Here we are again – it’s reached that time of the month when we take a look at our picks for the best content from the other members of the Character Select Network from the last thirty or so days.

We won’t waste your time with waffle, you can find our selections below – happy readings!

Binary Domain Review

Joshua Garrity reviews Sega latest release, the western flavored sci-fi shooter with more robots and guns than you could shake a stick at.

Binary Domain does have its share of flaws, and a lot of its more unique ideas don’t really amount to much. Yet when it comes down to the basic fundamentals of what makes a third person shooter worth while this game really shines. And all that is wrapped up in a sense of style and characterisation you don’t get from most third person shooters.

 

Cane & Rinse podcast Episode 30: Eternal Darkness

Meanwhile, over on their podcast, the Cane and Rinse team take a look at seminal Gamecube title Eternal Darkness – arguably Silicon Knights finest moment.

In 2002 Silicon Knights produced this GameCube exclusive survival horror yarn. Leon, Tony, Karl and Darren Gargette return to the Roivas mansion to discover whether or not this Lovecraft infused adventure remains as startling as it was ten years ago.

Silent Hill: Downpour Review

Loz Masters takes a look at the latest entry in the Silent Hill series to see if it can resurrect its former fortunes or if it’s just a damp squib…

When you visit the same town over and over again, its hard to get still get wowed by anything it has to offer. Doing it in game has the exact same effect unless some real overhauling is done. The residents are weaker, the enemies are less original, and the attempts at making you feel isolated and vulnerable often just make you a little frustrated.

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Review

While Dan Bendon takes a look of the updated console release of the Witcher 2 for Xbox 360.

The question of morality is also tackled in a more mature way, throughout the game you will be given choices that, even though you are well informed about the situation, will not be clearly defined as good or bad. Often it is just a choice that will lead to events playing out in a particular way that could not have been predicted one way or the other.

April’s come crashing down on our heads like the seasonal showers… well, unless you’re in the parts of the UK which are suffering a hose pipe ban… anyway, terrible analogies and rambling intro’s to one side, another month means it’s once again time for us to take a look at what we think is the best content from our other partners in the Character Select Network.

So wrap your eye holes around the following:-

Going Silver

Darren Gargette toys with the perils of dropping your Gold Xbox Live Subscription down to Silver…

After about a weeks worth of a Goldlessness I am beginning to see the benefits of remaining a paid-up member but only really to those who buy and play videogames on Xbox 360. With a capable PC and the upcoming release of Blizzard’s Diablo III I don’t really feel the need to.

There are however some cracking XBLA titles on the way and if the multi-player turns out to be a riot for Trials Evolution then maybe I’ll resurface for the months I want to pay.

Quick Rinse: The Darkness

Meanwhile, to tie in with their fantastic podcast about the gory Darkness games, Leon Cox has a good sit down with the first game

PlayStation Vita: The Verdict

Over on Gamerdork, Delb2K takes a lengthy look at the Sony’s new endevour, the PlayStation Vita

From a useability perspective the unit is incredibly impressive, from the touchscreen to the physical inputs on the front of the console everything has been cleverly designed to provide a real sense of quality that is actually backed up when the device is used. What is less successful is the OS implemented.

Bit.Trip.Complete Review

Sarah-Lou Costley takes a look at Gaijin Games disc based released of their WiiWare titles, which we had a real soft spot for here at Console Arcade

To add to the excitement of the highly addictive yet excruciatingly hard games are the smattering of extras available. The collection gives you a further 20 levels per game, a free soundtrack of 18 songs and plenty of videos and artwork which can be unlocked. You also get an online leaderboard so you can see how well you do against your friends.

Sine Mora Review

We loved Sine Mora here at Console Arcade, and so did Danny Russell over at Ready Up

Sine Mora has more content and wow factor than any shoot ‘em up of late. There is plenty here for casual onlookers seeking a wild ride and a harsh but not completely unforgiving challenge, while enthusiasts of the genre have a meaty amount of content to hone their skills to. It’s clear that the arrangement between Digital Reality and Grasshopper Manufacture in terms of planning and developing has worked wonders here and everything has slotted together perfectly.

