There’s something about open-world games that just captures my imagination. I want go everywhere, climb everything and see everything these sprawling locales have to offer. The problem is, with most games of this ilk, the experience tends to get dull pretty quickly. I’m happy to report, that isn’t the case in inFamous 2. Sucker Punch has created an interesting and vibrant game, worthy of superhero status.

If you’ve played inFamous before (if not, then you need to correct that), the sequel will feel very familiar. inFamous 2 is all about evolution. Everything that worked well in the original game now just works better. Cole is more fluid when traversing the world, the way he animates is vastly improved and stringing attacks together works much better. That doesn’t mean there’s improvements across the board. Some of the same problems I had with the first game are still present and they’re annoying as ever; Cole being locked into an animation being my biggest gripe. When a game throws so many enemies at you at once, being able to break from animations is a necessity. I was killed far too many times through not being able to escape from an animation and, after a while, it got a little tedious. The tedium increased when I was repeatedly killed in one hit by a hidden bad guy wielding a rocket launcher. A note to developers: trial and error game play is never fun.

Aside from a few issues with animation and over eager AI, inFamous 2 is a blast. The game is jam packed with things to do. All the side missions, blast shards, dead drops, random crimes, and user-generated content is more than enough to keep you busy. Not forgetting that there’s a full story here too, and it’s one you won’t forget in a hurry. Unlike the first game, the difference between good and evil is not just about preferring red over blue. Your game will be vastly different depending on which path you choose. Not only will your ending be different, but your powers will differ too.

We all know that it’s the super powers that make a superhero (or villain) great. Being able to call down a lightning storm comes as standard in inFamous 2, but your choice of allegiance might come down to whether you want to freeze enemies in their tracks or set them alight. Like a lot of the choices in the game, it’s a fairly binary decision. You choose one side or the other, there’s no grey area. Whichever route you take, you’re guaranteed a good time. It often felt that some of the cooler powers were reserved for the villainous among us in the original game. In inFamous 2, you’re getting a different, but equally fun, experience.

That’s what Sucker Punch have done so well. Not only did they create a great sandbox to run around in, they populated it with enough stuff to keep players entertained and coming back for more. Granted, it’s not the most perfect game in the world: The sound design is a little off at times and the side missions can become a little repetitious, but it’s very rare that a game will grab me in the way inFamous 2 did. I spent hours experiencing everything that the game (and New Marais) and I still want to go back for more. If that’s not a testament to how good this game is, I don’t know what is.

9.5/10

In a world where Call Of Duty and Battlefield dominate the multiplayer shooter market, it’s going to take something fresh and interesting for players to turn to another game. This is where Brink was supposed to step in. A multiplayer focused first person shooter, with an interesting art style and a different take on objective-based gameplay. Although interesting in concept, Brink is a game that fails to deliver on almost everything it had going for it.

It’s clear that, developer, Splash Damage tried to make Brink completely different from all the other hyper-realistic shooters on the market. It was immediately identifiable, it’s caricatured art style and steampunk-esque, futuristic, setting making it stand out from the cluster of other first person shooters out there. It does this pretty successfully, but suffers from major doses of repetition. Whilst the characters and environments differ from other games on the market, they’re not all that different from one another. In short: Everything in Brink looks kinda the same. The missions set in the near-pristine, white utopia controlled by the Security all look like they were set in the same mall, and those set in Resistance controlled areas don’t seem to leave a single, rusty brown, junkyard. Each mission blurred into the next, with boredom increasing with every completed objective.

This wasn’t helped by the tiny amount of story, inserted before and after each mission. The cutscenes did nothing to peak my interest in what was going on and, in all honesty, I wasn’t expecting much. That being said, it would’ve been nice to have a little more motivation than ‘these dudes are the enemy, go and shoot them in the face’. It’s a shame, because the story definitely has potential. The idea of a Resistance movement/trying to suppress a totalitarian regime has a lot of scope, and whilst have been on the generic side, it would have been more interesting than what’s there. The fact you play as a nameless, somewhat faceless, nobody didn’t help me connect to what was going on either. The dual campaign – one which is exact same story told from the two opposing sides – did more to hinder the experience than anything else. Playing through this thing twice was something I didn’t want to do.

That’s not to say that the mechanics are bad. In fact, from a gameplay perspective, Brink is pretty sound. The movement of characters works well and it’s easy to differentiate between the three character ‘sizes’. The smallest character model can parkour his way through the environment with ease, whilst the heaviest of guys will take a little longer. As with almost everything here, this is flawed too. The game is fairly well balanced, but choosing the mid-range character model makes a play through a little too easy. The movement itself is great. I loved the feeling of freedom when running around the environments, clambering over (and under) any obstacle in my way. The main problem lies in the gunplay. Whilst you can differentiate a machine gun from a pistol and a pistol from a shotgun, the weaponry within each category feels exactly the same.

