But, all things aside I finished in the top 20 (tied 17th) which is not bad at all. My other two highest finishes were when I placed 4th at NJIT, and 3rd at an admittedly low-turnout King of the Couch in Morristown. I can confidently say that my play has improved from last year. I don’t wake up unsafely as much I used to. I still have my issues with defense (I get grabbed easily and my blocking isn’t fully solid yet) however I have gotten better at avoiding some situations. On the other side of the coin, my offense has experienced the same growth. I am trying to make the transition from being a brawler to a more refined fighter. Yes, it’s a slow one with no real metric in which to measure your success, but I’ve noticed I have been winning a bit more in ranked matches online.

I finally made a return to Next Level for the big Two tournament series. I get there, I’m excited to play, but then, just my luck, I get to play a Spam ‘Rog and his cheap El Fuerte on stream . Overall, I didn’t do too bad, but I see that the potential here. I looked way better here than I did at Apex, but I’m still too inconsistent. I missed a few key punishes but I reacted well in some situations. If you’re wondering how I did in the overall tournament, I was blown up I haven’t gone 0-2 in a while so it was refreshing to be put down for once. That means I still have work to do, but just where do I get started?

Fortunately for me, Shoryuken has many posts on how to level up your game. I have been following them when I am in the lab, however I’ve just been playing online more to see what people are doing and get a feel of what I should be doing with my character. I just don’t feel that I have enough experience versus some characters or situations. Top players have been in some fight situations over and over again, and they just know what to do without wasting time to think about it. Me? I have to think. I’m also not able to accurately manage my meters without looking constantly. I still find myself peeking when I’m mid fight. I feel that if I can get better, more intuitive with my H.U.D. management then I can do things like make better reads on my opponent by looking at his life bar, super meter or even time with ease. I’ll also be able to mentally access my situations a bit better. I think the only cure for that is experience, so I have resolved to try and make it out to more local tournaments.

I think with more practice, I’ll build up the muscle memory required to not drop combos too often. I’ve made some progress, I just need to work out the kinks. I do not easily spook under pressure, it doesn’t affect me much, so I know that isn’t the problem. I however need to be able to take my comfortable, casual state of high-level play to tournaments. The transition seems to be giving me a hard time and I think that leads to my erratic play sometimes. I’ll keep working at it!

In any case, like always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on getting better. Tweet to me guys!

Role Optional Alerts and the Team Buff

Two of the exciting features we’re rolling out for Game Update 9 are Role Optional Alerts and the Team Buff. We have metrics that show us who is queuing for what, how long they’re waiting, and a number of other really useful things. As I’m sure you know when you queue for a Duo, you tend to get in and are able to start playing right away. Alerts are a different story, especially for those of you queuing for the damage role.

It has nothing to do with Duos only requiring two people. It’s that they require any two people. As is common in a lot of MMOs, there is a population disparity between the different roles. There are as many players queuing for Damage as there are all the other roles combined. Healers are the least common, followed by Tanks, and finally Controllers. So the end result is Healers don’t wait long at all, but Damage tends to wait much longer.

All Alerts are now role optional. Generally it shouldn’t take much more than a few minutes for an Alert queue to pop regardless of your role, assuming there are enough people willing to play that Alert. When the matchmaking system tries to form a group out of the pool of queued players it tries to form a balanced group first. As minutes pass, the system becomes increasingly less picky about finding a specific role for a given group slot.

The Role Optional Alert feature is made possible by the Team Buff. Any time three or more players are grouped together, within range, and in line of sight of one another, they gain a bonus to compensate for roles missing from their group.

If your group is missing a Tank, every group member gains additional damage mitigation.
If you’re missing a Healer, group members gain a small amount of Health regeneration when they begin to take damage and gain a further health regeneration boost while holding the block button when health is at critical levels.
If your group is missing a Controller you will gain a small amount of additional power regeneration when your power begins dipping low.

The buffs are by no means a replacement for having the actual role in your group. But with some self reliance, it will provide you with enough of a boost to allow you to complete the Alert successfully. The Team Buff is not applied in PvP arenas, during Legends matches, nor will it function during Duels.

The end result of this is that wait times to get into an Alert should be dramatically decreased. Provided players are queued, you should be able to get into an instance in a matter of minutes, no matter your role.

Novice Raids

In an effort to let more players experience more of the game, we’re launching Novice Raid modes for Game Update 9. Novice Raids are far less demanding than the Expert Raids. They are intended to allow more casual players and random pickup groups a chance to experience some of our best content they might not otherwise be able to experience.

