Uh-oh! Looks like Shephard is off to a rough start.

So, So Deep

The fiction of the Mass Effect universe is truly a marvel. It’s incredibly deep, and leaves one pondering just how long and how many minds it took to bring it all together. In the first game, I explored every option the dialogue tree presented me with, and the same went for Mass Effect 2. While the option was always there to quickly back out of a conversation and continue on the quest at hand, I never did. Now that I’m on my second play-through, I appreciate that quick out, though. Just like in the first game, there are weighted paragon and renegade options which become available depending on your character’s moral alignment. Having imported my character from ME1, I had access to paragon options early on.

Along with the dialogue options, there are now actions which can be performed during cut-scenes. A paragon or renegade prompt could pop-up, which makes Shephard perform an action depending on which route you took. I had a hard time resisting the renegade prompt, even when playing as a hero.

A True Sequel

Speaking of, BioWare has created something slightly revolutionary with ME2’s character import feature, which allows you to bring your character from the original game into ME2. Not only your physical character is brought over, though. Decisions you made, people that may have died, and your moral alignment are all reflected in ME2. Even minute details, like some of the side quests you completed are touched on in ME2, which blew me away on more than one occasion. Aside from the insanely cool tie-in to the original game, there are decent rewards for continuing with your original character…

The decisions, actions, and plot states you created in Mass Effect 1 will persist in Mass Effect 2. Additionally other factors such as your character level will grant you certain bonuses as well. If you acquired a high level of currency you will start Mass Effect 2 with a small boost to your starting income. Additionally if you completed the game as a paragon or renegade, a fraction of that alignment will persist into Mass Effect 2. This is designed to help give players who went the extra mile in Mass Effect 1 a quantitative boost in Mass Effect 2.

Story and Characters

The main story is all kinds of great! With an exciting beginning, and an explosive end, it really keeps the momentum going through-out all of the missions. It only slows down if you go off doing side quests exclusively, and of course when you’re hanging out on the Normandy chatting with the crew. There’s a big decision left to you at the end, which I’m hoping directly impacts what happens in the third game in the series. Since the import feature will be in ME3 as well, I’m sure it will.

Recruiting new members always requires a fair bit of effort, and sometimes persuasion.

Similar to the first game, you make your way across the galaxy recruiting team members. Depending on who lived and who died in the first game, who you run into can vary. Regardless, you end up with some pretty awesome characters by your side, spanning various species and sexes. Of course, all with different abilities and specialties.

Quests-a-Plenty

Aside from the main question, there is plenty to keep you busy. The usual mix of side-quests are available, but with much more variety this time around. There are also a few search and retrieve type missions which can be quite lengthy. But the best side-quests are the ones you complete to gain the loyalty of your team members. Once they are recruited, team members come to you with a problem which you can help them out with, in return for their loyalty. Some of these are actually a little tricky, as the morally correct way to complete them might not be what gains you their loyalty. There were a couple I didn’t get on my first play-through.

Huge Improvements to Combat and Movement Overall

The combat in ME2 feels much better. While it’s not quite as solid as what you might find in a game like Gears of War, it’s definitely a step up from the original game. Crouching behind cover, peeking around corners, and leaping up over obstacles are all common and easily executed maneuvers. With the addition of assignable commands, I found myself opening the combat and power wheels far less often, which kept me in the action that much more.

Mechs prove to be worthy opponents. Especially the heavy mechs with rocket launchers.

When I played ME1, I was a Vanguard. Which gave my character biotic powers, and ability to use the handgun and shotgun. I never spent any time with the assault rifle or sniper rifle, so I made sure to play as a Soldier in ME2, and I’m glad I did! I probably used the sniper rifle 80% of the time. Only falling back to the assault rifle or shotgun when thermal clips were low, or an enemy got a little too close for comfort. But I was usually able to keep them at bay by making use of my squad-mate’s abilities. Speaking of thermal clips – yes, ammo is limited in ME2. It’s not as big of a deal as you might think. It really only affects the heavy weapons, as clips for the main 4 guns are plentiful.

Gettin’ It On

*sigh* Miranda

Like ME1, there is room to explore a romantic relationship with members of your crew. This time, there are many paths you can take. Since my character is a female, I was looking forward to a little action with Miranda. But as I progressed through the game, she seemed to shut me out more and more. That’s when I decided to see if cross-species relations were feasible. And in fact, they are! I always found Jacob to be a bit of a dink, so I opted for the resident Turian, which turned out to be quite humorous! I highly recommend going that route if you play as a female character. While there’s no big-bang ending (pun intended), you still get the Paramour achievement.

Not Without a Flaw

Mass Effect 2 does good on all of the things that held ME1 from being a near perfect game. But unfortunately, there is one aspect of this game that brings everything to a halt – scanning planets for minerals. I see the need for it, since the minerals are used for weapon, armor, and ship upgrades. But there has to be a better way of collecting them. Prior to getting the mineral scanner ship upgrade, I was close to being suicidal every time I had to scan a planet.