This doesn’t help in a shooter that wants to compete in the big leagues, especially when it comes to online multiplayer. With the whole campaign being playable with and against other players, the distinctions between the weapons needed to be greater than it is. Though I don’t know how many people are going to stick with the game. The objective system is a great feature and I really enjoyed choosing which objectives to take on based on my class. However, I found that teamwork is a necessity if you want to win. This is something I wasn’t getting from my fellow players or from the AI bots.

Brink is a very flawed experience, but it had potential. There’s mechanics here that I’d love to see implemented elsewhere and the art style really impressed me. Had it had a little more time spent on it, it could’ve been really special. As it stands, the gameplay isn’t all that fun, the online is inconsistent at best and the environments get very old, very fast.

6.5/10

It’s a pretty simple concept. You’ve got a group (or perhaps a swarm) of fifty little blue creatures and they need to get from point A to point B. Unlike, the aforementioned, Lemmings you assume direct control of your band of blue brothers, guiding them through the treacherous environments, applying more nuanced control methods as the game progresses. You’ll soon find out different methods of using your Swarmites in order to complete tasks and collect objects along the way. One of these methods is death.

Believe or not, you’ll have to sacrifice some of your swarm in order to complete certain tasks. These sacrifices often come in very unique and comedic ways, so don’t feel too bad about it. All you need to remember is that one of them needs to make it to the end. Sacrificing your swarm is necessary to progress through the game. Levels are unlocked through attaining certain scores and killing off Swarmites will help to increase your multiplier and keep it going longer. This begs the question “What if I need more Swarmites?” — there are Swarmite pods strewn throughout the levels, so you can easily replenish your stock.

Swarm is a game with very old school sensibilities. If you’re not good enough at the game, you’re not going to get through it. The challenge isn’t getting your little blue army through each level, it’s making sure that multiplier is high enough to unlock the next level. In short it’s pretty hardcore, but you’ll be coming back for more regardless.

8.5/10

I’ve never been great at fighting games. I’ve got a few combos at my disposal, but the majority of the time I’m just mashing buttons and hoping for the best. This is why I’m so attached to Marvel vs Capcom, I could mash the controller and make cool stuff happen. However, when MadCatz announced they were bringing out a new Fightstick for MvC3, I decided now was the time to finally grasp a joystick (Not like that! You lot are right dirty minded) and see what all the fuss was about.

Before I get to that, I’ve got to say, the stick itself is fantastic. The Tournament Edition has a real weight to it, which is something I didn’t expect. The stick is responsive and gives you great feedback when it comes to dead-zones. Unlike the stick, the buttons give next to no feedback. That satisfying ‘click’ response from the stick isn’t there and it felt like I wasn’t doing anything, that my frantic button pushing was paying no dividends. The buttons felt a little loose and was my only complaint with the overall Fightstick.

From a design perspective, the Fightstick is great. It’s a solid piece of kit that feels unlikely to break if dropped. A must if you’ve got your drunken, fighting game fanatic, mates around. The fact you can replace almost everything on the stick is great too (perhaps another set of buttons might solve my problem?), not that I’ll be messing around with this thing. It’s aesthetically pleasing too. The cable compartment on the back is a great feature if you’re keeping it ‘on display’, although there might be too much cable for that space. It’s a decent size and the MvC3 artwork on the faceplate is fantastic. Even the box is nice, so much so, that I’ve kept it hanging around when, normally, it would’ve been straight in the bin. (ED: This is not recommended for warranty sake and it’s a collector’s edition, you’d probably want to keep the box.)

Overall it’s a great piece of hardware that any fighting game fan would be proud to own. If you’ve never used a stick before, there’s definitely a learning curve. And because you’ve got a stick doesn’t mean you’ll always be kicking arse (trust me.) If you’ve got the spare cash and want a great stick, look no further. If you haven’t used one before, maybe go with the entry-level model. The TE is a little pricey.

8.5/10

Originally featured on Gamerwok.com – friends of ours, and a site Anthony also writes for on occasion. Check them out.

You play as hapless a robotic hero (Explodemon), who’s been unleashed upon the world in order to rid the world of, all around bad guy, Absorbmon and a havoc-wreaking bunch of aliens called the Vortex. It’s an adventure with it’s tounge firmly placed in it’s cheek, and that’s what makes this simplistic world so engaging. The game hearkens back to the era in which it takes the most inspiration. A time before big localization; when translation was just an afterthought to Japanese game developers. Explodemon even offers up some classic ‘Engrish’ dialogue, which never failed to make me smile. This is complemented well with a great art style and fantastic music. Granted the level design is a little samey and, at times, it can feel like you’re fighting the same enemy over and over, but that’s me nitpicking.