Hello there! Are you from the past? Would you like to be able to revisit those lost years? When games were simple and built in a way that’s different from today, for better or for worse? Well, Wheels of Destruction allows you to do just that, constructed as it is from antiquated design ideas that now feel out of place and bland.

Wheels of Destruction is, as you may guess from the name, an arena based car combat game. Picture a sort of budget price Twisted Metal, but mix in a bad take on the Warthog sections from Halo and the design and narrative from Dreamcast classic Trickstyle (a game that felt dated even back in the day). Then you’ll begin to get an idea of what to expect.

It’s an entirely multiplayer game with options for playing online in the standard ranked and unranked modes. There’s just three match types to pick from, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Capture the Flag. Having trouble in finding a game online? Well, you can also play offline by yourself against bots. These can also be used also in online multiplayer but really defeat the point of playing online at all.

That’s because their AI is exceptionally simplistic and overly aggressive. Some matches can just a case of every other car hunting you down relentlessly, with no variation between how each one behaves, or mindlessly sitting in one area shooting at random. Solo player games against bots end up feel unfair and lacking imagination, while team games lumber you with worthless opponents and worthless teammates. For solo play offline or even a training option, they’re sorely lacking to say the least.

No matter what mode you pick, even if your fortunate enough to find a good game with or without players, the game is so utterly awkward that playing with any competence is a fluke. The control scheme is the sole problem here, working out as a mix between a racer and an FPS, it’s made terrible use of the buttons on offer. Much like the aforementioned Warthog in Halo, the cars turn and move based on where the reticule faces. While this is OK as long as you’re moving forward, if you become stuck in a corner and need to turn you’ll find reversing a clunky experience. Instead of turning left to twist your car right (like in a racer) you have to point the other way.

It’s a simple issue that, after a little while, can be worked around and even adapted to, but it’s enough in the first matches to sour your experience. It’ll always bother you too, if you happen to play any other car based game at all and then come back to this, you’ll instantly have problems again.

It’s easy to see why the game is like this, allowing for free aiming of the selection of weapons on offer. You’ll find yourself starting out with a machine gun with infinite ammo but can pick up a rocket launcher, flamethrower and plasma weapon. The missile launcher is the only weapon that gets used though, as it’s overly effective and ends fights in seconds.

The second control issue comes in the management and deploying of your weapons. While R2 is your accelerator and L2 your brake, R1 is you primary weapon button. Yes that’s right, R1, which is right next to acceleration, is used for attack. On top of that every weapon has a special attack mapped to, you guessed it, L1.

This requires you to shape your hand into a highly uncomfortable claw like shape on both sides to enable full access to the necessary controls. If the game had been on the Xbox 360, the pad might have been better suited, but the closeness of the four shoulder buttons on this PS3 exclusive make it too much of a strain on your hands over an extended time.

The arenas on offer are based on real world areas, not that you could really tell. Apparently the game is set in a post apocalyptic future and everything has been laid to waste. At least that’s the best excuse that the team seems to have come up with for the bland and confused level design.

So far the only level even close to recognisable is London; we can only ascertain this from the inclusion of the Big Ben clock in the level. Which has apparently been relocated to a cave underground and then surrounded with acid… No buildings or other recognisable markings. It’s just the clock face.

Exactly what the level designers were thinking during the design stage boggles the mind. If you were to ask anyone, anyone at all, what they pictured of a future London after an apocalypse, they could not in their wildest dreams have come up with this.

It’s not even that the level layout is interesting, since many sections are just filled with greys of different tones. Often levels are sprawling and without direction. You might find yourself battling eleven opponents and not seeing any of them for extended sections of time, thanks to badly thought out respawn points and level design.

Let’s not forget the soundtrack either, seemingly looted from older dance-centric game soundtracks of the 90’s. Almost all the music in the game is terrible. At best you could call the musical quality what you might expect if you went to a junkyard rave, should such a thing exist. Actually it may be the one element of the game that’s quite fitting, conjuring up images of junk as you play this garbage pile of a game.

