Gameplay is simple button mashing. You get points to purchase upgrades for your webhead. The problem I found with this is that there are so many upgrades it is a little difficult to remember all button combinations. I found myself pounding random buttons with the hope I would do a combo by fluke.

Depending on what spider-era you play will result how you play. In the noir era you will need to master stealth while in 2099 you will need to master speed and
co-ordination.

Hats off to Beenox for getting the voices from previous spider cartoons to voice the characters. (Except the guy from the 60′s cartoon).

For all you comic lovers out there, Shattered will leave you satisfied. Is it worth paying full pop…no. It is, however, definitely picking up used.

I give Shattered Dimensions 7 web slingers out of 10.

In the words of the great Stan Lee “Excelsior true believers.”

A very highly polished production, Spring Bonus is an Easter-themed game that offers very cute and well-drawn graphics, a Disney-esque soundtrack and non-irritating sound effects. While the soundtrack and sound effects are pleasant to listen to while playing the game, it is possible to adjust the volume or even turn it off. An important marker for me is if I can play through the game with no sound and still do well. I know that much effort goes into writing soundtracks and getting just the right sound effects, but being able to play a game without the sound a bonus point on development as far as I’m concerned.

Spring Bonus releases with 100 levels spread across a colourful map in a country setting, which pairs up nicely with the game’s pieces which feature spring flowers, bunnies, carrots and various Easter egg treats.  The first 18 levels of Spring Bonus are available in the game’s demo, which installs smoothly and easily.

There are a variety of board shapes, each of which with its own challenges. Some are filled with ice blocks that need to be broken either by matching the game pieces or using power-ups to break or melt them. Some levels only require the matching of a set number of pieces to advance to the next level, while others require a combination of pieces to be matched or removed. There are even some level with multiple mini boards to work through – and luckily for the player, the power-ups can cross board borders.

Every few levels feature the elusive golden eggs, which must be moved down the board by eliminating the pieces below them until the golden eggs fall off the board. To add to the challenge, you can opt to play against the clock or play in relaxed mode, which is a great option for younger children to play, especially as they may get distracted simply by looking at the the puzzle pieces or they may want to play by their own methods, as children sometimes do. The only negative point of the entire game is that it lacks a keyboard lock-out to prevent children from exiting the game and accidentally accessing your files or the web. While I don’t condone using games as a babysitter, even those parents who are sitting with their children while playing a game get distracted – the phone rings, another child needs attention, dinner needs to be prepared, and it’s always nice to know that if you do have to leave the computer for a moment, your child cannot leave the game screen.

The instructions and tool tip windows are very easy to understand, but they will need to be explained to children who either can’t yet read or who are at the beginning stages of learning how to read. This is another opportunity for parents to work with their children in learning not only game play but also new words and meanings. The tool tip popups can also be turned off if they are not needed, plus they can either be left to fade from the screen or closed by clicking on the X. Another option is to play the game either in full screen or tiled mode, which is handy if you have other things going on such as chat windows.

If you have chosen to play in relaxed mode, you can easily up the ante by switching to timed mode with a click of the mouse, as there is a check box on the game screen to switch back and forth. Even relaxed mode gives you extra bonus points if you finish within the set limit, but does not penalize you for running out of time, other than to not give you the extra points. The time limits given for each level are realistic, and really won’t put you into panic mode unless you get sidetracked with just matching the pieces.

There are several power-ups available to help you advance faster through the levels- something which comes in handy not only in timed mode but also when you need to drop the golden eggs off the board or change up some pieces. You gain power-ups by matching 4 or more pieces, with bubbles being the first power-ups to appear. When you click on a bubble, it clears the blocks around it – but in order to really power-up your power-ups and give them more range, you need to make matches with the glowing pieces. When you do this, your magic rainbow will fill up with colour, and once it’s bright and shiny, your power-ups will harness the power of the rainbow and clear even more tiles, columns or rows.

Power-ups come in the form of the aforementioned bubbles, birds in a nest, four-leaf clovers, storm clouds, hammers, magnifying glasses and the sun.  The nesting birds fly out horizontally when you click on them, clearing from one to three rows, depending on your shiny Rainbow power. Storm Clouds will clear one to three columns, while the Four Leaf Clovers clear a star-burst pattern vertically, horizontally and diagonally. The Hammer will break ice cubes, the Sun will melt a circle of ice cubes much the same way as the Bubble clears squares, and the Magnifying Glass will clear one tile of ice.  There are also Mystery Boxes which appear later in the game (beyond the 18 demo levels) that contain a surprise. I imagine there are power-ups hiding inside, but one never knows.

Spring Bonus is a very high quality casual game – the colours are bright and appealing, the characters and scenery are well-drawn, the menu is easy to use and understand, and you can even save the game’s background to your PC or Mac as desktop wallpaper. For those of you constantly on the go, Spring Bonus will also be available for iPad and Windows Phone 7 in the near future. The game has also been localized into 9 languages including English. Spring Bonus does not require the latest computing power to run on your PC or Mac, which is always a bonus, because not everyone has the latest high-powered gaming rig, and as it’s a downloadable title, I can even play it on my netbook.

PC Minimum System Requirements:

Operating System: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/Windows 7
Processor Speed:1GHz
RAM: 512MB
Hard Drive Space: 27MB
Graphics Card: DirectX7 or OpenGL compatible 3D graphics card
DirectX Version: 7
Sound Card: Any

Mac Minimum System Requirements:

CPU: Intel or PowerPC
Operating System: OSX 10.3
Processor Speed: 800MHz
RAM: 512MB
Hard Drive Space: 32MB
Graphics Card: OpenGL 3D compatible graphics card
Sound Card: Any

Spring Bonus offers very good value for it’s price of $9.99, is DRM-free and also has a 60 day no quibble, money back guarantee. Overall, I give Spring Bonus a 9.5 out of 10 – if it had a keyboard lock-out option, it would be a 10.

It’s about a gigantic blue worm that lands on a nasty planet and it’s up to you to control a team of 50 little “Swarmites” at once through 11 levels, collecting points and DNA to help grow “Momma”, get her a new hat and leave the planet. There is one catch though; this path is full of things that burn, trap, electrify and decapitate your swarm at every point and you get glorious points added to your score for it. All you have to do is make it through the level with at least one Swarmite in order  to return to Momma. Momma has lots of  Swarmites spawn points throughout the levels so if they die, Momma spawns more. This can be helpful because there are points in the game that require you to have a certain number in order for the higher point value orbs to appear.

You are rewarded in this game for the collection of things that look like nucleus and DNA. The more you collect in a row helps fill a multiplier which can greatly add to your score, but in a cruel twist, deaths of your Swarmites also add to it. So if your multiplier looks like it’s running out you can just kill off some of your swarm to keep it up. This is the game’s primary mechanic, as you find that most obstacles you encounter or crates to open just happen to kill off some of your happy blue buddies. At the end of the level your amount of Swarmite deaths are calculated up and put towards progressive death medals and the worldwide death total. Deaths in the level also have death medals but are only rewarded when the last 10 of your Swarm encounter the same deadly fate.

The game gets progressively harder and (easier if you replay earlier levels) as you get better at controlling your swarm and there are even two boss battles that are unlocked by collecting enough DNA.

Some of the awesome things you can get your swarm to do include moves such as jump, dash, huddle together and stack on each other as well as pick up and throw explosives. Sometimes your Swarmites will pick each other up when picking up explosives, leading to some hilarious deaths.

The game’s length is 6-8 hours but with the leaderboards, achievements and the constant questioning of Momma asking “Why can’t you be more like (Insert friend’s gamer tag here)”  the replay value is high. Here’s hoping there is more Swarm content coming.

Hothead Games has taken an old convention that games punish you if you die, turning it around so that death is rewarding. Congratulations to Hothead for taking an original idea and making it shine. If you’re looking for a fun, original type of game don’t let this one pass you by cause you wouldn’t want to disappoint Momma – plus it would make a great gift for any video game loving mom (Mother’s Day is coming up) and you know that would score some serious points.

Swarm is on  XBLA (Xbox Live Arcade) for 1200 MS Points and PSN (Playstation Network store) for $14.99 Released on March 22nd 2011 by Hothead Games, Swarm is rated T for Teen by the ESRB.

Review by: Twisted Majic

You will also need to out-maneuver The Enemy – nasty little spaceships that will cause your ship to blow up on impact. Some puzzles require that you alter your own course, while others require altering that of The Enemy and still others require a combined solution. As the levels get progressively harder and you run into little obstacles like cannons, you will be thankful that there is no instant death time-limit nor a limit on the number of lives you have. Some puzzles will take a lot of hit and miss (remember, in the case of The Enemy, miss is a good thing) in order to figure out their solutions. I’ve also discovered that even though some puzzles seem really complicated, the solution is usually very, very simple – these will often bring on a *facepalm* moment when you realize how simple that particular puzzle really was. Well you might not, but I have.

The first 30 levels of the game are available for free, but you can unlock a further 75 levels with a $2.99 USD in-app purchase, and I recommend unlocking the additional levels if you are a puzzle addict, because they will challenge you right to the end. Upgrading to the full version also means you will receive all future game updates and any new puzzles the studio creates. On the start screen you will also see that the studio is planning on giving players the ability to build their own levels with an in-game level builder, as well as bonus levels.

Galaxy Express is compatible with the iPhone, iPod Touch (it works well on my 2nd gen model) and the iPad, providing you are running iOS 4.1 or newer. The graphics are of good quality, and you do have the option of skipping the 2D retro-styled story screens, not that I would recommend this as several of them contain important information on how to combat the enemies. If you do need to look for a tutorial, all of those levels are marked with a “T” which makes things a tad easier as they explain the new game mechanics you will encounter.

The audio and soundtrack for the game are of good quality and not the least bit irritating. That said, you do not need the sound enabled to play the game, and while Galaxy Express has been configured for low battery usage, being able to turn off the audio eases battery use just a little bit more. The controls for the game are very easy to understand and use. You can also set the speed with which your ship will move through the puzzle – just remember that all of The Enemy ships, cannonballs and other interferences will move at the same speed as you – so other than navigating the puzzle faster, there isn’t really any advantage.

The developers have also added the ability to share puzzle solutions via email, Facebook and Twitter, and you can also ask for help via this same method if you’re really, really stuck. I personally haven’t used these options for sharing or asking for help, but they are nice additional features for the game. There is no scoring system, so you are not competing for ownership of a leaderboard, however if you’re playing against friends, you can always see who can solve the puzzle first simply by solving, sharing the solution and see who posted it first. The only challenge feature I’d like to see added is a time-keeper – not to penalize a player for not solving a puzzle in time, but to keep track of how quickly the player can solve the puzzle, thereby opening the challenge of beating one’s personal times.  That said, even if you’ve solved the puzzles, Galaxy Express does have a good replayability factor.

Overall, I give Galaxy Express a 9.5 out of 10 – if there had been a personal timekeeper and if the toolbar were movable (for those of us who are left-handed), it would have earned a full 10 – although these two features are not game-breakers for me.  I can still easily access the toolbar for what I need to do in order to play the game, it’s a personal preference.

My initial experience with Krabbitworld: Origins was not a positive one, as I had problems with the game’s default command settings, and I honestly was not compelled to try the game again. I was not drawn in by the characters nor by the graphics. I’m not new to the RPG genre, I do play Guild Wars, but Krabbitworld just wasn’t doing it for me. Perhaps I didn’t give the game enough of a chance, I can consider that to be a possibility and easily admit that may be so. Perhaps I should have let the developers know at that time how I felt, and rightly so, but I kept hoping that I would get back to it, and it did cross my mind several times, and as my daughter so often points out, I have little concept of time, and all of a sudden it’s months later.

So why is the review being posted now, and why is the Cavechild doing it? Well, yesterday I posted a small rant on my personal Facebook page about Activision’s decision to shelve True Crime: Hong Kong, and basically stating that I will no longer be supporting the Call of Duty franchise with game purchases, and that no one here has ever liked any Halo title. (yes, I hear your collective gasps over that one). I further stated that we would no longer purchase any Activision title unless it was made in Canada, and that they’d better not be planning on putting the brakes on Prototype 2.

Understand that I personally know people who work at United Front, along with pretty well all of the local game studios including Radical, which experienced downsizing last year. They are “in real life” friends, and I am concerned for them and those who work at other studios, as one would be about friends in any other situation. The reply on that rant by one of the two developers considered my opinion laughable and called into question my support of local industry. I will not go into details, and I do thank other friends in the industry who have replied with positive messages in my defense.

That said, and as I stated above, I am remiss in not giving Krabbitworld: Origins a review, and I am willing to own that. I have two other game reviews also outstanding – one just because I haven’t completed the story, the other because I’m conducting experiments with it (which I have discussed with one of the creators, and he’s good with that). That said – all of these titles have been given promo in earlier posts, so it’s not like I am completely ignoring them, I just haven’t given them as much blog time as I should have.

I know it’s not easy to run a small company or to develop an original IP, let alone grow it; I have lots of experience in that department – however I also try to constantly research and learn, as well as connect with people who may be able to offer some form of advice. I also am able to take other people’s opinions and look at them from both sides and try to maintain an open mind on many issues, whether I agree with them or not. I imagine that there will be backlash to do with this whole issue, but I don’t care for drama, so won’t be going there. As an aside, here is one other review of the game which I found via Google, so you as a reader can easily find another opinion on Krabbitworld Origins.

As many of you already know, The Cavechild is a hardcore gamer – he will take on pretty well any type of game at least once, and has been successful on the competitive level at tournaments, to which James, one of our other reviewers, can attest. He is well-versed in the RPG, FPS and RTS genres and openly very opinionated (and stubborn), so without further preamble and heavy editing, here are the Cavechild’s honest thoughts on being tossed into Krabbitworld: Origins with no background on the game, its lore or much else other than it was an RPG-styled title. I did not tell him why the characters have big ears (as you’ll see), or what type of world the game was set in. I sent him the extra key and the download link and told him to play. He played it for about 30 minutes, which probably isn’t long enough for some circles, but if a game fails to engage quickly, chances are it will not easily make it in the open market.

On Playing Krabbitworld: Origins -

Well, let’s get this review on the way. First thought of playing Krabbit online was “Why the hell does everyone have giant ears?” and I thought this looked like a really bad rip-off of World of Warcraft, though I was wrong. This is worse than WoW, far worse. World of Warcraft looks better than Krabbit, plays better too and also lags less.

The customization of this game is the worst I’ve ever had to deal with. The colours are messed up and when you choose your character’s colours, they lag like hell while applying the scheme you chose. I made my giant-eared ogre a crimson reddish-looking colour and gave him a dark green vest and ice blue shoes. Now keep in mind I didn’t think I’d be getting a neon coloured ogre on an acid trip from hell, though.. guess what happened? I GOT A RAVE OGRE! BRIGHT COLOURS! Minus the techno music. The graphics however don’t mean much to me, if there is a good community and high player base to do co-op or fight against, then by all means I will play regardless, others should as well. Another thing that bugged me a little bit is that some of the animations are not complete, such as rolling, doing a side flip and such, it was quiet annoying but at the same time, laughable.

The item drop/pick-up system is a little different, the clicking everything gets to be a tad annoying when you have a bunch of things on the ground. It can be tedious and annoying after a few loot drops.

I’ve got a great computer, high quality amazingness to the tip, though this game lagged like hell. I went from 1200FPS from starting it up to 50FPS in game to 1-27FPS and chopping like crazy after I used alt+tab to write some notes down. The tutorial is needing a massive re-doing, it’s boring, it’s lame, it WILL put you to sleep and get you frustrated. So frustrated you might just want to listen to some Kronos to get your anger out at how bad the tutorial is. I was chopping, I was glitching, I was bugging and I didn’t even get to use the character I created for the tutorial, so I couldn’t get used to what little combat usage I could do.

Now the thing is with all RPG type games, you need good controls. this however is not that situation. This had the WORST controls I’ve ever had to try to adapt to, it didn’t work at all. It locks your mouse right away needing to spam the L key in hopes that it will release it. The camera in this game was decent but with the controls it was terrible, a bloody nightmare for a hardcore PvPer such as myself.

The fighting in story mode is a whole different story. I couldn’t even throw one axe swing with my over sized eary ogre, so that is when I called it quits and started writing this. So, until the combat system is fixed that’s as far as I get in story mode, the first fight against 3 shadow warrior looking things. You might want to turn on some Debauchery and bang your head on your keyboard while trying to fight.. it might do some good.

All in all, if this game is free to play then that will be good, however if they expect people to pay… It’s not worth however much they want for it. I would say that Micro-transaction for in-game items would be the best route to go. Aside from that, this game is NOT worth paying for.

One more thing; the best part of this whole game was the music for the battle. It had some epic metal like song going and after I tried again to see if a reboot of the game would fix the combat system (which it didn’t) there was some awesome symphony-ish type music was playing.

Graphics: 4/10
Background Audio: 7/10
Music: 9/10
Gameplay: 1/10 (At least they are trying)

Maybe in the future when everything has worked out, this will be a top notch game that might be worth something after all.. I’d still like to know why all characters have huge ears though.

Last night I received an advance copy of Garage Inc., which I immediately took for a spin. This is a new title from TransGaming Studios that officially launches for the rest of you tomorrow, January 6th. Garage Inc. will be playable on the PC,  Mac and GameTreeTV as well as Apple’s iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

First Impression: When starting up the game I had my doubts but I was slapped in the face right away by how visually awesome the game is, how classy the music sounds and how awesome the cutscenes are and how they describe the story.

The story for Garage Inc is pretty awesome, opening up your own car shop in a mob filled city, trying to make an honest living, although being in a city of mobsters makes things quite difficult for your character, which makes things more and more interesting to me as a player. Also, I personally love it already and I’ve only gotten to the part where your cousin “Sal” is saying “Angelo, my cousin. Any luck on the job front?”

Personal Thoughts: Just completed the tutorial stage, was easy to learn and see how things are done, the game is running VERY smooth and the graphics may seem cartoonish, but it is still a very fun game and I’ve only just finished the tutorial.

Just got my first worker in my Garage which I decided to call “Olde Iron” and the game got a bit more challenging by trying to throw in a second worker, but after a few cars I was able to keep a some what steady pace going and production became a little less intense.

Oh boy! A new type of customer! The old guy! It makes things a little more interesting, not as challenging but more coordination is needed. Adding this new type of customer is quite the change, because you need to think a little more on the pattern of how you get things done.

-Sal Vists-

Sal seems to have got his ass kicked and needs money back.. apparently Angie needs to help his cousin out of a jam.

Second service bay.. Oh boy. This adds more challenge, which I enjoy.

A new worker! These people are starting to love me! Except some customers, which I don’t fully understand yet as to why they get mad at me and next thing you know I”ve lost a customer.

WOO! Reputation! Yeah.. that’s right, Olde Iron is getting its name out there! So by fixing cars and being awesome like me, you get reputation. With this new reputation you get special guests which take a little longer to fix up and get them on their way.

