Well, to my great surprise, it appeals to me quite a bit. While Nostalgia is a new IP, its level design and programming were done by Matrix, the same development team responsible for Final Fantasy III and IV on the Nintendo DS. The game runs quite smoothly, but don’t expect anything in the graphics and sound to leap out at you as groundbreaking. The perspective remains in top down, and since the game is in 3D, this limits the area you can see by quite a bit.

Of course, we don’t play turn-based RPGs for graphics, so let’s talk gameplay. Much like Final Fantasy IX, you’ll control up to four characters in your party, and you’ll keep the same characters for the entire game. Each character has a specific weapon, so the decision of who gets what items is always fairly straightforward.

You’ll travel an alternate past, circa the late 19th century. As Eddie, the son of famed adventurer Gilbert Brown, you’ll take up the mantle of adventurer when your father disappears. Whether completing quests for the Adventurer’s Guild, or following the trail or your father, you’ll travel the world in an airship outfitted with guns, a cannon, and an enormous blade on the prow to visit cities and dungeons throughout the world. Beginning in London, you’ll visit Cairo, Cape Town, and a host of other real world cities.

Combat is exactly as you’d expect, with random battles popping up as you walk through dungeons. Something new is the random battles that pop up while you are flying your airship. These airship battles are interesting, requiring you to compensate for weather, as well as rewarding you for using the proper weapon for each way you are facing. A number of special attacks and spells are available, with some characters focusing on magic, and others on melee.

Overall, Nostalgia is simply fun. I enjoyed getting back to the roots of a classic turn-based RPG, and there is a ton of content to explore. Along with the main quest, you can revisit old dungeons to complete quests and seek out world treasures that can be turned in for gadgets to arm your characters.

If you’re a fan of turn-based RPG’s, you should definitely check Nostalgia out. It’s worth your time, and a worthy successor to the lineage of the classic turn-based RPG’s of the past. One thing is for sure, it definitely lives up to its name.

Gaming Today gives Nostalgia an 8.5/10.

So you can imagine that I was a bit incredulous when I got a copy of Muramasa: The Demon Blade to review. Sure, I knew the game had won all sorts of ‘Best of E3′ awards, but I was still not sure about it. I sat down and started playing, and I found myself really enjoying the game.

Muramasa is a classic, side-scrolling action RPG. This first thing that hits you when you start the game is the look and feel. If you played Odin Sphere on the PS2, you’ll recognize the style, and you’ll be impressed. The graphics aren’t 1080p, or high-def, but they are endearing and attractive. The graphics are more like living art than what you’d expect from a video game.

You can choose from two characters, Momohime and Kisuke. Each story has its own campaign, but the two do intersect. Momohime is being controlled by a demon that possesses her sword, and Kisuke has lost his memory and is on the run for something he’s not even sure that he did.

The actual combat is smooth and flowing, as you draw your sword to fight enemies that randomly appear. Combat also requires you to manage multiple combo attacks while also using health items and special attacks. One of the more interesting features is that the swords (you can have three of your choice equipped at any time) you use are taking damage as well. Parrying and repelling attacks causes your swords to take damage, and once a sword has taken too much damage, it will break. To combat this, you can switch between your equipped swords on the fly, or use potions that will heal the blade.

Collecting blades is a core mechanic of Muramasa. There are 108 swords in all, and you gain the ability to forge swords early on. The fact that each sword has its own special ability means that you can benefit from having certain swords equipped to take advantage of different weaknesses in your enemies.

Boss battles in Muramasa have a nice random element in them. While the bosses retain the same abilities each time you fight them, the same boss may use its abilities at different times in the same fight. Unfortunately, the difficulty of bass battles fluctuates wildly, especially between the two characters. I had little trouble with bosses when playing as Kisuke, but Momohime’s bosses are much more challenging.

Completionists among you will find a ton of gameplay here. Beating the game through with both characters takes about 15 hours, but you could eaily double that time if you want to finish collecting all the items, forging all the swords, and beating all the challenge caves. Not only that, but beating the game a second time can yield a different ending, making the effort worthwhile.

All in all, Muramasa presents an excellent game for Wii fans. If you own Nintendo’s console, you should definitely own this game. It’s arguably the best third party title yet published for the Wii, and worth a purchase. One word of warning: the game has retained its original Japanese voice tracks, so if you don’t like subtitles, that may be a turn off for you.

Gaming Today gives Muramasa an 8.5.

My trepidation was somewhat relieved when I got my hands on the demo and found it to have great atmosphere, great pacing, and great voice acting. Now I’ve had my chance to play the full game, and in short, it far exceeds any expectations I had.

Arkham Asylum opens as Batman transports his arch-nemesis, The Joker, to Arkham Asylum. Soon after arriving there, the Joker breaks free of his restraints and takes over the asylum, leaving Batman to pursue him through a myriad of obstacles the Joker puts in his path.

One of the much ballyhooed features of the game prior to its release was the dynamic combat system, and it does not disappoint. The flow of melee combat is excellent, and the gadgets that one would expect Batman to be packing around become a major part of dispatching your enemies. Batarangs knock foes prone, explosive gel incapacitates enemies, and Batman can even pull foes to him with his grapple.

Chaining together long strings of combos gains you experience that can be spent to improve Batman’s abilities and to unlock new gadgets. Even more fun is the ‘Detective Mode,’ which allows Batman to see his enemies through walls, see their current heart rates and states, and even tell if they are armed or not. Watching a goon’s heart rate increase when he finds the unconscious body of his buddy is satisfying in and of itself. This mode helps tremendously if you’re trying to be very sneaky (my preferred method of playing). While staying completely stealthy is rarely required in the game, it’s more challenging if you try to be the true ‘Invisible Predator.’

Combat is excellent, but where Batman: Arkham Asylum really shines is in its presentation. Arkham is dark, creepy, and reflects the fact that the Joker and his goons have had their way inside its walls. While I don’t want to give away anything that you might encounter in the game, I’ll just say that the morgue scene is very well done, and reminds me a bit of parts of the original Max Payne.

Not only is the atmosphere well done, the voice acting is outstanding. The Joker’s paranoia and lunacy shine through as Mark Hamill brings years of experience in the role to the game, and Kevin Conroy’s Batman is quite fitting. Classic villains like Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and the Scarecrow bring their own unique personalities to life through the quality voice and visual presentations.

I also got a chance to try out the ‘Play as the Joker’ feature in the PlayStation 3 version of the game. While it’s only available on challenge maps, it’s not just a skin. The Joker has a full complement of personalized moves, and even packs a pistol for taking out those really tough guards. It’s enough to make the decision of which console to play this one on a pretty easy choice.

All in all, Batman: Arkham Asylum lives up to all the hype. To this point in 2009, nothing I have played surpasses this game. If I had to submit a vote for Game of the Year right now, there’s no question that Arkham Asylum would get that vote. RockSteady has grabbed ownership of this title, and made a strong case for more games in the same vein, and I have no doubt that Eidos will happily acquiesce.

If you haven’t played Arkham Asylum yet, you need to go out and at the very least grab the demo, and then the full game. Don’t miss out on the chance to play the best superhero game of the year.

Batman: Arkham Asylum receives a 9.5 out of 10 from me, and is definitely a title worth a purchase, even now when money is tighter than normal.