The combat rating requirement is just a little bit lower for Novice Raids so you can hit them a little sooner than you can the Expert version. The content, play flow, and boss fights are identical but the fights themselves are much more forgiving. That’s not to say they will be a complete cake walk! You’ll still need to learn and execute properly on the mechanics of the boss fights if you want to succeed. Some may find Novice Raids are a great way to get some practice in while they are gearing up for the Expert versions.

Novice Raids do drop loot, however the loot will be of a lower item level. They also award the same badges, but you earn fewer of them. Novice Raids share the same lockout timer as Expert Raids, so you can’t earn loot and badges in both during the same week.

Some existing feats can be completed in either the Novice or Expert version of a Raid. However others such as the speed feats can only be completed in Expert mode. Finally we’ve also added new feats for completing the Expert version of a raid.

New Soder Colas plans available!

Plans for Soder Cola Prime and Soder Cola Max are now available for purchase from Research and Development vendors. These recover more Health and Power than a Soder Cola Extreme but provide no additional buff effect and require no Exobytes to make.

In January of 2012 I found a game on Steam called Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon by Vicious Cycle Software. One of my friends previously owned the game on console and was raving about it nonstop, so I thought I would give it a try. Well, after trying it out for myself, let me say that I am both surprised and disappointed. What surprised me the most was how good the combat actually was. Honestly, I was really expecting nothing more than another rehashed modern day arcade shooter. Instead, what I received was a 3rd-person shooter that allowed me the unexpected freedom to navigate and shoot in a limited open-world environment. Another great thing about the game is the way the story was presented. In terms of atmosphere, one of the best things about this game was the fact that It made me feel like I was in the middle of a Science Fiction B-movie from the 60′s.

Another thing I definitely I liked about the game was the fact that it wasn’t a hallway shooter filled with 5 minutes of game play broken up by cutscenes after each objective. Each level in EDF:IA is huge, fully destructible, and open ended enough that I was able to change and go through different routes to accomplish the same goal. These three factors add more to the game in terms of tactics than any other modern shooter, making this game more than just a ‘simple’ arcade shooter.Customization with each of the classes was another thing I enjoyed. There are 4 classes to choose from: Jet Armor, Tactical Armor, Trooper Armor, and Battle Armor. Each class has their own upgrade system and weapons that can be used, with a ton of weapons for each that you can unlock by two methods: Playing the game and leveling up, or by earning credits that can be spent to unlock more weapons. Like any game with classes, each has pros and cons, so choosing the right weapon for the job is not only crucial, but the differences between them adds replay value. That plus the endless amount of color pallets and weapon combinations add so much variety that each time you play through the game, you can without looking the same way twice.

But, for each good thing the game does, there are a few equally bad things that take away from it.

As much as I enjoyed it, one thing I found disappointing was the overall length of the game. At 3 chapters long, I was done with the entire game in 5 hours and it left me wanting more, especially since the game is a bit light on the story. To the average player, 5 hours might not seem long enough, but one play through of a level takes about 10-20 minutes depending on how good you are at the game and the difficulty chosen. These missions have no checkpoints to speak of and rely on your lives, so as long as at least one partner is alive you can revive each other endlessly. If all team members are dead, that is Game Over and you have to start from the beginning of the mission. On top of that, reload times tend to take a bit longer (even with the fast reload option) so if a weapon you are using has only 5 shots, then you need to make sure you can find some cover or dodge long enough to reload and start firing again.

Some people may consider the AI of the enemies to be too easy, but it’s the sheer amount of them (numbering in hundreds) that makes them a daunting enemy. Another disappointment from the game is the online play, and while you can read what ExpertPenguin thought about the console version, I am not sure how populated it is at this moment. I do know that right now, it is difficult to find a game online, and with some games having cross platform play, it makes you wonder why the creators didn’t consider it an option. Starting a co-op game from scratch, I was able to make it through the entire first chapter without running into anyone else. Perhaps having the option to search for other players on the 360/PS3 can make its way into the sequel?

All in all, Earth Defense Force : Insect Armageddon is a fun fast paced 3rd person shooter that brings a bunch of new ideas to the table in the shooter genre. It has a ton of action, high replay value, and is one of those games you can play with several friends in local or online multiplayer, as long as you have a spare pad laying around, or were lucky enough to bump into a few soldiers online. Happy gaming!

Rating: 7.0

I played the first EDF and I lamented at how weak the mulitplayer was in that version. It supported no online play of any kind, but as a local split-screen game, it was just the type of simple, arcade fun that you would need between days of grinding out combos in Street Fighter, or just from dealing with any other similarly complex titles. My first look at this game was during PAX East and I was instantly excited for its release. I instantly fell in love with the new Heavy armor class, as large machine guns and explosives are a fast way to win my undying love, and the new online multiplayer, supporting not just two, but up to four players at the same time Most of the details about the game have been covered in the previous review, so with no further ado we’ll jump right into my thoughts on the multiplayer experience!

