Ace Combat: Assault Horizon

This is the first PRE-REVIEW I will ever do on this blog, but ASSAULT HORIZON looks just too incredibly good to pass up on sharing the good news!

The team at Project Aces and Bandai/Namco have announced that in sometime 2011, they will release the next installment (the first one for console in 3 years) of the Ace Combat series. They seem to continue to blow every other flight game out of the water with incredible graphics and realism, and THIS time, they seem to be putting real planes in real places and in current-day society.

The gameplay looks more intense, more indepth, and overall, when I saw the announcement trailer (found here---> "Ace Combat: Assault Horizon" ) my jaw was on the floor. Why? Look carefully, my friends...90% of what you see in that trailer is GAMEPLAY!

Planes and buildings disintegrating, lighting flares, heatwaves, all the little things that made ACE6 so good are back and even better!!

Needless to say...I haven't been this excited for a game's release since MW2!

Rest assured...I WILL be pre-ordering the most expensive edition of this game, and I WILL stand in line in the rain to get it!

When it comes, rest assured I will review it on here...vigorously......

TC's H.A.W.X. 2

Once again, Ubisoft takes an attempt at ruling the skies, and falls slightly short of the mark, leaving Ace Combat 6 (Now a few years old) in the #1 spot in my books.

The gameplay this time around has added a few new features such as takeoffs, landings, mid-air refuling and the like...all things which Ace6 had to begin with. Took UbiSoft 2 games to figure it out, it seems.

While the guys in Montreal have tried to add a sense of realism to the game by making real terrain from Satellite imagery, it unfortunately, takes away from what they could have done for the rest of the game...namely better graphics, (The facial animation on the cinematics is some of the WORST I have ever seen) more in-depth plane and weapons design, and overall animation quality.

To fly over a REAL location is cool and all...but when you're flying at Mach2, you dont really pay attention to the details 15,000 feet below you.

The campaign story is complex, and very militaristc. While this is typical of a Tom Clancy franchise, I found myself zoning out during alot of the briefings. I just wasn't captivated by story...not the way Call of Duty does.

But, I am a pilot at heart, and I have to say it feels nice to take to the skies again. Multiplayer wise, planes are more customizable, there are now WAY more weapons varieties (my major complaint from HAWX 1 now rectified), and is overall enjoyable.

While the graphics are mediocre, the gameplay OK, the story un-entrancing, I DO still enjoy the game. There is a certain character, a certain aire about it that makes it worthy of play. Especially on Multiplayer.

Overall..6/10........game is alright...but Im not gonna rant and rave about it....for good or ill.

Call of Duty: BlackOps

I have to admit, I have some mixed feelings on this one. I was a little behind the times in picking up my copy, and I have to say, I'm glad I didn't wait in line for a pre-ordered copy.

The Campaign is simply amazing, so I'll start off there.

I remember back in the days of CoD4: ModernWarfare, having numerous conversations with friends talking about how amazing it would be to have a CoD game set in the Vietnam era....Treyarch delivered!

The violence, dismemberment and overall realism that seems to be Treyarch's signature is brought back with a nifty little option to turn it off for the more squeamish at heart, and that automatically gives it a thumb-up. The story is in-depth. chaotic, and ties together well with World at War. I was surprised to see on the credit list the voice talents of celebs such as Ice Cube and one of my personal faves: Gary Oldman as the voice of Viktor Reznov.

Meeting Pres.Kennedy brought some giggles, but overall, the campaign was a joy.

There were, however, the typical hiccups. I always play my campaigns on the hardest difficulty setting, and the jump from "Hardcore" to "Veteran" is astronomical. If you play on Veteran, be prepared to move about an inch only to get shot, killed, reload checkpoint, and repeat the process about 100 times before you make any headway. Unlike MW2, this latest chapter in the biggest selling xbox franchise of all time does not have the "limited respawn'' fix. If you don't move forward, your foes WILL keep coming.

Having said that...it DID only take me 3 days to complete the campaign, and this is the first EVER CoD game that did NOT have the signature Sniper mission. It felt empty without it.

The ability to sprint, hold down the B button and trigger a "Dive to cover" move is the best addition to the game series since care packages and dual-attachments. It has saved my neck more than once, and it great in multiplayer. Which leads me to part 2 of my review.

