Thu, 2 Sep, 10
Author:
David Brown

Category:
Games reviews

Tags:
, , ,

Mafia II Review: Wake, Mission, Sleep. Repeat.

Mafia II Review: Wake, Mission, Sleep. Repeat.

Platforms: PC (reviewed), X360, PS3

Developer: 2K Czech

Publisher: 2K Games

After 7 years of waiting, expectations are always going to be high. There are no excuses about curtailed production schedules, you’ve had plenty of time to get whatever you want to do done. 2K Czech may have undergone a name change since they were last with us, but they’ve been working on one game (that we know of) the whole time. Mafia II is their baby, an attempt to make the definitive trilby and tommy gun gangster game for the modern generation. Previews have been positive and everyone’s been on the edge of their seats, waiting for a blockbuster. Have they waited in vain or will they be made an offer they simply can’t refuse?

Mafia II exists in the same world as the beloved first game, just set in a different city and with a whole different set of colourful characters. There’s one blatant, and welcome, reference to the first game in there, for those in the know, but it’s pretty much a self-contained storyline. As Vito Scaletta, a streetwise young hoodlum who finds himself in trouble with the law, you start the story shipped off to Sicily, where you end up fighting Mussolini’s troops as the American forces attempt to overthrow the slaphead dictator.

Mafia II Review: Wake, Mission, Sleep. Repeat.

During his time on the frontlines, Vito witnesses the power of the local Don, and it makes a big impression on him. On returning to Empire Bay, his long-time buddy, Joe Barbaro, a real wise guy, gets Vito involved in more petty crime, gradually meeting local criminals and slipping further into a life of money, women and power.

That’s all for the plot, as saying anything else would be to enter spoiler country. Suffice it to say, the story, characterisation and things of that ilk are easily the best part of the game. Just as with the first, real care and attention has been put into making sure the participants are believable, that they look great graphically and that you always feel part of a grand story.

Click here to find out what Dave thought of the gameplay...

Gunblade NY & LA Machineguns Arcade Hits Pack Review: Death From Above!

Gunblade NY & LA Machineguns Arcade Hits Pack Review: Death From Above!

Platforms: Wii

Developer: SEGA

Publisher: SEGA

On a personal note, SEGA’s lightgun shooters provide one of the three integral pillars of my early gaming life. Gunblade holds a special place in my heart (along with id Software and the Amiga 600) since the impressive Model 2 graphics and enormous honking peripheral absolutely entranced my wide-eyed and impressionable youthful self. After undertaking pilgrimages to Southend’s golden mile and SEGAWorld just to play it, I was forced to do without my beloved cabinet for years… until now. Note, therefore, that I am officially the best and worst authority to review this double pack- and will stalwartly maintain professional objective detachment after the following embarrassing outburst.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

Right. The Arcade Hits Pack contains the full versions of Gunblade and L.A. Machineguns; with Wiimote functionality, widescreen support, a new ranking system, unlockable weapons and a score attack mode thrown in to bulk up the package. And that’s it. It delivers exactly what it says on the box: two classic arcade hits and not much else. It’s time to find out whether these two games have aged well enough to be worth a purchase after so many years.

Despite being developed on different arcade boards, both Gunblade NY and LA Machineguns conform to the same basic formula. Terrorists have invaded recognisable US landmarks (including New York, Las Vegas and Los Angeles, natch), and it’s up to the player to bring the rain from a badass helicopter gun platform. The airborne perspective allows the rail camera to cinematically zoom around well known locations, swooping in to the ground level and pulling out into the high atmosphere for an unprecedented dynamic experience. The mounted machine guns are unbelievably powerful, creating enormous explosions with each bullet impact and tearing even armoured targets to shreds. They never need reloading, but enemies launch a constant stream of rockets that need to be gunned down before they connect. Big bosses and swarms of fast-moving enemy troops await- and the years still haven’t dulled two of the finest and most fun arcade shooters ever made.

Gunblade NY & LA Machineguns Arcade Hits Pack Review: Death From Above!

