Made available in the US by high demand from fans they definitely knew this was one no one should miss. With some of the most intense fighting action you will certainly get in awhile, see why this Wii fighter is one you can’t pass up on in our video review.
A funny kind of Serious- Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter Review
Its cool to see how far video games have come. Espcially taking an old franchise and giving it a fresh coat HD paint. Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter brings back fond memories of pre-halo shooting games like Doom or Castle Wolfenstien. It plays similar to those games and is super easy to get into. However is this worth your xbla points?
Serious Sam begins with a typical story. One man is put in harms way to save humanity from monsters from another dimenison. The story takes place in Egypt where sam navigates through the monster infested locales of Egypt. He starts off with a mere knife and revolver. As you travel you gain powerful weaponry such as double barrel shotguns to an all cannon ball gun.
Controls in Serious Sam HD are intuitive and nothing you haven’t seen before. An interesting feature is the Y button, which is a nifty quick save during gameplay, this is a huge plus because it doesn’t pause the action. The cross hairs act not only as an aiming key but as a health indicator as well for each enemy you shoot. This feature is good yet simplistic which shows creative effeciency on the developers part. Any experieced fps gamer will have fun with Serious Sam.
Enemies in SS HD are the punchlines of the game. Whether its from their quirky designs or the funny sound effects. At first you can upon the compressed sound as bad quality , but then again you can’t help but chuckle at the absurd sound effects the monster’s make. One thing that keeps this game in a constant pace of action is the enemies, which all seem to run at you, keeping you on your toes. Definitely pays homage to the original and can be seen in games today like left 4 dead. The developers also implemented simple scare tactics such as eerie music on certain parts of levels. At first its quite comical yet keeps you alert, players will get used to it but it did get the job done. Blasting through stages are fun and that’s what’s most important.
Serious Sam HD: TFE is game with simple old school gameplay with a coat of shiny High Definition wax. Nothing to wow about but if you are looking for a simple shooter with a few cheap laughs. Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter is where its at.
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Overall= 7.2
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Some Ferrari love in Need for Speed
If you feel like your getting a little tired of your natural collection of racing cars and bored of the same ones that have doing 200 mph around the track endlessly, well look no further. EA is sporting some Ferrari love after a 7 year dry spell. The Ferrari Racing packwill be the latest downloadable content for Need for Speed SHIFT and will be available today exclusively on the Xbox 360 for 800 Microsoft points ($10).
The Ferraris available include:
1996 Ferrari F50 GT
2005 Ferrari F430 Spider
2005 Ferrari FXX
2005 Ferrari Superame犀利士
rica
2006 Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano
2006 Ferrari F430 Challenge (Online/Quick event only)
2006 Ferrari F430 GTC (Online/Quick event only)
2007 Ferrari 430 Scuderia
2008 Ferrari California
2008 Ferrari 16M Scuderia Spider
Not only did they release the 10 new cars, the pack will also extend SHIFT’s career mode with 46 new Ferrari specific challenges designed for the Ferrari cars including hot laps, eliminators, endurance races and a world tour. An additional 125 gamerpoints achievements will also be added, rewarding you for beating the various challenges. If that wasn’t enough!, all Ferrari cars can also be taken online for some XBL head to head action. I don’t know about you but that $ 1,430,000 Ferrari F50 GT has my name written all over it!
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Review: Alien Breed Evolution
Alien Breed isn’t the most original game on XBLA but it still offers a relatively fun experience especially for those who are looking for a quick and simple shooter.
Alien Breed Evolution is actually a remake to the original Alien Breed, a game that came out in the early 90s so it’s safe to say not many of today’s gamers have played the original. Alien Breed was a simple shooter but very fun considering the era in gaming it was released in. Now on XBLA Alien Breed Evolution attempts to bring the classic game to a new generation with updated graphics and a more interactive game overall.
Graphics are one of the best things about Alien Breed, it has above average visuals for an Arcade game. There are plenty of nice lighting effects,  and explosion effects through out, and the environments are also fairly nice, if you played the original Alien Breed you’ll know that this game is a giant step forward. However one of the main problems is that the environment though are technically well done are some what generic looking, the whole game almost takes place entirely in a space station that’s been run over by aliens so you already know pretty much what the setting is going to be like.
Sound is average, generic gun sounds are plentiful and aliens themselves also have typical bug noises. Through out the game there will also be a female announcer  giving updates on your actions. Music is also some what bland but it fits in with the action. Like the graphics, sound is technically done well but there is very little you haven’t experienced before.
