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

THE GAMER REPORT REVIEW: OVERLORD II

My friend Dane is back for another Gamer Report review. This time, he enters the world of Overlord II.

One of my favorite games of all time is Pikmin 2 for Nintendo Gamecube. It’s still a shock to me that a remake or port has not been made for the Nintendo Wii. The game had a really addictive multiplayer mode that I still play if I can find an opponent to battle split screen with me. Until a part 3 or remake comes out, my Wii will continue to collect dust.

But then I played the first Overlord game for 360. I was stoked to see Overlord had the same strategy based gameplay as Pikmin. Unfortunately the first Overlord was riddled with camera and control problems. I never got past these problems in the demo, but obviously the game and idea had potential.

Well, let me be the first to tell you, the second installment definitely fixes all of the prior bugs and nuisances for the most part. You will laugh, you will get frustrated, but it’s a long and surprisingly fun journey. The game is packed with humor and I chuckled several times at some of the antics of the minions. At one point during the tutorial intro, you are required to obtain disguises for your minions to enter a party. You are in a snowy winter wonderland type environment and your minions end up raiding a children’s cabin to take all their warm clothing. When they come out dressed up in the children’s jackets and beanies, you here the whining and worried cries of the children inside saying they are, “sooo cold.” This same ruthless humor follows throughout the campaign, where you can even lure your mistresses into becoming “special friends”, and even better, you get an achievement for it!

Core gameplay here is basically real-time strategy in which your Overlord, (who looks badass I might add) takes control of a horde of minions to do his dirty work. These gremlin-like minions are quite funny and are more than willing to give their life, “for de mastah.” Although your dark-lord does have the ability to melee attack and damage foes and friends alike, much of the game is sent sending your minions to pillage and destroy. These minions will level up in the game by gathering weapons and armor to wear. They can also be sent to grab gold, life orbs and more importantly they can fit where your Overlord cannot often opening doors, levers or turning wheels to lower bridges. This is where the fundamental strategy portion of the game really shines. You will need to use your minions almost constantly to make your way throughout some astonishingly large levels. You will start off with solely Brown minions which are used for melee fighting, but eventually you gain control of Red, Green and Blue minions as well. The red minions are your archer-type fighters who will usually hang back and hurl fireballs at enemies. They can also walk through and absorb fire. Then you have your green minions. These guys are really only valuable for passing through areas with green poisonous gas. They also have a backstab attack mainly used for bosses that will allow you to sweep behind a foe to jump onto their back and stab the living crap out of them. Lastly is the blues minions. The blues are wimps in the fighting department, but can swim, absorb harmful blue goo and most importantly revive downed minions. There are a lot of tough sections in the game that really require you to use all of the types of minions efficiently. These minions will die, but can be replenished in levels via color-specific holes that rise out of the ground. These portal-like holes are everywhere, and replenishing your little dudes is never really far away no matter where you are.

Your Overlord is also able to use mana (magic) to either destroy enemies or enslave them to follow you. You can gain the ability to temporarily power up your horde, or to absorb them to gain energy. You can also resurrect your fallen favorite minions at your “tower.” The scripting and pacing is done quite well, especially in the latter end of the game where you can have a horde of up to 50 minions. The graphics are not amazing, but the art style is pretty awesome, as is the attention to detail. There is a few awesome moments of the game when you come up to a minion-control statue. These statues will shift the overlord leadership to one of your fearless minions to sneak through tighter and smaller levels while your possessed Overlord stays at the statue. One particular section even had the green minions sneaking stealthily through a fortress. It was a nice change of pace from the usual pillage and plunder.

Like I mentioned earlier, you will get frustrated. These moments of frustration will make you want to… wait for it… yeah, you guessed it… punch a baby. The ultimate of frustrations. For starters, the designs of some of these levels are painfully confusing. I did so much backtracking in this game I cannot even describe it. Down to go up, up to go down and everything in between. Some of these levels will have you pulling your hair out! In fact, I had to go out and buy Rogaine to help with the re-growth. Not a pretty site, but still, I soldiered on. The camera is also not perfect by any means. Although it’s a huge improvement over the first Overlord, it still acts up quite a bit. Often times the camera will do a 180 on you for no reason, which makes it a little disorienting. Control over minions in the first installment was also a problem, as “sweeping” them is mapped to the right thumbstick, which also moves the camera. It can be sluggish and frustrating, especially in the heat of battle and particularly during the boss battles. Another frustrating issue is the flick targeting system which is also mapped to your right thumbstick. It never locks onto the enemy you want it to and it lacks the precision needed in combat, especially during the final boss battle.

