Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City delivers a true third person team based shooter experience set within the dark and sinister Resident Evil universe and a reinterpretation of the events depicted in Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3. Zombies and Bio-Organic Weapons (B.O.W's) add to the mix as players not only compete against an opposing squad but also tackle this third unpredictable element, creating a brand new style of gameplay and breaking the conventions of traditional team based shooters.

It is September 1998 and the action centers once more on the ill-fated Raccoon City and the horrific consequences of the deadly T-virus outbreak from the Umbrella facility. With a cover up required, Umbrella orders an elite team into Raccoon City to destroy all evidence of the outbreak and eliminate any survivors. Hearing of this plan, the US Government dispatches its own special forces to uncover any evidence that exposes the cause of the viral infection and Umbrella's actions. Players take on the role of an Umbrella Security Services soldier (U.S.S.), competing alone or in four player co-op in a battle against all the competing forces at play in Raccoon City.

Source : ps3.ign.com

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Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations review

Posted by: Mike Splechta

I've always been a fan of the CyberConnect2's Naruto Storm games. Not only were they the first game to truly nail not only the anime aesthetics, they were also the first to offer completely simplistic yet exhilarating combat, that delivered on the promise to make it feel like you're playing the anime series. The latest venture, dubbed Generations, gives fans not only a crash course into the original Naruto storyline, but the more grown up Shippuden storyline as well. Does this mash-up of generations make this the ultimate Naruto game?

Yes and no. Generations is an odd end-result of a line of games that were both extremely fun and informative (when recapping the story) and completely approachable by anyone willing to pick up a controller and take a stab at it. Ultimate Jutsu's were only a button press away, stylish air dashes and substitutions were pulled off with ease, and each and every battle was a spectacle to watch. The first two games also had a nice sense of exploration and had players venturing through Hidden Leaf Village in Storm, and even surrounding areas in Storm 2. So where does Generations stand in all of this?

Right in the middle.

The combat is still as simplistic as ever. With one button, you can pull off incredible and fluid combos that will have your character kicking your opponents ass from one side of the arena to the next. There are absolutely no button input combinations a-la Street Fighter, instead, pressing the action button with various directions will yield different combos. It's a neat system that helps make the game feel more like the anime. A ranged button will throw shurikens and kunais at your enemies, and your Jutsu button will activate your aura to either execute a super move, or an ultimate move.

If you're at all used to any of the previous Storm games, chances are you'll feel right at home here, but rest assured there are a few tweaks. The biggest one is a substitution meter. In essence, previous games relied on a precise block button input, right as you're about to get hit. This will turn your character into a stump of wood, or whatever element they represent, and pop up immediately behind the attacking character. This was a great system which allowed for players stuck in combos, to quickly change the flow of combat and get an upper hand. The problem here was that this could be used over and over by both characters, resulting in a substitution duel, rather than an actual fight. The new substitution meter only gives a certain amount of substitutions each character can pull off, until it's replenished. It's a welcome addition that doesn't make that system feel cheap.

You can still select up to two support characters to take along to the fight with you, but you still can't switch to them mid-combat, instead you can call upon them to jump in and perform their offensive or defensive move. Call upon them enough and your Support Drive will fill up, meaning they'll jump in and help regardless of you pressing their button. Another sweet addition are the Ninja Info Cards. These can now be tied to your profile which not only personalize it, but each card grants a certain buff in game. These are especially useful when taking the fight online.

Where Generations differs greatly from it's predecessors is the presentation. I was excited to hear that both the original and the Shippuden storylines were being included in the game, as I was really hoping to play through them in a similar manner as Storm 2. I wanted to once again explore the lands that the world of Naruto takes place in, and once again experience the battles that made the series so heart pumping. Instead, the game decided to go completely back to basics. The story is now even more abridged, with a ton of key fights not even present in each story, but the exploration was completely taken out. Now, each story is essentially a short anime cutscene, and then a bunch of voiced over stills, followed by a short fight. Was I a bit disappointed? Definitely.

