When Quarrel hit on iOS last year it was a mega hit. The simple design worked well with touchscreens allowing for players to play it in quick bursts or to binge for hours. However, the complaint developer Denki heard from many was “Where is the multiplayer?” In this Xbox Live Arcade re-release of the title, they have answered.

For those that didn’t pick up the well-regarded game on iOS last year, Quarrel is an easy one to understand: Risk, meet Scrabble. Now, I must admit that is almost exactly how the game is pitched, and when I was told that I said “Okay, sure.” Then I played it, and I thought “Ohhhh, yea. Totally.”

Eight letters at a time (with each new battle, or quarrel, we get eight new letters) we battle up to three opponents on a small map that is sectioned off like a single continent in Risk (think Risk Factions). Each section can have up to eight troops, each one representing a letter we can use in our battling word. Example: with three troops, a three letter word is our max. So if we plan on attacking or defending with fewer troops, we better make sure our brain is functioning so we can maximize our score.

Attacking works in the same way as Risk; to advance we must defeat the enemy, but are required leave a troop behind to hold the spot that we’ve won. Creating anagrams with all eight letters and collecting treasure from our victories allows for extra reinforcements. If we feel we need one of these reinforcements when leading into a battle, we tap “X” on our gamepad and a troop drops in to give us that extra letter availability.

If we are playing a match with more than two people, the others will inevitably face off. When that happens we will have a chance to earn more points towards reinforcements by getting the same letter board as the two battling and creating a word. We have to be quick though, as time will quickly expire on this opportunity.

Besides basic matches against the AI, several challenge modes allow us to keep our minds spinning as well. Coming back against an AI opponent from one square to owning them all, to taking a certain number of prisoners (prisoners are taken by winning a battle against an opponent with more troops on a space) are just some of the challenge games held within Quarrel. The “Showdown” mode is a boss rush against the nine opponent AIs going from least to most difficult. Rounding them out is the “Domination” mode, in which we seek to conquer every one of the 12 maps in Quarrel.

I didn’t clock much time in with Quarrel on iOS, but I did prefer the controls on that platform. Cycling through letters with the analog stick is not as easy as using a touchscreen, but it isn’t a problem in the big picture. The added multiplayer and Challenge mode more than make up for any control shortcomings.

Puzzle and board games are some of my favorite genres, and Quarrel really scratches that itch for me. Other than not trusting any other user online (anyone could use an anagram site to cheat), I find it to be an enjoyable and immensely satisfying game. While there is no local multiplayer, my brother and I had an excellent time sitting down and trying to pull the longest word as quick as possible. I recommend Quarrel to anyone looking for a new twist on a word game.

This review is based on a review code sent to SideQuesting by the publisher, UTV Ignition. Quarrel is available for 400 MSP on the Xbox Live Marketplace

Gymkhana uses basic on-screen virtual buttons as controls

Game developers: when making touchscreen racing games DO NOT EVER use virtual buttons as your control methods. They cover up the screen in the worst possible way, and remove us from the experience by turning a deep racing game into a poorly-controlled RC car experience.

Gymkhana RPM lives by virtual buttons (or wheels) and ultimately dies because of them.

The game’s premise, driving around a course full of pylons and obstacles to rack up the most points possible, is actually a fairly interesting concept, reminiscent of Ken Block’s early feats. The game is mission-based, asking us to either rack up enough points drifting, slide around or between colored pylons, or take corners at high speeds, and is set in some nicely-designed environments and courses. The visuals are crisp and clean and work well on the iPhone’s small screen. The small selection of unlockable cars isn’t anything out of the ordinary (Minis and Camaros abound) but the perspective is set so far up that the detail of the vehicles is lost.

It’s kind of like looking at a Hot Wheels car sliding down a driveway.

The vehicle isn't always visible well on the screen

But again: the controls. So much of this kind of stunts-based racing relies on being able to perfectly control my car; executing emergency brakes or counter-steers at the right time is crucial. Gymkhana RPM just doesn’t have a good grip on the concept. The on-screen controls register as either “on” or “off” in one direction or another, never really giving me the feeling of actually driving. It actually felt more like I was “pushing” the car around.

I’m hopeful that a future update gives it more “traditional” iOS controls, but until then the game is sadly undriveable. It’s too bad, because the concept is strong enough to warrant a proper release.

This review is based on a copy of the game sent to SideQuesting by the publisher.

I’m not going to lie; I didn’t really remember what happened in Modern Warfare 2 all that well. For whatever reason, that’s not really what stuck with me. There’s not much of a transition into where MW3 takes over, either. It doesn’t take long to catch on, mind you, but it doesn’t make it any less jarring to follow, which is a trait that’s pretty consistent throughout the entirety of the single player campaign. That’s not to say that I didn’t understand what was happening in the game, the story was simple enough, but the way it’s told and the transitions in between main points of the campaign do not flow.

The individual levels themselves, on the other hand, are well-prepped mini roller coasters. The initial climb can be a bit slow, and the closing a bit jarring, but every point in between is fun, exciting and at most times a treat to play. The “monster closet” phenomenon makes a triumphant return, and while its appearances are mild, there are some points where I just scratch my head at a lack of understanding of their reason for being a part of the game. When enemies are blocking my way into a tunnel, why can’t I kill them all and be done with it? These parts of the campaign are accompanied by some other random difficulty spikes that result in some unexpected deaths that mandate replay, but like the closets, are few and while I can remember them, they don’t ruin the experience. The biggest thing holding the single player portion of the game back is that I’ve done it all before. It feels very much like the first two parts of the series. And while, as a whole that’s not a bad thing, stagnation leaves a bad taste. So, while I found myself enjoying my time with the single player, and the appropriately climactic ending, it was still an overall middling experience.

But let’s face it; the single player campaign was never a go to reason for picking up any of the Modern Warfare games. They can hold your attention for a bit, but when push comes to shove, the multiplayer is where most people spend a majority of their game time, and I am no exception.

I was never anything special with the previous COD games, so I won’t try and compare the intricate differences in the multiplayer between MW3 and its predecessors. Nevertheless, the multiplayer is a top notch experience. The design of the maps and the game types is solid and kept me interested for quite some time. And time is something that you’ll hopefully have an abundance of, because if you hope to make a dent in the unlockables that MW3 keeps secured, mostly through level requirements, you’ll be putting plenty of hours in. As you continue to lay waste on the battlefield you are rewarded with experience that ups your overall player level. This unlocks additional guns, grenades, game types and more. In addition to this, the weapons that you use have their own level ups as well, progressing completely independently and reward you with useful add-ons such as new sights, grips, silencers and the like. This is the case for every gun, so unlocking a red-dot sight for one gun does not do so for another, which, for me, means that I will not have a red-dot sight for a lot of guns. The amount of game time required to level up individual weapons was hefty for me. I don’t have the kind of time to sink into repetitive level ups like I used to, so finding that there was such a substantial time requirement for the attachments was a big letdown. For those that sink, or have already sunk 100+ hours into the game would see it differently, I’m sure, but even the hardcore might be daunted by the fact that they will need to re-obtain each attachment for each gun on every prestige.

Aside from the grindy nature of the level ups, my only real complaint was the lack of low experience lobbies for when I first jumped into the multiplayer. I didn’t have early access to the game, and played through the campaign first, which meant by the time I was on the multiplayer, it was about a week into release. As a level one, the next lowest level, on average, in a match with me would be about level 15 or so. This was a huge difference in experience. More than anything it was about knowledge of the maps; running around without any familiarity of my whereabouts meant VERY negative kill/death ratios for my first 10-15 games. Once I had become acquainted with the majority of the maps, this was a different story, but it’s a real downer to get matched up against folks much higher level right from the get go. One thing I found helpful during this rough period was using the new suite of perks. In addition to the standard kill streak perks, a new subset has been added that count kills across deaths. These perks are more support oriented, but it means that for those who are more death prone, such as myself, you can still feel like you’ve been rewarded for a contribution to the team.

Once I had my fill of standard multiplayer, I moved into the final offering of Modern Warfare 3, the Special Ops mode. Not focused on nearly as much as it should, the “Spec Ops” is a wonderful addition to an already well filled game. Though it’s already made a debut in Modern Warfare 2, the offerings this time around still stay fresh. The introductory levels are simple, yet still have a lot of room for self-improvement if you want to get the full rating. While they won’t be teaching anyone how to rule a multiplayer match, I could definitely see basic skills developing from the multitude of missions in Spec Ops. The mode does also feature matchmaking, along with an entire co-op selection of missions, if you don’t happen to already have someone on your friend’s list with the game.

Modern Warfare 3 might feature a lot of elements that are beginning to age, and while some may focus on that more than others, when it comes right down to it, the game is still well made and fun to play. The campaign is a quick, fun romp and the multiplayer has more staying power than ever with the current incarnation of its leveling system. Even for Call of Duty first timers, it’s a game worth playing.

This review is based on a copy of the game for the Xbox 360 provided to SideQuesting by Activision

It’s not without its downsides, though. The pay isn’t as good — but that’s okay because you’re teaching, and you’re still getting paid to do what you love either way. More importantly, there are high expectations. During September and October, I worked maternity leave for a beloved, high-caliber teacher in a small suburb of Chicago. Meeting the expectations of the community and overcoming this stigma of “just being a substitute teacher” is overwhelming at first. You want to fit in and continue carry on the record of excellence that was set before you, all while earning the respect of those you work with and work for. This must be what 343 Industries feels like at the moment as they’re tossed the keys to the Halo franchise.

In the education business, if your principal asks you to do something, you do it. So if Microsoft charges you with remaking Halo: Combat Evolved, you better do it well. Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary is a successful remake, but it does little to showcase what 343 Industries will be bringing to the franchise.

Comparison between the game's visual modes

Fans of the original title will be happy to know that, conservatively speaking, Halo: CEA is a more-than-competent remake. It runs on the same game engine as the original Halo. In fact, hitting back on the controller switches between classic mode and the improved HD visuals mode. This also has its ups and downs. I was still playing through Halo: CE, but it just had HD skin, designed to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Halo 3 or Halo: Reach. On the other hand, this showcases the fact that nothing new was added to the gameplay. I was playing through a game that was released ten years ago, and the gameplay I was enjoying was Bungie’s doing — not 343′s.

Of course, since the gameplay was not touched fans will not be getting a glimpse of what innovative tweaks 343 Industries may be offering to the franchise in future iterations. The feature of being able to switch between classic and HD is only intriguing once per level, and it only highlights how little was added to the experience. Considering all of the additions to the “Halo formula” that have been added to the series over the past ten years, playing Halo: CEA was a lot like going camping — which is a lot of fun until the first time you have to wipe your ass with a handful of leaves (or hit LB to sprint or rocketpack only to find that it only turns on your flashlight).

This sort of thing is not only true for the campaign, it’s true for the multiplayer as well. The multiplayer components (non-CoOp) of Halo: CEA are all based on those of Halo: Reach, and again that’s more of Bungie’s work. “New” offerings include remade maps (with new nooks and crannies) from Halo: CE and Halo 2 and a new Firefight map. Outside of the small terrain changes in the remade maps and “re-sizing” of levels to make them appropriate for Reach’s abilities, nothing new has been brought to the table.

After a few months working as a long-term substitute, I know that there are good days and bad days. I also know the difference between executing someone else’s lesson plan, word-for-word, and taking a curriculum and making it yours. I’ve done both.

Unfortunately, it seems like Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary is more of the former than the latter. For all intents and purposes, Halo: CEA is a good game. But when the community you’re serving is the Halo fanbase and your administration is Microsoft, just “good” is unacceptable — especially for gameplay that’s bordering on being stale. I want 343 Industries to succeed because I want the Halo franchise to continue to thrive, but they really need to show me a lot more with the next trilogy. Otherwise, it’s just another game that’s about shooting aliens in the dick.

The core aspect of the Anno series is building and balancing our base. We build houses in order to gather population, and must gather resources to keep that population happy. While creating the various buildings we must also be mindful of keeping a positive monetary balance — the effect of our buildings on the ‘Ecobalance’ of your settlements — as well as keeping a positive reserve of power to run everything. Everything works against one another; generating power can harm the Ecobalance, which in turn can harm farms, which in turn produce fewer goods, which can lead to an unhappy population, which will lead to less income.

