Batman Arkham Asylum Preview
I just recently got a chance to download and play the Batman Arkham Asylum demo.  Of course as the name of the game states it is set in Arkham Asylum.  The demo starts off with Batman driving his batmobile towards Arkham Asylum to lock Joker up again.  Shortly after, the Joker breaks out of his binds and escapes further into Arkham Asylum, taking control of it.  It would seem at this point that Joker had planned this all along as you’ll be fighting against some baddies after the cutscene.  The fighting in this game is done very well, there is only one button to attack and another to counter, but it works really well.  In the demo you can also use the batarang, but at the moment it doesn’t seem all that useful.  There is also a detective mode by pressing the left bumper, this allows you to see areas that you can access via grapping hook and also allows you to see the bpm of enemies and see them as skeletons.  While in this mode and on top of a gargoyle you can do a glide kick to an enemy to take them out without being seen.  You can also grab an enemy if he is under the gargoyle and hang him from said gargoyle.  There is really nothing more to the demo, but for me there is nothing more than that to convince me to buy the game when it comes out and hopefully I’ll be able to do so and shortly after write a review.  So stay tuned to the site for a Batman Arkham Asylum review in the near future hopefully.

Preview by Jeff Knox

Gears of War 2 Review
The continuation of the instant hit Gears of War finally landed in late 2008.  Of course people knew it was going to be a great game, but did they know it was going to be fantastic?  For the first time ever you’ve heard me state my final opinion of the game at the beginning of the review, but I’ll proceed to say why it is a fantastic game.  Gears of War 2, as a sequel normally does, continues the story of the first.  The story follows the gang of the first game, Marcus, Dom, Baird, and Cole.  It also adds a couple of new characters such as Tai, Dizzy, and another one of the Carmines.  The main jist of the story is the COGs are fighting the Horde and trying to rid the world of them and vice-versa.  But there is a sort of side-story to it involving looking for Dom’s wife Maria.  

The gameplay is still the same as it was last time with a few new weapons.  One of the new weapons is, as you read from my review on Call of Duty World at War,  my favorite type of weapon ever the flamethrower.  Among the new guns there is the mulcher, a chain gun, it’s my weapon of choice and yes I think it’s even better than the flamethrower.  There is also a new pistol dubbed the gorgon pistol, it’s more powerful than the boltok pistol, which I find more ideal for long range shots over the sniper, although it’s range isn’t as good as the boltok’s.  There is also a mortar gun and an ink grenade added to your arsenal, but I didn’t pay much mind to those two weapons.  

Now there is an ongoing trend to add modes to games in which you go through level after level of fighting enemies with others and this game is no exception to the trend (considering as far as I can remember it was the first I saw that started the trend).  This mode is called Horde mode, in this mode you fight wave after wave of the horde throughout 50 levels.  The difficulty goes up after each wave until you go through ten waves then the difficulty drops some, but probably not enough to go through by yourself if you somehow get that far by yourself, so like I said with Nazi Zombie mode in Call of Duty World at War, you should play Horde mode with other people luckily they decided to allow five player co-op so it makes it more fun and hectic.  One more thing I have to mention is that the game looks more dark and much more detailed than the first Gears of War.  Oh and one last thing… Mariaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…

Story: 93/100

Graphics: 97/100

Sound: 95/100

Gameplay: 98/100

Replay Value: Very High

Overall: 96/100

Reviewed by Jeff Knox

Call of Duty World at War Review
Treyarch returns and what have they brought to the party this time?  Well first off Treyarch brings back the World War II setting.  I bet if you haven’t seen anything about this game you’d bee thinking “Oh no this is the same game as Call of Duty 1, 2, and 3” Well you’re sort of right, the campaign is your normal WWII campaign nothing too different here.  Oh wait, no there’s one new thing in the campaign, there is a level where you are in a plane, but you’re not flying.  You are manning the guns of the aircraft, unfortunately you don’t get the choice of switching between guns at times that you want to, instead you have to switch between what guns you man at different times.

I have a few things to say about the multiplayer for World at War.  First off the took the prestige idea from Modern Warfare, so you’ve got that in there as well as a new multiplayer mode that unlocks after beating the campaign.  This mode is called Nazi Zombies, and it’s a scenario where the Nazis come back as zombies.  Now here’s how this mode goes down, you’re in a location (Just a note, I’ve only played the maps that ship with the game, not the downloadable maps) with each window and door boarded up.  At first the zombies slowly come and try to break through the boarded windows and doors and you can probably fend them off with little to no effort.  Although as you get past each level there are more zombies and they come at you in mass groupings, its also probably recommended that you play co-op Nazi Zombies opposed to playing by yourself, trust me its way better to play friends and its much more fun to do so.  One thing I would also like to mention is that the graphics aren’t as good as Modern Warfare’s, but then again they’re both made by different game developers.  Oh, I forgot to mention there is a flamethrower in the game, in my opinion that makes this game at least worth checking out.

