Now. Some people might be ecstatic over this. I am definitely not one of those people. When a game gets a sequel, you at least want it to have a few new features that makes it distinguishable against the rest of the games in its series. Crackdown 2 has none of those features. The same ability and orb xp system are in play from the first one. There are no added abilities in the mix, but the now have “renegade orbs” which will flee from you when you try to collect them. After a short chase in either a car, or on foot, you’re able to snag it and add its xp to the rest of your collection. That just about concludes the new features…

The story is barely different from the original. Its the same deal with the cops and robbers part, but now there are zombies. Zombies? Yes. Zombies. A massive infection has blah blah blah blah blah. I’m a huge fan of zombies. Putting zombies in a game usually makes me buy it, but this time it just makes me sad. They are what the bulk of the redundant story centers around. For the whole game, except a hand full of missions thrown in occasionally and at the end, its all about trying to take down the zombies. You fight your way thru regular baddies to get to the zombie weapons. Use the zombie weapons. Repeat. And that is the next 4 or 5 hours of your life. The other 2 or 3 hours of the game will be filled up with you trying to max out your abilities. Then game over.  Multiplayer is almost the exact same experience, just with a friend. Your character won’t transfer over from the single player, tho. You will have to work on a new / different one in the online mode.

As far as the technical side goes, its almost rock solid. I never had any problems with any glitches or errors. It always played smoothly. Even the multiplayer seemed to run fine with no lag or problems. The blend of normal CG mixed with cell shading is really awesome to take in when you get out to the more natural parts of the game and away from the city. The real problem i found with this game is its targeting system. If there is more than one target on the screen, then good luck picking out the one you want. The targeting reticle will lock on to everything. Bad guy. Good guy. Cop. Car. Whatever. It doesnt distinguish whatsoever between who youre supposed to be shooting and who youre not, so you wind up targeting everything and the kitchen sink before youre actually able to pick out what you need to. This was an incredible hassle for me.

This game is an ok time waster. I regret putting the time in to the story because of the lack of story, and the lack of mission variation. Its good for hopping on and having 20 minutes of fun before a movie or something, but as a game that you would actually sit down and play, its just one big ‘eh’. Shoulder shrug included. I definitely would not pay full price for this game. I would feel ok paying 20 or 30 maybe, but for a game that lacks anything that should make it be called Crackdown 2 instead of Crackdown 1.5, its not worth the full launch price.

Crackdown 2

I know…I know…this is the billionth splinter cell in the series. What could possibly make this game worth getting over other big hitters like Just Cause 2 Final Fantasy XIII? Well I hate to break it to you, kittens, but there aren’t too many new features that are going to ‘wow’ you over to this game. It just continues getting a little bit darker, and give you actual guns this time! No more taser rifle, or air foil guns. This is mainly just the next in the line of games, so if you’re looking for something new, youre probably going to want to keep this one as a renter.

The visuals are all top knotch, except for the cinematic scenes before and after the levels. The models and environments in those actually look worse than the in-game engine. Backwards? I know its supposed to be grainy to simulate the film quality, but there is still a noticeable difference  between the two, and not in the way it should be. Thats the only gripe I had on the technical side at all besides the AI, but the AI is just what youve come to expect from any other Splinter Cell title. I didnt find any problematic glitches at all. The controls are a little different since there was the introduction of the ‘mark and execute’ system, but absolutely nothing off the wall that is going to make you completely fudge up your game, like jumping up and yelling instead of sliding in to cover.

The story is the selling point, and its pretty killer. Pun intended. It finally winds down the saga and Fischer’s story, and reveals some info that kind of throws you for a loop at a few points. Just like Assassin’s Creed II, it was really the story of the game that kept me playing. The game, as a whole, has kind of fallen in to just a “go here, kill them quitely’ style of play, which has its pros and its cons. Its almost just a straight line from point A to point B.

The motion and movement on this game was pretty disappointing. In the previously released versions, you were able to hop on, over, behind, etc. etc. almost everything in the game. In Conviction, however, you are extremely limited to what you can do with the environment. Its almost a skeleton of what it used to be in that regard. You are still able to venture off the beaten path and find the super sneaky ways of getting to where you need to go, but you just dont have the options that you used to when it comes down to escaping or getting wily in both the single and multiplayer modes.

