The effects of the experiments have taken their toll on Katorga 12 and its inhabitants. They’re now horrible creatures, mutated by the power of E99, and they’re coming for you. Singularity’s first impression is striking, taking influence from games such as Bioshock and Metro 2033, the world of Katorga 12 is detailed, haunting, and rich with character. Art-deco elements mixed with Red Army propaganda give Singularity a distinct look and sense of place. It’s just a shame the early environments later give way to some generic industrial warehouses. At times, the world can feel a bit contrived. Backwards R’s and N’s on your objectives give the game a “Russiany” look, I suppose, but it’s forgivable when you realize it’s all in good fun. Singularity isn’t trying to be Tolstoy, more like a Hollywood blockbuster’s Russian counterpart. Jerry Bruckheimervich, if you will. Somewhere along the way, history is altered. An evil man has seized power and taken over the world. It’s now up to Renko to travel through time to set things right.

Singularity sits on a foundation of solid first-person shooting mechanics. The ubiquitous pistol, shotgun, and assault rifle are naturally part of your arsenal but weapons which tie into the game’s time-travel motif are the standouts. The Seeker, a rifle that fires bullets you control as they travel through the air is pure masochistic fun. Other weapons like the sniper rifle have the ability to slow down time so pesky headshots are a thing of the past. In addition to the fun weaponry, Singularity relies heavily on a time mechanic afforded by the TMD or Time Manipulation Device.

Those mad Russian scientists managed to wield the power of E99 and create a handy (and portable, no less) weapon that can either turn back the wheels of time or move them forward. Use the TMD to age locks into dust allowing doors to open, turn enemies into ash, and restore broken staircases to their former selves. The time mechanics are, unfortunately, limited. It would have been nice to see more freedom in who or what you can move through time but, as it is, the game has a set library of objects that are susceptible to time manipulation. Mild puzzles are also sprinkled in for good measure but don’t go beyond simply figuring out how to traverse the environment. I felt like the time mechanics had so much potential, I wished the game had more of an emphasis on these puzzles. As the game progresses, upgrades to the TMD keep the action fresh and the game incredibly well paced. In another nod to Bioshock, the world is littered with upgrade stations which allow you to trade in currency for enhancements to yourself, your weapons, or the TMD itself. While Singularity doesn’t offer the dual-wielding of TMD and guns as Bioshock 2 did for plasmids and weapons, the action doesn’t suffer. The steady upgrades ensure that, even though you’re fighting the same enemy types throughout, the methods are constantly evolving and keep things feeling new.

As Renko leaps between the 1950s and the present, you’ll dispatch plenty of Russian soldiers along the way. The occasional boss battle against a gigantic monster keeps things leaning back into the realm of sci-fi. While these encounters offer some of the game’s more dramatic set pieces, it’s a shame they fall prey to the same “shoot-the-giant-glowing-spot” syndrome.

As a whole, Singularity isn’t a particularly long game. Most will get through it in a little under eight hours. It’s right in the sweet spot between offering just enough and overstaying its welcome. Fans of story-driven games will have a hard time putting it down. Bioshock-esque audio logs, notes, messages from the past which are rendered legible by the TMD, and a headache-inducing time twist really flesh out the narrative. In the end, a moral choice offers a variety of endings depending on which route you take. While the ending itself is interesting regardless of your choice, it was another area where the story felt contrived. None of your choices throughout the game up until that moment factor in to which ending you receive. It felt forced that suddenly the game introduced a moral choice when, all the while, you’d been doing what you thought was right.

Despite being a single-player focused game, Singularity does offer a decent multiplayer offering. While the standard deathmatch pitting human soldiers against the monsters of Katorga 12 is a fun, class-based distraction, it’s not likely to pull you away from your current online game of choice. Extermination is another game mode that, once again, pits humans versus creatures but is more objective-based. As the soldiers, it’s your duty to restore beacon points and protect them while they charge. As the monsters, it’s your job to stop them. If a team works well together, Extermination can actually get quite addictive. Soldier classes range from the typical medic, spec-op, and heavy units while the creatures offer a little more variety. The multiplayer isn’t the main draw of the game but it’s worth putting in for a weekend and seeing what it has to offer.

