Back in the year 2000, Nintendo published a title from Rare, developers of Goldeneye 007, that became the staple of FPS games from then on.  Nowadays, an FPS game on console has become the norm, but back in 2000, the genre reigned supreme on PC.  Goldeneye 007 was a very good first attempt, but it wasn’t until Perfect Dark’s release that we could see how fun an FPS could play on a console with its original and lengthy campaign, and insane amount of customization in its multiplayer mode.

After years of speculation, Perfect Dark has finally returned to this current generation of consoles on the Xbox LIVE Arcade.  The question is: Can a game that was released 10 years ago still be fun?

In Perfect Dark you play as one of the Carrington Institute’s top agent, Joanna Dark.  As Joanna Dark, it’s your mission to infiltrate your the Carrington Institute’s rival corporation, dataDyne, who is attempting to sabotage the Carrington Institute.  The single-player campaign features 17 missions and for the most part has been untouched.  There are no new campaigns, nor new objectives to tackle.  Instead, Perfect Dark’s single-player campaign is a carbon copy of the N64 campaign.  The only addition is online leaderboards, which allows players to compare their completion times with their friends and others over Xbox LIVE.

The first thing you’ll notice when you start Perfect Dark is its new HD graphics.  The game supports 1080p running at a constant 60fps and its pretty impressive considering the source material.  Character models look less blocky from their N64 days due to the updated graphics, but their faces still have a pasted on look.  Enemies react to you as they originally did in the N64 version, ducking, rolling, and hiding behind cover as they try to take you out.  Perfect Dark certainly shows its age through the character animations and its audio.  The sound quality, music & voice acting sound like they’re straight from the N64 version, which isn’t too pleasing when Perfect Dark’s MIDI-like soundtrack is blaring through your 5.1 surround sound system.

There are 3 different control schemes in Perfect Dark that will please most FPS gamers.  There’s the original Perfect Dark control scheme, as well as two control schemes based on Call of Duty & Halo control schemes.  If you’re a fan of either title, then you’ll easily get a hang of these control schemes.  The auto-aim also makes its return from the N64 version, which I found to be helpful as turning it off can leave you to rely on aiming with the Left Trigger, which can be more miss than hit at times.  Overall, the controls translate very well on the Xbox 360 controller.

One of the major updates to this title is the ability to play over Xbox LIVE.  Up to 8 players can play through various multiplayer modes across all of the original Perfect Dark multiplayer maps.  All of the customization you remember from the N64 title are all here.  Want to play a deathmatch game with Rocket Launchers for 5 minutes with no radar? How about a one-hit kill game with fast movement and no weapons?  It’s all there and ready for you.  Aside from being able to play online, you can still play with 4 players on one console, just how we all experienced it in the original Perfect Dark.

If you’re the kind of person who prefers to play with your friends instead of against, two-player co-op is available both through split-screen and over Xbox LIVE which the entire campaign can be played through.  There’s also a “Counter Op” mode which puts one player in the role of Joanna Dark, while the other assumes the role of enemies to attempt to stop her from carrying out her missions.

FINAL THOUGHT: Nostalgia certainly carries Perfect Dark on the Xbox 360 a long way. Everything you loved about Perfect Dark is here, along with some very nice enhancements to its graphics and support for online play.  When you factor in its price (800 MS Points / $10), it’s easily recommendable given how many hours of play are possible in Perfect Dark.  Those who never played Perfect Dark might not get its appeal, but that’s alright, because this is a game that’s specifically directed at those of us who used to play Perfect Dark until 4 in the morning with our friends while trying to keep the noise down less we get a whoopin’.

8.5/10

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PS3 owners, get your kart engines ready! Sony has announced the official release date for ModNation Racers: May 25th.  In ModNation Racers, players are able to create their own Kart racer, vehicle, and even tracks which they can share with other PSN users.

Along with the release date announcement, Sony has also disclosed what pre-order bonuses you’ll get if you pony up your $59.99 + tax early.