The last thing I’ll hit on is the multiplayer modes and unlockables. They have cut out the spy vs mercenary side to it. Everything except for one mode revolves around co-op, which again, has its pros and its cons. The story mode for co-op is a decent length. Its not just a filler like it is on some games. The unlocks are decent. You unlock different weapons after so much game play, and are able to upgrade both them and your uniforms to give you more access to gadgets, ammo, armor. you know how it goes.

This game is a must play, but not so much a must buy at the launch price. Give it a bit and find a used copy after it drops down one or two times.

Splinter Cell: Conviction – 6/10

Halo: Legends is an Animatrix style exploration of the background and origins of the Halo story itself, and a few of the characters. Its set up in multiple parts, each one, of course, having its own focus for its plot. There is, however,  one  key difference between the Animatrix and Halo: Legends. I actually liked the Animatrix.

Being a die hard fan of the series, and an actual Helljumper, I was very excited for this release. After seeing it, ive completely changed my mind. The stories in the Animatrix all  had more to do with the Matrix series. It exposed you to great info about the series that actually connected with the main plot of the trilogy. Halo: Legends seems like it was more of a money maker than a story expansion. The target demographic for this was the younger anime crowd, instead of just Halo fans in general. Each of the segments except for one were done in the tribute anime style, huge eyes, speed lines, sushi and all. One even recreates the Elite homeworld and makes it out to be just like Japan. The Elites are even in kimonos. No thank you.

The stories themselves aren’t too bad, but elements inside each segment completely ruined the plots for me. I dont want to see any Gundam style mechs, or crazy covenant heroes and whatnot that have never once been introduced in to the massive story. Ill never understand why people continue to stick in elements of their own design or creation in to stories that have entire universes already laid out for them. There are 5 or so books out, and 5 games out, none of them mentioning the various weapons, gadgets or characters that were key to these plots. The action is actually some quality killing, but the ratio of action to plot development is tipped way more to the plot side, so you have to fight thru the story to see someone get stuck.

All in all, i think a younger audience will completely enjoy this. Bigger fans of the series might want to stay away from it since it doesnt deliver anything you dont already have or know, unless youre a huge anime fan, then, again, its right up your alley. I, on the other hand, was so displeased by this that i cancelled my reservation for it at MovieStop and used that money towards a different reservation. Being outside the target demographic sucks.

Halo: Legends (BluRay) : 4/10

After giving them a once over with my super nerd eyes, I can say its looking pretty interesting. You get a couple of weapons from both the UNSC and the Covenant armories in the pics, and from what I can see, they all look really really really really cool. An older BR? Carbine? Laser? Yes, please! And in one shot it looks like there is another member of the SPARTAN program with you, but due to the blurry pics and the lack of public  info surrounding the game, we wont really know until Bungie wants us to know.

Seriously…

Ok. Long time no review from me. Ive been working my bunz off trying to get some stuff ready for Dragoncon, but I HAD to take time out to play this game after getting a little sneak peak before it was released. This review is probably going to wind up being a little scatter brained due to my, well, scattered brain (thank you dragoncon). So you’ll have to bare with me for a bit.

First, I have some questions for you. Do you like Batman? Yes, you say? Do you like video games? Yes, again? Good. Play this game. Its that simple. If you read thru my Ghostbusters: TVG review, you saw where i talked about actually getting to live a movie experience. Its the same with Batman:AA.

The plot for the game is incredible. It seems like I heard from a Batman nerd / friend that it was actually pulled from an existing comic or comic series, and if its not, it needs to be turned in to one. Long story short, you’ve caught the Joker and have brought him back to Arkham Asylum where he immediately breaks out and springs a huge elaborate trap on Batman, Commissioner Gordon and the rest of the Arkham Staff. Batman, Harley Quinn and the Joker are all voiced by the actors that did the same rolls from Batman: The Animated Series that aired on FOX. And yes, that means Mark Hamill as the Joker. I didn’t hear any other familiar voices, but they were all done very well.

The graphics and the visual style are all stunning. There aren’t any crazy neon lights or glow in the dark thugs (thank you Joel Schumacher).  All of the characters and the environments have the dirty / gritty look and feel like you would expect after seeing the two Bale Batman movies. Or like you would expect from an asylum that houses nothing but super-criminals.