The exploration wasn't the only thing that was cut. Some of the key fights that don't appear in the game, were actually some of the most exhilarating ones from the previous games. Where is the fight with Naruto against Gaara, where Gaara unleashes his Jinchuuriki, and then Naruto is forced to fight the giant beast that resides within him. Or for that matter, I also miss the mid battle cutscenes that resulted in a few QTE instances, which always had some epic animations associated with it. Instead the game is completely stripped bare down to the essentials, which results in short fight after short fight, with some exposition thrown in between. With that said, the other characters you can play as in Story mode offer some truly great back stories that were not touched on previously in Naruto games, such as the tale of Zabuza and Haku.

I think what also bothers me the most about the game is that despite the minor tweaks to the fighting mechanics, I could almost not distinguish this game from it's two predecessors. Though there are 38 stages, a lot of them are exactly the same ones we've been seeing in the past games. It's tough to improve on something graphically that already looks so damn impressive, and this I understand, but at the same time, I shouldn't be feeling like I'm playing the same (or very similar) game I've played before. But then again, I can't even imagine how Call of Duty players feel like year after year. I said it.

Don't get me wrong however, Generations is still an extremely fun game. The fact that it's devoid of many of the features that I've grown to love in the series does not negate the fact that the fighting is still incredibly fun. There are still a ton of things I love about Generations. For one, the sheer amount of characters that you unlock (yes you heard right, unlock!) throughout the game are all fun to play as. Sure there are a few versions of Naruto and a few versions of Sasuke, not to mention young and older versions of his friends, but luckily each of these come with varied movesets, that don't resemble their counterparts. The total number of playable characters is a massive 72, along with 15 more characters that can only be used as support.

You can take the fight online like I mentioned previously but this experience is hit or miss, or at least it was in my attempts. When trying to set certain parameters for finding other people to play, I would usually time out, or by the time I was presented with other players, it said they're room was already full. Quick Matches yielded better results here and there, and when it actually did work, it was a blast! Though be prepared to know your Jutsu's, people are truly relentless online.

There is also a ton of collecting to do in the game. Each fight nets you a Ryo (currency) bonus, which you can use to spend on items in the shop, such as different substitutions, new Ninja Info Cards, or titles which you can adorn your cards with. It's not all amazing stuff, but those into collecting everything will have tons to do in Generations.

I've already mentioned that the game is damn near impossible to distinguish from its anime counterpart, save for the extremely fluid animations, but it also sounds amazing. Fans of the show can use the original Japanese voices or the American dub as well, and the soundtrack is brimming with Naruto goodness. Honestly, these songs range from epic Asian influenced combat songs, to somber and moving tunes which only enhance whatever the current scenario playing out is.

I don't have to tell Naruto fans twice, as they've had this game pre-ordered for months I'm sure or already have it in their systems now. Outsiders that want to break into the Naruto franchise might actually have the best chance with Generations. Though I've stated that some key battles were left out of the main storylines, you can still get a gist of what the storyline is about, and walk away with a general understanding of the series. Though Generations won't impress the hardcore fighting fans with it's simplistic combat, it's still fun enough for anyone to pick and play, and have a great time with. Believe it! (Sorry, I just had to)

Source : gamezone.com

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Ninja Gaiden 3 review

Not everyone is going to be accepting of the fact that Ninja Gaiden 3 exists without the assistance of former Team Ninja leader Tomonobu Itagaki. For the longest time, this producer defined what the hardcore ninja experience is supposed to be, and since his hasty departure from Tecmo Koei’s camp, many were wondering how the legendary Ryu Hayabusa would fare without him. Well, now that the game’s here, we can honestly say that, yes, it is a different venture for him, but that doesn’t mean it sucks. In fact, this ninja is still as sharp as ever, mind a slight misstep or two.

The third chapter follows Ryu as he carves his way through an enemy army, before coming face-to-mask with an evil alchemist who has a trick up his sleeve in the way of sorcery. Following a fierce battle, Ryu finds his arm infected with a strange demonic force. Desperate to get back to his normal self – and save the world in the process – Ryu sets out on his most difficult task yet, stopping this madman and his mutant army.

Yeah, the story goes off the rails at times, but that’s just part of the fun. One minute, Ryu finds himself in a test facility, facing off against mutating creatures and narrowly escaping death by jumping across chasms; the next, he comes face to face with a robotically enhanced T-Rex, charging at him from all directions and then, just when you think he’s disposed off, popping up again. This is probably the most lively we’ve seen the Ninja Gaiden series be, even if it’s slightly unbelievable.

