Review Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D

Like its proto-Horde predecessor that debuted as an unlockable mode in Resident Evil 4, The Mercenaries is a time trial of violence, pitting the overmatched player against an endless stream of slow, relentless enemies. You shoot, you run out of ammo, and you spend the latter half of the round trying to escape via rooftops and catwalks, in a desperate attempt to avoid the zero score that awaits anyone who fails to survive until the end.

The trick to conserving the scarce ammunition is relying almost entirely on melee attacks. A single shot to the leg will hobble an enemy, providing a brief window of opportunity to deliver a punch to the face or a roundhouse kick that results in a clean kill. Reinforcing the idea that the most effective technique in this ostensibly gun-based game is in fact going hand-to-hand, five seconds are added to the clock every time you pummel a zombie. With the time pressure slightly lessened, it’s easy to settle into an immensely satisfying rhythm of shooting and punching that sees you rack up the combo multiplier and push ever closer to a high score.

As a standalone game rather than the bonus mode it once was, Mercenaries has been beefed up with extra characters and stages – eight of each, all taken from previous Resident Evil titles. Weapon loadouts can be swapped around, so one character with a preferred melee move can be combined with the superior weaponry of another, and there’s a selection of 30 different perks that can be upgraded in three steps. A single run through the game from start to finish can be completed in a worryingly short amount of time, however.

The eight stages are repeated over five different sets of missions, the first two of which are little more than training exercises. Only the final two sets offer a significant challenge, and in the entire game the wave-based formula defined right at the start of the tutorial is altered just twice – for a single boss battle and one, longer, wave-based level. However good the core mechanics may be, it’s disappointing to see them applied with so little variety.

Mercenaries shines as a twoplayer game, where an organised pair can extend the time limit and toy with the enemies well beyond the point at which sub-bosses with one-shot kills of their own begin to show up. It can’t entirely compensate for the lack of depth, but wading together into a throng of the undead, guns blazing and fists flying, leaving a trail of dissolving bodies in your wake, is without question a grisly pleasure.

Source : http://www.next-gen.biz/reviews/resident-evil-mercenaries-3d-review

Review of Child of Eden

Child Of Eden is the product of an auteur at 
the height of his powers, with the free rein to realise a supremely ambitious project and the restraint to make it universal rather than self-serving. At its core are the on-rails shooter mechanics of Rez, but the experience is one that escapes further genre categorisation, creating a level of involvement beyond what its 2001 progenitor achieved.

Eden is as much an interactive sightseeing tour as it is a shooter, inviting you to both animate and liberate its world and devastate the enemies occupying it. Most of the creatures you encounter, from transparent whales swimming through space to a musical golden eagle, are not to be destroyed but purified of their infection, with your cursor and button presses allowing them to shimmer and shine once more. As outlandish as it may seem, it’s all tied to Eden’s threadbare narrative: the story of space-born girl Lumi, reconstructed by science in the virtual world and under threat from a virus you’re sent in to eradicate.

It’s a simple premise that allows the team to tell its story visually, through the game’s action rather than cutscenes, and it’s kept fresh by the pace and variety of the five main worlds. Rarely has a game managed to relay a tale of creation and destruction 
with so few words and so poetically. From the neon underworld of Evolution to the grinding cogs and speeding cars of Passion, it’s a breathtaking world to witness as a player or spectator. The extravagance of Eden, with its poetic celebration of nature and streaming, kaleidoscopic colours, could easily have slipped into the territory of elitist, artistic pretensions, but it never feels self-indulgent. The game isn’t a hollow exercise in visual and audio design, it empowers you to be central to its story through your interactions.