I recently had the pleasure of going on an expedition to Shavarath lead by Kate Paiz, Senior Producer of Dungeons & Dragons Online. As we fought our way across the blasted battlegrounds, she revealed a wealth of information about the future of DDO: Ebberon Unleashed. Prepare for a divination on the Ebberon setting, the DDO store, the free-to-play model and why keeping your subscription and becoming a VIP member is an awesome deal.

The Infernal forces have breached the borders of the planes. The destruction has even struck at the heart of Stormreach itself. Soon stalwart heroes will step up to strike back, taking the fight to these devils, tieflings and other dread minions. From the rise where you teleport in, you can see the Infernal abode of the devils, as well as the Abyssal lair of the demons and the Celestial fortress of the archons giving you a glimpse into future content releases. You will not fight alone in this desolate place. A warforged titan stands ready to battle beside you. This immense construct is awe inspiring in itself. You’ll be grateful its your ally.

The design of Shavarath is a tribute too just how good graphics and effects can be done not only in DirectX 10, but in DirectX 9 as well. The menu options allow you to choose how you view your world and the effects and animations. As you prepare for battle remember to select your favorite key mapping option from the menu. You can choose between the classic DDO setup, the more common MMO key mapping or a setting geared towards FPS fans.

The Shavarath raid is just one of several new adventure modules for DDO Ebberon Unlimited. Players will also battle in Gianthold and Sorrowdusk. The Drow Crime wave premium adventure is also on the horizon for excitement and intrigue that doesn’t require as great an investment of time. There are two new adventures set in the Cerulean Hills as well for everyone to enjoy. One of the features of DDO that makes it ideal for a free-to-play model is that when you don’t have the time to log in for hours to complete a module, you can find quick adventures close at hand to play on a 15 minute break.

The new challenge scaling system tailors adventures to each player or party based on what types of characters and how many party members are adventuring together. The initial assessment is made when instance starts, but will change on the fly as hirelings are brought in or players have to drop out. This should really take the pressure off players who find it hard to schedule in their fun. Life happens and DDO is prepared to roll with it.

As in the pen and paper DnD, your characters progress slowly through levels. However you earn action points along the way that allow you to upgrade your characters abilities as you progress. This also gives you the chance to tailor your character to your personal gameplay style. You could have 3 clerics in your party that are very different in how they play.

The DDO store allows players to purchase premium items, modules and other fun stuff like. There are several handy features you should check out. Everyone should take a look at the list of popular items to see what other players have found useful. The store has a cart to help you work within your budget and prioritize purchases. You can add items that you shop for regularly like healing potions, buffs and hireling contracts to your Favorites list for easy grab and go. You can’t sell, trade or auction DDO store premium items. However DDO points are shared across servers. You can use them to purchase a shared bank tab, at the bank or in the DDO store, which will allow all characters on a server to use your premium content.

You can purchase Turbine points to spend at the DDO shop, but you’ll also earn them as Favor Awards as you play. Each of your characters will be awarded these at certain milestones. This allows those who have the time to invest, but not money to farm points for premium items. The popular Drow race and the Favored Soul, a clerical version of the sorcerer, are unlockable as well as available for purchase.

Players whose time is more valuable than their money can purchase experience buffs and other convenience items like magic armor and weapons with up to a +2 bonus. However, you’ll find that the best items are still the ones given as quest rewards, found as drops or in chests. Of course if you’re deep in the heart of a dungeon and a rust monster just ate your favorite flail or you’ve run out of spell components, you can hit the store and make a purchase right then and there and have it waiting for you in your inventory without having to leave the instance.

DDO Ebberon Unlimited may be free-to-play, but Turbine is making current subscribers quite a deal. These players will transition to VIP accounts. Those fortunate few will receive a generous monthly stipend of Turbine points to spend at the DDO shop. They’ll automatically have access to premium modules and content such as the monk and warforged classes as well as a gratis shared bank. VIP players embark on adventures in Ebberon with a 2 day head start beginning August 4th. The Bazaar tent will be raised once more as DDO: Ebberon Unlimited goes free-to-play for everyone August 6th. I recommend you check it out. After all the price is right.

Telltale is bringing a new generation of gamers fresh Tales of Monkey Island. The new episodic adventure games plays like Sam & Max or Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People. That is to say it plays like the original classic point-and-click adventure game, the Secret of Monkey Island. For the maiden voyage of Tales of Monkey Island, Telltale presents the first of five monthly episodes, Launch of the Screaming Narwhal available today for the PC or as WiiWare..

I’m a veteran of the Monkey Island series. Although I’m really looking forward to the re-imagined Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition coming out later this summer, I was very excited about new stories featuring Guybrush Threepwood, and those mysterious monkeys. I can honestly tell you that Telltale has done an excellent job retaining the bumbling, yet witty and sarcastic Guybrush Threepwood and the ensemble of characters that keep this setting fresh almost 20 years after the first game launched.

The Monkey Island series is steeped in pirates, voodoo, mystical monkeys, insult sword fighting, jaunty Caribbean reggae and grog; lots of grog. The secret of Monkey Island’s popularity, as if you couldn’t tell by the title, is the wry sense of humor that runs rampant through the series. Launch of the Screaming Narwhal has a good mix of in jokes and running gags from previous games while subjecting a new generation of players to fresh forms of pop culture punishment. Telltale also makes use of describing a scene to you and letting your imagination run wild rather than showing you.

Launch of the Screaming Narwhal plunges you right into the thick of things as Guybrush. As you struggle on the high seas to save your lovely wife Elaine from the clutches of the dead pirate LeChuck, things go suddenly wrong and you’re forced to improvise. After disaster ala Army of Darkness strikes, your epic adventure begins with a whole new set of challenges. You’ll face the daunting task of halting the spread of a malignant evil, saving Elaine and defeating LeChuck, but first you have to find a way to get off Flotsam Island.

Your first challenge comes in getting the cooperation of a journalist for the island’s shady newspaper. You’ll have to drum up some excitement before he’ll give you his secret source. Gameplay moves forward as you keep a sharp eye out for objects to pick up or interact with. Guybrush will talk you through everything, giving you hints on whether you’re close to solving the puzzle or way off base. He also guides your hand as you solve puzzles by combining objects in your inventory and use them with others you find around you.

The local color marooned on Flotsam with you will patiently deal out advice for a small fee. You’ll have a list of snarky comments and questions to choose from although Guybrush tends to deliver your lines more diplomatically. At other times you’ll have to follow maps through Flotsam’s jungle that seem to make no obvious sense. This is where creative thinking and turning up environmental sounds come in. Fortunately, if you falter you can start over again, and again if necessary. It’s very easy to start back at the beginning and once you’ve discovered any important landmark or destination, it will appear on your map as a fast travel option.

Just a word of warning. The Tales of Monkey Island series will teach you about persistence and kleptomania. You will swipe everything that isn’t nailed down to be neatly deposited in the portable hole in your pocket. You’ll rarely find anything that you won’t need at some point. You should also make sure to back track when you’re stumped. Often you’ll find that things you’ve already done will turn out differently after you’ve changed something else in the game. People you’ve already interrogated will have new information for you too.

