PS3 losing UK race vs Xbox 360

Slow and steady wins the race, right? Sony hopes so, as the PS3 continues to struggle in the UK.

According to UK retailer Game, Nintendo's Wii remains number one in terms of console sales with 4.9 million units sold. The Xbox 360 is a strong second, having moved 3.2 million units, while Sony continues to pull up the rear with 1.9 million PS3's sold in the UK since it's release a little more than two years ago.

Those numbers absolutely pale in comparison with those of Nintendo's DS. The big "N" continues to print money with the touch screen sensation, having sold a staggering 8.8 million units.

The PS2 is still alive and kicking in the UK as well, having just passed the 10 million mark in the UK.

These numbers lend credence to Microsoft's declarations earlier this week that they intend to once again turn their strategic focus to Europe, following up on an earlier UK push back in 2007. Microsoft this week declared victory over the PS3 in the U.S. and said it was time to focus resources and regionally targeted marketing strategies in an effort to essentially end the battle for the UK market.

Springing Gaming Forward

By Tiberius Jonez

It's April. The birds are chirping, warm breezes are blowing and here in Minnesota, people are spending more time outdoors and less time on their couches playing video games. Of course I'm not most people. Sure, I'm enjoying the Spring weather with plenty of time on the basketball court or playing softball, but I'm still getting my daily recommended allowance of gaming. With its predictable lack of new releases, Spring is a good time to catch up on games you've missed previously, and like a good multivitamin, your daily gaming diet should include a variety of nourishing ingredients.

I've been playing a smorgasbord of different games lately. I recently started playing Call of Duty 4 again after my best buddy recently bought an Xbox 360. He is addicted, and I am happy to feed his addiction with a steady diet of Headquarters and Hardcore Search and Destroy matches via Xbox Live. After a six month hiatus from the game, the truth that there is no better first person shooter on the market has been reaffirmed in my mind.

The Last Remnant has seen considerable time in my PC-DVD Rom drive and I am thoroughly enjoying it's beautiful scenery and lively combat. TLR's story is quite enjoyable too, but I really keep playing just so I can see the beauty of the next unexplored area. Honestly, this is the most fun I've ever had with a Japanese style RPG.


Fable II rounds out my big three of the Spring so far. I know the game's been out for a while, but when you play as many games as I do, you don't always get to try EVERY new release right away. In truth, I'm glad I had to wait this long to play Fable II. While I've been looking forward to playing it for a while, I did have some reservations about it. I have a long and star-crossed relationship with Peter Molyneux games, beginning with the original Black and White and continuing with Black and White 2 and the first Fable. Prior to their respective releases, I had huge expectations for these games, partly due to Molyneux's own marketing promises, and partly due to the hype propogated by my fellow game journalists. While I enjoyed all of them to differing degrees, I was also disappointed by each of them in different ways. So, while I was sure I would enjoy Fable II, I expected to be disappointed by it
on some level.

After five days of playing it, I can honestly say I've thoroughly enjoyed Fable II with very few downer moments. My only real complaint with the game is the menu system. Some actions require too many repeat trips into the menus, which tend to open a bit slowly. Other than that, the action, story, graphics and music of Fable II are all top notch.

The graphics deserve an extra mention. Walking through the world of Albion is a treat for the eyes at every moment. Aside from the occasional drab cave, the environment is stunning. I love that the game features day/night cycles, I only wish they were longer. An Albion day passes in five real world minutes, which is too short when you are enjoying a particularly beautiful sunset over Bower Lake.

The combat is greatly improved over Fable I, as is the overall story. If you haven't checked out Fable II, you owe to it yourself to play it.

I have other games on the back burner biding their time to get some time in my 360 or PC and I recently got Metal Gear Solid mobile which I've only played long enough to get through the VR training. I will have an update, and full review posted in the next couple weeks for MGS mobile.

Enjoy the warm weather and keep on gaming!

Two Years of GameJonez Blog and gaming in 2011

By Tiberius Jonez

A couple of weeks ago, GameJonez Blog passed its second birthday. During our first two years in existence, there’s been quite a bit of change in the world of interactive gaming. GameJonez Blog launched near the beginning of this current cycle of “Next Generation” console hardware, and since then we’ve witnessed the Wii-fueled resurrection of Nintendo, the evolution of Microsoft from underappreciated neophyte to legitimate industry powerhouse, and a seemingly endless series of missteps transforming Sony from overwhelming market leader to last place embarrassment and sometimes laughingstock.