Singularity isn’t the most original game but it still manages to do a few things very well. The world of Katorga 12 is not the next Rapture but it’s damn close. Added to that, a time-travel mechanic, great shooting, and mind-bending story all work to shape a rich experience that’s worth seeing through to the end.

The story of Super Mario Galaxy 2 is next to irrelevant. Producer Shigeru Miyamoto has gone on record to say during the development process he insisted on eliminating as much story as possible and it certainly shows. The story that is there is standard Mario fare: Bowzer shows up, kidnaps Princess Peach, Mario treks across levels to get her back. The first cut-scenes are presented in a charming storybook-style page turning that works to aid the main goal: brevity. The entire experience of Super Mario Galaxy 2 is far more streamlined. Gone is the clunky hub-world of the original and, in its place, Mario travels the universe on his new mode of transportation, a spaceship shaped like his head (make that Faceship). Level progression works more like the Super Mario Bros. games of old with a direct path that has players move along as they progress through each level. It’s a welcomed fix for the confusing observatory of the original Galaxy.

Nearly everything about Super Mario Galaxy 2 feels polished and highly refined. The mechanics of the original such as gravity, moving from planet to planet, collecting Star Bits, the Comet challenges all seem to have been given a careful reconsideration. Nintendo has said Super Mario Galaxy 2 exists because, after finishing development on the first game, the developers had so many ideas left over they realized they could make another one. When it was first announced at last year’s E3, some wondered if it would be a re-hash of old ideas, thankfully those fears can all be put to rest. With the actual gameplay mechanics already in place, the developers were able to come up with some of the most dazzling level designs in the company’s history.

Every level offers some new mechanics or twist on the gameplay. Just when you think you’ve seen everything, Super Mario Galaxy 2 still manages to surprise you. Whether its new Power-Ups such as Cloud Mario, playing with Yoshi and his new abilities, or the ever-changing complexity of the levels, Galaxy 2 constantly has something new to offer. Additions like Yoshi offer a variety of new gameplay options. The dino’s trademark abilities of tongue-whipping and eating enemies are back with added power-ups such as Blimp Fruit which lets him float in the air like a balloon and red hot chilies which make him run extremely fast. It’s nice to finally have Yoshi back and playable in a 3D Mario title and, like pretty much everything else in the game, it serves the main purpose of inundating players with as many new ideas as possible. Luigi also returns as a playable character although fans won’t have to go through the trials they did in the first game just to get him. Mario’s oft-forgotten sibling shows up from time-to-time to have a go at a level. Playing as Luigi isn’t really different from Mario but it’s nice and, hey, there’s always hope for that elusive Luigi’s Mansion 2.

The sequel falls prey to the same problem many games have when up against the original. Super Mario Galaxy 2 isn’t the quantum leap forward as the first but that’s the price of being part of an iterative process. To say it’s simply “more of the same” wouldn’t be far off but it would also be doing a disservice to the creativity abound in Galaxy 2. Sure, the sequel is closely tied to the first game and a large majority of the mechanics remained unchanged, but it’s hard to complain when the outcome is this good. And frankly, there’s enough room in the world for two Galaxy games, especially when there’s this much creativity within. It’s a lot like the Beatles White Album. Sure, some have said they could have settled on one LP instead of two. They could have trimmed the fat, so to speak, and had a much tighter, shorter album. But it’s the Beatles! You get more of them which is never a bad thing so stop complaining.

However, Super Mario Galaxy 2 is not without a few issues. Some of the less-than-stellar Power-Ups from the original Galaxy return and whether you love or hate Bee Mario, there’s zero excuse anyone should ever be subjected to Spring Mario. It’s an odd thing, when the rest of a game is so finely tuned, any blemish really stands out. In a game as inventive as this, I was also disappointed to see the cooperative experience go mostly unchanged. If you have a second controller, another player can join in but forget about actually playing together. Player 2 is still relegated to collected Star Bits and other menials tasks. Sure, a second player can help out by pulling coins and objects to Mario as well as thwarting enemies and obstacles. But it still feels like a half-step into co-op play. For now, it seems like Nintendo is dividing the Mario experiences into solo and co-op play between Galaxy and New Super Mario Bros Wii.

