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Halo: Combat Evolved took the world by storm November 15th, 2001 with the launch of the Xbox system and went on to sell over five million copies.  Its brilliant combination of fast-paced action, unique storytelling elements, and revolutionary multi-player experience successfully brought the PC dominated world of first-person shooters to consoles worldwide.  Halo: CE paved the way for a decade of would be followers, “Halo killers,” and sequels still to come. 

With the recent movement of classic titles getting the high definition treatment and the pending release of Halo 4, it should come as no surprise that Microsoft’s 343 Industries would give Halo: CEa facelift for its 10-year anniversary.  The result, simply titled Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, does more than add a fresh coat of paint to the original.  While the attention is welcome, 343’s love isn’t enough to cover up the obvious cracks in the original’s design.



A quick unboxing of Anniversary shows the amount of detail that went into breathing life back into the title.  From its support of 3D, 1080p, and Kinect voice instructions, to the addition of Firefight and re-imagined versions of classic multi-player maps with Forge support, Anniversary is not just a high definition upgrade to the epic.  343 even went out of its way to include extra goodies for the dedicated masses.  Master Chief Avatar armor (for both sexes) and an exclusive “Grunt Funeral” skull that causes grunts to explode like plasma grenades also accompany the upgrades as an added incentive to purchase the classic.

But what about the game itself?  I will be the first to admit that I’ve been skeptical of playing through any of the HD remakes that have been released in the last year.  Halo: CE was purposely selected to be my first, due to my previous experience with the franchise and borderline addiction to the first two installments.  I am happy to say, after encountering the blue loading screen before the title menus from the original version, low-def and all, my skepticism faded.  That nostalgic touch took me back, but it wasn’t until the angelic chorus of the intro credits pumped through my surround sound that nostalgia turned into excitement and the upgrades became immediately apparent. 



Marty O’Donnell’s award winning soundtrack has been overhauled and it sounds brilliant.  While the original was prized for its use of sound to drive the game in areas that could have been deemed redundant, the re-mastered strings, orchestral pounding of the drums, and atmospheric ambiance have not only recaptured the feeling of its predecessor, but managed to somehow feel new.  This is the same soundtrack seasoned gamers have heard time and time again, but it feels remarkably fresh.  343 is so proud of the remastered version that they are re-releasing the soundtrack, complete with a remixed version, in digital and vinyl formats for the holiday season.  It truly is that good.

As the majority of readers will have some, if not copious, amounts of experience playing the series, I will spare you all the details of going into the story.  What you need to know is whether or not it is worth your time or money.  I can resoundingly say, “Absolutely.”  The minutiae that has gone into the gameplay upgrades is immediately apparent.  UNSC uniforms no longer look stiff and lifeless.  The blasts of fire throughout the Pillar of Autumn during the Covenant’s attack and scattered throughout the game are up to par with current Halo titles.  Cortana’s once squarish hair now looks feminine and sexy.  Comparatively, character models look great, but this is no Battlefield 3, or anything near it for that matter.  Not that I expected them to completely overhaul the game, but there are particular moments where the facial modeling begins to show its age, reminding me that I was playing a decade old game, for better or for worse.  The facial modeling is not the only area where the wrinkles are showing.  The frame-rate stammering during sequences and clipping in walls have not improved in the transition.  Worse, sound stutters are abound in the game which definitely pulled me out of the gaming experience and alerted me to the fact that I was also writing a review.



The environments throughout the Anniversary universe sparkle and shine like they’ve been hit with Mr. Clean.  I often found myself stopping just to take a look around at the vast improvements.  343 was kind enough to include the ability to turn off the enhanced graphics and play through the game in “Classic” mode, as it originally appeared, and this provides an excellent opportunity to see quickly how much work went into updating each level.  Blades of grass move in the wind, waterfalls pour with life-like movement in the distance, and sunlight glimmers off of the new details in the water providing gorgeous additions to the beach levels.  Fire fights in areas such as these will make you forget that you are playing a HD remake.  The team did an amazing job at giving a shock to the utterly lifeless surroundings of the original when viewed in comparison. 

Unfortunately, the polishing of each level doesn’t make up for the inadequacies in some of them.  Levels such as “The Silent Cartographer” and “Assault on the Control Room” are no longer awe inspiring so much as glaringly redundant.  I quickly reverted to the 19 year-old impatient version of myself, ready to smash something if I had to walk through another version of the same hallway backwards again.  Alas, by the time I reached that level of irritation, the problem was over, and I had reminded myself of the limitations Bungie was originally working with in their chosen platform for the release.  Though these levels proved as frustrating in moments as they did in the past, others like “The Maw” and “Keyes” manage to retain their controller gripping intensity, providing some of the best edge-of-your-seat battle moments in the history of action gaming.  Additionally, 343 has hidden terminals in each level with cut scenes revealing elements to the backstory, often told from the perspective of the 343 Guilty Spark and other key characters.  The careful use of certain pronouns and repetitive codes in these sequences may be pointing to plot lines in Halo 4, which is even more reason for Halo lovers to give Anniversary a playthrough.

Master Chief still seems to glide effortlessly through the levels like a phantom and jumps awkwardly for a cybernetically enhanced super soldier, but overall, the controls still hold up.  There were times when I wished for an overhaul of the scheme to make use of the 360 controller’s user-friendly button placement (thank god there are no awkwardly placed black and white buttons), i.e. left trigger for iron sights, not grenades, and so on, but the Halo format hasn’t changed too drastically over the years, so it didn’t bother me too often.  I still found myself clicking the right thumbstick in and zooming unintentionally, and I am still terrible at driving the Warthog, but these have always been problems for me.  Chalk it up to user error.  343’s decision to include Kinect voice recognition controls for some of the game’s more used functions is utterly useless.  In the time that it takes to utter “grenade” three or four times before Kinect finally recognizes it, you can exhaust your grenade supply by pulling the trigger. It was a noble idea, but they could have diverted their resources elsewhere instead of giving me the frustration of yelling “flashlight!” at my TV for a minute before it actually turns the flashlight on (which, in and of itself, is nearly useless, too).  It also makes me skeptical of future titles incorporating this function, such as Mass Effect 3. 