Story: 75/100

Graphics: 80/100

Sound: 80/100

Gameplay: 90/100

Replay Value: High

Overall: 81/100

Reviewed by Jeff Knox

Fable II Review
A few years ago Peter Molyneux stated that Fable was going to be one of the best RPGs ever, that was not the case for anyone who had a chance to play it.  This time around he did not create a massive hype for Fable II, although this time if he had said it was one of the best RPGs then he wouldn’t have been mocked severely this time around.  Fable II introduces a new protagonist and is set about 500 years after the first game.  The story this time around is that you are a child named Sparrow, you and your sister are wandering the market one day and you see a man selling magical items, one being a magic box that grants a wish, curious if the box can really grant a wish you go all around town doing some odd jobs to earn 5 coins to buy the box.  You and your sister wish that you could live in Castle Fairfax, and in the middle of the night a guard comes and takes you to the castle.  Your sister is then shot in the castle and you are shot out of the window.  When you wake up you learn it is your destiny to stop the one who shot you and your sister.

The gameplay is very simple you press one button to attack, another to fire a gun or crossbow, and one to cast spells.  Having the combat be this simple makes it much easier for equipping weapons since you can equip a gun or crossbow and still have a sword equipped without having to switch when you feel its necessary.  Now on to how the game looks, while it looks pretty good it’s pretty much Fable’s graphics just updated for high-def.  Not really a bad thing, but it seems a little lazy on Lionhead Studios part.

Story: 85/100

Graphics: 85/100

Sound: 90/100

Gameplay: 100/100

Replay Value: Moderate

Overall: 90/100

Reviewed by Jeff Knox

Fallout 3 Review

Bethesda picks up the Fallout series and turns Fallout into a first/third person shooter/rpg type game in the same style as The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.  Some people will think that Fallout 3 is way too similar to Oblivion and that all they did was change the setting and the weapons.  Those people have most likely only played the game for probably and hour or two.  Once you get into the game you’ll realize that Fallout 3 is a different experience than Oblivion.  First off there are more than three different voice actors, so that’s one difference from Oblivion.  But there are some more noticeable differences like the new VATS system.  With VATS you can target specific parts of an enemy, of course each shot you make uses up AP(Action Points) which makes it so you can’t just keep stacking up shots towards an enemy’s head or their weak points enough so that the enemies die without any effort from you whatsoever.  

There is another staggering difference from Oblivion, but it’s kind of a bad thing.  I’m talking about the fact that there is not nearly as many quests to do in Fallout 3 as in Oblivion.  Oblivion had at the very least 150 quests, Fallout 3 has about 30 to 40 (although this is without the downloadable content).  Then again Fallout 3’s quests are a a bit longer than a lot of the quests in Oblivion.  And after all they do say quality is better than quantity and they really do prove that in Fallout 3.  The only quest throughout Fallout 3 where it’ll take you the least amount of time to finish to do is the very first quest which takes at least half an hour.  In Oblivion there are quests such as one of the first quests you do for the fighter’s guild that take 5 minutes to finish and are very pointless.

There is yet another thing that I’d like to point out.  If you do not have the downloadable content that came out in may(Broken Steel) then by the time you get done with the main quest you’re done.  The game just ends and doesn’t let you continue from after that point.  Why Bethesda did this in the first place I have no idea, so just to warn you that unless you have the Broken Steel downloadable content your game will end, BUT the game does create a random save point when you enter the Lincoln Memorial before the end so you can go to the point before you finished the main quest at least.  Oh, I almost forgot about the story, basically you are this guy in Vault 101 which is a vault completely isolated to the world before your father disappears and you follow.  So, the story is pretty much you finding your dad with other events happening which I won’t mention it so I don't spoil it for you 10 people out there who haven’t finished Fallout 3 yet.

Story: 75/100

Graphics: 95/100

Sound: 90/100

Gameplay: 95/100

Replay Value: High

Overall: 89/100

Reviewed by Jeff Knox

Star Wars The Force Unleashed Review

The Force Unleashed takes place inbetween episodes 3 and 4.  Darth Vader has found an apprentice that he thinks can help him overthrow the emperor.  Of course we already know this couldn't happen or else episode 4, 5, and 6 wouldn't be the way they are today, but it's still a pretty decent game.  Part of the game has you fighting Jedi that are trying to fight the empire.  The other part is helping whatever is left of the Jedi.  But in the end you can still choose whether or not to be the good guy or be the bad guy... but only for the last boss fight. 

The gameplay is pretty good.  You can use various force powers that you gain as you progress through the game.  It is a very fun thing to use the force grip on a stormtrooper and send him flying into a tie fighter.  The bosses in the game are sometimes an annoyence to fight, like the Bull Rancor honestly took me about 20 times to beat him... on Sith Master, although even on Sith Warrior the boss fights do provide somewhat of a challenge.  That isn't really a bad thing, but when some of the boss fights have you dieing for about an hour before you finally get them down to halfway of their life and then die for another hour before beating them.