Yay! A police officer stopped by and needed some work done.. no pressure.. right?

When you’ve completed each level, you then have a clipboard with paper that tells you:

1. Successful repais
2. Overtime Repairs
3. Missed Repairs
4. Sales

and deductibles such as

1. Parts
2. Labour
3. Overtime

and the best part

PROFIT!

You get money for your hard work but you also get things, I suppose they’re reward type achievements and unlocks such as Goal Reached, Perfect Day, New Worker and Reputation.

Hint! Apparently making people wait brings rep and sales down.. I wish this happened in real life so bad companies would close up.

CUTSCENE! -The Pitbull-

Yay the Mafia showed up.. *Gets my baseball bat* Im’a show them who the REAL king of auto repairs is!

Bloody Mafioso… think they own me! They want me to make their cars bulletproof and they will cut my debt down some.

The side jobs for the mafia guys are quite fun, I just did the first one to install the bulletproofing for the doors. Interesting stuff it is! It’s a step by step to make your own!

NEW WORKER! Electrical worker dude works only with electrical stuff which is indicated by RED so this adds a whole new twist to what I am able to do. OH YEAH! MORE CHALLENGES!

Final Thoughts: This game is extremely addicting. Transgaming approached a different style of play and it has worked out really, really well in their favour! If anyone likes games like Bejeweled, Tetris, and other puzzle games where they build up in challenge then this is a game you will most definitely want to check out. This is a MUST BUY for everybody in my opinion, even hardcore gamers such as myself can sit down and enjoy this game. For those of you with iOS devices, Garage Inc. is definitely an entertaining way to pass the time on journeys.

Voice Acting: From the first cutscene I was pleased to hear how wonderful the voice acting is and how clear it sounded.

Graphics: Though they are cartoonish, I think the cutscenes make the game appealing to all ages, and they still look very 1920s and 1930s. When playing the game itself, the graphics may seem a little less cartoony but none the less the way it looks is definitely worthy of the game play.

Audio: The music is pleasant to listen to as you play this wonderful game – the sounds of the cars, the repairs , customers, bells and so on are all very authentic.

Gameplay: The gameplay is like a new form of RTS from what Im used to, as I usually play games such as Dawn of War or Dawn of War II or even Medieval II: Total War. For a switch like this it’s quite empowering.

Replay Value: Very replayable!

Suggestions: Multiplayer? It would be interesting to see how that could be intigrated into this type of game, where one person could possibly compete against another in a race to earn more money than the other, and the one with the least amount of money gets hammered by the mob? Other than that this game is perfect.

So… When can we expect Garage Inc. 2?

The first of several iPhone and iPad apps to be released through the partnership is Dora’s Christmas Carol Adventure, which is based on the TV special. The app will feature a fun holiday-themed story, original songs, and interactive mini-games. It will also teach Spanish, colors, reading and the value of sharing. Both the iPhone and iPad versions of the app are scheduled to launch on December 1, 2010.

“Both Nickelodeon and Budge Studios are dedicated to creating family-friendly products that encourage imagination and education in children, so this partnership was a perfect match,” says Noemie Dupuy, a Partner at Budge Studios. “The captivating personalities of Nickelodeon’s beloved characters, give Budge Studios the inspiration to create highly innovative and entertaining mobile applications that will appeal to a large, diverse range of consumers.”

“This collaboration with Budge Studios is part of our ongoing mission to provide kids and families with entertainment using the most current technology and platforms,” said Steve Youngwood, Executive Vice President for Digital, Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids & Family Group. “Kids are embracing the iPhone and iPad as much as their parents and these new apps will allow them to interact with their favorite Nick characters on portable devices they can take almost anywhere.”

Budge Studios also developed MegaBloks Playground, which I have tried out on my iTouch. Being an adult with no toddlers handy to give this game some hands-on experience, I found it very difficult to view this title as a toddler would. MegaBloks Playground is not a game, per se, as there are no points, timers or achievements. It is an app to amuse young children, a purpose for which I think it would be successful.

MegaBloks Playground features a choice between two characters, a boy and a girl. Your toddler can make their character move around the playground by swiping their finger across the screen, leaving footprints in the sand as their character walks from feature to the next. One drawback to the iTouch version of the game is that the entire playground is not readily visible, which I think detracts a bit from the experience. Obviously this would probably not be an issue with the iPad version (I don’t own an iPad, so I can’t confirm this for certain). The game’s objects are all cleanly drawn and brightly coloured, with the animations running smoothly, which would appeal to toddlers and keep their attention on the game.

The music and sound effects which accompany the game are in no way jarring or irritating, which makes the music especially quite pleasant to listen to. The playground itself is populated with items one would expect to find in a real playground, which means the majority of toddlers would know that by tapping on the slide, swings and teeter-totter would allow their character to interact with them and listen to the unique sound effects assigned to each activity. Characters can also go for a short balloon ride across the playground.

Scattered around the playground are small piles of blocks, which the characters use to build items like airplanes. One drawback, however, is that once the item is assembled, there is no way to interact with it, and it eventually disappears from the screen. I would like to see a few more activities built into the app, which would make it a little more educational, such as perhaps finding a way to build in shape recognition or colour-matching, along with a way for players to make their own creations to interact with. Overall, though, I think this is a well-designed app that will do what it’s intended t0 do – stimulate and amuse sensory perception in toddlers, and I would give it a rating of 4/5.

The game is a card based strategy game in which you play as one of three factions The Sect, The Eleysian’s or The Resistance with the goal to take over the world. As you try to gain control of the Riese world provinces, for each province you try to take over you must battle the computer or online opponent and gain control of 75% of the game board by placing your troops and defeating the bad guys. As you progress you will unlock new cards for your battle and using open feint some nice achievements. Fans of the series will be glad to know that you can use the heroine Riese as a character and her trademark wolf Fenrir in battle.

The game looked really nice when I got to take a look at it, the graphics were polished and the audio sounded good.The controls were easy to pick up and learn. I will also mention I was surprised to learn that the narrator for the game is Felicia Day from The Guild.

When the game launches it will have 3 difficulty settings for you to choose from. In the version 1.1 release local multiplayer will be added so you can battle your friends. The group at Genius Factor Games is optimistic that the game will be enjoyed by the Series’ fans as well as gamers who enjoy strategy card games.

Riese The Series Backgrounder:

Riese tells the story of a banished princess on the run from a dangerous religious sect in a steampunk inspired world. It stars Allison Mack (Smallville), Ryan Robbins (Sanctuary), Alessandro Juliani (Battlestar Gallactica), Patrick Gilmore (Stargate Universe), Emilie Ullerup (Sanctuary), Sharon Taylor (Stargate Atlantis), Ben Cotton (Harper’s Island), and in the title role, Christine Chatelain (Sanctuary).

“Riese has proven that digitally distributed content can be equal to or surpass regular broadcast content. ” said Ted Nugent, Genius Factor president and founder. “It aligns with our own plan for digital distribution of games and interactive entertainment. Riese is an excellent backdrop to build great gaming upon. With Felicia’s participation in the project, the overall experience is amped up, adding depth and greater immersion to the game.”

“Online is the future of entertainment,” said Ryan Copple, Riese co-creator and series executive producer. “High-quality web productions have really changed the way you reach audiences and an interactive gaming experience was the logical next step for Riese. We’re honored to be working with Felicia Day and Genius Factor on this endeavor, as they’ve truly been an inspiration to everyone involved with Riese.”

Riese The Game will be available this October in the iTunes App Store for $3.99.

Murphid has a very short learning curve and does offer on-screen tutorial hints for the first few minutes of play – this is the game’s sneaky way of drawing you into its clutches. Don’t get me wrong, I totally enjoy playing Murphid, and I think Decapod did a fantastic job with its development. I particularly like that there is no annoying music, just the game’s sound effects for audio. I can’t count the number of arcade-styled games in which I turn the music completely off because it grates on my nerves. Not so with Murphid. The sound effects fit pleasantly into the game play, and even losing sounds okay. This is nice when playing at the end of the day, winding down and trying to enter some semblance of relaxation mode. Jarring arcade music just doesn’t seem to help with that.

The UI for Murphid is bright and colourful, and there are really only two things that I would like to see added – a time counter for Survival Mode and for Microsoft to enable achievements for indie titles. Survivor Mode does tell you how many lines you’ve survived, but in my opinion, a timer would be better. Murphid also rewards players with the following eight awards:

Me Not Noob – Break 600 marbles
Take The Red Pill – Complete the 1st stage in Campaign Mode
Anabolicious – Earn 300 power ups
Another Brick Off The Wall – Break 1000 blocker marbles
Serious Pam – Survive 30 minutes in Arcade Mode
Captain Darwin – Survive 60 minutes in Survival Mode
New Way To Say Hooray – Break 100 000 marbles
Friends Call Me Puffy – Earn 99 lives in Campaign Mode

In true “level up” fashion, each award has a progress line which shows you how close you are to winning it, and the awards fly out from the right whenever you hit a milestone. There is also a High Score board and there appears to be some very interesting characters who have been playing Murphid. I do believe that I have now taken over every spot on the board – at least on my screen.

Murphid’s game play differs from all of the others in that you are unable to rotate your game pieces. You can switch over to the next piece if it is more advantageous to your strategy, but there’s no rotating, and you cannot “slide” your pieces to the left or right, either. Unless you’re in Arcade Mode. Then you can “slide” – but only if you’re quick. Campaign and Survival Mode do not allow “sliding” but they do offer shadowy arrow tracks to help you place your pieces. To add to challenge, some of the marbles are “stapled” to each other, which means you must eliminate one marble to free the other. If you plan your strategy well, this can often work out quite well for you and result in some very large matches and resulting chains.

Campaign Mode has 12 stages, with each stage divided into 6 levels. The game saves automatically as each Campaign stage is cleared, with difficulty ramping up the further you get into the game. Difficulty comes with shortened room for clearance, a slightly faster moving wall of marbles, and the addition of more colours to clear. The only time I had any difficulty with the additional colours was in the closeness of hue for the two variations of red.

Arcade Mode offers endless play – unless you fail to clear the marbles – again, with increasing difficulty the longer you play. Survival Mode is just what it sounds like – it starts off challenging and gets harder the longer you survive. For the curious, no, I have not won the Captain Darwin award yet. But I will.

There are several power ups to assist you with your game play. These randomly generated power ups include the standard row (fireball) or column-clearing (lightning bolt) bombs, as well as the non-discriminatory marble-blasting WMD (weapon of marble destruction) bomb. Another useful power up is the Chainsaw, which will clear a few marbles out of a column. This comes in handy for getting rid of overhanging marbles or X-blockers. Another power up will clear all of the X-blocker marbles, while the paint drop power up will convert several marbles, including the X-blockers, to match the colour of the paint drop. If you place this power up right, you can convert a very large number of marbles to one colour, allowing for an easy and large area clearing. Another power up will clear all marbles of one colour from the screen, which can also lead to some very nicely chain matches, and the multi-coloured Joker power up will complete a matched set for you, getting rid of more pesky marbles.

Rounding out your power arsenal is the coveted power medallion. Interspersed throughout various Campaign Mode levels, these medallions come in a variety of colours. Match its colour to capture the medallion, which then be iheld for you on the left side of the screen. These medallions come in very handy as they will clear half the screen for you should the marble wall advance past your defenses to the top of the screen. Players are also rewarded with bonus points for combo matches. Your current bonus multiplier is always displayed to the right of your screen.

According to Decapod’s dev blog, the studio is working on Murphid’s first update which will be available in a few weeks. One thing that I hope they do not change is the non-rotation of marbles. Some may see this as a fault, but I do not. I believe that the non-rotation factor makes the player (namely, me) pay more attention and come up with plans which I must deploy in rapid succession in order to stop the advancement of the Coloured Marble Liberation Army. Grab the demo, buy the game – either way, I recommend giving Murphid a go. I rate this title at 5/5 on the scale of puzzle games I will play over…and over…and over…

Mass Effect 2 was very high up on my list of most-wanted games for the first quarter of 2010, and also placed a very close second in our own Readers’ Choice Awards for Most Anticipated Game. Mass Effect 2 even won a convert in our house – The Cavechild did not like Mass Effect 1, but the changes in Mass Effect 2 won him over right through to the game’s final frames and has him looking forward to Mass Effect 3.

For my first play-through of Mass Effect 2 (Collector’s Edition) I chose to begin with a new character instead of importing from ME1, so that I could experience all that the story-line had to offer without paying for the sins of my Mass Effect 1 character. Well, along with the fact that I have not yet finished Mass Effect 1 (again) due to a forced re-start of the game because some less-than-honourable gamer stole my 360′s 120gb hard drive during a LAN tournament.

The opening cinematics for Mass Effect 2 are impressive and set the stage for much of the shiny newness that makes up Mass Effect 2. One of the primary new additions to the Mass Effect world is the Cerberus Network, which is available for free with all new Mass Effect 2 games. According to the Mass Effect site, gamers who either rented the game or purchased it used can still access the Cerberus Network by purchasing the option for 1200 Microsoft points. Messages about new DLC and other ME news will be sent to the gamer through the Cerberus Network interface, and much of the DLC for ME2 is free for those who have the Network enabled in their game files.

It’s hard to not give out any spoilers to those few who have not yet played the sequel – but it was cool having my female Commander Shepard become the new Jaime Sommers, even if we seem to owe allegiance to the Illusive Man for our resurrection – and it appears that much has happened at The Citadel in Commander Shepard’s absence as well, including a reduced explorable area and a different format for stores. That said, we do get to visit some new and interesting locations, such as the miscreant hangout known as Omega and the decadent Illium, where we find Liara T’Soni in her new occupation as an information broker.

There many new and shiny things in Mass Effect 2, not the least of which is the rebuilt Normandy. While maintaining the basic layout of the ship, the technology and amenities have been updated, giving Commander Shepard fancy new Captain’s Quarters which can be decorated with spaceship models, a cute little pet and an aquarium in which to collect exotic fish. I was happy to see that Joker still pilots the Normandy, because I would’ve missed his dry wit. His interaction with the ship’s AI adds an amusing level of conversation to the game, and there are many, many homages paid to SCI FI icons throughout the game. I’m not going to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t played ME2 yet, but suffice to say that it’s important to speak with as many characters as possible throughout the game, as well as eavesdrop on conversations whenever possible.

As with Mass Effect 1, you gain Codex entries and experience points for talking to people and finding bits of information as well as for completing missions and assignments. The storyline takes a number of interesting twists, and regardless of all the Illusive Man (voiced by actor Martin Sheen) appears to be doing to help out, I do not trust him. Not one bit. Something in his eyes says he’s up to something, and I’m sure we’re going to find out what it is in Mass Effect 3.

Naturally, your actions throughout the game will effect how the story goes for your character, and will also effect the appearance of your Commander Shepard. Sometimes the conversation choices are not easy to make, regardless of how predictable they may seem as far as Paragon/Renegade choices go. Sometimes you will not find out until very late in the game how a conversation option you chose has effected the storyline, which can prevent you from getting an achievement. One new addition to conversation options is Interrupt, and Shepard’s ability with Interrupt, which allows for more physical action, is usually related to the Paragon/Renegade level.

One change in the game that I definitely did not like was the planetary scanning and mining. I liked being able to land on planets in the “rover” and drive all over the place and using the big gun to blow enemies into little bits. Those of you who have read my other reviews know that I am not a skilled video game vehicle driver, but I still derive much amusement from commanding and destroying vehicles. Unless there’s a race that I have to win, then it can be a bit frustrating. But, back to Mass Effect 2. Bioware did redeem themselves on the lack of a rover with the newly announced Firewalker Pack, which includes the M57 Hover Tank and five new missions. The Firewalker Pack is scheduled for a late March release, which follows the recently released Arc Projector – a very nifty Heavy Weapon which unleashes more mayhem and destruction on the enemy.

I did not find the new “scan and shoot probes” interaction to be engaging at all. I would much rather have been able to land more often and either have a scanner/probe function built into the rover or have the old method of locating something and then getting out of the rover to investigate. The number of actual landings often involved very limited explorable areas and quite often jumped to a cinematic when it became necessary to leave a location in a hurry. I liked having to run through collapsing archaeological digs in Mass Effect 1, and would’ve liked to have continued that type of game play in Mass Effect 2. I did find the space travel parts of the game somewhat more interactive than it was in Mass Effect 1. Now the player has to watch fuel consumption when flying around the galaxy, as well as stock up on probes. The only dog-tag collecting mission was okay, but I personally like having lots of things to collect, and there doesn’t appear to be as much to collect as there was in Mass Effect 1.

I did like the new method of obtaining and upgrading weapons, armour and the Normandy. Using the computer terminals to research new technologies was much better than unlocking crates and storage units – and often forgetting that I was carrying a lot inventory. That said, it was also nice in Mass Effect 1 to be able to sacrifice some of that extra inventory for omni gel when it was needed. There are lots of new and improved weapons to obtain, and we all know that one can never have too many big guns.

For character attributes, I preferred all of the options which were available in Mass Effect 1. In Mass Effect 2 there doesn’t seem to be as much thought required for where experience points get put, which to me means that you don’t need to put as much thought into how you balance your team. I found that I often used the same characters on each mission, unless a choice was forced due to the story line. That said, I suppose that part of the reasoning behind this change was that this is a sequel – and Shepard should by now know how to use all of his/her skills – the same with the highly trained band of misfits in the squad. So, I can see the logic in this change. There are also many new powers to learn, and ammunition is handled differently than it was in ME1. Another change I greatly appreciate is the ability to map powers on the 360 controller. I found that playing Dragon Age: Origins has made me a better Mass Effect player in regards to squad skills, and the extra mapping just adds to this, so thank you, Bioware.

One thing that I did like was how team members and characters from Mass Effect 1 were worked into Mass Effect 2′s plot line, and Mass Effect 2 knew which (if any – don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t played ME1 yet) team member may have been “sacrificed” during the Virmire Assault. This was especially interesting for me, because Mass Effect 2 was making choices for me based on my original (prior to my hard drive being stolen) ME1 game play, not my current play-through, which hadn’t yet reached Virmire. I have since completed that mission, making different choices than I did with my original play-through, so it will be interesting to see if my next full play-through of ME2 registers the changes I am making with this new ME1 voyage.

I found the writing much improved in Mass Effect 2, although at times I felt that the voice-acting for some of the characters was at times just a bit 0ff. In my opinion, the proper vocal inflections were often not achieved, particularly in the human characters. This tended to make the conversations seem a bit stilted when I was hoping it would be improved over Mass Effect 1. I did enjoy the diverse character stories and backgrounds, and often spent time “talking” with characters in order to learn more of their stories. Codex and experience points had nothing to do with that. They were just a side benefit to sometimes finding out some very surprising and humourous tidbits about my crew members.

Thus far, I have found the assassin Thane to be the most interesting new character with the greatest amount of depth to his story, but I am looking forward to another play-through which will add Morinth to my squad – just to see how that will effect the story and character interactions. I am also looking forward to adding Kasumi Goto to the squad once she becomes available in April via DLC for 560 Microsoft points.

