GiantBomb's Site Mashup

MX Vs. ATV Reflex's Demo Download Daydream

Brad — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:12:10 -0800

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Why was it we posted this again? I know there was some reason...

Dev Walkthrough: Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising

Brad — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:06:54 -0800

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Get a guided tour of the follow-up to Relic's latest Warhammer 40k strategy game.

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.

Quick Look: Excitebike World Rally

drewbert — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:16:16 -0800

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Excitebike with POLYGONS!? What has the world come to?

A Look at SOCOM: Fire Team Bravo 3

Brad — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:16:11 -0800

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Get a load of SOCOM's latest outing on the PlayStation Portable.

Quick Look: Dragon Ball: Raging Blast

Vinny — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:18:14 -0800

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GWWWAAHAH?! Want to see my true power?! It's over 27 minutes!

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.

Inside Final Fantasy XIII

Brad — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:05:08 -0800

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The release date and more, presented by Some Guy!

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?

Dante's Inferno, The Animated Film

Brad — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:39:05 -0800

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Cartoon or no, this might not be for the faint of heart.

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.

Another Look At Avatar

Jeff — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:10:10 -0800

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Nope. Still doing absolutely nothing for me.

Pinball Heroes Trailer

Jeff — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:32:26 -0800

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Nathan Drake gets his very own pinball machine today on PSP.

Quick Look: New Super Mario Bros. Wii

Vinny — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:18:51 -0800

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Jeff, Ryan, Vinny, and Brad try their best not to strangle each other.

The Achievements of Shaun White: World Stage

Brad — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:04:50 -0800

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Achievements? In a Wii game? You heard it here!

Quick Look: Doc Louis' Punch-Out!!

drewbert — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:33:19 -0800

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Vinny and Jeff step into the ring with this Club Nintendo exclusive.

MotoGP 09/10 Career Video

Jeff — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:30:00 -0800

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I'm only interested if you can do those front wheelies like dude in that DMX video.

Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines: The Sizzle Video

Brad — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:20:15 -0800

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I'm still not sure exactly what a sizzle video is, but here is one.

MMA Fighters Talk About Assassin's Creed

Brad — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:05:38 -0800

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For no apparent reason whatsoever!

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.

Garrus Returns! And Other Secrets About Mass Effect 2

Brad — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:00:00 -0800

Garrus! Buddy! What's up dude!

I got to play some more Mass Effect 2 earlier this week. And guess which familiar face I discovered? That's right! Garrus mother-effing Vakarian ! Everyone's favorite good-natured Turian will make at least a cameo appearance in this sequel, and it was good to hear his oddly soothing, gravelly tones as he picked off enemy mechs with a sniper rifle in a cutscene. Garrus is a smooth operator, you know.

BioWare has admitted several of your party members from the first Mass Effect will be back for part two, though some will have bigger roles than others. The only original character confirmed to be an active party member in Mass Effect 2 is Tali , the Darth Vader -masked engineer who for some reason I never, ever used. Hopefully other favorites like Garrus and (fingers crossed) Wrex will be able to join your space posse at some point.

The cutscene with Garrus afforded me a better look at the "dialogue interrupt" feature in Mass Effect 2's cinematics, which I've come to think of over the last few months as a violence option. It lets you hit the left trigger when an icon flashes onscreen that lets you speed up the proceedings, usually by pulling your weapon on someone or, say, throwing them out a window. In this case, Shepard trained his own sniper rifle on the mechs, and hitting the interrupt button made him pick one of these enemies off, meaning I had one fewer enemy to deal with once the combat actually started.

I get the impression that using the interrupt feature won't drastically change the outcome of a given situation, just tweak it a bit and bring it about a little faster. Some interrupts, however, will move your moral alignment one way or the other. Since you can't tell what your interrupt action will be and only have a few seconds to decide whether to use the option or not, BioWare says the final game will give you some kind of indication about whether the interrupt will generate Paragon or Renegade points. So if you're trying to do a full good-guy playthrough, for instance, you won't sully your record by unintentionally acting like a bad guy.

When I ran into Garrus, I was joined by the new playable Krogan party member Grunt (who ain't no Wrex, but gets the job done in combat) and Jacob, who was recently introduced in the Mass Effect Galaxy iPhone game. We were exploring Omega, a planet that's located outside of Citadel space and is thus outside the influence of the collective galactic government. BioWare says you'll be spending a good portion of Mass Effect 2 on these sorts of untamed border planets, which certainly opens up the potential for you to run into a lot of rough characters over the course of your mission.

Strange things are afoot on Omega.

Speaking of that mission, I was surprised to get more background on the core storyline in Mass Effect 2. The reapers of the original game are pretty much out of the picture this time around, as are the spindly, sentient robots the Geth (though there will be at least one important Geth character featured in the storyline). The big menace this time is the Collectors, an insectoid race that's trying to eradicate humanity colony by colony. You can see more about the Collectors in the new trailer BioWare just released. I was surprised that Mass Effect 2 seems to be more of a "further adventures of Commander Shepard" sort of story rather than a direct continuation of the events of the first game, though the total number of ways in which this sequel ties back into the original Mass Effect remains to be seen.

BioWare has been touting the technical improvements it's made in this sequel, and in this demo I finally started becoming convinced the developer will follow through on its promises. Inconsistent frame rates, popping textures, and intolerably long space elevator load times were the biggest offenders in the original game, and I was able to see the first two have been pretty much eliminated in the demo I played. The game ran perfectly smoothly as I fought off mercs and mechs, and saw complex environments like the seedy Afterlife Club (replete with Asari strippers and lots of neon lighting).

It was in this club that I ran into a Batarian bartender who poisoned Shepard when he served him a drink. Batarians have a longstanding grudge against humanity, see. The four-eyed Batarians were featured prominently in the first Mass Effect prequel novel, but then failed to make much of an appearance in the original game. For the nerdier Mass Effect fans among you, those guys will be showing up a lot more often in Mass Effect 2's border planets, since they tend to operate off the grid and outside the Citadel's influence.

Mass Effect 2 is looking like simply an improved, refined version of Mass Effect. Since I thought the first game was a great RPG with a few rough edges, a new version of the same game with those edges smoothed out is perfectly fine by me. The game is due at the rapidly approaching end of January, so keep an eye out for more on this sequel in the near future.

On a not-entirely-unrelated note, we also spoke with BioWare's Dr. Greg Zeschuk about Dragon Age: Origins hitting stores and the speed with which Mass Effect 2 is coming to shelves. Watch!

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.

Is This The First Teaser For Kane & Lynch 2?

Jeff — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:00:00 -0800

It's blurry as hell, but those guys look enough like Kane and Lynch to me.

Kotaku 's Michael McWhertor got a line on a deliberately blurry video hosted off of MTV's German games site. The video isn't really surrounded by text that tells you what, exactly, it's supposed to be, but it sure as heck looks like Adam "Kane" Marcus and James "Lynch" Lynch , totally naked, and totally busting into a restaurant to escape gunfire and dogs. That could mean that this is the first piece of promotional material for the sequel to IO Interactive 's Kane & Lynch , which was released in 2007.

Here's a machine translation of the German text that's alongside the video.

Disturbing, confusing and a bit erotic. Thus one could describe the surveillance camera footage, which we make you this world exclusive access, if you wanted. Let's not.

It was pretty difficult to find the. I had several of my dubious and ill-smelling Contacts anhauen, (PR-people are truly the very worst) bribes changed their purses and a dirty piece of paper was signed with blood and sweat.

But now times butter for the fish: Does anyone have the two types identified in the video? What are they doing anyway? And why? And what has that to do with games? Give me your speculations, and Spiced gingerbread! Soon it's Christmas!

You do not even come on it anyway.

Yes, that's right. You do NOT even come on it anyway. Thanks , Google Translate.

While Eidos has stated that a sequel to the first game is in development, there haven't been many announcements about it, just trademark filings for "Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days." If having a pissed-off attack dog attempting to rip up a naked dude is IO's idea of "Dog Days," then I'm pretty interested in seeing more.

Actually, I'm super-interested in seeing what this game ends up being. The first one, for better or worse, will always hold a "special" place in my heart. I'll probably never be able to think about that first game without a rush of extremely mixed feelings, which, obviously, have very little to do with the actual game at this point. It's been my secret hope for some time now that K&L2 comes along and turns out to be completely amazing from top to bottom... basically everything that the first game wasn't. Something that actually capitalizes on the concept of "hey, what if we took Freedom Fighters and crossed it with Heat ?" instead of pissing it away with poor shooting and bad squad AI. Something with a script that doesn't make you feel like you need to take a shower after you finish it. Hey, better, more random AI in the online mode would be nice, too, while I'm making a list.

Anyway, if you want to see the video and missed the part where I linked to it already, click here to see it.

Netflix PS3 Discs Start Shipping

Jeff — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:00:00 -0800

Looks like PS3 owners looking to get in on Netflix's instant streaming will be ready to go as soon as this week. This showed up in my inbox this morning:

Rad.

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.

Go Watch Captain N (Actually, Go Watch Pole Position)

Jeff — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:00:00 -0800

I want to know more about this girl's haircare regiment.

Oh man, I spotted this on Destructoid last night and it's been in danger of ruining my productivity for the rest of the week. It seems that someone's gone ahead and launched an on-demand video site for cartoons. It's called Jaroo, and it's got a load of third-rate cartoons from the '80s for you to "enjoy."

The gaming tie-in is that they've got episodes of Captain N, Sonic Underground, and episodes of Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda, which are presented with the live-action bits of the Super Mario Bros. Super Show, so you'll get a little Captain Lou up in here (pour one out for the god, by the way).

But then there's Pole Position . Man, I forgot that Pole Position existed, but yeah, someone decided to license Namco 's driving game for use in a cartoon, then made it about a brother/sister duo who drive cars that can convert into hydrofoils and stuff. And they fight crime. And the cars have crappy computer faces in them that talk to the kids like it was a bad episode of Knight Rider. That's assuming, of course, that "a bad episode of Knight Rider" was actually possible .

The non-gaming stuff is even more obscure. The most relevant thing available is Inspector Gadget, though I'm far more interested in seeing if Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors is any good, since I vaguely remember that from my youth. There's also a database entry for something called "Siegfried & Roy," but hitting it loads up episodes of a Sherlock Holmes cartoon. Man, a Siegfried & Roy cartoon would be just about the most awesomest bestest thing I could ever imagine, but the Sherlock Holmes cartoon is set in the 22nd century, so... yeah, that's still pretty good.