2010 Game of the Year, Already?

This is a game that warrants, no, requires multiple play-throughs. And with a bare-bones play-through clocking in at over 20 hours, there’s plenty of reason to purchase ME2 as opposed to renting it. Fans of the first game will be completely satisfied with this incredible sequel and wishing the sequel was just around the corner. And new-comers who are fans of good sci-fi and high action third person games, should really give it a shot.

What’s in a Name

The title of the game, while lame and uninspired, is completely accurate. It’s a refreshed version of the classic Super Mario Bros. games, available on the Wii.

What’s New

NSMBW is actually a sequel to the 2006 DS game, New Super Mario Bros. If you played that game, you’ll be ahead of the rest in that a lot of the things that are new in NSMBW, were first introduced in the DS predecessor. The characters themselves are much more animated and exaggerated. It takes a bit of momentum to really get moving, and in turn, you need to account for a few extra steps before coming to a stop. Perhaps my favourite addition to the core gameplay, is the wall jump. You can now jump off walls repeatedly to reach high areas, or save yourself from certain death.

Some of the classic power-ups are in tact. Like the mushroom, fire flower, and invincibility star. But Mario and the gang have a few new tricks in their bag as well. From NSMB on the DS, there’s the mini mushroom, which shrinks you to about 25%. In turn, it allows you to run faster, run on water, and jump super high and far. Among the new power-ups are the ice flower, penguin suit, and propeller suit. The ice flower gives you the ability to shoot ice balls which freeze most baddies. You can then jump on them, butt-stomp to kill them, or pick them up and throw them. The penguin suit makes walking on ice a lot easier, swimming faster and takes less effort, and you can also throw ice balls. The propeller suit is easily my favourite new addition, and really comes in handy on some of the more tricky platforming, or time based levels. A quick shake of the Wiimote launches your character high into the air, and he drifts slowly back down. Similar to how you could slow your descent with the raccoon suit in SMB3.

Each level contains 3 large coins, which are fairly easy to collect in the first couple or worlds. But become more of a challenge later on. Some are just plain hard to find, while others seem totally out of reach. The coins unlock bonus levels which you can play once you’ve rescued the princess. The final world, 9, is much more challenging than the rest of the game. Even making it through the levels without obtaining the large coins can prove quite difficult.

Controls

These things take a bit of getting used to.

Funny enough, NSMBW is played holding the Wiimote sideways, with the d-pad on the left and buttons 1 and 2 on the right. You know, just like the original NES controller. There are a couple maneuvers which require a quick shake of the Wiimote, but the basic movements are handled without motion controls. At this point, you would think the classic controller for Wii would be the perfect fit, with having the motion based moves mapped to buttons. But there are a couple more interesting uses for the motion controls yet. There are platforms which can be tilted by tilting the Wiimote, and similarly, some platforms can move side-to-side by tilting the Wiimote. This simply couldn’t be done without the motion controls, which would have rendered entire levels unplayable otherwise. While motion controls play a small part in NSMBW, they’re integral.

4 Player Madness

The co-op experience can vary greatly depending on the skills of each player. If you’re all well matched, it will be a blast. When you have at least one player who can’t keep up, it really hampers the experience for everyone else. Even with experienced players, there will be times when players collide mid-air, sending one of them directly into harm’s way. Make sure you bring your patience, and don’t take it too seriously, and there’s plenty of fun to be had with the co-op gameplay.

Some times, the screen just doesn't seem big enough for 4 players.

What’s Old

The classic map screen is back!

There are some many little throw-backs to the old game, that I likely had a goofy grin on my face the majority of the time I was playing this game. From sound effects and music remixes, to renditions of levels and scenarios from the original games, and even how the game uses a map screen similar to SMB3 and SMW. There are a lot of things that are going to make older games smile. I could write many paragraphs on the throw-backs alone, but they’re better left to be discovered.

The Story

Seriously? One guess, that’s all you need – Princess Peach is kidnapped by the Koopa kids and it’s up to Mario and company to rescue her. You traverse 8 wacky themed worlds, each with 2 mini boss battles before making it to Bowser’s doorstep.

Can you guess what happens next?

Other Game Modes

Along with co-op gameplay, there’s also a competitive multiplayer mode which ranks each player by score, coins, and enemy kills at the end of each stage. Coin Battle was introduced in NSMB on the DS and is definitely more fun than playing the story’s competitive mode. There are literally levels out of the original Super Mario Bros. game in Coin Battle.

The Difference

There’s a difference between porting old games to new platforms, which Nintendo also does quite often, and completely refreshing a game. New Super Mario Bros. Wii is the latter. It feels like you’re picking up an old favourite, yet it’s an entirely new experience in its own. It really does show that the Super Mario Bros. games are timeless.