That’s the overall thing about Wheels of Destruction; nearly every aspect of the game is frustrating. Unlike the games it’s modeled on, it lacks even the most basic charm to pull you through. The smallest parts feel boring or outright annoying. Every play is filled with little issues that chip away at the intended fun. Every moment feels like one you could have spent doing something else.

With that in mind, do yourself a favor and give this a wide berth.

Two new notable releases this week on PSN (for both sides of the Atlantic too).

First up is Ubisoft’s survival title I Am Alive, fresh from it’s rather brief stint of exclusivity on Xbox Live Arcade. You can read our review of the title by clicking here to see if it’s worth your cash.

Also out is car combat title Wheels of Destruction – we haven’t reviewed that one just yet, but stayed tuned for a full review very soon.

Also it’s worth noting that Canabalt, the popular iOS game is also out on the Minis for download and well worth a look for the couple of pounds it will cost you.

Afraid of aliens? Then this game may not be for you…

Alien Fear, is an arcade style first-person shooter where “every problem is solved through superior firepower”.

Powered by the Unreal Engine 3, Alien Fear promises to (and we quote again) “deliver visceral, non-stop, run-and-gun action” for both Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network.

And aside from some concept art that’s all they’ve got to say right now. Hopefully there’ll be more substantial news on this title soon.

Wrecked Revenge Racing, the spiritual successor to Supersonic Software’s cult PS2/360 release Mashed, arrives tyres screaming onto Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network. Does it cross the finish line in first place or does it end up suffering a blow out?

The racing action in Wrecked is viewed from a top down perspective, retaining the original feel of Mashed (which in turn was clearly influenced by the likes of the seminal title Micro Machines). Gameplay consists of various challenges in single player, while multiplayer centres around team or free for all races. Each successfully completed event rewards the player with either a Bronze, Silver or Gold medal depending on the requirements met along with a points bonus which can be used to unlock new cars and paint jobs, etc.

Track selection here is somewhat weak with the requisite Jungle, Ice and Desert tracks making an appearance, but all of them are so utterly forgettable the player will struggle to remember either names or specifics about them after playing. The look of the game is distinctly low resolution with jaggy textures even on the on-screen prompts – the feeling is one of “this will do”, with nothing exceptional or given a high level of polish.

In single player, the Challenges are divided into four distinct categories: Speed, Weapons, Skill and Elite. Speed and Weapons are self explanatory, while Skill asks the player to negotiate tracks while the accelerator is jammed down, or while towing a caravan which causes the car to fishtail wildly.

While this might sound like fun, the final selection, Elite, will cause many to tear their hair out in frustration, since it seems to boil down to nothing more than random chance. Trying to negotiate narrow tracks in a car which has a bomb strapped to it is bad enough, but the floaty handling and obstacles that are placed outside the field of vision, right on the final bend, makes for a frustrating experience. Gaining a Bronze medal, let alone aiming for the higher echelons, is purely the preserve of those with a sadomasochistic streak to say the least. Any fun from events, such as having to post a fast lap while towing a caravan, or collecting coins dotted around a track made of ice, is soon wiped out by the other frustrations.

Ultimately the problem with Wrecked lies in the fact that everything from the handling of the cars, to the menus, to the action, all feels incredibly dated. The single player challenge mode is light on content to say the least, while the cars have little or no sensation of speed thanks to a handling model that creates a disconnected experience. The player knows they’re racing and power-sliding around corners but somehow they can’t connect with the action they’re witnessing onscreen. It’s disconcerting to say the least, and leaves little or no impression which is probably the most damning thing about the whole Wrecked experience. If they’d imbued the cars and tracks with more memorable designs, or even the semblance of character, it might’ve saved the whole thing from appearing to be so bland and damned ordinary.

The one saving grace is that it somehow manages to be a fun but derivative experience in multiplayer, both online and offline. Races suddenly become frenetic as everyone dashes for their favorite power-ups that are placed in devilish locations on the track, encouraging risk for reward. Wrecking opponents to survive long enough to win a round is a fun experience. It’s just a pity that this care wasn’t shown towards putting together the rest of the game.