Check out the site at jaroo.com .

No Doubt Gets Cobain'd, Files Lawsuit Over Band Hero

Jeff — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:00:00 -0800

She does a mean "Y.M.C.A.," too.

Activision 's Band Hero has barely been on sale for 24 hours, and already the game is the focus of a lawsuit from one of the groups featured in the game. According the Los Angeles Times , No Doubt has filed a suit in Los Angeles Superior Court alleging that the way the band's likeness is used in the game is outside the lines of the band's agreement with Activision.

The in-game usage of the band is similar to the way music celebrities were used in Guitar Hero 5 , and it allows the members of No Doubt, along with Taylor Swift and Adam Levine from Maroon 5 to appear in any role on any of the game's songs. You... may also remember that this is the exact same scenario that caused all of the uproar over the way Kurt Cobain 's likeness was treated in that game, which led to a lot of Twitter-based unpleasantness from Courtney Love and, really, a lot of negative feelings from a lot of different people.

The LA Times article on the topic says that the ability to make Gwen Stefani sing "Honky Tonk Women" by the Rolling Stones is a specific sore spot. Like this:

“While No Doubt are avid fans of the Rolling Stones and even have performed in concerts with the Rolling Stones,” the complaint states, “the Character Manipulation Feature results in an unauthorized performance by the Gwen Stefani avatar in a male voice boasting about having sex with prostitutes.”

Well, when you put it that way, maybe they've got a point. The suit also claims that the band's request to limit their usage specifically to their own songs was turned down because it would be "too expensive" to patch it.

Activision's issued a statement in response to the suit, so here's a bit of that:

“Some of the world’s most popular and iconic artists have been featured in Guitar Hero as playable characters, and we are proud to count No Doubt among them,” Activision’s statement said. “Activision has a written agreement to use No Doubt in Band Hero – an agreement signed by No Doubt after extensive negotiations with its representatives, who collectively have decades of experience in the entertainment industry. Pursuant to that agreement, Activision worked with No Doubt and the band’s management in developing Band Hero…. Activision is exploring its own legal options with respect to No Doubt’s obligations under the agreement.”

It sounds like someone, somewhere needed to spend more time reading the fine print, but after the double-whammy of Kurt Cobain and No Doubt, I'm going to guess that this process of using likenesses in rhythm games will either get a lot more formal and specific or Activision will just do away with it entirely and save the likenesses for band-specific products, rather than attempting to cram them in alongside the standard cast of the Guitar Hero franchise and be forced to enact a bunch of specific limits on usage. It's probably not worth it for the company to negotiate likeness rights if they can only use them for two or three songs. Be sure to read the LA Times article for more of the back and forth between the two camps.

Review of Torchlight

Brad — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:00:00 -0800

Platform: (PC)

4 out of 5

Diablo players will feel right at home.

Torchlight is made for a very specific niche audience that you could simply describe as "people who still love Diablo ." It's a classic overhead point-and-click-click-click action RPG with a focus on color-coded loot, endless dungeons, and a menagerie of foul subterannean creatures. If you can parse the relative merits of items with names written in green, blue, purple, and orange--and you still have a burning desire to collect as many such items as you can--Torchlight is designed especially for you.

The game subscribes so closely to the format of the original Diablo, in fact, that there's only one town in the game--also called Torchlight --and it sits atop a single, very long dungeon. You know, just like in Diablo. But there's a lot of variety in that dungeon's dozens of floors, which change visually every few levels from simple catacombs to more elaborate motifs like ancient tombs, a sunken jungle temple, a disused goblin prison surrounded by lava, and more. You get completely different-looking and different-acting enemies that are appropriate to each locale, too, along with some pretty large, gnarly bosses. You can forgive new developer Runic for sticking so closely to the classics, since the company is led by some of the original creators of Diablo. That game's composer also returns for this one, lending a fantastic, moody soundtrack that's more than a little reminiscent of his intensely memorable earlier work. ( Town music, anybody?)

Torchlight is a $20 game, and in some ways, it shows. There's only a paper-thin semblance of a storyline, about a corrupting magical ore and an ancient malevolence hidden beneath the town, and that story is only advanced through occasional brief narrated journal entries, which aren't acted particularly well. There are only a handful of side quests you can undertake from the people of Torchlight, and they simply repeat over and over after you complete them the first time. The writing is a little rough; comma splices and improper apostrophes in the possessive "its" constitute glaring errors when you're conveying your fiction entirely through text. The graphics aren't technically complex (though the game more than makes up for that with an exaggerated, cartoony art style and even has a "netbook" mode to let it run on really old hardware). I could find a few other, minor things to nitpick.

LOOT! LOOOOOOOOOOT!

But why should I? These flaws only affect the presentation of the game and aren't ones that detract at all from the quality of the central gameplay experience, which is all about slashing, shooting, an spellcasting your way to deeper dungeons and greater loot. If you're interested in the game in the first place, that's what you came for, and in that one respect, Torchlight is incredibly successful. Runic has streamlined the Diablo-style format to its core essence. There are only three classes--a tough melee fighter, a lither female ranged attacker, and a magic-using alchemist--and since this is a single-player-only game, all of them are versatile enough to make it through the game and conform to your play style. All the sorts of housekeeping activities you'd need to do in a game like this--enchanting weapons, managing inventory, assigning skill points, combining magical gems--are all only a couple of hotkeys away. The interface is really pleasant to deal with.

The best thing about the gameplay is the inclusion of a mandatory pet--a cat or dog that you can name--for every class. Generally, I'm not a big fan of pets, minions, or familiars in games like this--I like all my damage to flow from a single source, namely me--but the pet in Torchlight serves so many useful functions you can't help but love it. You can equip minor gear like rings and necklaces onto your pet to give it stat bonuses. Better, you can teach the pet the same sorts of spells your own character can learn, so if you want it to heal you in battle or silence enemy magic users, you can have it do those things automatically. Personally, I enjoyed teaching my dog to summon skeletal archers and knights into battle, ensuring that every time I hit a big group of enemies, I had a small army of undead backup. The pet has an inventory the same size as yours, and you can even send it back to town to automatically sell whatever items it's carrying, so you don't even have to use a town portal to clear out your vendor trash (though that is of course still an option as well).

One dungeon but lots of variety.

I do wish Torchlight had some sort of cooperative feature, even for just two players, if only because that's become a nearly requisite feature in this style of game over the years. It would also make it more fun to tackle the game's hardest difficulty, especially if you were using the optional "hardcore" mode that makes a character's death permanent. Be warned that the game's "normal" difficulty mode is pretty darn easy if you've ever played this style of game before--I got several hours into a character on normal before I got tired of merely left-clicking enemies endlessly to kill them without even needing to utilize my secondary skills. Hard or very hard modes are much more taxing and, consequently, more satisfying. You can even share loot between characters, so the awesome gear you find for other classes at higher levels won't go to waste on subsequent playthroughs. And the developer promises a full suite of mod tools soon, to allow amateur content creators the chance to keep pumping the game full of custom dungeons and quests long after you've completed the included campaign and also tired of the infinite dungeon that unlocks once you finish it.

Again, Torchlight is $20. For the price, there's a huge value here. It's a great start for Runic, who intends to build a free-to-play, massively multiplayer version of the game in the future. If the company maintains the core quality of this single-player game and fleshes out the lands, storyline, and multiplayer features in its next project, it will have something really special on its hands.

Namco Working On Tekken 6 Online Patch

Jeff — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:00:00 -0800

If you read yesterday's Tekken 6 review , where I go on for a bit about how the online part of the game falls somewhere between "unpleasant" and "unplayable," then you might be interested in this update. We received this note from the game's publisher today...

Hello,

To improve the online game experience for players of TEKKEN® 6, NAMCO BANDAI Games is developing a downloadable update which will be available as soon as it has passed rigorous testing procedures.

More details regarding the content of the update and the timing of its release will be announced shortly.

This is separate from the online co-op Scenario Campaign mode update which is scheduled for release this winter.

Thanks for playing TEKKEN 6, and keep on fighting.

- NBGA PR

Color me hopeful for the future. Tekken 6 with more functional online is a much more appealing product than what's currently on shelves. We'll let you know if we hear anything more specific.

The End of N-Gage

Jeff — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:00:00 -0800

Some sort of N-Gage compound or something.

Gadget-focused web site Pocket Lint is reporting that Nokia is finally pulling the plug on the N-Gage platform next year. I know, right? I figured they had pulled the plug on that mess years ago. But Nokia is planning to shut down the N-Gage store in September of 2010, and the service side of it--meaning the community features for all of those awesome N-Gage games you're still totally playing--will run through the end of next year.

Of course, the N-Gage service isn't the only casualty here. There is also the robust and not-at-all-dead fan community for Nokia's cellular taco. We floated some questions past the admin of the only N-Gage-focused website worth talking about, sidetalkin.com , to see what he thought about all this.

But first, some history. Sidetalkin.com was the spot for the sidetalkin' crazy of 2004-2005. I loved it for its amazing photos of Frank Provo, but, really, the entire site was amazing. But it was brought to a crashing halt when Nokia released the N-Gage QD, an "upgraded" version of its device that no longer required you to hold phone conversations by holding the side of the taco directly up to your stupid face. As soon as I got my idiotic hands on new QD, we sent off the photo that would shut down the site:

Anyway, here is the transcript of said interview:

Giant Bomb: I figure as the world's foremost authority on sidetalkin', you must have some feelings on this important issue. What will happen to sidetalkin.com in the wake of this important news?

Sidetalkin: I REALLY ANGER THIS QUESTION, it is not nice to me, THE SITE WILL NEVER GO AWAY like a TRAIN that is TWO LAYERS OF STEEL WITH ENGINE POWER BY WHITE GOLD NUGGETS IT CAN’T BE STOPPED…... CAN’T MEANS CANNOT!!!!!!!!!!!!

GB: Do you feel that Nokia was right to abandon something as robust as the N-Gage and/or the N-Gage QD in favor of a software-only solution?

ST: DO YOU FEEL THAT YOU ARE A STUPID MORON WHO DOES NOT HAVE ANY PENS??