The story picks up where the first game left off. A short cut-scene rolls and before you know it, you’re right back in the Animus. This time, assuming the role of a new hero – Ezio Auditore. In an effort to evolve Ezio and really put you in his shoes, you play a lengthy opening sequence that starts with Ezio’s birth. After a good hour and a half, something awful happens and Ezio is suddenly dawning his father’s assassin’s gear. He’s fuelled by rage and a thirst for vengeance, and starts to learn the ropes as an assassin from the guidance of his peers. Before too long, you acquire all the tools and skills needed to start kicking some ass. And kick some ass Ezio does!

Ahhh, That’s Better!

Assassin’s Creed II immediately feels different in regard to the way mission structure is handled. In the original game, the main goal was to assassinate a number of targets. Before you could take someone out, you had to perform a handful of small missions, which included pick-pocketing, eavesdropping, and that sort of thing. These tasks were repeated for each target, hence the common complaint of it being too repetitious. Ezio sort of makes things up as he goes. There is a main target in his sights, but he has to work his way up to him, and over the years his does just that. Ezio is not an assassin from the get-go. He’s a man on a mission to avenge his family’s honour. And along the way, gets pulled in different directions in order to help people for the greater good. Variations of the main mission types from the first game can still be found in Assassin’s Creed II. But they serve as side missions which will net you some extra coin and help to better learn the landscapes.

Get Comfortable, You’ll Be Here a While

After a couple good sessions with Assassin’s Creed II, my wife asked how I was liking it. As I was explaining all of the new elements that have been thrown into the mix, she stated, “It sounds a lot like Fable II.” That actually hadn’t crossed my mind, but she was right. Assassin’s Creed II brings many of the main gameplay mechanics that comprise Fable II. With currency being a factor now, the doors really opened as to what else Ezio could do with his time. Things like purchasing weapons, armor, medicine, poison, upgrades for your Uncle’s villa, paintings for your residence, and so on. There really is a lot to Assassin’s Creed II, but it never seems overwhelming. I finished my first play-through at 90% completion, and didn’t spend a whole lot of time micro-managing or other doing side quests that would take me off course. It’s all very manageable, and it’s all very fun.

One of my favourite new additions to the game, is the assassins’ tombs. Along the way, you find a great tomb that is missing 6 seals which allow you to unlock the ultimate prize. The seals belonged to assassins, and are now buried with them in tombs scattered through-out the various cities. Each tomb contains a different type of lengthy challenge. Some taking upwards of 45 minutes to complete. My favourites were platforming puzzles that were crazy challenging and extremely rewarding.

Tedious Traveling Be Gone!

Getting around is much easier and quicker in Assassin’s Creed II. There are many quick travel points in each city, which will get you to another city in an instant, for a small price. One of the big differences is Ezio’s presence in the cities, and how he handles himself. When you commit illegal acts, you become more notorious and guards will pay more attention to you. You can diminish your notoriety by ripping down wanted posters, silencing town criers, and assassinating meddling politicians. Ezio can also make himself scarce much easier than Altair could. There are far more civilians roaming the streets this time around, and Ezio can duck into a group and become one of them at any given time. You simply have to walk with them, and the guards won’t notice you.

Friends in Low Places

Ezio is not alone. He has a number of people he can call on when in need of some assistance. Courtesans (AKA, whores) and thieves are great at distracting guards, while mercenaries will go to battle for you. There’s also the option to throw change, which causes quite a commotion and attracts the attention of civilians and guards alike. I quite enjoyed having the option to avoid confrontation if I didn’t feel like high-tailing it out of a situation. Simply point some whores in the direction of the guards and sneak by. But then again, the double hidden blades are awfully fun!

Massive

This game is huge, and it will likely take 15-20 hours to get through the story, depending on how many of the side quests you do. Once you’re done, there’s always the side quests to go back to, and a few different types of collectibles to go after. Treasure maps can be purchased to help pin-point collectible locations, and of course viewpoints are your best way of finding objectives. Having completed the game, I still have dozens upon dozen of items in every city that I could easily sink another 10-15 hours into.

Assassin’s Creed II makes its predecessor look like a tech demo. It’s bigger and better in every way, and is in the running for one of my favourite games of the year, without a doubt.

Before you even make it to the menu screen, a cut-scene rolls which brings you up to speed on the events of the previous two games in the Future series. I played through Tools of Destruction, but only made it part-way into Quest for Booty, so I was glad to have this movie fill the gaps. In short, Clank (the robot) was sort of kidnapped by a mysterious alien race called Zoni at the end of Tools of Destruction. It’s quickly revealed that the Zoni had been tricked into working for an maniacal evil-doer who needs Clank to complete his evil scheme. Meanwhile, Ratchet is off in space trying to find clues as to Clank’s whereabouts. For the majority of the game, you alternate playing between the two characters as they both try and set things right.

