Titles now available include:

• The entire Max Payne series and the F.E.A.R. franchise are now playable on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One consoles for the very first time.  
• The entire Skate franchise is now complete with the addition of Skate 2 and playable on both Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One consoles.  
• We also heard the desire for more original Xbox titles to be added to the catalog. We are pleased to announce we were able to bring more than 20+ original Xbox titles to an entire new generation of gamers, including Dead or Alive Ultimate, Star Wars: Jedi Knight II, Star Wars: Starfighter, and Otogi franchises.

Click on the graphic below to see the full list.   

Source: Xbox

Also today, Xbox Live added the GoPro Channel app for Xbox Live Gold members to stream and curate GoPro video content through the Xbox 360 console. Microsoft says the GoPro Channel app is being developed for Xbox One and will be launched this summer.

“The GoPro Channel app will bring the best of GoPro originally-produced and user-generated content into the homes of millions of Xbox Live Gold customers,” said Adam Dornbusch, Head of Content Distribution at GoPro.

Description:

Garrett, the Master Thief, steps out of the shadows into the City. In this treacherous place, where the Baron’s Watch spreads a rising tide of fear and oppression, his skills are the only things he can trust. Even the most cautious citizens and their best- guarded possessions are not safe from his reach.

As an uprising emerges, Garrett finds himself entangled in growing layers of conflict. Lead by Orion, the voice of the people, the tyrannized citizens will do everything they can to claim back the City from the Baron’s grasp. The revolution is inevitable. If Garrett doesn’t get involved, the streets will run red with blood and the City will tear itself apart.

Story

You play as Jason Brody who is on vacation with his two brothers and a few friends and take a skydiving trip onto an island where they’re told you can do “anything.” Shortly after they’ve landed they’re captured and imprisoned by a pirate and human trafficking lord named Vaas that intends to sell them back to their parents for a large sum of money. You manage to break free from your captors and take solace in a small camp run by Dennis who is associated with the islands’ natives called the Rakyat. Dennis sees you as a symbol that they can defeat the pirates and teaches you how to survive on the island. Since you play an ‘everyman’ who has never killed before in his life, you are forced into this bad situation as you pick up a weapon and you know it won’t end well. The emotional change Jason Brody goes through is riveting as he does whatever it takes to survive.

The World and You

The island in Far Cry 3 is huge and populated with a bunch of pirates and viscous animals. The island is quite beautiful with its lush trees, foliage, and a variety of plants. Fire has a significant effect on the world and spreads out in a realistic fashion consuming large areas of land. Wooden buildings can also be set aflame but will not break apart or be destroyed afterwards. The island is also filled with dangerous species so make sure to watch your step. Komodo dragons, snakes, crocodiles, sharks and more can get the jump on you and have you feverously mashing buttons to break free. As an FPS game you tend to see parts of your body more when you are ambushed by animals and they’re gnawing on your limbs. You can heal your wounds by injecting yourself with health syringes, but if you don’t have any you can still bandage yourself up. This healing mechanic changes based on the damage you’ve taken. If you were to fall from a great height, the heal mechanic will have you relocating you wrist; if you were bitten by an animal you will bandage up your arm, or if you’ve taken lots of gunfire you’ll be digging bullets out of your arm with your trusty knife. It can be a bit jarring seeing yourself patch up your own wounds, but it also adds to the game’s immersion.

Gameplay

As you’ve come to expect from every Far Cry game, the world is a huge open sandbox filled with tasks for you to complete. You progress through the game by adding tattoo’s to your left arm which unlock skills as you level up. Some skills will improve your gunplay while others give you stealth kill options. Improvements to your health, movement and interactions with the world are also unlocked through the use of these skills.

You start off the game pretty much naked with only a knife and a pistol available. You can hunt and skin animals around the island and use their pelts to upgrade your carrying capacity for various things such as weapons, grenades and inventory slots. There are also a variety of plants around the world that you can use to craft syringes with various effects that improve your health, heighten your senses so you can see enemies and animals easier, and even improve you combat effectiveness!

We’re also glad to see a huge variety of weapons that you can purchase that ranges from pistols to sniper rifles and even throwing in a few specialty ones such as a flamethrower or a reflex bow. Most of these weapons can be unlocked for free as you activate the radio towers around the island, but you can purchase them anytime if you so desire. There are also a bunch of upgrades to the weapons that improve their ammo capacity, upgrades to the weapons sights and even attach a sound suppressor for those silent types. Specialty ammo can also be crafted for your reflex bow to turn your arrows into explosive projectiles or even light things on fire.

If gunplay isn’t really your style and you prefer a stealthy approach, Far Cry 3 doesn’t disappoint. There are a bunch of stealth assassination techniques that you can learn that increase your deadliness. Sneaking up on an enemy and stabbing them in the neck with a knife is one thing. Performing aerial or underwater assassinations is another. But taking an enemy’s weapons and using it against their friends is so much more satisfying. Why wouldn’t you want to pull the pins on their grenade belt and push them into a group of their buddies? Well it’s because you want to stab them, use their body as a human shield while you take their pistol and shoot their buddies in the face. Or if you want to be creative you can shoot the lock off that caged tiger and have him maul all those pesky pirates to death. Far Cry 3 gives you these options so you can play by your rules, your way. Except for that one stealth mission where you can’t kill anyone or be spotted either. That was annoying, but the rest of the game lets you play the way you love to play.

Multiplayer

Far Cry 3 hosts a persistent multiplayer leveling system and map editor. There are only a few different game types but one of the most unique is Firestorm. It takes the game’s fire mechanics and implements them into a multiplayer match. The goal is to set fire to two objectives in the enemy base and retreat back to a radar dish.  The longer it takes for you to get to the radar dish, the more the fire will spread, eventually blocking off routes to the radar dish. Oh and did we mention that you’re fighting the other team while the flames are raging out of control?

The persistent leveling is what you’ve come to expect nowadays. You unlock weapons and skills as you rank up and weapon attachments are unlocked the more you use the weapon. There is also something called battle cry that lets you buff your ally units abilities and health within a given radius. This ability alone is enough to make you want to fight with your teammates instead of going solo as your battle cry does not buff yourself.

Death does not mean that you’re out of the game yet either. You can mash the A button to fight to stay alive while your teammates can come and pick you up. In Team Deathmatch this feature comes in handy as you can deny your enemies the kill if you are revived. This however only happens once, and as soon as you are killed after being revived you must respawn. This also draws enemies in as they will want to revive their teammates, so you can use their dying comrade as bait.

Another feature of Far Cry 3 is the ‘Final Move.’ When a match is over the winning team votes on how to punish the losing team’s MVP. You can choose to be merciful and let them go or be vengeful and fart in their face or beat them up. Survival of the Sickest is Far Cry 3’s new motto it seems.

A kill cam is also featured and gives some tactical information based on where your enemy was and how they killed you. A screenshot of the event is taken and shows the bullet trajectories and contact hits that killed you. It also showcases the enemy’s weapon used, their health and other useful tidbits of information that may change your tactical approach.

Daily and weekly challenges are also present. They can range from killing enemies with certain weapons or in certain game types or by performing specific actions such as tagging enemies. These challenges unlock extra XP so you level up faster and to give players something to work towards.

Ubisoft Similarities

You can definitely tell that Far Cry 3 was made by Ubisoft Montreal as there are a ton of elements from previous games. There are radio towers spread throughout the island that you must climb to reveal that portion of the map similar to Viewpoints found in Assassin’s Creed. They even have the same camera pan around the tower to reveal that area of the map but with a few highlights on certain portions of the area that may hold some secrets.

There is a marking system that allows you to mark enemies so that you can track them more easily which is also found in Splinter Cell: Conviction. There is no instant execute button, but with all the fancy weapons you pick up on the island there are plenty of ways to dispatch groups of foes.

About halfway through the game you are tasked to retrieve an ancient dagger that holds power to the Rakyat people. The dagger is beautifully crafted and has some visual similarities to the dagger in Prince of Persia.

Hunting and skinning are also included in the game, which has ties to the more recent Assassin’s Creed 3.

Final Verdict

Far Cry 3 is big open sandbox that lets you play however you want to play. There are plenty of weapons, upgrades, and stealth options to fight off those pesky pirates on your own terms. The storyline is gripping with emotional turns around every corner. If you’re looking for an immersive, open world FPS with solid gunplay that’s not based on war, then look no further.

By: Steven Bartels

[showhide]Press Release

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.–The holidays might be over, but EA has one more gift for gamers! Visceral Games, an Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) studio, today announced that a downloadable demo for Dead Space 3, the first entertainment blockbuster of 2013, will be available for download on Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network starting on January 22. Exclusively for Xbox 360, gamers who want a chance to play the demo one week early, can sign up on http://demo.deadspace.com.* In the demo, players will be thrust into deep space terror when unwilling hero – Isaac Clarke – and all-new co-op companion – Sergeant John Carver – crash land on Tau Volantis, an unforgiving ice planet teeming with Necromorphs. Dead Space 3 takes the franchise’s core elements of suspense, horror, action and sound and introduces them to all-new elements – including co-op play – that allows players to work together to take down the most ambitious Dead Space experience yet. Dead Space 3 launches in North America on February 5 on Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and PC and February 8 in Europe.

Winner of more than 15 critic awards at E3 2012 including Best of Show from Game Informer Magazine, Dead Space 3 cuts to the heart of deep space terror. The game is recognized by game critics worldwide for its incredible craftsmanship in horror, action, suspense and sound design. Players will embark on a thrilling ride through space that takes them to a hostile new planet, Tau Volantis. Fortunately, they are not alone this time around. The fully integrated drop-in/drop-out co-op feature gives players the option to play alone or team-up with a friend anytime. Players that choose to take down the terror together will experience additional story details, side missions and gameplay mechanics only found when playing as John Carver.

Dead Space 3 will be available on February 5 in North America and February 8 in Europe for the PS3, Xbox 360 and the PC.

[/showhide]

• Far Cry 3 (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, PC Download)
• Far Cry 3 – Deluxe Edition (PC Download)
• Mass Effect Trilogy (PS3, Xbox 360, PC, PC Download)
• Marvel Avengers: Battle For Earth (Xbox 360, Wii U)
• Power Rangers Samurai (Xbox 360)
• Family Party 30 Great Games: Obstacle Arcade (Wii U)
• Guardians of Middle-earth (PS3)
• Rise of the Guardians: The Video Game (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U, Wii, DS, 3DS)
• Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2013 (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U, Wii)
• Dark Arcana: The Carnival – Bonus Edition (PC)
• Rapala Pro Fishing 2012 (Wii U)
• XCOM: Enemy Unknown – Slingshot (PC Download)
• Max Payne 3: Painful Memories Pack (PC Download)

The first add-on to be released by Bethesda, Dawnguard packs a massive amount of new content to explore. Vampire slayers, the Dawnguard seek to eliminate the vampire threat that has risen to power in the northwest part of Skyrim. Vampires are appearing in large number and attacking the holds of Skyrim. The vampires on the other hand, hope to find a way to destroy the sun because of their weakness to it.

