I tend to have somewhat mixed feelings about the Fable franchise. As a PC gamer I’ve only been able to properly play the first and third instalments, and both of these have given me moments of elation and exasperation.

Fable III came out for the PC in May 2011, almost a year after it did on the Xbox 360. Set fifty years after the events of the previous game, you are the prince/ss of Albion, your father having left your kingdom in the questionable hands of your older brother Logan following his death. When the game begins he is shown to be an outright tyrant, cold-bloodedly ordering protestors (and/or even your childhood sweetheart) killed and generally behaving in a manner befitting an antagonist. However, as the story progresses it turns that he was only acting out of necessity; his seemingly cruel decisions were made in order to ultimately save the kingdom from a far larger threat (and let’s face it: having to make such difficult decisions in order to protect your people from that would change anyone for the worse).

Like all Fable games, Fable III did some things well and some things not so well. The PC version (which is, of course, the version I played) has pretty poorly optimised controls, and while they’re not too bad overall having hold down the confirm button for every little decision can get a tad annoying. Additionally missions can get a little repetitive (especially if you plan on cultivating relationships with anyone), and I’ve been glitched into a corner by irregularly respawning mobs – and subsequently had no choice but to let them kill me – more than once.

The real brick wall moment of Fable III (although, as I hope to suggest, this is not necessarily a bad thing), however, is when you depose Logan and have to face up to the cold hard reality of ruling a kingdom in danger. You have a series of increasingly difficult decisions to make, and always choosing in favour of your citizens’ immediate wellbeing, while making them happy, could spell their doom in the long term. The latter also puts you seriously out of pocket, and with in-game time passing irregularly it can be quite tricky to rustle up the required funds unless you’re willing to indulge in some serious lute playing/pie baking/blacksmithing (not that there’s that much difference between all the job mini games). However, maybe pushing such a complex series of moral choices on a player – and thus forcing them to think long and hard about them – is, from both a narrative and a roleplaying perspective, a good thing.

That said, I did enjoy Fable III for the most part, so perhaps it’s fair to say that all the little niggles were eclipsed by the experience as a whole. Let’s hope that upcoming threequel Gears of War 3 will be the same.

Playstation Plus (a great service well worth the $50 annual subscription if you haven’t yet tried it) has been putting up 60 minute trials of games that you can download. They usually take up a lot of space, and inFamous 2 is no exception at 15 GB. However, I had a lot of fun with inFamous 2 in my 60 minutes, so it was worth the long download.

The first thing I noticed about inFamous 2 is they have greatly improved the graphics. inFamous 1 didn’t look terrible, it just looked passable for an open world game. inFamous 2 looks much better, especially in cutscenes. The facial animation and character models is pretty top-notch stuff.

The gameplay is not very much changed this time around, but it just seemed more fun. I recently played inFamous 1 again a bit when I got the game for free in Sony’s Welcome Back program. I bought the game originally when it came out in 2009, and traded it in shortly after. Since everyone kept talking about how great it was, I tried to pick it back up but I still find that game very boring, and it is usually difficult and hard to understand exactly what you need to do and where to go. inFamous 2 does not have these problems.

I was immediately pulled into the game through its well done cutscenes, and cool graphic novel-style intro. After that the gamed kept that hold on me through a very awesome fight with the Beast, who has been talked about since the first game. Basically he looked like the Fire Titan in God of War 3, but it was a great battle regardless. After that fight it becomes more like inFamous 1, once you make your way through some swampy areas and into the city of New Marais. New Marais is basically New Orleans, and it’s a cool looking environment, much more visually interesting than inFamous 1?s Empire City.

The combat and general movement seems improved quite a bit. I didn’t find myself falling off rooftops like in the first game, and riding the rails seemed better and faster than in 1. Also you can now “grind” up all kinds of railings, like on the sides of buildings etc, to move through the city much quicker than before. You now have a cool electric baton-type thing to beat people with, which makes hand to hand melee more fun.

Near the end of my 60 minutes, I got some cool new powers where Cole could pick up cars with his electricity and throw them at people. There was also an Assassin’s Creed inspired moment where Cole climbed a huge clock tower , and then electrified a pigeon. I still don’t know why I had to do that, but it was fun.