My long-standing rivalry with unnecessary motion control continues. For the most part, the game makes the best use of the Wii’s hardware. IR is used intelligently to collect items and despite a lack of a second analog stick, camera control is a non-issue. The few stages, however, that rely on precise use of motion control gave rise to frustration. Several levels use a mechanic of shaking the Wii Remote to flip the platforms so Mario can advance. I often found my motions not registering despite shaking the remote and I quickly came back to my age-old argument of, if motion does not do anything enhance the gameplay, it should not be included. For the most part, motion is used sparingly and correctly, it’s just worth noting I ran into some instances where it did not feel as responsive as it should be.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 continues to push the system to its limits and offer a variety of stunning set pieces. The game looks gorgeous, making those praying for a Wii HD even more hopeful. But high-def or not, Nintendo knows how to get the most from its hardware. Some of the most spectacular moments are the various boss encounters. Hulking monstrosities fill the screen and while the Bowzer fights get depressingly repetitive, many of the boss battles are clever and worthwhile. In addition to the game’s visuals, special thanks should be paid to the games localization team. Nintendo’s Tree House team, which works to localize these games from Japanese to English, continues their streak of offering funny and concise dialogue. Over the last few years, I’ve really enjoyed seeing the humor they add and the direction they’ve taken characters like Bowzer.

Players worried if this game dumbs-down the experience to make room for casual Wii-Fitters need not worry; Super Mario Galaxy 2 is hard. It can definitely challenge veteran Mario players and continues to offer new trials long after they reach enough stars to beat the game. For those players who hit a rough patch, Nintendo has imported a feature from its last Mario game. The “Cosmic Guide” is similar to the “Super Guide” feature of New Super Mario Bros Wii. The game takes over and plays itself, allowing the player to take over at any time. Nifty for some of the later levels which offer quite a challenge and doesn’t get in the way of people who don’t want to use it.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 doesn’t carry the same impact as the original but it does bring some new things to the table. Added to that, there’s much to be said and appreciated about a game that takes some core mechanics and refines them down to a sharp point. The game feels like the one Nintendo has envisioned since the first time Mario ever stepped foot into 3D. It’s the product of years of fine tuning and a must-play for any Wii owner.

Let’s get a few things out of the way. Will OnLive replace traditional PC gaming for hardcore PC gamers? No. If you have the hardware that can handle these games, there are few reasons to spend the monthly subscription fee just to gain access to games you can already run. Is OnLive for people who love having a physical copy of the game? If you absolutely must have the game’s box on your shelf, lined up with all the others, then move along. This is purely cloud-based and anyone leery of owning a game for as long as they subscribe to the service need not apply. For someone like me, an avid gamer, who has often lamented my Mac’s gaming Achilles heel, the service is a no-brainer. My first reaction after installing the application was “Oh my God, it works!”

After a year of naysayers, decrying OnLive to be too far ahead of its time, I was pleasantly surprised to see Borderlands, running on my old Macbook. The specs of my Macbook run down like this:

While it’s more than adequate for running my day-to-day chores, my Macbook has always been a writing laptop first and a gaming laptop a far distant second. Valve’s recent embrace of the Mac lead to some heartbreak as, time and time again, I found my Mac unable to run games like Portal. With OnLive it looks like things are finally about to change. Anyone who knows about computer hardware will see that integrated-graphics processor as a real stumbling block when it comes to gaming. Without something a little beefier, this Macbook isn’t going to get very far.  That’s why it was such a treat to see games like Dirt 2 running and my computer’s fans hadn’t even come on.

Like any relationship, things aren’t always perfect. Currently, OnLive requires a hard-wired connection to the internet which means no wi-fi. At first, I thought I could just log-in, see what games were on offer, and deal with any lag caused by my wireless. That’s a no-go. OnLive won’t even start until you’re tethered directly to your router. As someone who lives wirelessly 99.9% of the time, I know I’ll be less inclined to relocate my whole computer set-up just to play. But I realize I could easily be in a very small minority when it comes to this. For most people, this will be a non-issue. But it’s worth noting in case some users are truly unable to access a hard-wired connection. OnLive asserts its “technology does indeed work well with good quality Wi-Fi connections” but doesn’t plan on releasing that functionality “once OnLive is better established”.

