Holiday Review Guide: Part 1 - Celebrating Christmas in May

[I know I'm posting this late on my own website but these reviews actually did run in the Pulse Niagara before the Holidays, so I'm not completely behind. Besides it cold enough outside in St. Catharines right now that it could damn well snow, so consider this a good list of games to snuggle up with right now until the real summer weather kicks in.]

Assassin’s Creed 2
Ubisoft, Ubisoft Montreal
Available for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC

The time has come for Desmond Miles to return to the animus and jump into the memories of a new assassin, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, in Italy during the Renaissance era. Experience the gripping story behind the murder of Ezio’s family and his journey to uncover the conspiracy behind it.

Ubisoft has raised the bar with an amazing new combat system which evolves with each new weapon, improved enemy A.I and a whole new in-game economy system for easy money making. The running through the recreation of Italy is almost as good as visiting the city in real life and the game has some of the best voice-over work I’ve heard in long time.

If you want to feel the thrill of the chase from your couch, then grab a copy of Assassin’s Creed 2 today.

Rating: 10 out of 10
Buy this!

Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time
Sony Computer Entertainment, Insomniac Games
Available for Playstation 3

Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time continues the story from Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty with Clank being kidnapped by Doctor Nefarious and Ratchet & Qwark continuing to search the galaxy for any clues to Clank and Dr. Nefarious’ location. Both our favourite heroes will learn more about their past then they possible could have ever imagined in this fantastic new adventure from Insomniac Games.

New elements in the game include the ability to fly between planets and complete mini games and seek out hidden objects in order to upgrade your abilities and ship. Also the game has new constructo weapons that allow you to customize various elements and it includes a special time pad puzzle system which records multiple holographic images of Clank and then plays them back.

With tons of mini challenges and an exciting story line, this makes a great game to spend all those long, cold winter nights with.

Rating: 9 out of 10
Buy this!

Borderlands
2K Games, Gearbox Software
Available for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC

Borderlands is like the Fallout 3 for people with not a lot of time to play videogames but a lot of friends to play them with. Part RPG, part FPS, Borderlands puts you on the planet of Pandora where the last remains of a society once there to mine has all but disappeared. You and the few inhabitants that still remain scavenge for what you can and cling to the legend of the vault which apparently holds a vast alien treasure. You and your team plan to find the vault though under the instruction of a guardian angel – a mysterious woman who only talks to you.

Choose from 4 playable character types and explore the world of Pandora via the main quest and various side missions. You can choose to play solo or join up with 3 other friends at anytime during your campaign for co-op play. Choose to play in your world or theirs. The world of Pandora holds a vast amount of cool weaponry and gadgets to aid you in your mission and you even get to hop into a cool vehicle or two.

The Holidays are time to get together with friends and family and what better way to spend time with your favourite people then riding around in tanks and blowing up skags.

Rating: 9 out of 10
Buy this!

Left4Dead2
EA, Valve Corporation
Available for Xbox 360 and PC

The outbreak has happened again and this time you are following 4 new survivors in the Southern United States as they fight their way through hordes of zombies in order to make their way to safety. The game is broken down into chapters which can be played solo with A.I team members or with up to 3 other players with co-op mode. You do also have the option to play 4 vs. 4 multiplayer in various maps.

Fans of the Resident Evil series will be out of their element here as zombies move faster and tend to attack in packs. Even on easy I had trouble surviving this game but thankfully your A.I. teammates are great shots, so if you learn to take backseat to the action, you’ll survive to see the next level. This is definitely a nice change to the normal zombie game though and I enjoyed the movie like cinematic scenes and story line.

Left4Dead2 definitely brings new life to the zombie horror survival genre and this is one game you can’t live or unlive without this Holiday season.

Rating: 8 out of 10
Buy this!

Review: BioShock 2

BioShock 2
2K Games
Available for Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC

“I am Andrew Ryan, and I'm here to ask you a question. Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? 'No!' says the man in Washington, 'It belongs to the poor.' 'No!' says the man in the Vatican, 'It belongs to God.' 'No!' says the man in Moscow, 'It belongs to everyone.' I rejected those answers; instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose... Rapture, a city where the artist would not fear the censor, where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality, where the great would not be constrained by the small! And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as well."

If you don't know these immortal words, then you need to stop reading this review for BioShock 2, grab a copy of BioShock for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 or PC and play the hell out of that game because you couldn't possibly understand the epic nature of the world of Rapture without experience it all from the beginning.

If you are amongst the many who have dived beneath the waves and explored the dark world of Rapture, fought the splicers and the Big Daddies, and discovered the grisly meaning behind the words, "Would you kindly?", then by all means, continue to read all the adam filled goodness of this review.