All in all, this 60 minute trial did what it was supposed to do. It got me hyped for the game and showed me why this game is better than inFamous 1. I definitely like the idea of these trials, and I will be giving my impressions on more of them as I get them. Once again, if you’re not already a PS Plus subscriber, I highly suggest you become one- you definitely get your money’s worth.

Streets of Rage 2 was probably one of the best side-scrolling brawlers back in the day. There were probably hundreds made back then, it was the Call Of Duty clone of its day. My all time favorite is Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage. Some others would say Double Dragon (I loved that one too) or maybe Golden Axe. SOR2 is still fun today.

When you start SOR2, you can pick from 4 characters, all infinitely cliche 80?s and with absolutely ridiculous names to boot. You’ve got Blaze, Max, Axel, and Skate. Don’t pick Skate. Just don’t.

The gameplay is just as you’d expect if you’ve ever played a Genesis-era brawler. You punch, kick, and super uppercut guys until they die. There’s not much else to say really, besides that you get to use weapons that you pick up on the street.

Every level introduces a new type of enemy. You will fight carbon copies of the same enemy thousands of times throughout your playthrough of Streets Of Rage 2. Adding a new enemy type on each level is obviously a design choice to combat the feeling of repetitiveness, but it only does so much. The game is very fun, especially for its time, but the gameplay does grate on you by the time you reach the final level. Me and my girlfriend played co-op and she was having fun at first, since she loved playing Genesis back in the day, but by the end we were both looking at each other and thinking, “When does this end?”. One last note: This game has friendly fire, meaning when you throw a punch in the vicinity of your friend, they will lose health. My girlfriend was very annoyed by this, and kept saying, “I’m sorry!” every time she dragon punched me into oblivion.

This PS3 port is obviously a cash grab, and it’s the same version you played in the Sonic Ultimate Genesis Collection a few years back. You can smooth the graphics if you want, just like you could in that game, and nothing else is added, besides more trophies, which surely will entice some people enough to buy it again. I got it for free with my Playstation Plus subscription.

The game has 12 trophies (I believe all games in this Sega Vintage Collection series do). If I’m right it is currently exclusive to Playstation Plus but will shortly be available to everyone. If you’re a fan of the genre, I say pick it up, but don’t expect it to keep you entertained for much longer than one fun evening with a friend.

Mortal Kombat by NetherRealm Studios is an awesome game that I reviewed not too long ago. I highly recommend the game to fighting game fans.

Now NetherRealm has unleashed the first DLC for the game, in a female kombatant named Skarlet. She is the 33rd fighter on the roster for the game. I’ve purchased Skarlet and played with her quite a bit, and I have to say that she is very cool and fun to fight with. But is she worth the $5 admission price?

Skarlet’s story is similar to Ermac’s or perhaps Mileena’s. She is another mystical construct of Shang Tsung’s, molded together from the blood of Shao Kahn’s arena to fight for him. Similar to how Ermac is comprised entirely of souls, Skarlet is made entirely out of blood. Players could see Skarlet tied up in the background of one of Mortal Kombat’s levels during gameplay, and also in the Story mode. She was hung there to feed off of the blood of the kombatants who died in the arena.

Skarlet was originally rumored to be a secret character in Mortal Kombat 2, but was in actuality a color glitch for Kitana, much like the rumored Ermac was a color glitch for Scorpion. The red bikini-clad warrior weilds 4 kunai and short ninja blades.

Skarlet is very fast, and similar in fighting style to Kitana. Her projectiles are kunai, which she throws in pairs. One cool feature she has is that she can throw the first kunai and delay the second throw as long as you want, which definitely has some tactical advantages, especially against online players who try to be super cheap with Kano. 

Just like the other female warriors on Kombat’s roster, Skarlet is built more for speed than strength. She has some cool Smoke-esque teleportation moves that give her an edge in battle.

She has a gruesome X-Ray move, where she stabs her opponent in the temple with a kunai, and then kick her heel straight through their eyeball. Ouch. 

She also has some cool Fatalities. Her main fatality is pretty brutal, showing her slitting her opponent’s throat straight through to the spine, and soaking in the resulting plasma shower.

