Mass Effect 2

The first Mass Effect had a solid cast and compelling end-of-the-galaxy-as-we-know-it threat for Commander Shepard and crew to deal with, but Mass Effect 2’s collection of teammates and tales is so much more robust, well-written, and quite honestly, badass. It’s all about the sidequests, and the precious few moments you get to spend conversing and building relationships with your crew, whether it be an on-thin-ice hostile working relationship, a til-death-do-we-part camaraderie, or something more…

My female Commander Shepard is one part Clarice Starling and five parts Jack Bauer. She does whatever it takes, even if it means one (or more) egg has to be broken for the greater good. This comes at the expense of friendships, and sometimes monetary or item rewards. But even when the game was tempting me to make a decision that would clearly benefit me somehow, if it wasn’t what my Shepard really would have done then I didn’t do it. I become so unequivocally immersed in the game and the character I was playing, and that’s where Mass Effect 2 transcends all other role-playing games. For me, at least, it was almost perfectly written and designed. My Shepard was always thinking what I was thinking; sure enough, when the conversation comes to a fork in the road and I get to decide who I am, in the game, it flowed perfectly. Very rarely did the game give me an option that didn’t lead to what I thought it did, or should. My accomplishments, my mistakes, they all feel justified, and I will save my first playthrough file as the truth of what happened in Mass Effect 2 for when the trilogy comes to an end.

Many games do one major aspect right, then fumble something else key to the overall package. While Mass Effect 2’s role-playing is completely top-shelf, Bioware also managed to greatly improve the lacking combat system from the first game. For tacticians, the action can be frozen so that you can give orders to your squad (still limited to only three, sadly) all at once. You can position your squadmates behind a specific piece of cover to set up ambushes, sniping nests and crossfires. Cover plays as much a role now as it did in Gears of War, and running around without any is the quickest way to get turned into a steaming pile of Shepard. The different classes have some new tricks up their sleeves as far as powers are concerned, and new weapon types have been added. Most notably, the Heavy Weapon set includes grenade launchers, black hole guns, and a mini nuke launcher, and are key to winning particularly difficult gunfights.

That being said, Mass Effect 2 has not only been watered down in a variety of ways from Mass Effect 1, but from other games of its type as well. While the weapon system has been enhanced, the loot is minimized to various resources and incremental equipment upgrades. That would be fine if there were tons of interesting things to buy in the shops like in most RPGs, but the few available stores throughout the entire galaxy have less than a handful of items (more upgrades—or fish) to buy. Shepard’s armor can be upgraded (slightly), but the other playable characters cannot, so they end the game in the same gear they started out with, even if it has giant bullet holes and tears in it. Likewise, I finished with only two or three of each kind of weapon—not counting DLC or heavies. I would have liked to see a bit more variety there as well. A few characters have unique, unlockable weapons, but why not all?

Like The Lord of the Rings, Mass Effect is special because each game is part of something bigger, something grander, and Mass Effect 2 makes that more evident than ever. At least, it did on the Xbox 360. Unfortunately for Playstation 3 owners, this is where this particular port turns up short. Instead of a thorough retelling of the events from the original game, or better yet, the option to play said game through for yourself, BioWare opted to team up with Dark Horse for a 15-minute “interactive” comic book. This might fly for any other game type, but there’s just so much information and character development that is outright lost with this method when dealing with an RPG as epic as the Mass Effect saga.

Imagine skipping the first The Lord of the Rings film/book and starting on the second one. The first Mass Effect was roughly 30 hours long, with most of that being story-related missions, player choices, and meaningful character interactions. The comic is very poorly constructed, and PlayStation 3 owners will have no context for the few decisions they get to make. What is the Genophage cure? Is it worth killing a teammate over? Without the hours of dialogue and missions surrounding this subplot, the choice lacks weight. You might has well toss a coin. Similarly, the choice of whom to place on the galactic council doesn’t present the player with much information about the two candidates until after the decision is made.

Beyond the comic, not having the events and experiences of the original Mass Effect as a reference drastically diminishes so many powerful, moving moments in the sequel. Relationships, references, and inside jokes ring hollow without that frame of reference, so despite what EA and Sony would like you to think, Mass Effect 1 was simply too important to be skipped, and PlayStation 3 owners will forever be limited to a fraction of the Mass Effect experience because of it.