Where would a Halo review be without addressing multiplayer?  The original Halo: CE revolutionized the multi-player experience in a console gaming era that was focused on the single-player.  Halo: CE proved that console gamers will unite in masses and battle until the early morn.  As Halo: CEwas birthed before the dawn of Xbox Live, system-linking was simply the way it had to be done.  The most exciting element of opening the Anniversary package was discovering they had re-imagined and retooled some of the classic maps from Halo: CE and Halo 2, like Battle Creek, Timberland, and Hang ‘Em High.  Each of the re-imagined six multiplayer maps (Battle Canyon, Break Neck, High Noon, Ridgeline, Penance, and Solitary) comes complete with a re-tooledAnniversary edition of the same level that stays true to the original.  Standing atop the stone archway in the Battle Creek canyon, rocket launcher in hand, I began to recall the glory days of coming home to my roommates demanding, “Joel. Battle Creek. Rockets. Now.”  The re-imaginings are beautiful, and often give the classically smaller maps a little more breathing room.  Large maps like Ridgeline will become instant classics for snipers and run-and-gunners alike, but having the ability to be locked in the deadly confinements of their original iterations is a welcome gesture from 343.  Anyone who recalls the never-ending battle for the overshield and rocket launcher in Battle Creek should rejoice at the ability to relive those days, as I do.  Fans who decide not to make the purchase of Anniversary can also find these maps available for download for use in Halo: Reach.

Halo: Combat Evolved has certainly not been forgotten in the decade since its release, but 343’s dedication to the title in Anniversary is certainly noticeable.  Whether Anniversary is a labor of love, commercial exploit, or tie-in to Halo 4, isn’t important.  While the sands of time have revealed weaknesses in the once perfect title, the amount of detail that went into prepping Anniversary’srelease is apparent from the get-go.  Long-time fans, like my old friend Bob, and newcomers alike will surely enjoy revisiting the title.  Had 343 Industries only chosen to dress up the campaign and include the retooled multi-player maps, I would have recommended picking it up, but the inclusion of the expanded plot terminals, re-imagined multi-player content, and other aforementioned bonuses make Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary more than worth its $39 price-tag.

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 For as foreboding as my introduction was, I was not entirely appalled by the campaign.  The plot, though typically over the top and unrealistic, told a somewhat interesting story; one that took you to a few unexpected places, and allowed for some satisfying moments.  The campaign, graphically, is very well polished and by far superior in graphic appearance to it’s predecessors.  Shadows are deeper, lights are brighter, and textures are better rendered.  And, as you may expect, the cinematics and cutscenes are over the top and utilize unrealistic computer technology.   However cheesy, these simulations do effectively relate the story in a manner that television has popularized on such shows as CSI and other crime dramas: excessively powerful computers and somehow an unlimited capacity to “enhance” images.

Modern Warfare 3 picks up almost immediately after Modern Warfare 2, where World War 3 has broken out and is now underway in Manhattan.  You follow a group of soldiers through the conflict in an over-the-top, perfectly orchestrated, mission to take back the city.  Meanwhile the primary protagonist from the previous title “Soap”, has been injured and is being treated for his injuries.  This period of respite for Soap, however, does not last long and your character—Yuri—is thrown into combat immediately and the non-stop action begins; which goes to show that “relentlessness” is the name of the game in MW3.

Like most Call of Duty titles, the AI enemies are constantly engaging and they appear to have no limit to their numbers. Furthermore the AI’s collective intelligence rests somewhere between that of your average house cat and that of your run-of-the-mill brick.   In one of the final missions I dispatched almost every enemy in the level with my knife alone; they simply couldn’t catch on.  Personally I like to see my AI have more human qualities, such as the desire to live.

In the throes of combat you are shot at from every conceivable direction, and there are so many explosions that you often become disoriented.  And you will, of course, be hit—but fear not, you can safely take a half dozen or so shots before you die.  In spite of this, miraculously, the story drives on, and you are thrown along the story arch as an actor to a script—because after all: the show must go on.



It is just such combat-driven story that is the main fuel for my complaints in Modern Warfare 3.  Throughout the game you are put into obscene scenarios that require you to go, guns ablaze, into such chaotic and absurd environments that you often lose sight of what you are doing there in the first place.  Granted the overall story arch remains intact: you are a soldier, you must kill many people in order to end WW3.  Personally I enjoy a slower paced combat experience, environments that don’t constantly force you into corners where your only solution is to empty your clip.  To me games such as MW3 are the product of poor execution: the story was actually quite decent, the way it was told was not.

Certainly the largest issue I have with the campaign is the amount of shock factor that CoDcontinually tries to incorporate into their stories.  It isn’t enough that a city is beset by an invading force and you and your team are needling your way through the carnage; Activision insists on showing you every bloody detail.  Though it does give you the option at the beginning of the campaign to opt out of the “objectionable” material, I sincerely doubt that many people do so.  That being said MW3 took home the gold for bad taste with its gratuitous depiction of terrorism and the medium in which they chose to reveal it.  For spoiler purposes I won’t share further.  Despite the graphic content, MW3 does give you some truly visceral moments such as well placed knifes to the throat and opportunities for bullet time head shots.

From a mechanics perspective it appears that MW3 plays exactly like its predecessors.  There is an old adage that you “go with what you know”, and for the most part that is a good for standard operations.  However I will argue that when you are designing one of the most successful games ever made, that you simply have to venture out into the unknown.  I thoroughly believe that Activision and MW3’s associated creators should have done something more innovative with the game mechanics.  Progress is about pushing limits, and when you are responsible for one of the best selling game franchises in the world, I believe that you should strive to change things for the better!  But alas in MW3 we see the same blur when being shot, the same blood spattered vision when injured and—unsurprisingly—the same ragged breathing and sporadic heart beats when on the brink of death.  There were several moments in game where the sound effects were nearly identical to Call of Duty Modern Warfare!  Which begs the question; with a budget as large as Activision has to offer to the series, why recycle sound bites and some visual effects?

Furthermore, for me it simply does not make sense that you can barge into a room full of enemies, get shot no less than seventy times, yet remain fully functional and in control of your faculties.  Mechanically I would love to see some hinderance in my aiming ability, my walking ability and so forth.  Without these elements MW3 plays much more like a rail shooter or a side scroller than a proper first person shooter.  In short: I was disappointed with the lack of improvements throughout the campaign.



