glad that I did.

From the first cut scene of the game, I thought the storyline would be another generic “Muscly guy chases good looking girl to impress her and get in her…” I’ll stop there, but you get my drift. I was actually right, but was actually quite surprised at how good the game turned out. Although it is quite confusing hearing the voice of Nathan Drake on the Xbox.
Prince of Persia is a very simple game to play, jump, climp, attack (all more or less with the same button combo’s). The game has a pretty simple layout; explore the land, get to your destination, have a fight, heal the fertile ground and repeat. With this aside, it is still really fun and strangely addictive, plus the storyline is actually pretty good and immersive, even if it may be a little generic. It is basically; Guy (Prince) finds damsel in distress (Elika), finds out her Father is trying to free an evil God (Ahriman) from imprisonment, attempt to save the world and make everything okay again.
Some annoying points (of which I found there are a few) is when you have to keep pressing the L trigger to talk to Elika, when most of the time the same dialogue is repeated over and over. And of course the sexual suggestions from the Prince (Sigh). Also jumping from one object to another can be very frustrating when the game decides not to listen to you and gets distracted by something else, throwing the prince to his death, only to have Elika grab his hand EVERY TIME. I guess not being able to die in a game is a good thing, but the thing is, you do it so much in this that the Prince seems ike he’s taking advantage of the poor woman, and you end up wanting him to plunge to his doom. Well I did anyway.
I really enjoyed the combat in the game (unlike alot of people), it’s smooth, fluent and the slow motion moves bring a more cinematic feel to it. There are quick time events, which I know alot of gamers hate, but thankfully you do not have to use them too often, unlike The Force Unleashed. This game introduces Power Plates into levels, which you must climb up to so Elika can use her magic and fly the both of you to another part of the level. The flying is very linear since the player does not control where they go, only moving up, down, left and right to avoid objects. They can be quite irritating at times seeing as you can hit something so very slightly, and still fall off and have to start the whole thing over again. They can be quite fun though, when you get the hang of them. Unfortunately, one of the major parts of the game involves something i personally can’t stand, which is item collecting. Just like the flags in Assassins Creed, the Orbs in Crackdown; you have to collect “Light orbs” in order for Elika to regain her strength and to even progress to later parts of the game. 1001 of them to be exact. Eeep.

The new Cel-shaded graphical style gives the game a new edge compared to many others, and make the scenery lookPlay As Altair In Prince of Persia rather stunning (especially when you get the Assassin View acheivement…look it up). On the subject, it is evident that Ubisoft has based a small part of the game around Assassins Creed. They gave away a free Altair costume to download for the Prince to wear in-game, which is a little pointless, but still quite cool for fans of AC, like me. The environment looks good when the area is infected with dark blue and black “Corruption”, but when it has been healed, it looks amazing. The brightness and cartoon/reality detail definately brings a whole new unique look to the game.

There is no option for online Multiplayer for the game, although Ubisoft has announced various downloadable content will be released in the near future through the XBL Marketplace and Playstation Store.

Overall, this game is definitely worth a purchase if you can get it for around £20. Newcomers to the Prince of Persia series, like me, will be happily surprised on how the game turned out. Although many old PoP fans seem to shun the game because of it’s new visual style and simplistic control scheme, if you want a simple action game, this is definately for you. The graphics are awesome, and the gameplay is solid enough. I give this game a 7/10.

I’ll admit first and foremost, I was sceptical about buying this game. After playing Gears of war (1) on Insane, I was left scarred. It took me two years (yep!) to complete it, and even then I still only completed it on hardcore with a friend through co-op on Xbox Live. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t love the game though, Gears 1 is one of the best games on current generation consoles in my opinion, although I have honestly never been a huge fan of it’s online multiplayer, mainly because i suck at it. I finally decided to order Gears 2 on the Wednesday before it was released, just because I was looking forward to the campaign, and the new “Horde” game mode.