It is important to note that Mass Effect 2 is not really a game which can be rushed through in the way that some gamers seem to enjoy rushing through a game as fast as they can, often skipping key game components. If Shepard is taken into the end game missions without due preparation of the entire squad, chances are the mission will not succeed, and Shepard may even end up in deceased mode. A deceased Shepard cannot return to gameplay after the credits nor be imported to Mass Effect 3, so therefore the player must plan to stay alive – and hopefully the full squad survives as well.

The only real problem I have with Mass Effect 2 is that my character gets stuck every so often – either by falling into a hole, getting pushed up on top of a crate by squad members, or stuck in an invisible wall – or a wall that is there but with a partial travel path through it. These events are very frustrating, because there is no way out. For some reason Shepard cannot jump down off of a crate or up out of a hole, and can’t back out of a wall. While Shepard can leap over cover, this is not possible to escape a hole because the walls of that hole are not recognized as cover. This meant that I had to start over from my last save point, and if I had overlooked saving my progress recently, this was sometimes really, really maddening.

I was not at all disappointed with Mass Effect 2 and I would highly recommend it to those who enjoy single player RPG adventures. While others have said the game doesn’t hold that much replayability for them, I feel quite the opposite. I feel that the Mass Effect franchise has loads of replayability, not only for various story outcomes, but also different experience levels, plus the direction of the story line in Mass Effect 3 has led to much debate and conjecture in the Village Gamer house.

I have logged approximately 140 hours of gameplay in Pandemic’s final title, The Saboteur, and overall I did enjoy the game. I have completed 100% of the freeplay targets as well as the mission campaign, but still have to obtain 1 gold perk and 4 achievements. In my OCD gamer style, I have spent alot of time driving or running around exploring the map, collecting cars, contraband and running into cows. The Saboteur as a game has lots that I like, but it’s impossible to not compare many of the elements to other titles such as Assassin’s Creed, Grand Theft Auto and Prototype.

The game opens at a car race where Sean first encounters the nasty Kurt Dierker from Team Doppelsieg. As the game’s hero, you play as Irishman Sean Devlin, who drives for Team Morini. Your best friend Jules Morini, is dead before the first chapter ends, setting the stage for Sean’s thirst for revenge against the Nazis and in particular, Dierker. Sean carries a heavy load of guilt as he heads for Paris with Jules’ sister Veronique and their father, Vittore. It is this guilt and vow of revenge that will enable the British to use Sean as a pawn in their battle against the Nazis. As you delve deeper into the game and storyline, there are more characters who enter the plot – Skylar, the mysterious woman from Sean’s past, Luc who heads up the Resistance, and that sneaky Bond-wanna-be from Britain, Bishop. There are other characters who play minor parts throughout the story, but these are your main game characters. Of course, only Sean Devlin is actually playable by the gamer.

I am impressed with the amount of game time offered by The Saboteur – there is certainly a lot to do in the way of collecting postcards, blowing up sniper nests and playing with some really big guns. On the converse side, those of us who have spent much time playing Asssassin’s Creed will be somewhat disappointed with the climbing and jumping abilities which have been given to the main character, Sean Devlin. Granted, he is a race car driver and not an assassin like Altair and Ezio, but I would have expected there to have been better climbing mechanics in a game which places such importance on the ability to reach building tops in order to carry out missions and destroy freeplay targets. There were times when Sean would grab ledges when I didn’t want him to, and times when he wouldn’t make a simple jump or grab a ledge to prevent a suicidal fall, even though I had specified through the controller that he do so. There were several times when I found the game’s controls to be somewhat clunky or unresponsive, and this did lead to some frustration.

Sometimes I wonder why I play games which require climbing buildings and structures to great heights, because I do not like heights. While I enjoy horizon and vista views while firmly planted a safe distance from any edges, the illusion of heights in most games today is so well done that I do not look forward to any high building climbs. I experienced vertigo moments in the two Assassin’s Creed titles as well as in Prototype – and I definitely felt it in The Saboteur. There are lots of very high places to climb up to, including the top of the ferris wheel and of course the Eiffel Tower, not to mention the many landmarks around the city. Spiral staircases make the background spin. Not good. Thankfully there aren’t many of them – but there are a number of Scenic Points, and similar to Assassin’s Creed’s viewpoints, standing at a scenic point in The Saboteur results in a camera pull-back panoramic view of the cityscape. The end game takes place at the Tower. If you don’t want to climb it more than once, save all visits until the end. Of course, if you want the achievement for jumping from the Eiffel Tower and surviving, chances are you will be climbing the Tower more than once. Splat.

I did like the large number of vehicles available for use – even though I am really bad at driving in video games, I still had lots of fun driving around Paris and taking part in the races. I managed to glitch the first country race – completely by accident. This glitch occurred simply because it involved a new car I had yet to collect, so of course my first instinct was not to start the race, but to take the car back to the closest garage so that I could collect it, and therein hid the glitch. Suffice to say that I won the race quite easily. The second country race did not glitch in the same manner. This I know, because I tried repeating what I did the first time. Turns out you cannot blow up all of your opponents before the race either, because you get busted for sabotage. Once I figured out how to win the second race, I was all set to start collecting the large military vehicles – which I did quite handily. Imagine my disappointment when I went back to my garage to get a tank and none of the big gun vehicles were on the selection list. Perhaps this was to keep away the temptation of making use of the armoured vehicles to complete missions, but all it took was a journey to their spawn locations to make use of them. Which I did. Repeatedly.

The AI isn’t the smartest in The Saboteur, but like other mechanics in the game, the AI behaviour was not consistent. At times nearby NPCs were totally oblivious to the fact that their partner on the other side of a gun, searchlight or armoured vehicle had just been sniped. The same would often go for if I switched to stealth and silent kills in order to steal a uniform. At other times, it seemed like the smallest thing would set them off and they would start blowing that damned whistle. Their ability to withstand bullets was also somewhat inconsistent, as was targeting. I was happy if I could kill the NPCs before their mood aura turned red and they reached for their whistle. Unless I was trying to set off the alarm on purpose – then it wouldn’t matter, but those whistles sure had a way of ruining a good stealth moment.

It was nice to know that the NPCs really can’t drive much in a game environment than I can. I often just sat and watched as NPCs would try to navigate corners, often hitting walls, buildings and other vehicles repeatedly while trying to follow its programmed path. The NPC driver would hit a wall, back up, drive forward and hit the wall, and would repeat this task until the vehicle bounced around enough to get past the obstacle. This came in handy when trying to outrun Nazi vehicles, as it was easy to steer them into immovable objects, usually blowing them up in the process. As in Grand Theft Auto, it was important to depart from a vehicle should it start smoking heavily. A faster exit is required should flames be involved. The really cool thing about vehicles is that they can be booby-trapped. Use of the B button while driving plants a bomb in the vehicle. The idea is to then race the vehicle towards a Nazi target and jump from the vehicle before impact. Preferrably there isn’t a wall blocking your jump and resulting roll. If there is, this usually results in death. I speak from experience.

As in Grand Theft Auto, it is possible to take possession of any vehicle simply by getting in it. This may at times require the removal of the vehicle’s owner, but when you need a car, you need a car. Naturally there was some protest over this action, but other than some verbal retribution, the consequences of stealing a vehicle weren’t all that severe. Unless you stole a Nazi vehicle from a Nazi. That didn’t often go over well and usually resulted in a car chase. There were no immediate consequences for accidentally running over civilians, unless you killed too many in too short a period; then you were penalized for Friendly Fire, and it took longer for your predetermined hiding spots to spawn. If the AI were smarter, it would know to get off the roads when I’m driving in a video game. Come to think of it, the sidewalk isn’t exactly safe either.

The alarm system was not always consistent, either – but that usually worked to my advantage, so I will not complain too much about it. As you increase the inspiration levels of the Parisians, it becomes easier to escape the alarms, so there was less time spent running from the Nazis and more time blowing them up. I liked the way Pandemic worked in the colour shifting that is a major feature of The Saboteur. When the game is started, the whole environment is monotone, setting a very bleak, downtrodden feel which successfully set the mood for the plot of the story. As the gamer moves through the campaign missions and thwarts the Nazis at every turn, the people of Paris start to become inspired, and colour begins to return to the landscape. I feel that this was a very innovative way to add emotion to the game play, and I give top marks to the Pandemic team for this.

The more I played The Saboteur, the more things I discovered I could do in the way of game play, and what things would respawn for further destruction and which things wouldn’t. For me, this adds to the game’s replayability factor, along with challenges I set for myself and things I just decide to do, such as sit in an anti-aircraft gun turret and blow up the endless supply of zeppelins and then the aircraft which eventually show up at Alarm Level 5. Unlocking the RPG and BFG weaponry also makes for alot of fun, even if some human targets seem to survive the blowing up of vehicles, gates and searchlights. Which brings me to a point of contention. The AA guns cannot shoot through trees, and their range is at times very inconsistent. I can shoot a zeppelin which is quite some distance away in the air, but I cannot hit a sniper nest which is only a few street blocks away. It is quite frustrating when I know there is a vehicle shooting at me from behind a tree, but I cannot shoot back because the missiles cannot penetrate tree branches. This was not a positive WTF moment.

Another activity I enjoyed in the game was escalating the alarm level so that the Resistance fighters would set up Fight Back Zones. The player can then race to these zones (not too quickly, because if you escape the alarm area then the Zones disappear), and shoot Nazis until the kill metre fills. Unfortunately, these Zones are at times on the other side of checkpoints, but that is just an opportunity to make sure the alarm continues.

As with pretty well every other game on the market, there are perks to earn, which reward you with special abilities such as increased explosives, brawling and evasion talents along with unlocking weapons and vehicles. Some of the perks are very challenging to achieve, but thankfully it is possible to unlock a couple of silver and gold level perks with a lot of contraband. It’s important that you find as much contraband as possible because the black market can be quite expensive when acquiring new weapons, ammo and maps. There are a few ways to earn contraband – destroying Nazi targets, completing missions, finding the appropriate crates, and completing a variety of other tasks which are set out in the game. If you forget what you’re supposed to be doing (because you get distracted by a cluster of freeplay targets or something), the Pause Menu offers loads of good information – your journal shows you conversations, objectives, perks and your all important stats, which show how many targets you’ve found in each map area.

There are lots of improbable mechanics – such as surviving the burning and crashing zeppelin, but hey, it’s a game – realism is optional, after all. While at times the game seems not quite done, rushed and unpolished, The Saboteur really is a good game – bordering on a great game. It’s a shame that any possibilities of a sequel are slim, thanks to the closure of Pandemic by EA, because this is definitely a title which could easily have a franchise built around it.

I rate The Saboteur at 8.5 to 9.0. At the lower end of the spectrum are mechanics and AI intelligence. At the higher end is player engagement, in-game activities and replayability.

In many areas, the CaveChild and I have very different views on this title. He is more of an online-multiplayer gamer than I am, and he did, for the most part, like the multi-player portions of this game, except when his 360 headset wasn’t functioning and he’d get kicked from a game because he couldn’t communicate with other players. With teamwork and communication being a huge part of the play, if you are a gamer who does not like to converse with others when playing, this portion of the game is probably not for you. In the online play, you can choose to be either a Survivor or one of the Zombie Bosses, but whichever team you are on, strategy and planning play a huge part in being the victor.

I am a gamer who likes to collect things – this mode of game play feeds my OCD-ishness, and for me at least, is an important part of the enjoyable gaming experience. Other than weaponry, there wasn’t anything to collect and horde. Characters are not given a large capacity to carry items, and for those of us who primarily play RPG-style games, this is a huge challenge. The developers have forced players to use their resources effectively, and the “pray and spray” method of killing massive numbers of enemies isn’t really an option. Thankfully there is a large selection of melee weaponry available – there is something oddly satisfying about whacking a zombie upside the head with a frying pan or cricket bat. Nothing, however, says “Die Zombie!” quite as nicely as the limited-use chainsaw.

While there are a number of drops to gain extra ammunition, molotov cocktails and other new items such as the bile bomb, in my own opinion it would’ve been a nice option to gain a hunter’s flap jacket at the gun store, thereby legitimately adding a little bit of extra storage capacity, instead of only being able to carry one “bomb item” and one medical kit.

One of the areas which I found to be particularly frustrating was in not being sure which way I was supposed to go. While the five maps are not overly large, there are specific areas which gamers must work towards in order to get to the Safe Houses. Some areas were reasonably easy to work through with a well-marked path, while other areas seemed to lack the all-important player clues as to what needed to be done and where. The ability to wander around in a semi-open world is always nice, but so is having a clear idea of where you need to be, particularly when The Director is throwing huge numbers of infected zombie folks at you. There were also too many invisible walls for our preference – and a few areas which could’ve made some great sniper nests were not available. It is somewhat evilly satisfying to literally snipe a zombie’s legs out from under him or her.

The atmosphere and setting for the game was appropriately eerie, and I will give the level designers and audio crew extra points for this. However, there were also many instances of clipping failures and targeting problems – there were times when it would take 8 or 9 shots to fall a zombie who was squarely in my sights. It was lots of fun to use the Safe Houses as “duck huts” and snipe zombies or pile up the bodies of those who rushed the door. Having an endless supply of ammo while in the Safe House was also a bonus and added more than just a few minutes to overall game time.

I would have liked to have had a longer campaign, simply because that is where my game style preference focuses. I don’t that I would consider Left 4 Dead 2 to be a hugely impressive sequel to Left 4 Dead, but it’s not a complete disappointment, either. With the different play modes which are available and with The Director looking after the AI experience and interaction for horde management and difficulty scaling, there are a decent number of hours of play available to the gamer. On the Village Gamer scale of game approval, we’ve settled on a range of 7.5 to 8.0 for Left 4 Dead 2′s overall product presentation, additions and improvements.

While there are small parts of Assassin’s Creed (both iterations) that are less than my favourite things to do in the game, they are inconsequential to the overall player experience. I have never been a fan of the race events, although I found the “collect the flag” races in AC1 easier than the gateway races in AC2, this is simply because the flags were easier for me to see on rooftops than the swirling white light effects used in AC2. I could make more use of Eagle Vision during these races, but that seems to add to my mild vertigo reactions to the speed and heights experienced in Assassin’s Creed 2. There have been a few times when I’ve experienced that “roller coaster feeling” throughout the game.

My favourite part of game play in Assassin’s Creed 1 were the missions and stealth tactics – and I was well pleased to see this not only continued but built upon in Assassin’s Creed 2. The new assassin abilities and weapons which have been given to Ezio added so much depth to his forays into a corrupt and dark Renaissance Italy, that I keep being disappointed when I run out of Assassin Contracts to fulfill for Lorenzo. For some reason, I find the combat skills in Assassin’s Creed 2 easier to use than when I played through Assassin’s Creed 1, but I’m not really sure why, considering that they are pretty well the same buttons. At times I do get frustrated with movement control, because it seems that Ezio is not wanting to do as he’s told, he’d rather move in a different direction or grab onto something I didn’t want him to, but all is overcome with perseverance – in my opinion it’s better to have to work at something and practice to get it right than for it to be too easy.

Speaking of practicing and levels of difficulty, the many puzzles in Assassin’s Creed 2 range from easy to OMG am I ever going to solve this one or beat the timer. It took a fair bit of work to earn those Assassin’s seals to gain Altair’s armour – but it was quite satisfying when I did it, and now Ezio gets to honour Altair by wearing his armour and brandishing his sword.

One of the new features in Assassin’s Creed 2 which I really like is ownership of the villa. I enjoyed restoring the town, collecting weaponry, artwork and armour. I only wish that there had been more to do with the villa and town, because I had all of the town’s upgrades completed by the time I had finished the Tuscany map. I also like the addition of the merchants – the doctor is a very welcome NPC and the ability to easily replenish my stocks of poison, medicine, throwing knives, bullets and smoke bombs. I really, really like the smoke bombs. I like being able to swim as well – and I think that the canals of Venice are now a little shallower due to all of the dead guards I’ve sent to their depths. Being able to dive into the water has also save me from countless guard attacks, and also that one time when I couldn’t see if there was a wagon of hay to leap into from the top of a church tower – so I dove into the water instead. Definitely like the non-drowning death improvement – now I just need to work on not falling to my desynchronization from great heights while climbing things.

Two of the challenges that I really had fun with were the wild carriage ride and flying on da Vinci’s wings. I only killed Leonardo once on the wild chase through the mountains, and really it’s not my fault that he leaned too far over and tipped the carriage over. My speed and cornering abilities had absolutely nothing to do with it. Flying was a challenge on a whole different level. It only took me a few attempts to get the hang of it and make it to the palace on time. Sort of.

Instead of collecting area or faction specific flags as in Assassin’s Creed 2, players now collect the six seals of the Assassin’s Tombs to gain Altair’s armour, the Codex Pages to gain knowledge and weapons in partnership with Leonardo da Vinci,  and the feathers which Ezio’s younger brother Petruccio treasured. Ezio must also find glyph symbols hidden around the towns in order to find out more information about the mysterious Subject 16, and taken piece by piece the video clips really don’t make much sense – until you get the big picture. The puzzles attached to the glyphs and Subject 16 are incredibly imaginative, and some of them have taken a lot of hit and miss guessing to solve. No matter their difficulty, though – each one has something of historic value to teach, which I do appreciate.

Other changes in Assassin’s Creed 2 include lessening the amount of time spent “out of character” back in a lab talking with Lucy.  Desmond may be the main character, but I will always like Altair and Ezio better. I also like the way the Animus 2.0 has evolved and how the lab staff now interact with Ezio/Desmond during his adventures – feeding him information and at times hints (sometimes totally obtuse hints that don’t seem to make sense even after the puzzle is solved) for help in solving puzzles. An interesting turn of events is the exposure of the Templar’s world domination plans and their attempts through time of eliminating the Assassins. A darker, possible side to the Templar story, to be sure.

As Mike mentions in his video, the environment design is stunning and Jesper Kyd’s music score completes the player’s immersion into Renaissance Italy. While I find the characters to at times be a bit blocky, for instance having overly large and square hands in some scenes, overall the artwork is exemplary, as is the attention to detail in both clothing and architecture.

As many of you already know, I am all about the storyline, missions and collecting things, and Assassin’s Creed 2 excels in all three of those areas. In my opinion, Assassin’s Creed 2 is an epic achievement on the part of Ubisoft Montreal’s core team and all of their support teams. We’re giving Assassin’s Creed 2 a 9.5 out of 10 on the Village Gamer scoresheet – and now we’ll sit back and enjoy the game while wondering what will be in store for Assassin’s Creed 3.

I went with the human noble warrior for my first go around – I wanted to be a caster, because that is what I’m good at, but Scott talked me into trying something different. It has become (sometimes painfully) obvious that I am a far better caster than I am a warrior. Thank goodness for the ability to change which party member I can control during battle. I will, however, admit that I am getting better at melee combat. I still have a long way to go at being highly proficient in close-up and personal fighting, but I certainly like the amount of control Bioware gave us in character creation. I also really like that each character – Dwarf, Human or Elf has its own story beginning, as this adds to the replayability factor.

