Well, its been hyped for months, and here it is! BIOSHOCK 2, the sequel to the original, Game of the Year, “Bioshock”. I, like hundreds of other Bioshock megafans have been waiting a long time for it and I spent my entire day yesterday playing completely through it. Ready for the whole inner scoop? Here is what I thought of my return to Rapture…

I bought Bioshock 2 the day it came out, and I did what any other mega Bioshock fan would do… I went to work and bounced up and down holding the Game Disc and drooled heavily on it wishing the day would end so I could go home and play already! Which fortunately happened after about 8 hours. And man, was it worth the wait.

I was very, very worried about Bioshock 2… the first Bioshock is my favorite game of all time and I was sure that a second one would ruin it. I am very pleased to announce to Bioshock fans everywhere that I was dead wrong! This sequel matches the story quality and magic of Rapture in all its glory; shedding new light on the city in a whole number of defining areas without messing with the formula. The city we had come to know in the first one was suddenly much larger and more open, with more beautifully designed areas and visual stories in each room.

Let me cover a few of the newer perks of this second game.

First off, the duel welding control system that was established in the first Bioshock was maintained and perfected. As in the first one, it feels bulky and bizarre for about five minutes and then begins to feel very, very natural. The menu and inventory system was streamlined just a little bit to make smoother transitions to get to inventory during battles. And finally, my favorite feature, the button that once made you instantly use a MedKit was relocated to the D-Pad so that you aren’t using unneeded Medkits during battle. (Trust me, my brother did that a lot in the first Bioshock.)

The weapons are super charged! Heavy duty weapons that only a Big Daddy could handle. Rivet guns, grenade launchers, and of course the almighty drill! My own person favorite was the Spear Gun that pierced through your enemies and nailed them to the wall with one powerful stab… an effect that could only be better if you could attach an explosive to it… which you can! (Quick tip, any Big Daddy can be taken down with 6 headshots using your Rocket Spears.)

The Plasmid system is again fun and easy to understand. Having just spend the past two months playing “Borderlands” and having to use a calculator to figure out what gun is better, its nice to have a system that tells you these things.

Plasmids have evolved in Bioshock 2, letting you do far more then in the first Bioshock and giving you powerful new add-ons to the original Plasmids we all know and love. One new plasmid called “Scout” lets you ghost out of yourself and scout the area ahead unseen, later you can use the ghost to hack machines and attack enemies without being anywhere near danger.

Another Plasmid, which was featured in the first game, “Security Command” now allows you to summon Security Bots to come fight for you at anytime. For once in Rapture, YOU are leading the attack and you get to watch the fear in the eyes of the Splicers as you, a massive Delta Big Daddy slams into a room with rockets and grenades blasting and Security Bots unleashing waves of machine gun ammo into your enemies. It is just awesome! There is one more Plasmid that you get right towards the end of the game… but I’ll save that as a very special surprise for you players

Ok, lets talk about the thing that really matters here: the story.

I, like other Bioshock fans, understand that Rapture far more then just a game world and reaches into your own emotions and feelings, playing with your mind in a way no other video game ever has. This second installment is no different! For those of you who spent as much time playing the first game as I have know that Rapture is not as scary as when you first stepped out of that Bathysphere. In Bioshock 2, they understood that the players of this game have also emotionally evolved. We are very much comfortable in Rapture and therefore this second game does not entail much horror as in the first one. It is seen through the eyes of someone who knows Rapture and has lived there a long time.

I was terrified that 2K Games was going to ruin the first game by revisiting old places and altering the story of Andrew Ryan and Fontaine. I am so happy that they did not touch it at all and completely took a new direction with the story! Bioshock 2 features a much more personal story and is much more isolated. Your choices alter greatly how this game is played, far more then the original.

((Quick Note: You get to hear Fontaine’s voice only twice in this game in Audio Diaries and it is so weird… because you find you actually miss him.))

The gathering Little Sister aspect continues; but this time, you’re part of it… many, many times. The developers really worked to create a connection with you and the Little Sisters this time around and it really pulls at your heart strings in several places. In the end, the choices you’ve made will affect them all and you… just keep that in mind while playing.

The story itself is completely entrapping and lives up to the tale-telling traditions of Bioshock, with twists and turns and sudden stops and gos that make you never want to put down the controller. I was afraid that this Bioshock 2 would be overly science fiction with monsters and other unbelievable things that were alien to Rapture’s world… again, I was wrong! There is nothing that I could find that crossed overly the line of “unbelievable stupidity”.