Probably the biggest issue people will have with Wrecked is when it comes to the price and its attitude towards Downloadable Content right from the very start. When you factor in the cost of the game, currently set at 1200 Microsoft Points (£10 / $15), with release day DLC coming in at a hefty 400 Points (£3 / $5), it runs the risk of alienating even the most dedicated fans of these types of games and automatically splits the user base. A lot of games this reviewer attempted online couldn’t go ahead due to not having the requisite DLC installed -it’s one thing to support a game with additional content, but an entirely different matter to force their hand so blatantly when they’ve literally started out in a game, leaving them feeling left behind through no fault of their own.

The overriding feeling that permeates throughout Wrecked is one of disappointment. It almost feels like a download title from the very beginning of Xbox Live Arcade / PlayStation Network, not something that should exist given just how far things have progressed in the past six or seven years. This makes it hard to recommend to even the most diehard Mashed fan, ultimately ending up the real shame in amongst all this.

Less than two years from the debut of the first title, EA and Klei Games are bringing Shank back to PSN and XBLA. The violent side scroller failed to make much of an impact around these parts when it was released, being a case of far too much style over substance. Clearly the developers have a lot of faith in the franchise, enough to churn out another one so soon, but has Shank 2 been given enough attention where it matters?

There’s no need to waste time extolling the virtues of how this game looks. The original was a standout title in the graphics department and there was no doubt that this release was going to be just as stunning to look at. In fact it now seems to have had even more polish applied, with some nice little visual effects and a few more animations which make everything flow together much more smoothly. That said, there are some visual glitches in the cinematic scenes which make everything appear blocky, and the cutscenes have a bit of inconsistency in how they look – one in particular around three quarters of the way through is especially notable in this regards because Shank suddenly doesn’t look like Shank at all. But overall there’s no denying that this is a 2D delight for your eyes.

The original Shank suffered from problems with its combat, and the floaty feeling that haunted it has thankfully been addressed here. Shank now has a bit more weight to him, and while his lolloping (almost prancing) gait might feel a bit too loose, by and large it’s been corrected by preventing the player from being able to run through enemies and giving a sense of more resistance to jumps. The over the top pounce move is still there, but the levels feel better designed to make use of it and there are lots of toys for Shank to juggle enemies into the air, counter-attack with, or generally just cause carnage.

No, this time around Shank 2 has other problems to contend with instead of an unsatisfying control scheme. Namely it being an unsatisfying game.

While it would be silly to pretend the first title had a story that would even win a children’s story writing competition, at least it was held together by its Grindhouse style and the locations it visited to fit in with this theme. With Shank 2 this seems to have gone by the by, in a plotline which is probably best summarised as `Shank’s Gory South American Holiday`. It’ll ultimately leave you wondering what just happened or indeed why you should have cared about any of it to start with.

While unarguably good looking, the locations aren’t that varied or interesting this time around either, consisting of jungles and indoor warehouses. So by the time you’re half way through you get the dreadful feeling that the whole concept has long since run out of steam. In fact you’ll probably be left wishing that they’d just updated the control scheme to the original and got you to replay through that, because it feels like a lot more effort went in to putting it together. Even the over the top gore and cut scenes seem to have lost some of the heart found in the original, almost like it’s already going through the motions. Even if you only had a passing experience of the original, some of the character ideas and even the deaths in the cut scenes will look far too familiar here.

In terms of multiplayer, once again it doesn’t allow co-op play in the main campaign (although given the length of the title and its standard difficulty setting, it’s easy to see why this wasn’t included at the expense of making it a pushover). There’s not even a separate co-op storyline this time around. Instead mutliplayer is confined to a two player survival mode where players have to survive waves of enemies and purchase upgrades to unlock power ups.

Thankfully the mode is online enabled now and it’s a nice concept, especially when you have to split your time between slaying enemies and defusing the bombs they plant on key objectives in a bid to try and prematurely end your game. However this isn’t free of gripes either because the zoomed out viewpoint found in this mode means it was, to this reviewer at least, difficult to track the on-screen action. Instead it was all too easy for the player characters to get lost amongst the enemies and backgrounds, especially when it got too busy.