We’ve seen premature declarations of the death of PC gaming, and the transition of computer and televisions displays from 4:3 full-screens to eye-popping 16:9 high definition. Technology advances quickly for those of us living on its “bleeding edge”, but nowhere is this more true than the world of PC gaming. In a mere two years, we’ve gone from the death of the Pentium 4 processor to the birth of dual core and now the latest Intel i7 quad core processors that are revolutionizing processor architecture. A $200 graphics card today is more powerful than an entire top of the line desktop PC built just five years ago.

Our consoles are now really just multimedia PCs running proprietary operating systems camouflaged in stylish cases. The Xbox 360 features three dual core processors and a very powerful ATI graphics processor that has proven to have plenty of headroom for growth, allowing for greater and greater levels of graphics splendor. The PS3 sports its much-hyped phalanx of cell processors, which has recently begun to show its promise in games like Killzone 2 and MLB ’09.

Microsoft legitimized online console gaming with the original Xbox, and since the release of the Xbox 360 they have taken the online experience to new levels. By offering Xbox Live Arcade games via download, movies and television shows via their partnership with Netflix, and games demos from the Live Marketplace, MS has shown that online console gaming can be both profitable and exciting when properly executed.

Sony continues taking painfully small baby steps with the Sony Online Network, constantly bumping into the furniture and stumbling around the room in the process. HOME remains MIA and I believe Sony will remain in catch-up mode in the online space until they swallow their collective pride and accept the need to charge for the service so they can invest the kind of capital needed to provide a truly unified online entertainment experience. It may be cliché at this point, but Sony needs to copy Microsoft’s online playbook, and then augment it with some new plays of their own making.

I’m purposely ignoring Nintendo in the online discussion, because that is pretty much what they’ve chosen to do themselves. Between clunky friend codes and a lack of online software, Nintendo has clearly eschewed the online space in favor of kid-centric single player experiences and offline multiplayer experiences like Wii Sports.

The ways we experience games and entertainment have changed so much in these two short years, it is difficult to predict what the interactive gaming landscape will look like two years from now. But the whole point of a blog is to speculate…so, here we go.

Here are some predictions I’ll make for 2011.

Aided by a second significant price drop, Sony’s PS3 will finally be hitting its stride, surpassing the Xbox 360 in annual hardware and software sales and finally realizing the potential of HOME as a valid alternative to Xbox Live.

Microsoft, un-phased by the PS3s new found success, will have already announced the next iteration of Xbox, simply called the X3. Microsoft’s next console, releasing on Friday, November 11, 2011, will attempt to capitalize on lessons learned with the Xbox 360 by hitting the ground running ahead of the competition with new technology, a 3 year replacement warranty and formidable launch lineups tailored to individual markets. North America’s X3 launch lineup will feature Call of Duty X-Patriot as an X3 exclusive, and Japan will be treated to an all-new entry in the Final Fantasy series, Final Fantasy XTC. Those titles would be enough for anyone, but the nuclear sized bombshell will be the X3’s crown jewel, an exclusive worldwide release of Hideo Kojima’s Magnus Opus, Metal Gear X.

Nintendo will release the Wii-2 three weeks after Microsoft’s new console, and it will feature high-def graphics, wireless DS/Wii-2 integration and will lose the motion sensing bar in favor of a sensor built into the console itself. Though the Wii-2 will remain inferior to the X3 in terms of raw horsepower, it will be bundled with a treasure chest of accessories, including an all-new balance board and light gun…the first from Nintendo since the original NES. Bundled games will be Time Crisis N, and Wii Fit 2. Thankfully, Nintendo will finally put their infamous friend codes out to pasture in favor of a unified online experience. It may not rival Xbox Live, but it will be a huge improvement over any online gaming experience Nintendo has offered previously.

Now, think about what you’ve just read and take a deep breath, and let the commenting begin. Share your predictions, and we’ll revisit this topic when GameJonez Blog turns 4. As always, thanks for supporting GameJonez Blog. Game on!