Gameplay in Alien Breed is fairly simple, like many other XBLA such as Assault Heroes the game gives you an isometric top down view, the left joystick is to move around, right joystick is to aim and right trigger is to fire. The majority of the game just needs those controls but there are plenty of extras like using items switching guns, and running. The game drops the player in the level and just sends hordes of aliens at them, players shoot down the aliens and get to the next level, a very simple mission overall.
Alien Breed Evolution is a game that sticks very close to a proven formula, the top down shooter has been done several times now on XBLA and they’ve overall been a big success, however Alien Breed Evolution stays too close to this formula. There is almost no originality in the game, everything from the guns, items, enemies, and environment have all been done in similar ways before which makes it difficult for Alien Breed to stand above the crowd. It is important to note that there isn’t anything really wrong with the game everything is technically well done but the end result comes off a little on the stale side. However if you’re looking for a simple and straight forward shooter you can’t go wrong with Alien Breed Evolution.
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Overall = 7.4
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Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment Review
Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment is the return of a classic RPG made for the Playstation. This game however serves as a prequel with new characters, plot and graphical improvements in an RTS that up until now had been forgotten. For an Xbox live arcade/Playstation network game the delivery holds up with solid gameplay and character development.
From the start you are presented with a cinematic cutscene, but looks more like a motion comic drawn with miniatures. War had taken place in this world and have angered the gods, the price to pay were their lives. Years later in a recovering state players will take place in a small village as a character named Tobias and what starts off as simple training, quickly becomes alot more then any of them had bargain for. It’s the classic “kid is destined to be a Hero” story and doesn’t really expand to much from there.
Character development is pretty solid, each character you encounter that becomes apart of your squad will have unique weapons and abilities. Two weapons can be equipped at a time which is definitely useful for a mix between short and long range attacks. Also it does not waste a turn to change weapons so combinations of checking the distant between enemies with different weapons is great advantage to have. Books can be equip for different spells or for those who don’t support a type of magic. Customization is tailored very well and give you just enough freedom to make unique differences between characters.
This Real Time Strategy has all the essentials you need. Enemy AI will be challenging and make you try different fight patterns. Nothing gets overly complex or in-depth like Final Fantasy Tactics but does provide enough to keep the motion of gameplay going. The overall map is easy to navigate, letting you simply move from each location, some places will allow you to purchase items from the store. The menu for the store is not organized by weapon, magic or items so it will take a minute to properly know what maybe a best fit for each character.
Overall the experience is good, while it maybe hard to recommend this for those unfamiliar to Real Time Strategy as they will feel right at home. On the other hand the game gets the job done and will provide a decent amount of hours getting through the main story while completing side quests if chosen. The combat if nothing else will definitely get you through the game.
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Overall = 7.4
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Lvlone’s Super Bowl Prediction
With the big game today, Lvlone used a Madden NFL 10 simulation to bring you our Super Bowl prediction.
Colts – 51, Saints – 21
Colts
Total offense – 535
Rushing yards – 90
Passing yards – 445
Third Down Conversion – 80%
Peyton Manning
24-29, 445 yards, 6 TDs, 0 INT
Reggie Wayne
6 Catches, 118 yards, 3 TDs
Saints
Total offense – 453
Rushing yards – 56
Passing yards – 397
Kick return yards – 254
Turnovers – 3
Drew Brees
32-41, 403 yards, 2 TDs, 3 INT
Marques Colston
8 Catches, 119 yards, 0 TDs
Throughout the first half, Indianapolis dominated both sides of the ball, shutting out New Orleans 30-0. The Saints would rally early in the second half, making key halftime adjustments to get the game up to 30-21, but Drew Brees threw three interceptions on consecutive drives, all but sealing the deal for Peyton and the Colts.
The game itself featured a high octane passing attack by both quarterbacks, which will be seen during the game. Do I think the score will be as high as it is here? Yes, but not as one sided. I think the two teams will easily put up a combined 50 or more total points. The game is going to be an offensive showcase, which Madden accurately depicted. The only things missing were The Who at halftime, and the great commercials.
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An appetizer for things to come: White Knight Chronicles Review
Sony’s release of White Knight Chronicles was highly anticipated by RPG fans. Although it took some time to reach the US from overseas, the game seemed to have been not worth the wait with only decent graphics and a complex battle system. The game itself could stand alone as a decent game, but with the release of Final Fantasy so close, this game seems to act as an appetizer for the main course.