Each of the party member’s distinct personalities and beliefs play very important roles in how the game unfolds, as does each choice you make in the dialogue trees. One could almost feel sorry for Alistair as he goes through relentless teasing at the hands of Morrigan, whose own jaded view of the world at large often prevents her from seeing the simple good in people as anything other than weakness. During last night’s play, I caught Wynne also giving Alistair a rough time about filthy socks. Meanwhile Leliana appears to be the complete opposite – she is strong in her belief of all things good,  although I have a feeling that this is going to change at some point in time. Just a hunch – and some advance reading on Scott’s part. I haven’t made a lot of use of Zevran and Sten yet, but I’m sure they’ll get their chance in battle as well.

I’ve read many online comments about areas where players aren’t happy with the Tactics menu, or they aren’t happy with some of the sudden difficulty spikes. Maybe it’s just my play style, but I am not disappointed by any of it. Yes, some of the battles are insanely difficult and my hero may end up as a pile of ashes after being blasted by a huge fireball, but thanks to the Save Game function which I mostly remember to use, it’s “try, try again” for me. I probably died a dozen times trying to defeat Flemeth before going and doing some different quests first in order to level my Grey Warden some more and perhaps gain a little more help in the way of additional party members. Once I completed the quest for Shale and kicked Alistair out of the party for this particular task, I did it in one go. Shale is a very effective tank when equipped with the right crystals for the job. Next time around I will have to remember to go get Shale before hunting for the urn. Perhaps then I won’t turn into a crispy critter because I just had to ring the gong to see what it did. Apparently the dragon landing on the cliff edge was supposed to be a clue. Maker bless the Load Last Save function.

While I sometimes find the long cinematic conversations frustrating, I realize that they are an important game component – dispelling knowledge and opening different paths in the story, but geez sometimes I just want to get on with eliminating the vile creatures who are trying to take over my map.  On the plus side is the ability to skip forward through the conversations to get to where you want to be – whether it’s to retry a battle or to try a different path in the dialogue trees. On my next play-through I might just take the time to solve the puzzle and let the little girl live instead of allowing Kitty to possess her.

There are a few features in the PC version of the game that I wish we could have in the 360 version, and while I realize that the PC skill bar isn’t a viable option, it would be nice if the map inset had the same compass look and functionality. Plus he gets the extras of the Character Creator and the Toolset on Bioware’s new Social Network (you will need to be logged in on your Bioware account to see those pages, by the way). While I am a stronger console gamer than I am a PC gamer, after watching the Cavechild play his PC version I wonder if I’d be faring any better than I am in the 360 version. I’ve experienced a few glitches in the 360 version which Mike hasn’t had with the PC version, such as the audio being delayed in conversations. The characters speak, but there is no sound – and then the audio kicks in and re-syncs itself. A minor thing, and not nearly as annoying when the whole game freezes on me like other games have. (This has not occurred in DA:O, just so that you’re sure I’m not saying that this game freezes my 360.)

The game controls are something I am still trying to re-map in my mind. Reversing them in game options didn’t help, so it will just be a matter of remembering that what was one function in another game, is not the same function in this one, and just where that particular function is when I need it. I think perhaps that is one of my biggest pet peeves about console play. I wish that all of the developers would get together and say “Okay, this is the button players will use to bring up their character interface for inventory, skills, etc.” and “this is where the game’s options will be” and just be done with it. Stop moving things around, people, it’s getting me killed out there.

I’ve learned much about the game’s features and how to use them in my first 48 hours of play, and I will freely admit to having picked up the Prima Strategy Guide yesterday to learn even more – not because I want the easy way through the game, but because there is just so much to learn and try on my next play through. As an added bonus, the Strategy Guide is a work of art in itself, and well worth the price. Dragon Age’s structure is such that I will be playing through the game a few times, although I am certainly in no rush to end my first go-round. My last bit of play involved the Nature of the Beast quest, and it wasn’t as difficult as I’d thought it would be. I’ve seen a few people rant about the hard time they had in the ruined Elven temple, but I survived through the entire main quest. I’m not afraid of any old wolf. It probably helped a lot that Wynne is such an excellent healer. Just a thought.

I do wish that there was more open-worldness instead of mapping from location to location – and while side quests and random encounters do allow me to visit a bit more of the map, it’s not the same as battling my way around Ferelden to get where I want to go, or just hunting down the darkspawn who wander the countryside. The only other thing I’m not too fussy on is having the Party Camp in one location and my Party Storage chest in another. I have a tendency to forget little things like runes that I have in storage which need fixing to weapons by the enchanter dude who resides in my Party Camp, so more than once I’ve found myself trudging back to Soldier’s Peak to pick up an item or two.

According to the Strategy Guide, I am supposed to be able to switch out party members in areas where it is safe to do so, but thus far I haven’t found such a location. It would save me so much time if I didn’t have to go back to get my Rogue for a little lockpicking and chest looting. To me, any area which has been cleared of all enemies is relatively safe, so I should be able to summon a henchie from Camp when required instead of having to return there myself to pick up the little thief. Perhaps I will discover the secret to party changes during my travels about the map.

While I understand that the majority of games are targeted at male gamers, as a female gamer I think that there should be some scantily clad male demons just to even things out in The Fade and give us double-x’ers something to look at. I had thought that The Fade would be an equal opportunity employer, but apparently it is more discerning when recruiting evilness. Maybe all of the menfolk decided that being Darkspawn would be better. Either way, they made a bad choice because I’m going to have to kill them all eventually.

Overall, I am very pleased with Dragon Age: Origins and the amount of detail and care which the dev teams at Bioware put into the title. It contains all of my favourite components – quests, exploring (even if it’s kind of limited), things to search for and collect, a deep storyline and hundreds of hordes to obliterate. Some have pointed out a few environment and level design features that they feel weren’t done well enough. For the record, I don’t care that many of the houses and villages look similar or even the same due to repeated use of world objects; nor do I care that many of the people look the same or similar. I do care that the artists obviously put a lot of time into the environment and character design, and I appreciate the details that they’ve put in, especially for such seemingly small things like random eye movement in characters, which in the end make such a big difference.

So now you know my early thoughts on Dragon Age: Origins. I will revisit the game and add to these thoughts once I have completed one full play-through. That could take awhile, though.

Faunasphere is a “browser-based CMO (Casual Multiplayer Online) game, players adopt and care for cute and quirky creatures known as Fauna and collaborate to build and explore beautiful virtual worlds. From the creator and lead designer of Asheron’s Call, Faunasphere engages a broad casual gamer audience through non-violent game play, rich social networking elements, and an immersive storyline. The game is free to play, and features micro-transactions and premium membership to enhance the game play experience.”

Officially launched by Big Fish Games on August 12 of this year, Faunasphere has several game play features:

* Fauna lay eggs as they level up. Eggs can be hatched to create new Fauna or traded between players.

* 12 Fauna breeds to adopt and care for, with an endless array of visual variations to explore. Players can try to breed Fauna for specific traits, or can purchase special items to transform them.

* Players can customize their own corner of the world by designing a Faunasphere to shelter their Fauna. Items to decorate and improve a player’s Faunasphere can be collected via game play, traded between players, or purchased.

* Players advance through the world via unique, non-violent game play. Fauna clean up pollution and complete tasks to earn game currency and level up.

* The game can be played as a no-commitment diversion, but offers deeper involvement for committed players.

Features not listed above but which I feel are important to include:

Faunasphere is very easy to play. While reading is required, the game play is simple to pick up, the characters are cute – and sometimes very unique depending on how their caretakers have customized them, and the game’s community is incredibly friendly. That is one aspect of the game that really struck me. I know from reading through the game’s community forums that there have been problem users, just like in any online game. That said, the players who inhabit Faunasphere are friendly and even considerate. They even give you items if they think they somehow “stepped on” something you were doing or planning to do. They readily offer assistance should anyone require help with a task or cleaning up some of the higher-level pollution monsters.

For my adventures into the Faunasphere, I chose to look after one of the Hoofers, which are horse-like characters. Players can choose from a Hoofer, Sniffer or Scooter, each with its own set of attributes, likes and dislikes. Each character likes different food, comfort, beauty and amusement items. These likes and dislikes are important to bear in mind when building a faunasphere, and particularly when you create a Den for your Fauna to rejuvenate in. Your Fauna likes to be in a place which makes it happy, so it’s important to use the “Happy” items which your Fauna prefers.

Your Fauna is also able to do tricks such as greet, play, boing and more. A feature which I really like is the ability to put a little sign over your Fauna’s head which says “AFK” “Busy” or “Mentor”. The first two I like because they make it very easy to convey a message to other players. The third is also a great idea because then new people can easily find people who will help show them the ropes, so to speak.

Those who enter the Faunasphere have a choice of either using a free account, which allows one to care for up to three fauna, or choose from three different paid accounts:

A Silver account, which is priced at $2.49 USD per month, permits a player to care for up to six fauna and receive 600 free bux (one of the in-game currencies) per month. Should the holder of a Silver account wish to purchase more bux, then that player receives a 15% discount on the purchase. Those who pay $4.99 USD per month will receive a Gold account, which permits a “fauna farm” of up to 15 creatures, 1500 free bux per month, and a 35% discount on additional bux purchases. The top level premium account is available for $9.99 USD per month and permits up to 30 fauna, 4000 free bux per month and a 50% discount on additional bux purchases.

As mentioned above, there is more than one type of in-game currency. There is green Lux, which is awarded to players in a variety of ways. Lux is paid for completed tasks, cleaning up pollution, and sometimes even falls from trees if your fauna is capable of the “shake and take” skill, which involves shaking a tree to get a treat to fall out of it. Other creatures are able to dive in water for their “treasures” while still others can flip over rocks and logs to see what lies beneath. Players can also earn Lux from their Totem (more on that later) or from selling unwanted items in the Marketplace, an activity which assists in keeping the in-game economy flowing. Players can also trade, buy or sell items privately – although not all items are tradeable.

The other type of currency is Gold Bux. This type of currency may be obtained either by purchasing one of the three accounts mentioned above, or the player can also purchase Bux, again choosing from one of three options. The lowest amount purchasable is 500 Bux for $2.49 USD, followed by 1100 Bux for $4.99 USD and then 2400 Bux for $9.99 USD. An argument can be made that it would make more sense to purchase a monthly account, but if a player doesn’t want to feel obligated to play, then the occasional Bux purchase makes more sense. Players with Bux can also develop their Fauna’s Genome and see its family history and completely customize the appearance of their Fauna.

In game purchases of items can be made with both Lux and Bux, but some items do require the use of Bux. These are usually Advanced Food items for your fauna, or most often, special items for customizing your faunasphere. Every player is given a faunasphere, as this is where your fauna will go when you aren’t playing with them. It is also the place your fauna will return to if it becomes unhappy. Sometimes this game feature annoys me, because I will be in the middle of something and unable to give my fauna some food to make it happy again, thus getting automatically zapped back to my faunasphere. I realize that feeding your fauna is important, as food is its source of pollution-zapping energy as well as a contributor to its emotional happiness, but the fauna also need to learn some patience and not be so pouty about having its needs immediately gratified.

There are also many decorations which can be found around the world, such as statues, dolls and other items. Those who contribute to the Community Projects can also receive prizes for donating specified numbers of materials in exchange for tickets. The tickets can then earn players special decorations for their Faunasphere, as well as earn them entries into the random raffle draw which takes place whenever the Community Project is completed. Any prizes gained through the Community Project process will appear in your Totem’s Gift area – again, this happens once a Project is finished. The Community Projects reset themselves after every completion.

Customizing your faunasphere can (and has) lead to many hours of organizing, creating, and re-decorating. Building blocks of stone, grass, mud, steel, snow and ice can be obtained throughout the game or purchased from either the Store or the community-stocked Marketplace. Players can also purchase, trade or win other decorations such as special plants, trees, rocks and more. There are a number of statues available, and Big Fish Games rewarded all of its beta testers with a special gold statue of the Big Fish himself in shiny gold.

In order to win some of the special items, players must help contribute to the community projects. These projects are to help the greater faunasphere and require donations of many items which are purchased from other players’ Totems. Again, more on that later. In each of the three worlds is such a project. Contributing to the Community Project takes a lot of materials, which means the players who want to participate must spend a lot of Lux at other players’ Totems for the building materials needed.

I’ve visited many of the individual Faunaspheres of many of the players, and I am continually amazed at the creativity and time that has been put into each home. Should you decide to visit Faunasphere, just travelling through the Friend Gates can keep you busy for hours – and don’t forget to stop by the DesignTeam’s faunasphere – it will amaze you.

The Totems looked after by each player produces one of a variety of building materials, ranging from gravel units to solar cells. Players must fund their Totems, as it takes Lux for the Totem to run. Once players purchase a set number of items from any given Totem, they become a Patron. I’ve found that it seems to be a custom among players that when one becomes a Patron of another’s Totem, they leave a little gift for the Totem caretaker.

Another feature that I like in Faunasphere is the ability to switch Fauna without having to return to my home sphere. All it takes is a simple click of the button and my Fauna choice is made immediately. This can be very handy for those players who have more than one breed of Fauna, due to the different hunting and gathering skills. This can also come in handy if you notice (in time) that your Fauna is getting cranky and needs a trip home. Players can easily switch the cranky Fauna for one fresh from a happy home.

The Faunasphere, being community-based, has a very active forum where there is all kinds of assistance and good cheer to be had. It was somewhat amazing to see how large the community is, and how well it runs. It is also easy to see the many friendships that have developed among the game’s players. Everyone is made to feel welcome, and help is always there for the asking, especially if you are in need of materials or assistance on a quest. Quests are another aspect of the game which I enjoy – there are many quests (or tasks) to undertake, and many are repeatable and thus a ready source of Lux.

It is very apparent that the game’s developers have put much thought into not only the environment but also game play, tasks and community. There are little details all over the Faunasphere which may take you a few visits before you even notice them. Something else I appreciate about the relationship between players and developers is that the developers appear to be quite involved with the community, and I also appreciate that Big Fish hired a dedicated community manager – this to me shows commitment to not only the title but also to the people who populate the game’s environment.

One of the first people I encountered in game was IrishTina (Tina). Through talking with her, I discovered that she is the proprietor of Faunaholic.com, an officially authorized Fan Site for Faunasphere. There is a huge amount of information on Faunaholic, gathered by many of the beta testers. Faunaholic is the definitive “How To” guide for Faunasphere.

Tina joined in the Faunasphere beta testing in May; I asked her what she enjoyed most about Faunasphere, her answer was “I enjoy working on my home sphere more than any other aspect of the game. Many beta testers dove right into hatching new fauna, and that has never been my major interest. I enjoy working on my home sphere, doing new quests, visiting other home spheres, battling Pollution Monster, visiting the Cave, and just wandering around enjoying the artwork and ambiance.” Tina also plays other games including Pixie Hollow, and she’s involved in beta testing a new Hidden Object game.

I also asked Tina why she decided to build Faunaholic:

Tina: Excellent question, and one I’ve asked myself many times……especially at 3am! Basically, I just figured that I had all of the resources and that most people wouldn’t. I understood the mechanics of the game and of the various items and foods, have written instruction manuals, and have been building web sites since 1995. I saw it as a way to put all of the needed information in one place for new players and for experienced players who wanted a reference. I’m very proud of the comprehensive lists of Happiness Items and Food items, but also proud of how the goals are explained. For example, I didn’t want to put TOO much information and spoil things for those who just wanted an overview. Yet, I knew some folks would want in-depth info with viewable samples. That’s why on the goal pages some of the “Spoilers” are hovers, like the answer to which specific items are needed (“Hugg Life”) or where specific areas can be found (the Firm Soil in “Swamp Spruce-Up”). I hope to get the Forest and Frozen area goals done this week, add 1 and 2 smile food to each fauna’s page, and to keep adding to the site.

Tina is also giving us a preview of Faunaholic’s upcoming new look, as shown in the images to the right.

Village Gamer: On average, how much time do you spend either in game or working on Faunaholic?

Tina: Total time would be close to 30 hours per week, but that’s both playing and working on the web site. Today I put in about 6 hours, with about 1 hour of that dedicated to updating the site for the Level 20 Club and then tracking down new members to give them their prizes.

Village Gamer: Any last thoughts on your involvement with Faunasphere?

Tina: The only other thing I can think of is that I hope that Faunasphere continues to grow! There’s an old thread that I started months ago titled, “Things I Would Pay For” where I started a list of all kinds of items and concepts that I think would add to the enjoyment of the game. Many others listed things too. I don’t know if you want to check it out or not, but the items that people want (more building materials, decorative adornments for fauna, “mystery seeds”, adding more attributes such as wings for fauna, seasonal decorations, etc.) are all items that I hope will come eventually find their way into the game. I think that the concept of Faunasphere is tremendous and tremendously addicting and now it just has to keep growing.

So my own final thoughts on Faunasphere are that Big Fish definitely has a winning franchise with this title. While I am still on the fence as to whether or not I will advance to the next level and become a subscriber, I do know that I enjoy the game immensely. While it’s not the genre of game I normally play, perhaps that is in part its attraction. Faunasphere is filled with peaceful (and sometimes comical) sounds, the ambiance of the game’s environment is relaxing and a great way to wind down the day.

Okay Noelle – so you were right, I enjoy Faunasphere.

Watch the cavechild’s mini video review, and find out why he gives it a 10 out of 10 game play rating.

Gravity Well is a level puzzler which requires the player to maneuver a little blue ball from one end of a maze to the other. There is an optional tutorial available, and game options permit the player to adjust the volume for both effects and music. The soundtrack, created by The Humble Brothers is not at all irritating and is of higher production quality than many of the mobile games out on the market. The soundtrack is also available for purchase in the iTunes store.

If you have to quit the game for whatever reason, you can select the level you were at or any other level which you’ve completed when you restart the game. Gravity Well also allows the player to put the game on pause if needed.

Gravity Well’s developers have a distinct knack for making the player think and find creative ways to control the ball as it moves through each maze. The ball moves when the player touches the screen, warping the grid a creating a “gravity well” which pulls the ball. It’s not always as easy as it seems to get the ball through the grid, because the game’s gravity force is not affected by the tilt of the iTouch or iPhone.

As the levels increase in difficulty, the player not only has to deal with the brick wall obstacles, but also the sharp pointy blocks, electric barricades, magnetic fields and timed gates. Sometimes it’s possible to barely squeak through the gates before they close, just like in the movies – but as the gates close, their angled ends do not work in the player’s favour, which means re-opening the gate and hoping that the gravitational pull will work with you. As the ball decreases in strength, its colour changes from bright blue to yellow to orange to dark red before it explodes into little pieces. No worries if you die though, because Gravity Well lets you begin the level over again. Your score is tallied once you navigate the ball to the static gravity well at the end of the maze, and takes into account the number of times you touched the screen, how many objects you’ve hit, and the amount of time spent in maneuvering the ball from end to end.