All and all I really enjoyed this game. I laughed, I cried in frustration, but I really enjoyed it. The game was loonngg. Make no mistake about it, this game is ruthless! Codemasters will have you clubbing baby seals, panda’s and even looking up ladies skirts. After the game was over I tried multiplayer but had difficulty finding games. I did squeeze in a territories type of game that felt a little lackluster and uneventful, but I’d love to give it another chance if the population builds up. Give this one a rent. Good times to be had!

Stay tuned for reviews of Wolfenstein and Batman: Arkum Asylum.

-DIGGITY OUT

THE GAMER REPORT REVIEW: GHOSTBUSTERS

Guest contributer, DIGGITY, is back with another review. This time it’s Ghostbusters on the 360.

Ghostbusters is a staple of any young boy or girl’s childhood who grew up in the 80’s, early 90’s. I can still remember dressing up in a jumpsuit and attaching a vacuum hose to the side of my backpack, Peter Venkman style. Hard to imagine that I was only 4 when the first Ghostbusters movie came out, but the mood and style of the movie is still current with movies today. A testament to the writing of Dan Akroyd. So when I heard the Ghostbusters game was coming out, I had pretty high hopes that it would satisfy the nostalgia of the old-school style that most of us grew up watching. Well, after playing through Ghostbusters, I can tell you that it definitely lives up to hype! Its got a ton of positives, but some small downfalls that can’t be overlooked. Hopefully this review will help you to decide whether or not you should delve in and find the Ghostbuster in yourself once again.

The style of this game is crafted masterfully. It has the same quirky style of the movies, and even the voice work of the original actors as well. It’s definitely the best retro-style game that I have ever played, that just took me back to good times and fond memories. The game just oozes with attention to detail, from the look of the proton streams and backpacks, to the traps and even Ecto-1. It will really take you back, and if it doesn’t? Just remember that denile ain’t just a river in Egypt! You play as a rookie Ghostbuster, spanning through some well crafted and eerie levels including my personal favorite of the bunch, a museum complete with Civil War ghosts. This journey starts you off as a cowardly noob, but eventually you become one of the crew as the veterans show you the ropes on how to kick some paranormal ass.

The game plays like your typical over-the-shoulder third person shooter. The arsenal of weapons and their versatility is part of what makes this adventure so damn fun! You start out with just the Proton Stream, and slowly gather 3 more weapons as the game progresses, with each being mapped to a direction on the D-Pad. Not only is each weapon upgradeable, but they also gain secondary fire. Each weapon is unique for different situations, for taking out differentghouls and ghosts. Often times you will need to use a combination of 2 or 3 weapons for some of the battles and puzzle elements of the game. See a bridge that needs to be lowered in order to cross? Use the secondary fire mode on the Slime gun called the Slime tether to lower it. Fire one shot which sends a slime-string onto the bottom of the bridge, and fire again to attach it in the direction you want it lowered. You will also get a machine gun type of gun, as well as a shotgun style blast. Even more cool is how the Proton pack changes to identify the weapon you have equipped. Another big mechanic that was well executed and original was the PKE meter. This will bring you to a night-vision style first person view, with the famous PKE meter raised in front of you. This meter will lead you to find hidden or invisible ghosts, artifacts for achievements, money and even let you take picture-like examinations of ghosts and creatures that tells you the best way to take them down. It’s done well, and really adds some variety to the style of the gameplay.

