I never thought that in today’s day of age that there were people out there that didn’t have broadband. I was pretty much always plugged in playing on Xbox Live or World of Warcraft at all hours of the day and night. Then I got married and moved out into the woods. So the long and short of it, is that I went from some pretty kick-butt broadband to dial-up. Then I bought a USB modem from Verizon, but being too far from the tower meant frequent drops in the data stream. Then I got Hughesnet, and that is what I am going to focus on here.

Does Hughesnet work on Xbox Live? Yes and no. If you have done kind of research on this subject, then you know that they say pretty specifically that “twitch gaming” isn’t supported by Hughesnet, and I can verify that. I can’t play any kind of multiplayer on satellite internet. No Modern Warfare 2, no Halo 3. Bummer ‘eh? Before you get all mad, keep in mind that there are things that are possible on Xbox Live that you might not realize.

Things that you can’t do on Xbox Live via Satellite Internet:

• Mulitplayer
• Chat

Things that you can do on Xbox Live via Satellite Internet:

• Title updates (The update that you get when you first play a game when connected to Live.)
• Sign In to your gamer profile
• Rate games
• Read your messages and compose voice and text messages to your friends
• Twitter and Facebook work fine
• Download demos, add-ons and themes*
• Stream movies on Netflix*

Now keep in mind that I have the plan that allows 450 MB of data. *Using Netflix and downloading demos eats up your allowance pretty freaking fast, so I recommend that you do these things at 2-7 AM, during the ‘free’ part of the night. My wife and I watched a couple of episodes of Lost on Netflix and I had to use our free monthly token to reset our usage. So, it is something that isn’t really practical but it’s good to know that you can use it.

Now, there are some technical things that I have discovered about the service. Navigating to http://www.systemcontrolcenter.com/ has become some sort of obsession of mine. This allows you to see all sorts of things about your modem, and your service.

Now when I first fired up the internet, the first thing that I did was see if Xbox Live worked on my brand-new 360 Slim. It picked up the wireless just fine and signed in to Live. This made me so happy. I was schlepping my 360 to work and getting updates and demos there. I did notice however that there were things that didn’t work. Just getting around wasn’t working. I couldn’t browse anything on Live. I was signed into Live, but opening the demos page returned an error. At this point, I was navigating to Xbox.com and putting items in my download queue. Then I found this: http://www.systemcontrolcenter.com/stlui/fs/advanced/turbo_page_config_frame.html

Turbo Page is a pre-fetching service that is on my default. It seems to make pages load faster by having the servers take some of the load off the modem. What this does is totally fruck up Live. Once I turned this option off, Live came alive. However, for some strange reason, title updates didn’t work. It is very easy to navigate to the link above and enable the turbo page option and download the updates that you need.

Overall, it is kinda nice being able to go online. After years of being offline it is nice to have some functionality on Live. While you can’t play multi-player MW2, you can keep up to date with things like ‘This Week in Xbox’ and game videos. Seeing your friend’s gamerscore and played games is nice too. It’s not perfect, but it is better than nothing.

Hope this helps. Leave me a comment if you have a specific question that isn’t covered!

After producing one of the first path tracing games on the iPhone in the form of Flight Control, no-one was expecting Firemint’s second outing on the platform to be as advanced as Real Racing. In an attempt to bring the feel of games like Sega Rally and the like to the handheld, the developers have really pushed the boat out on this title.

There’s certainly plenty of content to get stuck into with Real Racing. The guts of the game are in Career mode, where leagues, tracks and new cars are unlocked. A quick race option is also included if you want to try out a single car or track. Time trials are there for practicing circuits and racing against the clock. There are even a few online play options available, either racing head-to-head over wi-fi or taking part in online leagues. This all adds up to a huge mix of racing options, but there’s also plenty of content to try out the different game styles with. 48 different cars have been included, split up into 4 classes ranging from hot hatchbacks to exotic sports cars.

There are also three different racing divisions to work through, each of them increasing the challenge the AI drivers put up. Racing is spread over 12 different courses, with most being the classic racetrack style rather than street racing – think NASCAR more than Project Gotham. While the tracks themselves are well presented, it’s quickly clear from the lack of rich textures or anti-aliasing that this is an iPhone game. While your opponents on the track also drive reasonably well you’re only going to face five of them at a time, making those moments of battling through a pack of drivers fairly rare as well as brief. There’s no benefit from having the souped up iPhone 3GS either, with performance and looks being almost identical on both variants. That said, the action is smooth, fast and well presented, and apart from minor issues is generally great to look at.

Car handling can be a little tricky at first, especially with the default control settings. Without changing the options, Real Racing employs an auto acceleration and braking mechanism, simplifying the controls to tilting the handset in order to steer. While this is great for getting started, it’s unlikely to win you any races – to do that you’ll need to fiddle with the control mechanisms and auto-braking level to find something that suits you. There are also several varieties of manual control should you prefer it. The absence of some kind of introductory or set-up race explaining these features can cause problems unless you spend time digging through the menus.

Once you get over the initial hurdle, the game is great fun to play.

The career mode is rewarding, with unlockable content coming at regular intervals to keep you interested and all progress being backed up online through Firemint’s Cloudcell service. IPod integration to access stored music is also welcome, with game sounds being played over your favorite tracks. And with a free cut-down version available sponsored by Volkswagen, it’s definitely worth trying out.