Hearing a rumor from a guard in any hold, alerts the player that the Dawnguard is forming. Following the rumor leads the player to Fort Dawnguard, where the quest begins. Isran, the leader of the Dawnguard, asks the hero to search the Dimhollow crypt. Upon completing your search, you find a woman whom you later discover is a vampire, and Lord Harkon’s daughter, Serena. On her back is a large scroll, obviously an Elder Scroll. She asks you to bring her to her father, the leader of the vampires. Once you have safely returned Serena to her father’s castle, a choice must be made. Will you remain loyal to the Dawnguard, or will you join the vampire’s crusade, becoming one as well?

A lot of content is added to the world of Skyrim with the Dawnguard add-on. Nearly 40 quests make up the storylines between following Lord Harkon, or remaining loyal to the Dawnguard. Over 80 NPC’s have been added to facilitate the new content over 24 new areas to explore. In addition to the NPC’s added, you can have demonhounds(vampire) or dogs(Dawnguard) join you as followers on your quests. New spells can be discovered for the conjuration and restoration trees, as well as three new shouts to learn. And between the Dawnguard and vampire factions, a multitude of new items can be found and made.

Dawnguard is able to add most of the new content to every aspect of Skyrim. The new items, books, potions, etc., will appear all over the world of Skyrim, as if they were there from the beginning. This includes new loading screens, dialogues for NPC’s, and new enemies to fight. Leaving weapons on the ground can lead to a guard telling you that it is dangerous to leave them there, or a merchant asking if they could take left items for resale. There are also perks added for both the abilities to turn into vampires or werewolves. Similar to the skill trees, these perks enhance either forms to make them even more deadly.

Between the two story lines, following the vampires and the Dawnguard, you can expect nearly 20 hours of additional content. This of course can change depending on how quickly the player rushes through quest. Alongside the storyline, the player can run into side quests that can be well worth completing. Finding Arvak’s skull or speaking to a distraught soul will allow the player to complete a quest in which they can learn to summon an undead horse, Arvak. Also, the hero can learn new dragon shouts such as Soul Tear, which casts Soul Trap, drains the target of its health, and if it dies within two seconds, raises the target to fight for you for 60 seconds.

Other things to look forward to involve the Aetherium Forge, which three unique items can be made: a staff that can summon a Dwarven sphere or spider for 60 seconds, a crown that allows for two stone powers to be active at once, and a shield that causes enemies to become ethereal for 60 seconds when bashed. As well as unique enemies like Durnehviir, a very old dragon whom you can eventually be able to summon into battle. Similar to Odahviing, Durnehviir is actually a bit more useful in that he summons more like a conjuration spell, meaning he can be used in most indoor areas provided there is enough room for him.

Dawnguard will want to be replayed in order to see both faction’s side of the story, and see the differences that take place. Fresh new content such as vampire and Dawnguard armor can be found all over Skyrim. Players who haven’t finished Skryim can download Dawnguard, and start seeing changes right away. Unlike the DLC available for other games, Bethesda’s first official add-on will keep you busy for hours on end.

Building your mansion provides an addicting experience which seamlessly blends into the world of Tamriel as if it were there from the beginning. Usually an add-on introduces new content; however, to access the new content, the player is confined to a new area. This is one of the features I’ve always enjoyed with Elder Scrolls games, the smooth blending of new content with the old. Hearthfire adds clothing and toys for the kids you can potentially adopt, in addition to new furnishings for your homes.

Like in Minecraft, players with OCD will enjoy building and furnishing their mansions. Fortunately, building a mansion does not require training a skill to make the items required. Apart from some obscure materials for random decorations, iron will be wanted in large supply. Most of what is needed to build the mansion can be found surrounding the land purchased. There are two mineral veins that can be mined to provide the quarried stone and clay you will need. Sawn logs are also now available for purchase from lumber mills, such as the one in Riverwood.

Building your mansion consists of two parts, exterior and interior. After building the main hall, three expansions can be added. Each one of these expansions have specific features that can be chosen: an enchanter’s tower, library, kitchen, armory, trophy room, storage room, alchemy lab, greenhouse, and living quarters. What this means is that only certain features can be built upon each expansion, which narrows the choices that can be made.

While it may seem repetitive to some, Minecraft enthusiasts will enjoy building the interior. Furniture and decorations can’t be placed in precise locations, but are unique to the feature the player chose when making the exterior. The living quarters allow beds and bedroom furniture to be built, which is required for adopting children. The armory allows for many manikins and weapon racks which can be used to display armor and weapons sets. The trophy room requires many unique items such as a troll skull for a troll statue, or horker tusks to mount a horker’s head on your wall.

A fairly simple process in the game, adoption is quite misleading by today’s real world standards. Helping a child will open up the dialogue to adopt, or you can go through an orphanage such as the one in Riften. As long as a home of yours has a children’s bedroom with furniture you will be able to adopt the child.

In addition to bringing your family to your mansion, you can also hire a steward. The steward provides a multitude of different functions in addition to being called upon as a follower. A steward is able to add livestock to your estate, they can hire a bard or caravan driver for you, and they can assist with furnishing your home. They can be asked to buy materials required to make furnishings in your home, as well as furnishing your home for you. A steward will remain loyal to you, and can only be removed by being killed.

While Hearthfire didn’t add any story or exploration content, it did add about 10-15 hours of content to explore including gathering materials and furnishing the inside of your home. Unless you are looking to settle down in Skyrim, you shouldn’t expect too much adventuring with this add-on, but for those who enjoy world-building games like Minecraft, will find some familiarity with Hearthfire.

Continuing where I left off in the first part of this series, I am now more than 100 hours into this game including the add-ons, Dawnguard and Hearthfire. Very few games today can do what Skyrim has done, and so it should be commended. Including the DLC, the investment of $85 is worth every penny. Many games today fail at living up to their hype, making an unequal balance between their hype, cost, and time invested. The first week after release, a game’s hype falls dramatically usually due to a campaign being too short, or not rewarding the player effectively. Every game has a downfall, but because of Skyrim’s length and depth, it took longer to discover it.

Quests were an interesting mix, the open-world formula made it easy to forget about the main storyline. Part of the reason is because each quest, or series of quests, has its own revolving stories; investigating a burned down house leads to killing a master vampire, joining either the Stormcloaks or the Imperials leads to capturing the opposing faction’s capital city, etc.

For obvious reasons, the main quest of discovering that you are the Dragonborn and what that means is the most powerful. After meeting the Greybeards and attempting to retrieve an old horn for them, you learn of the long forgotten group, “The Blades”, who were actually dragon slayers. And along with this, dragons aren’t just returning, but are coming back to life. Alduin, an ancient dragon is able to resurrect other dragons, and while anyone can kill a dragon, only a Dragonborn can absorb the soul of a dragon, preventing them from being able to return from the dead.

Not only do the various quests make the Skyrim world exciting and unique, the variety of character types makes each experience a little different. Picking up the role of a powerful mage, I focused heavily into destruction magic. I wanted to kill first and ask questions later. This is where I found the “Stagger” perk incredibly handy. When dual-casting a spell, overcharging it into a more powerful version, staggers any opponent for a moment. With reduced magicka costs to my spells, my goal was to make sure the enemy was dead before I ran out of magic. While my focus was on destruction magic, there are supplemental skill trees that are worth investing into.

Enchanting is essential no matter the play style, eventually being able to enchant an item with two different stats made it possible for me to be able to cast any spell from any two schools of magic for free. This combination with stagger made the game extremely easy. I could now stagger any opponent, casting master level destruction spells for free. Increasing the difficulty helped balance the game more, but proved how powerful this setup became.

Blacksmithing for a magic user is pointless, but I wanted to see Dragon Armor on my character. While a thief or warrior would benefit from upgrading armors or weapons, a mage’s only consideration is its use of doubling an item’s value. Lockpicking includes a perk which increases your chance of finding a magical item by 50%, in addition to the prior perk which increases gold find, I was able to find gear upgrades faster than working blacksmithing to learn how to make them.

For those of us obsessed with money, the speech skill has many benefits including being able to increase merchant’s bartering gold by 1500, or persuading guards to look the other way. The first is especially useful as I would bankrupt every merchant I could find, selling the loot from my latest run. The latter is quite handy for the achievement of obtaining 1000 gold bounty in all nine holds. Along with selling everything, I enjoyed the perk in pickpocketing that increased my carry limit by 100. Having a party member carry items for me, I often spent more time selling than fighting.

It was surprising to watch NPC’s interact with each other. Vilkas can train you in two-handed weapon combat, but you can also discover this listening to him teach another companion how to fight with a two-handed weapon. While what is said wouldn’t help you be a better fighter (in the game), in a real world setting the logic rings true. “Balance is key with two-handed weapons; you need to be able to counter the weight of the swing.”

The story is rich and powerful, and I found myself surprised many times. Knowing how Elder Scrolls games go, I knew there had to be something revolving around the use of a scroll, but it wasn’t until the dragon resurrection that I realized what was going on. This story and the free-exploration formula is why Skyrim did so well for weeks after its release, in addition to the fame for being an Elder Scrolls game. From developing your character with near limitless choices, brilliant design and direction, and the amazing story, it is no wonder why this game did so well. I highly recommend it.

Originally introduced in Morrowind’s Bloodmoon add-on, the island of Solstheim is returning for a second adventure with new and updated content. New armor and weapons can be found or made, in addition to new enemies to fight, including the supposed primary antagonist, the first Dragonborn.


The add-on includes lush new areas of Solstheim to explore as well as being able to venture into the Daedric realm, but what is most noticeable from Bethesda’s announcement is the ability to ride dragons; however, it is not confirmed if this will be confined to Solstheim or all of Skyrim. It is also rumored that a new dragon shout will allow the hero to tame dragons as followers. Dragonborn will be available on the Xbox 360 December 4th, while PC users will have to wait until January.

