From Retro to Renew: Battle Chess

So when I was a kid I played I a lot of PC games my Father would trade from friends and such. One such games was called Battle Chess which was released by Interplay in 1988. I wasn't really good at playing chess but I loved watching each character battle it out for the chess spot. Each Chess piece would react differently to another piece type and it was so cool to watch their battle moves.


SouthPeak Games is coming out with a new version of this classic game, Battle vs Chess and has a new trailer posted for it. It looks pretty darn cool and again, though I sucked at chess, I would totally play this game just to watch the pieces battle it out for the space

To quote Ron Wesley "That's Wizard's Chess!"

Reviews: Dragon Age Origins - DLCs & Expansion Pack

Dragon Age: Origins - All Download Content and Expansion Packs
EA, Bioware
Available for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC

Dragon Age Origins is probably the best RPG game available on the market right now and while you can play the main disc over and over again for multiple endings and different game play experiences, it’s still nice to know that there is add-on content available for the game. Currently you can download 2 new quests, 1 expansion pack and 2 item packs for the game and I’ve reviewed them all to save you from wasting some good coin on unworthy content.

Dragon Age Origins: The Stone Prisoner
Downloadable Content

This downloadable quest was available as a free extra when you purchased the initial game, so this review is really more for those who buy a used copy of the game. The Stone Prisoner starts with an encounter with a merchant who gives you a control rod for a Golem and information on where he got the rod. Following his information, you arrive in a small town which is under a Darkspawn attack and there you find the rod’s matching broken stone golem, and its former owner’s son in need of much help. Once you complete the son’s mission, you will walk away with the key to a new party member, a stone golem named Shale.

While the main quest of The Stone Prisoner will only take you a couple of hours to complete, the new character and items you gain are quite worth the money spent on the download. Not only do you get a new powerful ally who uses crystals as armor and weapons but you will gain new dialog with this character and eventually a new companion quest which is both funny and enlightening.

Honestly even if this content hadn’t been free with my game purchase, I would have purchased it anyway because Shale alone is worth the spending the all those points. If I had to recommend any download quest as your first, this would be it.

Buy it!

Dragon Age Origins: Return to Ostagar
Downloadable Content

Dragon Age Origins: Return to Ostagar was the first real download made available for purchase after the release of the game. The add-on content was setup as a quest to find the body of King Cailan and Duncan as well as important documents but what the quest really turned out was a poor excuse to get King Cailan’s armor. You end up battling random Darkspawn in the snow for a bunch of armor pieces that aren’t even worth the time unless you decide to download this quest early on in your travels. The rest of the quest is just fluff as far as I’m concerned because even though you manage to find and give final rights to King Cailan, the developers left out finding Duncan’s body which to me should have meant way more to my characters. Sure, you get to slay the ogre that killed him and Cailan but who cares ... I wanted to lay Duncan’s body to rest as well.

The quest is just too short and completely lacking any good items to make it a worthwhile download. Basically this quest was so useless to me when I downloaded it at the end of my main game that I could compare it to the horse armor download for Oblivion, so unless you are really obsessed with having every download available from this game, I would avoid this add-on like the plague.

Pass on it!

Dragon Age Origins: Awakenings
Downloadable Content or Purchase as Hard Disc

I would think that any game that starts you off naked is probably not a good sign. Dragon Age Origins: Awakening was the first true expansion to Dragon Age Origins. Available both as a download or hard disc purchase, Awakening offered a new story, new characters and a whole new land to go killing in. Playing as either your previous Dragon Age Origins character (possibly resurrected) or as a new Grey Warden from Orlais, you arrive at Virgil’s Keep in Amaranthine as the new Grey Warden commander, just as the keep is being attacked by Darkspawn. Once the stronghold is retaken, you discover the Darkspawn are different than before: they are intelligent and split into two feuding factions. With this new information, you must quickly rebuild the Grey Wardens’ defences and defeat the Darkspawn before they destroy everything.

While I can’t say this expansion was a horrible follow-up to the initial game, I can say that it sure as heck wasn’t worth its sticker price. When I spend cash on my games I expect the dollar value to match the game value and if you compare the value of the first game to the value of this game, they don’t match up in the least bit. The first game took me a week to finish roughly and cost $64.99 while the expansion took me 2 days and cost $44.99, so you can see already this expansion isn’t earning its worth. On top of that, they destroyed my favourite part of the first game which was the great characters and their dialog. You get one character in your party from the first game which is Oghren and the rest are all new plus you don’t get to talk to them whenever you choose, only when the game lets you.

There were a couple of new features that made the game a little bit better than the first like the storage chest which would have been handy in the original game and there were some new skills that allowed characters to built up health, stamina, etc. Ultimately I think the storyline is worth a walkthrough if you want to keep saving the world from Darkspawn but I would honestly wait for the price to come down as I feel the expansion is not long or good enough to paid full sticker price for.

Pass on it!