Launch of the Screaming Narwhal is definitely a game I can recommend for purchase. It’s entertaining for both kids and adults with creativity, imagination and a sense of humor. I declare it mother tested and kid approved.  Experience it for yourself by taking on the Launch of the Screaming Narwhal Playable Demo. You can order the full Tales of Monkey Island series from the Telltale website. This week they’re sweetening the deal by throwing in an episode from one of their other games. Now I have to go pick that deal up before my kids force me to walk the plank.

Of course you have, I think it might be one of the few constants of the gamer experience – disappointment when a game fails to live up to its potential and promise. Well, Prototype is one of those experiences for me.

It has all the ingredients of a smashing good time – a super powered hero, a sandbox city, even a conspiracy relating to the military industrial complex manipulating people for their own nefarious ends only to have it go wrong somehow.

Well, despite the mix of interesting pieces, the sum of Prototype just ends up coming out as a fairly bland experience. Maybe my expectation was improperly set by the history of the developer. These same talented folks turned out one of the best super hero games ever developed – Incredible Hulk Ultimate Destruction. That title featured a super powered hero running around in a sandbox New York city setting solving missions and running side missions just like Prototype but somehow the fun factor seemed to be higher in that title.

Prototype is the story of Alex Mercer, a military man whose dealing with a nefarious genetics corporation leave him altered and amnesiac in  New York City. A city which is about to come under siege by a sentient virus and its offspring. Players start the game in full possession of Alex’s unique super powers under full assault in Times Square by a military task force. This method of dropping the players immediately into the action – a cinema term called in media res – might work normally in a game played in flashback but something about the technique feels jarring. The juxtaposition  is odd primarily because the “present time” sections of the game often feature a much more powered up version of Alex and then the next flashback segment removes all those neat abilities from you leaving you as weak as a super powered cannibalistic kitten.

The time jumping aside,  Prototype relies a bit too heavily upon the most popular of gaming cliche – a hero with amnesia. Now that said, the amnesia in this case makes some story sense. Players discover that Alex is effectively dead before he wakes up leaving him running around seeking to discover how he returned from the dead. Alex uncovers that his condition is directly related to exposure to the same virulent contagion that will soon be destroying New York City.

Along with discovering his new powers, Alex seems driven by a need to revenge himself upon those who left him this way and his super senses enable him to detect folks involved in the process merely by coming into proximity of them. Conveniently, a DNA helix symbol appears above those citizens who store a clue to Alex’s condition and he can use his powers to extract this information forcibly.

Extracting information here presents another issue – for a game where I imagine the creators intended the players to identify with Alex and want to help unlock his mysterious origins, I think they forgot a key piece of information: You have to make the character likable. Alex comes off in the game’s story scenes as a reasonably nice guy but exhibits absolutely no problems using the random bystander of New York City as popcorn to fuel his powers.

I can somewhat understand if he executed his revenge only on those who wronged him but come on! What did that tank commander ever do to Alex except get stationed in New York during this crisis? I mean he probably has a family and fiends who will miss him since Alex just eats anyone who has a skill he needs or frankly will get in his way. This sort of lack of moral impact left me feeling less than sympathetic to Alex’s plight and I wonder if it wasn’t just a shortcut to play up the coolness of a guy who absorbs foes like John Carpenter’s The Thing without doing the work of injecting any repercussions to that choice.

Couldn’t Alex just simply incapacitate someone, snake his fleshy tendrils into their brains and take what he needed without completely consuming them, leaving the full on absorption/consumption for his revenge motivated justice against the real bad people? Or is that just not “awesomer” enough to make an impact on today’s gamer?

Story considerations aside, Prototype is a fun sandbox super hero title. The powers Alex gains through the title do evoke a sense of strength and speed. Alex  reminds me far more of Carnage, one of Spider-man’s more dastardly symbiont foes, than he does Superman or the Hulk. His gory flesh spikes and tendrils as well as ability to create blades from his flesh also mirror the Marvel villain. Alex gains experience in the game by completing missions and can power up his abilities in increments, adding new power stunts and developing some completely off the wall abilities like his gliding power which is apparently powered by spraying his blood from his hands and feet. The concept itself of using blood spray as propulsion is laughable, but the effect comes off as cool on screen.

The key to any open world game is how the environment augments the character’s powers. In Crackdown, inFAMOUS or any of the better Spider-man games (i.e. not Web of Shadows) the city always seemed to complement the player with tall buildings and elevated rail. Prototype has some element of this but the setting feels a bit more bland than expected. There is not as much variety in the game’s setting and sometimes that made it difficult to immediately grasp my location on the mini-map without resorting to using the games full map which broke my immersion completely. The best open world design features distinct visual landmarks and clues to help the player navigate the playground, Prototype has a few of these but most of the landscape just doesn’t cut it.

You might likely think I was not a fan of Prototype. While its not going to remain on my must play list too long, I have to say I did have fun playing Alex Mercer in short bursts but it just didn’t grab me. The fighting can be frenetic at times, which is good. The story misses a few beats overall but is well scripted and its nice to have the choice on how to power Alex up.

Ultimately, Prototype suffers somewhat in comaprrison to the recently released inFAMOUS in that the games both feature similar protagonists, settings and core concepts. Both titles offer open world super hero fun but one thing missing from here, which makes inFAMOUS that much more fun, is the moral path in the story. Cole McGrath, the character in Sony’s game, is presented with a decision to be a hero or the ultimate destroyer. Alex however mopes a bit about how bad things are but ultimately still eats the granny walking down the street if he’s low on health and doesn’t bat a tendril over it. One advantage Prototype has however is its platform independent nature, meaning for 360 or PC owners who can’t choose inFAMOUS over Prototype the game really will provide some good open world fun, but for those with a ability to choose between the two titles I feel Sucker Punch got it more right.

Sims 3 breaks the sims out of the confines of their beautifully constructed prisons and allows them to freely roam the world around them. You can follow your sim to work at the theater or the military base or watch as they jog, bike, or drive to the beach for a sunny afternoon. You can walk around town collecting little treasures like unpolished gems and mystery seeds or go introduce yourself to your neighbors. Just walk up and ring the bell.

The tediousness of taking your sims to the bathroom and feeding them has been greatly reduced. There are even lifetime happiness rewards to practically eliminate the need all together. As long as you give them some free will, your sims can pretty much take care of the mechanics themselves leaving you to direct them in duties and opportunities above and beyond the daily routine. Visit the Cemetery and science lab to catch exotic fish and insects and find other cool easter eggs.

Fishing and gardening go well together and both are great ways to get special items like the death flower that can prolong an elder’s life. You plant produce from the store or the seeds you find around town and fertilize with the fish you catch using some of your produce as bait. You’ll also find much more to do with computer now, especially if your sim has the Genius or Computer Whiz trait.

Pregnancy and child rearing is a bit more challenging. You have to work at keeping your mother healthy and well informed during pregnancy by reading baby books or going to the hospital for prenatal advice. you can choose a home birth or go to the hospital to deliver. After the babies are born you must teach them the skills they need and maintain their motives throughout childhood to be able to choose their traits. Fortunately, you can age them up faster by having them blow out the candles on the birthday cake early which is great to get them from infant to toddler. The only sims you can’t age up this way are pregnant mothers who stop aging until they give birth.