Since it was first announced, people have worried that latency would be an issue. Latency, or lag, is a constancy concern for any online gaming experience. Latency occurs when there is a spans of time between the player’s input such as firing a weapon and the results occurring in the game. In an online match, for example, lag could be the difference between life or death. OnLive has built servers around the country to cut down on the distance between your machine and its servers. The shorter the distance and the stronger your internet connection, the better it gets. In fact, unlike most discussions of PC gaming, OnLive is less about your computer’s hardware strength than it is the strength of your connection to the internet. In my time, I have yet to experience any extreme latency issues. My inputs have been mirrored in the game world faithfully. While playing Borderlands, for example, I have tested the time it’s taken for my to left-click to fire my weapon and the time my gun actually fired bullets. The time was nearly indistinguishable. I say nearly because while OnLive’s servers are doing an incredible job of translating and moving all this data, it’s merely a nanosecond behind what you would expect if playing the game directly from the disc. However, for me it quickly fell into the realm beyond “good enough” and I easily adjusted and forgot all about how the game was getting to me and just played.

The selection in the Marketplace is somewhat limited at the moment but OnLive promises more is on the way. I was annoyed to see Mass Effect 2 is only available to OnLive users connecting through a PC. I’m unsure who was behind this but the beauty of OnLive is that it is hardware agnostic yet even in the remote reaches of the cloud, the school-yard fight between Apple and Microsoft persists. It’s a shame. I’m also hoping the pricing sees some more restructuring. Players can purchase a three-day or five-day rental of some titles for $3.99 or $8.99 respectively. But not all games are available for rental. I wish there was more consistency in the pricing and availability. Full price purchases are often at the standard MSRP of $59.99. Hopefully, OnLive takes a cue from Valve and embraces the wonders of Steam Sales. The advantage of online gaming over brick and mortar retail will always be its ability to drop prices as it does not need to deal with overheads, shelf space, etc.

Other features such as the Arena which allows users to drop in and spectate on other player’s games are a fun distraction and seem more like a crowd-pleaser to show off an “ooh and ahh” factor of the service. OnLive is going to continue rolling out across the United States. The service is, at the moment, only offered in America but Perlman has expressed an interest to expand to other countries. Expect more impressions as my time with OnLive continues.

No longer on a 2-D plane, the puzzles now have the added challenge of depth as players will chip away at a block of cubes, following the same rules of logic, to create little figures. It might sound confusing but thanks to a hefty tutorial the game is accessible and once you get sucked in there’s no going back. The game is more difficult than the original Picross in that some players may have a hard time wrapping their heads around the more third-dimension-centric aspects of the gameplay. The game lends a hand by providing sliders in order to cut into the objects in order to get a handle on the cubes. However, this proved to be one of the more difficult mechanics of the game to understand. By following the clues, being sure not to eliminate the wrong blocks, and completing puzzles, players are rewarded by a robot, dog, magnifying glass, and all manner of everyday objects. Speaking of puzzles, Picross 3D offers more than 300 and at $19.99 it’s easy to recommend the game as a great value that’s sure to occupy a lot of time.

The art style has taken a bizarre, pastel-focused turn that looks a bit cheap and juvenile. But, with gameplay mechanics as good as this, the game could have been in black and white and I really wouldn’t have cared. (In fact, Mario Picross came out on the Gameboy in black and white and it was just as much fun.) Customizable background images and music make the aesthetics a tad more tolerable but it’s worth mentioning Nintendo didn’t have to make the game look like a budget title.

The sliders that let you cut-into the blocks and examine the inside of the figures was a constant source of annoyance during the more difficult puzzles. Nintendo was smart enough to make players hold a button to chip away at a cube or mark it as safe. However, no such attention was paid to the sliders which often activated as I was trying to rotate the object rather than cut into it. I wish I could have held a button to activate it as I did with other elements.

I mentioned before that Picross 3D has a lengthy tutorial. It holds your hand perhaps a bit longer than it should. I appreciate the steady pace but it would have been nice to have the ability to skip ahead to more difficult levels. As it is, players have to progress through more than 100 Easy difficulty puzzles before getting a chance to take a crack at the Medium and Hard tiers.