BioShock 2 brings the city of Rapture back to life with a whole new experience through the diver helmet of a Big Daddy. You must venture through the ruined halls, cracked and leaking underwater tunnels, facing hordes of crazed and mutated citizens of the fallen city 10 years after the original BioShock events. This time you are searching for your original little sister - a girl named Eleanor who was ripped away from you by Dr. Sophia Lamb, the newest leader in Rapture who took over the city after Andrew Ryan passed on. You are aided in your journey by a familiar face, Dr. Brigid Tenenbaum who advises you that Lamb has been kidnapping little girls from the surface and turning them into new Little Sisters because the previous ones are now gone or maturing beyond their use. She asks you to find all the new girls and transform them back during your search for Eleanor.

Much like the first BioShock you will be given multiple choices through the game which will affect how the game ends for your character. Depending on how many good or evil choices you make you can apparently end up with up to 6 different ending. The great thing about this game is that the moral choices you make aren't as obvious as you would think. I played through the game thinking I made all good moral choices and apparently didn't.

On a down side, the story line isn't as amazing as the first BioShock and really feels created to fit with the new Big Daddy/Little Sister game play instead of the other way around. There isn't a lot of new information to discover about Rapture at least until the end of the game when you take on the role of a new character and most of the information is thrown at you in audio files which is hard to play between enemies attacking and other characters that talk to you during the game.

Even though you are wandering the city as a Big Daddy now rather than a regular human, you will still have the ability to use plasmids and tonics as well as the new Big Daddy weapons like the drill and rivet gun. This makes the combo still very similar to the original BioShock which allowed you to use gun or melee weapons in combination with the plasmids but now, you don't have to switch between your weapon and plasmid - you can just have both ready to fire at once.

The coolest new weapon in Rapture I thought was the spear gun which when used on enemies would actually stick them to the walls in a gory fashion and if you opted to retrieve your spear gun ammo from their dead bodies, their carcasses would drop from the wall like little bloody rag dolls. Very grim but cool. Weapons upgrade stations and adam upgrades are available again through Rapture and you will be able to use the Little Sisters to obtain adam to buy new tonics and plasmids


Multi-player modes have been added to the series this time around which was a big addition request from the first BioShock, but honestly now that it's been added, it doesn't feel that important to the game. I tried to play some of the online modes and couldn't more than one person to play with. The game had been out for 4 days when I logged onto the lobbies and I figured some people would be playing online by this point but I guessed wrong. There are 7 modes to check out for online like "Survival of the Fittest" which is you against everyone else in a free for all killing spree or "Capture the Flag" which puts you on a 10 person team either defending a Little Sister or trying to kidnap her and put her in a vent on the other side of the map. This online feature has its own story which is set before the days of BioShock when the city of Rapture was experiencing a civil war. You can learn a bit more about this as you level up one of several characters and listen to their unlocked audio files.

The world of Rapture isn't quite as awesome as it was back in 2007 when I first saw it but if you manage to get up close to some of the backgrounds and enemies in the game they still look pretty detailed and creepy especially in the case of the splicers. Problem is with this type of game that most of the environments are so dark that you really can't enjoy the details put into the world by the artists unless you take the time between splicers and Big Daddy attacks to really look at the environments around you up close. I think the only time you really get a good view of the cool environment details on a grand scale is when you venture outside the city for the first time onto the ocean floor and view all the adam infused ocean life. Water effects from the original game were still present with streaming water flows from cracked pipes to blur your vision and water drops appearing on your screen aka diving helmet.



The true darkness of Rapture decay would not be complete without the chilling sounds of creaking steel starting to give under the pressure of the ocean depths or the shrieks of the splicers ready to send you to harvest you for adam. The horrible sounds from the shadows of Rapture are really what make you walk just a little bit slower through the halls of the city. Funny thing is you forget at some points that the heavy footsteps in the dark are your own this time as you wear the giant metal diving suit. A few bits of music are spread out between the levels and the loading screens to remind you of the dangers around you or just to frighten you out. The epic battle music plays will when enemies attack like most video games but BioShock also has a few old time songs that you can hear on jukeboxes found on various levels or on the loading screens. These honestly are probably creepier to listen to then any sound in the game especially the Boogie Man song.