Seeing how I received this game pretty late in its cycle, a couple of my CL teammates already had the game and were up for blasting some bugs with me. This is great, as the game seems to come alive when you’re not dealing with some AI drones. When you can instead coordinate attacks and focus your combined firepower on the same target things become a million times easier. The only thing I don’t like is having multiple players use the same suit in battle. I feel having two battle suits walking around detracts a little bit from the overall experience because the armors share a similar control scheme, but have different play styles that can be useful on their own. It creates a situation where you’ll have two players playing the same way, with the same weapons, and with no real new techniques being shown off. The weapon balance is spread between the classes like this on purpose to encourage variety, and sharing the same weaknesses makes some stages a bit harder to complete than others. If there’s any problem I really had with this system, it’s like Geekboi mentioned earlier, that the checkpointing system is a bit unforgiving. Most of these levels take 20-30 minutes to finish, and if all players are dead, it requires a start to the very beginning of the stage. If anyone on your team is ill equipped, it can make the levels feel tedious at best and an endless grind at worst.

The net code seems solid for the job as well. As my team and I ran through the campaign, we weren’t thrown off by any slow down, and there were no hiccups to speak of. Survival mode is where we started to encounter problems though, and with 3 players in the room, things became a little bit dicey as the screen filled with enemies. we experienced some slowdown as things got hectic, but other than that? They hammered themselves out just fine.I also experienced a strange bug regarding how the game saves itself. I have backed out to the loadout screen from the pause menu more than only to have all my progress lost. It happened even when I quit to the main menu as well. I don’t know if this was a glitch they’re planning to patch or what, but going solo through 5 levels in this game tough enough. To lose it and start all over again is needlessly frustrating.

Overall, I give this game an 8 out of 10. The save hiccups were annoying and there were some slowdown issues, but it wasn’t enough to make the game unplayable, or any less fun. This is definitely worth a playthrough.

Rating:8.0

With Darksiders II almost here there’s some pretty impressive swag being released. SOTA Toys has released a Samuel statue which is pretty bad ass.

While I am a fan of collectables this bad boy given away during a Twitter contest takes the cake.

I would wear that out on dates.

It’s no news to anyone that the true stars of Jurassic Park are indeed the dinosaurs themselves and the models and coloring of the animals are just about the best things to look at in this game. While various areas of the game do seem to become more and more bland as your eyes venture into the distance, the dinosaurs look as lively as one could hope in a Jurassic themed thriller. Sadly this is about as good as visuals go here, while the characters themselves don’t seem exactly up to par with the modern style character models that provide the sizzle in the steak to mainstream line up of games we enjoy today, they aren’t exactly terrible either. What the game does tend to suffer the most from visually however is the random choppiness in the middle of the more action focused scenes, which there happens to be plenty of.

Just like the visual faithfulness to the original film itself, the soundtrack and ambiance of the island are all pretty praiseworthy. Sound clips from the film were used for creating an authentic feel for your stay on Isla Nublar, mainly in the most key areas of the game such as music, sound cues, the various sounds of each featured dinosaurs, footsteps and even mysterious ruffles of the bushes and tree’s in tropical terrain. All the island bells and whistles are well placed and on point and then there of course are the voice acting. The cast seems to range in different skill levels of vocally bringing their characters to life, Heather Judson does a great job of portraying the tween aged Jess Harding in addition to Nika Futterman (Nima) plays a very believable Costa Rican local with her heavy accent and memorable Spanglish dialogue. Sadly others like Yoder and Oscar come off more as ear splitting and often times straight annoying, causing you to only wonder “when is this person going to get eaten already?”, leaving the rest of the cast members passable.

The story is chopped up into 4 chapters that span roughly 20-30 minutes over an hour depending on how many blunders are made. While it won’t win any Emmy’s, it does deliver a pretty solid fictional perspective of the remaining staff members who wasn’t so lucky to have made it to the chopper with the survivors of the film and ride into the the sunset. Along the way are some decent nods to background and foreground elements of JP, minor plot hole questions are addressed and expansions on ground knowledge of the park are made. Episode 4 specifically brings the player into a underground portion of the park never before explored, featuring some prehistoric marine life, part of a work in progress aquarium style attraction for the tourist groups. The cast aren’t exactly lovable nor with they spark any other interest of connection with the player but they do actually make sense in the sandbox and don’t do anything that stretches the plot to feel unbelievable or outlandish.