The Gunblade is the SAAF's secret weapon: featuring two outrigger turrets that can rip through troops, tanks and mechs with brutal efficiency. I've missed you, babe.

Read on to see if the same can be said for the graphics and controls...

We Sing Encore Review: Streamlined Singing…Again

We Sing Encore Review: Streamlined Singing...Again

Platforms: Wii

Developer: Le Cortex

Publisher: Nordic Games Publishing AB

Seeing as how singing isn’t my forte, I approached We Sing Encore with trepidation and not much hope of receiving a rewarding gameplay experience. When it comes to music games I like to see a bit of variety not only from the set list, but also from the roles that you can take, whether that’s standing up with a guitar controller strapped around your shoulders or sitting down hammering away at the rubber pads on a synthetic drum kit. However, there’s none of that with We Sing Encore, it’s purely vocals based so chances are you’ll either be stood up tapping your foot to the music or slouched into your couch in a hypnotic stupor as the words flash across the screen and you fire them out like a zombified cat perched on top of a fence wailing into the night.

We Sing Encore Review: Streamlined Singing...Again

The list of songs that you have to choose from is a little bit on the low side especially when you compare it to some of its rivals or even a song book at a karaoke night, which is a real shame because after a couple of hours you’ll have covered just about everything and probably won’t have a great desire to rush back into it because nothing about it really stands out. I can see what the developers have tried to do with the songs, they’ve attempted to include a little bit of everything to cater for the wide range of music fans that are likely to check out the game. Unfortunately, this is its biggest downfall because it’s more than likely that you’ll scan through the set list to find that you’re only really interested in going over one or two songs and couldn’t care less about the rest, which was certainly the case with me and left me feeling that the set list was about as sparse as a spartan warrior’s living quarters in terms of the songs that I actually wanted to have a go at.

We Sing Encore Review: Streamlined Singing...Again

Taking part in the game doesn’t really feel like a simulation of the career of an up and coming pop star, it feels more like a simulation of a person who’s too lazy to get up of their arse and phone a few mates to arrange a trip to the local pub for a bit of karaoke, which believe me would be a lot cheaper than buying a copy of the game complete with all of the microphone peripherals. As you’re singing the words scroll across the screen and the background is quite simply just the music video for the track, which as you can imagine after one or two play throughs starts to feel a bit too familiar.

Click here to read the rest of Tom's review...

Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep Review – Triple Threat

Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep Review   Triple Threat

Platforms: PSP

Developer: Square-Enix

Publisher: Square-Enix

Kingdom Hearts is a truly beloved series that, on paper, really shouldn’t work as well as it does. The franchise started to spawn handheld spinoffs after the runaway success of the original… and by offering fast, slick and deep gameplay, Birth By Sleep is probably the best of the bunch.

Birth By sleep tells the intertwined stories of three Keyblade masters: the youthful Ventus, stoic Terra and female mage Aqua. In terms of gameplay, you’ll still visit various Disney-themed worlds to rid them of an infestation of monsters and meet classic characters along the way. However, the typically-strict mechanics have been replaced by a fast and fluid system that takes KH2’s framework and improves upon it exponentially. Proceedings seem disarmingly simple at the start of the game. When attacked, hammering X allows attack combos to be slung together, but a Command Deck allows abilities to be stored and used on the fly. This system seems a little restrictive at first, it’ll soon expand enough to contain a range of battlefield styles. As players use combat abilities (which include the standard range of melee skills, magic spells and items), they’ll occasionally enter a combat stance that provides increased attack damage and status effects. The stance depends on the type and order of special attacks used- and brings a massive amount of experimentation and depth to the combat.

Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep Review   Triple Threat

Read on for twisted storylines and eyepopping PSP graphics!