The sims communities you build can actually be dynamic on the highest free will settings with aging and storytelling options on. You can choose between several life spans for your sims. If you’re into slowly developing the community you can set the maximum life span for up to 960 sim days or you can go through generations with sims aging from birth to death in a mere 25 days. As you play one family they interact with all the others in town who live, love, reproduce, and age right along side your focus family. This can be a double edged sword. Switching between families may be disconcerting. Your toddler is now a teen and Grandma is taking a dirt nap. In your absence, the parents have neglected the kids who consequently picked up undesirable traits like “kleptomaniac” or “insane”.

You can turn off aging and free will all together and toggle story progression which determines whether non controlled families keep developing and working towards their goals in the background. There is no way to turn off aging or story progression for individual families. It’s all or none of them. Fortunately your custom families are all stored safely in a library. You move a copy into play so if you’re really attached to any of them, you can always start over fresh.

Somehow the game feels incomplete at this point. Although this is the base game with none of the plethora of expansions for Sims 2, there’s a feeling of detachment soon after your sims leave their local neighborhood and head for town. You can visit any outside location including the pool, park or beach. You can go inside the the gym, the art museum and the library. Although you can buy a partnership and gain control of other businesses in town, you can’t actually enter any of the businesses, eateries or the school. You’re left standing outside while your sims buy groceries and books. Feel free to take a stroll through the graveyard, but you can’t tour the mausoleum or explore the catacombs with your Sims. Taking a tour, going to the cinema, and completing opportunities take a couple hours of game time for you to wait out. It also very irritating that if you send your sims to the hospital to have a baby, you wait outside as well.

People who were looking forward to seeing special cut scenes as rewards for reaching milestones in sims’ lives will be disappointed as well. This part of the previous games is completely missing. I’m sure there are others that will be relieved these pop up events will no longer interrupt gameplay.

There’s a lot to appreciate about the Sims 3. It’s truly an evolution of the game, adding new layers of gameplay and smoothing out many of the frustrations of the previous series. Sims fans will enjoy this game overall if they can keep remembering that options they had with later expansion packs for previous games will eventually be theirs. If you have trouble keeping this front and center in your mind, it’s going to be a long wait.

Once you reach the relative safety of your roof top penthouse, the game truly begins throwing you into a grand conspiracy masterminded by a clandestine mystical organization. As you unravel the mystery, you can either fight your reputation as the bringer of the apocalypse or revel in the new coolness that is you and start building your own evil empire.

When it came time to choose our destinies I took the path of light and goodness and Shawn turned to the dark side to compare both story options. Those who take the high road are destined to become a man of the people, starting by protecting them from the Reaper Gang under the control of your psycho ex-girl friend. Your powers manifest in brilliant blue arcs of electricity that you’ll learn to use to subdue your enemies, and then bolt them to the ground with an effect similar to Spiderman and his webbing. You also turn into a portable CPR machine and earn good karma for healing injured citizens.

If you go for the cookies, your evil powers manifest in wicked red lightning. Killing gang members and citizen when they’re down gives you a boost to your bad karma and you can freely suck the life energy out of everyone. as you fall deep in depravity Cole begins to look like the evil overlord you aspire to be.

There is no middle road in this game. In the end you are going to be good or evil. However swinging between them isn’t as easy as say Fallout 3 where you can go slaughter innocents wholesale and then repair your rep by giving the old man pure drinking water. You’ll nickel and dime your way to hero or antihero status. You get big karma boosts to your rep either way at key points in the story, and you build up points little by little throughout play as you complete side quests. Evil players can still heal and good guys can play the psychic vampire occasionally but it will go against your karma rating. All players can recharge at any power box or items such as street lights or cars, so if your playing the straight man keep the use the life sapping only for emergency. The ultimate good or ultimate evil powers unlock at extreme levels of karma, so pick your path and go full out from the beginning.

Players can follow the main storyline, but it’s to your advantage to take on side quests to gain shards that give you an extra power reserve. Shards of the ray sphere that gave you your powers are embedded in odd places throughout the city and as side quest rewards. As your karmic reputation grows some of these quests will be locked out so doing them early is good.

If collecting and exploring every corner of the map isn’t your thing, you’ll still have to do this because shards are the only way of increasing your power reserve. You’ll be looking for secret satellite messages anyway so grabbing shards as you go pays off quickly. The camera is surprisingly cooperative working with you for the most part and your mini radar will thoughtfully tell you when you’re close to either one of these items as well as pointing out bad guys and power sources.

You are meant to be leaping from the roof tops and sliding across the city heights on power lines. Coming down to earth is usually only necessary to receive or turn in quests. Falling from extreme heights and landing with your fist to the concrete scattering you enemies in your wake like the Thunder God himself is one of your cooler powers. Just make sure you don’t land in water or you’re in for extreme shock treatment.

InFamous has four levels of difficulty with enough wiggle room to make both the complete novice and the hardcore gamer happy. There is some puzzle solving involved in gameplay, and at some points you’ll have to shoot rusted metal to clear your path or access important items. This is definitely not the focus of the game so you shouldn’t find these riddles too challenging. Unfortunately it’s one of the middle of the road decisions made by Sucker Punch and Sony that will ultimately make very few gamers happy. Tomb raiders will crave more dangerous and intricate puzzles and players who like to run towards the danger will be annoyed that they were included at all.

Still, InFamous is overall a very satisfying game with much to offer gamers with different play styles.The storyline is solid and involving. It’s graphically beautiful making the best of the PS3 capabilities and the soundtrack and effects blend in with gameplay enhancing your experience rather than irritating you to death or breaking your concentration. Usually multiplayer games are the best buys because of re-playability. In this case, exploration and side quests give you the option to add hours of gameplay and of course you’ll have to play through it twice to see both ends as well. I would definitely recommend Infamous as a title to purchase for your collection.

Character Creation, Buy and Build Mode Mechanics:

At first glance, Sims 3 looks really good. I’ve been playing in on an HP laptop with Vista, a duel processor, and a mediocre ATI video card. The first thing I noticed on firing it up was how fast the load screen flew by. With Sims 2, I’m sure I’m not the only one used to putting in the game, then wandering off to take care of something else while it loaded.

Creation has much less to offer at first blush, but is actually much richer than previous games. Players have six basic skin tones to choose from. Natural flesh tones include a peach, pink, and tan base that slide between pale to very dark skinned. Fantasy tones include pink to red, blue, and green skin tones for your Farscape or Star Trek sims. Choose on sliding scales whether your sim is skinny or obese and between scrawny and ripped and you’re ready to put on your game face.

The facial sculpting is the most user friendly system I’ve encountered including Fallout 3. The complex options allow players to take their basic face and break it down into subcategories like mouth or nose. These can be adjusted globally or be broken down further by choosing sub sections like the lower lip or nostrils.

Assigning a different hair style for each clothing category is now a standard option.You can adjust the main hair color, roots, highlights and tips as well as recolor eyes and makeup elements. Players can change colors using a basic palette, the color wheel or by entering the precise hexadecimal code for clothing, build and buy which is great for matching elements. This should free up tons of space on your hard drive you used to reserve for all that Sims custom content. Most of what you’ll be downloading now are patterns and meshes.