Despite any minor problems I had with the game from an art-style or progression standpoint, these issues pale in comparison to the truly addictive nature of Picross 3D. The game is fun and has the uncanny ability to make you travel through time, unaware of how many hours are passing, as you keep tapping and saying “just one more.”

Image courtesy of Joystiq

Bioshock 2 is set ten years after the events of the original. Much has happened since the fall of Rapture and the end of Andrew Ryan. In his place, Sofia Lamb, Ryan’s philosophical opposite, has taken over. Rather than supporting Ryan’s belief of complete independence from the system, Lamb embraces a more socialist view of uniting as one for the greater good. Her daughter Eleanor has been bound to you. As a prototype Delta unit Big Daddy that’s been separated from his Little Sister, the quest to reunite with her takes him through some of the oldest parts of Rapture. Returning to the underwater dystopia feels good and familiar, like a song you used to love or your Mom’s home cooking. My early concerns that this would somehow feel like a cheap cash-in on the Bioshock name were gone within the first few minutes once I realized the world is interesting enough to keep players content with exploring through another ten-hour experience.

Bioshock 2 addresses many of the issues contained in the first. The original was great, don’t get me wrong, but it wasn’t perfect. Everything in the sequel feels much more streamlined. Shooting is vastly improved. Players can now duel-wield between plasmids and firearms, making the combat far more efficient, fun, and open to experimentation. But the shooting overall, the sheer mechanics of aiming and firing, is much sharper. It feels more like a competent shooter which is, I assume, one of the reasons they added the multiplayer component— but more on that later.

As the Delta unit makes his way through Rapture, he’ll come across Little Sisters with their respective Big Daddies gathering Adam, the city’s all-powerful substance that drove people to madness. Players must defeat these “Mr. B” bodyguards and determine how to deal with the Little Sisters. The first Bioshock dabbled with the same morality structure of killing and harvesting them for a lot of Adam or saving the girls for slightly less. Depending on the player’s decision, the outcome this time around is much more than a different movie at the end of the game. In fact, Bioshock 2 encourages the adoption of the Little Sisters as the game’s best mechanic of gathering Adam was easily my favorite part of the experience.

Occasionally, Delta unit is tasked with protecting his adoptive Little Sisters as they gather Adam. During this time, Splicers, the crazed citizens of Rapture, will be attracted to the location, gunning for the girls. Fending them off, setting traps, and utilizing the game’s enhanced weaponry was addictive and, simply put, a blast to play. These horde-esque moments punctuated the action and were a fun diversion from the Bioshock formula. A strategy begins to emerge as Delta unit preps for the next Splicer onslaught, it’s great.

The game shies away from actual boss battles and with good reason. I imagine many would be hard-pressed to find people who absolutely loved the final encounter in the original Bioshock. The closest players will find to a boss in this game are the numerous run-ins with the Big Sisters. If a Big Daddy was the thing to fear in the first game, the Big Sisters are the equivalent. While not as tough as the Big Daddy seemed in the original, Big Sisters are grown up versions of Little Sisters who have taken to wearing a similar set of armor as their former bodyguards.

On the subject of difficulty, I found Bioshock 2 to be a wholly easier game than the first. Playing both games on Normal difficulty was a vastly different experience. I consider myself a moderately good player, nothing spectacular. I was surprised to see the Playstation trophy icon pop up for never using a Vitachamber (the game’s respawn system) as the credits began to roll. Meaning I never died during Bioshock 2. Whether or not other players have the same experience isn’t certain but it needs to be said that perhaps this is a more mass-market design. The game has its difficult moments, that’s for sure, but I was often so overpowered that, by the end of the game, I could take on pretty much any situation without fear of losing my progress.

Exploration has also been given a more streamlined approach. Gone is the ability to travel back to previous areas and while many will see this as a negative, at the very least it keeps the narrative moving forward. One word of advice— be sure to explore all possible areas within a level before moving on as the game moves along a train-track that only goes one way. While it feels inflexible, I myself didn’t have a need to back-track in the original Bioshock unless the game required it. The structure in Bioshock 2 is just as enjoyable. I still found myself obsessively searching every filing cabinet, every corner, and every Splicer for goodies before moving on.