NOKIA was wrong 555% and i am angry, THEY REMOVE THE BEST PART END OF SENTENCE PLEASE don’t understand NOKIA ARE MY HEROES BUT THEY ARE LIKE HEROES WHO FAIL TO THE GROUND, LIKE ICARUS WHEN CRASHING INTO THE SUN.

NOKIA™ whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy ^_((((

GB: If you were running Nokia, what would you have done differently to ensure N-Gage domination in the marketplace?

ST: Firstable, SOME PEOPLE [[[not my friends]]] WOULD SAY “STEP ONE: NOT MAKE THE CUSTOMER LOOK LIKE INTERGALACTIC RETARDS WHEN USING PHONE"

BUT SCREW IT HOLE YOU GUYS ~~~ THIS ADVICE IS 155% BULLSHITS. SIDETALKIN’ was LIKE A WELCOME TO THE FANTASY ZONE, the WORLDS #1 METHOD TO TALK AND SCREEN FORWARD SIMULTANEOUSLY.

PROOF IS RIGHT HERE: SIDETALKING HAS NEVER BEEN SUCCESSFULLY COPIED BY ANY COMPETITOR!! not even china. BOOOOOOOOOM HEADSHOT w/sniper rifle no cheating

so my advice would be simplest: TRY harder MORE advertising CHEAPER PRICE ALSO better ads FREE SALES AND GIVEAWAYS, finally MAYBE A HIGH-IMPACT STREET TEAM, but i guess it is now too late.

……………………………~~~

HERE IS TRUE STORY NOKIA® GAVE ME MONEY TO PROMOTE NGAGE QD on sidetalking website BUT NOKIA OUT OF PROTEST I WOULD GIVE ALL YOUR DEVIL NAZI MONEY BACK NOW!!!!! would but unfortunately I’ve spent it all

NOKIA HAS LOST ME FOREVER and now I HAVE A MOTOROLA RAZOR :( :( :( :( :( :( :(

RIP SIDETAKLING 1903-2005

<IMG SRC=“ANGELSTEARS.BMP” WIDTH=“32

-Sidetalkin.Com Admin Staff, who may or may not be Cabel Sasser

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.

Review of Dragon Age: Origins

snide — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Platform: (PS3,X360,PC)

5 out of 5

Nostalgia is a terrible adversary, especially for tactics-based RPG lovers. So when BioWare officially started calling Dragon Age: Origins the "spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate II ," you could almost hear a large sigh being let out from the role-playing contingent who worshipped that seminal game and have been disappointed time and time again by similar claims over the years. While a large part of that uproar was imaginary, fingers were validly pointed towards the non-party-based focus of Neverwinter Nights and the gradual loss of complexity in BioWare's trio of console-first RPG franchises-- KOTOR , Jade Empire , and Mass Effect --released over the last decade. After spending some 60 hours with Dragon Age, the only bit of soothing calm I can offer towards that worry is that this game is not only the deepest, most story-focused title yet from BioWare, but one you will instantly want to replay.

The classic isometric viewpoint is available in the PC version.

At its core, Dragon Age is a traditional party-based tactical role-playing game where you command a party of four characters with varying abilities though large dungeons as you move through a grand story arc. Actions and spells are assigned to each individual party member by pausing the game mid-battle and issuing orders. Although the game comes with a fairly robust tactical AI editor that lets you set some basic if/else scenarios, you'll probably spend a good portion of time in pause mode, manually issuing commands to your entire group, especially if you're working with more than one mage or if you're the type to obsess over the survival of each party member.

When it comes to comparing Origins with BioWare's PC RPG past, the biggest change is that Dragon Age takes place in its own universe, rather than working within the familiar confines of the Dungeons & Dragons license. Instead of the Forgotten Realms , DA:O is set in the world of Ferelden . While the names have changed, Ferelden is as traditional a fantasy setting as you can get. It's a world populated by elves, dwarves, and humans who all have varying opinions on the merits of good and evil. While there are subtle shifts in roles here (elves, or "knife ears," for example, are a recently liberated slave race), the trappings of Dragon Age's lore still feel familiar and rooted in the standard fantasy archetypes. But just because it's familiar in spots doesn't mean that it's poorly executed. There are a lot of subtle touches--like the way humans from the neighboring state of the Orlesian Empire speak with a French-tinged accent--that help make the world work.

The basics of the plot are that you're a newly minted Grey Warden, the newest recruit of an ancient warrior caste entrusted with keeping the impending Darkspawn threat at bay. Depending upon your character creation choices, you'll start with one of six origin stories that define the first hour of your game. In my playthrough as a mage this meant I was an apprentice within The Circle, an order of mages who are watched over by a company of Templars. My origin not only impacted how others would react to me, but it also gave me new dialogue choices and introduced characters I would see again later in my journey. After starting a new character--the son of a dwarven lord--it was surprising to see that this character's origin fit into stories that the mage character heard about while visiting the dwarven lands. The way the different aspects of the origins are referenced help make the world feel like a more cohesive place. Getting more specific would likely spoil your fun so just know that your origin, along with the different dialogue choices you'll make throughout the game, make separate playthroughs feel decidedly unique.

Dragon Age features superb voice-acting, with Morrigan stealing the show.

Dragon Age excels because its story is driven more by the needs of your party than by the overarching plot-lines they witness. For example, it's possible for your primary character to become completely overshadowed by the deeds of a fellow party member. Personally, I attempted to stick to a very altruistic path throughout the game, but it's not as easy as simply picking the obviously "good" dialogue choices. You'll be presented with tough scenarios where none of the options at hand seem particularly good, leaving you to choose what may seem like merely the least evil choice. In the weeks after completing the game, I still feel sincere regret about how some of those decisions played out and am already making plans to handle them differently in my next playthrough. The choices cut deep.

The combat in Dragon Age is where the game feels closest to its computer RPG roots. This is a classic "pause-and-command" type of game, and it comes with all of the difficulty and micromanagement that, if you're familiar with old games in this genre, you'd expect to see. The changes from the old D&D system that the developer has employed are mostly in its easy-upgrade spell tree, along with a World of Warcraft -like cooldown system on many abilities. While combat may have been simplified a bit, it's offset with significantly longer fights. The game's boss fights, in particular, get extremely tough and require proper mana management, some well-timed potion-chugging, and a keen eye to watch out for scripted events. The long dungeon crawls feel like you're controlling every character in a five-man World of Warcraft instance. It's not so much about out-battling your opposition, but outlasting them.

To help give you a bit of an edge in battle, Dragon Age lets you combine some spells and abilities with devastating effects. Frozen enemies can be shattered by the brunt force of hammers or shields, and it's easier to give a foe nightmares if you've already put him to sleep. You'll need as much of an edge as you can get, too, because the combat gets tougher to keep up with as you progress into the back half of the story. Though players looking for less of a challenge can mitigate things a bit by turning the quest down to an easier difficulty, know that if you don't like the idea of having to pause the action to issue orders, you're probably not going to enjoy Dragon Age: Origins. Even with all of the work that's been done to improve on BioWare's Infinity-style formula, this is still a difficult game that requires patience and strategy.

In addition to getting tough, it's also important to note that Dragon Age is not a short game. My first character (Mordecai the mage) completed his journey in just over 50 hours of game time, though if you were to be very particular about completing more side quests, that number could go way, way higher.

In general, the main quest is well-written, and it's backed up by excellent voicework. That said, if you stay up on your fantasy fiction, you'll probably notice some story elements that beat not-so-subtle similarities to the classic Arthurian saga or even portions of recent pulp epics, like George Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels. After your origin prologue and initiation into the Grey Wardens, you're essentially given free reign to complete the main plot in whichever order you deem prudent. While mixing this sequence can change the story slightly, it's mostly a linear affair on your way to the game's final two chapters. Shifts in the narrative are more drastic within the chapters themselves, and the choices you'll make regarding certain party members make the game immensely replayable. There are multiple endings to see here, and they feel more fleshed-out and satisfying than the hastily stiched-together conclusions of something like, say, Fallout 3 .

The radial menu used in the console version will feel familiar to fans of Mass Effect.

The main difference between the PC version of Dragon Age and its console counterparts are in the interface. The PC version sports a classic hotbar configuration and a more tactical perspective on the action, while the console versions opt for a Mass Effect -style radial menu and over-the-shoulder camera. The console versions certainly aren't bad, but if you're looking to pick the best version, the PC's layout is more elegant and functional than the comparatively limited radial menus on the console release. Also, the PC version is capable of looking significantly better than the console versions, though all editions feature impressive spell effects and environments. Though the PC version offers a more pulled-out view, I found myself zoomed in more often than not. In fact, the inclusion of things like skies and ceilings (which weren't exactly present in most previous games of this sort) make the environments complicated enough that the zoomed-out, isometric perspective gets a little clunky.

In the end, Dragon Age: Origins feels like a real throwback to the good old days of PC role-playing epics. It also feels like exactly what you expect the makers of Baldur's Gate to come up with as a follow-up to that classic. While that means you could rightfully fault the game for not being especially innovative, it's this adherence to a classic style of gameplay that will ensure that it's welcomed by the legions of nostalgic RPG players that make up this genre's core audience. That said, this is definitely not the game for those frightened of the idea of micromanaging a game to the point where a large portion of it will be spent in a pause screen. However, as the sort of guy that has lovingly played an Infinity Engine game at least once every year for the past decade, I can think of no higher praise for this throwback than to say that Dragon Age: Origins leaves me feeling fairly confident I won't need to dig out the classics for this ritual next year.

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

Review of Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story

Brad — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:00:00 -0800

Platform: (DS)

5 out of 5

Operating inside Bowser isn't as gross as it sounds.

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story actually made me feel excited to play a traditional Japanese-style RPG. That's no mean feat; it's something I thought I might never feel again. Thanks to my dwindling patience for this genre's stagnant design and my lack of free time to plod through its notoriously longwinded, overwrought storylines, I haven't given serious attention to a JRPG in a long time. Leave it to Nintendo to reel me back in, as the company has again parlayed the brothers Mario into a third lighthearted, fast-paced RPG that's easy for anyone--not just current or lapsed JRPG fans--to enjoy.

