After a nail-biting, 10-year wait, fans of the Halo franchise finally have a new game to beat while they bide their time for 2012’s highly anticipated “Halo 4.”
Perhaps most importantly, players can look forward to stepping back into the armored boots of the Master Chief, protagonist of the original Halo trilogy.
For those looking for the next cutting-edge shooter to round out their collection, they’ll find that “Halo: Anniversary” is very “Spartan” when it comes to features. Missing from the game are the dual-wielding of Halo 2, the power-ups of Halo 3, and the night vision of “Halo: ODST.”
“Halo: Anniversary” wasn’t intended to replace the previous Halo games – it was made to hit players with a roundhouse kick of nostalgia.
While players are reliving their memories of the original release of “Halo: Combat Evolved” – or perhaps being introduced to Halo for the very first time, they’ll be pleased to experience the new game’s revamped graphics, re-mastered audio and redesigned characters.
Players will feel more connected to the environment during gameplay than in other shooters as the field often contains realistic rain and snow and is pockmarked with bone-shattering explosions and merciless enemies.
These gameplay changes were made possible by a two-part replacement of the game engine. The campaign uses the Saber3D engine, which it shares with Sierra’s “TimeShift,” while the multiplayer uses the same system as 2010’s “Halo: Reach.” The multiplayer offers a variety of level choices, with both original and new maps from Halo and Halo 2. Additionally, the Firefight mode makes a return, with a level inspired by the campaign mode, operating much like “Firefight from Halo: Reach” but with a few changes.
Between fierce encounters with intelligent enemies, players can catch a breather and partake in another Halo pastime – finding the game’s Easter eggs, cleverly tucked away in obscure places by the designers. Some of the Easter eggs are purely for racking up XBOX 360 achievements, while others can tweak the gameplay when activated from the menus.
In retrospect, “Halo: Anniversary” is a truly solid game for diehard fans, despite the fact that it may leave newer players wishing for more. But when the bells and whistles are left out, players will see Halo’s true soul – strong gameplay, a good story and an alien-blasting good time.
Hacking and slashing his way through forests, deserts and dangerous, active volcanoes, Link, the “Hero of Time” and of Nintendo’s most renowned video game franchise, “The Legend of Zelda,” has always had his work cut out for him.
Sure, he always defeats whatever evil foe threatens the peaceful kingdom of Hyrule, but the pressure of starring in one of the biggest video games ever brings a demanding, purist fan base to poor Link. Zelda fans often resist reform.
After the classic, ground-breaking and eponymous first release in the series came out in 1986 and was hailed by fans worldwide, the follow-up: “Link’s Adventure” was met with poor reviews.
The second game in the series, released in 1987, featured side-scrolling gameplay and cheesy animation that greatly varied from the classic, top-down, RPG-style of game-play that fans cherished in the first release. Gamers were angered, and Nintendo has been wary of altering the formula of its most cherished series ever since.
The eighth home console release in “The Legend of Zelda” series: “The Skyward Sword,” marks a well-needed change of form, thanks to new technology afforded by the Wii: Link can fly.
Requiring the use of the Wii’s “Motion-Plus” accessory to allow for more intricate sword play and character control, the game takes the state-of-the-art, motion-sensitive controller, and soars to all new heights of heroic action and adventure.
Taking to the skies like never before, the hero pilots his giant bird with incredible precision due to the Motion-Plus upgrade. What served as oddly-time consuming and often boring travel in past adventures is now exciting and frankly, liberating amongst the clouds.
Beautiful graphics elevate the sense of realism and air-born splendor. While the mechanics of steering the birds is shaky at first, players will quickly catch on to the smooth handling and be consumed by the glory of the sky.
With a soothing, orchestral score behind the action and excitement, “The Skyward Sword” is an epic journey nearly as innovative as “The Legend of Zelda” has been since its genesis in the 1980s.
As you explore the vast land of Hyrule in “Skyward Sword,” while searching for the princess or battling the numerous, ruthless monsters, don’t forget to look up.
After the events of the runaway hit Arkham Asylum, Batman could sure use a vacation. But being the world’s greatest masked vigilante is a job that doesn’t offer vacation days. Crime never sleeps so neither does the Bat.
Batman once again fights criminals and deranged lunatics in the new game Batman: Arkham City, a third-person, open-environment action game in which you play as Batman, and occasionally Catwoman, using the best technology Wayne Tech can provide. The goal – beat down criminals with Batman’s vast martial-arts skills.