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light Review: Tomb Raiding With A Mate

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light Review: Tomb Raiding With A Mate

Platforms: X360 (Reviewed) | PS3 | PC|

Developer: Crystal Dynamics

Publisher: Square-Enix

I think Crystal Dynamics got a little bit bored to be honest. They’ve been deeply concerned with shaking up the Tomb Raider franchise since being handed the reins back in 2003 and this, finally, might just mark the massive departure that they’ve been looking for. You can forget about stealthily picking your way through archaeological ruins, this is all about pace, action and puzzle platforming.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light Review: Tomb Raiding With A Mate

Forget too about enjoying some T&A as you pick your way through the game. This is a new look for Lara. She’s still romping around in the Underworld engine, so expect dynamic lighting in this game, ferns that waft in the breeze and puzzles that take the laws of physics into consideration, but this time it’s zoomed out to an isometric view and handles like a twin stick shooter.

The game’s augmented by RPG-lite elements too, there’s an array of weapons, your four favourites can be mapped to face buttons for quick and easy access, not to mention a whole bunch of hidden artefacts and basic health/ammo upgrades to be found by looking in every nook and cranny, ticking off the side quests and extra objectives for each level, and also by occasionally indulging in a spot of actual tomb raiding.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light Review: Tomb Raiding With A Mate

Lara Croft’s adventures have traditionally been fraught with danger, peppered with generally disgruntled wild beasts, traps that would scare the pants off of Indy and mercenaries who generally wait for Lara to do all of the hard work before pinching whatever artefact she’s been swinging, climbing and swimming her way towards outside afterwards at gunpoint. If these are the markers by which a Tomb Raider game might be determined and identified, then Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light might well be the most Tomb Raider-y game of the last decade.

Click here to jump the break and find out if that means it's any good!

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days Review – Pedigree? Some.

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days Review   Pedigree? Some.

Platforms: PC|PS3|X360 (reviewed)

Developer: IO Interactive

Publisher: Eidos Interactive/Square-Enix

I was genuinely excited for this sequel after my time down at the Square-Enix offices at the preview day a couple of months back. The guns felt solid, the pace was breathtaking and the presentation came across like a Michael Mann film marinaded in extra grime and stewed under a tramp’s armpit. But gradually the worry began to set in that this reaction had only really been provoked by having played the immensely disappointing first game just the weekend beforehand. Still, it certainly looked like progress was being made.

Having the final product in my hands, Dog Days, then, is something of an apology – IO have come out and said that they wanted to make the game that they felt the first one deserved to be and Square have responded with an ad campaign the likes of which are usually only reserved for painfully average big budget movies that are all mouth and no trousers. They’re pretty sure they’ve clocked it this time.

By and large, the first game was one of those salvageable titles that was big on innovative concepts but short on fun and fulfilled potential, a hotchpotch of gripping narrative elements and alienating gunplay that was, quite simply, broken. A bit like Mass Effect in that respect, but worse.

The comparison, although somewhat heretical one side of my brain is thinking, is actually pretty apt. As with BioWare’s sequel, this second pass has tightened up the action. No longer do you feel as if you have a Super Soaker in your grasp. The controller recoils nicely in your hands, the rifles feel robust, the SMGs like barely contained hives of spitting death, and the shotguns dispense emphatic brutality that’s often followed by the game’s pixellation of severe violence, punching the heads off of people with their shot.

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days Review   Pedigree? Some.

But in spite of all of this, the weapons feel somewhat underpowered. Unless you have the precision rifle, firing at any range sometimes feels ridiculously hit-and-miss, like a lucky dip…but with bullets and screaming. It’s compounded by the fact that enemies can hit you from over half a mile away, creating firefights that are often incredibly frustrating, especially on the higher difficulty levels. Chance and general perseverance seem to have just as much of a bearing half the time as actual skill, which is slightly unnerving. Middling Spoiler Alert: It’s only really in the last couple of levels that you feel like a badass – ironically after shit has hit and destroyed the room that the fan was standing in, with you desperately needing medical attention – as the game thrusts a heavy duty, rapid-fire  support machine gun into your hands and has you take on a helicopter.

See if every dog has its day after the jump...

Monday Night Combat Review: Listen Up, Sports Fans!

Monday Night Combat Review: Listen Up, Sports Fans!

