So what’s changed in Assassin’s Creed II? Well, the cites are much more detailed and are positively heaving people to interact (kill, bribe or buy stuff from) with. Ubisoft has done a great job optimising the Anvil game engine used in the first game. I just love the whole look and the feel of the game. It’s perfect. Wandering around Venice during carnival is just spectacular. Venice really thrives with people, fireworks, costumes and face masks. Your character, Ezio is also a joy to control. After a few hours (even if you’ve never played the first game) you will be running around rooftops and killing people like a pro! This all helps really pull you into the game.

Assassin’s Creed II has a better plot, shorter more meaningful cut scenes (thankfully!!!!) and characters in the form of Ezio and your best mate Leonardo Da Vinci that are not total arseholes. There is even more variety in the missions. Admittedly, you either kill, follow, fedex an item from A to B, chase or beat people up in these missions so there isn’t a hug amount of variety, but it is a very welcome and much needed improvement. Such is the improvement, Assassin’s Creed II becomes even more of a time killer than the first game. Entire afternoon’s will disappear playing this game. I promise you.

The music in Assassin’s Creed II is just awesome. All the tracks that Jesper Kyd has composed complement the gameplay perfectly. In fact, I have the official soundtrack on my iPhone it’s so good. My person favourite is the Venice Rooftops track (listen on iTunes).

The missions aren’t the only aspect of the game that has been expanded. Multiple weapons, armour, items, money and property development are all now included. Ezio can earn money from the various missions, or pickpocketing people in order to buy better weapons, and develop his home villa (e.g. fix up shops and buildings). Whilst all this brings another aspect to the gameplay, once you get to about half way through the game money becomes pretty pointless as you have so much of it. Well I did anyway!

The only other thing I can find wrong with Assassin’s Creed II is the clumsy way several “memories” are missing from the game, only to turn up – at cost – as downloadable content (DLC). Will I be buying this particular bit of Assassin’s Creed II DLC, well, no I won’t.

In summary: Assassin’s Creed II fixes many of its predecessor’s faults to produce an excellent game. Highly recommended.

Screenshots:

Assassin’s Creed II is out now on Xbox 360 and PS3.

Age rating:

3+ (PEGI)

What is it?

A Mario game – 3D-platformer.

Is it fun?

Yes.

Is it worth the money? £32.99

Yes.

Why?

I’ve always been rather indifferent when it comes to Mario games until I played Super Mario 64, which was brilliant. Unfortunately the GameCube’s Mario extravaganza (Super Mario Sunshine) was well, total poo to be honest. However, I’m pleased to say that Super Mario Galaxy tops even the great Mario 64 for sheer enjoyment. I can’t even complain of the total lack of imagination shown by Nintendo when it churns out the same games for each generation of Nintendo console when this incarnation of Mario is just so much fun.

The graphics look great (by Wii standards) and complement the game wonderfully. Sure there are some iffy looking textures and a few jaggies, but I didn’t care as the whole game is amazing. The sound is a perfect mix of chirpyness and classic Mario sounds and themes. It also has a brilliant, brilliant music track for the Battlerock galaxy that I challenge anyone to play this galaxy and not have a giant smile on their face.

I loved the whole playfulness of Mario’s new galaxy environment. Flying, flipping, gliding, jumping and catapulting between all the planets on each of the levels is just awesome. The attention to detail that the designers have lavished on every planet, however small, is a joy to behold. I loved the way that seemingly simple puzzles were brought to life by splitting them over lots of mini planets and great use of the Wii controller. This is probably the first game after Wii Sports where the control method just feels right. From rolling around on top a giant ball, to flying through the air as a little bumble bee, the Wiimote and nunchuk make controlling Mario something to be enjoyed.

Bad points. Well, swimming underwater takes a bit of getting used to. The camera has a habit of choosing the worst time to change its viewpoint, which usually happens when you’re negotiating a really nasty sequence of platforms.

It took me just over 14 hours to get to the end of the game and finally beat Bowser, but that still leaves me with another 55 power stars to collect. Then I will have finally completed the game. So Lord knows how long that’s going to take with some fiendish and very dexterous puzzles lying in wait.

In summary:

A wonderful game in every way. Mario is the easily the best game on the Wii.

Screenshots:

Age Rating:

PEGI 16+

What is it?

A beat-away-hordes-of-enemies melee combat game set in mythical feudal Japan. Big men, big weapons, scantily-clad warrior women, ropey voice acting… it’s all there.

Is it fun?

Not really.