The sense of participation is affected drastically 
by your choice of control method. On first contact, nothing compares to the feeling of power granted by Kinect as you swipe over your targets before shoving them into extinction with a gentle push of your hand. The two modes of attack – rapid fire for incoming projectiles and lock-on for everything besides – are central to the gameplay. Swapping hands to toggle these fire modes is mandatory for survival, adding an Ikaruga-style strategy to the game. Achieving an eight-hit combo, or ‘Octa-Lock’, in time to the music racks up more points, while picking up health orbs along the way keeps you, often literally, on your toes. It’s not always 
a smooth ride, though, mostly due to a camera which 
(as in Rez) moves on its axis as you navigate the screen. When swapping hands, it’s often nudged from its position, and throwing your hands to the sky to effect 
a screen-clearing Euphoria special can be fatally disorienting. Your journey through Eden is too freeform, dense with twists and screen-flipping 
turns (in contrast to Rez’s more linear motion) to forgive such a technical issue, and your orientation troubles are only exaggerated as the pace ramps up.

When gunning for high scores, therefore, a standard controller is the way to go. The rhythmic rumble feedback is crucial for achieving hits in time to the music but, again, it’s not perfect. In both cases, trying to rein in your view of the action while battling the onscreen assault can prove overwhelming. Repeat playthroughs on hard difficulty are punishing, teeth-grinding affairs entirely at odds with the calm, colourful world around you.

The real incentive for persevering through the harshness of Eden’s world is the character of Lumi.
 An iconic, angelic figure, her floating presence in the menu screen and the echoes of her voice throughout 
the game are obscure 
and affecting. The use of an actress rather than CG 
adds further resonance. Bringing Lumi one step closer to freedom with the purification of each world is a strangely emotional experience; your simple hand motions are her only hope as she strobes into view, holding your gaze. Hearing her voice crackle through the layers of audio or glimpsing her face behind a 
wall adds a human payoff to your virtual crusade.

Though the five main worlds of Eden tell Lumi’s story and host some visually arresting ideas, it’s in unlockable challenge mode Hope that Mizuguchi’s 
skill with an audio landscape is fully demonstrated. A hyper-speed, spiritual and visual ancestor of Rez, Hope is as close to a direct sequel as fans could hope for. 
Rainbows of pixel stardust burst around you as the bassline morphs along with the colour palette, shifting from jazz riffs to drum’n’bass. Though the control-method quandary rears its head in the later stages, it’s less of an inconvenience due to the linear path through the level. There are further overtones of Rez in tutorial mode Matrix, which also devotes itself to a more straightforward route. In bookending Eden’s core worlds with these nods to the past, Tetsuya Mizuguchi is cementing both his status as auteur and his journey 
full circle from Rez’s debut. Eden encompasses so much of the producer-designer’s oeuvre – from the musical female lead of Space Channel 5 to the chain reactions 
of Every Extend Extra – that it’s as much a journey into his legacy as it is a rescue mission.

Child Of Eden is a convincing example of how 
motion control can breathe new life into a niche genre. 
More than that, it’s a masterclass in audio design and the emotive power of CG imagery. Where Rez was focused and relentless, in step with the rigidity of its basslines, Eden is organic and sentimental, a lover married to the mechanics of an on-rails fighter. 
It’s a delirious, intoxicating and sometimes cruel world that’s well worth the trip.

Source : http://www.next-gen.biz/reviews/child-eden-review

Review of Alice: Madness Returns review

Regularly promoted alongside Shadows Of The Damned, there are few finer stablemates for Suda’s descent into hell than American McGee’s Alice: Madness Returns. Both herald from digital auteurs encroaching on familiar territory – hell and Lewis Carroll – and both lack ideas to match their visual invention.


This is a Burton-esque Wonderland; in fact, it’s more Burton-esque than the director’s own attempt. The Unreal engine lives up to its name: not since Mario Galaxy has a game pumped out such a babble of visual styles. If the spirit of Carroll exists at all in Madness Returns, it is in the constant hunger for the next oddity.
But this is normalcy reskinned as nonsense. Platforming repeats the same networks of floating squares and upward gusts from level to level, hoping to disguise this by changing what is jumped on. A floating platform is a floating platform whether it’s a mah-jong tile, playing card or iceberg. And so it is with so much of Madness Returns: mushrooms, pig snouts and potions repurposed as springs, switches and unlockable concept art. One thudding inevitability after the next.

