GiantBomb's Site Mashup

Review of The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned

Jeff — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:00:00 -0800

Platform: (PS3,X360)

4 out of 5

The island has the atmosphere of an amusement park ride. Spooky, but in a kind of fun way.

Though zombies are dangerously close to becoming "the new World War II " when it comes to saturated game concepts, there's something sort of refreshing about the way The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned fits into Gearbox 's shoot-n-loot, Borderlands . That's probably because the zombie-related content doesn't completely overrun the game. Rather, it feels like some sort of crazy "what if" scenario that takes a world you've already experienced and spins it in a new way. It's not very long, and it doesn't increase the level cap or offer new items, but Zombie Island is a good new environment with some decent quests and a final boss fight that's actually a little tougher than the one you'll see in the main story.

The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned is presented as if Marcus Kincaid--the guy who runs the weapons vending machines--is telling a bedtime story to a child. The story he's telling makes it sound like Zombie Island is set after the events of Borderlands, but you can actually fast travel to the island at any time with any character that's level 10 or higher. To account for that 40-level range of characters with access to the island, the enemies there scale to fit your level every time you visit, ensuring that dealing with the zombie menace won't feel like a complete afterthought. Also, players who haven't yet hit level 50 will get the extra added bonus of actually gaining meaningful experience while on the island. Though I enjoyed taking my level 50 soldier through the island's quests, it still felt a little hollow, since I wasn't really building onto my character in meaningful ways. Don't expect a rush of new zombie-themed items, either. Though I did manage to find a couple of shields that were better than the one I came in with, the loot is the same sort of stuff you'll find in the main game. That said, seeing a rocket launcher pop out of a zombified torso is pretty funny.

That's actually where Zombie Island puts in the most work: on laughs. The only non-monster (though that's debatable) you'll see on Zombie Island is Dr. Ned himself. Dr. Ned is the Dr. Zed model from the Fyrestone section of the main game, but with a big, fake-looking mustache. Over his surgical mask. He's quick to point out on several occasions that he is most certainly not the same character as Dr. Zed. And you'll also find some funny little bits in the quest text, like one spot where Ned realizes that maybe he should have been a villain instead of just an NPC.

Most of the landscape in Zombie Island is fresh and doesn't look like anything you've seen in the main game. The main area is full of dead trees and has a huge moon that's often used as a backdrop for buildings. It gives the whole thing a spooky, haunted house kind of vibe while still coming across as lighthearted. These zombies are coming to eat your brains, sure, but when you shoot them in the head, their brains pop out, letting you collect them for a rather annoying series of quests. Of course, there's an exception to all this. One of the zones, Dead Haven, is just a reskinned version of the Old Haven zone from the main game, with a few walls thrown up to force you to take a different path through the zone. It's unfortunate to see content get reused like this in a pack that isn't all that long to begin with, but the dire-looking sky and alternate path through the area manages to change things up just enough to feel acceptable.

You're going to want to shoot that guy in the head. Or burn him. Preferably both.

Of course, the whole time you're moving through these areas, you'll be attacked by various zombies. The zombies typically move really slowly, but if they get up close, they dish out some serious damage. Also, if you go down while surrounded by zombies, further hits actually make your bleed out timer drain more quickly. This makes a mass of zombies a bit tougher to deal with than a mass of, say, spider ants. Also, zombies frequently spawn behind you, so you'll be surrounded a lot. In addition to the regular zombies, there are also defilers, which puke onto you when they close in, slowing your movement. You'll also occasionally see some lance zombies, which can throw down a turret. The most evil non-boss zombie is probably the suicide zombie, which first tries to throw an exploding barrel at you, then rushes you, exploding upon death. Overall, the combat feels a bit different than anything you've fought in other parts of Borderlands, but it's nothing that a little situational awareness and a lot of circle-strafing can't handle.

The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned is a solid addition for anyone who wants more Borderlands, but the lack of additional items or further opportunities for character building feel like a missed opportunity that could have given this content a lasting effect. Without any of that, you're really just paying $10 to tack an additional few hours of content onto an already-long game. As someone who played the heck out of Borderlands and desperately wants more, that's totally fine with me. But if you've already moved on and want something with a little more substance, this might not be the DLC for you.

A Fly-Through of SOCOM: Confrontation's Entrapment

Brad — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:16:34 -0800

Click To Watch Video

Here's a video tour of some new DLC coming to Slant Six's PS3 shooter.

Quick Look: Serious Sam HD

drewbert — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:20:45 -0800

Click To Watch Video

Jeff, Ryan, and Vinny lay waste to some seriously weird dudes in this high-def remake.

Ryan — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:46:05 -0800

Let the Giant Bombcast guide you through this hectic holiday week with conversations on turkeys full of toothpaste, the pros and cons of Fresno, Assassin's Creed II, light-gun semantics, the last days of Pandemic, and more! Brought to you by Corningware!

Quick Look: Way of the Samurai 3

drewbert — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:22:45 -0800

Click To Watch Video

Jeff and Ryan discover that feudal Japan has some strangely loose restrictions.

EA Announces The Next Mercenaries Game

Jeff — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:00:00 -0800

EA confirmed the development of a new game in the Mercenaries series today. There's no detail in the announcement, just that a game with a working title of "Mercs Inc." is in development at EALA , the new home for the "core team" of Pandemic guys who weren't sent packing in last week's layoffs. Weirdly enough, the release is titled "Pandemic Studios Announces 'Mercs Inc'," even though that sounds like more of a team now, not a location. Either way, there's no confirmation in the release that anyone actually affiliated with the previous Mercs games is on this one. In fact, there's very little confirmation of anything other than "hey, this is a game." Even the title is still subject to change.

So why throw together an announcement like this with no real details? Well, it seems that footage of the game has leaked out of the closing Pandemic studio. The game--or at least, the footage --makes out like it's a multiplayer-focused take on Mercenaries, using what appears to be Mercenaries 2 technology. Of course, with no announced ship date, there's probably plenty of time for that engine to be fully enhanced and updated to look a little newer.

Check out the leaked trailer for yourself, though you should probably hurry. I suspect someone will pull it offline at some point today.

More Mash-up Fun With Lego Indy

Brad — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:47:26 -0800

Click To Watch Video

I can't even tell which one is the game anymore!

A Vision of Aion's Future

Brad — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:45:57 -0800

Click To Watch Video

Here's what NCSoft has been working on for its latest MMO.

DJ Hero: Gorillaz Vs. Public Enemy Vs. Queen Vs. Mary J.

Brad — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:44:09 -0800

Click To Watch Video

Sample a few of the cuts from the next DJ Hero DLC pack.

Quick Look: The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned

Brad — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:08:34 -0800

Click To Watch Video

Jeff and fellow undead fighters Ryan and VInny take on the first of Borderlands' DLC.

Borderlands: The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned

Ryan — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:54:56 -0800

Click To Watch Video

Who is this strange, mustachioed man?

How to Make Stuff in ModNation Racers

Brad — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:40:59 -0800

Click To Watch Video

An instructional video on making little cartoon dudes and karts of your own.

Quick Look: 0D Beat Drop

drewbert — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:18:37 -0800

Click To Watch Video

Jeff and Ryan drop some phat beats (and gems) in this dimensionless puzzle game.

Quick Look: Diner Dash

drewbert — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:15:34 -0800

Click To Watch Video

Ryan and Jeff serve up some delicious OCD with a side of anxiety.

Bayonetta's A Cat Lady

Jeff — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:06:00 -0800

Click To Watch Video

Did you know that Bayonetta can turn into stuff? Well, she totally can.

Play The Zelda Trivia Challenge, Part Two

Brad — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:00:00 -0800

Insert train-related joke here.

It's that time again: time for you to summon up the answers to five obscure Zelda trivia questions for a chance to win a copy of Spirit Tracks and some other neat schwag courtesy of the folks at Nintendo .

Just like last week , be the first to post all five correct answers in these here comments to win this week's package. Also, contest still open only to residents of the United States. Sorry, international folks!

Here's them questions.

Who has appeared in more Zelda games, Ganondorf or Tingle ?
What is the only Zelda game to feature both friendly and unfriendly Zoras ?
Who sits beneath the tree in Kakariko Village in Ocarina of Time ?
What enemy does Link defeat in Stone Tower to get the Big Key?
What is the full name of the King of Hyrule in The Wind Waker ?

Don't forget, there will still be two more chances to get in on this excitement, one next Monday and the other the Monday after that. Meanwhile, for an extended look at Spirit Tracks, take a look at this new trailer, and give my latest hands-on a look-see while you're at it.

Calling Trailer

Jeff — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:39:52 -0800

Click To Watch Video

See if this new trailer for Calling gives you the creeps.

Pandemic Shutdown Leads to Office Space Tribute

Jeff — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:00:00 -0800

The one good thing about layoffs is that it sometimes gives people the motivation to get out there and do something great, if only to spite their former employers. OK, that's probably not much of a silver lining, but it appears that a few "affected" guys from last week's deep cuts at Pandemic didn't wait too long to make something great.

So here's their tribute to Office Space , in which a printer is beaten into submission while tracks from the Geto Boys are played.

Hopefully the next thing they come up with will lead to a paycheck. Best of luck, fellas. Meanwhile, the studio's final game, The Saboteur , is still on track to ship next month.

Most Popular Achievements (11/14 - 11/20)

Jeff — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 12:00:00 -0800

OK, here at the top, let's break down what these lists actually mean. There's still some confusion out there. The top ten lists are purely traffic-based, using numbers I'm pulling out of Google Analytics. That's why games that aren't out yet occasionally appear on those lists, much like Dark Void did last week. Interestingly, there's been a real shift in how these pages are viewed. The game pages, which list all of a game's achievements and popular the first top ten list, used to be much bigger than the third list, which is based on traffic going to individual achievement pages. Lately, though, it's shifted. People are spending more time on the individual pages, which is cool, because the comment system we've placed on those pages hopefully means that people are able to find the help they're looking for when it comes to a specific achievement.

So if you've earned a particularly tricky achievement, I invite you to go to that achievement's page and offer up a bit of help for those who may by stuck.

Speaking of achievements, I reactivated my long-dormant GameFly account last week. With the year coming to a close, I've got a bit more free time on my hands, and what better way to totally waste that time than to get a steady stream of games I'm only playing for achievement points in here, right? First up is Backyard Football '10 , which I'm told is a very easy thousand. I'm also getting the US version of Raiden IV , mostly because it's a pain to hook up my Japanese 360 every time I want to play it. The rest of my list of games is a murderer's row of easy points and bad-looking games that I want to see for one reason or another, like Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian , Hannah Montana: The Movie , and Monopoly .

I'm not sure what's worse, doing this or admitting that I'm doing this. Either way, points ... and perhaps a Quick Look or two. I imagine a Hannah Montana Quick Look could be OK.

Here's the first list!

Keith David would like to remind you that he is Oscar Mike.

Top 10 Sets

The top three on that list are way, way, way ahead of everything else, and I expect it'll stay that way for at least the rest of November.

Here's what's new.

D-A-C: Dull And Crummy?

New Sets

That Sherlock Holmes game was announced for US release, but I'm not seeing it on any retail sites. I'm guessing that must be a UK release or something.

And here's this week's list of individual achievements. It's much more varied than last week's.

This list? Not enough Ezio.

Top 10 Individual

Borderlands - You're on a boat!
Modern Warfare 2 - I'm the Juggernaut...
Left 4 Dead 2 - GUARDIN' GNOME
Modern Warfare 2 - Look Ma Two Hands
Modern Warfare 2 - Downed but Not Out
Left 4 Dead 2 - GONG SHOW
Modern Warfare 2 - Star 69
Assassin's Creed II - Myth Maker
Modern Warfare 2 - Drive By
Left 4 Dead 2 - STACHE WHACKER

For some reason, Valve decided to list all of the L4D2 achievements in ALL CAPS. That sure makes them STAND OUT in a LIST LIKE THIS ONE. Also, it's interesting to me that Assassin's Creed II isn't commanding more of a presence on this list. If you go to our rad new homepage and look at Yesterday's Biggest Achievements (which shows what achievements are actually being unlocked on a daily basis), you'll see that AC2 has the whole list locked down. That said, it's all the early game stuff that you get almost automatically--no one's going to need to look those up to figure out how to earn them. Maybe as people complete the game and start going back to squeeze some more points out of the game, we'll see it move up in raw popularity.

Of course, Borderlands will be getting some new achievements for the upcoming DLC pack, so that'll probably be a force to be reckoned with, as well.

Here are some weird stats for you.

You get the Assassin's Creed II achievement "The Birth of an Assassin" within the first, like, two minutes of playing the game. It's unavoidable. Yet of the 2,636 people who have played the 360 version of the game, the percentage of completion on that achievement is 98.94%. So... a little over one percent of the people who bought the game put the disc in, but didn't actually play it? There are two other achievements that you get automatically near the beginning of the game, and you can actually see a little drop-off between them. 98.75% escaped Abstergo, and 98.41% entered the game's new Animus. Again, this is all unavoidable stuff that comprises the first ten minutes of play. Who does that? Who turns it on, gets the birth achievement, then says "oh, man, I better come back to this later" instead of continuing on? If you are one of these people, pipe up and tell us what you've been doing.

One time Keith decided he was going to get the achievement for standing on the Ferris Wheel for three days straight...

Assassin's Creed II appears to be far more successful than the Xbox 360 version of Left 4 Dead 2, which launched on the same day. L4D2 has pulled in 1,525 players so far. I wouldn't have immediately guessed that, but considering Left 4 Dead 2 has a PC counterpart that's better in just about every way, it's not exactly a surprise.

Tony Hawk: RIDE currently has 18 players. It shipped the same day as L4D2 and AC2 did, but at twice the price, it's not exactly bringing 'em in. I believe that's an ever slower start than Activision's last $120 release, DJ Hero , which is current at 940 players. Also, that's world's ahead of the other new "Hero" release for 2009. Band Hero has 165 players.

Meanwhile, Modern Warfare 2 will probably break 10,000 players over the next week or two. It currently stands at 9,425. Call of Duty 4 , in case you were wondering, has 14,031. The other Activision shooter released this season, Jurassic: The Hunted , has 19 players.

All right, that's it and that's all. We've got a short week ahead of us due to the holidays, but we've still got some good stuff planned, so keep checking back and all that.

Hands-On: Ridin' Zelda's Spirit Tracks

Brad — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:00:00 -0800

Duh, he's Link!

If you didn't notice the first installment of our Zelda trivia challenge earlier this week (still three chances to win!), you might not remember that there's a new Zelda game due out on the DS real soon now. It's Spirit Tracks , the direct successor to Phantom Hourglass , and hey, I just played it!

This new game directly follows the previous one. It's a hundred years later, and a new kingdom of Hyrule has been founded on the continent that the protagonists of Phantom Hourglass discovered sometime between that game and this one. Wait a minute, that would make Link and Zelda more than a century old, and--hmm, are we just assuming they're immortal at this point? Is there any sort of rationale at work in this timeline anymore?