Talk About Variety

The gameplay focus shifts frequently, which really keeps things interesting. When you play as Ratchet, you’re traversing different planets and fighting various baddies utilizing a huge arsenal or ridiculous weapons. When I say ridiculous, I mean it! The shotgun class weapon is a large belching fish which bellows it’s mating call when you squeeze the trigger. It’s hugely effective against hordes of enemies and gets even more hilarious as it upgrades with usage. There are a number of new weapons, and some old favourites (like the Groovitron glove) make a return appearance.

Ratchet

In Tools of Destruction, you would return to your ship when a mission was completed and you’d jump to another. There was typically a short cut-scene in between, but there was only a brief time where you actually piloted Ratchet’s ship yourself. In a Crack in Time, space combat has been added, and it’s a lot of fun, albeit fairly simple. Along with Ratchet’s weapons, his ship can also be upgraded, which is accomplished by collecting Zoni who are scattered across the universe. There was only one point in the game where I had to abandon the main quest in order to obtain the required amount of Zoni, but that only set me off course for half an hour or so. I completed the game with 24/40 Zoni, which means there are plenty still out there to be found. From the map screen, you can see which planets are still occupied by Zoni, so you’re not searching blind. There are other side quests to do in space, like escort and straight up combat scenarios.

Clank

Clank’s lone missions were surprisingly fun and satisfying. When I heard that time based puzzles were introduced into this game, I instantly thought of Braid, and immediately there after, frustration. But that was not the case here. The time based puzzles in A Crack in Time are all basically the same – Clank enters a room with one exit point. The door that he needs to leave from requires at least one red pressure pad to be pressed, which means you need more than one Clank to get the job done. Anyone else thinking of Portal right about now? There are a series of colour based pads at the start of the room which allow you to record Clank’s movements to be played back in sequence later with the real-time Clank. Puzzles later in the game were quite challenging, but never too much so. I always looked forward to the next puzzle and actually wish there was a challenge mode to simply blow through a bunch of them in a row. A written explanation really doesn’t do it justice, hopefully this video does…

It’s All About Quantity And Quality

The cut-scenes are beautiful and feature film calibre, both in aesthetics and content. The dialog is hilarious and the voice acting perfect for this style of game. Some of the one-liners had me laughing out loud, quite literally! I could definitely see this game trilogy being made into an animated film, and would actually be thrilled if that were to happen.

Though it’s only a single player game, there is a lot to keep you busy in A Crack in Time. I didn’t stray too far form the main quest, and I finished the game in about 10 hours. That could have easily been doubled had I gone back and looked for all of the collectibles. There’s also a combat arena which pits Ratchet against hordes of enemies for some bonus bolts (currency) and weapons. Once the story is completed, you’re given the option to start the game over in challenge mode (harder difficulty), or turn back time to a point just before the villain was defeated and continue collecting.

In all honesty, I enjoyed A Crack in Time far more than I anticipated. I enjoyed Tools of Destruction, but I wasn’t totally hooked on it. While it took a couple hours for me to really feel the grasp, A Crack in Time delivered the goods at every turn and is yet another top notch PS3 exclusive.

Setting the Stage for Another Grand Adventure

It’s rare that I look forward to cut-scenes in games. Normally, I kick my feet up and sit back while the story unfolds on screen. Not so with the Uncharted games. The characters themselves, and the chemistry between the characters really is something special. Nathan Drake is a handsome dude who takes a beating at every turn. Then stumbles to his feet chuckling, only to deliver a terrific one-liner, each and every time. He’s tough as nails, yet sweet and sincere. He comes off as arrogant and self-fulfilling, but he’s always got his friend’s back when shit goes down. And when it comes to solving archaic riddles, there’s none better.

The main characters from the first game make a return in this sequel, and I for one was happy to see them. Also along for the ride are some new allies, and of course new threats. Chloe, an old friend of Nate’s is in the picture, and she’s a feisty one! It’s clear that there was a relationship between the two, which Drake walked out on at some point. Chloe is the complete opposite of Elena – the first game’s pseudo love interest. She’s tall, dark haired, and has an ass you just want to smack, but will likely break your damn fingers if you were to try it. With the two girls in the picture, Nate finds himself pulled in both directions and it’s entertaining seeing it all play out.

Once again, Drake is sucked into another big adventure spurred by the promise of a lost treasure. There are plenty of plot twists along the way, which send Drake and company all over the globe. The game starts out with Drake climbing out of a wrecked train, hanging over the edge of a cliff high in some snow covered mountains. A bit of back-story is shown in the form of cut-scenes during this intro chapter, and it isn’t until about 3/4 of the way through that you find out how Drake ended up there and why he’s there in the first place. The game takes a pretty unexpected turn shortly there after, followed by some of the most intense battles I’ve seen in recent years.

