Alpha Protocol

Alpha Protocol Review
Source By GameSpot

Playing Alpha Protocol is like putting together a 5,000-piece jigsaw puzzle with 500 pieces missing: You get a sense of what the big picture should have been, but the final product is still maddeningly incomplete. This intriguing role-playing game boasts an extraordinarily flexible plot, in which your choices have real consequences both on the story and on the gameplay. Sadly, almost every other element has been skimped upon, resulting in an awkward amalgam of half-baked gameplay elements that never come together. On paper, Alpha Protocol sounds thrilling: You can go into each mission guns blazing, sneak up on your enemies to take them down before they see you coming, or mix and match methods as you see fit all while hacking computers and picking locks to uncover the enemies' deepest secrets. In practice, none of these mechanics work out very well. Terrible AI, a too-close camera angle, and other annoying inconsistencies make the stealth route feel random and unsatisfying. These issues, along with the unreliable cover system and a number of bugs and weapon imbalances, make shooting feel equally clumsy. It's easy to appreciate Alpha Protocol for its high ambitions; it's just not that much fun to play it.




The game begins with a bang--or more specifically, a horrific explosion. Taking a cue from our modern political climate, the opening scenes depict a missile colliding with a commercial airliner. Shortly thereafter, you meet the game's protagonist, Michael Thorton, who is being inducted into a top-secret United States government agency known as Alpha Protocol. Your first mission: travel to Saudi Arabia and investigate the terrorist group responsible for the bombing. Of course, nothing is ever as it seems, and Mike's first mission ends like it began--with the explosion of a well-aimed missile. Thus, a globe-hopping journey through Russia, Italy, and Taiwan ensues as Mike sifts through the information he gathers and follows the necessary leads. The story plays out more or less like a season of 24, though in this case, you get to decide how you to proceed toward the final hour.

Alpha Protocol's greatest asset is, by far, the complex workings behind its plot progression. Conversations with other characters bring with them broad dialogue choices. Most of them boil down to one of three attitudes: aggressive, professional, or suave. Different characters react to you in different ways depending on what approach they most appreciate. A sweet-natured fellow agent may enjoy your flirtations, for example, while a tough-talking Russian vixen may not be so enamored. These characters may stay neutral toward you or they may take a liking (or disliking) to you. If the individual is your handler--that is, your mission guide--you may receive a bonus perk, such as a boost to your endurance levels. In other cases, an allied faction may fight alongside you in battle or provide access to weapons you wouldn't otherwise encounter. In extreme cases, there are life-or-death consequences in which you must weigh the risks of allowing a nemesis to live against the potential benefit he or she might offer: guns, information, and so forth. Many of the plot essentials are more or less static, but how you discover them and the people that join you on the journey can differ from one play-through to the next. Few games can truly make you feel as if you are having an impact on the story, but this is the one area in which Alpha Protocol delivers--and extraordinarily so.

Unfortunately, the storytelling gets bogged down by its own ambitions. What with all its complicated machinations, the game doesn't have much heart, which in turn makes it difficult to feel invested in its branching plot developments. At one point, you may receive an in-game e-mail from a female character that references the sexual tension you've apparently developed, but the story never adequately demonstrates that tension; the e-mail comes as a complete surprise. You may even get the opportunity for a few sexual dalliances toward the end of the game, but because the story never builds on these relationships, these scenes seem forced and mechanical. By the time you reach the final mission, you get the sense that developer Obsidian Entertainment had no idea how to wrap the story up. One potentially emotional moment is treated so flippantly that it's almost insulting; another major revelation foreshadows a confrontation that never comes, making the development feel more cheap than shocking. You sense that the voice actors have done their best to lend some humanity to the story, but Alpha Protocol is all business and no fun; all plot and no character. There are light moments, such as some hysterical news reports on the television (a story about children and sugar is a fun highlight), and Mike's cocky half-grin is occasionally disarming. But these are small delights in a robotic narrative that may stimulate your intellect but not your emotions.

Like the story, the character progression offers a good number of options for letting you advance as you see fit. You decide what abilities to focus on, what weapons to take into battle, and what gadgets to equip. You choose a specialization for Mike early on, which is tantamount to choosing a class or profession in other RPGs. This discipline then determines the depth of your skill trees, from pistols and submachine guns to stealth and endurance. As you'd expect, each time you level up, you then spend points in these various disciplines, which in turn makes the associated actions more effective and unlocks new abilities. For example, leveling up your shotgun tree opens up the room sweep ability, which adds a critical knockdown to every shot; upgrading the martial arts tree adds the fury skill that enhances your hand-to-hand effectiveness. Armor and weapon modifications, as well as a healthy array of different weapons, ammo types, and gadgets, allow for further customization. The resulting flexibility is incredibly impressive.

Unfortunately, the basic gameplay mechanics prevent the wealth of options from getting the justice they deserve. It's clear from the moment that you move around in Alpha Protocol that something isn't quite right. You control Mike from a third-person perspective, but the camera is often zoomed rather close to him, which is a hindrance to taking in your surroundings or navigating close spaces. If you stoop, the camera pulls away somewhat and you get a better view, though the way Mike scuttles about while crouching is laughably awkward. As you progress, you find the camera can cause mild headaches in other ways as well. For some unknown reason, descending a ladder or jumping from a ledge (always a contextual action, never a freely controllable one) causes the camera to swoop to an overhead view and remain there, which is unhelpful and disorienting. At other times, you might pop up from behind cover to take a shot, only to have the camera shift into a useless position or even have your own body get in the way. These gaffes seem odd, considering most game developers seem to have worked through such basic obstacles years ago. You get accustomed to them, but these problems make the simple act of moving from place to place feel uncomfortable.