It’s not hard to see where Curve got their influences from. It’s a great homage to the golden age of videogames, but can be easily be appreciated by all of those that play it. The character himself is a fine amalgam of old-school characters: He looks like Mega Man, runs like Sonic and could take on Mario in a brick breaking competition. At the same time managing to feel fresh and exciting rather than played out and derivative.

At it’s core, Explodemon is a 2D platformer. However, this isn’t just about traversing a level and getting to the finish line. Using the his penchant for blowing stuff up, Explodemon must battle hordes of enemies, solve puzzles and find alternate routes in order to get through a level. The game is fairly linear but, like any retro-inspired game, there’s secret areas and collectibles to keep you coming back for more.

Explodemon is a great experience and a fantastic homage to gaming’s golden age. There’s some minor problems, like having to move with the analog stick, but nothing that’s going to ruin the game for the majority of people. It’s one that will appeal to nostalgic gamers everywhere and it’s great to see that from an original IP.

8.5/10

Bionic Commando: Rearmed is one of the few high-def reimagining’s I thought worked well. It’s slick presentation and how loyally it stuck to the NES original made it a hit with fans and newcomers like myself. It’s interesting take on classic platforming mechanics and, developer, Grin worked with that. Expertly recreating what had gone before, whilst adding their own additional bits of flair. This is something the sequel just doesn’t live up to. Perhaps it’s a case of a developer being left to their own devices, but it just doesn’t have that classic Bionic Commando feel.

That’s probably because the game’s core mechanic, the thing that set it apart from every other platformer out there, has been taken away. The addition of a jump mechanic has made it all too easy to make your way through levels. Figuring your way around environments, using only the bionic arm, played a big part in what made the original, and the first Rearmed, so great. Jumping just seems to strip away a lot of the challenge and, honestly, makes for a far less fun experience.

The same can be said for the level design. I was never ‘wowed’ by any of the levels I’d played through. Whilst backtracking is encouraged, you won’t want to do it. They aren’t visually interesting and often end up being a maze of tunnels, seemingly out to confuse you.
The addition of new upgrades was a welcome one, but after picking up health regeneration, I never felt like I needed to use anything else. New sniper and helicopter-flying sequences have been added to break up the side scrolling, but these fall flat after a while. Not even the addition of a second player made this any more enjoyable. That can’t be a good sign.

Rearmed 2 is a game that left a bad taste in my mouth. It feels like a cheap way to cash in on a notable name rather than an experience people actually want to play.

6/10

This review was originally posted on GamerWok.com. They’re our friends, you should check them out!

Commander Shepard has proved his worth to the galaxy by saving it from utter destruction by a race of sentient machines called Reapers, who want to annihilate all life in the galaxy. It’s up to Commander Shepard to stop these Reapers and bring the fight to them, but he can’t do it alone. You, as Commander Shepard, must recruit the best and brightest in the galaxy and convince them to go on this suicide mission to save the galaxy.

It’s actually the characters that wound up being the main interest for me, as they are complex, and very “real”. Once you recruit them you get the opportunity to talk to them and get to know them better, and eventually help them to gain their loyalty. Turns out a suicide mission is daunting for people, and being focused on the mission would be a great thing. Every member of your crew has unfinished business that could distract them from saving the galaxy, and it’s up to you to make sure they’re completely focused on destroying the Reapers.

All of these missions are very enriching for the experience. It reveals who your squad mates really are at the heart of their being, and really makes you care about the characters and want them to survive. Granted not everyone is going to love every single character, but that’s the beauty of Mass Effect 2: It’s a completely personal gameplay experience.

On the Xbox, you could import your save game, and all your decisions would be transferred over, effecting your Mass Effect 2 gameplay experience. The first game sadly isn’t available on the PS3, but, you do get an awesome looking interactive in-game comic book that lets you choose exactly what you want to do on each major decision. The book looks awesome, and only takes about 10 minutes to get through.

Another great thing about the game is combat. The gunplay has been honed down and polished to a sparkling sheen, pulling elements from Gears of War into the original Mass Effect combat system. Say you want to have a squad mate lift an enemy in the air with a biotic power (like force powers in Star Wars), and then have you other squad mate hit them with a concussive shot from their sniper rifle while you provide covering fire. You can do that without pausing the game at all, which is a huge improvement and ends up making the combat much more fluid and accessible, but still deep enough for hardcore players.