The Last Remnant PC review

By Tiberius Jonez

Final Fantasy; unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past ten years, you know it is widely considered the crown jewel of Japanese style role playing franchises. Personally, I never really enjoyed it until the release of Final Fantasy Crisis Core for the PSP. I always found the stories utterly clichéd, the combat tedious, and the graphics to be less than stellar, except for the cut scenes. And I’ve never personally understood the Japanese penchant for creating male heroes that look like 12 year old girls. Never mind the endless grinding and random encounters.

So, imagine my apprehension when I read that The Last Remnant, the latest attempt by Microsoft (the game first appeared on the Xbox 360) to tap the Japanese RPG market, was created by Final Fantasy developer Square Enix.

The Last Remnant makes a very good first impression; the opening cut scene is dramatic and full of excellent eye candy. In this scene, we witness the kidnapping of our hero, Rush Sykes’ sister, Irina. Of course, the kidnapping is just the tip of the iceberg of a much broader reaching political intrigue in which our hero will eventually find himself deeply embroiled.

The story is alright. Though it never quite reaches the level of fine literature, it does have some dramatic moments, some touching moments and the occasional plot twist that might actually surprise you.

My favorite part of the game is the combat. The Last Remnant's battle system is unique, though it will likely be several hours before you truly appreciate its intricacies. Rather than controlling individual party members during combat, you recruit leaders and soldiers, and group them together into unions. Although each unit has his or her own stats, equipment, and arts (the game's versions of spells and combat skills), you issue union-wide, turn-based commands on the field. Whereas in most RPGs you choose very specific actions, such as casting a particular spell or using a particular item, in The Last Remnant you choose broader commands. These may include healing unions that need it; performing mystic arts (though you can see which arts the units will use, you can't micromanage them on a unit-by-unit basis); or summoning Rush's awe-inspiring, beautifully designed Cyclops to assist in battle. It should be noted that the combat feels most comfortable with a gamepad, especially an Xbox 360 controller. While the combat is certainly functional with a mouse and keyboard setup, it is clear the system was designed for a gamepad.

Another thing I could never quite get used to, and one that is common to JRPGs is how, even though you are traveling with a large group of people, you only ever see your own character while exploring the world. Your allies are only apparent when engaged in battle. You've just completed this epic battle, and a split second after it ends, here you are all by yourself. I find this design choice to be slightly jarring.

The battle system is quite deep, and the graphical effects and animations are all very well done, and never become boring. The same can’t be said for the repetitious one-liners that Rush utters before each encounter. After a while, I desperately wished for a way to shut him up and just start the next encounter.




The world presented in the game is stunning to look at, and considerably larger than that found in the Xbox 360 version. While you will travel through many varied types of terrain, they all feel connected and reasonable within the game’s “reality”. There is the occasional texture pop-in, but overall the game's visuals are vastly improved over its Xbox 360 counterpart. Frame rate drops are very rare. One problem, and this is nitpicking, is the animations of some of the characters during in-game conversations. Some of the body language is just plain strange. It’s hard to explain, but you’ll know it when you see it. It’s not enough to detract from the overall enjoyment of the game, but it does occasionally end the suspension of disbelief that is the hallmark of any great game, film, or book. I do have to consider it a slight hit to the game’s otherwise excellent presentation.

The Last Remnant is a very long game, even if you don’t choose to explore every side quest and nook and cranny. Thankfully, the music is excellent throughout. Every area of the world has its own theme, and the music in battle is always rousing and never gets stale. The voice acting is generally very good, but there are occasional awkward moments.

Overall, the technical improvements Square Enix made to the PC version of The Last Remnant render it far superior to its Xbox 360 cousin, and make it one of the most enjoyable RPG games around, and one that any fan of the genre should make a point to experience.

Presentation (8)
Graphics (9)
Sound (10)
Gameplay (9)
Lasting Appeal (7)
Overall 8.6

Killzone 2 Reviewed

by Brendan Rose

Now, I know that a lot of people like Killzone 2, but a lot of people like crack, as well. Killzone 2 proudly sports many features which have become standard in the current generation. Like the iron sights, two weapon limit, and automatic regeneration. Iron sights just makes your normal aim pathetic, I prefer the dot in the center of the screen that actually hits the target. I don't really like any of these, but I may as well be complaining about cell phones.

I suppose there's nothing really WRONG with it. The graphics are fine the music is fine it's all fine...but it sucks... It's just androgynous fighting with no real satisfaction in killing anything. You go from fight, to fight, to fight, to fight, slowly advancing, solving whatever goal of the minute is bothering your comrades, and it's just boring. I don't see the appeal. There is very little blood, and there's nothing really tactical about it. It's terrible.