To me, the genius of the Mario & Luigi series is the way it takes the boring aspects of turn-based RPGs--namely the turn-based battles--and punches them up with quick little reflex-based tricks to hold your attention and speed up the whole process. As before, Mario and Luigi attack with hammers and (surprise) by jumping on enemies, and if you hit the right buttons at the right times, you can add more power to your attacks. What's more, every enemy in the game gives you subtle, clever hints about how it's about to attack you, so if you closely examine these clues you can dodge the attacks and avoid taking damage entirely. With the right combination of attention and reflexes, it's possible to make it through random encounters quickly and emerge completely unscathed. That's a satisfying feeling, every time, and even three games into the series, it's is still a great way to keep the flow of the game moving and make it more fun to play through random battles than simply issuing menu commands and trading abstract damage values with enemies. Exploration of the overworld is similarly enhanced with some rudimentary platforming and block-bopping, as in the previous games. It's just a fun game to play.

There are some completely ridiculous, hilarious characters in here.

Nonetheless, in general terms this is exactly the same formula the two previous Mario & Luigi games used, but it's a good one that really keeps you on your toes and staves off the boredom that can plague other RPGs' combat. And the game puts its own twist on the formula with a strange premise straight out of Inner Space . Superstar Saga 's hilarious verbal contortionist Fawful finally steps into the villainous spotlight here with a magical plot to make Bowser inhale everyone in the Mushroom Kingdom, including the Princess , a bunch of Toads , and of course Mario and Luigi themselves. The bizarre result is that you play half the game as tiny little Mario brothers--exploring locations inside Bowser's body like the Nose Deck, Pump Works, Flame Pipe, and Rump Command--and the other half stomping around the real world as Bowser himself. Ol' King Koopa has his own set of special attacks and defensive moves that make him a bit different to play than the Marios, and while I initially felt like the game leaned a little too heavily toward Bowser gameplay, things eventually shift in such a way that you feel like you're getting to spend plenty of quality time with both sides.

It helps that Bowser totally steals the show. Inside Story is an absolute riot, full of endearing characters and a droll sense of humor that comes primarily from the ridiculous things coming out of those characters' mouths. If you remember Fawful's nonstop ludicrous turns of phrase in the first game, you can expect that kind of hilarity on a frequent basis from nearly every character you run into in this sequel, with special mention for a heavily French-accented item vendor who also happens to be a coin block. Getting to play as Bowser gives you an amusing glimpse into the Koopa King's megalomania. His ego hilariously fills the room as he reveres the magnitude of his own evilness in one breath and then bosses around a battalion of goombas with the next. I almost can't believe this game made me stop and ponder the plight of Bowser as a displaced evil tyrant--there's a certain forlornness to the way he stomps around the halls of his own castle, trying to convince all his old minions that he is in fact a cooler bad guy than Fawful. That I did stop and think about it might say all that needs to be said about the quality of the game's writing. It's worth playing for the humor alone.

Pictured: Bowser's ego.

Though the basic format hasn't changed from the first two games in the series, there are enough little additions and distractions to keep this sequel fresh. The designers manage to mix in all sorts of smart little minigames here and there to break up the role-playing; you'll do some Space Invaders -style shooting to amp up Bowser's adrenaline, and play what amounts to a basic rhythm game at various times when he needs an extra boost of energy to a specific body part. There are also some collectibles, like badges you can equip on Mario and Luigi that fill up a meter as you fight which grants you free heals and the like. The extras make it worth exploring the Mushroom Kingdom a bit more once you have the freedom to do so.

The developer, AlphaDream , has wisely kept this series firmly rooted in two dimensions, with fantastically colorful level artwork and some of the most smoothly animated, expressive sprites I can remember seeing in a DS game. It's a marked improvement over Partners in Time and a real achievement, in a less-is-more sort of sense. I also have to give credit to the characterizations of Mario and Luigi themselves; even though they don't say any specific dialogue, their wild gesticulations and occasional mumble-mouthed faux Italian voiceover make them as important to the game's story as anyone.

At first, I wanted to fault Bowser's Inside Story for hewing so close to the format of its predecessors, but the more I played of it, the less I could deny how expertly made it is in every aspect. It's an all-around fantastic portable game that's completely worth playing, whether you enjoy it in bite-size chunks or plow straight through it from start to finish.

Most Popular Achievements (10/24 - 10/30)

Jeff — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 11:00:00 -0800

Oh man, it is so totally November right now. On top of that, daylight savings is over. While that's temporarily good--I got an extra hour of sleep last night--it's longterm bad, because it means I'll be driving home from work in total darkness for the next several months. That's no good.

Last week went by super fast for me, largely because I was out of the office and sort of detached from the regular goings-on. Sounds like a lot of Dragon Age was played while I was out. I'm looking forward to seeing Dave's review of that later this week.

On the achievements front, it's starting to look a bit stale at the game level. That's because of two things. First, the achievements for most of this year's huge big superalphaomega releases are already out there now that Assassin's Creed II achievements are on the site. Also, does it strike you as sort of strange that Modern Warfare 2 isn't on our top ten this week? I'm guessing that'll be the game to replace Borderlands at the top of the list come November 10.

Did you watch the leaked MW2 footage? Looks pretty crazy, right? Actually, I'd recommend that you stay away from all the footage of that game that's going to leak out over the next 10 days. Save the surprises for when you sit down and play it for yourself.

Dude, Borderlands . It just crossed the 5,000 player mark and it's a frickin' juggernaut. People want to know about Borderlands achievements. People need to know about Borderlands achievements. Speaking of which, this is a good time to make a note of our redesigned achievement pages. Here's the new Borderlands page, which sorts in order of rarity, by default. Now you can easily scroll down and, thanks to the way the game doles out points every ten levels, you can see how far into the game people have gotten. 40% of those 5,000 people have gotten to level 30, but only 17.69% went on to level 40. And the level cap? 7.58% of those five grand have lived to see the true endgame so far. And around 30% of players have seen the end of the game... well, the end of the first playthrough, anyway.

We'll probably have more stat-type stuff along these lines for you to play with in the near future. For now, though, here's the top ten most popular achievement set pages on Giant Bomb for last week.

You don't need some fancy preorder rifle to rip up skags.

Top Sets

I'm guessing Killing Floor makes the list this week because they did a free weekend for it on Steam not too long ago. Oh, and keep in mind that the entry for GTA IV also includes the recently released Episodes From Liberty City pack that came out last week. Here's what's new this week.

I wouldn't really call Halo Waypoint a game.

New Sets

Man, I really don't know why Halo Waypoint shows up on profiles like it was a game. Actually, I think I know exactly why it does. Halo Waypoint totals up all of your achievements across all Halo games and gives you Xbox 360 avatar rewards based on your progress. For something to dole out avatar rewards, it probably has to appear on your profile like it was a game. That's my guess, anyway. I haven't matched it to our Halo Waypoint page because A) it doesn't have any achievements and B) our Halo Waypoint page is a concept page. So if you click on HW in your profile, it'll take you to a pretty janky page. I guess I could convert the concept page into a game page, but I'm not sure if we want to do that or not. I'll think about it for a bit.

Not much else out there in terms of new stuff. It's good to see more PC games supporting Steam achievements, though.

OK, as far as the individual achievements go, we've got a clean sweep. It's all Borderlands, all day, all night. I don't think Halo 3: ODST pulled that off during its hot weeks. Very impressive.

SWEEP SWEEP SWEEP SWEEP SWEEP SWEEP

Top Ten Individual

Borderlands - You're on a boat!
Borderlands - My Brother Is An Italian Plumber
Borderlands - 12 Days of Pandora
Borderlands - Fully Loaded
Borderlands - Speedy McSpeederton
Borderlands - Made in New Haven
Borderlands - Can't We Get BEYOND Thunderdome?
Borderlands - Ding! Champion
Borderlands - And They'll Tell Two Friends
Borderlands - Destroyed The Destroyer

Here's a little Borderlands-specific chart for you. The zigging and the zagging didn't make much sense to me at first until I realized that 10/24 (its biggest day) was the Saturday after the game's release. I guess a lot of you made it a Borderlands weekend.

Borderlands, achievements earned by GB users since launch.

Think it'll hang on for another week at the top spot?

Back To Rapture: Hands-On WIth BioShock 2

Brad — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:00:00 -0800

Some new toys this time around.

Any notions I had that BioShock 2 was going to diverge in a significant way from its inventive, esteemed predecessor went right out the window when I got to sit down and play this sequel from 2K Marin for myself a few weeks ago. The crumbling, art deco utopia under the sea; the crazed splicers; the genetic weapon modifications known as plasmids . All that stuff is back in force. Rapture may have become a nastier place over the decade separating the two games, but it's still familiar territory for anyone who went to the lengths necessary to put Frank Fontaine in his place during their first visit. I would have liked to see a BioShock sequel with a new setting and new themes, perhaps with subtler ties to the original. Then again, I'm not the guy tasked with following up such an ambitious and unique game in the space of only two years, and I can't really fault the new team at 2K Marin for picking up that specific torch and running with it.

If the team hasn't exactly changed what BioShock is, they've at least crammed a lot more BioShock into this sequel. You're going to see more of everything that made the world of Rapture as perilous and exotic as it was the first time around. There's the new hulking, imposing "Rumbler" version of the Big Daddy protecting the Little Sisters this time around. The Splicers have also gotten more spliced in the 10 years since the first game; I saw a burly, ape-like guy known as the Brute that will charge straight at you like a linebacker. Of course, there are more and heavier weapons that are in the spirit of the first game's arsenal but also seem tailored for use by your own bigger, badder Big Daddy protagonist. I especially liked a spear gun that would pin Splicers to the wall with a single shot, leaving them dangling wildly through the game's ragdoll system.

Big sisters ain't as tough as they look.

Then there's Sophia Lamb, the real villain, BioShock 2's brand new antagonist. She's the Andrew Ryan of BioShock 2. But where Ryan's objectivist philosophies excluded and ignored the less capable members of society, Lamb's a collectivist who wants to gather all of Rapture's remaining poor huddled masses to her and restore the failed society to its former splendor. But she's stepping on a lot of toes to do it. Just like Ryan, Lamb is the one who will be piping in over the radio from time to time, taunting you as you make your way to her. She's got minions, like the religious fanatic Father Simon Wales, establishing her empire inside Rapture. He acted as a boss encounter in the hands-off portion of the demo I saw.