The graphics in Gravity Well are clean, colourful and reflect the care and quality which Genius Factor puts into their products. The environment works well with the colour scheme, and it’s very apparent what each obstacle is and what its function is. Also of note, a portion of Gravity Well’s proceeds are donated to help support the BCSPCA, Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Cancer Society. Gravity Well gets a double thumbs-up from Village Gamer.

Platform: Xbox 360, PlayStation3 and PC
Release Date: June 2009

It was a long wait for me to play Radical Entertainment’s newest title – from the day I first heard about the game at the 2007 Game Design Expo. The Activision – Blizzard merger didn’t help the matter by delaying the game’s release, and my envy grew as there were reports back from various conferences and expos where people were getting hands-on playtime. So, was it worth the wait? Oh yes – although this has been a difficult review to pen, simply because PROTOTYPE is so full of things to do and accomplish.

One bit of caution, though – PROTOTYPE is rated M by the ESRB for a very valid reason. The game is violent and involves massive amounts of blood and gore, which I do mention in further detail throughout this review. If you do not want your kids playing games like PROTOTYPE, the ratings are there for a reason, please don’t blame the industry if you allow your kids access to a game outside of their age rating. Okay, end of brief soapbox stance on that topic. On to the review.

First, a quick plot rundown for those who may still be in the dark as to what the game is all about.

Alex Mercer Concept Art

PROTOTYPE takes place in New York City, more specifically on Manhattan Island – but in actuality the story began decades earlier in a small town called Hope, Idaho. It appears that the US military was engaged in a partnership to develop a deadly virus – one which affects not only humans but the environment as well, and along the way Alex, who apparently worked for Gen-Tek, the private contractor developing the virus strains, became some type of host, turning him into a part human-part super weapon entity. Or maybe he is a viral PROTOTYPE, released on the American public for in-the-field testing. Even with watching the Web of Intrigue vignettes a few times, I’m still not 100% sure – and to be honest, I kind of like it that way. A little mystery is good – and it makes for good fodder among the conspiracists out there on the web.

PROTOTYPE is a single player game, with the gamer taking on the persona of main character Alex Mercer. Whether Alex is good or bad is unclear at the beginning of the game, but either way it does appear that he has a conscience, which is revealed in mysterious cinematic vignettes between each task – but like all other parts of this game’s story, Alex’s motives remain infected (pun intended) with intrigue.

Trapped At The Bridge

The writing in PROTOTYPE is exceptionally well done, going to depths and details not usually seen in this genre of game. Part of the player’s mission in PROTOTYPE is to collect Web of Intrigue cinematics, which are brief flashes into the back story. Once all of the cinematics are collected, the full story is revealed. I give very high marks to the concept and development of the story line. There are so many possibilities, twists and turns in the PROTOTYPE plot that even if the player is paying close attention, there are still unknown factors which could easily send the story in an entirely different direction. All of these nodes could easily lend itself to a sequel or two, which appears to be the rumour circulating around the web, despite what staffers at Radical say. There are also rumours floating around about possible future downloadable content as well, but again, no firm commitments have been given by either Radical or Activision.

As to game play itself, PROTOTYPE is simply fun to play – as long as you like blood, gore, fighting and blowing things up – which I do. Only in a game environment, of course. The free world parkour coupled with the many tasks and events the gamer can discover lends itself to hours and hours of play time. Soon after PROTOTYPE’s release, I read on a couple of gamer forums how people had rushed through the game’s mission mode in seventeen hours, and then say they were disappointed with the game. Well, no wonder. Yes, the missions can be completed in a number of hours, but in my opinion, PROTOTYPE’s overall play is anything but disappointing. Another quick note before I go into the game proper – huge kudos to the character, object and environment artists for the quality and scope of their work. Actually, the whole team is to be commended – the technical people for all of the freedom to be gained in a sandbox environment, and for the insane things that can be done in-game.

Battling The Infected

Okay, I will admit that there are a few aspects to the mechanics which can lead to player frustration. At times the controls seem a bit too touchy, and the targeting system doesn’t always grab the nearest or correct enemy – but the targeting system is not psychic, so it doesn’t know precisely what you are trying to target. All it takes is some quick stick-flipping to get to the right target. The only other times I was frustrated, really, was when trying to climb smaller building surfaces and Alex would fling himself around the corner or off the building, or when I just wanted to jump up onto a ledge at the top of a building so I could see what was going on at street level. The only other element which has a tendency to drive me nuts is spotting a Web of Intrigue target, approaching him or her, only to have the target killed at the last second either by Infected or the Military.

As the player progresses through the story and plateaus are reached, new abilities and events are unlocked. In most cases, these skills cost a certain amount of experience points, while others require the consuming of certain military types. The unlocked events, which are designed mostly to assist the player in learning new skills or improving control, range from extremely easy to extremely challenging. The glide events were the first ones which I completed at an all-gold level. Consuming scientist events and some of the running events have proven the most challenging for me. However, one of the main reasons I play games is for the challenge, so it’s all good.

Thou Shalt Consume

By now, the uninformed may be wondering what is meant by consuming targets. Well, to put it quite simply, if Alex is collecting Web of Intrigue moments, or consuming Military types for skills or military base entry, he sneaks up behind the target and his viral tentacles lash out and into the target, enabling Alex to become that person, stealing not only the target’s appearance, but their memories and abilities as well. For example, Alex must consume helicopter personnel in order to gain the skills needed to fly a helicopter. In order to gain entry into a Military Base building, Alex must consume a Base Commander. In other instances, Alex can stun and consume Infected characters for health and for specific abilities required in missions.

Alex Has Cool Weapons

In addition to the above-mentioned benefits of consuming enemies, the persona which you have consumed becomes Alex’s disguise, and as I’ve just noted, it’s sometimes required to gain abilities or entry to places and vehicles, but having that alternate persona also helps Alex evade detection by the Military.  Now, sometimes the Military is really stupid, but at other times they detect Alex far too easily. And yes, there is an achievement for completing missions without raising any Military alarms. And yes, I have done it. Sometimes this takes some planning and it’s very important to watch the map – particularly when those nasty tattle-tale Infected detectors are involved – not to mention the Super Soldiers which occur towards the latter parts of the game. This is another area of development which I appreciate – the subtle changes in difficulty encountered within the environment as I progressed through the missions. These increases in enemy types and numbers cause the player to think and plan ahead, and sometimes develop strategies on the fly. This is where knowledge of the playing field comes in very handy.

Hunting Landmark Orbs

Due to the virus contained within his human form, Alex has the ability to change parts of his body into a wide variety of very cool and damaging weapons. He can encase his entire body in a hardened shell which is very effective in decreasing any damage he may experience through combat. Alex can also change his limbs into lethal cutting blades, huge Hulk-like arms and fists, and then there are the claws, the whip-fist and all consuming tentacles. Mass damage, gotta love it. Alex can also run faster than the Six Million Dollar Man and defy gravity by being able to run straight up the sides of buildings, jump insanely high and then soar through the air with his glide mode. Personally I like running up a building to the top, powering up for a super jump, and then landing in the middle of a street and causing waves of damage and explosions with the equivalent of a power dive. Fun fun.

Conversely, once you have gained the ability to hijack weapons, you can cause even more mayhem by running over Military personnel and Infected citizens or monsters with the armoured vehicles – or by blowing them and vehicles up with the projectiles. If you get tired of destroying things at ground level, you can always take to the skies in a helicopter and either blow up other helicopters or just destroy everything on the ground. Helicopters are also great for getting those highly-placed orbs and blowing up infected water wells. They will not, however, allow you to escape the island. Yes, of course I tried – maybe there was an invisible hole to be found in the invisible walls which protect the rest of the city.

The Nasy Hydra

I think that if I had to pick what my favourite part of the game is, I’d have to say the ability to free roam and cause general mayhem. Earning the skills to run, grab and throw opened up a whole new level of fun for me. There is something which is very satisfying in being able to grab vehicles, building parts, Infected or Military and fling them wherever I want – at buildings, other people, at helicopters. Great for stress relief, with the physics just adding to the fun (and splat) factor. Making use of Alex’s many weapon modes in imaginative ways also add to the level of destruction which can be caused – and anyone who has any grudges against New York City cabs can get their fill of destroying the multitudes of them found on the game’s streets. Personally I think that massive amounts of cab destruction is worthy of a fun achievement. Even attempts at the most futile of accomplishments can lend itself to much fun, such as trying to cross any of the bridges to leave Manhattan Island. At this point in time, it simply can’t be done (maybe in the future?). Those invisible walls are solidly built, but I had fun trying anyway.

Battling the Military

Radical’s developers have also added glowing orbs which can be collected for experience points. The blue orbs are called Landmarks, and add to your experience. The more you collect, the more they add to the points you need for skills. There are 200 in all – but they don’t all populate the environment right at the start of the game. The red orbs give the player hints and tips on game play, and there are 50 to collect. Some markers do not appear until certain missions are completed, and many of them are very well hidden, meaning that the player needs to scour the city looking for them. There are also achievement points for collecting them all, so if the player wants to gain the achievement, he or she will have to keep an eye out for those glowing orbs.

Once the main story missions are completed, New mode is unlocked. What this means is that the player now has the option of starting a new game, but with all of the skills and abilities Alex has gained. This can be very handy for those who want to get the ultimate achievement – making it through the game without getting killed. That one might take me awhile to get – simply because I get distracted with tossing vehicles and causing mayhem and forget to pay attention to my health level. There are times when gaming that I don’t care if my character gets killed, simply because I am having fun with the game and I don’t (usually) take game play too seriously. Here is where Scott would say…”oh really”… because I will do challenges (in the case of PROTOTYPE, events) over and over until I beat the top benchmark for that particular challenge. I like to reach those benchmarks in games – some may be insanely difficult, but beating them allows me to say “yes, I did it” and then I can set about finding who to “kick in the shins” at Radical for making that insanely challenging event.

Borrowing a Tank

PROTOTYPE is a game which, even if I have collected all of the achievements, defeated all of the events and consumed all of the targets, I will still continue to play – just because it’s fun. No, there aren’t any Co-op or Multi-player modes, but for me that’s not as important as it seems to be to other gamers. Perhaps in future chapters of this franchise some type of Co-op or Multiplayer could be added, as I’ve noted that some online opinions have stated that without those modes a game feels unfinished. While it would open up another level of replayability for PROTOTYPE, I don’t think it’s essential to the game’s success, as evidenced by the fact that PROTOTYPE was the top selling console game in the USA last month, and it rose to the top of the UK charts in its first week of release.

Going For The Bird

I think that the team at Radical deserves a huge congratulations for taking PROTOTYPE from concept to console. Taking a new IP to completion involves many risks, and I think it says a lot for Activision’s confidence in Radical’s ability to continue produce winning titles by allowing its concept to survive the merger with Blizzard. The depth and breadth of PROTOTYPE’s components show how much passion the teams at Radical put into their projects, and I will say it again – congratulations to all of you on what I consider to be an exceptional title.

To further celebrate the release of PROTOTYPE, we are giving away a brand new, unopened copy of the game for Xbox 360. This contest will be open only to Canadian gamers, aged 17 years and up. Details coming soon.

All images and artwork © Activision Publishing

Well now you don’t have to thanks to Zynga’s new game for the Facebook platform called FarmVille, which was released to the general public this year.

FarmVille puts you directly on the farm with a nice piece of land to call your own. You start the game by customizing your farmer’s look from suspenders to glasses. As soon as you get your virtual farmer looking snazzy you’re taken to your farm where your job is to plow some land and plant some seeds. Zynga must have spent some time thinking of this concept because it’s really quite unique.I know comparisons can be made to the other farm games on Facebook or other systems, but we’re here to look at FarmVille itself.

This game is identical to farming and because it’s played in real time and mimics the pains/pleasures of farming. Once you have farmed some plots of land you’re asked what kind of plants/trees or animals you would like to grow and are only limited by the amount of coins in your virtual account. Each type of plant/animal has a certain amount of grow and harvest time. Strawberries grow in 4 hours so you’ll find that if you plant these, you will have to come back to your farm so you can cash in your crop. If you don’t, they will wither and die. This is a unique mechanic because it makes you think how farming fits in your schedule like a real farm. You can’t just plant and walk away, this game requires a little attention each day since each crop of produce is different. With this mechanic Zynga has been able to increase their ADU (Average daily users), but at the same time it is strangely satisfying when you are harvesting and thinking what to grow next.

With an Experience System, your farmer will level up and be granted new items like barns, decorations and new types of things to grow as you try become the best farmer. Looking at how the social side of the game impacts the user, you can invite any of your Facebook friends with or without FarmVille to become your neighbours and help you get a bigger piece of land for your farm (you need 8 to get the first upgrade and 10,000 coins). Being neighbours is more than just saying you are, because every once in a while your neighbours will ask you to come clear weeds or take care of pesky crows. Completing these tasks will gain you XP as well as send a message to the friend that you helped out. If you feel like helping your neighbours even more, you can send them gifts they can grow on their farm. One thing I wished was that you could help others harvest their crops just like a real farmer would.

As a former farmer boy I relate quite closely to this game in terms of the planning and execution of the main game mechanics. It really is like having a real farm. I thoroughly enjoy this Facebook game and recommend it to anyone looking for an interesting distraction involving time management games.

Keep up the good work Zynga – who says good games can’t be free.

Vancouver

The Aion build used for this testing is version 1.0, the most up-to-date version available. Players are limited to level 20 and certain map regions – but with so much to do and explore even within in this limited area, players can remain very occupied for this test period.

When I interrupted Cavechild’s play to ask him about Aion, the first question I put to him was to name one thing he did not like about the game. There are only two things thus far that he doesn’t like in the game: the fact that this is not the full release, and the apparent inability to turn off announcements from player stores – the well-known WTB and WTS scenarios.  (For those unfamiliar with these acronyms – WTB is Want To Buy and WTS is Want To Sell).

According to the Lore of Aion, the shell world of Atreia was once connected by the Tower of Eternity but a great cataclysm caused by the Balaur shattered the tower, separating the two worlds of Atreia. One side of Atreia is now inhabited by the Asmodian faction while the other is populated by the Elyos. Players will be able to explore these worlds as well as regions made up of voids and floating islands. As with many worlds, the two factions have an intense hatred of each other, and there is constant warring in The Abyss, the area between the two shattered regions. While the races battle each other, they must also contend with the greatest evil of all, the Balaur, previously only known to the factions through their Lore. It would seem that the factions may have to work together against the Balaur in order for what’s left of their world to survive.

The world of Aion thus far revealed is stunning. The environmental and character design is outstanding, with an amazing amount of attention paid to detail. Players can enter buildings such as markets, bars and the library. In the library, players can read books of Lore, learning more about the history of Aion and Atreia. While players can go to markets to buy upgrades, emotes and supplies, there are also player stores, where players can buy, sell and trade goods amongst themselves. Aion’s emote system gives the players some very cute and amusing expressions – I particularly liked Taunt and Birthday Celebration. I hope that Cavechild isn’t planning on making any money for his Warrior’s dancing though – unless it’s to provide amusement – although I will say that the character dance moves in Aion are much better than those in Guild Wars.

There are an abundance of quests and things to do aside from taking part in Player vs Player battles. Not all quests are received from NPCs, though. For example, once a Moss Bear at Idun’s Lake is defeated, a Tanner Knife is dropped, and the player is given the task of returning it to its owner. Quests usually offer high rewards of XP and Kinah, the currency of Aion. Skills are learned through the purchase and use of books; the higher a player’s level, the more expensive are the skills. Due to quest rewards, drops from enemies and product trade, it is reasonably easy to gain Kinah to make purchases.

Players can also purchase a Profession. Professions include six Production and two Gathering options. The Gatherers collect materials throughout the world, which they can then give, sell or trade to the Production professions. The Production 0r Crafting Professions are Armoursmith, Weaponsmith, Cook, Alchemist, Sewing and Handiwork. The first three craft professions are self-explanatory. Alchemists specialize in the making of potions, while those who pursue Sewing will be able to make tailored cloth or leather armour. Handicrafters will be able to make jewelry, bows and staffs. While players will be able to purchase all six professions and take them to Expert level, it appears that only one profession can be taken to the Master level per character.

Not all enemies drop rewards, but scattered around the world are large chests. It seems that these chests can only be opened through force, and as they have a very high health level, it takes dedication on an individual’s part or a good group effort to open the chest. As Mike hasn’t opened a chest yet, I can’t say what is in it or if everyone in a group gains a reward from the chest once it is opened.

Mike chose to make an Asmodian Warrior as his primary character.  While he did make characters of each class for experimentation, he has been concentrating on his warrior. The character creation controls offer high-customization possibilities, very similar to the build process in Oblivion. Players can even choose what type of voice their character will have, something which I find quite interesting. A feature in character creation which I personally really liked – and this carries throughout the game, as well – is the ability to see your character in different types of armour. This is a preview feature that I wish was available in Guild Wars and am hoping will be present in Guild Wars 2.

The audio tracks in Aion are outstanding. The music is dynamic, matching regions and situtaions perfectly. The soundtrack is epic, full of rich and moving pieces – something which can only be expected for a game as big as Aion. NPCs and enemies all have their own set of sayings and sounds, which only add to the player’s audial experience during play. Developers have also given players the option of turning off the background music, something which many gamers will appreciate, I’m sure.

The User Interface is fairly standard for the MMORPG genre of games. It is customizable insofar as players can move the fields around to suit their taste, and an active Quest Log can be toggled on or off on the side of the screen. Also as with other MMOs, players can switch server channels if they are experiencing lag or so that they can play with friends. Aion runs on a modified version of the CRY 1 Engine, and as stated earlier, gameplay is quite smooth and lag is minimal except for areas which may be very highly populated and/or have a lot of action going on such as the PvP battles. This said, it is recommended that computers meet if not exceed the minimum system requirements for game play, which you can find at the end of this article.

The primary classes available to players are: Warrior, Scout, Mage and Priest. Once a player reaches level 9 and ascends as a Daeva, he or she will gain wings and the ability to fly at level 10. The ability to fly opens up a whole new level of combat, as players take to the skies to fight. Also available at level 10 is the ability to specialize in a sub-class.

Warriors can become either a Templar or Gladiator. Gladiators can develop a wide variety of fighting skills as well as master many weapons, depending on their fighting style. Templars, much like the Templars of old, are warrior monks – they primarily use single-handed swords and shields, but they are also capable of healing others similar to the Priest Chanters.

Scouts can become Assassins or Rangers, with Rangers having the ability to observe and survive in harsh environments. They are not only bow masters, they can also become highly skilled with other weapons such as blades. The Assassins are stealthy in the way only an assassin can be. They are very valuable members of the Legion (Guild) as they can kill swiftly and quietly.