Now onto the Multiplayer.  I cannot accurately recall how many hours I spent playing Modern Warfare, or Modern Warfare 2, against other people.  I can, however, imagine that the number of hours spent was exceedingly high due to a couple factors; there was always something new to explore, the maps were cleverly designed and I could effectively enrage other players.

Upon engaging in Multiplayer in MW3 I found that the spark was gone.  Yes the game looks marginally more polished, however the gameplay is rudimentary at best with nearly identical play and function as MW2 or Black Ops.  A couple “improvements” have been made.  Killstreaks are no longer the only way to unlock powerful artillery as they have been replaced by Pointstreaks.  Pointstreaks allow you to unlock your typical lineup, along with some additional items, without having to engage in all out combat, such as earning points for assists and other “team oriented” actions.  Personally I think this is a smart move on the part of the creators as there are people, such as myself, that like to engage in alternate activities during a session.  It appears that MW3 is attempting to do what other FPS titles, such as Battlefield, have done very successfully: specialization.

Unfortunately, despite Activisions efforts to draw me in with pointstreaks, an immense amount of unlocks, and perks; I still cannot be swayed.  For me the lack of ingenuity and foresight to pose something truly innovative against MW3’s competition is a major turn off.  Despite amping up the graphics—marginally—MW3 looks, feels and plays almost exactly like Black Ops while abandoning all forms of dignity.  For me the maps are cramped, exploits are abound, and multiplayer matches are based on luck and smack-talk, rather than skill, patience and strategy.



To be honest I took home MW3 with high hopes, as a first-person shooter enthusiast I remember the glory of Modern Warfare, and the triumphant release of Modern Warfare 2. Those two titles were hallmark moments in my gaming career as they combined the excitement of a well orchestrated release, with that of a compelling and well made game.  Despite the wonderfully developed playability of those titles, they did something even more important: made improvements upon their old work.  With MW3 I feel that I’ve been cheated; left short handed with a game that promised a revolution and merely gave us a protest.

Ultimately I believe there is something to be said for the gaming industry: it is either very good at keeping promises, or it is very bad.  Activision, as of now, happens to be the group taking the cake in the very bad category.

That might sound a little strange, but bear with me for a minute.

It’s no secret in either the gaming world or in Hollywood that films based on video games tend to be pure crap.  Ask any gamer to choose a quality theatrical release that got its start as a video game, and he or she will more than likely be hard-pressed to name any serious contenders.

Titles like Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception prove, however, that this question is becoming more and more irrelevant as the gaming industry progresses.  Hollywood will always try to cash in on the financial success of video games, but mark my words, Tinseltown will never, ever release a game-based movie that’s as fun to watch as Drake’s Deception is to play.



Naughty Dog has a masterpiece on its hands here, and despite a few very minor flaws, Uncharted 3takes its place as the best Playstation 3 game released to date, and one of the best games released on any platform this year.

Drake’s Deception begins as protagonist Nathan Drake and his treasure hunting partner, Victor “Sully” Sullivan work out a deal with the game’s primary villain, Katherine Marlowe.  I won’t spoil any more than that, but suffice to say that this is the franchise’s best story yet.  Despite being an elderly woman, Marlowe is easily the most convincing villain the series has seen.  Her sinister subtlety is far more effective than the menace displayed by past antagonists like Roman, Navarro, Lazarevic or Flynn.  Marlowe’s right-hand man, Talbot, is also a wonderfully convincing enemy to face.

Naughty Dog delves into the backstory of Nate and Sully, and inject that story with a surprising amount of depth.  The simple fact that some of Uncharted 3’s most memorable moments don’t always come in the form of action set-pieces isn’t a knock against the game, it’s high praise.  The game’s action is hard to top, but a few of the quieter sequences are just as powerful.  Just wait for Nate’s sit-down with Marlowe or his stint in the desert.



Purely as a gaming experience, Uncharted 3 shines.  At its core, this game feels quite similar toAmong Thieves.  Drake still shoots, takes cover and does a whole lot of climbing.  Much of it feels far more refined this time around, though.  Specifically, hand-to-hand combat has been revamped, and though it’s not always the way to go in a fight, the brawling system feels exceptionally satisfying, especially after battling and beating a heavily armored enemy.

Shooting has also changed quite a bit since Drake’s last time out, though it might take some getting used to.  Naughty Dog community manager Arne Meyer put it best when he addressed some fan complaints following the game’s release:

“In Uncharted 2 the bullets would leave the barrel at a pre-set deviation when you were aimed in,” Meyer said. “What this means is that the bullets would not fire straight out of the barrel all the time - they could come out at an angle.  Therefore, you could have a target clearly in the reticule and still miss it by a wide margin.  This was frustrating, because it was difficult to tell why you were missing a target.”

“As a result, we wanted to be sure you had a better grasp of whether you were hitting or missing a target.  In Uncharted 3 the bullets now fire straight out of the barrel 100 per cent of the time. However, we have recoil - where the reticule moves/bounces as you fire.  Therefore, it is easier to tell if you are missing or hitting a target.  Now it is much more obvious when you are hitting or missing based on the reticule itself.”

The sensitivity is also much higher, making the proceedings a little more precise. Enemies are faster this time, and the popular AK-47 no longer has the range it once did.

What this all adds up to is this: Uncharted 3 isn’t worse than the previous installment in the shooting department, it’s just different.  I’m partway through my second playthrough now, and I honestly prefer this game’s gunplay.  The sensitivity is especially difficult to adjust to, but it’s all worth it in the end.



So, hand-to-hand combat and gunplay are better, and the climbing and exploring mechanics are as good as ever.  It must be said, however, that the true greatness in Drake’s Deception’s gameplay lies in the intangibles.

It’s difficult to describe just what makes navigating a burning chateau or escaping from a crashing plane just so cool, but these sequences and so many more are some of the most memorable ever put into a game.  I haven’t spoken about the cinematography in too many games before this, simply because games aren’t cinema.  Uncharted 3 manages to skirt the line between movie and game, and it does so with undeniable grace.