Unfortunately, the environments of the game aren’t as varied to the same degree with which Bioshock fans are accustomed. The first took players to gardens, frozen fisheries, and everywhere in between. The sequel tends to exist within a lot of similar-looking offices, hotels, and apartment buildings. That’s not to say these levels look bad or were lazily conceived, it just didn’t have the same sense of variety. This could be a result of simply being a sequel and some of the magic of discovery is gone.

There are a few issues that went untouched. For the life of me, I don’t understand the need to make me tap right if I want to use a health pack. In a way, I see the strategy involved of waiting until my health gets lower before using a pack and risking death or playing it safe. But the system allows for Eve to be refilled automatically once it reaches zero if the player has a hypo available. It just seemed like an anachronistic design decision I wish had been rectified when crafting the sequel. In addition, the story of Bioshock 2 isn’t quite as strong as it could be and often feels shoe-horned into the experience.

Not only were fans hesitant to accept a sequel could be a good thing, but online multiplayer also didn’t seem to jive with some of the Bioshock diehards. But yet again Bioshock 2 surprises.

Set years before the original Bioshock timeline, the multiplayer has its own narrative, piecing together the civil war that erupted during the Ryan-Fontaine rivalry. Players can enter into a variety of multiplayer staples such as Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, a Little Sister-centric version of Capture the Flag, etc. In addition, the game takes cues from online heavyweights and incorporates a leveling-up system with perks and better weapons.The online is a fun distraction worthy of a long weekend. It isn’t going to replace player’s online standbys like Battlefield Bad Company or Modern Warfare but once players are dropped into a game throwing plasmids and shooting at fellow Rapturians, it can be a lot of fun.

Overall, Bioshock 2 is full of surprises. In many ways, the streamlined structure, improved gameplay mechanics, and faithful double-dip into Rapture paid off. The pacing is pitch-perfect, allowing me to even consider it to be the superior game over the original. While I wish some moments had been retooled to allow for greater difficulty, the game is not without some challenge and the harder modes only encourage the brave to play through it again. I realize I’m probably in the minority when I say that I prefer Bioshock 2 to the original but, story aside, it’s a better game in terms of mechanics and on the whole a far more enjoyable experience.

Sony has been touting the scale and scope of the game as God of War III’s biggest achievements. It’s true, the game is massive in terms of its set pieces, characters, locales, and epic sense of grandeur. Kratos’ tale of revenge begins directly where God of War II left off, atop the Titan Gaia, ascending Mount Olympus. The first twenty minutes are jaw-dropping in their sense of scale. It truly is something gamers haven’t seen before. If the boss battles of Shadow of the Colossus were a memorable high-water mark for scale on the PS2, God of War III is the quintessential benchmark of what is possible in this generation. But the size of the Titans isn’t the only thing that’s been scaled up. Some of the environments are overwhelming in their size. The camera will often pull far away, reducing Kratos to nothing but a speck amidst some of the largest set-pieces in gaming. I labor the point because the scale goes a long way in creating the long-lasting effects of God of War III. It’s an experience on-par with any Hollywood blockbuster and, in many ways, supersedes anything on the silver screen. If Heavy Rain demonstrated the power of storytelling in video games, God of War III reaffirms there will always be room for an incredible action game to satisfy a gamer’s blood-lust. While the developers certainly nailed the sense of scale, there’s another ‘s’ that seemed to fall by the wayside– story.

The story of God of War III isn’t necessarily bad, it just never feels fully fleshed out. Many will say the story should only work to facilitate the action and nothing more. While, for some gamers, that may be adequate, I often felt a lack of direction. Kratos jumps from location to location without much exposition or explanation. In the end, it became clear my sole objective was to not ask any questions and just kill whomever or whatever was in front of me. In the later stages, the developers did include some interesting twists to the inner-struggle within Kratos, but it was hard to imagine the man, as ruthless as he’d been throughout the game, could really be capable of internal duress. For those who don’t need a story on-par with Pride and Prejudice with their games, just know the basic plot will suffice: Kratos is out for revenge and will stop at nothing until he gets it.

