Enjoy!
Batman: Arkham Asylum
I really wanted to post this review the second I played the game as I was so hyped from the experience I was all set to write pages and pages for the review... As it turns out I never actually got the chance to write my review and now it’ll have to be the mini version instead!
You’ve probably all read an in-depth review of this game before now anyway, and if your an X-Box 360 owner you’ve no doubt invested in Batman: Arkham Asylum already, you’d be a fool if you haven’t... Yes Arkham Asylum is really that good. It definitely rates as one of the best console games I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing and that’s not because it’s Batman either. Never before has there been a game of this quality, depth and immersion that so perfectly represents its main character and the world he exists in. Everything about AA is stunning, the game play (both in the stealth and fighting sections) is near flawless, the graphics are crisp and beautiful, the voice acting is superb (bringing back the cartoon cast including Kevin Conroy as Batman and the incredible Mark Hamill as the Joker among others), the Asylum itself and the grounds it’s set in is huge and perfectly atmospheric, the inclusion of other characters and Batman’s vehicles is fantastic and great for fans and of course the varied Bat-gadgets you get to use and abuse throughout the levels are all extremely cool and great to use.
Basically there isn’t really anything I can say against this game that would have any proof behind it. I completed it in around 6 – 7 hours over the course of two days which is quite short for one play through, but you’re able to re-enter the Asylum after you’ve completed the game to finish off puzzles you didn’t get the first time round and explore parts of the building and grounds that were inaccessible during your first play.
All in all this is one of the best 360 games you’ll be able to buy for a long time and has overshadowed most games before and since with its excellence. I can’t rate this enough.
10/10
Halo 3: ODST
With all the hype that Halo games bring these days you'd be forgiven for thinking ODST was the biggest and best game of 2009, even if you hadn't played it. Unfortunately I have to say that it couldn't be further from the truth.
I'm a huge Halo fan and I've played and completed all three of the main first person shooters on the old X-Box and the 360, I've even bought the Kotobukiya statues, the McFarlane figures and various other Halo themed bits. Having worked in the industry that supplies all the paraphernalia for movies and games I can tell you that ODST had hype on the market before the public even new anything about it and people were thinking and hoping that it would be a worthy successor to the awesome Halo 3 game. Although there are fans out there that probably love ODST and salivated all the way through the levels I was not one of them. OK so it's Halo, pure and simple. The weapons and vehicles are there, the alien bad guys are there, the whole history and look is there, but it's lacking something... Is it because Master Chief isn't there? I don't know, maybe. But I didn't really enjoy the ODST experience as much as I was expecting to. I played about 90% of the game through on two player co-op with Dark Knight and he'd already completed it before I'd even started playing it, but it all felt a bit detached and distanced from the games that came before it. Maybe it was supposed to, I mean the night time sections in the city and the highlighted nightvision style of viewing were new so it obviously felt different from the get go, but I didn't feel that Halo 3 experience which made that game so good.
It's unfortunate that I felt let down by ODST as I was really hoping to enjoy it a lot more. I didn't even invest any time on the multiplayer as I was so unimpressed with the main game. Shame.
6/10
Borderlands
I play a lot of games in two player co-op, either with Dark Knight or my other mate, and when a game comes out that are focused almost entirely on this method of gaming I get pretty excited. Borderlands advertised itself as a first person, co-op, roleplying, million gun toting experience set on the world of Pandora, a desolate and savage wasteland populated by vicious creatures and Mad Max style inhabitants.
After an exhausting day of MCM EXpo in London, Dark Knight and I decided to go out and buy Borderlands and experience this co-op extravaganza that we'd read all about and seen at the Expo that day. It turned out to be a worthy purchase and featured some excellent co-op moments in its long and varied missions. The amount of weapons and roleplaying upgrades on offer are truly mind boggling and although I usually shy away from roleplaying games of this nature I admit that it was a welcome change for me, for a while.
The world of Borderlands feels truly huge but the addition of vehicles and warp points later on was great and added even more depth to an already feature rich game. You do really feel like you're actually out there on Pandora fighting for survival in an apocalyptic western wasteland fearing what new creature may be around the next corner or what kind of impossible mission you're going to accept next. It's entrhalling and engaging and absorbs you right in from the first few minutes.