Therein lies my biggest problem with the game, which isn’t really a big problem to begin with.  I often didn’t feel as though I was in control of the action.  One of my favorite scenes in the game is a prime example.  The crashing airplane has been showcased in a number of trailers, and it certainly lived up to my expectations.  The problem is, much of this sequence is heavily scripted.  Sure, the player mashes buttons and toggles them when prompted, but many scenes like this felt more likeHeavy Rain-style interactions than actual gameplay sequences.



That said, a lesser game would’ve relegated stuff like this to a viewable cinematic.  Naughty Dog lets us play it, and although I’d like a bit more control over the action, especially as Drake falls from the sky, I’ll admit it: as an Uncharted fan, I’ve been a bit spoiled over the past few years.

My other minor quibble lies in the game’s tendency to be a trial-and-error affair.  All too often I found myself dying and reloading over and over again.  The difficulty spikes here are often jarring, and one wrong move can sometimes lead to a reloaded save.  A stealth section of the game’s ship graveyard scenario was particularly irritating.

Again, I must stress that all this is minor compared to the game as a whole.  This might be the best-looking game I’ve ever played; sand has never been so pretty to stare at.  The character models are about as perfect as they could possibly be, and we can thank the game’s approach to production for that.

Drake, Sully, Elena Fisher, Chloe Frazier and other characters in the game were fully motion-captured by the actors who voiced them, and the voiceovers were recorded as they moved.  This enhances the filmic quality of the proceedings to a ridiculous degree.  If you took away all the details in Drake or Elena’s character models and just showed them moving as stick figures, I could probably tell you which character was being portrayed.  Just like in real life, everyone moves and walks differently.



Once the single-player has been played and played again, there’s still a multiplayer component to look forward to.  Much of this will be familiar to Uncharted veterans, but Naughty Dog introduces Boosters and Kickbacks this time around.  Think of these like Call of Duty’s Perks.  They allow players to customize the experience to their playing style, and are surprisingly balanced considering the option count.

The gametypes here are pretty standard, but I think that’s the point.  I doubt this multiplayer will ever be as popular as that of Call of Duty or Battlefield, but hopefully players give this a second look.  It’s too bad the PSN isn’t as robust as Xbox Live, because a better framework would definitely support Uncharted 3.  There are so many character customization options and unlockables in this game’s multiplayer that it’s tough to not get addicted to the mode.

There’s also a cooperative mode, which can be played in both offline and online setups. As someone who doesn’t utilize the PSN much due to Internet limitations, the ability to play co-op locally is much appreciated.  I also noticed that Uncharted 3 allows competitive split-screen play using two PSN profiles on the same television.  This isn’t offered in many games on the PS3, and I can’t stress enough how much I appreciate this addition.  I don’t want to see split-screen gaming go the way of the dodo, but a variety of recent titles have seen this mode inching closer to that fate.  It’s good to see such a high-profile title supporting the option.

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception is absolutely a must-play.  I haven’t heard the term “system-seller” in quite a while, but this game defines it.  There hasn’t been a better time to pick up a Playstation 3, especially considering all the other highly rated titles that have dropped this year.  Drake’s Deception stands above all of them.

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The 2010 game had several differences from the original game. The first, most obvious difference is that it featured the likeness and voice talent of current Bond star, Daniel Craig instead of originalGoldenEye Bond star Pierce Brosnan.  Because of that, the single player story mode is not a straight adaptation of the original film.  It’s updated for modern times,  separating itself from the era of the Soviet Union and uses the action sensibilities of Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace as opposed to the Bond films of the Brosnan era.

While the 2010 game was well received, as a Wii exclusive, it seemed to fall short of many FPS-lovers’ radars, as the Wii doesn’t have the audience or reputation of the Xbox 360 or PS3 for shooters.  Word came early this year, though, that the 2010 Wii exclusive was going to be remastered with a new engine and an HD graphical upgrade to be re-presented as Goldeneye 007: Reloaded.  Because the Wii’s mechanics are pretty different from the other two consoles, an engine overhaul was required to both allow for smooth controls as well as to increase the graphical output of the game.



The presentation here is definitely an upgrade from the Wii version.  While the Wii does a good job with its renderings, it is not a high definition console.  In the first version of the game in the nightclub level, it seemed that much of the crowd was rendered with two-dimensional sprites as opposed to non-player models and created barriers blocking you from parts of the map.  Part of the upgrade sees that remastered level receiving full NPC models.  They still act as barriers to parts of the map, but are now fully realized which is definitely a positive for this version.

Although all of the graphics are now in high definition and are a definite improvement over the Wii version of the game, you get the impression early on that Reloaded isn’t fully taking advantage of the full capabilities of the power that the 360 and PS3 have.  The graphics are very smooth, but lack detail in some cases, and even in cinematics the game maintains an apparent approximate framerate of 60 per second.  Most games like this with a lot of graphical power tend to drop to about 30fps during cinematic sequences, but this game doesn’t skip a beat in that regard.  This is a positive and a negative, as the game moves along, but lacks the graphical power you might hope it has.

The single player story itself is, I think, a wonderful update of the story originally conceived in the 1990’s.  Craig brings Dame Judi Dench with him, and the renowned actress reprises her role as M, a role she first played in the GoldenEye film.  Unlike the original video game and film, the whole story takes place after the Cold War, replacing the early bad guys from the USSR with the Russian Federation.  As you might remember from the film, the story accounted for the governmental change by jumping nine years into the future early on.  In this game, the story does not jump nine years ahead after the opening sequence and continues at a normal pace.  Craig and Dench’s voice work is great, and really make the game feel like a genuine Bond experience from the outset.  The other cast members that populate the other characters are largely forgettable, except for Elliot Cowan, the new Alec Trevelyan (aka Agent 006) who turns in a great performance.