• Gamespot: Kratos & his Kart of Chaos
• Amazon: Ratchet or Clank
• Best Buy: Nathan Drake & his Jungle Jeep

Sony also notes each pre-order will receive bonus mystery mod and kart packages as well as additional accessories that can further customize your karts.

If you’ve ever played Mario Kart and wished it had a little bit more Little Big Planet, then ModNation Racers is right up your alley.  The amount of customization available in ModNation Racers will keep anyone with an ounce of creativity busy for hours, while those with little creativity can just sit back and let others do the work for them.  Kind of like Little Big Planet all over again.

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It looks like one of the Xbox’s heavy hitters, Crackdown 2, has just received an official release date.  July 6th is when you can expect to get back into Pacific City to assume the role of the Agent once again.

Along with today’s release date reveal, a new ViDoc titled ‘Fun with Friends’ was released focusing on how Crackdown 2 improves on the co-op from Crackdown to support 4-player co-op.  Developer Ruffian Games promises a more seamless drop-in / drop-out multiplayer co-op experience.  Aside from the improvements to co-op, Crackdown 2 will also support 16 player online multiplayer games across 3 different game modes: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, & Rocket Tag, which judging by the video looks like it plays similar to Halo’s ‘Oddball’.

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Hopefully you all have kept your copies of Halo 3: ODST in tact as Halo: Reach’s May 3rd multiplayer beta is fast approaching.  A trailer showcasing some of the awesomeness we’ll soon be experiencing in the beta has recently hit the net by way of one of the last places I’d expect: a Taiwanese gaming site.

In the video, you’ll see some new game modes, new attacks, and even a jet-pack or two.  Only two more months until we all get to experience the next evolution in the Halo series.  Two long, long months.

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Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is getting ready to be released this Tuesday and you can be sure you’ll be facing some stiff competition online, thanks to EA offering a beta on PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.

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When I think of Aliens vs. Predator, I think of a battle between two alien species who are on completely different sides of the spectrum.  On one hand, you have the Aliens, with their unmatched superiority in numbers, speed, and ferocity.  On the other hand, Predators are the perfect assassin.  They can camouflage themselves while using various vision modes in order to pick out their opponent from its surroundings.  It seems like no matter what, they always seem to be pitted against one another, and it usually makes for an entertaining experience.

Aliens vs Predator allows you to play as one of three species: Marines, Aliens, or Predators.  Each species’ single-player campaign revolves around the same story, but told through a different perspective with each species having their own mission to complete.  The 3 species have their pros and cons in terms of how they control, their abilities, and their mobility through the game world.  Marines rely heavily on different arms that can be picked up throughout their campaign and sonar to track movement in dark areas, Aliens use the darkness to their advantage to sneak up on unsuspecting enemies, and Predators have the ability to use camouflage and a variety of lethal weapons.

Each species definitely has their shortcomings as well, such as the Marine’s flashlight being too weak when navigating through dark spaces, or how easily disoriented the player can become when navigating across walls and ceilings as an Alien, and this is where the game’s single-player campaign can get hard to handle when playing each campaign separately.  I understand their shortcomings were necessary to keep each species balanced, but continually trying to adapt to each species can be frustrating.  Upon finishing a chapter, Aliens Vs. Predator allows you to change to another species’ campaign, but I found this feature made the overall story harder to keep track of.

Both the Marines & Predator campaigns offered a good variety of missions and delivered a story I’m sure Aliens vs Predator faithfuls would understand, but the Aliens campaign felt like a complete waste of time.  Its mission structure was, for the most part, go to point ‘x’, kill everyone in point ‘x’, rinse, repeat.  Granted, the Aliens campaign is shorter than the other two, but going through 6 chapters of this same kind of mission structure can get old very quick.