Dragon Age Origins: Blood Dragon Armor
Downloadable Content

The Blood Dragon Armor was the first item you could purchase for Dragon Age: Origins and it came as a free item with your game purchase. Again this review would be for people who bought a used copy of the game. This armor purchase had a couple of good and bad points about it which made it a 50/50 either way purchase. On the good side, it was a strong armor that once purchased all components could be found easily for sale at the camp and a couple of components were placed in your inventory for free. Also the DLC came with a bonus armor download for Mass Effect 2 which was good because it was like getting two items for one.

But on bad side of things, the armor isn’t useful until later on the game when your characters were strong enough to wear it, so you have to cart the extra two pieces around in your inventory which took up precious room and the armor could only be worn by strong characters so buying the armor for the first time is only a good idea if you have a fighter as your main character, otherwise expect a companion to sport the new goods.

Ultimately I think this armor is really only good as a freebie and I wouldn’t personally have downloaded it even if I had bought Mass Effect 2. But hey, some people are item buyers and I’m just not one of them so if you want to jazz up your characters with hot looking armor, then go for it.

Pass on it!

Dragon Age Origins: Feast Day Combo Pack
Downloadable Content

Now I know I said I wasn’t an item buyer on a general basis but I can make exceptions if the items help me rule the world as Queen. The Feast Day Combo Pack was released on April Fool’s Day and it was filled with custom gifts and pranks for your companions plus a bunch of mini gifts and pranks. While the custom pranks aren’t exactly useful in my mind unless you are trying to drive everyone in your party away, the custom gifts are extremely useful as were the mini gifts. The custom gifts will give you a 50 point boost with each companion which is some cases is enough to start a flirtation with a character. Add on the mini gifts and you have a guaranteed flawless relationship with any one as long as you don’t do anything huge to tick them off like defile an urn of sacred ashes.

Now both the custom pranks and the gifts are available in separate download packs but you can’t get the mini gifts without buying the prank pack, so honestly you may as well spend the points and buy the combo pack which is cheaper than the two packs combined. It’s worth it just to see all the funny pranks and their effects but just remember to save before you use them.

Buy it!

Complete DVD for Tales of Monkey Island Now Available for Pre-Order

Those loyal fans who have been playing Tales of Monkey Island for several months can now opt to upgrade their series to the ultimate DVD collector's package in standard or deluxe edition. Telltale Games has put together two DVD packages which include the complete Tales of Monkey Island series on a DVD PC-ROM which can be upgrade to by current series owners or purchased by those late to the party.

The first option is the standard edition which comes with a DVD which includes the following:
* The complete five episode season of Tales of Monkey Island
* Highlight reel with commentary from Telltale design team
* Production art gallery
* Five fan-created "I Wonder What Happens" video collection
* Two Tales of Monkey Island official trailers
* Preview of Telltale's next game, Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse
* Desktop wallpapers and fun forum avatars

If you already own all the episodes from Tales of Monkey Island, then this DVD is free plus shipping and handling. It's $34.95 for first time buyers.


The second option is the deluxe edition which includes all the stuff listed above and the following:
* DVD slip case designed by Monkey Island art legend Steve Purcell
* A previously un-discovered new card from the Voodoo Lady's deck
* Gulf of Melange Map
* Commemorative button from Guybrush's Trial of the Century
* Drink coaster from Club 41
* Piratey piece of eight coin


If you already own all the episodes from Tales of Monkey Island, then you can upgrade to the Deluxe Edition for only $14.95 plus shipping and handling. It's $49.95 for first time buyers. Head to the Telltale Games site to pre-order yours now.

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!

ToMI - Episode 5: Rise of the Pirate God Available December 5th for PC

If you've been playing the Tales of Monkey Island games like I've been, you know Episode 4 finishing on a cliffhanger and the outcome was not good for our hero, Guybrush.

On December 8th, Telltale Games will release the 5th and final episode in the Tales of the Monkey Island series, Rise of the Pirate God. Fans will finally get to find out the fate of our favorite mighty pirate.

I really hope that Telltale decides to create another block of episodes for the Monkey Island franchise like they did with the Sam & Max franchise. I have been massively impressed with their reboot of the series and don't want them to stop.

If you haven't checked out any of the Monkey Island games yet, please do. You can now purchase single episodes of the game for $8.95 or the full package for $34.95. There's also a demo available for the first episode. You can find everything here.

Review: Wolfenstein

Wolfenstein
Activision, ID Software, Raven Software
Available for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC

Nostalgia can be a huge motivator. You can see the effects of it in the market currently as a generation of 80s kids is now all grown up, and creating and buying icons from their childhood. The gaming industry is definitely one of those markets that is seeing more and more icons from my childhood return in sequels and re-makes. Sometimes this can be a good thing like the case of the Telltale Games and their revamp of the Sam & Max and Monkey Island franchises or a bad thing like the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise which really just needs to die.

One game series to get a next generation make over is the Wolfenstein series which was first created in 1981 by Muse Software with the game, Castle Wolfenstein. The newest instalment in the series is a direct sequel to the game, Return to Castle Wolfenstein which was made by Id software and created in 2001. Return to Castle Wolfenstein followed the story of an American soldier, William “B.J.” Blazkowicz, as he tried to escape from a Nazi stronghold and overthrow the regime.