The two sub-classes available to Mages are Sorcerers or Spirit Master. Mages, generally known in the MMO world as “squishy” are not highly skilled in close quarter combat, but they are adept at dealing magical damage and protections. Sorcerers rely on the elements of magic – water, fire, earth and air for their battle skills, while Spirit Masters can summon “pets” who assist in battle.

Priests are able to heal allies and meddle with the enemy. Players can become Clerics or Chanters at level 10, and while still in the “squishy” category, they are able to assist in melee battle. Clerics can battle with single-handed weapons, but their primary purpose is healing and temporary ally buffing. Chanters use powerful mantras to protect and buff their allies, as well as raise their morale in a way similar to the Paragon class in Guild Wars.

Once a character is created and saved, it is off to the training area, which seasoned MMO players often refer to as “Noob Island” – even though these areas aren’t always an island, such as in the Pre-Searing chapter in Guild Wars Prophecies. It appears that players are limited to this area until at least level 9, when Ascension to Daeva is obtainable, although Mike did not try to leave the area sooner, so this is not a definite. Players are not forced to leave, they can stay and further level up their characters and abilities.

While Player vs Player is not the focus of this closed beta (there are more betas scheduled over the coming weeks, which we will be writing about), gamers can challenge members of their own faction to duels, but it doesn’t appear that there are any special rewards for winning a duel.

There are three modes of travel around the map. Players can take the old-fashioned way of walking (or flying once able), or they can purchase Quick Flight to get between locations such as towns; the third method is Teleportation for travel between primary cities in each province. Travel by Teleportation also requires the payment of a fee.

Character storage has almost always been an issue for MMO players. There never seems to be enough or the right kind. In Aion, players can use both character-specific and account-wide storage systems. Both methods are quite self-explanatory, but for those unfamiliar with MMO play, character-specific storage would be used for personalized items such as weapons and armour, whereas account-wide storage could be used for items available for use by all of a player’s characters.

The dev team has obviously put a lot of effort into the building of Aion, and excitement for the game’s release in North America is building daily. Whether or not it will see many converts from the realms of World of Warcraft, Conan The Barbarian and Guild Wars. For me personally, I am torn about whether or not to purchase the game due to the subscription requirements. While I do pay for things like a Gold Membership on XBL, I have never played a PC game which requires a monthly subscription fee.  I rather like being able to play (or not play) Guild Wars as I like without feeling the obligation to play because it’s costing me money on a monthly basis. That said, Aion is an amazing game with an incredible amount of depth and story incorporated into the game play. It would be well worth the $15.00 (USD) per month subscription fee for those who have the time and money to play on a regular basis – particularly if there are regular additions to the game in the way of free downloadable content as well as paid expansion chapters.

Until next time, these have been our thoughts on the Aion Closed Beta play.

System Requirements:

Minimum:

Pentium 4 2.8GHz, AMD Athlon 2800+; 1 GB RAM; GeForce 6600, Radeon X1550; Hard Drive 30GB; DirectX 9.0c(2008,6)

Recommended:

Pentium Dual Core, AMD Athlon 64 X2; 2 GB RAM; GeForce 7600, Radeon HD 2600; Hard Drive 30GB; DirectX 9.0c(2008,6)

Sky Babes vs Fly Boys is a game of speed and strategy – you play as a freight pilot, and you need to outlast your competition by not going bankrupt. This is no small feat, as the AI in Sky Babes vs Fly Boys is rather intelligent – and fast. With the price of fuel constantly rising as play progresses, it becomes pertinent to make the best routing decisions and getting to the pick up locations before the other pilots.

Starting off in North America, players choose from four characters with distinctly different personalities – Baroness von Kargohaulin, Cassie Nova, Ace Boomer or The Duke. As delivery orders come available, cities pop up on the map, a white dotted line showing the cargo destination. It is very important to pay attention to each city that pops up, as you can earn more money and use less fuel by combining cargo deliveries. To select a cargo pick up location, all you need to do is tap the city’s icon followed by the drop-off point. To re-route your plane for a secondary cargo pick up, simply tap the second city’s icon. Cargo values are indicated by the number icon. For example, a cargo marker labeled “1″ is worth $100.00 while a marker of “5″ is worth $500.00. Diamond-shaped icons under your character’s name indicates how many cargo shipments you can carry on your plane, and if those spots are empty or filled.

It is best to use North America as a training ground, but you can play on any map you wish at any time, you do not have to work your way up to the more difficult maps. As one of the Easy Mode levels, you don’t need to slide your map like you do in the upper levels. Once you have mastered the art of beating your opponents to the cargo, you can move on to Europe, which has both an Easy and Medium difficulty mode. Medium mode requires a limited amount of map sliding, while Hard mode requires much more – particularly if you are playing on the worldwide map. The level map for Asia is also played in Medium mode, while Oceania and Worldwide are designated as Hard mode. The developers weren’t kidding – the levels of difficulty increase exponentially with each area.

When I first started playing Sky Babes vs Fly Boys, I wasn’t sure that I was going to like it, as my usual casual game fare is usually comprised of the match three genre. To my pleasant surprise, I really enjoy this game – even when those pesky AI pilots steal my cargo pickups. For only 99 cents (USD) I think this game is a great value, it is very easy to learn and has a high re-playability rating. I highly recommend it to the “iProduct” gamers out there.

One of the first things I noticed about Chains is that there was no tutorial; that’s fine, I could probably figure this out. When the first level, Trident, loads there is a clear message on the screen “Clear 100″. After a moment the level loads and the balls begin to fill in the empty spaces. I sat and watched them fill it, waiting for some kind of direction as to exactly how to clear these multi-coloured balls that had filled in the level and after a short time a box came up and with instructions. This was going to be a lot of fun, no more mind numbing word games, just a brightly coloured and interesting version of connect the dots!

On to the next level! Clear 200 without losing any, and the balls start falling down into this little trapped area with a gate held closed by a counterweight. This was the first time I actually lost a level; sad probably since the first went by so well. My second biggest complaint with the game was that the helpful hints would take enough time to read that by the time I was back to the game the number of balls piled up caused me to fail the level. This happened a couple times before I learned that the game auto pauses when it loses focus. Awesome idea, I really liked this. Now when the hints would come up I would alt tab to some other program and move it out of the way so that I could take my time to read over the hints.

The music throughout the game was very pleasant and I ended up turning off my own music to listen to it. On the fourth level the music really seemed to fit and I didn’t want to leave the level, because it was too much fun.

Gravity was one of the most unique levels I managed to play, aside from
perhaps Coathanger. It was also the first level on which the background
caused my brain to say “ow.” Playing at 800×600 on a 1280×1024 screen the
backgrounds hadn’t really gotten to me before, but the bright pink really
screamed. Many of the levels have very bright or neon colours that make
the hint boxes hard to read and occasionally hurt the eyes after a time.
In the end this was the only thing that kept me from playing longer;
bright colours in a dark room strain the eyes quite a bit.

Many of the levels are not timed per se but you must keep things in balance. Other levels have one, two or even three timers that must be kept track of. At the end of each level you are prompted as to whether you want to continue playing the same level or advance to the next one; either way the level saves as soon as you quit playing it. There are no bonus levels, power ups or rewards that I uncovered, besides the obvious reward of moving from level to level.
By the end of the first day playing the game I had played all the way to the 12th level of 20 and I’m sure if the pizza delivery guy hadn’t shown up I would still be playing instead of doing the review. Over all Chains was a very entertaining game, the levels are each unique, and after the first couple of levels the difficulty scales up very well.

Vancouver

I’ve been playing Freeballin’ since its release, and the game is truly fun to play. Each of the levels features highly detailed artwork and in-level missions to achieve. Each of these missions involves getting the ball to go where needed and hit specific targets, such as crushing cars. All of the level maps vary in setting from an inner-city locale to tropical jungles and a colourful dreamscape table. In true game play fashion, there are boss battles to win and high scores to make higher. The audio track for this game is energetic and fits each table perfectly. The only problem I’ve had with the game at all is sometimes pressing the screen a little hard for flipper control, and I keep waiting for the “TILT” message to light up.

There are three game modes to choose from for each map – Score Attack, which is exactly what it says – get the highest score you can within a limited number of turns. For some real frenzied play, the Time Attack mode challenges the player to get to a set score level within a limited amount of time. My favourite mode though is Adventure Challenge, which involves collecting items during gameplay.

Available at the iTunes App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch, Freeballin’ is very high on entertainment value at its current price of only 1.99.

IUGO will be one of the many Canadian studios attending E3, and then they will be at WWDC in San Francisco. IUGO will be hosting the iPhone Developer’s Union Part 2 at WWDC.

Why do you want the headband? – Bad Guy
For revenge – Afro Samurai

Made by Surge for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, Afro Samurai is a third person action adventure game released in February this year, and is one of the best hacking and slashing titles this reviewer has played in the last couple of years. Based upon Afro Samurai the Japanese manga created by Takashi Okazaki and made into an animated movie voiced and co produced by the original BMF Samuel L Jackson is where Surge got their inspiration. The question lingers though how well do they translate that source material into a game?

The world of Afro Samurai is set in a futuristic feudal Japan, there exists 2 magical headbands held by only the strongest men/samurai in the world, legend has it that who wears the number 1 headband controls the world and granted the powers of a god. Since man is power hungry there exists the number 2 headband it is for those who wish to challenge the number 1 but can be challenged at anytime by anyone who chooses to take up the fight with the number 2.

This is where we start the story, as a child our hero Afro (named for his hair style) is forced to watch his father the current number 1 beheaded in a battle for the mysterious number 1 headband by the evil Justice the current number 2. So after seeing his fathers headband taken by Justice and having his fathers head tossed to his feet. Justice casts away the number two headband and tells Afro that if he wants his revenge, he better go train so he can get the number 2 headband and come back and avenge his father’s death. This is where the story of the video game kicks off.

You play as the lovable killing machine that is Afro Samurai and as the website claims “Blood is beautiful” so if you’re looking for a game to play with, or get the kids, as this game is rated Mature by the ESRB,  and contains gallons of blood, lots of swearing, innuendo, nudity (polygons, not real nudity) and minor drug use (smoking). If it didn’t contain any of all that good stuff then it wouldn’t do this series justice, as it is definitely made for adults and those fans of samurais, hip-hop, blood and the original material.

Surge was definitely on the ball when they decided to make this title; the art style of this game really sets it apart as far as graphics are concerned. Using a comic book cell shaded style you will be amazed at how good this game looks especially in HD. The environments and main characters are beautifully rendered with the crisp brush strokes making you think you’re almost playing a comic book.

The only sad thing about the art is that there are only 4 types of henchmen: the Ronin, Ninjas, Samurais and Robots, so expect to see the same 4 types during the game with the occasional big bad dude. This was probably a design decision to keep the standard bad guys because they are the fodder that you literally slice through during the game,  and stays true to the overall look and style of the movie and comic.

As far as game play is concerned you have three different attacks in your repertoire, your vertical slice which can be done top to bottom or bottom to top, horizontal slice which goes from left to right and right to left and your kicks and the mandatory jump button. These all can be chained into combination moves that will help make you really feel as if you’re the number 2 samurai in the world, cutting anyone down who challenges you in your quest for the number 1 position.

The gallons of blood that spew from your enemies is really a focal point in this hack and slash. As you play through the game, the higher the combo count, the more blood will come from person you just dispatched, as well as the pieces on the floor of said person and some blood splatters will be on your screen to show you just how well you’re doing. The blood and combos are also used to gauge your progress. The more skillful the kill, the more experience your character will gain to unlock new skills as you progress, giving you the ability to use more powerful moves in the game, such as the focus slice and overkill mode so if you’re into blood, you’ll be overflowing with joy from this game.

Once you have mastered the basic commands and get some combos down, Surge ups the ante by allowing you to perform focus strikes. When you have built up enough blood energy you can use these amazing moves. Using the focus mode strikes with your left bumper (Xbox360) or L1 (PS3) will tint the screen black and white and slows time down so you can perfectly slice your opponents in half using the vertical slice, or right across the body using your horizontal slice. It’s also not a static system so you can call your shot by moving your control stick, allowing you to choose where your slice will hit, with lots of blood and appendages flying everywhere.

This is taken further as you advance, with a layer added on top by your imaginary friend, comic relief and map guide Ninja Ninja, also voiced by Samuel Jackson in a mini game called body part poker. Your goal in the mini-game is to get the best three card hand before time runs out by cutting off arms, legs or heads using your focus strikes. The best possible hand is a straight flush which is accomplished by getting one of each, which makes for some nice achievement points (Xbox 360) or trophies (PS3) for your collection – all for some good old fashioned, well placed slicing and dicing. The one caveat is that it makes you want more of these opportunities as you play through the game but they are few and far between. In my opinion this should have been a main mechanic or an option to turn on or off when facing off against the endless stream of attackers.

The overkill mode is a longer lasting version of the focus mode which allows you to dispatch multiple enemies in quick fashion, and should be used when finding yourself outnumbered. You might start feeling like you’re a blender with your swords with all the blood and body parts that come from this attack.

The level design is linear but is perfect for this game, so if you get lost its best to call Ninja Ninja for help. Most of the jumping puzzles – yes, jumping puzzles are pretty easy to figure out and accomplish without too much frustration. Although there were times in this game where it looks like you could go one way,  as you lay dying, you realize that you were meant to go the other way.   Thankfully the jumping puzzles don’t get in the way too much and are a nice change from the hack and slash game play. The boss fights are mostly standard boss fights, and a few are puzzles themselves.  Some of the boss puzzles can be challenging, but most are quite easy to figure out.

The music and sound in this game are excellent, with voice work from Samuel L Jackson, Ron Perlman, Kelly Hu, Phil “Mad TV” LaMarr, John “Marcus Fenix” DiMaggio and other voices from the original movie it really brings you into the world of Afro. The other great thing is the music is composed by RZA from the Wu Tang Clan, adding that final layer of depth with some amazing hip-hop tracks as you play and into the cut scenes. In fact, it’s so good I got the soundtrack after playing the game.

Overall I quite enjoyed playing Afro Samurai with its short playtime of only around 8 hours on the number 2 headband difficulty. It will be easy for most gamers to beat and unlock the much harder number 1 headband mode, where you have less health and more challenging A.I. and also allows you to continue to gain skills from where the game ended with your first play through and get new combos and ways to dispatch your challengers. Something most games don’t think about is replay value and this single player game has it.

So does Surge accomplish what it set out to do? I believe that this is one of the better games to come out so far and is a nice change to see in the movie video game genre. It is actually just as good and keeps the story together from its original source material.

I recommend this as a rental for those looking for some great adventure hack and slash game play, and a must buy for fans of the comic and movie.

’til the next time we cross paths,
Twisted Majic

Developer: IonFX
Publisher: Meridian 4
Genre: Puzzle
Platform: Windows PC

Background: Based on IonFX’s award-winning mobile game of the same name, Obulis takes things to the next level by fusing highly compelling gameplay with outstanding graphics, music and state of the art physics effects.

I have had Obulis for a few weeks now, and while I generally try for a quick turn-around on game reviews, this one took me a bit longer than normal. The reason being was that I wasn’t sure if I liked the game and didn’t play very far into the game at first. I then set it aside for a few days, and as it turns out, there are some areas of the game-play which I truly liked, admittedly much to my surprise.  There were only two or three areas which I felt were negative, but they relate directly to my personal preferences – and as I advanced through the game, one of those negative issues became not so important anymore.
I do agree with the publishers – the artwork and the musical track are outstanding, and the game is very easy to learn. The developers were kind and offer the player solution assistance for a few levels. These can be a great learning tool, allowing the player to see how the cause and effect of physics is important to the game play as well as demonstrating that timing is also very important.

The map branches off, allowing the player to choose which way to travel through each world while still ultimately requiring each map to be completely solved. While playing through the game, the player is also on a quest to find map segments. As each set of segments is discovered, another area of the world map is unlocked.

Overall, I ended up enjoying Obulis. At first I found it slow-paced and unexciting, but I wanted to give the game a fair try, and as I played through the game (and I still have many levels to go before I complete the entire map), I found that the speed of play wasn’t important. Perhaps I play so many faster-paced games that I was missing the opportunity which comes with playing Obulis – the chance to sit back, relax, and spend some time puzzling out solutions.

In fact, the only option that I wish had been included in the game was the option to play in a smaller screen. As I stated earlier, this is a personal preference and doesn’t reflect on the game itself. The only other criticism I have of the game is that there are a few textual and grammatical errors in the game writing. Other than that, I think that I will be finding many more hours of puzzle-solving enjoyment with Obulis – even if some of the levels can be quite maddening – until you get the timing right.

Obulis is available for purchase on Steam and at TryMedia

System Requirements:

Windows 2000/XP/Vista
1 GHz Processor
128 MB RAM
DirectX compatible 128 MB graphics card
DirectX compatible audio card
50 MB of available hard disk space

There are no special effects, no winnable power-ups, and the only options are to play – with the music on or off. This game is simply addictive, with the only challenges being to beat the game’s ten levels and best your own top score. Diamond Fever brings out the competitive nature of the player and as the difficulty of each level increases, the player is hard-pressed to keep those diamonds away from the crate of explosives in the middle of the screen. The game does save the last level which you successfully completed, and you are able to select any completed level as a starting point.

Game play is similar to that of the Collapse franchise, where the player must match groups of three or more game pieces to advance through the levels. While Diamond Fever is comprised of only ten levels, from level 4 onwards the challenges facing the player grow exponentially through the addition of more colours to match and the speed with which they are placed on the board. Eye-hand coordination and reaction time are put through vigorous testing as the player is required to keep all four corners of the mine cleared of diamonds. At a download price of only $0.99 from the App Store, Diamond Fever is a very affordable source of challenging entertainment, and as a fan of match 3 styles of games, I recommend it to others to try.

In the end of XIX. century dark forces shade the world once again. A brave agent experienced in exorcism and combat comes to face the incoming evil and fight loathsome supernatural monsters and horrific spawns of black magic

Larva Mortus is very reminiscent of the types of games I liked to play way back in the early days of computing – usually on that little-known OS called Windows 3.1. While some in this day and age of heavy 3D graphics may find those early games unbelievably poor in quality, Rake In Grass has

QUEST INFORMATION

managed to develop a fun-to-play action-horror quest and combat property. They’ve included many of the elements which make for a highly addictive and re-playable game – one which I thoroughly enjoyed playing. Okay, so I’m still playing it – but that’s an homage to the developers for the great job they’ve done.

First and foremost I would like to make mention of the soundtrack. It is extremely well-written and produced, and adds much to the spookiness of the environment. It is non-repetitive and won’t grate on your nerves after the first few minutes of play. One thing that I always check at the start of game play is the Options area. I do not usually like to play games in Full Screen mode on my PC, as I usually have other things going on at the same time. I was happy to see that Rake In Grass included that all important Screen Mode choice in their options, allowing me to play in a smaller window.  For those who do not like gore in their games, it’s also possible to turn off the gore. I happen to like gore, so that control remained active.

