gaming PS3 Xbox360/PC

L.A Noire Review (PS3,Xbox360)

2011-05-16T16:34:00.000-07:00

L.A. Noire is different. It's not like most video games developed by Rockstar. You don't play the outlaw running wild, free to kill, steal, and cause destruction. You're a cop. A good cop at that, determined to restore order to the violent streets of 1940s Los Angeles.

L.A. Noire's not like most games. Sure, there are car chases, gunfights, and a point-tally to judge the quality of your police justice, but it's a slow-paced, meditative experience. The focus isn't on how good you are at scoring headshots with a pistol but instead your ability to read a suspect's face and determine if he or she is telling the truth, holding something back, or flat out lying.
Using a brand new technology called MotionScan, L.A. Noire delivers pure performances from a talented group of actors. Every wrinkle, twitch, downward glance, grimace, and hard swallow is from an actor playing a part, not an animator manipulating things from behind the scenes. It's a striking, sometimes unnerving effect certain to help push video games closer to true cinematic experiences. It's easy to fall into old video game habits like checking your phone while listening to a line of dialogue, but you're setting yourself up for failure. The actors' tells are in their faces, their posture, their eyes – rarely is it revealed in what they say.

This is where L.A. Noire shines. The interrogations are like lengthy dialogue scenes you'd see in an RPG -- but they're captivating. This is the core of L.A. Noire and that core is very good.

You're a detective, so you're going to scour crime scenes searching for clues. And when you question witnesses, you have to think less like a gamer and more like a sleuth. It's not easy. In fact, it's often a real challenge to judge the trustworthiness of a witness' statement. The line between "doubt" and "lie" is very narrow. Though L.A. Noire's hero, Cole Phelps, is regarded as one of the best case men ever, I still managed to falsely accuse dozens of suspects, doubt witnesses who were actually forthcoming, and use the wrong clues to try and catch killers in lies.

After every question, selected from Phelps' trusty notebook, you get a response from the suspect. Then you must choose to believe, doubt, or accuse them of lying. Get it right and you can open them up and get more clues. Get it wrong, and they offer less. The better you do over the course of a case, the more you'll understand the suspect's motivations. The worse you do, the tougher it is to get at the truth, but there's no possibility of failure in any conversation. L.A. Noire won't abruptly end if you fail to catch a killer's lie or miss an important clue. The bad guy only gets away if it's pre-determined in the story. The only game over screen comes from dying or allowing a fleeing suspect to escape. This makes you less of a real detective and more of a page turner, destined to always reach the next chapter so long as you make a choice -- any choice.

L.A. Noire isn't all about badgering people, though. This is still an open-world game. You're free to deviate from a case, explore faithfully recreated 1947 Los Angeles, and tackle more action-oriented missions. No, you can't run wild like in Grand Theft Auto (you're a cop, accept it), but there are some other things to do. Forty "unassigned cases" come in as calls on the radio. These aren't random; they're single-scene missions where you'll stop a bank robbery, chase down a bat-wielding lunatic, or shadow a crook to his hideout.

A few other distractions can be had -- finding all of the famous L.A. locations and discovering more than a dozen hidden cars -- which earn you points towards leveling up your rank. New ranks mean new clothes, hidden car locations, and intuition points (which can be spent to reveal clues and narrow choices when interrogating a suspect). This is the "game" portion of L.A. Noire, the part built for those who aren't ready to release their old needs as gamers. And maybe Rockstar is struggling to release that same hold. I like going about town, but L.A. Noire would have been stronger with greater focus on the experience and less concern for including traditional game elements.

Each time I start getting immersed in the world, I'm reminded "you're playing a game" with unnecessary text popping up on the screen or a score tallying my lie-detecting ability.

There are moments when L.A. Noire comes together brilliantly, when the threads from multiple cases lead to a darker ringleader. But more often, things are perhaps too true to real police work – repetitive, redundant, and unsurprising. Despite having 21 cases, some of which can take more than an hour to complete, L.A. Noire drags at times because it recycles the same drama.