There are basic meshes available in all clothing categories that can be infinitely varied to the limits of your creativity. Garments as well as most buy and build items have up to four variables you can alter. There are many patterns covering fabrics in geometric and abstract designs. You can choose from furs, tiles, stones, and leather as well which are all recolorable. Themed patterns let you create the fun patterns for kids rooms, clothes, and gear as well as more grown up coordinating floral or fruit patterns. You get one set of outfits to begin with, but can create and design more for free once you buy a dresser. You carry three versions of each type of outfit that you don’t have to be at the dresser to change into.

Finish up your sim by selecting up to five traits from physical, mental, social and life style choices. Some of these were rewards in the Sims 2 they all give you specialized options when socializing with other sims. Some traits like Evil or Grumpy can make your sim more of a challenge to play. Based on your choices, you’ll be offered different Lifetime wishes to select from. You’ll also be able to select from three different voices with a sliding scale for pitch. Pick a favorite food, music style aka radio station, and color and your all set.

Unlike previous Sims games, furniture and home decor can be changed from the buy or build menus for free. You also no longer need the boolprop cheat to place items diagonally. The traditional grid is subdivided into four smaller sections that make placement much easier. This is a huge win in my book. However, I searched the catalogs in vain for a hot tub or a diving board. It’s hard to remember those were expansion items. This is a very picky little irritant compared to an excellent base overall.

Look for my take on Sims 3 game play coming soon on Gaming Today.

I have to admit, it isn’t what I expected going in. Warrior Epic isn’t your typical MMO. You won’t spend hours running around obtaining quests and crafting. Instead, it follows in the footsteps of games like Diablo and Dungeon Siege. Players can play for free, with the option of purchasing things like double XP potions, exclusive clothes, and other things. However, True Games says that only convenience items will be available for purchase, and that, “anything along the lines of “broadsword of one-hit kills” would never be available for purchase through micro-transactions.”

You’ll start with control of one warrior, who has a few abilities. Obviously, those powers vary depending on the type of hero you select. After you finish the tutorial level, you gain access to your warrior hall. From this central hub, you can recruit new types of heroes, browse and equip new items, and find new quests to take on. You can also see the spirits of fallen warriors, who can be called back to life under certain circumstances.

The spirit system is actually one of the highlights of Warrior Epic. Not only can warriors be resurrected, their spirits can be used to infuse items with greater power. They can also be called to assist in battle, where they attack your enemies. Their effectiveness is directly tied to their abilities when they died. Also, players can acquire monster spirits during battle and use their powers to infuse their weaponry.

There are a number of different heroes available for recruitment, from the Pit Fighter to the Assassin. Some specialize in healing, some in melee combat, and some in ranged combat. Each hero obviously has its strengths and weaknesses, and each player can have multiple heroes available in their warrior hall.

Now, forming parties is slightly different other MMO titles as well. Similar to the ‘town’ system employed in Guild Wars, players use a lobby to build their party, and then they head to face challenges. These challenges take the form of quests, group dungeons, and even PvP encounters. Players and guilds will be ranked based on their performance, giving you the opportunity to see your name at the top of the charts.

All in all, I had a pretty good time with Warrior Epic. It’s a different type of MMO, but it’s one that seems to be more favorable to casual players, or players with busy real life schedules. We’ll see how it does at retail, but it’s definitely worth at least a look. After all, the price is just right.

Warrior Epic is slated to be released Tuesday, May 19 at 5 PM PST (8 PM EST) on its website. You can head over there now and try to get in on the beta goodness if you want a sneak peek.

At its core, Star Trek D-A-C is a top-down, space combat game set in the timeline of the new Star Trek movie. It’s a game that is primarily focused on multiplayer, so if you don’t have a Live Gold account, you may not get your money’s worth out of this title.

As a Trek fan, it’s kind of neat to be able to fly around in a Constitution-class flagship and attempt to take on the evil Romulan Empire. D-A-C fulfills this need with three game modes: Assault, Conquest, and Team Deathmatch.

Assault is basically attack & defend. Each team attempts to capture four points within a time limit, while the other teams defends. The winner is the team that captures the most points and has the best time. Conquest is a Battlefield-style, take-and-hold game where teams must capture two points to unlock their opponent’s base for capture. Team Deathmatch is, well, if you don’t know what TDM is by now, you probably aren’t actually reading this.

So far, so good, right? Now for the big questions: is there cooperative play, and just which starships do I get my grubby paws on?

As to cooperative play, it is there. However, it’s online coop only. Unfortunately. there will be no sitting the couch with your buddy and decimating the Romulan fleet. There’s also a Versus mode, as well as a solo mode with AI Players taking the place of your online opponents. The challenge level seems to ramp up markedly once you go online, as is the case for most multiplayer games.

Players will find themselves choosing between three starships: the agile Fighter, the nimble Bomber, or the cumbersome Flagship. Obviously, each has its up and downs, but each also has a lot in common. All ships can have their weapons upgraded through pickups found on the battlefield, and getting your ship destroyed doesn’t mean that you have to lose all of those upgrades.

If you are about to be blown to space dust, you’ll get an eject warning. If you successfully eject, you must pilot your escape pod away from the fray, and avoid taking damage for five full seconds. Successfully doing so will result in a faster respawn time, and will also allow you to keep most of your upgraded weapon strength.

In addition to weapon strength pickups, there are also a number of special weapon pickups on the field, including some that repel enemies, some that spawn an AI wingman to help cover your back, and some that make you invisible or even invulnerable.

Overall, I enjoyed Star Trek D-A-C. It’s not a game that is a technological marvel, but then again, Live Arcade games rarely fill that bill. What it is a fun little multiplayer space shooter that lets you pretend to be pulling the strings on an actual Federation (or Romulan) warship. It’s fairly basic right now, with only 4 maps offered for Team Deathmatch, two maps for Conquest, and one map for Assault. Still, it’s only packing a price of 800 Microsoft Points ($10.00), meaning that the content is commensurate with the price.

I’m hoping that we’ll see some DLC for this title. After all, more maps and more ships wouldn’t looked at askance by anyone. I’d also like to see a local co-op option added as well. It would add value for people who do not choose to own a Gold account.

If you’re a XBox Live Gold member, and especially if you’re a Star Trek fan, D-A-C is definitely worth a purchase. If you’re not a Gold member, I have to recommend that unless you enjoy playing multiplayer games with bots, you give this one a pass.

As always, you can grab more screens, trailers, and other files over at FileFront’s D-A-C- page.

So Thursday has come and gone and the next part of the Star Wars video game saga arrived on home consoles yesterday – even though its but a teaser Demo for the game due next month.

It may be clear from some of my earlier coverage that I’m a bit of a Star Wars fanboy. I admit that not everything Star Wars = Good but the premise of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, a story where the secret apprentice of Darth Vader is aiding him during the dark times to hunt down and destroy the remaining Jedi, actually made a lot of sense to me.

Did we actually expect that Vader had been doing nothing for 30 years but flying about the universe hunting down errant Jedi? Of course he had help! The Apprentice is the focus of the game and its rather short demo.