A heavy bit of irony is placed within the title as Jurassic Park: The Game is actually quite far off from the actual experience and where the game suffers. Actual game play takes a backseat in favor of a much more heavily cinematic adventure where the player will spend roughly 80% of the game watching the story unfold. The only control given to the player is through quick time button prompts which either control the characters point of interest and dialogue options, both of which move the story along, or action sequences in which the player must help the characters survive given a number of allotted mistakes allowed before causing death. While the action sequences are fairly well executed and at the very least engaging, lack of a difficulty level difference will either leave this game unplayable for those with poor hand-eye motor skills or rather predictable for the more advance skilled gamers.

A comparison to Heavy Rain would almost be proper in describing this game if it weren’t for the absolute lack of control over all of the characters. You never get to control actual direction or movement, you simply help move things along and the dialogue options would provide a much better feel of involvement to the player if it weren’t for the fact that 90% of what is chosen will still lead to the same conversation. Leaving out the ability to actually explore the world is what hinders this game massively from being anywhere close to the potential of a blockbuster dinosaur game. Thankfully, at the very least, these QTE’s are evenly spread throughout the cinematics, in decent variety, giving the player something to do without too long of a pause between the action and story telling and maintains the level of interest.

In conclusion, Jurassic Park: The Game will come down to either a complete hit or miss depending on the gamer. If your a fan and knowledgeable of the Jurassic Park films and lore, there is enough content here to heavily appreciate the attention to detail and keep you satisfied all the way through. However should you just be looking to pick up a fresh dino adventure then it really come down to your tolerance of heavy, and I mean HEAVY, amounts of cinematics. Unfortunately both crowds will share the same complaint, satisfied or not, that there simply isn’t enough actual game play here to consider this anything more than an interactive movie. Telltale has done an overall impressive job with the JP world but the oversight of a major actual gaming element keeps this from living past a minor cult following.

Visuals: 7 The dinosaurs are very life like, accurate and motion captured very well, even more so than the humans. Isla Nublar and the park itself look very convincing but there are so random frame chops are happen a bit to frequent in a game that is pretty much on rails especially.

Sound: 8 Sound clips from the original movie compliment this game extremely well and are all placed properly without too much recycling.

Controls: 7 The on screen prompts make sense according to the action unfolding on screen. Joystick movements and button commands mimic the characters movements on a consistent, sensible manner.

Gameplay: 4 There isn’t any actual gameplay. Quicktime button prompts move the ride along but at the very least are responsive and accurate.

Replay: 2 Once your done there will be little urge to go back and do it all again unless you’d just like to collect a few achievements/trophies that were missed.

Not exactly a terrible game but for sure an acquired taste. Too many variables stop this title from reaching it’s full potential. A gameplay expansion on a sequel would leave a much longer lasting impression should Telltale want to keep this ball rolling.

Rating: 7.0

Right off the bat I was told I had too many characters for my rate (premium since I paid full price and almost paid the monthly fee.) I had to delete characters until I about 6 which is more than enough for this game (legendary gets 16 which is nuts). The servers were compressed into two types: PVE (player versus everything/one) and PVP (player versus player). The main difference is that heroes and villains can just attack you flat out on the PvP server regardless of what you’re doing. The server selection screen looks terrible. It seems like it was just a last minute add and hasn’t been properly done to support HD. Oh well, on to the character creation.

This hasn’t changed too much. You’re offered more body types and sizes which is a huge change from the previous version. I’m sure these were added at some patch point but since I haven’t played in forever it feels like a bonus. There is a new power set unlocked which you have to purchase which are the powers of the Green Lantern/Sinestro Corps for about 10 bucks but you can play with out them which is pretty good. I actually lost to to a Lantern in PVP only because I didn’t know what his powers did nor have I played recently so I forgot those cheap combos I used to know.

What has changed in the actual game, a lot has actually. The menu system got a complete overhaul and it’s very easy to navigate. The mail system got a bit of a buff as well. The chat function is really easy to manage and it isn’t intrusive. As I said earlier, I’m sure most of this stuff was fixed in a patch that was probably administered after the free month period was up. Since all of the servers of one type (PVP or PVE) were merged into one super server there’s a chance you will have to rename your character (I lucked out and Wild Phire was not taken). You also get some goodies based on you signing back in and using your PSN account after the hack.

Up for a bad romance?

It seems like things can go back to the way they were right? Wrong. Just like your ex, there’s a reason why they are still your ex and you’re not dating them no matter how much they’ve changed. The wait time to get one is still long. The best times of day to play where there isn’t much of a wait are still mid-day during the week or super late at night. You could get away with mornings depending on where you are. Want to play during afternoon through prime time with your friends? So do a few million people too, get in line. If you do happen to get in during those golden hours, remember the problems of textures loading in late, lag that makes heroes and villains just appear in front of you kicking your ass before you have a chance to defend yourself. The game still sometimes chugs when you’re not on a mission map and things just sometimes pop up.

