Mafia 2 is the successor to the brilliant Mafia which was released in 2002 on the PC. It has finally released, amidst a controversy regarding racial issues surrounding it. 2k Czech, the developers, have shown a lot of promise with Mafia 2 which was apparently in development for 6 years but does the game manage to live up to the standards set by its glorious predecessor which carved an identity for itself, separating it from the swashbuckling GTA series?

The game puts you in the shoes of Vito Scaletta, as you are given a dose of the action pretty early  in the game, Brothers in Arms style. It was a memorable moment for me right at the start of the game and along with graphics that exceed that of many games out there, it managed to grab my attention right from the get go. 2k Czech deserves a round of applause for this work. After the “special” mission concludes, you are back in America to reunite with your family. You soon realize that life as an immigrant is not easy.

It is snowing heavily, as you get off a car and go meet your family, awestruck by the gorgeous graphics and a city that feels alive. Mafia 2 managed to capture my heart at that very instant. Debts, problems and dreaming of a costly life style are common in many mob stories and it isn’t any different here.  Mafia 2 tells a story about Vito’s rise from rags to riches along with his loudmouth but honest friend Joe.  Empire city is so gorgeous that it sucks you into its world; the attention to detail is second to none. I keep mentioning this because it’s one of the main highlights of the game.

The main drawback of 2k Czech’s Empire city is that there isn’t much to do apart from the story missions, you keep driving around and hitting other cars, dodging cops because it takes time to get used to the handling of the vehicles. A free ride mode option would have been good as driving at night while snowing is just a feast for the eyes. Lack of that option is certainly difficult to comprehend. There are a total of 15 chapters, wonderfully told and the story advances pretty well along with brilliant cutscenes and voice acting. Working for Mob bosses doing menial jobs is common as the game picks up around chapter 5. As you play along you will find out that the the prison chapter was one of highlights of 2010.

The PC version offers the best graphical fidelity and is pretty cheap in India (499); it’s a complete steal at that price. Although I mentioned earlier that the game was in development for 6 years, the level of detail is surprising.I would have loved some side missions or opportunities to earn money ( apart from selling cars or robbing shops ) which is way too much generic and boring. You keep driving around completing one chapter after the other with no respite in-between.

The weapons are brilliant and pack a punch although it is disappointing that you can’t shoot while driving yourself ( although the A.I can ).  The weapon choices are the usual standard pistols, shotguns and the gun which all Mafia fans will remember, The Thompson or the “Tommy Gun“. Although, there’s a fair variety of  ”hardware” at your disposal, the only ones you will be using most of the time,  are the shotgun and the Tommy Gun, along with your trusty pistol.

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If you are an RTS fan, then you probably have your calendar booked for the next couple of years, courtesy of Starcraft II’s release. R.U.S.E might have slipped under the radar for most people (including me), thanks to Ubisoft’s nonexistent promotion.  (Hell, I didn’t even know the game was releasing this month till I was asked to review it). Eugen Systems, the minds behind the critically acclaimed Act of War aims to reinvent the genre with the introduction of a Ruse system that encourages players to think differently and employ deceptive skills to win over the opponent. The concept isn’t new but an entire game built around it is. Is it worthy of a break from Starcraft II or are we the ones being deceived?

Story

If you didn’t already know, R.U.S.E’s campaign is set in the World War II era. But that’s all there is to it. Rather than letting you live out key scenarios in the historical battle, R.U.S.E follows a fictional story and tells the tale of General Sheridan. The prologue mission sees Sheridan rescuing an agent held captive in a castle who happens to know the identity of a certain spy known as Promotheus that you are after. What follows afterwards are the events that led to that moment; from Sheridan’s early days as a tank commander to the moment he became General.

The plot is too predictable and cliché filled to keep you engaged and comes off as nothing but an excuse to push you forward. And most players can see the plot twist coming miles away, from the very first few missions. Most scenarios in the campaign only serve the purpose of introducing new ruses. For a game set in the World War II era, it really doesn’t feel like one most of the time, as the game mostly focuses on fictional scenarios which are nowhere as engaging as some of the key battles.

If you were hoping to relive the chaos and slaughter fest of Stalingrad then you will be disappointed as the game doesn’t feature a Russian campaign. You get to hear the name Hitler only once throughout the entire campaign and that itself will explain the rest.

Design and Gameplay

The first thing you will notice when you launch the game is the ridiculous size of the map and the lack of “fog of war”. The new Iris zoom engine lets players view the battlefield in any way they want. A zoomed out view represents units as circular icons, small icons represent infantry while larger ones represent armour.  And the zoomed in view lets you view the battle from any desired angle. The lack of fog of war adds another element to gameplay. You will be always be able to see your opponent’s troops and buildings and can also track down their movement.

R.U.S.E‘s main highlight is… well, the ruses. Ruses are basically your power cards that give you a special ability which you can activate over a sector of the map. This is what the game is all about. There are ten Ruses in total and they range from spy agents to radio silencers and decoy units. Ruse is not a game where the larger army wins nor is it one where the more strategic player command victory. It’s about deceiving your opponent and the game provides plenty of ways for you to exercise your will.  You can lure the enemy to a decoy base while you destroy their supply line or you can use decoy units to attack a base head on while your entire army can attack from the rear under radio silence. The possibilities are endless and each ruse serves more than the intended purpose.