The purpose of Larva Mortus is to send the player on a quest to find all of the pieces of a missing artifact which, if put back together and activated will unleash an untold horror on civilization. Nothing like adding a little pressure to the game. While is there a sort-of-tutorial-styled introduction, this intro is also used to level up your character. Levelling is required before the main quest can be

NASTY GIANT SPIDERS

started; new level ranks are shown as a star over the Player Profile icon – and the screen also displays a text message when you have achieved the next level.

The developers have given the player a myriad of weaponry to use – from swords and crossbows to pistols, machine guns and my personal favourite, the flamethrower. Also on hand are sticks of dynamite for blowing up those pesky hordes. Almost every room also contains crates, barrels, chests and coffins which are destructible and contain items. Each of the weapons are easy to see, and have their “equip key” number listed next to them on the UI, along with the amount of ammo available. I also like that each equipped weapon shows how many bullets are available in the round before you need to reload. Or, you may want to reload sooner if there is a small break in the enemy spawns.The UI is well designed, and has all of the important information is easily viewed by the player. Extra information such as quests, trophies and the armoury are also easy to take a look at.

Each map is randomly generated, which adds a nice bit of challenge to the fact that if you die, you won’t immediately be facing the same map with the same enemies. I found this to keep any possible tedium at bay, as each level seemed fresh. Not that I died a lot. It was just something I noted when I did happen to die once or twice on my way to defeat the end-level bosses. Some of whom I found to be a challenge to obliterate.

As is normal in most games, the further the player advances in the missions, the more challenging the levels become – and those monsters just seem to get worse and worse. Also, each room must be fully cleared of enemies, or they will re-spawn should you have to return to that room during your

LET THERE BE ZOMBIES

trip through the map. The game will alert you once each room has been cleared, and thankfully the developers happily hand over the appropriate weaponry required to defeat the creepy guys. Each room on the map which has been cleared will appear grey. I think that my least favourite characters in the game were the flaming pigs. They ranked right up there with the giant spiders. At least character health regenerated reasonably fast, and it was possible to let your character heal before entering the next room if you didn’t manage to snag a health kit as a kill-drop.

There are several cinematic breaks in the game which explain the story and give pertinent information to the player. Instead of being graphics-heavy, the cut scenes are artfully done in 2D, and as such did not lag my poor old desktop. It’s not often these days when I can find an enjoyable game which runs easily on my 5 year old PC and doesn’t freeze it or wreak havoc with its lag-inducing graphics. Kudos to Rake In Grass for that.

Some other points which I like about Larva Mortus are the loads of player achievements (trophies) and power-ups which are available. Each of the trophies does something special – usually adding to your XP and getting you closer to the next level. Some do other things, like the Clover Leaf which adds to the player’s luck. This was another point which I liked – being able to a lot points to certain areas of skill. The one thing I did not figure out how to do – or if it’s even possible – is to move those skill points around from one trait to another.

All in all, I have no qualms about recommending Larva Mortus to other gamers – even those who may not be fans of the “god-view” style of play. The controls work well, and are standard for most PC games, which makes them easy to use and understand, even for beginners. The only real improvement I’d like to see is the ability to investigate the rooms further – there are many posters, books and shelving units strewn about the levels, and I think it would add another layer of interest for the player if those items could be read for clues or additions to the story. Overall, I give this game a 9.5/10. Give me clues to read and examine (and remember) along the way, and it would be a 10/10.

Minimum requirements

Windows XP/Vista
1.5 GHz Processor
256 MB RAM
OpenGL compatible 128 MB graphics card
DirectX compatible audio card
55 MB of available hard disk space

In this sequel to Mystery Case Files: Ravenhearst, players again take on the role of a Master Detective trying to unravel the evil mysteries which inhabit the old Ravenhearst Manor. Picking up where Ravenhearst left off, the story revolves around the fate of yet more ghosts who are still trapped in the eerie mansion.

The tone for Return to Ravenhearst is set right from the opening frames of the game. A moody and haunting soundtrack, complete with timely sound effects lets the gamer know that this chapter in the franchise is not going to be a pleasant jaunt through the park. The game’s environmental artists have developed an atmosphere that exudes creepiness – everything from the artfully created lighting to triggered animations immerses the player into the mood of the story.

To advance through the game, the player must not only find all of the necessary hidden objects, but also remember where certain objects were needed and solve a wide variety of puzzles. All of the puzzles and hidden object screens offer varying levels of difficulty. I found myself alternating between easily solved hidden object sectors and some which took a lot of looking to find the listed objects.

The wide variety of puzzles make use of several areas of thought – some are based on logic, others on math, and still others are sequential and seem to depend on trial and error (at least, that is what worked for me). The puzzles often offer hints which are cleverly blended into the artwork, and if the gamer is paying attention as well as taking in the entire screen, the solutions needed can often be found.

The developers have also integrated a cheeky hint dialogue, which at times pokes fun at the gamer when mistakes are made in the use of objects or when taking closer looks at how to obtain an object. One of my favourites is along the lines of “do you think you’re playing a game?”

I feel that Return to Ravenhearst has advanced the Hidden Object Puzzle genre by leaps and bounds through the use of sensory stimulation. This game is so immersive that it is easy to become hooked on the gameplay and feel as though you really are creeping around a haunted mansion – particularly when you are studying a room and see a shadow move through the room or past a window. With over 150 different areas of investigation, Return to Ravenhearst is guaranteed to keep the player engaged for many hours of sleuthing fun. I give this game a rating of 10 out of 10, as it truly is a great game and once again shows without a doubt why the Mystery Case Files is such a hugely popular franchise.

Also available from Big Fish Games is the full strategy guide and original soundtrack.

System Requirements:

OS: Windows XP/Vista
CPU: 800 Mhz
RAM: 512 MB
DirectX: 7.0
Hard Drive: 347 MB

Mind over Mutant is the latest addition to the Crash Bandicoot franchise from Vancouver’s Radical Entertainment, and the general consensus among those of us at the Village Gamer HQ who played the 360 version over the holidays is that “Crash rocks!”

The plot line for Mind Over Mutant requires Crash to save his friends and everyone else from the evil clutches of the nasty Dr. Neo Cortex and the equally warped Dr. Nitrus Brio. The squabbling and delusional duo have released a new device called the “NV” on the Bandicoot world, a mind controlling unit which bears an odd resemblance to today’s real world mobile devices. The NV has not only affected Crash’s sister CoCo and his best-friend Crunch, but also each of the Titan “clans” which also populate Crash’s world.

Mind Over Mutant is full of player achievement objectives, ranging from health and skill upgrades for Crash and his small army of Mutant Titans to missions, side-missions and treasure hunts. Skills and health can also be upgraded by collecting mojo jewels, while main mission objectives are obtained from characters in the story. Completing percentages of the game results in achievement awards, and some objectives which can only be successful through co-op play.

While the co-op areas can be accomplished with one player using two controllers, we found it far more fun to actually play co-operatively. Other achievements throughout the game include unlockable skins (or costumes) for Crash and art collections. The art collection featuring fan art must have thrilled the many young artists whose work was included, and I feel this was a very special and thoughtful way to thank Crash Bandicoot fans.

The writing, artwork and level design is very well done. Crash’s world is full of bright colours and highly detailed environments, while the writing is humourous with an abundance of subtle pop culture references – including consumerism, gas prices, blogs and conspiracy theories. There are also cut scenes which emulate both DragonBall Z and South Park. My favourite “baddie” dying exclamation in the entire game is “I was on the grassy knoll!” While younger players will not understand some of the references, I frequently got a good chuckle while sending enemies into oblivion.

Inside Crash’s Wumpa Island home, players can rummage through his costume trunk (reminiscent of Mr. Dressup’s Tickle Trunk) to view and change Crash’s attire, flip through the art album, view information about the game’s characters or watch unlocked cinematics on the big screen TV. The ability to look at character information is especially important to those who are working towards full health and skill upgrades on all of the playable characters, as well as information about the enemies found throughout the game.

Puzzles, challenges and objectives throughout the game range in difficulty from very easy to quite challenging. I like the addition of these features, as it increases the amount of game play and thought the gamer must put into advancing further through the game. Some of the puzzles need to be solved to complete a mission, while timed challenges test the player’s ability to control Crash and collect items such as treasure chests before time runs out. The employ of these challenges makes the game more than just a “kill-through” to get to the end and forces the player to devise strategies. Participating in these challenges also affords more opportunity to catch glimpses of hidden areas of the game environment where such items as dolls and golden apples may be awaiting collection.

Following through from Crash of the Titans, our hero is able to defeat the Titan Mutants and “jack” them by jumping on their backs. Each of these Titans has a special power, and like Crash’s skills, they can be upgraded by collecting the mojo jewels. Some areas of the game require certain the skills of certain Titans to play through, and while the appropriate Titan is often waiting for Crash, there are times when the player will have to backtrack through the game and find the correct Titan, then return to that area and play through. These areas are not always pertinent to mission-related play, but always lead to something special – either a golden apple, a doll or bonus mojo jewels.

Crash does have the ability to stash two Titans, so this can make those special areas easier to beat, but sometimes the player will have to remember where those extra areas are because he or she does not have the right Titans in Crash’s pocket. Some people found this annoying – I found that it increased game play and required further thought and planning. While it would be nice to be able to stash more than two mutants, I wouldn’t want the ability to stash them all, because that would take away from the game play.

In fact, the only game play feature that I would have appreciated was a movable camera – but even then I wouldn’t want it to be entirely mobile, because that too would take away from the challenge of the game. Just having the ability to centre the camera behind Crash would be enough, especially in areas where backtracking was required. Additionally, I would’ve liked a longer over-all main mission objective, but again, playing all of the side objective and striving to win all of the achievements and upgrades in the game does extend the game’s play-through time. Crash Bandicoot: Mind Over Mutant is a game that I would definitely recommend to others as it meets many of my requirements for a good game – playability, strategy, good writing, excellent level design and likeable characters. Kudos to the team at Radical Entertainment for developing, in my opinion, a fun and enjoyable new chapter in the Crash Bandicoot series.

All game images remain the property of Radical Entertainment and Activision Publishing.

Format: Wii (also available for Nintendo DS, Mobile, PS2, PS3, PC, X360)
Release Date: November 11, 2008
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Treyarch
Official Website: http://www.callofduty.com
ESRB Rating: M – Mature 17+

Introduction

Call of Duty (COD): World at War (WAW) is a very intense, brutal and addicting game that can be played with two players or with friends and strangers via Wi-Fi connection. Although the game is rated M for Mature, WAW does a very good job of not exaggerating the blood, violence, and language; however, I would recommend waiting for the kids to go to bed before playing this one.

Beginning

Picking up the campaign section of the game (if you haven’t played the other COD games) was very simple. The game gives you hints as you go along on how to master the skills needed for the mission you are playing. I used the Wii zapper for this game, which did make it much easier to aim and shoot. The down side of the zapper was it made it harder to quickly throw back grenades and to drop mounted weapons in order to run away from grenades. I took off the zapper for a period of time, and found myself doing much worse – I decided to stick with the zapper for this one.

For The Light Gamer

If you are just a light gamer (like myself) and feel like your gaming skills lack, don’t be too worried. Yes this game will pose a challenge for you, but don’t get discouraged. The game works on checkpoints and objectives completed, so just because you die, doesn’t mean you have to start all over again. Some checkpoints are harder to reach than others, but there is a strategy for everything, and usually more than one that works.

For The Heavy Gamer

If you game more than average, pick up on maps easy, have a steady hand, and really know what you are doing, World At War will give you a challenge as well. I played the game on recruit mode, which numbed a lot of it down for myself, but the equivalent of the expert mode will pose a large challenge to you. Surviving a mission in expert mode without being killed once is like storming the beaches of Normandy with 6 people and surviving.

Story Line And Graphics

The storyline of the game was not coherent in my opinion, bringing you from the War in the Pacific to the War in the Europe. The plus side of this is that the clips are short which gives you more time to play, and less time watching video clips. If you aren’t one for story lines, then this game is probably for you. It tells you quickly (15-30 second clips) where you are, and what is going on in your mission. The graphics and video clips related with the story really take you back into the time period, and show you real clips from the war.

WI-FI Gaming

The Wi-Fi multiplayer section of this game is just as fun, if not more fun than the campaign itself! There are promotions to be earned, XP to gain, guns to unlock, challenges to conquer, and special perks to posses. This section of the game is very thrilling! If you’re playing against a friend or just a random stranger, it doesn’t matter it is just as fun. The main objectives are obviously to kill and not be killed, but just because you got shot doesn’t mean it’s over. You keep spawning until the game time of ten minutes expires. There are several different maps that you and your team can vote to fight in, and they are the appropriate size for the type of battling you are doing. This section of the game can stick you to the edge of your seat hours.

Overall

Overall, the game could improve its story line coherency, but its clips make up for that. This is one game that can really get addicting and hard to pull away from if you like a lot of action. Once it goes on, hours could pass before you realize how long you have been playing in both the campaign and multiplayer tiers. The multiplayer wi-fi gaming section is really thrilling and extremely intense. This game would be good for those who want a good war game, like to shoot and blow things up, and like a good challenge.

Puzzlegeddon features an inventive mix of puzzle, action and strategy. Select your island of choice and puzzle for resources to defend yourself and to defeat opponents throughout the many galaxies, game modes and challenges which await you in Puzzlegeddon.

When I was asked to review this game I had never heard of it or even seen any screenshots; I wasn’t sure what to expect. So when I read how the game functions, I was quite impressed. The main goal of the game is to defeat your opponents by solving a puzzle of different colors. As you solve the puzzle you will earn different resources to use against your opponents and decrease their health. Along with those resources that do damage to your opponent, there are also resources you can collect to protect yourself.

When you jump right into the game, you’ll have a good feeling of comfort thinking you have played games similar to this one. I had that feeling — I was very wrong, fortunately. I played a few rounds solving the puzzle and found out that I was losing when I clearly thought I was winning. Of course, I’m a guy, so I don’t read the directions! After reading the directions I found out that you can battle against your opponents and try to kill them with resources you earn by breaking certain colors together. Well, after I found that out I was all set!

The game offers a single and multi-player mode which both offer great game play, multi-player especially. We all know how single player mode works, so I’m just going to give you a quick run down of how the multi-player works. You can either set up your own game or join another game created by another person. If you create or join one you will have the option to communicate with the other players through a small chat screen at the bottom of the playing screen. Of course there is no talking while the game is going on. Everyone is too busy crushing their opponents! Another great feature of multi-player mode is if you create a game, you can moderate the game. This gives you the ability to kick out a player who is being disruptive or just being plain rude. Good idea, right?

Using single player mode is quite simple! You select your game mode (Death match or Battle Royale), the time limit (5-60 minutes), number of bots (Easy, Medium, or Hard), and then finally you can alter the modifiers which control how the game will play. Will players slowly regenerate health? Will weaker players withstand more damage? You can set all of this in the modifiers panel. Once your game is set up you start playing against the bots. If you feel the bots are too hard to battle against, you can always kick some of them out with the moderator options.

Overall, I was very impressed with the game play. If you want to know how addicting this game can be, listen to this. I opened this game for the first time and started playing. I’m playing for about an hour and soon decided to shut the game off and get some other work done. To my surprise, I actually played 4 hours. Time flew by that day! Needless to say I didn’t get all of the work I needed to get done that day. So kudos to Pieces Interactive! This is the first casual puzzle game I have played in a long time that has kept me hooked for hours on end.

Puzzle games are not really my thing, I get bored easily matching shapes or colours or putting numbers in some sequence; so when I was asked to review Puzzlegeddon I was kind of dubious to try it. After setting up my profile I decided to run through the tutorial, usually I regret doing this but not with Puzzlegeddon; the tutorial was informative, concise and you didn’t have to wait forever while some character told you what to do. A quick look at the puzzle board reveals squares of four colours, and placing five or more of them together and right clicking causes them to clear. On top of the puzzle are four meters of matching colours that fill up as you clear tiles from the board.

A quick run through the tutorial and I was off to try and beat the evil robots in a single player game. I chose a short timed game with two easy robots for opponents and it was a very quick game, my colour matching skills aren’t quite up to par it seems. That first game, although quick was very helpful. Filling up each of the meters to different levels yields new and exciting ways to blast your opponents to oblivion! Of course filling up other ones save you from being blown into little pieces yourself. Finally I won against the two easy robots so I thought I would put in one hard robot to go with the two easy ones; there was nothing left of me put a few pieces of dust blowing somewhere in the wind a few miles away. Looks like it’s going to take some practice before I’m ready for him.

When you are defeated, there is a mini-puzzle that you can defeat to get back into the game, assuming there is time left and the game doesn’t end first. These puzzles were much harder than the main puzzle but still a lot of fun. The only thing I didn’t really like about this is that they were fairly dark. I would expect it to be darker and not the bright colours of the main game but a few times I had to lean closer to the monitor to be able to see what was on some of the tiles.

Puzzlegeddon is an amazingly well done game and is extremely easy to get hooked on. If you can get past the first game or two then you will be playing late into the night (or morning as my case was). The second time I played the game, I figured I would play for a few hours and then go do the rest of the things I had to do for the day. It didn’t work out nearly that way, after playing for nearly 8 hours I finally managed to close the game and get started on the other things that had to be done. I haven’t had a chance to play the multi-player games yet but I can only imagine how much fun it will be to play against people instead of bots. If you don’t see me around, you’ll know right where to fine me, launching missiles at my friends!

MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

OS: Windows® 2000 / XP / Vista™
CPU: 1 GHz Intel® Pentium® processor or AMD® Athlon™ processor
RAM: 512 MB (1 GB recommended for Windows® Vista™)
Video: 64 MB DirectX® 9.0c compatible or better video card
PC CD-ROM: 4x (or PC DVD-ROM drive)
Sound: DirectX® 9.0c compatible sound card
Available Hard Disk Space: 2 GB
DirectX®: 9.0c
Other: Mouse, Keyboard and Speakers

Belief & Betrayal is a point and click third person adventure puzzle game. While outside of my usual gaming comfort zone, I was intrigued by the premise of the title. As anyone who knows me is aware, I am a research addict, and historic mysteries are one of my favourite research topics.

The storyline opens with our main character, journalist Jonathan Danter preparing for a trip to Florida, where he will be interviewing Cardinal Gregorio, a seemingly questionable representative of the Vatican. While preparing for the trip, Jonathan receives a disturbing call from Scotland Yard. The caller, an Inspector Twining, tells Jonathan that his uncle has been murdered and that he is afraid Jonathan’s life may be in danger. Jonathan argues with the officer, stating that his uncle had died ten years previous, but the Inspector insists that Jonathan come immediately to London. Almost as soon as he arrives in England our young hero is thrust into the secret world of ancient societies and intrigue.