One thing that I found incredibly surprising was that this game was a little bit scary at times! It had that Dead Space, or Resident Evil style unpredictability. Whats even more cool, is how the veterans seem to stay so calm during the mayhem, another testament to the attention to detail.If you have played Dead Space, you will find a ton of similarities in the gameplay of Ghostbusters. Most noticeable is the absence of a HUD. Just as in Dead Space, everything from your life to ammo is displayed or identified on your back. All of your weapons can overheat, in which case reloading is actually manually overheating the weapon by a press of the right bumper. Most of the ghosts that have to be captured, must first be weakened. Once they are weak enough, the proton stream will then wrangle them in a lasso-like fashion. This was the coolest most unique part of the gameplay for me. Once you have them wrangled, it becomes almost like fishing. Throw out your trap which provides a beacon showing you where it is, and start wresting them toward the light. Hold them there long enough and it will eventually suck them down into the trap. There is also an upgrade that will let you slam them to the ground, or into the trap once you have wrangled them enough. They won’t go down easy though. But it never gets old trying to pull and wrestle them bastards down to their doom.

The graphics are pretty darn good, although dragged down by pretty bad framerate issues most of the time. Sometimes the proton stream is so pretty, it’s hard to see where you are even aiming. The shooting aspect of the game definitely takes a little getting used to, as the beam is jagged and awkward from the usual straight shooting ammunition. The game is paced quite well, levels are long and keep the action fresh and exciting. Enviornments and levels are pretty nicely done. One particular level had a hotel that had been overtaken by ocean-like paranormal activity. Coral would open and then quickly close as my character got closer, another clean example of attention to detail.

Cutscenes are funny and entertaining and the story is pretty captivating with some awesome cameo’s from Slimer and Stay Puft. I did have a few small gripes. The AI of your compadres in this game is downright terrible. You are given the option of reviving downed teammates, and the same can be done when you die as well. The issue is, when your teammates try to make their way over to revive you, (if they try and attept to at all) they often end up dying. Other times they will stand like a lost child in some of the over-sized levels. I also had quite a few loading glitches throughout the course of the game. Sometimes a door that should have been able to be opened, would not give me the option to open it. It only happened a few times, but it was slightly annoying given the length of the missions and difficult battles. Another thing that can’t go over looked is the animations of getting knocked down. It is a cheesy animation, and really takes away from the attention to detail mentioned above.

There is a multiplayer component to Ghostbusters as well. Gametypes range from taking down increasingly difficult waves of ghosts, to protecting a number of artifacts from incoming, “thiefs.” It’s pretty fun, and spans out over campaigns of 3 different gametypes with 4 players. While it’s not incredibly deep, it’s a nice touch to keep the fun flowing like slime. I can see the downloadable content keeping this one going for sure! All in all I found Ghostbusters to be one of the most enjoyable games of the year if not ever. The small mishaps and gripes can’t stop this one as being a really unique, and extremely fun experience. So when you’re looking for a enjoyable game that’s sure to appeal to a vast audience of gamers, who you gonna call?

What? You thought I wasn’t going to throw in the most famous Ghostbusters line ever? Had to be done.

–DIGGITY OUT

THE GAMER REPORT REVIEW: TRANFORMERS 2: RISE OF THE FALLEN

Once again, Guest Contributer “DIGGITY” is back with another review.

Here is the deal. If I hear one more person tell me they did not like the Transformers movies because they had bad acting, or bad directing, or blah blah blah, I might have to administer them a DBBS, (Double-Backhanded-Bitch-Slap). My point is, if you went in to Transformers 1 or 2 looking for amazing acting or writing, you should probably stick to chasing parked cars instead. These movies were not intended to be Academy Award winners; these movies are about giant shape-changing robots doing battle for crying out loud! Why can’t people just enjoy a movie experience for what it is anymore? This same concept ties perfectly into the Transformers: Rise of the Fallen video game. If you go into it looking for some artsy, whimsical experience like Bioshock, (most overrated game ever by the way) you will most likely be disappointed. However if you want to do some battle with Transformers, then dig into this one for sure.

Before I delve further into this short but sweet review, I will warn you about some serious spoilers. If you have not seen the movie and you plan to, do not play the game! There are some parts of the movie that will provide a nice chub to true Transformers fans that would otherwise be digitally blue-balled by the sub-par graphics of the video game. Graphics are really the biggest downfall of this enjoyable game. They are at often times fuzzy and PS2-esque. Same with what I said in my Prototype review though. Who is stopping to admire how pretty a building is when you are wreaking so much havoc? It’s not a huge deal, but more attention to the textures would have been nice, particularly the actual transformation of some of the characters.