The general workings of the game are also stunning. The game keeps you on a fairly linear path for maybe half an hour while they set up the story for you. Afterwards they open up all of Arkham for you and let you roam around. You cant do the missions in any order that you want since there is still a general plot to it, but they do let you chose when you want to continue with the story. Want to just go grapple and glide around for a while? You definitely can. Controls are no problem to pick up and go with, but in order for you to be the darkest knight you can be, it takes a little bit of getting used to. Combat is dangerously fun and addictive. Tons and tons of hard hits, flowing combos, changing directions to avoid a knife or a pipe swinging at you, and BEAUTIFUL counter attacks will get you pumped that there is a challenge mode that has levels of nothing but fighting. Seriously, i cant stop beating thugs. There are also a hand full of environment specific attacks you can do. Pulling someone off a ledge, stringing thugs upside down, etc.

Now for the best part of being Batman. The gadgets. I have to say they nailed the gadgets and how and when you can use them. One gadget per each of the 8 directions on the d-pad, and the two most important (batarangs and grapple gun) are able to be used quickly as well as in a time restraint free situation. Everything is unlimited, but several more powerful items require a slight recharge time before they can be used again. But unlimited batarangs?! Do you need anything else?! Most of the gadgets can be upgraded thru the simple XP system that they have, and when you get them all upgraded, its bliss. On top of that, you cant even get to certain parts of areas until you upgrade a few of them, which makes you have to go back to the starting areas if you want to collect and do everything. They even give you the zip-line device he used in the original Keaton Batman when the Joker makes the remark about the toys/ Take that nostalgia.

The only down side i found to this is that there isn’t too much to be done after beating the game. You can continue your career and run through Arkham rounding up the various hidden items, solving riddles, etc. but that’s about it. After completion, the game clears of all of the enemies except for a few weak escapees, which provide no fight. I’m assuming that’s a little bit of a push for you to start on the challenge mode, but id still like at least a few guys leftover to keep me busy while i search for all the hidden items.

So there you have it. Someone has played it and confirms that its good, so now its ok for you to go buy or rent it. Then you can freak out and get goosebumps when you’re doing all this crazy Batman stuff like I did.

Wanna buy it? Here you go!

Batman: Arkham Asylum – 360 Version

Batman: Arkham Asylum – PS3 Version

I have heard the complaint that this game “steals” from better games,

this in blatantly untrue.  as with many great games it simply borrows from great games of the past, but even then it is simply  succeeding at emulating  the elements of Batman’s cache of talents.

the first of these is the stealth aspect of the Caped Crusader’s arsenal.

whether your are hiding under the floor from air vents or from the dark shadows of the gargoyles on the walls the feeling of stalking your prey is always exhilarating.

the second are the gadgets that are the worlds greatest detectives paraphernalia.

from Batarangs, to the Bat rope, to the cryptographic sequencer all of Batman’s gear feel real and usable.

last but certainly  not least is the combat  of the Dark Knight

the combat of this game is the definition of easy to learn hard to master.

note all button configurations are set to the xbox 360 as this was the console I used

with X as attack, B as cape stun, Y as counter, and the LEFT TRIGGER as the gadget you will always have a way to destroy your enemies.  even up to twenty enemies at once is no problem for the the Bat-Man.

Though I will not be talking about the story all that much for I would rather not give away any spoilers but suffice it to say the story is the height of Batman lore.

The Joker is at the height of his game with a plan only the Clown Prince of Crime himself could come up with. even still I think that the parts of the game with the Scarecrow are better, and the boss fight against Killer Croc is the best.

and as for the voice work it is absolute perfection from Kevin Conroy’s Batman to the greatest Joker of all time himself

no not Heath Ledger wait for it

Mark Hamill

surprised you shouldn’t be even Christopher Nolen’s film The Dark Knight references Hamill’s Joker.

as if the wonderful story mode was not enough the boys at Rock-steady games gave us a challenge mode with more than ten different maps and at least two different variations.

the first type of challenge room is your standard beat-em up chamber and the second is a more difficult version where the point is to defeat your enemies as quickly as possible

note this next challenge room is available only in the game-stop version

Dem Bones

the point of this exercise is to fight as long as possible without getting hit and as an added incentive you are fighting skeletons ( it all makes sense once you have played the game)