Ten cases in, I knew what to expect. I come to a crime scene and search for some clues that then open one or two new locations in L.A. to investigate. From there, I know I'll end up chasing someone on foot through the back-alleys of the city or through the streets in my car. All this leads to a final interview with a suspect in the police station interview room, where even screwing up completely still leads to an arrest. I might think the guy's innocent, but except on rare occasions, I'm just going through the motions and have no control over the end result.

When L.A. Noire breaks free from the formula, it can be stunning. A great example comes at the end of Phelps' time on the Homicide desk, when you are freed from the usual case work and instead have to solve riddles that lead you to landmarks across Los Angeles. The end of the homicide desk is refreshing, startling, different, and necessary to hold interest in what is generally a series of the same song and dance.

Even with its redundancies, L.A. Noire is still entertaining. Normally, I'd say a game like this has "great voice acting," but with its amazing new technology, L.A. Noire has great performances. It's more than just the voice – it's the mannerisms, the way someone's mouth thins after telling a lie, the unease of a wrongdoer being grilled in the box. There have been games with graphics far superior to L.A. Noire's, with a level of fidelity that makes the world seem more real than what's outside your door. But I've never seen an Adam's apples move when people talk or throat muscles tense when someone almost says too much. It's fascinating to watch a sort of hybrid between an action game and an episode of Law & Order.

With that gift of having detailed, human faces, Rockstar and developer Team Bondi have the vehicle to deliver an incredibly emotional and engaging story. L.A. Noire falls short, though. Despite great performances, some killer dialogue, and one of my favorite game soundtracks in years, L.A. Noire left me cold. Cole Phelps begins as a paragon of the LAPD, but his true past is eventually revealed. Whether hero or pariah, I just never liked him that much because his story is told at times haphazardly.

There's an omniscient narrator in the early missions of L.A. Noire who disappears halfway through and never returns. Cole has a wife he almost never talks about until the plot needs a complication to Phelps' pristine image. There's a confounding "twist" with three cases left that changes the focus of the story and left me scratching my head.

L.A. Noire has issues, but it's also a bold and unique take on games as entertainment. The core gameplay mechanics work -- no issues with driving, chasing perps across town, taking cover, shooting people, figuring out what to do next, or understanding how to interrogate a suspect. The various elements never come together at the same time to create something spectacular, but there are a lot of good things going on. Some will love L.A. Noire for being different and others are going to find the slower pace a deal-breaker.

Brink (May 10 2011) Quick look

2011-04-30T14:03:00.000-07:00

A man-made floating city called the Ark, made up of hundreds of separate floating islands, is on the brink of all-out civil war. Originally built as an experimental self-sufficient and 100% "green" habitat, the reported rapid rise of the Earth's oceans has forced the Ark to become a refuge for humanity. With 25 years of social unrest, the inhabitants of the Ark have reached their breaking point. It's up to you to decide the future of the Ark and the human race.

Brink is an immersive shooter that blends single-player, co-op, and multiplayer gameplay into one seamless experience, allowing you to develop your character across all modes of play. You decide the role you want to assume in the world of BRINK as you fight to save yourself and mankind's last refuge for humanity. Brink offers a compelling mix of dynamic battlefields, extensive customization options, and an innovative control system.

Mortal Kombat Review

2011-04-29T22:13:00.000-07:00

After years of spin-offs, 3D fighters, and other efforts, the developers at the newly coined NetherRealm Studios are bringing the series back to its core: violent, 2D fighting with an outrageous aesthetic.
While many Mortal Kombats in the past were remembered for their excessive gore and not for their fighting engines, the latest Mortal Kombat is a legitimate competitive fighter... and it has enough gore to make parents run for the hills. Even though the single-player modes are rife with imbalances, the core experience in Mortal Kombat is exciting, challenging, and hella bloody.
I think we all know that the plotlines in Mortal Kombat are a little ridiculous. Ice ninjas, half-dragons, thunder gods, and busty policewomen are commonplace in this series. In Mortal Kombat, you'll be reliving the events of Mortal Kombat 1, 2 and 3, so newcomers to the series won't actually be lost here. I don't know the lore well and I felt comfortable following along with the zaniness. Here's a summary: big, bad Shao Kahn is seriously f*****g up the world. He kills everybody at the end of the Mortal Kombat storyline, so Raiden sends a message back through time to prevent it. The result? Alternate history!