Some people might point out that the multiplayer is better, which I might believe, but will let sit for now. I don't want to play it. Now, everything I said there was actually about Call of Duty 5. The difference is, Killzone 2 is good, and Call of Duty 5 is tripe. What Call of Duty does wrong, Killzone 2 makes work anyway. It's very generic, and at the same time better than anything it seems to imitate.

There are two deaths in Call of Duty 5. You die normally, and you also die when you shoot your own people. It will say "Friendly Fire will not be tolerated" and then starts it again. I hate that, not only do I want to kill these people, half the time in the middle of a firefight they look the same. There is also the little death every time you have to play it. Thankfully, Killzone 2 doesn't have this problem.

Upon completion of Call of Duty 5, you are rewarded with an endless, ultimately unwinnable zombie shooter set inside of a house that just makes you wish you were playing Left 4 Dead. I'd rather eat broken glass than play Call of Duty 5 again. I'd rather pluck off my fingernails one by one than play Call of Duty 5 for one more minute. I'd rather live in a pile of dog doo. That dog's feces would be like manna from heaven pouring over me rather than playing that festering stinking pile. I'd rather eat raw mold. I don't want to play it. Call of Duty 5 is not even worthy of piracy. HELL is having to play Call of Duty World at War over and over for the rest of eternity.

The first thing I noticed about Killzone 2 is how much livelier and cooler the enemy are. The good guys are instantly repulsive. I think I will enjoy playing as the Helghast in multiplayer. Damn right, get the f*@% off my homeworld!

Okay so the story is that your high school football team, is fighting a space Adolph Hitler. You are invading his home world. No matter how many times you try you cannot kill your teammates, so eventually you start killing space Nazis with glowing red eyes instead that populate most of the game.

Killzone 2's graphics are really great, probably the best I've seen on consoles so far. The AI is smart and the Framerate is good. It's fun, and YES, we have physics. To me physics are as beautiful and important as the graphics themselves, which is why I crave fire and destructible buildings. The audio is excellent, including enemies chattering to each other. The gameplay is strong, cogent, and satisfying. It's really excellent, almost triumphant, and I haven't even gotten to the multiplayer portion.

I can't believe my name is Sev. They swear a lot. You move slowly, but there's a sprint. The weapons are kind of modern, assault rifles mostly, and there are also flame throwers and electricity weapons and RPG’s and shotguns. You can only carry one pistol and one main weapon. The pistol is functional.

What's cool about the multiplayer is how it changes objectives in the middle of a match, going from CTF missions to Assassination to Control points to Team Death-match to Search & Destroy, over and over. It's arguably the best multiplayer game on PS3 so far. The multiplayer graphics are spectacular, there's character progression as you play through the game, and it's just a lot of fun. It's great. There's up to 32 player multiplayer and you can have the extra space taken up by bots or play skirmish missions on your own. The red eyed Nazis are just great, real dark and fascist looking, very fun. The ISA are also good, and their chatter is less intrusive. No complaints on the multiplayer, except that a Nazi gives these weird propaganda speeches when you lose as the Helghast.

Overall though Killzone 2 is a really excellent multiplayer game. It was extremely rewarding to earn my first promotion, the "killing specialist" and "good conduct" ribbons. The first promotion is Corporal which allows you to create a squad. Sergeant lets you create a clan, eventually unlocking new weapons and classes. The multiplayer maps are great, and the overall level design is really good. There are eight online maps and lots of trophies to unlock. The boss characters are pretty cool.

So, how do I sum up Killzone 2? I suppose that I could weakly complain about the story, but that would be verging on pointless. This game is better than the sex act. It rocks. It's first-rate - too polished to bitch about the slightest missteps. Soon the gathering darkness will sweep over us and hover for many months, but this title, right now, just makes me glad I have a Playstation 3.

Presentation (10)

Graphics (10)

Sound (9)

Gameplay (10x2)

Lasting appeal (9)

Overall: 9.6

Valkyria Chronicles

By Brendan Rose

Remember SEGA? Back in the nineties the Sega master system was still a serious competitor to the Super Nintendo. They made Sonic, and they were cool, but by the time the Dreamcast was released they were already financial toast, and now they make games for other systems, games like Valkyria Chronicles for the PS3.