The presence of Lamb was the biggest revelation about what I saw of BioShock 2, and it exemplifies the sort of feature-for-feature approach 2K Marin seems to be taking with this sequel, checking off every item on the list of what you need to make a BioShock game. New Big Daddy, new Splicers, new villainous ideologue. There are even some helpful new people, like a fancy Southern gentleman, yapping at you with funny accents over the radio. It even turns out that the Big Sister you've heard so much about, the one that you may have previously thought was the big baddie in this game--well, she's not alone. She's got other sisters. The Big Sisters are Sophia Lamb's enforcers, the telekinetic heavy lifters when things need to get done. But they aren't as tough as you might have thought. I took one of them down at the end of my hands-on time, which was a grueling but not impossible fight. You've got the tools to counteract most everything the Sisters throw at you, if you use them right.

Dual-wielding is the best new thing about BioShock 2's combat.

Speaking of which: getting your hands on a controller, this game feels like BioShock, top to bottom. The feel of the aiming and shooting, the use of health kits and Eve hypos, the Circus of Values vending machines; it's all just like you left it two years ago. By far my favorite improvement to the action is the dual-wielding between handheld weapons and plasmids. You can now fire off your spear gun with the right trigger and then pop off an Incinerate without having to swap between the two. While it still doesn't make much sense to me in the context of playing as a Big Daddy, in gameplay terms this makes the action a lot faster paced. Believable or not, it's something the game probably needed. The hacking minigame has also been simplified so that you're just timing a button press to a moving marker. This doesn't take you out of the action the way the first game's Pipe Dreams-esque minigame did, and helps to streamline the gameplay a little more.

I will give credit to some imaginative level design in BioShock 2, especially the "Journey to the Surface" level that I got to play most of the way through. It was designed as a theme park for the youngsters born inside Rapture that would indoctrinate them against the evils of the surface world. You get to run around a series of big animatronic dioramas, punching little "play" buttons that start an Andrew Ryan voiceover and depict the oppression of some scientist, entrepreneur, or other captain of industry by the evil giant hand of Big Government. Rapture became sort of a character unto itself over the course of the original game, so if 2K Marin is going to go back to that well for the sequel, I'm glad to see they're at least fleshing out that character further.

Rapture hasn't exactly gotten any prettier.

Then, of course, BioShock 2 has multiplayer. The game has free-for-all and team deathmatch modes, and a "Capture the Sister" mode that works more or less like it would with a flag, but looks kind of creepy as you run around carrying a thrashing little girl with you. The game's got the de rigeuer multiplayer bases covered, with persistent character progression between rounds that uses the Adam (or experience points) you've racked up to improve your chosen character, who takes the role of one of several Splicers with a short backstory included. The multiplayer exploits the BioShock trappings in a couple of other interesting ways; you can hack turrets to attack opposing players, and you can research each player's corpse individually with your camera to gain a damage bonus against that particular player for the rest of the match. But then, I never felt like BioShock's first-person shooting was as accomplished as many other games in this category, so the multiplayer didn't completely grab my attention here.

What does have my attention is where this story goes. BioShock 2 may trade heavily on the reputation of its name, and looking at this sequel on paper, you could be forgiven for thinking of it as falling into a predictable pattern that was established two years ago by its predecessor. But sometimes being forced to stay within the lines breeds creativity and ingenuity of its own. Getting to see exactly what it is that 2K Marin does with this tale, trapped within the dank confines of Rapture and situated squarely in the shadow of BioShock's legacy, may prove to be interesting indeed.

Until then, here's an interview we hustled at the hands-on event to fill in a little more detail about BioShock 2.

Here's An In-Depth Look At Disney's Epic Mickey

Brad — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:00:00 -0800

In addition to an unveiling currently going on in London ( 1UP has a live blog), Disney Interactive has finally sent out a bunch of new images and information detailing its big under-wraps Wii project from Warren Spector , Epic Mickey . I never would have envisioned Spector to go from System Shock and Deus Ex to Mickey Mouse , but hey, the guy's got the pedigree.

Here's what you came for: the screenshots.

Disney also put out some basic gameplay info and quotes from Spector. (Note: Entirely from the company's mouth.)

Disney Interactive Studios today announced the development of Disney Epic Mickey, an adventure-platforming game with light role-playing elements for the Wii home video game console. The game stars Mickey Mouse who has been re-imagined for videogames by luminary game designer Warren Spector and his Junction Point game development studio. In Disney Epic Mickey, Spector, a life-long Disney fan, taps into Mickey Mouse's rich history along with the characters and worlds brought to life by Walt Disney to create an edgy and unexpected cartoon adventure.

"Mickey is an adventurous and rambunctious mouse," said Warren Spector, creative director and vice president, Junction Point. "I want to bring his personality to the forefront, place him in a daunting world and connect his spirited character with video game players worldwide. Ultimately, each player decides for him- or herself what makes Mickey cool."

In the game's fiction, a sorcerer named Yen Sid creates a beautiful, whimsically-twisted world where Disney's forgotten and retired creations thrive. Originally, the powerful sorcerer from "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" in Walt Disney's 1940 film "Fantasia" was nicknamed "Yen Sid" by Disney animators, although never named as such on screen. In Spector's game, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit - Walt Disney's first cartoon star created in 1927 - becomes the earliest inhabitant of Yen Sid's Cartoon Wasteland after Mickey Mouse is created. Oswald makes the Cartoon Wasteland comfortable for other retired characters as they join him in this magical land. Years pass, and as Oswald dwells in the Cartoon Wasteland, he becomes resentful watching Mickey's popularity swell. When Mickey curiously stumbles upon Yen Sid's map, he makes an innocent yet terrible mistake and inadvertently devastates Oswald's comfortable world. Eventually, Mickey's mistake pulls him deep into the mysterious Cartoon Wasteland to face the destruction he unknowingly created.

Players use the Wii Remote to wield magical paint and thinner to re-shape the world around them. Paint's creativity and thinner's damaging effect give the player robust tools and empowers them to make choices about how they move through the world. Each player's decisions to use paint, thinner or both dynamically changes the world with consequences that affect the environment, interactions with other characters, and even Mickey's appearance and abilities.

"The core of this game is the idea of choice and consequence, and how that defines both the character and the player," says Spector. "By putting the mischievous Mickey in an unfamiliar place and asking him to make choices - to help other cartoon characters or choose his own path - the game forces players to deal with the consequences of their actions. Ultimately, players must ask themselves, ‘What kind of hero am I?' Each player will come up with a different answer."

Blurring reality and fantasy, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit's role is as significant in the game as it was in real life. The Walt Disney-created Oswald appeared in 26 silent cartoons between 1927 and 1928 for Charles Mintz, who contracted with Universal for distribution. At this time, Oswald was primed to be Walt's first big animated star. When faced with daunting production costs, Walt asked for more money to ensure the quality of the Oswald cartoons. When a deal could not be reached, Walt lost the rights to Oswald and with the rabbit went much of Walt's staff. Among those who remained with Walt was animator, cartoonist and long-time friend Ub Iwerks, and together they created a new character named Mickey Mouse.

The initial concept behind Disney Epic Mickey originated within the Disney Interactive Studios' Think Tank. The Think Tank conceptualized Mickey as a cartoon character thrown into turmoil. Spector expanded and refined Disney Epic Mickey's concept and built the game for a broad audience fully utilizing the Wii and Wii Remote for accessibility and engaging gameplay.

There's also a ton of new concept art for you. Here are some environments.

And... character designs! Zombie Donald Duck is pretty neat.

Am I a big jerk for wishing this wasn't just a Wii game? The artwork and designs going into this are pretty impressive--too bad we won't be able to play through them in high-def. What's your interest level for this one?

Review of DJ Hero

Jeff — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:00:00 -0800

Platform: (PS3,X360)

4 out of 5

It'll take some time before all of this feels like second nature.

It's been awhile since we've seen an honest-to-goodness turntable video game here in the US. Konami experimented a bit with Beatmania , but it's been a pretty dry decade. That's part of what makes Activision 's DJ Hero so exciting. It's a new peripheral with a new take on how rhythm games are played. It's also exciting because it represents genres of music that aren't getting much attention from the power duo of Rock Band and Guitar Hero , like various types of electronic dance music and hip-hop. With a cool setlist that's implemented in a unique way and a peripheral that backs up the on-screen happenings pretty well, DJ Hero is a solid start to what will probably make for a fruitful franchise.

Sorry to open up by looking ahead to sequels that haven't been announced yet, but the big thing you'll probably notice about DJ Hero is that it feels like a first-generation product. Remember how the original Guitar Hero didn't let you do much more than just play the songs and look at your score? That's most of what DJ Hero has to offer. You're presented with different mixes, each with anywhere from two to eight songs in it, and you'll play the tracks, one after the next, until you've completed that tier of songs. You'll earn stars for your performance, which opens up more set lists and additional window dressing, like playable characters, new stages, more outfits, and so on. Some of the characters are real-life DJs, like Z-Trip, Grandmaster Flash, and Daft Punk.

That sounds straightforward, but there's a bit more to it. You can play against another player either locally or over the Internet. These are simple score competitions that allow the host to build a custom playlist, if desired. You can also play ten of the game's tracks with a local player wielding a Guitar Hero guitar controller. This seems like it was added as a bit of an afterthought. Sure, these custom mixes aren't found in a non-guitar format, but the guitar parts can be repetitive in some cases, and get lost in the cacophony of DJ whistles and scratching in others.

The turntable itself is a well-made piece of wireless machinery.

The game is played with a custom-built turntable controller that has a crossfader, an effects dial, a button to activate Euphoria (which is the game's equivalent of Guitar Hero's star power), and a turntable with three buttons on it. Your primary activity is pressing these buttons and holding them while you scratch the record back and forth in time with the on-screen indicators. The game will also tell you when you flip the crossfader back and forth, which cuts between the two records. For the most part, the controller is fine, but scratching while holding down the buttons feels a bit weird. It's like the turntable's platter is a bit too heavy, so it gets moving with a bit of momentum when you're scratching. This leads to imprecision, which is never great in games like these. Also, you'll probably need to spend some serious time with the controller to get used to hitting it without looking down at it. Also, the crossfader can be a little tricky. It's easy to slide it too far when you're trying to center it.

So as you might have guessed, this game isn't as easy to pick up and play as Guitar Hero was back in its day, since the activity of DJ'ing is a bit more abstract, but the game opens with a great tutorial that helps make everything clear. That said, you'll need some practice to actually get good at the game. It didn't take much time for me to start getting five stars on every song I encountered on medium, but the two harder difficulties make meaningful changes to the way the game is played, making it both more difficult and more rewarding. While playing on medium, I felt like I was growing into the harder difficulties as I played.