To make the gameplay feel a little more fleshed out, Tecmo added a few things to the sequel. For instance, you can now climb up walls using your daggers, and while it takes a bit of practice (one hand needs to be firmly planted or you’ll lose grip), it’s an interesting new technique. You can also call upon occasional dragon ninpo to clear the screen in an explosion of brightly lit fire, or use your demon arm to cut some enemies to shreds in a hurry. There are quick-time events too, though they aren’t nearly as annoying as we’ve seen in previous games. In fact, some are pretty damn slick, particularly when you’re getting the jump on a surprising enemy, stabbing him without looking.

The controls retain the same hack and slash action we’ve gotten used to. While we’re a bit sad that you can’t chop off limbs like you could in Ninja Gaiden II, there’s still plenty of blood to spill, which is a good thing. And while things do get slightly repetitive (you’re stuck with the main sword at first, though more weapons are coming via DLC), it’s still quick, ninja-enabled fun, so if you’re a fan of that, it’s still intact.

Graphically, Ninja Gaiden 3 may not have evolved much from the previous game, but parts of it still look quite fantastic. Both the indoor and outdoor environments look great (particularly the dusty deserts of Saudi Arabia), and the animation is razor sharp, right down to Ryu’s cool little “ghosting” ability with some attacks. There are times the frame rate drops a bit when the combat gets somewhat heavy, but never to the point that it becomes lackluster. And the camera manages okay, though there are slight occasions it gets stuck behind a wall. No biggie.

As for the dialogue, it’s acceptable. Not to say it’s not cheesy at times, as enemies repeat the same thing over and over (“Damn ninja!”) and the alchemist is a little too show-offish for his own good, but we’ve heard worse.

Along with a main story mode, which will take you a few hours (maybe longer on Hardcore difficulty), you also get some pretty good online content. A co-op mode has you team up with a fellow ninja for various Spec Ops-style missions, relying heavily on teamwork. There’s also a cool little four-on-four team deathmatch kind of mode, which may not be heavy on strategy, but still packs plenty of bloodshed. Nothing wrong with that.

So maybe Ninja Gaiden 3 doesn’t raise the bar like some fans may be expecting it to be, but overall, it’s still a worthwhile sequel, especially when it comes to its crazy boss battles (I'm telling you, that T-Rex is NUTS), great online compatibility and an above-average presentation. What it lacks in the “Itagaki touch”, it more than makes up for with some impressive “slice-and-dice”.

Source : gamezone.com

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Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown preview

When Sega first released Virtua Fighter 5 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, it entertained the masses with its slick animation engine, quality 3D backdrops, and elegant fighting style. The 360 version came with extensive online fighting options, making it a clear-cut winner — for the time being — with players who earned their skills in the arcade. Since that time, fighting games have moved on extensively, between Capcom’s crossover brawling affairs and Midway’s rebooted Mortal Kombat. Now Sega is eager to get back into the ring with a new version of Virtua Fighter — one that offers a number of new options and a much cheaper price. We recently got a chance to try it out at the company’s Digital Day event in San Francisco.

First off, most of the options that were in the original game are present in the Final Showdown expansion. You’ll find all the modes included, along with a Practice Dojo. Here, you’ll attempt to complete objectives and master moves using one of the game’s numerous characters. It’s a great mode to simply pass the time with or perfect your skills before you head online to take on the world.

Yes, for the first time in the series (the original game didn’t offer it), Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown will bring online play to the PlayStation Network. (It’ll be compatible with Xbox Live Arcade as well.) The game will introduce a great new matchmaking feature, where you won’t always be paired up against those who could thrash you in a heartbeat with the drunken Shun Di. Instead, it carefully examines your skill level and pairs you up against someone with an equal set-up, so you stand a better chance of winning the match. You’ll still have a fight on your hands, though, so be ready.

Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown’s cast of characters is quite the delight. A lot of old favorites return, including the leather-clad Sarah Bryant, still as sexy as ever; the traditional brawler Akira, who also appears in Dead Or Alive 5 (obviously, he’s much more natural here); the crazy Shun Di, who powers up with a new move every time he takes a swig from his bottle; and the returning Taka-Arashi, a Sumo wrestler who first debuted in Virtua Fighter 3. A new character, Jean Kujo, also joins the fracas, bringing a number of charge moves that make him devastating.