For anyone familiar with the world of PC gaming, this title will almost certainly evoke memories of staying up till the early hours in darkened rooms, just trying to squeeze out a few more levels. It might have even been your first taste of multiplayer gaming, with DOOM being one of the first games that supported network play. The heady taste of nostalgia is dripping richly from every pore of this game

For those not familiar with the game, DOOM was originally released back in 1993 by id software. The plot involves a nameless Marine being sent to Mars to support the Union Aerospace Corporation or UAC in conducting various experiments on the two moons there. Just before the game starts, your Marine has been sent with a squad to Phobos to investigate please for help from the scientists working there. Turns out the rest of your squad is dead and there’s only you left to sort the whole mess out.

The game contains all three episodes from the classic game, as well as the “Thy Flesh Consumed” expansion. Each episode is 9 levels long, breaking the story into segments. Levels can be selected individually as well as the difficulty. Progress is also saved, with a convenient “Resume Game” function allowing you to continue from where you left off. Multiplayer options over WiFi are also available, although this generally works best when all players are using the same WiFi node.

Controls are fairly flexible as well, with three core control mechanisms available as well as a host of tuning options. I’d strongly encourage someone not getting along with the game to try out some different control styles – it’s surprising how a small tweak can make all the difference. Control sensitivity options are also available for fine tuning.

The game represented a technological breakthrough at the time, being at the cutting edge of 3D graphics. Although these look somewhat dated now, they still translate well onto the small screen. Action is smooth and snappy, while the simple graphics ensure that the on screen controls don’t interfere with anything vital. The earlier levels hold up well to the test of time, with only the later ones looking a little tired. That said, the game is still fun to play even after 16 years.

The original music is also present, with the classic sound effects and MIDI score all included to press those nostalgia buttons.

To wrap up, this is a great homage to the early days of PC gaming and contains all the detail you’d come to expect from a product worked on by John Carmack himself. Everything you could want from the original DOOM game has been included in a package that’s still very good fun to play. Just don’t blame us if you start checking for cyberdemons under your bed.

Well those times have returned to your Xbox 360 with Baby Maker Extreme, developed by Stegersaurus Games.  This game reminds me of all the fun I had with those games.  You can use the default baby or your avatar and launch him through the air.  You hit objects as you go along and use boost or dive to continue gaining distance.  The controls took very little getting used to.  The gameplay had me laughing hysterically throughout the whole game (as evidence, I present you Episode 23 of our show).

From the sounds to the awards you win as you hit things, it will definately keep you in stitches.

However, in this particular case, I’m making an exception.  Super Mario Bros. Crossover is a Flash-based game over on Newgrounds that scores big nostalgia points by accurately capturing some of our biggest 8-bit memories packaged into one little game.

Crossover, in its purest form, is the original NES classic Super Mario Bros.  8 worlds, 4 levels each, et cetera, et cetera.  The novelty comes in the form of using other Nintendo characters in place of Mario. After each level’s successful completion, you have the option of switching to a new character to play; besides choosing the classic Mario, you can select Link, Bill, Simon, Mega Man, and Samus Aran, from the original 8-bit games Legend of Zelda, Contra, CastleVania, Mega Man, and Metroid, respectively. 

This sounds silly, and usually a recipe for a disaster game, but the programmer Jay Pavlina did a spectacular job of capturing the experience of each gaming character.  Each character retains their original sprites and powers, so don’t think this is just a re-colored Mario.  Overworld and Underworld music match the respective characters’ home games.  The movement of each character is tailored to the way they were controlled in their original environments, down to the speed that they walked.  This comes to the advantage of Bill of Contra, who can run while shooting his gun, and to the detriment of Simon, who, just like in the original CastleVania, could not be controlled worth squat after he jumped.

Getting even more in-depth, the character powers react similarly to their origins.  Remember how a monster froze and made a thud sound when Link hit them with his sword?  Same thing here.  Simon’s got axes, and Samus has her spider bombs.  Mega Man can even charge up his blaster for big shots; tons of bricks go flying! 

The game includes a save feature, saving a small text file to your computer, allowing you to pick up where you left off. 

In itself, Super Mario Bros. Crossover is nothing creatively new.  However, the different characters each move and act in different ways, and some levels become tons of times harder using particular people (read: Simon).  The feel of the game using each character fits the original games and allows you to soak in the nostalgia while playing this time-proven classic in a whole new way.  Give it a try!

Premise:

Set in the 26th century in a distant part of the Milky Way galaxy, the game is built around three species: the Terrans, human exiles from Earth; the Zerg, a race of insectoid genetic assimilators; and the Protoss, a species with vast psionic power. Wings of Liberty specifically focuses on the Terrans, while the expansions Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void focus on the Zerg and Protoss, respectively. The game is set four years after the events of StarCraft: Brood War, and follows the exploits of Jim Raynor as he leads an insurgent group against the autocratic Terran Dominion.

However, unable to inflict major damage against the Dominion, Raynor’s forces are relegated to the roles of mercenaries, recovering artifacts of an ancient species thought extinct, the Xel’Naga, for their enigmatic employers.

Now if that sounds boring don’t worry from the second you step foot into this world you get grabbed by your marines and pulled down to the world of Starcraft (see what I did there). What you see within this beta is just at the moment the multi player game at work. But that will satisfy even the most die hard of StarCraft fans as this game certainly does deliever in all areas.

