Death Seeks Redemption for War - Darksiders 2 Review

If you missed out on a chance to check out the original Darksiders do yourself a favor and find a copy play it, finish it, and then pick up Darksiders 2 and continue the journey.

With that stated I will say that the original game was sadly ignored by a lot of people at first, but like all true greats it rose to the hierarchy of great games to have and well that made the announcement of Darksiders 2 an event to behold by many of us who picked up the original close to the time of the announcement.

The game takes place during the 100 year impisonment of War, you will take control of Death this time and instead of trying to prove the innocence of his brother he is out to undo the damage that he is accused of.

Death plays very differently than his brother War, his arsenal consist of quick slashes and fast movement, that is not to say that he is weaker since he does have the abilities to wield a heavy weapon is needed as a secondary attack.

He will start off his journey in The Veil as he seeks answers from an elder known as The Crowfather, this journey will help you become familiar with traversing the world and some of the combat basics needed to defeat the most common foes. Also this short journey will help you become familiar with healing items, drop items, and how your horse Despair and your crow guide Dust will aide you in your journey.

The game offers an amazing and breath taking world to explore, full of little details that bring it to life and that make you want just ride around Despair and explore every inch of it. The music is yet more proof of how much effort went into making this game stand out for more than just great story and action, and of course the story itself is just something to behold. There are very few new franchises out there that stand out like this one simply based on story and for good reason, this is a story of revenge and redemption much like the first game but it offers more than that because Death must find answers in order to help himself, his brother, and the rest of creation.

The game plays like a mix of The Legend of Zelda and Metroid which makes it very appealing, also the dungeons will have needed weapons and items available as needed much like in those games, you do have a slight level of open world map but only limited to the items you carry and how far the story has progressed.

Death changes weapons, armor, and trinkets to aide him on his journey and this time is more obvious that the armor changes his apperance as you change it. Weapons will also have stats that are unique to each one and some will even allow for upgrading via item sacrifice for experience, Death will also gain experience and levels that will allow for the use of higher level items.

The boss battles are huge, in some cases Titan sized enemies that will take some serious trial and error, also the game will give you many optional quest to follow from retrieving lost items to killing former deities.

The game is a full blown experience to behold, the game brings a mix of action, adventure, drama, beauty, and edge of your seat story telling. Overall Death is the Horsemen to ride with.

by

Erick Castillo

Raising the Energon Bar - Transformers Fall of Cybertron Review

Developer: High Moon Studios

Publisher: Activision 

Transformers a franchise that carries weight among the geeks since the 80’s, and also a franchise that in recent years has had it’s highs and lows when it comes to the formats of entertainment it’s being portrayed in. The films have a mix of love and hate from all it’s fans and some of the more recent TV shows have been hit or miss, and when it comes to the video games High Moon Studios has taken it upon themselves to achieve greatness.

The first title War for Cybertron gave us a fantastic story, amazing gameplay, and of course graphics worthy of the universe it portrayed, Dark of the Moon took on those same elements and worked out some of the kinks and added some new elements that would play out in the next instalment of the franchise.

Now with Fall of Cybertron High Moon Studios wanted to set a whole new standard for many of the aspects of that make up the gameplay and story telling in a first person shooter and a licensed game, so does this game stand or fall under the immense weight of the Transformers license?

Firt I want to point out that the story starts off with a BANG! And I mean that in the full sense, we get a glimpse of the Ark taking off and Megatron trying to stop them from leaving a dying Cybertron, this is used to give the player a refresher course in the gameplay and also show some of the improvements that come with the new game, also it pushes what great visual direction High Moon Studios has when it comes to the cinematography of the game as the action is being played.

Second the graphics are amazing and the level of detail on the Transformers is amazing and in some cases breath taking, even when you are standing still waiting for something or just taking a moment to gather yourself from an amazing shoot out, the Transformers body is still doing something even if it is simply cogs and gears readjusting themselves, it still all looks great and just adds to the the life of the game.

Third the music is film quality all the way, it makes the adrenaline rush into your thumbs as you dodge and shoot, or try and get a stealth kill, or simply watching Metroplex rise from the heart of Cybertron brings great joy when accompanied by the musical score of the game. The musical score adds so much to the game that if it had not been as well produced as it was I doubt the game would stand out so well, and as a side note the voice acting is also amazing so much so that it makes you wish that the films would have taken the time to record such high quality for them.

The game takes on both sides of the skirmish once again, this time you start off as Bumblebee and continue on as the last Prime himself Optimus and so on, the game will mix in the action with standard first person hallway and open terrain shooting to some stealth action and even some Batman Arkham city like grapple hook action with Jazz and of course some of the standard flying and terrain vehicle combat. The mixture of weapons is a very welcome addition and the Teletran 1 store will help you upgrade and purchase new weapons as you find them during missions.

The Teletran 1 system will also allow you to purchase PERKS, T.E.C.H., and consumables that will come in handy for the coming battles, the upgrades will be accessible by all characters and monetary points will add up across the stories so you can save up to upgrade weapons or PERKS and all your characters will have access to them. For example early in the game I got used to using an automatic rifle type weapon and decided to gather all the upgrades, the final upgrade gave me a 75% increase in melee attacks and that came in handy when I was being swarmed by weaker enemies and ammo was not easily spared.

Overall this game has raised the bar for shooters and licensed games alike, this one will stand out as one of the best games of the Transformers franchise and one of the must have games of the year, and with so many good games coming out this season I would not want to miss out on this one if I were you. Great games are the right of all sentient gamers.

by

Erick Castillo

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Souls - Lost Souls Enchanted Paintings HD Review

Lost Souls Enchanted Paintings is not a title you would expect to be associated with puzzle games, let alone a puzzle game that mixes many different types of challenges with a world that will capture your imagination.