I wanted this game to be amazing especially since it’s been 3 years since we all took that trip down in the bathysphere and saw our first Little Sister and Big Daddy but honestly I think BioShock 2 can never be as awe-inspiring as the first BioShock for anyone because this version can never regain that stunning moment when we were first introduced to Andrew Ryan and his dream, and discovered the true meaning of "Would you kindly?". While there are moments in BioShock 2 that definitely make it worthwhile to return to the city under the sea once more, this journey back just doesn't hold the same enchantment that it did the first time. There are definitely improvements here to the weapons, game controls and more which make it a must buy but don't dive in expecting the same wow factor as your first trip to Rapture.

Rating: 8 out of 10
Buy it!

Review: January 2010 Downloadable Games

Fat Princess
SCE, Titan Studios
Available on the Playstation Network

Fat Princess is a 2 team, 16 player online game that is pure cartoon chaos. Two teams must work together to kidnap the other team’s Princess from inside a defended castle, while trying to defend their own Princess. To make things interesting each Princess can be fatten up by each team member with random pieces of cake found on the battle field. The more cake you feed your Princess, the bigger the she gets and the harder she is to kidnap which can help or hinder your team depending on the situation.

Each team member can choose one of 6 character classes like a mage or a warrior which each has their own abilities and weapons. Classes can be changed by grabbing hats from stations inside your castle. In addition to the main “Capture the Princess” mode, Fat Princess has a multiplayer death match mode and two single player modes: a story mode and a survival mode.

While I found this game to be clever and whimsical, overall the game has just too chaotic for me. I never saved the Princess once because I always died before I got to her and I tend to hate games that don’t give me even a fighting chance. I know some people love hard games like Mega Man but to me, this was like trying to ice skate up a hill. It just wasn’t possible.

Pass on it!

Final Fantasy VII
Sony, Square Enix
Available on the Playstation Network

Retro games are all the rage and most game companies are cashing in by placing old titles online for players to purchase and download. Now I personally would rather own the old systems and the games themselves, but sometimes it’s nice to be able to get these games instantly rather than having to hunt for them in flea markets and garage sales.

Square Enix is one of those companies that have taken up the task to re-release old titles from their vault onto services like the Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console and the Playstation 3’s Playstation Network. While I’m still praying for Final Fantasy VI to show up, I have been thankful for the release of Final Fantasy VII which any fan will tell you is the most loved game in the series.

This online version of FFVI is probably as close as you can get to the actually game without actually buying yourself a hard copy – every side quest, chocobo ride and boss battle is here. So I suggest that if you want to relive the greatest heart breaking moment in gaming history, then download this game now. As for the newcomers to the game, please don’t delay – buy today, so you can finally understand what we FF fans are finally babbling about. Aerith who?

Buy it!

Sam and Max: Beyond Space and Time
Telltale Games
Available on the Xbox Live Marketplace

Sam and Max: Beyond Space and Time aka Sam and Max: Season 2 has finally made its way to the Xbox Live Marketplace. Based on the comic books series by Steve Purcell, this point and click adventure game follows up Season one aka Sam and Max Save the World which is also available on the Xbox Live Marketplace.

The crazy crime fighting duo of Sam and Max bring you five of the weirdest stories for your adventure solving pleasure. Sam and Max will encounter everyone from Abe Lincoln to Santa Claus during these coo-coo adventures and you will need to think outside of the box in order to keep up with them.

Each episode is better than the last and the hilarious dialog will have you rolling on the floor laughing. While I am a fan of the old 2D graphics from Sam and Max: Hit the Road, I do like the updated 3D graphics used by Telltales. Overall, this is a great series and I suggest my readers check out both Season 1 and 2.

Buy it!

Borderloads DLC: The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned
2k Games, Gearbox Software
Available on the Xbox Live Marketplace, Playstation Network and Steam

Considering how huge a game Borderlands is on its itty bitty own, it’s hard to believe anyone would want to purchase additional quests for the game but honestly offer up anything with zombies in it and I will buy. The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned is the first downloadable content for the holiday hit, Borderlands, which brings your team to the creepy island of Jakob’s Cove. There you discover zombies are eating the locals and you need to find away to stop them, starting with seeking helping from Dr. Ned – no relation with Dr. Zed, your health provider in the Arid Badlands.

There are quite a few new quests, items and enemies here for your skag killing enjoyment. The humour in the main story is far more off the wall than anything you’ll find in the main Borderlands game and the new enemies will have you on your toes every minute you traverse these new swamp lands.

Zombie related content is usually better released at Halloween but I’ll take my zombies any way I can get them. Zombie lover or not, I highly suggest Borderland fans check this download out whether you have finished the main game or not. The quests are tailored to your character’s current level, so you can jump in any time.

Buy it!