To be fair, there are some good moments during Aliens vs Predator. The brutality of the Aliens & Predator kills are some of the most gruesome I’ve seen in a game.  Heads are ripped off, bodies impaled, and spines removed all with very little effort and remorse.  What made it more brutal was seeing your enemy’s face up-close during these gruesome acts.  Needless to say, they didn’t look too happy during these moments.  Graphically, Aliens vs. Predator doesn’t disappoint either as character models are very well detailed and its dark environments keeps players on their toes, especially during the Marine campaign as their vision is greatly limited in comparison to the Aliens’ & Predators’.

Aliens vs Predator’s multiplayer seems to make more sense than what I experienced in the single-player campaign.  In fact, it almost feels like the only real reason a single-player mode was even included was to help players learn the intricacies of each species in order to compete online.  The multiplayer mode allows you to play as either of the 3 species in multiple deathmatch modes, which makes things interesting due to neither one of the 3 species were more powerful than the other.  Things get more interesting when it’s a team based multiplayer mode as having a team of at least one of the 3 species working together can make things quite challenging for the opposing team.

FINAL THOUGHT: Aliens vs. Predator will not satisfy fans of the FPS genre.  The single-player campaign does not tell an engaging story and each species’ shortcomings doesn’t make this game particularly enjoyable to play through. The multiplayer has some fun moments, especially when the 3 species are working together, but it isn’t enough to deem this a title I would recommend.

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Heavy Rain officially released this week on the PS3, and while we’re working tirelessly to publish our review, I thought this would be a great time to inform you that Heavy Rain will make you cry.

The Mega 64 crew were aware of this, and decided to show how one of their own succumbed to the depression that can occur from something assimple as brushing your teeth in Heavy Rain.

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Earlier this month, SEGA revealed they are working on another Sonic game, this time focusing on Sonic’s classic gameplay elements that we all grew up loving.  Even though it seems this will be the definitive Sonic game fans have been waiting years for, Sonic fans still can’t help but feel caution given how promising previous Sonic games looked, only to not live up to expectations.

It seems we could all breathe a little sigh of relief as the SEGA Community Manager ‘RubyEclipse’ revealed on the official SEGA forums the original Senior Level Designer for Sonic 3 is working on Sonic 4.

So, is it just Dimps? Just Sonic Team? The answer is a bit of both: Yes, Dimps is working on the game. But there’s actually more to it than just that: at the same time, we also have members of Sonic Team, including the original senior level designer from Sonic 3 & Knuckles on the SEGA Genesis working alongside them. It is most definitely a partnership, and the result of this teamwork is something many of us are excited for.

So it seems SEGA is putting all of their efforts into Sonic 4, which hopefully will be something beneficial for the gaming community as we’ve all become extremely jaded when it comes to new Sonic games.  Although, it looks like Sonic 4 could finally break the streak of bad Sonic games if all goes according to plan.

source

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Hey, you! Have you been on the fence on buying Darksiders, even though it’s currently sitting pretty with an average review score of 82?  Well, you’re in luck as THQ has announced they’ll be offering a demo of Darksiders for both the PS3 & Xbox 360 next week.

The Darksiders demo will feature approx. 90 minutes of gameplay from the first dungeon in the game, the Twilight Cathedral.  Expect a lot of hacking-n-slashing, puzzle solving, and War speaking in a mono tone, grumbly voice.  David Adams, GM of Vigil Games, had the following to say in regards to offering this 90 minute taste of Darksiders.

“We are really pumped to be bringing a playable demo for Darksiders to Xbox 360 and PlayStation3. We really wanted to give gamers a true idea of the variety of gameplay that the game offers and so rather than just making a standard 20-minute demo version of the first few levels, we decided to give away this massive level and reveal the true essence of the game.”

So now you have no reason to NOT at least try Darksiders.  It’s got everything a gamer wants out of a game.  Puzzles, big swords, and cybernetic angels that shoot laser cannons.

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Travis Touchdown is your everyday otaku assassin living out of the No More Heroes Motel in Santa Destroy, California.  Some might consider his obsession with anime, professional wrestling, action figure collecting, and pornography borders on unhealthy.  Others would consider it’s what makes him unique among other assassins.  Regardless of what he does in his personal life, one thing is for certain: Travis Touchdown will kick your ass.