Overview

Well, Black Ops is back with vengeance in its sequel, Black Ops II, and it would seem that Treyarch actually had some new tricks up their sleeves. Black Ops II, to my knowledge anyway, is the first in the series to bring choice and alternate story routes to your gameplay experience. It would seem the company is trying to make a break from its usual one track story and actually putting some serious effort into diversity this time around.
If you haven’t played one of the other seventeen Call of Duty games and this was a first for you, then you actually managed to step in on one of the good ones. Call of Duty, your fairly typical first person shooter is a game mashed FULL of guns and gadgets. As of the first Black Ops in the franchise there are three modes that allow you a fairly wide range of entertainment: Campaign, Multiplayer, and Zombie Mode. In each mode your goal is fairly straight forward, shoot the enemy (preferably in the head!), with a couple of variations in multiplayer mode such as “confirm you shot them by picking up their dog tags”, or “shoot them so that you can blow something else up down the road”. Almost any way you play it, there’s shooting of some kind unless you’re of the rare “knifing” persuasion. In Call of Duty, FPS also stands for “First Person Stabber”, which multiplayer actually allows some variety in for Black Ops II. Ever wanted to stab someone with a golden knife and NOT be at the top of an ancient sacrificial Aztec pyramid? Perfect, because Black Ops II has you covered! Either way, the game is great for any gun fanatic out there, old or new, and even those that want to use some future weapons that spew over nine thousand bullets a second.

Campaign
Our story begins with a short music video montage of the backstory for a character named Raul Menendez who is our villain for this short action packed hell-ride (sooooo much fire!). At a young age it would seem Menendez tried to rescue his sister from a burning building and somewhat succeeded, though his sister is in pretty bad shape. Before I go any further, here would be a good place to mention that you should be extremely careful with the “graphic content” option given to the player by Treyarch. You don’t really get a choice with introduction, but if that churns anything in your stomach, I seriously recommend turning graphic content off, because it was a rather disturbing ride in the beginning and the end of the story with it on. Anyway, getting back on track, it turns out that the warehouse Menendez and his sister were trying to escape from was actually burned down intentionally by an American for the insurance money and thus an evil mastermind is born with hatred against rich people. Hooray! No racism this game! Mostly anyway…It would seem that you do spend an inordinate amount of time killing Cubans, in the future or the past. Personally, I would never have guessed that the best equipped elite mercenary of the future would hail from Cuba, but you learn something new every day.

The story is split across three characters with missions in the near future of 2025 and the past ranging from Vietnam through the 1980s. While you’re busy dredging up backstory in the 1900s, you switch back and forth between Alex Mason, the brainwashed CIA operative from the first Black Ops, and Frank Woods, his partner; however, the majority of time is spent in the year 2025 as David Mason, son of Alex Mason hunting down the monster, Raul Menendez who always seems to be one step ahead of you. This is, of course, when you get to play with all the fun new gadgets.

Gadgets are a bit of a plot item in the newest Black Ops: winged gliders, harriers, drone support of multiple kinds, and even smaller stuff like mountainside traversal grapple partner swings (what?). I’m not even mentioning guns here or their attachments, like the introduction of the Storm PSR sniper rifle which fires through solid objects the longer you hold down the power button, and that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

Another innovation this time around would be the introduction of Strike Force mode, which allows the player to take the position of a Commander on the field with a limited number of troops and a specific objective and time limit. Now, I always play the campaigns of Call of Duty on Veteran for my own amusement, but I don’t know what I was doing wrong with Strike Force. The instant my guys got on the field and somewhere near an objective they got absolutely destroyed and I lost every Strike Force mission I went in on. Maybe it was because of Veteran mode, or maybe because I’m just terrible at it, but either way it was different, difficult, and even a bit clunky for Treyarch’s release standards. You can’t just keep trying at them either. The number of troops you have is limited to the number of missions you’ve done, but the Strike Force content also disappears after a specified number of missions are completed. So, if you don’t know what you’re doing the first time around (like me!) and you lose all your troops, which just keep coming in to get mowed down unless you quit the mission early or win, then you have little to no chance of completing any of them, which really disappointed me.

Zombies
Zombie mode has evolved once again and I must say I’m a fan! Masochistic survival mode is still there, and shinier than ever, but is it really getting a story that’s more comprehensive than a three page comic book? Yes! In a loose homage to Scooby Doo and the gang, grab some machine guns and jump aboard a bus to look for clues as to why the zombie apocalypse is really happening! This new system allows some players to stay in one area while others ride a rusty bus to a totally different mini-area for alternate supplies and different “parts”. These “parts” are a piece of the new crafting aspect and allows the player(s) to MacGyver defenses and access-ways of many kinds all over the maps. Of course, the whole thing still works off of points, so make you shoot every last zombie you find to make bank! I would even say the level designers have figured out a way to make the maps more claustrophobic and scary with the addition on the brown mist that surrounds each area. Stepping into the fog gets the player an intimate experience with a creature reminiscent of the head-crabs from Half-Life and isn’t recommended unless you’re in the bus. Environments are also mutable, and even change without player intervention at times. Too many rides on the bus gets the roof torn open, staying in the initial starting zone gets the floor cracked open and spewing Hell-fire, that sort of stuff.

Multiplayer
The general format of Call of Duty multiplayer hasn’t changed too drastically, and there are plenty of new guns, new maps, new weapon attachments, and all of the other shiny bits and baubles. They’ve now included a mini Adobe Photoshop to edit your emblem to perfection, the ability to camouflage your tactical knife (always important!) and, of course, the ability to leave a calling card on your enemy. Gone are the days of Halo’s tea bags I guess. Even taunting has gotten a face lift as of 2025.
Call of Duty has, once again, flip flopped on the subject of dedicated servers, and, while this isn’t a super exciting bit about multiplayer intended to amp you up and get you ready to go with Black Ops II’s new multiplayer, it’s important to mention. Dedicated, or mod, servers allow players themselves to administer a server and to modify it as they see fit. Treyarch has decided that this breeches the integrity and security of the ranking system, which, to the rest of us means: you have to play and level up our way or it’s not fair to everyone else. I see the argument, but I personally found the most joy and innovation in the client modified servers I played on in older games in the franchise, which I will miss dearly. Furthermore, the server files are being locked away too which prevent people from renting or buying their own servers to host Black Ops II. This has been most unpopular with PC gamers looking to control a clan server. I have heard from several people who feel that Treyarch has alienated them and their preferred play style. These people are players who would have otherwise been looking forward to the newest game in the Call of Duty franchise, but now boycott it.

My own experience went something like this: upon entering my first multiplayer bout on Xbox Live, I was greeted by the whiney prepubescent complaining I am always met with when I’m on the chat system. Of course I had joined a match half way through, so going through now and muting people would simply be wasting my team’s time. Telling myself that I just have to get through this, I finished one round and then started to do my tradition of muting everyone except for my party, and, as I tried, an option popped up that made me ecstatic. “Do you want to mute all players except party members?” Dropping my jaw in amazement I quickly hit yes and was rewarded to see a bunch of tiny mute symbols next to nearly everyone’s name! It’s probably a sad reflection on me that this is the first thing I got really excited about in the game, however it’s something I know a lot of the more mature Xbox Live players hate dealing with. The rest of the games I played were pretty routine.
1. Start Round
2. Run with team around first corner
3. Get face blown off by rifle of some kind
4. Respawn
5. Run around corner
6. Repeat steps 3, 4, & 5 until death in step 3 is no longer caused by rifle, but by air strike and promptly remove step 5 from rotation until end of game.
I can tell you though, from looking at the stats of three of the twenty some odd people on the map, that it IS possible to have fun and do well. How much time and effort you want to put in to getting that good and having fun is up to you though.  Plus, this stuff’s getting easier with the addition of my favorite attachment, the “target finder” that puts a giant red diamond around your enemy when you look down your scope.

The Elder Scrolls has always been a series worth looking into. Each installment to the franchise sets new standards for other current-generation video games. Bethesda Game Studios has created a unique niche in the RPG genre through character customization, style of play, but most importantly through the specific details that go into every part of every game. This trend continues with Skyrim, the fifth installment of the Elder Scrolls series.

Starting the game up for the first time, you appear amongst a group of prisoners. Your wrists are bound, and you can’t move, aside from looking around. While it is unique to the Elder Scrolls games, the prisoner starting point is also becoming a tired theme. It sets up the story for Skyrim, but a thought that would be an interesting change would be to lead up to being arrested. We know of an ambush that was meant for the Stormcloak soldiers, so why not have a “teaser trailer” for the opening cinematic that depicts this scenario. Ending up with the same result, but there’d be a bit more story being told.

Creating your character takes place just before the executions of the prisoners. Upon first glance, the graphics engine expresses its power through the use of shadows. Your character’s facial features show an extreme level of detail through the use of the sun’s light source. Individual bumps from eye brows, cheeks, etc., each cast their own unique shadow, which is something to marvel at for being drawn at run-time. Even though you don’t look at your character’s face through the majority of the game, this level of detail will continue throughout the rest of your adventure.

Fortunately, a dragon out of legend appears and attacks Helgen Keep, and you barely escape with one of two soldiers. There is a plot choice here, you can choose to flee with either the Imperial or Stormcloak soldier. Whichever choice you make leads you to the same town of Riverwood where, depending on your previous choice, you can find sanctuary in one of two homes belonging to the family of whichever soldier you followed.

Upon facing the dragon at Helgen Keep, the controller vibrates beautifully in-sync with its roar, landings, take-offs, and breath attacks. This synchronization between visuals, sounds, and feelings enhance the game’s presence ten-fold. The ripple of reality between real-life and the game’s world is cleverly disguised. This harmony of syncing continues when fighting three mammoths and their giant protector as you “hear” and “feel” just how close behind they are as you run your socks off in the opposite direction.

Similar to previous installments, leveling up individual skills generally comes with using them. To be an all-powerful wizard, you need to use magic, and you need to use the strongest magic. Your skill in the arcane arts will increase faster with higher rank spells as opposed to saving magicka by casting lower ranked spells. With each skill level, a portion of experience is awarded to your character. While leveling up, you can choose to increase your magicka, health, or stamina, in addition to using a specialization point in a number of skill trees.

In addition to the near-limitless character customization options, Skyrim’s NPC’s are also well-developed. Every NPC has an audible voice, but more importantly will talk to your character even though you are just passing by. They may even scold you as you accidentally kick their cooking kettle around their store. Likewise, overhearing conversations with other NPC’s can unlock side quests. Overhearing a group of Redguard Alik’r being asked to leave Whiterun leads to them asking you for help. They are searching for a woman that is a Redguard like them, and are willing to pay for locating her. Upon finding her, you can choose to help her, or find the mercenaries and tell them where she is hiding.

Partying with NPC’s is also more interesting than in other games. In a quest with Farkas he tells you to meet him at Dustman’s Cairn to find shards of a legendary axe, Wuuthrad, for the Companions guild. Farkas actually walks, and leaves town on his own. Rather than “magically teleporting,” you can follow him all the way to Dustman’s Cairn, typically these kinds of things for the consoles can be very taxing to their resources. It bogs them down as memory is used to chart the NPC’s course, but somehow this is unnoticeable to the player!