The game has a ton of positives, including the full roster of bots from both movies. Being able to transform on the fly is very satisfying, and never really seems to get old, especially with the flying transformers like Starscream and Grindor. Each bot has two weapons with unlimited ammo, which can overheat if fired for too long. There is also a very simple melee system, which you will rarely use as it’s extremely ineffective compared to the artillery. Single-player campaign is a bit repetitive for the most part, playing out with several generic missions spanning from killing a bunch of bots, to checkpoint races and protecting areas from damage while fighting off waves of enemies. There are a couple really cool boss fights (especially Devastator) that keep it fresh, and also a campaign for both Autobots and Decepticons.

This game was obviously intended for online multiplayer, as that’s where it really ends up shining. The campaign seemed more like a training session for the multiplayer. It offers several modes including Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch, and my personal favorite, One Shall Stand where each team switches off a leader (Optimus or Megatron) in a VIP style “kill the leader.” There is also your standard Capture the Flag (Shard) and Control Points. The robust lineup transfers well to the multiplayer. Each has a different style of play from transformation to weaponry. Some are small and quick, some are big and slow, some have sniper rifles, and others have locking missiles or grenade launchers. This works out rather well as the multiplayer plays like a team-based third person shooter, so everybody is sure to find a player that fits their style. Each character also has a special ability. These range from overheating other players weapons, temporary invincibility and even the ability to deploy a turret. Couple the addictive shooting and gunplay with the aforementioned ability to transform on the fly, and you have one nicely put together multiplayer experience. I had no trouble finding games, and no lag to speak of.

All in all this game was really surprising for me. I enjoyed the nostalgia of the movies and the attention to detail of making each Transformer feel different and unique both in their robot-like state, and their vehicle transformation. If you’re looking for a nice tie-over from your usual online shooter, give this one a go for sure!

–DIGGITY OUT

THE GAMER REPORT REVIEW: PROTOTYPE

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last year or more, you might have heard of this game called Prototype. I first read about this game way back in an old issue of Game Informer about a year ago. It had about 15 pages of info on the game, and I must say I was pretty impressed by the sound of it. A super-powered badass ‘shapeshifter’ running a muck in New York, YES PLEASE! I remember seeing the screen shot of the spikes coming out of the ground impaling several innocent pedestrians and instantly getting that comic-style feeling. This game is an open world sandbox-style adventure that borrows a whole lot of attributes from other genres. From shooters to fighting games and even a bit of role playing style leveling up, it really does have a little something for everyone. Watch this awesomely gory and beautiful opening cutscene to warm yourself to the glorious creation that is: Prototype.

You play Alex Mercer, a citizen who wakes up in a morgue genetically altered by someone or something. The beginning of the game gives a nice taste of things to come by granting you most of the abilities you will obtain later in the game. After a nice tease, you’re powers are stripped and you are left feeling like an Ethiopian kid who just had his ice cream cone gaffled by a Gelada Monkey. The game quickly does a little rewind, and you begin your journey towards finding out what the heck you actually are. It’s kind of a cool story element as your character starts to gradually find out that he is indeed a badass. As the story and game progress, New York becomes a battlefield where both the infected and military are in a power struggle, and you are caught in the middle. Although neither is considered an adversary in the least, several times you will find yourself helping either one or the other faction as the story weaves a nice web for you to get stuck in. While I won’t give any spoilers, I will say that the story element of this game is one that could/should spawn a lot of ideas, (i.e: movies, books, comics, anime, etc). It’s got a fresh feel that is very open to interpretation. I could easily seeing a production company biting onto this one and making a full-fledge movie, depending on how well it does.