Platforms: XBLA (reviewed)

Developer: Uber Entertainment

Publisher: Microsoft Games Studios

Monday Night Combat makes an awful first impression. Upon starting a new game, you’ll instantly be whisked away into a simplistic arena tutorial where a hooting idiotic commentator warbles inane sports cliches at a deformed virtual solider. The game may hint at multiple classes, but you only get the opportunity to try out a single build while fighting a depressingly simple stream of idiotic enemies. Seriously, it’s enough to put you off the game for good.

Give it some time, however, and you’ll discover that it delivers an impressive and nuanced blend of two very familiar genres.

Monday Night Combat first appears to be a straight-up team based shooter. Gleefully plundering Team Fortress 2 for style, art design and concept; it throws a red and a blue team into direct competition over territory. Each team has to simultaneously defend their ‘moneyball’ (read: base) while attempting to destroy their opponent’s stronghold, with six classes providing a range of unique combat options and techniques. Killing other players nets you money that can be spent on skill upgrades and unlockables. So far, so familiar… right?

Not quite. Monday Night Combat also takes its cues from the tower defence genre. Each base constantly spawns a variety of bots that plod along preset routes, continually fighting for every inch of ground. Killing enemy bots also releases money that can be used (amongst other things) to build and upgrade defence towers as well as releasing unique robot attackers into the mix. This cash flow is also used to upgrade your class abilities- meaning that fickle finances and solid defensive play is as important as showing off your trigger finger. The addition of robots and turrets also makes for a gameplay experience that evolves dynamically; requiring players to constantly switch between attacking, harrying, defending, building towers or shepherding their robots towards the foe. It’s a reassuringly familiar formula… yet it feels refreshingly inventive at the same time.

Monday Night Combat Review: Listen Up, Sports Fans!

Go after players, support your robots or take down the towers?

Hey-oh! Read on, sports fans!

Young Thor Review (PSP Minis)

Young Thor Review (PSP Minis)

Platforms: PSP (also PS3 compatible)

Developer: Frima Studio

Publisher: Frima Studio

Young Thor is a traditional side-scrolling platformer / beat ‘em up title. It follows the journey of Thor on his way to rescue four maidens from Hel, ruler of the Norse Underworld.

Combat is pleasingly simple and the lack of depth is hidden by the way you can attack enemies in different body parts for better effects. Numbers fly off enemies to indicate the damage done and when these numbers turn yellow, you know you’ve just discovered a weak spot. For example, the best way to deal with the tall trolls is to jump over them, turn around in mid-air and give them a crack to the back of the head. Another awesome attack is the ground pound where you shake the ground with a hammer blow from a jump, which lifts everyone up into the air for a bit of juggling. More standard moves include normal, strong, and lightning attacks which can also be charged by holding the button. Charing normal attacks results in a rising uppercut.

Young Thor Review (PSP Minis)

Enemies are traditional fare for this sort of title, namely goblins, trolls giant spiders, huge armoured knights howling banshees and undead warriors. Most of them can be quite troublesome in the later levels with their epic health reserves. If you are finding things a little tough you can always come back and get revenge later when you’re a bit stronger. Click here to read the rest of Brendan's review.

Castlevania: Harmony of Despair Review – Cooperative Harmony, Singleplayer Despair

Castlevania: Harmony of Despair Review   Cooperative Harmony, Singleplayer Despair

Platforms: XBLA (reviewed)… may reach PSN depending on Xbox 360 sales

Developer: Konami Digital Entertainment

Publisher: Xbox Live Arcade

Demo/Buy (1200MSP)

The Castlevania franchise arguably peaked with Symphony of the Night. Its blend of exploration, wicked awesome music and pixel perfect platforming captured the imagination of players and critics everywhere- but where can you go from there? Each successive iteration has felt like a rehash or a gimmick… but like any long-running TV show, Castlevania has an ace up its sleeve for the low moments. A ‘best of’ episode.