Like the NPC’s of Skyrim, there are many items to be found throughout the game as well. And a sort of OCD can be created with your obsession of customization. Some armor for example can be the same stat wise, but have different skins for their art assets, thus creating a slightly different look for your character and companions that you can “dress” up. Along with items you can use or wear, there are also many decoration items that are mostly useless, unless you want to pick how the inside of your house looks. Pots and kettles can be placed on a fire to look as if they were meant to be there, or you can place ornate jars on desks or tables and even place flowers in them. It takes a little bit of finesse, but for those who get picky about customization, it’s there for you to enjoy. Along with decorating your house, you can also populate your bookshelves!

Books are more than just decoration however, the lore and mythology found in books, which can lead to random side and miscellaneous quests, have their own uniquely created content inside. In some cases, revealing how to get passed a door’s puzzle to open it, or to provide a small, permanent boost to skills, which makes every book worthwhile to open.

Skyrim is a large world set within a larger world of Tamriel, which is slowly being revealed to us through the Elder Scrolls series. I eagerly await the DLC, Dawnguard and Hearthfire, as well as future Elder Scrolls games. Skyrim provides tremendous graphics, an engaging and unique story, as well as game play that will last for literally days on end. Having spent more than 20-hours on just one character alone, there is still much more to explore and do. I feel as if I have barely scratched the surface of what this game has to offer. If you haven’t checked out Skyrim yet, it is well worth your dollar to do so.

It’s that time of year again! Walmart has revealed a digital flyer for this year’s Black Friday deals. Among a long list of blowouts will be a 4GB Xbox 360 bundle with Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure for just $149. If you’re looking to pick up a PlayStation 3, they’ll have the 250GB bundle with Uncharted Dual Pack and Infamous Collection for just $199. Wireless controllers for either system will be $39.96 each, Xbox 360 Modern Warfare 3 Wireless Headsets (List: $69.99) will sell for $25. And, Walmart has also listed a slew of video games sale-priced at $10, $15, and $25.

The Walmart Black Friday sale starts Thursday, Nov 22 at 8pm and ends on Friday, Nov 23 at 11pm. See our short list below or link to the Walmart digital flyer.  They have several “Events” happening so be sure to check details in the flyer. These deals are for in-store only. Don’t get yourself trampled now!

Consoles & Portable

• Xbox 360 4GB bundle with Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure – $149
• PS3 250GB bundle with the Uncharted Dual Pack and Infamous Collection – $199
• Nintendo Wii – $89
• Nintendo DSi XL – $99.96

Video Games 

• Assassin’s Creed III (PS3, Xbox 360) – $38.96
• Epic Mickey 2 (Wii) – $24.96
• Skylanders Giants Starter Pack – $36
• uDraw Tablet with game – $10

Over 45 titles at $25 each

• The Amazing Spider-Man (PS3, Xbox 360)
• Borderlands 2 (PS3, Xbox 360)
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (PS3, Xbox 360)
• Dishonored (PS3, Xbox 360)
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PS3, Xbox 360)
• FIFA 13 (PS3, Xbox 360)
• Little Big Planet Karting (PS3)
• Madden 13 (PS3, Xbox 360)
• Medal of Honor: Warfighter (PS3, Xbox 360)
• NBA 2K13 (PS3, Xbox 360)
• Transformers: Fall Of Cybertron (PS3, Xbox 360)
• XCOM: Enemy Unknown (PS3, Xbox 360)

Over 30 titles at $15 each

• Call of Duty: Black Ops (PS3, Xbox 360)
• Dance Central 3 (Xbox 360)
• Kinect Sports (Xbox 360)
• LEGO Batman 2L DC Superheroes (PS3, Xbox 360)
• Max Payne 3 (PS3, Xbox 360)
• Red Dead Redemption GOTY Edition (PS3, Xbox 360)

Over 25 titles at $10 each

• Batman: Arkham City (PS3, Xbox 360)
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PS3, Xbox 360)
• L.A. Noire (PS3, Xbox 360)
• LEGO Batman (PS3, Xbox 360)
• LEGO Harry Potter (PS3, Xbox 360)
• UFC Trainer (Xbox 360)

Accessories and Subscriptions

• PS3 DualShock 3 Controller – $39.96 (List: $54.99)
• Xbox 360 Controller – $39.96 (List: $59.99)
• Xbox 360 Modern Warfare 3 Wireless Headset – $25  (List: $69.99)

(Please note: individual store sale items may vary.)

Assassin’s Creed

The games follow Desmond Miles, a bartender who is kidnapped by multinational megacorporation Abstergo Industries who have a new machine called the Animus,a device that allows the user to tap into their genetic memory and relive the memories of their ancestors. Warren Vidic, the head researcher on the project, chose Desmond because he comes from a very unique line of Assassins. Vidic tries tapping into a specific memory from one of Desmond’s ancestors, Altaïr Ibn-La’Ahad, but encounters synchronization problems, which Desmond must resolve by reliving Altaïr’s memories.

Desmond lays down in the Animus and starts his sync with Altaïr who is a member of the Assassin Brotherhood in 1191 during the Third Crusade in the Holy War. Altaïr has returned from a failed mission with fellow Assassin Malik, whose brother was killed in the exchange. Malik, cursing Altaïr’s ignorance, also carries with him an artifact that the Templar was trying to retrieve. Altaïr is then punished for breaking the three tenants of the Assassin Brotherhood:

1. Stay your blade from the flesh of an innocent
2. Hide in plain sight
3. Never compromise the Brotherhood

Al Mualim, the leader of the Assassin’s, demotes Altaïr to a novice and gives him a second chance to redeem himself and rank up through the Brotherhood. He gives Altaïr a mission to assassinate nine key targets throughout Acre, Jerusalem and Damascus in an attempt to bring peace to the Holy Land. All nine targets are coconspirators to harnessing the power of the artifact that Malik brought back. They alone possess the knowledge to the artifact and its hidden and powerful secret. Altaïr tracks his targets using a sixth sense called Eagle Vision. It allowed the individual to sense how people and objects related to them by giving off a colored aura. As Altaïr gathers information about his targets and takes them out one by one, he realizes that everyone is connected to Robert de Sable.

Altaïr proceeds to his ninth and final target (Robert de Sable) and discovers that it was all a trap. The real de Sable is planning on using the Assassin’s victories against them by pleading his case to unite the Crusaders and Saracen forces (men Altaïr killed on both sides of the conflict) against their new common enemy, the Assassin’s. Altaïr then rushes off to stop this alliance before it happens. He tells King Richard I of England that Robert de Sable has been planning on betraying him at every turn. Richard is uncertain who is telling the truth and leaves it up to whoever is the better fighter. Altaïr defeats Robert and learns from him in his final moments that there were not nine Templars that sought the artifact, but ten: the tenth being Al Mualim himself! Altaïr returns to Masyaf to confront Al Mualim and finds that he controls the minds of the entire city. After a brutal fight to reach the Assassin’s headquarters Altaïr confronts Al Mualim who now wields the apple artifact. The apple is a centuries old artifact that creates illusions and controls the minds of men. Mualim explains that so long as men have free will, there will always be war, and he will use this Piece of Eden to create true peace. Altaïr defeats Al Mualim and vows to destroy the artifact. As he approaches it, it displays a map of the world with multiple locations marked for each artifact.

THIS was the memory Vidic was after and upon reviewing it he sends out teams to collect the other artifacts. As Vidic no longer needs Desmond he orders his death. Lucy, Vidic’s assistant, voices her concern that Desmond could still be of use to them. She later reveals to Desmond that she is an Assassin working undercover. After the Animus session, Desmond finds that he has gained Altaïr’s Eagle Vision to the “bleeding effect”; a symptom of the Animus where the user has difficulties distinguishing between an ancestors memory and they’re own. He sees symbols scrawled in blood in the room he’s held in, left by Subject 16, signifying the end of the world in multiple languages.

Assassin’s Creed 2

Assassin’s Creed 2 came out in November 2009, two years after the first game. With it came a TON of changes that made the series as a whole a lot more interesting. The first of which is the scale and scope of the world. While AC did a great job with the size and scope of their cities, AC2 blew it out of the water with a much larger and more populated city that felt alive. On the note of water, you do not die instantly by falling into the water as Ezio has learned to swim! AC2 also feels more like a game rather than a glorified tech demo. I noticed that in AC the major highlights were: find tallest building and gain the map of the area, eavesdrop and pickpocket couriers and beat information out of the ones who think they’re tough, protect and/or race your fellow assassins, and THEN hunt down and assassinate your target. It was the same process each and every time. The assassinating missions were fun, but the lead-in was so boring and repetitive. You don’t see that in AC2. Each mission has a different story that helps teach the basics and progress the overall storyline.

Assassin’s Creed 2 added collectables similar to the flag hunting that AC introduced but now you can hunt for smaller feathers! Hurray!  They still glow and make a distinct wind chime sound when you’re near, but it’s annoying searching for these little buggers. On the bright side the memory sequences break down how many feathers are in each portion of the city, so finding that last one isn’t as difficult as it once was. AC2 introduced city renovations that allow you to earn money every 20 minutes so you can purchase upgrades for your weapons and armor. To help earn this money they hid a bunch of chests throughout the city that you can open to earn a little extra cash. You can even buy maps for the chest locations to help make things smoother.

Some other big improvements were adding a day/night cycle, new weapons- each with their own unique animations and not one but two hidden blades! We’re also excited to see that climbing animations are much faster than the previous game, making AC2 a faster paced, richer, and more exciting game. Ubisoft just raised the bar on action, platforming games.

Plot

Lucy, rushed and covered in blood, comes to get Desmond and has him lay down in the Animus one last time to get critical information from him. He briefly relives the birth of another ancestor of Ezio Auditore da Firenze while Lucy copies his log session files. The two of them fight to escape from Abstergo and arrive at their new base of operations in a secluded warehouse. Desmond is introduced to his new fellow assassin’s, historian Shaun Hastings, and computers expert Rebecca Crane. Rebecca has built her own version of the Animus with a few tweaks and upgrades, calling it the Animus 2.0. With the aid of the copied log session files that Lucy stole, they plan to use the Animus’s “bleeding effect” to train Desmond as an assassin and search for the pieces of Eden before Abstergo finds them. Desmond reluctantly uses the Animus and begins his training following Ezio Auditore.