Part Shooter, Part Platformer, Part Stealth

As far as the gameplay is concerned, it’s as though the developers nit-picked every little detail of the first game, and tightened it up across the board. The character animations are a bit smoother and there’s more of them, while combat scenarios are far more fun due to the much improved cover system and hand-to-hand combat. You get your hands on many, many different weapons through-out the campaign, and you are given plenty of time and ammo to use each of them. Like most modern action games and shooters, you can only carry two weapons at a time – one heavy, one sidearm. And ammo can be sparse in times. Thankfully, you have other means of taking out armed enemies.

I was surprised at the amount of stealth gameplay, especially early on. The second mission is played almost entirely without a weapon. But it’s a great setup for later on, when you can use stealth tactics in situations where it would be quicker to simply shoot your enemy, but more beneficial in the long run if you can proceed undetected for as long as possible.

Like its predecessor, Among Thieves has almost equal parts shooting and exploring/climbing. There are a few decent sized puzzles to solve, that are larger than life and have you jumping, swinging, shimmying, and falling to and from great heights. There are vehicle sequences that are all sorts of fun, and some high action scenes that are straight out of a Bond movie. Fighting off a helicopter from a moving train through the mountains of Tibet? Come ON!

Definitely a Challenge

By the end of the game, your skills are well tested. Even on normal difficulty, Uncharted 2 can be a pretty tough and punishing game. Especially when ammo is low – that seems to be when the heavily armoured dudes wielding automatic shotguns come out to play. At the end of my first play-through, I had logged nearly 10 hours of play time.

Treasure Hunting Online?

Uncharted 2 comes stocked with a fully featured multiplayer mode, which doesn’t stray too far from all of the things that make the single player experience so great. There are a couple of three player co-op modes that are set in variations of chapters from the story. The one mode has you working together, going from checkpoint-to-checkpoint until you reach a final stand-off in front of a large chest of treasure. It’s really a lot of fun, and lasts a good 15-20 minutes per round.

There’s of course the typical deathmatch and objective based modes that we have would come to expect in multiplayer games. Unlocks-a-plenty! You earn cash from playing online, and even during the story. Each Trophy you unlock nets you some cash, along with completing the game on various difficulties. You can then spend your cash on unlockables, in the form of weapon upgrades, character skins, and perks. There are two sets of perks, and you can activate any one perk from each set at a time. Having enough cash is only part of the battle, though. There are level requirements for unlocking each unlockable as well. At this point, it’s hard to say if I’ll stick with the multiplayer end for long. I tend to move onto something else pretty quick, but I am having a lot of fun playing online currently.

Yes, it Really is That Good

Going into this holiday season, Uncharted 2 was one of the few games I planned to purchase immediately. It’s one of those games that I feel everyone who’s into gaming needs to experience. It covers a lot of ground, and takes its many inspirations and influences and one-ups them. Uncharted 2 should not be missed.

You’re Wrong

The common complaint, mostly among the community as opposed to game reviewing publications, is that the game is too short to be deemed a stand-alone title. My first play-through of the single player campaign was on Heroic difficulty, and I logged between 7 and 8 hours. This is actually typical for a Halo game, and I found ODST felt a good bit longer due to its some-what open nature.

Bungie’s Patented Single Player Campaign Experience

You play a voiceless character dubbed The Rookie, and the story takes place somewhere between the events of Halo 2 and 3. Somewhere out there is Master Chief, but there isn’t even so much as a mention of him. This is an entirely different branch of the Halo universe, and a story on its own. You, along with your squad (4 other ODSTs, plus a commander) have dropped into New Mombasa, a Covenant controlled city, to recon and find out what the Covenant are after, and report back to command. Of course, things go wrong right out of the gate and you find yourself alone on the streets. Unlike other Halo games, you are free to venture around the city at your own pace and in any given direction. The objective now, is to find out what happened to your squad and where they might be. You catch wind of objects scattered through-out the city, which invoke flashback sequences where you actually play as the other squad members when found. Each mission varies greatly. From the location, to the weapons at your disposal, and the main objective at hand. ODST’s campaign feels very diverse as you play-through, especially if you do multiple missions in a sitting. By the end, you’ve experienced many Halo-esque moments that will likely stay with you over the years.

Not much has changed in the gameplay department. If you have played any of the other Halo games, you will feel immediately at home. That is, until you start taking fire. The big difference, being the way health is handled. Ironically, you have a limited rechargeable shield. Once depleted, you start taking real damage, which requires med kits to bring you back in the green. While this makes sense in the Halo universe, I still find it strange that Bungie decided to go this route. Most modern shooters have abandoned health packs in favour of automatic health regeneration. The first game I recall seeing this in, was the original Halo which debuted as a launch title on the Xbox platform back in 2001. I found the need to leave a combat situation to search for health packs tedious and annoying. If anything, it made the game feel dated, since this is the old way of doing things.