There are a slew of things that range from nitpicking to moderate flaws in the game design, but alone or even combined they don’t prevent Mass Effect 2 from greatness. Yet, rarely does a company get the chance to take a game (especially one as revered as Mass Effect 2) and improve upon it for an entire year, but it seems BioWare has disappointingly missed that opportunity as the game’s few flaws have been kept intact for this allegedly “superior” port. For instance, equipping one of the many special armors included as DLC prevents the player from seeing Shepard’s face for the majority of the game, drastically reducing the connection to the character in conversations and the like. It may be for the best, however, as the PlayStation 3 version suffers from weird facial animations and lazy eyes that look more like the animatronic puppets at Chuck E. Cheese than characters bordering the uncanny valley.

Planet mining, the absurd mini-game where you’re forced to run a cursor over planets in a computer to find minerals with a multitude of essential purposes, is still an integral part of the game. Expect to spend hours upon hours of sleep-inducing grinding, just looking for a little bit more of Element Zero so that you and your crew aren’t decimated upon entering the final battle. It’s still incredibly weak that they took the “explore any world” aspect of the first game and instead of doing it right, just threw it out the window completely. At least some sort of voiceover detailing the history of the planet you’re probing (instead of the usual giant wall of text that no one reads) would make the hours of scanning more interesting.

There is also a disappointing lack of character interaction outside of occasional mission-specific dialogue and optional conversations on the Normandy. I carefully selected who I wanted to spend time with on my missions not so much due to their individual abilities like I was supposed to, but because I knew my time with them was finite. Unfortunately, they might as well be soulless robots as they spend most of the game standing behind Shepard while he/she catches up with old friends, tortures innocent people, or even makes decisions that will affect the entire galaxy. There’s also a single sequence where you play as someone other than Shepard, and while the scene itself is done well enough, it completely jars you out of your immersion as the main protagonist of the game.

I also take issue with the focus on New Game+. It may be confusing to lampoon a feature that usually greatly increases the value of an RPG, but no game has ever been as story-driven as Mass Effect 2. The (very long) loading screens carry hints that suggest you replay the game as a different sex and/or class and make different decisions, but I feel that ruins the experience of Mass Effect, as does the story-related trophy that requires you to save all your crew members during the finale. There should not be ulterior motives for playing a certain way and doing something your character wouldn’t actually do, and Bioware’s short-sightedness in this regard diminishes what they’re trying to accomplish. The choices I made in my first playthrough should be the choices that reward or haunt me in Mass Effect 3.

The pinnacle of Bioware’s many years honing their craft, Mass Effect 2 is one of the most important and enjoyable games ever made. The PlayStation 3 port may be a greater value by incorporating the bulk of available DLC into a single package, but it is still vastly inferior to the experience available on the Xbox 360. It’s like watching The Two Towers without having seen The Fellowship of the Ring, or attempting college before high school; PlayStation 3 players may not know what they’re missing out on, but they most definitely are missing out.

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Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare

Rockstar is not known for taking DLC lightly, but Undead Nightmare is undeniably the crowning achievement in their growing list of high quality supplementary content. Unlike the rest of the Red Dead Redemption DLC, Undead Nightmare is a standalone offering, separate from the original campaign. That’s because Undead Nightmare doesn’t just add a colossal dose of new content, but also irreversibly tweaks the entire game world and story.

The plot begins with John Marston returning home to a normal evening with wife and son. That night, their sleep is disturbed by a zombie attack, and once Marston’s family is infected, he goes out in search of a cure, or at the very least an explanation. The game dips simultaneously into humor and horror, but never goes so far as to destroy the atmosphere for a cheap joke. The game still takes time to introduce random survivors and tell their story through well-written, movie-quality cutscenes.

Once Marston leaves the former safety of his ranch, he will find a much different world than the one he shot up just a few months ago. Zombies have overrun every location on the map, and they come in a variety of flavors a la Left 4 Dead. Basic undead are not much to worry about, but they can easily take down Marston in groups. Red Dead Redemption was primarily played from a distance, meaning Marston sniped and shot his way to victory in most cases. Undead Nightmare focuses mainly on up-close combat, and Marston isn’t exactly Raiden from MGS4; in fact, this shift brings out a lot of the flaws in the core gameplay mechanics, such as how sluggish Marston’s movement can be when doing pretty much anything.