For example, your blitz ruse increases the movement of all friendly units by 50% but when used in sectors with supply depots it also increases resource gathering by 50%. Only two Ruses can be applied at a time in sector and are of course, active only for a limited period of time. The Ruses, you are constantly replenished with and you won’t find the need to preserve them in most occasions. Other Ruses can inspire your soldiers to fight till death or instil fear into your enemy troops. Jumping right into an instant battle will lead you nowhere; you will need to play the campaign to get acquainted with each of the Ruses.

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Kane and Lynch 2 : Dog Days is finally here, bringing back all the elements that made the first game fun. It’s not a big task to step on the shoes of its predecessor considering Kane and Lynch : Dead Men was quite a flawed game, showing  occasional glimpses of excellence. Its been exactly 2 years since the first game came out, IO interactive had plenty of time to improve and fix all the flaws that made Kane and Lynch Dead Men meet with average critical success. Do they succeed in doing that and providing a splendid experience to the gamers? Gamersmint finds out.

Dog Days follows the story of well… Kane and Lynch ( who else would it follow?), who are both incompatible personalities with one thing in common, that is to create havoc and mess up things. The setting is Shanghai this time, which shows Lynch trying to settle down with his Girlfriend Xiu. He undertakes a Job for Glazier calling Kane for aid and everything goes wrong as they are trapped in a hostile environment with their chances of survival looking bleak. An accidental death proves too costly for the duo as the Shanghai mobs prey for their blood. The game puts you in control of Lynch as you blaze through the cramped yet varied environments of Shanghai.

There have been notable visual changes to Dog Days, which you should notice as soon as you start playing the game.It feels like a live recording with the camera shaking as if someone is capturing the action as you play along. It takes a while to get used to it, as it felt a bit disorienting at the beginning, that coupled with full screen effects like lens flare and a matching color palette resulted in some pretty unique visuals. It can be disabled in the PC version although it’s not recommended since the game looks pretty generic if you do. What impressed me most was the variety of environments you get to witness in the game even though the main setting was Shanghai.

With neat touches like buffering during the loading screens between levels and the presence of a censorship system where unpleasant things get pixilated, it was crystal clear what the director wanted to convey in Kane and Lynch 2 : Dog Days. The tech behind the game is nothing special but it’s the look and feel of the game that vastly separates it from its predecessor. The thing I found so impressive was the impeccable detailing on the character models, with cuts and blood easily visible on their bodies, speaking of cuts, it has to be noted that the game is incredibly violent. In fact in a certain level in the game, I halted a bit to gather my wits around as to what’s actually going on. It left a powerful impression as to what the developers had pulled off here, as well as left me feeling bad for our protagonists. That level was one of the highlights of the game and at the same time, incredibly disgusting or hilarious depending on the person playing it.

It is not recommended to play the single player solo as the presence of a CO OP mode really increases the experience a lot. The game has a total of 11 levels which is less than what Dead Men had on offer; the main drawback of the game is that it can be finished in under 5 hours on normal difficulty. Now this is highly disappointing, seeing how fast the game ended as I was certainly expecting more levels in the game. As I mentioned earlier the Co Op mode increased the immersion level and fun factor a lot as you can fool around with your friend or experiment stuff, which makes you more involved with the things happening around you.

There are a variety of gameplay mechanics like throwing gas canisters, grabbing people as a meat shield for cover along with the option of throwing or executing the poor soul. I had troubles with the cover system when I previewed the game but it’s not a big nuisance this time around in the review code, mainly due to the fact that I got used to it, mainly because it features standard cover mechanics like every other game with a cover system out there. Talking about weapons, there are a variety of guns at your disposal likes shotguns and pistols which pack quite a punch and are highly satisfying to use, plus the odd missions where you can use a LMG with unlimited ammo destroying choppers and the glass windows in the building as you fly around Shanghai in a helicopter raising hell around you. Sometimes it was fun but mostly it felt a bit underwhelming as there were lack of enough memorable levels which makes a game stand out and tempts you to play it again. The voicing acting was brilliant throughout the game as expected, that and the brilliantly  formed dialogues which elicited a chuckle or two. Coming to the A.I, it lives up to its name…i.e artificial and is very poor as it requires very less effort to kill enemies, all they do is, occasionally hide behind cover and that’s about it.

Kane and Lynch 2 Dog Days is a depressing game and given the situation both of them find themselves in, there’s not much you can do but shoot your way out and try to escape Shanghai. The music is pretty decent but it could have been much better. Although it has a short single player campaign, the co-op mode really made it shine.  The game showed tons of quality and promise early on and I really enjoyed playing those levels, but near the end the story just falls apart. It has one of the most unfinished and horrible endings seen in the history of videogames.  Which certainly left a sour taste in my mouth. Although everything can be forgiven due to the Co Op mode which instills a great amount of fun and which rightly so,  since I don’t see myself playing the campaign solo more than 2 times.

Coming to bugs and glitches, the game did crash a few times when quitting an online MP mode but overall there aren’t any major game breaking bugs this time around. Could Kane and Lynch 2 have benefited from an extra year of dev time? Considering there were less missions than the first game and a short campaign, this definitely feels like a rushed out game although it does have more content than most of the new games out there.