This game plays identical to the Hulk game that was released on the 360 a while ago. It feels like it was skinned over it, literally. So many things are exactly the same. The charging of the jump, the flying jump kick you can take helicopters out with, the map, the transparency of items that are picked up. I believe it’s the same developer that did the Hulk game, so that’s most likely the reason. Basic controls here. You got your standard combo attack button (X), special button which ties into combos (Y), a jump button which can be charged (A), and a grab button which also throws objects (B). You also have left trigger to target, and right trigger to sprint. The bumpers are basically your menus to select which power you wanna use at the time. It’s a fairly simple scheme that is standard in games these days, so you will feel right at home after a few minutes. The game progresses through 30 or so missions, with several side missions that are unlocked as you complete the main scripted missions. These “side” missions range from killing a certain amount of enemies in a certain amount of time, checkpoint-race style jumping (a la Crackdown) and even some cool mini-wars where you play on the infected side vs. the army. There is even a mission where you use the glide ability to try and land in a bullseye. These side missions will feel pretty common to those familiar with open-world games like Crackdown, Hulk, GTA etc. They start out pretty easy, but some of the ones towards the end were really tough. That’s the case through most of the game. It gets hard, I mean haaarrrdd. Some of the missions took me 10-20 lives to pass. It’s nice that the game gets progressively challenging, but DAMN I was having a tough time on certain parts. If anyone would like help following this review, feel free to ask. All in all it was about 13 hours of gameplay. For some reason mysteriously my game save erased after about 8 hours. The only thing I could think of was I accidentally started a new game and it autosaved under my current gamesave. It sucked, so be careful if you do decide to play it. Continue is under new game on the main menu and I think eager button mashing to get the game started resulted in the game restarting and saving. It could be a glitch but I googled and couldn’t find anyone with the same problem. Maybe it was one too many Newcastles.

Let’s start with the things this game does well. For starters, the premise and storytelling transfers over to the gameplay very well. The developers did a really good job of making you feel like a badass super-human. Some of the most fun to be had during the game is actually just navigating the makeshift scale of New York. You can sprint and jump up buildings with ease, jump off of gigantic buildings and land unscathed, it’s just an awesome feeling. With so much scattered about the world, there is nothing that really hinders your path of travel. Have 30 cars in the way of where you want to go? No problem! You simply just hold the analog stick in the direction you would like to go, and Alex will do the rest. Running into a car for instance, will just send Alex flipping or hopping smoothly over it to continue sprinting. Later in the game you can unlock several jumping upgrades and even a glide ability which lets you soar like a flying squirrel. Couple this glide with an upgraded sprint and air-dash, and you can really pull off some amazing maneuvers navigating-wise. The aforementioned melting pot of genres is also fresh, innovative and well done. So many sandbox-style games focus on only certain aspects, and really skimp on others. Take GTA for instance: Sure the driving is pretty decent, but in my opinion the movement, animation and gunplay is downright atrocious. This is where Prototype is quite polished. The shooting and gunplay is very fun. The sounds and power that the weapons deliver is both realistic and exciting. The vehicles, (various tanks and helicopters), control well and their multiple weapons carry the same sounds and satisfaction. Everything was given good attention in the development, and it really shows. Pretty cool stuff as far as super powers go too. As the game progresses, you will gain some awesome tools of destruction. These abilities include giant claws, huge Thing or Hulk-like hands, a giant scythe for an arm and several defensive abilities like a shield and even a pretty cool looking armor suit. A mix of the two, (defensive and offensive) abilities is usually needed, especially for the latter end of the game as it gets quite tough. Consuming enemies is pretty cool as well. At any time during play, you can consume any enemy anywhere on the map and shapeshift in and out of their disguise. This consuming is the means by which you refill your life as well. Once you upgrade your health, and it is at full capacity, you can unleash “devastator” attacks that are downright awesome. They are a charged move that drain a bit of life, but once performed, go into an animated attack like Alex raising spikes from the ground that unleashes fury to the surroundings. Much of the intense moments or boss fights are spent consuming to refill your life, and performing these attacks over and over. This ties in well when you infiltrate bases or when you are trying to get strike teams and enemies off your back. Many times you will have to flee and once you are out of sight you can disguise yourself and be in the clear. There is also people and enemies scattered throughout that make up whats called the Web of Intrigue. These individuals play out a small movie that ties into the story when consumed. Although it’s not executed perfectly to tie into the story, it’s kinda nice if you really want to delve into the past of Alex.