For a downloadable fighter, Virtua Fighter 5 looks razor sharp. The environments are somehow better than in the previous retail version, though the animations continue to be spot on, from Sarah’s spin kick to some of Shun Di’s more ridiculous grabs. It’s a polished engine, and the best Virtua Fighter we’ve seen to date. The audio is still what it is, with voices that either fit a character or make them sound worse (at least Sarah sounds nice) and decent background music.

But gameplay is the main draw here, and we’re happy to report it’s completely intact. During the demonstration, Sega broke out the deluxe fighting sticks to show just how dedicated the game is. It feels just right, between setting up Sarah’s lightning kick attacks and Wolf’s crazy wrestling moves. We didn’t have a problem executing any of the moves, even in the thick of a versus battle. Granted, your performance may vary if you’re using a regular Xbox 360 controller, but fighting fans will feel right at home here.

Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown is yet another awesome release in Sega’s digital library, and one that fighting fans will definitely want to save some time for when it debuts this summer.

Source : www.gamezone.com

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Shoot Many Robots Review

ndie developer Demiurge Studios cuts right to the point with the title of Shoot Many Robots. Blowing away mechanical hordes of bad guys is what this simple-yet-addictive actioner for Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network is all about, so there is no mystery as to what you get. You may not get anything like originality here, but you do get a lot of robot-shooting action for the $10 asking price, along with such amenities as a huge range of weapons and gear, full co-op support in the campaign, and a great sense of humor.

You take on the role of P. Walter Tugnut, an amiable hick who manages to deal with a robot apocalypse just fine until the metal bastards blow up his truck. From that point on, it's war. So you hop into your RV and head off on a kill-crazy expedition to make the walking toasters pay for wrecking your ride. And, uh, for destroying all of humanity. That too.

That's it for the storyline. From there, the gameplay is all about shooting many thousands of robots. The RV serves as a command base where you trick yourself out with various weapons and other gear in the bathroom before hitting up a map by the steering wheel to select a destination. Standard platform carnage ensues. You tromp, stomp, jump, slide, and brawl across well over a dozen levels in the campaign, either solo or with up to three buddies in co-op. Combat plays out from left to right, with you blasting everything that moves with two weapons: a shooter with infinite ammo and a cannon with limited shells. Kills result in leveling up. Dead bots explode into nuts that you collect to buy new weapons and armor. If you kill fast enough, you trigger combos that multiply nut numbers up to five times. Bottles of beer (juice in the oddly alcohol-free PlayStation version of the game, which seems otherwise identical to the Xbox 360 one) are chugged to earn health. Movement is handled with the left stick, while everything else is done with the face and trigger buttons.

Yes, you've seen it all before, but Shoot Many Robots has a certain flair to it. The game has a great sense of humor that isn't confined solely to the hillbilly stuff that could have been abused to beat you over the head with one-liners. Instead, you get a surreal Serious Sam vibe to everything, mostly courtesy of the huge selection of bizarre weapons and gear. Items get progressively more absurd as you go, with Walt soon able to use his nuts to buy automatic weapons like the 110 percent American assault rifle, a blunderbuss, a beer (juice) helmet that lets you hang onto more brewskies (juiceskis?), shiny chaps that increase sliding skill, a Tam o' Shanter hat that boosts damage, and so forth.

Every item is given an appropriately weird description, as well as absurd stats, such as the Scottish hat's supposed ability to increase brogue. Gear greatly customizes what you can do out on the dance floor. You can go for fast shooters or slow blasters, headgear that buffs damage or increases health, a backpack that adds ammo or lets you hover in midair--that sort of thing. Gear can be switched up in dramatic ways to favor a personal playing style.