Before you jump online, it’s recommended that you play Arcade mode to polish your killing and betrayal skills. It’s an offline mode that lets you play against bots, the objective is to steal money and escape along with your teammates. It becomes tough to escape after each round and it gives you enough practice to play online which is much more complicated. There are 3 online modes namely Cops & Robbers, Fragile Alliance and Undercover Cop. I had a lot of fun playing undercover cop, basically the game randomly chooses one of the four guys as an undercover cop, the cop isn’t supposed to kill his teammates before the crime has been completed, and the other players have to be really careful and need to be wary of their teammates. I had tons of fun playing this mode and it’s a blast. Guaranteed.

Fragile alliance is another fun mode where you need to steal 4 million dollars in 4 minutes  and escape, avoiding the cops; if you die you get respawned as a cop and have to stop the gang from escaping with the cash.  People might get a bit greedy and put a bullet in your head although if you see some one else do that you do get a reward for killing the traitor. It’s a very fun mode and I can see this becoming a huge hit online. The last mode, Cops and Robbers is a pretty straightforward mode as well and overall the multiplayer is fun and good enough to last a few months post-release.

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The first thing you need to know is that Demon’s Souls is hard and not for everyone, infact you might not have played anything like this since this gen started. It is the very definition of an old school hardcore Action/Rpg game. But don’t hold that against it as that doesn’t mean its unfair or unplayable, actually it’s quite the opposite. If you die, it isn’t the game’s fault but yours. Since, I have got that out of the way, let’s begin.

Demon’s Souls is an unique RPG developed by From software/Japan studio which was released in 2009 in Japan and later in NA due to heavy demand. We reviewed the game using the Black Phantom Edition which released in EU a few weeks back. Whenever people talk about this game you always hear them asking a few questions, is it hard? Is it worth buying? Will I get my ass handed to me? Well, yes and no. It is hard; you will get your ass kicked but is it worth buying? That’s what this review is for.

As you start playing the game, you will get to choose the character, class, etc as seen in most RPGs. Once you have created your character, the tutorial level gives you an idea about the basic attacks and other stuff and at the end of the level, you will end up dying ( No, its not a WTF moment. you aren’t supposed to survive there, or I haven’t seen anyone who did) which sends you to the Nexus. It’s a place in Demon’s Souls where the souls of the wannabe Demon slayers are trapped. Once there, you can buy and store stuff, as well as meet the Maiden in Black, through her you can level up your stats and pretty much steer your character to take up the desired role, be it Magician or Warrior or any other trait by upgrading your stats. Souls are the currency in the game which you gain from defeating enemies and are also used to level up.

If you are playing as a Mage (which you should be because it’s  fun to play as one and you can use those devastating spells) don’t let anyone get too close to you or you might be seeing the YOU DIED screen for the 100th time. The inventory system is pretty straight forward and doesn’t need an explanation. You will get to know more about the place and the lore eventually by talking to the Monumentals located in the Nexus. There are 5 worlds in the game which you can access through the arch stones present in Nexus, the main objective is to defeat all the bosses located in each of these worlds, it’s pretty simple really.

As you travel through each of these worlds, you will notice that the level design is just superb, one that portrays death and destruction and the atmosphere is generally gloomy. Don’t get disheartened, that’s not what you should be worried of as it’s the things that populate the worlds that prove to be your real concern. However enemies aren’t too tough once you figure out how to defeat them, infact none of the bosses are, why you die is because you haven’t figured out their attack patterns. You will die due to many reasons – cleverly designed traps, falling into a pit, walking into a Red Knight who well… kills you in 1 or 2 hits but that’s where the fun lies and why the first playthrough is so crucial to the experience.

Demon’s souls has a superb online system and is one of the most innovative things I have seen in a long time.  You can see red glowing things on the ground, you can click them as those are messages left by the other players who are playing on the same server. Now there will be messages that help you from getting ambushed, there will be messages left by other players who try to mislead you, and you can leave messages as well to help out others trapped inside. If someone rates your messages than your health is refilled which is a pretty nifty feature along with the feeling that you have managed to help someone. The white shadows you see are of all the players who are playing alongside you, in a way it will inspire you because you can feel that you are not alone and that’s what will keep you going. You can also click on the blood stains on the ground, they will show you how a player who was playing in the same server died,  which helps you avoid the traps or a powerful enemy waiting,  ready to put that big spear in you. The way people die in this game is just amusing, I never miss a chance to click on those blood stains.

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With almost no pre-release publicity, Din’s Curse, an ARPG game was unleashed upon unaware gamer folks. Developed by Soldak Entertainment, an independent gaming company, having little to no recognition previously for their RPGs like Depths of Peril and Kivi’s Underworld, Din’s Curse gave them a chance to breach the barrier of “little known” and take their work to the next level but does this game manage to create a ripple in the Hack n Slash RPG segment which is dominated mostly by the Diablo series or does it get lost among the hundreds of other Diablo clones to come before it? Time to find out!