The camera isn't the only issue with the cover system, which is generally workable but also inconsistent and occasionally buggy. At a basic level, cover works as it does in a third-person shooter like Gears of War: You press a button to take cover behind a barricade or wall and peek over or around to shoot at enemies. But like much of Alpha Protocol, cover wasn't implemented well. Sometimes you encounter walls that you can't take cover behind for no discernible reason; at other times, the stickiness of the cover mechanic combined with the close camera can make it awkward to get out of the way of an incoming grenade. You might also run into glitches and bugs where cover is concerned. Some of these are bizarre but not likely to bother you too much, such as weird animation glitches or moments when you might slide a few feet to the side like the ground is coated with ice. Other bugs are more annoying. You might pop up from behind cover only to discover that your targeting reticle is missing and you can't shoot your weapon--a problem that can only be fixed by extricating yourself from cover. Or for some reason you won't be able to toss a grenade from behind a barricade. Again, basic mechanics gone bitter distract from the complexities that make Alpha Protocol special.

The shooting isn't great in Alpha Protocol, but you may have some fun with it, assuming you choose the game's most effective loadout. If you want to take the shoot-first, talk-later approach, you should almost certainly take an assault rifle with you. They are the game's most powerful weapons, and when used with the auto-targeting ability you unlock early on, they can make you almost unstoppable. Alpha Protocol is not a straight-up shooter, however. Under-the-hood calculations figure into your abilities in the field, so just because you aim directly at a bad guy's head and pull the trigger doesn't mean you're going to lodge a bullet in his skull. If you expect your shooting prowess to translate to battlefield superiority, you'll find that it's only part of the equation. It's too bad it isn't a bigger part of the equation where pistols are concerned. Pistols feel relatively weak, which is to be expected, though they would seem an attractive last-resort option if you pursue the stealth angle. But you are often put in situations that can only be solved with firearms and are clearly designed with long-range weaponry in mind. In these situations, a pistol/shotgun combo is often ineffective. If you focused on stealth and melee at the expense of ranged weapons, expect some frustrations in certain combat scenarios and boss encounters.

The combat challenges come primarily from such imbalances, not from the opposition's desire to stay alive. The AI is pretty dreadful. Security agents and mercenaries run about the levels in haphazard ways, may start climbing ladders as you fill them with lead, will kneel on top of exploding barrels, or might stare directly at you but fail to react unless you take a shot or give them a good punch. There's a weird sense of randomness to your enemies' behavior that diminishes the impact firefights may have had. Other flaws also conspire against the shooting--flaws so simple it's surprising they made it into the final product. For example, when you activate a power, the screen takes on a bright yellow tone, as if someone turned up the light bloom setting extraordinarily high. Unfortunately, your targeting reticle is a dull yellow and can become practically invisible when the effect occurs. The effect can even obscure your target. This is a big inconvenience when using the chain shot ability, which can also cause your screen to jitter uncontrollably. There are chances to get behind turrets and take aim, but the loosey-goosey controls keep these moments from being much fun--a drawback that also applies to a few sniping sections. We also ran into some bugs here as well. On several occasions, manning a turret caused the screen to become painfully blurry and moving the camera resulted in egregious screen tearing.

Not every section requires you to shoot, however. The stealth skill tree harbors some of the more helpful abilities, such as master awareness, which pinpoints nearby enemies automatically. The higher up the tree you go, the more viable stealth becomes. Yet Alpha Protocol is no more a proper stealth game than it is a shooter. As with the shooting, the inconsistent AI provides a major hindrance, and the typically close camera can get in the way of locating nearby enemies. Instead of offering typical stealth game tropes--a minimap with vision cones or the ability to hide in the shadows, for example--the game gives you superhuman moves, such as temporary invisibility. Sneaking up on an enemy and taking him down with a minimum of fuss is mildly rewarding, as it tends to be in most games. But the actions you take leading up to that point involve activating certain skills and scurrying around in your silly crouched position--not outsmarting sharp AI or using the environment in clever ways.

An espionage RPG wouldn't be complete without a bit of hacking and alarm disabling, and to that end, Alpha Protocol features three corresponding minigames. One of them is not so bad: You identify a sequence of mazelike lines in the correct order. It feels just right--not too easy, and not too challenging. It's just enough to keep you on your toes, but another minigame isn't quite as successful. Here, you must identify two lines of stationary code in the midst of a busy grid of moving characters. It can be a challenge to identify the code, which is great. But the still bits you need to identify will be repositioned after a few moments, and the cursor you must position over the matching code moves too slowly. It can be exasperating to isolate the code, only for it to be relocated while you're trying to move the overly sluggish cursor to the right spot. Lock-picking can be equally tense, at least in the console versions, but it's a much more sensible mechanic. Here, you need to position the depicted rods by finessing the left trigger into a specific spot. This takes some getting used to, but it's challenging in just the right way. Sadly, that's not the case in the PC version: You just move the rod into position with the mouse and click. It's super easy.

Alpha Protocol utilizes the Unreal 3 graphics engine, though the only sign that this modern technology was used occurs with the engine's telltale texture pop-in. The pop-in is barely noticeable on the PC, but it's quite an eyesore in the console versions of the game. Sometimes, it takes up to 10 seconds or more for higher-resolution textures to appear, and at rare but noticeable times, they may never appear at all. The pop-in is a distraction, though it may have been more forgivable had the game compensated for it with great visuals. But Alpha Protocol is not a looker on any platform. Environments are plain and textures lack detail, and you won't encounter the quality lighting and shadows you might expect to see in modern games. Animations are stiff and occasionally buggy and often appear to be missing multiple frames, which contributes to the game's overall inelegance. Alpha Protocol is not ugly, however; it's just behind the times and artistically uninspired. Nevertheless, the safe houses Mike operates from between missions have some nice views, and some of the outdoor missions throw in some welcome flashes of color. Similarly, the sound design gets the job done, though without much style. The voice acting is at least solid, and the generic action-movie soundtrack ramps up at the right moments but otherwise stays out of the way.

Alpha Protocol's ambitions are commendable, and if you're a role-playing fanatic, you'll enjoy investigating its intricacies. It's unfortunate that its various ingredients are so undercooked. The flaky cover system, the mediocre production values, the fundamental blemishes gone unchecked--these elements add up quickly and drag the experience down. The elaborate storytelling and character progression are impressive. It's too bad that the gawky, glitchy gameplay can't rise to the same standard. 