The gameplay itself, even though being built from a different engine, feels very similar to the 2010 game.  This is a good thing.  The mechanics were pretty sound in the first game and for the most part are what you’d expect from an FPS.  Every once in a while, there are doors you have to open by hand with simultaneous tapping of both triggers on the controller.  Other than that, the controls are pretty straightforward.  The single player gameplay itself is linear and straightforward, but depending on the difficulty you play it on there are other supplementary objectives you have to complete that don’t necessarily come easy.  In order to complete all of the objectives, it involves some serious exploration of the game map in order to find everything and get that sweet “Mission Complete” banner at the end.  The AI in the single player on higher difficulties can seem stupid at times, because even when you think you have all your bases covered, the AI will send an enemy into the line of fire with no apparent feel of self-preservation.

I think the true mileage for this game will come from the multiplayer.  Given the history of this title as a huge multiplayer machine, it wouldn’t surprise me if a lot of people would pop this into their console just for some straight split-screen action.  That’s where this game really shines, is in the competition between friends sitting across from you.  It’s enthralling, engaging, and just plain fun to roam around the maps looking for the kill that makes your buddy scream in rage as the blood streaks down his part of the screen.  It does a good job of evoking the classic game in that regard, as the social experience of the multiplayer really does feel largely unbroken from the game that came out for the N64.  That, to me, is pretty astonishing.



Oftentimes, the multiplayer feels like parts of it are taken from Call of Duty: it features online play for up to 16 players across 14 multiplayer maps, and there are nine different game modes for online multiplayer.  Online multiplayer can be used over Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network, but even though up to 16 players can connect to a game remotely, only one local player (from your specific console) is allowed at a time.  Multiplayer includes characters from the single player campaign, such as James Bond and Alec Trevelyan, as well as classic Bond-series characters including Jaws, Oddjob, and Julius No, all using their original likenesses.  Evoking Call of Duty, online multiplayer offers XP progression, multipliers, and unlockables.

There is also a new single player mode, called “MI6 Ops Missions.”  These are special single player outings with specific goals, such as defending a computer console downloading information (while waves of enemies come at you to try and destroy the console), surviving endless onslaughts and reaching your checkpoint without dying, eliminating all enemies in a map before time runs out, and stealthily dispatching enemies without being seen.  These feel like challenge maps and while they don’t add a whole lot to the gameplay, depending on the difficulty these can be welcome additions for refining your skills and definitely add to the game’s replayability.

GoldenEye 007: Reloaded is a welcome addition to the 360 and PS3 for Bond fans and FPS-lovers alike.  While it’s not the most advanced game present on the new consoles, it comes packed with a lot of fun and relatively minimal frustration. For Bond fans interested in the tweaking of the mainGoldenEye story, it’s sheer delight seeing this story play out in a new way with the current Bond sensibilities, and the multiplayer is good old fashioned fun with friends.  This is definitely a fun outing and although pretty simple, it feels like a genuine Bond experience and a simple and fun FPS.  Doesn’t sound like a bad distraction to me.

In March of 2010 EA put together a phenomenal platform for their upcoming Battlefield titles with the creation of BC2 — a game that held such scope and vision, that it was practically a new genre in itself.  Not surprisingly, with the release of Battlefield 3 we have seen the revolution of this “new genre”, and yet another excellent triumph for the Battlefield franchise.

Since dropping on October 25th, Battlefield 3 has become my go-to game for the first person experience.  Boasting incredibly detailed graphics, realistic in-game dialogue, and the versatility one would hope to experience from “real life” combat, Battlefield 3 has replaced all other war simulations in my library.  However, BF3 is not all rainbows and gumdrops; like any large launch, the game has it’s pitfalls.  In this review I will give you an in depth look at why you need to own this game, a few things what will both challenge you and drive you insane, and ultimately – why BF3 is a perfect addition to your game library.

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The Campaign

The campaign, apart from the multiplayer, is phenomenally gorgeous; an experience that is nearly frustrating in it’s impeccable detail.  Characters are fully conceptualized people, with their own personalities and traits.  The story is complicated and yet extremely engaging, forcing the player into a moral dilemma that I believe hasn’t been incorporated into many FPS’s.  The story takes you to places that I haven’t experienced in previous First Person Shooters, which—let’s face it—are usually based around petty revenge, or your run of the mill “black operations” teams.

In BF3 your primary character is Sergeant Blackburn, a U.S. Special Forces officer who leads a small team on a mission to find chemical weapons.  Needless to say the proverbial crap hits the fan and you are left separated from your group, losing them one by one, and entrenched in a plot that threatens nuclear war between the global superpowers.  Though the story arch may seem fairly rudimentary, the non-linear story telling is by far the best presentation of a FPS plot I’ve ever seen.  We observe our protagonist after most of the events of the story have happened being interrogated by CIA.  This allows for an intriguing narrative/cutscene to play out prior to most missions in the game.  I found this process of story telling to be really quite entertaining and furthermore: the voice acting is actually quite good!  It is far too rare to find games with decent performance and it appears that EA sought out some genuine talent to push the story forward. Many will liken this story format to that of the campaign of Black Ops, and in many ways it is an homage to that style of story telling; only better.



The detail and graphic quality of the Campaign is superb.  Large, dynamic levels and intelligent AI immediately sets BF3 apart from its competitors.  Smoke, fire, and weapons are beautifully rendered, allowing for a completely immersive gameplay experience.  Enemies on the horizon blend seamlessly with environmental elements which—even on normal—can make target acquisition extremely difficult.  I realized after dying several dozen times, that BF3 was not at fault; it was how I was playing the game that was leading me to fail.

Other FPS games have taught me that barging into an environment, and overpowering the AI wish sheer ferocity, is the most effective method for getting through a campaign storyline.  In most FPS games I’ve found that a well placed grenade, a knife, and lots of jumping – could get you a good 75% of the way through the level.  BF3, however, has made me appreciate the intricacies of stealth, patience, and the reservation of ammunition.  The “run and gun” methodology that I utilized through all the Modern Warfare titles was not effective against the AI’s well placed shots and use of environmental leveraging.

Overall the Battlefield 3 campaign is a massive success.

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Multiplayer

Now onto the meat and potatoes of all First Person Shooter’s: the multiplayer.  EA has worked extensively on creating a multiplayer experience that is both visceral, destructible and beautiful.  Almost all of the maps are massive, covering everything from large sections of city blocks, mountain sides, meadows and subway tunnels.  On this landscape in such multiplayer modes as Rush and Conquest, you the player have access to helicopters, tanks, jets, Humvees and ATV’s—and trust me, you’ll need them.