In addition to standard zombies, Bruisers (aka Tanks) are hulking undead behemoths that will charge into you, stunning you and rendering you vulnerable to follow-up attacks from the horde; Bolters crawl on all four but are extremely quick, moving in a zig-zag pattern as they rapidly close in on you; and Retchers (Spitters) snipe from afar with acidic goo. They actually have surprising range and can be a serious detriment to your health if you’re trying to do something while also fending off other zombies.

But those aren’t the only things that go bump in the night. A few mythical creatures can also be found, such as the wolf-like chupacabra and even Sasquatch itself, finally realizing the rumor of Bigfoot appearing in a Rockstar game. To combat these threats, Marston will have access to all of the original game’s weapons, as well as a few new ones. The torch is a melee weapon that can light zombies on fire, burning them to death shortly thereafter, or you could give your bullets a phosphorous coating for a temporary flammable boost that ignites all targets and undoes the usual need to get a headshot. Undead bait is like Boomer Bile, causing zombies to run to it and acting as a distraction when needed, while boom bait does the same thing but with a dynamite stick stuffed in it for a delayed zombie surprise. Rounding out the new arsenal is holy water that explodes and burns all zombies caught in its radius, and finally the blunderbuss, a shotgun that uses body parts found on corpses in place of normal ammo—an increasingly rare commodity in the Undead West.

As Marston makes his way towards Mexico in an attempt to solve the mystery, he will come across familiar locales in need of his assistance. By clearing out the zombies, he’ll save towns and be able to change his outfit/save your game/fast travel between safehouses. Unfortunately, after three days of in-game time, those towns will come under zombie attack and if Marston doesn’t return to aide them, they will become overrun again. If they’re not assisted after that, survivors will start permanently dying. Once all the survivors have been killed, clearing out towns will become much more difficult. Saving towns also grants a weapon that Marston doesn’t have yet, so it behooves him to lend a helping hand when possible.

Since travel is mostly done by way of horse in Undead Nightmare, Rockstar has added five unique steeds to be found and broken in. The Four Horses of the Apocalypse each have special abilities, such as War’s ability to burn any zombies it runs over, and Death makes all trampled zombies’ heads explode. All undead horses have unlimited stamina, but for the ultimate in ridiculous mounts, an ultra rare unicorn is waiting somewhere to be conquered. Marston will need the extra stats granted by these special equines as humans aren’t the only things that have been zombified; the unbeaten path is riddled with cadaverous cougars and other angry wildlife that are sometimes more dangerous than the actual zombies.

Undead Nightmare may sound gimmicky at first, but it quickly becomes clear that Rockstar spared no expense creating what is arguably one of the best DLCs of all time. It’s not just the sheer amount of content that’s included, but also the method in which said content drastically renovates the Red Dead experience in an exciting and meaningful way.

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Fight Night Champion

As Ernie Ford once sang, “...a poor man is made out of muscle and blood.” Boxing is not an aristocrat’s sport, that’s for sure. Soaked in all manner of foul fluids, the boxer is a man’s man, beating the tar out of his opponents and glowing godlike in the spotlight. It’s not all guts and glory, of course. Real boxing involves two things most gamers avoid like the plague: intense pain and hard labor. Fortunately, boxing games have come a long way since the days of Super Punchout. EA’s Fight Night Champion aims to prove just that.

What lifts FNC from the crowd is its five-star presentation. Right from the start, the player is plunged into the grim world of Andre Bishop, a sympathetic lowlife getting pushed around by The Man. Bishop’s story is admittedly familiar; heck, it’s like almost every other boxing tale we’ve encountered, right down to the design of the antagonists. Nobody expects a sports title to deliver a Halo-like narrative, but even with the tired premise, this game delivers a story with sleeker style than perhaps any other in its genre. After following Bishop’s rise to renown through a series of flashbacks, we begin to see him less like a digital mannequin and more like a real character. Any moderately skilled player should be able to plow through this Champion mode in just a few days—depending on how much free time you have, of course. This might be for the best, if you’re a “quality over quantity” sort of gamer. Despite its brevity, Champion mode is undoubtedly the creamy center of this tasty title. It may be a bit much to call the game a hyper-realistic boxing simulation, but the description does capture the thrill of a boxing movie—and besides, that’s what we prefer to believe real boxing is, anyway.