That’s it in a nutshell. Playing the actual game is only a fraction of the entire experience. We also have to take into account what islands on the map can produce the resources currently needed and where those islands are located in order to establish effective trade routes, all in the name of satisfying the increasing needs of our population. As the population grows they demand more items to keep them happy, which forces us to expand to accommodate them, once again looping back into juggling income, Ecobalance, and power.

It’s a game of balance, and achieving that balance is the truest aspect of real time strategy that I can think of. It is strategy in the same way SimCity is strategy in that we need to carefully plan out building layouts and city layouts in order to achieve an optimal efficiency.

That is probably the broadest, yet most accurate explanation possible for Anno 2070 and the series as a whole.

There’s a vast amount of granularity in everything we do that can impact the different factors, and our choice in faction has advantages and disadvantages to those to consider. Playing as Global Trust, the industrial-minded faction can net a speedy early game growth and cheap buildings that can provide a surplus of power, but their buildings impact the Ecobalance in a devastating way. The Eden Initiative, on the other hand, have buildings designed around mitigating that deterioration but suffer from an extended time in producing even the most basic of goods and larger power production.

The most important aspect to know about Anno 2070 is what we’re getting into. It isn’t the type of strategy game where we jump in to play through a vast campaign. The campaign is relatively short, and is more or less a tutorial to help us understand the variety of mechanics required to succeed. The real hook is the game’s Continuous Play; where we start a map and just build endlessly. There are no mission requirements or game ending objectives to complete, just try and build the best civilization possible.

There comes a point where we realize that, sure, we’ve got resources being produced but it looks awfully messy and perhaps there is a better, more compact way to organize your buildings. Chances are that notion will strike everyone eventually, and chances are you will find yourself looking up building layouts online to help conserve space. It’s that spark of an idea that is the defining reason of why Anno 2070 is an excellent game. We get a handle on what we think is the game, until we realize that we’re doing it poorly. We step up and get a handle on a larger aspect of the game, and the process repeats itself once again.

As if all of that wasn’t enough, there is the brand new feature to Anno 2070 called the Ark. Essentially a base of operations, the Ark allows for the storage of goods and items and can carry them between games, as well as having the capability to equip upgrades that offer global benefits. The third faction, the S.A.A.T, can be built up and used to research and develop those upgrades – upgrades that can be integral to the success of any given game.

The downside to the Ark is that it is tied to being online as part of the game’s DRM. Lose connection to the Ubisoft servers and we lose access to everything the Ark offers. It isn’t just the Ark that is tied to always being online, either; the main menu offers a global chat function as well as several other functions which can impact the actual game. Daily missions which earn career points with the faction of our choice, voting for representatives in a pair of political positions that in turn offer unique benefits to the maps played on, monthly global events as well as multiplayer scenario missions and multiplayer continuous games are all part of the online aspect.

Anno 2070 is an amazing game. It’s the type of game we can begin playing and lose hours upon hours to, and is an excellent example of a game that is easy to learn, but difficult to master. It is, hands down, one of the most pleasant gaming experiences currently available.

This review was based on a review code provided by Ubisoft.

Leaping murders abound in the latest AssCreed

That isn’t to say the formula has been completely changed. You’re still mostly playing as Ezio Auditore da Firenze, the master assassin who has been the focus of the previous two games. You’re still traversing the width and breadth of a sprawling open city, this time the multicultural Constantinople. You’re still occasionally interacting with famous historical figures, most notably a young Suleiman during this new adventure. You’re still balancing assassinations against attempting to keep your notoriety down to avoid Templar notice.

The staples of Assassin’s Creed are there. The issues start to show up when you really delve deeper into the experience. In addition to purchasing properties across Constantinople you now acquire Assassin’s Dens. These dens are Revelations’ version of Borgia Towers, in that you assassinate their specific Templar Captain and claim it for the Assassins Guild. They offer access to the new bomb crafting stations as well as allow you to send your recruited assassins on non-interactive missions to other cities across the Mediterranean, much like in Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. Perhaps most importantly they allow you to engage in missions with the assassin posted there which in turn helps that recruit become a Master Assassin, locking that building down and protecting it from Templar attacks.

The need to lock a building down is the first of what could have been potentially neat mechanics that almost all feel far too out of place. This one is a package deal; you let your Templar awareness get too high and instead of simply fighting you on sight the Templars will actively fight to retake their towers. The first part of this is congruous with the core experience, where you have to either assassinate or sneak your way to the entrance of the besieged Den. Once there, it begins a tower defense like mini-game which has you utilizing a bevy of various assassins and barricades to stave off waves of Templar attackers.

Long distance threats

This tower defense mini-game is arguably the most jarring aspect of Revelations. If you fail to keep your notoriety down this mini-game will happen several times over the story, and it can either be one of the most frustrating or boring experiences, depending on how it’s handled. It isn’t particularly bad, though. It’s just not particularly good, either, and doesn’t mesh with the rest of the game.

The other new feature Revelations brings to the table is the story unfolding while playing as Desmond. Existing entirely inside the Animus on a digital construct known as Animus Island, Desmond can unlock a series of memory fragments of his own through collecting items while playing as Ezio. Once these memory fragments are available they take place as a series of first person platforming exercises, while Desmond vaguely recounts the story of his life. Like the tower defense bits these are incongruous at best or incredibly off putting at worst.

The story itself is fine. It works to flesh out Desmond as a character in this universe; something which has been sorely lacking from previous installments. Yes, previous games had sections with Desmond, but they worked towards developing the character from the points you play as him on. These story segments do an excellent job of giving him a personality. The platforming itself, however, is superfluous and frustrating. It provides you with a selection of shapes you can place in order to create paths for Desmond to navigate gaps, while removing any ability to move at a reasonable pace. You move at a steady speed the entire way, somewhere between a normal walking speed and a light jog.

These two segments are the crux of Revelations’ most serious issues. It isn’t that they’re especially broken; they just don’t feel at home in an Assassin’s Creed title.

Less problematic, though still something to be considered is the story. It is exactly what you think it should be, and the issue there is that the ending of Brotherhood sets up far, far more than is delivered in Revelations. Worse, the things you need closure with going into this new title are seemingly brushed away without a second thought. Where Desmond and his related cast should be the focus of the story with whatever ancestral assassin’s memories he is reliving a tool of moving that story forward, instead those memories are the entire point of this game, and Desmond’s story has become almost an afterthought.

Without moving into spoiling the actual plot of Revelations, it is enough to say that from beginning to end this game winds up being a zero sum story. It begins with a new quest, it finishes at the conclusion of that quest, and that’s it. In terms of the information gleaned by Desmond through the reliving of these particular memories it seems like a massive waste of time for the present day crew.

A meeting of the minds

Still, not everyone comes to a video game for the story. Some people can pick up a game in a series they’ve never played before and jump right in, assuming it plays well and is an overall enjoyable experience.

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations works well enough. The mix of free running, parkour, and assassinations is as enjoyable now as it has ever been. The new gadgets Ezio becomes outfitted with do their job to make running around as painless as possible, and Constantinople is as full of interesting historical monuments and attractions as it is resplendent in the trappings of a vastly multicultural society. The multiplayer is still as addicting as it is cerebral.

Is this game something that must be played? Sure. Fans of the series will want it for the story. Fans of the multiplayer can have as much fun stabbing, shooting, chasing, and poisoning their friends as they did in Brotherhood. Newcomers can get as much fun out of both online and offline play as any seasoned player. But is it a game that must be played immediately? No. It’s there for when you have some free time, but just doesn’t quite stand up to previous installments.

This review is based on a copy of the game purchased by SideQuesting

The Kirbys take on a spiky fish

These mini Kirby’s can no longer inhale enemies and instead rely on swarming and pummeling foes to death. The most satisfying feeling I’d get while playing this game is commanding a pack of murderous Kirby’s and having them pounce on and destroy seemingly harmless little bean pod enemies. Imagine a helpless little creature just wandering back and forth before a gang of pink blobs set on it and destroy it.

Like Canvas Curse, Mass Attack is played entirely with the stylus. For the most part, this control schemes works well. You direct the Kirbys with taps and flicks of the stylus. Unfortunately I have a few minor complaints with this system. When you have the max of ten Kirbys, I found them to be slightly unwieldy. When they would bunch up together, some would accidentally get caught up in enemy attacks. My other complaint was with the flicks to get Kirbys airborne. Many times I would have to do multiple ones before the game would register it. You have to do a longer motion than I would think necessary.

The Kirbys in all their glory

The game is broken up into four worlds each with a different theme. Each of these worlds consists of around ten levels capped off by a boss battle. Old favorites like Wispy Woods and King Dedede show up to try and stop the Kirbys. There is plenty of challenge here for people who think that Kirby games are too easy. Each regular level has between 3 and 5 medals to collect. In addition one of these medals is a rainbow one and all of them are required to unlock the final boss battle. The levels are graded on Gold, Silver, Bronze, or no ranking depending on how well you do in a level. The game even has a checklist system with several pages worth of in game achievements.

All of this is wonderful but it doesn’t touch on the best feature. Kirby Mass Attack features several amazing unlockable games. There’s a basic whack-a-mole type game, a spacey 2d shooter where Kirby is the plane,  and several others. The most notable is a timed RPG type battler. It is the second best RPG type experience featuring Kirby — The best is obviously the RPG boss battles from The Great Cave Offensive in Kirby Superstar.

This review is based on a copy of the game purchased by the reviewer.

The Kirbys take on King Dedede

It’s my job to be knowledgeable about the gaming industry, and because of it I know how a Zelda game generally goes down. A green-suited boy named Link will travel far too long of a way through various lands, taking the time to help others along the way, eventually ending up in a dungeon full of enemies to fight a boss, collecting integral tools within. All of this is to save Princess Zelda, because she’s always needed elsewhere. At this point even I feel tired of the formula.

The opening moments between Link and Zelda are well done.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword bleeds similarity and simultaneously forces its uniqueness down your throat, mostly because it has to. Waggling is for the lazy now; Link’s sword is an extension of your wrist, moving as you do. Thankfully taking the net away on motion control for the primary tool works more often than not, as it is a mechanic that could have broken the entire game. For the few times it doesn’t work, I would fall out of the game’s trance and feel like an idiot jabbing at the television again. The on and off nature of success is a hard one to forgive because the confidence and precision it evokes when pulled off is extremely addicting. At times, the innate disgust for motion control I’ve had in the past few years would disappear. While it was exhilarating to perform, I still feel like I’m praising something that should have happened three years ago.

It should be no surprise that the rest of the game largely hasn’t changed, especially for someone who is luke-warm on everything Zelda. Nearly dragging on for too long, the intro builds Link and Zelda’s relationship up to rip it in half. At a singular moment in particular before their separation, the two share gazes while the rest of the world comes to a halt; it was far more touching than anything I’ve seen in a Zelda game before and it leaves at the very second I wanted more. Games struggle to portray emotion without feeling overt, and it’s brief scenes like this one that remind me that few people out there understand it. Amongst the lull of exposition that saturates the first few hours of the game though, everything else becomes a blur.

Link doesn't know what he's getting into.

Shortly after this scene Link’s assistant Fi —  who turns out to be more “sentence-repeating-parrot-on-the-shoulder” than useful in most cases – is introduced. She lives in Link’s new sword and provides the dowsing ability, essentially a mindless way to point us in the right direction towards the next objective; it’s a tool that undoubtedly feels contrived. Maybe it was her constant reiteration of everything obvious or her inability to quell my frustration during the lack of direction in a puzzle, but this caused her presence to be more tedious than welcome.

Once portals are opened to the surface from Link’s home in the sky, aptly named Skyloft, the majority of Skyward Sword’s predictability begins. Each world consists of a theme, whether it’s a lush forest or an arid volcano, and the hazards and usual set of enemies are altered to fit. A short time is spent becoming accustomed to each environment’s inhabitants, usually in need of some kind of help before disclosing the location of where Zelda might be. The first time through the three main locations many things will not be accessible until further in the game when Link holds the right equipment. Eventually, someone will let you know where you’re headed and the core of the Zelda series will begin.