The demo is fairly short and linear. You’ll hop into character after a quick chat with your master and then it’s all slice and fling until you reach the end. There was a slight hint at puzzle based gameplay using the force with the hanger doors but not a lot more than run, slice up or throw enemy, pick up liberally scattered explosive barrels and destroy enemies. What will help this game stand out will be its story and from a lot of the previews is that I expect there to be a much deeper Star Wars tale in the making here that can’t easily be gleaned in a 20 minute demonstration.

The Force Unleashed is a third person title with the usual third person issues – like camera control. While the demo only provided a small sampling of the sorts of conflicts the Apprentice would face, and was crippled by granting you unlimited health (though I managed to die twice anyway) the way the game anchored the camera and that worked with the primary mechanic of force lift/throw was just a bit wonky.

This issue was not bad in the confined corridors that comprise much of the early parts of the levels but once you find yourself in a hanger bay or on the catwalks of the station things can get a little more frustrating. I found myself fighting the view a great deal at the demo’s climax when the AT-ST walker arrived and I’d already dispensed with the stormtroopers at its feet.

It may sound from the above that I’m not a fan of this game but frankly I’ve not played enough to decide I’ll dislike it. The action and force powers ebb cool, the visuals are impressive and this is most definitely the Star Wars feel I like. The third person perspective reminded me of hours spent in the Jedi Knight series once I’d earned my lightsaber and those memories make me likely to overlook the camera issue more than I normally would. Lets face it, just about every 3D third-person action title has camera issues – even groundbreaking winners like God of War had problems from time to time.

The Force Unleashed plays like a solid action game and from the demo my interest has not fallen much. Its frustrating though that we have another two weeks to wait for its arrival, and that the Wii version, which looks so much worse than the other versions might be the one to own because of the Darth Vader levels and the built in Star Wars fighting game mechanic. I don’t think I’ll end up buying that version but somewhere down deep I think I might regret it.

The Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Demo is available on Xbox Live! and the PSN network. The game itself is scheduled to materialize around September 16th, 2008. The Star Wars RPG fans out there can also expect the pen-and-paper campaign guide in stores at about the same time. (Look for coverage of that in a future The Analog Gamer column)

To peruse all of Gaming Today’s coverage of the game click here.

N+
Developer: Silverbirch Studios
Publisher: Atari
Price: $19.99
Platform: PSP, DS
Category: Puzzle/Platformer
ESRB: “E” for Everyone
Release Date: August 26, 2008

I had never really played N+ before in either its Xbox Live Arcade or PC iterations (it was simply known as N on PCs), save for a very brief session on PC where I had to close my browser almost immediately because I have a very obsessive personality — and this is the type of game that absolutely thrives on that type of person.

The premise is simple enough: get through a stage as quickly as possible using controls that are nothing more than left, right, and jump. There are little gold along the way to collect that add to your score (which is constantly decreasing as time passes), but your only real goal is to get to a certain spot, which usually won’t be open until you hit a switch. While initially it seems simple and fun enough, you get the impression that the ensuing levels (of which there are hundreds) will become nothing more than a cavalcade of mediocrity. With such basic gameplay, it’s not an unreasonable assumption, but play the game for a solid 20 minutes and you’ll begin to see what’s possible by introducing even a single new enemy.

N+ is definitely not for everyone; anyone who gets easily frustrated and likes to then proceed to smash objects in the vicinity would be wise to stay away, or at the very least, to play the game far away from children and expensive electronics. Having a hint of masochism in you definitely helps to egg you along through what can become an excruciating experience. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself lying and saying, “I’ll go straight for the exit” only to die as you try and net a few extra gold. Cursing will ensue, I assure you.
Levels generally take less than a minute to complete, which makes the game a perfect fit on handhelds, although you’ll most assuredly end up replaying levels over and over just in order to finish. Trying to beat your own best time or best score adds a lot of replay to a level that isn’t inherently replayable — but trying to figure out the best possible route becomes a real joy.

Adding to the already addictive nature of the game are the multiplayer mode, level editor, and online support. I wasn’t able to go online or play multiplayer with the build I’ve been playing, but I did get to see what you can achieve with the level editor. I have no qualms with admitting I don’t have even a hint of creativity (thusly making level editors pretty much worthless to me), but I did appreciate the ability to design levels from scratch and instantly hop in and out of test mode. With the success and absolutely mind-blowing levels people have designed for Portal and Echochrome, it’ll be exciting (and frightening) to start downloading levels once the masses get their hands on the game.

With the amount of time it takes to attempt a level, this might be the single most difficult game to not try playing a level just one more time. It’s great for short sessions and long sessions alike — but don’t say I didn’t warn you about staying away from things you’ll be tempted to smash.

I’ll be honest: the name “Red Faction” brings up more memories of “meh” gameplay to me than most other series that have survived past one sequel. So nothing could have been a bigger surprise for me than when I was given a chance to play the new Red Faction Guerrilla at E3 and found myself completely blown away by it. Granted, my impression of it was probably helped along by the fact that the developers put me in a giant mech suit to trash the fully destructible environments with, but I was still left wanting more. Thankfully, now I’ve been given that chance with the multiplayer beta that launched on Monday. So does the multiplayer make as much of an impression as the single-player? In a word…er, “sweetjebusyesyesyes.”

Red Faction Guerrilla’s multiplayer has the potential for so many “holy crap, did I just do that?” moments that it’s hard to keep track of them all. In just a few days of play, I’ve done such things as turn on “Fleetfoot” to run up and smack a guy over a building with a sledgehammer, chase after an enemy by plowing through a wall, and — my personal, though rare, favorite — take out another player by bringing a building down on top of him. Much of the gameplay is your standard third-person shooter fare, but the destructible environments add a whole new dimension of strategy and frenzied action. The landscape never looks the same at the end of a match, and you find yourself having to accomadate to it.

Destructible craziness aside, there’s another aspect of the gameplay that sets this apart from other shooters: the backpacks. Each map contains several stations for players to pick up backpacks that give them special abilities. “Fleetfoot” for example, gives you super running speed for a short time, while “Firepower” lets you do more damage for awhile. The ones that are the most fun to use though are the backpacks that give you quick powers, like “Rhino,” which lets you charge through walls, and “Concussion,” which sends nearby enemies flying off their feet. Using these power ups well is really the key to success.

The weapons at your disposal though are the usual shooter fare — shotgun, machine gun, pistol — with a few notable exceptions. Anything that explodes — detonator charges, mines, rocket launcher — is of course way more entertaining than anything else. Really though, these weapons are only the most fun when used along with the backpacks or destructible buildings.

The two gameplay modes included in the beta are “Team Anarchy” (a.k.a. Team Deathmatch) and “Damage Control.” Damage Control mode functions like Battlefield’s traditional conquest mode, but with an added destructive twist. Each player is equipped with a “reconstructor,” which they must use to build structures on specific points of the map. Once you’ve captured a point though, the enemy must use their hammers or explosives to demolish those structures and build their own. Controlling more points gathers more tickets for your team, until one side wins.

The beta also contains three maps, which are virtually indistiguishable from each other, aside from a few landmarks. This is mostly because all of them are set on Martian surfaces, where everything takes on a reddish hue. A developer assured me at E3 that there would be some more colorful environments in the game, but apparently they left those out of this beta.