The story of Din’s Curse is like a traditional fantasy RPG, but a lot more simplistic. A demi god Din has apparently placed you under a curse for being a bad ass in your life, so as a process of redemption and punishment alike, you are to save towns in the land of Aleria from the monsters that dwell within and gain reputation by solving quests of the townsfolk. So basically, you undertake quests, hack and slash your way through the dungeons, gather the loot, level up and lock heads with a final villain before moving on to the next town after solving all the main quests of the previous, hence one step further to fulfilling your redemption process.

But what basically separates this game from others is its frantic pace. Din’s Curse, unlike other RPGs, never gives you much respite in between quests. So forget Diablo, where you could just go on hunting lvl1 pig monsters, level up to zenith and then initiate an attack. The game world here plays out on its own via a unique Event System which gives you notices about important events like monster uprisings, plagues and attacks upon your town. So suppose, you get a notice that a particular uprising is taking place in the dungeons and you slack around and don’t do anything about it. Then what will happen is these monsters will make it to your town (as each town has a direct entry gate to the dungeon), and start wreaking havoc there. Failure to stop these monsters will result in kidnapping of townsfolk (for which you have to rescue them) and even death of important members of the town. If all of the three important people who give you your main quests, Warmaster, Steward and Apothecary are killed (Din can not be killed), you will lose your town and you won’t have any choice but to generate a new town to play. So many a times while you are deep down in the dungeon, a notice will come off that your town is under attack by monsters or assassins or a plague has been unleashed by their big boss, and then you have to rush back to the town to save the townsfolk. This pacing is what makes this game unique, as you actually feel for the world rather than leisurely idling around.

Again, unlike traditional RPGs, the quests have a dynamic pacing to themselves. Some quests are automatically cancelled if you are late in taking them up. For example, a quest of saving a certain townsfolk is failed if you didn’t heed to the quest within a given time. Certain other quests, like “Go Kill the Beast before it’s too late”, means you have to actually rush through the dungeons and kill the beast, because you never know when he manages to cause an uprising which results in the untimely failure of the quest. Again, some quests are automatically “solved” without your knowing or undertaking them. For example, if you already killed that Champion Monster while rushing through a particular dungeon, approaching the right person (who can be in the dungeon or in the town) will automatically give you the required reputation and experience points for solving the quest. That being said, the Quests have variety and even some surprises to them but traditionally range from killing that monster, collecting those objects, activating the portals etc. Once all quests are completed and the main boss bites the dust, you will get loads of loot off a chest via Din and a victory screen to determine the relative difficulty of the next town to save. So completing quests, prioritizing quests (not all quests can be rushed and completed), taking heed to the event system (protecting the town, stopping the uprising etc.) and being alert and active is the priority here.  Blindly taking quests and completing them leisurely like other Rpgs will get you nowhere but to a Game Over screen.

Speaking more on the “Dynamic” nature of this game, the entire world, the towns and the various levels of dungeons are randomly generated, so no two playing experiences or dungeons are same. Each Dungeon and Town has their own layout, monsters and people. The dungeons, in particular, have a life of its own. Enter a dungeon, and you will be surprised by the monsters bickering among themselves and dropping loot in the process. Other RPGs traditionally had them monsters amassing to horde against you. In Din’s Curse, unless you attack their group or faction, chances are they will not bother about you. These monster groups sometimes declare war on each other, and often they start an uprising. This doesn’t mean they will not notice you at all. You have to fend off hordes of monsters and baddies alike whilst traversing through the treacherous levels. The dungeon always plays out for itself, with enemies actually gaining levels by killing other monsters and if undisturbed, will reach the champion status in no time. The levels have many traps and tricks aswell. You can flip that lever to let the dungeon roof fall upon on enemies, or trigger a poison trap in the dungeon to well…poison the monsters. But you have to be careful not to let yourself fall in the trap.

Now let’s talk about the actual skill and character development systems. Character development plays out like other traditional RPGs. As stated earlier, completing quests helps you gain reputation and experience points (XP). Reputation gives you access to precious items and gifts from townsfolk occasionally and XP gives enables you to gain levels and hence, gain skill points to invest in the various character attributes (Strength, Vitality, Dexterity, etc.) and also in the Skill Set in order to gain access to deadly skills. The Skill sets are deep and varied and unique for each class. Right when the game begins, you have to choose between classes. The main classes are Warrior, Rogue, Priest, Wizard, Ranger and Conjurer with an additional Hybrid Class. Usually, each class has three skill set trees, like Warrior class has Gladiator, Weapon Master and Defender skill trees. The Hybrid class however, offers combination of two classes, but only with two skill set trees rather than three present in other classes.

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International Cricket 2010 is arguably the best cricket game of all time. This brilliant follow up to Ashes Cricket 2009 from Codemasters and Trickstar Games is packed with a lot of new features and improvements. I really enjoyed Ashes Cricket 2009 and that was one of the reasons why I was looking forward to this game so much. The game packs in new features like “Action cam” which aims to make the gameplay as realistic as possible, as well as the new “power stick” system which gives absolute control over your shots. The major challenge here though lies in providing an authentic cricket experience as well as making it fun for the gamers but does it succeed in doing so or gets clean bowled.