To mimic the visceral nature of the sport, the developers have implemented an analog-flicking system. The direction of the stick controls the type of punch you deliver, keeping the action silky smooth as you bob and weave in the ring. Like any analog control system, this does increase the probability of false positives—that is, punches you didn’t really mean to throw. This obviously can be a great source of frustration in a fighting game, where your ability to maintain rhythm and synchronize your attacks with your opponent is crucial to your success. Button mashers should take care, as this is not some tawdry slug fest for simpletons. Some bouts will test your focus or stamina: for example, testing your ability to defend a wounded part of your body rather than simply dish out damage to your foe. Countering and timing is everything, and while I can’t help but wonder how this game might feel on the Kinect, I suspect it would open up a whole other can of worms. The game also attempts to randomize some elements of the combat, sometimes even resulting in a sudden knockout. This is all very exciting until your hard-earned near victory becomes an unexpected slaughter. Of course, no boxing fantasy would be complete without a smattering of famous faces, including Ali and Tyson. Perhaps more intriguing is the varied style of each fighter, which helps spice things up more flatteringly than the aforementioned random events. Sadly, Frederick Tatem is nowhere to be found.

Genre veterans will quickly take to the Legacy mode, which allows players to develop their own fighter. The long-term investment and personal customization is always a welcome aspect of this sort of game, even if it’s not quite as distinguishing as the Champion mode. At a certain point, this seems like the sort of game mode that is added to satisfy player expectation more than it is to revitalize the experience. Taking battles online, players will find the social “clan” components in the form of gyms, so you can link up with your buddies and take on all challengers in all the usual bravado.

There’s no point in denying the aesthetic draw of a massive EA franchise like this one, fully loaded with high production values. The voice-overs are excellent, but the crisp and photo-realistic fighters are appropriately stealing the show. Pugilistic perspiration glistens in the light, blood spatters the ring floor, and skin ripples fluidly as fist meets face. No matter what frustrations the game may hold for you, there’s no denying this is one pretty package of violence. Fight Night Champion is surely one of the best-looking and best-playing games of its kind. The bar has been surely, steadily raised, and there is plenty of promise in the franchise’s future.

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Gran Turismo 5

Gran Turismo 5’s long awaited release is finally upon us, and though Sony’s hype machine would have you believe otherwise, it is not the event it has been hailed as. Upon starting the “cutting edge” sequel, you’ll immediately be greeted to an optional installation screen which explains that nearly everything in the game will have extended loading times and performance issues if you don’t, but that the install will require 8GB of space and “may take some time”—some time meaning upwards of an hour. That’s an hour that you have to sit and watch the game install before you can press start on the title screen.

Once you’ve overcome the game’s first major hurdle, you’re on to making sense of the lackluster menus. Whereas Codemasters has paved the way for sleek, intuitive, multi-tiered user interfaces with DiRT and F1 2010, Gran Turismo 5 is a collage of C-grade projects from an amateur Photoshop class. Aside from the vehicle selection it’s not particularly cumbersome, it just doesn’t do Polyphony’s alleged “best of the best” image any favors.

Anyone who has played a previous Gran Turismo will feel right at home. Too much at home, really, as despite a handful of new features, this is typical GT fare as it has been for nearly a decade. You start out taking your National B license test, a series of brief challenges assessing your ability to stop after a straightaway, draft behind rival cars, overtaking, and turning. Once you’ve completed all 10 you’ll earn your first license and be able to enter Amateur events.

As you complete events you’ll gain money and experience, the latter of which allows you to access new events and features, eventually working your way up to the Extreme category. You can buy cars from the dealership new, or scour the used lot, but the best rewards come from earning medals (usually all gold) in events and license tests. In World of Warcraft, you might receive a belt or new sword for completing a quest, but the coolest thing about Gran Turismo has always been receiving a brand new car for your efforts.

Yet, this is where Gran Turismo 5 really begins to show its true colors. Sony has long highlighted the 1,000+ catalog of vehicles, as well as new features such as damage modeling, but the reality is that much of what this game promises only applies to about 20% of the content, if that. Standard cars, which make up the majority of the game’s roster, have very limited damage models and completely lack the detailed interior views (or interior views of any kind) found in Premium cars. It’s like if only 20% of the fighters in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 had special moves; it just feels incredibly disingenuous, similar to promising the ability to upload replays from YouTube and then quietly removing that feature right before launch.