You know, who cares? It's a Zelda game. The indigenous people of this new land tell of an ancient, legendary battle between the good spirits and the forces of the Demon King Maladus, whose soul was finally imprisoned in a centralized Tower of Spirits. Maladus is down but not completely out; the ethereal shackles that bind him are in fact stretched far and wide across the new land of Hyrule.

And those bonds just happen to be... train tracks! Convenient, since a train replaces Phantom Hourglass' ship as your primary mode of transportation in Spirit Tracks. The game opens with Link training to become an engineer, during which time he realizes that these train tracks are beginning to disappear. There's also a shady chancellor named Cole involved who may in fact be trying to revive Maladus (there's always one bad apple in these games), so Link starts to explore the land to find out what's going on.

You'll be choo-chooing back here often.

It looks like Spirit Tracks will use a similar framework to Phantom Hourglass, which had a central, recurring dungeon that you explored more and more of as you solved other, standalone dungeons and picked up new items and abilities. The recurring dungeon in this game is the Tower of Spirits itself. Every floor of the tower that you clear will yield a tablet that opens up a new set of tracks, which will lead you to a new area of Hyrule. You'll find a new dungeon in that area, and defeating it will arm you with a new item and send energy back up the newly laid tracks, which then opens up the next level of the tower, and... you probably see how this works.

I got to mess around a bit in the second dungeon of the game, which was--brace yourself--the Snow Temple! Yes, themed dungeons are back. I had an item here that let me unleash a targeted whirlwind that could stun enemies, flip some switches, and even propel me around when I was floating around on a block in pools of water. You'll play through these dungeons solo, but you'll be joined by a controllable phantom when you're playing the Tower of Spirits levels. (I wrote about playing with that guy back at E3.)

According to Nintendo, there will be plenty of things to do on the overworld in between dungeons. You can only hop off and run around at stations and towns, but there will be side activities and quests to undertake both at these larger population centers, and you'll run into some interesting characters as you ride the tracks as well.

The dungeons are looking like classic DS Zelda.

You know, it wouldn't be a latter-day DS game if it didn't make you blow into the microphone now and then. That was necessary not only to use that whirlwind weapon I mentioned in the Snow Temple, but also to play the Spirit Flute, this game's ocarina. You play the Spirit Flute by sliding its pipes back and forth across the screen and blowing, pretty much like a Pan flute. I just want to take the chance to thank whoever at Nintendo set the mic sensitivity on this game, because I barely had to breath on the thing to get it to activate. That means I can play this game on an airplane without looking like a loon.

Phantom Hourglass had a neat multiplayer mode that was sort of like Pac-Man , where one player controlled Link and the other directed some Phantoms around (like ghosts) to try to corner and take Link out. The multiplayer in Spirit Tracks is more of a four-player free-for-all where everyone is scrambling to pick up little Triforce gems and hang onto them till the end of the round. But roving Phantoms will chase you if they see you, unless you can get another player into their line of site. And other players can throw bombs at you or hit switches to drop you through trapdoors, as well as pick up some devilish power-ups to take most or all of your gems from you. The multiplayer seems like a neat diversion, and I'm glad it's not just a rehash of the mode from the last game.

The classic Zelda adventure is the thing that you ought to care about in Spirit Tracks, though. It's really just an iterative update to the core gameplay, controls, and graphics from Phantom Hourglass, but I have no problem at all with Nintendo iterating on a game that great.

Review of God of War Collection

Brad — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:00:00 -0800

Platform: (PS3)

4 out of 5

You'd be surprised how nice God of War II cleans up.

The inclusion of a demo for next year's God of War III in Sony's new two-game compilation God of War Collection makes it starkly evident how little this series has diverted its attention from blood-soaked, button-mashing Grecian slaughter since its initial 2005 release. From that first game to this next one, sullen anti-hero Kratos has always busted out the exact same chain-whip combo when you hit square-square-triangle; he's always ripped hapless enemies in half right at the waist. The magical attacks and mythological foes might become more outlandish over time, but playing this package reminds you how remarkably consistent God of War's basic rhythms have remained over time.

That's probably just how fans want it--and it's probably why the series' first two games, landmark releases on the PlayStation 2 in their day, are still so playable now. There's something to be said for devising a winning formula and sticking with it, after all. The games do start out sort of button-mashy, but they allow room for technique in the action before they eventually start to require it. The carrot-on-a-stick drive of amassing red orbs to exchange for deadlier powers is still a good motivation to plow through these games, as are the epically cinematic (though largely scripted) boss encounters. Remember impaling that gigantic hydra's head onto the broken ship's mast at the beginning of the first game? That fight hasn't lost as much of its original wow factor as you might think.

The first one ain't no slouch either.

God of War Collection lets you visit or revisit these first two installments in what's now one of Sony's tentpole franchises, giving you a chance to bone up on where Kratos has been and where he's going prior to the launch of that next big God of War game (the first on the PlayStation 3) next March. From his quest to redeem his sordid, violent past in the original game to the travails of newfound godhood he grapples with in the second, Kratos' tale is one still worth absorbing, and although I can't say with certainty that you'll need to know the whole story to appreciate next year's sequel, it sure won't hurt if you do.

God of War's narrative elements may be timeless, but its visuals, however recent, are not. At least not in their original form, which Sony has dramatically gussied up by increasing the resolution to a sharp 1080p and locking the performance in at a buttery smooth 60 frames per second. At nearly five years old, the first game looks surprisingly good with these improvements, but it's the second one that really stands out. Granted, God of War II came out after the PS3 did, but at times while playing it in this collection you could start to forget it was actually designed for a generation-old piece of hardware in the first place. That visual excellence probably owes in large part to strong art design, but the technical polish on this package makes a huge difference in keeping it current too.

Niiiiiiice and simple.

For $40, it's probably beyond the scope of this disc to expect any new special features, nor a PS3-compatible version of last year's PSP installment, Chains of Olympus . (Sony would probably still like you to buy that one on the PSP.) At least you do get the original behind-the-scenes bonus videos that shipped with the two original games, in which you get to see a younger, goateed David Jaffe talking shop, and Cory Barlog making a sandwich in his kitchen. And Sony has integrated a raft of easy trophies into both games, just about all of which you could earn on your first time through each one. These are broken out into two separate entries on your PSN profile, so this disc is recommendable to anyone looking to earn a couple of easy Platinum trophies.

It's also essential for diehard God of War purists who want to own the best possible versions of these games for posterity. For someone who already has the original releases and a backwards-compatible PlayStation 3, on the other hand, God of War Collection is a harder sell. But it's ultimately most valuable to people who didn't play much or any of the originals, for whom this package serves as both a fine refresher course and also a couple of kick-ass action games, available on the cheap.

Review of Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles

Ryan — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:00:00 -0800

Platform: (WII)

3 out of 5

Argh! Zombies!

For all the popularity the Resident Evil franchise has seen over the past decade, its unique, deliberately paced gameplay styles have always borne a relatively high barrier for entry, even as they've evolved over the years. The same cannot be said for the myriad of light-gun games set in the zombie-verse of Resident Evil, which go all the way back to the original PlayStation , and which boil the Resident Evil experience down to shooting zombies in the face, over and over again. Ironically, it's not the difficulty or complexity of the gameplay that creates a barrier for Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles . A simple weapon upgrade path aside, this is a game comfortable hitting the same basic point-and-shoot beats as something like The House of the Dead . The barrier for Darkside Chronicles is the truncated way it presents the bone-dense Resident Evil mythology.

Darkside Chronicles primarily concerns itself with the events of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil: Code: Veronica , though these familiar sections are bookended by a new mission set in South America that fills in some of the blanks leading up to Resident Evil 4 . If you've played Resident Evil 2 and/or Resident Evil: Code: Veronica, you'll get to see some of the more action-packed set-pieces from those games from a guided, first-person perspective, and the new mission sheds some light on the relationship between Leon S. Kennedy and Jack Krauser , all of which I certainly see the appeal of. If you haven't already bought into Resident Evil, though, you're left with a Reader's Digest version of those stories. The game flatly delivers most of the information to meet your immediate needs, but without the proper context, it's not terribly engaging.

Not that you really need that much backstory to know that zombies are bad, and need to be shot in the face. Repeatedly. Darkside Chronicles relies on a lot of shopworn light-gun game tricks, which creates a lot of slack in what is already a slow-moving game, and neutralizes the game's grimy atmosphere and any attempt at jump scares. If you see a zombie corpse on the ground, you can expect it to lumber to its feet at some point. You can expect that, if you see a conspicuously empty area, you'll find it swarming with the undead on a second glance. Individual chapters are often punctuated with boss encounters, which represent the only real challenge in Darkside Chronicles, due largely to the amount of damage they deal with each attack.

You'll face plenty of other familiar creepy-crawlies, too.

If there's something to set Darkside Chronicles apart, it's the way it aims for more naturalistic camera movement, which, when combined with the old VHS-tape motif of the game's menus, seems designed to evoke a Cloverfield -style YOU ARE THERE atmosphere. The flaw in this line of thinking is that all that camera shake makes it harder to draw a bead on a target, something that seems to run counter to the premium the game puts on headshots. You've got a basic pistol that comes with infinite ammo, though you can also pick up weapons like shotguns, submachine guns, grenades, and others which pack a bit more punch. This is where Darkside Chronicles offers up a hint of depth, as you can take currency earned during missions to upgrade various aspects of your arsenal.

If you don't come into Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles with an innate appreciation for the fiction of Resident Evil, all it really has to offer is a pretty by-the-numbers guided shooter experience. This doesn't make it a bad game, just an unambitious one, and one that has a hard limit on the audience for whom it will hold any significant appeal.

Review of Tony Hawk: RIDE

Jeff — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:00:00 -0800

Platform: (PS3,X360)

1 out of 5

The board feels sturdy, but it doesn't work well enough for that to matter.

There's a good idea at the center of Tony Hawk: RIDE . Attempting to make some sort of peripheral-based skateboarding game is a neat idea, and one that, if the peripheral were robust enough, could result in some sort of faux-skating experience that approximates the real thing in a way that's accessible to non-skaters without being completely offensive to anyone who's ever pulled an ollie. But everything about Tony Hawk: RIDE, from the game's structure to the skateboard hardware itself, is an absolute mess that feels incapable of pleasing anyone, regardless of his or her skill level.

When your feet first touch the RIDE skateboard, it actually feels pretty good. It rocks back and forth a bit, and the curved nose and tail let you pop the front or back of the board into the air with ease. It also has four sensors, one on each side, which are primarily used when you want to tell the game that you're performing a grab move. It's sturdy, and feels solid under your feet without feeling stiff. Unfortunately, any goodwill built up by the look and feel of the board is thrown out the window as soon as you're finished calibrating it.

The problem with the board is that it isn't great at translating your movements into the appropriate on-screen actions. For example, the two primary ways to pull tricks is to lift the nose of the board into the air, and then either tilt the board to one side or pivot the front of the board left or right. These are "tilt" and "flick" tricks, respectively. More often than not, performing flick motions resulted in tilt tricks. Getting through a challenge that requires a specific trick type feels like luck in a lot of cases. Also, the board feels like it loses its calibration over time, resulting in cases where popping the nose up into the air stops performing ollies. Other times, it's a case of sensitivity, with the board feeling like it's requiring different levels of pressure or height to trigger the tricks. With a peripheral like this, consistency is absolutely key to getting better at the game and learning from your mistakes. With hardware that's unable to provide that level of consistency from session to session, Tony Hawk: RIDE is already a total failure.

You'll visit a handful of different cities, including New York, Barcelona, and Tokyo.

But it's hard to tell if it's the fault of the hardware or the software, because the game built around said board is a mess. Tony Hawk: RIDE places you into a series of fairly confined environments and, though it does still have a "free skate" option to let you explore, the main goals are things like races and score challenges. The racing feels like something out of Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam , another misstep from the once-great franchise's past. The trick sections of the game are usually score-based, and most of the time it's easier to just flail around on the board to pull off random tricks than it is to carefully attempt specific motions.

The other main street mode offers challenges, which are sections of the level where you're asked to perform specific motions on specific objects, like "flick trick off of the ramp" or "5-0 grind this ledge." The more specific the tricks, the worse it gets. It also doesn't help that the game never really tells you how to perform specific tricks, so figuring out how to land in a 5-0 grind instead of a 50-50 feels like it's left to chance. In the event that you don't know enough about skateboarding to know what the heck a 5-0 grind is, you'll probably have to turn to a web browser and look up videos of said trick, then maybe you can figure out what the game might be asking you to do and attempt it from there. Also, the challenges require you to hit every trick in the challenge in one run. If you miss one, the challenge doesn't end and immediately restart. Instead, you'll keep skating until you hit the end of the challenge area and respawn. The lack of an instant restart--something that the Tony Hawk franchise has usually been pretty good about offering--makes this whole section of the game frustrating.

There's also a vert mode, which is used when you're skating in half-pipes. For these levels, you'll rotate the board sideways and stand on it while facing the TV screen, but the basics don't change that much. If you're tilting when you leave the ramp, you'll probably spin. Or maybe your feet will accidentally trip one of the side sensors and you'll grab. Or maybe you'll reach down to deliberately perform a grab and nothing will happen. It's terrible.

Tony Hawk: RIDE defaults to a mode called casual, where you only focus on performing tricks while the game steers for you. There are spots in the race and trick courses where you can select alternate paths, but for the most part, it's none of your concern. Riding along a set track and performing tricks might sound like the worst thing of all, but it's actually the most manageable way to play. Bumping from casual over to "confident" puts steering control in your power, which makes things much tougher. But considering the board can't even keep up with you on casual, asking it to keep track of your leaning to let you steer impedes the process even further.

When you find a gap, the game will transition to a different angle.

The game also has a party play mode, where groups of people can get together to discover just how unfun Tony Hawk: RIDE is in a variety of modes. You can also take the game online, where up to four players can have a bad time en masse. Or, at least, that's the theory. I tried on numerous occasions to find online opposition, but never found any takers.

The only positive thing about Tony Hawk: RIDE is its soundtrack, which is lengthy and includes tracks from Murs, Santigold, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Wolfmother, The Commodores, and more, including that "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)" song from The Big Lebowski . Obviously that's not enough to make Tony Hawk: RIDE feel like it's worth anything close to its $120 price tag. While the Tony Hawk franchise has been down on its luck lately, and was probably in need of a reboot as dramatic as this, the execution is such a miserable failure that it manages to splash even more mud on Tony Hawk's legacy. I'm left with a firm belief that whichever side of the Tony Hawk/Activision partnership has the out clause in the contract should just exercise it and part ways for good. Enough is enough.

QOTW: 11/22/09

drewbert — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:32:39 -0800

Click To Watch Video

Tony Hawk Tuesday came and went. Why no fanfare? Our users have some theories.

Brad Pitt Plunges Into Dark Void

Ryan — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:00:00 -0800

I'm tellin' ya kid, I'm gonna make you a STAR!