There is no major story twist as in the first one, but some jaw-dropping climaxes. But we DO finally get to see something we have all wanted to see: Rapture at its peek back in the day. And yes, it is stunningly beautiful and elegant.

After completing this game, I literally sat on my couch, held the controller, and needed a few minutes to digest what had happened. Finally, I opened my mouth and said: “Woooooooooooow.”

Ok! To be fair, I need to point out two things I did NOT like in this game!

First one, the new design and character animation was way too cartoony for the Rapture. The splicers ran like “Woody” from Disney’s “Toy Story” in places and their faces were almost comical in a spot or two. Fortunately, Splicers usually die before they can get too close to you.
((Note: Splicers have many, many more spoken lines this time… so those of you who got sick of hearing the splicers shout: “RYAN.. RYANNNNNN” in the first game will be happy to know that phrase is NOT in this game even once.))

Second thing I didn’t like: For the most part, the voice acting in this game is incredible, however a couple characters were simply too stereotypical. The “Irish Preacher” was just simply too Irish and was too much a “God-flangled, hallelujah-shouting, TV evangelist” which reflects a modern view of religion, and the only African American character felt the need to call me a “Tin Daddy”… which just didn’t work.

I really need to wrap up this review, but here is a very quick lowdown on the multiplayer!

The Multiplayer feature of Bioshock 2 again changes everything you know about Multiplayer games. It is fair and balanced and comes down to your skill and not just the weapons. And best of all, they actually worked the story into the action and they gave you something you always wanted in Rapture: Your own apartment overlooking the city that you can walk around in freely… I want to really live in that apartment so badly.

In conclusion, Bioshock 2 only cements the Bioshock series as the ultimate video game series of all time, always paving the way for a new generation of games and raising the bar. I am proud to award this game 5 Stars out of 5.

Your Buddy,
JungleTrek

When you first enter the Peggle trial game, you’ll notice that all play modes are unavailable in the trial except for “Adventure” mode. (“Master Duel” appears to be available, but its not.)

Play the Peggle Adventure mode completely through to the end. The game allows you to play the first five levels before kicking you back out to the menu.

Think you’re done? Don’t go back to the arcade just yet!!

Re-enter the Peggle Mode Selection screen and you’ll notice things are just a bit different! “Challenge” mode is now unlocked and provides you with three NEW additional maps to play, adding a great amount of gameplay in the trial game… at no cost to you!
Also, you can now choose “Quick Play” mode where you can replay any of the levels instantly from “Adventure” mode without having to beat them consecutively.

Enjoy your gaming! And stay cheap!

Your Buddy,

JungleTrek

Seeing that there isn’t much out there at the moment in the way of new games, I decided to hit eBay and see If I  could find anything that catches my eye.

After going through the 80Th page of 360 games, I came across a copy of Too Human for $7 shipped to my door. Even though I wrote an article a while back saying that the demo don’t impress me at all, I figured why not give it a go since it was a whopping $7 and that happened to be in my pay pal account anyway.

When it came in I tossed it unopened on my desk and forgot about it for a few days. But this morning I rediscovered it and loaded it up. While the controls still don’t do anything for me, I am liking the game a lot more then I liked the demo. Sure there are no differences between the demo and the finished game, but it’s like a whole new experiance now. I don’t know what it is, but I am loving this game! The story is interesting and the cgi sequences are moderate. But the game itself is a ton of fun and I cannot stop playing.

I picked the Defender class to use for my first character, though I do wish I would have picked someone more offensive. Sure the defender can take some nice damage, he is better suited for a co-op experience in my opinion because of his moderate damage output an ability to take the aggro of all attacking creatures. I think I will go commando with my next guy… Wait, that doesn’t sound right. (Update, Commando is ok, but for pure butt kicking, Berserker is the winner hands down!)

What makes me happiest is being able to have two chars of different levels play together in coop without the lower one being at a disadvantage. It’s kinda like the sidekick thing in city of heroes where if a lower level parties up with a high level, he would then be boosted up in power to help him survive. This makes it so the higher level doesn’t gain as much exp as before, but at least the two can play together. Also being able to trade items between characters helps a lot since you find a ton of crap that is class specific.

Overall I am very happy with the game and am having a great time. Would I have had the same experience if I would have bought it for full price? Probably not, simply for the fact that the controls annoy the heck outta me sometimes and I would be ticked I dropped $60 for it. I would have gladly paid $45 on release day, but not $60. I think the game companies need to realize some games aren’t worth the $60 price tag. But that’s for another day.