Complexity in seemingly simple environments is the key draw for Skyward Sword’s dungeons. Often rooms are discovered that you would have otherwise assumed nonexistent. Most of the solutions are replications of previous tasks, but sometimes they are completely new ideas that take some thinking and sometimes outright guessing to succeed at. Skyward Sword refuses to communicate its limits, instead leaving them for you to discover. Failing to play by Zelda’s rules of logic can result in frustrating scavenger hunts for a clue about what to do next. Sometimes it’s as simple as missing the crack on the wall, but other times it’s not knowing a certain action was possible. If you are familiar with Zelda’s tricks you may not have a problem, newcomers will probably find it irritating.

Wildly slashing with the Wii remote will not suffice in most encounters.

Somewhat obviously the enemies we encounter conform to Link’s directional slashes. A three-headed beast will position its heads in diagonals for us to slash in one slice, and failing to remove all three will result in the rebirth of the dismembered ones. Most every enemy has a tell that you must act upon with a swipe of the sword in the appropriate direction. The normal fodder enemies appear along with a few stronger variants, but it’s nothing too daunting. After the first boss battle, one that very blatantly teaches you to use patience before attacking, the rest had varying degrees of challenge and learning. When the attackers start to require successive directional slashes, the dial between frustration and nimble engagement tends to slide to the latter side, but the threat of it bouncing back is always there.

Link’s repertoire of tools expands with each dungeon; many familiar Zelda stapels return with a few new additions. Holding down the B button brings up Link’s selection of gadgets on a wheel, and flinging the Wii remote in the direction of a desired instrument is surprisingly quick and efficient during hectic situations. As soon as a dungeon’s signature tool is introduced everything seems to “click”, revealing unnoticed areas that were previously rushed through during the initial exploration. Upon exiting the dungeon we are left feeling like masters of its terrain, something many other games gloss over with shiny rewards instead. The first time is invigorating, and it only gets stronger after the next two. But, not long after, whiffs of noticeable repetition begin to deteriorate the subsequent experiences.

An upgrade system is present in Skyward Sword that appears to be almost forcefully implemented out of desperation for a new bullet point. Chests, enemies, and sometimes grass will hold various items that can be used to upgrade Link’s arsenal. None of them are necessary, but some of them will help. For example: upgrading the slingshot will cause it to shoot more Deku seeds at a time — again, not anything vital. This feature is somewhat ruined by having to run around a la classic grinding to collect the materials. Each time an area is entered all of the items will act as if they have never been seen before, exposing the useless description text for the first of every one picked up. This is one of those mechanics that holds potential for a second try in the future.

Diverging from the main story line will grant the option to run errands for townsfolk. Most of the side quests are just that, fetch quests, and as a result are not much fun. Surprisingly a lot do exist, making it fairly easy to bump up your play time by many hours. I found myself leaning towards saving the world instead of helping the citizens with their menial problems.

Driving a time-travelling a boat is a definite highlight.

Did I mention that Skyward Sword is a beautiful game? It’s also stricken with jagged edges and fuzzy textures on a high-definition television. But hardware aside, the art style is a mix of watercolor and realistic effects. Everything is bright like Wind Waker but grounded in reality as Twilight Princess was. Over time during lengthy play sessions, the limitations of the Wii’s ability to represent the visuals pleasingly fade away.

One of the most interesting things about Skyward Sword that has to be pointed out to me pertains to the music, referring specifically to the shop keepers. Nearing each clerk the soundtrack will dynamically change depending on who is nearest you. Staring at the gruff-looking repair man, metal clinks and other whimsical hardware store noises scatter in between the notes of the base theme; it’s a wonderfully delightful effect. Of course the rest of the music is good too, but nothing sounds especially outstanding during the action; it’s the still moments that stick out.

Signed and completed, the checklist for Skyward Sword reads that it’s a Zelda game. The pact it makes with motion controls is a brave one, and luckily it avoids the pitfalls so many others have fallen down. But just because it does something new and stays within the confines of Zelda design does not allow it to rely on nostalgia for easy praise, because in my case, and presumably many newer generations, we have none. Even so, the amount of confidence it places in us to trustfully take its hand, showing what it has to offer, is at times dumbfounding. Games don’t take commitment as seriously as Zelda when it comes to tradition, but it’s that very thing that I can’t seem to find appealing. Unfortunately, the usual routine drags down to a chore after the first few dungeons, strapping the interest to keep playing on the narrative and puzzles which offer little to allure. We have to want to play Zelda again, not for the first time. Because of Skyward Sword I know that motion controls, if fully committed to, can work, but also because of Skyward Sword I know that Zelda games will never change, having no problem with leaving people like me behind.

This review is based on a copy of the game purchased by SideQuesting.

How does one judge a world? Diverse cultures and complex traditions demand individual attention. Each detail must be inspected, weighed and measured according to their own contributions and flaws. They say that the best way to learn a language is to live where it’s spoken. And there are few series that capture a sense of place like The Elder Scrolls.

And after the dozens of hours you will no doubt spend in Skyrim, you’ll speak the language fluently.

A society is nothing if not the collection of its peoples, places and events. Rather than taking up the expansionist ideals of open world role-playing games before it, Skyrim instead fills in most the cracks left unsealed in other games. Every character has something to say. Every bookshelf holds some piece of forgotten (and often very well-written) lore. No crumbling ruin or babbling brook appears as though it wasn’t given just the right amount of care and attention.

At times, the sheer amount of content — both that which is useful and that which is merely fascinating — can be overwhelming. Players fresh off the boat will find themselves strangers in an immense civilization. While map markers which number fewer than those found in Oblivion or Fallout lead to much more engrossing ends. Those more accustomed to linear paths may succumb to culture shock at first. However, when the  murky depths of uncertainty break, wanderlust and a severely shortened attention span will conspire to keep players rooted in the Skyrim’s frozen expanses for longer than most entire franchises.

This is the part in which the dragons make their presence felt.

Inescapable, unavoidable and undoubtedly amazing; the dragons of Skyrim aren’t just this year’s Oblivion gates and will argue that point till their last, fiery (or frosty) breath. The scaly beasts lend a sense of agency; a living, breathing (sort of) reminder of who you — Dovahkiin, the dragon-born — are and why you are here. The enemy is no longer sequestered behind quest lines and alternate dimensions. He is above you; laying waste to the society that you have come to call home, if only for a few dozen hours. Slaying the beasts and becoming quickened with their souls to power your Shouts — magical dragon abilities — reminds you that you and the narrative are inextricable from the land of Skyrim. The winged terrors keep the story salient, rather than incidental and provide a real narrative tether to your importance to the world around you.

Also keeping Dovakhiin feeling like a crucial component is the marked “Game of Thrones-ification” of the franchise. Political intrigue, rebellion and civil war are the rule of law in the birthplace of the Nords. As such a prominent and powerful figure in the fiction, the dragon-born would be a natural choice as a political powerhouse; able to sway both the opinions of the people and the tides of war. While the dragon infestation may moor players to the plot, it’s the civil war that makes one care for Skyrim’s dense and colorful population. The more human and down-to-earth has the debatably adverse side-effect of fantastical whimsy found in earlier titles. The oddball quests are still there to be found (I implore everyone to search out a quest concerning a certain stray dog) but they are an endangered species in this frigid region. Then again, the new tone also means that, unlike in previous entries in the series, you are no longer the least interesting part of the game.

It’s most unfortunate, then, that the actual act of slaying is Skyrim’s least interesting component. The mechanics of combat feel more entrenched and less disconnected than those of Morrowind and Oblivion. However, the combat system is still hardly even that. Shouts and dual-wielding provides more variety on-the-fly but do little to alleviate the “Press [blank] to swat enemy with [blank] until it’s dead.” It’s really a shame that your most primary method of interaction with the world is also the least engaging.

What’s even more distressing is the way in which Skyrim interacts with itself, and in turn, the player. Every culture has its eccentricities, of course, but it can be assumed that Bethesda didn’t intend for atrocious pathfinding to be part of the rich Nordic heritage. Enemies, NPC’s, companions; none are spared from consistently walking into walls and each other. Nothing interrupts your conversation with the local blacksmith quite like the town bard moonwalking into your partner face-first for fifteen seconds. Or how about when that horrifying monster you’ve been duking it out with is suddenly foiled by that most implacable of obstacles; a two-foot high wooden table? In either case, you will be left feeling more like a visitor and less like a true resident of the sandbox that is Skyrim.

These moments of navigational error manifest themselves most egregiously in your employable companions. It’s easy to thank the developer for finally gracing Elder Scrolls players with a bit of support in the big, bad world. Unfortunately, your stalwart friends will tend to misunderstand some of the more exotic concepts that we take for granted. Such imports as stepping out of the way of your fireballs or following your example through lethal, swinging blades.

And while you’re gawking at these spectacles of quickly diminishing amusement, why not take a second to notice that these dumbfounded citizens all seem to look, move and sound exactly alike. Bethesda’s full-to-bursting world has once again come at the cost of  incestuous use of character models and voice actors.

But then there comes a time when you realize that none of this actually bothers you. The alien customs of the game’s AI doesn’t hold a candle to the bizarrely emergent embers of endearment you find burning within for your companions. Equally self-sustaining and perhaps more ubiquitous are personal stories that will crop up along the way. These don’t just include the tales of the occasionally frustrating but often amusing assortment of glitches inherent to all Bethesda games with which you will regale your friends. They’re made up of all the small choices you can and will make during your stay in Skyrim. They are the methods you engineer to best a boss or the discoveries you make after first venturing past the tutorial area. Even the minuscule deductions you make about the environment, its people and its locales. All of these moments are your own and they are legion. Yet at the same time, they are built from the same bricks and mortar that Skyrim has laid out for everyone. The world is there as it is, but it is up to you to decide at least part of what it was and nearly all of what it will be.

There is no doubting that Skyrim is a great game. What’s truly exciting (and maybe even a bit shocking) is that this, the fifth Elder Scrolls game, is the first ultimate deliverance on the series’ promise. It is a fertile world with purpose and the foundations of nearly infinitely variable stories to be discovered and even written. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim sets a new standard for how virtual worlds should be sculpted. It’s more than a place worth visiting, it’s a place with a language that’s worth learning.

This review is based on a copy of the game purchased by SideQuesting.

Mario dons the Tanooki Suit once again

Super Mario 3D Land is easily the best game for the 3DS. I know this statement does not mean much with the current lineup on the system, but this is the kind of game that will still be touted as one of the system’s best at the end of its lifespan. Is 3D Land perfect? No. But the fun and enjoyment I experienced while playing it far outweighed any of its flaws.

The game begins with the same story as the countless Mario games that precede it. You know it by now, and I don’t need to rehash it. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Not every video game needs to have elaborate stories. For this type of game, I just want to start playing and running through the levels not listening to back story. At the end of each world, you get a letter from Peach which contains a picture of her and her captors. The whole segment is cute, quick, and minimally intrusive.

For me Mario 3D Land hits a real sweet spot in its game play. While I do enjoy playing past 3D Mario games like 64 and both Galaxies, it’s the 2D titles that I always find myself replaying and loving. 3D Land manages to combine the best of both of these styles. The worlds are played in 3-dimensions, but are designed with the sensibilities from the 2D titles. Rather than being dropped in a big world and being tasked to search for a star, this game tasks you with running from one end of the stage to the next with the main goal being to reach the goal. The levels are quick and don’t overstay their welcome. In games like Mario Galaxy and Mario 64, if you didn’t enjoy a stage you were stuck playing through it multiple times to get every star. Here each stage requires only one run-through. This keeps the levels really fresh. The 3D contributes nicely to the game. It allows all of the environments to pop and helps in lining up your jumps.

Ghost houses return in 3D

Mario sports a nice collection of suits in this game. The tanooki suit returns alongside fire Mario and the all new boomerang suit. The internet has made a lot of this new tanooki suit being gimped, but I feel that it is a necessary evil. Flight is and has always been a borderline broken power in games like these. After you beat the game you can find a new improved tanooki with access to the statue power. The boomerang suit is a nice touch if not that fundamentally different from grabbing a fire flower.

The game feels a little on the short side. Experienced players will be able to blaze through the initial 8 worlds in quick fashion. After beating the game, new remixed versions of each level open up effectively doubling the length of the game. Between this plethora of levels and the hunt for those elusive star coins, there is enough action here to keep most players satisfied for a while.