Well, Blazkowicz is back in Wolfenstein and this time, he’s taking on the Nazi army from the outside. Set during World War 2, Agent Blazkowicz is sent to by the OSA to Isenstadt look into a mysterious medallion he finds on a Nazi warship during a mission to stop an attack on London but when he arrives, the Nazis not only knew he were coming but they have an ambush prepared for him. B.J. manages to escape but during the process sets off a strange weapon in the Nazi’s possession which removes the gravity from the area.

After B.J. meets up with his contacts in the area, you discover the Nazis have been looking into the occult and B.J. manages to steal another medallion from them much like the first one he found on the warship. This one, the Thule Medallion, allows you to enter a strange barrier dimension which stands between our world and the world of the Black Sun which is full of strange floating monsters.

The medallion also gives you special powers like veil sight which allows you to walk through walls or veil shield which protects you against bullets. In order to power up the medallion, you must find crystals called Nachtsonne to increase its power and they can only be found in Isenstadt.

Beyond the medallion powers, Wolfenstein plays pretty much like any other FPS game as you must run and gun your way through the levels. You will be given a multitude of weapons to find, purchase and upgrade throughout the game but I pretty much stuck to one gun throughout. You will have access to a black market to buy your weapons, ammos and more between each level.


The game at first starts out on a linear path but will soon open up to a sand box type world where you will have the opportunity to choose what mission you go on. After you complete a mission, you will be able to teleport back to base and purchase new weapons and upgrades. During missions, there are side items to locate like Nazi gold and intelligence reports.
The A.I in the game is horrible as most soldiers will stand still as you toss grenades at them. Honestly, the game is only really difficult because the developers decided to cram the game full of enemies and throw them at you in mass amounts. Some levels have so many enemies being thrown at you that the only way to pass them is with the use of the veil powers.

As I am not a huge FPS fan, I tend to base my love of the genre of the other aspects found in the game as shooting hordes of enemies for several hours is just not enough to keep me interested. I generally like a game with a good plot, graphics or some sort of hook. This game was lack quite a bit of those.

While the storyline in Wolfenstein is cool enough, the way it was present was poorly done in my opinion as it took forever to get the information across. Instead of giving the player a nice entertaining cut scene to explain the story, you have to instead talk to several informants and contacts to find out what is going on and you don’t get to talk to them just once – no, you have to talk to them multiple times which just seems to drag on and on.


Graphically the game is not bad with the occult special effects wowing you at every move but when you compare it to current games on the market like Halo ODST and even Call of Duty: WoW, the graphics could be better. The characters were incredible rigid in the cut scenes and there were a lot of glitches like walking partially through walls or enemies getting stuck in open doors. Such a shame that the graphics weren’t up to par since this game had huge potential.
The audio wasn’t much better as each unimportant character sounded stiff and similar as if they pulled the development team in to do the extra voiceovers rather than hire a real voiceover guy for them. The soundtrack was decent with a lovely epic battle music track following your every move as you blow those nasty Nazi soldiers away.

For a fan of the Wolfenstein series, this is a good game to pick up and relive your childhood but for players looking for something with a little more meat, I would suggest looking at other FPS games on the market before you head here. Wolfenstein is a decent FPS but decent is just not enough here to stand out in seas of Call of Duties and Halos.

Rating: 7 out of 10
Rent it

Two Good Reasons to Download Tales of Monkey Island Now

Episode 1 is still free and there's Murray in the 3rd episode. See, I have photographic proof, so why want any longer. GO AND DOWNLOAD THESE GAMES!

Few people know that you can still get your free demo copy of Tales of Monkey Island - Episode 1: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, if you just follow this link - FREE DEMO HERE

Episode 3: Lair of the Leviathan will be available for download on September 29th, so I suggest you hurry up and download the 1st and 2nd episodes if you haven't already. Both 1&2 are also available as Wiiware titles if you prefer.

For those of us, you have played the first two games, we'll have to be tied over with these new screenshots until Tuesday.

Review: Tales of Monkey Island - Ep.2 - Siege of Spinner Cay

Tales of Monkey Island: Episode 2 – Siege of Spinner Cay
Telltales Games
Available as a PC Download and as Nintendo Wiiware.

Avast ye scurvy dogs, tis time for the next episode in the Tales of Monkey Island story. In July, Telltales games released the first episode in the Tales of Monkey Island series which received excellent reviews from the fans and the game media. On August 20th, Episode 2: Siege of Spinner Cay was released and I’m here to tell you if it’s worth following Mr. Threepwood’s adventures past the first cannon shot and witty remark.

If you managed to pick up the first episode, you’ll remember that we left our hero at the end of a pirate’s blade which we soon find out belongs to a famous pirate hunter hired by the Marquis who is still trying to catch Guybrush. After a few witty remarks and some quick reactions, Guybrush manages to escape the hunter with only a minor problem and decides to head off to find Elaine.

Arriving in Spinner Cay, he finds his sweet Elaine in good health but also trying to track down La Esponja Grande in order to remove the voodoo pox which is now affecting numerous pirates throughout the area. Elaine has teamed up with the now human LeChuck in order to convince the Merfolk inhabitants of Spinner Cay to give them the sponge. This does not make Guybrush happy and he does everything he can to save the day on his own in order to impress Elaine.