This game isn’t straight up action though. Outside of missions you can use resources you find from scanning planets to research upgrades that give your squad more health, more damage, or maybe a portable nuke-launcher if you’re a badass. This actually proves to be pretty fun, even though it’s a pretty simplistic upgrade system.

The main story in ME2is completely awesome. All of the plot-centric missions are so amazing it isn’t even funny, and are loads of fun to replay to see what different outcomes you can get. In addition, there are side missions that you can do if you want to earn a little cash on the side. This is a nice addition to the game, but I can’t help but feel like they weren’t really worth the time I put into them. They’re only about 10 minutes long each, and usually aren’t much more than “show up to X, kill people, do X unique event, and then leave”. They all take place in drastically different environments and have different purposes, but they still feel cookie-cutter in some ways, and don’t serve a purpose beyond getting experience and bonus minerals to boost up your squad.

The classes in ME2 are also very unique. Each one has a specific power that the other one doesn’t, and can play different roles during combat. For instance, the Vanguard is a master of close combat and can use her biotic abilities to hurl herself at light speed towards and enemy and knock them off their feet before finishing them off with a shotgun blast at close range. The infiltrator is a vastly different role, relying on the tactical cloak, which makes you invisible to enemies for a short while, and sniper rifles to kill enemies from afar. No matter what class you choose you’ll eventually be able to walk into a room and just wreck people, which never gets old. This is a testament to how good the combat is, as it hasn’t gotten old for me yet, and I’ve been killing baddies for roughly 60 hours now.

If you liked the first Mass Effect then you’ll love this game. If you love action games you’ll love this game. If you love RPGs you’ll love this game. No matter what type of gamer you are there is something here for you. This game is a masterpiece, and you should play it.

10/10

Well, that depends on what you were expecting. If you wanted something akin to an EyeToy game that’s a bit of a laugh with some mates, you might just enjoy this. Those looking for that Kinect-lite experience will need to look elsewhere. Like Microsoft’s camera add-on, there’s a fair bit of prep involved before you can even get to the bad Bruce Lee impressions. Players need a decent sized space – one that lacks breakable objects and furniture – clothes that don’t clash with the room, a good light source and to perform stretches before playing. I think the guys at Virtual Air Guitar might be asking a little too much of us gamers here.

Once you’ve completed your pre-game warm up, waited through the, obnoxiously long, load and completed the tedious set up process, you can finally get to playing. However, even the most casual of gamer is going to find themselves frustrated. Why? Because the game isn’t all that fun to play. Sure, it’s got the novelty of seeing yourself appear on screen, but past that it’s a pretty shallow experience. This might’ve been a good laugh with a few friends round and the beer flowing, but the set up process alone restricts it from being a ‘party’ game. Combined with the constant calibration and the fact it doesn’t appear to like any conditions you set, you might feel a little brassed off.

If you do manage to get it going, the novelty soon wears off and, although making dodgy kung-fu poses at the begining at each level proved to be pretty funny. The game itself is rather shallow. It’s accurate, but after a couple of hours of flailing around I felt I was done. It’s not like it’s a game I could easily jump back into either.

Beyond the single player there’s the ‘Mayhem’ mode. This allows you to set up a scenario with different enemy types, allowing you to challenge yourself further. This too was short lived and even the multiplayer mode didn’t make up for this generally lackluster title.

It’s a novel idea that has a lot of potential, it’s just a shame it wasn’t executed as well as it could’ve been.

5/10

Blacklight: Tango Down is a pretty generic first person shooter. Included in the package is, as you would expect, a simple offline mode alongside the main appeal of the title, the multiplayer. The offline portion, known as ‘black ops’, really has no point other than gaining experience. There is a story in there somewhere, but it’s really never touched upon enough to make sense, or make you care. Black ops has you going through certain missions, checkpoint by checkpoint, until you each the end. It’s about as interesting as it sounds. The option to go through it with up to 4 players could make it worth your while. By yourself, however, it’s just not worth it.

Thankfully, Blacklight: Tango Down has some very solid gameplay. For a downloadable title, which I hate saying, the production value is very high and provides for a better experience than you would expect. Everything runs smooth, the shooting feels great, and the pace of the online feels just right. Gadgets like the Hyper Reality Visor, revealing allies, enemies, health and more for a limited time is extremely useful and adds a little character to a seemingly ho-hum shooter. One of the gadgets, the digi-grenade, seems awesome on paper. It distorts the opposing players view with a cluster of pixelization, making it difficult to see. Unfortunately, that also makes it difficult to see said player. Bit of a blunder, but it can be overlooked. What can’t be, and just doesn’t make sense to me, is the iron sights for each gun. For some odd reason, when going into hard-aiming, the crosshair remains in place and just drops the gun a few inches below it. Obviously it increases accuracy, but it just seems and feels strange for the first few hours of playing. Complaints aside, this is still a great shooter and delivers a solid online experience.