The Sims 3: Ambitions

The Sims 3: Ambitions Review
Source By IGN

The newest Sims 3 expansion, The Sims 3: Ambitions, isn't going to change your mind about the biggest PC gaming franchise ever. It doesn't radically reinvent the series, but it is much more substantial than I think a lot of people give Sims expansions credit for being. This isn't just a few new outfits or the ability to have a pet (though it does, of course, add new features both major and minor), this expansion radically alters the way characters pursue their careers, making for a more satisfying Sims experience.

In Sims 3 the main appeal is running and observing the life of your Sims -- little avatars you can give commands to. After creating your Sims -- which is a worthwhile thing in Ambitions, since several new traits and life goals have been added -- you get to jump into a large town and start deciding how you want them to live their lives. Previously you could dictate almost all their actions, with the notable exception being their job. Sure, you could pick their career, and in some cases you could directly control their livelihood if they were making ends meet as an artist or musician, but most jobs boiled down to your Sim disappearing during the day and you collecting a check when they were back.

Ambitions changes this dramatically, giving players the choice between having a career and a profession. Careers still operate the same way they always have (with the exception of the Doctor, who has enhanced profession features), while professions allow players to participate in their Sims jobs actively, never having to lose direct control over them. The included professions are Doctor, Ghost Hunter, Private Investigator, Stylist, Firefighter, and Architectural Designer. The jobs are every bit as varied as they sound and, more importantly, they're a lot of fun to play. Even the jobs I didn't think I had any interest in -- like the stylist -- manage to be fun and keep me engaged simply because they change from moment to moment, demanding more attention.

The reason professions manage to keep you so much more engaged than careers is that they allow you to craft a more in-depth story for you Sim -- ostensibly the entire reason for playing. Previously, players were making stories for their Sims outside of work, crafting their love lives and what have you, but work was largely just a drop down menu where you picked how hard they pushed themselves. Now that you can directly control them on the job you can really have their personalities shine through; evil Sims might steal while Ghost Hunting, or Firefighters who are lazy might stop to watch some T.V. while a house burns. How hard you work really is directly the result of how much you want to micromanage your Sim's life.

The only downside to the professions is that they're so much better than careers that they make me want more choices. Careers are downright boring compared to professions, and I can't picture myself going back to the old jobs, but ultimately having only six to choose from is not all that much. Not that I expect it to stay this way, as I'm just sure EA is prepping more professions for us to purchase in the Sims online store.

Other minor changes also come in the expansion, but with a few notable exceptions that add a lot of potential options to how you play. New traits and lifetime wishes are available for players just itching to create some new Sims, but the cooler, more substantial additions are in the new Inventing and Sculpting hobbies. Sculpting allows you to create statues of other Sims or even objects like chairs, while Inventing allows you to make several cool tools that can help your Sim in their life. For instance, your inventing Sim might create a Floor Hygienator which they can place in their house just so they can walk by to get cleaner. These hobbies are ultimately what you make of them, but are great ways for you to tell yet another story about your character. After all, who hasn't wanted to make a disturbed mad inventor who just sits in his house and tinkers day in and out? Or maybe an obsessive sculptor who befriends Sims just so he can get them to come over to craft their bodies in clay?

When so many Sims expansions have seemed relatively inconsequential, Ambitions stands out for how substantially it alters a key component of the game. The new profession system will doubtless keep Sims 3 fans busy for many more hours, and the other additions included will also give players plenty of new stories to tell for Sims both new and old. If this is the type of content we can expect from Sims 3 expansions going forward, content that evolves core game mechanics, color me impressed.

Backbreaker

 Backbreaker Review
 Source By GameSpot

There's no question that football has a cerebral side, but much of the appeal of the sport comes from the explosive hits that happen on nearly every play. Backbreaker highlights these bone-jarring collisions like no other football game before it. The realistic manner in which players use their bodies as weapon while on defense and crumple limply to the earth on the offensive side of the ball encourages the same sadistic yells the real sport so frequently elicits, but the rest of the experience falls far short of that Sunday-afternoon excitement. A frustrating passing system and an unpredictable running attack make marching down the field a chore, and the presentation leaves a lot to be desired. There are enough wow moments to make Backbreaker worth checking out for football fans looking for something other than the pervasive Madden series, but there are too many holes in this debut game to give it a starting spot in its rookie year.



The animation in Backbreaker is incredibly realistic and makes every action you take on the field pop off the screen. Players react like you would expect real people to, obeying the laws of physics so strictly that when their bodies contort and bend, you can imagine the pain these digital beings must be in. There has simply never been a sports game that so accurately reflects a player's movement and momentum. Get a clean shot on a quarterback, and watch the shock wave ripple through his body, forcing his head to snap back like a jack-in-the-box and his legs to lose the ability to support the weight above them. Running backs can be pulled down by just their arm or held in place by a falling lineman, while a surging linebacker rushes in to finish off the job. Although the animations are usually incredible, they are not without some faults. The throwing and kicking motions are a little off, and the lack of any injuries limits the ramifications of these punishing hits. But it's amazing how realistic Backbreaker looks.

Unfortunately, the actual football experience is not able to match this fantastic animation system. Much of the blame falls on the nonadjustable camera, which is set far too close to players. Because the camera places you right on the field, all of the hits carry even more weight than if you were zoomed farther back, but the positive aspects are overshadowed by an inability to see the entire field. As the quarterback, not only can you not see all of your receivers at one time, but you can barely see the pass rush barreling toward you, making it difficult to get the ball out of your hands before you find yourself flat on your back. On the defensive side of the ball, the extreme close-up makes it fun to claw your way past an offensive lineman, but you have no way to know what's happening on the other side of the field. And though you do have the ability to switch whom you're controlling midplay, you're liable to completely mess up a situation if you inhabit a new body without knowledge of your surroundings. Because of the claustrophobic camera angle, local matches against another player are handled with split-screen, although online play gives you the full screen to work with. The camera does a good job of putting you in the action, but it's so restrictive that it becomes a liability before long.