The action itself doesn't vary much, although there is a blend of all-out speedy insanity and more measured shooting. There are just a few robot types in the game, but they feature enough differences among them to keep things interesting. You have to contend with masses of rushing grunt troops that look like robot scorpions with chainsaws in place of stingers, krush-kill-destroy humanoid bots, charging automatons with armored fronts that demand rear assaults, and a range of gun turrets. Sometimes, you need to hit them hard with concentrated fire; sometimes, you need to sit back and deflect larger turret bullets back at targets with flicks of your wrist; and sometimes, you need to jump all over the place to avoid attacks. Levels come in Standard mode, where you fight to the end and then kill a boss to move on, as well as a Survival mode, where you try to outlast a wave of robots. There is some repetition here, though. Level art is regurgitated a fair bit, as are boss fights like a foundry battle that you go through over and over again, with the only difference being the steady escalation of having to kill more robots.

Shoot Many Robots becomes monotonous with time, but there is a hypnotic quality that sucks you into it. Pulling yourself away may be hard, especially when playing in co-op. The pace is steady; the killing is gratuitous, as well as suitably explosive with loads of boomy sound effects; and the range of weapons along with other goodies are varied enough to keep you going. Just seeing what sort of whacked-out murder device you uncover next has a perverse appeal all of its own. Checkpoints are well placed, saving your progress before big fights without forcing you to repeat tough battles often.

All of the mayhem unfolds before handsome cel-shaded levels with varied, mostly destructible landscapes, such as Walt's rural countryside, a bombed-out city, and a Sonic-like foundry with molten steel or whatever else it might be that flows everywhere. The only visual problem is that the interface gets in the way too often, especially when dealing with flying foes that get lost in the meters and other stats at the top of the screen. Levels also have replay value because you are given a star rating based on the number of nuts collected that is impossible to max out the first time you complete one. Also, you need a certain number of total stars to unlock new levels, which pretty much forces you to backtrack at some point.

It may be mindless and repetitive, but it's still easy to get drawn into Shoot Many Robots. The one-trick gameplay has enough humor and weapon variety to make it a good buy if you're looking to shut your brain down for a while.

Source : asia.gamespot.com

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Geoff Keighley announces The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3

Geoff Keighley, host of SpikeTV's GTTV, has officially announced his next project, "The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3." Keighley tweeted today, "I'm excited to announce my new project, The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3. Sign up at http://www.me3finalhours.com to be notified of release."

According to the website, The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3 will take you behind the scenes at BioWare to unveil all of Mass Effect 3's mysteries. In addition, the project will include interviews with various spokespeople at BioWare, including the notorious Casey Hudson:

Take a trip inside BioWare to experience The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3, one of the most anticipated video games of 2012. Reporting from Edmonton, Canada, journalist Geoff Keighley (The Final Hours of Portal 2) was granted unprecedented access to document the creation of this epic sci-fi trilogy, with insights from the team, led by executive producer Casey Hudson.

By entering your email address, you will be notified of the project's release date when it becomes available. Mass Effect 3 has been a thrill ride thus far, and we're excited to see the work that it takes to create such a vast galaxy with in-depth characters and races. Will you be joining Keighley in The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3? Let us know your thoughts on the upcoming project by commenting below.

Source: [The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3]

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Review: Get Up and Dance

Dance games eh, can anyone remember a time when they weren’t around? Ok so anyone who can remember a time before the Wii probably can, but now they’re a regular feature across all three main consoles and it’s getting increasingly difficult to ignore them. But with so many now on the market it takes something special to stand out from the crowd and get noticed, and with Get Up and Dance O Games have tried to inject something new into a busy market. It’s a shame it isn’t really enough to wow you.

Leaning firmly towards entertaining a few friends at once Get Up and Dance allows you to boogie along to any of the 30 songs provided either alone or with a few mates. While the options are there to dance alone, it’s the group dance modes that shine the brightest, giving you options to either do one off dances or starting a short career in front of a set of talent judges. It’s easy enough to settle on a lead dancer and assign others as backing dancers, giving a slightly more authentic feel to other “everyone do the same” type games. The odd thing is the choice of songs on offer, where the mixed bag is hoping to please everyone. In reality, in the same way a radio station that’s a mix of Radio 2, XFM and Kerrang would only please the most eclectic of music fans, the selection of songs in Get Up and Dance won’t please everyone all of the time, and you’ll probably only find a couple that you actually genuinely like. It’s not every day you find Pulp, Dusty Springfield and Jessie J on the same menu. As a result it’s probable there’ll be a small argument about song choice, resulting in your little sister sulking when you refuse to dance to Taio Cruz.