There is hardly any improvement to the core visuals as it runs on the same engine, when you boot up the game, the first impression would be that it looks exactly like AC 2009. The presentation is quite unappetizing with English and Australian squads looking identical to their real world counterparts while the unlicensed teams don’t get the same treatment. You can edit the Player and Squad features in the game but that’s time consuming and not worth it unless you are a big fan of the sport, it also features new player animations for diving, bowling, but overall the visuals feel quite sloppy and uninspired.

The HUD is quite similar to AC2009 and can be disabled whenever you want. There is a minimal HUD mode as well, which I feel is the only way to play the game as minimal HUD combined with action cam gives you an authentic cricket experience unmatched by any other cricket game. The game features 21 Stadiums including the home of cricket – Lords and the stadium having the most number of seats - Kolkata. All of them are beautifully recreated and boasts of an impressive physics system which was already quite good in AC2009. The game features a full day/night transition as well as an upgraded lighting system. I didn’t encounter any glitches while playing but the low framerates ruined the immersion a little bit but overall it’s a technically sound and a polished game.

Before you get right into the action, you have the option of learning the basics through the in-game Tutorial mode which has comprehensive lessons for batting, bowling and fielding as well as advanced lessons for them. It’s exactly same as AC 2009’s Tutorial mode but I suggest you go through it once to learn about the new features in this game.

There are plenty of modes for you to choose from, Twenty 20, ODI, Test matches, Tournaments consisting of World 20 overs, Champions Cup, 20 overs Super league and a World Trophy mode. You can create your own tournaments and whatever game type you desire aswell, it’s fully customisable. Also included is a Customisation mode where you can edit players and squads, only England and Austraila are the licensed teams so they are pretty much perfect. There is a squad and player Editor mode which comes in handy if your favorite team is different than England or Australia because the other teams need a lot of work, ofcourse it’s troublesome but won’t take more than 15 mins to do it if you want a more authentic cricketing experience.

Twenty20 is the most fun gametype as you can just go all out attack in that mode and this also makes it the best mode of the game, ODI’s and Test matches takes some time to finish and at a higher difficulty, the gameplay goes at an extremely slow pace much like a JRPG. There are an assortment of shots available to you which can be played off the front foot or back foot, the controls are extremely smooth and responsive but the framerates are inconsistent. The new power stick feature lets you play shots all over the ground, fine cuts, precision shots are possible and made simpler due to this feature.

“Action cam” is an over the shoulder camera view which makes the gameplay extremely realistic, you can survey the field when batting and place shots in the gaps, it is tough at first but you will eventually get used to it, the broadcast camera view is available as well which can be turned on in the options menu. The only way to play the game is with “Action Cam” enabled as it provides a completely different and a satisfying gameplay experience. Bowling has been tweaked a bit as well and you have a variety of deliveries at your arsenal mapped to the face buttons to the get the batsman out, mind you it’s really tough to get someone out in this game, because you have to guide the reticule in this game while adjusting your deliveries. Normally I get hammered around a lot in 20/20 and ODI matches. The catching system is unchanged from AC2009, the game goes in slow mo and you need to complete a simple QTE. The addition of 4 new cricketing nations, 21 detailed stadiums and an array of gametypes bring a lot of variety to the gameplay giving you a great amount of replay value.

The AI is absolutely brilliant, you can’t play the same shots or bowl the same delivery again and again or you will be punished. It’s also very aggressive; I got hammered for 300 runs in a 20/20 match which wasn’t the case in AC2009 where the AI couldn’t score more than 150 runs. It’s also hard to score when playing at harder difficulties, because you won’t get any room to play attacking shots at your leisure, with HUD disabled, “Action Cam” and a higher difficulty it becomes the most realistic cricketing experience that you have ever had.

I tried to play online on Xbox live but was disappointed I couldn’t find a single match, the online component of this game needs fixing as it’s completely broken right now. You might lose interest playing solo, which is why a quick 20/20 game with a friend will keep you on your toes and maintain that interest level in the game. I was pleased to hear David Lloyd joined the commentary team for this game, I am a huge fan of his as he is highly knowledgeable and skilled in the game of cricket, and his voice provided a refreshing change that the game required. Overall the commentary is quite good and diverse and it doesn’t get annoying after a while. The in-game sounds have improved a lot as well, overall a very polished effort from Codemasters and Trickstar games.

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UFC as a sport has seen its popularity sky rocket in the past couple of years and it was only obvious that someone would develop a videogame revolving around it. THQ came into the fray and delivered a rather solid fighting game in the form of UFC 2009 and after tasting relative success have bought in the next edition of the franchise for gamers to enjoy. UFC 2010 really plays and feels a much better game than its predecessor. Yukes have improved a lot of aspects which were found lacking in the first edition and also have taken a great deal of effort to simplify things and make it enjoyable even by gamers who have no idea about UFC in general.

We all know that even though UFC 2009 was one of the most well developed and advanced fighting games to come out in recent times, it did have a rather steep learning curve for rookies and was simply not planned well enough. Sparring against human opponents online or offline were the only options to have some genuine fun as the game modes were mostly broken and the game’s career mode really felt out of touch. However, UFC 2010 has made sure that it won’t be the same anymore. The game brings in a lot of new and interesting game modes and also revamps the Ultimate Fights mode which makes it feel all the more interesting. The career mode has seen a lot of improvements aswell and now you can do a whole lot of new things with your fighter as he climbs up the MMA ladder.