Valkyria Chronicles is a bit reminiscent of games like Final Fantasy Tactics and Disgaea, except with no grid, bigger levels, and an emphasis on guns and tanks with elements of a third person shooter thrown in for good measure. It starts with an overview map in the Player Phase where you have a limited amount of CP to select units to move. You can select the same unit more than once per turn, but they're able to move less each time. The movement phase is a bit like a third person shooter. You run around until the movement bar is finished, and you can attack once per turn. Enemies automatically attack as you appear within range. When you are out of CP, or finished the round, you end the phase. Then the Enemy Phase starts, they move their units and attack, your characters fire at targets within range, and then the process repeats until somebody wins.

The goals are stuff like:

"Victory"
The enemy base camp is captured.

"Failure"
Welkin dies

Valkyria Chronicles is one of those games that tries to make you gay. For instance clearly the enemy is your heterosexuality, and Welkin is their own salivating sense of arousal. The cell shading however makes up for this with lots of lively pastel colors.

The game is awesome; it's actually one of the best games I've played this year. It's very tactical and you have to work strategically as a team to win. One of the important factors is hiding behind cover, you take a lot less damage from behind cover, and in turn sandbags and cover can be destroyed by tanks and explosives. You're also able to issue orders (like attack boost). You can fight skirmish battles to gain experience and you level up by class. So if you spend all your experience to bring up Shock Troopers to level 6, all your Shock Troopers will level up. There are also Scouts, Lancers, Engineers and Snipers.

The “plot” is simple. The Empire was at war with a united group of democratic states, and the minor state of Galia had remained neutral in the conflict, but was later invaded by the Empire. You take control of a local militia, and kill an endless slew of nameless, faceless soldiers. Your militia soldiers all look different and have their own personalities. They have individual if somewhat repetitive animations, voices, special abilities and afflictions, and if they die in combat and don't get to a medic, that's it. There are about 50 of them to choose from.

Welkin meets Alicia when he is drawing fish by a stream. Alicia points a gun at his back and tries to arrest him, and eventually they join together to fight the Empire. The story is good, and there's a lot of it, but it is a little bit happy flying pigs and kitty butterflies. Every time it loads there's a picture of two pretty flowers. Still, that is tempered by some rather good action, and the graphics are great. The plot is told by selecting frames on the pages of a book, and is partly in fmv and partly in animated frames. It gets a little tired playing the same skirmish missions over and over for experience, but it is a rich and rewarding game, and a lot of fun. There are at least 20 hours of gameplay, and 9 skirmish missions to unlock. If you try Valkyria Chronicles out you'll find one of the better RPG’s on PlayStation 3, and nobody wants to see SEGA begging for change at the side of the street in ten years. So, if you need a good game, try Valkyria Chronicles.

Halo Revisited

by Tiberius Jonez

In November of 2001, Microsoft released the original Xbox, and the game touted as the console's "killer app" at launch was Halo. Halo was a trend-setting game in many respects, such as the auto-recharging shield, which has been adopted by virtually every major shooter since, in the form of auto-regenerating health systems like those used in Gears of War and Call of Duty. It was also the first major game to limit you to carrying two weapons at a time. Another first was the Warthog, Master Chief's favorite armored 4X4. Halo was the first game I can remember to present driving in a shooter in an accesible, fun and satisfying way.

At the time of its release, the Xbox was far superior, technically, to the Playstation 2, and Halo showed us exactly what the new-kid-on-the-block console could do; and the results were stunning; no game had ever looked this good. The first time you emerged from the drop ship and stepped into Halo's ring world is a moment permanently etched in the minds of many gamers. The Xbox was the first console to include a hard-drive, and as such, programmers were able to stream information from the hard-drive, lightening a considerable load for the processor and RAM. The ability to stream from the hard-drive allowed Halo to become the first single-player game to offer an entire game world free of loading screens, so there was nothing to pull you out of the experience; an absolute technical marvel at the time.

While Halo was a trend-setter, it was also just plain fun. It was the first console game to spawn a serious LAN party following; something previously reserved for blockbuster PC titles. In fact, before Xbox Live was even born, loyal players had already figured out a way to play Halo online using their PC's and "tunnel" software. I admit, I used the Xbox Tunnel software to play Halo online with my brother. Even though it was a less than smooth online experience, when it worked it was great fun, and it gave us a taste of things to come.