The game has two small flaws which I guess can be overlooked as they only seemed to affect me, but first up is the time you spend sorting guns and upgrades. I must have spent 30 - 40% of the game collecting stuff, organsing it and then upgrading it for use in the field. I'm aware that this is part and parcel of the whole RPG thing but if you're not a veteran RPG player then beware, it can all get a bit intense and in depth and if you don't use your head you'll be going into battle with a gun that's as much use as a water pistol against the hardcore inhabitants you'll find on your travels.
The second point is that the two player co-op can be quite harsh if one of you is a higher level than the other... By this I mean that Dark Knight had played by himself for a while one night and had reached about 3 - 4 levels above me. What you might not know is that the main one player game is actually relatively easy and the bad guys die without too much of a fight. When you enter co-op mode the difficulty is ramped up and the bad guys take a hell of a lot more punishment before they go down. When I jumped in to Dark Knight's game the guns and upgrades I had were so useless I had to stay back and let him do all the shooting. Every time I stepped out from behind a rock to kill someone I was either taken down with one shot or just couldn't kill the enemies with my weapons. So the advice is: if you're going to play the game in two player co-op try to stay at the same level as your partner. If not you could well find the game badly balanced and not a lot of fun!
8/10
Marvel Ultimate Alliance II
One of the other reasons I'm always looking for two player co-op games is because my 6 year old daughter is also a gaming freak like me. Now she not allowed to play violent shooting games of course but games like Kameo, The Simpsons and The Lego Games are perfect for her level of gameplaying skill. Like me she's also very knowledgeable when it comes to characters from t.v., movies, games and comics and can casually reel off the names of almost every DC and Marvel character whenever she wants.
When we saw that Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 was coming out she got really excited as she saw that you could play as Spider-Man, Captain America, Thor, The Fantastic Four and so on. She knows all these characters and has enjoyed playing previous Marvel games that have included them. We'd never played the first game in the series so weren't sure what we'd be playing when we bought this one but we were both pleasantly surprised. MUA2 is a game focused almost entirely on teamwork and destroying your surroundings and your enemies. It's pretty shallow and un-interesting for the casual gamer but there's loads in there for comic geeks like me and my daughter. You have a satisfying amount of characters from the Marvel roster to choose from and unlike the first game (which I have since bought and completed) you can alter your team at any point during the game play. The action is quite repetitive but the characters, the special moves (including the new co-op fusion moves), and the polished cut scenes make up for this and allow for an immersive and enjoyable isometric style beat-em-up.
Again this is one for fans as if you don't know the characters it would be completely unsatisfying and boring to play. My daughter loves it and so do I so the score comes from us being fans!
7/10
Star Wars: Clone Wars - Republic Heroes
My daughter and I are both big Star Wars fans and we watch, collect and play everything to do with the SW universe. Both of us have followed the animated Clone Wars series on Sky and to this end we thought that buying the new Republic Heroes game would be a great idea. Unfortunately we were wrong!
At first glance Republic Heroes looks a lot of fun, it looks exactly like the t.v. series, it's got all the main characters from the series wielding lightsabers and guns (which we'll always love to play with), it has some funky custom options like big head mode, hats (I chose Indiana Jones fedora for Anakin for example) and had a cool looking two player co-op option. But, and it's a big but, none of these things help the fact that once you get down to playing it it's a damn boring game that is more about jumping around from platform to platform than actually fighting or using your force powers.
My daughter actually asked never to play the game again after our second session as she said it was boring, repetitive and upsetting for her when she kept missing her jumps... If she doesn't like a game then you know it's bad! I admit that I also found it pretty bad and wasn't at all interested in playing again (although I may some time in the future when I want the rest of the achievement points) which just leads to it being a waste of time and money.
Avoid if possible, even if you're a Star Wars fan! Don't look at the trailer and think "wow that looks awesome" like we did!