There aren't too many surprises in the way DJ Hero plays out, as you're essentially just playing along to the music. If you match the on-screen cues, you earn stars and the music plays properly. When you miss, things go poorly, but you'll never fail out. The game will let you trudge on with your performance, even when you're playing like crap. There are a few wild cards that let you have a direct impact on the sound of a song, like the effects knob, which you can use to filter the tunes in certain spots. Occasionally you'll get big lines down the middle channel. This is your cue to go nuts with the center button to freestyle some extra effects over the music. You can select from multiple packs of freestyle sounds while you're selecting your character, giving you access to banks of Flavor Flav samples, spacey dub siren sounds, and a rough equivalent to that dancehall air horn noise that all DJs use. All of them. Clearly, the air horn is the only correct choice, but ultimately, your off-beat slamming of the center button only serves to make the songs sound worse. The rewind feature, which lets you back up a portion of the song and play it again with a double-score multiplier, is also neat in theory, but it almost never sounds good. It uses a generic rewind noise and never sounds natural--you always feel like you're knocking the song off-beat. Still, using things like the rewind and euphoria power is the key to earning high scores and getting stars.

If this looks too crazy, relax. The lower difficulty settings get incredibly easy.

There's a really sharp soundtrack in DJ Hero that covers a lot of different genres. With the guitar controller playing into some songs, you'll find songs from the Foo Fighters and The Killers in there, as well as a version of Motorhead's "Ace of Spades." But you aren't playing these songs on their own. Each track is built from two or more different songs, and they're mashed together to form something new and kind of crazy. Sometimes it works out perfectly, like when Daft Punk and Queen are dropped into one track. Other times, it feels a little hokey, like when DJ Z-Trip and Murs rework Foreigner's "Jukebox Hero" into a song about turntables called, you know, "DJ Hero." By and large, the mixes are well-produced and many of them could stand on their own outside of the game.

Visually, DJ Hero does the same thing that all games like this do. You'll be too busy focusing on the highway to see what buttons you need to hit next to notice the variety of backgrounds and characters. One thing you'll definitely notice, though, are the constantly flashing lights in some areas. At times, I felt like the game should stop and throw up one of those epilepsy warnings. Last night I seriously thought about sliding a wallet under my tongue, you know, just in case. The stages and strobes and huge party scenes actually look really cool, if you have time to pay attention to them. Also, watching virtual Daft Punk, dressed up like robots, slamming pads and buttons on their polygonal gear is pretty cool. Unfortunately, there are a lot of times where the on-screen DJ isn't matching your actions. Watching Jazzy Jeff throw his hands in the air while you're furiously scratching just looks like a really goofy oversight.

It's a bit barebones, and the turntable controller feels like it could have been better in a couple of spots. But as the start of something new, DJ Hero provides a very strong foundation that things like additional downloadable content or full-fledged sequels could really build on. If you've been fiending for a rhythm game that represents a different style of music or you just like cutting and scratching, DJ Hero's a lot of fun.

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!

Getting Buzzed With Buzz! Quiz World

Brad — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:00:00 -0800

HE'S STARING INTO MY SOUL.

My favorite feature of the newest Buzz! trivia game for PlayStation 3, Quiz World , is that you can't type in your own name.

Whoa there, sparky! Hang on a minute. I'm not regressing into company-shilling apologist mode. Instead of typing in your name, you select from a huge list of monikers that includes common first names and a number of silly nicknames. It's a cool feature because the game's Muppet-headed host, the exuberant but vaguely unsettling Buzz, then verbalizes your name during each round. That's attention-getting and useful for people like me who tend to zone out a bit during games like this. It's also weirdly funny from time to time; "Dude" is a name option, for example, which Jeff rightly pointed out we would all probably respond to.

Along with the preset name selections, there are a bunch of cartoonish avatars including knight, alien, cheerleader, and Snidely Whiplash-looking railroad baron guy with tophat and curly mustache. You can customize these characters with different outfit options and then make them do goofy animations between questions that will get Buzz yapping at you. These profiles are persistent across matches once you create them, and Buzz remembers your statistics and favorite categories to make recommendations in future play.

These people are down to quiz.

Speaking of, there are over 5,000 questions in here, and you pick a specific category from four choices before every round, including things like art history, musical instruments, and '80s television. I noticed the TV category had a strange predilection for Knight Rider and The A Team . Wait, there's nothing strange about that. And would you believe Ryan killed it in the art round? We were playing a mode where you could bet your current points, and his strategy of betting big on every question really paid off when he went from third to first at the end of the round.

Other round types include variations on the answer-first formula, and one I especially liked that had each player's podium raised into the air at a height proportional to their score. As each question's time ticked down, the podium lowered toward a trap door that your character would dump right into if your overall time ran out. That sort of round really levels the playing field, if you can answer faster than your competitors.

From what we played around here, Quiz World is honestly a good, silly sort of fun in a group setting, if you're into trivia games. I think our match actually got a little heated here in the office. It's also interesting to note that, despite the name and the controllers with gigantic light-up red buttons that ship the game, you rarely actually buzz in to answer questions. But who's splitting hairs?

Review of Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time

Vinny — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:00:00 -0800

Platform: (PS3)

5 out of 5

In the eight or so years since the original Ratchet and Clank was released on the PlayStation 2, I've learned that there's more to life than collecting items, powering up outlandish weaponry, and unleashing mayhem upon hordes of enemies. There's also a fair amount of platforming. These ingredients have been staples of the Ratchet series since its inception, but like a seasoned chef, Insomniac has added just the right amount of each to concoct a treat that will keep you satisfied until your last bolt-ridden bite.

Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time is the series' third installment on the PlayStation 3 and picks up where the previous two games left off. Our little robot friend Clank has been abducted and hidden away by some adorable, mysterious beings known as the Zoni . His Lombax compatriot Ratchet , the apparent last of his race, is teamed up with the egomaniacal, would-be-galactic-savior Captain Qwark . It's quickly revealed that the naive Zoni have been working for the robotic madman Dr. Nefarious who needs Clank to access the temporal powers of a device known as the Great Clock. With Clank locked away inside this celestial timepiece, Ratchet begins his adventure to save his friend, the world, and time itself.

Clank has his own demons to fight throughout the game.

With the team separated from the start, you'll play the majority of the game alternating between Ratchet and Clank. Ratchet handles most of the heavy action and fighting as he travels the galaxy, while Clank focuses more on solving puzzles inside the Great Clock. The game will transition from one character to the other after key missions have been completed, and it all flows smoothly.

Though Ratchet is occasionally joined by Qwark, or another fighter, he will mostly be fighting hordes of enemies aided solely by his weapons... his many, many, ridiculous weapons. The Ratchet and Clank games have always included a sizable arsenal, but A Crack in Time has some of the most unique, useful, and satisfying ways to kill or incapacitate your foes yet. You'll see the return of some favorites, like the always entertaining, boogie-inducing Groovitron Glove, but you'll also be treated to such tools of destruction as the Rift Inducer 5000. This little number happens to be a device that tears open a dimensional portal allowing a tentacled beast to peek through and devour your enemies for a limited time. Honestly, I only found a few duds in the mix (I'm looking at you Dynamo of Doom) and by constantly giving you the chance to upgrade your weapons through continued use, the game encourages you to experiment with new ones. Upgrading is a huge part of the game and each weapon can reach a maximum level of five, at which point it will transform into a slightly modified, and better version of its former self. For example, continually using Mr. Zurkon--a minuscule floating robotic helper bent on destruction--will eventually transform him into Zurkon the Destroyer. Each time you reach a new level with a weapon, stats like damage or rate of fire will increase, and the leveling comes so quickly that you constantly feel like you're progressing towards some goal as you mow down the endless hordes of baddies.

The action is as plentiful as the upgrades.

Upgrades for your arsenal will also come in the form of new components for your Constructo weapons. These include the Constructo Pistol, Shotgun, and Bomb. Each can be fitted with parts that you'll collect throughout the adventure, allowing you to toggle between attributes like the rapid fire or charge triggers on the pistol. These modifications drastically affect the properties of each weapon and you'll be mixing and matching them to your liking. With all the options available on the Constructo weapons, I found them to be my go-to choice when I wasn't giggling at robots dancing or summoning inter-dimensional beings to do my bidding.

Did I mention upgrades? Ratchet will also be upgrading his ship with new lasers, missiles, and armor as he flies around the galaxy searching for his little robotic buddy. When you're not running around planet-side, wreaking havoc, you can now pilot your ship freely through defined sectors of space engaging in combat or landing on the many smaller planets to find more collectibles. All of the space travel and combat is locked to a horizontal plane, so instead of being able to pitch your ship up or down, your evasive maneuvering is limited to barrel rolls and 180 degree turns. Most of the non-terrestrial combat isn't terribly engaging, but the ability to take optional missions and land your ship on the planetoids to hunt down collectibles is a welcome inclusion.

Don't be fooled, this is all highly organized.

While Ratchet is tearing about the universe, Clank will be engaging in his own subtler methods of world saving. He'll be using his newly acquired time-shifting abilities to navigate and solve puzzles within the Great Clock. The most devious of these time-and-mind-bending obstacles are the ones that require you to record multiple versions of yourself as you race to trigger different events around the room. A simple example would begin with recording your movements with Clank A. You position Clank A to stand on a pressure plate that, when depressed, allows access to another button in the distance. You would then end that recording and start a new one with Clank B, during which you can watch as Clank A goes about his prerecorded business of clearing the way for you to access that distant button. The complexity quickly ramps up and you'll eventually have up to four versions of yourself all running around performing tasks that somehow aid the other recordings. If that sounds complicated, it is, but it's also extremely rewarding and once you've completed a puzzle you will not only be showered with bolts, the currency of this universe, but you'll also feel like the smartest human on the planet. If you truly are not feeling up to the task, you can opt to bypass the puzzle entirely, but will miss out on the monetary rewards as well as the boost to your ego.

All of this puzzle solving and item collection takes place in one of the more visually stunning games to date. The environments are brightly colored, interestingly designed, and well realized. The animators over at Insomniac must be some of the best in the business because all the characters move with a fluidity and appropriately cartoonish exaggeration rarely seen in video games. The level of quality and care taken is present in everything from the rendered cutscenes to the Groovitron dances. Complimenting the visuals is the sound design which is also top notch. From the voice acting to the music, the audio breathes life into an already living world and serves to draw you into the rich experience.