MP...a little bit of a dissapointment. Trying to follow in the footsteps of HALO:REACH, the duders over at Treyarch have put a credit system in place which allows for some amazing customization and early-unlockables, such as having an ACOG scope on your SniperRifle along with a silencer before you even use it. Nice...but at the same time, allows for some players to have Overkill equipment without much effort.

The amount of customization that comes with this new credit system has its own downside. There is just....TOO much going on. In all games previous to this one, things were pretty slick, sleek and simple to get your brain to wrap around. This time? I still don't have it 100% figured.

Dear Treyarch: It's nice that you wanna give the player as much as you can, but really....less IS more. Looking at this game sometimes makes me miss CoD4 quite abit. Needless to say, the Multiplayer just isn't as enjoyable as it once was. Not that it's TERRIBLE...but its not as good as it used to be. CoD4 seems to have been the peak of Activision's game.

And last but not least: ZOMBIES!

Who doesn't love zombie killing action!?

I really have nothing to say on this matter except this: While zombies is FUN AS HELL...

...World at War Zombie mode was still better.

Overall: 6/10. Sorry, Treyarch. You did alright. But you failed to blow me away.

Aliens vs. Predator

As a diehard ALIENS fan, needless to say I was excited and hezitant all at the same time at the mention of this game's release....
...
I was NOT disappointed!
Three Seperate Campaigns, Xenomorph, Predator, and Marine, all are custom-tailored to make you think and feel like whichever character you play.
As a Marine, I found myself taking it slow, tossing flares into dark corners, always checking my back and motion sensors, jumping (literally...I was spooked on a number of occasions) as an Alien pounced on me from nowhere, or the recently flayed body of a comrade is thrown in my face from the hanging cables of a Predator. But wielding my arsenal of lead-propelling awesomeness, I was able to make it out alive...barely.

As a Pred. There is not one better way to show the serious Bad-Assness of these guys than taking on a dozen aliens in one go. But, proving that the Preds are only as good as their tech, you still tend to air on the side of caution when dealing with enemies (such as Marines) who can take you on at range.

But the Alien...ooooohhhhh the Alien....*drool*
Lurking in the shadows, lying in wait, luring your pray this way or the other, and a TON of highly creative and EXCEEDINGLY bloody ways to execute your victims...you get to see what these guys are REALLY capable of. You get so into it (I did, anyways) that you can't help but think just a LITTLE more deviously when playing as the Xeno. You end up thinking less objectively like you do as a Pred, and more creatively, using your speed, agility and abilty to scale LITERALLY any surface to your advantage and take out your victims systematically, one by one.

Complete with original sound effects from the classic movies, and starring one or two of the original actors, this is the candy for any adamant fan of either franchise.

I was hezitant at first...but believe me when I say: This was Aliens (and Predator too...I guess...) done RIGHT!


(Aliens tromp Preds, by the way...ya know...just...cuz they're that much AWESOMER!)

Devil May Cry 4

What can I say about a video game series that personifies the Anime/Maga ideal to the greatest extent? Hmmm...
...in all honesty...not overly terrible! I actually managed to complete this one this time around, and it would be a REALLY decent game if it weren't so anime, with characters that look EXACTLY the same (See image above) even though they are opposing forces..."blondes" having WHITE hair, the typical "Swords-Mixed-with-Engines-that-are-so-overpowered-its-insane-not-to-mention-they-are-so-big-that-no-one-on-God's-Green-Earth-can-they ever-be-lifted-off-the-ground-much-less-wielded-in-one-hand" kinda thing that seems to be the common obsession of the Tokyo-based super-hero culture.
Albeit, the story is interesting, the war between Angels and Demons and those in between.
Being someone who grew up religiously, seeing Characters bearing the names of "Dante", and "Nero" are a nice touch...Nero being the Roman emperor responsible for the slaughter of thousands of Christians just shortly after the Crucifixion of Christ. It is an interesting way to pay tribute to the theologies of the storyline.
While this is a button-mashing combo game (Ya know...x,x,y,x,b,b,b,a = SUPERATTACK!), I am not one who can readily memorize such patterns for gameplay, and the fact that while DMC4 has this IN the game, it also allows for an "Automatic" mode for stupid people like me. Just keep mashing buttons and the computer will do the rest!
There are, however, a few MAJOR downfalls, from a game design perspective. One is that there are ZERO autosaves...so you could be playing for a couple hours, mow through 6 levels, and then go to bed, waking up the next day to realize "Im all the way back HERE!?"....yeah...not cool in the least.
The cinematics are a joy to watch, yet sometimes there are TOO many of them. One scene comes to mind where I waited 30 seconds for it to load, 5 minutes to play, 30 seconds to load the level....then 5 seconds of running down a hall, followed by...30 seconds of loading, 5 minutes cinematics...30 seconds of loading....
So in 12-ish minutes, I played 5 seconds...kinda lame, really...should have just had the 2 cinematics play as one and not bore me to death with waiting.
However, some of the cinematics caught me off-guard in a surprisingly pleasant way. One consisted of a failry fallical dialogue and in the first few seconds of it I was thinking to myself: "Are these writer's SERIOUS?!" but by the end, it was discovered that the character SAYING the dialogue was being witty and sarcastic and I ended up laughing quite heartily near the end.
Overall...not a bad game...kinda lame as far as achievements go, as it forces you to play through a NUMBER of times before getting them...and I have no particular desire to play it again unless I am REALLY REALLY bored...