3/10
Ghostbusters
Ah, who doesn't love the Ghostbusters movies? The 80's were a wonderful time and most of my fondest memories are of watching the awesome movies from that time. Ghostbusters has to be one of the standout movies of the 80's and the first film is one of my favourites of all time.
When I found out they were going to make a video game based on the Ghostbusters franchise I was totally hyped. When I found out that the 360 version was going to be held back in the UK, way after the PS3 version, I was not a happy bunny. It did however give me time to read the reviews, watch the trailers and see if this was going to be a lame movie cash-in or an essential purchase. Luckily for me it was the latter and the game turned out to be really good.
Obviously I'm a Ghostbusters fan so therefore any review of this game is going to be biased, but the reason I loved this game is because not only do you have the full cast, and I mean FULL cast, voicing their respective on screen characters but you also have all of the well loved movie music, sound and equipment to fuel those 80's memories. The voice acting is superb here and it's great to hear the main casts' witty banter along with the scream of Ecto-1, the sound effects of the proton pack powering up and streaming and then the trap bursting open and capturing the ghost, it's all excellent.
The game features almost every place and every well known ghost from the two movies and the story basically revolves around them all coming back in some way or form whilst you, the new boy on the team, take point in taking them all down. New ghostbusting equipment and weapons are featured and they all fit in with the story and the Ghostbusters world really well, giving you a whole host of options when fighting the various spiritual minions and bosses throughout the story arc. Using each weapon is easy and the whole thing feels very polished with an obvious amount of love and care taken to make this as authentic as possible, you really feel like a Ghostbuster straight away.
It's not a huge game but it's a hell of a lot of fun for fans like me while it lasts.
8/10
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
Any gamer who's worth a damn has played a Call of Duty game at at least once in their lives. It's a right of passage and an experience you'll remember forever as they're so bloody good. When the World Was 2 games reached their limit and we couldn't find another moment from history to plunder we were given the amazing Modern Warfare, a game set in the not too distant future with current (and future) firearms and numerous extraneous extras to play with. The one player campaign was great but the online multiplayer was where MW excelled. No x-box live first person shooter came close to the experience you had in MW, that is until Left 4 Dead came along. I rate L4D as my favourite online game of all time but MW was an extremely close second.
Now we have the most anticipated sequel of all time: Modern Warfare 2. And even though Left 4 Dead 2 was released shortly after I have to give MW2 its dues and say that it's a superior game in almost every sense. Yes it's still crazy, manic, kill 20 people, die 40 times game play but it's now on a level way above anything else in the league. The weapons are better, the kill streaks are better, the level of customisation is better, damn the whole this is just better than anything out there at this time.
It's the kind of game you can play every night for hours and hours and still enjoy each and every time. You can do the same with L4D2 but it's a different kettle of fish entirely. This feels so good it actually hurts when you get shot. The only downside is that it's given me a serious case of tourettes... I swear all the time and can't stop myself! An essential purchase for any first person shooter lovers out there.
10/10
Left 4 Dead II
I've mentioned above that Left 4 Dead 2 is a great game and almost on par with Modern Warfare 2's excellence but the Left 4 Dead games are different to your standard shooters and I don't think should be judged the same way. The first game was one of the greatest gaming experiences in my life and the feeling of camaraderie you got from playing with those other 3 players, all trying desperately to keep each other alive any way possible, has never been experienced in any other game.
L4D2 is no exception and although there was such a fuss made about the sequel being released only a year after the first (with no extra downloadable content given for the first game when the second was announced) I was one of the ones that couldn't wait for the sequel.
L4D2 is everything you'd hope it would be and more with it's new characters, new weapons including cool melee items, new locales and new special infected zombies. Even though it's an awesome addition to the series though, and I love it, I still feel that Modern Warfare 2 makes it feel inferior and that annoys me. They're both very different games, there's so much riding on your helpful nature in L4D2 instead of just being part of a team that dies evey 10 seconds like in MW2, and it really is a different experience every time you play, but is it enough to satiate those non believers who didn't want the sequel so soon? I say hell yes.
Either way LfD2 is a great sequel and in my eyes adds just enough extra content to the original to make it an essential purchase for any FPS fans.
9/10
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