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle takes place three years after the events of the original game.  After rising up to the #1 spot of the United Assassin Association (UAA), he returns for revenge and is made to battle through 51 of the UAA’s strongest and most unique assassins to get to the man responsible for his friend’s death.  No More Heroes 2 drops the open-world feel of the original title and replaces it with an overview map where the player can pick where they would like to go.  Players can either take on the main story and choose to enter a “Ranked Battle”, earn extra cash with some mini-games, or even work out with a man of questionable sexuality named Ryan.

Travis’ iconic beam katana returns along with new beam katanas that can be changed on the fly and offer a slight difference in combat.  Depending on how you hold your Wii Remote, Travis can perform either a “low” or “high” positioned attack by hitting the ‘A’ button.  Combos are easy to pull off as they can be chained together by mashing the ‘A’ or ‘B’ buttons, then finishing them off with either a wrestling move or a “death blow” which requires players to follow on-screen prompts with their Wii Remote & Nunchuck.  If Travis connects with his attacks without receiving any serious damage, his ‘Ecstasy Meter’ will rise.  Once the Ecstasy Meter reaches full, Travis becomes invincible and can then unleash a barrage of quick attacks that can deal some serious damage.  There are times when Travis’ beam katana might become weak.  Thankfully, a quick jerk of the Wii Remote will quickly charge the batteries in the beam katana.  Certain missions will allow players to assume the role of Shinobu or Henry as they assist Travis in defeating some of the 51 assasins Travis must defeat.  Both characters offer a similar fighting style to Travis’, but each have their own secondary attack.

Overall, I enjoyed the combat system for its fast pace and how satisfying it was to finish an enemy off with either a wrestling move or death blow.  One issue I had was the location of the button to change targets on the Wii Remote.  Why on Earth the developers would decide to bind the ‘2′ button to change enemies is beyond me as it’s location can make changing targets difficult, especially during heated battles.  I found myself letting go of the ‘Z’ button, which is used to lock on to enemies, and then hitting it again in order to attempt to change targets.

The assassins Travis will face during his adventure are some of the most unique characters I’ve witnessed in a game.  Travis will battle Gothic Lolitas, football stars, and even a Russian astronaut.  These are just three examples of the very unique 51 assassins that Travis will face.  The unfortunate thing is since there are so many assassins to fight, there really isn’t much of a back story to any of them besides being someone that Travis needs to fight through in order to get to the top of the UAA.  With how unique each assassin was, I would have loved to learn more about them.

Nearly everything in No More Heroes 2 screams satire.  Travis isn’t only deadly with a beam katana, but his tongue is as deadly as he insults and curses at enemies during battle.  Many of his wise-cracks are actually pretty funny and offering a refreshing perspective.  As Travis slices and dices his enemies, blood will shoot out of nearly every orifice, which just goes to show how over-the-top this title really is.

Many of the mini-games in No More Heroes 2 pay homage to old-school 8-bit NES games.  Each mini-game has its own little story as to why you need to play them such as being a pizza deliveryman or gathering up coconuts.  The purpose of the mini-games is to earn money which can be used to upgrade Travis’ weapons, clothes, and even help train him to be a better fighter.  Other mini-games, such as helping excercise your cat, offer bonus items or moves that can only be achieved by completing the mini-game.  Compared to No More Heroes grind-tastic mini-games, No More Heroes 2’s mini-games are a welcome change and don’t feel as grind-y.

FINAL THOUGHT: No More Heroes 2 is a breath of fresh air as far as hack-n-slash games go.  Travis is a character most gamers can relate to, which is why most gamers will enjoy this title.  The combat system, even with its minor shortcomings, is fast-paced, fun, and offers just the right amount of gore.  With mini-games a-plenty, a slick and unique graphic style, and a lot of humor, No More Heroes 2 is a great improvement over the original title.

8/10

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