The online modes, although what you would expect, are as fun as some of the best first person shooters out there. There’s your typical team deathmatch, domination and more; sticking with a formula that has already worked for so many other shooters, which is fine with me. The customizability from experience is impressive by any standards. There are a good number of guns, equipment, and armor that can be unlocked as you level up. Unlocks have always been a great incentive to keep playing any game, and Blacklight: Tango Down gets it right.

Presentation wise, Zombie Studios put a pretty admirable amount of work into such a wallet-friendly title. The visuals are sharp, pretty and inspired, while the electric tunes in the background help the vibe the developers were going for and set this game apart from other shooters; to an extent. Unfortunately, environments vary minimally and the soundtrack, after a good while, can get a bit annoying. Though, for the asking price, it’s really nothing to complain about.

So, to answer my original question, I do believe this holds up in todays market. That is, if you plan on playing this as a distraction in between other major titles. It most likely won’t keep you hooked long enough to max out the level cap and unlock every level, but for $14.99, it is without a doubt worth the cost of admission. At the moment, there’s a solid enough community to where you will always be able to find a match, so strike while the irons hot if you’re interested.

7.5/10

That’s somewhat of an achievement on its own.  Call of Duty is a franchise that appears to come under more scrutiny than over titles. It’s year-upon-year set  sales increase sets the bar high, and means the next game is always going to have to improve in order to keep diehard fans pleased. This is something Black Ops has achieved with great success. The developer  has managed to keep the familiar gameplay as good as ever, whilst introducing new elements, in both single and multiplayer, to give the game fresh appeal.

There’s no doubt that this has to be one of, if not, the best single player campaigns in the Call of Duty series so far. The story is played out as flashbacks from Alex Mason’s memories whilst he’s being interrogated. This sees you visiting destinations such as Cuba, Central Russia and Vietnam during the cold war. It’s a great, well told, story which is likely to keep you engaged right to the end. However, it’s not without it’s problems. The main issue is the AI characters, be they enemies or allies, can be annoyingly poor. This leads to some frustrating moments and, equally, moments where you can not help but laugh at what you’ve just seen. It’s far from gamebreaking, but is certainly disappointing.

Treyarch have also included the nice little treat of two mini games into this title. Dead Ops and Zork. Dead Ops is a top down shooter game, which sees you take on waves of zombies in order to progress throughout the stages. Zork, if you don’t know, is a text based RPG. Both of these games are accessible on the main menu of the game and are worth a shot if you need a break from tearing it up online.

The online portion of Black Ops is very similar to Modern Warfare 2, but the extra additions Treyarch have brought to the table help keep it fresh and fun, even for series veterans. First of all they’ve introduced a new COD Points system that runs along side the usual XP system from the previous games. COD Points are used for is buying your weapons, perks, attachments, killstreaks and all that stuff. This gives players a lot more choice what in what order they receive items. With the addition of COD Points comes online ‘Wager Matches’. This mode allows players to wager points against each other in certain match types and can really help if you need help unlocking that next great gun.

Treyarch have also introduced a lot of customization options. Players can now make their own emblems, which will show on your Playercard in the lobbies. You then also get the option to have you emblem placed on your weapons along with your clan tag. Attachments can also be customised. A heart-shaped reticle, certainly adds insult to injury. These are added on top of the options like camo from the previous instalments. They might be purely aesthetic, but it’s nice to see nonetheless.

Of course, the success and balance of the multiplayer compared to the likes of Modern Warfare 2 will only be clear over the first few month of play by thousands of gamers – but by all the great points so far it is hard to see why Black Ops can not become the best multiplayer experience to date.

The much loved Nazi Zombie mode, first seen in World of War, is back. Whilst Nazi’s don’t make sense in this context, it’s still a lot of fun to defend yourself from the zombie hordes. This sees you earning money per wave survived, be it for repairs to smashed windows or broken walls, buying new weapons from the weapon points placed around the level, or unlocking doors to progress. The choice is ultimately yours to make. This mode is available on both single and multiplayer mode,  but it excells when played with friends.

With the best a single player campaign in the series, and a fantastic, yet familiar, multiplayer mode, Treyarch have finally stepped up to the plate and have finally got rid of the ‘second rate studio’ tag.

9.4/10