BUBBLE BOBBLE NEO: NOT WORTH 800 POINTS

I‘ll try to keep this short and sweet. I have been looking forward to playing Bubble Bobble on my Xbox 360 for a while now. Bubble Bobble NEO, a version I have not played yet, finally came out last week. It wasn’t the original version I played on Nintendo, but who cares? It’s still Bubble Bobble, and if you have read my posts in the past, I felt this was one of the few titles that was a must for Xbox Live Arcade. I wanted this game to come out, but I didn’t actually think it was ever going to happen. And when it finally did get released to my surprise, I didn’t even need to play the trial game. I bought it immediately.

I regret that decision now. I should have looked into the details of this game further. And if you’re a fan of Bub and Bob like I am, maybe more for nostalgia than anything, then let me save you the $12.50 or 800 points.

The first feature you’ll notice lacking in this game, you unfortunately won’t be able to play online, with your friends. Yes, a brand new Xbox Live Arcade game in 2009 came out without this feature. How can such an important feature not be included? When I played the original Bubble Bobble back in the early 90’s, I played it with my best friend. So I ended up telling that same friend to buy NEO so we could play and re-live the memories. Unfortunately, the impatient person that I am and also the kind of guy that doesn’t read directions, (who needs directions anyway? Psshh.) I did not know it was only local co-op. Meaning, my buddy and I had to be in front of the same TV if we wanted to play. Are you serious? Total bummer.

Second negative you will notice is the lack of any difficulty to this game. You can breeze right past the first 50 or so levels with little to no effort. Why was is much more difficult back in the day? I couldn’t be that much better of a gamer. However, once you get to certain levels, it becomes clear something was not designed properly. For example, Level 72.

That was not my video but that of someone else going through the exact same motions I went through. I am not the type of person that goes to look for a cheat or a way to beat a level, but this was one of those certain ‘beyond frustrating’ times when it was absolutely necessary. My girlfriend and I could not figure this one out on our own. We were stuck. In between 2 walls, unable to produce any bubbles to jump our way out. And it’s not just me, I guess a lot of people had trouble with this level with some even claiming it is ‘broken’. And not just on the 360 with NEO, gamers have had this same issue in Bubble Bobble Plus for the Wii. I assume NEO is just a port of that game.

We eventually managed to pass Level 72 and move on to beat the game. So it isn’t broken after all, but definitely not designed as well as it should be. It took a few hours to beat the full game the first time playing through. Mostly because we got stuck on that damn level for so long. But playing with my best friend the next day, after we already knew what to do, we blazed right through and beat it in almost an hour exactly. Now compare that to ‘Shadow Complex’ on XBLA which provided me with an awesome experience recently for about 6 1/2 hours of total gameplay, for only 1200 points. Only 400 points more than Bubble Bobble, which only gives you an hours worth of gameplay. What happened to the quality here?

To top it all off, the controls for Bub and Bob were extremely sluggish. There were many deaths due to slow response time. It would have been nice to be able to produce bubbles at a quicker pace, and to jump when I told them to jump. By the way, how about those default controls? Press B to jump and A for bubbles? It felt so awkward as most games use the A button as the jump feature. I thought every developer was aware of this? Good thing they allow you to change this in the settings.

Look, don’t get me wrong. I loved Bubble Bobble when I was a kid, but I guess some games of my past should stay in the past. Had this game been half the cost, I might not be as disappointed as I am. But at the same time, I expected more. Especially from such an awesome Taito classic.

Do yourself a favor and skip the purchase on this one. At least until it drops down in price. You will not get much game for your buck, as there is little to no replay value. 100 levels sounds like a lot, but not when some of the levels take as little as 10 seconds to beat.

BRUTAL LEGEND: DEMO IMPRESSIONS

Activision dropping Double Fine Production’s ‘Brutal Legend’ was probably a bad idea. Win for EA, definite loss for Activision. I think I finally understand why they tried to block Brutal Legend from being released. Activision realized they made a pretty big mistake in letting this one go. Maybe a couple. One mistake was underestimating the talent and overall creative ability of Double Fine Productions. Ever heard of a game called Pyschonauts? It was just a sample of the greatness to come that is Brutal Legend. Somehow EA saw past the creative risks and they most likely will be rewarded for it. The second mistake, and probably their biggest, was trying to stop it’s release claiming they still had publishing rights to the game, when they were really just afraid of the effect the release would have on it’s Guitar Hero franchise. This was not a good move in the eyes of the public.