Sadly, the game in this state is also plagued with many of the same issues found in most betas: few people online to play with and sometimes laggy connections. You can’t even create your own custom matches, instead having to rely on a quick match or party system that don’t let you control what types of matches you’ll enter. For these reasons, even starting a match can take way, WAY too long, even during the peak evening hours. But of course, identifying these issues now is what a beta is for. The development team still has over six months to polish things up.

But all these issues are just more frustrating because the actual gameplay is a dream. This is the game we were promised years ago back when the term “destructible environments” was first uttered in gaming. Some of the basic aspects of the multiplayer, like toppling buildings and smacking people with a hammer, just never seem to get old. I’m happy to get a chance to take the multiplayer for a test drive, even though the remaining time till the game’s release is just going to seem that much longer now.

XBLA Hors D’oeurvres are a weekly feature where I play the latest Xbox Live Arcade game – in trial form – for no more than 10 minutes, and then summarize my impressions of the game based upon only that.

I cheated with this week’s new Xbox Live Arcade game. Typically for these pieces, I download the trial and play that for about ten minutes. But this morning, I bought Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 without a moment’s hesitation. In order to still write about this game XBLA Hors D’oeuvres-style, I’ve restrained myself to playing for only about 15-20 minutes — just enough time to unlock and try all six of the game’s modes.

As I made pretty clear earlier, I’m absolutely digging the game and every single one of its game modes. This is truly the sequel Geometry Wars fans have been wanting.

Unlike most games, a fact sheet can actually give you a pretty good idea of why this game is so good. Geometry Wars is fundamentally solid, and by throwing in multiplayer support for up to four players and six different game modes, you really can’t go wrong with a $10 title.

I won’t bother going into detail about each game mode, but suffice it to say that each one is brilliant. On their own, modes like Pacifism and Waves wouldn’t hold up well as standalone games (as many a PGR4 purchasers found when they paid $60 to play Waves). But as part of a compilation, they’re great fun — particularly Deadline (score as much as you can in three minutes), which gives the game a great Pac-Man: Championship Edition-style feel to it as you compete for the highest score on the leaderboards. You can pop online and easily play for three minutes or three hours, which is perfect for an XBLA game. Just don’t be surprised if the latter ends up being a much more accurate estimate.

The game doesn’t go and reinvent the wheel by any means; if you didn’t enjoy previous Geometry Wars titles, then don’t expect RE2 to change your mind. The different modes do, however, force you to radically alter your approach while still working within the confines of the Geometry Wars gameplay you know and love.

There are some really nice touches that Bizarre included to entice you to work your way up the leaderboards against your friends. The single-player menu displays the six game modes and your high score in each, as well as those of your friends, making it extremely easy to keep track of where you stand. Perhaps even better than that is the in-game display gives you a target for who to gun for next. You’re #3 on your friends leaderboard? Then it’ll show the high score of the #2 person, allowing you an easy snapshot of what you’ll need to achieve before you can start the smacktalk.

What else is there to say? Go try the game for yourself — Geometry Wars fans will not be disappointed, and whether you’re a first time player or a GW vet, you’ll find something to blow you away.

XBLA Hors D’oeurvres are a weekly feature where I play the latest Xbox Live Arcade game – in trial form – for no more than 10 minutes, and then summarize my impressions of the game based upon only that.

I stand by my earlier assessment that Go! Go! Break Steady’s description is irrevocably stupid. But after playing the game for just a few minutes, I can see that there was no better way to describe the game and that — more importantly — it’s a hell of a lot of fun to play.

Part DDR and part Zuma, Break Steady consists of two completely different game mechanics which don’t make a lot of sense to pair together. They do, however (or is that somehow?), go along with each other quite nicely.

You complete sections of a song by pressing a corresponding face button on your controller and are then taken to a section where you shoot a ball into a curved line of balls to match three of the same color. Once you shoot all of your balls (which, from what I can tell, will be from one to three depending on your performance in the preceding DDR section) you’re sent back into the DDR action — which isn’t as monotonous as it could have been, thanks to the buttons coming in from different angles and moving in ways you’re not used to seeing. You repeat until time runs out, all the while listening to some rad music that is reminscent of Jet Grind Radio.

The similarities to Jet Grind don’t end there. The game isn’t cel-shaded, but it has a distinct visual quality that makes it look much more vibrant than your run-of-the-mill Zuma or DDR clone. (That isn’t to say that’s what Break Steady is, but it’s pretty easy to see some of the game’s inspirations.)

I struggled during my first song despite playing on easy, which is pretty pathetic given the number of hours I spend with my hands wrapped around a controller — you’d think tapping a designated button at the right time would be easy. My second song I found much easier as I grasped what I was really doing.

Before your first song, you can hop into the tutorial, which at first makes the game feel extremely intimidating. But it was actually extremely short and concise without leaving anything important out, which is an impressive feat.

I’m still surprised by how impressed with the game I am, but developer Little Boy Games did an excellent job in taking two completely different genres and melding them together a la Puzzle Quest. Definitely give this one a look and don’t pass it up like I nearly did because of a stupid description.

XBLA Hors D’oeurvres are a weekly feature where I play the latest Xbox Live Arcade game – in trial form – for no more than 10 minutes, and then summarize my impressions of the game based upon only that.

The 194X games hold a special place in my heart, as they were among the first shooters I ever played — certainly the first vertically scrolling shooter. Naturally, an updated version of 1942 seemed like it was right up my alley, particularly considering the number of games similar to this that I play, I’d be glad to get the nostlagia factor in there.

Capcom wasn’t promising the world with Joint Strike, but basically just what you think when you hear “updated version.” I thought that’s all I wanted, but as it turns out, I was very wrong.

It should be said that I play a lot of shooters nowadays, and while you could argue that I’m somewhat burned out, I don’t believe I am. I play Super Stardust HD on an almost daily basis, and I play any number of games — from Assault Heroes to Geometry Wars — pretty regularly on 360.

So perhaps it’s due to that fact that I find myself balking while playing Joint Strike. The game looks and sounds great, with the same aesthetic quality that makes the old 194X games stick out in my mind to this day. But everything about the gameplay feels overly simple, like Capcom hasn’t decided to join the 21st century.

Joint Strike isn’t meant to be a dual/twin-stick shooter like the games I mentioned, so don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with this Galaga-style shooting. But in this day and age, you expect there to be more to a game than dodging fire and pressing a button. Take Ikaruga, for instance, which has you swapping between black and white to avoid enemy fire and damage enemies. That’s far more engaging than collecting medals and getting the occasional power-up.

One of the only new features that Capcom has talked about in press release are the new titular Joint Strike attacks, which I couldn’t try out since I was flying solo. Perhaps that adds something to the mix that I’m not experiencing on my own, but I can’t help but think that you’re in for a watered down experience whether you’re playing with a buddy or not.

Last year Todd Howard, and the team fresh off of The Elder Scrolls Oblivion showed a very tight, controlled demonstration of the game in action, and this year I actually got 30 minutes of hands on time with the title. While the areas shown in the live demo area covered much the same content as last years presentation I didn’t care. This wasn’t my shot to gauge the story or the acting; this was about finding out if Fallout could translate to the 1st person RPG space and not lose its charm.