Up until now I have been largely praising this title, but it is not without its faults. The most glaring is in the inspiration for this game. 3D Land is steeped in Mario nostalgia. Don’t get me wrong. I love Nintendo nostalgia and their stable of characters. However, 3D Land does not bring anything new to the table. The boss battles are inspired by both the boss battles from Super Mario Bros. and the mid-boss battles from Super Mario Bros. 3. Each stage culminates in a flag pole. There’s music notes from Mario 3, flip platforms from Mario Galaxy, the skeleton roller coaster from New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and ghost houses from Mario World just to name a few. All of these borrowed elements are stitched together into a very cohesive package, but at the end of the day they are still borrowed. There seems to be very little new material here.

The classic flagpole returns

3D Land borrows a lot from its history. It takes all of these old elements and wraps them up into a beautiful and immersive 3-dimensional world to explore and play in. While Super Mario 3D Land may never live up to its older brothers’ legacy of amazing genre-defining titles, it is still the best game on the 3DS and an absolute joy to play. If you own a 3DS and not this game, exactly what game did you buy the system for? If you don’t have a 3DS this is a very compelling argument to take that dive.

This review is based on a copy of the game purchased by the reviewer.

Bond's cell phone is arguably more destructive than some of the weapons.

Goldeneye’s campaign both looks fine and plays fine, but that’s about as far as it goes. Each mission has a primary goal and an optional secondary goal, most of them requiring small tasks to be done multiple times, think “find seven pieces of intel” or “destroy all the servers in the server room.” Completing them is quite easy.  Most of the stuff is nestled along the largely linear path taken throughout each level. Traversing the environments isn’t much fun either.  But then again, not many other first-person shooters do it better. Points will be marked on the map, leading the way to spawn enemies. Not long after playing, a trigger-enemies-run-back-behind-cover routine will be the primary tool for the easiest progression.  Thankfully enemies will never endlessly respawn. Most encounters leave room for the choice between a stealthy approach using strictly the silenced pistol or a rather loud approach using everything else at Bond’s disposal.

Stealth isn’t particularly difficult, enemy AI is dumb enough to stand in-place while taking multiple shots to the body without alerting anyone. A few levels feel more suited for the silent-types, like a jungle level that is littered with hackable turrets just waiting to mow down the idiots who put them there. The only time it feels necessary in other scenarios is to make dealing with larger groups much easier.

Once the realization of how generous the snap targeting is and how weak (and dumb) the enemies are, there is no hesitation to wildly pull the left trigger during hectic situations, quickly eradicating any threat, while little, of dying.

The enemy AI has the intelligence of a childhood water gun fight.

Goldeneye’s plot is largely the same as the originals, only slightly altered for modern weaponry and new gameplay. A Daniel Craig-played James Bond is trying to do the usual stopping of very evil guys doing very evil things.  In this case, interrupting a series of nuclear weapons called “Goldeneye.”  Along the way many things will explode, in what seemingly is a “me-too” ode to Call of Duty; many men will be shot (mostly on foot) and during a horrendous tank sequence too.

Also included is a Mi6 Ops mode, over 40 different single-player challenges that give a rating based on efficiency. Each map has customization enemy health, accuracy and the like, but none of these help to make the lack of other players entertaining. Only offering a few varying objectives like protecting consoles or murdering waves of enemies they are a lonesome Horde Mode, a desolate multiplayer match devoid of any sort of interesting strategy.

Looking back at the Nintendo 64 game, the true allure back then was its multiplayer, this time around though, it is a mess. Speaking from about an hour of play, I can tell you it’s a nightmare trying to find anyone playing, at first I would be quick to blame the recent release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, but I’ve talked with someone who has already reviewed the game and they reported the same issues. Simply getting to the matchmaking screen was plagued with consistent network errors that I’m almost certain are not on my end. With all the issues I had while attempting to review the multiplayer I only got to play a small amount of time, thus I don’t feel I can put much of a judgement on it. When I did get into a match and the lag wasn’t unbearable, it played very similarly to Call of Duty post-Modern Warfare: lots of sprinting, hit markers and larger open maps. Like the Nintendo 64 days, Goldeneye 007: Reloaded has zero weapon progression, it’s all customizable once the ability to create a loadout is available. It’s hard to say whether that’s a bad thing or not considering it’s a remake, but it certainly doesn’t offer the game any lasting power.

When the game isn't grey and brown it's at its best.

If true nostalgia is desired a four-player split-screen mode including all the classic characters is offered along with full customization of the match’s attributes like health, ammo, and of course, paintball mode (although I’m not sure why it’s not always on). The standard deathmatch, team deathmatch and other team-based objective modes are available, including the lauded Goldeneye mode where players fight over a golden gun that kills everyone in one shot.

Goldeneye 007: Reloaded suffers from an extreme case of identity crisis, it doesn’t know who to please and when. The campaign tries to ape the emergent feel of the bigger games on the market, while attempting to stay true to the feel of the original, but neither effort ends up pushing it far enough to succeed. The multiplayer seems to do the same things and ends up with the same disappointing outcome – not to mention the terrible swaths of network errors and lag. We’ve come to a point where Goldeneye has been superceded by Call of Duty, only lacking the James Bond allure, if that still exists. Despite being an acceptable modern remake, Goldeneye 007: Reloaded is proof that we should leave some classics untouched.

This review is based on a copy of the game provided to SideQuesting by the publisher.

Skylanders' Dark Spyro

Skyrim. Uncharted 3. Modern Warfare 3. Skyward Sword.

All of these huge games, including dozens of others that have released within the last three months, are built upon epic storytelling and dramatic sequences. They’re considered AAA cinematic experiences that transcend traditional video games and rival mainstream media.

That’s not the same with Skylanders. The game is basic, predictable, and expensive. And, well, it’s the most pure fun I’ve had on a console since Super Mario Galaxy 2.

Note: It’s difficult to review Skylanders just on one console. The game really does push the boundaries of how and where it’s played, and comes off of more like an experience than a standalone. In this case, I played the Xbox 360 and 3DS versions, and dabbled online in the PC’s social world.

At its most basic level, Skylanders taps into the memories of my childhood collections of Garbage Pail Kids trading cards and GI Joe action figures, where growing up in the Midwest meant that I had to complete my collections of various toys to an almost obsessive-compulsive level. The premise of the game is centered around figurines — “statues” in the game’s world — that are placed on a USB or infrared Portal of Power to bring the associated characters into the world of Skyland. With over 30 characters, all of which are unique, the potential just for kids wanting to complete the collection is high.

Skylanders' Dark Spyro figurine

They’re beautifully crafted, too. Here’s some design nerd-speak: As someone with some manufacturing background, it was extremely pleasant to see that the toys had no misaligned edges or flash, and that the separation of colors was often handled between parting lines. The mixture of materials, such as in Ignitor’s translucent flames and his plastic body, was great to see in a kids’ toy. The portal emits a colorful decadent glow that corresponds to the elemental characters that are placed on it. If the figure is magic-based, like Dark Spyro, then the LEDs inside change the top surface to a purple halo. If it’s a fire-based character like Ignitor, then the surface glows bright red-orange. All of this happens while the bottom of the portal retains a green glow.

It really does seem like magic to have these creatures surrounded by light on my TV stand. The lights are powered through the USB, so I’m tempted to plug the portal into a wall USB outlet and just leave it on all the time during the holidays, rotating figures as new ones arrive or my mood changes.

There’s much more substance to the figures than just the collectible aspect, too. The figures are essentially console-agnostic, meaning that when I take my Dark Spyro off of the Xbox 360′s portal and place it on the 3DS’s portal, they work the same. Toys for Bob did an excellent job of making things as simple as possible for me. The portal’s near-field allowed me to quickly pick up and drop the figures and play between games, even at the same time. The figures have a tiny bit of flash memory baked in. It’s just enough, though, that they can retain stats for the characters. I learned to quickly abuse it by playing the Xbox version for the main quest, and then grinding experience levels with the characters on my 3DS as I travelled. Different sections of the games open up to different characters, too, priming us to purchase another one or two just to access them.

A Skylanders hero is poised to take down the castle

Where the game separates itself from my past experiences is in its “Diablo meets Saturday morning cartoons” design. I mentioned earlier that it’s a standard adventure design for a modern video game. There are a few puzzles in each level, which are perfect for kids but are hardly challenging for adults. Rotate a laser here, turn a key there, essentially. The push to grab loot, however, is remarkable. I found myself going out of my way to grab a coin or diamond, often risking the game’s in-level timer. In the console versions, the loot allows for the purchase of dozens of upgrades for the characters. And, while the 3DS version doesn’t utilize it in-game, the loot collected there does translate to the consoles afterwards.

Activision chose to do different things with the game depending on what console/portable it’s played on, and I really appreciate it. Often, publishers & developers will try to make the experiences identical, sacrificing aspects of the games just for that sake. With Skylanders, the two versions & the PC world are unique enough to want me to try them all, and I happily did.

The Xbox 360/Wii/PS3 version of the game is an action-adventure that really accentuates that Diablo vibe. The giant levels are explorable to the nth degree, and the game’s story is entertaining and enjoyable, without forcing me to stay on the edge of my couch. I often went back throughout the previously-completed levels to grab loot for the individual characters and to cross-off some the minor tasks that each level has on its checklist. The visuals aren’t the best, though. The low textures and blocky polygons look like a Wii game that’s been up-rezzed for the HD versions. Thankfully the amount of color and visual effects in the game, along with the relatively quick pace, kept me from standing still long enough to complain. There’s even co-operative and PvP arena modes to engage more players.

The Nintendo 3DS version is much more of a traditional platformer. In fact, it reminded me of Super Mario Galaxy, with it’s incredibly lush visuals, floating islands, and beautiful colors. There are much more levels and regions to explore in this version, as “crystals” are needed and earned to unlock new areas. It results in quick playthroughs, and works extremely well on the portable screen; I don’t think I’d want to sit and play for hours with the 3D turned up and my neck twisted for that long anyways.

Each Skylander has its own powers and elemental affiliation

The PC version amounts to a few flash-based minigames and a lite social network, and relies on inputting each character’s unique code to open up more aspects. I took a photo of the cards with my phone and have them with me all the time to play around with once in a long while. It’s not much, and it’s not heavily advertised, so if anything it’s a decent little diversion.

The game isn’t cheap, though. At $7.99 the figures are expensive for their diminutive size, but it’s made up for by the technology inside and the quality of the build. However, I’ve still managed to get sucked in and buy 5 more figures just to open.

Skylanders is a great palate-cleansing game. When I’ve had my fill of Arkham City or Uncharted 3 for the day, I can always do some grinding with the characters to pass the time. Its simple gameplay is super-ceded by its high collectibility, and the “Big Kid” in me can’t help but want to collect all of the characters to round out the collection. I’m just terrified for the one day when I eventually misplace the level 10 Ignitor that I’ve been working on upgrading, or when the neighbor’s dog swallows it.

This review of Skylanders is based on copies of the game for the Microsoft Xbox 360 and Nintendo 3DS provided to SideQuesting by the publisher.

Platforming in War of the Worlds

With narration by Patrick Stewart, a live orchestral soundtrack, and stunning visuals War of the Worlds seemed set to be an epic old school platformer, but in reality the moments of brilliance the game has to offer are smothered by poor mechanics, absurd difficulty levels and general befuddlement—all of which individually would have been minor inconveniences, but when combined lead to high levels of frustration.

Most noticeably, collision detection in the game is inconsistent, and Arthur C. Clarke (the game’s protagonist) is an absolute sloth. These two factors lead to awkward movement and unnecessary frustration for you as will inevitably find your efforts to jump or ledge grab at the crucial moment sabotaged by unresponsive movement mechanics. To make matters worse there is no health system, so each error made is rewarded with instant death—a prospect that wouldn’t be so bad if you felt that you had full mastery over your character.

There are definitely a few moments of exhilaration in the level design, and the game is at its best when you sprint across breathtaking vistas, pressed on by the urgency of heat rays and crumbling rubble — but these moments are rare, and the you will mostly find yourself screaming at the screen in an attempt to navigate the dozens of increasingly difficult “puzzles” that the game has to offer. Some of these rely on the behavior of AI to progress (such as the underground red vine segment), with your life relying on a random growth pattern. Others fall victim to Arthur’s overall “I’ve-had-too-much-tea-and-crumpets” clumsiness, and the already overwhelming difficulty of much of the game multiplies instead of being “fun”.