Uwe Boll and Paul W.S. Anderson better be sweating under their hacky collars right about now. Sure, they're currently the kings of game-to-film adaptations, but Jerry Bruckheimer 's involvement in the upcoming Prince of Persia movie is raising both the visibility and the stakes--if not necessarily the quality--for the much-maligned sub-genre. And now a proper movie star is getting in on the action, as it was today announced that Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment has optioned the film rights for Dark Void .

If you're not already familiar with Dark Void--which wouldn't be too terribly odd, as the game hasn't actually come out yet--it's got a premise revolving around the Bermuda Triangle, alien abductions, an unlikely hero strapped with a jet pack, and Nikola Tesla that seems high-concept and bizarre enough to make for a decent popcorn companion. My sensationalist headline aside, this deal doesn't guarantee, or even necessarily suggest, Pitt's personal involvement in a Dark Void film project. I like Brad Pitt and the weirdo roles he chooses well enough, but I'm plenty intrigued by the fact that Plan B is producing, having previously had a hand in Martin Scorcese's undeniably excellent The Departed , as well as the promising-looking teen superhero comic adaptation Kick-Ass . Optioning rights is a long way from actually making a movie, but getting people who seem to know what the hell they're doing is a promising start.

Capcom also used this announcement to casually mention that Dark Void would be coming out on January 19th, 2010, which is a week later than the previously announced date of January 12th. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, and it does nothing to mitigate what is shaping up to be an intense first quarter for new games.

New Resident Evil 5 Single-Player Content Starts Feb. 17

Brad — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:00:00 -0800

Dude, Jill!

You know what I'd actually like to play more of? Resident Evil 5 . Despite having gone through the single-player story three times--something I never, ever do anymore--I would gladly sit down and blow away a few more big weird-looking bugs in that game, and not just because I'm still lacking a few easy achievements .

Well, forget about achievements. Capcom 's got some honest-to-goodness new content on the way for RE5, and it isn't more half-assed, bolted-on multiplayer modes. It's a couple of all-new single-player episodes, and some new costumes in which to swaddle your characters while you play through the new action. The first of the new episodes, called "Lost in Nightmares," is due on the Xbox 360 on February 17 next year, with the PS3 version following a day later. Here's the official description.

Previously only seen during cut scenes of the original RESIDENT EVIL 5, the first new episode titled “LOST IN NIGHTMARES”, finds BSAA agent, Chris Redfield , working with his partner, Jill Valentine , as they investigate Ozwell E. Spencer ’s hideaway. Spencer, the evil mastermind and co-founder of Umbrella Corporation , has been hiding a new evil deep within the basement of his mansion. Chris and Jill discover this grotesque evil standing in their way as the two enter deeper into the catacombs beneath the mansion.

Chris and Jill, together again! In a big, sinister mansion! It's 1996 all over!

But wait, there's more! The first round of new costumes for Chris and Sheva is due on the same day. The second, as-yet-untitled episode and costume pack will follow on March 3, along with a "refresh" of the Mercenaries mode called "Mercenaries Reunion" that, from what I can tell in the vague press release, will pack two new playable characters and two new weapon loadouts into each of these four

No pricing is listed for any of this DLC, but it's worth noting that if you don't have RE5 at all yet, Capcom will happily sell you a Gold Edition starting March 9 (or 12 in Europe) for $49.99 that includes the original game and all of this DLC action in one tidy package. While the PS3 version of the Gold Edition will pack the whole shebang onto a single Blu-ray, the 360 release will oddly consist of the original RE5 disc and a voucher for all of the new DLC. I wonder if all that content plus the base game is too much to cram into one DVD?

Anyway, here are some more screens of all the business. Who else is ready to play more RE5?

Review of Buzz! Quiz World

Jeff — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:00:00 -0800

Platform: (PS3)

3 out of 5

The colored buttons on the controller match up to the on-screen presentation.

Buzz! Quiz World continues the long-running Buzz! line by offering a decidedly game show-influenced take on trivia. The game disc claims to have 5,000 questions on it, covering a variety of topics. But Quiz World suffers a bit from some oddly regionalized question selection and, after a few rounds, you'll probably just want all the game show trappings to get out of your way so you can quickly move on to more questions.

Like the other games in the Buzz! series, Quiz World requires the use of specific buzzer controllers. These "Buzz! Buzzers" are sold with the game, but you can also just get the game by itself, in case you already have a set from the previous PS3 Buzz! game. The controllers are well-made, but feel really superfluous. They have four buttons on them, which you use to select your answers. There's also a large buzzer-style button at the top, but you never use it to actually buzz in to answer a question. All of the different round types I encountered allow every player to answer, instead putting a priority on being the first to answer, rather than being the first to buzz in for an opportunity to answer. With the game only really requiring four buttons, there's no reason that support for standard PlayStation 3 controllers couldn't have been included. But as soon as you get the game started up, you can't even use your Dual Shock 3 to navigate the game's menus.

Those menus give you a variety of ways to play Buzz!, ranging from a standard six-round game to a full 45 minutes of trivia. The rounds you play all have slightly different rules, with some that reveal the answer one letter at a time, or others that let you throw a pie at other players if you're the first to answer correctly. But they're all just different ways to serve you up trivia in a collection of different categories, and I found the more direct "we're going to ask you a question, then you answer it" rounds to be far more satisfying. 5,000 questions sounds like a lot, but if you're the type to choose your favorite categories (like '80s TV) every time they come up, you'll probably start to see a bit of repetition within the first few games. Also, some questions use photos or other bits of media to facilitate a question. Some of those bits--like a photo of singer Nelly Furtado--are used for multiple questions. The game has support for additional question packs, which can be purchased via the PlayStation Network, which should help expand the library once you start to notice a lot of repetition. If you've already purchased packs for the previous PS3 Buzz!, those plug right into Quiz World, too.

Buzz's human eyes and Muppety look are kind of haunting.

While the questions are well-rounded and the game comes at you with a good variety of categories, there's a certain regionality to the questions that you don't get from most trivia games. The Buzz! series originates in the UK, and it's easy to see that fact in the way some questions are written. One question, for example, asks you to name which of a listing of four supermodels is from Croydon. Maybe I'm underestimating the North American casual gaming audience that would eat up a trivia game like Buzz!, but I was left thinking that most of the people who encounter that question won't know what Croydon even is. Another question focused on action/singer Jason Donovan, an Australian that I've never heard of before. I guess what I'm trying to say is expect some stuff that you have no hope of answering. Someone probably should have gone through the question list and tailored it a bit more for each specific region. For example, no one outside of the US should be forced to answer anything regarding Toby Keith. Ever .

All of this trivia is couched in a game show format and hosted by a Muppety-looking guy named Buzz. Buzz comes across as an excitable British guy, and the show is very much tailored to look like the modern game shows that we stole from the UK, like Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? or The Weakest Link . As such, you'll see plenty of swooping jib shots and other flashy camera movement as the show plays out. Buzz chats you up between rounds, and in a clever move, the game comes with tons of prerecorded names, so when you create your profile, you can set it up so that Buzz calls you by name... provided you have one of the names listed, I suppose. The list certainly looks lengthy. While Buzz is a fine host, after three games of having him describe the rules to every round, I found myself looking for ways to shut him up and get on with the trivia. I never found a way to make that happen. Multiplayer games, which can contain up to eight players in an online setting, get especially bogged down by the way Buzz breaks down the scores between rounds.

The winner will "earn" a prize.

Quiz World also has support for Sony's MyBUZZ! site, which is a quiz-focused site where users can create their own sets of trivia questions. You can import your questions into the game, or search by subject and be randomly fed three rounds of user-written categories. There appear to be some decent user-written subjects out there, but most of what I was fed was poorly written and not much fun at all. But if you want to answer a whole bunch of trivia questions focused on games, the options is there. Just know that you'll probably be rating them down after you finish, especially with such dopey categories as "UNCHARTED DRAES FORTUNE TROPHY" and "LIGHTNING KWIZ," where the answer is always "LIGHTNING!"

If you've already got a set of Buzz! controllers, Quiz World goes down much easier at a $39.99 price tag, but $59.99 for a copy of the game and a set of four wireless controllers isn't bad, either. While the edges of the action can get a little rough, especially after repeated use, the core of the game offers a lot of solid trivia and a controller that anyone--even a person who has never played a video game before--can easily understand. That makes it a good dose of group fun.

Ryan — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:00:22 -0800

We celebrate the last big week of the holiday release season with discussions of the Dragon Age, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, more Modern Warfare 2 chatter, Super Street Fighter IV, the fate of Chicago Ted in Left 4 Dead 2, Assassin's Creed II, and more!

Most Popular Achievements (11/7 - 11/13)

Jeff — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:00:00 -0800

Man, it's Tuesday! I usually write this on Sunday morning, but my weekend was squarely focused on getting our New Super Mario Bros. Wii review finished and on the site. Now, it's onto my next two assignments, Buzz: Quiz World and Tony Hawk: RIDE , both of which require the use of peripherals that don't really work with many other games. Buzz, at least, is a series with other releases in it. Actually, Robomodo has gone on the record as saying that they've got another game in the works with Activision , so we'll probably see something else that takes advantage of the RIDE skateboard.

Achievementally speaking, this data covers the release week of Modern Warfare 2. Unsurprisingly, it's taken the top spot on the most popular achievements list, snatching the top spot away from the still-rolling Borderlands.

Dark skies are so Modern right now.

Top Sets

I hope the upcoming Borderlands DLC adds some more achievements. That's actually coming out really soon, which is nice, because I'm just about ready for some more Borderlands, even if I'm not the world's biggest zombie aficionado.

The new sets this week are all new releases, including the Steam version of Modern Warfare 2.

Mr. Cashman has some easy points for you.

New Sets

Quick tip for you: don't buy NBA Unrivaled. It's $15 and it's terrible. As soon as I clear out some of the bigger stuff on my plate, I want to go back and review some of the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade releases we've had to skip this season. 0D Beat Drop is kind of neat and deserves a bit of attention.

OK, this brings us to the individual achievements. Modern Warfare 2 made some heavy inroads into our individual list, taking half of the spots away from Borderlands, which was running the show for the past couple of weeks. But Borderlands has held onto the top spot. It makes sense, really, that people would frequent the page of a secret achievement that isn't immediately obvious, rather than sink too deeply into the fairly plain achievements of Modern Warfare 2.

The Crimson Lance doesn't want you to find that boat you're looking for.

Top Individual Achievements

Borderlands - You're on a boat!
Borderlands - 12 Days of Pandora
Modern Warfare 2 - Drive By
Borderlands - Made in New Haven
Borderlands - My Brother Is An Italian Plumber
Modern Warfare 2 - Ghost
Modern Warfare 2 - Danger Close
Modern Warfare 2 - Look Ma Two Hands
Modern Warfare 2 - Pit Boss
Borderlands - Speedy McSpeederton

So, before I close things out, I've got some exciting news. This weekly article is probably going to change pretty dramatically before next week, because we'll have a new homepage on the site by then. That homepage is going to have some new gadgets and information on it, including some more-useful achievement data. This stuff I'm showing is purely traffic-based. But those dudes upstairs have been building stuff based on, like, the most played game for a given day or the most-unlocked achievement. Dave actually just IM'ed me a few things based on a 100-day old version of the database he's using for development purposes...

100 days ago fallout 3 was the most popular game played

then halo 3

splosion man had the top achievement

...did you play Fallout 3 100 days ago? Odds are you did, I guess. Anyway, we'll have to see if my most popular lists are still useful after the new page goes up. If not, well, then I guess I'll have to find a different set of information to use as a jumping-off point for what's essentially become a weekly column. No sense in stopping it now.

Review of Left 4 Dead 2

Brad — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:00:00 -0800

Platform: (X360,PC)

4 out of 5

These survivors mean business.

There are a couple of things you should know about Left 4 Dead 2 . If you're the sort of person who loved the unique cooperative action and eerie undead trappings of the original --but may have felt that game was a little thin on value--know this much-improved sequel has more than enough new content to justify its status as a full-priced standalone package. Conversely, this is very much an incremental improvement over Left 4 Dead, with more campaigns, more enemy types, more multiplayer modes, more and better weapons--more of everything but, in essence, the same game. If the first one didn't do much for you, this sequel won't make a significantly different attempt to win you over, either. Based on those two statements, you might already know whether or not you'll want to bother with Left 4 Dead 2 at all.

If you're neither of those people, let me fill in some gaps. Left 4 Dead 2 is still all about the plight of four unlikely survivors brought together by the rigors of the zombie apocalypse, battling their way through a series of loosely connected scenarios rife with dramatic scripted action sequences and unpredictable undead attacks. Valve has given this sequel a more coherent cultural backdrop by setting it entirely in the South, with an arduous trek that leads you from Savannah, Georgia through a rundown old theme park, the bayou, an antebellum plantation, and right on into a New Orleans so overrun by the undead menace that it's also under assault by what remains of the nation's uninfected emergency military forces. You get everything from elevated swamp houses to a soundtrack filled with slide guitars and "When the Saints Go Marching In" to drive home exactly where it is you're fighting through.

Well, what else would you use to kill zombies onstage?

Valve has once again spun an eminently convincing yarn of the zombie-fueled end of mankind, with innumerable subtle but cumulatively effective ways to tell you how bad the outbreak has gotten. From the panicked scrawling on safehouse walls to infected riot cops and hazmat-wearing emergency management zombies who assault you, it's apparent at every turn that this has gotten bad. Real bad. And yet with no plodding cutscenes or even a hint of real exposition, Left 4 Dead 2 remains the most chilling, believable image of undead armageddon I can remember seeing in a game. Considering how many other zombie games are out there these days, that ought to tell you something.

In the same sense, a game so focused on expertly paced cooperative action might well star a group of nameless, voiceless characters who only exist to wield shotguns, so it's further testament to the fine characterizations in Left 4 Dead 2 that I want to even bother introducing Nick , Rochelle , Coach , and Ellis . They're a ragtag group every bit as memorable as the first game's team--perhaps even more so thanks to Coach's burly, world-weary witticisms and Ellis' incessant Southern-fried yammering. Valve wrote and recorded a fair sight more dialogue for this sequel that humanizes the player characters and drives home the desperation of their struggle. For all the comic relief that comes from Coach and Ellis, the first time you hear Nick growl "Goddamnit, goddamnit, god damnit !" you realize just how dire this thing is.

Steering players around as the jockey is hilarious.

If you're familiar with the first game, none of this is news to you; this sequel is more of the same, in a case where the thing everyone wanted out of the first game was, in fact, more. So let me break down the nuts and bolts: Left 4 Dead 2 is simply a bigger game than its predecessor. You've got five meaty, involved campaigns to the first game's four, each of which has a unique identity and a lot of great moments. Want to blast zombies in the Tunnel of Love? Fight your way through a raging thunderstorm that you can barely see through? Make a ridiculous last stand in the middle of a deserted rock 'n roll stage show? You'll do all of that and a lot more.