Review:

OK lets start right at the start.After the first couple of account screens you jump into a multi player game with the press of just 3 buttons. Pick your faction, your team preference and hit go and that’s it. You start with just the command base and a few SCV’s and you build your force from there. To get up to attacking strength it can take anywhere between 4 minutes and 15 depending on the experience with the game and strategy you are undertaking. (I have been killed within 3 minutes of a start of the game in some instances but this is down to my inexperience I would hope with the game and original.)

But come on though look at those graphics. Scroll your mouse wheel up and you will be brought to ground level close to the action and the units, buildings and surrounding area are superb. A lot of work has gone into creating an visually stunning but also magnificently easy game just to jump into and just get a game and play right away.

Controls are easy to use with simple and obvious shortcuts help you to complete your constructions quickly and with ease. But don’t be fooled this is not an easy game to play on multi player against players who may have played the original and I have found myself losing a lot more than winning. But the thing that I love about this game is that when you lose you want to jump right back in and grab the next sucker and beat his Zerg butt into the turf. Usually this ends up with my butt being handed to me again though.

Overall I cannot wait to get my hands on the full game and start to play the single player campaigns because this game is a sure winner even with someone like myself who has never touched a StarCraft game or who knows little or even nothing about this game.

I would give this beta alone a big big 5/5 even though I can’t win.

Enjoy peeps. And if you wanna hear more from me check out www.warriors-rage.net for all your Wow fixes.

Like a bout of flu in the office, God of War style gaming seems to be going around the development community.  This isn’t anything unusual – when a game gets it right and has great success, it spawns a lot of imitators.  Eventually they become so pervasive (see Mario style platforming, for instance) that we forget they are imitations at all.  Still,  it’s HOW you “re-use” ideas that really matters – you can crib concepts and still present a fairly unique experience.  The difference with Darksiders is that they didn’t just lift the combat from God of War, they also appropriated elements from Zelda, Portal, and even Panzer Dragoon.  There really isn’t a single original element in Darksiders, but perhaps its originality rests in its unique mix of a variety of game play elements.

In Darksiders you play War, one of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse.  It seems someone broke the mythical seven seals by accident, or maybe pushed the wrong button, and the gates of heaven and hell are opened and humanity is wiped out – bummer, I know.  It turns out that the Apocalypse came a little earlier than planned, and War is kinda on the hook.  He’s miffed that somebody managed to fool him into bringing about wanton destruction, and the ambiguous Council (which consists of talking caves straight out of Aladdin) gives War a chance to figure out who hoodwinked him and why.

The combat of Darksiders is pure God of War.  You start out with a giant, menacing sword that you swing about willy-nilly, hacking apart enemies and causing many a fount of blood.  You start off with a few basic combos and can purchase additional moves as you progress.  You will also pick up 2 more main weapons along the way, a scythe and a fist weapon.  All three weapons have their own little experience bars and gain levels of power through use.  In addition to power levels and additional combos to unlock, there are a variety of artifacts you find throughout the game that will enhance or change a weapon’s capabilities.  Of course War can also wield a few helpful magic spells, and he even gets the opportunity to “hulk out” into a red demon-o-death form.

I had a couple of issues with the game play.  Changing weapons and items in Darksiders is janky at best.  The weapon switching is fast but not very intuitive, and I often found myself  with the wrong weapon.  This became a real problem later in the game as there are a couple instances where you need to be able to switch up items while in mid air.  This caused me more than one unneeded death.  Outside of the weapon switching system, I also took issue with a few of the platforming sections.  I’m still waiting for that game that gets 3D platforming right and minimizes cheap, instant deaths – Darksiders is not it.

The secondary weapons and items are where the Zelda influences start to creep in.  You’ll find a star that acts an awful lot like a boomerang, a chain to grapple things, a projectile weapon (in this case a gun) and even an ocarina-like horn used to open certain “doors.”  Another component of the Zelda influence is the inclusion of many sections, secrets, and entire areas that are unreachable without a certain item.  You know the type, the old “come back for this later” chest just out of reach, or the wall of crystal that sure LOOKS like it could be broken.  Frankly, I love this type of game design.  Call it what you will, I really enjoy making mental notes to revisit old areas in order to loot them of all available treasure.  It’s the kind of thing that really makes me want to revisit a game I’ve already “beaten”.

Zeldic influences (yes, I just made that up) also play a part in the overall level design.  The story arc of Darksiders sends you on a quest to kill a collection of big, bad demons and gather their still beating hearts.  (Ok, that’s totally not Zelda-like, but bear with me.)  The world is split into roughly a dozen zones, many of which play a lot like dungeons straight out of Zelda.   You’ll cleave enemies and solve various environmental puzzles to progress.  Heck, there is even a little musical jingle that plays every time you solve a puzzle and gain access to a new area; every time this happened, I sang “do, do, do do doooh” to myself.  Along the way you will find things like maps, keys to open locked doors, and of course new secondary items to help you reach new areas.

