Miz3k

I don't know why Japanese companies label games as sequels that obviously are not. This is no sequel as the "II" in the title implies. It is the Continuum Shift we were given on consoles only much smaller. They should call it BlazBlue Continuum Shift Portable or 3D, don't mislead with the title and make us think it is something totally new. That said, this is still a great game. Its is loads of fun, packed with content, and looks great. As apposed to DOA Dimensions and Super Street Fighter IV 3D, the framerate doesn't take a hit when the 3D is on, which is a plus, My only problem with the game is that graphically the characters look too small and coupled with the intricately detailed environments and all the chaos onscreen, it can be a little difficult to tell what is happening. The game controls great, it is easy to pick up and play and there is a lot of depth to be found if you sink enough time into it. There are so many modes, Story, Arcade, Legion, etc. There is also plenty of training that comes in the form of a standard practice mode against a dummy, and also a tutorial mode teaching you the finer aspects of 2D fighting. There is also plenty to unlock and collect, so this game should keep you busy for some time. Definitely worth picking up if you like fighting games, unless you already own this on a console in which case you can pass. I just hope Nintendo releases more games that aren't in the fighting genre soon.

Great game, as usual DOA delivers. I just wish Nintendo had decided to make a more powerful handheld than the original DS instead of insisting on gimmicks. It is really sad when a system can't even handle its primary selling point. In any game I've played so far, if you turn the 3D on the framerate is terrible, turn it off and the game is silky smooth. That's the case here, when the 3D is off the game looks amazing and runs great. Hopefully Nintendo will address this as the platform matures. Aside from that, the only other real issue is laggy multiplayer, but since I primarily play solo anyway it isn't an issue for me. Great fighting engine, great graphics, tons of content spanning the entire series, a good story mode even with a story that is as convoluted as this one's is, tons of modes to play. Probably sacrilage but this is better than Street Fighter IV in my opinion. I dock it a half a point for the 3D and a half a point for the online issues, other than that awesome game.

Great game. No longer a Mountain Dew commercial like Dirt 2, Dirt 3 features a stylish new interface that is easy to navigate and looks good as well. Progression is also much better in this game, although I really don't like being told what cars to drive and when. Graphically it is on par with the second game in the series, the only thing missing is all the extreme action sports crap and annoying rivals constantly yapping in your ear the whole game, but that isn't a bad thing. Gymkhana plays a big role here, but there isn't so much that it detracts from the rest of the game, and its actually pretty fun, although not as easy as gameplay videos make it look. Rally also makes a return in a big way. My biggest complaint with Dirt 2 was the almost non-existence of rally events. That is the series heritage and shouldn't have been cast aside just to get a bigger install base. Also, there are plenty of racing games where all you do is race other drivers on circuits, and that's ok, but rally is pretty unique and isn't found in a lot of games, and if it is its poorly represented (the rally mode in GT5 was an atrocity). If you want the circuit stuff it is still in here, there is just a better diversity of race types this time. Snow, rain and night-time racing have been added and are a welcome addition. The handling has been tweaked somewhat, so if you were expecting the slippery arcade feel of the first two games you're out of luck. Cars handle more realistically now, my only complaint is that the e-brake has been rendered almost useless unless you turn the stability control on, if not your car does a doughnut at the slightest press of the button. As a person that is used to driving without assists, it is a little embarrassing to have to flip one of them on, but hey, it doesn't ruin the game at all. Also, a lot of people are complaining about the voices of your agent, crew-chief and announcer-guy. I admit they do grate on you after a while, but it isn't any worse than in GRID and they can be turned off. With a lengthy, diverse campaign, great visuals, good handling, fun additions like Gymkhana and the return of rally, Dirt 3 is the game that Dirt 2 should have been. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed that game but as a rally fan I felt a little shunned. I recommend this game to anyone enjoyed the first two or anyone that is looking for something a little different that the same old road-course multi-car racing in every other racing game.

To begin with, this is not a new game. It is SEGA Rally Revo, only missing a lot of the content. There are too few tracks and there are only 13 cars so there is not a whole lot of content in this package. There only appears to be one new track, everything else is lifted from Revo. I still don't know why they call this a rally, there is absolutely no rally involved. You take part in multi-car races, either online or off, and that is it, Time Attack is just driving around a circuit as fast as you can. Graphically, this game is the exact game you played years ago, not updated one bit. The only visually cool thing is the geo-deformation and the grime your car picks up over the course of the race, and once again, that was in the original. I remember when I thought this looked amazing, playing something like this really shows you how far devs have pushed tech in just a few short years. What is disappointing here is it all seems so lazy. Hydro Thunder packs in so much more content than the original, handling has been tweaked and the graphics have been freshened up a bit. None of that has been done here, the only thing changed is the color of the main menu screen. At first when you enter the options menu, it appears they have addressed at least one issue from the original, now you have a choice of difficulties, Casual and Arcade. When you play, however, you will realize that this just means hard and harder. Your opposition is still crushingly difficult, always taking the perfect line and generally ignoring the laws of physics. If they hit you, you stop, they lose no speed. If they hit a wall at full speed, they keep going undeterred. They can drive through ruts and water, never losing speed. All of this affects you. Every little mistake slows you down, and yes, I realize it says "Arcade" in the title so I shouldn't expect a sim experience, I do expect fairness however. All these old-school conventions, coupled with rubber-band AI, should have been left in the last generation or vanished along with the arcade itself. If you want a fair game, go online, you'll still get crushed, but at least you'll know that the laws of the universe as well as the rules of the game are being adhered to. The worst mode in the game is the Championship. Here, you participate in 3 races, starting at position 22 and clawing your way to 1st. That's not so bad. What is bad is the final "bonus" race where you go one on one with a boss car. He immediately leaves you in the dust, even in the same car, and you can rarely catch up, even if you do, unless some freak mishap occurs, he still pulls ahead and wins. It is really frustrating to go through three different three-lap races to get crushed in the last joke of a race, and there is no restart option, once you begin, you're committed. Make one or two mistakes and you've just wasted a good chunk of your time nullifying all the work you did to get to that point. It also isn't the bargain everyone is claiming either. You can find a brand new copy of Revo for $20 or a used one for between $5 to $10, and the retail disc has way more content. This is SEGA basically trying to cash in on a stripped-down version **** they already tried to sell once, unsuccessfully, and the fact that it is being released about the same time as Dirt 3 isn't a coincidence either. Unless you've already purchased every other competent racer on LIVE and can't afford any of the games in the Dirt series, there is no reason to buy this. Boo SEGA! Boo! Stop selling us garbage!