While the humor in the game falls more on the corny side, I definitely found myself chuckling at some of the gags, and it all seems to gel with the rest of the presentation. The story may not be the most enthralling but it's told well and it will help to keep you curious as you progress through the game. Playing through on normal, and collecting a majority of items, I was able to complete my first playthrough at around eleven hours. After you're finished you'll have the option to go back and find all the goodies you missed along the way or restart in the Challenge Mode with all your existing weapons and upgrades.

With A Crack in Time apparently marking the end of the "Future" storyline on the PlayStation 3, I really couldn't ask for a better embodiment of everything I've come to enjoy from the series. The constant satisfaction from upgrading creative weaponry, item collection which feels rewarding rather than trivial, and the over-the-top action are all here, and better than they've ever been. With the addition of some interesting puzzles, even more flexibility with your weapons, and a great presentation, Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time is not only the best game in the series, but one that will certainly stand the test of, well, time.

Review of WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2010

Brad — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:00:00 -0800

Platform: (PS3,X360)

3 out of 5

Woo.

Professional wrestling is completely ridiculous... and I mean that in the best possible way. The age-old struggle of good versus evil, as retold by the likes of Chris Jericho , Shawn Michaels , Tommy Dreamer , John Cena , Triple H , and a host of other bulked-up muscledudes is classic and cheesy at its best and an ironic and hilarious train wreck at its worst. The problem with translating it into a video game is that the scripted moments in the physical action allow for a flow that can't be easily duplicated when you're trying to make an AI opponent behave the way they do on television. This year's version of THQ 's long-running WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW series still has all of those issues. But it also has a story editor that lets players create new moments using the WWE 's cast of characters. It's not perfect, but it's a great first attempt at letting WWE fans truly control every aspect of Vince McMahon 's crazy universe.

There are over 60 wrestlers in the game, representing all three of the WWE's sub-brands and also including male and female wrestlers. The game's got just about everyone you could ask for, including all of the names mentioned above, as well as other wrestlers like CM Punk , Christian , Mickie James , and Matt Hardy . Also, since the list of people actually employed by the WWE seems to change on a daily basis, there are a number of selectable wrestlers in the game that are no longer with the company, like Jeff Hardy , JBL , Mr. Kennedy , and Umaga . You can also create your own wrestlers using a robust set of tools that allow you to apply preset clothing items and modify them with a paint tool that lets you create your own logos and other detail work. There's enough stuff in there to create reasonable facsimiles of real-life wrestlers who aren't on the game's roster (there are already versions of guys like Scott Hall , Magnum TA, and Hulk Hogan floating around), characters from other forms of media (I made a pretty lame version of Guile in about 10 minutes), or even just your own original characters, if you want to get fully creative.

In addition to creating logos and wrestlers, you can also create custom entrances, edit together video clips, and piece together finishing moves from preset animations. But the real crux of the game's creative side is the new story editor, which lets you create pretty detailed story lines by adding your own custom text to a set of prefabricated "moments." Most of the standard things you see week-to-week on a wrestling program are represented, like backstage interviews, shots of the commentators, wrestlers standing in the ring, shouting into microphones, and so on. The more dramatic elements of wrestling, like people getting hit by cars (with mystery drivers!) or wrestlers jumping out of the crowd to attack are also represented. Though I can certainly envision a few oft-used scenarios that aren't included (such as driving a beer truck directly into the arena, having a wrestler break through a wall and immediately fall down, or anything involving a coffin), the whole setup feels pretty flexible. You simply choose the location and animation, which characters are in the scene, and write dialogue, if necessary. You can also add matches with different goals to your stories, giving players something to fight for in-between story segments. Like the other created aspects of the game, you can share your completed stories online.

The story creator. Anything you do here will automatically be better than that Katie Vick thing.

In addition to just making things yourself, the game also contains a bunch of preset modes. The Road to Wrestlemania mode returns this year, offering preset stories for Edge , Mickie James, Randy Orton , Shawn Michaels, created superstars, and one called "Brand Warfare" that includes multiple wrestlers and can be played cooperatively. These start you out around 90 days before Wrestlemania, and take you through the lead-up to the biggest show the WWE puts on. Winning matches moves you through the story. Most of the stories are pretty decent and feel like they could plausibly occur on WWE's television programming. Beyond creating your own stuff, this is probably the best stuff in the entire game, even if a lot of the voice acting is kind of terrible. It all sounds like it was recorded in a voiceover booth and lacks all of the intensity that wrestlers and announcers typically convey when in front of a live crowd. There's also a career mode that lets you move up through a set of rankings to eventually challenge for belts, and you can, of course, configure a match using the full roster and a wide collection of match types to just play.

But the part of WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2010 where you pick up the controller and start wrestling is where the whole thing falls apart. The game's canned animations string together in awkward-looking ways that are sometimes hard to predict, and the action feels repetitive and unrefined. The game has one counter button that can be used to counter just about anything, if you can fit your button presses into a pretty tight timing window. And a lot of it is clunky, especially when more than two wrestlers are involved, as the game holds your focus on one opponent, even if you start running at another. So if you've knocked one guy down and turn your attention to another, standing opponent, most of the time you'll do elbow drops and other moves intended for a guy that's on the mat. The weird part is that they still hit the standing wrestler. You can fiddle with the game's settings to allow for manual focus controls, but forcing you to dictate your intentions like that doesn't feel much better.

Most of the female models look fairly bad.

Also, the action in the game feels very little like actual WWE in-ring wrestling. There are things you have to worry about that only come up on television when it's convenient, like rope breaks, where a pin gets broken up because the guy on the bottom has his foot under the ropes. In the game, you feel like you're constantly having to worry about the position of every wrestler, because it's far too easy to pull off your finisher in the wrong spot and not be able to follow it up with a pin. Tag matches also feel fundamentally different when they're treated like an actual sport, rather than scripted entertainment. Overall, the action is disappointing and the AI is pretty lackluster. So you're better off with human opposition... provided they're sitting right next to you. Yes, the game has online play, but the only time I was able to find a match that wasn't laggy to the point of pointlessness is when I took two copies of the game and ran them both on the same Internet connection. Considering how much of the gameplay is focused on properly timed button presses, this makes the game barely playable online. At least you can upload and download created items with other players.

WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2010 doesn't fix any of the fundamental issues that the series has had for years, and as this style of gameplay gets another year older, it looks that much more dated. The good news is that all of the stuff surrounding the actual gameplay is getting to be really good. I'd be perfectly fine with never wrestling another match... but I'll probably go back and create a couple of completely ridiculous stories using a bunch of created wrestlers. If that sounds appealing to you (or if you've already come to terms with the way the SmackDown! series plays), this year's game is worth checking out.

Review of A Boy and His Blob

Ryan — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:00:00 -0800

Platform: (WII)

4 out of 5

A Boy and His Blob: Friends Forever!

The original 1989 release of A Boy and His Blob for the NES is a game that's easier to appreciate for its ideas than its execution. Its pedigree is certified with the involvement of Pitfall! creator David Crane , and the concept of a protagonist coaxing varied utility out of his gelatinous companion by feeding it jelly beans is as weird as it is whimsical. Lots of clever ideas, but as a game, it was kind of gawky and awkward. In a sterling example of the right way to do a remake, WayForward 's A Boy and His Blob for the Wii takes the underlying premise, amplifies that game's strengths, and shaves away its rougher edges. It's a far more approachable game, but it's also not condescending, making it suitable for players both young and old. It's also a seriously adorable game, with a gentle hand-drawn art style that really emphasizes the sweet, unspoken friendship of the two title characters.

Beyond the brief opening boy-meets-blob sequence, there's not much explicit storytelling in A Boy and His Blob. The dynamic duo travel through the woods, underground caves, and finally, the blob's contoured, pastel-hued home planet of Blobolonia , all the while collecting treasure and magic jelly beans while dodging sinister black blobs of varying shapes and sizes. On their own, either character wouldn't survive for too long in this treacherous world. The boy can't jump very high, can't swim, can't survive long falls, and doesn't have a life bar to buffer against fatal contact with bad blobs or spike pits. Aside from his peculiar companionship, he is just a boy. The blob, on the other hand, is basically invincible, though he's also just a shapeless wad of white stuff. (For whatever reason, I imagine the blob has a consistency somewhere between a marshmallow and Silly Putty.) But, when the boy feeds the blob a jelly bean, which you can select different flavors of through a simple radial menu, the blob can take on a myriad of forms, allowing the pair to overcome obstacles and subdue enemies.

This is the crux of the gameplay in A Boy and His Blob: figuring out how to use the blob's candy-induced abilities to get the boy from point A to point B. You start off with simple stuff like ladders , trampolines, and Looney Tunes -style portable holes. New abilities are introduced steadily over the course of the game, though the abilities you'll have on any given level are predetermined, creating limitations that force you to consider the less-than-obvious approach to a certain obstacle. There are fleeting moments in A Boy and His Blob that require a little twitch timing, particularly the game's incongruously unforgiving boss fights, but it's mostly a lot of deliberate puzzle-solving. There are moments that seem to demand some arbitrary trial-and-error, but for the most part the puzzling aspects of A Boy and His Blob rely on simple, straightforward, logical problem-solving.

It looks even better in motion.

This review already says more about the gameplay in A Boy and His Blob than the game itself does, a point I particularly appreciate about this game. There's no heavy-handed tutorial, just some regular, helpful signage to clue you in on which jelly bean you might want to consider using. Beyond that, the game lets you figure it out for yourself, without too much penalty, as the levels are heavily checkpointed and you've got infinite jelly beans to toss around. Not that A Boy and His Blob is a terribly complex game, but I feel like one of the worst things a kids' game can do is talk down to the player.

If the simple efficiency of the gameplay doesn't grab you entirely, A Boy and His Blob might maintain your attention with the clean lines and sharp detail of the presentation. Visually, this is a much less adorned game than, say, Muramasa , but there's still ample craft to the smooth animation found throughout A Boy and His Blob. There are touches like the way the boy's shirt edges will flutter as he falls, the odd, tiny bits of blobby wildlife going about their business on Blobolonia, or the seamlessness with which the boy and his blob hug that really help bring the whole thing together. The sound follows the same clean and simple design philosophy, relying on a few pieces of lively mood music and some minimalist voice work for both boy and blob. I particularly appreciated that the voice work for the boy, whose speech is mostly limited to brief instruction, sounds like an actual boy, not a cartoon character. It's a subtle touch that gives the whole game a little bit of weight.