The weapon load-out is almost identical to that of Halo 3. Back with a vengeance, is the trusty pistol which was absolutely lethal in Halo: Combat Evolved (the first game). There isn’t a better weapon suited for picking off Grunts and Jackals at close to medium range, with headshots being an instant kill. It is exceptionally fun using the pistol during the early waves of each round of Firefight, where there are Grunts-a-plenty.

Familiar Voices

Sci-fi geeks will recognize many of the voices behind the cast of ODST. Mal (Nathan Fillion), Jayne (Adam Baldwin), and Wash (Alan Tudyk) from Firefly/Serenity are in the house. Along with the infamous Cylon known as Six (Tricia Helfer), from Battlestar Galactica. You might be wondering where Nolan North is at? After all, he is undoubtedly the most recognizable and commonly used voice in video games over the past couple of years. He’s here too, as one of the main ODSTs, Romeo.

Halo Multiplayer Reinvented

Halo 3: ODST brings a new multiplayer component to the table that is nothing but sheer fun! Firefight, is a 4 player co-op mode that pits you and your friends against increasingly difficult waves of enemies. Survival games are all the rage these days, and for good reason – they’re fun as hell! I’ve always preferred playing along-side friends and working together to thwart the enemy, as opposed to playing against them in typical deathmatch variants. Firefight can also be played locally, and split-screen action can be enjoyed by 2 players online as well.

More Bang

Additionally, there is a second disc bundled with the game which includes a stand-alone version of Halo 3’s multiplayer component dubbed Halo 3: Mythic. It includes all of the maps from the Halo 3 disc, along with all of the DLC map packs. This is one hell of a bonus for those that don’t have Halo 3, or never bothered to pick up the map packs. Not so much for others, since there’s only really 3 new maps.

Obvious Conclusion

So, once again, Halo 3: ODST won’t please everyone. And I’m sure there are people out there who will scowl at the very thought of playing it. But if you’ve enjoyed other games in the series, you will undoubtedly enjoy ODST. It has everything you’d expect from a Bungie made Halo game, and then some.

Great First Impression!

Right from the get-go, it’s clear that NFS: Shift is a different type of racing game than you’re used to from the NFS series. There are no cheesy live action cinematics. No obnoxious nu-metal music as the menu fades in. And no scantily clad women showing you their “o face.” NFS: Shift comes at you with a lot of style, and some pretty intense cinematics that really get you excited to play to get in on the action. Thankfully, these types of scenes are carried through the career as you unlock new tiers and make your way up the ladder.

NFS: Shift looks and sounds amazing! The car models are gorgeous, both inside and out. But I did find the cockpit view to feel a little too confined. The viewpoint is set too far back, and your perspective actually changes the faster you go. I ended up using the hood cam for the most part. There is actually some damage modeling this time around, which is nice. But it’s nowhere near as extensive as we’ve seen in other games like Forza 2, the Project Gotham Racing series, and GRID.

A Little Help?

When you start the career, you jump into a race and are evaluated on your performance. The game then recommends a difficulty level and you can make adjustments to the assists and AI difficulty. There are the typical assists like suspension and traction control, but some strange ones like steering and braking. With the latter enabled, it doesn’t require much effort to play the game. And I can’t imagine it being much fun that way, either. There’s also a race line to assist you on corners and guide you throw the best path on the track. Like Forza Motorsport, it remains green if you’re safe to keep accelerating, while changing to yellow and orange if you need to slow down a bit, and red if you really need to apply the brakes.

Single Player Career

The career is what you would expect. You’re a new driver who’s trying to make a name for himself by climbing the leaderboard and eventually making it to the big event. There are a number of tiers to get through, which include several events ranging from straight up races, to “car battles” (aka, Touge as seen in GRID), to drifting, and time trials. I had the most fun doing races and time trials, while I couldn’t quite get the hang of drifting, no matter how many attempts I made. The car battle events were mostly frustrating as well, since you are limited to selecting one of two cars. I felt that both drift and car battles were handled better, and a lot more fun in last year’s GRID.

As you complete events you earn stars, and this is where things get weird. You are rewarded for precision driving, and driving aggressively… in the same event. Some events will even require you to perform either precision or aggressive maneuvers in order to earn all of the stars, which seems odd since you’re likely to be one or the other. Personally, I try and avoid other cars and keep collisions to a minimum. While some stars require you to “tap out” at least one opponent – which means, knock them off the track without leaving the track yourself. On the precision side, you are rewarded with points (which lead to drive profile unlocks) for clean laps and perfect cornering. Corners aren’t something I normally pay attention to, and found this to be a nice addition to the game play. While it’s harder to focus on mastering corners in a race with other cars on the track, I enjoyed trying to nail them in the solo time trial events.