All that aside the game is still fun and now that it’s free I can overlook those problems because well I’m not paying for it. There is way less of a burning need to grind levels because you’re not forced to play due to you not paying and trying to get your money’s worth. I recommend people who own this game to pick it up again just know that the download size is going to be huge. If you’ve never played this I suggest you give it a look you may like what you see.

Let’s start from the beginning, the story of Saints Row picks up after the events of two and all its DLC. The Saints become media stars and filthy rich in addition to their gang banging (giggity) activities. During a ‘publicity stunt’ (a bank job) the Saints leader (you), Johnny Gat, and Shaundi get themselves into a sticky situation and wind up in jail. They find themselves at the mercy of Syndicate in a different town known as Steelport. Johnny Gat sacrifices himself for you and Shaundi to escape. The events following that are similar to the previous two games. You do various missions and activities to build up the Saints in Steelport. Very simple and stays tried and true to the formula. Interestingly enough the data from the second game doesn’t load so you have to make your character all over again, so you can make a new character or just try to remember what you looked like. I basically made myself, again and just started playing.

The game allows players now to share their create a character online with the community which is an nice,but not necessary add. I can only guess that they are trig to build up the the community more. However the create-a-feature is good but it’s not very robust. There are some options that were available in the previous game that are not available here in this version. This also applies to clothing, jewelery, tattoos,etc. it seems as if they simplified it so the game did not have too much to load, especially since you can play through the campaign in co-op mode.

So what could you do to improve on a design on a game that is the crazy slutty sister of Grand Theft Auto? Improve the graphics for one. The game looks leaps and bounds better than the first two, while not as graphically impressive as GTAV it has it’s charm. While there have been some improvements there have also been some back steps. As I mentioned earlier the character creation suffered for the graphical improvements. Also the lighting in some points tend to make characters faces look a little bit weird. Facial expressions are practically non existent in this game, not that their needed but it is very noticeable around hour two.

Steelport looks amazing as a city, it has a grittier feel to it versus the west coast sort of feel that Stillwater had in the second game. It rains a lot in that town but it is a bit less pronounced. You’ll hear the rain and see the water effects on the car and tires but not see the rain. Speaking of water, the water looks and behaves pretty well. The lighting has improved and at night Steelport looks beautiful. The fire effects have gotten a slight improvement not as good as Alone in the Dark (best fire effects ever) but not too shabby either.

Controlling this game is pretty simple they did not change up too much from the previous control schemes, if it’s not broke.. They added some new moves that can be performed while sprinting each with it’s own merits plus aiming down sights helps line up shots faster. Driving in this game is always a pleasure. Every vehicle handles different and has a unique feel. They simplified flying to make it a better experience so you can focus on more important things like carnage.

The music in this game is a point of contention for me. While the original score for some parts of the game is really good. The radio song choices don’t sit that well with me. There are some good songs I discovered playing this game such this one:

Grum – Heartbeats from Brian McBlade on Vimeo.

However a lot of the hip hop rap and rock tracks I wasn’t feeling too much. They included a few tracks from Adult Swim such as the venture bros theme song,stuff from Tim and Eric, and the Aqua Teen Hunger Force theme song. While none of this is bad it just didn’t move me in the way that they probably hoped/expected. I think it’s because I am an old fart. What I do give them credit for is picking amazing songs to line up with some key events in the game. The scene when you storm the penthouse is just impeccably done for instance. It feels as if they modeled this and other scenarios after the songs once they got the license for them.

The voice acting for this game is good. Some moderately sized to big names were brought in for this and it really gives the game some flair. Having Hulk Hogan break down the Luchador code for you to having Sasha Grey complain about her outfits ups the ante. The mayor (spoiler) being himself was absolutely amazing, I had no idea that was going to happen. I was going to initially complain about the main character voice but in light of beating the game and doing some co-op I think the voices work considering.

The game offers a bit but not too much in terms of length. In theory you can finish this game in one or two sittings. The diversion activities do not have that many levels and you can predict where you can find gang activities to break up to complete the areas that you take over. The co-op is fun and I think is best played between two people who have not played the game before. You can help a person out with your beefed up Saint but it feels a bit too easy at times. There is a horde mode(which is practically standard in almost every game now) called Whored mode where you take out various waves of enemies. It’s a horde mode so if you’re into that sort of thing then this maybe up your alley. I did about 20 waves and I was done with it. There are multiple endings and you can make different choices within the game which affects what you end up with in your arsenal, who is in your crew and how you make your money. So it is worth another play through to see the difference. For the achievement hunters in one playthrough I’ve unlocked thirty seven of the fifty achievements in the game. The game is not to difficult on Hardcore just a bit cheap (everyone seemingly has SMGs and shotguns) but this is ok because you can hide in the stores that you own, call off notoriety and become invincible to most forms of damage with the proper levels to counteract this. I personally felt that some of the upgrades held your hand while you played and didn’t buy them. You may need them so the devs put them in the game.