The suffocating camera is just the beginning of Backbreaker's problems. Just like the zoomed-in view tries to replicate the feeling of being on the field, the passing system puts you in the shoes of the quarterback like no other game, but it doesn't translate into a fun experience. When you snap the ball, you are locked on to just one receiver, and to switch to a different target you need to push a button or the right stick (depending on your control scheme) to toggle through your options. Although this is an interesting idea in theory, forcing you to read the defense and go through all your receivers to find someone who's open, in practice it just leads to a lot of sacks. It takes so long for QBs to release the ball after you hit the pass button that you have no time to cycle through your targets to find the best option. And even when you're just focusing on one receiver, you still find yourself on the wrong end of a sack far too often because the offensive line stinks, which strips away much of the appeal of playing as a gunslinger.

Backbreaker continues to frustrate even if you find an open receiver and successfully get off a pass before the defense flattens you. Quarterbacks are horrifically inaccurate. Even if your feet are set and you're throwing just a few yards down the field, the ball will still frequently sail far wide of your intended target. It's absolutely maddening when a routine play turns into an unforced incompletion. This issue is compounded by the defense's knack for picking off passes. If you build your offense around passing (which is advisable considering how awful the running game is), it's not surprising to find your interceptions creeping dangerously close to double digits, resulting in a disjointed game in which no lead is secure and clock-eating drives are a rarity. It's also impossible to know where the ball will end up once it's released. In the actual sport, quarterbacks lead receivers before they break on a route. But oftentimes in Backbreaker, the QB throws where the receiver is instead of where he's running to, which adds another hurdle to completing a pass.

As aggravating as the passing is, the running game is even worse. Your offensive line is a sieve during passing plays, but their inability to hold a block is even more glaring when you're trying to worm your way past the line of scrimmage. Whether you gain yardage or find yourself tackled for a loss is a crapshoot because the defense is so often able to blow past your blockers before you even have a chance to juke out of the way. And as amazing as the tackling animations are, your running back crumples to the turf far too easily. Linebackers frequently need only slap you on your thigh to make you fall to the ground, which is completely unrealistic. The average RB should laugh at such a weak attempt at being brought down, but a hand tackle far too often spells doom in Backbreaker. Also, the camera is troublesome during sweep plays. Your view adjusts so severely when changing direction that simply turning upfield is a challenge. The thrill of stiff-arming an oncoming defender and high-stepping your way to the end zone makes a successful attempt exciting, but the running game is far too unpredictable to be a legitimate offensive option.


At least the defensive side of the ball shows more promise than its offensive counterpart. The camera makes it difficult to adjust to situations on the fly, but it does give you a taste of what it's like to be on the field. Playing good defense is all about being disciplined. If you follow the called play correctly, you frequently find yourself in the perfect position to make a stop. When you're rushing the passer with an outside linebacker, you feel the weight of the lineman desperately trying to stop your progress, and the satisfying impact of wrapping up the quarterback is a real rush. When you drop into coverage, it's a joy to successfully run alongside a fleet-footed receiver and knock the ball down at the last second. But because of the camera, there is a severe disconnect between your actions and the overall play. When you're away from the ball, it's hard to know what's going on elsewhere, and switching to another player without knowledge of the situation could result in a disastrous mistake. Still, playing defense is one of the strong points of this game.



The best aspect of Backbreaker takes place outside the context of a football game, though. Tackle Alley is an additional game mode that emphasizes the incredible animation and thrill of avoiding a tackler; elements that are so frequently lost in the frustrating minutiae of the main game. You start 100 yards away from the end zone with the ball in your possession and have to avoid the defenders who stand in your path without any teammates to help you succeed. It's all about juking the defender and making smart decisions, so it's an absolute blast when you evade a gang of tacklers and fall into the end zone unscathed. Part of the fun comes from just messing with the heads of your digital competitors. This is a point-based challenge, so you're encouraged to showboat whenever possible to make your score rise. Hotdogging it past defenders is hilarious, especially when you run circles around them while they frantically try to bring you down. Juking out of the way at the last second can cause them to skid for 10 yards or more across the grass, and sometimes they even take out one of their teammates in the process. Each time you score a touchdown, the defensive configuration is changed and more defenders are added, and it's a treat to repeatedly foil your enemy's attempts to bring you down. Even more fun is playing this with a friend. You both have your own ball and have to make it successfully to the end zone, but you can help each other by distracting defenders, which leads to many funny situations.

As much fun as it is to hit someone or avoid a tackle in spectacular fashion, the presentation is not able to rise up to make these moments carry more impact. The replay system is awful. After every play, a replay automatically rolls, but it rarely shows off the best elements of the play. The camera has trouble framing the action, so that amazing catch you just made is often shown just outside your view. And you can't even adjust your view manually. When you call up a replay, you have only the option to rewind or fast-forward, which is disappointing when you want to show off the way a lineman bent backward, but you can't focus on the poor fellow. Furthermore, there is no commentary during games to make these fictional contests feel more important, and the P.O.D. song Boom that bellows during every kickoff becomes grating before the first half even ends.

There aren't any licensed teams or players in Backbreaker, but you can create your own if you want to import the NFL experience into this game. Unfortunately, even after you christen the San Francisco team with the name 49ers and drape the players in red and gold uniforms, the dumb artificial intelligence and incompetent referees still make it obvious that this is a far cry from the real thing. Players have very poor field awareness. Receivers run out of bounds of their own volition after a catch, and defenders line up offsides as if they are unaware of the rules. Coaches make just as many dumb mistakes. The computer has worse clock management than even Andy Reid, calling time-outs at inopportune moments or running the ball when time is ticking and the team desperately need points. Rules are also handled incorrectly. Roughing should result in an automatic first down, but in Backbreaker it's just a 15-yard penalty. Defensive pass interference is rarely called, even if you're shoving a receiver all over the field. None of these little problems destroy the experience on their own, but these issues add up to a number of aggravating moments.