Starting the game, I whacked it on Normal difficulty and decided to “train the rook” seeing as I’m such an achievement whore and wanted the extra 10 points, and even in the intro and the training mode the development of character from the rookie Carmine (Carmine from Gears 1’s younger brother) is amazing, and the relationship that opens up between him and Marcus. Also at this point we find out about Dom’s emotional side with the introduction to his missing wife, Maria, who he is determined to find.

I won’t go into every single aspect and cutscene that the Campaign mode has to offer, but it includes some amazing cutscenes, and even a quite moving story, not only from Dom’s point of view, but Marcus’ aswell. There were some scenes in the game which did actually shock me; after being introduced to new character Tai, and actually believing he was “invincible”, as Carmine put it, seeing his self inflicted demise after being kidnapped and mentally and physically tortured by the Locust actually left me speechless. The same goes for the conclusion of the Dom and Maria sotry aswell, but I won’t go into that for the people reading who have not played the game yet.

The controls are very fluent in the game, and still exactly the same as they were in the first. You no longer get the annoying glitch that would not let you switch guns, which I’m very happy was fixed as it caused me to get chainsawed/beaten/crushed many times.

Level design of the game is pretty amazing aswell, ranging from the inside of a giant worm and having to chainsaw the arteries connected to it’s heart to kill it (before drowning in it’s blood), to the sinking of the city of Jacinto and riding a Brumak into the undeground Locust tunnels, whilst blowing shit up left right and center.

The new enemies introduced in the game are sweet, but can also be terrifying at the same time. The first time I heard a Ticker confused the hell out of me, and before I knew it i had been blown up by what looked like alightbulb/spider creature that was on fire. Also another character worth mentioning, mainly the last main boss fight in the game, is Skorge. I’ve got to say, he is much more awesome than RAAM ever was, he even has dreadlocks (kinda reminiscent of Predator).

The whole campaign took me about 8 hours to complete on normal difficulty, without conciously collecting all of the 41 collectable items. It was an amazing experience even it was on the second from easiest difficulty setting, but I am planning on going back and playing through it again on Insane on Xbox Live with a friend, which in my opinion, is a main part of the whole experience of this game, teamwork and experiencing it together.

The new Horde game mode is definately worth a mention, as this is what will really help build you up to get that Seriously 2.0 achievement (100,000 kills). It is a very fun game mode, which has wave upon wave of different Locust enemies attacking you, on the map of your choice. It is great to play with a friend online, but nearly impossible to complete by yourself. But always worth a try eh?

A new feature I didn’t want to mention until now, is the Chainsaw Battles. To be honest, I used it no more than two times in the Campaign, because i knew that it would only really have an impact in the online multiplayer, anyone can beat AI by repeatedly tapping B, but going up against hardcore Gears gamers is another thing, and actually leaves you feeling satisfied once you’ve cut a real human in half
All editions of the game came with a code to download the “Flashback” map pack (and a Golden Lancer for the special people who buy the special edition), which is a collection of maps from the original Gears, which is a great addition to the game, so you don’t actually have to get used to the new maps straight away. The online games modes are “Guardian”, which sets one player as the teams leader, and once he/she has been killed by the opposing side, your team loses the chance to respawn once they have died. There is a “Submission” game mode which puts players against each other trying to capture a “downed” character controlled by the games AI, and using it as a meat shield whilst transporting it to a certain point on the map. Other game types include Wingman, Warzone, King of the Hill, and Annex. It even includes an option for players to take screenshots of the online action while they are spectating, which is a great idea, although quite Halo like, not that that’s a bad thing.

Overall i give Gears 2 a 9/10, it delivers everything you expect and more. It’s not exactly a game you can just pick up and play for half an hour before you go to work, because you would not get anything out of it. It needs sessions of between one and three hours, because otherwise the experience is not the same.It has an amazing, yet rather short Story, but definately has replay value through Campaign co-op, Horde, and the online multiplayer. Even the achievements in this game are addictive, and will make anyone who plays it aim to get the full 1000. (I WILL get seriously 2.0 ).