Harmony of Despair is essentially an amalgam of every character, trap and level from several previous Castlevania titles. Each of the six sprawling stages represents a single game or series theme, with a selection of familiar enemies, backgrounds and hazards compressed into the one castle. A massive boss awaits somewhere within the labyrinthine mess- and in an interesting twist, the game shows you where it is at the very beginning of each level. Using three zoom modes, you can view each stage in its entirety… and rather than blind exploration, Harmony of Despair challenges you and five friends to chart the best route to the boss and kill it within an ever-decreasing time limit. Naturally you’ll have to deal with tricky traps, perilous jumps and deadly adversaries along the way.

Castlevania: Harmony of Despair Review   Cooperative Harmony, Singleplayer Despair

To fail to plan is to plan to fail. It'll take some time to find the best route.

After blindly hacking and slashing through the rooms only to be confronted by dead ends and humiliating beatdowns, you’ll start to realise that each level is an intricate clockwork mechanism. Rather than a disparate selection of self-contained rooms, each stage needs to be viewed and tackled as a single enormous puzzle- and working out the most efficient route to each boss is a brainteaser that rivals the likes of Braid and Limbo.  The multiplayer focus really comes into its own here, with smart gamers teaming up to access cooperative shortcuts and secrets that you simply can’t reach by yourself.

Read on to find out if Harmony of Despair is the ghost with the most... or a grim spectre of its former self.

Hydro Thunder Hurricane Review: By Odin’s Beard!

Hydro Thunder Hurricane Review: By Odins Beard!

Platforms: XBLA (reviewed)

Developer: Vector Unit

Publisher: Microsoft

Limbo kicked off the Summer of Arcade with highbrow, pretentious puzzling that caused the games are always art crowd to collapse into spasmodic convulsions of unadulterated ecstasy. This week, however, things couldn’t be more different. A true sequel to its classic arcade predecessor, Hydro Thunder Hurricane delivers huge, dumb, hi-octane thrills that will have players whooping, hollering and fist-pumping after each ludicrous jump and close-run victory. If they can prise their white knuckles off of the controller, that is.

Arcade racers have been dying a death on Next-Gen consoles, with developers focusing on either realism or crazy gimmicks to shift their wares. In stark contrast, Hydro Thunder Hurricane proudly and unashamedly looks to its original arcade debut for inspiration. You’ll undertake insanely fast races on a selection of dangerous, ridiculous courses- and use your winnings to acquire bigger boats and even more outrageous tracks. Sometimes, being able to jump a powerful speedboat over a 200 metre waterfall is all I want from a game!

If you’ve ever played an arcade racer before (notably Burnout or Wave Race) then you’ll know the drill. Racing is a drift and draft-heavy affair that revolves around nabbing boost power-ups and seeking out shortcuts. What sets Hydro Thunder Hurricane apart from the pack is the level design, which is both epic in scope and surprisingly intricate. Each one of the eight courses is packed with enormous jumps, secret passages, destroyable scenery and cinematic hazards that have to be seen to be believed. The cheesy ‘Monster Island’ stage contains enormous sea creatures, multiple paths and truly cheeky shortcuts to be exploited… and a Nordic level sets the scene for chasing down viking longboats, and facing off against Odin himself. Each stage is exhilarating, shamelessly OTT and (most importantly) consistently fun.

Hydro Thunder Hurricane Review: By Odins Beard!

Oh yeah. Now THIS IS HAPPENING!

Click here, buckle up and read on!

Wed, 28 Jul, 10
Author:
Jonathan Lester

Category:
Games reviews

Tags:
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Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels Of The Starry Skies Review… Summer, Sorted.

Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels Of The Starry Skies Review... Summer, Sorted.

Platforms: DS (reviewed)

Developer: Level-5

Publisher: Nintendo

The hot summer months have rolled around once again- and it’s time for gamers everywhere to break out the handhelds and select a title to accompany us on the plane and by the pool. The choice of a suitable summer RPG is one of the most important annual decisions that many gamers have to make… but luckily, it’s a no-brainer this year. Dragon Quest IX is an expansive, beautiful and utterly charming experience that will keep players entertained long into the Autumn.