The little additions to the core gameplay add up to a big improvement. There's a huge list of new firearms in the game that have a great feel to them, and the inclusion of melee weapons that replace your sidearm is a seemingly obvious but nonetheless brilliant move. The melee weapons have a weight and potency that lets you swing through scores of zombies in seconds, and while it's fun enough to wield a chainsaw, machete, or fireman's axe, there's a far more gleeful absurdity to doing the same thing with frying pans and guitars. There's a ton of new gear that gives you more survival options as well, including an adrenaline shot that speeds up healing and revivals, a bottle of boomer bile you can hurl onto special infected like the tank to make the horde attack them, and a defibrillator that will bring a dead survivor right back to life where they fell.

The three new special infected types might collectively be the thing that most changes up the survivor/infected dynamic. The spitter delivers a nasty area-of-effect acid pool that the subversive jockey can ride a human straight into. And the charger can barrel out of nowhere to snare one survivor and separate them from the pack, then pound the hell out of them for massive damage before the other humans can do much about it. These new infected mix it up with old favorites like the boomer , smoker , and tank to make cooperative runs through the campaigns trickier and more interesting. They definitely keep you on your toes.

OK, now that is scary.

Despite all these improvements--and the AI Director 's efforts to randomize the enemy and item placement, a function it continues to perform admirably--I didn't feel the need to play through the campaigns in a purely cooperative setting more than two or three times. Those who relish a ludicrous challenge will appreciate the "Realism" option, which really amps up the difficulty by doing things like making all the zombies significantly harder to kill (even the common ones), and removing the other survivors' outlines that normally let you see them through walls. I tried playing a campaign on Expert difficulty with Realism mode enabled, and my whole group lasted roughly 90 seconds. We wiped out before we even saw any special infected. It's ridiculous. The game also isn't much fun by yourself, since the AI isn't nearly as capable as a real player, and, let's face it, you can't talk to it, either. So unless you're the sort of masochist who enjoys playing the same levels over and over at increasingly more punishing difficulty levels--and you can consistently find at least three other like-minded individuals--you probably won't go back to each campaign more than a couple of times, either, once you've seen all their admittedly wonderful tricks the first time or two.

Once again, it's the competitive multiplayer modes that give Left 4 Dead 2 its longevity. It's fortunate the fantastic Versus mode now works in all five campaigns right out of the box, letting you take control of the special infected to stop the survivors from reaching the next safehouse. Just as those new infected add a lot to the co-op against the AI, they also make Versus a lot more fun and varied, since you've now got six playable zombie types to cycle through instead of only three. There are some effective (and really funny) strategies you can pull off by combining different infected characters' special attacks together, and the greater overall range of tactical options for the infected really keeps the survivors on their toes. They'll need every bit of that new gear to win.

Dismembering zombies is a really satisfying new way to take them out quickly.

As good as Versus is, it's not a mode you can just sit down and play casually. You're effectively playing through a whole campaign twice, so you'll need a good 90 minutes to get through an entire match from start to finish. Luckily, there are now some better options for getting a shorter but still satisfying Left 4 Dead experience. The Survival mode that Valve patched into the original game makes a return here, letting you and three others fight off nonstop, brutal waves of zombies to see how long you can last. (Hint: not very long.) Survival is intense, but it's also sort of a one-trick pony.

Then there's Scavenge mode, which is my single favorite new thing in Left 4 Dead 2. The survivors start out with 90 seconds on the clock, grouped around a centrally located generator. They have to move out into the map to pick up cans of gas and dump them into that generator, each time adding an extra 20 seconds to the clock. The infected players, of course, have to stop them. Scavenge moves fast--if you shut the survivors out, the round only lasts 90 seconds--and there's a ton of potential for frantic tension between the two sides. A hunter, jockey, or charger can set up an effective ambush near the generator, stopping a survivor from delivering that last crucial gas can. Spitters can douse dropped cans to destroy them, and since cans don't regenerate, that quickly lowers the survivors' score potential. But they have a small advantage in sudden death, which continues the round after time hits zero, as long as one survivor is still holding a can. When there are precious few seconds on the clock, Scavenge becomes a mad dash to get a gas can into your hands and keep it there to keep the round from ending. Scavenge is a fast-paced, skill-intensive mode that's good for a lot of teamwork and a lot of laughs. It's probably the last thing in Left 4 Dead 2 I'll keep playing before I retire the game for good.

You must be this tall... to die! I stole that joke from Valve.

Valve continues to be one of the few first-person shooter developers doing right by both the PC and consoles--or at least the Xbox 360, since Left 4 Dead still hasn't graced the PlayStation 3 as yet. Aside from a few isolated spots where the frame rate drops to uncomfortable levels, the 360 game is a smooth, fine-looking way to play the game. I had infrequent issues connecting to my friends' open lobbies, but no more than you'd expect with any multiplayer game on Xbox Live. The PC version, on the other hand, looks significantly sharper than the 360 game and also runs a lot more smoothly on a decent system. Better, the multiplayer framework offers the best of both worlds, straddling the line between console-style "quick game" matchmaking that gets you into a game immediately, and dedicated-server support that ties into Steam groups to quickly show you any servers your friends and groupmates are running. Ultimately you should play Left 4 Dead 2 on the platform you have the most friends playing it on, but all other things being equal, the PC game is the one to get.

Left 4 Dead 2 feels like the game Valve should have shipped this time last year, and if they had, I don't think you would have heard a word about a dearth of content hampering this otherwise fantastic multiplayer experience. And you certainly can't make that claim now. Anyone who's complaining about this sequel being an overpriced expansion might as well hang it up; there is simply far more content by volume in this package than in the original. The core of Left 4 Dead may have lost some of its newness in the last 12 months, but the wealth of additions in this sequel ought to keep you blasting zombies and munching on brains for a good long while.

Atlus Bringing 3D Dot Game Heroes To North America

Jeff — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:00:00 -0800

Atlus has announced plans to bring the incredibly cool-looking 3D Dot Game Heroes to North America. The From Software action-RPG has been out in Japan for a bit, but Atlus will be bringing it here on May 11.

As the game features all sorts of sly winks to gaming's pixelated past, it's drummed up a fair amount of online interest. Here's how Atlus is describing it:

About 3D Dot Game Heroes
A long, long time ago, the Dark King Onyx brought an age of darkness upon Dotnia Kingdom. Only by the bravery of a hero with a legendary sword was Onyx sealed in an orb, restoring peace to the world. But Fuelle, a powerful Dark Bishop, has stolen the orb, and with it, peace. Dotnia requires a hero once more! Can you live up to the legend?

Key Features

Ultimate retro love letter -- Seamlessly fusing new and old, the golden era of gaming is felt in every detail of this lovingly-crafted adventure. Eye-popping visuals capture the nostalgic charm of pixel graphics in cutting edge 3D. Simple, but deep action-adventure gameplay is a throwback to the 8-bit era. Veterans will find references and jokes that pay homage to the great games of yore.

Awe and adventure live again -- Embark on the next generation of classic exploration and discovery in a grand story-based quest. A hero sets out to gain the power of the six sages and the six orbs that protected the kingdom of Dotnia, which now stands on the verge of destruction.

Customize your hero -- When pixels are your building blocks, the possibilities are unlimited. Freely edit the look of your character, or design one completely from scratch, and then trade designs with friends via a compatible USB storage device. Your hero's blade is also upgradeable, letting you add length and width to create a sword that fills the whole screen!

The game will hit shelves at a discounted price of $39.99, which sure sounds reasonable. Here, look at some screenshots of this thing!

Review of Assassin's Creed II

Ryan — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:00:00 -0800

Platform: (PS3,X360)

4 out of 5

Back in the saddle.

After an uneven start, the Assassin's Creed series is finding its footing in its second chapter. The original was an imperfect gem, a game with more heady concept and spark than staying power--qualities that, frankly, make it the ideal candidate for a more potent sequel. It would seem that the developers at Ubisoft Montreal have put considerable thought into how to bring some color and depth to the detailed and occasionally brilliant sketch work provided by the original Assassin's Creed, and that effort has paid off generously.

Assassin's Creed II has a bit more to offer those already familiar with the high-concept intricacies of the original, where you played as a bold and highly serious young assassin named Altair living in the Holy Land during the Crusades. Although, really you were playing as Desmond Miles , an average every-man strapped into a genetic memory machine called the Animus . Locked-up in a high-security facility, Desmond was forced to play through this whole Altair scenario by a high-tech, ultramodern, and exceedingly diabolical order of Templars , who are searching through history for clues concerning some ancient artifacts of supernatural power that they hope to use to end their centuries-spanning war with those do-gooder Assassins. If all this premise is just whizzing clean over your head, you may want to read up before jumping in here. Assassin's Creed II makes some token effort to catch up new players, but after a quick summary reel, it picks right back up from the final shot of the first Assassin's Creed and doesn't look back.

After an efficiently eventful opening, it's established that, with the Templars on the move and Desmond in the custody and employ of the Assassins, it's time for Desmond to start his training to become a proper, real-live killer. In a plot device of distinctly Matrixian construction, Desmond trains by hopping into the Animus (well, an Animus, anyway). This time he's playing through some of the more eventful moments in the life of an ancestor named Ezio Auditore , a privileged young man living a rambunctious, devil-may-care life in Renaissance-era Florence, Italy . In a striking and somewhat peculiar move, you start off your Ezio experience with one of the biggest events for anyone: birth. This is the first sign of what becomes one of the clear differences between this game and the last--a protagonist you can care about.

The cities are as key to the game's character as Ezio himself.

Altair was a bit of a blank slate, a character defined by his post. He was a total bad-ass, no doubt, but he often came off as callous, and for all the long-winded philosophical tap-dancing that went on, there was never any insight into the character. With Ezio, you watch as an incredibly justified vendetta drives him from brash bon vivant to brutal and unrepentant assassin, albeit one whose interests seem to line up with the greater good. Ezio's a colorful character, but much of the game's vibrance comes from the cities it takes place in, most notably Florence and Venice , both of which have such incredibly distinctive feels. The game definitely looks better when it's rendering the cramped city life than the sprawling countryside in between, though there are now numerous fast-travel points that make it easier to skip the flyover areas.

Not content creating lively, convincing renditions of real places, Assassin's Creed II weaves itself freely into the tumultuous history of Renaissance Italy, linking Ezio's path and the secret war between the Templars and the assassins with real historical figures like Lorenzo de'Medici , Dante Alighieri , Niccolò Machiavelli , and Leonard da Vinci , along with numerous, lesser figures. It's a move that doesn't necessarily make the game's fantastical events somehow more plausible, but it's done well enough to bring some verisimilitude to the setting in general.

That the events of Ezio's life are basically just a crash-course training session for Desmond make it hard to get too invested in Ezio's fate. You won't spend much time at all outside of the Animus in Assassin's Creed II, but the game still finds some fun ways to play around with the whole metafictional premise, an angle that's responsible for two of the game's most striking moments. Storywise, Assassin's Creed II has all the connective tissue of the second act in a trilogy, building on the original while creating more questions than it answers, and setting things up for what should be an interesting part three.

Altair is a figure of reverence, but Ezio could mop the floor with him.

Despite the distinctions that the characters and locales provide, the biggest differentiator between Assassin's Creed and Assassin's Creed II is that there's just so much more stuff to do here. Nearly all of the discreet systems from the first game have been evolved and elaborated on in some meaningful fashion. This starts with Ezio himself, who benefits from the resources that his social station provide, though he's also generally just a superior specimen. Ezio's more agile than Altair, able to scale buildings more rapidly and gracefully. He's better in a straight-up fight, where the timing's been relaxed a bit and you're given the additional ability to disarm your foes, making their weapons your own. Ezio's dual wrist-mounted blades give him more--and more unflinchingly brutal--assassination opportunities.

He's more capable at disappearing into a crowd, able to blend in with any groups of pedestrians wandering the streets, toss out handfuls of coins to create a commotion and distract guards, or simply hire a group of comely courtesans to provide mobile cover. While Ezio has more means by which to dodge security, guards now have more memory of your action. Too much high-profile wetworking will leave you with a notoriety level that makes it harder to get around, though you can then reduce your notoriety level by tearing down wanted signs, bribing heralds, and murdering corrupt city officials. Then there's entirely new elements, like an economic system where the monetary investments you make into the small, dilapidated town surrounding your family villa, will pay out dividends that you can spend on new weapons, armor, color schemes for your outfit, and more.

Ezio's quest for revenge leads him on a series of thinly-disguised tutorials, various configurations of assassination assignments, and some crazy, one-of-a-kind set pieces. Though a certain murder-fatigue can set in after a while, the game does its best to stave it off with regular changes of scenery and plenty of extracurricular activities. There are thankfully no flags to be collected, though there are still race, courier, and assassination side missions to take on. You'll find labyrinthine tombs that require crackerjack timing and confident command of Ezio's full set of abilities to traverse. Monuments are laced with secret symbols that, when found and activated, mete out pieces of a puzzle left behind by a less fortunate Animus subject. You'll randomly happen upon pickpockets and enemy couriers that can be hunted down for profit. Most of the time, you don't have to seek out diversion; it's much more likely that you'll just naturally get sidetracked on your way to murder someone else.

Tag, you're it!

This isn't to say there aren't some grievances to be leveled against Assassin's Creed II. Like the original, there's too much recycled voice work in the world at large, and if I never again hear the Italian-tinged voice that cries out “money, money, money!” when you toss some coins on the street, it'll be too soon. The semi-auto nature of the way Assassin's Creed's traversal systems work is a big part of what makes it feel so slick, but it can also backfire on you. Considering Ezio's high-wire lifestyle, it's usually pretty frustrating and calamitous when a your intended direction isn't interpreted the way you might hope. Lastly, this is, generally speaking, a pretty stunning-looking game, from the scale and detail of the world to Ezio's subtle, deadly movements, which makes it that much more surprising that all of the facial animation is as awkward as it is.

I came into Assassin's Creed II with a certain qualified affection for the original, and was thoroughly pleased with the lessons the developers learned between the two. But this isn't a reinvention, it's a refinement. Assassin's Creed II offers, fundamentally, the same kinds of thrills as its predecessor--leaping from rooftop to rooftop with surefooted ease, appearing out of nowhere to kill your target with a quick blade, then vanishing effortlessly into a crowd. It's just been expanded, streamlined, and overhauled in ways that bring it closer to grace and make it a much easier game to recommend.

Disclosure: The game featured in this review is or was an advertised product on giantbomb.com.

Hey, How's Your Knowledge Of Zelda?

Brad — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:00:00 -0800

Speeding soon to a DS near you.

One month from today, the newest Legend of Zelda game, Spirit Tracks , will hit the DS. Choo-choo? Yeah, OK, I've got nothing (but I'm sincerely excited to play the game when it comes out).

And I hope a few of you are too, because Nintendo will be providing us four extra copies of Spirit Tracks to send your way, provided you live in the United States. We'll give away one copy per week for the next four weeks until the game's release, along with a few other goodies like a train whistle, T-shirt, and DSiWare points card.