From here out, you must use Guybrush’s usual problem solving skills to search the island for the clues to finding the La Esponja Grande. You must collect items, talk to the natives and use your noggin to help Guybrush navigate all the problems he encounters on the islands. The puzzles were a lot harder this time around compared to the first episode and I’m ashamed to admit even I had to cheat on a puzzle or two.

Fans will be happy to know that even more Monkey Island references from previous games popped up in this new episode like insult sword fighting and the inclusion of the original Monkey Island theme. The humour in the game ring true again whether in it be in the dialog or the puzzles. You honestly can’t help but chuckle playing these games.

The controls are still the same in game with the option of using either the mouse or the keyboard. I still found the keyboard controls were much easier to move Guybrush around on screen. Though I found a few glitches in the first episode, I found no problems this time around but keep in mind that PC versions are different from computer to computer.

The graphics were still the same beautiful 3D models used in the first episode which are created on the same engine that Telltale games using in their other series like Sam & Max. I really can’t get over how spectacular the characters look in this game, especially after the disaster that was the 3D Playstation 2 version of Monkey Island, Escape from Monkey Island. That game is the reason no one originally liked the idea of another 3D Monkey Island game because it fought like cow. How appropriate you fight like a dairy farmer! Wait, what?! Never mind.


Still happy to see original Monkey Island veterans, Dominic Armato and Alexandra Boyd voicing Guybrush and Elaine as the game wouldn’t be the same without them, but I also would like to point out the grand job that Adam Harrington and Kevin Blackton are doing for LeChuck’s voices. I know a lot of fans are mad that veteran actor, Earl Boen didn’t return but he’s retired apparently.

Now most fans would have been smart and probably purchased the whole series when Telltale games offered it up for a discounted price but for those who haven’t purchase any episode yet or just bought the first, I can’t stress how great these games are. Telltale Games has not only breathe new life into an amazing series for new & old fans to enjoy but they have also inspired the dinosaurs over at Lucasarts to finally start re-releasing all the old titles from their catalogue starting with a Special Edition of Secret of Monkey Island. I personally can’t wait for titles like Day of the Tentacle and Sam & Max: Hit the Road.

If I could kiss each and every one of the employees at Telltale game for what they’ve done for old school Lucasart fans, I would but hopefully they will consider this review like one big smooch instead. Definitely buy this and share it with a future gamer.

Rating: 10 out of 10
Buy it!

Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: the Videogame

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
EA Games, EA Bright Light
Available on Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, PSP, Playstation 2 and PC

Hit movies and videogames seem to go hand in hand nowadays like clockwork. One would almost be surprised if some gaming company didn’t produce some sort of game to launch along aside each summer blockbuster which is why no one should be surprised that this reviewer is checking out the newest Harry Potter game from EA, especially since the latest instalment in the series hit theatres just a month ago.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on the Xbox 360 follows Harry into another year at Hogwarts School for Witch Craft and Wizardry as he deals with learning potions, joining the duelling club, playing Quidditch and fighting against Lord Voldemort .The main part of the game will take you through the storyline from the movie/book and will require you to finish mini games, fetch quests and more in order to progress further into the story. There are tons of side quests for you to take on like collecting badges or joining the duel club, but there is so much already in the main quest that you will have your hands full to begin with.

The game controls will take a bit to get use to as you must learn different button sequences to cast Harry’s spells. Once you get the hang of them, it is quite fun to toss different objects around the room using your levitation spell. Finding your way around Hogwarts School is a challenge in itself, so I suggest everyone take advantage of the in-game guide, Nearly Headless Nick, who will take you to your desired location.

Fans will be quite happy with how accurate EA’s team was at bringing the world of Harry Potter to live. The characters, though a little stiff around the edges, looked exactly like their real world movie counterparts and Hogwarts School was most impressive with its massive size and neat, little details like the moving stairs.

Even the voice acting was pretty good, considering that EA couldn’t secure the real actors to provide the voice-overs for the game. Almost all the characters sounded like the real actor from the movie which made the game, all the more enjoyable to play. Happily the game soundtrack was the same soundtrack from the new movie, so each game moment was enhanced by that magically Harry Potter theme plus a few new tunes.

Playing some of the past Harry Potter, I have to say this game was pretty overwhelming in terms of environment size and number of quests, but the quality is definitely there for your money, so I can certainly say that if you are a big Harry Potter fan, then this is the game for you. The plot leaves a few parts out from the book and the movie but it still gives you enough magic to make you feel like you’re part of Harry’s World.

Rating: 7 out of 10
Buy it!

Missing Reviews: From Under the Game Pile

As many games as I review there are still plenty of great title that manage to get swept under the review pile over the course of my year and I hate to see them not get the once over that they deserve. While some of these titles have been out for a while I found them to be quite worth the time to check them out.

Too Human
Silicon Knights
Available on Xbox 360

Local St. Catharines game developers, Silicon Knights brought Too Human out last Fall and though it didn’t receive huge praise, I did find it to be an excellent title once you got past everyone else’s opinions on it. Honestly I can’t believe I didn’t review this title sooner but it just seemed to keep getting pushed back for other games and then I never got around to it.