Before the freeform questing has a chance to take hold, you’ll have to push through a long and overbearing intro section that sets up the typically-complex premise (perfect for the plane journey or road trip if you’re lucky enough to be jetting off this year). Taking on the role of an angelic winged celestial, your character is tasked with the thankless chore of invisibly safeguarding of a small town. Harvesting thankful prayers of grateful villagers is the primary source of Benevolessence, which in turn will cause the heavenly tree Yggradsil to bear fruit and usher in a new golden age of… something or other. Before too long, however, a disaster forces your angel to plummet into the mortal realm, losing his/her wings in the process. Having to integrate into human society, the world suddenly opens up as you become a freelance adventurer for hire.

Read on to find out why Dragon Quest IX is the feelgood hit of the summer!

Archibald’s Adventures Review (PSP Minis)

Archibalds Adventures Review (PSP Minis)

Formats: PSP (also PS3 compatible)

Developer: Rake in Grass

Publisher: Rake in Grass

£2.49 and 191 levels. BAM! That’s what we call a good deal.

This is a 2D puzzle/platforming game that starts off with easy puzzles before soon leaving you scratching your head wondering what the hell to do next. You control Archibald on his skateboard trying to find his way out of Professor Klumpfus’ creepy mansion/laboratory by hopping across gaps, avoiding mutants, flicking switches, moving boxes and teleporting, with the aim of reaching the exit door for each of the levels.

Archibald jumps automatically where needed just by pushing the controls left or right. He can jump ‘one block’ high or across. If he has roughly three blocks of open space he’ll be able to get a bit of speed going to clear bigger gaps.

Early on you get to use the bubble gun which can be used to fire large bubblegum-like spheres which can move crates around. You can float the bubble through gaps and upwards to reach otherwise inaccessible switches too. Things get more complicated as you go with some barriers blocking your bubbles, or you’ll have to use explosives to clear the way. You’ll even get a cool machine to replace your skateboard, a human metal hamster-ball which can grab onto metal surfaces and crush blocks.

Archibalds Adventures Review (PSP Minis)

Considering the large amount of levels, it’s surprising to see how often new elements are introduced to keep you interested. Puzzles constantly shift from working out how to create smooth surfaces for running jumps, creating staircases, or gently moving a crate through the air with a bubble being careful not to burst it on the spikey vines sticking out everywhere. Timing, logic, balance and brave jump-judging all come into play to create a gripping experience. Click here to read the rest of Brendan's review.

Car Jack Streets Review (PSP Minis)

Car Jack Streets Review (PSP Minis)

Formats: PSP (also PS3 compatible)

Developer: Tag Games

Publisher: Tag Games

It’s been a while since I’ve dusted of my old PS1 GTA games, so will this be a nostalgic experience or a grim reminder of why some titles are best left in the past?

The top-down view in the crime-sim raises obvious comparisons with the old GTA games, but for a £3.49 PSP Minis title it definitely has my attention.

Missions will be familiar to any fan of the genre. Drive here, pick up this or shoot that being fairly consistent themes. The in-game clock matches that of the real-world PSP clock. Some missions may only be available at a certain time so you may have to dither around for a while. This makes it even more annoying when you fail.

Failing missions in most games would give you another shot at it, but in a tribute to the old GTA games, you’ve had it. Or you’ll at least have to wait till tomorrow (literally) before it appears again. The money you earn from missions is used to pay off your epic mob debts in stages, which is the means of progression in the game. The main missions pay the big money, but if you exhaust them all for the day, you can deliver pizza, make taxi runs, steal cars and so on for smaller sums of money.

Car Jack Streets Review (PSP Minis)

There are hidden packages to find and random goals to activate such as blowing up 20 cars, that suddenly appear onscreen, but they aren’t listed anywhere so you never feel compelled to just run around exploring or going postal like you do in GTA. Click here to see how this GTA clone turns out...