But you'll have to work for this stuff! There's no such thing as a free lunch, or a free Spirit Tracks, either. Instead of our usual random-drawing format, this time you'll have to be the first one to answer these five obscure Zelda trivia questions in the comments on this story to win. And I warn you, these questions are not kind. Put on your thinking ( Minish ) caps, find the answers to these questions, and be the first to drop them in the comments to win this week's game. Of course, if you just want to discuss the game or talk about how hard these questions are, that's fine too.

What is the only Zelda game that Octoroks have not appeared in?
Which piece of the Triforce does Link earn in the original Legend of Zelda?
In what game besides Link’s Awakening did the Ballad of the Windfish appear?
At the beginning of A Link to the Past , where are all three pieces of the Triforce?
Who is the Oracle of Ages ?

That's it. I suspect some of these will take a little digging, so I'll let you get to work. The winner will be contacted via private message, so keep an eye on your inboxes here in the site once you enter.

And don't forget, you'll have three more chances to win, so come back next week for the next round of questions.

UPDATE: We have a winner! And that winner will be contacted via private message.

An important note: The three subsequent trivia challenges will post at 1pm Pacific Standard Time on the next three Mondays, so you won't have to worry about missing your next chance to win. Just make sure you've got your eyes on the forums or news feed at that time so you can take a stab at being the first with the correct answers.

Super Street Fighter IV Hands-On

Jeff — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:00:00 -0800

Oh, my car!

It's not going to hit shelves until next year, but it looks like work on Super Street Fighter IV is progressing nicely. I recently got the chance to head down to Capcom and take a look at the three characters who have been confirmed to appear in this SFIV update, and though it's still a little early to tell how the whole package is going to come together, Juri feels like an interesting addition, and the returning duo of Dee Jay and T.Hawk feel about how you'd expect.

Right off the bat, Juri feels like a more exciting character than any of the four that were introduced in Street Fighter IV. That's probably just my personal style talking, but I never found myself too interested in C.Viper , Rufus , Abel , or El Fuerte . Well, maybe a little Abel here and there. Anyway, Juri's a fast-moving character with a built-in counter move, as well as a delayed fireball that starts with a little kick animation, but the projectile doesn't actually appear until you release the kick button. Like some of the other projectiles in SFIV, Juri's comes at you differently depending on which kick button is used to perform the attack. This lets her throw them low, high, or at an upward angle. The projectiles don't live long enough to make it across the entire screen, but they don't move very quickly, making them a bit of a lingering threat. Juri also has a spin kick, and a mid-air dive kick, both of which can be spotted in the gameplay footage Capcom has released. Here's a look at Juri and Dee Jay.

Yes, that's a new announcer. He sounds like some kind of out-of-control robot that just says crazier and crazier things as the fight goes on.

Dee Jay, of course, first appeared in Super Street Fighter II , where I did my best to basically pretend he didn't exist. Let's be honest here: Fei Long and Cammy were the real stars out of the "New Challengers" added back then. But most of his action remains intact here. Dee Jay continues to be a charge character, throwing projectiles and offering a couple of charge kicks. The machine gun upper is currently done by pounding on punch buttons, much like Honda 's slap, and the EX version of it absorbs fireballs. T. Hawk returns with the same moves, including the devastating typhoon, his version of the spinning pile-driver. I was left with the impression that a lot of the gameplay specifics and properties of the different moves was still up in the air, so it seems like any of this stuff is still subject to change before release.

MAXIMUM

There will, of course, be more characters in the final product, but those three are all that anyone's talking about right now. The full roster of SFIV characters will also be available in some sort of updated and/or rebalanced form, and the publisher is currently committing to "about eight" new characters. There will also be an "enhanced Ultra Combo system."

All of this will come with a redesigned online mode that will offer some additional options, like a team battle mode that matches up to eight players together for a group throwdown, a quarter match-style mode where the winner stays on while other players rotate through, and a "replay channel" that lets players watch and discuss other matches. Bonus stages, where players bash apart a car or beat up barrels will also be added.

All told, this sounds like a really substantial update to the original Street Fighter IV, but a lot of that will depend on the quality of the characters that have yet to be announced and the specifics of whatever changes are made to the existing characters. With plenty of those left to announce, you can probably count on a very slow drip of information out of Capcom between now and the game's release this Spring.

I Love Mondays: 11/23/09

drewbert — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:45:04 -0800

Click To Watch Video

Ready your tryptophan countermeasures, those turkeys aren't going to eat themselves.

Review of New Super Mario Bros. Wii

Jeff — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:00:00 -0800

Platform: (WII)

4 out of 5

The penguin suit lets you walk normally on ice.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii is kind of a goofy title, but it tells you just about everything you need to know about Nintendo 's latest release. It's new. It's got those Super Mario Bros. guys in it. And it's for the Wii . The nostalgist in me wants to stop right there and say "That's all you need to know, get to a store!" But that'd be pretty irresponsible. You should probably know for sure that this Wii sequel to the DS release of New Super Mario Bros. updates the classic side-scrolling formula in most of the same ways that the DS game did back in 2006. You'll be expected to collect big coins and find the occasional secret exit when you're attempting to play seriously. But there's also an outrageously chaotic multiplayer mode that feels like an entirely different game.

The story and setting for New Super Mario Bros. Wii feels very rooted in the Super Mario Bros. 3 style of airships, world maps, suits, and the Koopa kids, who serve as both mid-bosses and bosses for each of the game's eight main worlds and impede your progress as you attempt to save Princess Peach yet again. But this isn't a remake of SMB3. You'll see some Super Mario World -era stuff sprinkled in there, and Mario 's abilities include the butt stomp , triple jump , wall jump , and spin attack . So there's more to it than just running, jumping, and throwing the occasional fireball , and most of the variety comes from the game's power-ups. Most of them are pretty standard for the series, including the fire flower and the mini-mushroom, which makes you small. The more interesting additions are things like the propeller suit, which gives you a burst of flight when you shake the Remote, the ice flower, which shoots ice balls that freeze enemies, and the penguin suit, which lets you walk normally on ice, lets you slide on your stomach for long distances, and also lets you shoot the same ice balls that the ice flower offers.

As you make your way from one end of this adventure to the other, you'll pass through the standard array of themed levels. Yes, you read that right, New Super Mario Bros. Wii has an ice world and a fire world, a combination so potent that I almost feel like an idiot for even writing about it. Seriously, I might as well just write "This game has coins in it and when you collect 100 of them, you're awarded with an extra life, which the game calls a 1UP." My point is that if you've been playing games for awhile, you already know most of what to expect from New Super Mario Bros. Wii. It doesn't rock the boat too much.

This coin battle stage takes things back to the original Mario Bros.

Unsurprisingly, that's also one of the game's best qualities. With this product, Nintendo is simply reselling your childhood to you in a way that's playable on its latest hardware. Or, if you're still a child, it's doing the Disney thing by repacking its history in ways that are still palatable. By modernizing some bits around the edges, this doesn't feel like some kind of cheap rehash or shameless cash-in. By giving you more control over the characters via the additional jumping moves and power-ups like the ice flower, which lets you freeze enemies into blocks of ice that you can then stand on, the game provides a path for players who want to play with reckless abandon, holding down the run button at all times and just doing everything they can to stay alive during a mad break for the finish line. Playing this way is fairly doable if you've grown up alongside the series and still have most of your platforming wits about you, mostly because the game isn't terribly difficult and rarely asks you to do anything out-of-the-ordinary unless you're hellbent on finding every secret exit and collecting every last star coin, which opens up bonus levels at the end of the game. I also found it to be a lot more fun to play a little recklessly, and the way the game constantly throws extra lives at you means that you'll have plenty of backup if a section gets rough.

For players who don't want the added intensity, taking it slower is a viable, and significantly easier option. Patient players probably won't die very often. If you're an absolute beginner and manage to die eight times on the same level, the game will offer to show you a route through the level. You can interrupt the playback of this "super guide" at any point and take control yourself, or you can just let it play through the entire level. This will let you skip levels, but you won't get any star coins if you don't do it yourself. But it's hard to imagine any but the most novice of players needing to heavily rely on this option, given the game's relative ease. It's certainly not as hard as Super Mario World or Super Mario Bros. 3, if you're looking for some point of comparison.

You can also play through the levels with up to three other players, who take on the role of Luigi and two Toads. Though the levels and the end goal remain the same, playing with other people turns New Super Mario Bros. Wii into an entirely different game. Players can't pass through one-another, and you can pick up and toss other players, too. Combined with a bunch of tight platforms and a level or two that kills players if they get scrolled off of the screen, this all becomes complete and total chaos with players bumping each other into open holes by mistake or, if your friends are particularly vicious, tossing each other into those same holes on purpose. Carefully collecting coins and working your way through the worlds goes right out the window and you're basically forced to hold on and enjoy the ride as you bop and bump each other through the levels.

There are a lot of rotating platforms and other tricky stuff to deal with in the later levels.

That said, there are ways to actually cooperate, such as forming human towers and jumping off of each other to get the top player up to some high, normally unreachable area. But coordinating that stuff takes more patience than I've got. Perhaps it depends on who you're playing with. Either way, it makes a strong case for offline multiplayer, as the only thing that would make all of this more difficult would be if the other three players were on the other side of a voice chat instead of right there alongside you, occasionally coordinating a strategy or two. The game really comes alive when you're playing in a group, but it's so crazy that if you're trying to play seriously, it'll just be frustrating. Also, the game pauses for a split-second whenever anyone grabs a power-up or dies. If you're mid-jump or just really focusing on what you're doing while another player is off dying or getting mushrooms, the pause is really disorienting. But if you're just looking to screw around and have a good time, you'll have some fun with the multiplayer modes.

Visually, New Super Mario Bros. Wii looks fine, but not everything stands up to close inspection. The polygonal player models look a little funky at times, especially if you're playing at 480i. It probably depends on what sort of TV you're using, but it didn't always look technically proficient on larger screens. That said, the artistic direction offers the high-color worlds of wonder that you've come to expect from a Mario game. As long as you aren't getting up close and personal with the on-screen action, it looks just fine. The game's soundtrack is peppered with yet another batch of remixes of songs from throughout the Mario canon.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii doesn't make dramatic changes to the "New" game that was released on the DS, but by offering more substantial multiplayer and a set of new levels to conquer, it stands out as one of the Wii's best. New Super Mario Bros. Wii is a great throwback that'll probably suck you in for a couple of days all by yourself, and for a bit longer if you've got friends that you want to toss into a bottomless pit.

Ryan — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:09:49 -0800

It's a Giant Spoilercast as we discuss many of the specifics of the single-player experience in Modern Warfare 2.

Review of LEGO Rock Band

Ryan — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:00:00 -0800

Platform: (X360)

3 out of 5

Rock out with your block out!

Traveller's Tales has found surprising success over the past few years with its playful action adventure games that combine familiar intellectual properties like Star Wars and Batman with that finest of Danish exports, LEGOs . Traveller's Tales has taken this chocolate-and-peanut-butter idea in an intriguing, peculiar direction with LEGO Rock Band , which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: a standard Rock Band experience that's been coated in those distinctive plastic building blocks.

Unlike Traveller's Tales previous LEGO efforts, the LEGO element feels more like cutesy window dressing here than an integral part of the experience. With the LEGO license and the E10+ rating, LEGO Rock Band is ostensibly an all-ages, family-friendly angle on the Rock Band formula. But in pursuing an everything-for-everybody design, the game ends up with a track list that's just as unfocused as Activision 's competing Band Hero , though without that game's overall polish. There's nothing inherently faulty about the underlying ideas here, but in execution LEGO Rock Band is ultimately less than the sum of its parts.

LEGO Rock Band largely abides by the basic structure that you've come to know from the other Rock Band games. You've got full support for guitar, bass, drums, and vocals, and you can play with any combination thereof in either a free play mode or the game's story mode. Other than the addition of a new super easy difficulty and a generally more forgiving level of difficulty than the mainline Rock Band games, the only real significant difference gameplay-wise is the LEGO Recovery Mode. Usually, when you fail out of a song in Rock Band, it requires another player to sacrifice some portion of his or her overdrive meter to bring you back into the action. With the LEGO Recovery Mode, you can earn your second chance to keep going after you've failed out by successfully hitting a series of notes. Beyond making it possible to keep yourself going when you're playing solo, it's not necessarily a better way to handle keeping everyone in the game, but it's different.

We will, we will, BLOCK YOU!

Alternately, the story mode in LEGO Rock Band feels like a more confined version of the world tour mode that has helped Rock Band turn its persistent experience into more than a list of songs to be played through. The issues I take with the story mode are twofold. While you still open up new songs, new venues, new modes of transport, and additional support staff for your band as you play, you get none of the globe-trotting feel of being a rock band out on tour. It is, admittedly, primarily an issue of presentation. The menus just move from one room to another inside your Rock Den, which serves as a customizable base of operation for your band, rather than some kind of world map. My other big issue is that I felt there were more choke points in the story progression where I found myself forced to play, or in the more bothersome circumstances, replay songs that I had little interest in playing in order to advance.

This second issue is exacerbated by the fact that the track list in LEGO Rock Band is just all over the place in a way that makes me suspect that the folks behind this game weren't really sure who they were making this game for. Goofy crowd-pleasers like Bon Jovi's “You Give Love a Bad Name”, Queen's “We Are the Champions” and “We Will Rock You”, Carl Douglas' “Kung Fu Fighting”, and Ray Parker Jr.'s “Ghostbusters” seem to be aimed at a more casual crowd than the usual Rock Band game, and that seems like the right direction for LEGO Rock Band. But then the novelty songs and Top 40 stuff is accompanied by b-sides from bands like Counting Crows, Blink 182, Supergrass, and Good Charlotte, and a number of bands that I've just simply never heard of. Maybe that's a personal failing, but I feel like a track list that's meant to be Fun For the Whole Family should be more consistently familiar and hummable. To its credit, LEGO Rock Band has support for Rock Band DLC, opening up the music you can play here. You can also export the track list out of LEGO Rock Band for an additional, fairly nominal fee, making them available for play in other Rock Band games that support general DLC. In the context of a larger Rock Band play list, the songs available here make a whole lot more sense.

I've officially run out of LEGO puns. Enjoy this screenshot on its own merits!

For as fundamentally similar to past Rock Band games as this is, there's something about the basic gameplay in LEGO Rock Band that just feels off. It's pretty subtle, and if you haven't played a whole lot of Rock Band, you might not notice, but it's somehow more mechanical, like there's more of a disconnect between what you're hearing and how you're playing.

In the end, LEGO Rock Band just doesn't do a terrific job of justifying its existence as a standalone game. The LEGO hook doesn't go too far beyond the superficial novelty of watching little Lego people jump around bombastic venues as you play, and too much of the music just feels mismatched to the underlying concept. Even if you're looking for an experience that's more kid-friendly, there are still better ways to rock.

Final Fantasy XIII: March 9 In North America

Brad — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:00:00 -0800

You can stop worrying: There are in fact games coming out early next year. One of them is Final Fantasy XIII , which Square Enix has just confirmed will release in North America on March 9. That's both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game.