For as beautiful as the levels are, they are also the fuel for one of the main complaints I hear from non-Battlefield connoisseurs: “the maps are too big” or “it’s so boring”.  While having ample grounds to play in is fun, it can be quite frustrating when you have to walk for a good minute or two to get to the combat zone, only to be sniped from a crackshot sniper before you can contribute.

In addition to the gorgeous scenery and the scale of the levels, the Multiplayer is very well thought out from a game mechanics perspective.  The four available classes Assault, Support, Recon and Engineer are designed to serve specific functions in your immediate squad and for the whole team; all the while allowing for an incredible amount of customizability.  From your camouflage pattern, to the attachments on your primary weapon, EA has allowed a wide array of setting yourself apart from the crowd; without having to paint your assault rifle bright pink.

The roles and functions that you play as your favored class can vary greatly.  The Support class can be primarily used to supply your squad with ammunition, or to lay down heavy suppressive fire—which in BF3 has been built into the game mechanics.  As an Engineer you can focus on repairs and laying traps, or offensive actions against tanks and aircraft.  As an Assault soldier your role of healing and reviving is extremely valuable for your squad, as is your impressive arsenal of assault rifles and grenade launchers.  Finally with Recon your role is to strike from a distance, or give your team a tactical advantage by placing spawn points or painting targets. Ultimately how you play your class will vary from person to person, regardless of how you play—however—you will be thoroughly pleased as all classes allow applying devastating damage to the opposing team and the environment.



Aside from all the praise I’ve been giving this game, there are certainly some things that myself—and many others—would rather do without.  First and foremost are the network issues.  With almost every game that EA has released that involves online play, they have had server issues e.g. crashes, lag, and non-functionality for several days after launch.  This has left many players rueing the day they were born when they return home from their midnight launch and can’t connect to a game.  As frustrating as it can be I must commend EA on their response times with this launch.  A large majority of the connection errors and server issues are rectified within a couple hours, and most of the initial kinks were solved within the first seven days.

One complaint that I have against BF3 is the utilization of lighting, and the drastic effect it has on gameplay: more often than not I found it difficult to even ascertain where the enemy was shooting from.  The lighting effects are so vivid, and so very well utilized that simply turning a corner from a dark room into daylight, can leave you hapless for several seconds. However I think that credit has to be given to the designers, who spent so much time and effort, mastering the effect.  Where lighting is not properly used is in the multiplayer, where the opposing teams tactical lights are practically compact versions of the Sun that follow them around.  Happen to come face to face with an enemy within twenty feet or so, even in broad daylight, and you’ll likely be sent to your grave wishing that you had sunglasses and cursing at your television.



As with most first person shooters there will be times where you turn a corner and your enemy will still manage to hit you.  It appears to me that Battlefield 3 is still dealing with some issues concerning trailing hitboxes which, those of us that played Counterstrike know, can be the death of a good game and the birth of an anger problem.  Granted, the trailing boxes could also be merely a symptom of chronic lag, in which that returns us to the network issues.

Despite these minor issues I believe that Battlefield 3 is the best combat game choice for 2011 offering a completely immersive, gorgeous, gameplay experience that will leave you yearning for more; and with ten times as many unlocks in Multiplayer mode then Battlefield Bad Company 2, you’ll have plenty of reasons to keep playing!

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Batman may be the most popular superhero with his name on some of the most unforgettable television series, feature films, comic books, and radio shows.  For some reason, though, like most superheroes, the definitive video game based on the character was always an elusive goal, that was never quite reached.  That all changed at the end of summer 2009 when Rocksteady Studios developed, hands down, the best Batman gaming experience ever in Batman: Arkham Asylum.  The success of that game immediately brought up speculation about a sequel, hopes that were confirmed in December of 2009 with an ominous teaser trailer featuring a sick and decrepit Joker laughing maniacally at chaos running rampant through the streets of Gotham.  Whatever this sequel was going to be, it definitely moved away from the confines of Arkham Island and at least into a portion of Batman’s home, Gotham City.



But now, all the curiosity and speculation can be put to rest as this past October 18th, Batman: Arkham City finally saw release to a gaming community clamoring for a new bat-adventure.  To say that this game is ambitious is an understatement.  The criticisms of Arkham Asylum were mostly limited to aesthetic aspects, such as the lip-synching and some minor clipping issues.  There wasn’t a whole lot to fix per se, so if you manage to pick up the controller completely unaware of the massive hype machine preceding the game’s release, you might ask: what’s left to explore?  Well, the answer is apparently a lot.  While Arkham City doesn’t really fix anything from the first game, it does is expand on virtually every aspect of gameplay that was present in the first outing, and maintains the relatively simple control scheme that made the first game so fun.  It also does what every good sequel should do, and allows you to, quite simply, do a whole lot more with the Dark Knight’s ability to thrash either an unsuspecting purse snatcher, or a Venom-doped supervillain.

One of the most defining and unforgettable aspects of the first game is the actual story.  As with the first game, the story was written by renowned Batman writer Paul Dini, who wrote some of the best episodes of Batman: The Animated Series as well as a very memorable run on DC’s Detective Comics.  With him, Dini brings back two very notable Animated Series alumni in Kevin Conroy as the definitive voice of Batman as well as Mark Hamill’s final hurrah as one of the most unforgettable iterations of Batman’s arch nemesis, the Joker.  The story of Arkham City picks up approximately one year after the events on Arkham Island in the first game, and deals with the construction of a new facility within the borders of Gotham City cordoned off from the remainder of the beleaguered metropolis.  This is brought about by the mind of the villainous Professor Hugo Strange, whose greatest weapon in his ongoing plot is the knowledge that Bruce Wayne is Batman.



In Arkham Asylum, you had to travel around Arkham Island into different sections of the map, where in Arkham City you can travel with relative ease into every situation and area that you need to, all while still managing to increase the overall size of the gameplay area. Transit in-game is one of the most efficient and innovative changes made since Arkham Asylum.  Instead of the minimal gliding time present in the first game, Arkham City allows for longer periods of gliding, while also invoking Batman’s famous grapple gun in enhancing the range of the grapple in attaching to structures around Arkham City.  An upgrade you receive by completing one of the training mode side missions also allows you to implement the grapple during gliding, so that at a certain point, you don’t even need to touch the ground during your entire travel time.