The story is weak compared to other recent, non-MK video game efforts. I was entertained from start to finish -- partly because of all the dismembered limbs and the fact that Baraka is a total joke -- but it was a cheesy ride.

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Mortal Kombat has returned to a 2D plane, which I've always preferred for fighting games. Both one-on-one and tag team matches are available, so there's plenty of options when you're setting up a fight. When it comes to the basics, each character has a set of simple moves as well as a bunch of special attacks. I found combos and special attacks easy to execute, but stringing together attacks and keeping an opponent stunned/juggled will take some time to get.
The crux of Mortal Kombat's fighting engine is the super gauge, which fills as you give and receive damage. This is where a fair amount of Mortal Kombat's strategy comes into play. The gauge is divided into three segments, and those segments can be spent in different ways. Expending one segment will enhance any of your character's special moves. So instead of Nightwolf's single glowing green arrow, he fires three.

If you fill the gauge more and spend two segments, you can break out of an opponent's combo. This is a critical defensive option if you find yourself flailing through the air with a rapidly depleting health bar. Lastly, spending the whole shebang will unleash a devastating x-ray attack, which deals terrible, terrible damage to your victim. It can turn the tide of a fight, but missing it will put you in an awful spot with no super gauge to spend.

To me, this gauge is one of the best parts of Mortal Kombat. It's a simple concept (spend more, do cooler things), but it's rich with possibilities. I found myself favoring the combo breaker and x-ray attack, but I'm sure there will be players that use enhanced specials more often.
The gameplay in Mortal Kombat will be different for those of you accustomed to the speed and fluidity of games like Super Street Fighter IV. I appreciate those types of fighters as much as the next guy/gal, but the savage, deliberately paced fighting in Mortal Kombat feels great to me. Landing a combo and executing special moves is more visceral here then in other fighting games. This is, in part, thanks to the glorious sound design, because effects like Kitana's fans and Jade's staff sound incredibl

Battlefield 3 Quick Look

2011-04-29T20:11:00.000-07:00

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 was an amazing first-person shooter. But with every Bad Company release and spin-off, I couldn't help but wonder what DICE was doing with its main Battlefield franchise. As it turns out, it had something to do with earthquakes.

The core games, including Battlefield 1942 and Battlefield 2, helped define what's possible in multiplayer first-person shooters. It's been more than five years since Battlefield 2 on PC, and now DICE is finally getting ready to deliver the next numbered entry. Battlefield 3 has a release date for this fall on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, and from what's been shown off, it looks incredible.

That's because Battlefield 3 is being built using all-new technology developed in-house at DICE. It's the next version of the Frostbite engine used in the Bad Company games, appropriately called Frostbite 2. It allows for a range of advanced graphical effects and destructible terrain. "We actually started with the engine three years ago," said executive producer Patrick Bach. "When we finished Battlefield 2 and 2142 we talked about what's the next big step that changes gaming. We're good at technology and we wanted to create something that scaled better than Frostbite 1 did. The PCs were already -- three years ago -- starting to get ahead of the consoles. How could we make good use of that?"

Battlefield 3 Rewind Theater

The result was, at the end of a demo recently shown to members of the press, a detailed scene of a US Marine unit getting tossed around on a quaking bed of asphalt in a war-torn city on the border of Iraq and Iran. Buildings crumbled into pieces, sending up plumes of smoke and dust as the ground fluttered like a flag in the wind. One even toppled over onto an attack chopper hovering in mid-air. It looked strikingly realistic.

"We knew we could do better stuff with audio, we needed a core streaming system for the whole game," said Bach. "Everything from animations to objects to textures to audio we can stream. If you look at the consoles today they still have the same amount of memory, so how do you make a denser experience with the same amount of memory? You need to be able to flush things in and out of that memory that you have. Frostbite 2 was more or less a necessity for us to be able to build Battlefield 3. If we didn't build the engine we couldn't build the game because then it would just be an iteration instead of a big step forward."