The animations and hitting in Backbreaker are done so well that there is still fun to be had, but every other element is riddled with problems that make it hard to enjoy this game for the long term. It's a shame the nuts and bolts are so rough, because it really is amazing to see your players contort in painful ways. Because of this, Tackle Alley is the best way to enjoy this football game, stripping away many of the problems while letting you focus on what makes Backbreaker unique. But once the novelty of evading an entire team single-handedly wears off, you're left with a frustrating experience that has far too many issues to offer a worthwhile alternative to the Madden series.

UFC Undisputed 2010

UFC Undisputed 2010 Review
Source By GameSpot

Inside the octagon, there really wasn't a lot wrong with UFC 2009 Undisputed, which makes it all the more impressive that the combat in UFC 2010 Undisputed is so much better. New features and improvements aren't confined to the cage, and check out UFC 2010 Undisputed's online mode locked, either. When you're not busy punching, pummeling, or posturing, you can create a custom fighter who's no longer restricted by styles, play through a far less clunky (though still problematic) Career mode, and shop for trading cards and unlockables using points earned in all-new modes. Some of the new features have come with problems, but despite some drawbacks, UFC 2010 Undisputed is definitely a bigger and better game than its predecessor. Its fighting system is deep, but it's also accessible enough that you don't need to be a fan of mixed martial arts to enjoy it.




Regardless of whether or not you played last year's game, you'd do well to check out UFC 2010's Tutorial mode before jumping into the octagon to do battle with one of the 100-plus (as opposed to last year's 41) UFC fighters. The mostly intuitive controls are largely unchanged: Your limbs are still mapped to the four face buttons, shoulder buttons are still used for blocking and modifying attacks, and the right analog stick still has a number of different uses, depending on whether you're fighting stand-up, in a clinch, or on the ground. There are several new techniques and strategies for you to master this year, though, and while none of them are complicated, you're better off learning about them in the impressively thorough tutorial than in a fight when one of them is used against you.

Depending on your play style, the most significant change during fights is that the octagon itself now comes into play. When you get your opponent in a clinch and force him up against one of the cage walls, it becomes harder for him to defend himself as you gain more leverage for attacks. The walls can also come into play during takedown attempts and while wrestling on the ground, which makes this a much more realistic representation of the UFC than its predecessor. The new sway system is similarly game changing because you can evade attacks simply by leaning in one of four directions. Performed by holding down a trigger button and tapping the left analog stick that's usually reserved for movement, sways make it easier for you to stand your ground without having to resort to blocks while an opponent is on the offensive. It's a risky tactic, but the payoff for a perfectly timed sway is that you get to launch a powerful counterattack as you return to your original stance.

Risk-versus-reward mechanics also have an impact on the mat, where the ground-and-pound strategy that proved so effective last year has been made a little more challenging to use. You can still take an opponent to the ground and transition between different positions in an attempt to get a full mount, but you need to "posture up" before you can land really powerful blows, and when you do that, it becomes easier for your opponent to escape. Furthermore, it's now easier for the guy with his back on the floor to neutralize the guy on top by grabbing hold of his head and--if it seems like the best available option--waiting for the referee to stand both fighters up again. Alternatively, regardless of whether or not you're on top, you can try to submit your opponent.

After initiating one of the numerous different submissions with a quick click of the right analog stick, both players then rotate the stick as quickly as possible in an attempt to end the submission favorably. This inelegant system (referred to in-game as "the shine") works in much the same way that it did last year, except that as the guy being submitted, you now have to watch for your opponent transitioning from one submission hold to another. If that happens, you need to shine in the opposite direction. If you fail to do so, you're treated to an extreme close-up of the improved fighter likenesses and animation as the camera zooms in--getting closer and closer as the submission looks increasingly likely to end the fight. The improved visuals and camera work make the ground game more compelling and even a little easier to understand than it was last year, but if you prefer strikes to submissions, there's a good chance you'll still do your best to avoid it.

The UFC 2010 roster has plenty of fighters to choose from to suit every play style. There's no easy way to figure out which fighters specialize in which fighting styles. This is unfortunate if you don't follow the sport, but the vast majority of these guys are such well-rounded mixed martial artists that you can still fight effectively even if your chosen fighter's style is nothing like your own. One way to avoid any of this confusion, of course, is to create your own character from scratch, either as a finished fighter that's ready to go toe-to-toe with the pros or as a work-in-progress that you subsequently build up in the lengthy Career mode. Either way, it can be a time-consuming process because while your choices for variables like stance, voice, celebration, and nickname are limited, the options get much more granular when you start using sliding bars to tweak the appearance of your fighter's facial features and such. When it comes to your created fighter's stats, you get two distinct pools of points to spend. One pool can be spent on a combination of strength, speed, and cardio attributes; the other pool can be distributed between no fewer than 16 offensive and defensive skills. These skills determine your fighter's strengths and weaknesses because, for example, if you want to put a lot of points into making sure that his punches and kicks are lethal, you might have fewer points to spend on things like submissions and takedowns.

Unlike their counterparts in last year's game, UFC 2010 fighters aren't limited to using one grappling style along with one striking style. If you're creating a finished fighter, you choose from one of nine "technique templates" (Japanese MMA or Boxing, for example) and then have the option to customize your repertoire by trading in the moves that you don't want for points and then spending those points on moves that you do want. It's a great system because it lets you create fighters that specialize in your favorite moves--even if those moves span a number of very different disciplines. Career mode takes a similar approach, except that you don't even get to choose a technique when creating your character; you start out as something of a jack-of-all-trades and then earn skill points and new moves by taking part in training activities between fights.

Last year's Career mode was bogged down with unwieldy menus to the point that you spent more time navigating them than you did inside the octagon. Thankfully, that's not the case this year, but while the Career mode is much-improved and introduces some good features, it still has its fair share of problems. One neat change is that rather than being thrust into the UFC from day one, you now get to take part in up to five amateur fights (these are a great opportunity to experiment with the four difficulty settings) before turning pro and competing in the World Fighting Alliance. The WFA fighters aren't nearly as formidable as the guys in the UFC, so beating them and getting invited to join the UFC is just a formality. The important thing at this early stage of your career is that you use the weeks between fights wisely; otherwise you're liable to get destroyed in your first Ultimate Fight Night undercard. Sadly, while it's more important than ever and has been improved somewhat, training in UFC 2010 still isn't much fun. Strength, speed, and cardio training are still entirely menu driven; the most effective way to spar is to employ cheap tactics, and visiting camps to learn new moves is more often frustrating than it is fun. You need to devote a lot of time to training in Career mode this year because even as a young fighter, any stats and skills that you don't invest points in on a regular basis start to deteriorate.