So let’s get this straight, Double Fine starts making this game with Activision as the publisher. Activision decides,’ hey you know what? We’ve reevaluated this game and decided to drop it. Sorry, but we have more games lined up that will surely make us more money.’ So Double Fine says, ‘well then fine.. in fact, double fine! This game is going to get published with you or without you.’ Then EA flies in like Superman to save this title from game limbo. And after a few lawsuits, and counter lawsuits, that’s how it still stands. Brutal Legend will not be stopped. EA stepped up the plate and made it happen. (Anyone notice how EA seems to becoming a better company lately? People are actually starting to like them again. Including myself.)

So with all the marketing and hoopla out there about this game, I only had one problem. I didn’t know what the hell this game was all about! Is it a rock game? Is it an action game? Will there be a guitar controller? Will Rock legends of generations past fly out of my TV screen and force me to make an 80’s inspired music video? That would be pretty sweet, but what kind of game is this? I don’t get it. All I knew was, it was Double Fine Productions, Tim Shafer is creative genius, and Jack Black is the voice of the main character, Eddie Riggs. With those facts in place, I was still unconvinced this game would live up to the hype. And after playing the demo, I’m not sure it changed anything. But I sure know a hell of a lot more about this game than before, and… I think I liked it.

For the first few minutes of the Brutal Legend demo, you don’t really do anything. And for good reason, as the demo gives you the story behind one of the greatest ‘roadies’ of all time. I am thankful that they did this because I was so confused about what this game really was. I won’t get too detailed with the story, but let’s just say heavy metal seems to be dead, and little emo kids are taking its place. (Wait, this is a fantasy world right? Sounds like reality to me.) Eddie then finds himself immersed into a fantasy world inspired by heavy metal album covers. With a mighty axe and magical guitar at his side, Eddie becomes this fantasy worlds savior as he leads the humans against a bunch of supernatural powers. Oh, he also has a bad ass hot rod to run shit over. Nice touch!

First thing that jumped out at me, besides the beautifully crafted artwork, was how brutal this game really was. And by brutal, I mean unapologetically bloody. Not to mention the coarse language, but with the language issue, Double Fine implemented a featured that throws a pop-up message on screen before Eddie spews out the profane words heard so often in rated R movies. I liked this feature. You can choose to hear all the words meant to be said in all its glory, or you could choose to have it bleeped out as if you’re watching PBS or KCET. I of course, chose to hear Jack Black be Jack Black, and read through his lines as it was meant to be. It was a good choice, however, the option was convenient if you have a kid or little nephew playing this with you. Block it if you want, or let it play as it was meant to be played. In my opinion, I’d just keep the kids away from this one.

With Eddie’s weapons, you can swing the axe and kill the demons coming after you using the A button. You can throw them up in the air and smack ’em towards left field ‘Babe Ruth’ style. You can summon the guitar gods with your guitar weapon to electrocute your enemies. You can perform some type of ground shaker move where you slam to the ground, launching your enemies back and sending boulders tumbling down around you. Gameplay was pretty basic and simple, but you can throw in a couple of combos which was nice. Upgrades along the way should help keep the weapons and vehicles fresh.

What impressed me most about this demo was Jack Black. He is the perfect guy for this role and his voice acting made the game very enjoyable for me. I couldn’t help but laugh as he really brought Eddie to life. He really made me feel like I was seeing this world through the eyes of Eddie. This bizarre fantasy world full of red skies, skulls and bones all over the place and just weird looking creatures. Creatures, vehicles and environments only Tim Shafer and Double Fine Productions could create. If you have played or seen Psychonauts, you know what I’m talking about.

In all, I enjoyed this demo and the idea behind this game is growing on me. I’ll have to see or play more to be convinced it’s a purchase but for now, I definitely want to at least rent this game and play through it all. I don’t doubt for a second this game will be a blast as the short demo surprisingly was. I still don’t know where the whole Guitar Hero issue came into play as there was only one part of the game that was similar to that title. It came in the form of a mini game where you had to play a quick solo to progress through the next stage of the level. As the guitar icon goes from left to right, you have to hit X, Y, A, B accordingly. It was a nice touch, but again, not sure how much they will use this in the game. They used this feature once in the demo, and it was over with in just a few short seconds. So, mainly this title is a third person action-adventure, and the Guitar Hero similarity may have been toned down. Add in multiplayer to the list of reasons you should play this game, and I think somewhere down the line you will see this game being a success. Time will tell.