The company also confirmed the game's requisite pop song will be performed by... Leona Lewis. Still scratching my head a bit over that one, though at least this choice will curry more favor in Western markets than the Japanese pop stars that have contributed to previous games in the series. This also marks the first time Final Fantasy and Simon Cowell have come together in a meaningful capacity.

Hey, Square put out a trailer to promote this announcement. This trailer has a host . They are serious about this.

While I'm throwing promotional business at you, here are three new shots of the game, along with the company pitch on the game's story and features (WARNING: STRAIGHT OUT THE PRESS RELEASE). Square would also like you to know that three new characters--Fang, Hope, and Serah--are now on display at the official site , too.

Story

Cocoon — a utopia in the sky.
Its inhabitants believed their world a paradise.
Under the Sanctum's rule, Cocoon had long known peace and prosperity.
Mankind was blessed by its protectors, the benevolent fal'Cie, and believed that tranquil days would continue forever.
Their tranquility was shattered with the discovery of one hostile fal'Cie.
The moment that fal'Cie from Pulse — the feared and detested lowerworld — awoke from its slumber, peace on Cocoon came to an end.
Fal'Cie curse humans, turning them into magic-wielding servants.
They become l'Cie — chosen of the fal'Cie.
Those branded with the mark of a l'Cie carry the burden of either fulfilling their Focus or facing a fate harsher than death itself.
A prayer for redemption.
A wish to protect the world.
A promise to challenge destiny.
After thirteen days of fates intertwined, the battle begins.

Features

Take Part in a Gaming Experience that Sets New Standards – The first in the series developed for a simultaneous release on multiple high-definition consoles, FINAL FANTASY XIII pushes new boundaries in cinematic presentation, sound and gameplay.
Experience the Unity of Speed and Strategy with the Ultimate Active Time Battle system – The familiar system has evolved, granting players the freedom of executing numerous commands in a single turn with the multi-slot ATB gauge. Whether inputting singular commands in each slot for consecutive attacks, or expending multiple slots at once to activate a devastating blow, it’s up to the players to respond effectively to the battle conditions at hand.
Adapt to the Ever-Changing Tide of Battle with Paradigms – A brand-new game mechanic enabling players to assign roles to their party members at any time during battle, shifting between combat paradigms. Consisting of various combinations of the game's six roles, ranging from Commando, the offensive specialist, to Medic, the quintessential healer, paradigms allow players to respond and adapt instantly to any given situation to turn the tide and seize victory.
Witness the Battle Scene Transform with an All-New Summon System – Introducing Gestalt Mode, a powerful dimension of the summon system that elevates the action to a whole new level. In Gestalt Mode, characters and their transformed Eidolons fight as one, dealing massive damage to enemies through simple button commands.
Delve into an Emotional Experience – An immersive storyline connects players to an intriguing cast of characters. Will they have the strength to confront their cursed fates, or will destiny prevail over all that they believe in?

Now that FFXIII has a release date and consequently is starting to feel more like a video game and not some nebulous idea, I'm actually kind of getting excited about this thing. Where's your hype level and what platform are you feeling for this one?

Review of PSP Version

Jeff — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:00:00 -0800

Platform: (PSP)

5 out of 5

The camera hovers above the action, giving you a great view of your surroundings.

Though Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars was originally developed for the Nintendo DS , the game's translation to the PSP hasn't lost the action and the flavor of the original. The biggest change is that the touchscreen minigames, which have you hot-wiring cars, assembling sniper rifles, and digging through trash cans, have been reworked to function with the PSP's more traditional controls. Some of those minigames work better than others in their new form, but it's such a minor part of the overall game that it doesn't really add or detract from the overall experience, which is still great.

The technical aspects of Chinatown Wars were impressive on the DS, and the PSP version looks quite a bit sharper and cleaner than the original release. It maintains the same top-down perspective that fueled the original Grand Theft Auto games, which may seem a bit weird to PSP owners, since Sony's handheld has received GTA games that look a lot more like their console counterparts. Chinatown Wars is better than those games, both because it has a cool, stylized look and because it simply plays better this way on a handheld.

The PSP version of the game also makes some interesting additions and changes that help adapt this DS game to a system that only has one screen that doesn't do anything, no matter how hard you stab it with a stylus. Without a second screen to fill with information, the game's minimap is a bit hard to deal with. So the smartest thing you can do is go into the options and turn on "World GPS," which draws route lines on the actual road. Unfortunately, you'll still have to go into the pause menus and look at the map to plot destinations when you're not on a mission. Loading up the menus takes a little bit of time, and navigating the map to drop waypoints isn't all that slick with the PSP's controls.

However, putting up with menu navigation is pretty minor in the grand scheme of things. GTA: Chinatown Wars is a quality product that gives you a camera perspective and gameplay that fits really well on a handheld. It might not be quite as ambitious as attempting to completely duplicate the console experience (like the " Stories " set of PSP releases did), but it works wonderfully and catches plenty of the GTA experience, despite the different perspective and still-frame cutscene style. If you're looking for this sort of open-world game on your PSP, approach without caution.

For more details on the story and other gameplay elements of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, be sure to check out our original review of the DS version, which covers these elements in more depth.

Here's Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare! On The Wii!

Brad — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:00:00 -0800

If for no other reason than to spray something Modern Warfare -related across every inch of our website here, I will now share with you the box art and screenshots from the Call of Duty 4 port to the Wii, Reflex Edition.

Better late than never, no? Any interest in trying this thing out? The shots don't look half bad, honestly.

Ryan — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:39:07 -0800

Brad has fun in Chinatown, Jeff flashes his firmware, Ryan gets Rabbid, Vinny returns a changed man, and we all talk a lot of Modern Warfare 2 in this week's edition of the Giant Bombcast.

Review of Modern Warfare 2

Jeff — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Platform: (PS3,X360)

5 out of 5

Don't worry. Ghost has your back.

Modern Warfare 2 represents Infinity Ward 's first work since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare raised the developer's profile (and increased the bulge in its wallet) several orders of magnitude. But rather than taking a ton of huge big-budget risks, Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer carefully builds upon the developer's previous success in ways that will astound people who have spent the last two years learning every corner of every map in the previous game. Instead, the risky stuff is saved for the single-player campaign, which offers tightly packed thrills and rock-solid gameplay, though the narrative is so wild it can get exhausting.

The big draw in Modern Warfare 2 is its competitive multiplayer. Online, up to 18 players can meet up in several different types of matches, which cover the standard bases, like deathmatch and team deathmatch , as well as capture the flag and several other objective-style matches. The action takes place across 16 different maps that offer a variety of shapes, sizes, and styles. You'll fight across the rooftop of a large office building in Highrise, while Rust is a very small area designed for hectic free-for-alls, sort of like Shipment was in Call of Duty 4, but with a bit more verticality. Urban areas dominate the map list, but you'll also find large, mostly flat areas like Wasteland. If you're like me, and don't like getting shot at by snipers from large distances, you'd do well to stay low on Wasteland.

The core activity in the multiplayer hasn't changed a bit. It's still about putting the sights of your gun on the enemy and carefully pulling the trigger. The little clicks that let you know that you've hit your target, or the way grenades clink around on the ground, regardless of surface, haven't changed at all, either. But everything that surrounds these basic concepts has been expanded and modified in a lot of interesting ways. The concept of selectable killstreak bonuses is probably the most interesting change. Like before, you can call in UAV drones to give yourself a better sense of where the enemies are currently located if you can get three kills in a row. You can also still call in airstrikes and helicopters. But you can also call in supply drops, send up counter-UAVs that block enemy radar, send in a harrier jet that hovers above the battle and guns down the opposition, or even call in a Predator missile strike, which lets you quickly control a missile as it drops from the sky, hopefully onto a cluster of enemies. At the outer edges of the killstreak lies a bonus that pretty much levels the playing field. It's a tactical nuke that, when deployed, destroys the arena, kills all the players, and ends the game, regardless of score. That might sound like a nuisance that greatly unbalances the game, but it puts a strong highlight onto the risk versus reward system that comes into play with these killstreaks.

Sure, the world might be close to ending, but there's always time for a swim.

To get that tactical nuke, you'll need to kill 25 people in a row. Without dying once. By comparison, a UAV is still three kills and a supply drop is just four. While it's certainly attainable by the most dedicated and savage players, it seems unlikely that a nuke will be deployed. First of all, a player would have to sacrifice a potentially more useful but lower quality killstreak to make room for the nuke. Even though you'll be able to unlock all of the killstreaks, you can still only select three at any given time. On top of that... they'd have to go kill 25 players without dying . Chances are, if a player is capable of doing that, that player's team is probably going to win anyway. Overall, the amount of kills required to call in the heavy artillery feels balanced. It also helps that you're able to more easily counter the enemy's air support.

You can shoot down enemy UAVs now. That sounds like a minor thing, but it's a great illustration of how much more important things like rocket launchers are in multiplayer this time around. Keeping your movements a secret is as easy as firing a heat-seeker up at the little unmanned plane as it buzzes across the sky. Perks like Cold-Blooded help even more by making you invisible to both UAVs and other AI-controlled support, like sentry guns or attack helicopters. So while there's a greater variety of things in the sky that want to kill you, the individual soldier on the ground has been empowered, as well, keeping things level. Heck, even if you can't get the drop on most enemies with your rifle, shooting down their air support is still a great thing to do to help out your team.

The system of class creation has been expanded in spots and heavily reworked in others. Perks that got a lot of complaints in COD4, like Martyrdom and Juggernaut, have been heavily reworked. For starters, Martyrdom is now a "deathstreak" bonus. If you die four times in a row without killing anyone, your next spawn will give you one instance of Martyrdom. This makes it a lot more rare, as opposed to COD4, where almost every player dropped a grenade every time they died. Juggernaut is gone completely, but there's a rough equivalent to it in Painkiller, another deathstreak perk that will spawn you with triple health if you die three times in a row... but the health bonus only lasts for ten seconds after spawning. Everything feels changed up just enough to feel totally fresh while still letting you outfit the type of character you want.

Brazil looks awfully hellish at this time of year.

Additionally, each of the main perks has a "Pro" version that unlocks when you complete specific challenges while using that perk. So, for example, the Bling perk lets you put two attachments on your primary weapon. This means you can have a red dot sight and a silencer, or a heartbeat sensor and full metal jacketed ammo. By using Bling, you'll eventually get Bling Pro, which also lets you put two attachments on your secondary weapon. Commando increases the distance of your melee attack. Commando Pro does that while also preventing you from taking falling damage... which is totally awesome, by the way. All the challenges for weapons and perks mean that you always have something to shoot for that's just out of reach. As a result, you're always unlocking something and messing around with your created classes to find just the right balance of tactics and murderousness.

That balance is the true core of Modern Warfare 2's online play. It's an exhilarating mix that forces tension by rewarding you for taking it slowly. Players that run around corners are just begging to get a knife stuck in their impatient faces. Slowing things down a bit lets you take it all in and, hopefully, get the drop on your opponents. It also makes you an easy target for snipers, Predator missiles, and a lot of other nasty stuff. While there have been plenty of tactical shooters out there, and there have been plenty of almost arcade-like shooters, too, Modern Warfare 2 blends the styles perfectly and has a feel all its own.

The downside of all this is that with shooting that feels roughly identical to the previous Modern Warfare, there are a ton of players out there that are already way better than you are at shooting people. The player matching does its best to get you into games with similarly skilled players, but if you're looking for a different challenge that doesn't force you to play alone, there's Special Ops. This is a two-player cooperative mode with 23 missions, many of which reuse environments from the single-player portion of the game. When you've got someone with you--and players can revive one-another if they're shot up during the course of a mission--even the higher difficulty settings feel totally possible. While the main idea of staying alive and gunning down enemies crosses over into just about every mission, there are a lot of different things to do. One early mission has you perched on a rooftop, sniping soldiers as they rush your position. In the second wave, you're given a Predator missile kit, letting you lay down destruction from relative safety.

Other missions ape the style of the sniper missions from COD4 and MW2, letting you crawl through Chernobyl in a ghillie suit or try to hide out in snowy bushes while troops and dogs track you down. One mission has you split up with your associate. One of you remains on the ground while the other keeps him safe from the gunner seat of an AC-130 airplane. Another has you shooting up a suburban neighborhood overrun by enemies from the gunner seat on a helicopter, while your buddy has to navigate treacherous cul-de-sacs on his way to an extraction point on top of what might as well be a TGI Fridays. You can even engage in a snowmobile race. You earn stars as you play, which are used to unlock additional tiers of missions. It's a fantastic addition to the game that extends the life of the campaign areas while also giving players who are still too scared of the competitive multiplayer a way to interact with friends.

They'll fight for freedom, wherever there's trouble.

There is, of course, a single-player campaign in Modern Warfare 2, as well. It picks up five years after the events of Call of Duty 4 and covers the exploits of a multinational group called Task Force 141. This is the group that includes Soap , the main player character from COD4. The game is set into motion by Vladimir Makarov , a Russian who used to work for the now-dead bad guy from COD4, Imran Zakhaev . When Makarov slaps on his best American accent and shoots up a Russian airport, all hell breaks loose, worldwide. This includes attacks on American targets from the Russians. As Gary "Roach" Sanderson , a soldier working under "Soap" MacTavish, you'll attempt to fight back against the madness that Makarov has set in motion.

Not that you'll play as "Roach" for the entire game. The campaign functions in the traditional format of the Call of Duty series , so you'll be swapping between multiple player characters over the course of the single-player game. This lets the game switch between multiple theaters, showing you the hunt for Makarov going on in one part of the world while occasionally flashing back to Washington DC, where Russians are attacking en masse. In these sequences, you'll fight to secure territory, help evacuate civilians, and so on.

If you remember Infinity Ward's previous game, then you know that Modern Warfare 2 would have to go pretty far overboard to top something like a nuclear blast that kills one of your player characters. Without getting too specific, let's say that the burning American monuments shown in trailers leading up to the game's release are just the beginning. A lot of crazy and kind of messed-up things go down over the course of your mission, to the point where the developers felt the need to include a "Disturbing Content Warning" that pops up at the beginning of the game. This only applies to one early sequence in the game, but the upshot is that you can skip this potentially disturbing sequence, if you like. That's an interesting way to handle something that, taken out of context, will probably look pretty bad. In the context of the game, though, it feels like an absolutely vital part of the story, told from a very interesting direction. In fact, it's this one sequence that sets all of the events of Modern Warfare 2 in motion. The larger issue is that the story feels like it's trying too hard to top the events of the previous game and shock you every 45 minutes or so. Some of the shocks are genuinely amazing, but there are so many different attempts at freaking you out that it starts to lose its impact and get a little tiring by the end of the campaign.

Juggernauts make the Special Ops mode... interesting.