Story: 82/100

Graphics: 90/100

Sound: 88/100

Gameplay: 86/100

Replay Value: Moderate

Overall: 87/100

Reviewed by Jeff Knox

 

Infinite Undiscovery Review

Infiinite Undiscovery is one of the latest of Square Enix's RPGs.  This is yet another RPG exclusive to the Xbox 360.  The game starts off with the main character, Capell, in jail because he looks exactly like Sigmund leader of a group of people trying to cut the chains to the moon (because that makes sense).  The story follows Capell's adventure helping Sigmund cut the chains binding the moon, although Capell is reluctant because he got dragged into this when he was accused of being Sigmund and he is also a pacifist. 

The gameplay is not like your standard RPG.  You control Capell in battle and use a or b to attack.  The other character's actions can be determined by using pre-determined tactics that you can switch through by pressing the d-pad.  It works out pretty well since the AI is actually decent in this game.  The game will last about 30 hours and if you really like the game then some of the achievements will make it even more worth while to play the game a few times.

Story: 86/100

Graphics: 80/100

Sound: 85/100

Gameplay: 90/100

Replay Value: Moderately High

Overall: 85/100

Reviewed by Jeff Knox

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Review

The Elder Scrolls series has been a series that has been well known for open-ended gameplay, Oblivion is no exception.  This time you are in the land of Cyrodiil awakening only to find you have been put in a dungeon for who knows what.  From there you meet the emperor, voiced by Patrick Stewart, and apparently you're the one from his dreams (not as creepy as it sounds).  The emperor eventually gets killed as you roam through a cavern type place, but he gives you an amulet before he dies.  So you'll have to go out on some quest to find the emperor's son so he can claim the throne as the new emperor and stop this strange phenomenon happening all over Cyrodiil with gates of oblivion opening up.

The main quest itself is relatively short, but there are ALOT of other quests to do, shenanigins to perform, and whatnot.  There are 5 other secondary storylines to go through not including the Shivering Isles expansion's storyline.  There are literally tons of other one-shot quests to do.  Plus there are so many books in Oblivion that are well thought out that you can read, not to mention making new spells, buying loads of items for your house if you choose to buy one, buying a horse or five :P, terrorize the townsfolk or guards (best done on easiest difficulty setting), and many more things I'm probably forgetting.  And even after being released for a little over two years that game still manages to hold up some pretty impressive graphics even now.  Oh and also the game has excellent voice acting although a little bit repeatative some lines never get old.

Story: 92/100

Graphics: 94/100

Sound: 96/100 

Gameplay: 100/100

Replay Value: Very High

Overall: 96/100

Reviewed by Jeff Knox 

Xbox 360 Game of the Year Awards

Before I start writing a couple of reviews I should have started weeks ago I will name what I believe to be the best of the Xbox 360 games for 2007 were in the game of the year awards.

Best Action/Adventure Game: Assassin's Creed     

Runner Up: Crackdown

Best Fighting Game: Virtua Fighter 5

Best First Person Shooter: Call of Duty 4

Runner Up: The Orange Box

Best RPG: Mass Effect

Runner Up: Eternal Sonata

Best Online Game: Halo 3

Runner Up: Call of Duty 4

Xbox 360 Game of the Year: Mass Effect

Runner Up: Call of Duty 4

List by Jeff Knox

Shadowrun Review

Gonna try something new here and not split the review into sections and give certain parts of the game a score at the end of the review instead.

Shadowrun is... NOT a remake or follow-up to the RPG from way back when. Instead it is an almost entirely different game. For one it's a shooter now and a fairly average one at that. First off it's all online unless you want to play against bots. So before even considering buying this game, make sure you have a gold membership to xbox live. Also, there is very little story in the game if at all, but it's not worth mentioning. All of the gametypes when playing online have something to do with collecting the artifact or defending it. You'll only defend it as the RNA while sometimes having to collect it and as the Lineage you will always have to capture the artifact. And that's basically it when it comes down to the different types of games. Also, you can choose from four races at the beginning of a game: Troll, Human, Dwarf, or Elf.

There is also a fair amount of choice for weapons, but they must be bought  using the in game currency which is carried out through only one game, so whatever currency you have left or whatever weapons you bought you will not keep for another game. Same goes with the technology and magic, the magic and technology is one thing that'll make you want to keep playing this game for awhile. There are only a few different choices, but some of them are really fun to use such as summon, which summons up aminion to guard a specific area you designate it to. The sound and graphics in this game are fairly adequate. So despite not being too original besides when it comes to the tech and magic, which is all the time, it is a good game with alot of fun to be had.

Story: 60/100

Graphics: 70/100

Sound: 74/100

Gameplay: 86/100

Replay Value: Moderate

Overall: 73/100

Reviewed by Jeff Knox