The career mode lets you create your own fighter and the level of customization is remarkable. You can select everything from his fighting style to stance to how he enters the Octagon and celebrates a victory. Visual customization is also very deep and now you can even place tattoos anywhere on your fighter’s body rather than pre-set locations. Once you’re ready to step into the octagon there’s a nifty tutorial which I suggest that everyone new to the game should try out. The tutorial is rather detailed and will help you figure out most of the basic things before you compete in your first fight.

The fighting too is tier-based, with your fighter starting off in a small junior fighting division and slowly progressing towards the big divisions and finally Dana (the boss of UFC) will come up and offer you a chance to compete in the UFC. This is rather interesting and its fun progressing through the tiers before your first UFC fight. Once you’re in the UFC you will have to start as an under card and as you win more fights, you can go on to the main cards and then feature in main events and ultimately get that title shot that every UFC fighter dreams about.

You can start off your career under any weight category and once you win the title in a particular segment, you can give up your title and move on to compete in other weight segments. After covering all the weight segments you will receive a 100% career completion achievement. Now, the stuff you can do inside the career mode is a mixed bag. UFC 2010 gives you a chance to hone your skills and learn new moves in fighting camps. Sparring there will enable you to learn any moves that you like and this gives your fighter immense flexibility and feels a whole lot more fun. You can even take part in online camps to improve your skills and spar together with your friends. Another nifty feature is that you will have to monitor your skills as ignoring them over time will result in their degradation. This keeps things fresh as you need to train in order to keep in shape.

Other features like giving interviews after your main event fights and your replies making an impact on your popularity and bonding with other fighters are fun. Make a negative comment and your animosity with your just defeated opponent will increase while your popularity among the fans will get better but show him respect after winning and you will become friends while your fans will consider you “uncool”. Rachell Lia ( the UFC hottie and Playboy cover star) will also make visits in between your training schedule and this impacts your popularity. Complete these sequences successfully and see a boost in your cred. However, some of these require you to sit through computer controlled UFC events and make predictions and I don’t see how that can be appealing to anyone. Something Yukes needs to sort out before shipping the next edition for sure. On the brighter side, her offers can be refused and those sequences can be skipped altogether.

All in all, the career mode just about manages to hold your interest for seeing through a particular weight segment but still it all gets repetitive after a while and there is way too much gap between fights and not enough interesting stuff to do. Watching the A.I fight is not something which I think might excite a lot of gamers and I wish the action was more instant and you need not had to do so much of the “same” stuff over and over again in between.

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Alpha Protocol is an “espionage/RPG” game from Obsidian that had a really sound and promising concept but if you are expecting it to be a great RPG with good production values, you will be disappointed as the game is primarily a mediocre third person shooter with some really bland RPG elements thrown in. It could be very well be described as a poorly made Mass Effect clone with some Splinter Cell like gameplay thrown into the mix. The game is still playable though and can be enjoyed if you can tolerate the number of appalling bugs and glitches that plague it. Obsidian tried to be really ambitious but they didn’t have the time nor the budget to polish this game although the game does have its saving grace in the form of its wonderful choice based dialogue system, which we will come back to later in the review.

Story

You get to play as Agent Michal Thorton, who is a rookie spy recruited by the government agency Alpha Protocol, the story is great because of the excellent dialogue system and you get to meet a variety of characters, being good or evil is entirely in your hands. Your missions will take you to exotic locations like Rome, Taipei and Moscow with fully equipped safe houses offering you plenty of time to buy weapons, check emails and customize your character. Gathering Intel gives you information regarding the missions and clues on how to exploit weaknesses of the enemies.

The story is essentially about Thorton being embroiled in a conspiracy trying to recover stolen missiles which eventually leads to the agency betraying him and you turning into a rogue agent. As mentioned earlier you will meet a variety of characters and get to interact with them. There is an assortment of dialogue options when interacting with someone which branches the story nicely. Obsidian really took care to polish this facet of the game. It is due to this dialogue system that you can play the game multiple times and have a different experience each time.

You can behave in a variety of ways during a conversation – namely suave, professional and aggressive which affects the characters you are interacting with. You also get a 2 second time limit to choose an option which indirectly helps you concentrate on the dialogue. The story and the dialogue are some of the high points of this game and have been excellently developed by Obsidian. There are also some romantic encounters in the game; it’s a spy game so that shouldn’t come as a surprise. You also get to sleep with women in the game but the sex scenes are horrendous, particularly the one involving a woman named “Sie”. (We def won’t make hay like that)

Graphics

The game runs on Unreal Engine 3 and looks like a 7 year old PC game. The graphics are pretty disappointing considering Obsidian is mainly a PC developer. Lots of recycled assets in each and every mission reduces the immersion factor a lot. It has a tremendous amount of pop-in issues and the frame rate dropped a lot during heavy firefights, highly unoptimized, makes me wonder how they could ship the game in this state. You also regularly get stuck in the environments and same goes for the enemies, resulting in some of the most hilarious moments ever seen in a video game.