Overall it’s something of a strange feeling that Shank 2, despite being a step up from the original in some respects, ends up feeling like more of the same and undeserving of a higher score. The fact that it nails the controls this time around is to Klei’s credit and means it should be a must play experience… but the other issues with the game now mean it’s smothered by a feeling of being pedestrian. Ultimately it’s this which is perhaps more unforgivable than any of the issues found in the original.

Team 17 have announced there’s a brand new Worms game on the way.

Although they’ve only confirmed a PC release, there’s mention in the press release of it coming to consoles – given that Team 17 have given us Worms (virtually of course!) on the download channels before, I’ll go out on a limb and say this means a PSN and XBLA release.

The game is built using a new engine and will include some new features (although they aren’t really saying what these are just yet) along with all the old weapons that Worms fans have come to know and love.

A release is currently scheduled for some time later this year.

There aren’t many games with titles that tell you exactly what you’ll be getting. But the title of Demiurge and Ubisoft’s latest, Shoot Many Robots, couldn’t be any more self-explanatory.

Main character P. Walter Tugnut (a name straight out of Mystery Science Theater 3000) is a little bit miffed when the nearby factory starts churning out murderous robots. The final straw being when one of them tries to steal his car and another dry humps his beloved RV. There’s a line that’s definitely been crossed, so Walter takes up arms to put an end to the problem the best way he knows how and paving the way for a some side scrolling shooting. Lots of it.

The gameplay behind Shoot Many Robots is simple – the player can carry two weapons at any time, ranging from shotguns to assault rifles, along with a more heavy armament for more serious crowd control. Along with a slide move to help get out of harm’s way, there’s also a melee attack to help deflect back bullets or generally thump nearby robots. There are also power-ups dropped along the way which give temporary bonuses to things like armour and speed.

The opening section, with its `hot` robot on auto-vehicular action, gives you something of an idea of the level of seriousness that the game pitches itself at. With its trailer park style hero and twangy guitar music that shifts between dozy country hillbilly and full on head banging rock, there’s an affable redneck charm to how it’s all been put together. In fact both the style and its visuals, with their semi-cell shaded look, is very reminiscent of that found in Borderlands. So it’s also something of a shame that, unlike that particular title, the sense of humour disappears quite rapidly after the opening section. You get the impression that more of its outlandish approach would probably have gone down well and helped keep things going if the player got fed up of destroying the countless onslaught of robots.

That’s not to say that the game doesn’t capitalise on this fast and loose style in other ways though. Shooting robots results in them dropping nuts and bolts which can be collected and traded in for new weapons and items. Some of these are unlocked naturally as the player levels up, while other more exotic items can be found hidden around levels in crates or dropped by enemies. Either way there’s a rather ramshackle assortment with which to customise your particular version of Tugnut; be it with a Ten Gallon or Foam Dome Hat, a fetching pink tutu or baby in a backpack. There’s even some some wild weaponry such as freeze rays or Gnome firing rocket launchers.

Apart from looking off the wall (as well as highly destructive), these additions actually provide some benefits too. Underneath the shooting element is a pseudo-RPG setup which includes leveling up (allowing more outlandish or powerful weapons to be unlocked) and modifiers for other abilities. So equipping different items contributes to things like the amount of health or speed your character possesses, while others might offer more practical benefits like hover jumps of extra attacks. It’s a welcome addition which stops the game being a one trick shooting pony, forcing the player to think hard about swapping out your beloved head-wear or backpack for something a bit more beneficial when the going gets tough later on.

The visual customisation element also comes in pretty handy when playing in co-op mode because it allows you to differentiate your character amongst the other players. Up to four players can tackle the game at once and, as enjoyable as it might be to progress through the levels solo, tackling them in multiplayer is infinitely more fun because of the utter carnage that ensues. The game pitches the right amount of adversarial action with co-operative play, so even when you’re glad of the company to help you against the armada of robots heading your way, you’ll be cursing them when the steal your precious haul of nuts and bolts which you were hoping to put toward that cherished weapon upgrade.