Is it worth the money? £29.99

Nooooo…

Why not?

This game has quite possibly the worst camera you will ever experience, should you have the misfortune of playing this game. Every location feels immensely frustrating because you can almost see where you’re going, if only the camera would just tilt a little more.

But it doesn’t. Ever.

It’s quite tragic because otherwise, this game is quite fun. It looks incredible and the weapons are great fun. I’ll admit, it’s nothing special as far as Mythical-Japan-hack-and-slash games go, but it’s certainly not bad. Benkei’s ‘Kamui’ attack is particularly satisfying. But playing Genji leaves you with the constant nagging feeling that your upper-peripheral vision is fading. Or to put it another way… it feels like you’re playing with a stiff neck and a baseball cap pulled too far down your head.

Ordinarily, I can make do with difficult cameras. I thought Prince of Persia: Sands of Time was enjoyable. Genji, on the other hand, wants you to climb onto rooftops but won’t let you aim the camera upwards far enough to see what else is up there waiting for you.

Ultimately, this game is a turd. A lovingly polished turd. Quite possibly the finest, most sparklingly shiny turd you’ll ever come across… but still a turd.

Don’t buy it. Get Ninja Gaiden Sigma (review coming soon!). Or perhaps Heavenly Sword.

Links

Genji: Days of The Blade Official Site

Screenshots:

What is it?

You, evil zombies, a photographer named Frank, and a mall full of wonderful toys.

Is it fun?

Oh yes. Brilliant game, if you like a bit of zombie violence.

Is it worth £39.99?
Yes.

Normally I’d say no on principle. You can get a lot of good stuff for forty quid but in this case there’s enough replayability to justify the price tag.

Why?

Run around a mall killing zombies with everything that comes to hand. Kill a wide variety of psychopaths. Save some hapless victims on the way. Sound like fun?

Damn right.

Dead Rising is a great game. Highlights include watching zombies stagger around with traffic cones on their heads, facing off against a maniac clown and walking on the shoulders of zombies. It has well-known flaws but if you’re lucky enough to access a big HD screen then Dead Rising is bloody fantastic. Provided you get the hang of its freaky-ass save system, that is.

This needs a bit of background so: In Dead Rising there are two ways to play the game. You can go for the Truth, follow the story arc and investigate just what happened to Wilamette Parkview Mall… or you can run around for hours hitting zombies with baseball bats and saving all the survivors. If you want to do the former you need to do the casefile tasks before their timers run out. If you want save people, you have a walkie-talkie that will bleep to tell you about new survivors.

Here’s the crucial bit they left out of the manual: You CANNOT DO BOTH in a single play-through.

Dead Rising limits you to one gameplay save slot. If you’re trying to find the ‘True Ending’ it’s easy to get caught up in a survivor-scenario because the walkie-talkie is almost impossible to ignore. It bleeps constantly and the temptation is so strong to pick up a survivor that happens to be on the way to your destination. Don’t give in to it!

The single save slot means that it’s very, very easy to save the game only to find out that you haven’t enough time left to complete the next phase of the story arc. Once you’ve missed a deadline, the truth is gone and it ain’t coming back. No problem, if you’re near the beginning. Bloody outrageous if you’re halfway through the game. If you want to know the truth you’re just gonna have to play through all those case files again.

Everyone I know has been forced to kill Carlito in the food court at least three times due to this particular design feature. It’s stupidly frustrating.

All that aside, once you realise (or admit) that you can’t solve the case files and save all the survivors in the same game, the save system works very well. You can’t create multiple save files all over the place so the sense of loss when you fail to rescue a survivor is all the more palpable. When you do die, you can save your character’s state and start from the beginning with all the skills and strength that you gained previously, so it doesn’t feel like a complete waste of time.

If the thought of zombie lawn-mowing, zombie-pin bowling and zombie hedge clippers is amusing to you then buy this game. But get a HD television first.

Links:
Official Capcom Dead Rising site

Screenshots:

What is it?
3rd person shooter based on the 2000AD comic strip.

Is it fun?
Yeah

Is it worth the money?
At £25 from play.com, yeah.

Tell me more please:
Aw, ok :)

Rebellion, the company who made this and who also bought 2000AD a few years back, also made the turd of a game otherwise known as Judge Dredd. So my hopes for a decent outing for Rogue and his Biochip buddies seemed bleak.