On paper, the new skill-deterioration system sounds like a great idea. After all, it makes sense that you'd lose skills you neglect to work on over time. The problem is simply that this idea hasn't been implemented or explained anywhere particularly well. To avoid letting your skills deteriorate, you must regularly spend at least one point on each and every one of them, at least until you reach the deterioration-proof ratings of 30, 50, and 70 that they'll never drop below. Exacerbating this issue is the fact that you can only earn skill points in sparring sessions, which leave a lot to be desired.

After a sparring session, skill points are awarded by using simple math that amounts to little more than subtracting the number of times you were hit from the number of times that your hits landed, rather than how effective you were as a fighter. Your sparring partner has no desire to be used as a punching bag, so if you try to fight the way you would normally, you might find that the number of points you earn isn't even close to the 16 that you need to invest one in each skill. The auto-sparring option forgoes the 90 seconds that you spend in the octagon if you choose to spar manually, but it awards you such a small number of skill points that it's not a good option. Your best bet, sadly, is to employ cheap tactics that make it very easy for you to land blows while being on the receiving end of very few. Use a simple takedown to get your partner on the floor, spam punches while he struggles, earn points for those punches and for his failed attempts to get back to his feet, and then repeat this sequence when he inevitably succeeds. It's not challenging and definitely not fun, but it's extremely effective.

Visits to other camps that you make when you want to add a new move to your arsenal are much more challenging, or at least some of them are. Depending on the type of move that you want to learn, you might be required to do something as simple as landing a number of two-hit combos or something as challenging as forcing a partner to submit multiple times in a short amount of time. Your progress carries over multiple sessions, so it's possible to spend two or three training weeks learning a move if you don't manage it in one. Just make sure you remember what you were learning and at which of the 27 camps you were learning it because there's no easy way to return when you're ready for your next lesson.

When you're not training or competing, it's generally because you're in need of rest, which--like just about everything else in Career mode--takes a full week. This includes media-related activities like making fight predictions and sparring in front of the press. The need to balance your conditioning with your fatigue level and to keep them as close to 100 and zero, respectively, on the week of your fight is a constant and realistic concern. Other stats to keep an eye on in Career mode include your popularity (as influenced by media activities, post-fight interviews, and the like), which has an impact on sponsorship deals, and your cred. Cred goes up after every fight (depending on the result and on which sponsor logos you adorn your shorts with) and unlocks gym upgrades and new sparring partners. These make your training more effective and raise the level caps on your physical attributes and skills. Despite the aforementioned problems, it's certainly easy to get sucked into UFC 2010's 12-year Career mode. You always feel like you're progressing, and while the weeks in between fights aren't much fun, the fights themselves are still great, and it's always very satisfying to win because you feel like your hard work has paid off.

Outside of Career mode, there are plenty of other, less time-consuming modes for both solo and multiplayer sessions. Title mode challenges you to defeat between eight and 12 opponents to claim the title belt in your chosen weight class. The unlockable Title Defense mode pits you against 12 opponents in five-round championship fights that you must win back-to-back without ever losing. Event mode lets you create and play through your own multifight events or download lineups for upcoming UFC events and play through them. Tournament mode supports custom knockout competitions for up to 16 players on one console. None of these modes do anything that's remarkable, but all are good ways to enjoy the great mixed martial arts combat.

If you're a fan of the UFC, you're sure to get a kick out of the other single-player mode as well. Ultimate Fights affords you an opportunity to relive or rewrite history in a number of classic fights (15 on the Xbox 360, 20 on the PlayStation 3) that date as far back as 2005's UFC 51. There are nine challenges to complete for each fighter, which include a good combination of easy (perform three successful takedowns) and reasonably difficult (win by rear naked choke in first round) objectives. Successful completion of these challenges provides one of a few different ways that you can earn credits to spend on additional customization options for your fighters, and it also unlocks highlight videos of the fights in question, which look great on the PS3 but are poorly compressed on the Xbox 360. Incidentally, the PS3 version also includes five full-length, high-definition UFC fights on the disc.

UFC 2010's online offering is sadly much the same as it was last year. More often than not, ranked and unranked exhibition matches suffer from noticeable lag, the quick-match option doesn't reliably connect you with opponents, and there's no support for tournaments, spectators, or any of the other neat options that you might hope to find in a modern fighting game. Other than the aforementioned option to download event cards, the only additions to this year's online offering are a medal system that recognizes and keeps a record of your online accomplishments and an online fight camp system that--outside of team leaderboards--does very little that's worthwhile. One of the more interesting features of online camps should be the training sessions where you pair up with another team member, but in practice, they're just pointless and frustrating. You don't always get credit for completing the very specific exercises that your presented with, playing as the trainer involves a lot of standing around and letting yourself get hit in the hope that you can gain a meaningless trainer level online, and even if you succeed as the trainee, your only reward is a miniscule amount of cred that's unlikely to have any impact on your fighter in Career mode.

Clearly, UFC 2010 Undisputed is a game with its fair share of problems. You shouldn't let that put you off, though, because this is also a game that brilliantly re-creates the mixed martial arts combat that has made the UFC so popular and that boasts a roster of more than 100 great-looking contemporary fighters (as well as three bonus classic fighters on the PS3). Last year's problems have mostly been addressed, new problems have been introduced, and the end result is a game that--much like its predecessor 12 months ago--is difficult to fault inside the octagon but falls short of expectations between fights.