Another technical shortcoming is, surprisingly, the visuals. Although certain elements occasionally border on photo-realism, as a whole it’s very obvious that you’re playing a game: trees resemble cheap cardboard cutouts and banners and signs look like untextured blocks. The entire lighting and reflection engine in general is woefully archaic, and while Gran Turismo 5 may recreate a virtual Honda Civic like no other, many other racing games have long surpassed this overall quality of aesthetics. Weather effects are particularly unrealistic, reminiscent more of a Tom & Jerry cartoon than an intense rally race. And again, these features only apply to a small portion of the total stages to begin with.

Though Polyphony may be proud of their vehicle models (deserved or not), their characters are laughably bad. Without warning, a virtual Jeff Gordon pops up on your screen and starts talking about RPMs while the terrible lip-sync attempts to catch up to what he’s actually saying. If you weren’t pulled out of the immersion by everything else that’s going wrong, this off-putting and mildly creepy encounter will certainly do the trick. Were these characters modeled by the same person who picked the soundtrack? Is a member of the development team having a laugh? If so, no one else at Polyphony seems to have caught on.

As far as gameplay is concerned, the AI is downright atrocious, an unacceptable flaw that has lingered unaddressed since the franchise’s inception. Opponents will bump and rub into you as if you don’t exist, unexpectedly spinning you out for no reason. In many races you’ll be able to use the brain-dead AI to your advantage, forcing your way to the front of the pack early on with nefarious methods (T-boning the pack leaders instead of properly cornering, for example), then blocking them from overpassing you for the rest of the race.

Special events are a bit more difficult as you’re forced to use specific vehicles and hitting cones, opponents, or driving slightly off the course will all get you disqualified. The AI is, annoyingly, immune to disqualification, though they will often do things the game would otherwise deem illegal had you done it. One event had a bunch of VW wagons driving a figure-8 course and no matter what I did, I could never close the distance between myself and the top six drivers. Yet, in other events I was almost lapping opponents before the finish line.

After countless iterations and research, Gran Turismo still fails to “simulate” the actual experience of driving. The speed and intensity and feeling of high performance vehicles is simply lost upon Polyphony. Other games do certain tricks to capture what I’m referring to, such as camera shaking or superb sound design. I may not have driven in a real NASCAR event, but I have taken various Corvettes and tuners for spins on test tracks. I’ve also completed Gran Turismos 1-3 to 100 percent completion, and at the very least, I’d expect some sort of evolution in the game’s handling. It was far from perfect to begin with, and it’s not gotten any closer over time; you can still bounce off the rubber walls of the track like bumpers on a bowling lane, all while the game’s new damage system sleeps on the job.

Despite all of the game’s flaws, of which there are many, I have to say the most blatant offense is the B-Spec Mode. In A-Spec, you are in control and race every event yourself (as is to be expected). In B-Spec, you’re merely a passenger, managing a virtual driver through all of the races and events featured in A-Spec. The potential for an intriguing, highly technically experience is here, but to witness the AI first-hand reveals how utterly broken and lazy the game truly is. No matter what you tell your drivers to do (pace up, pace down, keep pace, overtake), they always drive horribly. They don’t block other drivers, they never overtake anyone, and they slam on their brakes with even the slightest indication that a turn is coming or the person in front of them might be slowing down.

To see everything the game has to offer (and especially to collect all the trophies), you’ll need to get a gold in every B-Spec race, which is hard enough when you were actually doing competent driving yourself. But, to slowly level up your mongoloid AI driver so that he’ll stop making mistakes that no real person ever would, and start taking at least third place, is the complete opposite of fun. I barely even want to play the game myself; I sure as hell don’t want to sit here and watch the game suck at playing itself. And, to kick you after all your hard work, once your driver reaches a certain experience level he will be considered over the hill and begin to lose stats, at which point you’ll be forced to retire him and start all over again with a new one. No. Thanks.

There is a great deal of content here; undoubtedly the most ever found in a racing game. But, Polyphony has clearly opted for quantity over quality, and no matter how hyperbolic the back of the box comes off I find it extremely telling that a game that’s been in development for at least five years would ship so unbalanced and so lacking in polish. The developers seemingly reside within a bubble where no other recent simulation racing games have been released (including, apparently, Gran Turismo 4). Thanks to studios like Codemasters and Turn 10, a revolution may be occurring within the genre, but it has nothing to do with this obsolete franchise.