But hey, having played through the game I have to say it ain’t half bad; not bad at all. On normal mode it’s not too taxing, but definitely fun to play through. In the story you play a genetic infantry soldier fighting for survival on a futuristic war torn planet, so war-torn that the atmosphere is farked by all the chem gas so making it poisonous to humans. You are immune to it, thankfully. Your buddies all die due to a traitor general selling you out so it’s revenge time!

Heres a quick list of good points:

• Salvage – you pick this up to upgrade weapons and create ammo/medpacks. This works really well, like a constant shop you can dip into.
• The giant drills that emerge from the ground (enemy Norts follow) are just like the comic!
• Your biochip buddies (implanted in your hardware) work well to push along the plot and give hints and tips.
• Controls are good and you get a decent spread of weapons to muck about with.
• Loading screens are cool – a map of Nu Earth with your route path drawn as the loading progresses.

And some bad points:

• The story is kinda skimmed over, not clearly setting out what the war is about, why it is where it is etc…
• The traitor general’s face looks nothing like the comic, more like some laughable marshmallow. Not scary at all.
• Not enough specifically-designed situations in the levels to try out your unique weapons. I only deployed the sentry gun twice in the game, both of which were prescribed.
• Some of the vehicles designs are poo; they just dont have the style and finesse of the originals from the comic and look very derivative.
• When Rogue cuts the chips from his buddies’ skulls, he should be using a las-scalpel, not a blimmin’ knife! (I could go on…)

All in all really quite good, though 2000AD purists may be dismayed that it doesn’t look closer to the comic.

Screenshots:

Age rating: 12+

What is it?

Adventure, action, but not really enough puzzles.

Is it fun?

Yes, for the most part.

Is it worth the money? £29.99 (from Play.com)

Yes, but the game is a little short (…I am seeing a theme recurring here)

Why?

Now Tomb Raider Legend has been released, the first Tomb Raider game in a long time. I heard Angel of Darkness (the most recent TR title before this) was utter pants, and was even blamed for the poor box office showing of the second film (which was a tad harsh, I wasn’t keen on either of the films) – I never played it though, having mostly given up on the franchise after playing TR3 (too much mucking about with flares for my liking).

I was really keen to see the new game regain the franchise’s former glory, and have just played through the PS2 version. How does it fare then?

My first Tomb Raider experience was playing TR2 on my old Playstation1 – it was the first PS1 game I bought (released a month after I bought the console – so I had to endure the games on the demo disk in the mean time). When it finally arrived I thought it was faaaan- flippin – tastic! A real 3D game that made you look in all directions, back in the days when many games were still only 2 dimensional in actual gameplay (although the art was 3D).

At the time of its release some would fault its choice to allow you to save at any place and reliance on urban locations, but I really didn’t understand until I played the original TR game. In that you had to find and stand in save crystals located within the levels, they asked you to take more of a risk – “Do I save now, or leave the crystal for later in case I cross back this way?”, much more fun than just saving anywhere at anytime. Also as I remember the locations were mostly outdoors, raiding tombs (as a tomb raider should do) which is something the sequels forgot as time went on. Shooting angry killer animals and mummies is always more fun than facing up against faceless swat teams – it’s part of what helps to make the game stand out from the competition. Half-Life 2 went down that same path to some degree. I found taking on the Combine (in their various iterations) far less fun than the huge range of unique enemies that the original delivered. Anyway, on to the review!

The controls are very good once you get used to them (I kept wanting to press R1 to look about), you now have a commando-style grapple wire to help you swing about and some binoculars with a built-in hint mode (for dummies only really). You also get a torch, but it’s rarely used.

PRETTY
On the art front the game delivers 100% – This is a very pretty PS2 game. Lara’s climbing and acrobatic animations are far more organic than ever before (with great tiny details like the falling dust and rock fragments coming from your hands as you shimmy along a rock crevice). Everything is generally very polished and detailed. The enemy agents you tackle look a bit bland, sadly, like nondescript James Bond baddies – and there are only two real animals in the game, leopards. They look wimpy and unthreatening, I even ran past the first one hoping for some sort of bonus for not hurting endangered animals. More animals in the next games please – piranhas/dinosaurs etc – bring it on!

EAR PIECE
You have a 2-man support team now back at base – always chatting into your ear, giving hints and encouragement. I wasn’t too keen at first, being a purest who enjoyed all the lone trekking about of the first two games – but I see how they help let things tick along, and stop less hard-core gamers getting stuck.