So far DICE isn't showing off any gameplay footage of the multiplayer component, which is too bad. I really wanted to see jets streak across the sky and launch precision strikes against unsuspecting targets. But even without the spectacle of controllable vehicle sequences to gape at, the story mode still looks pretty good. The characters are in no way related to those in the Bad Company games. What you get in Battlefield 3 is a fresh start. It's set in 2014, and an early mission follows a squad of Marines as they charge through cramped, dangerous streets and take cover from sniper fire on rooftops. "It's based on a 'what if' scenario," said Bach. "We see the world as quite unstable. We see it as the shot in Sarajevo where a small event can create a butterfly effect to start a world war." Even though the mission was early in the game, it sounds as though the scale of the conflict shown is going to ripple out into the rest of the world.

Though the mission features a group of Marines, DICE notes that these characters won't necessarily be in subsequent sorties because it's not a squad-based game like Bad Company. You play as Sergeant Henry Blackburn who, at the mission's outset, emerges from an armored personnel carrier with an M16 equipped with an ACOG (that's a scope). The road ahead is packed with smoke and fire, cowering citizens, military humvees and an LAV reconnaissance vehicle.

According to Bach it's not possible to simply hop into these vehicles and start driving, as many Battlefield veterans may want to do. While there will be several vehicle sections in the single-player portion, the game makes it clear when you're meant to hop into a machine and when you're supposed to proceed on foot. "When you tell a story you need to control the player in some ways, even though we have very sandbox-y elements as well. We make sure you get to try out everything…so we pace the game as a tutorial so when you go into multiplayer you don't feel scared. If you play through single-player you will feel quite safe to go online because you tried everything once."

Battlefield 3 Gameplay Footage

The PC version was beautiful even in its current pre-alpha state. DICE is focusing on using lighting and animations to create a more realistic look for Battlefield 3. For animation, DICE is utilizing Electronic Arts' technology called ANT, developed for sports games like FIFA. So what does that actually mean? "We can now more or less blend from any animation to any animation without any glitches. Some animation systems are very rigid. The cool thing with this is that you can blend from one animation to another at any time. You can see that with FIFA --, it's super quick and nimble."

The animations were especially impressive to watch during a first-person hand-to-hand combat sequence. Black was underground in a bunker attempting to disarm an explosive device when he was accosted by a waiting enemy. To subdue the assailant you need to hit buttons at specific times to deliver viscous strikes and chops. The attacker eventually crumples to the ground, but not without getting in a few solid shots on Black, which causes the perspective to tilt and whip appropriately with the force.

A lot of work is being done at DICE on the moment-to-moment mechanics of gun fights too. When you open fire the screen shakes, your weapon effects dominate the speakers, and the bits of user interface flicker when . "The challenge with weapons is actually not to get them to look realistic or record sounds, the research is quite easy. The hard part is to transform the emotion when you fire a gun and turn that into picture and sound."

Gear Of War 3 Release Date September 20, 2011

2011-04-29T19:34:00.000-07:00

Gears of War 3 is the spectacular conclusion to one of the most memorable and celebrated sagas in video games. Developed by Epic Games exclusively for Xbox 360, Gears of War 3 plunges you into a harrowing tale of hope, survival, and brotherhood.

In Gears of War 3, fight on as Marcus Fenix, the grizzled war hero and leader of Delta Squad. Eighteen months after the fall of the last human city, the war against the Locust rages on. Meanwhile, deep beneath the surface, a fearsome new threat is infecting the planet from within. With survivors scattered and civilization in ruins, time is running out for Marcus and his comrades as they fight to save the human race.

Call Of Duty Black Ops

2011-04-29T17:44:00.000-07:00

The CoD Points system does lead to a higher level of customization in Black Ops. Not only can you customize your title and emblem, but you can write your clan tag on your weapon, change the color and look of your targeting reticule, and lots more. Of course, each and every thing that you add to your character will cost you valuable CoD Points, so you need to have a big stockpile of disposable income before the customization really becomes a viable option.
Other multiplayer options have been expanded as well. You'll now find a boatload of tweakable settings for the matches that you create. You can change players' health, their number of lives, turn Kill Cam on and off, alter score limits, time limits and lots more. It's also cool that you can share your created modes with your pals; something I'm sure PC players will appreciate.