Each of the dungeons culminates in an epic boss fight.  You fight everything from shining human-sized angels to ginormous, fire spewing demons.  Every boss fight basically boils down to figuring out what the gimmick is and how to exploit it (this is true throughout gaming), but I enjoyed every one.  Each boss fight plays much differently from the one before, and this was key to keeping me interested.  I was also pleased that Vigil Games didn’t feel the need to include long quick time events to take down the big bads.  No crazy X, Square, L1, R2, Triangle combinations here, thankfully.  I love seeing cinematic combat elements, I just don’t want to have to pay attention to which button I need to push to make them continue.  I want to make particular note of the last 3 or 4 boss battles, which really did a fantastic job of pulling the various game play elements of Darksiders together into cohesive, epic challenges.

The overall look of the game is good but not great.  The appropriately destroyed environments have a good level of detail and show a lot of variety, with each new zone featuring an entirely new aesthetic.    My main beef with the look of the game are the character models – most of them have jagged edges and a glassy look, and don’t quite look right on the backgrounds.  War himself also has that overly large shouldered, big hand look sort of like a puppy with its too big paws.  Everything moved at a consistent clip, however, and I never experienced any significant slowdown or glitches.  I would rate Darksiders neither high nor low on the presentation scale, but somewhere in between.  I should add here that I hardly noticed the musical score at all, though perhaps the mix was too overwhelmed by the symphony of tearing flesh and spraying blood.  The voice work was adequate, but beyond Mark Hamill as your companion and “guide”, nothing stood out for me.

The story of Darksiders is on the weak side overall, which is a shame.  The story of the apocalypse should be fertile ground for a gripping narrative, but it starts slowly and stays that way for a long time.  The paper-thin characters and mostly confusing plot left me muddled and confused.  I just knew I had to kill stuff, and I suppose that’s enough.  The story does start to get interesting by the time all the threads start to become clear, and I LOVED the very end, but it took far too long to gain any momentum.

What separates imitation from inspiration?  When you get down to it, how much out there is truly original?  Flower maybe?  Even a universally great game like Bioshock took a lot from games that came before.  Dante’s Inferno and Darksiders were released in roughly the same time frame, and they were lumped into the same God of War clone category.  Having played both, I have to disagree.  Dante’s attempted to mimic God of War completely, from soup to nuts.  Darksiders, while aping the combat from God of War, also drew its inspiration from a LOT of different sources.  Take the combat from God of War, add the level and item design from Zelda, mix in a little bit of 3rd person shooting and just a dab of Portal, and you might end up with something like Darksiders.  The point is that even though the elements that make up Darksiders are not original, the game as a whole is.  Haven’t you ever wanted to play a non-kiddie focused Zelda game with fancy God of War combat and a good old decapitation now and then?  I know I have.  Darksiders isn’t imitating God of War; it’s mixing several excellent elements from some of the paragons of game design, and in doing so Vigil Games has actually created a wholly original experience.  If nothing else, I very much look forward to what Vigil Games will give us next.  A mix of Pokemon and Gears of War, perhaps?

Score: 4/5

Review by PartTimeDruid the author/creator of The Invisible Eyeball, a blog about Movies, Games and More! This review is reposted with the permission of PTD. You can find the original post of this review at The Invisible Eyeball.

The opinions of all reviews on Polygamerous are not necessarily the opinions of Polygamerous or the other Authors/Editors/Podcasters of Polygamerous.

"This is no mere treasure hunt. During your amazing journey, you’ll come face to face with creatures so outlandish, they defy description."

Games are always promising "a longer, richer playing experience". They’re always bragging about the richness, the depth.

Hooey, horsefeathers, and balloonjuice. Videogames are all about Press X To Not Die.

I’m pleased to announce I got a copy of Zork: The Great Underground Empire, and I have been loving it. "Press X to not die" is no longer a factor, unless you count the X in "Extinguishing the flame of malevolent darkness that animates your foes, using a mythic sword of incredible powers".

From the opening lines of the intro, the game is instantly compelling. Your task is simple: Find an entrance to the appropriately-subterranean Great Underground Empire of Zork. There are twenty grand treasures of the Empire. Find them. Retrieve them. Survive.

Your task will not be easy. Traps and trials litter the path to the prize, populated by a cast of memorable characters– from the vile pickpocket who will happily relieve you of your valuables to the mysterious spell-casting Dungeon Master, or the horrifying Grue that always seems to be lurking around a dark corner.

I’ll touch briefly on the technical specs– this game uses an incredibly light set of system requirements. Zork runs smoothly on EVERY test system I tried, and is being released for Windows, Mac, Linux, and iPhone. Loading times ranged from "negligible" to "nonexistent". The controls are incredibly responsive and well-laid out. This isn’t to say it’s all perfect: In all fairness, the sound design is very spartan, and the default volume the game sets for the soundtrack is very quiet (I could not find an option to increase the volume). To make up for the game’s audio shortcomings, the graphics are like nothing I have ever seen.

Zork is published by Infocom Software, and released in March with a suggested retail price of $19.95. This first volume in the trilogy is expected to take 40 hours to complete.

-Sean A.

The game spends far too long holding your hands in the early part of the game, most people will have quit the game before they have a chance to see the truly amazing experience this game has to offer. I have no idea why the developers want to hold the player back so much for so long, the combat system is not that hard for an average player to understand while still have the depth and complexity for someone to discover new nuances till the very end. For me, the Paradigm Shift battle system is the best battle system in the Final Fantasy series. It may seem limited at first because you only control the leader of the party, but you’ll soon learn the key to victory during hard boss battle is your ability to swap formations around quickly with a flick of a button and how well you set up your paradigms. The game really opens up once you have full control of all your party members with each character giving you a different set of skills you need to beat certain Bosses.