Then there is THIS horrifying moment!

WOULD SOMEONE MIND TELLING ME WHAT THE DEUCE LADY GAGA IS DOING IN AN ANIME VIDEO GAME?! I AM SCARRED FOR LIFE!!!

Batman: Arkham Asylum

The Dark Knight returns in this epic thriller! (Wow, you would think I was talking about a movie...) But that's the POINT! This game feels like a movie you participate in! Simply wonderful! Graphics are dark and gritty albeit sometimes the motion-capture seems a little...off...
Story is truly epic...basically: How would Batman handle the Joker taking over Gotham's Asylum for the Criminally Insane? (Yeah, I spoiled it...sue me...)
Full of gadgety goodness that is in the best of Batman Tradition, puzzles, complex storylines, there is everything good to say about this adventure of the Caped Crusader. This is how Batman is meant to be. While Christopher Nolan's Batman is more of a spin on Batman in the real world, this is the classic comic brought to life in the best possible manner, while staying true to those themes and styles.
Mark Hamill, the infamous Luke Skywalker, returns as the voice of the joker and is, to many comic-con obsessees, the very perfection of the Joker's personality and voice.
For this style of Joker...I can't help but agree.
(Granted Heath Ledger makes a more true real-world Sociopath...but I digress...)

Controls again are simple and easy to master, and allow you, as Batman, to truly make use of the environment around you. From sneak attacks from the shadows, to inverted suspension grabs, to the classic batarang-to-the-back-of-the-head-from-across-the-room.

The only 3 downfalls that come to mind is that there isn't really much replay value (for me, anyways), the climax battle is rather...anti-climatic and a little too simple for a boss fight, and there is no multiplayer at ALL in it...even Splinter Cell had a Multiplayer mode of "Player 1 defends objective while player 2 tries to stealth his way to it."

But overall...8/10....great game! A few irks and confusions here and there, but as someone who grew up with comic book heroes, Batman being among them, I was not disappointed, and felt like the Game Designers did the Dark Knight justice!

Monday Night Combat

Hrm...how can I describe this download-only-3rd-person-multiplayer-only-zero-campaign-shooter?
In a single word? FUN AS ALL HELL!!!
Ok..admittedly, that was 4 words, but STILL!
This was one download that I will NEVER regret. Whenever I get frustrated with Call of Duty, Halo, or any other online multiplayer, I often fall back to Monday Night Combat.
There is NO CAMPAIGN whatsoever, and is strictly a multiplayer based combat system.
Objective? Destroy the objective in the enemy base known as the "money ball", eliminate the enemy players trying to stop you, and prevent them from doing the same to you.
Simple enough?
You have a few varieties of classes to choose from such as the Assault, the Assault Rifle Wielding, charismatic solder who runs and guns; the Assassin, the Sword/Dagger wielding cloaker chika who is sneakier than sneaky-be!
Tank Classes, Support/Engineer, Gunner, Sniper, all speak for themselves.
Situated in a Gladiator-Style arena filled with futuristic robots, cheering crowds, this cartoon-esque game also features a sports announcer who has had me chuckling to myself on more than one occasion.
Simply put...one of the BEST download-only games ever!