To help you build up your stash of CoD Points, Treyarch included a contract system where you invest a small amount of points, then attempt to complete a certain objective with the reward being a sizeable chunk of dough. While it's cool enough, I wish the contract system was a bit broader as it currently doesn't allow you to do things like bet on other players' performance or the overall performance of your team. Also, the fact that you can be thrown into a match mid-game can hurt your ability to successfully complete contracts. Here's hoping they tune contracts a bit with the first patch.

Once you get into a match, the level design is well-thought-out, with some stages featuring dynamic elements that change each time you play. Firing Range, for instance, puts target dummies in different spots each time you load the map (same goes for Nuke Town, my favorite). Each stage has parts for just about every style of player. Snipers will be able to find a second tier to rain down fire, campers will have a few cover spots, and everyone else can deal with both open and closed quarters depending on their play style.

The new perks that have been added (I'll let you discover most of them for yourself if you haven't already scoured the Internet for information) are all very cool and, yes, the tactical nuke is nowhere to be found. I will say that the RC Car will likely have its power ratcheted down as it's currently going to be abused by new players, especially since it only takes three kills to earn. Other new perks seemed nicely tuned to avoid unbalanced gameplay (the tactical nuke is gone).
All of this crazy multiplayer action can be captured with Black Ops' brand new theater system that allows you to clip out the good stuff, hide the embarrassing deaths, and then share it all with your pals. I think Theater Mode as a whole is an awesome addition and I hope the COD community takes advantage of it. The only slight detractor is that you have to upload your clips to CallofDuty.com rather than something like YouTube or Facebook where there would obviously be a larger audience.

Throughout my multiple days with the PC version, I haven't experienced any signs of the lag that have been reported elsewhere. Occasionally I'd get a higher ping than I would've liked, but more often than not the game performed just as it should've. The one detractor in terms of performance was the Final Kill Cam which always seemed to stutter out of control, no matter the amount of lag I experienced. Of course, it's worth mentioning that the connection at the IGN office is probably better than yours, so your results will likely differ.
Outside of the competitive multiplayer, there's also the return of the incredibly popular Nazi Zombies mode. Treyarch clearly understood that its fans loved the original and did a nice job of expanding the feature while still keeping the same fun spirit intact.

In Black Ops there are three types of Nazi Zombies. The first is pretty standard and presents an old theater to defend. The second takes things in a different direction and puts each of the four potential players (online or off) in the shoes of either JFK, Fidel Castro, Richard Nixon, or Robert McNamara with plenty of funny dialogue for each. The first two modes of Nazi Zombies don't exactly redefine the game, but then again, they didn't really need to. You're still running around an ever-expanding level trying to ward off wave after wave of the evil undead. The third type of Nazi Zombies, however, is totally different from the norm and is an Easter egg that I wouldn't dream of spoiling. It's just that good.

Home front

2011-04-29T17:02:00.000-07:00

First-person shooters are quickly becoming the reality show of video games. No, Jeff Probst isn't going to weasel his way into Call of Duty, but first-person shooters, like reality shows on television, are everywhere. Both are saturated categories full of a lot of uninspired, derivative entries. So when there's a new offering in an overused genre, it has to be special to get noticed.

Thankfully for Kaos Studios, Homefront does indeed do something special. It's not in the way the game plays but rather in its plot and setting. Homefront tells the tale of a United States that's barely recognizable today. Victimized by a hard-hitting series of events that have collapsed America's economy and prestige, the U.S. is as vulnerable as it's ever been. An unlikely foil rises in the power vacuum left by the U.S. -- a unified Korea -- and by the year 2027, Korea has launched an all-out attack on the American mainland.

Is the story over-the-top? Perhaps. You can decide for yourself (as I've already extensively discussed the story and setting of Homefront). But what's important is the scene that's set is something unique and interesting. This isn't a war shooter in the classic sense. Homefront is something totally different. There are no big set-pieces or large scale battles here. You'll be fighting your enemies in abandoned cul-de-sacs, seized warehouses, and even survivalist compounds. Homefront doesn't shy away from overt acts of violence, grisly scenes of human carnage, or other realities of war and occupation. All of this goes a long way towards making the world of Homefront feel real.