I really don't see what all the positive buzz for this game is all about. I have never purchased a game and been so compelled to return it the very next day, and I've been gaming for decades now. I at least played Dragon Age 2 until the 3rd act just in case it did offer something to redeem itself, I couldn't make it that far through this one. I knew what I was getting into when I picked this up, that this would be a new experience and not something like GTA, so people can't use that excuse for why i didn't like this game. What I didn't expect, however, was how mediocre and boring an attempt Team Bondi had crafted. For starters, there are some major issues with this game that most people seem to ignore. Before the game even gets started good I'm hit by crushing drops in frame-rate, and these continue for the entire time I played the game. Weird, because this game doesn't look all that great. Aside from the facial-work (which was fine but looked like actors acting way too hard to convey emotion, it is unique, but to me doesn't look natural), I'd say this game graphically is average at best, Mafia 2, GTA 4, and Red Dead Redemption all look much better. Driving is a hassle. There is no compass or arrow so you have to rely on another worthless Rockstar mini-map or your partner, he's no use however because he never shuts up long enough to give you any assistance. NPC cars drive like maniacs, not following driving laws, they don't stop when they should, they speed and plow into you like you aren't even there, and they end up causing traffic jams that cause you to have to find an alternate route to get where you are going. The handling is also way too twitchy. The gunfights are ridiculous, as any shot an enemy receives is fatal, it is far too simplistic. Chasing criminals on foot is as simple as holding down the run button and pointing the camera where you want to go, the game does all the platforming for you, lame. The rest of the game boils down to being a "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" mini-game (you're given lifelines like "poll the audience" and "remove one answer") wrapped inside a boring point and click adventure. You wander around a crime scene and look for obviously placed evidence, point to which one you want to look at and then relevant info is put into your notepad. Music plays and the controller vibrates when you're near a clue. Wowee! That's revolutionary! Then to the worst part of the game, interrogation. You shift from looking at your notebook and the person you're interviewing and select words, phrases, and evidence. The person reacts, problem is you really can't tell if they're telling the truth or not. They could look like they're lying and be telling the truth and vice versa. You can either believe them, doubt them, or call them a liar. Sometimes if you doubt them they confess something, but if you accuse them flat-out they refuse to answer anymore questions, there really isn't any rhyme or reason to anything they say or do, leading to multiple retries to get the desired result. This leads to the biggest problem with the game, the save feature. I thought games couldn't have a more arbitrary and fun-sapping save feature than those in the Dead Rising series, wrong. There is only one save file, and although there are saves at checkpoints, if you restart, you have to go all the way back to the beginning of the case, not where the game auto-saved, pointless. Some of these cases are very long and all of your progress up to the restart point is lost. The game is all about trial and error, and punishes you if you don't get a desired result. Making matters worse is the fact that if you mess up you could miss out on clues for upcoming or connected cases. Why punish the player? I should have the option to retry a section I wasn't happy with without having to start the case all over. There are also long cutscenes you can't skip through. On top of all this the story is disjointed and boring, there are plenty of poor attempts at humor, and I didn't particularly like any of the characters either. This game is an almost-broken, repetitious mess. I will be staying away from Team Bondi's future attempts like the plague. I'm all for new experiences, they do need to be fun though. Heck, Heavy Rain was one big quick-time event, but at least it was fun and had a good story.

This is gonna be short and sweet. This game is a joke. When it premiered at E3 a few years back, we all marveled at the visuals, they were amazing. Now we get the game and it looks like hammered dog-crap. Jagged, pixelated characters. Bland environments with simple textures. Blurry menu screens. Come on, Virtua Fighter 5 came out in 2006 and looks much better than this, even Namco's other fighter Soul Caliber 4 which came out long before this looks better. Terrible. As for the gameplay, it is the same game you've been playing for years with little added or taken away. If you're playing against others its fine, but against the AI, even on the lower difficulties you're gonna be upset. AI opponents bring a near-perfect game, sometimes they cheat, and they are always cheap. This was fine years ago but games have evolved, how about giving us an end boss that is challenging because he's smart, not because he always blocks, his moves cannot be blocked, he can kill you with three moves, and he is psychic. Lame. There is a scenario mode, which is boring, repetitious and ugly to look at. There isn't a whole lot to unlock except stuff for your fighter to wear, I guess playing paper-dolls is fun for adults in Japan. Creepy. When compared to any other fighter, this game can't stand up visually, in terms of gameplay or content. The story is ludicrous, the gameplay is dated, and the graphics are laughable. If you're in it for the multiplayer you might get some value out of this. But if you would also like some single-player action you're out of luck, there isn't much here and what little there is is tedious. Oh, and ripping off Street Fighter characters isn't cool Namco. I'll stick with Tekken 5, it is better than this is in every way. This gets a 2 for having decent online and because there is nothing functionally wrong with the game.

I first bought this game when it was released, however, after dying many, what I felt were cheap deaths at the hands of the Deadpool level, I sold the game and moved on. Recently I was watching people do speed-runs on You Tube and when someone passed this level in not only just a few minutes, but on their first try, I was furious. Determined, I picked the game up again, and guess what. I beat the level on my first try. Patience, that's the lesson for today, here's my review. The story, while not the best you'll ever see, is decent. You play as one of four Spidermen - Amazing, Ultimate, Noir, and my favorite 2099. Not to spoil the story, I'll just say you're searching through the four universes for fragments of a stone tablet that give bosses great power. Each universe has a distinct look and style of gameplay. Amazing and Ultimate have you doing typical stuff like other Spidey games, swinging around and beating up the bad-guys. Noir has you doing your best Arkham Asylum impression and stealth-takedowns are the order of the day. 2099 sees you gliding around a futuristic city chasing down bosses and diffusing some of the chaos they create along the way. You get points for collecting spider-emblems and completing side-quests, these are used to upgrade your character or buy new costumes. There is plenty of content to unlock, from the aforementioned costumes and upgrades, to action- figures, concept art, movies and bios. The soundtrack is unremarkable but works for the game, with a clearly superhero feel. Best of all the game is narrated by Stan Lee. The voice-acting is all top notch. There are still a few issues that keep this from being the perfect Spidey adventure, most are issues that have always plagued the series. The camera can be a bit spastic, especially if there is something important you're supposed to be doing. There is so much going on at once on the screen I think the camera just can't keep up, however, it isn't as bad here as in other outings. Sometimes levels get tedious, like the Deadpool level, where you search an oil rig for cameras, when you find all of them more appear, this happens several times. This wouldn't be so bad if the rig were designed better, it is really tough to navigate. Throw in several boss fights, several repetitious battles with goons, a sequence where you must quickly swing from rig to rig to rig, then multiple points on a boat, then to a crate, then back to the main oil rig (that last platforming section has to be completed all in one perfect run and if you mess up at any point, you go all the way back to the beginning), then one last boss fight. It is a bit much and I find it hard to believe anyone found that level much fun, and I'm the world's biggest Deadpool fan. There are also some issues with Spiderman locking on to the wrong object, which is a big deal when you are being timed. These things don't break the game, and in my opinion this is the best Spiderman game so far. It is good to see someone show Miguel O'Hara (2099) some love finally. Fun game, descent story, great visuals, lots to do and unlock. Pretty fun most of the time.â

Aside from being really short, I really can't find any fault with this game. A lot of people are complaining about the graphics, but even though it still uses the same old engine from the first game, I think they squeezed every bit they could out of it as the game looks much better than the first. It isn't going to win any beauty contests, but there is nothing overly wrong with it from a visual standpoint. Anyway, that's not what the game is about. It is all about the story and the gameplay. The story is great, just don't expect some kind of epic narrative with cutscenes and all. Your character never says anything, and you only catch glances at her through portals. The way the story progresses is through NPC's that speak to you and each other throughout different levels. They are all brilliantly funny, and GLADOS is as humorous and menacing as ever. As for the gameplay, you are put into different test-chambers and have to figure a way out using a gun that creates two different colored portals, one an entrance and the other an exit. It all starts simple enough but the difficulty ramps up nicely as new elements are introduced, like goo, hard-light pathways and laser reflectors. It isn't hard like most other games where they throw more bad-guys at you, or a boss or something. They just make you use your brain in ways other games don't, you're solving puzzles, but it looks like an FPS. It is also nothing you can't figure out on your own, you just have to spend a little time in each room and try different thing to see what works. And DON'T use the strategy guide, that kills the purpose of this game. All in all Portal 2 is a great game that could have been better if it were a little longer, there is a co-op mode with different characters and story, so that helps, unless like me you are a solo-gamer. Still, it is like nothing else you've played, except the first Portal. I'd recommend playing that one first so you know what's going on story-wise and because it will be an excellent primer for this game. I went back and played the first after playing this one and breezed through it, but I remember when I first played it thinking how hard it was and wondering how they could be any more inventive. The devs really topped themselves. Great game that makes you think, not many of those nowadays.