Check out the demo for yourself and tell me what you think!

Brutal Legend will be released, this ‘Rocktober‘ 13, 2009.

CLAPTRAP: THE STAR OF ‘BORDERLANDS’

I am having mixed emotions right now. The ‘Claptrap’ series of documentaries developed by GearBox Software is quite honestly, one of the most humorous game marketing campaigns I have ever seen. But it’s starting to bother me. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy this kind of marketing and I encourage all developers to do something ‘out of the box’ like this, but I find it troubling that they are relying so heavily on these videos to promote the game.

Shouldn’t a game speak for itself? Shouldn’t the gameplay shut up all doubters who say this game will suck? That’s what I am looking for. I want to see more of the game. Even though I haven’t seen much yet, from what I have seen from their trailers, I want to buy this game. It’s funny. The art style looks amazing. The amount of weapons you can use is astounding. And the dialogue seems interesting enough to carry the story and humor throughout the entire game.

But will it be fun? And more importantly, are these types of marketing videos meant to hide the fact that the developers made a crappy game? I am a skeptic, and I feel like we are being fooled here. Game videos and trailers, much like movies and ‘behind the scenes’ footage, tend to show a different picture of what you’ll actually be getting in the final product. Like a movie trailer that shows absolutely every funny part in the movie, so when you go see the movie, those parts aren’t even funny anymore. Or when a movie trailer shows you barely anything, and when you go see the movie, it’s the complete opposite of what you thought you were in for.

That’s what I am starting to think with Borderlands. I have been waiting with high anticipation for this game to be released. I have even chosen to skip buying Halo 3: ODST because I felt Borderlands had so much more potential. And maybe it still does. But what I saw of a multiplayer gameplay video last night, I was truly disappointed. This isn’t the video I saw, but just an example. (No worries, you’re not going deaf. The video has no sound.)

What’s with the damage numbers coming off of the enemy bodies when you shoot them? They’re bleeding numbers, and it’s not very subtle. The movement seems slow, reloading slow, the weapons seem ineffective and the AI void of any intelligence at all. I am really hoping Gearbox didn’t rely so heavily on the art direction and forgot all about the gameplay. If the multiplayer sucks as much as I thought it sucked in that video last night (most commenter’s did not like what they saw either) then Borderlands better have one stellar of a Campaign.

Then again, if Claptrap is in every scene of the game running his profane mouth off like this, how bad could it be?

Update: Whoa! Looks like Gearbox developers have the same thoughts I do.

Excerpt from Cinemablend:

“We’ve been trying really hard to hold things back and not reveal too much and spoil most of the game,” said Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford in a statement sent out last night (thanks, Giant Bomb). “Yes, it has been mentioned that Borderlands has other environments in the game like snowy mountaintops and the military installations, but we aren’t showing it! Remember all of those movie trailers you’ve seen that give away all the best stuff and the whole damn story before you’re even at the theater? Yeah, we think that sucks too.”

OK, I’m still interested.. but we’ll have to wait and see if this all lives up to the hype.

CRACKDOWN 2 MULTIPLAYER GAMEPLAY VIDEO

Whoa! I’m surprisingly not impressed with what I am seeing of Crackdown 2. Maybe I haven’t seen enough of what Ruffian Games is trying to do here, but I’m not seeing anything special. What I am seeing is Crackdown 1.5, with a lot more blood. Big deal! Seriously, it almost looks exactly the same. And although I really enjoyed the first Crackdown, I was hoping to see a different take on the franchise after the whole Realtime Worlds/Ruffian split. It seems like Crackdown is going to end up in a whole new genre all by itself with the amount of jumping that is involved. Open World Jumping? OWJ? I liked the jumping idea implemented, but there has got to be more than just that and I hope Ruffian Games is holding some secrets back. I expect to be blown away with a sequel. If not? No buy.

I’ve been pretty critical of games lately and I have been extra tight with my money. OK, I’m a cheap ass. Even going so far as waiting for the price of Halo 3: ODST to drop (might be a while) as I don’t believe ODST is more than an expansion pack. Call me stubborn. But as a gamer, I expect the best of the best and I won’t give my money away for anything less. Crackdown 2? There is still a lot to prove, as Realtime Worlds ‘APB’ looks much more interesting and ‘next gen’.

THE WITCHER 2: MOST REALISTIC ENVIRONMENTS IN HISTORY OF RPG’S?