It'll probably take most players somewhere around five hours to get through Modern Warfare 2 on its default difficulty setting. In that time, you'll use Predator drones to shoot missiles at ground targets, you'll knock choppers out of the sky, you'll drive a snowmobile, and you'll walk alongside an armored vehicle, just like you did in the War Pig level of COD4, but this time it'll be in a very different setting. Overall, the campaign is a short, high-quality blast of action that's definitely worth seeing. Whether or not you'll go back through and play it again depends on how much of a glutton for punishment you are. Like the Call of Duty games before it, Modern Warfare 2's higher difficulty settings force you to play more and more carefully as you ratchet it up. If you're the type of patient player that loves to duck in and out of cover very quickly, you'll enjoy it. I ended up having a great time on the game's standard setting and got very little pleasure out of the harder options.

Modern Warfare 2 is a sharp-looking game with a real dedication to keeping its frame rate up. Its smooth frame rate is a real asset that makes the action look great, but it's also backed up by some good, solid animation and large areas that fill up with enemies. All hell breaks loose at several spots in the campaign, and the technology behind the action is more than up to the challenge. While it isn't an order of magnitude greater than Call of Duty 4 at first glance, the larger scope of some areas feel like things that might not have been possible before, at least not without sacrificing texture or model quality.

Everything is also supported by a great, cinematic soundtrack, a lot of great gunfire and explosion sounds, and some strong voice work out of its cast. The returning voices make the world feel familiar and help tie it to Call of Duty 4. But work by guys like Lance Henriksen and Keith David also add a lot. The lines are delivered with a certain level of conviction that helps sell the plot, even when it starts to spin out of control. That said, the nearly constant use of the phrase "Oscar Mike," mostly by the American troops, starts to get really distracting. In case you were wondering, it means "On the Move." Apparently the script writers watched a lot of Generation Kill , which certainly contributed to the phrase entering the civilian lexicon.

Since it's building on such a strong framework, it might be hard to go completely nuts over the release of Modern Warfare 2. But if you've played a significant amount of Infinity Ward's last game, the improvements are numerous and they are supremely satisfying. If you've ever been interested in a first-person shooter, buy this game.

The New Greatest Picture On This Website Of Ours

Jeff — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:00:00 -0800

From Ice-T's Twitter :

Provided you aren't going to be in line somewhere, come back around midnight PST for our review... which I should probably finish writing, now that I think about it.

Most Popular Achievements (10/31 - 11/6)

Jeff — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 11:00:00 -0800

This is it. It's the last weekend before Modern Warfare 2 is released. For some of you, it's a weekend filled with anticipation. For others, it's a weekend of complete indifference as you watch the Internet explode around you as every little bit of the game leaks. Leaks? Oh, right, for some of you, it's a weekend where you're playing Modern Warfare 2, because there are plenty of shops out there that'll break the street date for just about anything. Apparently GameStop stores in the North East part of the US have been given some kind of corporate go-ahead to just start selling the game, probably since plenty of independent game stores in those parts started selling the game last week. Makes me wish there were more stores like that around here. I can't even think of one non-chain game store in my immediate area.

Look at these guys, acting all "modern" and stuff.

Regardless of how you feel about Modern Warfare 2 (and it really seems like no one is truly neutral about it, because even the ones who say they're indifferent want to go out of their way to TELL YOU THAT IN ALL CAPS), it's always exciting to see these big tent-pole moments, where huge games get released and people line up to get them. It's interesting to see publishers of other games sort of move their games out of a bigger game's path. That's why some stuff got pushed to 2010. Love it or hate it, Infinity Ward's latest is going to cast a long shadow over the rest of the year.

Anyway, on to the data. I've gotten out my interpreter hat and rolled up my not-actually-an-analyst sleeves, and by looking at the achievements page for Borderlands, I'm going to say that the people who play that game are playing the hell out of it. Its an interesting case, because it doesn't have any achievements that are especially difficult. You just need to put in the time to get them. And clearly, you guys are putting in the time. There are no more "rare" achievements for Borderlands, and only three of them still show as "uncommon." Two of those uncommon achievements are for hitting levels 40 and 50, so it's really just a matter of putting in the time.

Here's a quick, unsorted list of assorted releases and the number of people playing them as of Saturday morning. I think these numbers probably tell you more about the site's audience than any genuine sales trend, but I'm sure someone out there could cook up a formula that eventually tied these numbers to sales, if they wanted to.

I think I mostly wanted to show those numbers to note the following:

- LEGO Rock Band is outperforming Band Hero so far, but not by much.

- Jurassic: The Hunted was released with as little fanfare as possible and I think our Quick Look of the game is the only coverage anyone's done so far. After watching that video, I wouldn't buy Jurassic, either. Except I already bought it. Damn.

- If 1,500 people are playing the not-as-good-as-PC version of Dragon Age, how many people must be playing the PC version?

- My guess is that DJ Hero and Tekken 6 are moving some units based on their name recognition, but neither game really took off at launch.

OK, let's get into the traditional lists. It's not especially surprising that Borderlands has held onto the top spot. Also, predictably, Modern Warfare 2 has resurfaced as interest in actually playing the game begins to swell. And The Ballad of Gay Tony has reignited Grand Theft Auto IV's popularity quite nicely. The site's significant international readership is probably responsible for Football Manager 2010 making the list.

And hey, this zombie thing for Borderlands is still coming this year, too.

Top 10 Sets

We've got a new pile of unreleased games in the achievements system this week, including some 2010 releases. So if you want to start planning out your January, be sure to look at the Dark Void achievements .

Tesla tells Will that he'll need to jack more spaceships if he wants all the achievements in Dark Void.

New Sets

Wallace & Gromit #2
Wallace & Gromit #4
Winning Eleven 2010 (I think this is the Japanese version?)
Chaotic: Shadow Warriors
Polar Panic
Rogue Warrior
Madden NFL Arcade
Encleverment Experiment
Dark Void
NCAA Basketball 10
The Tale of Despereaux
Big Brain Wolf (Steam)

And, finally, the individual achievements list. Borderlands is still holding on tight, but it doesn't control all ten spots like it did last week. People are looking for specific help on how to freefall as much as possible in The Ballad of Gay Tony , and they're also trying to figure out how to score 100,000 points in a single Forza 3 drift lap. That Forza achievement is probably the only one in the game that qualifies as tough. The rest reward you for specific, easy behavior or for just putting in the hours and gaining all your levels.

Donkey Kong?

Top 10 Individual

Borderlands - You're on a boat!
Borderlands - My Brother Is An Italian Plumber
Borderlands - 12 Days of Pandora
Borderlands - Fully Loaded
Borderlands - Made in New Haven
Grand Theft Auto IV - TBoGT: Adrenaline Junkie
Borderlands - Speedy McSpeederton
Borderlands - Ding! Champion
Forza Motorsport 3 - Drift Lap
Borderlands - Can't We Get BEYOND Thunderdome?

OK, I'm going to go brace myself for the release of Modern Warfare 2. Actually, thanks to some retailers' inability to obey street dates and the notion of "overnight shipping," I'm just going to go play Modern Warfare 2. Review Tuesday.

Review of Rabbids Go Home

Ryan — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:00:00 -0800

Platform: (WII)

4 out of 5

BWAAAH!

Since their introduction as foils to The Limbless One in Rayman Raving Rabbids for the Nintendo Wii , I've maintained a baseline of fondness for the Rabbids , even after I had lost interest in the increasingly familiar minigame collections in which they almost exclusively appeared. It's an affection I find challenging to articulate without referencing past masters of idiots, explosives, and falling anvils like Looney Tunes , or Joe Dante's Gremlins . There's just something about their free-spirited enthusiasm for madness that I either relate to or secretly envy.

So it pleases me greatly to see these manic, furry little agents of chaos trying something new in Rabbids Go Home. Comparisons to Katamari Damacy are somewhat apt here, in that both games revolve around celestial aspirations and garbage collection, but the more significant parallel is the way both games carry a deep-seated quirkiness inherited from their country of origin. In the same way Katamari threw off surreal waves of distinctly Japanese peculiarity, Rabbids Go Home exudes a dizzy European flavor. It's a madcap, screwball game that will probably prove more pleasing to the palette in small tastes than in heaping mouthfuls, but it's still a giddy ride from start to finish.

The underlying premise in Rabbids Go Home is that, having spent the past three years gleefully tormenting the uptight, rule-abiding citizens of Earth , the Rabbids are ready to pack it up and head home, which they seem to freely assume to be the Moon. Apparently lacking the knowledge of how they got here in the first place, the Rabbids tap into the pit-black depths of their ridiculousness and figure that the best way to get to the Moon is to build a giant pile of, well, whatever they can find. And so, a team of enterprising Rabbids grabs a shopping cart and heads out into the world of man, grabbing anything that's not bolted down, regardless of size.

You'll guide this whirling dervish of wobbly wheels and constant, unnecessary screaming through a series of levels set largely in institutions of suffocating banality, such as office buildings , hospitals , airports , grocery stores , and the like. It's a world populated with timid, fearful humans whose frail, boxy frames betray literally just how “square” they all are, and a considerable amount of the fun of Rabbids Go Home comes from the joy of watching and listening to the normals freak out at your antics. The levels are also filled with stuff , and that stuff is divvied up into two size-based categories. Most of what you'll find on the ground--which includes, but is not limited to, octopi, dogs, pigeons, bats, soda bottles, fire extinguishers, toy cars, transistor radios, answering machines, and so on--falls under the XS (small) category. Additional XS stuff can also be found hidden in bushes, soda machines, and the like, and you can use the Rabbids' “bwaaah” attack, as well as a dash attack you learn later on, to knock the clothes clean off a person's back and add it to your coffers.

BWAAAAH!!

Your goal is always to get from one end of a level to the other, collecting as much XS pile-fodder as you can find, though most levels also feature a single XL (large) article to collect as well. Sometimes the XL stuff is just a big-ass thing to be collected at the end of the level, like a piano , a statue , a high-dive board, or a cow . Others will give you additional abilities, such as a jet engine that lets you rocket through airport terminals at high speeds, sucking up anything in your path, or an oxygen tent--complete with a feeble, liver-spotted patient inside--which you can use to float your way across otherwise impassible gaps. While most humans run screaming at the mere sight of the Rabbids, there are dangers to be avoided, including guard dogs, cacti, explosive inflatable bumpers, and several varieties of rubber-suited Verminators.

The style of the gameplay in Rabbids Go Home doesn't easily conform to anything you've played before, and while the item collection concept remains a constant, unique twists are regularly introduced to keep it fresh. Sometimes you'll be presented with a time limit to race against as you try and collect as much stuff while still making it to the other end before time runs out, making it feel a bit like a racing game. Other times, it feels more like a platformer, with the challenge coming from simply navigating serpentine platforms and dangerous obstacles. You'll do some light puzzle-solving as well, such as figuring out how to use a trail of pea soup to get a janitorial robot to create passage to the next area.

If the gameplay was the defining characteristic in Rabbids Go Home, it really wouldn't be much to write about. It's got a snappy pace to it, and it rarely gets hard enough to kill that momentum with frustration, but it's the free-wheeling insanity of the Rabbids that makes this game so easy to like. The manic behavior of the Rabbids is reinforced by a desperate brass band soundtrack that sounds like it was conducted by John Philip Sousa on a piping-hot speed bender, which contrasts nicely against the occasional bits of corny licensed music that you'll hear the humans listening to. Suffice it to say, John Denver is well-represented there. The shopping cart careens everywhere it goes, with the stuff you've collected swaying about precariously as you turn. The Rabbids' innate curiosity will occasionally bring the game to a halt as they take comic interludes to poke and scream at some particular bit of whatever they've picked up.

BWAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!

Some of the most amusing stuff in Rabbids Go Home, though, has almost nothing to do with the actual gameplay. For example, you'll earn gifts on each level based on what percentage of the available stuff you collected. These gifts mostly unlock new tattoos and accessories you can adorn your Rabbids with, but rather than just dump you to a character customization menu, you'll suck the Rabbid you'd like to customize into your Wii Remote , at which point the perspective cuts to the inside of your controller. You can then shake the Wii Remote around to watch the Rabbid knock against the walls, shake it off, and happily wait for more abuse. It's a surreal, metatextual touch that's totally superfluous to the gameplay, yet it's a key example of the kind of clever insanity that permeates Rabbids Go Home.

It's fair to say that Rabbids Go Home is a pretty shallow experience, and I'm uncertain if the novelty of the formula can support the weight of annualized sequels. But these facts do nothing to diminish the fact that I spent nearly the entire eight-or-so hours with the game wearing a stupid grin on my face, probably looking something like the Rabbids on my screen.

Review of Band Hero

Jeff — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:00:00 -0800

Platform: (PS3,X360)

3 out of 5

There are no real surprises on the in-game interface.

Band Hero is a product that feels like a commodity, something assembled by a marketing team concerned only with the market demands currently not met by the existing Guitar Hero brand. But that cold, calculated feeling doesn't make it a bad game. This is the Guitar Hero 5 technology, with all of that game's strengths and weaknesses (along with a bit of new stuff), but whatever hard rock "edge" that series may have had has been smoothed over here, forming something that looks and sounds like it's three Coca-Cola cups and five Ford commercials away from being an American Idol game. The song list is more diverse than the typical Guitar Hero game, but that diversity means you'll probably enjoy a few songs here and there, but it's not going to be your favorite rhythm game ever. Also, the pop sensibility of its soundtrack makes for some awkward choices that really didn't need to appear in a full band game.

The things that work about Guitar Hero 5 still work here. The party play mode lets you jump in or drop out of songs that start playing as soon as the game finishes booting up. That concept has been expanded to a karaoke-style sing-along mode that isn't really much different from the existing party mode, but having a menu option marked "sing-along" probably helps point it out to the uninitiated crowd that will probably enjoy the game the most. It's got the same sort of difficulty options as GH5 does, and while the game's choice of music is inherently less challenging than Dragonforce, pumping the difficulty up to expert gives you something that feels accurate to the source material. You can go online to fill out your career mode band, or you can engage in some of the same competitive multiplayer modes that have been in the Guitar Hero games. You can even fire up GHTunes, the make-your-own-music mode that lets you craft your own tracks with an interface that feels just as impenetrable and sounds just as bland as it ever has.

But the feature set feels like it'll be wasted on the neophytes that are squarely in Band Hero's wheelhouse. That's not to say that rhythm game vets won't find anything on the soundtrack that they like, but by putting a virtual Taylor Swift in your game alongside tracks by Aly & AJ and the Spice Girls, I'm going to guess that there's a specific audience that'll find that stuff appealing.

Swift.

But this isn't some sort of tween-girls-only party. There are songs from the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, The Go-Go's, Joan Jett, Culture Club, Poison, Styx, OK Go, and Santigold. How "L.E.S. Artistes" hasn't made it into a rhythm game until now is completely confusing to me, but it's probably my favorite track in the entire game. Unless you count "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls, of course.