Ezio Auditore is about 17 years old, living in Italy during the Renaissance when a close friend of Ezio’s father betrays his family. Ezio managed to dodge the guards coming to arrest his family but his father and two brothers were not so lucky. Ezio’s father instructs him to a secret room hidden in their house containing proof of their innocence as well as Assassin clothing and weapons. Ezio dons his new look and goes to the hanging ceremony to absolve his family, but he is too late. Ezio escapes the city with his mother and sister, who were hiding out at a neighbor’s house and go take shelter at their Uncle Mario’s villa in Monteriggioni. Mario vows to train Ezio as an assassin and provides information on the conspirators that led to the execution of his family.

After some training and guidance, Ezio returns to Firenze to start hunting down the and assassinating the conpirators. During his travels he befriends Leonardo da Vinci who is able to translate the encrypted codex pages his father left behind as well as repair and upgrade Ezio’s arsenal. Ezio soon realizes that the leader of these conspirators is Rodrigo Borgia and he had come into possession of a piece of Eden called the “Apple,” similar to the one Altaïr found centuries earlier. He’s been researching these pieces of Eden and they describe a prophet that will open the “Vault” which is believed to contain a vast amount of information and more pieces of Eden. Rodrigo believes himself to be this prophet.

Ezio finally catches up with Rodrigo and fights him off with the aid of the assassin’s, forcing Rodrigo to flee leaving the Apple behind. The assassins had a prophecy themselves that the prophet would be at that location and lead them to open the vault: the prophet being Ezio himself.

Back in 2012, Desmond takes frequent breaks from the Animus 2.0 while Lucy tests to see if the “bleeding effect” is working. Desmond is able to perform all the same moves as Ezio, absorbing years’ worth of training within a matter of hours! At one point Desmond blacks out and revisits a vision of Altaïr chasing down and making love to an ex-Templar named Maria. When Altaïr leaves, the memory stays behind with Maria, or more specifically her unborn child.

Desmond has also been noticing strange symbols on the sides of landmarks while in the Animus. Rebecca immediately recognizes it to be computer code planted by none other than “Subject 16” which was copied to their system from Lucy’s log session files. Each symbol goes into more detail about the pieces of Eden and how they’ve been used throughout the years. Each piece of information is accompanied by a small video clip. The video starts with the title “Subject 16, Session 12, Classified date B.C.E.” It shows a man and a woman running through a futuristic city where they’re building these pieces of Eden. After running through a factory and reaching the top of the building with a stolen piece of Eden, the Apple, they reveal their names to be Adam and Eve. The video then cuts out with computer code that translates to “EDEN.”

When Desmond tries to reenter the Animus, he finds that the next several memories are corrupt and they must jump forward to later in Ezio’s life. They managed to synchronize with Ezio in 1499, a few years after the fight with Rodrigo Borgia. Rodrigo has managed to gain influence in the Catholic Church becoming Pope Alexander IV. He now carries with him a Papal Staff, which the codex’s that Leonardo translated reveal to be another piece of Eden.

Ezio travels to the Vatican to assassinate Rodrigo. This time Rodrigo gains the upper hand and managed to stab Ezio and take his piece of Eden. With both in hand Rodrigo proceeds down to the hidden vault in an attempt to open it. Ezio chases after him and finds that he is having difficulty; he fights him once more in hand-to-hand combat. Ezio winning this time decides not to kill Rodrigo, as he has done enough killing in his lifetime and Rodrigo’s death would not bring back his family. Ezio places the staff in a hole in the floor which shines a light on a wall, opening the vault for Ezio.

The vault did not contain any treasures, or pieces of Eden. It instead held information for Ezio in the form of a holographic projection of a woman calling herself Minerva. She explains that she is not a god, but that she simply came before. When her kind walked the earth, we humans struggled to understand them; they were… more advanced in time. They were the ones that created us in their own image. She explains that a war broke out between our two races, and because they were more focused on earthly events, they did not see the threat from the cosmos; A celestial event that scorched the earth and wiped out nearly all life. They rebuilt the world and vowed that these same events would not happen again. They built temples around the world that contained information on preventing another celestial event. Ezio is bothered by the fact that she’s not looking at him while she is speaking. She hushes him and explains that she does not wish to speak to him, but through him. “The message is delivered. We are gone now from this world, all of us. We can do no more. The rest is up to you, Desmond.”

Desmond is awoken from the Animus and notices that everyone is packing up. Lucy explains that the Templars have tracked their location and are in the building. She tosses Desmond a hidden blade, similar to the one Ezio used and they both go to fight off the Templars. With the bleeding effect working to its full effect, Desmond has the same skills as Ezio and is able to fight off the invasion. Warren Vidic, makes an appearance as he escapes on a truck stating, “Enjoy your little victory. Temporary as it may be.” The group finishes packing up the truck and they plan to head north to a cabin where it’s safe. Lucy begins analyzing the tapes and explains that Earth’s geo-magnetic poles have been weakening over the years, and if it were to be hit by a solar flare that it could cause a geo-magnetic reversal. The effects of which would be catastrophic to our world. Rebecca prepares the Animus in the truck so they can gather more information on route to the safe house.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood continues the storyline of Desmond Miles reliving the memories of Ezio Auditore during the renaissance.  With such big improvements from the AC – AC2, Ubisoft pulled no punches. The cities have gotten larger and Ezio is more deadly. Ubisoft wanted to showcase the large scale of Rome compared to the previous cities like Acre, Jerusalem and Venice. The city is so large the developers gave you access to horses to use for travel within the city. Another option would be renovating a sewer system that allows you to quick travel to certain portions of the city.

Ezio has access to a few new weapons, most notably a crossbow for silent ranged kills. The biggest change we see in Brotherhood is his combat skills. Once you’ve made your first kill, you can quickly attack a nearby enemy for an instant kill, allowing you to chain your attacks and plow through the Templar forces. The enemies have become stronger and more skilled, even utilizing firearms to shoot at you during combat. Regardless, the quick kill system allows you to no longer be on the defensive and really makes you feel like an assassin.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is also the first game to include online multiplayer. The game matched you up with other assassins seen throughout the single player campaign and required you to kill one another. Unlike other multiplayer games, AC:B required you to use skill and finesse to earn kill bonuses. You are assigned a target with which to assassinate. You earn more points by killing your target without arousing suspicion and hiding within the crowds. Rushing your target will give away your position and give you significantly less points for the kill. Another reason not to rush your target is that someone else is assigned to target and kill you. It’s a unique experience combining the thrills and fears of hunting and being hunted. New multiplayer modes and maps were released to allow for more team based games including Capture the Flag and Manhunt- a hide-and-seek bloodbath.

Brotherhood added another feature that’s unique to the storyline. As you become the Mentor of the Assassin’s Brotherhood, you can recruit other fellow citizens that want to take back their city to be trained as assassins. Brotherhood incorporates this concept by allowing you to signal your fellow assassin’s to fight with you and kill targets you designate.  Some will say that Ezio has become lazy and is making others do the work for him, but he would say that he built this Brotherhood to last; with or without him.

Plot

During the car trip to their new safe house, Desmond attempts to connect with Ezio again but ends up colliding with a more powerful memory in 1507 during a siege of the Viana Castle.  Rebecca run’s some diagnostics and the memory stabilizes back with Ezio in Minerva’s vault.

Ezio exits the vault to be greeted by his uncle Mario who just couldn’t pass up a good fight. As Ezio walks out of the vault, the door seals itself up and the Papal Staff starts descending into the floor. Mario tells Ezio that the staff is better in the hands of the earth, than in the hands of man. They then proceed to escape from the Vatican. When the two reach the river, Ezio is unsure if he wants to rid himself of the Apple or continue wielding it’s untold power. He gives it to Mario for safekeeping until he figures out what he wants to do later.

They ride back to Monteriggioni. Ezio, tired of fighting from vengeance for so many years, can finally relax. He has stopped Rodrigo Borgia from controlling the Pieces of Eden and has made peace with the death of his family. Within a few days, the city comes under attack by Rodrigo Borgia’s son, Cesare. Ezio helps the city fight back using the newly installed cannons while Mario attacks in force on the ground. The city is quickly overrun. Cesare kills Mario, taking the Apple that he was keeping safe. Ezio is also wounded by arquebusiers, now wielding rifles, and escapes the city with his mother and sister through hidden tunnels under the city. Ezio tells his family to go to Firenze while he follows Cesare to Rome. Still wounded, Ezio passes out on his horse and collapses on the side of the road outside of Rome.

Back in 2012, Desmond and his fellow assassin’s arrive at their new safe house, the present Monteriggioni. The group discusses their plan to find Ezio’s Apple of Eden as it will lead them to a temple Minerva mentioned earlier. Lucy suspects that Minerva altered it somehow when she touched it during Ezio’s visit. They need to get underground as Abstergo has upgraded to cell phone surveillance, which can track anything above ground. Desmond, still seeing ghosts of the past from the bleeding effect, spots Ezio at a later point in his life entering Monteriggioni though the hidden tunnels they escaped from earlier. Desmond and Lucy take point and explore the tunnels to let the rest of their team inside, flirting in the process. They find an open chamber where they can set up shop, and they continue their search for the Piece of Eden. Desmond also spots some cryptic symbols that Ezio left behind. Shaun examines the symbols and sets out to decrypt what they mean.

They know Ezio hid the piece of Eden in 1507, but they can’t access that memory because Ezio remembers something else: A memory within a memory. They once again must start from a previous memory until Desmond can synchronize with Ezio.

Ezio wakes up in a small house at the edge of Rome with a woman tending to his wounds. She explains that a man dropped him off with clothing and assassins’ gear and told him he is to meet up with Niccolo Machiavelli further inside. Machiavelli explains to Ezio how Rome fell under Borgia control and details their plan to retake the city. The two start by setting up their Assassin’s headquarters and allying with the other guilds in the city: The courtesans, the thieves, and the mercenaries. He begins recruiting citizens to his cause by inducting them into the Assassin Brotherhood, then later sending them out on missions throughout Europe to destabilize the Templar power.

Ezio then takes out the Borgia captains that are controlling parts of the city and igniting fires in their watchtowers to ignite the flames of rebellion in its citizens. Ezio later runs into his old friend Leonardo daVinci who explains how the Borgia is forcing him to build war machines for them. Ezio offers his assistance in destroying these war machines and in return Leonardo will build new weapons and upgrades for Ezio’s personal arsenal. Machiavelli, impressed with Ezio’s achievements promotes Ezio to be the Mentor and leader of the Assassin Brotherhood.

Shaun Hastings, Desmond’s historian located glyphs on specific landmarks that contain similar computer code to that which Subject 16 left earlier. These glyphs contain more information about the Templars and the hidden pieces of Eden. They also contain computer code to a virtual reality program that Subject 16 created. Desmonds locates and decrypts all 10 puzzles and enters the VR program. He’s met with an AI recreation of Subject 16. His words were cryptic and scrambled, like he was trying to tell Desmond everything all at once.