Most of the bad things here don’t hinder the experience that much, but there were some poor design choices that cannot be overlooked. They’re gonna stick out like a sore thumb. For starters, the flick-style aiming can be extremely frustrating. Often times you will target the most random of objects, like an infected water tower, instead of one of the 5 tanks and helicopters that are pumping ammunition into you like it’s going out of style. Often times there is just too much Chaos. The alert system is WAAAAAAAY to strict. Sometimes you can waltz through bases and military zones and not be bothered, other times you step the wrong way and a strike team and who knows what else will follow and blast at you from one side of the map to the other. It’s a shame because the stealth aspects of the game, like sneaking into bases, or shapeshifting into disguises and the like are pretty cool! It’s a bummer that the policing system is so finicky. I suspect a patch will be released to mellow it out, or at least it should in my opinion. There is also a few enemy types that are just annoying and frustrating, particularly the hunters. Which molest you with attacks that drain 80% of your life and never give you a second to breathe. These hunters start to appear everywhere during missions and sometimes they just shouldn’t have been there. In fact, many of the attacks from a variety of enemies are too strong and feel really out of place. I mean, one second you get hit by a tank shell and a missile at the same time only to have a smidgen of your life gone, and then you get punched or body-slammed and you are near death instantly. I mean, c’mon, you’re supposed to be this superpowered badass right?

I guess in a nutshell the game just feels a bit unbalanced at times. The game controls great for the most part, although there is a few camera problems here and there. There is also quite a few balconies that really defeat the navigating awesomeness as you get stuck running in a vertical-square on them instead of ascending the building. Small gripes here for the most part that could have been easily balanced or fixed. The graphics are not amazing, but they aren’t that bad either. I would have liked to see a little bit more environment destruction, especially on buildings. Other than that I think most reviewers have been a little too critical on the cosmetics of this game. Often times the action is so fast paced and chaotic, you won’t even notice the subtle blandness of the textures and environment. Who wants to stop and sight-see when you can slice people up like a wood-chipper anyway? Not me!

Achievement whores should stir clear of this one. A few are downright ridiculous like no dying once during the game, or beating the game on hard difficulty. I had trouble on Normal, I can only imagine how Hard would be. Another small gripe was the orb’s that are scattered throughout New York are tough to find as they kind of pop in graphically. You can’t really see them until you are right next to them. A sound or hint as to when you were close would have been nice. I also have the same gripe as I did with XMEN Origins: Wolverine in that the opening cutscene was so amazing, and the rest were so horribly animated.

All in all I had a good time playing this one, and I think that’s what the developers were going for. While I was a teenie-tiny bit let down by the hype, it was still worth playing. Things got a little repetitive and drawn out, but there is plenty of gameplay and longevity to be had here if you really dig it. As always you know I love me some blood and gore and this one didn’t disappoint! Co-op would have been SO awesome on this one, but maybe the developers just didn’t have room for another badass. Give this one a rental for sure. It’s fun, gory and deep and if open-world mayhem is your cup o’ tea, sink your teeth into this one for sure. If you enjoy it, give Hulk a play through as well and you will be amazed how similar the two are. If you do pick it up, give us a shout in the comments and let us know what you think!

-DIGGITY OUT

THE GAMER REPORT REVIEW: WOLVERINE

When I was young, I used to hold 3 metal barbecue skewers between my fingers on each hand, hold a bread stick in my teeth like a cigar, and tell my 300 pound linebacker brother, “I’m gonna slice you up and kick your ass, bub…” Most of the time he would punch me, or beat me senseless, but the method to the madness remains to this very day: Wolverine is a badass!! I have been reading Wolverine comics since I was about 8 years old. As a long-time Marvel fanboy, he still remains one of my favorite characters of all time. When I saw the preview for the X Men Origins: Wolverine movie for the first time, I must admit I almost peed a little bit. Let’s face it, a lot of times movies are great, but when a video game is released based on said movie, it usually blows goats. Such is not the case with the X Men Origins: Wolverine video game.

It was a lazy Sunday. I was hanging out playing Halo 3 when one of my buddies asked me what I thought of the new Wolverine demo. I was shocked as I didn’t even know a demo was out. I finished up the game of Halo I was playing and immediately exited to the dashboard with eager eyes. After a pretty quick download I fired up the demo. After about 2 minutes in, I shut down the 360 and asked my wife if there was any cheesy chick-flicks she wanted to watch, because I was headed over to Blockbuster. That’s right! This game was so awesome that’s all the time I needed to ensure I was playing this one! To my surprise, Blockbuster had a copy. I rushed home GTA style in my car with the game in my hand like a golden ticket to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.