Too Human is based on the Norse mythology and has you playing the role of Baldur, one of the Aesir, cybernetically enhanced humans which are seen as Gods to the humans they rule over. Baldur is tasked with protected his people from the sudden attacks of machine-like creatures that are feeding on human flesh. The game has the usual role-playing genre elements but includes some interest first time combat controls using the analog sticks and an item inventory that no one player could completely collect in just one play through.

I found the combination of technology and Norse mythology to be spectacular and the storyline that combined the various Norse Gods and Beowulf storyline was also gripping. While the combat took a bit of getting use to, I found the new use of the analog sticks for directional fighting moves was much easy for pulling off combo moves than most fighting systems I’ve used. Overall this is a beautiful game with an amazing storyline and since it was created by our hometown gaming studio, I think all local gamers should give it a chance.

Rating: 8 out of 10
Buy it!

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
Electronic Arts, Pandemic Studios
Available for PC, Playstation 3, Playstation 2 and Xbox 360

It’s been more than 3 years between the Mercenaries games which would make you wonder if that’s too long to go before making a sequel. Luckily for Pandemic Studio, fun never gets old and that is exactly want you get with Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.

The game puts in the middle of a rebellion in the country of Venezuela, where oil has become the main focus of the conflict. While the government has tried to maintain control of the situation, there are a number of factions working within the country trying to take control as well. You can work with 5 of those factions: Universal Petroleum, the People's Liberation Army of Venezuela, the Chinese army, the Allied Nations, and the Rastafarian Pirates, each of whom will give you missions in order to get you in better with the main up and comer in the area, Ramon Solano.

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames was a great “bomb the f@#K out of everything” kind of game. Everything in the world can take damage and best of all; you can run over everything with your vehicles so no more tiny trees stopping your rampage of death. The game sets you up with an A.I. buddy in the game, but playing the game in co-op mode is much better and removes any little glitches you may find with your A.I. pal.

The wide variety of missions and weapons at your disposal make this a sweet game to play through alone or with a friend. Best of all, your choice of 3 different characters to play with makes each time you play through with a different character a new challenge. If you’ve a fan of games like Grand Theft Auto IV, then I definitely suggest checking out this open world game.

Rating: 8 out of 10
Buy it!

Raving Rabbids TV Party
Ubisoft, Ubisoft
Available for Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS

If you’re looking for a goofy party game to play with your friends at your time drunken house party, then may I suggest adding the Rabbids to your guest list? Raving Rabbids TV Party is a goofy mini-game collection that will have you and your friends acting silly for hours on end.

After chasing Rayman to his home, an accident has caused the Rabbids to become trapped inside Rayman’s TV. It’s up to you to keep the new Rabbids TV station full of cool program by choosing from several mini games each day. The mini games range from B movie shooting galleries to American Idol parodied dance shows. All the games featured the classic Rabbids humour which is guaranteed to keep your party amused well into the night.

Unlike previous Rayman Rabbid games, this party game won’t force you to play all the games in the programming schedule, so you can just skip the harder mini games if you like. I found that playing this game with any remote other than your original Nintendo nunchuk and remote will make this game harder to complete, so don’t use any third party brands with it.

The controls are still not precise though even with the proper controllers. I honestly found that 75% of the games were pretty easy to pass but the rest were downright impassable. The Star Wars parody game is one that I remember to really hard and confusing in the controls. All and all, this is a great party game and one that I would recommend for family play and party nights.

Rating: 7 out of 10
Buy it!

Review: Tales of Monkey Island: Ep.1 - Launch of the Screaming Narwhal

Tales of Monkey Island: Episode 1 – Launch of the Screaming Narwhal
Telltales Games
Available via PC download at the Official Telltale Games Website

Good news, all my plunder bunnies! The newest adventure in the life of Guybrush Threepwood, mighty pirate has finally arrived from the wonderful people at Telltale Games, the developers who brought us the new episodic adventures of Sam & Max, freelance police. Tales of Monkey Island, another episodic game series launched its first of 5 episodes on July 7th to the joyful tears of millions of old school LucasArts adventure game fans and this reviewer got the chance to check out an early press copy 5 days before actual release date. To think it wasn’t even my birthday.

In the first episode, Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, we are introduced to our favourite hero again, Guybrush Threepwood as she attempts to save his beloved wife, Elaine from LeChuck, the Zombie Pirate for 5th time I think. At this point, I’ve lose count how many times that woman has been kidnapped by LeChuck. Anyway, Guybrush uses a magical recipe on a sword to kill LeChuck but something goes wrong, and LeChuck is turned human, the boat blows up and Guybrush wakes up on an island only to find his hand has a mind of its mind. A nasty mind at that.
From here out, you must help Guybrush find a way off the island and back to his sweet Elaine. Much like previous adventure games, you must help Guybrush through his journey by talking to people, collecting items and solving his problems. Talking to people is done though dialog trees which give you a series of responses or questions to ask each person you talk to. Most responses are quite humorous which is what these games are famous for, that and three-headed monkeys.