For gamers familiar with the God of War series, the gameplay won’t comes as much of a surprise. Kratos still wields his trademark blades although he does acquire some new, actually useful weapons throughout his journey. Most notably are the Cestus, a pair of brawling metallic gloves that let Kratos pummel enemies into submission. The other weapons, though fun to tinker with during combat, felt too much like the original blades. I wish more creativity had gone into crafting different weapon types. Luckily, magic is linked to each weapon and those attacks more than make of up for the weapon selection and greatly diversify the combat. Keep in mind, the game is about ten hours long and is packed full of combat. It’s a testament to the design that it never felt stale. You’re constantly upgrading or acquiring new weapons and abilities which allows players to mix up the gameplay.

Puzzles are also back and while they’ve usually been the series’ weakest aspect, they’re actually implemented quite well here. Don’t expect anything as complex as Portal but there are a few environmental puzzles that were a welcomed refreshing break from the constant barrage of enemies. These moments break up the pace quite nicely. In fact, I often wish there’d been more of them. Otherwise, the basic gameplay is almost untouched from its PS2 counterparts. While the visuals are something only possible on this generation of hardware, it felt like a missed opportunity to see the gameplay so rooted in last-gen design. For many fans, this won’t be a problem. It’s essentially more of a great thing and I can’t argue with that. Boss battles play a much larger role than any other God of War game. Some of them are obviously better than others- many even bordering on annoying. However, a few boss encounters are absolutely awe-inspiring.

This brings me to one of my long-standing issues with the series. In every entry, the game runs along at a steady pace, only to be sporadically road-blocked by moments that seem grossly unbalanced. Whether it’s an infinite enemy spawn point from an older game or a moment in this game that suddenly throws everything it has at you. It’s a matter of personal taste whether these spikes in challenge appeal to you, but it feels unbalanced at times, especially when the series has always implemented a “switch to easy mode” option after players die repeatedly. It’s aware of these areas of unbalance and, again, while some may see the ‘easy mode’ switch as a welcomed leg-up (which, in many ways, it is) I couldn’t help but ask myself, as I died in the same room ten times- is this fun? Am I having fun? Luckily, these moments of frustration are short-lived and accompanied by a fist-pumping sense of accomplishment when you finally overcome the challenge. There was also an issue with checkpointing as I would complete a particularly difficult combat sequence only to be foiled by the game’s atrocious platforming (the timing of that double-jump is unforgiving) and then be sent back to before the fight began. Similar to a game like Uncharted 2, the problems with God of War III are minor and only noticeable amidst the backdrop of excellence seen throughout the rest of the game.

God of War III doesn’t set out to reinvent videogames in terms of storytelling but it manages to innovate in terms of visual design and an overall sense of scale unseen in any medium. This is a fitting end to Kratos’ tale of revenge. Looking back at some of the moments in the game it’s still hard to imagine how much time it must have taken to create these worlds. It’s not as if the opening sequence is the biggest or even the best sequence of the game, it’s merely the tip of a massive iceberg. God of War III follows the mantra of “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” as the gameplay is very reminiscent of the older games but it’s hard to be upset when it feels (and looks) this good.

Feast your eyes on the new trailer from Team Ninja, showcasing the game’s unique mechanics, controls, and some of the nostalgia-inducing gameplay.

At the Game Developer’s Conference, Sony recently held an event to unveil the final name and vision behind its long-in-development motion controller. When it was first revealed at last year’s E3, it was nothing more than a tech demo. Rumored to be called many things including the Gem and Arc, the Playstation Move is officially announced with branding, games, and a slew of Wii-inspired marketing behind it. Working in tandem with the Playstation Eye, the PS Move tracks a glowing ball at the end of a wand to track 1-to-1 motion. In addition to the camera tracking, the PS Move is equipped with accelerometers, gyroscopes, and all manner of other motion-detecting hardware to further enhance the experience.

Sony representatives took the stage to demo a few games using the PS Move including a fighting game, a few party games, LittleBigPlanet, and SOCOM 4.

The PS Move also comes with the Sub-Controller, essentially a wireless version of the Wii nunchuck attachment that solves the pesky problem of moving a character around in 3D space. Launching in 2010, the PS Move is set to come bundled with a wand controller, the sub controller, the Playstation Eye, and a game for under $100. While no firm price or date was revealed, gamers eager to experience the PS Move should look forward to this holiday season.