Months after the events of Arkham Asylum, Arkham psychiatrist, Dr. Hugo Strange constructs the massive open-air prison named Arkham City in the middle of Gotham, populated by every lunatic from Arkham Asylum and every violent criminal from Blackgate prison. It’s a melting pot of psychopaths, murderers, criminal masterminds, thugs and generally nasty people.
While speaking at an anti-Arkham city protest, Bruce Wayne, who Strange knows is really Batman, is abducted by Strange’s men and thrown into Arkham City. The prison is an every-man-for-himself-fight-to-survive kind of correctional facility, with no guards, no cells and no rules – a place where only Batman is law.
Aside from the common thugs scattered throughout the city, Arkham City is also now home to many of Batman’s more notable nemeses, such as the Penguin, Harvey “Two Face” Dent, Poison Ivy, the Riddler and the Joker, who is once again voiced by Mark Hamill.
The graphics put in to Arkham City are nothing short of superb. The lighting and gritty detail put into every character and environment is so sharp you can almost smell the fear pouring from your enemies as you stalk them from the shadows.
Arkham City is rated T for teen, but don’t let that rating fool you. This is not your Saturday morning Batman; this is the Dark Knight. The idle chatter of criminals throughout the game by itself speaks of harsh realities that no one would openly talk about around children.
Arkham City may not seem that different from the previous game Arkham Asylum, but after playing it for an hour, you won’t want to stop playing.
With the many side missions, collectibles and challenges are scattered throughout the game, Arkham city is well worth paying full price for – and then some.
It’s been five years since Bethesda released Oblivion, the fourth installment of their Elder Scrolls, the role-playing video-game series. And in those five years, the producers have managed to expand on a great concept.
The newest installment of the series, Skyrim, takes place in a mountainous kingdom in the throes of a bloody civil war. The sheer scale of the world available to play in is amazing, with soaring mountains and towering waterfalls. The level of detail present in everything from the pebbles on a rocky path to the snow-capped peaks that always seem to be looming is incredible. Each city and town has its own flavor, and every dungeon is unique, unlike the cookie-cutter caves and forts players experienced in Oblivion.
Of course, one of the most talked-about aspects of the game are the dragons, which appear in force in Skyrim, often without any warning aside from a deafening roar from above. Then it will swoop into view, destroying everything in its path with fire or ice breath. Armed with huge teeth, claws and capable of snatching victims off the ground and dropping them from great heights, these are some mighty foes.
Walking into any village on the map, children can be found playing tag with each other, while men and women go about their work at the resident sawmill or farm. Bards play songs and sing in the taverns, and villagers have conversations with each other, based on previous events.
Outside the villages lurk saber cats, wolf packs, trolls and bandits – not to mention giants tending herds of mammoths making their way slowly across the tundra.
It seems that Skyrim manages to include fan-favorite aspects of the previous game, while side-stepping its pitfalls. Rather than creating hundreds of villagers with the same eight voices, Bethesda has expanded its cast, creating a bit more variety. Quests tend to be creative, rather than repetitive and while the guilds for fighters, mages and thieves still exist, the quests they give are more interesting and their stories each have its own amusing twist. Players of the Shivering Isles might also appreciate a special guest appearance by Sheogorath.
The game play is still pretty solid, even better than before due to the introduction of the ability to dual-wield either weapons or magic spells, something that hasn’t been available in previous games. This opens a lot of doors and allows players to completely customize their combat.
This game isn’t perfect. There are still a few glitches in the game play, causing some non-player characters to act strangely, but this is a small price to pay for more than 300 hours of play in such a beautiful, atmospheric world with a really well-done soundtrack.
Skyrim is impressive, to say the least. It took what made Oblivion a great game and improved upon it.
As the reigning champion in the “shooter wars,” the “Call of Duty” franchise is the measuring stick for first-person shooters. After years on top, though, the series is starting to become a bit stale for many fans.
However, with “Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3,” subtle changes and upgrades have made this newest installment a must-own.
Nobody buys the COD games to play the off-line story mode exclusively; we buy this game for the online multiplayer. Fans of the series will notice a few minor tweaks to the largely unchanged formula, but these tweaks refine the gamers’ experience.
The first thing I noticed was the new kill-streak reward choices. In past versions, kill-streaks were usually only offensive in nature, but this year defensive strategy comes into play when choosing your kill-streaks. You can now choose a “support” package of streaks that can help not just you, but your teammates. Ballistic vests and better radar are just some of the things that come with having support as a kill-streak option.