The graphics in the game is truly stunning, sometimes you can’t even tell the difference between whether you’re in game or watching some FMV, the grand scale of Gran Pulse reminds me of the first time I saw Jurassic Park in cinema, the storyline while perplexing, becomes a lot clearer the further in game you go, you will get more and more attached to the characters as the story unfold before your eyes. If you just want to finish the story, it will still take you more than 40 hours of playtime to get through but that’s only half the game. I’ve spent over 80 hours of playtime and still haven’t finished all the side quests yet. And to fully unlock all the trophies, it’ll take even longer.

With so many triple A games out there on the market all with stunning graphics and gameplay, what make this game stands out above the rest is the longevity and depth it offers, simply put, you can’t get better value for money in a game. But I’m afraid many people will be put off by the slow start to the game to fully appreciate this and it would be such a shame to miss out on this stunning piece of gaming gem because of that reason.

-GettingWorse

Pokemon Soul Silver

Ok this new version of Pokemon is really fun. With way better graphics, sound, story and game play then the original Silver/gold versions it is a 100,000,000,000,000,000,00 stars out 5.

Game play

Ok so basically like all Pokemon games you have to beat all eight gyms, beat the Pokemon league, do some stuff after so you can trade from different versions to the new game, and then catch all the Pokemon. Not in this one, you beat all eight gyms. You beat all 8 gyms in the Johto region, then beat all the original 8 gyms. So for a Grand total of 16 gyms. The last boss fight is a pain in the butt… want an idea? level 88 Pokemon when you can beat the game up to that point with level 50′s.

New systems for storing Pokemon

The new system for storing Pokemon is the PC again… BUT modified to work with the touch screen. This new way is pure fail.

Story

Love it, it is a fallow up to the games Firered and Leafgreen that is from what I have seen. Basically blah blah blah the normal Pokemon thing but almost no hints to where to go I had to look up a walkthrough several times.

Gosh dang it why does your mom buy you useless crap?

Ok there is a feature that basically lets you take some money from every battle you win and puts it into a “bank account” held by your mom. Your mom buys you a lot of stuff that is sometimes but not always helpful.

Legendaries, there way more then 5: So far I have seen, all 5 of the Johto legendary Pokemon. I have read reports of being able to capture the water guy or the earth guy from sapphire and ruby. not sure about the big green dragon one though. you can get the fire bird, Mewtwo, and one of the Lotas like Pokemon from ruby/sapphire.

My Pokemon is running behind me

Ok this is a cool little feature I love to death, I can see my favorite Pokemon following me every where. For example if Brigwyn had a squirrel Pokemon as the first in is party, then the squirrel will follow him around. If Fim has Rusty as a Pokemon in the first party slot, then Rusty will follow Fim around.

Random calls suck

Thats enough to say. The Pokegear lets people call you at the worst times, like telemarketers ^.^

Well again my rating for this game is:

100,000,000,000,000,00 stars out of 5 stars. SEE YA!

-Glassofwater

GoW1 focused on the storyline and GoW2 focused more on the battle mechanics and GoW3 falls somewhere between the two. When it’s good, the previous 2 games just simply can’t touch it, but those instances are few and far between. It’s easy to pick faults in this game, like how short this game is (it took me just over 7 hours of game play time to finish) and the puzzles are nothing more than a nuisance, the platform jumping ones are just there to frustrates because you have to learn a whole new way about jumping and using your Icarus Wing. But the game’s good point far outweighs it’s faults, the Titan battles are something to behold and makes you look forward to your next encounter with them, the weapons in game all serve their purpose and selecting the right weapons at the right time can make your life a lot easier against certain mobs and Bosses.

The one thing I’m not really sure about is the lifespan of the game. Sure, there are certain items you can pick up along the way that you can use in your next play through, but it only works on the same or lower level of difficulty you finish the game in, and it offers you no trophies if you choose to use them, which makes the play through a little pointless if you’re a trophy hunter.

I would fully recommend every PS3 owner to go and play this game, but whether you really want to shell out the money to buy the game is questionable, maybe renting it would be a better option.

Gettingworse

The first thing you’ll notice upon entering the world of Rapture is that it is, well, still Rapture.  Bioshock 2 takes place in a different section of the underwater city, but it has all the charm of the first game.  The game world is rendered in the same art-deco, 50’s era style.  The major details of the environment are the same right down to the security systems and vending machines.  (Am I the only one who finds it odd that Andrew Ryan, in creating his “utopia”, thought it was a good idea to put ammo vending machines everywhere?  He had to know that would be BAD.)  In terms of level design, it gets off to a slow start, but by the mid-game some great set pieces start to pop up, like a ruined amusement park and a giant water tank with a nefarious inhabitant.  Overall the look of the game is great and just as detailed as the first, yet I didn’t find the world nearly as haunting this time around.  It’s most likely just a case of “been there, done that.”  I’ve seen the spider slicers, the Big Daddies, and the creepy Little Sisters – at this point I’m largely desensitized to the denizens of Rapture.

A hallmark of the entire “shock” series (and there are more, try to find yourself a copy of System Shock 2 sometime if you can) is fantastic sound design.  Bioshock 2 is no slouch in this area, featuring the same spooky sounds from the Big Daddies, Little Sisters, and more.  They also utilize the same retro music style, that some love and some hate (I am in the former camp).  The voice work here is also very well done, and the story is propelled again by various audio diaries scattered throughout the levels.