Overall this game is fun. It is satire plain and simple. It knows it’s a video game and doesn’t try to be anything it’s not. It pokes fun at other genres and pays homage to them as well. The crew of this game is obviously into the culture and tried to include as much of that knowledge as they can. However there are some issues with this game. It buggy and sometimes randomly die doing actions that you normally wouldn’t die for. The AI is absolutely terrible at driving, finding paths to get to you and just not walking in the line of your fire. Sometimes if there are too many vehicles or things on screen your Y button becomes your enemy. You’ll have a hard time trying to get into a car or taking people hostage, others you’ll answer your cellphone when you want to open a door or get into your car. There’s also the fact this game may offend some people because its super sexual nature, rough language and some of the stereotypes.

The Breakdown

Control: 9
There are some issues with the Y button when there are too many Y sensitiveness objects on screen. You may accidentally take people hostage if they are too close to your car otherwise the formula they have for this game works

Sound: 10
Aside from my beef with the music choice the voice acting and sound track are great. Three words make this game great aurally, Auto-Tuned Pimp.

Gameplay: 9
You’ve played this before there’s not much to it, very easy to pick up and play, I think they realized the side missions could be repetitive so there aren’t that many of them kudos for that. The game isn’t that hard overall just a little cheap at times.

Graphics: 9
Game looks good but there are some bugs here and there. stuff falling through the game, some wonky lighting effects and some funny glitches.

Replay: 6
If you’re an achievement hunter, you’ll have it all in 1.5 play-throughs. And you’ll have no real reason to pick up the game again until DLC or just to help out your friends. Story isn’t that long but there are some choices and cut scenes you may want to see again so there’s that. But once you’re done you’re done.

It’s like GTA‘s younger sister. She’s pretty and super fun but not like her older more sophisticated sister. They have their own two distinct styles but you can’t help but compare them. This game is an improvement on the other two but there’s still some work that could be done. The game has bugs that happen often however they aren’t world ending. The game is worth a play through, the game has more positives than negatives . I would say pick it up at a slightly lower price point or ask for it as a gift. I don’t say get it used because you lose your online pass (which I’m very disappointed with THQ for going down that path).

Rating: 8.5

Aksys Games will sponsor the winning team of the BlazBlue Revolution US Finals by providing full airfare and hotel accommodations to Japan, along with the pride of representing the United States in the BlazBlue Revolution Japan Finals. Not only that, but if the US Team is able to take the top spot in the Japanese Finals, an extra bonus prize will be awarded to the US Team! Now’s the time to grab two of your most trusted comrades and prepare for the revolution of a lifetime!

BlazBlue Revolution US Event Details:

Finals Date: 2/25/2012

Location: Southern California, venue TBA

Format: 3v3 Double Elimination, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift EXTEND console version

Prize: Winning team will win full hotel and airfare to Japan and a spot in the Japan Finals

Restriction: Winners MUST have their US passport or equivalent document by 2/25. NO EXCEPTIONS.

BlazBlue Revolution Japan Event Details:

Final Date: 3/24/2012

Location: Japan, venue TBA

Format: 3v3 Format Final Rules TBA, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II (V1.05) Arcade Version

Prize: TBA + Special US Team Prize*

*The US Team prize is a monetary award that will be given if the US Team is able to take the gold at the BlazBlue Revolution Japan Finals.

Full rules and event details will be announced on 12/17/2011 here. Until then, stay tuned for more information on BlazBlue Revolution at www.aksysgames.com.

In light of keeping the series fresh through it’s countless number of sequels and reboots, Spike holds a number of unique treats that would put a smile on the face of the most devoted fans of the series. Opening theme song “Cha La (Head Cha La)”, from the original Japanese anime, was chosen for the opening sequence of the game and if that wasn’t cool enough, is accompanied by probably the best opening animation sequences ever done in the series featuring modern style visuals fans have been clamoring for since the announcement of Dragon Ball Z: Kai. Your treated to battles scenes of some familiar face such as Goku, Vejita, Krillin, Trunks, Gotenks as they do battle with iconic villains Freiza, Kid Buu, Omega Shenron and even movie character Hirudegarn makes an appearance. The most noticeable aspect of this cinematic is the first time introduction of characters “Saiyan Hero” & “Saiyan Elite” from Dragon Ball Heroes, a Japanese only arcade game.