Most of the gadgets present on Batman’s utility belt in the first game make their return here.  From the definitive and ever-reliable Batarang, to the Explosive Gel, down to the Cryptographic Sequencer and the Line Launcher, much of what you’ve come to expect from the first game makes its return.  There are a few notable additions to Batman’s arsenal this time though, and if you’re as big of a Batman fan as I am, then you should be happy to find that the singular Smoke Pellet is finally available allowing you to make quick, mysterious escapes in addition to confusing the hell out of your enemies.  A broadcast disruptor is also a new addition, and with the proper upgrade you can remotely jam up to 2 enemies’ firearms so that they become far less of a threat.  The new Remote Electrical Charge (REC) allows you to either temporarily shock enemies or open devices which would normally be closed off to you.  Mr. Freeze also makes his presence known on your utility belt, as you can make use of his freezing technology at a certain point in the campaign to immobilize and devastate scores of enemies who then become helpless to your onslaught.

One of the most distinctive and defining parts of the last game was the fact that it forced you to tactically think as the Dark Knight might in certain situations.  Unlike many other superhero games, both this game and its predecessor simply don’t throw wave upon wave of enemy at you, forcing you to simply button mash your way to the end of a level.  Instead, the Arkham games make you approach every enemy type differently.  For example, in this game, you cannot fight a Titan-powered henchman and Solomon Grundy the same way.  You have to adapt your tactics to the enemy in front of you and look around the environment or your target to locate weaknesses that may give you the advantage you’re looking for.

This is a slight spoiler alert, but in order to demonstrate my point, take the battle against Mr. Freeze.  While he wears his suit, his strength is enhanced tenfold, and it also protects him from most basic melee attacks.  The advantage that you have is in Batman’s extensive capabilities as a stealth combatant.  Freeze uses thermal imaging to track your footsteps, and there are portions of the environment that are dangerous to him.  What does this mean for your battle against him?  Simple: you can lead him into traps.  Send him toward a power coupling, and when he pauses there, fire your Remote Electrical Charge at the coupling and temporarily disable him, allowing you to beat on him for a few seconds and work down his health before his suit cycles back up forcing you to hide.  It’s the thinking involved in boss battles like this that automatically separate Arkhamfrom most other superhero games around.



The singular Freeflow combat system also makes it’s triumphant return in Arkham City, largely unaltered, but definitely enhanced.  In addition to the devastating attacks granted by receiving a combo flow of 8x or more, now you can implement more of Batman’s gadgets in combat flows like the famous sonar Bat-summoner in addition to an attack that allows you to destroy an enemy’s firearms, stun guns, or riot shields.  The combat system, definitely one of the most celebrated parts of the original game, remains one of the most innovative and well-rounded combat systems in any action-adventure game.

One very notable addition to this game is the ability to play through parts of the campaign as an entirely new character.  That character should be no stranger to most people as one of the definitive and interesting members of both Batman’s rogues gallery and allies, that of the Feline Fatale herself, Catwoman.  Over the course of the campaign, there are four separate episodes that you can play as Catwoman that dovetail through the main story’s narrative, and as is appropriate, Catwoman’s gameplay mechanics are decidedly different from that of the Dark Knight’s.  For instance, Catwoman is noticeably faster on her feet, but lacks the capabilty that Batman’s brute strength provides.  Catwoman has different abilities and gadgets as well, and while not nearly as extensive as that of the Batman’s, she uses her famous whip, disorienting caltrops, and disabling bolas to take out a myriad of enemies.  When using the Freeflow system with Catwoman, her mechanics are basically the same as Batman, although you have to focus a little bit more with her on each enemy than you do with Batman.



The challenge maps make their return with this game, and allow you to hone your abilities with the Freeflow combat system and with your stealth capabilities.  As with the last game, there are two basic types of maps to the challenge modes: combat maps, giving you four rounds of enemies to defeat with the Freeflow system and awarding medals based on your score, and Invisible Predator maps, making you rely on taking out your enemies from the shadows and warding medals based on your use of the environment and your gadgets.  The challenge mode also adds a new component, that of “campaigns.”  These are a series of both types of map while implementing specific modifiers to the requirements of each map. Winning combat medals allows you to contribute to your overall game completion percentage, and have to be something you play in if you’d like to try and reach full game completion and get the trophy or achievement for it.  When you end up finishing the game’s main story, you may be surprised to see that your overall completion of the game will hover around the 30% mark.  If anything, this shows the obvious replay value present if you want to mine this extensive game for everything that it’s worth. 

The story brings about 12 unique side missions that can be accomplished at specific thresholds reached within the main story.  One of them involves a mysterious figure watching you from the shadows as you beat down thugs, and speaking to him may give you clues to where the story goes beyond the confines of this game.  Another involves a strange hallucination brought about by the mind control of Jervis Tetch, aka the Mad Hatter.  You’ll also find yourself racing around the city answering random payphones in order to try and stop the insane murderer Victor Zsasz from his near-religious devotion to the “steel of his blade meeting warm flesh.”  Several other side missions treat you to unexpected cameos from across the world of Batman in some very interesting situations.



One aspect that will keep Arkham City’s community alive for the foreseeable future is that some interesting downloadable content is promised in the coming months. The Catwoman pack comes with any new purchase of the game, and a pack allowing you to play challenge maps as Batman’s original protégé Nightwing, adds more achievements and a very cool combat dynamic to the challenge mode.  Nightwing’s use of escrima sticks and new gadgets such as wrist darts allow for some fun new exploitations and very acrobatic components to dishing out punishment for enemies.  Robin’s DLC pack is also a sight to behold, with the use of the Boy Wonder’s bo staff making the deposition of enemies brutal and dynamic.  You can also use new skins for the Dark Knight himself, with a large skin pack hitting the marketplaces featuring costumes form across Batman’s history, including ones from the classic Frank Miller Year One and Dark Knight Returns stories, as well as an Animated Series skin.  Others include skins featuring Batman in a Green Lanterninspired Sinestro Corps uniform, and Batman’s awesome design from the upcoming Earth Onegraphic novel.