There is bite to the combat, however. With a familiar lock-on camera and an emphasis on matching weapons to abomination, it feels a lot like Zelda. Link can’t dematerialise into butterflies like Alice, but he would surely appreciate the need to peel enemies down to their fleshy cores with the right combination of pepper-grinder guns and hobby-horse thwacks. Finally, the feel catches up with the look: scalding tea barrages thump through shields (with a delightful glass shattering sound) as the Vorpal Sword stings with a true snicker-snack. Enemy designers keep new forms (and attack strategies) coming, mixing various breeds to concoct fresh battle rhythms.

Only in combat does Alice truly find her footing. Unlike Garcia Hotspur’s bellowing rampage through perdition, Alice is an unsure presence. Her mind is faltering, cutting from Victorian London – largely non-interactive film sets – to Wonderland. It has the air of a narrative device, but to what end? If there are parallels to be drawn – does Wonderland reflect real-world predicaments? – they are hard to see. McGee’s fiction is Cheshire Cat cryptic, decipherable only by those well versed in his universe. To others, the story unfolds as a series of fetch missions given by ugly versions of iconic fantasy figures.
The game’s visual and combative energy spark the urge to see where it goes next. If only there was something to do when you get there.

source : http://www.next-gen.biz/reviews/alice-madness-returns-review

Shadow of the Damned Review

Suda51′s brand new game, Shadow of the Damned, hasn’t seen the sunlight since 2006. Then, in 2008 it was picked up and announced by EA games. Shadow is the debut title for Grasshopper Manufacture. With not much being said about this title, it is time to decide whether this game is great or if it should have just been left in the shadows.


STORY:
You begin the game as the protagonist, Garcia Hotspur, killing off a demon that threatens his existence in the demon world. Flashing into the past, you look for the love of your life, Paula, who is seen in her room hanging from her throat. Suddenly the demon lord, Fleming, sentences Paula so that Garcia can atone for his sins. Although Paula appears to be dead, she lives on in the demon universe. Fleming then kidnaps Paula with the help of Hotspur which begins our game. You are also joined by Johnson, a skull-headed demon who can transform into a pistol, shotgun and a torch. Johnson has a personality similar to Wheatly from Portal 2. He points out many observations such as, “You, it’s what’s for dinner”. Following in the footsteps of No More Heroes, you get the same whimsical humor you would expect from other Suda51 titles. For example, the gun you hold is named Boner and there are witty one liners like, “Maybe we can play pong… or do shots! *bang* *bang*”. The game is presented like an old Spanish type of film reel, breaking the game into acts and introducing each character upon their appearance.

SOUND:
The eerie tracks in game suits the environment well. While not the creepiest, it does give you a sense of urgency in particular situations. Navigating through menus and picking up items have a friendly tune similar to No More Heroes. The sounds of bashing demons open and their blood gushing free are perfect. While voice acting is mediocre at best, they do provide a good amount of humor and you do become attached to the characters. After awhile you get used to the over exaggerate voice acting.

GAMEPLAY:
The game is played like a survival horror type, but a lot more fast paced. You go from area to area looking for Paula, but when your hit darkness, you must find your way back to the light before your body dissolves. The only way is to shoot a goat’s head with your torch light. You’re then free to kill the demons that lurk around you. It really does give a suspenseful feeling when you’re stuck in the darkness, panicking trying to find the light. The controls are easy to navigate; changing weapons and healing are done through the directional pad and moving is similar to Alan Wake. The only way to heal yourself is by drinking beer or tequila. In the demon world alcohol doesn’t kill you, and what doesn’t kill you always makes you stronger. As you mow down demons along the road you obtain white and red gems that you can rack up to upgrade weapons and health later on. After you max out your weapons, working towards upgrades makes killing much more satisfying. The loading screens between acts shows your character walking across a town similar to Ghost n Goblins as a little shout-out to Capcom. The game uses the Unreal Engine quite well. The darkness transformation looks great and towns are detailed. While not the most impressive, its still a great looking game when it comes to the cinematography. Since it uses the Unreal Engine, you do get the texture pop in from time to time. You also have quick time events here and there that put you into the experience. Fruits are a rarity in the demon world so be sure to save up so you can pay the baby on the door to unlock some. Just like in real life.