Other game modes include an interesting fitness option, which gives you a month-long set of dance exercises with the intention of knocking a few pounds off, but each dance is so lightweight it won’t really do much to anyone except the most doughnut-quaffing fatster, so it’s really an option for someone looking for a longer term game mode to keep them interested. Sadly, with the other game modes being fairly standard fare you’re unlikely to find any real longevity anywhere other than this, and you get the feeling this will find a spot near the back of the game shelf next to the other “party” games that only come out at Christmas, birthdays or any other time where Nan has had an extra sherry and wants to shake her stuff.

This dance is accompanied by the winners of The Gormless Factor 2011

Technically it’s sound enough; the Move integration is tight and responsive, and goes some way to show me just how bad I am at dancing. The idea of playing the music video in the background to make you feel like you’re really dancing in a show doesn’t really work when you end up looking like Mr Bean at a disco, although the younger gamers might find this a nice touch. It also doesn’t help that the little icons telling you what to do come a little later than would be helpful, and falling over is more of a certainty than a worry. It goes well with the Mr Bean look.

So, it’s another dancing game. Another dancing game that does its best to be something new, but all things considered just… isn’t. It works, and isn’t a bad game as such, but when there’s so much else on the market that does the same thing it’s just very hard to give a firm recommendation. If you can pick it up cheap, have a few friends to play with (who each need their own Move controller) and enjoy dancing to every style of music this side of opera, then you might just click with it and have a ball. Otherwise it’s difficult to see where Get Up and Dance fits into a market busier than your average Pussycat Dolls gig.

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Review: Start the Party: Save the World

Adding the word “party” into the title of a game is generally not a good omen. Trying to aim a game at the whole family is a harder task than opening a walnut with nothing but your forehead, so when Supermassive Games came up with Start the Party: Save the World they had a sizable task in making sure it didn’t fall into the oh-so-regular family trap of turning into something totally pointless. Did they manage it? Well… no. Not really.

When the Move was announced, a lot of people were concerned that the market would be flooded with shallow games, mimicking the Wii’s huge library of titles with no objective other than to flap your hands about the place for a few minutes at a time. Save the World takes a few steps to make its mini games a little more skillful, but there’s still nowhere near enough here to warrant rushing out and handing over your hard earned cash. It doesn’t really fare too well from the start, where you’re greeted with a main menu that gives you the choice of Options, and Solo or Group Play. There’s no difficulty settings or extra bonus items to aim for, but if the games are great fun then we could look over that happily enough.

But jumping into the games doesn’t really help much due to just how mixed the results are. With the general theme of Dr Terrible (steady with the imagination…) and his cronies doing everything to get in the way of the World and its day to day running, the mini games generally follow the theme of saving people from nasty situations. There’s no specific order to play them in, and each game is given a voiceover by a cheesy American guy to explain what’s going on and how you can help, so you don’t need to memorise how each game works. From here you’ll be drawing clouds, controlling a helicopter, repairing robots and several other tasks using your trusty Move controller. And while some of the mini-games are really well made, others are just a bit random and frustrating.

A couple of games have you using the Move as a drawing tool, by doing such things as drawing clouds to bounce falling cavemen into caves, or drawing huge laser circles around aliens to blow them up. These games work very well indeed, with the accuracy of the Move helping to make it a quite skillful set of games. Another favourite of mine was the ambulance game, whereby you balance an injured person on a big hand sticking out of an ambulance as it goes up and down hills and over speed bumps. You’ll need to collect first aid kits as you go, and doing so means you sometimes need to throw your casualty around and catch it carefully. It’s good fun at first, but it’s not hard to get the hang of it and once the challenge is gone, it loses its appeal.

This is a problem with many of the games. A few are fun for a while, but the challenge just doesn’t last. Others are just plain repetitive – having to clean, repair and extinguish robots on a production line is interesting until you’ve played it a couple of times, then you won’t go back to it. A second player can make things a bit more enjoyable; using the Sixaxis controller you can generally control something else within the game to make life trickier for the main player, which makes flicking fish into a boat slightly harder when player 2 is moving the boat around the place. But this isn’t all of the multiplayer action you can expect.