Problem solving is usually complete with the aid of your item inventory, but you must remember not to use your item logically because that’s not how the game works. For example, in the beginning Guybrush drops his bottle of root beer, so you must replace the ingredient. Instead of finding for root bear, you instead find a plant with large roots and a barrel of grog which when combined together becomes root beer. See you have to think outside the box. Fans will love to hear that the plant is Chuck the Plant.

Fans of the previous MI series will be happy to know that former LucasArts employees worked on this game like Dave Grossman and Michael Stemmle and even MI series creator, Ron Gilbert helped brainstorm the initial project. Honestly you can tell these guys had a hand in the process because the game feels like series picked up right after Curse of Monkey Island and everyone forgot that horrible 3D version on the PS2 never even existed.

Graphically, Telltale Games decided to stay away from the original 2D graphics found in the first 3 Monkey Island games, despite cries from the fans and went with their successful 3D engine used on games like Sam & Max. The 3D cartoon graphics look spectacular and make each character really pop on screen. The control scheme is pretty decent with the use of either keyboard or mouse to move Guybrush around.

The music in the game is classic Monkey Island calypso with a hint of a jaunty pirate tune. The voice of Guybrush is provided by veteran voice actor, Dominic Armato, who provided his voice in Curse of Monkey Island and we also see the return of Alexandra Boyd, who voiced Elaine. Kudos to the developers for an excellent job on the voice sync, though I found it odd that text dialog picks didn’t come out the same vocally. The idea was the same but not the wording. They were still funny either way.

Now I did find a couple of glitches in the game but I had an early press copy that hadn’t been completely debugged yet. I found that the maps I found in the game when examined would be blank sometimes and I would have to re-examine them to fix the glitch. Also I had one spot where my inventory refused to open and I had to restart the game, but only happened once. Again though, I was playing an early build of the game and they always have a bug or two. The main game I’m sure with not have these issues, so honestly I can’t factor these in on final opinion of this game.

Now that I’m done reviewing the first episode of Tale of Monkey Island, the only thing I regret is that I have to wait another month to play the next episode. Obviously the purchase of this game should be a no-brainer for fans of the Monkey Island series, especially since there are so many long lost friends showing up to help Guybrush along the way and so many tributes to the franchise hidden in the game, but for the newbies uncertain about this game, I can only say this: Play this game and not only will you finally understand all the strange inside jokes your older PC gaming friends are making finally but you will open your mind to one of the greatest franchises that LucasArts has ever made. Well, besides Star Wars and Indiana Jones.

Note: This game will be available in the future on Nintendo Wii via Wii Ware download.

Rating: 10 out of 10
Buy it!

E3 2009: Tales of Monkey Island

BEST NEWS I'VE HEARD ALL DAY! Well, this and that The Secret of Monkey Island is coming to XBLA.

Telltale Games, the glorious people who brought back the old Lucas Arts, Sam & Max franchise, have managed to bring life back to the Monkey Island franchise and even include the voice of the original Guybrush Threepwood in the new game.

Tales of Monkey Island will be available as episodic content for Wii Ware and the PC starting July 7th. Once all the episodes are released, Telltales will release them as a collector's edition disc. There is PC bundle pre-order available for $34.95 which all 5 episodes and more.

For more information, check out the official website.

Monkey Island Coming to Xbox Live Arcade

GAH!!!! NARF!!! SQUEE!!! *collaspes on floor from pure fangirl overload*

I'm sorry but it's been one of those months. First this and now I just found out that Monkey Island has been spotted on a Germany USK rating board as a "Special Edition Xbox 360 Re-Release" which means that Monkey Island is probably coming to Xbox Live Arcade or it could be coming out as an actual revamped game disc.

What the Special Edition means no knows is sure of, but speculation is that the game could be redone with better graphics or just come with a pretty poster in the box ... who knows, right?

This is great news, aspecially on the tail of the rumor that Lucas Arts is bringing back a old franchise like Monkey Island or Day of the Tentacle. Who knows maybe this is the franchise they're bringing back and they're starting with a revamp of the original Monkey Island?

Epic 8 bit Bead Art - Half Life on the NES

Half-Life Set - 8-bit Retroactive, originally uploaded by Arcade Art.

So what if the Half Life series had started on the original NES system instead of the PC? Well, Arcade Artist and Infinity Wave believe the game would have looked a little something like this.

This cool little art set is created with fused plastic beads and contains a Gordon Freeman, G-man and lab coat headcrab zombie bead sprite. It also comes with a collectible card featuring the "what could have been" NES box art for this Half Life game.

You can purchase this set at Arcade Artist's Etsy Store for $20 plus shipping or check out more of Arcade Artist's work on his flickr page.

Review: X-Blades

X-Blades
SouthPeak Interactive, Gaijin Entertainment
Available for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC

Southpeak’s newest title, X-Blades has been the talk of the web since its pants-free heroine made her photo debut. The pictures of the plucky little tomb raider had everyone wondering if X-Blades was going to be more than just a pretty face in ass-less chaps or something with actual descent game play and a good storyline. Now that the game is actual on the market, I guess it’s time to finally answer that question.