So it all comes down to this: is Skarlet worth 5 bucks? Really, it depends on whether you’ve mastered the rest of the roster and want a new face, and also whether you enjoy fighting with the ladies. She looks cool, she fights fast and furiously, and she definitely earns the right to be called a Mortal Kombat fighter with some of the most brutal moves displayed thus far. I don’t regret the purchase.

Archive Reviews is a new series dedicated to reviewing games that have been on shelves for a while, but some people may have just gotten around to picking up, from a ludicrous Steam sale or what have you.

Does Splinter Cell : Conviction live up to the hype after years in development? The answer is an emphatic yes.

Ubisoft took some huge risks when they decided to completely overhaul Splinter Cell from the ground up in 2007. Then, they decided that overhaul needed a makeover, and here we are today with Splinter Cell Conviction.

All that reconstructive surgery has paid off, because even though it may not resemble its former self very much, Splinter Cell Conviction has been refined into one kick-ass stealth-action game. The story pulls you in, the graphics are great, and the  gameplay is fast and fluid. This is a great game to pickup now, since you can get it online for super cheap (click here for Amazon link).
If you were to pay full price for this game, you might feel like you didn’t quite get your money’s worth, because the campaign is very short. Even with the very awesome multiplayer thrown in, you can see everything the game has to offer you in under 10 hours. But at the bargain price you can get it for now, Splinter Cell Conviction is worth every penny.

Even though the game is short, it squeezes every last drop of action-packed fun out of the time you spend playing it. If you are into action movies or tv shows like 24, you will probably love this game. In fact, Sam Fisher in this game is very reminiscent of Jack Bauer, beating the hell out of suspects in brutal interrogation sequences and leaving behind a body count worthy of The Expendables. The only thing missing is Sam screaming angrily into his cell phone at the President.

If you haven’t played Sam’s last outing, Splinter Cell: Double Agent, don’t worry, the game catches you up quickly. Basically, Sam’s daughter has been killed, he killed his best friend Lambert, and he broke away from Third Echelon, the group he has worked with since the first game. Conviction’s  story starts out with Sam mourning the loss of his daughter, and desperate to find out the truth behind what happened to her.It quickly turns into much more than that, and Sam finds himself once again trying to save America from terrorists that are planning to attack Washington D.C. Hmm… that sounds familiar…

The game has great pacing. The game is always driving you forward, and you always know where to go thanks to a distance marker and projections that pop up on walls to tell you where to go. You will also see flashbacks appear as projections on the wall, helping drive the story forward without stopping the gameplay. Also, there are no load screens in this game unless you die. Everything combines to make you feel like you are living out your favorite action blockbuster.

There’s only one spot  that seemed out of place in the campaign. Throughout the whole game stealth is almost completely forsaken for guns-blazing action, yet in one spot you have to remain hidden in the shadows or you fail instantly. The pulls you completely out of the game and just feels like an archaic game mechanic. Even Chaos Theory from years ago had a more modern take on stealth.

Some people have been knocking the scene where you go back and relive Sam’s time in Iraq 20 years ago, but I found it refreshing. Sure there are no stealth mechanics here and it basically becomes Gears Of War here, but it is fun and adds depth to Sam’s character.

While the single player won’t take too long to finish, there are other, arguably better, pieces to the Conviction puzzle. There’s a seperate co-op campaign, Infiltration, Last Stand, and Hunter game modes.

The co-op campaign is really amazing. The great gameplay from the single player mode is further enhanced by having a friend fighting alongside you. You and a friend play as Third Echelon agent Archer and Russian agent Kestrel. The story here is a prequel to the single player campaign, where the team is hunting down W.M.D.s. It is integral that you fully cooperate with your partner in this mode, because if your partner dies (or sets off an alarm, in one frustrating sequence), it’s game over. Just like Gears Of War, you can revive your fallen partner before he bleeds out.

Splinter Cell Conviction is a great game, especially for the under $20 price point you’ll find it at  now. It might not be very recognizable as a Splinter Cell game, but this is probably exactly the change needed to breathe new life into the franchise. If you’re buying the game just for the story, it would be hard to recommend back when it was $60. But at the current price you get a great , if short campaign, and an even greater co-op campaign, alongside some other great modes.

