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!

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.

You guys are welcome today to add here what you think will happen this year in the gaming and tech world as well. But I’ll start off:

World of Warcraft will continue to bleed out, and possibly hover at a stable million of players even though pandas will come but probably not help as much.

Guild Wars 2 will drop(be released) and be a success with former Guild Wars players and attracting new ones that will defend it as the best MMO out there.

Bioware will drop Mass effect 3 with Origin support on both PC and consoles. Gamers will cry all over the world.

Square-Enix will have FF13-2 out and it will be much better then 13.

Max Payne 3 will launch and remind us how a 3rd person shooter should be played.

The Vita will launch and be hacked within a month.

The 3DS will have a stand alone Pokemon game announced sometime in development.

SONY will make fans happy but will have a huge problem.

Nintendo will launch the Wii U, people everywhere will say it’s the end of Nintendo and they should sell off all their IPs(intellectual properties) to SONY.

Microsoft will still be Microsoft.

Valve will troll it’s users again.

Capcom will screw up again and lose money faster than an alcoholic gambler in Vegas.

These are my predictions for 2012 lets see what happens.

Wow?

In fact, it’s already publicized decline from 324,000+ units in the first week, to under 72,000 in the second is the stuff of recent legend, and it’s third week decline to 42,000 weeks is the stuff of legend (even outsold by the 7-year old PSP), and has many wondering: Has the portable market really changed so much?

Tech contributor Tero Kuittinen at Forbes has no problem anwering echoing sentiment that Sony is in ‘Big Trouble’. “The pricing seems delusional in light of the Japanese response”, he states, insinuating that a price cut should be imminent. Seeing as many of the titles for the console are around the equivalent of $40, with first party titles like the new Uncharted coming in at around $50, I’d have to agree. In response to the increasing quality of $4.99 smartphone titles via iOS and Android, their plan is to offer a portable system with comparable prices to console games? Is this what Sony meant whe they said they would be keeping an eye on the smartphone/tablet market to gauge pricing of Vita titles?

Infinity Blade 2 on iOS. Increasing quality is NOT an understatement.

“Gouging” sounds more like it. Unlike the Japanese market, which is characteristically reluctant to change (and even less so from American products), the US landscape for portable gaming has changed drastically. Users have come to expect more from their devices, and coupled with the seemingly faster pace of our digital lives, need a device that can do everything for us..and be competent at running games. A device that plays games very well, and does everything else marginally well is acceptable for a home console, but not a portable one. In this writer’s opinion, the Vita is signing its death warrant early on as the original did, using tech edge as what looks to be a double-edged sword, especially now. Yes, people will pay the price for cutting edge, but even cutting edge has gotten drastically cheaper. The memo has been sent.

It does remain to be seen where the true success in this portable generation lies, but Japan has voted with their wallets and I can’t help but agree with Kuittinen’s article at this point. Saying the market has changed is one thing. Watching the 3DS’ rocky start and now this debacle only makes this mindset shine more. “The rot sets in first at the prehiphery” says Kuittinen , stating in conclusion that Nintendo’s success is assured (The 3DS has only just reached 4 million US units, surpassing sales of its predecessor in the same timeframe), but Sony will feel the blow to the portable market long before they do.

I think he’s absolutely right.

Source: Forbes: Sony in Big Trouble With PS Vita

Here are the five worst characters to have on your tail as a video game villain. NO THE GODDAMNED BATMAN IS NOT ON THIS LIST, HE IS A COMIC BOOK CHARACTER WITH A VIDEO GAME.

5) Sonic the Hedgehog/Link

At number 5 it’s a tie between Sonic and Link. Sonic is a hedgehog with super speed that can destroy most object by simplify JUMPING OR ROLLING into them. You build this amazing robot death machine only to have a blue hedgehog jump and roll it to death. To make matters even worse he can become a super hedgehog capable of destroying things just by touching them and he can breathe in space. They only thing that could stop this hedgehog is not having any rings (which the world seems to have an abundant supply of), drowning him (but you’d have to make sure there’s no cracks so air can leak or or have a completely underwater fortress and risk drowning yourself if Sonic does come through and beats the snot of out of your base),trying to crush him or trying to get him to fall into a pit(both of which are completely random). And no matter what you’re planning to do Sonic will always find out and show up pissed about it.

Link is equally annoying. Think about this you have this amazing power from the Triforce, you’re immortal and you are overall bad ass. Then all of a sudden a kid in a green tunic shows up and ruins everything. The most screwed up part about it? It’s a different kid almost every time. So you’re immortal and doomed to having a kid in a green tunic just tear you up all because it’s a tradition to give every kid a green tunic at a certain time. Why don’t you just kill off all the children in every village? Then you won’t have anyone to rule over. Catch 22.