So anyone else have any games they decided to pick up after bashing the demo or just not wanting to bother with at first?

I am happy to say that Marvel vs Capcom 2 is FINALLY being re-released for Xbox Live Arcade/PSN this summer!

All characters will come pre-unlocked. And if you haven’t played this game, its a fighting game where you play as Capcom characters (Ryu, Ken, Morrigan, Mega Man) and fight Marvel comics characters (Spider-Man, Cyclops, Magneto) in awesome 2D. There will be online mode. And it will cost I believe 15 dollars in MS points. Not sure of the PS3 cost. Peek the trailer!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=17BTZoF1S14

Ok I’ll be honest I can’t fully review the content as I can’t access it yet.  Well the quests anyway.  As you’ve heard this DLC takes place after you finish the game.  Project Purity is over and the Enclave have been dealt with……… but not gone.  This DLC adds 3 more quests after the end of the original ending, where you continue on with the Brotherhood of Steel to wipe the Enclave out once and for all.

Now you’re thinking “How can this be worth it with my level maxed at 20?” Well now you have a level max of 30, new weapons to play with (haven’t gotten one yet sadly) and new enemies, like the overlord seen above.  Now he may just look like a regular super mutant, but be warned!  He is armed with the gatling laser and is one tough sob.  I found one and still at level 21 he was a pain to fight.  If you’ve found the alien blaster (if not go find it), you know that every creature dies with no more then 2 hits (deathclaws included). this guy took 6 shots.  Now to be fair I wasn’t using VATS so I probably just kept crippling limbs instead of shooting him in the face, but hey, it was spray-and-pray panic.

So far I like this DLC. Honestly I would have paid the credits just to be able to level up to 30,the weapons, enemies, missions, and new perk(s) are all bonuses to me. Let me know what you think. Also feel free to ask any fallout related questions on the forum or email me @ chris@sparkboxshow.com

So Best Buy had a pretty sweet sale on some games this past week and seeing I am broke as heck, took this oppritunity to snag some new games… I almost wish I hadn’t

So after reading that Bestbuy had some 360 games for $9.99, I rushed out of the house so fast I almost forgot pants! I got in the car dreaming about snagging some games I have been meaning to play for a while, and how awesome it was going to be that they were cheap. But my joy was quickly bound gagged and shot in the face when I arrived because all the good ones were already gone. But there were two games that I wanted to play a while back so I figured why not grab em. What did I get you ask? Jericho and Quake Wars Enemy Territory.

To make this quick and to the point, the demo for Jericho scared the hell out of me when it came out over a year ago. Sadly though, the game itself is nothing but a crappy squad FPS masked with supernatural powers. I am sorry but when I spend all my game time running around healing every single person in my squad every damn minute, I get a little pissed. The game is by no means scary anymore, and the story is just um… Lame! Stay away from this game!!!!

Quake Wars is nothing but a good time waster. If you have 30 mins and dont want to get into a good game, feeling you cant give it its justified time, then play QUAKE! It has no mental drain and you die so fast that its like a brand new experiance every time!!!

Am I mad that I spent 9.99 on each of these? Nope, not at all, in fact I am glad I spent it. Why you ask? Well thats because I now have another coaster (Jericho) and a game where I can just load the disk, shoot some stuff, and then go to work on time. Quake is ok, but it will never ever make me late for work. Now to just wait for my copy of  Too Human to come  in the mail from ebay… Has anyone here ever had this situation happen to them?

Thats right, everyones favorite zombie game gets an upgrade.

When I woke up I was treated to seeing some new DLC for Left 4 Dead, and the best part is that its free! So I downloaded it and gave it a go. All I have to say is screw versus mode, I have survival mode now. Survival mode is exactly what it sounds like. You and 3 other survivors have to last as long as you can in special survival scenarios. Plus it opens up dead air and death toll as versus modes.

There were a few tweeks which I cannot say I am very fond of. Remember when you and your team could run to a corner and melee till your arms fell off? Well not anymore, you get about 4-5 quick swings and then a small circle appears in the middle of your screen, its the melee recharge reticle! Thats right, the more you melee the longer it takes between swings! WOOOO Also reloading seems to take longer now. Now an insane amount longer, but enough to throw you off your game and make you curse the controller for not acting fast enough. I also found while playing that there is a bit more collision detection when you and your buddy are in a corner. The one further back seems to push the guy in front out of his way. Making it so you can no longer stack up in corners to defend. Plus it seems you get stunnded longer when a boomer explodes or some big ol infected hits ya.