Best MK ever. I got it at a midnight release and have been playing just about non-stop since. I really couldn't ask for more other than to include an updated, current-gen Konquest mode, but there is more than enough single player content to make up for it. Graphically the game looks great. Although some of the character models look a little strange (Smoke, what's up with the fro?) they all look really detailed and cool. The arenas look great and the fact that this PS3 game actually takes advantage of my TV and is displayed in full 1080p is awesome as most PS3 games don't. Sound is great as always, the evil announcer returns and all of the quirky character voices are in there. The soundtrack also rocks. There are a ton of game modes and unlockable content unlike any of Capcom's recent fighters (Stop nickle and diming your customers!). Standard arcade, tag matches, versus, and online multiplayer are all here, as well as many others. Test your sight, might, and luck also are thrown in. There is a new mode reminiscent of how it used to be in the arcade with a group of people standing around a cabinet waiting to play the winner or just watch the gore and talk trash, this is really cool. There is a story mode where you'll be playing through several chapters, changing out fighters every 4 or 5 fights and the plot is easily the best yet as it isn't as goofy as usual and seemed to me like watching the first movie. In story mode you'll unlock 2 things, one of which is really cool but I won't spoil it. Challenge Tower, if you are like me, is where you'll spend a lot of time. There are 300 challenges that range from straight-forward matches to fighting off hoards of zombies, matches where you can only damage your opponent in the light, in a few matches Johnny Cage just beats up his stunt-double and director, what a jerk. They get really tough but you can pay some Koins and bypass them. You win currency for just about anything you do and spend it once again in the Krypt, though this time it is a 3D space you can explore. There are costumes, fatalities, artwork and various other things to unlock, lots of things actually. This MK takes place between MK1 and MK3, so most of the characters and environments come from that period, although they have been updated. The fighting engine is back in the 2D plane and while simplified from the overly-complex style of Deception, Deadly Alliance, and Armageddon (no more stances or multiple fighting styles), the game retains the classic depth from the good old days. Old school gore is back and has been turned up to 11, no more PG-13 fatalities like MK vs DC Universe, and now there are gruesome x-ray moves. Other than Smoke's goofy character model (which can be swapped out for one unlocked later) I really don't have anything to complain about. Netherrealm poured their heart and souls into this game and it really shows, and the fan service is everywhere to be seen. Between the lengthy Challenge Tower (depending on your skill) and the lengthy story mode, there is plenty of single player content to keep you going for a while. And then there is the local versus and online play so you'll be playing this for a long time. I recommend this to any fighting game fan and if you like MK you probably already have it. If you don't, go out and buy it right now.

I love Contra, but these games keep getting harder and harder with each new installment. That's great news for some people out there who feel that if they aren't being punished by a game, it isn't adequate. However, there are those of us in the majority that like to have fun. There is a difference between a good challenge and being punished or outright crushed. This game falls into the latter category. There are multiple difficulties, but that doesn't mean much, this game is hard, beyond old-school hard in my opinion. I grew up in the eighties so I know all about the Mega Mans and Contras and Castlevanias of old, but I simply don't remember games being this relentless. Rising mode helps a little. It plays like an RPG, you level up and earn points to spend on health and weapon or skill upgrades, which get you a little bit further before annihilation. Checkpoints are too few and are placed in dumb places, most of the time when you die you'll end up at the beginning of the level even if you have been playing for a while and have made it a good distance. Sometimes you will defeat a boss, only to be killed by a weak minion with a lucky shot, but because there is no checkpoint after the boss, its back to the beginning and you have to do it all over again. Bad guys come from every direction, as always, but there is too much going on onscreen most of the time to tell what is happening, which leads to, you guessed it, death. And the thing that annoyed me the most, Day 1 DLC. I buy the game, turn it on and get this cool anime cut-scene with four characters in it. Turns out I have to buy these extra characters, and they aren't cheap either, they're $5 a pop. The game costs $15, and two additional characters cost a total of $10? This may be the biggest downloadable rip-off I have ever seen. Sorry, but this game is not fun or challenging, it is the opposite of fun and it is brutal. It is also completely overpriced. I give it a 2 because it looks pretty and made me feel nostalgic for about 5 minutes until my umpteenth death.

I am having a hard time reviewing this game for two reasons. One, it is really fun and well done, and two, because it is a budget title I still feel is overpriced. Allow me to explain. This game retails for $39.99, it is sold at a discounted price because it is made by a smaller developer and is more modest in terms of the game's contents. For that price you get a fully-functioning game (which is more than I can say for a lot of big-name titles from EA lately) that is a lot of fun with loads of replayability, and two gimmicks-the art style and old-school 3D. There are no bugs I have found, controls are great, and the black and white graphic novel art style is pretty cool, although I really wouldn't expect it in a racing game, but whatever, it works and looks good. There are four modes, all of which pretty much boil down to destroying your opponents, this is a demolition derby game after all, although some events task you with crossing a finish line first as in traditional racers. There is a fair bit of strategy involved, you drive in reverse to protect your engine/radiator just like in a real derby, you pick up parts of damaged cars to collect boost and acquire ramming speed, you push people of the sides of the track and into "the pit". There are 120 vehicles in six different varieties, 5 different arenas, local multiplayer and Xbox Live modes. Two pairs of 3D glasses are included, which gave me a massive headache, but if you can handle it the black and white art style looks very cool in motion. If you're like me, however, you will turn off the 3D effect in the options menu and the game doesn't lose anything in 2D. Now for what bugs me. I put in this game and installed it to my hard drive, like I do with all my games, but I was both amazed and confused by what I saw. The completion bar moved across the screen faster than had ever seen before, so when it had finished 30 seconds later I went to the memory section of my hard drive. This game is only 540mb. You can accomplish quite a bit with technology these days and make relatively good looking games taking up very little space, I know this, and I would have thought this game was bigger. My issue is, why not put this on Live Marketplace or PSN as a downloadable arcade game? Hydro Thunder Hurricane has just as much content or more, looks better and is roughly the same size, 460mb. That game only cost me $15. So do I feel a little ripped off? Yeah. This was a waste of a disc, those things can hold so much more, games of this size in my opinion should be downloads. That's like me buying a 128gb iPOD and only storing one song on it. Sure, it is a really good song but only loading that one song is a horrible waste of money and space. This game also costs $25 more, and the only discerning factor is the 3D, which is a gimmick that I'm sure most people will use for a little while and then turn off to play the majority of the game. I also don't believe any sane person would think that a couple of pairs of cardboard 3D glasses justify jacking up the price that much. As I said before, there is nothing functionally wrong with the game, it is a very solid and fun game, it is just very overpriced. Even for the $40 asking price there isn't enough compelling content here to warrant a purchase. I recommend renting it or waiting for it to drop in price even further. I'm docking points because of the miss-use of space and the ridiculous price tag.