Spike TV Video Game Awards 2009

Spike TV is back with the Video Game Awards on December 12th, 2009 and you can vote now for your favorite games. Head over to the website to vote for all your favorite titles in the catergories like Game of the Year, Best Soundtrack, Best PC Game, Best Downloadable Content and more.

This year is packed full of amazing titles and I personally had a hard time picking my favs. Just take for example the 5 games up for game of the year:

1. Batman: Arkham Asylum
2. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
3. Assassin's Creed 2
4. Left4Dead 2
5. Call of Duty 2: Modern Warfare 2

How the hell do you choose one game from a list that full of great games? I choose Uncharted 2 but it was a close tie with Batman and Assassin's Creed 2.

VGA 2009 Mystery World Premiere #1 | SpikeTV | SPIKE.com

Spike TV has also been showing off their award show exclusives this year via commercials which includes a mystery shooter game from 2K Games (shown above), Halo Reach, Tron: the Movie and a new Star Wars game.

The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom: Debut Trailer

If you can't guess why I like this game, then you don't know me very well. This Winterburn will definitely be supporting any game with a character named P.B. Winterbottom. Too cute, especially since I got a photos back once with the name Winterbum on them. Yeah.


Anyway, this is an indie-ish title from the people at 2K Games and The Odd Gentleman which will be available on the Xbox 360 sometime early next year.

Review: BioShock for the Playstation 3

BioShock
2K Games, Irrational Games
Available for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360

With so much information circulating on the internet currently about the next instalment in the BioShock series, BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams, I thought this would be the perfect time to review the Playstation 3 version of BioShock. Now originally BioShock was released on the Xbox 360 to a mass of clamouring fans who developed a taste for the game from its under-hyped demo released on Xbox Live. The first person shooter was an overnight success, but when 2K Games decided to release the title again on the Playstation 3, they thought it would be a good idea to create some additional downloadable content to be released along aside it as to entice the Sony crowd. Whether the new content made the different or not, the game sold and the Playstation crowd learned what it is like to visit the dark corners of Rapture.

BioShock begins with a horrifying plane crash in the 1960s and a lone survivor named Jack swimming from the wreckage towards a strange tower in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Having no where else to go, Jack must enter the building in which he finds the entrance to an underwater city called Rapture. Rapture was a city created by Andrew Ryan in 1946, as a place for brilliant minds to work together away from government rule. Unfortunately when Jack arrives Rapture had already begun its downward spiral and the city has been taken over by the Splicers, the insane or mutated citizens of Rapture.

Luckily for Jack, Atlas, one of the normal citizens of Rapture manages to contact him via Radio and asks that he save his wife and child in exchange for helping him escape from Rapture. By this point though, Alex Ryan has learn of Jack’s presence too and has sent enemies after you. Here this point on you must help Jack make all his choices in order to learn what happen to this utopian city and ultimately escape it.

While BioShock is a first person shooter in the fact that you use guns to defend yourself in the game, what really set this game apart from the normal FPS genre are the genetic enhancements. Along with guns and melee weapons, Jack will receive items called plasmids that will allow your character to use genetic enhancements like electric shock. There are also tonics in the game will give your character special perks such as damage resistance and camouflage. You will be able to purchase these items through the game with a substance called ADAM which is collecting via the Little Sisters in the game.

Little Sisters are products of the city of Rapture; human girls warped into collecting ADAM from the dead who are always protecting by giants in diving suits called Big Daddies. Big Daddies are nasty creatures as warped by the people of Rapture to destroy anyone who tries to hurt a Little Sister. As you dive further into the game, more in revealed about the history of these two Rapture creatures and you will learn there will be hard choices to in regards to their future.

Probably one of the most drawing aspects of BioShock is the graphics, which amazes you from the moment the plane hit’s the water. As Jack swims for his life in the Atlantic Ocean, you can’t help but spend a few moments watching the flames from the crash dance and reflect on the water. As you reach the strange building, you wander around inside and out gazing up at the architectural structure from the 1940s and feel like you are almost really there. Once inside Rapture, you’ll walk terrified through the dark halls waiting for the Splicers to pounce on you, and yet you still will be staring up at the wall of city, amazing by its beauty. My only complaint is that the developers didn’t take the time to put more variety into the different Splicers and their outfits, because it feels like you’re fighting the same people over and over again through the city.

Adding to the wonderful graphics, the sound, the music and the voiceovers were all stellar and really added to the life and atmosphere of Rapture. I believed every bit of this city to be real, and I feared it and loved it for every minute that I spent in it. From the creep voices of the Splicers calling out from the dark for your blood to the wonderful music from the 1940s era, the audio people didn’t miss a beat on adding to the world of Rapture.