This presentation is easily the strongest thing Homefront has going for it. And considering I'm a huge fan of alternate history and future history (as well as movies like Red Dawn penned by John Milius, the game's writer), the plot and themes certainly resonated with me. I liked the story that's told and how focused it is. I enjoyed the characters, and I especially enjoyed how everything melded together to create a compelling environment for a shooter.

In terms of gameplay, however, Homefront is unremarkable. That's not to say that it's not fun, because it is. But while Homefront tries to do everything different with its presentation, it doesn't buck any trends with the way it plays. This is a shooter you'll be familiar and comfortable with, but it's not a paradigm-shifting product that will force you to think about shooters differently. You'll be aiming down the sights of assault and sniper rifles, chucking grenades (with a laughably bad animation), and killing loads and loads of enemies. This is classic shooter fare.

The single-player campaign is a lot of fun, but its inexcusable shortness is also Homefront's greatest downfall. Homefront is going to run you $60 new, and if you're not at all interested in multiplayer, then the value Homefront delivers to you as a consumer is minimal. The campaign's seven chapters can easily be completed in five hours. And while there's reason for some to go back for a second playthrough (including Trophy/Achievement hunting or scouring environments for the game's collectibles in the form of story-telling newspaper clippings), most gamers will find themselves satiated with a single playthrough.

Multiplayer is another story. While the actual modes of Homefront's multiplayer offering are limited, I still found myself lost in how much fun I was having with it. The two primary modes – Ground Control and Team Deathmatch – are based on old ideas but feel fun and fresh. This is largely due to the way these matches are scored, since gaining experience points as a team is more important than individual kill counts or other statistics. It's also due to the awesome maps that convey the crumbling, hopeless feel of an occupied United States.

Better yet, there's a lot of customization in multiplayer, and plenty of accessories to mess around with. You can use all of your standard FPS weaponry in multiplayer as well as drive an assortment of vehicles, from Humvees and LAVs to Scout and Attack Helicopters. Everything you do has "Battle Points" (or BP) associated with it, which is used to level your character up, as well as to unlock new weapons and the like. BP can even be spent mid-battle to give your character a flak vest, an RPG, or a number of other items. When you combine all of this with the in-game multiplayer-centric Challenges, you'll find that multiplayer in Homefront is quite deep.

That's not to say that Homefront should be considered amongst the elite shooters of this generation, because it isn't. It looks old, and its sound effects and voice-acting, while functional, are both unremarkable. Moreover, Homefront suffers from some pacing problems, issues with scripted events, and a few technical hiccups. The single-player game never froze on me and barely stuttered, but online locked-up on me multiple times, forcing me to hard restart my console. Yet, I kept coming back for more. I guess that just goes to show how addicting and fun Homefront's multiplayer can be

Crysis 2

2011-04-29T16:39:00.000-07:00

New York City is ablaze. The ceph encountered in the Pacific Ocean weren’t an isolated event, but only a precursor to a much larger infestation. The ceph are trying to wipe out humanity and it looks like New York City is a great place to start the party. You begin Crysis 2 as a U.S. Marine: codename Alcatraz. Before the credits even roll, you and your squad are decimated by a ceph gunship. Alcatraz washes up on shore only to find Prophet, the squad leader from the first Crysis waiting for him. I won’t give too much away, but in short order you’re wearing the nanosuit… and you’re the only one. So begins a story that will keep driving you forward to the bitter end.

The nanosuit isn’t just a cheap way to explain high-jumps and tough skin, but is really more the central character of the Crysis 2 story than Alcatraz himself. The nanosuit has three modes: power, stealth, and armor. Power is actually a combination of the strength and speed modes from the original Crysis and is the default mode of the nanosuit. Jumps, punches, and kicks can all be powered up by holding their respective buttons, though at the cost of some energy. This gives you high jumps and the ability to bash in alien skulls or kick cars into your foes.

Armor mode is accessed by pressing the LB button. This mode passively uses your energy reserves, though it uses them quicker as you take more damage. This mode makes you move slower but allows you to absorb much more damage, react less from enemy fire, and regenerate health faster. Stealth mode is accessed with the RB button and also uses energy reserves passively, though the depletion is accelerated whenever you move in stealth mode. This mode allows you to move about undetected, though getting too close to an enemy can alert them and using a weapon will momentarily disrupt the effect.