There's an unassuming thoughtfulness to A Boy and His Blob that, in an odd sort of way, has the feel of some of the better children's programming you might see on public television. It's not educational per se, but it values subdued atmosphere and elementary puzzle design over flashy, merchandise-friendly mascots with prepackaged catchphrases. Like public television, some might find it a little too sincere and slow-paced, but even if it doesn't suit your tastes, it's hard to deny the craft at work in A Boy and His Blob.

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!

Review of Borderlands

Jeff — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:00:00 -0800

Platform: (PS3,X360)

4 out of 5

How do you reason with a guy that sets himself on fire?

Mashing together different game genres is risky business. For every game that manages to do it correctly, three or four more seem to miss out on key pieces of the different genres they're attempting to combine. The end result has been a lot of games that feature really unsatisfying first-person shooting because they're trying to focus on too many different genres at once. With that in mind, perhaps the most exciting thing about Gearbox 's new FPS-meets-RPG, Borderlands , is that the action is actually quite fun on its own, offering loads of different guns to try out and a lot of different ways to eliminate anything and everything that stands in your way.

Borderlands is a loot-driven first-person shooter with a lot of different role-playing game hooks throughout. The game is structured a bit like an MMO, with the world broken out into different zones and a very handy quest log that feels like it fell out of World of Warcraft . There are plenty of critical story-related missions to complete, but there are also a lot of side-quests that send you across every zone, usually to kill or collect something. It's easy to see the influence of games like Diablo on Borderlands, as well, because the game is constantly dropping procedurally generated items for you to collect. This is how the game's box is able to claim that it has "bazillions" of guns.

Of course, "bazillions" is a pretty high (and pretty made-up) number, and you'll probably never see the exact same gun twice. But much of the variety in the guns come from slight statistical tweaks to how much damage they do, their rate of fire, their reload speed, whether or not they have a scope, and so on. But the weapons still break down into a handful of traditional classes, like combat rifle, sub-machine gun, sniper rifle , rocket launcher , pistol, revolver, and so on. And as you start finding better weapons and becoming proficient with them, it quickly feels like 95 percent of the guns you're finding are nothing more than vendor trash that only exists to be sold off for more money. Still, it's cool to see how the different fire rates for different weapons makes them feel. Finding a rocket launcher that automatically launches its full magazine of three rockets and quickly reloads, for example, is a real thrill, especially considering how sluggish most of the other launchers are. The thrill of never knowing when you're going to find a useful or rare weapon is very substantial, and it's more than enough to keep you coming back to wade through the endless avalanche of common junk.

Each character comes with a preset look, but you can define the clothing colors.

The way that Borderlands' guns are varied also applies to the rest of the game's equipment. Though you don't equip actual armor, characters can be outfitted with a Halo -like recharging shield. Each shield comes with a different number of shield points and a different recharge rate. Many of them also have bonus effects, rendering you more resistant to specific types of elemental damage or even recharging your health as well as your shield power. If there's one thing I've learned over the 50+ hours I spent with Borderlands, it's that shields that restore your health are the only worthwhile shields in the entire game. Grenades can also be altered via items that modify their damage and their effect. So you can equip MIRV grenades that split apart when they land, damaging a wider radius. Or you can equip transfusion grenades, which steal health from enemies and give it back to you. Not to tell you how to play the game or anything, but I recommend you stick with transfusion grenades whenever possible.

The other big deciding factor in how you'll play Borderlands comes from the four character classes you'll choose from at the beginning of the game. Though there aren't any meaningful item restrictions that will prevent you from playing any class however you please, each class has its own skill tree that will build your character in a variety of different ways. You get one skill point per level once you hit level five, and stop getting them when you hit the level cap at level 50. The soldier class has skills that can make him something of a medic, such as cauterize, which lets you heal other players by shooting them. He also has skills that help him further specialize in the use of combat rifles and shotguns, but specializing in specific weapons doesn't seem like a great idea, since you never know what the next amazing gun you're going to find will be. I spent most of my time with a soldier and probably used a sub-machine gun for most of the game.

The other three classes feel like they want you to specialize your play style in a much more dramatic way than the soldier through a mix of weapon specialization skills and class-specific action skills. The Hunter has a bird that can be called out to attack enemies. Plenty of skill points can be spent making the bird more effective, and plenty more can be spent specializing in sniper rifles, which are only really useful in specific situations because most of the game's enemies are all about closing the gap and getting right up in your face. That doesn't leave a lot of room to snipe.

The siren has a "phasewalk" action skill that lets you avoid damage for a brief period of time. You also explode into and out of the phased state, which damages nearby enemies. Most of the siren's other abilities deal with either causing or preventing elemental damage, which comes in four forms: fire (good for burning flesh), shock (good for depleting shields), corrosive (good for armored targets), and explosive (good for... exploding).

The berserker class has skills that help him specialize in rocket launchers, which, like sniper rifles, aren't so hot in close quarters situations. His action skill is a berserk state that makes him a two-fisted brawler, which is a lot of fun to use, especially once you've spent some skill points to trick it out.

Flynt's not happy to see you.

But what about the world that all of these guns and skills have been crammed into? Well, Borderlands takes place on an alien planet called Pandora. It's overrun with convicts and psychos, but there's also word that it's the resting place of a secret alien vault, rumored to be filled with all sorts of technology. So the player characters are vault hunters, new to the planet, but hoping to get rich quick. At the beginning of the game you start receiving video messages from some kind of guardian angel. She guides you here and there as you play, but you're really guided by the game's on-screen compass, which tells you where to go next to work on your currently selected quest. Though there are some interesting characters and some well-written dialogue in Borderlands, the story is paper-thin. Some will say that it's nice that the story doesn't get in the way of the action, but it's hard not to feel like you've accidentally skipped some cutscenes or something by the end of the game. Once you do complete the story, you're dumped back into the world, letting you finish up any remaining quests you may have.

Completing the game also unlocks "playthrough 2," a sort of New Game Plus option that lets you take your existing character and start over in a world where the first enemies you encounter are around level 34 or so. It's certainly more difficult the second time around, but if you take the time to do more than just the critical story missions and complete a good chunk of side-quests, you'll be a few levels ahead of the opposition most of the time, giving you a distinct advantage. There is no playthrough 3, and there doesn't seem to be any way to replay quests that you've completed, either. This seems like it'd eventually lead to a situation where your character is unsuitable as a host for a multiplayer game, since the host determines which quests are active.

The enemies in Borderlands break down into around eight different types, including the wild, dog-like skags, sizable enemy crabs, humanoid bandits, spiderants, flying creatures, and so on. A lot of the enemy AI is very predictable, and just about anything that isn't a human will usually just rush in your direction and start doing as much damage as possible. Human enemies will occasionally take cover, but they still aren't very bright. That also applies to boss battles, as well. The game's two largest, coolest-looking boss fights can be summed up by the following strategy: "stand still and aim for the thing that looks like a lady's naughty bits." On my first playthrough, I beat the final boss without even moving. It's a shame that the enemy AI isn't more wily, but in most cases, they make up for their lack of smarts by outnumbering you by a wide margin. So you might want to bring some friends.

You can certainly play alone and solo your way through the entire game, but it's a lot more interesting if you engage in cooperative play. Borderlands lets up to four players band together, and the game's difficulty slides up as you add players, making everything a bit more exciting. A lot of the game feels like it was built for co-op play, from the two-man vehicles that let one guy sit on a turret to a dueling system that lets you fight one-on-one against another player to a full-on arena that lets all four players engage in round-based battles against one another. Players can revive their friends, too, which is added on top of a neat "second wind" feature that brings a downed player back to life if he can shoot and kill an enemy while he's bleeding out. The game also claims that you'll find more and better loot when you play with others.

Finding and fixing robots out in the wastes gets you more inventory slots.

The downside of the game's online play is that it feels like it's missing a few key features. There's no trade interface at all, so players who want to exchange items are forced to drop them on the ground, a "system" that is easily exploited by unscrupulous players. Also, there's nothing stopping any one player from running around and grabbing every item that drops. Lastly, there doesn't seem to be a way to drop money, so there's no way to buy items from other players. The lack of MMO-like looting rules or a proper trade interface means that playing with strangers can get a little risky, as you never know when someone's going to dust off their old, Phantasy Star Online -era tricks, screw you over, and quit the server. The only thing that mitigates this a bit is that there's so much loot dropping all the time that it's hard to care too much about any one item... chances are, if you keep playing, you'll find something even better within an hour or two. Speaking of hours, I completed a first run of Borderlands in around 18 hours, completing almost every quest I could find. Getting one character up to level 50 took around 35 hours.

Though there are a few too many spots in the game where the frame rate noticeably drops, Borderlands is a great-looking game. It's the art style that makes it stand out, with a lot of awesome texture work that makes the entire game look like it was drawn by hand. It makes the environments, most of which have the look of a post-apocalyptic wasteland, really catch your eye. Effects, such as the way enemies burn up when they die from a fire attack, are also really great to see... and hear. The game's got some terrific screams to go along with watching a man burn alive. Terrific screams.

The structure of Borderlands makes it feel like an MMO game that doesn't require you to rely on groups of other players to enjoy. Though it's probably better when you're playing online with friends, playing alone is still perfectly fine. It's also one of those games that's so strong in parts that its shortcomings become almost glaring by comparison. As such, the game's barebones story, lackluster AI, and insufficient player trading options are real disappointments that prevent the game from reaching its full potential. But when you're frantically trying to stay alive while getting swarmed by an angry horde of gigantic spiderants, chances are you won't care much about that other stuff. Borderlands strongly succeeds where plenty of other Diablo-inspired games have failed miserably.

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!

Ryan — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:02:02 -0800

With Jeff on vacation we bring Drew to the table for discussions of the subtle art of people getting sliced in half, sequence breaking in Shadow Complex, Jim Raynor vs. the devil, Pandaren Brewmasters, the PS3 Slim, and, of course, Peter Molyneux's balls.

Ryan — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:10:55 -0800

Since we're not allowed into Germany for reasons we'd rather not discuss, we stay home and chat about Shadow Complex, the strategery of Brütal Legend's multiplayer, the Wolfenstein timeline, Brad's exciting QuakeCon trip, Limerick Island, and much more!