Do you know much about The Witcher? I sure don’t. But the statement about the most realistic environments in history has got my attention. I mean, we should take that with a grain of salt right? Every new game that comes out is usually better and badder than the next it seems. But it’s sort of like every new blockbuster movie that comes out each week. For that one week, they get to run new trailers that say, “The number one movie in America” blah blah blah. Well of course it’s number one. You didn’t go up against any other blockbuster movie! You went up against Megan Fox’s new cheeseball cheerleader horror flick, or maybe your movie came out up against ‘Finally the Final Destination Finale… Part 5’. Or whatever.

Anyway, just because you say you’re number one, or you have the best of the best environments or graphics, doesn’t necessarily make it true. It’s all in the eyes of the gamers. People go ga–ga over Gears of War and the Unreal Engine, and it does absolutely nothing for me. It’s all opinion. Still though, that’s is quite a statement to say. Maybe it’s just an RPG thing. From what I have seen in this video, it does look quite impressive. The Day & Night cycle looks interesting and I love it when I’m playing a game where shadows of clouds pass by on the ground. I feel that makes a game more immersive for me. Similar to animated trees, but even more effective.

So what do you think about this video? Think it will have the most realistic environments in RPG history? Or is the developer just proud of his game and wants to talk it up as much as possible?

‘SNOOPY FLYING ACE’ COMING TO XBLA IN 2010

Back in November 2008, I wrote an article about Smart Bomb Interactive’s New Snoopy game gunning to be top dog. At the time, there were no specifics. What platform would this game be released on? Will there be online gameplay? And by far the most important, can you play as the mighty and all powerful Woodstock? Yea, I said Woodstock. What?

With no specifics at all, I could tell that a lot of thought and effort was going into this game and trash me for liking Snoopy, but this game looks badass. No, I don’t care what you say. This game deserves a chance. It looked good back then, and it looks even better now. If the gameplay on this Xbox Live Arcade trailer doesn’t get you excited at all, there is something wrong with you. Xbox Live Arcade is one of the best, if not the best feature Microsoft has added to their console. I don’t know what I would do without it and in fact, I enjoy more games on XBLA than their $60 counterparts. Snoopy Flying Ace may add to the list of reasons why.

So what’s the basic idea behind this game?

Excerpt from GamerBytes: (Since I couldn’t explain it any better)

“The game is, for the most part, an aerial dog fighting game where you and 15 other players can fight each other online. The game will support 9 different modes including airborne Rugby, and will also include a challenge mode that is playable by yourself or in local or online coop. You can also choose from 12 members of the original Peanuts crew, or use your Xbox Live Avatar.”

Another game to use your avatar sounds pretty sweet to me. And in the original post I did in November, I mentioned you could end up getting out of the plane you’re flying and the flying game turns into a platformer. No word on this still being the case, but either way, Snoopy’s new adventure looks like a lot of fun.

For those of you about to hate on me, I”ll probably end up seeing you playing online. Watch out, I will be aiming for you.

RAY-TRACED: INTEL’S LARRABEE GRAPHICS DEMO

Ray-traced video gaming anyone? Yes please. I’ll take two. Or three, or hell.. just make that the industry standard from now on. No more rasterization is a good thing. A very good thing and this demo, although short and lacking specifics, is quite an amazing feat. Quality 3D graphics rendered in real time much like the high end 3D movies we watch in theaters. No more jaggies!

Times are a changing my friends. From video games and television coming to your living room in 3D, to motion controls, to ray-traced graphic chips that could change everything we’ve known about video games. It’s a good time to be alive my friends. Witness and enjoy the revolution.

AION LAUNCH TRAILER

I am not sure if I am a fan of MMO’s. I guess I just haven’t given them a chance yet. Actually, I haven’t even played one for the fact that my attention span is so very limited.

Where is the sniper rifle!? Who is shooting me!? How much ammo do I have!? Stick that fool! Ooohhhh, head shot! Booyah…

Wait, what was I talking about?

See.. I can barely get through this post my attention span is so small. Thanks to First Person Shooters and social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. You evil Web 2.0 bastards. Ahhh man, what has happened to me?

In all seriousness, I never cared to play MMO’s like World of Warcraft. I was once told, “do not play World of Warcraft, unless of course you don’t mind not having a life.” So I stayed away. Letting the 14 day trial disc I got when I ordered my PC collect dust until it was ‘accidentally’ thrown away. Guess once you get hooked, you’re hooked for life or what? I’m frightened by that kind of power.