The Martian spaceships provide frustrating puzzles

And as if to add insult to injury, difficult sequences are often preceded by small cut scenes featuring a clip of Stewart’s voice and the same recurring bit of orchestral music. This leads to a nightmarish scenario where — like a prisoner held captive in a hellish merry-go-round — you are exposed to the same narration and orchestral violin stabs endlessly as you desperately try to progress. A few times I had to mute the narration because I was dying so much that I couldn’t stand to hear Captain Picard’s — I mean, Patrick Stewart’s — voice anymore.

The other elements of the game are enjoyable, but still flawed. The visuals are gorgeous, but the foreground animations — while giving the game a cinematic feel — sometimes block the screen. It is also often difficult to differentiate between a crucial platform and a piece of visual scenery as the two elements appear too similar.

Also, with a majority of the narration and music located at the start and end of each chapter, the bulk of the game is eerily silent. It seems as though the spoken lines were recorded well ahead of time and jammed into spots where they could fit, instead of where they would have the most impact. If the game developers had added more frequent narration and sound effects (such as an exhilarated shout when you kill your first alien, or a bloodcurdling scream as you fall to death), Stewart’s voice would have felt more personal and immersive.

Moody scenery and backdrops permeate the game

The game also seemed to lack a direction or sense of progress, with each level feeling like it could be moved around to any other part of the game and never really standing as an integral piece. Add to this the fact that because of the history of the book most players already know how the story will end (and the therefore minimal role of any individual in the defeat of the aliens) and you get a very insignificant sense of reward when progressing through prohibitively difficult challenges. Rescuing your family is important, but it never feels like it’s enough.

Overall the game is hardly playable because of the difficulty, and unless you are a masochist I wouldn’t call it enjoyable at all—which is a shame because I was so excited to play it.  The rare moments of fun are encased in massive doses of frustration, forcing you to bang your head against the wall to see what cracks first: the game or your sanity.

This review was based on a copy of the game sent to SideQuesting by the publisher

Giant beasts, giant swords

Playing a great game is a lot like having a dream. The best games can navigate you through the surreal and the illogical without ever giving pause to to consider that nothing you’re experiencing should be real.

Dark Souls approaches this stream of consciousness and opts simply to drift along its current. An open world with impossible geography, a mismatched story that asks only to be taken for granted and an art style that emerges from classical fantasy and slips into the stuff of nightmares, in particular some of the later bosses, all help to buoy the game’s phenomenal sense of flow. From the hamlet of Blight Town, perched precariously over a poisonous swamp to Anor Londo, where stone sentinels stand guard under flying buttresses and stone aqueducts, there is always something new and unexpected just around the corner. Seemingly without rhyme or reason these environs flow together liquidly. In a less lovingly constructed game, this seamlessness might have been confusing. Yet Dark Souls’ rock solid level design ensures that, even without the aid of an in-game map, a player would be hard-pressed to get lost amidst the dangerous and densely webbed world.

It’s fortunate that From Software managed to engineer such structure as anyone playing Dark Souls will be treading the same ground quite frequently.

In Dark Souls’ ‘spiritual predecessor’, Demon’s Souls, failure was almost always rewarded with death. Death was rewarded with starting an entire stage over again, often only to feel death’s cold embrace again and again and again. The system was not Did not make the game more difficult; it made it draconian and cruelly punishing.

The important use of campfires in Dark Souls as save points

In Dark Souls, there are no stages to restart. The entire game is featured in an enormous and interconnected world. Now, manually activated checkpoints that heal the player and replenish a stipend of free healing items scatter the landscape. While this might sound like it would make the game too easy, first know that you will need to make use of these advantages every time they’re offered. Activating these checkpoints resurrects each fallen, non-boss enemy.

This is where retreading old ground comes into play. Each journey from one bonfire (checkpoint) to the next can be quite a journey. Rationing restoratives, ammunition and spells while dispatching your always formidable foes becomes a harrowing meta-game. All of this means that the discovery of a new bonfire or a shortcut becomes much more rewarding than the carrot of incrementally increasing statistics dangling by other action-RPGs.

Ambiguity is a rare thing in video games. But like the most convincing dream, you will always find yourself inexplicably drawn forward to some ultimate conclusion. That is, if the frustration doesn’t set in first.

Dark Souls is largely directionless. Core gameplay concepts are introduced on the fly, sometimes hours into the game; many can even be missed, eliminated or skipped altogether. The game’s (barely noticeable) tutorial is left intentionally ambiguous. While combat is tight, fun and highly rewarding to experimentation, one false move against even the most basic enemy can lead to a quick and inglorious death. And trust me, the enemies in Dark Souls are anything but basic.

And of course, in Dark Souls death means quite a lot more than the being kicked back to the previous checkpoint. Death carries the unfortunate consequence of removing all unused souls, the currency used both for bartering and experience points. There is a chance that souls can be retrieved but oftentimes they are ultimately lost. This heavy penalty is often what most people mistook for high difficulty in Demon’s Souls and it makes a return in Dark Souls.

Unfortunately, this treadmill progression can lead to the frustrating notion of treading water in terms of progression; hours of the gameplay progression can be lost with nothing to show for it. Fortunately, it also means that success and discovery in Dark Souls is all the more rewarding. Combating a massive, overpowered boss and coming out alive is all the more rewarding when death holds real consequences. The balance between difficulty and skill is balanced on a razor’s edge. Coming out on the other side of an engagement battered and bloodied is exhilarating and terrifying. You never come out of a tough battle in Dark Souls without feeling like you’ve really accomplished something. For a video game, especially in the age of the quick-time event, that’s no mean feat.

The risk-reward system is what kept Demon’s Souls players returning for more punishment and it’s what will keep you coming back to Dark Souls for a hundred hours or more.

The developers want the player to assert their own exploratory and determined natures either alone, or with the help of friends. The game’s message system allows players to leave helpful tips or dangerous tricks for their fellow players. There are more traditional cooperative and competitive modes available for those that wish to partake in them, but the idea of turning another player’s very environment into a hazard or a help is far more intriguing. It also helps to alleviate some of the less artistic ambiguity from the equation.

However, no amount of innovation, art or the refreshing necessity of concentration can heal the scars left by bad technology. While the game is artistically hypnotic, textures and lighting can leave a lot to be desired. Technical issues with the graphics might have been more acceptable if the frame-rate didn’t drop to an embarrassingly low number in certain areas of the game (I’m looking at you, Blight Town). An oftentimes bad camera only serves to exacerbate the gameplay issues in these times of technical distress. Issues like these simply aren’t acceptable in a video game this late into the console cycle. However, I find these issue to be infrequent enough to only leave me frustrated with the fact that they keep Dark Souls from attaining perfection. They’re really only a skip in the record when compared to the symphony of what Dark Souls accomplishes.

Dark Souls will never hold your hand. It won’t help you unwind after a hard day’s work and it might not always leave you feeling pleased with how you spent your time playing it. However, it offers an experience like few other games these days. It wrapped its unreality around me and rarely allowed me to remember that it couldn’t possibly be real in a way few games have made me feel since I was young. Dark Souls may not be perfect, but it is perfectly transportive. And that is exactly what a video game should be.

This review is based on a copy of the game purchased by the reviewer for the Playstation 3

All battles are timed, requiring a fair amount of accuracy to win.

Rhythm games haven’t been a huge topic of discussion lately; Activision wiping away the Guitar Hero and DJ Hero franchises last year certainly didn’t help the situation out. In the meantime, Harmonix have mostly set aside Rock Band to focus on deciphering the Kinect’s optimal dancing capabilities. It’s our first year without plastic instruments and while publishers like Ubisoft’s Rocksmith are trying to teach rather than play, Indie developer Iridium Studios tries to keep the genre fresh by adding some depth with Sequence.

Sequence attempts to combine a lot of things, the most primary of which are light RPG mechanics and rhythm game note-hitting. The tracklist consists of modern electronic dance music that provides the arrow key tapping arrangements needed to defeat enemies along the tedious trek up a seven floored tower. After a bout of video game unconsciousness, Ky, the gullible protagonist, wakes up lost in a tower filled with overly stereotypical RPG-themed enemies and a woman talking through a mounted speaker box. This woman, Naia, with the help of poor voice acting and writing that feels derived from a message board, vaguely explains the situation — because, well, of course she does, it’s an RPG — and teaches Ky how to use music as a weapon. Only sparingly she’ll suggest that she has control over the situation, mostly leaving Ky to cry and plead for her help whenever something occurs that exceeds his mental capacity for reality. She promises him that once he reaches the seventh floor all of his questions will be answered and that he’ll be able to escape. She neglects to mention, however, how laborious and repetitive the trip up will be.

Before choosing an enemy you can view the difficulty of the fight.

Enemy encounters almost always happen by choice, and the only exceptions occur for plot advancement reasons like the awkwardly unfunny boss battles wherein you face off against racial stereotypes. A set of three monsters resides on every floor of the tower, each holding various materials to then steal from their corpses and synthesize into equipment, or a key that opens up the next level. Monsters have separate drop rates for the each of the three materials, forcing multiple fights against them to collect everything. In RPG terms, to progress is to grind, a task that sounds boring, and is, especially since the story rarely offers any interesting motivation.

Other than tapping to the music with the arrow keys, the Q and E buttons are used to switch between three boxes: defense, mana regeneration, and damage. To avoid taking damage, enemies will drop arrow-shaped notes that must be hit in sync with the music. Mana is required to cast spells and therefore is constantly emptying as throughout the fights. To fill it up, loads of arrows will be constantly descending inside the mana box to tap correctlyand gain it back. Spells are assigned to the number keys, each one having a different difficulty pertaining to its strength and cooldown. Once a spell is activated, arrows will fill the appropriate box, successfully hitting each one will cast it, some will deal damage and some will protect you. Once a particularly powerful rotation is found, the battles become a chore. But the core problem lies in the pacing. It’s vital to have a tempo, especially during the more difficult encounters, but activating spells and switching to different boxes often ruins the flow of the music. Only rarely will all three have notes to hit at once.

Outside of battle, Ky can craft items and equipment.

Outside of combat, Sequence is literally static; it’s quickly apparent that everything is either displayed as text or an image. Safe rooms will occupy most of the time not fighting enemies, inside is where the synthesis and stat staring occurs. Craftable items all have a percentage tied to them, to avoid cranking out a defunct item, experience can be used to increase the chance. Take enough experience and it will drop Ky’s level, which is just another invitation to grind. None of the things crafted have models, they’re simply text. The colorful fantasy-like art style is fine, but it would have been more gratifying to have seen something move once in a while or the gear to appear on Ky.

What’s a rhythm game without a great setlist of songs? Extremely repetitive it turns out. Having to grind for items by battling monsters multiple times only makes it stand out. Sequence’s roster of electronic music is fun and produces a nice pacing to each fight, but once the same songs are heard five times in a row, muting the game won’t seem like a bad idea. If that wasn’t enough, some encounters reuse the same tracks, occasionally new ones are introduced, but simply not enough to alleviate any frustrations.

Sequence tries so hard to succeed at a task that no one else gives much effort to, and unfortunately, it still isn’t enough. From the repetition in songs and the jarring battles, all the way to the conflicting fantasy and modern elements in them, nothing feels cohesive enough to warrant pushing forward in the already dull narrative. It is an intriguing attempt at revitalizing something in the rhythm game genre, flawed as it is, however it might be more appropriate to leave the genre alone until someone is willing to give it the full attention it deserves.

This review is based on a copy of the game provided to the reviewer by the developer.

Just what is Eufloria? Is it the next contender in the Playstation Network’s long-running tradition of simple and soothing art games? Is it a deep and streamlined new answer to the console RTS?

While Eufloria climbs to be the best of both worlds, it pulls up just short of the peak.

Eufloria is a real-time strategy game. Make no mistake about that. While the botanical aesthetic and maudlin, ambient audio design by Milieu may evoke feelings of quirky, genre-less games like Pixeljunk Eden or Osmos, you will still find yourself raising units, building structures and conquering enemy bases. Many staple elements of the genre have been streamlined. There is no imperative to collect resources, your units construct themselves automatically and rather than controlling your units directly you simply determine which base nodes (asteroids) that they flow to and accumulate at.