He quickly finds out – much to his disbelief and chagrin that his uncle had faked his death due to his involvement with a secret Vatican police force – and there had been several other unsolved murders related to this secret service and a society known as The Legacy. After an interview with Inspector Twining, Jonathan visits his uncle’s apartment where he begins to search for clues about what his uncle was working on. It is during this visit that Jonathan meets with a shady Scotland Yard detective who appears to be involved in the murders – as the murderer – and a young lady named Kat who works for The Legacy, who rescues Jonathan from the deadly detective. Jonathan then becomes involved with The Legacy, searching across Europe for clues to the mystery, finding the answers in Chartres, France.

Throughout the game, you are given the ability to play as several different characters, each with missions to complete. The characters are able to communicate using a secret device which allows the sending of short movies, photos and emails. The controls and game features such as the inventory, journal and main menu are intuitive and easy to use. Sound effects, music and vocal levels can be manually set; one feature I like to see in any game I play is the option to not play at full screen. Unfortunately Belief and Betrayal does not offer that option.

While I enjoyed the premise of the game as well as playing the game – everyone loves a good mystery – I was at times put off with the slow gameplay. I did learn early on to thoroughly search locations, but I sometimes found it equally frustrating to have to repeatedly click on an area to find what I needed, particularly in the darker scenes. I also felt that the voice-acting for our main character did not fit his description – he is supposed to be a fast-living, hard-core journalist but I found his voice to have been more fitting for a teen-aged skateboarder and just not believable.

The storyline itself seemed to have small holes in it, and conclusions were reached without adequately covering how that conclusion was reached, while sometimes characters were sent on small missions which were pointless, such as Kat’s fruitless search for a hotel in Chartres. If more detail had been added in regards to fully utilizing the locations and a fuller storyline, I think this game would have taken me much longer than it did to play through and I would’ve enjoyed it much more.

I truly appreciated the artistry which had gone into the game environment – the details and realism put into the building architecture and features such as the frescoes was phenomenal. I would’ve definitely liked to have seen more storyline taking advantage of these fantastic locations. The attention to historical detail and the research which went into this game is very apparent and worthy of high marks. I also enjoyed the music tracks played throughout the game; they were neither overdone nor repetitive and irritating as has been the case in similar games. In fact I found the music to be very well written, layered and produced.

With so much attention paid to the details of the environment, it was disappointing that the plot-line and characters weren’t as well developed as I felt they could have been. Many times the characters appeared out of sync with their surroundings and what they were supposed to be doing, and handed each other invisible objects. That said, I enjoyed solving each of the puzzles in their turn – some of them were quite imaginative and took a bit of thought to solve – again, I just wish there had been more of them, and a way to increase the re-playability of the title. All in all, I did enjoy the sum of all the parts which came together to form the full game experience. Belief and Betrayal makes for a few hours of puzzling diversion, and may perhaps even encourage some of its players to learn more about the intriguing nature of the Golden Ratio, Chartres and the other historical references introduced during game play.

Spore is the first of its kind for the simulation genre of video games. Playing this game takes you through the journey of being a small little cell fighting for survival slowly evolving into an actual creature that will allow you to create a tribe, civilization, and even as far as outreaching to space. I guess the sky isn’t the limit with this game.

The interface for Spore is very easy to use. A simple drag and drop interface is used for creating creatures and objects of all types. The possibilities are endless! When in a 3D world, normal WASD keys can be used to navigate as well as the mouse. The true test was to see if I could use WASD, Click-Navigation, and Mouse-Navigation — this game passes that test! You can use all 3 traditional navigation methods.

A big part of this game is the artificial intelligence. Your own creature has AI as well as your enemies and allies. One of the cool concepts I love about this game is your ability to make friends or foe. You can approach another creature that knows nothing about you. If you sing to it, you can make friends. If you bite it, it’s going to bite back and be a foe. So what if there’s a creature that you approach that already doesn’t like you? Simple! You can either be mean to it and kill it off or you could be the better creature and make friends with it. How cool is that?

Along with the artificial intelligence, choice plays a big role in the game also. I don’t think you could possibly play the game and get the same outcome multiple times. For example, when you create your first creature you start out as either a herbivore or carnivore. If you select a carnivore creature and put a mouth that can filter feed plant organisms you can alter your diet habits into an omnivore. Another example is how your species is ranked. Is it a friendly species or is it a angry species? It all depends on how you interact with other creatures.

So how about those graphics? They’re pretty cool actually. There is a certain level of realism along with a certain level of cartoony feeling. There are many different visual settings that you can set to really polish off the look of the game. The game even comes equipped with a depth of field and blur setting! That’s the first time I’ve ever seen those types of settings, personally.

The animations used in this game have been a huge selling-point for it — even before the first screenshots were released. Each creature you create has procedural animation. What does this mean? Simply that, “your creatures and vehicles move based on how you construct them. They behave and interact based on your input and by their in-game encounters. That means there’s no pre-determined path you must follow; the game evolves based on your decisions.” It’s pretty cool seeing your creatures come to life as you create them. I can’t much explain this anymore; you’ll just have to play it to experience this one for yourself.

The music is very limited in this game — the most you hear is sound effects and voice sounds coming from the creatures you create. Creatures make a lot of vowel sounds. Lots of “Oohs”, “Aahs”, and “waka wakas.” I found this to actually be slightly annoying. There’s not many variations of these sounds so you hear them repeatedly over and over! It just makes me want to turn on my own music and mute the game completely. This is my personal opinion though.

Of course there’s online playing! Unlike most games, this one only connects to the servers to grab different creatures. So instead of playing in real-time with someone in California or Germany, you’re just playing the characters from other people in California or Germany for example. I really wish they would let us play in real-time, though.

Overall, I give this game a rating of 5/5 stars! The developers did a very nice job with this game and I was very impressed with it from the press release to the actual game-play.

System Requirements:

FOR WINDOWS XP
* 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
* 512 MB RAM
* A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
* At least 6 GB of hard drive space

FOR WINDOWS VISTA
* 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
* 768 MB RAM
* A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
* At least 6 GB of hard drive space

System Requirements:
OS: Microsoft® Windows® 98/NT/Me/XP/Vista/2000
CPU: 733 MHz
RAM: 128 MB
Hard Drive: 30 MB
Graphics: DirectX 7 or later

WARNING: Do not play this game when scheduled to work the next day! You’re never going to leave this game alone once you start. From the developer of Tetris®, Alexy Pajitnov has teamed up with WildSnake™ Software to bring you Alexy’s Dwice. With this action puzzle game, you’ll find a whole new level of casual gaming.

^{From WildSnake™ Software’s Website:}

“Alexey’s Dwice is a game of action matching where you are on a race against the clock to save a village from an impending avalanche. Match together the icy blocks that are the same shape or isolate them from their chilly friends to eliminate them from the board. Move fast because more blocks are always sliding down the mountain. Collect special power ups, like explosives, fire lines, and ice picks to help clear the blocks.”

When you start the game you will see a set up similar to Tetris. (See screenshot.) Various shapes and colors of icy looking blocks start falling down towards the three homes which represent an avalanche heading towards a small village. It is your job to match the shapes and colors to eliminate them from the avalanche before it hits the village. As a minimum requirement to eliminate the blocks out of the avalanche, you must match the shapes – it doesn’t matter what colors you match up as long as the shapes are the same. Now, if you match the shape and colors, you will get bonus points. Want to score even more bonus points? Go ahead and match the same shapes and colors multiple times in a row to gain huge points!

I was surprised as to how addicting this game became. You start out at a relatively slow and easy pace with level one. As you progress through the game there are more shapes, colors, and the speed of the avalanche falling increases. Of course there are bonus blocks that you can melt to slow down, burn, or ice pick away the avalanche. I started getting into the harder levels of the game and I couldn’t put it down. I kept telling myself, “Just one more level.” There is something about the increasing speeds and difficulty level of finding matches that keeps you going. Pretty predictable coming from the creator of Tetris®, right?

So I’ve been going on and on about how this game plays, but I’ve failed to even tell you about the arcade mode that you can play. Arcade mode is never-ending. You’re basically competing against the clock as far as you can to hold off the avalanche. Once you’ve lost the round you can optionally submit your score on an online score-board which displays worldwide statistics of other player’s scores.

I thought long and hard as to what I thought this game was missing. I feel that the game was very well put together as it is right now, but I knew there was something missing from it. My long thought process pulled together that maybe the developers could have added an online multiplayer mode where you could compete against someone else online. There are already statistics online of top scores, so why not take it one step further and let you literally compete against someone in real-time, right?

Overall I would recommend this game to anyone who likes challenging puzzle games. It’s very well put together, challenging, addicting, and has the support from many gamers across the world. Go ahead and download the trial and give your go at it! Once you start, you’ll never want to quit.

Developer: Codeminion
Demo: 60 minute trial
Platform: PC
Genre: Casual Match 3 Puzzle
Official Game Site: Saqqarah – note, parts are still under development
Price: $19.95 USD instant download 26mb

System Requirements:

OS: Windows Vista/XP/2000/ME/98
CPU: 800 Mhz
RAM: 256 MB
Hard Drive: 45 MB
Graphics: DirectX 8
Sound Card

All Screenshots in this review are the property of and copyright to Codeminion.

Saqqarah is a truly beautiful game – the amount of detail the designers have put into the UI and levels for this game is incredible. Everything about Saqqarah is pleasing to the senses – the soundtrack is very fitting for the setting of the game, and is actually something I could listen to all on its own. The puzzles are challenging without being impossible, and the methodology used to solve them is easy to learn. The characters in the game are helpful and amusing – I love how the little scarab rests against a pillar in between levels. You can even learn little bits about Egypt’s past throughout the game.

The game begins with a brief cinematic – this is another thing that I like about Saqqarah – players are given the option of skipping all cinematics if they so choose, but they are so well done, I watched them all. The purpose of the game is to help Khufu restore the power of the Egyptian gods, which you do by completing all of the puzzles. Khufu is a magical blue monkey who assists players throughout the game. He offers tips, some magical power-ups and a few jokes too.

The Quest of Saqqarah takes you through the seven temples of the gods and goddesses – Isis, Horus, Bast, Anubis, Thot, Osiris and Sobek. Once you complete the first four levels and the bonus game you are given a key to unlock the next temple. You can come back to the other temples at any time. When you enter each temple, you learn about the god or goddess who resides there. Each temple holds a different style of match 3 puzzle. Some may take a little time to figure out, but they are not impossible to learn. Sweeper the Scarab also helps you out during gameplay by gathering up token pieces and increasing your “shuffle power” which can be used to shuffle the tokens as well break token obstacles.

There are several player achievements to win along the way as well, such as coin collecting, destroying puzzle obstacles, high scores, completing a certain number of puzzles in a row without running out of time, and more. With 7 different puzzle styles, 3 levels of difficulty and 500 puzzle maps, this game is very much worth the purchase price. There will also be further downloadable levels and add-ons for Saqqarah in the future, adding to the value of this game.

If you do get stuck, Khufu is there to offer hints and encouragement. Upon completion of each stage within a temple, you need to catch the scarabs to harness their power in order to restore the statutes. The statue is fully restored when you complete all of the puzzles within each respective temple.  The Ancient Quest of Saqqarah is destined to be another winning title for Codeminion – well done!

Okay now that I have beat Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords from Infinite, here are my thoughts on it.

The controls work well – it’s about 99% stylus controlled. The music is annoying – but it’s one of the few games I can play without the sound turned on, so that’s good.

For a DS game, the map is quite large with lots of cities to get quests from and to lay siege to. The more cities you “own” the faster you can easily get a lot of money, as the residents have to pay a tithe each month. Of course they can also stage a rebellion so you have to go back and siege the city again. Battles are waged against opponents following the Bejeweled model – drop down gems which increase your mana when you match three, four or five sets. You can also get wildcards, which multiply the mana you gain. You attack your opponents by matching skulls. Some skulls have higher power and do more damage. You can also use spells to heal, protect and do damage.

Once you battle various enemies and animals a certain number of times – usually three, you have the option of beating them in battle and capturing them if you win. The animals, such as the Giant Rat, Giant Spider, Griffon, etc. can become pets which also give you a specialized spell – for example, the Griffon adds the spell Death Dive to your list of talents. You can also get around the map faster by riding a fast pet such as the Griffon. In order to capture an enemy or pet, you have to beat a puzzle – you match the gems until you’ve cleared the screen. As with other activities in this game, the puzzles range from very easy to almost unsolvable.

You can visit your Citadel from either the main city of Bartonia or from any city which you’ve captured. You can buy improvements for your citadel, such as a dungeon. You can’t capture any enemies until you build a dungeon. You can also build the equivalent of a library, where you can go to learn spells from the enemies you’ve captured. In order to obtain pets, you need to build a stable. You can also purchase skill levels to improve either areas of magic (air, earth, water, fire), your battle strength, your cunning (spell smarts), and morale (health). As you gain experience, you can level up to a cap of 50. This also increases the amount of health points you have.

You can shop from any city, buying bits of armour, weapons and other mystical charms. You can also visit the tavern and listen to rumours. Some are free, some you have to pay for. They give both background on the story line or give you important clues on how to defeat enemies.

Also throughout the game you meet companions. They all have quests which you need to complete in order to get them to join your party. Each companion has a special skill to assist you in your battles. For example Drong the Orc has a huge appetite and will bite your opponent. Another companion will shoot a bunch of arrows into your enemy, and the dragon companion will distract any enemies which can fly.

I like games with quests, and I like games with the drop down gem matching, so we’re good to go in that area. When researching skills, you’re given a set number of gems you need to obtain by matching them. You also need to obtain and match scrolls. In order to get a scroll, you have to match sets of 4 or 5 gems. Matching 5 gems gives you two scrolls. You then need to move them together so that they match like the gems do. Some spells are very easy to learn, some are moderate while others are hard or very hard. The harder the spell is rated to “learn” the harder it is to make it through the gem screen without running out of moves. If you run out of moves, you fail to learn the spell and have to start over again. During regular enemy battles if you run out of moves, all mana is drained (yours and your enemy’s) and you have to start rebuilding it.

Another area of challenge for you is to search for runes at various locations around the map. You do this by challenging the resident Rune Master. If you defeat the Master then you gain a rune which has a specific power. These runes can be used to forge weapons and armour – but only if you’ve built a forge in your Citadel.

There wasn’t really anything about the game I didn’t like, except that some enemies seemed to build up their mana awfully fast, as well as have some pretty incredible match runs. It was a real trial and error method for finding which combination of spells worked best, as well as which armour provided adequate protection while ideally reflecting damage back at the enemy (mirror armour). Overall, for anyone who likes Bejeweled style games, I would say give it a go.

Well — now that I’ve beat this on the DS, it must be time to try it on the 360, seeing as it’s available for download in the Xbox Arcade.

The first hour I was playing, I felt very at home with it. I was rapidly getting used to the steering wheel which my Wii-mote fit right into. With this, I can actually guide my go-kart along the race track! Just using this steering wheel you all ready feel like you’re having fun. Of course, those of us who have played all the previous versions of Mario Kart will immediately want to jump right into the race track that we all know from previous games. Nintendo was gracious enough to include some previous popular tracks in this latest version. How cool is that?! Alongside the old tracks are new tracks that are catered around other Nintendo games and previous Mario games. (e.g. Super Mario Sunshine.)

The controls are so easy to use and very natural feeling. With your newly purchased game, you receive a plastic steering wheel that your Wii-mote will fit right into. Using this device you can feel like you’re truly steering your vehicle around on the track. While this new concept really does require you to get a feel for, after no time you will be driving like a pro. Essentially you can just use the Wii-mote by itself without the steering wheel, but remember it’s going to feel a lot less comfortable sitting in your hands as just the Wii-mote itself.

Nintendo did a very good job at updating the graphics. There’s a huge facelift with this game and it was needed. The game, of course, has been kept in the same cartoon style. All characters have an updated appearance and are clearer to the eye and are more believable. The interface got a nice glassy finish and is structured more easily for navigation throughout menus. The graphics are not drop dead stunning, but I think they are much better than all previous games. Some effects used in the game do not slow the frame rate down at all either. I’ve noticed Nintendo in other games have mistakenly made their effects bring frame rates down to a noticeable drag. This isn’t the case with Mario Kart Wii.

All of the Mario Kart fans out there are going to hear a lot of recognizable songs and sounds in this version. A lot of the previous games music has been scored to a more modern feel. From what I noticed, every sound effect is from previous versions except with an updated feel to them. Like I have said previously, you will really start to feel at home with this game when you start playing and listening to music and sound effects.

I’m sure you’re wondering what the replay ability is like. Sure, you have your tracks that you can compete on against a computer or friends. Nintendo did pack in a nice feature that, I think, Mario Kart will greatly benefit from. Online play! You can compete with friends on your Wii Friend list or take it a step further and play regionally by your country. If that doesn’t satisfy you, start playing globally! I think this will greatly make the game playable for years to come.

Mario Kart Wii shows you that Nintendo has really been listening to its fans and putting in content that the fans wanted. I would highly suggest getting this game for your home collection. The game play is natural and exciting, music and sound is top notch, graphics are greatly improved, and there’s online competing! I would give this game a 5/5 stars. Now go out and buy it if you haven’t all ready done so! Shame on you for not having it yet!

This game is maddeningly addictive. I opened it up expecting to just take a quick tour, try a few levels to check out the game play, and here I am two hours later writing my review. I finally found the strength to end the game, even though I really wanted to unlock that last volcano level in Survival Mode.

StoneLoops, a game from Polish indie game developer Codeminion is a refreshingly new twist on the “match three or more” puzzle genre occupied by other casual games such as Luxor and Zuma. I found everything about the game to be pleasing – except the failing to clear a level part, that is. The graphics are very well done, with attention paid to detail, depth and colour. The audio soundtrack is a very nice tribal, monastic style combining orchestration with haunting vocals, matching the game atmosphere very well. The entire theme of the game has been carefully thought through, with bits of humour mixed in if you take the time to check trophy descriptions and other subtle graphics.

Power ups and achievements are plentiful, and as you work your way up the level maps you can win improvements for your jungle houses – you can own up to five houses throughout the various geographic areas of the maps. The geography of the maps ranges from jungle and desert to glaciers and volcanoes, with each area richly textured. There are three different play modes – Survival, Strategy and Classic. There are 75 levels to play through as you add to your houses and trophy collection, so while this game is in the casual genre, it is not a game which you can rush through to the end. This factor alone is another notation on the plus side, because there are far too many casual games on the market which have a short play-through time and are lacking in a desire to play through the game again. StoneLoops is definitely not one of those games. I will be playing through this product – or at least trying to – for quite some time yet.

Another feature which I prefer to have in my games is the ability to play at either full screen or small screen. While in small screen mode, if you move your cursor away from the game window it is instantly paused, something I appreciate very much in a game design because this makes it easier for the player to multi-task.

Every aspect of this game shows that the developers cared about their end product, from the little dinosaur holding the scoreboard to the gems appearing as if they really are being rolled along by the scarabs. This is the first title I’ve tried from Codeminion, and if StoneLoops is any indicator of their game quality, I will definitely be checking into their other titles.

I highly recommend this game, and give it a 10 out of 10 rating.

Images are Copyright -2008 Codeminion