4) Ryu

So you are holding a fighting tournament to try and find a new body for yourself? You’re an inter-dimensional being that just happened to be threatening two worlds at once? Are you the most brutal Muay Thai fighter ever and have no challengers? Well it sucks to be you because Ryu is probably going to show up and punch you in the face. Even if you’re just a regular fighter he’s still just going to punch you in the face. The man wanders the world LOOKING FOR FIGHTS barefoot no less. He has fought everything from aliens and giant robots to super heroes and demons. What makes it even worse is that in the chance you actually may be winning, he’ll tap into some hidden energy reserves and go evil making him even more dangerous. His moves are always so basic but they are insanely strong. Now that he has the Soul-Glo in Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 this makes him that much more powerful.

3) Megaman

He doesn’t look like much. He looks like he’d be at home in a toy chest.If you are a robot that’s gone evil or renegade, then he’s the worse thing ever. Not only does he keep coming back if you defeat him. He has probably killed your allies and took their abilities to use on you or he is going to kill you and use your ability to kill your allies. What makes him creepy is that he always shows up without saying a word and just stares and blinks at you,later in the series he talks but for a few years he was a silent killer. And to think all this started because two old guys had problems with each other.

2) Snake

This includes the original Snake the one that the current Snake is cloned from. This man is a combination of spy, special operations soldier and mercenary commando from a black operations and espionage unit. He is tasked with disarming and destroying the latest incarnation of Metal Gear which is usually a bipedal nuclear weapon-armed mecha which is another word for giant robot. Usually Snake has to deal with people with ridiculous powers or armed with incredible skills to do so. You know he’s out there. You’re doing something that ridiculous you know that he’s going to be there and he’s not coming to negotiate anything with you, ever. While you’re trying to get your plan to completion, he’s either killing your allies or hes tranquilizing them and taking pictures of them in compromising positions, who knows what else he’s doing to them. You know what that’s going to be your fate too. This man has taken down so many organizations, robots, people in robots, ninja robots, vampires, ghosts, etc. that anything you can come up with he’s ready for. How do you stop a man like that? You don’t, you just pray that he kills you.

1) Belmonts

At the top of this list sits one family, the Belmonts. If you’re a citizen of the night this name strikes terror into your heart. If you’re a vampire and have a castle it’s even worse. These asshoels will show up at your front door, destroy everything in your house, steal your treasure and money, kill your tenants, find you in your panic room, beat the hell out of you and then sink your castle or destroy it. They ALWAYS show up and they more than likely will bring a friend or two. There’s really no way to get rid of them and they will always lecture you on morals and why what you’re doing is wrong. What if you’re not a creature of the night but have a castle? All it would take is one rumor from the towns folk and you’ll have them sniffing around in no time. I don’t think they even ask questions they just whip the hell out of everything and leave. And to top it all off they WILL be prettier than you with better hair and look cooler (in some cases) than you ever will.

What’s your top 5 ? I’d love to hear it tweet it to me or post on the Facebook!

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.

“So we’re giving a ton of awesome stuff away between now and Christmas! You know how in Dead Island when you kill a zombie you can loot it for money, purple machetes, deodorant and random stuff? Well, our zombie obsession has gotten so severe that we have no choice, in order to avoid a lengthy prison sentence and/or violations of the Geneva Convention, to relieve the pent up desire to eat faces and randomly disembowel innocent bystanders in order to TRULY understand the plight of the zombie. So we decided we’d like for you to LOOT US!

We’ve set up this little website here:

http://christmas.deadisland.com

and every day there will be a new zombie or Dead Island related trivia question or puzzle for you. We’ll be giving out tons of prizes for correct answers, both in Dead Island goodies and other OMG COVET stuff like Astro A40 headsets

Each week also has a BIG MOMMA of prizes, some of which are so wicked that I may or may not keep track of the winner’s contact information and threaten him or her to a duel with exceptionally large chopsticks in order to claim it for my own! >:( *raises hands to the sky, generates ball lightning*

Some of the stuff up for grabs includes:
A collection of 10 classic zombie flicks on Blu-Ray
A PS3 with a hand airbrushed Dead Island design
A 46″ Sony Bravia 3D HDTV
A 1 week vacation for 2 to a tropical island AND a hand airbrushed Dead Island Xbox 360

Oh and hey – did you know that Bloodbath Arena came out last week? WEWT! DDDDDDD
If you haven’t already checked it out, you better go jump on that train son! WOOOOOOOOOO! And here’s a short trailer for it to whet your appetite: http://youtu.be/FGNAoUndSqI

And as always let me know if I can get you anything!

PS- Check out the wallpaper you get on the DI Christmas Calendar site for getting today’s question correct. NOTICE ANYTHING???? LOLZ.
”

Hooray for the industry. Long story short there are giving away free stuff ya’ll. Click here.

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.

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.