Let’s just start with the opening cinematic. WOW! If you have not seen it yet, do yourself a favor and at least watch this video. *WARNING: Video clip is extremely violent and badass*

Now thats what I am talking about! You know from my past reviews that I love me some gore and violence in video games, and this one does not disappoint! Being the movie was pretty toned down on the violence aspect, I totally wasn’t expecting the game to be so Mortal Combat-Esque. Unfortunately this awesome style of cutscenes did not continue through the rest of the game until the last couple when you beat it. I don’t even know how the developers pulled off releasing this one. I mean, it seriously makes Gears of War and Dead Space look like PG-13, no joke. It’s not just the violence I liked so much, but the cinematic style in which it was done. Take for instance the part of the demo where you lunge to a helicopter, ripping the pilot out and holding him head-first to the propeller. Good times.. good times. There are so many moments during the game that are just jaw-droppingly awesome. Having seen the movie, finally, there are some spoilers in the game. So be aware if you’re planning on seeing it.

The game plays like your typical God of War/Ninja Gaiden/Devil May Cry-style Hack n’ Slash. There is a light attack, heavy attack, jump and a grab button that provide some pretty deep and awesome combos as you level Wolvy up throughout the game. While you level up, you also progressively gain 4 different “special attacks” that are executed by holding the right trigger and hitting one of the four face buttons. These special attacks are very similar to Marvel Ultimate Alliance special attacks for those of you who have played that gem of a game. These attacks are also upgradeable, along with upgrading your health, rage and claws. It’s not a particularly deep upgrade-system, but a nice touch that adds a sense of accomplishment as the game progresses. There is also a lunge mechanic that is executed flawlessly in my opinion. Holding the right bumper down will target nearby foes, and when you are within striking distance a green arch will appear at which point a press of the left bumper will send Logan flying towards the enemy with claws drawn, taking them down. Often times you will need to use this lunge to cross gaps or mount the backs of large bosses, but it is especially awesome in the battles where you face multiple enemies at a time. It pays a nice tribute to Wolverine as you see him lunge from one enemy to another giving them an adamantium chest exam. There is even the occasional “stealth kill” in which case a head is usually lopped off, or an enemy ripped in half.

Speaking of decimating foes, there is an “instant kill” mechanic as well. Probably one of my favorite parts of the game, these fatality-style executions never really got old. For each type of enemy, (which there are several varieties), there is at least a few different kills. It kept the cinematic aspect I spoke of fresh and exciting as the game progressed. There are also Mutagens scattered about that will give you several different perks like extra health, extra rage, extra experience per kill, etc. Again, not incredibly deep but a nice addition.

The game isn’t perfect. There are a couple gripes I have, but nothing that defeats how incredible this game was. For starters, the levels are long. I am talking, “how many friggin’ checkpoints are in this level?” .. long. Another disappointment was again, how the cutscenes differed from the opening cinematic. It would have been incredible to seen the same style throughout the game. I was pretty surprised how non-linear the levels felt. There were several puzzles and climbing moments in the game that reminded me a lot of Prince of Persia. Another mechanic executed well to compliment the puzzle solving is in the form of “feral-sense.” Basically, pressing up on the D-Pad will give you a kind of infrared vision that will show you objects that you can interact with like ledges and doorways.

I haven’t craved coming home to play a game like this since Ninja Gaiden. There were some really late nights I paid for at work, as I just couldn’t get enough. This masterpiece also has it’s “collectibles” in the form of bodies with dog tags you can collect, and Wolverine figures which lead to unlocking the classic Wolverine costumes. Man it felt good to rock the Yellow and Blue costume instead of the Hugh Jackman skin! Throw in a couple easter egg/achievements relating to my favorite TV show, LOST one of my favorite games of all time, Portal, and one of the games I have lost several friends to, World of Warcraft, and this game has got something for everybody. I must say before I go any further, this game really caught me off guard and took me by surprise. I have a feeling it will do the same for you. If you don’t think so, fire up the demo and give it a go. It is gory, long, awesome in so many ways and is one of my favorite games of the year, let alone ever! Holla at me in the comments and lemme know what you think!

–DIGGITY OUT