But Aion? This looks more interesting to me and I think I may give this game a try. A buddy of mine in Vancouver has been drooling over this title for a long time so there must be a reason for it. Maybe it’s time I test out my attention span and see if it grows with a game like Aion. There is still hope for me right? Right?

Enjoy the launch trailer, thanks to JoyStiq.com

THE GAMER REPORT REVIEW: BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM

Holy Top-5 games of all time, Batman! That’s right my peeps and fellow gamers, Batman: Arkham Asylum is easily Game of the Year material in my opinion. This title easily goes right up there in the top 5 games I have ever played for any system. Everything in this game absolutely oozes attention to detail. Fun gameplay and just pure awesomeness. One thing that came as a real surprise to me was that the demo for this game didn’t really grab me. Well, I can tell you that the demo is very meager in comparison to the full copy of the game. This game is equal parts of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Devil May Cry and Splinter Cell all rolled into one stellar experience. It is extremely well paced, challenging at times and very engaging. I am telling you now, once you pick this one up and dive into the awesome world that is Arkham, you won’t want to stop. The detective mode alone is really cool and sorta give you a hybrid X-Ray and infrared type of vision. I had it on almost the entire game and it never bugged me one bit.

Let’s start out with the premise of this game. The story begins almost identical to the demo, with Batman capturing Joker and driving him to the asylum in the Bat-mobile. While booking him into the asylum, Batman is worried as Joker basically gave up without a fight. Batman knows that something is up, and something definitely is. Upon booking the Joker, he ends up escaping and getting loose in the asylum. Most of the goons and patients are peeps that the Caped Crusader had put in there in the first place, and it’s got that lingering feel of the movies where the cop gets put in jail. As it so turns out, the whole fiasco was planned, and Harley Quinn has already prepared for Jokers arrival and Batman is now in Jokers funhouse full of maniacs. The story just gets better and better as you go.

The game is incredibly immersive, and really puts you in the shoes of the Batman we all grew up watching and reading about. The voice work is top notch with the characters that have been doing the cartoon for years providing the dialogue. I had no idea that Mark Hammil, (Luke Skywalker in Star Wars) did the voice of the Joker. You would never guess it was him unless you knew.

The cutscenes are also terrific, a nice change from the games I have played as of late. Polish, polish, polish! Take notes on this game developers!

Stalking your enemies is so fun, the basic formula never really seems to get old. Zip-line up to a gargoyle, glide down and kick the shit outta someone, zip back up before detected and wait to take out the next thug. Once you obtain more gadgets, the possibilities really get cool. My personal favorite that was executed flawlessly is the explosive gel. Once unlocked, you will be able to paint explosive gel in the shape of a bat, (nice touch) and remotely detonate it. This gadget becomes especially awesome when you use it as a weapon. Use the aforementioned formula but instead of zip-lining back up to the gargoyles to lay and wait, paint some gel on the enemy you just took out, then zip back up and wait for his comrades to come and scope out the body, once they do, detonate the gel and take them all out. Cool stuff, eh? It only gets better from there. The ways in which you can dispatch of your enemies is just plain awesome.

On the subject of enemies, without giving anything away, Scarecrow is one of the best enemies I have ever seen portrayed in a game. The sections of the game containing Scarecrow are absolutely incredible. Just a hint to those who are going to play it: there will come a time about mid-game where you think your console is freezing or crashing. I won’t give anything away, but it’s not crashing or glitching, just let it play itself out for one of the best in-game moments I have ever witnessed.

It’s also quite ironic that most of the boss battles in the game you aren’t really actually fighting, but rather playing a sort of mini-game to take them out. While this sounds uninviting, it works well. There are however a couple of boss fights that are combat oriented, but they feel a little uninteresting and repetitive compared to the mini-game style battles I just spoke of. The “freeflow” combat that is implemented has its ups and downs. The ups are that it stays true to the name, “freeflow. The animations are just plain sweet as you fly from enemy to enemy countering and beating the snot outta them. Where it takes a dive is when the camera swings to a radical angle and takes you out of scope of the rest of the enemies. This becomes particularly annoying when an enemy that you cannot even see attacks you and ruins your combo. It’s not a huge issue, but a nag nonetheless. It’s kind of a shame as the Challenge half of the game sort of suffers from the flaws in the system. Gliding, zip-lining and grappling just feel good, and even navigating never really seems to get old.