In terms of game play, Bioshock 2 features some genuine improvements.  The idea of using both superpower-like plasmids and classic weaponry has always been great, but its implementation in the first game came up a little short.  In theory, using the two together could make for some great combo attacks, but the limited way you could only use a plasmid OR a gun, and the janky way you switched between them made pulling off fancy combos difficult.  In Bioshock 2, you can thankfully wield a gun in one hand and a plasmid in the other.  It works very, very well, and makes Bioshock 2 a far superior pure shooter than the first game.  At one point, I set a splicer aflame and immediately nailed his still-burning body to the wall with the spear gun.  It was one of the coolest combos I ever pulled off in a video game, and it made me giggle like a Catholic school girl.  I almost wish they could do some super special edition of the first Bioshock with the combat engine from Bioshock 2.

Aside from dual wielding, the way hacking works has also been vastly improved.  The fluid and pipes mingame from the first Bioshock is gone, replaced by a simpler and more efficient system.  The new hacking system consists of a meter with a moving needle, and in order to hack a machine you need to stop the needle in a special green or blue area.  It’s a much more streamlined implementation, but just as challenging.  Besides the actual act of hacking, Bioshock 2 also includes the ability to hack machines from afar with the remote hack tool.  You no longer need to constantly zap machines long enough to hack them, but can now do it from a safe distance, which is particularly beneficial with the nasty turrets.

The selection of plasmids and weaponry is tweaked in mostly minor ways.  The available plasmids are mostly the same, with some minor changes, but as you buy the more powerful versions, they have more significant effects.  The third level of telekinesis, for instance, will let you pick up and throw smaller, live enemies.  The weapons list has been tweaked as well.  Gone is the wrench, replaced by the drill – it can be used as a simple melee weapon or spun (if you have the fuel) for extra gory damage.  I enjoyed the addition of the rivet gun, which is a very accurate, fast firing weapon, and the spear, which can do a LOT of damage if you can hit with it.  One of the biggest improvements in the area of weaponry is the dedicated melee button.  You no longer have to switch to your melee weapon to bash enemies over the head in the absence of ammo.

Another change in Bioshock 2 is the way you collect Adam.  In Bioshock you simply needed to kill a big daddy, harvest or save his little sister, and profit.  Well, those salad days of easy Adam are gone.  In Bioshock 2, you also need to carry the little sister around with you and gather the Adam from corpses.  Well, you know what happens when little sisters are gathering Adam, the junkies come out of the woodwork to try to take her.  Your job, of course, is to keep them at bay.  This proves to be quite difficult early on, as your arsenal is fairly limited, and the splicers come from every angle; but it gets easier as you collect more powerful weapons and plasmids, along with nifty toys like the mini turret.  These gathering events are white-knuckle exciting, and a great addition to the game play.

The difficulty of Bioshock 2 is a bit on the erratic side.  I played through the game on normal, and found it just shy of frustratingly difficult in some of the earlier sections, most notably during the gathering missions.  By the game’s midpoint, though, the difficulty subsided dramatically; this change is most likely due to an increase in weapon and ammo selection as well as ever more powerful plasmids.  I found myself feeling nigh unstoppable in the game’s climactic final battles, and approached each new area with reckless abandon.

Now, you can’t talk about Bioshock without discussing the story.  I won’t spoil anything here, but the fact is that the story is excellent, but not on the same level as the story of the original.  It doesn’t have the same crazy dramatic turn to make your jaw drop, but twists like the one from the first Bioshock are few and far between.  Heck, M. Night Shyamalan has been trying to recreate the mega-twist from The Sixth Sense for over a decade with little success.  The story still provides plenty of twists and turns, and provides a good deal of insight into just HOW things went wrong with Rapture.  The problem with the story in Bioshock 2 is that it has so much to live up to; if it were to be taken on its own merits, it would garner much higher praise.

One surprise with Bioshock 2 is the inclusion of a multiplayer mode.  I had doubts about it, but I found myself pleasantly surprised by its quality.  It isn’t a hackneyed, at the last minute addition, but a full-featured multiplayer experience.  It has ranks, loadouts, unlockable weapons, plasmids and boosts, and a multitude of maps and modes.  It’s obviously not as complete as Modern Warfare, for instance, but it certainly holds its own.  It also manages to fit the multiplayer into the greater context of the Rapture universe in a believable way.

I came into Bioshock 2 with fairly low expectations.  The first Bioshock is one of the greatest gaming experiences I’ve ever had, and I had my doubts that a different studio could continue the story in a worthwhile way.  While not on the same level as its predecessor, Bioshock 2 is a brilliant game in its own right.  The uniquely beautiful, broken world of Rapture is a place I could visit again and again.  The developers may not have gone in any original directions with the story or the world, but they got the most important elements just right.  The environments are well-laid out and detailed, the audio is top notch, and the improved game play elements make for potent and enjoyable gaming experience  The addition of a solid multiplayer mode only enhances the overall value.  So while I don’t believe Bioshock 2 is a GOTY candidate, I enjoyed every moment I spent under the sea, and look forward to going back again soon.

Score: 4.5/5 Stars

Review by PartTimeDruid the author/creator of The Invisible Eyeball, a blog about Movies, Games and More! This review is reposted with the permission of PTD. You can find the original post of this review at The Invisible Eyeball.