Awesome- 4.5 / 5

The epic franchise “Black Ops” of the Call Of Duty series hit the shelves November 9th 2010.

In the campaign mode: You play as the elite Black Ops forces which fight in the secret wars and deniable Ops that took place during the cold war in the 60’s.

The story basically follows what happened behind the enemy lines when the CIA sent a secret force called Black Operatives to carry out a mission of stopping an experimental weapon known as NOVA-6.

Alot of people compare the Modern Warfare 2 Story to the Black Ops story line, which im my case is completely different. Loads of people said that the Black Ops story line was too confusing to understand, and i remember reading reviews about Black Ops before it was released and Treyarch even said that during the first few missions of the game people would get easily mis-lead or confused at whats going on, but by the end of the game, everybody will understand everything. I guess there is a fine line between Complex and Complicated.

Multi-Player : Where do i start? There are 15 prestige modes with a different emblem the higher rank prestige you get : -

At the minute im rank 3 on the Xbox 360, And haven’t even prestiged on my PS3, But i have seen many many people who already hit 15th prestige within a 2-3 month period…now that’s some insane Black Opsing!

The multi-player maps are as listed :-

· Array – Covered in snow and great for snipers.

· Cracked – In the broken streets of Vietnam, good for CQ’s

· Crisis – Alot of camping spots, great for snipers and Indoor/Outdoor combat

· Firing range – Very small map, Is used for military practice sessions

· Grid – One of my fav maps, Covered in snow, Great for long and short range fights

· Hanoi – An old prison camp, pretty big map

· Havana – Set in the streets of cuba, A great map to get out your shotguns!

· Jungle – As stated set in the jungle, look out for them snipers!

· Launch – In my opinion a plain map, best part about it, is the launch pad(That can kill you)

· Nuke Town – Hectic action here, random grenades/tomahawks

· Radiation – A new processing plant, great for domination matches.

· Summit – Snowy mountains, research facility? My favourite map

· Villa – Set in Cuba, Headquarters and capture the flag is awesome for this map

· WMD – An old abandoned Russian base also great for snipers.

First Strike Maps : -

· Berlin Wall – The crossing point between Eastern and Western Berlin

· Discovery – A snow ridden German research facility station

· Kowloon – Set in china, The first online map with a zip-line and Also a great level in the single player campaign mode

· Stadium – North American sports complex

Escalation Maps : -

· Hotel – Kind of like Nuke town, 2 hotels one winner!

· Convoy – Awsome for CQ’s, Not too keen on this map myself

· Zoo – Abandoned Russian Zoo, Also one of my Favourite maps

· Stockpile – Houses, Trucks, Broken roads, Bridges, You name it, it has it.

As people say the online perspective of the whole franchise is the best thing about the game, and thats the only reason why people buy and play it. But when your in love with games as i am, You have to look at game as a whole, Campaign, Multiplayer and Zombies.

When playing online against random people the only problem i have is the flaming when people lose, nobody likes a sore loser right? No matter which format of Black Ops you play, In each lobby you will always get a sour puss that hates to be beaten. If we didn’t have these kind of people online the online part of this game would be outstanding, but sadly gets burnt to the ground because of this.

The guns, Attachments, Perks and such are great, Everybody has their own gun which they love, and cherish as they did in Modern Warfare 2, My favourites are PSG1 With silencer (Ghost & Hardened perk) And the Commando, Silencer(Ghost,Ninja & Hardened perk).

Trayarch changed the “quick scoping” so nobody could do it anymore, there was word flying around that alot of people wouldn’t play Black Ops because of this….They was wrong!

All in all the mechanics for the online gaming is priceless, You get CoD points to buy stuff such as New weaponry, Different Camo Colours for the gun of your choice(If at the correct level), To buy different shapes/Objects to use as your own personal GamerCard, and you can also buy the backgrounds to them to make them look fantastic.

You can take place in different game types, Called “Wager Matches” Where you put down CoD points and basically gamble them against 5 other players.

· Gun game – You kill, you get a gun upgrade, but if you get knifed or accidentally commit suicide, you get de-ranked to the previous gun that you had, First person to get to the Ballistic Knife and get the kill, Is the winner.