A Friendly and Forgiving Racer

NFS: Shift is built with accessibility in mind. Tiers can be unlocked without doing every single event, which means you can skip those you don’t enjoy (a’hem, drift). And best of all, you gain back every cent you sunk into your ride when you decide to sell it. Yes, you read that right – your cars don’t depreciate at all, and you even get all of the money back that you spent on upgrades. This makes trying new cars and blowing huge amounts of money on upgrades a no-brainer, and something I really hope other games start doing. At the same time, if you’re low on cash and don’t want to work for the high-end car of your dreams, you can drop some real world coin on it. Every car in the “lot” can be purchased using Microsoft Points individually, from the get-go. EA has been notorious for releasing car and upgrade packs post-release, and they’ve gone the extra mile this time.

Forget About Multiplayer

With a focus on collisions, there was no way I was taking the race online. Racing games are frustrating enough when you’re playing with the general public. I can only imagine how awful it would be with rewards being given for spinning other drivers out. No thanks.

Recommend, with an Asterisk

NFS: Shift is the best game the series has seen in recent years. But it’s not quite as good as other games in the genre. It does everything well, but there isn’t a whole lot if doesn’t exceptionally well. With other races like Forza 3 and Gran Turismo 5 on the horizon, it’s hard to tell you to go out and buy this game, as both will likely surpass NFS: Shift. That said, I really enjoyed the time I spent playing this game and would recommend it as a solid rental.

Made With Love

The Beatles: Rock Band is oozing with style, and has been carefully crafted with all the love in the world. From the opening and outro cinematics, to the in-game movies that fill the screen as you play, to the gorgeous menu screens. This is likely the most polished game I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing.

Slight Improvements to the Rock Band Formula

There haven’t been a whole lot of changes to the core gameplay since Rock Band 2 was released just a year ago. But a couple nice little details I did notice improved the experience for the better. One being the complete absence of drum fills. These have always driven me a little crazy, especially when dropped in a completely inappropriate place. The second being the count-in when you return from pausing the game. Typically, the second you hit “resume game”, your thrown back into the song and it’s nearly impossible to avoid missing notes. Where as in this version of Rock Band, it gives you a 3 second countdown before firing back up.

Tagging Along for the Ride

The career mode is a bit of a unique experience in that there’s no massive world map, and no choice of what venue you’re going to play at, and in what order. You relive The Beatles’ career as it happened, hitting some of the most prominent events along the way. During each event, you play a small collection of songs from that time period and gather collectibles in the form of photographs along the way. There is only 45 songs in total, and the fact that there’s an Achievement for finishing the career in less than 24 hours is a testament to its short length.

Early on, the game is a lot of fun. The old rock and roll songs are a blast on every instrument and it’s genuinely exciting to experience. Later on in their career when they started hitting the bongs, things tapered off dramatically. So much so, that I couldn’t bring myself to finish the final chapter after seeing the tracks I had to play. Even with an easy Achievement in sight, it just wasn’t enticing enough to sit through that mundane music.

It’s interesting to see how Harmonix tried to offset the drab music and the fact that The Beatles spent their last few years in a studio and not on the road. The music and artwork inspired scenes that are shown during this era are definitely something to see. While they’re not the same calibre of the CG cinematics shown at the opening and outro of the game, they’re still very entertaining.

Unlockable Rewards are Fantastic

As I mentioned earlier, you collect photographs during the career. At certain intervals, videos are rewarded and both types of collectibles are quite interesting. Not being a huge fan of the band, I didn’t think much of them initially. But one night I found myself sifting through the photos, reading every story that accompanied them, and I did so for the better part of an hour. The video footage is really amazing, since it’s more of a candid nature, so you see a different side of The Beatles than usual.

The Verdict

The Beatles: Rock Band is a definite must buy for any fan that enjoys this type of music game. It’s also worth checking out if you’re at all familiar with the music and want to experience a music game that’s taken in a drastic new direction. It really does carry a different vibe than previous versions of Rock Band and even Guitar Hero.

Let’s Reminisce

A few years back I worked in a corporate environment and pretty regularly links would be shared internally via email. One morning, a link to a Flash game arrived in my inbox which almost entirely diminished productivity for the remainder of the week. That game, was one of the first Trials games to make the rounds, and boy was I ever hooked! When I saw Trials HD show up in the Marketplace, I was thrilled and immediately downloaded the demo. Hoping for a simple refresh of an old favourite, I was completely blown away by the quality of this budget title.

Gorgeous!

To say Trials HD has good graphics is an understatement. This game sports better visuals than many full blown titles without a doubt. I was immediately reminded of LittleBigPlanet, and when you take into consideration the side-scrolling nature of the game, the slightly angled camera to show the 3D landscape, and the lighting techniques, you’ll see why.