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SOCOM 4: US Navy SEALS

Zipper Interactive has done a great job handling the SOCOM franchise ever since 2002. Unfortunately, with a near annual release every year between both console and PSP titles, it’s easy for the franchise to lose some of its momentum. With SOCOM 4 releasing on April 19, the developer needs fresh features to make sure this game is worth a buy.

Like each previous SOCOM game, SOCOM 4 offers the 14-mission single player campaign and the 32-player multiplayer versus. Zipper Interactive included PlayStation Move support and even developed a 3D mode. The news is all grand and good, but Zipper Interactive is more excited about the new five-player co-op.

Zipper was eager to show off their new adaptive squad-based enemy AI. While the cooperative mode lacks loads of different levels, the way players will work through existing ones will continually change. For example, in one stage, our five players were exploring an industrial distillery when a group of enemy soldiers bombarded us from a small room we entered. We all died, and after restarting the level, those soldiers were nowhere to be found. Important objects, VIPs, restocking crates—all of these important objects change in different playthroughs.

This dynamic AI will go a long way in making this co-op mode replayable. Total, there are “twelve map/gametype combos.” Co-op campaigns are broken up into missions that last about ten minutes apiece and task players with locating objects or taking down enemy VIPs as a team. The first campaign required our squad to visit an area and take out enemy spy dishes, then backtrack through the previous levels to escape. Each mini-segment feels different from the one before, an important incentive in gameplay. While players can let the game automatically design the co-op campaign, players will be able to build their own, as well.

Two of the co-op game types were shown: “Takedown” requires players to sweep though an area and eliminate an enemy VIP before making it out alive. “Espionage” was a little more dynamic, requiring players to sneak through an area and secure enemy intelligence and then finish by sabotaging enemy locations, all before backtracking and escaping.

Both game modes offer plenty of opportunities to work as a team. Players can revive each other, highlight points of interest with “up” on the d-pad, and fulfill different roles. While my teammates took all the aggro, my character sneaked up a nearby embankment and shotgunned his way through enemies with rocket launchers. Satisfying indeed, as one of the launchers was awarded to me, proving helpful in the next area.

Co-op will be a great new addition to the SOCOM franchise. The game is perfect for those who find the multiplayer scene too aggressive, and cooperative play seems like happy ground between the single player campaign and multiplayer. As long as the dynamic AI and level design come as promised, SOCOM 4 could be one of the best in the franchise.

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Hunted: The Demon's Forge

Bethesda announced Hunted: The Demon’s Forge at E3 2010 with little aplomb. It came out of nowhere, from the same studio behind A Bard’s Tale and with a June 1 release date. We had a chance to spend some time with the game to see how it’s coming along..

Hunted: The Demon’s Forge begins with a prologue that introduces the two characters: bow specialist elf E’lara and melee specialist Caddoc. The game starts off with E’lara, introducing her bow and melee attacks. The projectile stance controls more like a third-person shooter, and switching between that and the melee stance is as easy as tapping the corresponding button. It’s a simple design choice that feels smart, as the two stances are substantially different in feel.

We are introduced to the characters, a pair of mercenaries with snarky banter. After journeying to find a mana spring, the two discover a doorway that Caddoc had seen in a dream. Upon journeying through, they find a death stone and are then commanded by Seraphin, a scantly clad goth chick who passes through portals at will, to touch the death stone. Instead of killing them, the stone grants the duo abilities to use magic. From there on out, theirs is a journey to save the world and earn money. It’s standard stuff, so few will be blown away by the story, with the exception of the surprise role of Lucy Lawless as Seraphin. Awesome.

After testing out E’lara, the game let us switch to Caddoc at a checkpoint. It is only at these checkpoints that we could switch between characters, and the differences between the two are clear. Caddoc, unlike E’lara, has a fury meter that will build up and allow him to unleash a massive attack. Later, once magical attacks are unlocked, the two do share certain abilities, but E’lara can learn arrow-based magic while Caddoc can learn physical magic. While the two control quite alike, there is enough different to interest gamers in each.