Sat, 17 Jul, 10
Author:
Matt Gardner

Category:
Games reviews

Tags:
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DeathSpank Review

DeathSpank Review

Platform: PS3 | X360 (reviewed)

Developer: Hothead Games

Publisher: EA

There aren’t many games out there that have a villain hell-bent on stealing your purple thong. There are few titles that will press a special hammer into your hands and have you go round beating up demons thereby forcing them to crap themselves so you can collect up the fiery faeces for a special kind of manure. On top of that, you’ll be hard pressed to find a game whose eponymous protagonist shares a name with what one could feasibly imagine might be a kinky finishing move in the next Mortal Kombat.

But then again, most games aren’t made by Ron Gilbert.

Gilbert, along with partner in crime Tim Schafer, is largely responsible for proving that games don’t just have to be deadly serious, they can be funny. As you might expect from the man behind Monkey Island, this latest venture is certainly not your average game, every line of dialogue punctuated by a witticism or offbeat one liner. The puns range from the sublime to the cringeworthy, the voice acting straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon. The presentation fits into all of this perfectly too, a wonderful combination of MediEvil’s animated japery and all of the squishy fart noises and gross-out giggling of Rik Mayall reading the assorted works of The Brothers Grimm.

DeathSpank Review

The plot itself is hardly your standard affair either. You won’t find any simpering maidens. kidnapped princesses or surprisingly punctual evil hordes led by dragons here…not in the main plot anyway. Our eponymous hero, defender of weak, most heroic of champions and general dogsbody for Lady Justice, is after a super-important artefact aptly named…The Artefact. He finds this about three hours or so into the game at which point you’re promptly mugged and have to run around preparing the ultimate taco before you can get all of your stuff back. It’s around this time that you discover the disturbing news that infamous tyrant Lord Von Prong didn’t even really want the Artefact in the first place but has set his sights firmly on eliminating DeathSpank and stealing his fashionable purple thong.

DeathSpank: Hero or Zero? Jump the break to find out....

Tue, 13 Jul, 10
Author:
Tom Silkstone

Category:
Games reviews

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Crackdown 2 Review: Skills For Kills…Again

Crackdown 2 Review: Skills For Kills...Again

Platforms: Xbox 360

Developer: Ruffian Games

Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios

Most people discovered Crackdown by accident, when they went out in search of Halo 3’s multiplayer beta and found it attached to a relatively unknown game that turned out to be great fun to play, forming a loyal group of fans who waited patiently for a sequel to sink their teeth into. I myself discovered the original game on a random visit to a friends house and on looking through the multitude of Xbox cases that dominated one of his draws, I found Crackdown. When I asked what it was he stared at me in disbelief, threw a 360 pad into my hands, whacked the disc into the hungry tray, and I began to throw myself over buildings into enemy compounds obliterating anything that dared to stand in my way. The experience was great fun, so the announcement of the second instalment of the series grabbed my interest enough to mark down the release date, when I happily parted with my money in anticipation of the improvements that I thought would probably have been made to the gameplay.

The game’s set 10 years after the original, most of the original agents have been killed, whilst a new terrorist organisation, Cell, have dug themselves into strongholds throughout Pacific City, and if that wasn’t enough the inhabitants of the city are turning into rampaging mutants, labelled freaks, at night causing utter pandemonium. You take the role of a brand new genetically engineered agent, who starts off within a claustrophobic agency training ground. Once you’ve got through this tutorial section of the game you hop into a car, which is picked up by a helicopter to be carried to safety after Cell decide to send a welcoming committee to stop you before you can start your work. The sudden contrast in the environment when you’re picked up by the helicopter is a great touch and really shows you just how big a playground Pacific City is.

Crackdown 2 Review: Skills For Kills...Again

Before you enter the game you’ll have the opportunity to customise your agent by selecting one of four rather unfortunate looking faces, which is something that Felix noted in his preview, and taking your pick from a range of coloured suits (you’ll have more options to choose from if you pre-ordered the game).

As you take your first steps in the familiar urban jungle, your tasked with several objectives, the first is to claw back the strongholds that are dominated by Cell troops, the second is to overcome the freak virus using the technology the agency has been developing known as Operation Sunburst, and finally you can choose to close any freak rifts that you come across.

Click here to read the rest of Tom's review...