Sure, it took PC veterans a while to adjust to using a controller in a shooter...but Halo proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that a console shooter with a gamepad control scheme could work, and work well. Seven years later, I now prefer an Xbox 360 controller over a mouse and keyboard anyday.

I recently installed Halo on my PC to see what I thought of the game today, and somewhat to my surprise - it holds up amazingly well, even by today's graphical standards. The animations are excellent, the textures, while not high-res by today's standards, are bright and crisp, and the environmental effects like flying dirt, smoke and muzzle flashes still look very nice.

What made Halo the complete package was its story. Bungie crafted a legitimate sci-fi masterpiece that told an imaginative and well-written story using strong dialogue and the occasional plot twist. It didn't hurt that the game's voice-acting was universally strong...for once voice acting didn't make you cringe - quite the opposite - even today, Halo's voice work sucks you in and keeps you there for the duration.

Some may say the end portion of the game is cheap by virtue of the fact that you essentially play the game's levels in reverse. But in reality, it sticks with the story - you have to go in deep to complete your objective, and you have to get your ass back out of there in one piece to escape.

Another area in which Halo excelled was enemy A.I.. Few games today can match the cunning and unpredictablilty of Master Chief's many foes.

Aside from the weak story, many Xbox fans consider Halo 2 to be the better game, but not me. Sure, Halo 2 had it all over the original in terms of online play, with its fantastic matchmaking and bazillion game types. But the original Halo set the stage for that game and Halo 3 as well as virtually every other online shooter released since on any platform, both in terms of gameplay and presentation.

More than seven years after its original release, I enjoyed Halo as much today as I did then, and in some ways I enjoyed it more now, mainly due to the new respect and admiration gained with the perspective of time. If you've been living under a rock since November, 2001 and have somehow never played Halo, please, do yourself a favor and play it now. I guarantee you will have some fun, whether you play it on the Xbox, Xbox 360 or the PC.

Left 4 Dead at a glance

by Brendan Rose

The surprise hit of 2008, and an instant classic for me, was definitely Left 4 Dead by Valve software, makers of the archaic masterpiece Half Life. Half Life spawned games like Team Fortress 2, Counterstrike, Half Life 2 and eventually the evil and draconian Steam, which often refuses to let you play a game even though you’ve already paid for it.

Left 4 Dead is a Co-Op zombie shooter modeled on a movie theme. The zombies are kind of like those from 28 Days Later, really wild and crazy running at you slavering and screaming for blood, trying to rip your throat out when they notice you, and just standing around staring off into space when they don't.

L4D features 5 boss zombies. The Boomer, a bloated fat zombie barfs or explodes, sending a hoard of lesser zombies to kill you. The Smoker, like the licker from Resident Evil, constricts you with its tongue and drags you away to eat or strangle. The Hunter moves quickly and dives at you to tear you to shreds with his hands. The Witch cries until she's startled and then rips you apart. The Tank slaughters everyone half the time; you really need to stick with your team or you'll find yourself swarmed, restrained, and dead pretty quickly.

All the monsters and most items are placed randomly by the AI director, ensuring that every outing through the four chapters of screaming infected, each containing five levels, always feels fresh and new.

The game also features a versus mode where two teams face off as either the Zombies or the Survivors.

There is no way to express the joy of ditching your three stupid friends as they die in a hoard of zombies, overcome by their own dumbness, while you escape unscathed. Left 4 Dead features crisp live voice chat (or garbled gibberish on 360), swarms of enemies, and is really one of the most fun games of the year. I bought it twice, so I can easily recommend that you buy it once.

Far Cry 2 at a glance

By Brendan Rose

I wasn't particularly excited about Far Cry 2. It was released along side a slew of other more interesting titles and it was one of the last that I picked up. I played through the start, wasn't really impressed, got frustrated hunting diamonds, and gave up. That was it for a while. But after sitting down with it, sometime around the point I'd just wiped out an enemy unit and blew up a fuel tank which set fire to the grass that spread all through the area as I drove away, I realized, I love this game.

The graphics are rich and colorful; the African landscape looks great, ranging from dry plains to lush green jungles. It's a very pretty game. Not as pretty as Crysis, and I was disappointed that destructible buildings didn't make it over for instance, but at least it doesn't abuse and debase your computer like Crysis does.