The story begins when Ayumi, our g-string wearing heroine discovers a map leading to an ancient artifact that contains the power of two powerful Gods, one light and one dark. Ayumi becomes cursed by these Gods once she touches the artefact and must venture to find a way to stop the powers of the Gods from awakening inside her.


Ayumi has a choice of two weapons: her blades which also double as guns. She can also unlock magic spells to use like fire or ice. As Ayumi takes out enemies in each area, she gains souls which can be transferred into your skills to unlock stuff like magic spells or special attacks. Each area has Ayumi clearing a stage of hundreds of enemies and collecting items like power stones. Once she clears the required amount of enemies or destroys the boss enemy, then the door to the next level will unlock.

From the menu, you can also purchase health refills as the game world does not offer any health potions that can used on screen. Your character’s health does return on its own but it does so slowly and it never really offsets the damage your character suffers unless you can find a good spot to hide.

The game makes use of a targeting system but considering how many enemies can be on screen at once, this system is incredible flawed. Tracking enemies as they dart back and forth through your field of view can be both challenging and frustrating at the same time. Ground units are much easier to track than flying units.

While the levels are often small in size the battles can last for a long time. One particular boss battle I fought for over fifteen minutes before I discovered a more efficient way of achieving my goal. The majority of your time will be spent in furious battle against seemingly endless waves of enemies which will get very repetitive and annoying unless you like that sort of thing. *cough* Dynasty Warriors *cough*

Failure in X-Blades results in your character starting back at the beginning of the level with all enemies resetting. Fortunately you get to keep all the souls and other goodies you already picked up. Death doesn’t occur often to be a real nuisance, but untimely deaths into a long fight forcing you to start all over can certainly make ones blood boil. It would certainly help if levels had save points or the ability to quick save your progress but that would certainly dull some of the challenge.


Graphically the game looks great and is enhanced through optional goodies like bump mapping and HDR lighting. Unfortunately the small level sizes rarely allow X-Blades to truly show its capabilities. The game also makes use of anime style cut scenes that are shown every few levels to explain and further the games storyline. It is during these intermissions that the developers advertising of an attractive heroine really comes to light. The camera pans around and behind Ayumi a healthy amount of times to give gamers a nice view of her significant lack of clothing. In fact if Ayumi had any less clothing the game would stand on very different store shelves such as those that cover up their windows and use many neon signs.

Though the game’s style succeeds in creating what looks like an attractive product, truthfully what you really get is just a hollow hack and slash with a sexy lead. X-Blades and its scantily clad heroine may provide an alternative to the much exhausted Tomb Raider franchise, but I personally would rather stick to staring at Lara Croft’s backside through another phoned-in sequel. At least I can look at her throughout the game without blushing.

Rating: 5 out of 10
Pass on it!

Grim Fandango Munny

Munny Calavera, originally uploaded by Kitt Walker.

Kitt Walker is a lucky guy to have such a talented girlfriend.

This amazing Grim Fandango munny was a custom made birthday present given to Kitt by his girlfriend, the artist behind the piece.

One of these days I plan to buy myself a munny and make my own custom piece, but until then I'll stick to my beads.

Review: Spiderman: Web of Shadows

Spider-man: Web of Shadows
Activison, Shaba Games
Available for Playstation 3, Playstation 2, PC, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS and Playstation Portable.

Spider-man, Spider-man, does whatever a spider can. This week I pulled Activision’s Spider-man: Web of Shadows off the shelf to see how good a non-movie related Spider-man game could be and apparently the developers at Shaba games can’t be trusted with a plotline, because this Spider-man has some serious problems.

The plot of Web of Shadows revolves around Venom’s attempt to take over the city and its heroes & villains with multiple versions of him, plus you get the added bonus plotline of Spider-man’s struggle with the black suit … again. Unfortunately though this sounds like a possibly cool storyline for a game, the developers destroyed any shred of credibility to it when they added the cheesy dialog and repetitive missions. Spider-man sounds like a whiny little creep and you don’t even want to get me started on characters like Wolverine.

Even the concept of the black and red suit fell flat when the developers failed to add significant differences between the two. Both had different powers in combat, provided different plotlines and even sparked different reactions in the crowds around you, but there were no consequences or benefits for Parker using the black suit all the time, other than a different plotline. The black suit was supposed to make Parker stronger and more evil and you really didn’t fully see that in the game.

Missions in the game were very repetitive and generally involved beating up 5, 10 or 50 guys and then leaving, or escorting someone somewhere. Later on you get into some better, more ludicrous missions but for the most part, you spend the game just beating on people or escorting them somewhere. Even the boss fights were pretty mundane with their quick time events.

The web slinging in the game thankfully remained perfectly in tack from former Spider-man games and was actually one of the few fun aspects of the game. Swinging from building to building gives you a huge sense of freedom in these games and I do have to give kudos to the developers for getting this part right. The rest of the controls were chaotic though from the web crawling to the camera system. I would be crawling up a building and Spider-man would be going the wrong way half the time or my camera would be moving through the side of the building’s wall.