Though beautifully botanical Eufloria may be, this flowery game cannot escape its strategic roots. Eufloria is a deep and option-laden strategy game wrapped in the facade of an art game, and that non-partisanship is not necessarily a negative.

Don't worry about your units. They can handle combat themselves… usually.

What is a negative is how unnecessary Eufloria’s design depth ends up being. Which attributes the player’s asteroid-based colonies imbue their units with (speed, damage and health) can be determined through the process of ‘terraforming’. Once these specialized units are ready for pollination on enemy worlds, they can be separated according to their specific strengths and weaknesses. In theory, certain seedlings (the games basic units) are better equipped to handle enemy seedlings and buildings than others. In practice, however, splitting your ranks according to specialization is a foolish waste of time. Instead, nearly every match I played in Eufloria resulted in me building my forces up on a single asteroid to a critical mass and then descending on my neighbors like a pollinic holocaust.

While that sense of spreading across the arena like a plague can be fairly satisfying on its own it, the experiences cannot hold up over time. Thanks to the supremely sluggish unit production speeds (the game actually features a fast-forward button; why the core experience doesn’t just run at a faster pace by default is baffling) rubber-banding AI was a non-issue and victory can easily be declared after the initial blitzkrieg. However, since total conquest is the only victory condition, the all-too-large maps demand another good 10-15 minutes of tedious extermination to complete.

There's no denying that this is a beautiful game.

All of these faults could be overlooked if the Playstation 3 version of the game’s controls weren’t so heavy-handed. The controls don’t make the transition from mouse and keyboard to the Dualshock as smoothly as the developers had probably hoped. Deciding how many units will move from one node to the next requires a rotation of the analog sticks that feels imprecise and even unresponsive. Commanding your army with precision often evokes feelings of pushing grains of sand together with chopsticks; it can be done but requires more concentration than should be necessary for such a simple task. Eufloria practically shrieks for the capacitive touch controls of an iPad or maybe the upcoming Playstation Vita. With a change of venue and less extensive maps Eufloria could be a portable smash-hit.

Eufloria is a pleasure to look at and to listen to; very much in the vein of its predominant  PSN predecessors. Unfortunately, unlike the games that have come before it Eufloria never manages to stand on its own in terms of core gameplay. While it tries out some  interesting ideas to slip into the console RTS space I regret to report that this experience withers before it can blossom.

This review of Eufloria is based on a copy of the game supplied to SideQuesting by Sony.

My only previous intersection with Another World was when it was released on the Super NES as Out of this World. At that time Eric Chahi’s game, already in one of its several reincarnations, was completely different and original to everything I had played on home consoles. It wasn’t a true platformer, it wasn’t a true adventure game, and so I abandoned it after a few hours of frustration. Consoles just weren’t ready for that kind of game; the industry wasn’t mature enough yet.

It’s been several years since then and not only has the industry matured, but thanks to the iPad some of the classic experiences that were ahead of their time are now much more viable and welcome. With the release of Another World‘s 20th anniversary edition, I’ve finally been able to get back into the game that I left in my SNES so long ago. For the most part, it was well worth it.

Escaping the prison

Anytime a game is translated to the iPad, the biggest concern is always the controls. Adventure games seem like a natural fit for the device, as the point-and-tap interface mirrors how we might use a mouse. With Another World being a sort of hybrid, it requires extremely precise controls. The developers chose to replace button presses with finger swipes, taps, and double taps… and it just felt awkward. I spent much of the first hour or so getting used to what should have been simple motions, often running off of cliffs or falling into pits because I accidentally double-tapped. It made it difficult to enjoy the early portion of the game, and it wasn’t until some point midway through that I was able to forgive the controls and continue on. The game really deserved a new control scheme, but that may have predicated a major overhaul of the its gameplay to do so. There’s an option for an on-screen directional pad, but it’s not any better. I died over, and over, and over again.

Thankfully, the game’s forgiving mechanic allowed for my many deaths to have little meaning. Another World is as much a strategy game as it is an adventure. Each puzzle or situation has a specific solution, and if I didn’t solve it correctly the first time I was able to tweak my strategy — dying several times in the process — until I finally got it. Some of the puzzles were frustrating at first, but the ebb and flow of the difficult and easy kept the experience interesting and fresh in each room.

Running and gunning

The rest of the game has some wonderful improvements. With just a swipe of my fingers I was able to switch the visuals from the classic PC version to the improved 15th anniversary’s higher resolution vectors and hand-drawn background. It translated beautifully to the iPad’s shiny screen. It was really interesting to see how slight vector animations could translate emotion, fear, and even friendship. Much of the original audio remains as well, with sound effects being important to the problem-solving process. It’s a translation that works extremely well visually.

Another World is a series of interesting puzzles strung between running and jumping over beautiful pits. The art house visuals and audio touches translate extremely well on the iPad, and the auto save allows for quick romps of puzzle-solving as time permits. It’s still an enjoyable experience, but one that is hampered with its awkward-feeling controls.

This review of Another World is based on a copy of the game supplied to SideQuesting by its publisher BulkyPix.

As I played through Rochard, the latest PSN project from developer Recoil Games, something felt very familiar about it. It wasn’t that the platforming gameplay and side-scrolling worlds were simple to wrap my head around, nor was it that the fairly traditional plot was injected into it to tie its levels together. No, it was something else. It wasn’t until I had played three straight hours without so much as moving from the couch that I was able to figure out what it was: the pacing. Much like a thumping heartbeat, Rochard moves along at a consistent pace that seems to slow down time, even with lasers and explosions in the background.

And dammit, it was such a welcome familiarity.

When playing Rochard, it was easy to see similarities to both Metroid and Portal. Rochard‘s problem-solving requires a bit of exploration back through rooms, but only through ones that I found to be continually interesting almost every time I visited them. Moving through a room one way required a specific solution, and meant that backtracking through it required solving the puzzle in reverse. It had me wondering if a door that I opened early one would need to be closed on the way back.

There isn’t a huge variety of attainable weapons, but that’s only because the puzzle rooms are varied enough as it is. They’re all built on gravity and the strong in-game physics, and could always be solved after one or two tries. It gave me short bursts of triumph when I was finally able to raise a barrier or kill a guard to advance. I don’t know if there are specific solutions to each room, thanks to the game’s physics there were many times that I was rescued by an errant bullet or falling block that I had forgotten about.

Rochard is relaxingly paced, mixing puzzle and platform elements that don’t fight each other. It never felt like situations were overheating, thanks to the mellow flow of the game, but it also meant that I didn’t get my heart rate up over 70BPM too often. It was nearly impossible to be frustrated by the puzzles, even if I wasn’t correctly aiming a laser or knocking over a block. After enough tries I knew I’d get it. And after one puzzle room it was off to the next. Thump, thump, thump. This pacing, coupled with autosaving after each cleared room, meant that I could switch my TV over to it for a bit when Forza 4 races were wearing me down.

Rochard has a good combination of precision and luck, like PC platformers of yore. Perhaps the only thing missing is the ability to record those moments where I’d think, “WOW! That was on accident, but it worked!” It’s this kind of satisfaction that made the game enjoyable. Little victories coming at a regular rate.

This review of Rochard was based on a copy of the game provided to SideQuesting by the publisher.

We’ve got a problem: Forza Motorsport 4 is being labeled as a simulation game. Don’t get me wrong; it can be that, and it does an extremely good job. The issue here is that the term simulation is very off putting. It screams inaccessibility and implies a steep learning curve only to be tackled by the most hardcore gamers and racing enthusiasts. From the time I spent with Forza 4, however, I can tell you that nothing is further from the truth.  The folks at Turn 10 have created a hardcore simulation racing game, that’s true, but then they covered it with layer upon layer of accessibility and positive user experiences. Not only that, but they’ve turned it into a virtual space for not only fans of cars and racing games, but for artists, tuners, and entrepreneurs as well! I think that it would be much more fitting to refer to Forza 4 as a driving experience.

How have they done that? By creating a ridiculously customizable racing engine that caters to the player. This isn’t something entirely new; they’ve been crafting this system over the last four games, but in Forza 4 they finally nailed it. Before starting a race, players have access to a large number of assists that can be toggled, anything from turning off traction control to having the game brake for you. What this means is that we can play the game as a simulation or as an arcade racer. The choice is really up to us. Of course, turning off assists nets more winnings, so you’re always encouraged to challenge yourself.

The game gives you plenty of ways to do that. Career mode has been revamped yet again, with each season taking you along a set path between locations. The difference is that while in Forza 3 we were encouraged to try a new car or a new track with each event, here the events at each location change depending on what car we’re currently driving. This is a welcome change as it gives us more freedom to drive the cars we want. Let’s be honest, having 500 cars in the game doesn’t mean we want to drive them all. It means that it’s more likely they’ll have our favorite Subaru Impreza WRX STi.  If the car we want to drive is in a lower class than the event we selected, Forza will find the optimum upgrades to make it competitive. If we’d rather upgrade it ourselves, we can do that. In this way progression never feels like a chore, but instead enjoyable.

Working through career mode isn’t the only way to progress; it’s far from it! Much like the previous games, each event nets us experience that goes towards our driver level and manufacturer affinity, both of which are handled differently this time around. For instance, when our driver level goes up, we’re presented with a choice of multiple cars as a reward instead of just one, all of which are connected by some sort of central theme. This makes every time that we level up considerably more exciting as it increases the chance we’ll actually care about our reward. Manufacturer affinity completely replaces car levels and it makes so much more sense. In previous iterations, individual cars would level up as we used them, netting us discounts on upgrades from that manufacturer. In Forza 4, however, manufacturers share levels among all of their cars. This does a much better job of giving us the sense that we’re always progressing and that something new is just around the corner.

Outside of the career, there are a number of other modes to explore.  New to the series is rivals mode. In it, we pit ourselves against other players’ times/scores in a series of events, and it’s excellent. Over the past few days I barely saw anything else in the game due to being locked in an epic quest for glory against a friend of mine. He’d post a time, I would beat the time, he would switch cars and beat my time, I’d notice his lap was dirty (he either left the track or hit something) and I’d race a slower lap but clean. It’s full of this back and forth play between players. When we beat one rival, the game suggests another rival to beat. The whole time we’re doing this we’re also earning credits and experience points. Brilliant.

And then there’s Autovista mode. Wow. We’re given a small number of cars and allowed to explore them as much as we want. This was pitched originally as a feature built for Kinect, but a controller works just fine. We can open doors, get inside, and even look at details on the engine and interior. Both outside and in the car there are key points that we can select to learn more, including one for each car narrated buy Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson. Admittedly, it’s little more than a diversion and won’t hold our attention for very long due to the small number of cars available, but it’s extremely detailed and a great way for the developers to show off.

If it sounds like we’re gushing over the latest Forza game, it’s because we are. But, it completely deserves it. Turn 10 has gone out of its way to make sure the game isn’t shoehorned into a niche that not many gamers can enjoy. It’s not enough for a game to be a simulator. It needs to capture what makes cars cool. Forza 4 has finally done it.

This review is based on a copy of the game purchased by the reviewer.

By: Mike Valenti
Host, Valenti & Foster, 97.1FM The Ticket
Twitter.com/mikevalenti971

Writing a review for NBA 2K12 is impossible. I mean that.

The reason is simple: the game is perfect.

Never before has a game so perfectly and completely captured the action we see between the lines of play for ANY sport. What 2K Sports has managed to do is not only raise the bar but clearly put it out of reach for future efforts from the competition.

GAMEPLAY

The core of any sports game is the representation and control of the players on the screen in relation to the buttons that I am pushing, and this ’12 nails it. It may sound easy to make “players play like themselves”, but if you’ve played any other professional sports games you know it’s been a herculean task over the years. NBA 2k12 finds a way to have players accurately execute to their ratings and personalities like nothing I’ve ever seen before.

Zach Randolph will drill baseline jumpers and unorthodox post leaners.

Monta Ellis will shoot anywhere at anytime, checked or not.

Players like Wade will use any opening to penetrate and destroy.

In simple terms the AI is a joy to play against because I know what I am seeing is realistic. It makes playing worth my time.