Sure the story is crap, and it's just repetitive shooting and driving from place to place, but it's fun. The action is solid and the graphics are pure and beautiful. It’s one of the nicest looking games I've played, and it looks even better on the PC. The fire physics are the best I've seen in a game so far. It's also just plain cool to see your character pull a bullet out of his leg with a knife. It's a well rounded, polished, balanced and fun action shooter. The landscape is detailed and full of color and life, and it's funny to run over a gazelle.

Far Cry 2 is said to be a sequel in name only. It carries over none of the story or mutant powers of the first game. You are dropped into an unnamed African nation in the middle of a civil war and your mission is to track down and kill the arms dealer supplying both sides. The plan goes sideways as you're overcome with malaria and you have to start doing missions for either side for diamonds to buy weapons, and help the underground for malaria pills.

The AI is passable but nothing to scream about and there is the issue that you will be fighting the exact same enemies, time after time for the rest of the game. Most of the variation centers around your choice of weapons, and there's plenty. the game also includes a map editor.

There's not much depth to be found in Far Cry 2, but what it does, it does well. If you like first person shooters, it's worth a look.

Watch the video below for a taste of Far Cry 2's eye candy.

Fallout 3 - Game of the Year

by Brendan Rose

Fallout 3 is the next in line of the classic series of games from the nineties that allowed you to wander a post apocalyptic wasteland and lose much of your soul in the process, pillaging and tormenting survivors. With it's over the top violence, prostitution, drugs, pimping your wife for money, and killing little kids that throw stones, the game quickly gained cult status among fans. They were warped and deformed by the game forever, and hid in damp caves until the release of Fallout 3. Many of them were frightened and hateful towards the new game, but most have now come to accept it.

After the developer tanked, the licence was picked up by Bethesda, makers of the classic Morrowind, and the tripe Oblivion. Oblivion was a terrible game, but it's barebones engine provided the perfect framework for the new Fallout.

A lot of people thought it was just Oblivion with guns, which was true, but far more importantly, it was Oblivion with decapitation and dismemberment, and they fixed the damn level scaling, and the guards don't attack you everywhere for crimes in one city.

But that is just nerd history. The game starts you out being yanked out of your mothers vagina and told to decide the sex of your character. Your father (Liam Neeson) then has you sent off and you begin a series of milestones in your characters development in the underground vault where you decide your stats and skills which have an important impact on your character. You can also choose your appearance.

The game tries hard to give you the option of pursuing whatever interests you and still being able to get by. If you want to play it like a shooter, you can put your points into perception and weapons. If you want to use stealth, or melee, or focus on speech, the game will accommodate you.

As you level up you are able to receive perks depending on your stats and level that bulk up and customize your character in often unique ways. You can kill most of the people in the vault eventually, not all though. You can kill almost anyone in the game actually, which is nice. One of the first choices you're presented with is whether you want to destroy a town (Megaton) or save it. Your choices have some effect on the story and the ending is dynamic based on a few variables.

It's a very polished, fun game, with lots of depth. The wasteland goes on for miles and it's rich and full with beautiful graphics and plenty of detail, and it's just nice to be able to wipe out a town.

There's also a lot of depth to most of the characters, with a nice variety of dialogue choices, which makes it a lot more fun to blast their head off. The game uses a system called VATS to freeze time and line up attacks against different body parts and then watch all the violence in flashy slow motion. It's a nice throw back to the original isometric game. Strangely, watching limbs and heads go flying off, does not get old over time. The only problem is the regular FPS style fighting feels a bit clunky, you really need to use VATS.

Also available for the PC version is the GECK, which with a simple PHD in Quantum Physics, you can design and build your own levels, and the rest of us can try vainly to place one NPC that immediately runs away from where we placed it.

You can follow the main quest or just explore the wasteland, doing side quests, of which there is an abundance. There are also other characters you can recruit depending on your alignment.

There's a nice variety of enemies to suit different points in your development, ranging from Raiders to Supermutants to The Enclave, and plenty of random monsters like the Deathclaws. It's a nice nod to the spirit of the original games, and the next logical step for the series. The ending, however, is terrible...just terrible.

The main story lasts about 20 hours, and if you like exploring weird vaults and caves full of monsters, there's a lot more beyond that to be experienced.

It's my favorite game for 2008 and definitely worth a try.


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