A character creation system will allow you to customize your own character but not to be the main hero in the adventure but more as a support fighter in the group. This may seem odd but is due to the fact that your character can be bought online. The story of WKC is a little lacking. The basic formula of RPG games seemed to be followed: Orphan kid tries to save the princess. The story itself really doesn’t stretch any boundaries, it serves as just enough of a story to keep the action flowing. Cinematic cutscenes serve pretty epic at times and bring some of the life back into the game. One flaw was the mouth movement that went along with the voiceover work for in-game cutscenes.
The characters seemed to move their lips once or twice while speaking an entire monologue. At times it seemed manageable, while others seemed like a bad rendition of a dubbed version of “Enter the Dragon”. Fairly early into the game the main character Leonard will have the ability to transform into a giant white knight. While this may seem cool and it is at first, the duration of the transformation is a bit of a nuisance. Players will revert back into Leonard once all enemies encountered are defeated, even if your gauge isn’t empty or have plenty of enemies surrounding you. The game also gives the option of purchasing mini-quests, but these quests are so astray from the direction of the story line, it might not be in your best interest to follow them.
Showing very similar battle systems of previous Final Fantasy games (final fantasy 12 or 11), WKC complicates things with a skills format that needs to be rearranged every time a new skill is learned. Once your skills are finally in place, it’s time to play the waiting game… literally. The battle system features a command circle which the user has to wait to fill up before executing any action. The time of the wait rarely changes, and plays out more like an MMO. Not necessarily a bad thing but only really gets its feet on the ground if playing with others online. Users are able to create their own combos based on the skills learned which is helpful, but can be used only a limited amount of times in battle based on the complexity of the skill, and the amount of action points the user has. Another flaw of the battle system is the very obvious disregard of distance. Enemies can perform a short ranged attack like a sword slash from 50 yards away and still hit you. As long as you are engaged in battle, you are a target, so if you are in a battle, you better be able to win it, because you cannot run away from it easily. This is all taken from MMO’s like Final Fantasy 11 but that game is actually an MMO and can get annoying for those that are not used to that format of gameplay.
Players may scratch their heads jumping into the game because the created character isn’t the main character. So while I was upgrading my character to be the strongest of the group, many battles needed to feature Leonard, the main character. The user creator tools themselves are actually in-depth and will allow you to change your look later on in the game to suit another appearance you see fit. The character players make will not only play alongside the main hero but will let you play with others online once unlocked via the GeoNet system. Generally it had been rather difficult to actually get online, but when you manage to play with a friend the open world and battle system seem to suit the game much better.
The game itself isn’t a bad game and has 30+ hours on just the main story alone. It is rather straight forward, and relatively easy to just play through, which might make it more enjoyable for certain gamers. With the hype that was behind it, it is a bit of a let down. In a month or two when Final Fantasy is released, chances are this game will be on the shelf for a while.
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Overall Score: 7.4/10
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Sonic the Hedgehog making his return to 2D for Xbox 360 and PS3 this summer
Announced today by Sega, Sonic is making his return as Sonic the Hedgehog 4. This game will be an episodic adventure and will be available in the summer for Wii, Xbox live arcade and Playstation network. In an interview conducted by Gamespot explained how this will be a direct sequel after the events of Sonic and Knuckles for the Genesis and can expect all of his classic moves, along with additions like leader boards. For now they have released this teaser trailer.
Source: Gamespot
Bioshock 2’s 3 minute long launch trailer
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2K has just released the Bioshock 2 launch trailer and it was in at a hefty 3 minutes and 15 seconds long. The launch trailer is a realization of the elements that BioShock 2 fans have been clamoring for. Breathtaking action set against the backdrop of a decaying underwater Utopia provides players with the slice of Rapture. With the release less then a week away we’re sure itching to get ourselves in the world of Rapture.
Dante’s Inferno newly titled “Hell Awaits” Super Bowl commercial
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Here is the Super Bowl commercial to Dante’s Inferno now dubbed (after the rejected “Go to Hell” slogan from CBS) “Hell Awaits”. This trailer offers a hint at Dante’s epic struggle to rescue his beloved Beatrice from the Dante’s grasp, and illustrates his descent into the nine circles of hell, battling Satan’s minions and hoards of Hell’s demons.