Well I have good and bad news for Fallout fans. Fallout 3 makes the transition well but only if you’re a fan of the Oblivion style of gaming (which I most definitely am). Controlling the character, implementing stat points and choosing perks using the Pip boy interface were all simple and intuitive.

Unlike Oblivion, Fallout 3 does not rely on a clunky interface. There is inventory management but its reminiscent of the older Fallout’s turn based grid with a few modern updates. The change of setting – from a medieval combat system to a modern gun-slinging wasteland works well also. I demo’d the game on the 360 and the title showed the same visual finesse of Bethesda’s earlier game. Those who found fault with the dialog interface or camera system of that title will find it virtually unchanged.

I spent a good deal of time navigating and interacting with NPCs. Dialog choices that could be influenced by skills were set apart – including the percentage chance of success, though the actual “roll” was hidden it was obvious when you succeeded or failed. This little tweak felt like a good reflection of the classic games and the content of the dialog also followed a more adult, humorous bent in the area of Megaton.

Wading into combat with some rabid scavengers in an old elementary school, I used every chance possible once engaged to test out the V.A.T.S. targeting system. This turn-based mode freezes combat momentarily and displays a digital overlay of a foe. The various target spots of the baddie glows and players can choose trick shots with likely success indicated by percentages based on skills and perks your character has.

All in all I’m just as excited about this game as I was last year. The hands on experience felt familiar in many good ways and with the game coming soon on the 360, PC and PS3 at least I won’t have to wait long to wander around at the end of the world nuking super mutants.

Like many older gamers I was a fan of the golden age of Sonic the Hedgehog. I still have fond memories of a certain New Years Eve party when I was younger and the challenge was issued amongst the rather inebriated guests to partake in a competition of skill.. namely to see who could get the furthest in Sonic the Hedgehog on the Genesis. I’d never been particularly good at the game, though I’d spent a lot of hours playing it but as the host I was obligated to try the best. Long story short, I got further in Sonic that night than any other time since and I credit that to my loose reflexes compensating for the game’s innate sense of speed.

Years have passed and Sonic’s seen better days. The last two games – Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic and the Secret of the Rings were mediocre titles that lacked the certain charm and style of the earliest games, or event the excellent early 3D games.

Sega wants another shot at changing the impression that Sonic is old hat. Last year’s Mario & Sonic titles sold well but they were not true Sonic games. The announcement of Sonic Unleashed however caught the attention of Sonic fans and the limited screens and footage hinted that maybe Sega had finally found the right mix to recreate the Blue Hedgehog for the new consoles.

Earlier today at E3 I had the chance to sit through the media presentation and demonstration for the game and it left me with a number of uneasy feelings. Patrick Riley, who is the US producer for the title walked us through two sample levels and introduced the key shift in gameplay for this installment.

The new title is running on a totally new game engine that was custom designed to take advantage of the current hardware advances. He revealed that even Sonic the Hedgehog had been limited because it was effectively using the same engine as Sonic Adventures, its core capabilities were designed with the Dreamcast in mind and updated, but it was by no means efficient on the new platforms.

Visually, even in the rough form they showed here, Sonic Unleashed is striking. The crisp characters and vibrant colors fit the tone and the ability to add special effects to Sonic’s actions makes the game “feel” fast. When Sonic runs the screen adopts a sort of blurred speed vision. The effect was reminiscent of the Turbo effects in Burnout and really sold the sense of speed that has long been missing from 3D Sonic titles.

Not content to simply bring the speed back, Sonic Unleashed also introduces a speed meter that is powered by the rings Sonic collects on his jaunts. The meter reflects the overall velocity of the character and when fully charged allows Sonic to run across water and other liquids as if they were solid ground.

There was a concerted effort to address camera concerns as well. Fans of the old side perspective will be happy to see the game adopts this viewpoint as the level design necessitates and then moves back and forth freely to the over-the-shoulder view. The change in perspective was fairly seamless but there were moments in the demo when it was clear the camera might not always be on your side.

The biggest revelation for the title concerns the story of the title. It seems the evil Dr. Robotnik has yet another dastardly plan for Sonic, and as the game begins the Hedgehog is captured and subjected to an experiment that leaves him forever altered. Robotnik’s ploy strips Sonic of his speed powers and reduces him to a more brutish form at night – leading to a divided gameplay style: traditional Sonic at day, “WereHog” gameplay at night.

The night time levels, featuring a brutish “Hulk-like” fuzzy blue-gray Sonic looked and felt far more like a traditional action-platformer than a frenetic race through levels. There are action puzzle elements and other changes that will have to be played to be accepted I think. While its nice they are trying to mix up the gameplay and it comes from the core story I’m not sold it was necessary. I think I’d have preferred just a regular good time Sonic game.

The last big revelation of the demo was the reveal that the Wii and PS2 version’s content was not the same as the 360 and PS3. They rationalized that the older consoles’ limitations would gimp the design of the new title so Sega chose to split development and grant two dev teams with a story structure and let them design to fit the platforms. Not necessarilly a bad idea, but a risky proposition should things not work out for one or the other.

I think Sonic Unleashed bears some watching as it gets closer to its November launch. There is potential here, but we’ve been burned before with hope for a great new Sonic title.

Since I wasn’t the one who wrote any of the three previous stories about Schizoid, I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into when I started up the game. I decided to forgo looking at any of the game’s instructions and jumped right into the game, which turned out to be a good decision.

In Schizoid, you control one (or two) ship that is either red or blue. Enemies will appear throughout the stage which you have to destroy, but with an Ikaruga-like twist: the blue ship can only destroy blue enemies by running into them, and likewise for red. Enemies of the other color can destroy you, so the two ships need to work together to take out enemies and keep them off your partner’s back (whether that’s another player, the CPU, or even you, if you think you’re good enough to control both ships). The game starts off fairly slow, but after a few levels, one of the challenges presented to me completely won me over with the game’s unique co-op play.

Normally, I’m more than hesitant to believe any of the claims you see in press releases or on official game websites. But Xbox.com’s description that “No other multiplayer co-op game has such tight cooperative gameplay,” it means it. That’s not to say it’s the single greatest co-op game ever, but it does use the red-and-blue concept in a brilliant way.

The first level is extremely basic and is followed with a message telling you that you’re not crazy, the game really only requires you to use the analog stick. A few more levels went by without much of a fuss, and then I was faced with a level with four stationary red targets. Playing the blue guy, I assumed I had nothing to do, but then I saw that the sentries were shooting out little blue dots in all directions. I went and acted as a shield for my red CPU teammate, and it drove right in and took out the red enemy. It sounds very simple on paper, but in a world of co-op games that rarely require tactics as complicated as flanking, this struck me as being a supremely cool usage of your teammate.

Schizoid looks very cool, too. It looks and feels a lot like flOw with more vibrant colors. That is most certainly meant as a compliment, as I think flOw is one of the most interesting games — from an aesthetic point of view — in quite some time.

Much like Golf: Tee It Up, which also came out this week on Xbox Live Arcade, this is a perfect game for the platform. It’s not overly complicated and is ideal for a quick pick-up-and-play session, and being able to play online makes this a must-buy for me. I highly implore you to check it out, because this is a very unique game to the Xbox 360.