Add Link To UFC Undisputed 2010 From Amazon.com

         

Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer

Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer 

 

 Review:

While I'm not the Conan expert Rob is, maybe that's no bad thing. At the beginning of last year (when Funcom posted losses of $23 million) Conan's subscribers were estimated to have dropped below 100,000, and it's anyone's guess where that figure is today. So, in all probability, you're the same as me: a thousand miles away from Rob's rippling virtual muscles and proud collection of "alts", and simply curious as to whether Rise of the Godslayer makes Age of Conan something worth playing - or returning to.

On paper, things look pretty grim. Rise of the Godslayer doesn't feature the level cap increase you might expect from a serious £20 expansion, nor does it feature any new classes (not that Conan necessarily needed any, but still). Godslayer is actually meant to address the most significant criticism levelled at Conan - the same lack of content that both drives players to make new characters when they hit the level cap of 80, and that makes playing the game through a second or third time a chore.
'Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer' Screenshot 1

In seeking to thicken the Age of Conan experience rather than lengthen it, Rise of the Godslayer introduces the sprawling province of Khitai, a war-torn land that repurposes the imagery of Chinese, Korean and Mongolian history. Despite the region of Khitai collapsing into bloodshed after King Conan accidentally mercy-killed their God, the place often feels less fantastical than you might expect from the Conan universe and more like a wild, uneducated stab at Chinese history with monsters doodled in the margins. Unimaginative pagodas, paddy fields and jade carvings make a poor substitute for the occasionally spectacular architecture of Age of Conan's other areas.

Khitai itself is exclusively for level 80s, but the approach to the Great Wall of Khitai (an area known as the Gateway to Khitai, but technically the territory of neighbouring Hyrkania) provides a massive area for levels 20 to 40 to quest in. Any concerns that Conan's quest zones were cramped have been rigorously addressed, with Hyrkania's sprawling grasslands providing ample space for several very different camps of quest-givers and their respective quests.

You've got the barbarous Hyrkanian nomads with their enormous coliseum-sized wagon, the ruined caravan that they just attacked with its angry, scared survivors, and the trading town that's sprung up around the Wall's gate. This is smart MMO design, crafting a sense of place and motion from three static settlements of NPCs.

And yet the decision to make Gateway to Khitai a level 20-40 area is a weird one. The lack of content that puts Conan players at risk of having to grind appears between levels 50 and 80, not 20 and 40. All Funcom has done with this new area is extend the joy that begins with the introductory island of Tortage, which takes players by the hand to level 20 with lots of love and attention to detail. Entertaining as Gateway to Khitai is, it's not going to cushion the disappointment of the game's final 30 levels that see you having to meticulously track down almost every single quest.

But let's say you do reach level 80, or already have a fully levelled character eager to come out of retirement. In that case the meat of Rise of the Godslayer's content, Khitai itself, is waiting for you. And I do mean meat. Massive, chewy, bloody meat.

Khitai is big enough to render the fact that Rise of the Godslayer doesn't include a level cap increase absolutely absurd. There are four huge, wide-open areas to explore, each as big as Gateway to Khitai, except with more dungeons. By Conan's standards, there's enough here to hypothetically nudge a player up to level 100, or perhaps even 110.

But then perhaps you wouldn't get to have as much fun with the Faction system, Funcom's attempt to ground the game's psychotic free-for-all PvP and reward repeat play-throughs. Khitai's populace is about as good at calm co-operation as your average Daily Mail headline, and every Khitan region is home to several warring factions keen to offer you quests and rewards that make will make you an enemy of another faction, and perhaps a target to all of its players. It's through factions that you'll acquire some of the epic loot that's your only real goal in Khitan, since you're not levelling up.

It's also through factions that you get access to another of Rise of the Godslayer's touted features, raising your own personal wolf or tiger from a cub to a mount. This takes the form of a long series of quests for either the Wolves of the Steppe (bandits) or Tamarin Tiger (warrior-cannibals - no relation to the Tamil Tigers, then). Both mounts look extraordinarily cool, but much like the loot you're scratching through Khitan for, they're perhaps unlikely to excite statistically.

Similarly appealing yet slightly underwhelming is the new Alternate Advancement system, which gives Godslayer players a second talent tree containing of passive buffs, combos, abilities and spells that has its "General" branch unlocked at level 20 and a second, class-specific branch opened up at level 80.
'Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer' Screenshot 3

Unlike Conan's existing Feat trees, Alternate Advancement isn't tied to your level. Instead, you progress through it using points earned in PvE and PvP, and eventually (at level 80) you get the option of switching from 'Points' to 'Time', meaning you can click on what you want in the AA tree and it fills up slowly whether you're logged in or not.

My guess is that Alternate Advancement was meant to fix the lack of momentum that dogs Conan by giving players more character progression, more often, and while it is a welcome system, it's perhaps not as effective as Funcom might have hoped. Addictive play in RPGs doesn't simply come from "dings", but from growing your character in meaningful ways.

Without wanting to be facetious, Diablo or Torchlight are overwhelmingly moreish despite giving you very few abilities, simply because when you do improve your character it's with a tough choice that results in a significant change you can see and feel right away.

Age of Conan already had redundant abilities and a wealth of tactical options, so with the addition of dozens more perks and powers, character advancement can begin to feel a little sordid. Dropping into one of the level 80 characters Funcom kindly provided me with, I found myself having to study four racks of abilities and stances with at least a dozen more powers sat eagerly in menus, waiting to be given slots. But then once I did figure out what I was doing I found I could slouch through every fight with the same series of combos.

Phew, this is turning into a dismal review, isn't it? Let's talk about the strongest part of Rise of the Godslayer for a bit. Let's talk about Kara Korum, best of Khitai's four areas.

There are moments in Age of Conan when the game abruptly blindsides you with a vision of how awesome this MMO could have been - usually by grabbing hold of the Conan universe's lore and thrusting it at you with both hands. Arriving in the beautiful city of Tarantia where King Conan rules is one of these moments. Another is the entirety of Kara Korum.