· Sticks and Stones – Stripped down to the basics! Crossbow, Ballistic Knife and a Tomahawk, Lots of fun but hard to get used to.

· One in the Chamber – You start with a handgun and a single bullet, and your knife of course, You shoot and kill somebody, you get an extra bullet, Failing that, you’ll have to rely on your knife to do the talking, Each player has 3 lives, once all lives are used, your game’s up.

· Sharpshooter – Each player is placed with a random weapon, and after 45 seconds of using that weapon, the more kills you get with that weapon the more chance you have to have a better weapon/perk, My favourite out of all the Wager Match games.

Zombies : Back in the days of World At War, thanks to Treyarch, they brought a new game to the Call Of Duty Franchise, and named it Zombies.

Blasting your way through waves and waves of Nazi Zombies, who wouldn’t want to play this survival mode Hack, Slash, And shooter horror?

You can have a “solo” or “Multiplayer” mode for Zombies, the more players the more zombies per wave, and its great fun with your friends, trying to engage in endless waves, you could be at it for hours!

· Kino der Toten – This level has a Teleporter which is essentially used each wave to protect yourself from the zombies, set in a theatre like mansion.

· Five – The reason i like this map is because of the characters you are, John.F.Kennedy,Richard Nixon,Fidel Castro and Robert Mcnamara, Also a bonus boss like Zombie called “The Pentagon Theif” Although he does take alot of bullets, you can crush him to the ground. Although this map does have somewhat teleporters, The zombies can also use them too, a hard map to survive on, but alot of fun.

· Ascension(First strike Map Pack) – Space monkeys! The little rascals, If you don’t have a HDTV, your more than likely not going to beable to see these little runts! Instead of Hellhounds or a Pentagon thief these are guys to look out for. I specifically like this map due to the fact of the Lunar Landers that help you get out of sticky situations, Alot of turrets to help you aswell, and you also get 2 new buffs! Stamina- up and PhD Flopper.

· Call of the Dead (Escalation map pack)- Theres a reason why i like this map too, CELEBS! Sarah Michelle Gellar, Robert Englund, Michael Rooker and Danny Trejo. It also features Robert A.Romero the producer, He’s the guy that spawns before the first round and Follows you around the map constantly, unless banished, and even though you can banish him, it only lasts for a single round, The first Zombie map to have a zip-line from one end of the map, to the other, For quick and evasive manouvers! This level also involves a gun called the Wunderwaffle DG-2, Kind of like the Death machine, but has a slight kick to it.

Call of Duty: Black Ops, Has alot more pro’s than con’s in my opinion, some people have got to realise that Treyarch has done a fantastic job and they need to stop flaming them for nothing, what people don’t understand is, it takes a very long time to make a beautifully crafted game such as this, i cannot fault anything about this game other than the online multiplayer(They should have dedicated servers) Other than that, The story mode is well designed and has a fantastic story to it, Online multiplayer is the best that the Call of Duty series has seen and as for Zombies, Treyarch pulled it off once again, but will they make a better Call Of Duty with Modern Warfare 3? We’ll see.

Does the newest entry in the near 20 year old Mortal Kombat series deserve your attention? In a word, yes.

Mortal Kombat offers a deep gameplay experience that very few fighting games can claim. NetherRealm Studios has raised the bar in this entry, and wiped the series’ spotty history clean again.

Mortal Kombat brings the series back to what made it popular and infamous back in the early ’90s: hyperviolence and extreme gore, which will be a welcome change to those that still have a bitter taste in their mouths from the enjoyable yet sterilized Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe. MK cuts away the fat the franchise has built up in its last few 3D entries, such as 3D-plane movement, weapons fighting and multiple stances. While the last few Kombat games may have seemed gimmicky and notable only for their violence, Mortal Kombat steps into the realm of the great, legitimate fighters, such as Street Fighter 4. This Kombat is a lean, well-oiled machine.