While Hunted is a fairly traditional hack-n-slash, it does offer a lot to keep people going. Surprisingly, I’ve been told that Hunted is a fairly substantial game offering 18-20 hours of gameplay, and part of that is related to the exploration elements. E’lara and Caddoc are given primary level goals, such as passing through dungeon or taking down a boss, but each level have secondary goals and areas to explore. Smart players will go through and find extra crystals necessary for upgrades, equip-ready weapons and gear, and more. The death stone even allows our duo to talk with fallen bodies for guidance on finding magical weapons and items.

The game is obviously much more fun on co-op. With one player performing buffs and melee as Caddoc, and another eliminating enemies with exploding arrows as E’lara, it’s obvious that a good team will make working through Hunted much more enjoyable. All in all, Hunted does hold some promise. It doesn’t feel like a AAA title yet, but it does feel like a good secondary game for players to look forward to this June. More than a thoughtless hack-n-slash, players searching for an ambitious title should certainly pay attention to Hunted.

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Batman: Arkham City

There’s a lot of pressure riding on Batman: Arkham City. As the sequel to the best-received Batman game of all time, not only does the game have to be better, it has to be outstanding. Developer Rocksteady is working hard to make this sequel shine, and we’ve finally had a chance to make decisions for ourselves.

Compared to Arkham Asylum, which took place 80 percent indoors and 20 percent outdoors, Arkham City is the opposite, which makes sense considering the a cordoned off segment of Gotham has now been made into a livable city for criminals. City halls, churches, hotels and apartments are all sections of Gotham handed over to the criminally insane. As you’d expect, the city is in bad conditions, and at five times the size of Arkham Asylum, there’s a lot to see and do in Arkham City.

For all intents and purposes, this is the open world Batman game people have been wanting for years. Batman can explore the whole city and fulfill side missions, such as saving guards and paramedics kidnapped by the criminals. Batman can also jump down, take out a group of thugs, and interrogate the group’s leader to learn information about nearby missions or hidden collectibles.

Detective vision is better than ever. Batman can use the ability to find hidden Riddler trophies and riddles, gangs and their leaders, important locations and other special aspects. It seems like Rocksteady has worked hard to keep players from just playing the game with the detective vision enabled, as the world or Arkham City is both big and beautiful. Players will miss some great sights if they’re constantly using the enhancement.

Batman has plenty of new abilities. With combat, he can perform new actions like unleashing a flurry of punches to knock the armor off armored enemies, stealing weapons from enemies to beat them with their own tools, and even performing plenty of new dive moves onto unsuspecting enemies below. Batman is a much more capable crime fighter this time around. His weapons have also been modified, including an even better bat claw that can boost him over buildings.

With regards to the story, it’s all about the cat. Catwoman has been kidnapped by Two-Face, so Batman, hacking into Two-Face’s private voice channel, is able to discover where Catwoman is being held hostage. After sneaking into the nearby city hall, Batman makes short work of the villain’s men. Catwoman, playing coy, takes out Two-Face. After a quick chat, in which some character names are muffled, the Joker attempts to shoot Catwoman.

This scene introduces more of the detective mechanics. After searching around the church and analyzing the bullet angle, Batman sees that the Joker was hiding out in the bell tower of a nearby church. Before heading over, we find that C-list villain Calendar Man is being held in the basement of the city hall. He’s crazy, muttering to himself about upcoming holidays. For us, he only talked at length about St. Patrick’s Day, but if we were to play the game on the actual date, he’ll talk about the murders he committed. It’s an unimportant but neat little feature.

Finally arriving at the church, Batman runs into the redesigned Harley Quinn. She’s a little edgier this time around, but apparently not edgy enough to deal with Batman herself. Batman can escape anytime, but if you wait long enough, you can hear the thugs voice their distress. A lot of extra effort has been placed upon general character interaction to make the world feel even more alive. Batman easily deals with the four thugs and saves the civilians within the building.

Once Batman ascends to the steeple, he finds that the Joker had fired remotely and rigged the tower with explosives. In one final leap, Batman crashes through a window and speeds off, ending the demo.

Bar none, Batman: Arkham City was the most exciting new title at Microsoft’s February Showcase. Graphically the most impressive game of the night, with some of the biggest improvements shown off for a sequel, Arkham City has a very good chance of being one of the best games of 2011.

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