Oh man this game brings back memories. Me and my friends used to play this and SEGA Bass Fishing all day, every day back on the Dreamcast. Well, not this exactly, the original, but this is so close its not even funny. Except this one's way better. The core gameplay remains the same. You drive drifty speedboats through over-the-top courses complete with dragons and giant Norse gods with swinging axes and what not. You fill up boost meters, draft rivals, and pull off huge jumps. There are several modes like race, ring master (where you drive through ring gates as fast as possible), gauntlet and championship. You get bronze, silver, and gold medals based on your finish and are placed on leaderboards. There is also multiplayer which pretty much explains itself. There are also boats, skins, levels and other things to collect. The graphics here won't blow you away because this is essentially the Dreamcast game, although now visuals have been given a little HD polish and there are spray effects and better lighting. Not that the original looked bad, its just more than a decade old and needed a touch up. Hydro Thunder Hurricane is a lot of fun and worth every bit of the 1200 point asking price.

I'll start off by saying this will be my last NFS game which is sad because I've played them all since the original, this will also probably be my last EA game as the last several I've reviewed have been less than stellar. Where to begin? Graphics, they've been improved since the last Shift but still have that overall grainy jagged look that plagued the first, only to a lesser extent. Still, compared to Forza and even the uneven visuals of Gran Turismo, this is pretty shabby looking. Interiors look great however tracks still have a cartoonish look I really don't care for and lighting is so so. This game looks nowhere near as good as all the pre-release videos we were shown which is not cool. As for the audio, cars sound good but pretty much all sound the same, there's not much distinction, also there's a weird clicking noise during races which I'm sure some car-nerd will attack me over and rant about what it was and how I should have known, but I've been in a lot of cars, race cars too, and I've never heard this sound. Apparently there is only one licensed song in the whole game cause that's all I hear on loop the whole game, either that or its all a bunch of generic 30 Seconds to Mars-sounding bands, it may be them, I can't be bothered to look. As for the physics, while better than last time they are still a far cry from realistic, anyone who says different lives in Ridge City. Cars are really floaty still and body-roll is too exaggerated. Drifting in the last game was broken, and that's being generous. Here its playable but still not great. The AI in the last game was all about rubber-banding and while they don't do that her there is an equally annoying issue. Rivals are overly aggressive, even on easy they are too good. Not everybody possesses the same level of skill, if everyone did there would be no Vaughn Gitten Jr. or Chris Rado, we'd all be so good there would be no greats. That's why **** has an easy setting it should be easy, medium should be challenging, and hard should be near impossible for all those who like punishment. It should be able to be enjoyed by those of all skill levels, not just those who have mastered sims. Also, it doesn't really matter what car you drive. Certain races say you have to have say a D car 0-499 (performance rating) so you'd expect that if you drove a car that was rated 499 and everyone else was rated below you that you'd dominate. Nope, all the opponents are ramped up to match your car so its always a level playing field, well not really when you add in the too-good AI. This renders upgrades pointless, I went the majority of the game without upgrading and then only did it because I was bored. I'm sure I didn't need to. I also purchased the unlock all cars DLC, which I soon found out was pointless after I realized how the aforementioned game mechanic worked. Also, expect to be rammed off the track and spun out, A LOT, your opponents are total jerks. The accessibility that was claimed to be packed in is also hampered by this system. To even have a fighting chance against the AI, all assists must be off because when the game is helping drive it brakes too hard, too late or too soon, accelerates too slowly and handles questionably. If you play with the assists on you will lose, A LOT. This kinda defeats the purpose of allowing you to turn them on or off in the first place. I can't imagine newcomers to the genre playing for very long when they are continually being destroyed every race. Having real racing stars in the game was a nice touch and so is being able to win their cars. Speaking of cars there are a good amount, just don't expect as many as Forza or GT5. Also on the forums a lot of fanboys are defending this game saying it isn't designed as a sim when people attack how arcade-like it is. Sorry to inform you, and its well-documented in magazines and on the web, that EA marketed this as a sim and set its sites on being in the same league as Forza and GT5 (not even close). EA really needs to drop all the false advertisement, most of us have had enough. Sell your product for what it is and stop with all the misdirection ( I'm looking at you too Dragon Age 2). This was a very promising game that looked to make good on promises and one-up its predecessor, as well as give other sims some competition. Oh well, maybe next time. Also, THIS IS A NEED FOR SPEED GAME! I don't get where everyone is saying they're moving away from the NFS brand. It says Need for Speed at the bottom of the box art, the stylized NS logo is placed beside the title Shift 2 Unleashed, not to mention it states it before the game starts where the company branding is shown, as well as all through the game. Stop trying to make this game something it isn't. This is Need for Speed Shift 2 Unleashed, and its just as mediocre as all the rest of the games in the series.

I used to be a huge wraslin' fan, but the athletes of today don't really have, in my opinion, what the legends, or even the guys from a decade ago had. So when I heard someone was making a game where the legends could take on the new guys I was stoked. When i got my first look at it, I was even more excited. The game reminded me of the old N64 WCW wrestling games, the look, how it played, all updated for this generation. Did the developers get it right. Oh yeah! The characters look like living action figures and their moves are so over the top and exaggerated, but that's what I find cool about it. I didn't really like the Smackdown vs. Raw series, sure they were loaded with all sorts of modes (which I found a little overwhelming), but I didn't find them all that fun. Here the action is fast-paced and aggressive, as apposed to the sluggish controls of the other series. This is more like a fighting game, you can literally bounce people off the mat and juggle them in the air, which kind of reminded me of the WWF In Your House games. There's even brightly colored streams that come of your wrestler as they perform signature moves. There are a lot of modes, however most feel similar. The stand out is the cage match complete with mini-games when you climb to the top. Another great feature pits a pre-determined legend against a pre-determined wrestler from the current roster based on their particular style, these matches are also cool. Matches like Sheamus vs. the Ultimate Warrior and Eddie Guerrerro vs. Rey Mysterio are examples. There are 30 combatants in all with more on the way via DLC, but you can't help but notice some odd omissions like Ric Flair or Chris Jericho, but this may be fixed later on with the DLC. Each looks as they currently do (in the case of the fresh talent) or as they did in their prime (for the legends), and they each use their signature moves and their awesome entrance music. The game mechanics are easy to pick up but hard to master, there is an awful lot of hidden depth in this arcade brawler. Reversals can be difficult until you get the timing right, as a prompt appears at the top of the screen telling you what button to push, but only briefly, so you really have to pay attention to the other fighter and judge what you need to do ahead of time. There are plenty of unlockables with everything from arenas and wrestlers to stuff to use in the create a wrestler mode. This is the weakest part of the game as it comes no where near the depth of the other series, but you can't still come up with some fun characters of your own. All in all this is great game for wrestling fans old and new with a lot of depth for those that want it and pick up and play acessibility for those that don't.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