The story mode in Mortal Kombat stood out as unique in my eyes, at least compared to other fighting games. This is the first fighting game I have played with a very lengthy story mode. It intertwines multiple characters and relives/reboots the history of Mortal  Kombat 1, 2 , and 3. I found it to be very enjoyable, and I found myself actually interested in MK’s strange yet cool roster once again. Demon warrior Scorpion’s backstory is fleshed out, and he is  humanized as you relive the anguish he experienced when Sub-Zero and his clan destroyed Scorpion’s village, and killed his wife and son. You will find out why Jax has metal arms, why Cyrax and Sektor are cyborgs, what the hell Mileena is, and more. The story mode has more than 15 chapters, and all of its cut scenes are skillfully produced.

Mortal Kombat not only re-imagines the original trilogy of Mortal Kombat 1, 2, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, but also shares most of those games’ roster and arenas. The great story mode is complimented by a healthy amount of additional content in the form of multiple single-player and multiplayer game modes. In addition to the substantial story mode, there is Challenge Tower, which is a 300 level, very cool mix of fights and  mini-games that are actually entertaining.  Challenge Tower mode is partly a tutorial, offering up, for instance, matches where you can’t use your special moves, or more comically, fights where you have no arms.

There is also the standard Ladder arcade mode, where all characters also have the requisite intro and outro movies. There is also Tag Ladder mode, where MK shows off its brilliant tag team fighting, which is even more fast and furious than the singles mode. There is a Fatality Training mode, where you can skip right to mutilating bodies to your heart’s content. Returning from the series’ past is the Krypt, an awesome stockpile of unlockable goodies, where you can spend Koins earned in all the other game modes.

Mortal Kombat’s return to the 2D plane is a very welcome one in my eyes. The game feels stripped down in a good way, and you never feel like you lost a round because of wonky controls.  The game has a new meter that fills up in three stages as the rounds go on. Fill up the first stage, and players can perform an enhanced special move. Fill up the second stage and you can use a “Breaker” to break an opponent’s combo. At stage 3, you can unleash a devastating X-Ray move, which can be avoided, but if it connects, expect a near 50% health drain (alongside a brutal animation).  Executing the staple moves like uppercuts, leg sweeps, and fireballs is easy, and the crunching sound of bone and sinew clashing is satisfying.Likewise, special moves and Fatalities are simpler to perform than ever, with Fatalities even appearing on the games start menu move list. If you lose a round online in this game, it’s because you need to practice more, not because the controls needed more QA time.

That’s not to say this game is without flaws. The controls may be fine tuned and the story mode may be  interesting, however not all of the skeletons of Mortal Kombat’s past have been swept away. The boss characters’ AI is still insanely cheap and very frustrating, and can still only be beaten by stooping to its level, and using your character’s cheapest moves over and over again. Granted, this particular problem plagues other fighters as well, such as Tekken and Street Fighter, however this problem has been practically married to this series since its inception, and I would love to see it fixed in the next entry.

Mortal Kombat is a beautifully rendered, back-to-basics brawler that is packed to the brim with awesome content. Yes, it has its flaws, but with its refined fighting system, stunning graphics and hours upon hours of fun gameplay, I find it very hard to not recommend this game to  fighting fans, and those that left the series behind after MK3.

A couple of weeks ago Brink came out and those of us who bought it knew it was meant to be played online. Anyone who bought the game on Ps3 had to wait and the 360 users also had some issues to over come. The big hurdle now seems to be lag online. Whether you are using a Ps3 or a 360 you are likely experiencing some lag and it really isn’t on your end. On the official Bethesda Blog it is on the to do list as well as many other things. Also to the PC users, they have some love coming your way as well so don’t worry.

Some of the things they are working on are Lag fix on 360, and update to the title to prevent freezing(I’ve seen this happen to someone) and more testing. They haven’t added much to the ps3 list yet because they haven’t tested it as much quite yet. Expect the changes to the 360 to hit the Ps3 soon. On the PC front they are fixing an issue that has your sound turn off after playing for awhile, Graphics improvement, a tweak to the server browser, as well as memory leak fixes and voice fixes. No word on the new updates yet but expect them soon.

On another note it seems the developers intend to release some free DLC soon that will allow you to play team death match and capture the flag type things instead of replaying the campaign over and over. No word on that either but I hope it’s soon because I’m getting burnt out on it. Anyways get out there and protect the Ark!