BANG BANG FIZZLE
The combat is a real let down. Very boring, and never feels that threatening (apart from when they start flinging grenades at you). Enemies in this sort game work best when they chuck visible projectiles at you that are then dodgeable, or need to get close to take a bite out of you – that way you have a real challenge of trying to tackle the enemy whilst dodging. Enemies with guns are no fun as their bullets can’t be dodged in the same manner, so when you beat them you don’t feel as rewarded.

HOME SWEET HOME
The old Croft manor is one of the best bits of the game. With no help from people chatting into your earpiece you need to work out the puzzles on your own – it feels most like the original games and is a real challenge. The manor space isn’t that large overall, probably so they can scale it up in games to come (there is no outdoor assault course and no hedge maze – but the new indoor gym is fantastic).

MAKE ME THINK!
The game is not as long as the old ones – levels feel very short, but they are solidly constructed. There just aren’t enough puzzles for my liking, and most that are there are just far too easy. On the penultimate level things just start to get more interesting from a puzzley point of view, but it’s a bit too late. This game is very much aimed as modern day mass market entertainment, not terribly taxing or long, something you can switch on and off quite easily. This isn’t a terrible thing but had they kept things a bit more puzzley then I think it would have been a better-rounded product.

DRAGON’S LAIR?
There are reaction-based sections of the game that I really didn’t like one bit. Resident Evil 4 did them well; they always felt relevant and never too annoying.

Here’s and example of one in TR Legend – you walk into a large room. In front of you the floor is made of large tiles. Some have fallen away leaving gaping holes – I thought “This will be fun – I’ll have to traverse the floor and it’ll be like a puzzle where certain tiles will fall away” – but just as I get near a cutscene takes over and Lara navigates the floor space by herself – only requesting the odd button press at specific moments. Very dull. At least Resi Evil changed the button sequences on each attempt, but here they ask you to press the same ones for each replay of these reaction-based events.

I think the big problem they made is that in most of these sequences Lara creates her own peril, so you feel less concerned for her safety (making it a chore instead, having to save her dumb neck rather than feeling like you are along on the ride). Only two really work well as they are direct consequences of the players actions – the one with the water creature and the other when you are in the crashed plane. If they use these reaction-based sections in future they really need to put more work into them.

HOLLYWOOD INFLUENCES
It feels like they wanted to make it play out more like a short TV movie. After completing the game it does all feel a bit like absorbing a 1 hour TV special. By that I don’t mean it had cheap production values, rather that the gaming sections were a bit like interludes to the story – which is in contrast to TR1 and 2 where back then the FMV sections were the interludes to the game. They probably wanted this game to re-ignite interest in the film franchise too, which no doubt affected how it has turned out (the inclusion of the support team chatting into your ear from back at base and so on).

GET BONUS!
By collecting items hidden throughout the levels you can unlock bonus concept art, 3D models to view (no zoom function sadly) as well as new outfits for Lara. Apparently by collecting everything you get to unlock a swimsuit outfit (woopidoo) but that will take you some time, as finding them all can be quite tricky. There is also a time attack mode to try out on each level, which is pretty tough and adds value to the product (as long as you want to go replay the game again that is).

IN CONCLUSION
Very nicely made relaunch to the game franchise, if a little short. Hopefully to be expanded in future sequels with more puzzles and improved combat.

What is it?

An unconventional fantasy-based BOSS-ATTACK game, with a huge sombre and barren landscape to traverse by horse. Set in the same game universe as ICO (also PS2 only) you have to climb big hairy monsters and stab ‘em where it hurts!

Is it fun?

Yes but not in the instant-adrenaline-hit way of GTA, the world may be a comparable size, but this isn’t Vice City by horse. The Colossus look fantastic and battling them are fun puzzles in themselves, yet a deeper enjoyment requires the player to let the whole game experience slowly wash over them.

Is it worth the money? £29.99

Yes but £25 would be preferable. Most of the pleasure of fighting the Colossi resides in trying to work out how to kill them and after that, replaying the normal game has little point. However once the game is completed there is a HARD mode to tackle and two timed boss-attack modes which are a tough challenge.

Why?

Well, my first impression of the Shadow of the Colossus is that it isn’t really all that pretty. Watching the game intro, each shot is well composed but many textures shimmer and seem to have no more than 4 colours in some of them. Both the bridge crossing scene and the initial entering of the temple are clear examples of very nasty looking textures.

This is a shame because the game has a subtle underlying beauty (which takes time to fully appreciate), and the majority of the game art is fantastic, especially the Colossi themselves, their design and animation is excellent. I’ll talk more about the art later, first a simple explanation about the game itself.