Subject 16: “It’s far later than you know, too late to save them.”
Desmond: “Who?”
Subject 16: “She is not what she seems. Everything you hope to become, everything you hold dear. It’s already gone.”
Desmond: “Explain. Please”
Subject 16: “Eden. She…in Eden. Find Eve. The Key. Her DNA…”
Desmond: “Tell me.”
Subject 16: “I cannot…The sun…Your son…Too weak…Must replenish energy.”
Desmond: “Don’t go.”
Subject 16: “I am with you until the end. Find me in the darkness.”

Back in the Animus, Ezio hears word that an actor named Pietro Rossi who possessed a key to Castel Sant’Angelo, where the Borgia family now resides, was targeted by Rodrigo’s personal assassin Micheletto Corella. He intends to disguise his Templars as actors and make it look like an accident during Pietro’s rehearsal for an upcoming play. Ezio removes these Templars first and takes their costumes. He then disguises himself and his fellow assassins and moves in quietly to kill Micheletto. However, in his dying breath, he explains that the wine that Pietro drank was poisoned. Ezio quickly brings Pietro to a doctor and gets him the antidote to save his life. Pietro, blessed that Ezio saved his life, gives him the key to Castel Sant’Angelo to assassinate the Borgia’s.

Ezio, now able to reach Rodrigo and Cesare, climbs up Castel Sant’Angelo. While peering through a window, Ezio witnesses Cesare killing his father, Rodrigo, with a poisoned apple. He then forces the Apple of Eden’s location out of his sister Lucrezia. Ezio arrives only a moment later. Lucrezia, enraged with the death of her father and the threats of her brother, gives Ezio the location of the Apple, hoping he reaches it before Cesare. Ezio races furiously though the city to reach the Apple before Cesare, and makes it just in the nick of time. Ezio then uses the apple to control the minds of Cesare’s men and force them to kill each other. Cesare flees the city and is met at the gate by Mecheletto’s army who then arrest him by order of the new Pope Julius II for murder, betrayal, and incest. While Cesare is arrested he shouts, “Chains will not hold me. I will not die by the hand of man.”

These words echo with Ezio. Worried that this will not be the end of Cesare he consults with his longtime friend Leonardo daVinci. Leonardo tells him that there is only one way to find out if what Cesare says is true: Use the Apple. Ezio felt that the Apple was too dangerous and should be locked away from the hands of man. Still, the words echoing through his mind, Ezio takes his advice and uses the Apple. Leonardo was right! Cesare would break free and Ezio must leave immediately.

Ezio tracked Cesare down to the battle of Viena. He fights through his infantry and climbs up the castle walls. Ezio defeats the skilled fighter by breaking through the many layers of armor covering him and corners Cesare at the edge. Cesare boasts that he cannot be killed by the hands of man; Ezio agreeing says that he will leave his life in the hands of fate and pushes him off the castle wall. After the battle, Ezio takes the Apple and hides it in Juno’s temple hidden beneath Santa Maria Aracoeli.

Desmond exits the Animus to consult with his team on how to obtain the Apple. They figure out that the door requires a verbal password in order to get into the vault. Shaun examines the symbols that they found earlier and recognizes them to be the same as the one on the vault. Accompanied with the symbol are three numbers: 1419, 1420, and 1421. They’re not dates but passages in the Bible: Exodos 19-21 that list the 72 names of God. Not only that, but construction on the Coliseum begun in the year 72. Now that they have a password, the group heads to the Coliseum that is currently under renovation and searches for a hidden passageway. Desmond searches the Coliseum while the rest of the group looks for another entrance.

Desmond finds the hidden passageway and see’s holograms of Juno explaining the war between “the ones who came before” and man. The passageway leads to Santa Maria Aracoeli where he regroups with the team. Desmond’s bleeding effect allows him to see Ezio’s ghost unlocking an elevator to Juno’s temple. Once inside, they speak the password “seventy-two” and unlock the chamber holding the Apple. Juno’s hologram continues speaking to Desmond explaining how “the ones who came before” did not pass on their sixth sense: Knowledge. They knew that Desmond would come here and activate the apple; and that he would know only when it is too late.

When the group approaches the apple, strange glyphs emerge. Shaun recognizes two of the symbols and that they only appear in one place… His sentence is cut short as Desmond grabbed the Apple. Time stops for everyone except Desmond, and even he cannot move. Juno possesses his body and explains that his DNA has activated the Apple. He, who was a descendent of both the ancient race and Man. She mentions that there is only one other that would enter the temple with him, but she is not with this group, and Templars are within their midst. Taking control of Desmond she forces him to stab Lucy in the chest for Lucy was a double agent working for the Templars. The pair collapses to the ground, Lucy bleeding out and Desmond going into shock. Voices can be heard of other assassins, namely that of Desmond’s father. They place Desmond back in the Animus hoping to stabilize him.

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations is the third and final chapter following Ezio Auditore. Desmond’s story however is not yet finished. Ubisoft has taken to the comments from their fans to heart and continued innovating and improving upon what’s worked in the past and remove what wasn’t. The city renovations are still present and the size and scope of the cities are still impressive. Ezio has evolved with the times as a Mentor to the assassin’s and working with them to establish Dens throughout the city. The assassin’s that occupy Constantinople have borrowed what they have learned from the Chinese and crafted small bombs that can distract, kill or hinder their enemies. They also use a unique hook blade to traverse the city faster by extending their reach as well and sliding down wires. Revelations also introduced a tower defense mini game that would activate when your notoriety got too high.

Plot

Assassin’s Creed Revelations starts off with Desmond being put into the Animus to save his life. The constant use of the Animus has caused too many memories trying to compete for the host so the group puts Desmond into the Animus using a safe mode called the Black Room. The Black Room appears as a small deserted beach, and Desmond happens to run into the uploaded consciousness of Subject 16. He kindly informs Desmond of his current situation and tells him that he must use a Sync Nexus to play out the rest of Ezio and Altaïr’s memories to allow the Black Room to separate the three and put Desmond’s consciousness back into his body. Desmond uses the Sync Nexus and finishes off Ezio’s story.

Ezio has been traveling for a few years and has learned about a library of information left by Altaïr that details the war between the Assassin’s and Templars. He sought information and guidance to his role in this war, but when he reached Masyaf he is met with Templar forces. They manage to subdue Ezio and plan his execution, however Ezio has other plans: He breaks free and finds the hidden library under Masyaf where the Templars are trying to break through the main entrance but it’s locked by five keys. A worker tells Ezio that the Templars have not only one of the keys but the location to the rest; detailed in Niccolò Polo’s journal held by the captain. Ezio tracks the captain down and relieves him of the journal. He then sets sail for Constantinople toward one of Niccolò Polo’s trading spots.

Ezio is greeted by Yusuf Tazim, an assassin running one of the guilds in Constantinople. He teaches Ezio the “new” ways of the assassin using small crafted bombs as well as how to wield a new hook blade for faster navigation. The journal directs Ezio to a small book shop where he finds his first key. He also falls in love with the shopkeeper Sophia Sartor as she helps him track down the other keys and some very rare books.

The Five Keys

Ezio quickly learned that the keys not only open to door to Masyaf’s library, but they also contain memories of Altaïr in a similar fashion that the Animus allows Desmond to view his ancestor’s memories. The first key’s memory was of Altaïr two years before he was stripped of his honor from the first game. Templars were attacking Masyaf and have managed to capture Al Mulim. Altaïr managed to fight off the attack and save his mentor from execution.

The second key takes place after Al Mulim’s death where Abbas, one of the assassins, is concerned about Altaïr killing their Mentor. Altaïr now 26, tries explaining that the Apple corrupted Al Mulim and in turn would corrupt the Brotherhood. Abbas felt that Altaïr killed their mentor to gain more power. Abbas went and took the artifact from the Al Mulim’s study, but did not have the strength to wield it. The apple began to overcharge, depleting Abbas’ life. Altaïr, unaffected by the Apple, quickly takes the artifact from Abbas and questions if the Apple has anything to teach them, or if it would lead them all to ruin.

The third key takes place over 30 years after the second memory. Altaïr and his wife Maria who have since left Masyaf return to confront Abbas, the new leader of the assassins, about the execution of Altaïr youngest son. When he hears that Abbas killed his son to take back the Apple, Altaïr begins to use the Apple to kill the assassins responsible. Maria tries to stop Altaïr and ends up breaking his concentration resulting in the assassin stabbing Maria and killing her. Altair then must escape Masyaf but not before he bumps into his oldest son. The two of them fight off the assassin’s hunting them down and manage to escape Masyaf.

The fourth key takes place two decades after the third memory where Altaïr returns to Masyaf to speak with Abbas. He finds that his actions last time have splintered the brotherhood as many assassins have begun to question Abbas’ actions. With Altaïr’s return, many have come to support him as the true Mentor and seek his wisdom and guidance. Altaïr speaks with Abbas and tells him that he has corrupted the Brotherhood and everything that they stood for. With the knowledge he gained from the Apple, Altaïr had crafted a hidden gun which he used to kill Abbas and take his place as Mentor of the Assassins.

The fifth key has Altaïr escorting Niccolò Polo and his brother out of Masyaf as Mongols have broken through and taken the village. Altaïr uses the Apple to create illusions of assassins to protect the Polo’s as he escorts them through the hostile territory. He gives them a codex book that details his knowledge he’s gained from the Apple as well as the keys to the library under Masyaf, to hide throughout Constantinople (the same keys these memories are stored upon).

All the while Ezio tracks down these keys, he’s helping Prince Suleiman reveal a Templar threat. Suleiman’s uncle Ahmet and his brother Selim are in a power struggle with who will become the next Sultan of Constantinople. Prince Suleiman asks Ezio to investigate a plot against the Ottomans. It’s revealed that a Janissary captain named Tarik was providing weapons to the Byzantine forces that are plotting to overthrow the Ottomans and restore the Byzantine Empire. With Prince Suleiman’s support Ezio kills Tarik for treason, but he also discovers that Tarik was attempting to flush out the Templars who are now residing in Cappadocia under the rule of Manuel Palaiologos.