In fact the multiplayer is what helps the game really shine, because it’s a lot of fun to take on the hoard of enemies with other people. The game becomes chaotic, with robots piling onto the screen, exploding outward in a shower of oil and players frantically scrabbling for nuts. Thankfully the game employs some basic, but often overlooked, steps to balance things out – drops of larger items are colour coded to each player, so others can’t steal them.

One inclusion in the game which bears mentioning, more because it’s a shameful practice rather than anything positive, is the inclusion of the ability to spend actual money on purchasing additional bags of nuts and bolts. It’s a nightmare realised for those who hated micro-transactions, with additional bags of bolts starting at 80 Points / £0.65, up to 800 Points / £6.85. Of course you can choose to ignore this altogether, but the very inclusion of it leaves something of a bad taste and feels like they’re deliberately gouging their userbase. Perhaps even more so when you consider that actually earning your new kit through gameplay is the very point of the game and buying items isn’t going to help you much anyway if you haven’t leveled up enough (something no amount of throwing real world money at the game can remedy).

Like a cross between Contra and Metal Slug, it’s telling that Shoot Many Robots actually manages to better the recent download releases of both those series. Like a modern day melding of the two, it actually shows how this sort of game should be doneto appeal to  for today’s gamers (and making SNK look like newbies in the process). Throw in a mechanic akin to a 2D Borderlands and Demiurge have created something that works incredibly well.

Fun, throwaway entertainment (especially online) Shoot Many Robots is well worth a look.

It’s 1991 and the Arcades see the release of Street Fighter II, the most defining title of its genre. It’s a game that arrived at just the right time to capture peoples spirits and stay with them in just the right way. Simple yet filled with hidden depth, it helped to ignite the first fighting game craze in the 90’s.

While Mortal Kombat and King of Fighters 94 helped keep it alive, along with updates to the original Street Fighter II in the shape of Turbo & Super, the influx of fighters over a short space of time sent the craze into a quick downward spiral. It took several years before a true spiritual successor to Street Fighter II arrived.

1999 heralded the release of Street Fighter III to the arcades. It was not a Super or Turbo addition but instead totally rebuilt from the ground up with a new cast and mechanics.

Eventually receiving two updates, 2nd Impact and 3rd Strike, the latter is still seen as the best fighting game ever crafted among purists. Not only did it single-handedly keep the fighting scene alive, but also helped to fix the annual fighting game event EVO into the gaming calendar – EVO itself bringing us one of the most memorable gaming moments in games history and the Diago “moment”.

So it’s understandable that Capcom would wish to revisit the game after the success of Street Fighter IV and the sudden influx of new players to the scene. Especially in a time when the online infrastructure is so refined and anyone can play against anyone else, and at any time. The original Street Fighter II was already revisited in the shape of Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, with some help in the visuals from Udon, which was also a success. But here comes the pinch; Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike is a port of the Dreamcast edition, with a wealth of extra modes and features. Yet, it somehow manages to be less than the game it’s ported from.

The big feature behind Street Fighter III was its parry system – deceptively simple in its function, but endlessly malleable. Quite simply at any point you can tap forward or down on the D-pad to parry a rival’s attack, leaving the game open to endless tactical variables. Stuck in a corner and facing a barrage of attacks, a quick tap forward can not only save your life but also turn the match around in your favour.

It’s what lead to that “Evo moment” mentioned earlier and what gave the fighting community something to sink their teeth into. Deep, but simple enough that anyone could attempt to pull it off, it remains a stand out design choice to this day. Also, new to the series was the multi faceted Super Arts. At the start of a match or mode you choose not only your character, but also from a selection of Super Arts. More or less the Super Moves or Ultra Combos of other Street Fighters, depending on your choice the Super bar will differ in length and maximum charge number. One Super Art might have a longer bar and only be charged once, while another will use a shorter bar but can be charged two or three times over before use. This factors itself into the EX system using some of your charged Super bar to pull off enhanced editions of standard special moves.

With all this remaining the basis for Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online, yet adding in more features, it’s unfortunate that something has been lost.