So, it’s a party game. Many of the games aren’t great on your own, but surely with a few friends it all picks up? Sadly that’s not really the case. There are a couple of game modes to play with your fellow gamers – Group Play and Quick Fire. They’re both pretty similar; Group Play just lets you play a few games, hand the Move over to someone else and see who gets the highest score. Quick Fire is basically the same, but you only get a short time on each game before it quickly moves on to the next which, for parties, is probably the best bet to stop your viewers waiting for too long. It’s the same set of 20 games you’ve got available in single player, and there isn’t really much of a party element other than taking it in turns.

So Start the Party: Save the World falls into that trap that so many have fallen into before. It’s not really a party game, although it is a game that kids might find entertaining for a couple of weekends. Considering you can pick it up for a touch over £10 it might not be a terrible bet for the kids, but it’s disappointing that Supermassive didn’t do more here, especially considering it’s the second game in the series. Yes a handful of mini-games are entertaining, but it’s not enough to recommend.

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Review: Premier Manager 2012 (After 1.01 Update)

Football loving PC gamers don’t realise how lucky they are. For the past 20 years they’ve had access to a series of consistently brilliant management games, allowing them to experience the challenges, joys and frustrations of managing a top-level football club. But what about console gamers? Sure there have been attempts in the past, and pretty good ones, but there’s also been a lot of yawnsome toss. So up steps Premier Manager 2012, aiming for the top corner.

But early reviews were fairly negative, pointing out that the time each game took ruined the flow of the game. Well, we held fire on our review, gave it some extras hours and waited for the inevitable update. And sure enough, version 1.01 has arrived with a key change that might just rescue Premier Manager from an embarrassing early cup exit at the hands of Burton Albion.

Your first sessions with the game don’t give you much hope. The menus themselves are similar in design to the PS3′s XMB and finding the options you need can be tricky while you learn your way around. It’s also sometimes difficult to work out how to do various things; even advancing to the next day took 5 minutes to figure out after the first time I ventured away from the home screen. The controls are oddly mapped as well, with the circle button advancing the game and R1 bringing up the main menu – when we’re used to circle taking you back, it’s weird having to use it to advance the game.

But once you’ve taken the time to work out how everything works, it’s easy enough to zip through the menus, setting your team up and hunting for players to improve your squad. The transfers themselves are easy enough to carry out, although the searching options and transfer process is extremely streamlined, giving you only the basic options. Match tactics are a similar story, with a few options easy to change (formations, attacking bias, passing style) but impossible to fine tune, but this in itself isn’t a huge issue. Console gamers generally aren’t after the same experience as PC fans, and if you’re used to playing games in bursts of an hour or so then this slimmer structure will suit you perfectly.

Something that makes life harder is the background music. It’s bad. Really bad. Not in the same way as being forced into a 24 hour Robbie Williams-athon, just in a very repetitive, boring “please stop” way (actually that is the same thing…). If the option was there to listen to your own background music from the XMB then it would make Premier Manager a very relaxing experience, combining laid back and casual management with some music time, but there isn’t. You can turn the music off totally (phew) but it’s not the ideal solution, especially considering there must be plenty of system resources available while the game is running. The rest of the game’s sounds are functional bongs, swooshes and more bongs that do a job but will hardly pick up awards, so it’s probably worth just turning the sound off completely and putting the radio on.

But what of the matches themselves? Well, they’re slow. Even with the match speed set to “Fast” you’ll be watching each one for good couple of minutes, and the engine used to watch each game isn’t exactly flushed with detail. The pitch view is too small to be helpful, and the commentary is just a list of shots, bookings and goals. Hardly enough to judge how the match is going. They’re a bit of a waste of time really, and apart from making the odd substitution you might as well use the saving grace that 1.01 offers: the “Result Only” option.

After updating, you can now head into the menu and turn on an option that allows you to skip the match completely and just see the result. You still get to see stats of the game and player ratings, so you can see if your new signing is performing or if the new formation worked out well. You just don’t need to sit and watch a game play out that you can’t, in any way, speed up sufficiently or have much control over.