If you only get one thing out of this review understand this

THIS IS THE BEST GAME OF THE YEAR

as always sincerely yours Jeremiah Wolfwood

P.S.    My next game review will be for ROCK BAND BEATLES which releases on September 9th so tune in next week same Bat time same Bat channel

P.P.S.  If you are not aware of or have not watched BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD please understand that the camp factor in this show is on purpose and perfect in every way I am extremely  happy about the fact that on the upcoming season NPH (AKA Neal Patrick Harris) will costar as a musical villain going toe to toe with Batman and his compatriots so tune in.

So the next game in the Tom Clancy family is a flight sim? OK … I guess. I had heard several people rave about how good this game was, so I finally broke down and checked it out. The game itself is not too bad at all. All of the visuals are pleasing, and if you are slightly afraid of heights like yours truly, then it will even give you a touch of vertigo. The controls are incredibly straight forward, no crazy combinations of buttons to swap to missiles, lock on targets, etc. etc. Everything on the technical side of this game was fairly impressive. The problems I had with it were the playability and the replay value. After half an hour of playing, I became fairly bored with the whole “shoot the planes, shoot the ground forces, repeat.” deal. I should have seen it coming since that’s pretty much all of the options you have in a flight sim, but I didn’t, so take that. I was also playing with a controller, which took some of the fun out of it. Playing with a flight stick would definitely make it a little bit more fun and tolerable, but id rather not drop 75 dollars on an accessory for a game that I’m only playing for 30 minutes at a time. It’s just not my boat. If you’re a flight sim fan, I would suggest picking this game up with the flight stick. If not, either just play the demo a few times and get your fill, or just rent it.

“…they go up.”

Earlier this week, GameTrailers.com release the opening cinematic for Ghostbusters: The Video Game on their site. While its not really anything we haven’t seen before, its still entertaining to see all of it coming together.

Go check it out!

Ghostbusters: TVG  Cinematic

Also, don’t forget that the 25th Anniversary version of the first Ghostbusters movie releases on Blu-Ray on June 16th! Go reserve it now!!!

Ghostbusters Blu-Ray

Ghostbusters: TVG on XBOX360

Ghostbusters: TVG on PS3

Anyone that played Resident Evil 5 will be familiar with both the controls and the inventory system. The inventory is tweaked a little, making each item take up only one spot, but apart from that everything including game play is still the same running, knifing, picking up items game that you played on GameCube and PS2. Overall it’s a win / lose situation. You don’t have anything new to experience, but that also means nothing new to come in and slap your experience in the nuts a few times and ruin your good time. Its more of the same, and you lucked up because when you’re talking about Resident Evil, the same is all you really need, and really all you came for.

The visuals and audio for the game are still just as badass as before. If you’re playing on a larger TV, a high def TV, or a combination of the two, get ready to almost vomit your balls off several times. The zombies and other enemies are a little less scary than they were in the past games, but are by far some of the grossest things I’ve killed lately. All kinds of goop everywhere, crazy flying things exploding out of people, and even a few times where you will forget you’re playing a zombie game and think you’re watching tentacle porn without the penetration.

Now for the multiplayer aspect. The game still has the option to play by yourself (you’re still with a partner, just AI controlled), but the main push for the game was the co-op. As long as you like the person you’re playing with you will still have just as much fun. You just have to keep your cool when the other person picks up your machine gun ammo, even tho you’re completely out and have upgraded your MG to the max…sigh. Apart from that, I didn’t really notice a noticeable change in game play except that I was talking more, and had a little extra time to reload while my partner was still squeezing off shells.

So there you go. Game play, sound, visuals, multiplayer…check, check, check and check. There were less than a handful of things that I didn’t like about the game. Zombies on motorcycles? No thanks. Zombies came to be from some sort of chemical that was going to be used for a weapon? I don’t want it. Apart from those and maybe one or two other things that were too small for me to even remember, I absolutely loved the whole game.

This game gets a 9.5 out of 10.

BUY THE SUPERIOR XBOX 360 VERSION HERE !!!

BUY THE “INFERIOR, BUT NOT REALLY” VERSION HERE !!!