First off, let me say that I really don't understand where all the hype for this game is coming from. Having said that I will review the game as if it were any other game, without holding the monumental weight of all the expectations people have for this game over its head. Graphically this game looks about average, at least on 360, sorry, this is not the best looking console game of this generation. Don't get me wrong, sometimes it does look great, but most of the time there are some very real and very obvious problems. There is a lot of texture pop-in, shadows are weird clouds of black dust that react spasmodically to different conditions, the world in general looks at times washed out and at other times over-saturated. There are also strange artifact issues that pop up quite often. Your suit looks cool, but you won't be seeing much of it outside of menu screens so that really doesn't matter. Enemy designs don't fare as well, they look rather generic when compared to foes from other sci-fi shooters. New York looks as it should, although it has been destroyed. Sound is ok, but footsteps, punches and other sounds seem like they're being played through blown speakers. The soundtrack is probably the best part of the game, very atmospheric and lends itself well to the action presented. AI is pretty terrible. Sometimes enemies will act rather stupid, running in circles, having seizures, stare right at you but do nothing. I even shot one soldier, he laid down flat, sprung back up instantly like a robot and began firing at me again, stuff like that happened a lot. However sometimes they'll have a sort of sixth sense, even when cloaked and not moving they'll spot you and waste you. They're also expert marksmen sometimes and other times they're worse than Stormtroopers from Star Wars. As far as gameplay goes its really nothing you haven't seen before. You find cover, shoot badguys, run from point A to B, lather, rinse, repeat. This game really isn't as tactical as everyone claims. You toggle a hud and tag targets and weapons caches. All in all this amounts to looking through binoculars and planning your attack, then you act. Nothing special as you can see enemies and weapons without marking them. I found I used this very little during the campaign. You also upgrade your suit by collecting nano-goo from dead aliens, this is presented as you look down at your hand and each upgrade is assigned to a finger that twitches when selected. There are several for each finger but I found this setup a little confusing until I had a few of them. Maybe if there were a more useful in-game tutorial or an instruction manual that consisted of more than a few pages this wouldn't have been an issue. I had trouble figuring out the hud until later on in the game when I realized I was over-thinking everything and it wasn't as crucial to the game as everyone made it out to be, but this is EA's way now. They say its to go paperless and save the environment but its really just to save a buck and make us buy the strategy guide. The game moves at a very slow pace because you can't just run and gun like most shooters, so you may want to think about that before you purchase this, this isn't COD or Bulletstorm. You also have to watch the power level of your suit because everything you do and every ability you activate drains power, this I felt added too much micromanagement and slowed the flow of the game even further. You have stealth, which doesn't work very well unless you're a good distance away, and Armor which makes you close to invincible for a short time. Story-wise, there really isn't one. I won't spoil what little there is here, just know you're a guy in a super-powered suit fighting soldiers and aliens in a destroyed New York and everyone has an alien plague. I didn't play the first one so I didn't know why any of this was happening, so if you didn't play the first expect to be saying "huh?" a lot. Maybe on PC this looks better, but I can't imagine it plays a whole lot better. It is surely not the best looking console game I've seen, not even close, and there's nothing revolutionary about the gameplay itself. I had to play in small portions due to boredom and frustration. If you like it, more power to you, it just isn't my cup of tea. I also don't think it is some kind of benchmark for shooters. I've had more fun with games I've paid a lot less for. This is one to try before you buy if possible.

If you are a fan of Star Wars, LEGO, or fun in general you should give this game a shot. It plays like the two previous LEGO Star Wars titles for the most part, with a few gameplay tweaks that improve and some that don't. Graphics are greatly improved, better textures and lighting, not everything is smooth and shiny this time, realistic rocks, environments and creatures are thrown in and improve the overall look of the game. You can now have two groups of characters, each at different sides of a level, accomplishing different tasks. Anakin may be on one side of a ship,you'll solve a puzzle, making it possible for Obi Wan on the other side of the level to do what he needed to, you simply hold down the Y button to switch between characters. There is a new hub, two battle-cruisers you can pass between and explore at your leisure, each with new things to build and discover as you collect more red and yellow bricks in-game. This is also how you select the level you want to play. There is a hologram monitor in the center of one of the ships where you can select star systems, planets and levels. As usual there is a lot of replay value because if you want to collect everything you'll have to play through each level multiple times with different characters, each with a different skill and able to access different parts of each level. This is a very simple game comprised of light platforming, mild puzzles, simple combat and a whole lot of collecting. You can't die, whenever your character does, he reappears instantly where he was, the only penalty is you lose a few of the studs(LEGO currency) you've collected. There are tons of characters to unlock and play as, you also get to drive virtually every vehicle available in the Clone Wars series and even some off-the-wall stuff like ice cream trucks and scooters. The one problem I had with the game were the new strategy levels where the developers tried to emulate games like Command and Conquer or Warhammer, only simplified. You command three characters and an army of troopers and try to disable enemy defenses and destroy bases and weaponry. Its like the games it tries to emulate in the most basic way possible. There is no real strategy, just an order in which you should destroy certain targets and the way you command your forces. It is really trial and error, with little instruction on what exactly you're supposed to be doing or how to do it it. You basically run around aimlessly till you luck out and figure out the correct order and how to destroy certain structures and die a lot, and I know I said there is no penalty for dying, but doing it over and over is boring and tedious. I can't imagine children enjoying these levels, and that is this game's core audience. The majority of the levels in the game are the fun platform or vehicle levels so this doesn't really hurt the game too much. Besides, you don't have to play these levels if you don't want to. LEGO Star Wars is a fun game for adults and children alike, and you don't have to worry about violence and language in this one. If you are an adult and can get over the fact that you're playing a game for children there is a lot of fun to be had here, and if you want 100% completion you'll need a lot of skill, a human partner sometimes, and a lot of free time.

When I first read about another Ghostbusters game, I was stoked. Then I read a little more, it was to be a top-down download-only arcade shooter. Why? The first current-gen Ghostbusters game was both a critical and commercial success, why not give the Ghostbusters fans more of what they want, a proper sequel. Instead we get this garbage, a shoddy attempt to grab quick cash from the pockets of fanboys like myself. The game is a four-player co-op shooter with an isometric view. There is no drop-in drop-out gameplay so if someone wants to quit, and they will, you have to start the level you are on over. You fight different ghosts using different settings on your proton-pack that correspond to the color of the ghost you are battling at the moment. Basically you move from room to room, get locked in, battle a set of ghosts, lather, rinse, repeat. Your character is controlled via the dual-stick method like in Geometry Wars or similar games although to a less successful extent. When a player gets knocked out another must come over and quickly mash buttons to revive him, which works ok if you are playing with friends, but if you're alone depending on the AI get used to restarting a lot. The AI is terrible here, standing in corners, running in circles and generally not doing any of the things they should be doing to help you bust ghosts and stay alive. Graphics are terrible, last-gen bad and sometimes worse, and believe it or not, a game that looks this bad has framerate issues. The story is told through poorly drawn comic book style static panels. I have a large 1080p LCD TV and I found it hard to read the text sometimes, I can imagine how impossible it must be for someone with an SDTV to play this game. The theme song is there, that's a plus, and its about the only thing cool about this game. You play as four new paranormal exterminators, not the original cast which makes this game even less exciting than it could have been. All in all this game fails on all levels. It is boring, has a terrible story, terrible graphics, broken gameplay and is a slap in the face to the fans. Don't waste your money, while the game is relatively cheap, its not worth it.

This game really shows how a Wii game would look if the hardware weren't so embarrassingly under-powered. Although simple, the graphics are vibrant and well done and overall the game looks great. I've seen both the Wii and Xbox 360 versions of the game (I own the 360 version), and boy what a difference the jump from 480p or 480i to 720p or 1080p makes. Environments and characters are simplistic but look great, there is very little aliasing which is a big issue on the Wii version. As for the gameplay, you are a blob that can absorb different colored ink and repaint a world that has been sapped of color or character by the evil Comrade Black. It is simple but by the end some objectives can be quite challenging. This game is a platformer with puzzle-solving involved. There are also some light combat elements but nothing really taxing. There is virtually no story except what I just told you, and those aren't spoilers as they are on the back of the box. Characters don't speak, rather they mumble or squeak or make other humorous noises. While this game clearly looks like it was created for the younger audience it deals with some mature topics but nothing offensive or anything that young children would probably pick up on anyway (stuff like religion and military topics). This game should not be overlooked by hardcore gamers based on looks. de Blob 2 is fun, beautiful and challenging with a lot of replay value.