The game can glitch and crash on you at random moments so it’s better to save your progress regularly although the checkpoint system is a lot more forgiving for the player. Another thing I fail to understand is the amount of motion blur used. How can anyone add so much motion blur to an already average looking game is beyond me. I played this game on the PC, and the amount of bugs I encountered is enough for anyone to punch their screen in anger. But the game is not unplayable inspite of all these flaws if you can still tolerate all these issues and enjoy the game but that requires you to be a really patient gamer.

Gameplay

Alpha protocol is basically a third person shooter with some RPG elements thrown in, you get a lot of cover opportunities but what bugs me is that, it’s very hard to aim early on due to under developed skills, even if you shoot a guy in the head you will most likely miss, the great thing about the gameplay is that it encourages a stealthy approach, I often found myself investing in the martial arts and stealth skill. Some of the missions are really satisfying if you take a stealthy approach. The missions aren’t that challenging, if you do manage to trigger an alarm, you can disable it, which also introduces you to the hacking minigame, there are a variety of hacking minigames but they don’t offer much challenge if you have a good hand to eye co-ordination. There are four classes of weapons namely Pistols, Assault rifles, SMGS and Shotguns, you can buy new weapons and customize them using the cash you earn during missions.

Enemy AI is the worst part of the game. Running around in circles and getting stuck are some of the common traits of the enemies and holds true even with the bosses in the game, which really dampens the fun you have while playing stealthily or gunning away. You can level up and learn different skills, improve accuracy, stealth etc Mass Effect style through the points earned while completing missions. The outdated graphics combined with the horrible AI completely ruin the immersion and this is one area which Obsidian completely ignored while making the game, resulting in highly unpolished gameplay mechanics.

Audio

Alpha protocol has a decent soundtrack which does a good job at setting the right tempo for each mission. The gun sounds aren’t particularly impressive, but the enemies do yell and communicate with each other during the mission which really increases the tension if you play stealthily. The voice acting is absolutely brilliant and is one of the redeeming factors; and there is a lot of dialogue in the game, which is mostly well written and executed perfectly.

Next Page – Closing Comments and Scoring

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Ubisoft decided to cash in on the World Cup fever engulfing the world by churning out a football title themselves. It’s commendable that instead of treading the tried and tested path, they decided to do things differently. The game’s cover confidently proclaims that players should be prepared to have the “most authentic” soccer experience of their lives. Not bad to have you all charged up eh? Does it successfully deliver a “pure” futbol experience or does it never manage to convert those claims into reality?

The first thing you will notice after starting the game is the way the models are created, the player models are never meant to be too realistic and have a rough and arcade feel to them, I for one liked the way they looked although the polish which could have lended a authentic look to the 230 odd roster of players plus 17 legends was always found lacking. However, Ubisoft have just did enough for you to separate the Ballacks from the Gerards.  The next thing and utterly horrible might I add is the complete lack of commentary and referees (although for some strange reason fouls are still awarded) on the pitch. The only things you will hear are the player’s chatter and nothing else.  If you were expecting a crowd to cheer you as you try and score that elusive goal…you’re out of luck! Crowd is another feature that Ubisoft conveniently decided to exclude.

If removing these factors make for an authentic football experience, it’s obvious that the guys at Ubisoft are not much of soccer fans themselves! The game pits you against a team of 5 players instead of the traditional 11 in locations inspired by real-world areas like the “Ring in Madrid” instead of stadiums.  Pure Futbol tries to offer you with a unique gameplay experience where shots must be timed to perfection using a shot meter similar to the one found in Golf games. You will need to time your passes and your shots on goal in order to execute a pure strike. These might sound exciting at first but once you are on the pitch and try to pull them off, the fact will hit you that Ubisoft might have altogether skipped play-testing the game before shipping it out!

The controls feel really awkard and lacks accuracy or variation; you will find that all passes have a similar pacing to them irrespective of the fact if it’s the defender trying to clear the ball or Ballack trying to through ball it to a striker. The strikes at goal are no different, however hard you try, you will seldom find yourself hitting the ball in a way that you desired, thanks to the unresponsive nature of the whole passing-system. This is certainly the most frustrating control-scheme implementation I have been subject to in a football game.

Ubisoft tries to make up for the lack of commentary or an audience for that matter by bringing in some rather interesting ideas to the field. You can pull off some exciting looking moves on the pitch. Passes often result in a slo-mo sequence where both teams rough it up for the possession of the ball and well-timed shots leave a trail of smoke behind. However, the ill-implementation of the shot system and core gameplay mechanics squeeze out any fun that you might have had indulging in such features. Adding to the blemishes is the horrible A.I that you will be subject to in this game. Your goalkeeper will often be oblivious to the fact that a striker is approaching your goal and your teammates might prefer passing to that imaginary invisible friend of yours waiting at the sidelines rather than trying to pass it to your on-field self. On top of that, inspite of the rough looking players and the lack of referees, slide tackles are a strict no as a meter begins to fill once you do so and if it fills up completely results in your opposing team getting a penalty irrespective of where or how the tackle took place! Yes, penalties are awarded for tackles made anywhere on the pitch in this game and that too when there is no fkking referee in sight!