The game’s engine has also been tuned to now almost rid itself of “force-fields” and unnatural movements. Everything feels smooth and organic. Factor in off ball animations like hand motions and calling for the ball and I can sometimes feel like this is the real thing.

I could write a 10-page term paper on the gameplay alone, but that would be a waste. It’s great. It’s better than great. It’s simply the most realistic playing game ever made in the sports genre.

PRESENTATION/SOUND

2K has always led the way in this area dating all the way back to their NFL 2K5 effort. 2K12 produces a TV-quality presentation where dynamic elements are everywhere.

From pregame cut scenes and graphics all the way down to in-game stories and live commentary, the game nails that “TV experience” I’ve always craved. Stat overlays, dynamic real time commentary based on what is happening now — it’s all there.

The sounds are simply fantastic. Crowds are again dynamic both in attendance and in interaction. Take a big 3-pointer late in a game and it sounds totally different than a meaningless early game heave. Incredible.

Presentation as a whole needs to be experienced to truly understand what you’re working with here. The completely comprehensive and damn near flawless execution of the dynamic concept make this area of the game a treat.

FEATURES

Whether it be 2KShare or all the way through the Franchise mode, features are the real story. There are configuration options everywhere and 2K executes them at a very high level.

The bread and butter for most is Franchise mode and it’s as deep as ever. The 2KShare ability allows us to download and share everything from Rookie rosters (thanks, NBA lockout!) to game-tuning sliders. These features combined with excellent programming allow us to create a truly realistic season format. It echoes the passion that stat-crunching fans have for the sport.

CPU trade AI has been improved, although it’s still not perfect. Then again as long as David Kahn is a GM in the league any trade can be rationalized. NBA lottery AND Draft production make even the dullest button push fun.

Overall the Franchise mode should keep us NBA fans playing for MONTHS without blinking an eyelash or asking for patchwork. The addition of classic matchups and even superstars from the past — Bird, Johnson, and the return of Michael, to name a few — in the new NBA Greatest mode allow the experience to spill out from beyond just a deep Franchise mode into something that excels at even casual gameplay sessions.

FINAL THOUGHT

NBA 2K12 takes everything I’ve clamored for in a sports game and delivers it in a sterling package that is competitive straight out of the box. With minimal tweaks this could become the greatest sports game ever made. I give this game my highest recommendation, and it will likely be the only sports game I’ll consider playing for the next 12 months.

This review is based on a copy of the game sent to SideQuesting by the publisher. The franchise mode was deeply played, as well as online matches and sessions of the NBA’s Greatest.

The summer blockbuster season of 2011 saw a flurry of high quality comic book and superhero movies released, particularly those based on Marvel Comics characters. While Thor and Captain America served to set up next year’s Avengers mega-blockbuster, another Marvel property returned hoping to reinvigorate its fizzling franchise. X-Men: First Class takes us to the past to experience the origin story of the very first X-Men team. More importantly, it is the story of how Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr (Professor X and Magneto, respectively) became friends and the events that drove them apart.

So does the film fly high like the Blackbird, or does the Blu Ray remain in coach?

At the peak of the Cold War, Sebastian Shaw and his warmongering group of fellow super powered mutants, The Hellfire Club, set their plan in motion to initiate World War 3. CIA agent Moira MacTaggert enlists the help of Charles Xavier, an expert in genetic mutation (and a mutant himself) to help her stop Shaw. However another mutant is also after Shaw; Erik Lensherr is on a lifelong mission of vengeance against the former Nazi. When Erik was just a youth, Shaw led the mutant-related research at a concentration camp where he and his family were being held. To unleash his magnetic mutant power, Shaw murdered Erik’s mother, using his emotional pain to trigger the change. As fate would have it, Erik and Charles cross paths and, along with a team of mutant recruits, attempt to stop their common adversary and prevent nuclear war. While this is the main plotline of the story, there is a lot more going on throughout the film. Like X2 before it, First Class manages to juggle many characters while still maintaining the brisk pace of the film. There’s really too much to go into detail but almost every (hero) mutant has their own small story arc. For example, the subplot about Beast and Mystique’s desires to look “normal” is particularly noteworthy in how their stories embody the ideological differences between Charles and Erik.

I had some initial misgivings about rebooting the X-Men franchise with teens, fearing it would be Twilight with mutants. However the folks at FOX Studios wisely distance these X-Men from Marvel Studios’ present day Avengers universe by setting this film during the tense time of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. This was a great move for a number of reasons. Firstly, it brings the X-Men back to the same era that the original comics were set. Themes of discrimination, social change and war are timeless but this era encapsulates a peak period for those themes. Along with added tension due to the onset of the atomic age and the big bomb, it just feels right for the X-Men to begin their story here. Secondly, it provides a fresh visual style that lets the film stand out from the many superhero flicks occurring in present day. And thirdly, the setting gives new/young viewers (who don’t understand the intricacies of character licenses and studio properties) a very simple reason why the Avengers and these young X-Men won’t ever run into each other. If down the road Marvel Studios ever gets full control of X-Men again, then they can easily pop them back into their continuity. It was a very wise move, indeed.

The performances and casting choices in the film are good for the most part. Kevin Bacon was a great choice to play the vile Sebastian Shaw; he’s just over the top enough to avoid being a cliché. January Jones as Emma Frost is a hard one to read – she plays it very cold and unemotional, a trait that Frost is known for, but the comic book version’s dry wit and charm is lost in the performance. Jennifer Lawrence plays a young Mystique with the right amount of teenage angst. The rest of the cast play their smaller parts well, but the real gems are James McAvoy as Charles Xavier and Michael Fassbender as Erik Lensherr. McAvoy’s Xavier is looser and funnier than Patrick Stewart’s, though that makes sense given his younger age. It lets him be instantly likeable and relatable. However he becomes serious when he needs to be and gives us glimpses of the future Professor X. And then there’s the continued (and successful) attempt to make Magneto the coolest Marvel movie character going. There is a fury boiling beneath the surface at almost every moment he is on screen, making sure that we hang on every one of his words and actions. It may not be a performance as enrapturing as Heath Ledger’s Joker but Fassbender’s Magneto in undeniably charismatic. With the way he infiltrates guarded areas with deadly ease and can still be completely charming and empathetic, I can’t help but compare him to a mutant powered James Bond. The two have great chemistry together on screen, and when they have their debates over mutantkind’s place in the world it echoes the chemistry of Stewart and McKellen. For me it was the strained friendship between Erik and Charles that was so incredibly interesting in the previous X-Men films and the same holds here.

Getting back to the Bond comparison, it doesn’t hurt that First Class’ wonderful sense of style shamelessly borrows from the look of the Connery-era Bond films from settings to the wardrobe. It’s a timeless visual style that feels classic yet futuristic. The big set pieces and special effects have the appropriate wow factor to them, though never too overblown. It’s obvious that director Matthew Vaughn had a clear vision of what he wanted and having Bryan Singer back on board as a producer was also a great move to get the series back on track, especially after the missteps of X3 and also X-Men Origins: Wolverine to a lesser degree.

My only real complaint about the film would have to be the same pacing that I previously applauded. Sure, the script is sharp enough that the film remains cohesive despite the exceedingly brisk pace, but there are moments I wish that scenes could have lasted just a little longer. Moments of dialogue usually only last a few lines before jumping to the next scene. It’s a little difficult to believe that such close friendships could be formed with so little said in such a short timeframe. It’s a surprising complaint considering the film still clocks in at 132 minutes. It’s also too bad, in a comic-purist way that this film had to tie itself to the original trilogy as the team is not the original lineup of creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. There are some excellent nods to the original comics like yellow and black suits but no Iceman, Cyclops or Marvel Girl here. It’s a minor complaint that admittedly amounts to fanboy bitching as this team really does a fine job setting the movie X-Men stage.

The Special Features of the Blu-ray are your usual self-congratulatory affairs; there’s an 8-part behind the scenes featurette, a mutant database giving background details about over 40 mutants, and a pretty cool feature where you can watch making-of videos about specific scenes of the movie that become available as you watch the film. Deleted and extended scenes are of course all available. It’s all fun stuff to watch but my interest in Special Features in general has slowly waned since they first started appearing on DVDs. Though I will say that for a project that I thought had a somewhat rushed development, a lot of thought and attention to detail went into it so kudos to the filmmakers for that.

X-Men: First Class is a briskly paced yet very charming summer popcorn movie. It’s a film that doesn’t beat around the bush; its themes and messages are worn on its yellow sleeves but for big blockbuster fare, that’s just fine. Winks and nods to the original comics and the original movies are littered everywhere, which is great for longtime fans of the series. It’s every bit as good as X2 and makes me eagerly look forward to more with these fresh faces, especially that dreamy Magneto. It’s the X-Men, first class all the way.

This review was based on a Bluray Disc copy of the film purchased by the reviewer.

This week we take a look at Techland/Deep Silver’s Dead Island, playing it on Valve’s Steam service.

Michael Bachmann, Host / Fistful of Pixels

Dead Island is not a bad game. I want to be extremely clear on that point. The story is interesting, the environments are beautiful, and the underlying combat system is excellent. However, it only takes a couple of major problems to ruin an otherwise competent game, like that one kid in class that gets everyone else detention.

For instance, Dead Island focuses primarily on melee combat, which is fine. You’re encouraged to use weapons you find laying around and then upgrade them. That would be fine if you could rely on the weapons you invest in. I chose to make a primarily blade-focused character and found that even when I upgraded their durability, the weapons would break after a couple of minutes of use. You can still use a broken weapon but it does little to no damage. That means that until you can get to a workbench (which can be a long time during some missions), you are forced to use whatever you can scrounge up, which is usually only slightly better than your weapon in its broken state. When you finally do make it to a workbench it costs some astronomical amount of money to repair your stuff. Inevitably, I would run out of money and be forced to use trash items for hours at a time.

I would be willing to overlook all of that if the combat was fun, and for a while it definitely was! The melee system really shines when fighting one or two enemies. The game allows you to target individual body parts by just pointing the cross hair in that part’s general direction, leading to broken bones or satisfying dismemberment. You can also kick to stun an enemy. Later on, however, you’re not fighting one or two enemies. You’re fighting groups of five or six, getting stunned, interrupted, and knocked over constantly, leaving you no choice but to backpedal and throw whatever garbage you have in your inventory. After all the zombies are dead, you retrace your steps and pick up all of the available weapons, because you never know how long it’ll be till you find another meat cleaver.

I tried really hard to like Dead Island, but I couldn’t look past its problems. Some people may have better experiences by, say, sticking to blunt weapons with max durability. But, I wanted to use blades, and the game simply didn’t let me develop and enjoy them like I wanted to. That’s really the point of character customization: I shouldn’t be forced into one specific subset of skills just to have any fun.

Taylor Bliss, Editor / Armless Octopus

I’ll be upfront with you: I’m a sucker for games that meld genre’s together in interesting ways. In many ways that’s what drew me into Dead Island. In the days when zombie based FPS’s are already plentiful, Dead Island throws in solid RPG elements that breathes a bit of new life into a stagnating space.

As one of the four people immune to a zombifying plague, you do the only intelligible thing: find every excuse to kill as many zombies as possible. It won’t take much; there’s an NPC at every turn ready to give you an excuse to find more mindless brain eaters to mangle. The quests will also net you rewards in XP and cash or items. These RPG elements drive the game, not only awarding the player with items that further the experience by allowing them to kill zombies better, but also through expanding the story surrounding Banoi and the cause of the undead outbreak.

Though I love the ground work set in Dead Island, there are several factors that hold it back. The inventory system borders on archaic, for one. In a game built around collecting items, Dead Island sets a small cap on the amount of weapons you can carry, and provides you with no way of selling more than a single item at once; it seems at times that you’re being punished for wanting to search every bag of luggage and garbage can for the loot awaiting you. I avoided selling items fervently, partially because of the inconvenience, but also because of the requirements of the crafting system, which, in the end, I thought were too costly. Money is an issue because as the player/character you’re actually fighting two enemies: the zombies and the weapons you’re supposed to be slaughtering them with. Every hit of a bat or slash of a knife knocks a bit off of the durability of your weapons — let them go to far and they’re unusable.

Despite the mixed signals you get from Dead Island it’s clear that there’s a lot of quality content there. A full playthrough will run 20+ hours with a few sidequests, and can easily get to 30 or more if you complete them all. Just make sure you’re frugal on Banoi, you’re going to need it.