While still a good value and a trio of great games, several problems keep this from being the perfect collection for Tomb Raider fans. Superior versions of these games are already available on another system, however, if you want them all brand new individually, you'll spend more than you would for this package. Tomb Raider Trilogy is really a mixed bag visually, and proof that just because things can look better on PS3 doesn't mean they do. Although Sony always boasts the power and visual superiority of their console, few developers, including Sony's own in-house teams, take advantage of this power. Like most other PS3 games the maximum resolution here is 720p, and for those with TVs that can support greater resolutions this is a waste. All of these games were previously released on Xbox 360, and while upscaled, were presented at resolutions up to 1080p. The only game in this package released on PS3 before now was Underworld and it looks as great as ever, and is easily the best looking of the three games in this package. All of the gameplay within remains, as far as I could tell, unchanged. There are huge, beautiful environments in which your time will be divided between platforming, puzzles and simple combat. Puzzles are large and really test your brainpower, most of the time. The only problem I have here is the lack of precision in Lara's control. Collision detection is questionable at best, with Lara missing ledges and falling off high places even if you have perfectly lined yourself up before making a movement, however it is not nearly as bad as Anniversary. You will have a good bit of trouble with the final boss due to this but it can be overcome and doesn't break the game. As for Anniversary, in my opinion it looks smoother and shinier than the Xbox version, probably due to better lighting, however, jagged shadows and flat textures really detract from the overall look of the game. Lara's platforming is worst in this game. While not game-breaking it is incredibly frustrating, and the final battle already requires precision timing and skill, add in these problems and you'll find yourself retrying quite a bit through no fault of your own, but because of a system that should have already been fixed twice now. The puzzles take up entire levels this time and are really smart, maybe even requiring a quick peek into a strategy guide every now and then. This is my least favorite of the three. Legend, which was released first, is my favorite. It strayed away from the typical Tomb Raider formula with smaller areas to explore and smaller, more physics based puzzles. Don't take that to mean it has been dumbed-down, its just different, and I think paced better. Lara is at her best here in terms of control and platforming prowess. Puzzles, although smaller, are great fun and boss battles are more akin to third person shooter/action games than the other two that require equal parts strategy, gunplay and puzzle elements. It is basically shooting and dodging with special attacks tossed in for fun. This is easily the worst looking of all three, which is a shame because it never looked this bad on 360. What I think they did, as apposed to taking the 360 versions of these games and further improving them, was take the PS2 versions and upscale the resolution and smooth out textures and jaggies, to a certain degree. Character models are jagged, there is quite a bit of aliasing going on. Shadows and fire are blocky and move strangely. Textures are low-res and flat. To make up for this, a blur filter looks like it was added, I really don't like this, it gives the game a foggy look. All in all, graphical issues aside, this is a good package. These are three very good games at a good price($40). Each adventure is lengthy and fun, with time trials and a ton of unlockables to be found. The package also comes with a 30 minute video and a theme/avatar package on disc. It is a shame that more care was not put into the visuals of these games though. If you haven't played these games before, or if you've sold or traded them and are looking to pick them up again, this is how I would recommend purchasing them.

What a total disappointment. Much like Mass Effect 2 this game fails to deliver on so many levels. About the only thing I can say I liked about this game was the combat overhaul, but after some time with the game even that became very boring and was added to the long list of cons. This game has been so over-simplified it barely resembles an RPG anymore. You can craft the appearance of your character as in other games of this type, but you are basically just selecting different presets. Guitar Hero and Rock Band had a more robust creation tool. Menus have been lifted straight from Mass Effect 2, and the game setup is identical, this is not a good thing. Your choices for upgrading your character are very limited, there is a difference between making your game more user-friendly and stripping down almost all customization options. Combat is reduced to hack n' slash gameplay and anyone who believes this isn't just another button-masher is diluted. You can pause the action and give commands but you never really need to. Graphics are very bland, textures are low-res and character models are questionable. The only characters who look even remotely cool are certain companions and if you look in the strategy guide you can see that the concept art for these and all other characters was better than the finished product. There are very few locations the game takes place in, an even bigger crime is that every house you enter, every cave you search, every sewer you trudge through is the exact same place as all the ones you ever have or ever will venture into in the game. It really takes away from the immersion when you are told to search for something in a cave or sewer or estate only to realize you've already been there more than once. And no, they aren't telling you that you are having multiple missions in the same locale, they are all different missions in the same recycled location visually, these places are on different parts of the map with different names and are being passed off as a new place, and Bioware is hoping you won't notice. Also there is no exploration, you walk down pre-defined paths with a few deviations here and there with expected loot waiting at the end. This is essentially Final Fantasy 13, Bioware just covered up the linearity a little better. There is no customization for your companions. They always wear the same armor and you can only buy four upgrades for them, all they do is change stats, not appearance. This is really a game all about accessorizing, the most you'll ever toy with in terms of customization is the jewelry you and your companions wear. The DLC was obviously part of the game that was withheld to make extra money for EA and Bioware, visually and story-wise it fits in too well with the rest of the game to be standard DLC. Speaking of story, there really isn't one. The first Dragon Age was so epic, the story of a hero on a quest to save the world. Here you are a refugee out to reclaim your family's name and honor. There isn't even a real villain until Act 3 and that's the end of the game. Just like ME2 this game boils down to being just a checklist. "Make sure you do these things before this time or this will happen to you." As for save-game importing, it has no effect on the story whatsoever. Certain characters show up but seem tacked on and out of place. At one point you meet a character that with the use of the import could have been your created character from the first game, however it ends up just being some generic character that has no impact on the story at all. What's bad is that in this scene you could tell Bioware thought this would be epic and dramatic and it ended up failing on all levels. Romances boil down to the same checklist formula as in ME2 as well as the rest of this game and thus lose all impact and are rendered pointless and too much effort for no real payoff. I don't know how they did it but Bioware even managed to make the Deep Roads unexciting. I also don't understand why Bioware thought the story and characters in the first game were so bad not to continue them, they did the same thing to a lesser extent in ME2. Bioware really needs to stop stripping down their games to reach a broader, less intelligent audience simply to make more money for their new overlords(EA). Once they have alienated all their fans and no longer present any value to them they will be cast aside like EA's other at-one-time golden children(Black Box for example, there are others). I know this will probably be my last trip into the Dragon Age universe, and as soon as I'm through with ME3(I have to finish the series because I'm already so invested in the Commander's story) I won't waste any more of my time with any new Bioware IPs. Oh well, at least I still have Skyrim to look forward to. Also, BEWARE! Bioware posts their own reviews to inflate their game's score, this added to everything listed above is really sad.