These three modes make for gameplay that is more varied than any other non-RPG shooter on the planet outside the original Crysis. Each map is designed to let you approach the enemies and the situation how you see fit, using the abilities you’re most comfortable with. Armor mode lets you do your best Duke Nukem impression while stealth mode brought back fond memories of Metal Gear Solid. Sometimes I would go nuts and kill everything in the area while in other missions I made my way through killing nothing at all.

Your nanosuit can be upgraded by spending nanocites which are found every time you kill a ceph. There are four different upgrade “trees”, so to speak. These allow you to upgrade the nanosuit according to how you like to play the game. Increasing armor, longer lasting stealth, tracing enemy bullets, and proximity alerts are all possible upgrades you can take.

Adding to this variability is the suit’s tactical visor. This visor will display the locations of enemies, supplies, and possible tactical objectives in an area. Want to know the best route for flanking or avoiding enemies? Want to stand back and observe the patrol routes? This can all be done using the visor and a nice hiding spot. I was able to plant some C4 on a car, wait for a patrol, then kick the car off a building right onto the patrol and trigger the C4. Boom, goes the alien!

Don’t think those enemies will go quietly into the night, however. Human enemies have fairly good squad AI. If you drop into stealth in sight of them, they’ll fire at your previous position and chatter about your cloaking. Taking out an enemy with stealth may go unnoticed at first, but soon the fallen foe will fail to check-in and everyone will know you’re in the area, heightening their state of alert.

Aliens are a different matter. The ceph are a ruthlessly aggressive AI and most are incredibly agile, bobbing and weaving out of your line of fire as much as they can. Some will rush you head on, then scurry up a wall and leap at you. Some will do their best Muhammad Ali impression: jumping around and firing with incredible accuracy. Even the larger and slower alien enemies are oppressive with their relentlessness and massive damage absorption.

Multiplayer in Crysis 2 brings the host of nanosuit abilities along for the ride. This time around, Crysis 2 has six multiplayer modes rather than just two. Instant Action (deathmatch) returns and brought its buddy along, Team Instant Action. Power Struggle is missing, but now there’s Capture the Relay (capture the flag) and Crash Site (king of the hill). Assault mode is divided into rounds without respawns in which one team is defending objectives while the other team tries to hack those objectives. Finally, Extraction mode places “ticks” around the map. The defending team gains bonuses while these ticks are defended. The opposing team is trying to capture and extract these ticks, gaining the ticks’ bonuses while carrying them.

These modes do a great job of giving players the old standby modes as well as some that take particular advantage of the nanosuits and the specific game mechanics of Crysis 2. All multiplayer modes can be up to six on six, a drastic reduction from the 16 on 16 provided by the original Crysis. The multiplayer maps are all taken from the single-player campaign, so they offer loads of nooks, crannies, hallways, and levels to hunt your opponents on. The lack of vehicles and the smaller maps make the multiplayer feel more like Halo than Battlefield, but going from one great multiplayer experience to another isn't a bad thing. Add to all that a generous leveling system that allows you to purchase all sorts of weapons and abilities, and you have a very well-rounded multiplayer experience.

The original Crysis was a PC exclusive known more for pushing gaming rigs to their limits than the great gameplay and story it featured, but it wasn’t lacking in those departments, either. Now Crytek has taken the franchise multiplatform, using their new CryEngine 3 to adapt the game to both HD home consoles in addition to the PC. Since this is a review on the Xbox 360, there will be no comparisons against the presentation of the original PC game.

Simply put, Crysis 2 is the best looking game on the Xbox 360. Period. Crysis 2 brings this dystopic New York City to life with vivid graphics. The animations, textures, lighting, and visual effects are all superb. What really jumps out at you is how incredibly detailed everything is. The grass blows in the wind as you walk over it. Every space is filled with things that add character and tell the tales of those who formerly inhabited the apartments, offices, and hallways Alcatraz is traversing. As I said before, these aren’t tiny areas, either. Each map is quite large and the level of detail never wavers.