Lost Souls tells the a story of a young boy and his mother who recieve a painting as a gift one night and then while they sleep the painting kidnaps the young boy and now his mother sets off on a quest to go into the different worlds that the paintings represent and save her son piece by piece.

The different worlds have been attacked by an evil wizard who will stop at nothing to control all the realms, as you venture forth you will have to play quick find mini games in each scene wich will give you items that you need in order to solve other puzzles in the realm, which will then lead to more puzzles and eventually helping save the real and finding another piece of her son. That’s the game in a nutshell, and it seems quite simple and to the point like most standard puzzle games on the iPad or iPhone, but what makes this one stand out the most is the art style, the music, and the over life that the game has.

The puzzles can be anything as simple as a quick find from the list of written words, to a quick find with the aide of pictures, but some items require you to interact with other layered items in order to find them, for example you must open a chest to find a pocket watch.

Other puzzles will require more layers of interaction, for exmaple a mantle requires 4 emblems to open a hiden door to an item but the emblems need to be painted the correct colors but you also need to find the page that has the correct color scheme to follow and that requires a whole other puzzle.

Overall the game is a beautiful experience with amazing artwork, wonderful music and voice over, and not to mention that some of the mini games could be stand alone game apps themselves. I highly recommend that you pick up this app especially if you own an iPad. Till next time keep your eyes pealed and your ears sharp, you never know what’s hidding in plain sight.

by

Erick Castillo

I'm going to Bat-pieces - Lego Batman The Video Game Review

The Lego series of games started off with the Star Wars universe, the Indiana Jones, and now of course the Dc Universe, it would seem that this is just a natural transition for this franchise, but of course if you have played any of these games you know they are far from perfect but still an experience to behold.

The world of Batman lends itself very well to the franchise, with it’s signature quirky-ness and art style that is one of a kind the game makes it hard to resist for very long and once you start it is very hard to stop. 

The main issue with the game is the same issue you have with all the Lego World games, YOU WILL DIE A LOT! And when I mean a lot I mean you cannot avoid death for very long in this game not matter how skilled a player you are, it just seems like these little guys have suicidal tendencies and no one will stop them from slipping, falling, or walking into hazards even when you are trying to be incredibly careful.

But again if you have played the previous titles than this is to be expected during your experience, what makes up for this issue are the funny clips that explain the story without a single spoken word by any character, the interaction with the world around you and the hours and hours of exploration that the world of Lego offers.

And that is really the biggest win and fall for the game, if you are a completionist you will be stuck playing this game for weeks maybe even months just trying to solve all the secrets that every level has. For example you will be in the Batcave and you can choose to use the Batmobile, the Batboat, or the Batwing, each opens a different area of Gotham and with it 5 levels to explore making for a total of 15 Hero missions, once you complete the first one you unlock Arkham Assylum and then you are able to do the Super Villain Missions where they tell the story from their side, and once again 3 vehicles and 5 levels for each one.

Once you complete all the levels you have the Free Style mode which allows to explore the different worlds with a set of different characters that you unlocked during your first run trhough and purchased with your saved up coins. Each world has secrets that you cannot get to unless you have a type of character that normally would not be available, for example Batman and Robin cannot walk on Acid but Joker and Two-Face can so you simply switch on the fly and claim your prize.

At the moment the title is a value game for all major consoles and at $19.99 or less it is worth picking it up for a kid in your life or yourself, beware if you like the Trophy System on the PS3 this game does not offer it as I learned while working on this review, so if you want some Achievement and recognition pick up the 360 version instead otherwise pick your platform and enjoy the comedy and cute nature of Lego Batman The Video Game.

by

Erick Castillo

Movie Moxie presents Lame Gamer – Lollipop Chainsaw

Juliet Starling is your totally typical California high school cheerleader – popular with blonde pigtails, bouncy to just this side of irritating, covered in a rainbow of cheerful colors, except for one thing – her family are zombie hunters. So one day, Juliet is typically late for school, only to find her fictional town is overrun by zombies, and has to break out her mad skillz to save San Romero! (Even if it’s unintentional, the small nod to zombie movie icon George Romero is nice.)

This game is an Otaku’s wet dream. For those of you not familiar with the term, it generally means that there is a lot of what the Asian community
is purported to like in it – a youngish girl in blonde pigtails who starts off in a cheerleader outfit that leaves little to the imagination, but wait for it, she wields a badass chainsaw! Soon after the start of the game, Juliet’s boyfriend Nick gets bitten by a zombie and next thing you know, his decapitated head is hanging off Juliet’s belt and he gets all
sorts of combat abilities! Yeah, it’s like that. Juliet kicks and slashes, does mini cheerleader routines, hacks off zombie heads for basketball with her chainsaw, gets pretty floating stars and medals for her troubles, and just in general rocks the zombie nation!

This is what we gamers refer to as a button masher. It’s generally accepted that if you mostly randomly press lots of buttons in some sort of order, you’ll eventually get combos and defeat those neverending zombies. I did actually pick up the controller and try this one, and I have to say, having the Jump button somewhere other than where I’m used to it being, rather screws me up. I know one has the option of changing the buttons round, but I didn’t think I should have to. Maybe it’s a bad translation from the Japanese developer crew helping Warner Bros. make the game. Nevertheless, if one can get around that, it is actually quite a fun and easy game to play. There is a chop shop store all over the place, where Juliet can buy powerup foods and build her mad chainsaw skillz, and even buy other background music and skimpy outfits for Juliet to wear. The music selection, even without purchasing others, is fun and bouncy without actually being annoying, you find yourself singing along as you slaughter zombies. For all of us really weird gamers out there, gee that’s actually ALL of us, try Lollipop Chainsaw!

by

Alicia Glass