Web of Shadows doesn't even look particularly good. Spider-Man's model is about the only thing with style and polish, but the rest of the city is dreadful in comparison to other game‘s environments. Standing atop one of the higher buildings is where this becomes most obvious as you look out upon the many rectangles sprouting from the ground… It's a far cry from the thriving metropolis presented in the films, and it makes swinging through the city a little bit confusing when no building really stands out. Thank God for the target icon.

The voice acting is probably what killed this game the most, not only because the actors were terrible, but because the dialog was written like it was written by a teenager for his internet fan fiction. Spider-man is supposed to have a wit about him and he came across more like a whiny, annoying jerk.

Activision did a fabulous job on Spider-man 2 which is probably the best Spider-man videogame to date, but Web of Shadows is a disaster. I wouldn’t even recommend this game to a fan of the comic books, because they would probably die a little inside to play it. Generally I’m not harsh when it comes to my videogame reviews, but when Activision has produced a better Spider-man game than this; I can’t help but be completely disappointed to play such tripe.

(Note: Xbox 360 Version Reviewed)

Rating: 4 out of 10
Pass on it!

BattleForge - Shadow Trailer

BattleForge Shadow Trailer

BattleForge is available for the PC and in stores this week.

Review: The Last Remnant

The Last Remnant
Square-Enix
Available for Xbox 360, PC, Playstation 3

Maybe I’m just to set in my ways, but when game companies start messing with the battle systems in my role-playing games, I tend to lose my enthusiasm when new games are released. When Square-Enix released The Last Remnant with a complete new battle system, I wasn’t sure if I was ready to learn to whole new system especially when they had so many other good rpgs on the market that stuck to the basic turn-based system, but they say you should learn something new everyday, so I dove in head first.

The Last Remnant follows the story of Rush Sykes and his kidnapped sister Irina. Within the first 15 minutes Rush sees his sister spirited away by a mysterious monster, in the middle of a battlefield. What follows is an epic adventure that sees Rush becoming friends with a huge cast of characters consisting mainly of a young Lord named David (pronounced Daveed) and his four generals. David, his kingdom, the fate of Rush, a sinister figure known as the Conqueror and the entire world of The Last Remnant slowly unfold into a political epic so complex that rivals Final Fantasy XII.

At first the battle system seems pretty simple enough when the game throws you into your first enemy fight within the first two minutes of game play, but as the game proceeds you must learn to adapt and learn new systems quickly as the game will throw in new elements constantly. Even when you think you understand how to play through battles, the game will remove your friends and force you to seek out new companions to create new battle groups which isn’t explained well.

Players must form battle groups which can include up to five characters. You will provide commands your 5 members each round, but the commands aren’t normal like cast heal, instead you must provide commands like “Go All Out” or “Keep Up HP” which draw from either mystic or combat arts. Your group also shares all health points and ability points, so your group lives, grows and dies together.

The load times in this game were lengthy and frequent which when you’re trying to making your way through a long storyline scenes and various battle locations, all those load times can get pretty annoying after a while. Sometimes you were seeing that load screen every 2 to 5 minutes which is great if you like to eat or knit during your game play. If you do decide to download the game to your hard drive with the new NXE loading, then the load times do drop down from about 20 seconds to roughly 2 to 5 seconds.

On the high side, the environments and character graphics in this game are pure Square-Enix gold and look absolutely spectacular on a high definition TV. The character and enemy designs are quite detailed and beautiful to look at. The cut scenes probably have to be where the game really shines in graphics though and I would hope this is going to be the industry standard for how amazing rpg games should look.

The musical score in the game is quite stellar with its orchestral soundtrack. The music especially comes to a high point during the battle scenes with its intense points and gripping elements. Though I can’t see this soundtrack being as memorable as previous Square games, it still manages to bring life to this game and its world.

While I found the storyline for The Last Remnant to hold some fascination for me, it was perhaps my stubborn nature that didn’t allow me to evolve into this game and its new battle system. The chaotic mess that was thrown at me a few hours after I thought I completely understood the system, ended up turning me off from wanting to continue with this game. Perhaps I might go back to it someday, but for now I return to the safety my other Square-Enix games that keep with the basic turn-based system. Those games I understand.

Rating: 6 out of 10
Rent it!

Sacred 2: Fallen Angel Trailer

Sacred 2: Fallen Angel is an action-RPG unlike anything you’ve ever played! With a massive, hand-designed game world, hundreds of monsters, two distinct campaigns and six unique character classes, Sacred 2 will immerse you in a world of adventure and magic. Sacred 2 combines the best elements of hack ‘n slash gaming, roleplaying and an engrossing story about a magical world on next-generation consoles.

Key Features

* An epic adventure in a massive game world that guarantees countless hours of enjoyment across two amazing campaigns
* Six unique characters that you can customize with new skills, spells, equipment and loot
* Join your friends through seamless drop in cooperative and competitive play on the same console or online for up to four players
* Hundreds of monster types to challenge your character’s magical powers and fighting prowess
* Stunning graphics in true HD-quality
* A powerful soundtrack featuring music from renowned Heavy Metal act- Blind Guardian

ESRB Rating: M for Blood and Gore, Violence
Genre: RPG
Also Available On: PC, PS3, XBOX 360
Release Date: March 24, 2009
MSRP: $59.99