A main storyline is also included in addition to Hero mode, here you will play through the normal story of DBZ and spans into the GT saga as well this time around. The newest and best feature here are the epic boss battles to be had along the way, in style of Naruo Ninja Storm 2, players are treated to large scale battles against the staple villains and movie villains in a variety of speedy chase sequences, button mashing power struggles and QuickTime events that takes the feel of Toriyama’s world closer to home like never before. This is easily the best part about the game as a whole, it’s fresh, new and very well executed.

Sadly this is where the good news ends for U. Tenkaichi. The new battle system incorporated can barely be considered anything battle-esque, the fun of combo’s and melee have been heavily toned down in favor of a 50/50, or rock paper scissors, system that cuts any combo off after 4 consecutive melee button presses for a 2 option guessing game that gives the opponent a chance to break away. This system, all the well very cool in cinematic, will run tired since it is done every single time a string of attacks are made. There are only 2 options, strings these attacks into the guessing system, or use a heavy attack which auto breaks any guard only so you can go back to using the first option yet again. There are so many breaks in the action in favor of cinematic, after a while it doesn’t feel like your really doing anything when only one button press will determine the next 12 or so hits.

This is where the game falls short of actually being true to the spirit of Dragon Ball. Too much of a heavy focus on cinematic has cut the actual hands on fighting experience to a minimum, make this game more of a movie than something that’s playable. All super attacks are auto aimed, leaving no real sense of accomplishment outside of guessing correct for the landing, or out mashing your opponent if they choose the intercept with an attack of their own. The roster also suffers from a major chunk of serious holes that can be noticed by even novice fans. The saga reaches up to GT, yet are missing major key playable characters from the era such as Pan, Kid Goku, Super 17, Bebi, Bebi Vejita and both SSJ4 forms of Goku and Vejita. What’s so confusing is the inclusion of SSJ4 Gojita and Omega Shenron being recognized and playable. The list from the Z arc and those missing is massive so I won’t even bother with the details to avoid further tears.

Visuals: 9 Absolutely amazing job done by Spike. Everything about this game is simply visually stunning and vibrant. Never before has a Dragon Ball game come so close to life until now.

Sound: 8 All the original Japanese and even DBZ Kai voice actors have assisted in keeping their roles alive. The soundtrack is the best to date and the ability to select different arcs of music during VS play is a plus. Melee clashes and Ki blasts sound crisp and appropriate where needed.

Gameplay: 5 The fighting was left out of this “fighter” in exchange for a more cinematic experience, making it difficult to appreciate the story in-between the larger battles. The lack of balance makes the appeal of the game short lived and straight robotic in longer sessions. The mechanics leave online play almost completely non-responsive when it comes to reversals, which wouldn’t be a problem if they weren’t forced on you so much.

Replay: 5 Once your done, there is very little chance you’ll want to revisit anything outside of the boss battles.

Some serious potential has been shown here by Spike. Not exactly the worst way to leave an impression, but due to lack of actual fighting when that’s what Dragon Ball is truly about, it remains that much further from being anywhere near the best.

Rating: 6.5

Cruis'n'USA + Michael Bay = NFS The Run ?

The campaign puts the player in the shoes of Jack Rourke, a pro driver who’s landed in a debt with the mob he can’t repay.  Conveniently, long-time friend Sam Harper shows up just in time to inform Jack of a cross-country race spanning from San Francisco to New York.  She’s made money off of Jack’s racing before and with “The Run” holding a payout of $25 million, competing would be an inevitability.  She fesses up the $250k entry fee and the race begins.

Sadly, the game doesn’t become anymore elaborate than that as it delivers an underdeveloped tale, which Black Box ironically kept close to its chest until the game’s launch while touting its compelling story.  Though one shouldn’t be expecting Kojima-tier storytelling in an annual racer, the game shows passion for detail in other areas so it’s a shame that more attention has not been brought to its throwaway characters as the premise does sound provocative and intriguing.  Instead, we are treated to the highlighting of Sports Illustrated swimsuit models serving their expansive roles in the campaign.  And by expansive I mean filling up their cars with gas in a single scene.

This isn't a summary. It's Jack's entire bio.In a loading screen.