The game has the usual exhibition, quick play and campaign modes along with an online component. The campaign mode is rather mundane where you need to create a team of your own and rise up the footballing ladder in a specified period of time. You will unlock new players and arenas along the way. The campaign mode does little to redeem this flawed game as the core gameplay seems rather sluggish and illogical throughout.

I will be honest, I tried connecting to XBLA and hunted for a few games, the most I managed were two matches, one of which lagged terribly.  I neither had the will or the desire to keep searching and the lack of players had made it evident that this game does not have a stellar online component either. In the online mode, you will need to create a team of your own and take it through the footballing blah blah….good luck with it as you will need it!

The visuals of the Pure Futbol are strictly average at most and have an arcade-ish feel to them. The only saving grace is the celebration animations which follow after you manage to score. The audio is non-existence with no crowds, no commentators or not even a ref. The eerily silent environments where you play deprive you of any excitement even before the flaws that the game has start hitting you on the face.

Next Page – Closing Comments and Scoring

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Red Dead Redemption – the classic Wild Westerner from Rockstar Games and a spiritual successor to 2004’s Red Dead Revolver, finally nods its release after recurring delays. Coming from developers of the cult Grand Theft Auto series, the speculation machinery has been working overtime to determine if RDR is simply GTA painted in Western colors or an absolutely new bunny from the studio’s magical hat. Laying all that (and any eager reader’s anxiety) to rest, it’s a pleasure to conclude that Red Dead Redemption is a balanced mix of both and an absolute masterpiece! While taking a step back in timeline, it takes giant leaps forward to establish genre-defining benchmarks which are both fresh and hard to surpass. Besides being the finest West based title ever, it is also one of the best games of 2010 so far.

Story & Campaign

RDR is a third person sandbox action game set at the turn of the twentieth century. It is the time when horse-riding-cigarette-smoking-trigger-happy outlaws, straight out of anyone’s childhood cow-boy fantasies, strode the vast rustic landscapes of the West. Politics, violence, greed and lust were woven into the fragile fabric of a society struggling to find a balance. Rapid technological advancements were robbing the West of its pastoral characteristics, eroding the conventional lives of villagers and ranchers and generating a cultural backlash in the process. Under these circumstances, John Marston – a former outlaw, arrives to seek out his former gangmates to trade their lives for his family members’, who have been taken hostage by government agents seeking those outlaws.

Marston’s journey takes him through three huge territories of New Austin, Nuevo Paraiso and West Elizabeth, essentially spread across United States & Mexico. The core quest is lengthy and fleshed out well through a cast of colorful & funny characters that help John’s progress (and sometime the other way around). Most of them are quite memorable thanks to their unique personalities, brilliant animations, voice-work and cultural influences. Rockstar has put in a great deal of effort in creating the living world of RDR, as it boasts of about 450 characters, each with their own features, names, voice and jobs!

While most of the core missions follow the familiar cutscene-shooting-conclusion sequence, engaging combat and gameplay fused across wide variety of settings prevents the action from getting monotonous. In fact, missions involving railroad or horse chases shall leave you with the swelling pride of a true cowboy! Many interesting plot insights are also delivered through the conversations you have with other characters while travelling during missions. As you follow John’s sojourn across towns, deserts, plains and wilderness alike, you may choose to engage in many optional activities or side quests. The main quest concludes in an explosive climax which is best experienced first-hand!

Graphics

RDR is one of the most beautiful & visually stunning games to look at! Running on a customized hybrid of both Euphoria Physics and Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (R.A.G.E. – which also powered GTA 4), it showcases better & believable character & wildlife motions while also powering the game’s brilliant horses which are your primary mode of transport. The draw distances are jaw dropping and you can travel as far as your eye goes. The game world is huge and you will easily spend a couple of minutes travelling from one end to another even on the fastest horse. Besides the usual day-night cycle (sunsets being brilliant btw), the world also experiences weather variations like sunny, cloudy, rainy and even snowy at select areas.

RDR stands tall due to its immense attention to detail. From dust specks at John’s feet to the light effects of a rolling lantern, from detailed textures in vegetation to stressed face expressions during arm wrestling, perfection is everywhere in the game. Most of the character models are highly detailed (even the bullets on John’s bandolier are visible) and their movements extremely smooth. These details come to forefront during in-game cutscenes where facial expressions manage to infuse a sense of realism that enhances mission depths. Weapons, horses, stagecoaches, settlements and even the railroad carry visible effects of this high level of detailing and you will hardly find any reasons for complaints.

The game’s landscape spreads across deserts, plains, canyons, etc and each one of them offers unique visual delights for you to marvel. Stand on top of a desert ridge to watch the distant sunset or trot through snow covered forests with sunlight seeping through the branches, the only word that shall spawn in your mind is “wow!” The game’s wildlife, featuring about 30 different species, looks amazing and it will be natural for anyone to take a break from the lawless world and admire a pack of bisons moving across the plain or even a rabbit scurrying for cover.

Whether you choose to travel the west in moonlight or daytime, the spot-on lighting & shadow effects elevate the overall ‘wow’ factor to higher levels. They also augment the brilliance in firefights and coupled with slow motion, deliver a stunning portfolio of special effects. Although there are a few graphical glitches, they are rare and easy to forget in the picturesque landscape of RDR.

Next Page – Gameplay and more

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