Upon inserting Final Fantasy XIII, you are immediately transported to the world of Cocoon with some very nice cinematic to start off the journey. With a few minutes of  video introduction, you find yourself onboard a futuristic train as the main characters combat a few guards to break free. As you debark off the train, you find yourself along a big stretch of highway in which you are then introduced to the main characters of the game as well as the gameplay. We give a big thumbs up here to the developers for a pretty sweet and memorable introduction, as well as pretty good information on the game basics, controls and some of the storyline. Of course we don’t want to spoil too much, but the surroundings you find yourself in are some of the most pretty and unforgettable sights to see. The Final Fantasy series clearly prides itself on creativity, and while you may feel that the game has a very ‘Japanese’ feel to it, as it would per the developers, you will still quickly find yourself immersed in a world full of combat, strife, love, friendship and danger.

The combat system which is turn-based alike most games in the Final Fantasy series isn’t too different than what most fans would be used to. Each player has an ATB (Active-Time-Battle) bar, as when it fills up you get the opportunity to use your attacks or magical skills. A little bit of a surprise which upset us as die-hard fans of the Final Fantasy series – you can only control the actions of the one main character in your party. Your other party members will act on their own. You can however tell them to become more offensive or defensive in their skills, but we definitely miss the old days of when you can control each party member for each specific action. This may actually lead to a little more needed strategy when combating foes and bosses. Since you can only fully control the main character you must make sure to do some proper planning and heal when appropriate. We must admit that the combat is pretty fast paced albeit very smooth. Eventually when your characters become upgraded and have developed powerful skills, you will feel a great essence of teamwork in their abilities to work together. Each character will earn ‘crystogen’ which will allow them to advance their skills and levels. This is very reminiscent of the system put in place in Final Fantasy X. Although this doesn’t allow room for much innovation, we assume that it’s probably at least better than an auto level-up system.

As always – Final Fantasy will produce some of the most memorable and connectible characters from any other videos games to date. Most gamers will grow especially fond of Lighting – one of the main characters of this perilous journey. Aside from Lightning, you will encounter Sazh, Snow, Hope, Vanille as well as several others who will help during the course of the game. Throughout the first half of the game or so, each main character will be enticed in their own journey’s and courses of action in little separate factions of the storyline. It isn’t until the second half of the game that the stories will converge. While this is somewhat reminiscent of older Final Fantasy games, we felt that there should have been a little more convergence between the characters and gameplay earlier on in the story. This isn’t necessarily a ‘bad’ thing, but we just felt that it would have made for a better story.

Visually speaking, Final Fantasy XIII is absolutely no blunder and is probably one of the most graphically stunning games to date. We all know that Final Fantasy prides itself on awesome cinematics and fun combat, and you should expect nothing less from this series. The graphics on the Xbox360 were still spectacular despite comments from die-hard PS3 fans. It is also clear that no other game developers can tell a story quite like SquareEnix, as you will truly remember these characters and stories for years after play-through. Aside from the amazing visuals and sound, Final Fantasy XIII’s gameplay does have a linear feel to it. For the beginning couple hours of the game, it may seem like you are fighting, then watching a cinematic scene, then fighting, then watching a cinematic scene, etc. as it is somewhat repetitive earlier on until the stories converge and your characters develop more skills. Be sure to also check every hidden nook for hidden items, which are found in floating metal orbs for your taking pleasure. We were also a little disappointed not to see some other traditional Final Fantasy elements – a plethora of sidequest throughout the entire game, towns and villages to explore, a robust world map with vehicle exploration. It definitely feels that SquareEnix wanted to travel down a little different path for their release of Final Fantasy XIII. In all respect, the game is definitely enticing and fun to play and watch, however, a few missing elements keep it from being the perfect Final Fantasy video game. Final Fantasy XIII will definitely keep fans of the series happy for the most part – the amount of work clearly put into this game is astounding, and the amount of hours needed to complete the game astounding as well. Final Fantasy XIII will keep gamers busy for the months to come and will remain as one of the most memorable game titles of the year.