Though this new Playstation 3 version could have still done with an online version or some co-op play, the exclusion of a new mode and some downloadable content definitely made my second trip to Rapture much more interesting. The new survivor mode made the enemies much tougher and the vita-chamber less useful for health boosts, and three new challenge rooms available for download at $10 gave me the opportunity to use my skills learn in Rapture to solve new puzzles and take out Big Daddies.

Being that this is my second time playing through BioShock, once on the Xbox 360 and now on Playstation 3, I think my choice to recommend this game as purchase is pretty obvious. From the fabulous storyline to the perfectly created world of Rapture, BioShock is one of those games that draws you into it and makes you believe it’s real. All it took was the demo for me to love this game; I know all it will take is the first 5 minutes for you to love it too.

Rating: 10 out of 10
Buy it!

Review: Civilization Revolution

Civilivation Revolution
2K Games, Firaxis Games
Available on Xbox 360 & Playstation 3

Given the list of the confirmed games I knew were coming out this season and lack of my favourite franchises on that list, I knew didn't have a lot of titles to get extremely excited over this year. This week’s review however, was one of those games I have been counted down the weeks and days to. Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution is a newly, re-imagined sequel to the popular Civilization franchise made specifically for the consoles. As a fan of this popular PC series, I couldn't wait to jump on the couch to finally play this long awaited title.

Simplified and streamlined to make the game easier to control for newcomers to the series, Civ Rev has trimmed away all the micro-managing of the previous games and focused more on basic victory goals, smaller maps, and easier to navigate menus. While this may be great system to use with console games or for new players, I actually found I missed having my cities starve from lack of food or being able to set my gem mines up. For those little details though, I guess I’ll just have to run back to my old PC version of Civilization every once in a while.

The victory system has been simplified into four main goals: world domination, scientific achievement, cultural achievement, and economic achievement. The single player game has you pick from one of 16 civilizations which you must lead to victory through one of those 4 goals. You can modify your single player experience through difficultly, scenarios, or the random game of the week option. These options can either increase or decrease the time needed to reach a specific goal victory.




The multiplayer, while a little slow between turns, work pretty good on Xbox Live and the PS3 Network. You have the choice of ranked or match making games with up to 3 other playrs. There are leader boards and the game supports voice and video chat, though I only suggest video chat with the people you trust. There are some scary people on Xbox Live at 3am in the morning who like to eat cheetos and play Civ Rev in the buff.

The graphics are a larger, glossier cartoon version of its predecessors. With smaller maps, the icons have been enlarged and animated for easier distinction from other units. Your advisors which pop up from time to time to help you through the game are cartoons which look a lot like some recent political figures. Oddly they also have adapted to the language of simlish or something similar if that statement going to get somebody sued. There is a bit of cool jungle beats throughout the game but not as much as previous versions. My favourite feature in my previous civ game was the groove music that played throughout the main game play and sadly none is featured here.

While I've been wasting away the hours glued to my TV screen with the new Civilization Revolution, I doubt it will be replacing any of the PC versions in their glorious reign any time soon. I like that I can sit and play this simplified version on my console, but I missed the micro-managing and I missed the groovy tunes during the game play. Fans of the series could either hate this game or love it to death. For myself, it really depends on how retro I feel that day and today I’m feeling like change it good, so buy it.

Rating 9 out of 10
Buy it!

2K Games Announces Sid Meier;s Civilization IV: Colonization for PC

2K Games, announced today that Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization, the next game in the long running series of Civilization IV games, is currently in development at 2K's Firaxis Games development studio. Conceived from the ground up to take advantage of the Civilization IV engine, Colonization will be available fall 2008 exclusively for the PC.

"We've received many requests from fans over the years to bring back Colonization and now seemed to be the perfect time to do that," said Sid Meier, director of creative development at Firaxis Games. "The Civilization IV engine provided a fantastic foundation for a newColonization experience and allowed us to create something great for both new players and long time fans of the game."

In Colonization, players lead one of four European nations on a quest to conquer and rule the New World. Players will be challenged to guide their people from the oppressive motherland, discover the New World, and negotiate, trade and fight with both the natives and other nations as they acquire power and fight for freedom and independence.

As a complete reimagining of the 1994 classic, Colonization is a total conversion of Civilization IV that combines Civilization's "just one more turn" gameplay with all-new graphics and features that add more depth to the franchise. Other new features in the game will include a brand-new interface, improved diplomacy options and included modding tools.

As a big fan of the RTS genre, I look forward to checking Civilization IV: Colonization when it hits store shelves this fall.