When this game was revealed I was so excited due to my love for old-school NFS games before their recent decline, with the Hot Pursuit series my favorite. At first I was very pleased, but soon I would be plagued by a single gameplay element that would almost destroy my experience. First, the good. Graphics are stunning, with many of the locales a throwback to the originals ( the wooded state park area was especially cool). Cars all look great and comprise a dream list of supercars any car-nut would kill for. Handling is a lot of fun, with high-speed drifting being the focus. The soundtrack is ok but could have been much better. There are standard race events, time trials, preview events and the like for streetracers. For cops, there are interceptor, preview events and most importantly hot pursuit events. This game plays like a hybrid between NFS and Burnout, which has upset a lot of the purists. Not me, I like both series so I liked this direction. There is an open world to drive around in but races are on closed courses with many shortcuts for each. The cop events are a little more open world and while you have a little more freedom you still can't go everywhere. There are two full careers, one for racers and one for cops. Each can be tackled at the same time or separately. You gain bounty for your placement in each race, the better you place the more bounty you earn, earn enough and you'll level up, with twenty levels for each career mode. Now for the bad. Rubber-band AI has always been a problem for NFS and arcade racers in general. However, with today's advanced technology there is no excuse for it, it is just plain lazy programming. All the cars boast different stats but they mean nothing. You could be driving the fastest car in the game and get blown away by much more inferior cars. All this I'm used to. What I wasn't used to or remotely prepared for is the level of rubber-banding for racers and the sheer ruthlessness of the cops. Challenge is one thing, but this game is blatantly unfair. Rivals seem to have infinite boost, make turns impossible for even the most skilled drivers, if they are in front, most of the time that's where they'll stay, if you have a several second lead they'll catch up during the last few moments of the race even if you haven't made a single mistake. Also you'll be racing against cars in classes above your own, how this is fair I don't know, being as the game tells you what cars are available to you in a given event and the cars they drive almost always aren't on the list. The cops are even worse. They seem to have unlimited resources like spike-strips, choppers and roadblocks, and they always no exactly when to use them without fail. One race I was seconds from the finish, wrecked a cop that had been harassing me most of the race, and had avoided multiple spike-strips and roadblocks. When I wrecked that cop a cutscene played, one always does when you wreck someone, when it ended there was a roadblock just feet from where I was and couldn't be dodged, with the finish in sight. This would have been fine but the roadblock was not on the screen nor on the mini-map before the cutscene, costing me the race. Your skill level has nothing to do with whether you win or lose, the game decides whether or not it will be gracious enough to let you win on any given race. Some days it seems to be in a better mood than others. You will be trying events over and over, not to better your score, but to merely complete an event. At first I was determined to get golds, but by the halfway point in the game all I wanted to do was finish. This is a game that doesn't like to lose in the worst way. I finished the game but was so upset by the time I was through I can't see myself giving it a second playthrough or giving the overpriced DLC a chance. This is a shame because this should have been the perfect arcade racer, but I don't recommend the type of punishment this game hands out to anyone. Hopefully this will be addressed in the sequel.

All in all I had a lot of fun with this game. Although the campaign was short, I've grown accustomed to this lately as almost every shooter nowadays is going the Call of Duty route, I had a blast the entire time. I didn't mindlessly run from point A to point B as I do in other shooters, pulling the left trigger to aim, the right to shoot, lather, rinse, repeat ( I'm looking at you CoD, you no-skill-required shooting gallery). I found myself devilishly plotting my enemies gruesome demise, rarely looking up skill-shots in the database, I'd imagine the visions of destruction in my head, and most of the time I could make it so. There is a lot of variety in the way you kill foes, but I could see where some people would find this tiresome. Huge set-piece battles break up the tedium and are often as funny as exciting. Graphics are great but wind up looking like most other Unreal games, huge hulking wrestler types wearing insane body armor destroying anything that moves as well as most of the landscape, which looks amazing. Dialogue is humorous but can be abrasive to some audiences, most actually, there is probably more profanity in one level of this game than all the Robocop films combined. Soundtrack is a mix of cinematic fare and heavy-metal, this game was clearly intended for a male audience. On the negative side of things, there is no co-op campaign which would fit perfectly here. The story is seriously lacking, it is really just an excuse to keep the game moving forward. Echoes mode is fun, but is really just the campaign without cutscenes and you are scored on a leaderboard. Also there is no new-game + mode. It would have been nice to take your fully upgraded arsenal back through another playthrough. This isn't a perfect game but it is fun, and I think it is a good jumping-off point for a future sequel. Once fine-tuned this could be a great franchise.

Simply put, this is a terrible game, even taking account of how inexpensive it is. The graphics are grainy and sub-par, textures are very low-res. It almost reminds me of Daytona USA, although there is some fun to be had in that game. In terms of gameplay, expect to spend most of your time in the wall. Cars are way too twitchy, even for an arcade racer. There are also framerate issues, questionable AI drivers, and a slew of other giant problems that really hold this back. I was upset when I played because of my fondness for the film and was hoping it was at least as good as Top Gun was (even though I'm still not happy they used a Kenny Loggins knock-off to do the theme), but sadly I was disappointed. Unless you're part of the Cole Trickle fan club or made your own pretend "Get well soon Rowdy!" greeting cards, stay away from this game.

What a great game! There have been several games lately that a lot of people have been eagerly awaiting for a long time, but this is the first that actually seems worth the wait. Stunning visuals that look like you are playing an interactive comic book. Great music and character voices. Each character is brilliantly realized and is faithful to the source material (Deadpool is hilarious). The game is fun for the accomplished fighting game fan and newcomers alike. There is a great deal of depth in the fighting engine even though it has been streamlined a bit, and it hasn't been stripped so much that it will disappoint the hardcore fans. If you're a newbie you can switch on simple-mode and if your friends didn't know any better they'd think you're a pro, even though you'll still get crushed online. A lot of people are complaining about there only being 36 playable characters in the game (4 of which are unlockable), which is cut back from the nearly 60 in Marvel vs. Capcom 2, however a lot of those fighters were duplicates with swapped out palettes ( they had the same movesets, strengths, weaknesses, exploits, etc., they just looked like different characters). Each character in MvC3 is a total individual, unique in both appearance and play-style. Each has four different optional appearances, although these are just mainly color swaps. New characters have been announced as DLC later down the road and I'm sure more are on the way, this is the way videogames are made and marketed nowadays and I'm not going to deduct points for this as the omission of these items doesn't diminish the quality of the game, later they will merely add to it and keep the game fresh long after the "new" has worn off. The only issue I have with the game and the reason I docked it a point is the lack of game modes. You only really get arcade, versus, training, and online versus. They're all pretty much the same. The only difference is that at the end of the arcade mode you get a static cut scene ending featuring the character you won with, it's not enough to be considered a story mode. A new mode has been announced as DLC but for one reason or another Capcom decided not to include it on disc. This doesn't break the game but it certainly should have been included as the number of game modes was the sole area I thought was lacking in this game. That said, this is still a fast, fun, and highly addictive fighting game. Easy to pick up and play, but hard to master. It is great for solo play or even better as a party game because everyone has heard of most of these characters and it is so easy to just pick up and start wailing away on opponents. If you like fighting games, Marvel comics, or Capcom games, this will keep you entertained for a long time to come.

I am amending my review which was at first a 7. I'm changing it to a 1 because they at least took they time to print, package and put it on the shelves, that took a little effort I guess, so they get a 1 for trying. This is a videogame only in the most basic sense. It is now day 3 after release and still no online, in a game that is primarily an online game. Inexcusable. When we asked about the connectivity issues on the official site one too many times they closed the thread so they didn't have to listen to us any more. Sorry to inconvenience you guys, we're only trying to play the game we paid our hard-earned cash for. I guess the reduced $49.99 price point should have gave us some sort of hint as to what kind of quality to expect. Buyer beware! Not only is it a Massively Multi-player-less Offline Racing Game, but little else works properly either. Terrible graphics, I think the first actually looked better. Handling is still terrible, supposedly this was an issue from the first game they allegedly fixed. Only two radio stations, both with horrible music and no option to use your own soundtrack. Items you own sometimes appear in-game and sometimes they don't ( cars, clothing, etc.). These issues should have been ironed out pre-release. The game is simply broken. There are so many problems with this game, and I didn't even bother listing all of them, just those I thought were major. They should have invested a little in play-testing before release, instead of letting us pay $50 to find all the problems for them. So not only did they skip a very important step, they made us do it, and then charged us for it. They may fix this game, but the damage has been done. I won't be buying anything from this developer ever again, and I'm sure many other people will agree.