Firstly the game uses the same ten year old sprites and art. While brilliantly animated and visually interesting, they are also aged by the larger HD quality screens we use today. There’s a wide range of visual filters to play with to tailor your experience how you like, but none of them seem to make much of a difference; the original sprites look overly blocky and the smooth filter smudging things a little too much. These issues are things you can look past quite quickly, but are still jarring for those used the HD-loveliness of games like Turbo Remix or King of Fighters XIII. Quite why Capcom didn’t look to re-enlist the help of Udon here is unknown.

One of the other problems is with its primary feature, the online modes. The game uses the GGPO net code to keep online matches smooth. In short this means that unlike Street Fighter IV, when there’s connection issues you won’t see the game slowing down to compensate. Instead, the game keeps going and updates the condition of the match to show what’s actually happening. While this can help to keep things smooth, it can be disruptive. Whereas you might see yourself pull off an impressive Super Art that brings your opponents health to within a sliver of defeat, the match will update to show that your opponent actually managed to block most of your combo and you’re suddenly facing a much harder task then before.

This system is about as good as any other fighting game, but can be disorientating for those not used to it – that is, if you actually manage to get into a match online. Almost from day one Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online has been dogged with issues regarding match set up. Select to play a ranked match and more often than not you’re likely to be faced with failed connection after failed connection. We noted waits of up to 40 minutes for a match up when the game was at its worst.

The best luck with the games online features seems to be with its Tournament mode. Probably the best mode in the game, it allows for the creation of two to eight player tournaments with differing rule sets. Feel like holding a Pro-Tournament where each round is made up of three matches to progress? Perfectly fine here. On top of this, the online mode also allows for the banning of up to three characters, so if you’re someone who is a little bored of seeing everyone play as Ken or Ryu, this might be right up your street.

In addition to the new online features, the game has also been given its own set of internal “achievements” that, when completed, reward you with points that can be spent on the game’s gallery section. Sadly this feels like a paper thin reward incentive, but it is filled with high quality fan and official arts of all the games cast, as well as ending videos and tracks from the games soundtrack.

You’ll also find the addition of more in depth training modes. Built to allow you to get to grips with the many combos possible and the parry system on which the games structured. The final task being the EVO moment. While many people won’t spend as much time on these training sessions, they are a great addition for those who do want to learn more.

Let’s be clear here, Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online is by no means a bad game but the additions to it have had very little positive impact on the already great game on which it’s built. Offline the game still runs as smoothly as ever and is perfectly acceptable as a deep and competitive fighting game – it’s just a shame that the online features contain such issues.

Fans of Trine 2 (that includes us) will be delighted to hear that Frozenbyte are hard at work on more content for the game.

The video teaser above offers a glimpse of a new six level campaign with all new enemies, new skills and a new difficulty level. In fact they’re so confident in the amount of content on offer they’re referring to it as an expansion rather than DLC.

Expect more news and teasing from Frzoenbyte in due course.

Four new tables are on their way to Pinball FX2 / Marvel Pinball to tie in with the upcoming Avengers movie.

Marvel’s The Avengers table reflects the events of this summer’s highly anticipated blockbuster, pitting all six Avengers against Loki’s invasion of Earth. Nick Fury commands the team of Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye, each character represented by a customized ball that echoes his or her own appearance and power set.

Hulk Smash! After the Hulk’s banishment to outer space, he returns to Manhattan to seek revenge against the Illuminati and wage war against the X-Men, Iron Man, the Fantastic Four and Doctor Strange in World War Hulk.

The Silver Surfer and Adam Warlock enlist Earth’s Mightiest Heroes – including you – to recover the six Infinity Gems from Thanos and save the universe in The Infinity Gauntlet. The intense pinball atmosphere heightens as each Infinity Gem produces a special effect on the table, such as literally flipping the table upside down with the Reality Gem.

The Avengers must defeat Odin’s long-banished brother, the Serpent, and free the world from the grip of chaos in Fear Itself. Featuring a table design unlike any to date, Fear Itself utilizes magnetic energy in ways no one has ever before experienced on a pinball table.

Expect the tables to arrive in May.