A lifeless girl is being carried by a boy on the back of a horse to a temple in a barren land. There a deal is struck with the temples mysterious voice. The sixteen Colossi that roam the land must be destroyed in exchange for her revival.

You start the game with your horse (name sounds like Ah-go, or Aggo) and three weapons. These are your hands, a sword and a bow with infinite arrows. They are easily switched between using the L/R on the Dpad. Hands are used for climbing walls or big hairy Colossi. The sword is needed for both navigation and causing critical damage to the Colossi. Holding the sword up in the air whilst in direct sunlight, you must rotate to focus the beam emitted from the sword, which will lead you to your prey. Finally the bow and arrow are used for causing light damage at a distance.

As you first ride out you can appreciate the vastness of the game world, its huge and very open. But hang on; there isn’t much to do there, so at first it seems a bit of a missed opportunity, all this space but nothing going on! Onwards to the first Colossus and you are given a brief gameplay tutorial of how to jump and climb, essential for when you have to tackle the Colossus.

These huge beasts have one or more critical wounding points which show up as glowing symbols on the body when you are holding the sword, they must be stabbed deeply and repeatedly. Some have other weak points that must be attacked to help you gain access to the critical ones. There are other Colossi subtleties that I won’t explain, as much of the enjoyment of tackling them is how you personally work it out; what might seem obvious to one person won’t to another.

Now that’s the basic nuts and bolts of the game, seek out the enemy and then kill them. The lack of something else to do in the world feels odd at first, it exposes the games simplicity. For example I could go and explore that high cliff ridge, but I know there is nothing there to do… so why bother? A lot of the game seems initially empty and a wasted opportunity in that way, as you are traditionally more used to games that fill the world-space with as much interactivity as possible. The game is not consistently good looking enough to treat it like an interactive postcard; it’s more like a wonderful hand drawn sketch that has been painted into in certain parts (area locations), and given enough time (about four or five battles into the game) you do get slowly drawn in to the landscape’s subtle beauty and calmness, as you race along to the next frenetic Colossus encounter. You see, as you begin to get your bearings in the world, then you stop looking too closely at every detail and just let it wash over you, and you appreciate the bigger picture.

When you complete the game there are some fun modes that get unlocked which increase value for money. Hard mode is the same game again, but harder of course. Boss time attack is most fun. Pray in the temple in front of the statues and you enter this mode, every couple that you manage to complete and you get extra weapons (a different set can be unlocked when trying hard time attack). Also there is a way to climb up the outside of the temple tower; keep your eyes peeled for vines and kill a few Colossi first to get your grab strength high enough.

So in summary this is a great game, which tries to do something a little different and increases in enjoyment more and more overtime.

The only real negatives are as follows:

• Mounting Aggo can sometimes seem a bit hit and miss.
• Those occasional shimmering environment textures.
• The US box cover and its terrible font.

Now if only they could bring out the PAL version with the Japanese box cover please (and the NICO free dvd).

What is it?

A supernatural mystery adventure game with a strange interface that forces you to work hard when your character does and use your reactions when your character uses his.

Is it fun?

Yep.

Is it worth the money? £17.99

Yes!

Why?

The plot is intriguing (although the ending gets very weird) and the visuals are just beautiful! The whole game feels very cinematic and still screenshots don’t really do it justice. It also really makes you feel like your choices make a difference to the plot.

The interface is strange and takes some getting used to but it does help their aim of getting you to feel what your character does – e.g. a bit knackered from fighting with someone. I’m just not sure that’s what I really want from a game and I hear some people can’t stand it, but I found the plot engaging enough to battle through. It does kinda get in the way sometimes and breaks up the cinematic flow – I totally missed some of the really intensive scenes coz I was too busy trying to bash the right keys on the keyboard, but once you finish them in the story you can go off and watch them in the bonus section, so that’s not too much of a problem. Be warned, sometimes it says Get Ready, but doesn’t tell you what to get ready for! Usually it means a reaction segment, as shown in the Lucas screenshot below. I also like the fact that you weren’t hammered by the multi-racial relationships, unlike so many other media that insist on making race into an issue.

It’s has some design issues – in dialogue options you just get a topic header like “Markus” but you have no idea or control over whether your character is going to say something good or bad ro ask a question about Markus – but Fahrenheit is still the most enjoyable plot-driven game I’ve played in a very long time! If you want to know what I thought of the ending, look here for major spoilers!

Also available on Xbox and PS2.

Links:

Official Website

Screenshots: