Ratchet and Clank: Crack in Time Review

Ratchet and Clank: Crack in time will exceed all your expectations and you will delight in the stunning visuals and breath taking level design, you will fall in love with Ratchet and adore Clank but most of all you’ll be enchanted by a wonderfully humorous story.

Ratchet and Clank: Crack in Time is the most fun that I’ve had in a game in a long time, so much so, that Modern Warfare 2 remained unwrapped until I finished it. The game is absolutely action packed from beginning to end and what surprised me most was that at no point did killing thousands of robots become mundane.

As the game progresses so to do the challenges which brings a really weighty depth to the game. It lobs in a mix of puzzles, platforming, gun-play and even space ship combat into a game that is not entirely linear.

In Crack in Time we get to play as both Ratchet and as Clank. Insomniac have done a great job at separating the two characters game play styles while keeping the controls much the same.

Ratchet is a gun slinging, acrobatic Lombax who loves to break things, in fact, breaking everything in sight will reward Ratchet with bolts which can be used to purchase weapon upgrades.

Ratchet is also very good at platforming and using his Rocket boots he can ramp over massive spaces or glide circles around his surrounding enemies.

Clank, Ratchets robotic best friend has been superbly crafted down to the finest detail. Clanks gameplay is predominantly time-puzzle based with a few snail like enemies along the way. He can glide across chasms using a propeller that folds out of his head and slow down time with special time warp orbs that come in handy when he is surrounded by enemies.

Clank also wields a special time weapon that he uses to defend himself as well as to reverse time and repair broken bits of the clock. Brain wrestling Clank’s time-puzzles is fantastically rewarding and they are the best I’ve seen in a game in a long time.

Visually the game is absolutely stunning with huge open landscapes and spectacular explosions. There was often a time where I found myself just staring at the stylized smoke that looks like round shaded bubbles overlaid on top of one another. Each on of Ratchets many weapons produces a different explosion and each as beautiful as the next.

The attention to detail is immaculate and one of my favorite things in the game was watching the way Ratchets furry ears moved depending on what he was doing. From a slow flop as he runs to a speedy shiver as he boots hundreds of meters through the air, the detail is there.

Insomniac have managed to cram an awful lot into this game. There are tones of weapons to choose from and each is more elaborate from the next, with names like Mr Zurcon, a weapon which spawns a hovering robot sentry to protect you and the Grooveaton glove which drops a hovering disco ball that causes nearby enemies to breakout into spinning dance moves allowing Ratchet to pick them off one by one.

The levels work on a horizontal and vertical plane and some require the use of Ratchets hovers boots to boost him along a speedy track. There are levels that take place in space where Ratchet must pilot the Aphelion, his space ship through asteroid belts and battle enemy saucers.

Clank must solve time based puzzles and repair the great clock and just the moment when you think you’ve seen it all, something new and wonderful dazzles you.

On top of a game that is super fun to play, Insomniac have written a really entertaining and funny story. Every corner of the game is filled with laughs that compliment the a riveting tale beneath. The cut scenes are supremely executed and well placed in the game and believe me when I say that you will be replaying them over and over again.

Accompanying all this is a perfectly orchestrated soundtrack that brings a sense of adventure to the game and the combination of the two whisked me away in much the same way Star Wars did.

Ratchet and Clank: Crack in Time is a game not to be missed. It will introduce you to weapons that you’ve only ever dreamed of, you will be taken through a world that is absolutely beautiful and feel an immense rush of satisfaction when you complete the imaginatively crafted levels.

You will blow up more robots that you could ever count and witness a true friendship that not even galaxies could break. I for one have fallen in love with Ratchet, the last known living Lombox in the universe.

Ratchet and Clank: Crack in Time On eBay

Ratchet and Clank - A Crack In Time - PS3 game
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Let’s face it; we knew Uncharted 2 was going to happen. The moment we started Naughty Dog’s 2007 hit, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, and given their track record of creating trilogies, it was obvious that a sequel would eventually turn up. And believe us when we say, it did so in a big way!

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune was in many ways a big victory for early adopters of the PS3. In the skillful hands of Naughty Dog they really showed us what the PS3 was capable of in terms of graphics but also successfully recreated the feeling of a summer blockbuster, becoming almost the game equivalent of an Indiana Jones film. In fact, Uncharted bears more than just a passing resemblance to the aforementioned (not to mention the protagonist’s adventure seeking, always-getting-into-trouble personality which could easily find its home there). The game wowed many with its beautifully recreated jungle locations and kept gamers entertained with well scripted sequences and top class voice acting delivered by Nolan North, Emily Rose and Richard McGonagle. It was a short game, but an excellent experience from start to end and became one of the best reasons to own a PS3.

In Uncharted 2: Among Thieves the cast is back to yet again bring you the exploits of our favorite fortune hunter Nathan Drake. This time he’s on the search for the lost treasure of Marco Polo after its doomed voyage from China. Teaming up with two new, but just as eager (and devious, as you will find out) comrades Harry Flynn and Chloe Frazer, they set of to Istanbul to steal an oil lamp that might point them in the direction of Polo’s lost fleet. Their hunt sends them to Borneo and many other exotic locations, encountering his old friend Victor Sullivan (McGonagle) and ex love-interest, Elena Fisher (Rose) along the way. The plot follows Nate’s journey of adventure, deceit, love and almost supernatural dangers in his quest to uncover the mysteries surrounding Marco Polo’s journey and the fabled Chintamani stone.

Players who’ve played the previous game should be familiar with the gameplay of Uncharted 2. Most of the controls have stayed unchanged, save for a few tweaks and improvements. For one, the Sixaxis grenade control from the first game has been turned off by default in favor of an analogue stick aiming. The gunplay mechanics have been tightened up quite a bit, obviously with the newly added multiplayer mode in mind. Most noticeably are the

melee and stealth combat additions. When engaged in close combat, the enemy can now grab Nate, prompting a button press to dodge and counter attack. Nate also has a few new moves up his sleeve, especially with the wealth of new stealth take-downs he can execute. Also, the cover system has been improved, making it easier to get from one point of cover to the next, and also moving around corners while sticking to a wall. It works well in both the singleplayer and multiplayer, and becomes a vital part of surviving, especially when playing the game on Hard and Crushing difficulty levels as well as playing against skilled players. Overall, the controls feel tight and responsive and the context sensitive button presses (helping an ally climb up a ladder, or holding open a stone gate) has been kept simple yet effective.

However, let’s get to the good part: the graphics. As I’ve said before, the original Uncharted set a high bar in terms of what third person games should look like. In our Uncharted 2 beta impressions, I’ve mentioned that the game still looks excellent but it wasn’t until I started playing the singleplayer campaign that I really got to see what Naughty Dog has cooked up. And by golly, the game looks gorgeous!

They’ve really upped the ante with Among Thieves in every way. Everything from the facial animations, to the beautifully realized locations feels real and looks astounding at all times. The combination of Havok driven physics and prescripted events bring the flow of the game’s visuals to life. As soon as a big event ends (imagine shooting your way through a collapsing building) you wish you could go back and see it again just to appreciate how incredible everything looked.

The first game was obviously an excellent platform to start from. It’s clear that every minute of the development time was used to create as much detail in every part of the game to reach an almost creepy level of realism. Each corner of each level is unique and it hardly ever feels like any texture or polygon was reused. At times I had to force myself to stop just and look around at the absolute beauty that served as the setting for this game.

The game totals in at around 10 – 12 hours of playtime and in this time you’ll hardly ever stand still. The pacing is superb, driven either by wonderfully acted and voiced cut scenes, action packed gunfights or tense stealth sections. The only parts that might be considered “filler” are the treasure hunts. The relics and items are sometimes in clear sight and shouldn’t be a problem to find for the careful observer, but a few are quite well hidden, forcing you to look in the most obscure locations. Luckily the treasure hunting is hardly an essential part of the experience but does serve as a good incentive to explore and appreciate your surroundings.

Elena Fisher, last year’s model.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves has captured the spirit of adventure from movies such as Indiana Jones or Pirates of the Caribbean. It’s about the best example of a game trying to do this and it passes with flying colors. Thanks to the excellent writing and wonderfully delivered voice acting you become emotionally invested in each of the characters. In fact it wouldn’t surprise me if a few tears have been shed during one or two of the cut scenes in the later stages of the game. Though, the game’s script has a rather lighthearted tone and some scenes are downright hysterical.

In the end, as the credits roll I felt a feeling I seldom do when completing a book, movie or game: an utter sense of satisfaction and content and it was almost sad to realize that it had to come to an end. There is nothing I’d add or take away from Uncharted 2 yet the game isn’t entirely perfect. One could nitpick that you are sometimes respawned in an unfamiliar place or that Chloe’s eyes are way too shiny but honestly, these rarely remove you from the excellent experience that is Uncharted 2.

This is GOTY material right here. Even without the multiplayer component (which stayed mostly unchanged since the beta), Uncharted 2 has ensured that the series has been cemented into the action-adventure genre and made its mark in game history. For fans of the genre or not, this is a game not to be missed.

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Cell shaded graphics, a strange combination of an FPS and an RPG, online only in the form of co-op, very little hype or publicity, characters with names like ‘Lilith’ and ‘Brick’. All these things seem to point to a game of potential monumental failures. The promises were huge: “It’s like Fallout 3 but with a proper FPS focus”, there are hundreds of thousands of weapons, full 4 player drop-in-drop-out co-op action while retaining everything your character has in any game-play mode.

So Gearbox unleashed their game upon us and we took if for a spin, in one line I can sum up how the game lived up to it’s promises, how well it integrated the FPS and RPG elements and if the thing is simply fun or not:

I stopped playing Uncharted 2 when I started playing Borderlands.

Not many appreciate what cell shading brings to gaming, and many simply hate it preferring the realism that conventional graphics give, especially when dealing with a shooter. I loved it in PoP4, I felt it gave everything a surreal, beautiful and smooth-as-silk look. I was unsure how it would work in a gritty shooter based in a barren wasteland. Well it works pretty damn well; it helps give the wasteland a look that is palatable (unlike Fallout 3’s depressingly monotonous desert of death), the characters still look awesome and enemies look seriously badass. Cell shading also eliminates jaggies so once again everything looks smooth and polished, I was a fan of it’s use in PoP4 and I think it really works well in Borderlands.

The gore factor is still high; limbs get shot off, heads explode, blood sprays just like we like it. It all looks great and the artistic feel of the game is immensely well done. You won’t get tired of the visuals as there is so much variety in the game that you are always looking down a different barrel or through a different type of scope, even thought the enemies may be the same.

In the sound department we get what we have been accustomed to for shooters. The weapons sound great, battle cries, insane comments from baddies, roars, yelps and screams from beasties. Your characters have a set of predefined one-lines they say at appropriate times but it won’t take long to hear all of them. Worse are the NPCs you deal with who only seem to have 2 lines and you’ll hear them very often. When accepting missions etc you will have to read what is required, there is very little real voice acting in the game.

Accompanying the game is a rock-esque soundtrack that tracks the in game action perfectly, adding just the right touch the get the adrenalin pumping in all the right places. When there is no action the music serves to sooth and comfort you along your long journeys across the arid planes of Pandora.

The only real disappointment so far this is the story, missions are very basic and follow a similar formula. Like: go there and kill this guy, or go here and collect some item. Even the story as a whole is a bit thin with the main objective to simply find a vault with tons of stash and alien tech. Fortunately the story plays 2nd fiddle to the gameplay, but in comparison to something like Fallout 3 well, I wouldn’t even feel right comparing them.

Gameplay is where Borderlands will win you over and keep you in for the long haul. The controls are tight, movements are precise and very accurate. The gameplay elements work so well it’s astonishing and the characters are varied enough so that trying each one out becomes a must. Each character has a special power, but more importantly is that each starts off with strong and weak aspects and as you level up you can strengthen weak aspects to a tolerable level or simple take your strong points to new highs and play to that strength.

The weapons are plentiful to say the least, there are a number of base weapon types (Shotgun, Sniper Rifle, SMG, Combat Rifle, Repeater etc), but within each you get a number of weapon characteristics such as damage, accuracy, fire rate, reload speed, zoom, elemental effects (shock, fire etc). They claim that there are over 1.5 million combinations, needless to say as much looting as I have done I haven’t come across the same weapon twice.

Looting is key as it’s the best way to find good weapons and shields as well as grenade upgrades. The RPG elements come into play with levelling, each character has a “skill tree” and with each level gained 1 point is given to spend on your tree. This has to be planned as you will not get enough points to build even half the tree so you need to focus on a path (like building you special power or going for weapon damage increases etc). Along with this is a weapon proficiency progress for each weapon type, the more you kill with a weapon type the better you get at using it, gaining you more damage or faster reload times etc.

In single player mode where possible you’ll start most battles with a sniper rifle and once the action gets up close and personal you’ll switch to your close range weapons and melee attacks. Special abilities should be used as frequently as possible. With accurate shots you can do critical damage and it’s very satisfying to shoot a limb off or simply make a guys head explode, there is no end to the combat and while there is a certain amount of grinding going on you’ll love every second of it.

Online takes Borderlands to a new level, the co-op is simply awesome. You can drop into any game at any time and you fully retain your character, go back to SP and your character retains everything gained from the online game. Comms work extremely well and if you have varied characters playing you can form proper attacking strategies playing off each others strengths. Plus it’s always good to have someone around to heal you when dying, and a ton of fun to drive around with someone manning the gun.

The co-op also ups the difficulty level, so you always have a tough fight on your hands. Sharing loot is the best way to advance the team but if someone isn’t playing nice you can duel them, which is a fun little distraction to the mayhem. Really this is where you should spend most of your time, get a buddy or 2 or 3 and try play through the campaign together.

In concluding I can say that Gearbox has delivered something unique, which is hard to do these days. They have not only given us something different but have made good on the promises and delivered a very fun game to play. The shooting elements are tight with great weapons, the RPG elements are deep, varied and well thought out. The story is a let down and the missions are basic but you won’t care, get online and you might start to forget that MW2 is even coming out. This game will keep you busy and happy for a long time to come.

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If you are a Quintin Tarentino fan. Imagine if Mr. Tarentino directed a game. Imagine Kill Bill Volume 1 was that game. Imagine how awesome that game could be. That in a nutshell, is what WET is like.

You play Rubi Malone. A chick that does not take any grief from anyone, who knows how to shoot and swing her sword with the best of them. Your main mission is to hunt down a wealthy man’s son who has gone awol and return him to his dearest pops. Like any good game. This is easier said and done. You will be spending a lot of time shooting, diving, jumping and running up the side of walls to give yourself an edge over the goons you try to kill.

There are numerous great points to WET. Look at the shooting for example. When you enter into a shootout, one of your guns will automatically target the nearest person while you have free control over the second. The entire game slows down in this period to maximise your chances of getting as many shots in as possible or getting a headshot. This isn’t a cut and dry situation either. The AI has been bumped up to a point where the goons will still try to avoid being killed. It will be easy in the first few levels to hit a headshot, but it does get harder as the game progresses.

Another thing is that this game is not really a run and gun game. Sure you could do that. But you wouldn’t last long. We would recon it’s more a “dive, roll and slide” type of game. Reason being that you will be jumping, diving, rolling and sliding to maximise your shots. The great thing with this is that you have a full 360 degree control of Rubi so you could slide on your knees and take out a goon behind you while looking really cool.

On every stage you will reach a point where you will have the opportunity to complete a challenge. In this section you will be required to take out the goons and build up combo whilst avoid being killed. The goons will continue spawning until you take out a marked item to prevent the goons from spawning anymore. The challenge will continue as long as you like, so if you want to get through the stage and continue the story, you just head straight to the mark and take it out. If you want to try and rake up some high points, you can try and take out as many spawns as possible. We love that you get the option to either take the quick route out or try and build up a high score.

One interesting edition to the game is a feature called Rage. This can only be accessed on certain levels. Rubi literally see’s red. The entire level is then played in a view of Black and Red, except the killed goons who leave a splash of white on the red “canvas”. It takes a big getting used to, but once you get the hang of how everything looks with the dramatic change, it adds another layer to an already impressive game.

Developers these days need to try and maximise the value of a game by adding in as much as possible to try and add more value to their games. What better way to do that than to add little items that you need to collect on each level. Bethesda is a pro at this already as they have done this sort of thing numerous times in some great titles. There are little toy monkeys scattered across each level that you need to try and find. Now, you don’t need to find these to complete the level. This is if you are after the trophy/achievement. We at Curious Onion say bring it on, as we love searching every nook and cranny.

Coming back to Mr. Tarentino. You must be completely puzzled to wonder why we would make such a daft statement. It’s really simple actually. From the camera style which is very “jagged” and following behind the action, through to the look of the game as if it was recorded with an old 8mm film which has been treated to a razor blade. Any person that is a fan of Quintin Tarentino’s movies will know exactly what we mean. Heck even the cut scene’s between completed levels and loading sections like when you in an elevator scream Tarentino.

All in all, Bethesda has made a great game which has a great sense of personality and some really interesting characters. If you a fan of Bethesda (Fallout, Elders Scroll) and Quintin Tarentino (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp fiction, Kill Bill), you will absolutely love WET. It’s a well rounded game with some easy searching for items through to intense battles and challenges which will keep you entertained for quite some time.

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The Dark Knight, the Caped Crusader, the Worlds Greatest Detective are not three people but one best know as Batman. With the recent reboot of Christopher Nolan Batman films it’s not hard to get excited about a Batman games. There have been a slew of great reviews on the game that have pretty much covered every nook and cranny of Arkham Asylum, so instead of “just another review” I’m only going to write about my favorite bits and gadgets of the game.

Nolan’s movies captured the “Batman essence” and I was eager to see if Rocksteady’s Batman incarnation captured the “Batman experience”. Having never played a Batman game I had no frame of reference but with releases like Splinter Cell, Metal Gear Solid 4 and The Chronicles of Riddick, I’d had my fill of sneaky game goodness.

Batman Arkham Asylum delivers an unforgettable, exhilarating and bona fide “Batman experience”. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be the Dark Knight then this is the game for you. It meshes together stealth gameplay with the best one button action I’ve ever seen in a game.The game two foremost forms of combat are hand to hand with unarmed thugs in which the game challenges you to string together your combat moves to form a symphonic splendor as Batman takes down an entire room of thugs. The other form of combat which arguably is the more fun of the two, is the stealth combat. Batman is tasked with incapacitating an entire room of heavily armed psychotic thugs, using the darkness and ominous gargoyles to keep himself concealed as he moves around a room unseen , picking them off one by one in a silent prowl.

What I enjoyed most about the stealth combat is the way it builds tension. Once you’ve managed to subdue one of the thugs, the others notice and become more alert and in turn move difficult to sneak up on. Using Batman’s “detective mode” you are able to see that their heat rates go up after discovering one of their fallen kin. After there are only about 3 thugs left their start calling out to Batman in vane attempts to convince themselves that they are going to take you down.

The story of Arkham Asylum belongs right up there with the Hollywood greats, it’s superbly told and completely believable within the Batman universe. Without giving away too, much the powers that be loose control of Arkham Asylum to the Joker and his goons and Batman is left in the thick of it. The Joker has dastardly plan up his sleeve and though he may be insane, he is not stupid and because if this Batman not only has to muscle his way through Arkham but out think the Joker too. This makes for some cleverly crafted scenes as well as some unexpected plot turns. At no point do you think; “yeah, like that would happen” or “so predictable” if anything, it’s quite the contrary. It’s not very surprising that the story is is so good because it was written by Paul Dini the veteran Batman writer.

Complimenting the story is a solid script and well chosen voice artist crew. The Joker is voiced by non other than Mr Mark Hamill who is better known for his role as Luke Skywalker of the original Starwars trilogy. Kevin Conroy slips in into the Bat-suit once again after voicing the Dark Knight in numerous animated Batman television episodes. The quality of the voice acting trickles right done to the anonymous henchmen and overweight guards that once boasted control of Arkham.

The menus in the game are completely original, they sport a black and white graphic art effect that morphs from the current screen as soon as you hit the start button. Not only are they a pleasure to look at but the are quite appropriate too, given that graphic art gave birth the Caped Crusader.

I appreciated the functionality to skip a cut scenes should you wish to jump right back into the action. This feature really shines on the difficult bits of the game where would it not be available many a gamer would be forced to endure the same scene over and over. Far to few games these days incorporate this.

The games score is simply authentic. It wreaks from top to bottom of Batman and it’s paced on par with the action in the game. This not only heightens the games level of immersion but gets the heart going in just the right way at just the right time. A games sound and score design is a level of art unto its own and Rocksteady have hit this drum in just the perfect way.

Batman Arkham Asylum is a masterpiece that belongs with gamings greats. It has all the right parts, put together in the right way to form the perfect gadget so to speak. Gone are the days of running around the room with a big black cape pretending to own the night, now you can actually experience what its like the be the Dark Knight himself.

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Sturmovik IL-2: Birds of Prey – The Campaign

This, after completing the two obligatory intro missions of Sturmovik IL-2: Birds of Prey, will probably be everyones first port of call and includes various theatres of War ranging from the Battle of Britain scenery of the English coastline to the final Battle for Berlin. In between these two staples of WWII gaming there is a most refreshing visit to the skies of Sicily – I say refreshing because (for obvious reasons) it’s not often that the Italians get featured in a WWII game and their fighters are quite different to most of the others featured in Sturmovik IL-2: Birds of Prey in that they are irritatingly fast and the cammo blends in with the ground (No, they don’t fly backwards and yes, they do shoot back). 

Most of the missions in Sturmovik IL-2: Birds of Prey are simply of the ‘fly there, shoot planes down, fly to waypoint/land’ variety – so nothing groundbreaking there. Some are considerably more challenging to finish than others (I’m thinking of the ones where you have to land in a field to rescue a downed pilot and the ‘shoot waves of German transport planes down before they discharge their cargo of paratroopers over the Russian front’ ones).

Completing campaign missions unlocks new planes (for use online and in training missions) and, less usefully, Pilot Bio’s and tips for conducting aerial maneuvers – Unfortunately there seems to be no way of telling how the scoring system works in Sturmovik IL-2: Birds of Prey or if you could have unlocked an even better plane had you bombed every single target and shot down every last plane on a given map.

Once Sturmovik IL-2: Birds of Prey’s campaign missions are under your belt (these also unlock new ‘Single Missions’) the next stop seems to be Single Missions and there are LOADS of these.. These are simply standalone missions with set objectives and first impressions seem to suggest that these provide a path to yet more unlockable planes, encyclopedia entries and load-outs.

Sturmovik IL-2: Birds of Prey – Multiplayer

Regrettably, the lobby system in Sturmovik IL-2: Birds of Prey is lacking some desirable features, such as the ability to set up a friends-only game or the ability to support clan matches (D’oh!). You can invite your friends to play, and this works well, just as long as there isn’t a posse of randoms looking for a game as well (a bit like BF1943) since it’s on a first-come, first-served basis.

The online experience itself is very pleasant (aside from crash-bandits depriving one of a hard earned kill), it’s nowhere near as fast n’ furious as, say, Warhawk is, in smaller (4 player) games – although I would imagine that in a full, 16 player game, things could get a bit hectic. The framerate is acceptably smooth and the gorgeous graphics from the SP game are still present and very much correct.

Summary of Sturmovik IL-2: Birds of Prey

It’s not going to be a game that everyone likes, especially those looking for quick thrills. It will require patience and a degree of dedication to master the subtleties (think of it being a bit like Gran Tourismo insofar you couldn’t just hop into a fully spec’d Skyline without having an odd crash somewhere).

That it is, at heart, a PC sim, is rather clear thanks to the lack of console friendly gimmicks and whether Heroes over Europe will be more ‘fun’ remains to be seen – but if you like the challenge of flying and have a fetish for WWII planes this is a must-have, even if it’s not as immediately gratifying as some of the latest generation of games that one has become used to. (I always had a soft spot for flight sims back in the Amiga 500 days and didn’t care about stuff like ‘story’ or ‘accessibility’ back then).

For some, the up-close-and personal nature of this game (no lock-on AA missiles available), combined with the nostalgic feel of Propeller-driven aircraft (with a couple of German Jets thrown in for good measure), this game will be a rare treat, if you are such a person, tag an extra couple of points onto my score (I do)

7/10 (I’d have given it an eight if the lobby system was better)

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As I cling to my blood drenched sword, my body feels nearly battered to death by the raging giant’s weapon. I exit the great hall, my slain enemy behind me, to the sudden brightness of the day. I squint while my eyes adjust themselves and wipe the sweat off my brow, gazing up at the clouds. Taking a deep breath, I nearly choke as my eyes focuses on my next challenge: an enormous flying manta-like beast flies towards me like dark clouds of an incoming tempest. “Storm King” I murmur to myself as I lift my shield, grip my sword and run towards my impending doom.

Demon’s Souls is action-RPG developed by From Software (best known for the Tenchu and Armored Core series) and released for the PS3 in Japan and other Asian countries exclusively for the PS3. Said to be the spiritual successor to the King’s Field games it shares many aspects of many Western, dark fantasy RPGs with more than a touch of Japanese-style hardcoreness thrown in.

Players create and customize their character, choosing from a variety of faces, haircuts and other characteristics as well as one of the ten character classes. These character classes only define your starting stats and equipment and do not necessarily define your character in the long run.

Soon you are thrown in a trench close by Boletaria Palace, the game’s central area, and equipped with only a few items you set off to hack your way through the first set of enemies. A quick tutorial will introduce you to some of the game’s basic mechanics and sends you on your way. Your first boss encounter (roughly around 15 minutes into the game) will quickly end your tutorial with a slow but hard swipe, killing you off and sending you to the Nexus, the game’s hub town. As of now you’ll also be in soul body form with only half of your available HP, which can luckily be increased somewhat by a ring you get quite early on in the game. Until you manage to revive yourself by defeating a boss or using a Stone of Ephemeral Eyes you’ll remain in soul body form, and for most players, play like this through the majority of the game.

The Nexus, a place located somewhere under Boletaria Palace, is where you’ll spend a lot of your time and hard earned souls gathered throughout the game. Along with you in the Nexus are some NPCs from Boleraria from which you can buy, repair and store equipment, buy health and misc items as well as learn new spells and miracles. Talking to the maiden in black allows you to use some gathered souls to level up and increase your soul level (Demon’s Souls version of the player level). You can only increase one stat at a time and following upgrades will also cost more souls. These initial NPC’s won’t be the only ones you interact with as you’ll meet a variety of characters throughout the course of the game.

After exploring the Nexus a bit you can enter one of the game’s five areas, the ruins of Boletaria Palace, the mines of Stonefang Tunnel, the prisons of the Tower of Latria, the cliff-side ruins of the Shrine of Storms, and the treacherous chasms and swamps of the Valley of Defilement. There is a specific order to them and jumping into the Shrine of Storms as a low-level player will get you killed sooner than you expect.

By now you should have a basic idea of what Demon’s Souls is about. You’ll be impressed by the game’s realistic yet fluid swordplay mechanics and wowed by the sense of scale and desolation of the environments and you’ll foolishly venture into the first area in search of fame and glory, dreaming of riches beyond the castle walls of Boletaria. And then you’ll die…

Shortly after you enter your first area you’ll realize that this is far from your average dungeon crawler. Death comes swift and often, especially but not exclusively to the new player.

The enemies, while not always the cleverest, are placed in devious positions waiting to ambush you at every corner. Once they’ve exposed themselves then you have to deal with them quickly to prevent yourself from getting surrounded. Each enemy also has a variety of different attacks and learning these attack patterns become vital, especially when facing their harder versions. Talking about enemies, there’s enough variety in DS to keep you on your toes. Anything from your speared soldier to knights, skeletons and hell hounds as well as a few dragons, burning up bridges and walkways as you try to cross them.

Weapons also react in a realistic way. If you sword, spear or other weapon hits a wall, shield or some enemy’s plate it’ll realistically bounce off. Typical of RPGs, bigger weapons will require higher stats. You can still equip a weapon without the needed stats but usage will be severely limited when you do and will most likely get you killed.

On paper, Demon’s Souls doesn’t sound entirely original. Most of its design is very derivative of modern and old school RPGs and hack-n-slashers, I’d say most notably from games such as Blizzard’s Diablo and even Severance: Blade of Darkness (an ancient PC dungeon crawler for those who remember). However, there is a strong focus on one thing, making the player feel almost helpless. Each checkpoint you have to earn by slaying a boss, each soul earned is lost when you die (unless you manage to retrieve it on your following run) and along with degrading equipment, you have a heck of a task in front of you. However, careful preparation is the key and having just the right amount of arrows in your quiver might mean the difference between life and redoing the whole level.

When these aspects come together you’ll start to understand why this is such a unique experience. Demon’s Souls puts back the urgency and sense of panic in games which have been all but lost in Western game design. Seeing a boss for the first time really makes your palms sweat as you know that if you die here, you’ll most likely have to redo the biggest part of the level. Many a time I’ve had the boss in my sight, just to turn around as I decide that I’m just not ready for him yet. However, successfully taking down each boss gives you an immense feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment.

Much of the game feels shrouded in mystery as there are many features and mechanics which are still being discovered, especially with regards to its online play. Hooking up with a friend for some co-op isn’t as straight forward as it sounds, or as many would like. One player has to be alive while the other in soul body form. The soul player needs to drop a blue soul stone which will create a beacon in the living player’s game. If the living player chooses to accept him, the soul player will be summoned into his game. Players also have the ability to invade another player’s game, spawning as a black phantom in the invaded player’s game, but dying results in a heavy penalty as he’ll lose a soul level as well as all souls earned. Believe me when I say you will start checking around each an every corner and down every staircase much more carefully after you receive “BLACK PHANTOM ____ HAS INVADED YOUR GAME” message! There’s also a particular boss where another player gets transported out of his game into yours to serve as the game’s boss!

Each of the five areas has a distinct theme but the sense of scale and desolation is prevalent in all. The absence of music also adds to the atmosphere of isolation and loneliness. You’re in this alone, and the only way forward is straight ahead.

It all seems very intimidating but it is very possible to beat the game. Prevailing players will soon learn the game’s little secrets, tactics as well as a few tricks that’ll help them along the way. Then there are also a host of forums and guides that’ll also help you tackle some tricky areas and bosses. Some levels can be brutally difficult but there’ll always be an easier way to get through it.

A single playthrough will clock in at about 40 hours and upon beating the game you’ll unlock New Game + which is the same game with an increased difficulty. This’ll also give you a chance to try out some of the game’s better equipment and spells.

Throughout my playthrough I had a love/hate relationship with Demon’s Souls. The difficulty can be soul destroying and can feel very unfair at times. The atmosphere and sense of excitement and fear you get from it though is unlike any other game and is the reason why you should lay down your denero for this game.

Overall I enjoyed the biggest part of Demon’s Souls immensely. It’s deep, mysterious and engrossing and will not let you go until you’ve “lulled the Old One to sleep” and see the end credits roll. If you have a slight tolerance for pain you’ll find a very rewarding experience in Demon’s Souls and an experience even worth reliving a 2^nd and 3^rdtime.

Demon’s Souls was released on February 5th in Japan and Asian countries and will be released on the 5th of October in North America. No European released date has been announced yet.

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Cricket fanatics such as myself are a strange bunch; you have to be to love watching a sport that can take 5 days to result in a draw and then come away thinking: “what a match!”. Unfortunately as a gamer we cricket lovers have not had much to shout about, the games are often bug-riddled messes with poor graphics, terrible commentary, shoddy animations and worse! Yet there are games we have loved, mostly from the Brian Lara series made by Codemasters, and from that stable we get the latest offering and the first on the next-gen consoles.

There are 2 major hurdles for cricket based games:

1. Not enough time goes into them because Cricket games have a small market.
2. It has proven to be impossible to turn cricket the sport into cricket the game and retain the essence of the sport.

Well right away it’s pleasing to see a cricket game that looks pretty decent, the interface is neat and looks good. You can change the theme to suit the country you support. Grounds look great, the fields too. Players look solid enough but nothing resembling their real life counterparts. It’s no match for the top class games out there but for a cricket game it’s rather impressive.

Animations is where I felt let down, cricketers love seeing good cricket shots and the techniques used in the game almost seem like a step backwards, this is especially true in the bowling animations. The catching animations however are very good. There is a player creator feature but it’s very limited, if you have ever used EA’s gameface creator you will find this laughably simple and short of options.

Ho hum, not really sure what kind of soundtrack anyone can expect from a cricket game but sitting here I can honestly not recall any kind of soundtrack, so even if there was one it left no impression at all. As for the in-game action sounds well there’s really not much to put in a cricket game, as long as you have willow on leather sounding good and the ball striking the wickets then you’re pretty much done, this game has both and some ambient crowd noises with cheering when something happens.

Every cricket game since the dawn of gaming has suffered from atrocious commentary, and Ashes 2009 is only slightly better than the rest, they have tried I will give them that, they have Beefy, Warne, Holding, Grieg and others trying to relay the action and periodically throw in some insight into the sport but it all gets very stale very quickly.

AS for the Story, erm, it’s a sports title so no story here. If I have to throw something in, well, the Ashes have a very long and proud history but it’s a rivalry between only England and Australia. It’s the game’s focal point but there’s nothing making you play the Ashes at all.

Gameplay is the most vital pat of any cricket game, like the sport you can only have a good game when there is a balance between bat and ball, unfortunately in all cricket games batting is ridiculously easy and bowling is insanely tedious. Although the bowling in this title is the best I’ve seen it’s still very tedious. Against the AI opponents you are constantly looking for the “gimmick” ball that will always take a wicket, on the batting side scoring at 20-30 an over is no problem. This leads to test matches lasting 1 day and ODIs that are 10 overs reaching scores of 300.

The problem is that if they did balance it then games would literally take 5 days to play, or ODIs taking 8 hours per game. It’s a problem that has never been solved and I feel one that won’t be solved. And herein lies the biggest problem and why Cricket has never translated well into a video game.

So what about Ashes 2009? Well the bowling side has many options per bowler type and skill, you can set fields and create a plan but for the most part it still ends up being boring, on easy you’ll find the gimmick ball, on normal you’ll just bowl until boredom leads you to the simulate option or until you eventually get them all out knowing whatever score they get you’ll get in a tenth of the overs. My big gripe with the bowling; when Steyn rips a 150kph Yorker into middle I expect the stump to fly out the ground, not just get gently pushed back in exactly the same manner that Murali’s 90kph ball did.

Batting is fun, shot selection and execution with the sticks and timing is excellent. It’s great that you can choose between front and back foot shots and you can run down the wicket but for some reason they made this option by holding down both L1 and L2 while needing to use the Left stick, which is really awkward. Batting is still too easy and unbalanced, and somehow hitting sixes in this game isn’t as much fun as in the previous games.

Ground fielding is terrible as always, no diving on the boundary, no misfields, dodgy animations and it all seems completely soulless. But that is contrasted by a catching system that to me is absolutely prefect, making you take the catch based on a timing mini-game it not only involves you in the process but it caries huge importance because dropping the catch means more time for you to do the tedious bowling, When a catch comes your way it’s influenced by the ball’s trajectory, where you are fielding and how hard the ball was hit, under a high ball you get nervous, at slip there is no time to get nervous, it’s brilliant!

Another nice feature is the points you can gain to improve players, for every 2 catches taken, 15 boundaries, 25 perfectly timed shots, etc. You gain a point to add to that players skill. You can create a custom player and give him skills with a set amount of points, but it’s kind of pointless.

I say this in the hope that somewhere out there a developer will hear me:

CRICKETERS LOVE STATISTICS, we want to know exactly how man balls a player has faced, how many runs, against who, strike rates, run rates, everything. If Warhawk can track every bullet fired from every weapon and what it hit then these devs should have no problem tracking stats in cricket games and I find it shocking that even now there is no decent stat tracking happening in these games.

As boring as the SP can be after a while, the MP just turns that all completely on it’s head. Suddenly there is meaning to every delivery, every dot ball is relief, every wicket is cheered and there is no gimmick ball. Batting is suddenly a challenge and boundaries are worth gold, and the catching becomes even better because you know when your opponent drops one he only has himself to blame and this brings much laughter from you.

My first game was against some Aussie, and playing as SA I could feel the tension before we even started, batting first I was shocked at how hard it was to bat, even after running myself out twice (and knowing he was laughing at me) I managed 93/7 off 10 overs. Not knowing what was a good score I began by taking a wicket with my first ball and I’m not ashamed to say I jumped up and gave a number of fist pumps as I shouted “take that Aussie scum!!”, needless to say the Proteas whipped the Aussies by 30 runs. It was fantastic.

It’s the best cricket game made so far, but it still has 90% of the same problems every cricket game has. The production values are much higher than before; I didn’t experience a single bug. The SP will get old quickly but the online is brilliant. The lack of proper stat tracking is a tragedy and cannot be excused. Catching is a masterclass, bowling is still tedious and boring, batting is still completely unbalanced.

If you love cricket, well, there is literally nothing else out there so go get it. If you’re not a cricket lover then you’ll be disappointed because it cannot match up to bigger sports games like Fifa.

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Hogwarts sounds like a fun and very interesting place. Lots of action has taken place over the years with tones of magic being put to use all over the place, it just sounds great.  With the Nintendo Wii and the new Hatty Potter game I feel like I could actually be at Hogwarts?

The Nintendo Wii is not my main console. I am usually on my Playstation 3 with my Dualshock 3 controller. So the good thing about this, I don’t really need to learn any new controls, since the Wii remote and Nunchuk is all motion based. I see a lot of advantage for Harry Potter on the Wii due to the fact most things on Harry Potter is magic, so you have your wand on the game but it also feels like you have a wand outside of the game to. So for example when creating a potion I feel like I am creating a potion due to turning my Wii remote like a wooden spoon. This is exciting because it feels like you are taking part. The last timeI have played a Harry Potter game, it just did not feel the same as I was pressing buttons to make the potion.

Not seeing the latest Harry Potter movie I started with the game. You begin with some training. This gets you used to the controls and how to cast spells etc. So you start off testing your flying, this is pretty easy to get the hang of. You turn your Wii remote left to go left and your Wii remote right to go right, the flying is done for you. The main point of flying of course is Quidditch which I will talk about later. The next thing you are asked to do is clear some cauldrons from Ron Weasley’s garden before his mum gets back. So you select the one of the cauldrons by moving your Wii remote over the cauldron and pressing A which selects the cauldron, you then flick your Wii remote down and then up to cast Wingardium Leviosa, this makes the cauldron float in mid air you then need to throw it into the lake by moving your stick on the Nunchuk controller and flick the Wii remote to throw it. This is a good little practise session, gets you use to the controllers of casting a spell and controlling items in the air.

Throughout the game there are 150 Hogwarts Crests to collect; these are everywhere, some in tricky places and some in easy places. If you want a challenge I am sure you have one here to find them all. These crests give you rewards when you after you collect a few of them, for example after you collect 3 you get “Two player duelling pack 1”. So the more you collect the better the rewards get. There are also mini-crests hiding in glowing circle objects. So lights etc. Once you collect enough mini-crests, you gain a Hogwarts Crest. Other little rewards you get during the game are badges. You can earn them by doing things like First potion etc.

During most games, I get lost or just need a helping hand for a puzzle for example. Well in Harry Potter if you press – you get help from Nearly Headless Nick. This is your map for the game, at anytime you need to know where anything is or just need some help; Nick will show you the way to go. This is handy for solving puzzles during the game which can be tricky at times. I used Nick the most to show me which way to go, like to the Potions club for example.

One of the main things I was looking forward to trying out on this game was the potion making. I went to a potions lesson and you jump straight into it. You have your ingredients on the table with you, your cauldron pot and yourself. Down the right hand side it shows you what next ingredient you need and how much time you have left. If you successfully get the right amount of ingredients you have been asked to put in, your timer will go up. If you put too much in it will smoke out the area which you then have to shake your Nunchuk stick to clear the smoke. So you have to be careful. Once you have selected you ingredient you lift it up and pour it into the cauldron, just like you would if doing it in real life. This was the bit I found exciting as you are controlling that flow of potion coming down, need it to slow down well then just lift up your hand a tiny bit. Once the potion has been made you then get graded on how you had done. You get a chart with how many goods you got how many greats. It then totals it up and you can see how you done. You can then go around Hogwarts and look at notice boards in the Potions club and learn new Potions and try them out.

During the game you join the duelling club; I was excited about this but in the end I just got fed up with it. I found it to repetitive so I just found myself throwing the same spell over and over again, I just found myself saying next. It was a bit of a challenge but not enough to stop me in my tracks. I had other moves to use which I did now and then, but I just used pretty much the default move throughout every duelling match.

Duelling works like this, you have opponent who is challenging you. This can be from another house or the same one as you, the objective is to win the duel which I had really no problem doing. You also have dark lords to fight with duelling and when running to the next mission you can sometimes be stopped by a student saying let us duel, but I found this to be very rare. Just like the potions notice board, duelling also has one of these so if you fancy a challenge with another house member, you can go to these notice boards. During the game you also get to upgrade to new moves for example, one I unlocked during my play through was “Levicorpus” this makes the opponent float in the air for a few seconds and I have a chance to attack them as much as I like. I used this about 3 times during the game.

Quidditch is obviously a big part of Harry Potter and I was looking forward to trying it out. It is very easy to use with it being fun in parts and then quite boring in other parts. The objective is to catch the snitch; the way you do this is by using your Wii remote. You turn left for left and right for right, the rest of the flying is done for you. It is like the duelling problem again, I never really failed it just seemed a bit too easy.  You have to fly through stars that have a time limit on them. When they are green they are fine, if they are red you need pass through them to build time. You know when you are behind the time limit as your screen goes dark and you hear a heart beat sound.

“The cut-scenes are interesting and look good”

The loading time in this game, I found to be very good. You have a long but not too long load at the start but then it is pretty much stream less from then on. The only time I would notice that the game was loading was when it went to a cut scene or through a portrait on the stairs.

Harry Potter was graphically good for the Wii. I was rather shocked, I thought I was going to be in for a laugh but they have done a great job. Even if the graphics were bad I am more a game play person, so I would not have minded about this. The characters faces looked good, I noticed a bit of lip-syncing not going on now and then but it was not something that stopped me playing the game. The game play is good, it felt a bit odd now and then but I am not sure if that was I being a novice to the Wii or the game itself. One of the problems I did find was when you hold Z to sprint then turn to go through a door; I usually had to stop completely then walk through the door and continue running. I see this as a small issue not a big problem. I found controlling the wand easy, now and then, it picked up the wrong spell but it was not very often.

When starting Harry Potter I thought I would only be controlling Harry, well I was wrong, as I had to control two other characters through the game to which I thought was a nice touch to the game. I found the game quite short, well the story as you could go around the hole of Hogwarts and find the crests in the game. This would keep you busy for some time. During the story, it goes from day to night, which could be a pain when trying to find the crests. Once you have completed the story mode you unlock an all day mode so you can continue searching in the day for your crests.

Overall, I found Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince a better game than I thought it was going to be. If you like Harry Potter or just like using the motion side of games for the Wii then you will like this game. I like the fact most of the stuff in Harry Potter is motion based, so you feel like you are controlling that character, this works well for the game and the Wii.

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Spiderman 2 and GoldenEye are the exceptions when I cast my eye across the catalogue of movie based video games. Throughout the year we’re bombarded with adaptations from the silver screen and more often than not left with a bitter taste in our mouth. Yet despite the luke-warm reception these titles garner, they’re still released regularly so it’s only natural for an inkling of hope that we may yet enjoy a decent movie game. Alas, it seems as though it won’t be happening any time soon.

Brought to us by Grin (the folks who also brought us Wanted: Weapons of Fate), Terminator Salvation has hit all major consoles, ready for the masses to take the T-600’s head on whilst assuming the role as John Connor. However, unlike the film you won’t be a reincarnation of the short-fused Christian Bale and as far as I’m aware, the storyline isn’t that of the films either. I could be wrong, but after the blasphemous Terminator 3, I promised myself never to watch another “sequel”.

The game is broken into seven or eight incredibly short missions all with three alternate difficulties and the ability to play in split-screen co-operative. Whilst the addition is nice, the frame-rate felt a little choppy and trying to make neither heads nor tails of what was going on was a bit of a struggle. Starting the campaign you’re thrown into battle with the objective to reach a drop-zone whilst avoiding the regular barrage of enemy fire and making haste away from your first confrontation with the famed T-600. You’ll soon come to realise the structure of the gameplay within a short amount of time though.

If you’re not in a face-off against a handful of the four different enemies, you’re running to a face-off. The only time you get to experience any other diverse play is during the on-rails driving sections, where you mount up and once more, shoot the evil conniving robots but these instances only happen three or four times throughout the entire campaign, which is a real shame because it’s probably the strongest part of the game.

The graphics are surprisingly good for this flavour of game and hold up well throughout. They certainly don’t put the likes of Uncharted: Drakes Fortune to shame but with a few diverse locations, some well planned (but insultingly linear) levels and a fair amount of details on the enemies and civilians you won’t be too let down. You will be pleased to hear the cult theme tune crop up on occasion to help you ease into the roll and for the most part, you do feel fairly immersed. Yet, after a fair dose of repetition, lack of diversity and a campaign that will last no longer than five hours, you can feel fairly out of pocket. There’s no reason to play through the game again (unless you’re a die hard fan of the Terminator universe) so give the game a rent. It’s not the worst game you’ll ever play, but it may well be the shortest.

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