The opinions of all reviews on Polygamerous are not necessarily the opinions of Polygamerous or the other Authors/Editors/Podcasters of Polygamerous.

Story

You are Sean Devlin, Irish race car mechanic turned race driver, just before the German invasion of France. Sean loves the good things in life – hard liquor, fast cars, and faster women – but when a prank in retaliation for a fixed race goes wrong and the Nazis kill his best friend, Sean finds himself down on his luck in a Nazi-occupied Paris.

Through chance, Sean is recruited by the French Resistance, and has only one goal in mind: make those Nazi bastards pay for killing his friend, by doing what he does best – blowing @#$@ up. Along the way, Sean meets a variety of characters in the Resistance, while evading the SS and keeping the people he loves safe and alive.

Gameplay

The Saboteur steals some of the best elements from other games and combines them into one solid whole. You’ll find suspicion meters like Assassin’s Creed, stealth and infiltration elements like Metal Gear Solid, driving elements like Grand Theft Auto (specifically GTA: San Andreas), and third person combat with a cover system like a stripped down … well, any of the above. The combination is very satisfying, but some of the elements could use some tightening up.

For example, the driving – one of the most-called out elements of the game. The cars perform decently well, and anyone who’s played GTA: San Andreas will recognize the driving system; however, there’s not a lot of differentiation between the cars besides top speed and the occasional cannon, and anytime you’re in a tank, it handles about as well as trying to drive a slippery piece of bologna controlled by two strings across the tundra in January. (It’s still better than Mass Effect 1′s Mako, but not by much.)

The suspicion/alarm meter is another element that isn’t QUITE as good as the games it’s cribbed from, namely Assassin’s Creed. Sometimes it’s far too easy to do suspicious things and NOT around suspicion, other times it just seems how unrealistic it is to not be suspicious just because you’re five feet away from a dead Nazi wearing his uniform instead of six feet away in your ordinary clothing.

If you accept that the elements of The Saboteur are not as fully-fleshed out as the games that originally spawned them, though, you’ll find yourself having quite a good time. One thing that does work very well are Perks. These should be familiar to anyone who’s played the Modern Warfare series of games, and they work much the same way. Blow up enough Nazi outposts, you get to carry more dynamite.

Blow up the REALLY good stuff, and suddenly planting explosives while wearing a Nazi uniform doesn’t raise anyone’s suspicions.

The actual structure is pretty typical for an open-world sandbox game:

you have mission-based gameplay, interleaved with things to do on your own. It’s up to you whether you want to go perform some missions for the French Resistance, or just go out and find a village occupied by the Nazis and blow up their radar towers and gun emplacements.

Completing missions or blowing up what the game calls ‘ambient freeplay targets’ – radar towers, tanks, fueling stations, and so on – yields contraband, the currency of The Saboteur, which you can use to purchase new guns, upgrades, and more.

Presentation

The most-hyped element of The Saboteur’s presentation has to be the black and white game world, and it lives up to its expectations. You won’t see it right away (you get a brief glimpse during Sean’s first mission, then lose it during the entire playable flashback sequence that follows), but it’s pretty great once you do, and effectively sets up the "film noir" feel of The Saboteur. In areas of Paris still heavily occupied by the Nazis, the world is shown entirely in black and white, except for primary color elements – the red of Nazi armbands or spilled blood, the yellow of light coming out of an upstairs window. In these areas, the citizens of Paris are oppressed and hopeless, and Nazi patrols are more numerous. Through the story and side missions, Sean will inspire the people of Paris, returning color to the city and encouraging them to fight back. If he gets into a scuffle with an SS officer in these areas, he can usually count on the people to step in and throw a punch or two as well.

The soundtrack is made up of period-appropriate jazz and big band numbers, and help immerse you in the wartime Paris setting of The Saboteur. It’s a mix of original pieces composed for the game as well as licensed music, and it is completely criminal that EA has not made this soundtrack available for sale. Many of the new pieces are just as good, if not better than, their licensed counterparts, and you’ll hear them everywhere – from driving a car to getting a burlesque show in the basement of La Belle Nuit. It’ll get stuck in your head, even if you’re not a fan of the music in question.

Speaking of La Belle Nuit, this is definitely not a game for kids. The Saboteur earns that M rating, with lots of blood, foul language, alcohol use, and – if you’ve got the Midnight Show downloadable content installed, which every copy of the game comes with a code for nudity as well. It’s never gratuitous, though, and it really enforces the ‘booze, broads, and murder’ attitude that Sean exemplifies.

Summary

There’s a lot to like about The Saboteur. If you felt like picking apart each piece of the gameplay, yes, there are flaws. However, taken as a whole, it’s a fantastic example of how to do an open-world game well, and it’s worth at least renting just to see the style and try it out for a while. The characters, no matter how rough around the edges, are likable. The missions never get monotonous, which can make or break an open-world game like The Saboteur. I highly recommend you check it out ASAP.

Incredible.

No other word could be used to start this review but incredible, anything else would not do Mass Effect 2 justice. Many will try to classify this game as either a shooter or a RPG but neither is correct. Mass Effect 2 is a true shooter/RPG that has managed to deliver great shooter game play with all the options and depth or a RPG and also gives truly remarkable cinematic story telling.