Ezio quickly sets sail for Cappadocia and meets with one of Tarik’s spies, Dilara. He offers his aid in breaking out her fellow spies, however she herself gets captured. Ezio frees the group and suggests destroying the rifles that Manuel has acquired. Dalara informs him that most of the rifles don’t actually work, but they did have to provide real gunpowder. Ezio then uses a bomb to destroy their stockpile of gunpowder ensuing chaos and weeding out Manuel. Cornering him and swiftly taking his life, Ezio is approached by Suleiman’s uncle Ahmet who reveals that he was a Templar, like Manuel who was put in charge of opening the library and taking Altaïr secrets. He demands that Ezio give him the keys or he would inflict harm upon Sophia. Ahmet escapes on boat and Ezio returns to his ship in pursuit toward Constantinople.

Desmond’s Journey

During his time in the Animus, Desmond finds data fragments scattered throughout the world that unlocked parts of his memories that have become, well, fragmented. Removing these fragments allows Desmond to remember parts of his past and how he became the person that he is today. The information is told through five sessions.

The first session details Desmond’s childhood and where he grew up- the Farm. A hidden location designed to train new assassins; Desmond was born into it. They kept telling him that he was an assassin. His father would tell him about the ancient war between the Assassins and the Templars. Desmond however never took it seriously.

The second session teaches us about Desmond’s training. How he hated the constant training but enjoyed the outdoors. How they never really told him what this war was about or what they’re training for. Only that the Templars are everywhere and they have their hands in everything, and that it was Abstergo who was behind it all. They made it sound like the world was headed for a catastrophe.  But Desmond wasn’t convinced. If only they told him the truth about this war, maybe he would understand.

The third session explains how he intended to escape. He was only 16 years old, but he didn’t care where he went. He wanted his own life. He just up and left the Farm without a second thought. He walked through the woods and followed a stream to a city where he met a few girls on a road trip. They took him across the country where he met a man who suggested for him to head to New York City. So that’s where he went.

The fourth session is about his life as a bartender in NYC. How he joked about his past with his customers and invented drinks like the “Shirley Templar”.  When asked about his past he would say that his parents are conspiracy freaks that live in the woods. He missed his parents through, but he was glad that he was living his own life. The way he wanted to live it.

In the last memory Desmond is filled with regret. The city has lost its shine and he became miserable. That’s when Abstergo found him. They said that they’ve been looking for him. He’s spent 9 years trying to forget his past, and suddenly he wanted it all back. Abstergo wanted information stored within him, inside his DNA. Desmond comes to terms with himself, an Assassin.

The black room that Desmond now resides has become unstable. The Animus has begun deleting all unnecessary data; like a white blood cell attacking a virus. Subject 16 has been keeping it distracted this whole time while Desmond sorts out his memories, but time is short as Animus Island is being deleted piece by piece. Subject 16 grabs ahold of Desmond and throws him into the last Sync Nexus, saving him from deletion and sacrificing himself.

Ezio meets with Ahmet to trade the Masyaf keys for Sophia’s life.  He does so without any question, but quickly realizes that it was a decoy. Sophia was being hanged across the city. Ezio manages to reach her just in time to save her life and the two of them chase after Ahmet out of the city to steal back the Masyaf keys. Ezio runs his carriage off a cliff and leaps after him, saving Ahmet’s life by using Leonardo da Vinci’s parachute. On the ground the pair is met by Selim who was just enacted as Sultan. He kills Ahmet but spares Ezio’s life on the order of Prince Suleiman. Ezio takes back the keys and leaves for Masyaf with Sophia.

They arrive to find that Masyaf is deserted. With the Templars seeking the library’s knowledge defeated, Ezio can explore without any distractions. Using the keys, he unlocks the door to find that the library is empty with the exception of Altaïr’s skeleton hold one last key bestowed with his memory.

The memory shows Altaïr working with his son by removing all the books from the library. Some went to the Polo’s while the rest went to Alexandria. The library was no longer there to hold books of information, but a vault to hold the most precious artifact, the Altaïr’s Apple.

Ezio finds that the Apple is still locked away, but he does not wish to take it. He removes his hidden blades and his sword and speaks directly to Desmond as he a conduit for a message. A hologram of Desmond appears in the wake of the Apple so the two can converse. Ezio imparts the knowledge he’s gained from Jupiter, another member of the ones who came before, to Desmond. Jupiter explains that they have built vaults around the world, hidden underground to research different ways to save humanity from a solar flare. All information from these vaults was sent to a single location where Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva would pick the solutions that held the most promise and put them to the test. They managed to try six times before the flare went off and destroyed their civilization. In the end, there were only 10 thousand of our kind left, and only a fraction of the ancient ones.  He tells Desmond to go to that place, where they labored and lost.

Desmond awakens from his coma and finds himself in the back of a truck. The assassins have brought him to a secluded part of the United States where Minerva, Jupiter, and Juno worked to find a solution for their demise. Desmond sits up and tells the group that he knows he needs to do…

By: Steven Bartels

“Hey…Hey, guess what?  You’ve been DISHONORED!”.  A line you just can’t help but say as you start up Dishonored for the first time, and I guarantee it won’t be the last time you say it either.

I’ve been looking for a good original game lately and it’s difficult to find one of “triple A” quality with all of these sequels coming out; however, I think I finally found one. One of the shortest games I’ve played, but probably one of the best in the year for me at least was Dishonored. I do have a soft spot for stealth based games and I think this one did small game linearity very well. Being from Bethesda, the game initially felt very similar to Fallout 3, however the different developer, Arkane Studios, quickly distinguished itself.
In this steam punk based world running on whale oil, you play Corvo Attano, a recently “dishonored” bodyguard for the Queen and her daughter. After some really bad luck, you find yourself being accused of a murder you didn’t commit and before you know it you’re fleeing for your life and trying to get back at the people who framed you. Grab a dagger and your least squeaky boots because it’s time to start taking down the entire military branch of a government single handedly in any way you see fit.

I started to see this type of game mechanic with the latest Deus Ex: Human Revolution, however this takes it up a few levels. In Deus Ex: Human Revolution, you could take down enemies lethally or non-lethally, choose to traverse the level through air vents, or even knock out/kill every person in the room. All of this is available to the player in Dishonored, but on a far grander scale. Each level is large and the objective can be approached from any angle of the map, which was difficult to get used to, though extremely enjoyable once I got used to it. On your way you can take down the guards however you want, lethally, non-lethally, sneakily, or gun blazing. Of course, that’d be your limit if you hadn’t been visited by a mysterious demi-god figure known as The Outsider. With his help your options are expanded significantly: teleport yourself to the roofs, distract the guards with a rat infestation, knock them all out of the way with a gust of hurricane force wind, or even possess a small animal and scurry through a crack in the wall. Just be careful not to get stepped on. Once you’re inside and past the front gates, the main objective isn’t even a one way street. Poison your target, knock him out, humiliate him in public, brand him for life with a hot iron, or just kill him. By JUST kill him I mean you could shoot him, stab him, stick him with a crossbow bolt, blow him out a window, knock him out and drown him in a toilet, whatever.

There are so many options and that’s just one level, and because of that, you can play the game over and over again getting a different experience every time.
The fact that the whole world revolves around whale oil is as clever as it is morbid. The journals you pick up throughout gameplay get fairly graphic about taking the blubber from the whales while they’re still alive. Other journals lie around and allude to hidden treats for the player if they go out of the way to find them such as Granny Rags voiced by Susan Sarandon who is the source of several side missions and one of your few chances to actually interact with someone else who has the abilities of The Outsider.
While the steam punk art style is fantastic, the textures and lighting together created a slightly washed out appearance to the whole game that probably could have been avoided. Many times I looked at the old rusty metal and turned away from it because if I thought about it too much it would pull me from my immersion, which, besides the textures, was excellent. The game was a breath of fresh air for me and I can’t wait to keep playing it for all of its replay value.

Alright, two things before I go into my review of CAPCOM’s latest game.  One, I read somewhere that the 6 on the cover of the game looked like a giraffe enjoying some quality time with a manatee and now I can never unsee it.  For two, this is my first Resident Evil game so I have no fan bias one way or another about the game except for maybe the fact that I normally enjoy a good shooting game where brainless zombies try to eat my face.  That being said, the term “zombies” was rarely used in the game, and they certainly weren’t brainless if you play any other campaign other than the Leon-Helena one. In fact, this game’s got arguably better/clever enemies than Battlefield’s or Call of Duty’s AI depending on which campaign you play. The game consists of three initial paths and a hidden fourth one if you beat the others. Now, the game doesn’t qualify it this way, but each of the campaigns has a distinctly different feel to it as well as slightly different play styles.

The tutorial/prelude has you play Leon. So, naturally, I picked his story as my first experience. What I think CAPCOM was going for here was the “traditional” zombie experience with a couple of disgusting mutations to satisfy the level of gross that I presume the fanbase has come to expect. Before I continue, I want to mention that playing this campaign made me want to put the game down and never play it again, let alone try the other storylines, though I discovered later they were worth it. Leon and Helena share some of the most wooden dialogue together and, after a few chapters, I finally understood that the two of them together form one intelligent human being. People will be in the process of becoming a zombie buffet and Leon will announce to Helena that they need to go save them, which just makes no sense because he just watched them get their limbs torn off. Helena, thankfully plays Captain Obvious for a moment and reigns him back in to the task at hand. A few zombie attacks later and Helena spends an entire boss fight refusing to shoot an actively mutating monstrosity because she’s too busy crying. It takes like ten active trigger events with Leon yelling the entire time for Helena to get over herself and shoot to reel her back in. Speaking of active triggers, this is also the button mash campaign.
Sadly, this is also the most predictable horror game I’ve played. Ever. It’s almost completely the fault of the game mechanics too. The game will decide to just take over certain aspects of your character at any given time which gives away too much and allows the player to ready themselves for a possible scary encounter. They might’ve thought that this would build suspense, but the level of irritation I got when I am randomly unable to run or move in any other way other than a slow walk with my gun down by my waist completely breaks the illusion of immersion. It goes as far as to even disallow the firing of the character’s gun for sections of story at a time. The game tries SO hard to forcibly immerse you in the plot that it physically hurts you in the process. Irritation and frustration build instead of suspense and adrenaline and before you know it you just want to throw the controller.
The game does have some very satisfactory melee takedowns and finishing moves that actually do distract from the awful gameplay mechanics for some time. This lasts until you realize that the death animations for the zombie you just roundhouse kicked in the teeth has the head free floating in place as the body falls to the floor with a giant pulled texture of skin still linking the two. This is particularly frustrating when the body just jumped up off the floor and your only choice was to kick it in the face leaving this giant flap of skin obscuring your vision allowing for even more zombies to get the drop on you.
When you get tired of being jumped constantly, you may decide you want to try playing with a little precaution. What do you do if you see a body lying on its side or sitting in a chair with blood all over it? Shoot it, right? Nope. You can’t shoot bodies preemptively in Resident Evil 6. Not allowed. So, whether you see it coming or not, you have no choice but to trigger the zombie’s predictable lunge at your knees. Eventually you’ll get tired and, out of shear boredom, you’ll end up holding the B button ( Xbox360 controller), or you’ll be lucky enough to have a tip show up on a loading screen that informs you that you can actually interact with Helena. By “interact” I mean you can “Praise” her, “Thank” her, tell her to follow (which she does anyway), tell her to stay (good dog!), or tell her to move up. This doesn’t really work though because any time you tell your partner to move up or take the lead they give you the professional F— you. Helena will say, “Not right now”, because “right now” is just not the time to listen to orders in the apocalypse. My favorite is, “Can’t it wait?“, because you clearly didn’t tell her that for any reason. You’re just wasting her time, right? I’m really not even sure why it was made into a button because the only function it serves is to distract you while a zombie eats your brains.
On that line of thought though, let’s talk about buttons that should exist. In the zombie apocalypse, one might think it an intelligent idea to be able to jump. But wait! The game didn’t say it was ok to jump over THAT table, only the one next to it. You also cannot jump over dead bodies lying on the floor. You CAN trip over them, however. Yes, CAPCOM has seen fit to include a trip animation, and not a jump button. The end of the world is also clearly not the time to open a door any other way than gently caressing the door with one hand and leaning face first into the dark unexplored room. Never mind locking the door behind you or barricading it to prevent attacks from behind.