The collectibles in the game are very cool too, particularly the Riddler’s Challenges. Each time you enter a new area, a Green riddle with question marks will appear next to the name of the area and indicate somewhere in that area, there is answer to the riddle. Once you find it, a hold of the left bumper will sort of snap a pic. If you are right, it will tell you the riddle has been solved. Some of the really cool ones involve using detective mode to position yourself somewhere in a room where you can see a question mark sort of painted on the wall or ground. They start out pretty simple, but sometimes the dot of the question mark will be on a ledge or ceiling. Sometimes you even need to position yourself so that 3-4 ledges or tiers need to make the question mark. I thought it was a very neat way to implement a collectible in the game, and I am sure most would agree it’s puzzling (no pun intended) that other game developers didn’t think of something like this yet. I am sure many will copy this idea in some way, shape or form in the future.

This game is deep, intricate and absolutely AMAZING. It’s a must play for anybody who remotely enjoys Batman. If this game doesn’t get game of the year, I will be amazed! I know that that’s saying something with some of the bigger titles like ODST, and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. While I usually would rent this particular type of game, I wouldn’t pass up buying it if you got the cheddar. If you have played it, drop us a line and let us know what you think!

**Stay tuned for a review of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

-DIGGITY OUT

THE GAMER REPORT REVIEW: WOLFENSTEIN

Ahhhhhhh. Good old Wolfenstein! I remember many late nights on the OG XBOX, playing Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Good times. That game had an incredible class-based multiplayer and a single player campaign that was tough, long and enjoyable. Then along came the new CG trailer of Wolfenstein with some much improved animation and graphics, and even some disintegrating Nazi’s! This one looked like it had some potential right? Well, hopefully this review will help you decide if you want to awaken the Nazi-killing inglorious bastard within yourself once more.

The campaign mode actually took me by surprise. It had a open-world kind of feel to it, and had all the mechanics and graphics of a title like Call of Duty. Mix in a little sci-fi like super-powers, and a couple really interesting bosses, and this campaign was actually pretty enjoyable. Although I missed the death-traps and creative enemies (dog’s with Gatling guns anybody?) and the general challenge that the old-school Wolfenstein provided, I still think it’s one of the most solid FPS campaigns I have played to date. Campaign being the key word there.

I really liked the way the weapons were laid out. Similar to Bioshock, you can upgrade your weapons to house more ammo, increase accuracy, attach a scope etc. Not only do the physics of the weapons change, but the physical appearance as well. What starts out as a simple bolt action rifle with slow reloading, becomes a super-badass sniper rifle by the time it’s upgraded. Same goes for all the other weapons, my personal favorite being the assault rifle. It starts off looking like an AK47, but by the time it’s fully upgraded, it looks like something out of Starship Troopers! It’s a nice change from developers who try and over-think weapons that just end up being cheesy and worthless. There is even a few super-weapons you get later in the game, one of which literally disintegrates enemies into melting bones. Yea, I said melting bones. What’s not to like about that?

But that’s where the fun stops on this one folks. I can honestly say that this game is a rental at best, simply because the multiplayer blows goats. Talk about lag! WOW! You will not believe how bad the connection fluctuates during gameplay. So bad that you will see the connection “bars” constantly bouncing all over the place, with the host of the game keeping full connection. Might have been fun for him but for everyone else? Not at all. It’s really bad and almost makes the game damn near unplayable. Several times my floating dead body would spawn in third person view, and I could levitate it as if I was moving and strafing. The hit-detection is awful, the and the graphics and frame-rate take a serious dive in comparison with the single player game. Kind of a shame as the single-player portion of this game was solid and really fun. There is a Call of Duty style leveling system, and the same upgradeable weapons you will find in the single player game, which is executed well as an idea, but the atrocious gameplay sends this one plummeting downward.

All in all, this new blend of Wolfenstein is definitely not on par with the Wolfenstein of old. Give this one a rent at least if you are looking for a decent single player campaign experience. Fans of the classic Wolfenstein titles beware, this multiplayer is downright awful. I must say, Raven Software has really impressed me as of late, developing some great titles. It’s a shame that either they didn’t have the time, or the resources to build both the single and multiplayer versions of this game because had the awesome effort transferred over to the multiplayer, this one would have been a winner.

** Stay tuned for the Game of the Year: Batman: Arkham Asylum review

-DIGGITY OUT