Kara Korum is a region sat on the edge of the abyss. A vast crater containing some impossible, venerable evil lies to the North East, and the surrounding land wrestles with its taint on a daily basis. Locals have become warped, the flesh on their faces stretching to cover their eyes and mouths. Children sing songs of praise that nobody taught them under skies exhausted by perpetual lightning. A river of black fluid runs from the crater into a nearby lake, causing animals to grow to the size of trees, and trees to grow to the size of mountains. That place is now known as the Valley of the Gods. In the middle of Kara Korum sits a hermit living in the stinking ribcage of some long-dead behemoth; he explains that he heard the evil speak to him in the womb, and he's merely trying to return there.

Your faction choices in Kara Korum are The Last Legion, a miserable force of soldiers who pass the time by burning the dead and rushing to the defences whenever the crater burps out another wave of horrors, and the Scarlet Circle, a tiny group of scheming sorcerers perched in a fort built into the rim of the crater itself.
'Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer' Screenshot 4

Exploring Kara Korum, it's hard not to feel an electric fluttering of excitement in your chest, an excitement I feel that most of Age of Conan, for all of its hearty competence, sorely lacks. Forming a group and going roaring into the crater to assault one of its three dungeons is a hugely dramatic experience, not least because the closer you get to the crater, the more the Taint debuffs your character and the more your surroundings become very unsettling indeed.

It's unfortunate that Kara Korum is a high point buried amid more dreary content. As such, if you're looking for a reason to get involved in Age of Conan, Rise of the Godslayer almost certainly isn't it.

As for former players thinking of returning to Hyboria, well, I'd just offer one point: most of Conan's free updates after its launch concerned themselves with adding content that should have been there in the first place. What Rise of the Godslayer adds is comparable to what World of Warcraft or Lord of the Rings Online put out in their first two years, for free. (It's also worth pointing out that on the beta server I played Godslayer on, the memory leaks and general instability of the client were still an issue, and crashes were regular, although Funcom assures us things will improve in the live version of the game.)

3D Dot Game Heroes

Source: GameSpot

3D Dot Game Heroes

3D Dot Game Heroes Review

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then 3D Dot Game Heroes just whipped out an engagement ring on its first date with The Legend of Zelda. Squint your eyes and imagine that the smooth contour of the ergonomic controller in your hands has four sharp corners, and you could be tricked into believing you're playing through an unreleased sequel to the very first game in the classic Nintendo franchise. 3D Heroes may be an unabashed homage to a 23-year-old game, but it does a fine job of zeroing in on what made Zelda such an amazing adventure and re-creates those simple joys quite well. Unfortunately, the difficulty takes its cues from modern releases, making the dungeons a little too easy compared to the game on which this is based. But there are so many secrets to discover, jokes to laugh at, and environments to explore that 3D Heroes is a enjoyable game for anyone who longs for an old school adventure.




Although 3D Heroes takes most of its cues from the NES classic, its art style is all its own. The world is composed of tiny blocks, making the characters, enemies, and even the environment feel like parts from a sparsely detailed childhood toy. Its charming aesthetic creates an endearing backdrop that makes this adventure easy to get sucked into from the moment you fire it up. This simple design paves the way for a creation tool that lets you craft your own hero to save this mythical world from the dreaded dark wizard. The process is painless. Within just a few minutes, you can transform whatever resides in your imagination into your in-game avatar, tweaking your creation so it can walk, fight, and even strike a victory pose. You can play through the whole adventure as a shark, tank, or robotic tree, and you can switch up your hero whenever you load a saved game. The only downside is that the creation tool is limited to the protagonist. It's a shame you can't design the enemies you fight, the world you explore, or the labyrinths you traverse.

Once you decide on a character, it's time to free the world from the clutches of evil. 3D Heroes is played from a top-down perspective, and though the overworld is vast, there's always a flashing red dot guiding you to the next dungeon you have to conquer. Because of this, you’re never at a loss for where you need to go next, but that doesn't mean everything is handed to you. There are so many secrets to discover that it's possible to wander around for hours seeking out treasure-filled caves or tucked-away chests. And that's the most impressive aspect of 3D Heroes. The game is loads of fun even when you aren't scratching things off your to-do list. Though the combat may be simple, that doesn't detract from the joy of slicing a pirouetting spider with your sword or shooting a water monster with a well-placed arrow. But the real thrill comes from finding the countless treasures just off the beaten path. This is a wonderfully designed overworld that constantly introduces tempting rewards to keep you entertained.

The dungeons are not quite up to the level of the fantastic overworld, but the aggressive enemies and mazelike designs keep things interesting. Going toe-to-toe with a vanishing mage or lumbering ogre is always exciting, even though the abundance of health potions means you won't have to fear death. These underground labyrinths are also where you acquire secondary weapons, which include a boomerang, bombs, a grappling hook, and other predictable tools to help you on your quest. Puzzles associated with these items don't veer far from what has been done in similar games. Far-away switches must be hit by a boomerang, flimsy walls can be bombed through, and targets are just asking to be struck by an arrow. Because the puzzles rely on such traditional solutions, your progress will rarely be halted by a nasty head-scratcher. Rather, just making your way through the winding paths is where the challenge surfaces. The multitiered dungeons require keen map-reading skills to navigate, and figuring out how to reach an elusive room on the other side of the map requires careful planning. Although the individual puzzles rarely offer more than a slight setback, the intricately structured dungeons are exciting to play through as you try to reach the tantalizing end.

The boss fights waiting for you at the end are the only instances in 3D Heroes where you'll be challenged in combat. These giant monsters are quite difficult if you come to battle unprepared, but their pattern-based movement makes it seem like victory is attainable even when you find your life sapped from your body. What really ups the challenge is that, rather than requiring gimmicky uses of the new item you recently picked up, bosses are most vulnerable to your trusty sword. They demand swift slashing and deft footwork, forcing you to hone your basic skills to a fine point. Each of these foes is fast and deadly, stripping away your life with only a few hits if you aren't nimble enough. There's not always an easy solution to victory, either. Often you'll need to guard well, strike when your foes leave an opening, and just hope you can deal enough damage before they take you down. The bosses are a high point in this adventure and are the most rewarding and thrilling combat sections in the game.