It’s a game changer. Instead of sitting down and playing a few matches you can now rattle through half a season easily in one sitting. The limitation of the game are still there; they haven’t changed the music, added more depth or found any official licenses hiding down the back of the sofa, but the flow of the game has increased considerably, even if it detaches you a little from the action.

But then there’s the issue of the price. If Premier Manager 2012 had a bargain price tag it would be easy to recommend to people after a bit of light-hearted, accessible managing, but it’s £13.99 which, by PSN standards, is a chunky request. And is there really enough here to spend that much money on? I’m not sure. It’s not a bad game by any means, but if you’ve got access to a reasonable PC then there shouldn’t be any competition on which way to look. It’s one of those games where someone asks you if it’s any good, and you just shrug and say “yeah it’s alright, not bad, not great…”. Worth looking into if you really fancy some management on your PS3 (especially with the new update) but it’s a lot of cash if you’re just a bit intrigued.

So Premier Manager 2012 got past the tricky 1st round tie, but ended up losing on penalties to Walsall. Maybe next year, eh?

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Rappelz

Site: http://rappelz.gpotato.com/
Free-to-play, with in-game shop

Rappelz is a free-to-play Korean MMORPG. The action is staged on a fantasy world. Main game features are the player-ownable dungeons, pet system, rideable mounts. The players can choose from three races Gaia, Deva and Asura.
The pet system is quite well developed with the ability to level up, evolve and overbreed pets.
Classes:
Deva are holy-based race, they have healing magic and defensive buffs.
Deva can choose from three jobs: Holy Warrior(defense fighters, tank), Cleric(buffs and heals) or Breeder(pet heals and buffs).
Gaia - they focus on natural magic and heavy melee combat. For first job players can choose from fighter, kahuna or spell singer.
Fighters can choose two paths for advance - to use heavy melee weapons or range attack(bow).
Kahuna(Gaia magician) have melee skills, combat support buffs and direct damage magical attack.
Spellsinger have buffs that work both on them and on their pets.
Asura specialize on evasion, attacks and damage magic. The options for the first job are Strider, Dark Magician and Sorcerer.
Striders are the damage dealers in a party. They either specialize in dual daggers, swords or crossbows.
Dark Magicians have direct damage spells, area of effect spells, curses and buffs.
Sorcerer(Asura Summoner)have buffs to improve their pets' combat abilities.
Remarkable stuff:
Stamina System - players gain bonus for staying online or if having a tent.
The socketing system(uses soul stones to improve equipment)
Also the game has standard PvP and PK system a lot alike many other Korean MMORPGS.
Dungeons are ownable by player guilds. They can be obtained through dungeon sieges.

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Cronous

Site: http://www.cronous.com/
Free-To-Play, with in-game items shop

Cronous is an action 3D MMORPG.
Classes:
Fighters - they have strength, skills to make magic damage, skills to heal party.
Valkyries – they are the fastest, they have a lot of deadly skills.
Magicians – they have area on effect magic damage and can summon magic cretures.
Savages – they have the most power and strength but also they are the slowest, also they have stun and self buffs.
Fun Systems:
Polymorph System - character can be transformed into monsters of Cronous.
Pet System, PK System and more

It looks a little similar to ..
Have Fun! ;)

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With Your Destiny (WYD) - Episode II : ADVENT OF GODS

Site: http://www.wydglobal.com/
Free-to-Play

With Your Destiny(WYD) is a fantasy 3D MMORPG. The first impression is that of an another Diablo 2 style game, but it is not a bad feeling.
Classes
Transknight - male soldier, uses knives, claws, swords, axes, and hammers. He has area of effect skills.
Beastmaster - he can take werewolf form, summon beasts and use melee weapons.
Foema - female mages.
Hunters - female with powerful weapon(archer), they are best PK characters.
Max level in WYD is 400, but the leveling up is very fast. Also there is in game auto combat/cast/pots system. I find that very useful, lately most of the MMORPG producers want to make players work harder and harder to get some fun/items/kills with the idea to spend more time in game. I don't like to work hard in games, I am there to have fun. So in this concept WYD is very good - all the hard work for leveling up is done by the bot, I just play from time to time in a dungeon or when I feel to.
Some features I like are the mounts(animals to ride), summons, also it looks like there are a lot in game events.
Screenshots

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