You have no choice but to experience EXACTLY what the game wants you to, and if you had other plans, too bad because this train is going nowhere but where the railway track tells it to at exactly the predetermined speed coded in. The level design in Leon and Helena’s campaign is utterly unimaginative, linear, predictable, boring, and lazy. There’s even a part where you’re looking down at a foggy road and they just flat out left the road black thinking that some heavy fog would cover it up.

The first time I died in this game was via an ambulance crashing through a pile of cars and splatters you against the side of a gas station while you’re paralyzed by a zombie whose sole job is to scream loudly in your face. I’m sorry CAPCOM for standing where your linearly designed map tells me to go to as you freeze me in position just so that an ambulance can run me over. It’s not even a scripted injury. It’s an actual death that counts against you in your final score after the Chapter is over. Oh, yeah, by the way the game’s been scoring you this whole time, which nobody decided to tell the player. What exactly are you getting scored on? Accuracy, deaths, kills, etc. Hopefully you didn’t decide to test fire any new guns you picked up along the way, because it will prevent you from picking up anything useful when it comes time to buy some skills. Yes, the game has been dropping random chess pieces all over the place with “point” values assigned to them, so I don’t really know how I possibly could have misunderstood. Clearly the currency of the survivors of the apocalypse is…gem encrusted chess pieces? I really have no idea where that came from. Perhaps it was something from a previous game I didn’t play and it was explained there, but I felt pretty dumb cramming studded pawns and knights in my pockets while I ran from hordes of screaming zombies.

Once I was finished nursing my wrist from all the hardcore hand holding going on in the Leon-Helena campaign, I ventured a trial run of the other two campaigns and found very different experiences. The Jake-Sherry campaign was heavy on the maze and environmental mechanics (explosive barrels, etc.), while the Chris-Piers combo focused on what added up to be super-human modern warfare against bio-weapons. What confused me with this campaign was that you get an entirely new graphic user interface. Both of the other storylines had basic GUI, but now that you’ve joined the BSAA you get perks.

You are also thrown into open combat with seriously intelligent “BOWs” as they’re called. I never quite heard what the acronym stands for. Anyway, these Infected are creative, intelligent, and utilize better team tactics than Veteran mode Call of Duty AI. I really can’t even call them zombies anymore. These guys use machine guns, snipers, camouflage, group tactics, and more. The time I knew I wasn’t in Kansas anymore was when someone in my squad said, “They’re rolling up a tiger tank”, and, as a hint, my reaction involved a LOT of profanity. If you ignore the mutations, the game is honestly a fun modern warfare experience, but that’s hard when the enemies turn into human-scorpion hybrids which carry uninfected civilians on their backs as cover. Finally I could give the game some credit for innovation. Playing through the entire Leon-Helena campaign, I’d come to think that the only innovation CAPCOM was going to come up with was the trip animation and the fact that you can click down your joystick to choose whether or not you want to make your character left or right handed. The game still wasn’t scary by any means, but at least the Chris-Piers campaign wasn’t anywhere as linear as the Leon-Helena one. Jake and Sherry even had some clever and funny dialogue going back and forth for a while. For the first time in thirty hours I actually enjoyed the gameplay and even dared to immerse myself in the story. Yeah, the same texture pulling glitches were there, there still wasn’t a jump button, and my steroid pumping main character still looked like a damn fool tripping over bodies left and right, but it was enjoyable. I really just think CAPCOM tried too hard to add too much content and it backfired on them. If they had just stuck with one storyline, really ironed out the glitches in the art department, and spiced up the Design aspects of the game, I think everyone would have been a lot happier, but they didn’t and I’m forced to say that this game is really just not worth the play.

The game itself worked so well as a break from reality because the game never took itself too seriously. Jack, your nemesis in Borderlands 2, is “the most perfect ass” to quote a friend. He’s constantly jabbing you with the most immature insults and you tell yourself that it won’t get under your skin, but damn, you can’t ignore it. Before long you’ll find your eye twitching and your knuckles going white as you listen to Jack insult you in the most imaginative ways –

Jack – “I’m wracking my brain trying to think of a name for that diamond pony I bought. I was going to call it ‘piss-for-brains’ in honor of you, but that just feels immature. Hey, maybe ‘Butt Stallion?’”

Just the same though, the game doesn’t pull any punches, and anybody buying the game should be prepared to have the game rip out your heart and sauté it in your own tears especially if you played the first Borderlands. Gearbox certainly didn’t pull any punches in making this game a memorable experience whether you play alone or with a friend or three.

If you normally play games alone though, I might stress that the game is easily one hundred times better with a friend because you actually have someone there to exclaim and laugh with as the ridiculous antics of Jack get progressively more homicidal. It’s simply a better experience when shared with someone else, and I think that can be said about a lot of games. Gearbox certainly did a remarkable job when it came to gauging their players’ moods, emotions, and adrenaline. The game never once ended an emotional peak incorrectly and it was a fantastically smooth ride throughout the game.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the play style, let me explain a little bit. You end up on a planet, which, for all intents and purposes, is lawless and is inhabited by bandits, hick colonists, and a whole lot of bad asses with more guns than you can imagine. Every living thing on the planet, and even most inanimate things, has a gun you can rip from its obliterated remains. As long as you have a weapon you can get a better one and that mechanic combined with a nearly infinite number of guns gives you a constantly evolving style of gameplay, which Gearbox deserves to be extremely proud of.

I’ve found in my experiences that cooperative gameplay is a nesting ground for glitches, the most memorable and entertaining of which would probably be from Fable 3 if any of you have played it. Borderlands certainly didn’t have anything on that level of ridiculous, but they did have some. My partner and I did occasionally have issue reviving one another even when we were practically standing on top of each other, which often resulted in the death of one or both of us. This wouldn’t be such a problem if it didn’t happen most often in the Circles of Slaughter half way through one of the last waves of enemies. It definitely caused a lot of frustrated groans and ice cream breaks were completely necessary after those happened.

The UI had its frustrations too, of course.  I found that having the “dismount from vehicle” button and the “travel” button on the same key caused a lot of unintentional dismounts and often ended in my partner and me running on foot looking for a new Catch-A-Ride Station when we got to a new zone.
This game was also the first game ever to actually keep me entertained and interested in every side quest. For once they weren’t just another way of grinding out levels and instead actually brought more depth to the game’s phenomenally designed NPCs. My favorite side quest involved a string of tortured souls leaving messages behind referencing a gun with an unimaginably terrible curse that I won’t spoil for you so that you can discover on your own. Just know that it’s totally worth the side quest, and you’ll probably end up throwing the gun off the highest cliff you can find.

If you know what quest I’m talking about, you’ll understand why I’m going to mention the sound of the game next, which was extremely satisfying from headshots to gun fire effects. Most of all the character voice was spot on and unique for every major and minor NPC. I was also a huge fan of the smooth gradient transition from normal voice to radio voice when you walk away from an NPC who’s talking. That way you don’t have to just sit there absently while the character gives you the mission and its backstory. I’ve never enjoyed, in real life or games, when someone wastes my time and I really appreciate it when the game company takes that into consideration.
I’ve got some questions though. The New-U stations are Hyperion owned and Jack is owner of Hyperion, yes? He spends the entire game trying to kill you off and any time you do actually die, you use a Hyperion New-U Station to resurrect. That just seems counter-productive to me. A lot of games play off the dying thing by having you play from a save point as if you never died, but Borderlands turned it into a mechanic that they flaunt. Personally I think that they should have just slapped a different company name on the New-U station and called it done, but they kept Hyperion on it and it confuses me.

The tech trees were also stuffed with great new innovative mechanics to have fun with, but a few were less effective than others. Clearly the game is about guns, guns, and more guns, but when you have a tech tree that builds melee skills from level five and upwards I expect melee to be a viable option and a play style I can enjoy from the first point I put into the tree. Instead, melee generally becomes useful around level twenty to twenty five. Of course, it’s not really an issue in the end because you can re-spec your talents for a more than reasonable price so you can level up with guns primarily and switch over in your thirties to the melee-centric tree to at least try it out.
The level design of the game was well laid out. With that said, my co-op partner and I continued to run into small collision volumes that just had no business being where they were. Suddenly when driving the Light Scout we’d just find ourselves doing random one hundred and eighty degrees spins accompanied by a crashing sound when nothing was in the road at all. We also ran into a bit of an issue with some forgotten UDK material and texture applications as you can see in the picture below.

This glitch, if it really was a glitch, really seemed almost more like an easter egg homage to UDK so I’m really not that bothered by it.
Overall, Borderlands 2 is the perfect response to any emotional situation you might be having. It’s a perfect way to let out aggression when you’re mad. It will make you laugh when you’re feeling down and, once you’re feeling better, you’ll continue to have a good time for as long as you want to play the game. Best of all, Borderlands 2 has tons of content and I assume the DLC will be worth waiting for. It certainly doesn’t get stale and is a perfect game if you want to invite some friends over with their laptops for a good old fashion LAN party.

The trailer depicts the many different ways the Overstrike 9 team will be destroying their opponents. It also shows that Insomniac is done playing around and ready to get down to business. As much of a fan as I am of the Ratchet and Clank series, I am also excited to see a more serious title coming from this company, even though I’m sure there will still be a little bit of that same old “Quarky” humor in all of this game’s glorious action.