Hard to Put Down

The core gameplay is simple – get from point A to B as fast as you can, with as few faults as possible. A medal is awarded at the end of each level and you’re told what you need to do to improve on that medal, if possible. On the same screen is a leaderboard displaying all of your friends’ scores. So perhaps you just achieved the gold medal, but your buddy has a faster completion time – here in lies the extremely addictive nature of Trials HD.

Courses are grouped into varying difficulty levels, and you definitely notice when you move from one tier to another. Often, moving to the next tier feels impossible at first. But I found that returning to the previous tier and working improving my scores was the practice I needed to be able to keep progressing through the tiers. Mind you, the Extreme courses are still complete madness!

Added Value

"Whoooa! Whoooa!"

A series of mini games are unlocked as you complete the main career mode, which are all kinds of fun, even if they are silly in nature. They range from balancing on top of a huge metal ball for as long as possible, to towing a cart full of explosives, and even hurdling your rider as far as possible. As with the career, there are leaderboards for each of these games as well, and I find myself returning to them fairly often to see if I’m still in the top 3.

There’s even a track editor, which lets you create and share your own tracks. And of course, you can download and play tracks created by your friends, and other games on Xbox Live.

Achievements are very well balanced and quite obtainable, with the exception of one, which requires you to do a very long series of courses without making a single fault. I’m not even going to attempt that one.

A No-Brainer

Trials HD can have it’s frustrating moments, but when you finally make it over an obstacle that you’ve faulted on a couple dozen times, it’s extremely satisfying. Going back and blowing through the easier courses at full throttle is always a good time, and the mini games are great for a laugh. All-in-all, Trials HD is a fantastic game at a very reasonable price – how can you go wrong?

Satisfaction, Guaranteed

I had a smile on my face the very second the menu screen faded in and the dark music set the stage for what I hoped was a terrific adventure. The lengthy opening cut-scene set the stage perfectly and before I knew it, I was taking down Joker’s thugs one-by-one in some of the best hand-to-hand combat I’ve ever seen in a game. Batman: Arkham Asylum is a refreshing change in the combat department, since Batman doesn’t use traditional weapons. There are no machine guns or sniper rifles. Batman is equipped with gadgets that will assist in taking down bad dudes, but nothing that will do the job for him.

Slow Down There, Partner

Each room requires an assessment before you start taking goons down, as you are quickly wasted once someone gets a lock on your position. And this is where BAA really shines. Stealth tactics are a must in order to survive. Thankfully, Batman’s gadgets come in handy when you need to survey your surroundings. Detective mode can be initiated at any time, which highlights armed and unarmed bad guys in your area, and also brings attention to vents that can be entered, walls that can be demolished, and generally provides useful tips in finding your way around the asylum. I found that I was playing with detective mode enabled most of the time, which hampers the visuals a bit. It would have been nice if there was a way to identify thugs with detective mode, then leave them some how visible on the HUD once it’s disabled.

Familiar (Evil) Faces

The “super villains” in BAA are in their comic book form, which was a good move in my opinion. They’re much more over-the-top and extravagant than they would have been if the style of the recent movies was adopted. Many old favourites are present, and even a couple lesser known villains. You encounter each of them on a different level, and some of which you actually don’t end up taking on directly, which was a bit of a let down. I really wanted to beat the piss out of Scarecrow!

The story itself is quite good, and keeps shifting directions as you uncover Joker’s master plan. Character voice overs are very well done and there’s plenty of chatter through-out the story. Even aside from cut-scenes. As you take down Joker’s thugs, you can hear them talking amongst themselves and they’ll often yell out in hopes of drawing you out of the dark.

Sneaky, Sneaky

One of my favourite aspects of the game is the AI, and how they respond when threatened. For example, as you walk into a room full of half a dozen thugs, you can see they’re condition on your HUD. Initially, they are calm. But as you start picking them off, that changes to nervous, and eventually terrified. They act differently in these varying conditions as well, and will do things like run and climb up ladders which they wouldn’t normally do if they’re at ease. Setting traps for thugs is quite fun, as you have plenty of options when it comes to clearing a room. One of my personal favourites tactics is booby-trapping a downed thug with explosive gel. When the others come to investigate – BOOM! They’re all knocked to the ground, which gives me just enough time to swoop down and incapacitate each and every one of them. It’s quite satisfying!

Plenty of Bang for Your Buck

Once the story mode is complete, there’s plenty of reasons to continue playing. The Riddler has placed trophies through-out the asylum which can be collected, earning you some tasty Achievement points. There’s also a challenge mode which drops you into combat and stealth scenarios that are all sorts of fun. There’s no multiplayer what-so-ever, but I can’t even think what they could have done in this department. This is definitely one single player package that feels complete, despite the lack of online play.

Batman: Arkham Asylum is a game that I have been looking forward to for some time, but I refrained to get my hopes up as I assumed it would be another shitty Batman game to add to the pile. Thankfully, that is definitely not the case and this game shaped up to be one of my favourite video game experiences of 2009.