Steven Strom, Editor / SideQuesting

With the recent zombie zeitgeist that has permeated gaming, it takes a lot for an undead-centric title to really break out on its own.

When I first saw Dead Island in action, I came to expect some sort of deconstruction of the zombie apocalypse genre. Blending the first-person perspective and four player co-op with the survivalist weapon melee combat and weapon modifying of genre stalwarts Left 4 Dead and Dead Rising, Dead Island had the potential to be at the top of its class.

Dead Island is a great game in a bad game’s skin. For every great mechanic Dead Island introduces there is an infuriating and baffling design choice ready to restrain it. Combat is entertaining, yet ever-disintegrating weapons keep you from enjoying it for long. The story and characters have great promise but are almost entirely forgotten once the game kicks off. The crafting system is engaging while scrounging for parts is an exercise in tedium thanks to a desperate need for an auto-loot button. Side quests are dense and numerous and yet ninety percent of them are bloody-minded fetch quests. The list goes on.

What I really wanted from Dead Island was a deconstruction of a popular formula; something to really turn the zombie survival school on its ear. What I got instead was a solid, beautiful and flawed role-playing game that feels like it was rushed out of development in order to take advantage of its extremely popular trailer.

With a few more months of play testing and bug fixes (I ran into at least two game-breaking bugs) Dead Island could have really been something special. As it stands, the game seems more like a great proof of concept that is much more fun than it has any right to be, and has me excited for a more polished sequel.

This review is based on copies of the game for Steam sent to SideQuesting’s reviewers by the publisher.

And, if you managed to play through the game and enjoy it, then your group is so small that you’re probably the only person in it.  That is unless that group likes a lot of needless repetition, because that’s all you’d get with the game.

Ugly Americans is an interesting idea for a television show, and brings to animated life a world similar to the comics of the Fables series. The game takes place on the eve of the Apocalypse, as imbecilic demons and zombies rise up and roam the streets. The premise to this dual-stick shooter is pretty typical: choose from one of four playable characters and save the planet, with some cut scenes and boss battles scattered along the way.

The game is divided up into short side-scrolling levels, has several weapons, RPG-lite stat improvements, and is best played co-op with up to 3 other people, online or on the couch. The game’s marketing materials note that the developers had thoughts of Castle Crashers and classic Gauntlet matches when creating Apocalypsegeddon, with the hopes that players would discuss strategies to completing levels and maintaining replayability.

The game plays well, with the action moving at a tolerable pace and the enjoyable boss battles being challenging enough without frustrating. Cell-shaded visuals capture the look and feel of the cartoon, and the constant cussing — yes, there is almost too much for even an adult — brings a childish chuckle once in a while. I found that the game played best in bites, with 2-3 levels going down in each sitting.

In short, there’s plenty here that the game does right.

However there’s also one big, giant thing that the game does absolutely wrong: it’s pitifully repetitive.

It starts with the character designs. They all have the same abilities and only have mildly different stat adjustments. Though there seems to be hundreds of weapons, they’re all just color or shape variations of 3 types or so. The level design is repetitive, utilizing not just the same assets but often entire areas.

The real kicker, however, is the gameplay. Shoot zombie, run to avoid zombie, shoot zombie, run to avoid zombie. Everything moves left to right through hordes of demons with no puzzles to solve or strategies to employ. It’s just shoot, shoot, shoot, and it got tedious for me very quickly. Perhaps that’s why I didn’t play for more than 15 minutes at a time, as I couldn’t stand the game any longer than that.

I managed to get my wife to play couch co-op with me for a few stages, and then switched to online partners for a few more. I ended up completing the game in single-player, and only because I had to… not because I wanted to. After playing and enjoying the first level of the game, there really wasn’t anything new to bring me back for the remaining stages, apart from an achievement or two. In fact, I needed to grind way too much and backtrack through already mind-numbing stages to have my character powerful enough (I was playing as Leonard, the drunken wizard) to beat the final boss.

It’s a shame. All of the elements of a fun experience are here, except for interesting gameplay. Apart from the first 15 minutes, the game really isn’t all that fun.

Apocalypsegeddon was missed by a lot of gamers, and it should probably stay that way.

This review was based on a copy of the game sent to SideQuesting by the publisher.

But first, let’s revisit that plot because, wow, is it stupid.  Well … maybe the plot isn’t that dumb.  For a game that needs only an excuse to shoot subterranean monsters with bad complexions right in the face, one could do a lot worse.  I guess the issue is more in the way the story is told: through grunts, yells, and the occasional crocodile tear.  You still have the staples of the completely forced Dom/Maria “tragedy” from Gears 2, the bromance between Marcus and Dom, and the cartoon character that is Augustus Cole.  And all of these gems of subplots are joined by an absolutely awful periphery cast comprised of the vanilla (see, we can be diverse!) Anya/Jace/Sam, in her sixties, (but also seemingly 25 years old) dreadlocked Bernie, and the nails-on-a-chalkboard good ol’ boy Dizzy.  And then there are the two key scenes: one involving a sacrifice, the other a reunion, which I imagine were supposed to be taken seriously, but end up serving as comic relief in the context of the rest of the game (An issue that is not at all remedied by using Gary Jules’ Mad World.  Again.).  You do explosions pretty well, Epic.  Maybe you should stick with that.  Thankfully, I think Epic realizes this fact, and uses every opportunity it can find to interrupt the plot progression with violence.

Outside of the plot, everything in the third chapter of the war between Gears and Locust (and now, Lambent, as well) is better than what has come before.  I could write an entire article on the technical improvements alone; faster movement, more responsive button prompts, better teammate AI, an indispensable waypoint/objective HUD overlay (even if nine times out of ten, the objective is “Obtain Fuel”), and an exhaustive, yet simple to navigate stats/achievements/trophies/medals/whatever tracking database  make Gears 3 one of the least frustrating experiences I’ve ever had.  This may sound like a back handed compliment, but it’s rare that a game doesn’t cause me to pull my hair out at one point or another due to some poor design choice.

And then there are the visuals.  Oh, the visuals.  Gears 3 is nothing if not pretty to look at.  Character models look mostly the same: chunky bulldog-people sporting the douche-iest facial hair, clad in football uniform armor and piloting helicopters and tanks inspired by Mega Bloks.  The extreme detail with which these abominations have been crafted, however, is something to behold.  Environments as well are nothing short of amazing.  Sure, you still have your cut stone ruins and dilapidated buildings, but there are also sunny beaches, moon-lit fortresses, windswept deserts, and vibrant sea floors (seriously).  And then there’s the most notable improvement of them all: the inclusion of a color palette beyond the traditional gray, brown, and red.  Did you know that the planet Sera actually has blue water?  And green trees?  Even scenes that take place at night or during rain storms are exponentially more vivid than anything shown in Gears 1 or 2.  And even more impressive is that all imagery is presented with nary a hiccup to be found – no small feat, especially when you consider the fact that Gears 3 is running on the Unreal engine.

Multiplayer has been given a facelift as well.  Horde mode now includes a tower defense-esque aspect, where each successful kill earns you and your team money which can be used to purchase better weapons or defense installations.  The all new Beast Mode puts you in the role of one of a variety of different Locust (Beserkers and Corpsers among them[!]) and tasks you with murdering all of the cowering Stranded and better equipped COG soldiers littering the map before the timer runs out.  It’s very much in the same wheelhouse as Left 4 Dead‘s versus mode and equally as satisfying.  Then there’s the cooperative campaign which has had its player limit raised from 2 to 4 (a very useful addition, especially when attempting to conquer the campaign on the higher difficulty settings).

I’d liken Gears of War 3 to experiencing a theme park ride when you’re six years old: one of those rides where you’re packed into a tram that probably hasn’t passed safety inspections in a number of years, but somehow hasn’t been shut down, where, even though your parents assure you that it’s just a ride, you’re positive that that animatronic shark/dinosaur/gorilla is going to bust loose from the bolts securing it in place and just rip your arm right off.  It’s like that, except you’ve also got a chainsaw gun.

Like I mentioned earlier, Gears of War 3 is dumb.  Like, really dumb.  But, then again, who wants a smug, know-it-all ruining the fun of their ridiculously violent theme park ride?  Not this guy.

This review is based on a retail copy of the game purchased by SideQuesting.com.  The single player campaign was played to its completion over approximately 13 hours, with all other gameplay modes (horde, beast, versus, and co-op) having been attempted at least once.  Images courtesy of Epic Games.

Batman is, without a doubt, the most popular DC Universe character these days. With successful film, video game and cartoon franchises all helping to draw in new fans that may have never actually seen a comic book before, Batman has been a definite boon to DC Comics even before the New 52 engendered such an explosion in comic book popularity.

It’s no surprise then that there are no less than four different series all featuring the Dark Knight in the lead role in the New 52 line-up. That’s an entirely unique Batman-centric book every week; not to mention the various spin-offs such as Batwoman and Batwing.

The first of these books starring Bruce Wayne and his alter ego to be released in the reboot is Detective Comics #1 which, despite not actually having the word Batman anywhere in the title (it does feature prominently on the cover, however), is every inch a classic Batman story.

Set sometime early in the new Batman continuity, the first issue of Detective Comics pits Batman against the Joker for the first time in this timeline. The Clown Prince of Crime is, predictably, on a killing spree and it’s up to the Batman to stop him. As one might expect, not everything is as it seems as there may actually be a method to the Joker’s giggly brand of madness. Bruce spends most of the comic’s 20 pages putting his title of ‘World’s Greatest Detective’ to the test as he tries to predict the Joker’s next move and sleuth out where he’ll strike next.

This debut issue is actually pretty light on detective work and heavy on Batman techno-bable explaining away a lack of investigative procedure. Which is disappointing but understandable as writer Tony S. Daniel tries to hit all of the familiar Batman notes and characters right off the bat (hee hee). Personally, I think that Bruce is at his best when a writer bores heavily into his deductive grain but I understand that there is a lot of history in need of being re-established for the new continuity.

Some parts of this continuity seem like they could be drastically different from from previous stories. For instance, while no one actually says it out loud, I have a feeling that this version of Alfred might actually be an artificial intelligence. That would definitely pretty crazy but, other than that, Daniel makes it clear that Batman is still Batman, Gordon is still Gordon and the Joker is still a douchebag. Don’t expect anything approaching Grant Morrison levels of storytelling insanity. Except, that is, at the very ending.

I won’t spoil it here, for anyone that hasn’t read it yet, but the ending to this first issue is shocking; not only in just how straight-up gruesome it is in its depiction but also in what it might mean for the future of the series. DC is certainly not afraid of taking chances with where the New 52 go but they seem very keen on letting everyone know that their flagship character’s premise is still intact.

On the artistic front, I must say that I was very impressed with Ryan Winn’s work.

The scenes he sets are as dark, gritty and high quality as you could want from a monthly book. The backdrops depict the same poorly lit, art-deco-film-noir hybrid of Gotham that we’ve all come to know and love over the years but have still been rendered in beautiful detail. There were moments throughout the comic that made me feel as if I was reading a high quality one-shot, rather than what will be a monthly series. It took me longer to slip back into the ruddy look to the characters, particularly Commissioner Gordon, but once I did I was one hundred percent behind the dirty, rough-hewn design.

I was far less excited about the frequency of action figure-like stances in which Winn poses the Caped Crusader. The flat dimensions and stereotypical posturing, particularly in the panel where the Commissioner and Batman first meet in this issue, brought to mind someone’s Deviant Art page more than anything; which might have been more palatable were it not such a frequent occurrence. I can understand an artist’s excitement to work on such a beloved character but this is borderline masturbatory; an habitual practice by the overly excited that chafes but ultimately does little harm.

Much like the first Action Comics, which I reviewed earlier this week, Detective Comics #1 is an interesting first step in rebooting a classic character. Just like in Superman’s book, we see a much younger, less experienced version of our hero establishing himself by going through the classic motions while laying a foundation for new things to come, and ultimately capping things off with a surprise ending. Unlike Action Comics, Detective Comics doesn’t feel quite so drastically deviant from what has come before. Still, it’s definitely a solid issue with a grisly and intriguing ending that has me excited for more. If you are a fan of Batman, and who isn’t, then this is one to watch.