New weapon leveling gives players a chance to make major changes to their weapons as they progress through the game and modify how the guns behave. As you progress, you can add features like less kick to improve accuracy or how powerful the bullets are.
As far as the offline story mode is concerned, the game offers roughly six hours of new game-play that looks and plays a lot like previous versions.
The “special-ops” mode gives players some new challenges, including a horde-like mode where constant waves of enemies are unleashed on the virtual heroes, with the goal being to last as long as you can. “Special-ops” can be played offline or with an online partner.
Sadly, the graphics remain the same with a few nice visuals, but really they are the same – tired animations that gamers are already used to. Critics of the series also say the bullet damage and shooting physics are not nearly as accurate as “Battlefield 3,” and for the most part, those critics are spot on.
Still “Modern Warfare 3” has made enough improvements and slight adjustments to remain as the “go-to” game for games with an itchy trigger-finger.
It takes a lot of guts to call out the second highest-selling game of all time, but “Battlefield 3” and the people behind it have done just that. With their sights set on the “Modern Warfare” franchise, Electronic Arts has gone all-out to give gamers a worthy alternative to MW3.
As with every first-person shooter game, this one will be judged for its online multiplayer and how it holds up. First let me say that “Battlefield” is not a game for “newbs.” Meaning that unlike its competition, there is a much sharper learning curve. It takes time for players to learn the expansive maps and how vulnerable they are at all times.
Unlike other FPS games, the environment is all-destructible, which means players are not safe if they decide to camp and wait for opponents to come to them. Players can’t survive an entire clip being shot into them only to recover moments later, either.
Also, players can take control of vehicles that only add to their arsenal of destructive weapons. When used properly, the vehicles can truly change how a match plays out.
Where “Battlefield” truly shines is in its beautiful visuals. The scenery at the varying venues looks like you’re playing on the actual places the maps are modeled after. Small details like bullets sitting in the wall only add to the realistic feel of the game.
Unfortunately “Battlefield” gets a little too complicated for the average gamer. Unless you have endless hours of time to put into the game, you’ll never truly get to experience everything that it has to offer.
While “Battlefield 3” is not for everybody, it definitely made strides that fans of the series will truly enjoy. With more realistic game play and deeper options during online multiplayer mode, “Battlefield 3” is the perfect alternative for gamers who’ve become bored with “Call of Duty.”
The first ‘Dance Central’ outing proved the possible staying power of the Xbox 360’s groundbreaking add-on peripheral “Kinect,” a separate piece to your 360 that allows a player to use the console and play certain games with no controller.
However, since then the choices of Kinect exclusive games have been scarce, with very little in terms of variety. The game’s developer, Harmonix, hasn’t strayed too far from the original’s essentially flawless game play.
In the first ‘Dance Central’, a player simply watched the screen and mimicked the moves portrayed in the game. Nothing else was offered except for a barely passable song library. ‘Dance Central 2’ does, however, offer a few new key features that make it better than its original. Drop-in cooperative play is now integrated, meaning if someone is playing a solo game, another player can simply walk in front of the Kinect camera lens to create a two-player game.
‘Dance Central’ featured decidedly few songs to dance to. In ‘Dance Central 2’, the collection of popular dance tracks is larger, spanning the last three decades and more will be available to download via the Xbox Live Marketplace.
In addition to the multitude of new features, ‘Dance Central 2’ offers a surprisingly fluid voice recognition feature, meaning you can start games, choose songs and pause using nothing but the Kinect’s voice-recognition software.
Despite these great features, ‘Dance Central 2’ offers nothing in terms of a story. Harmonix has attempted to add some sort of back-story, but the plot is shallow and focuses mainly on the character attempting to make one of several underground dance crews.
The story is nowhere near groundbreaking or immersive, so calling this a viable campaign would be too generous. Overall, ‘Dance Central 2’ doesn’t stray far from its popular prequel, but why mess with an already proven and profitable concept?
The game is fun, enhances the Kinect possibilities and will be a doubtless hit at any party.
The best way to summarize “Madden 12” is by comparing it to a diamond-studded garbage bag. The outside looks nice, but once you get inside, it’s still just trash. After years of complaints from the fans of the series, the developers at EA Sports claimed they had finally made the changes fans were asking for. Sadly, none of these changes improved the actual game.
The war is over, and we lost. It’s 1957 and the world is being terraformed by an alien race and there is little time left for humanity.
|
|
Recent comments