Right from the start, we can see that The Run puts emphasis on tension as its getting you from SF to NY first against 200+ drivers.  The game excludes any form of free roam or overworld to explore in as you aggressively push east across a wide variety of environments.  Some may be turned off by the idea but it certainly makes sense as aimlessly driving in a desert for fun would certainly kill any sense of urgency.  Races typically involve surpassing a few drivers at a time starting from #211 with the intent of making it to #1 by the time you reach the east coast.  Other times you will be on the road by yourself making up time by reaching checkpoints in an aggressive manner.  Throw in some cop chases and a few memorable action sequences and you have a game that is, while repetitive at times, intriguing to say the least.

A cross-country road trip would require serious diversity in landscape.  Thankfully, the environments in The Run are delivered with a sense of grand scale and lush detail, courtesy of the Frostbite 2 engine– the same engine that made its debut with Battlefield 3.  As it was designed with next-generation platforms in mind, some portions of the game such as select textures, vehicle interiors and character models will occasionally make lo-res appearances along with pop-ups in the console versions of the game, while PC enthusiasts will enjoy a higher fidelity The Run has to offer.  That is of course, assuming they have the necessary hardware to allow Frostbite 2 realize its full potential.

Breakneck speeds in the Rockies has SAFE written all over it.

Players will see themselves driving through a variety of locations, ranging from cities and deserts to mountains and canyons.  And for the first time in the series, all the levels are real world locations such as Las Vegas, Denver and Detroit.  Past NFS titles usually have a fair degree of diversity but none quite tackle the ambitious layouts of this installment.  And what better way to enjoy 3000 miles of asphalt than with 120+ vehicles to choose from.  Different from the past few titles is the fact that you don’t require money to obtain different rides.  Whenever the player is required to select a vehicle (which happens a few times throughout the story) they will be free to choose whichever set of wheels suit their taste.  That’s not to say that the game has all 120+ vehicles available from the get-go however, as several of the cars that are inaccessible have to be acquired through completing tasks in challenge and multiplayer modes.

The controls prove to be an attractive factor for both race purists as well as casual go-kart drivers as it attempts to blend the chaos of arcade style speed and havoc with the elegance of a simulation.  The end result is something that will allow the majority of players to enjoy the game’s interface as something that isn’t too difficult or too simple.  Continuing with the accessible approach, The Run grants players the ability to level up during time spent racing allowing them obtain perks such as nitrous, drifting and drafting abilities automatically without having to worry about maintenance on the vehicles of their choice.  While overall customizations, including aesthetic as well as performance tuning, are practically non-existent in this installment it keeps the pace of the action going forward.

Who needs Autosculpt when we got lens flare?

An awkward design choice is the fact that changing vehicles is done by stopping at a gas station.  In mid-race.  While the action stops as you make your selection, having to steer out of the way to pull in may hinder your position in the race.  Pair that with the occasional “out of bounds” driving that triggers a checkpoint reset even when you thought you were driving well within the road’s barriers and you may have a time or two where you’ll be banging your head against the wall due to what feels to be an absence of logic.  Thankfully the blow is softened as The Run’s inclusion of stock “resets” allows players to rewind their race to designated checkpoints giving them the luxury of refining their track time or if they just have bad luck and consistently crash their vehicles.  The only thing worse than losing a race is losing it when you were in 1st place the entire time.

While the streets have traffic conditions that make some areas seem more lively than others, the game still omits the inclusion of using pedestrians.  Chances are that it is a deliberate design choice so that players won’t have to worry about dragging a cadaver under their wheels in the middle of a race, however there are some locations where you’d expect heavy volume only to see the area in question appear lifeless.  Las Vegas Boulevard feels like a ghost town and the Holland Tunnel literally had two people in it; your opponent and you.  This would almost guarantee a chuckle out of a player who’s driven down those roads before, but to be fair that’s not to say that those places deserved to be identical to their real life counterparts.  After all, the game isn’t called “Need for Speed: The Jam”.

This...probably won't end well.

Autolog once again returns to help players not only keep track of their times but to constantly monitor the advances their friends make as well, encouraging players to replay segments in an attempt to hold down their position as 1st ranked.  Although the concept of Autolog promotes interaction with friends the actual multiplayer of The Run may have a few players wanting a little more.  When racing against others, players can have a roulette determine what bonuses the winning party might obtain, such as new cars or bonus XP, although the variety doesn’t go much further than the typical 16-player races.

In the end, Need for Speed: The Run is a good game that has a few things holding it back from being a great game.  It would be nice to see Black Box take a crack at “The Run 2″ and fix all the shortcomings of the first installment that will satisfy both single and multiplayer racers.  The engine is in place, the art direction is established and the vision is certainly clear.  Now throw in a compelling story mode that lasts longer than 3 hours with characters that aren’t one-dimensional and a robust online component and NFS will have an entry in the franchise that will be spoken of for quite some time.

Hope to see you again, Jack.