The catch is that there are some songs here that don't really fit into the four-piece setup of a full video game band. When you want to perform that Spice Girls song, you want to sing it. Playing the programmed drum track in something like that feels utterly pointless, and that track is better suited for a karaoke-only game. Same goes for "Kung-Fu Fighting" by Carl Douglas. Also--though I understand she's very popular with a certain segment--I'd rather take a medium-strength punch to the gut than play anything by Taylor Swift, who contributes three tracks. The couple of songs by No Doubt, however, are just fine. Swift, No Doubt, and Adam Levine of Maroon 5 show up in the polygonal flesh here, much like Johnny Cash , Shirley Manson , and Kurt Cobain did in Guitar Hero 5.

The game allows for some importing and exporting with Guitar Hero World Tour , Guitar Hero: Smash Hits , and Guitar Hero 5. They don't appear to be the full setlists from those games, but you can view each list of available tracks before you opt to go through the process to see if the songs you want to make available in Band Hero are on the list. There's also a built-in music store, and the game will read the Guitar Hero-compatible music you may have already purchased for other games.

The stages are a lot less filthy than Guitar Hero 5's.

Band Hero's pop sensibilities make for a different-looking game than the ones that Activision usually puts out. It's got a crisp look with backdrops that fit with the subject matter... meaning you'll start out on a mall tour. Perfect . Some of the Guitar Hero characters appear here in pop-friendly form, too, so you can see Axel Steel all cleaned up and de-heshed, with short hair and a tight T-shirt... it actually makes him look like a total sell-out, which is kind of funny in its own weird way. You can also create your own guys and unlock additional gear through the career mode.

Like any other rhythm game, Band Hero is entirely dependent on your musical taste and how much you're willing to spend to acquire these 65 songs. If you don't like N.E.R.D., well hey, maybe you'll like Jesse McCartney, right? Actually, I'm totally messing with you. I'm pretty sure it's physically impossible for anyone to like Jesse McCartney. Just know that with the GH5 technology backing it up, you'll at least get a sound product on the back end. With that in mind, look at the song list, look at your wallet, and come to your own conclusion.

Ryan — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:18:36 -0800

Friend of Giant Bomb Jared Rea sits in for discussions of Jeff's pretty robot girlfriend, the perceived benefits of gold rhythm game controllers, the parallels between Sailor Moon fighting games and jazz music, Hideo Kojima's love of Twilight, and more!

Review of Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion

Jeff — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:00:00 -0800

Platform: (PS3,X360)

3 out of 5

You can customize the fighters with all sorts of different parts.

Tekken was once the bellwether for the coming generation of consoles. Seeing Namco develop home versions of the first few Tekken games that surpassed the arcade games upon which they were based was a magical moment back on the original PlayStation . It was the moment where you could immediately see arcades becoming less relevant, as the machines hooked up to our TVs were now just as impressive as the stuff you had to drop quarters into to play. These days, it's not quite the trendsetter that it used to be, but the Tekken series keeps trucking along with Tekken 6 . In addition to also appearing on a non-Sony console (!), Tekken 6 has some very sharp fighting that builds onto the existing framework nicely with some cool new moves and characters. But just about everything that surrounds the actual fighting part of this fighting game is pretty disappointing, making this one strictly for Tekken fans who have enough local opposition to keep things interesting.

The new fighters added to the fray include Lars Alexandersson , a Scandanavian dude with ties to the Mishima bloodline--which means he has excellent hair, obviously. Alisa Bosconovitch is a pretty Japanese robot girl who can make chainsaws pop out of her arms. These are the two new "Bloodline Rebellion" fighters that appeared in the second arcade release, but if you've only been following the series via its home releases, then the four fighters from the first Tekken 6 release-- Bob , Leo , Miguel , and Zafina --are also new. The six additions to the roster fit pretty well and are fun to learn and fight with. If you count alternate versions of the same character (specifically, Kuma 's second player "outfit" is really Panda ), there are over 40 characters to choose from. It's a hefty roster, thick with the series' favorites.

The fighting style in Tekken 6 hasn't changed dramatically. There are some changes to the combo system that allow for longer juggles, adding more depth to the combat for players who can pull off moves within very specific timing windows. For players who aren't already in too deep, though, Tekken has always felt friendly to new players, provided you're playing against players of the same skill level. Tekken 6 keeps up that tradition, even if the game's practice mode doesn't offer much to help you truly get a real understanding of the game, just a bunch of button-pressing notation that'll only really be of use to those already steeped in the franchise.

Big Pimpin'.

When you combine Tekken's high-level play--which is all about precise timing--with Tekken 6's network code, you get varying degrees of disappointment. Even at its best, Tekken 6's online play feels like a completely different game, forcing you to think a second or two ahead and plan your moves out way too far in advance. It's not entirely unenjoyable, but you give up so much of what makes Tekken tick that it's really not worth it. If you want to play Tekken 6 competitively, plan on rounding up your friends and getting them all into one room. It's unfortunate, because the game has things like character-specific win/loss records, plus it's a good way to show off the items you've purchased and used to customize the look of your fighters. In unranked matches you can get up to four players in one game for a quarter match sort of setup, but considering the game usually can't handle a one-on-one matchup, getting spectators in there seems like a bad idea.

Most of the other modes fall into the typical fighting game loadout, with a survival mode , a team battle mode, and time attack. It also has a "ghost battle" mode, which is something that's popped up in different forms in recent Tekken releases. Here you can battle against different AI profiles ("ghosts") that come on the game disc. They're a bit more interesting to fight than the standard AI, plus you'll never run into the arcade mode's ridiculous end boss, which is certainly a plus. When you hit the game's online menu, it takes the ghosts that you've made by playing the game and uploads them. You can also download ghosts of other players. It's probably not perfect science--the ghost doesn't totally ape your style or anything like that--but it's a neat idea that lets you feel like you're fighting against, like, an answering machine version of the folks on your friends list. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any sort of notifications about how well your ghosts are performing out on the Internet. Considering the game's sketchy online performance, the ghost battle mode is probably the best thing you can do with Tekken 6 unless you've got another player in the house.

It's the first thing on the game's menu, but the Scenario Campaign mode is probably the worst thing in Tekken 6. It's an expansion on the old Tekken Force mode from Tekken 3 , and it wraps a bad brawler around Tekken's fighting mechanics. While I appreciated the motion-comic-style intro, which details the "who threw whom into which volcano" parts of the Tekken storyline, the bulk of it, which involves Lars losing his memory, getting it back, and fighting a ton of Jack robots, is pretty dull. Also, even though you can play as any character in the campaign mode, the story bits always put Lars back into the lead role. So it goes from Lars talking about how he's got to find Heihachi to Paul Phoenix doing the fighting (because that's who I decided to pick), then back to Lars again when the cutscenes come up. While it's nice that you aren't forced to play as Lars for the entire game, it makes the whole thing feel extra sloppy.

For a robot lady, Alisa is pretty, OK? Look, I know that makes me a bad person, just LEAVE ME BE.

Though it's getting easier and easier to notice a lot of reused animations from previous games in the series, Tekken 6 looks really nice. The characters are big, the game moves really quickly, and the backgrounds are cool. The ability to customize characters is present, as it has been in the past, letting you do a lot of weird things to the fighters. If you want Paul to rock an eyepatch, or if you want Kazuya 's robot costume to have a glowing aura around it, you can spend some of the fight money you earn in the game's various modes to make all of that happen. The game has a pretty good soundtrack, though there's also a lot of stiff voice acting, especially in the campaign mode.

The awkward campaign mode would be completely forgettable if Tekken 6 worked better online. But with it ranging from "almost acceptable" to "pre-patch King of Fighters XII " in connection quality, it's hard to recommend to anyone who doesn't already have a local crew of Tekken fiends at their disposal. If your crew is nuts for Tekken, though, the fighting in Tekken 6 is hot enough to make it worth your while.

Disclosure: The game featured in this review is or was an advertised product on giantbomb.com.

Review of The Ballad of Gay Tony

Ryan — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:00:00 -0800

Platform: (X360)

3 out of 5

Tony Price is in the business of getting into trouble, and business is boomin'.

A year and a half might not seem like much in the grand scheme of things, but in the tech-driven world of video games, it's enough to make a once-innovative game feel tired and clunky. Such is the case with The Ballad of Gay Tony, the second episode Rockstar North has released on the Xbox 360 for Grand Theft Auto IV , which continues to rely on that game's rapidly aging framework. But time isn't the only thing working against Gay Tony, as there's also an issue of quality. It's got all of the parts you'd need for the kind of hyperbolic criminal action experience GTA fans have come to expect, but there's a certain carelessness to the execution.

Like The Lost and Damned before it, The Ballad of Gay Tony takes place concurrently with the events of GTAIV, this time focusing on Luis Lopez and his business partner Tony Prince , known better within the criminal community as Gay Tony, though that's far and away the kindest name he's given. Together Lopez and Prince run a pair of high-end nightclubs in Liberty City , but a slumping economy and the maturation of LC's gay community are putting a cramp on Tony's non-stop bacchanalia of coke and pills , and the pair end up owing money to the wrong people. Despite being an ex-con and an unrepentant murderer, Luis is definitely the more reasonable and responsible of the two, and playing as Luis, it's your job to sort things out--and of course, by “sort things out,” I mean rob, blow shit up, and kill a whole mess of dudes.

Say hello to the moral center of The Ballad of Gay Tony.

This has emerged as one of the bothersome incongruities of the Grand Theft Auto protagonist. Like Niko Bellic and Johnny Klebitz before him, Luis Lopez is portrayed as a criminal who is a bit more insightful and self-aware than his peers, and postures as though he operates by some kind of moral code. Yet virtually every mission involves you doing the savage bidding of crazy and/or stupid characters that Luis ought to know better than to associate with. Even in comparison to Niko and Johnny, Luis comes off as kind of flat, without the thirst for revenge or the importance of brotherhood that, respectively, drove those characters. GTA protagonists are never the most interesting characters in their own games, but the fact that this isn't called The Ballad of Luis Lopez should be telling.

While the story is ostensibly about the dynamic between Tony and Luis, it also weaves in and out of the events of Grand Theft Auto IV, and the game is packed with callbacks and cameos, moreso than Lost and Damned. There are a few gems in there, but there's also a lot of forced coincidence, and at a point, it can be difficult to keep track of the extended cast of GTAIV. The Ballad of Gay Tony loosely revolves around Liberty City's nightclub lifestyle, but there's no specificity to the criminal experience being portrayed here, and it ends up feeling like a weak caricature of a good Grand Theft Auto game. Story threads about Luis' past, his relationship with his mother, and his dodgy reputation as a ladies' man are hinted at but go nowhere, and many of the colorful supporting characters are overly reminiscent of existing GTAIV characters, to the point that they actually introduce Brucie 's older (but not bigger) brother Mori , whose amped-up alpha behavior simply doesn't pay the same dividends it did the first time around.

Luis doesn't seem like the BASE jumping type, and isn't afraid to say as much.

The gameplay in The Ballad of Gay Tony is, well, typical Grand Theft Auto stuff. If you played Grand Theft Auto IV, which is kind of a necessity before you get into Gay Tony, you're already familiar with the peculiarities of how the driving and character movement handle. The firefights tend to necessitate more judicious use of the game's cover mechanics, which feel clunkier than ever, largely because of the progress that has been made with cover mechanics by games like Uncharted 2 since the release of GTAIV. There are a few new activities you can engage in, most notably the addition of a parachute that you can use for BASE jumping, though you can also hit the driving range, engage in drug war firefights with Luis' hood friends, and go dancing in Tony and Luis' nightclubs.

Alongside the digital release of The Ballad of Gay Tony, Rockstar is putting out Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City , which bundles both Gay Tony and The Lost and Damned onto one disc. This seems intended for players wary of or unconvinced by downloadable content, but the real value here is that you can expect market forces to push down the price of the disc much more quickly than its Microsoft-controlled digital counterparts. Considering the standalone nature of both episodes, I suppose it makes as much sense to load up that disc as the GTAIV disc to access the content.

Time and expectations have taken a certain toll on Grand Theft Auto IV, but all that aside, the bottom line for The Ballad of Gay Tony is that it's just not as good as the GTAIV experiences that preceded it. It feels like Rockstar has run out of tricks, and it has got its work cut out for it with whatever comes next for Grand Theft Auto.

Ryan — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:14:02 -0800

It's a show for the over-sophisticated and the under-sophisticated as we discuss trucks and villains in Uncharted 2, Prototype's shelf life, the bitter gift of Demon's Souls, Modern Warfare on the Moon, Xbox Experience 3.0, deep-fried sandwiches, and so much more!

Ryan — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:13:32 -0800

The Giant Bomb staff sounds off on Brutal Legend, Borderlands, The Beatles: Rock Band vs. Guitar Hero 5, wrestlers vs. cars, Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare 2 PC drama, and DOMO DOMO DOMO DOMO DOMO DOMO DOMO DOMO DOMO DOMO DOMO DOMO DOMO DOMO DOMO!

Ryan — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:25:01 -0800

Capcom's Adam Boyes and freelance troublemaker John Vignocchi join the crew for some rowdy, champagne-fueled shouting about the downfall of Midway, Demon's Souls, Forza 3, Chuck D, Brutal Legend, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and more in this week's Bombcast!

Ryan — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 20:21:22 -0800

With the taste of Modern Warfare 2 on our lips we set our sights on the PSPgo, the world's largest pinball expo, the acrimony of Work Time Fun, Uncharted 2, Lego Bowie, night-vision goggles in TrackMania 2, the PlayStation Threemote, and much more!

Ryan — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:33:18 -0800

The Giant Bombcast rocks out with more Arkham Asylum conversation, our first DJ Hero hands-on experience, Jeff's undying love of video pinball, our TGS 2009 highlights, Super Street Fighter IV, our continuing Splinter Cell: Conviction drama, and more!

Ryan — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:44:12 -0800

We hold it down stateside with Gears of War energy drinks as we discuss ODST and the future of Halo, TrackMania 2, the failings of Scribblenauts, Modern Warfare 2 perks, the realities of Rock Band Network, life after the Endurance Run, and more!

Ryan — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:03:33 -0800

The first four missions of Halo 3: ODST, Need for Speed: SHIFT, the best way to scratch an Xbox 360 disc, the awesomeness of sleep, and Courtney Love's internet insanity are just a few of the topics on this week's edition of the Giant Bombcast!

Ryan — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 21:00:03 -0800

We look back at some of our personal highlights from PAX09, discuss the relative merits of The Beatles: Rock Band and Guitar Hero 5, and warn of the perils of playing Doom on a plane, and much more in this week's edition of the Giant Bombcast.

Ryan — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 09:04:08 -0800

We kick it Sea-town style with Kotaku's Stephen Totilo, 38 Studios' Rich Gallup, Obsidian Entertainment's Matthew Rorie, Harmonix Music Systems' Alex Navarro, and Blizzard Entertainment's Bob Colayco in this surprisingly orderly PAX edition Bombcast!

Ryan — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:23:57 -0800

The fantastic foursome is back in effect with the outlaw economics in Borderlands, playing like an a-hole, life after the PS3 Slim, The Bat-Man, The Final Destination, DJ AM, Marvel vs. Disney, and more! Brought to you by the Vietnam Corporation!