The game’s direction Setton Hill explains: “The Riddler continues to taunt the Dark Knight with mind-bending puzzles and exploration challenges, but the location of his biggest secrets are known only to him and people he’s told. Rather than unlocking their locations using maps, Batman will be able to scan a gang of thugs to find a potential informant.”

Interrogation has always been a large part of stealth-action games. Be it shown in cutscenes (Metal Gear Solid) or in-game (Splinter Cell), it always seems to be there. I thought it was the only thing missing from Bats’ latest outing, so I’m interested to see how this new mechanic pans out. It’ll be nice not to have Riddler butting in every five minutes. I’m surprised Batman could get a word in.

Source: CVG

Much has been made of how Dog Days is presented. The game is ‘shot’ like it’s being filmed on a hand-held video camera by an documentary maker. In an age where anybody can make a movie, it’s surprising that no one has done this before. It feels odd to describe how a game is shot, but it’s the only way I can get my point across. The cutscenes look great and they work really well in this amateurish style. I love the idea outside of gameplay, but when you’re in the heart of the action it’s certainly not perfect. The camera shakes when you’re running and there’s a far bit of motion blur when you come to a quick stop. This made me feel ill when I first started playing, but I continued and soon got used to it. You can turn this off if you wish, but I think the game loses a lot of it’s style without it. That’s far from a good thing. When your camera is so instrumental to how good the game feels, you really want to make sure people don’t get nauseous.

Aside from the interesting presentation, the story in Kane & Lynch 2 is another big drawing point. The story of the original was lackluster and forgettable and that’s one of the things that have been made up for in the sequel. It first appears to be Lynch’s story with his criminal c0hort being dragged along for the ride. Soon enough Kane’s dragged into the mix too and the two are fighting against the entire Shanghai underworld. It’s a little cliche, but it held my interest to the end and, unlike most third person shooters, I was interested in the characters as well as the overall story. It looks like IO wanted to make their game feel like a gritty crime movie and they’ve succeeded.

It’s here that the main problem lies. It’s got a great plot and interesting presentation, but the gameplay isn’t up to scratch. Don’t get me wrong, it’s far superior to that of the first game and what IO did with the Hitman series. It’s just not what you expect from a cover-based shooter. It’s either completely inaccurate or far too accurate depending on the context. There’s no middle ground, which is a major problem. The squad-based stuff from the original game has been scrapped, which is a major improvement. The friendly AI is fairly competent too. I never found my partner getting in the way, but it still felt I was doing all the work most of the time. The enemy AI is tough as balls. It often felt like they could take a lot more bullets than you could and they could be incredibly cheap..

These less than good shooting mechanics don’t help when it comes to multiplayer either. I couldn’t take it for very long and barely lasted a few rounds. Take a note developers, forcing multiplayer into your games isn’t always a good idea. Certainly not, when the shooting mechanics aren’t great. This is a shame, because the multiplayer game modes are an interesting take on the regular modes.

Graphically the game is a little hit and miss too. The character models of both Kane and Lynch are pretty good, but that’s about where it stops. The environments are bland and a lot of textures are repeated. Considering the game takes place inside a lot of warehouses, that isn’t surprising. However, even on street level, with all those bright lights, it still comes across as dull and uninteresting. This isn’t helped by the repeating enemy types, all of whom look the same and can be dispatched with ease.

Kane & Lynch 2 is a game I think everyone should play, but that’s not necessarily a full on recommendation. The presentation is new and interesting and the story is worth sticking around for. It’s just a shame that, as a game, it’s very hit and miss. IO really dropped the ball on this one. They grabbed my interest from the off, but the gameplay made it a chore to stick around for.

6.5/10

The developer has announced that ‘Lara Croft and The Guardian of Light’ is going to be coming to a digital download service near you. The game is set to be shown “strictly behind closed doors” at the Game Developers Conference on March 9th.

General Manager of Crystal Dynamics, Darrell Gallagher said: “This is a really exciting project for Crystal Dynamics, we have created something completely new and very different to what people might be expecting. He added: “Lara Croft is such an iconic character in videogames, with Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light we have created what we believe is a truly original digital experience.”.

This is certainly a big change in direction for the studio and the franchise. It looks like the ‘Tomb Raider’ name is gone too. It’d be great to see Lara back to her former glory once again. I think Nathan Drake took over her crown a while back.

Square Enix (why does that still not seem to make sense) have announced that a demo for the game will be available on the PlayStation Store on Thursday March 4th.

In the demo players will be able to explore 35 square miles of the island, zipping around as they go. If anyone wasn’t already sold on this great looking sequel, hopefully this demo will do the trick.

There was no title revealed, but we did get a website to go to. Apparently we can go to www.arkhamhasmoved.com, but there’s little to nothing there as of yet.

If you didn’t see the show, you can check out the trailer here.

That’s quite a way away from the original release window of Q3 2009, still we should have more time to play it in the spring…oh…wait.

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is set to be released next year and, to quote the press release, it will “take players on an even more intense story experience”. Also, it looks like IO will be employing some new visual techniques. The game is said to be inspired by documentary filmakers and the user-generated era in order to give us something “fresh”.

Weather it’ll work out, who knows. I think everyone’s just hoping that it’ll be better than the first one.

The pack, entitled ‘Insane Night’, will be made available on Thursday for the fantastic price of…zilch. Yep, Eidos are giving you these gratis. The pack contains two new challenges. First up, the ‘Totally Insane’ combat challenge pits you against a bunch of Arkham’s crazies. The second , ‘Nocturnal Hunter’, is a stealth challenge, in which you need to use the watchtowers to your advantage.

For those wanting more story content, i’m afraid this isn’t going to appease you. That said, I hope there is some story DLC in the works, I think we all do.

I wonder what it’ll be? I suspect it’ll be more challenge rooms, but i’d certainly welcome some more story content, even though I haven’t gotten through the caped-crusader’s madhouse adventure just yet. Whatever it is, it’s free! Will anybody be complaining? I think not.

So, not only do PS3 owners get the exclusive (and free) Joker Challenge Map content we’ve got some more free content to look forward to. Weather this will be more challenge maps or something different all together is anyone’s guess. Whatever it is though, i’m sure we’ll all lap it up. Good on ya Rocksteady

Source:  Joystiq