Batman Arkham City is a massive achievement not only for superhero video games, but in showing other game developers that sticking to what people love about the first game is largely a winning formula, as long as you add to it.  There’s an incredible story to be told, and this game definitely does what the first game did, but better: it makes you actually feel like Batman.  For someone who’s admired the character for as long as he can remember, Arkham City is just what a fan like me needs.  Do yourself a favor and pick up the best game that I personally have played all year.  Batman: Arkham City is the new “best superhero game ever made,” and it’s entirely deserving of the torrent of accolades it’s sure to receive.  Take the plunge and become the invisible predator.  I’m sure that you not only won’t regret it, but that you’ll become involved in one of the most compelling Batman stories told in recent memory. We now have our Dark Knight of video games.  Don’t miss it.

As far as actual gameplay goes, Edge of Time is not quite as sharp or as memorable as Shattered Dimensions. While a lot of the individual traits of the Amazing and 2099 Spider-Men remain from the last game, a lot of the original moves that set them apart are absent this time around.  Instead of very different combat styles, 2099 and Amazing both have very similar modes of operation in the way that they dispense enemies.  2099 in last year’s game was all about the unmatched acrobatics he had in addition to his suit’s advanced technology.  While the suit does have the technology, it seems dialed down compared to Dimensions and his combat is very similar to that of his counterpart’s.

The most direct comparison to make here is to last year’s Shattered Dimensions, for which in my review I noted that Spidey felt a little less mobile than he probably should in places due to control hypersensitivity.  Unfortunately, this problem has returned pretty blatantly in Edge of Time.  One of the main issues with control of the Webslinger is in the free fall portions.  Several times through the game, you have to jump down chasms that are really, really, really long, and mobility plays a rather large role in the ability to pass these levels successfully.  Unfortunately, speed does as well, and the combination of both make this portion of the game especially difficult when you need to navigate through a tight spot.

One of the more general problems that immediately comes to mind when comparing Edge of Timeto Dimensions is summed up in one word: repetition.  Because Shattered Dimensions contained four main characters with distinctive objectives, gameplay styles, and graphics, repetition wasn’t ever really a problem.  Here, the protagonists are cut in half, and the gameplay options are seemingly cut with them.  More uniformity in the renderings also make this experience feel flat.  InShattered Dimensions, you had a popping, four-color style to the Amazing Spider-Man levels, a cel-shaded animation fest in Ultimate Spider-Man, grim and gritty darkness for Spider-Man Noir, and vibrant realism and fantastic environments surrounding Spider-Man 2099.



The variety and vibrancy of those distinct flavors is gone, because the two Spider-Men that you play as in this game appear sometimes in the same world.  I understand you can’t very well have a realistic character render paired with a cel-shaded figure; those types of polar graphical opposites would definitely stick out like a sore thumb.  The end result, though, feels much less distinctive on the aesthetic side.  That’s not to say that the game doesn’t look good.  It does.  It just lacks some of the color and definition of Dimensions, which I sorely miss.

As far as the gameplay is concerned, the entire campaign is basically a series of quests that call for you to find something, encounter a bunch of very difficult and annoying enemies, and destroy as many of them as possible before encountering a boss.  Every once in a while they’ll throw in a free fall mission to mix things up a little bit, but that’s basically the outline of the gameplay experience of Edge of Time.  When compared to the mode of operation in Dimensions, which had you saving hostages one minute, followed by reassembling a device in another, then jumping to another world where you have to take thugs down silently without being detected, Edge of Time feels boring because of a lack of gameplay diversity.

With that variety gone, and replaced with pretty rigid uniformity across both your playable characters, it’s hard not to make a comparison to Shattered Dimensions in the negative.  From a character and story perspective, though, the game does manage to get things pretty right.  Spider-Man sounds as he should, and his 2099 counterpart is appropriately annoyed by his sarcasm and wit.  Two voice actors from Shattered Dimensions and Spidey animation alumni return to the vocal chords of Peter Parker (or Miguel O’Hara): Josh Keaton (from the animated series The Spectacular Spider-Man) and Christopher Daniel Barnes (From the 1990’s Spider-Man Animated Series) provide the voices for Amazing Spidey and 2099 Spidey, respectively.

They even managed to get other people involved in comic book productions of the past to voice characters.  Laura Vandervoort, who most genre fans will remember as Clark Kent’s Kryptonian cousin Kara Zor-El form the later seasons of the Smallville TV series, voices Mary-Jane Watson.  And a former Batman, Val Kilmer (Batman Forever, Tombstone), provides the voice for the games villain Walker Sloan.  I couldn’t really complain about the voice acting with much accuracy because it was all rather enjoyable.  Kilmer in particular sounds oddly and appropriately detached as Sloan, and that seemed to fight his character very well.



The fact of the matter, though, is that in a video game, gameplay must come first.  I will not make a bold statement and call Edge of Time a bad game, because I don’t think it is.  I really do think, though, that it would be much easier to praise this game if we weren’t spoiled by last year’s very solid outing in Shattered Dimensions.  Lesser mobility, less diverse gameplay, an admittedly less focused story relying on pretty abstract fringe-science, and an all-around duller experience make this kind of a lesson about what not to do in superhero game sequels.

In game sequels, people can and should expect everything that they loved about the first outing amped up and expanded upon in ways we thought not imaginable.  In that regard, Edge of Timecan’t help but feel like a step backward.  Then again, a year between releases really doesn’t seem like a whole lot of time to assemble a truly great gaming experience.  Beenox was just announced to be creating the movie tie-in game for next year’s Amazing Spider-Man film.  I think that they have a pretty solid template from where to craft a good Spider-Man game, and they proved they could do it with their first entry out the gate.  While Edge of Time is kind of a hiccup, I really hope that’s all it is because there’s still a lot of potential with this developer handling this character.

In the end, Edge of Time isn’t the best Spider-Man game and feels like a demotion of sorts fromShattered Dimensions.  It’s worth checking out if you’re a Spidey fan, but if you’re looking for a game that expands on what made last year’s outing great, Edge of Time just doesn’t quite deliver.

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