The sound design is also spot-on. Both realistic and sci-fi weapons create powerful, visceral sounds when they go off. The voice is acting is quite well done and the sound effects of the aliens are often very foreboding. What really got me, though, was the soundtrack. I don’t often take notice of soundtracks. They just don’t capture my attention like they do in some films. This wasn’t the case with Crysis 2. The music truly had a life of its own and added so much to the story it was telling.

In terms of value, Crysis 2 has a very long single-player campaign that will run most gamers 10-15 hours depending on your skill level and the approach you take to it. Pure stealth and sprinting may even bring that number down below 10 hours. Unfortunately, Crysis 2 doesn’t offer a co-op multiplayer, which is a real shame. With so many ways to approach any level, taking all of them on with a friend would be incredible. Crysis 2 also doesn’t feature a split-screen. It does, however, triple the number of multiplayer modes from the previous Crysis, a big improvement. It doesn’t have the near-infinite plethora of multiplayer modes like Halo: Reach, but definitely enough to keep you entertained for many hours.

Crysis 2 is a spectacular game in nearly every way. Accurate, innovative gameplay combines nicely with the best presentation the Xbox 360 has ever seen for a truly incredible experience. Halo and Gears of War: you’re both on notice. There’s a new contender on Microsoft’s little console and its name is Crysis

Portal 2

2011-04-29T15:19:00.000-07:00

Portal was a child star. Precocious. Naïve. Too innocent to understand that gamers' love is often fatuous, that the attention would be dependent upon repeat performances and that the fame would be fleeting and could quickly turn to hate. Portal 2 is that child star grown up. It's bigger, more self-aware and a bit more polished. It is also still reaching for the innocent laughs although its innocence has long since fled. It is still tap-dancing in its pre-teen tutu, showing too much leg and reminding us simultaneously of how much we loved the innocent it used to be and the fact that it will never be that innocent again.

Portal, the pseudo-indie puzzle game that seemingly came out of nowhere, captured gamers' imaginations with its revolutionary puzzle action and unpolished indie charm. How to take that indie darling, then, and buff it out, bulk it up and repackage it as a stand-alone AAA retail game would seem to be the real magic trick, and developer Valve, god love them, has put their all into it, with mixed results.
Portal 2 comes with both a single-player campaign (that's a full three times as long as the original game) and a two-player co-op mode that will let you solve puzzles either online with friends or via splitscreen with good friends. Both modes feature new twists, additional puzzle elements and plenty of the tongue-in-cheek "Science will kill us all" humor that made the original such a gem.
In the single-player campaign, you will play once again as Chell, the mute, orange-jumpsuited lady with bionic feet from the first game. Never mind how that's possible, considering the end of the first game depicted her escape from the self-destructing Aperture Science lab. (Developer Valve "updated" the game last year, adding a new ending in which Chell is dragged back toward the underground science lab immediately after emerging victorious.) Things, it would appear, change. Portal 2 asks that you roll with it.
You awake, as Chell, after a very, very long time in hibernation and are immediately thrown back into the test chamber in order to find a means of escaping once again. This time, however, GLaDOS, the sinister A.I., is offline and you are guided by both an automated series of announcements explaining how to properly respond to the end of the world, and Wheatley, a helpful - if dumb - robot companion with a chipper English accent.
Although the story is full of the same psychotic charm that made the original so much fun, it suffers from having too much game upon which to spread so little. As you progress from test to test, you will go on a virtual tour of Aperture's past, traveling through the dark back-corridors of the facility as well as deep into the basement, on a tour of the company's long history of making people suffer in the name of science. But the interaction (or lack thereof) with a succession of disembodied voices wears out its welcome well before the end, leaving the puzzle platforming gameplay and ingenious new touches to carry the weight on their own.

The good news is that the gameplay does carry its weight. The levels may not seem as devious or as interesting (perhaps owing to familiarity with the underlying portal mechanic), but the puzzles and environments are sufficiently varied and interesting enough to make the trip back down into Aperture's version of hell seem fun. And with a host of new environmental hazards and helps, Portal 2 definitely delivers on "new and interesting."