Before I begin, let me say I love my PS3 and I'm an avid racing fan, I play all racing games from sims to arcade racers. That said, one word sums up my experience with GT5 - mediocre. I have played this series since the very first entry on the PS1 and each one has gotten incrementally better, that is not the case here, however. This is essentially GT4 with a few gameplay additions, some of which don't pan out so well. Graphically, this game is all over the place. Sometimes it is stunning, other times not so much. The game has an over-saturated color palette which takes away from the realism. Also shadows are jagged messes. There is an awful lot of screen-tearing, even in the little pre-race ticker at the top of the screen. New tracks look pretty good but older ones have been ported over from previous titles, their appearance only bumped up a bit by the higher resolution. Track-side objects are one-dimensional cutouts and textures are very last-gen. As opposed to adding to the polygon count of an object, a flat texture is merely **** over a crude shape ( guardrails, etc. ) and we're expected to be blown away by these things. Text on track signage is jagged and blurry. If you want to see just how poor this game looks when you aren't blowing by at high speeds, just open a replay, pause, and walk around the track. This, however, isn't the worst part. Cars, the reason for playing a racing/driving game, are the biggest letdown here. Everyone boasts "It has more than a thousand cars, that's way better than Forza." Wrong. Each and every one of the cars in Forza has the same quality and attention to detail, all can be tuned and upgraded, and all have an in-car dash view. In GT5, cars are split into premium and standard models. Only premium ( there are only 200 ) cars can be tuned, are truly current-gen in detail, and have a dash view. The other 800 are ported over from the PS2 games and they show it. These cars are blocky, poorly textured, and stick out like a sore thumb when racing alongside a premium model. Sure, Forza has less cars, but at least their quality is the same across the board. The menus are antiquated relics, they are page after page of poorly-implemented and confusing static screens. The soundtrack is a nauseating mix of smooth-jazz and lounge music with some terrible rock thrown in for the kiddies. You can use your own background music but it is so difficult to do so you might just turn off the BMG altogether. Opponent AI is laughable, picking a strict racing line and sticking to it, running you off course if you are where they need to be. This game also doesn't obey the laws of physics some times, if you ram another car, they don't budge, in fact, it slows your car down. If they bump you, however, you'll go flying off-course, only to be stopped by invisible walls mind you, or your car will come to a stop. Tuning and damage modeling are basic at most, and not available for all cars. B-Spec is touted as a sort of RPG where you control AI drivers from the pits. This is also very basic and incredibly boring. The Course-Creator is nothing of the sort, it merely lets you make some changes to existing tracks. All in all this is the same game you've been playing for years. No upgrade in the driving mechanics, the basic formula remains the same, and the visuals are hit or miss. This is not a game that should have taken half a decade to make and it is certainly not worth the wait. It is a very vanilla experience that only the most devout GT fans (not to be confused with fans of driving genre as a whole ) will enjoy. Half a decade and over sixty-million dollars later we are given an incomplete game steeped in tradition, who's Japanese developers are too stubborn to accept that they are lagging behind the rest of the world in terms of design and not humble enough to learn from mistakes and take cues from others as to what works in today's market. This is too little too late for me, and this sloppy approach to gaming and total lack of care for what we as gamers want and deserve is really insulting .

This game is brilliant! Sure, on the surface it looks like something made for children, and I admit as I plopped it down on the counter to purchase it I felt a little ashamed. " This is way too adorable for someone like me to be playing." I couldn't have been more wrong. This is a very dedicated platformer that ranks up there with the best of them. It is all very whimsical and as I play I find it very hard not to smile, and few games garner that reaction out of me. The actual game itself is quite good, very competent and entertaining, but the best part of LBP2 is the community and creation tools. In the community section you can play thousands of user-created levels, some are terrible, others are amazing. The community is a very friendly one and are very supportive of each other, which is hard to find in today's world of Halo and Call of Duty. Then there are the creation tools, where you can make just about anything you want, from movies and music/videos to your own LBP2 levels, some have even created replicas of other classic and current games that are staggeringly accurate. When you start making your own stuff you might be overwhelmed, but the more you play around with the tools and get the hang of it, you can create some pretty amazing stuff with relative ease. I was wrong about this game. Little Big Planet 2 isn't just for kids, it is for any platforming fan and is a great break in between killing anything that moves in other games.

This is a terrible game, buy this at your own peril. I really can't see how this is getting so many positive reviews, all of which claim that the problems of the first game have all been fixed. Well, I never played the first one but if Two Worlds 2 is this bad I'd hate to see the first. The graphics aren't the worst I've seen in a recent RPG, but they lack polish or any visual flare, and they get very blurry during cutscenes. I'm sure the devs thought this would be pretty, but it looks like you've got Vasoline in your eyes. The voice acting is terrible, the lip-syncing, hand gestures, and body language during cutscenes is laughable. The story, at least the part I played through before I returned this, is the overly simplistic tale of Orcs vs. humans, only in this game the Orcs are the goodguys. That's right, the Orcs. This is no spoiler as it states on the box art and in the first five minutes of the game. The menus are cumbersome and filled with too much information. Despite what the professional reviews say to the contrary this is a very complicated game, this could be alleviated with a nice thick manual(I know, they don't make those any more because of the tree-hugging hippies) or a decent in-game tutorial, neither of which were included. I'm usually complaining about RPGs being too streamlined these days so that the casual gamer can understand these games, but here a little bit more would have been nice. You have to craft everything, break down items into basic parts to be reconstructed into useful ones, design talismans, set your weapons and armor to specific to hotkeys(you can have up to three specific setups you can toggle with the d-pad), fuse crystals, construct spell-card combinations, etc., etc., etc. However, the aforementioned menu design and lack of instruction sap what little fun could have been found in this area of the game. Combat is horrible. You have a setup for ranged, melee, and mage which you switch with the d-pad, with each setup setup you can have totally different armor and up to two weapons hotkeyed, as well as two support items. The problem is that you can't use spells with weapons so you are swapping setups frequently which gets very confusing in the heat of battle. The other problem is that different foes will be attacking you at the same time, each one must be handled differently , some require you to merely wail on them with melee weapons, but others require specific spells. You'll be fighting a creature that is vulnerable to fire, then attacked by one that is affected by ice or wind, you have to kill one then go into the magic menu and design another talisman, then enter the battle again. This wouldn't be a problem if you could just specialize in melee, ranged, or magic, you could have three setups for a specific type of combat and switch between each, but this game forces you to be a jack of all trades and master of none, so you have to keep juggling which is not only annoying but deadly because of the sheer number of enemies, and it isn't like you'll find groups of similar creatures sticking together like in most games, at one time I was roaming the Savannah and there were like fifty creatures all in one place, ostriches, rhinos, giant fire ants, and monkeys that fling feces. That's right, poo-flinging monkeys. If you could carry a sword and cast a spell with the other hand like in most other RPGs there would be no problem, but you can't. If you could simply pick a class and master it, this wouldn't be a problem, but you can't. And good luck trying to hit anything anyway, there is no manual targeting system, the game merely attacks the enemy that is closest to you, and since enemies aren't stationary you just flail around like a spas, trying to juggle the appropriate weapon or spell. Also, the game autosaves at really questionable points in the game, like during combat, when you enter a village but not when you leave, when you start a quest but not when you complete it, or before long cutscenes. You'll want to manually save quite often. There are simply too many concepts shoehorned into a game that was clearly too ambitious for the devs to handle, none were implemented properly, and little explanation was made of how these concepts should have worked. And don't think that these are minor issues that can be learned to live with, it isn't worth the hassle. Between boredom, confusion, and tedium you likely won't be playing this very long. There are other superior, less-expensive options out there.â