The Story

Bioware’s Mass Effect 2 puts you back in the shoes of Commander Sheppard as you prepare for a suicide mission against the Collectors. I kid you not, if I told you what happens in the first 10 minutes of the game I would feel bad for spoiling it. Instead I’m going to just say you end up working for Cerberus which you may remember as bad guys from the first Mass Effect. Cerberus is led by Illusive Man (voiced by Martin Sheen) who realizes that the Collectors are the biggest threat to the galaxy and if they wait around for the Council of the Alliance to act it will be too late. He sends you out to recruit the best of the best in order to defeat the Collectors.

Characters

The characters of Mass Effect 2 are the true driving force behind the game. Featuring an all-star cast including: Martin Sheen, Seth Green, Keith David, Tricia Helfer, and Michael Hogan; Mass Effect 2 delivers both diverse and deep characters. Whether it is the emotionally torn assassin or the psychopathic biotic you feel real emotion for these characters. Each once is deeply developed and are honestly the most intriguing characters I have ever seen in a game (hell if it was a movie some of these characters should be nominated for best supporting). All of them have side quests and one in particular has a very grim reality to it. After all, not every story has a happy ending.

Gameplay

Mass Effect 2 is a fast pace shooter/RPG that has both a very impressive shooter component and has deep specialization trees for 6 different classes. The combat is amazing, enemy AI will try to flush you out and flank you. Your companions will also have their own unique play styles that will show. While your Krogan is running around like a drunken buffalo your assassin will be taking out the enemies legs so that the buffalo can run over them. Yes that’s right, you shoot someone in the legs and they’ll crawl around. Shoot them in the arm and they’ll nurse it. Plus instead of just swapping out armor for the one that’s better, you’re able to upgrade your gear and customize it.

Exploration

Are you sitting down? Trust me you’ll want to be seated for this. Ok ,are you ready? No more mako. That’s right no more seizure tank. Instead when you travel to a new planet you’ll be able to rotate the planet until you find a point of interest then you’ll land right at that point. Another new addition is your ship has a fuel gauge now. You’ll be exploring the traverse and you’ll need to watch that fuel gauge or else you’ll have to burn precious resources that you went out there to get in the first place.

The Cons

The main story is a bit of a disappointment when compared to the companions’ side quests, but I understand that when writing the second part of any trilogy you can only give away so much without spoiling your third installment. Also mining still sucks but then again I’m pretty sure mining isn’t very fun in real life either.
That’s it, out of everything I could only pick out that as the cons and they as so minor it’s ridicules to consider them as facts that would stop you from buying this game.

The Verdict

Mass Effect 2 is a masterpiece that delivers amazing gameplay with a immersive world. When all is said and done and you have explored every world and done every quest you feel a little sad knowing that it’s over. But take solace my good gamer for there will be a Mass Effect 3. So for having a amazing cinematic presentation, having excellent combat, and having a supporting cast of truly remarkable characters and a dynamic lead; Mass Effect 2 gets 5 Krogan testicles out of 5. Seriously 5/5 go buy a copy.

You’ll notice how much influence of games like God’s Hand and Devil May Cry have on this game, but to say this is a complete rip off of DMC wouldn’t do this game justice. Bayonetta is an arcade adventure first and foremost and takes the tried and trusted formula of DMC and given it a 360 polish and shine.  The controls are well laid out, combo attacks and dodging enemies will become second nature in no time. There are lots of enemies onscreen at any given time, but the game mechanic is such that you never feel it’s unfair and you always feel it’s your own fault for getting hit.

The enemies will drop the in game currency called Halos, these can be collected to upgrade your weapons and accessories in the Gates of Hell. Scattered throughout the game are these secret portals you can jump through. This opens up Alfheim stages to earn you more Halos and some special bonus. These are some of the hardest fights to pull off in game because of the restrictions you have for each individual stage. But it’s also a good place to practice your moves.

The game also caters for those button mashers with the help of Very Easy Mode, the game will perform complex combos and devastating moves with a single button. This will make you look like some Korean crack gamer on speed in front of your friends, providing they didn’t see you select very easy mode of course. Another cool fight mechanic is Witch Time mode, this is achieved by dodging an enemy attack at the very last possible moment, when activated, the game will run in bullet time giving you a short stint of time to string together some outrageous attacks to take down the enemy. However this Witch Time attack doesn’t work on every bosses in this game. Torture Attacks is triggered by having enough magical energy, when unleashed, these are some of the coolest looking attacks in the game, the guillotine move is esepcially satisfying.

The game will generally last between 8-10 hours for each playthrough, but the replay value is surprisingly high as you will need to beat the game in normal mode before the hard mode is unlocked where your gaming skills will be tested to the limit, and you can keep playing over and over till you have your hands on all the weapons and upgrades available to you.

With some of the best looking graphics and creative combats,  I haven’t had so much fun playing a video game for a long long time. This game is a must for all video gamers out there, although we’re only a couple of weeks into 2010,  it’ll take something special in this coming year to beat this game for it’s sheer exuberance and panache. 10/10 and 3 thumbs up from me. Don’t ask about the third thumb

GettingWorse

The human models are a bit odd and creepy, but the environment is awesome. Also it’s not alot of blood and guts if you’re the type that doesn’t like those things, however there are some periods of adult language and suggestion

Head over to The N00b Review: Half Life 2 for the rest of the review!