 
OVERALL:
Suda51 does a great job presenting itself to the next-gen consoles, aside from the Wii. Shadow of the Damned is an enjoyable experience from beginning to end. The dialogue might not be funny to some and the type of gameplay can lean towards a certain audience, but this title is definitely a game you will want to check out. Be sure to check back soon for a full video review of Shadow of the Damned for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

Review of Infamous 2

Consider Cole MacGrath, the returning hero of Infamous, proof of what lies at the eye of a storm: nothing. He might look like actor Sam Worthington and sound like Batman, but to see him is almost to see through him. His eyes are permanently narrow, fixed on his next opponent or waypoint. His mouth is just a slit, source of little more than cynically devised canon. His head is shaved, his arms inked with high-street tattoos. His only magnetism is electrical.


There’s no real excuse for this, but the argument will be that he speaks with his powers, and in that respect he’s a poet. No sooner has the game begun than he’s siphoning electricity from anything plugged in and firing it out as bullets, shields, bombs, rockets, restraints, tractor beams, defibrillating shocks, kinetic blasts and, ultimately, lightning. It’s the loadout from a dozen popular action games given a makeover.

Infamous 2 is interactive fan fiction, a clumsy popculture magpie. Its best weapon: the sticky bomb, which is identical to Halo’s plasma grenade in almost every respect. Its biggest villain: The Beast, a giant glowing man who, it’s revealed, has everything in common with Watchmen’s Dr Manhattan. Its story: Watchmen again, via Blade II and X-Men. Its environment: somewhere between Left 4 Dead 2, Crackdown, Mercenaries and The Saboteur, and often distractingly similar to one or the other. And LittleBigPlanet? We’ll get to that.
What little of the story matters involves the destruction of Empire City (New York) by the aforementioned Beast, whose trek across America is watched avidly by in-game TV broadcasts. MacGrath flees to New Marais (New Orleans) in the deep south, a place of conflict and superstition – a perfect dojo for his powers. But what’s this? The levees have broken and feral mutant freaks have started rising from the floods. For nefarious private army the Militia, it’s the perfect staging ground for a war against the Conduits, the world’s emerging population of supermen and women.

Together with sidekick gadget man Zeke, MacGrath quickly teams up with bickering supergirls Nix (an atrociously characterised voodoo tribeswoman) and Kuo (a special agent on the wrong side of a Militia experiment). To say this dovetails with returning plot threads from Infamous would be generous: for newcomers to the series, much of the dialogue will sound like impenetrable fanboy gobbledygook.
From a gameplay perspective, what’s really important is that MacGrath needs enough power to activate the RFI, a shiny round MacGuffin full of dormant special effects, and the last, best hope against The Beast. This he achieves by consuming ‘Blast Cores’ found in key story missions.

To be fair, Infamous 2 is a game of two halves, only one of which is horrible. The first, which sees the game methodically set its agenda, is actually pretty good. The murky and misty New Marais is a much better place for the series’ murky and misty in-game palette, not to mention a melting pot of bustling pedestrians. You’re reminded of the how well the game reacts physically to MacGrath’s actions, cars dying as their batteries are sucked dry, buildings shredded by combat. And with a broader range of entry-level powers than last time, moving up and around the buildings is a painless and more attractive process.

Device Back Onto The PS3

device back onto the PS3

For $4.99, So We Went Back

for $4.99, so we went back