(EDIT!!!!)

Ok so I gave the story and versus mode a go earlier and came to a realization. The melee timer and reload slow down are only in the survival mode. I had no melee timer or reload slowdown at all in versus and campaign mode.

Overall this is a must have, especially since its free. The survial mode and the ability to use dead air and death toll as versus modes are very welcome. It will take you a while to get used to the game with the few tweeks that were done. But overall the game is awesome again and I have a reason to play it.

Thats right new DLC for everyones (Chris’) favorite wrestling game. Read more for some screenshots.

So this time around we get 5 “Legends” of the squared Circle.

Doink!

Earthquake

The Bushwackers!

And last but not least….

I gotta say that I am very happy to see THQ still putting out DLC for the game. It still may not live up to my man love for WWE Raw 2 for the xbox, but at least the roster is getting some love. Oh and the best part? It will only cost $5 of your hard earned money. When will this hit the marketplace? April 16th (tomorrow)!

yup you read the subject right. I got the ring of doom  two nights ago.

OK,well I at least half of it.  2 red to the left.  it’s a heat thing.  Andy and I  were playing Bikini Samurai Squad and it just shut off, half a red ring, and the fan was going faster and louder then I ever heard it before.  So I let it cool over night and tried it this morning.  all looked well until……… “WIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR”  DOOM!!!

Now normally this is not a huge issue. OK that’s a lie, but I digress. I called tech support (outsourced to a country where English is not the first language) and talked with a fairly nice, albeit dense, woman for most of my lunch break.  I politely gave her all of my personal info (3 times), type of console(once), serial number (twice), and explained the problem (4 times).  after that she asked if I had done any of the troubleshooting options on line. “of course I did you blithering idiot!! Do you think I’d call you if I hadn’t” is what I wanted to say.  actually I told her I did them all (3 times) and had to go so far as to read her the troubleshooting tips to her off of xBox.com (3 times).

Now one would think that after all this, and that the ring of doom is a warrantied issue that this would just be a case of I send it to them and all goes well.  Well sorry friends, it appears that a month and a half ago mine ran out.  figures.  In case you are wondering the fix is $119 plus shipping weather they can fix it or not.

On the happy side, here I sit now with my hard drive plugged into a new xBox arcade for $200 with no shipping and much less time without my beloved xBox

incidentally I just signed up for 360voice.com. check out mine as well as the other blogs. my link is below (sorry I only have 2 entries, just signed up)

http://360voice.gamerdna.com/blog.asp?tag=magnus713

Find out why the heck microsoft would do such a thing by reading more.

Yes this is microsofts version of an April fools joke. Yes horse armor might have been doubled in price, but every other bit of DLC for Oblivion has had its price cut in half! So now you can pick up the 30 hour expansion for Oblivion for only 1200 points (Normally 2400!!!!) If you were a fan of this game and really wanted to play the DLC, this is your time! It’s cheap and with the ability to load Oblivion onto your hard drive now, the game won’t take forver to load when you accidentally go through a door or go out of a city when you meant to talk to a guard.

So the next release in Fallout DLC has hit the marketplace. Was it worth the 800ms points, or did it pull another Operation Anchorage?

Ok so after the initial release of The Pitt went all FUBAR, I waited until it was put back on XBox live and gave it a go. I was very weary about this because of how Operation Anchorage rubbed me last time. But hey, its more Fallout DLC and I like most, am a sucker for it. Before I start though, I did turn the difficulty up to the max so it gave more of a challenge and would hopefully make the game last longer. And partial spoilers ahead for the first part of the game. Sorry, but its nothing crazy, just some stuff that happens rather early on, like in the first 15 mins.

As with Anchorage, when you go into the game you get a strange radio signal with pinpoints the location of where you need to head off to. So I went to my house, dropped off the crap I didnt need, and headed off to the northernmost middle point on the map. Once I arrived I found 3 slavers attacking a man with an eye patch. I quickly took off their heads with 3 shots from my combat shotgun. Mr one eye introduces himself as Werhner, an escaped slave from The Pitt who needs help to save his fellow slaves and cure the disease that is destroying them. And aparently I am the chosen one who can help them…

After procuring a slave outfit from the corpse of a rotting slave, I enter an old train tunnel and hop on one of those pump handle train cars. Be warned, you can not go back until you finish the expansion, so get any gear you may need beforehand. So anyway, I get to The Pitt and Werhner tries to get me past some guards. We fail so we blow em away. He then tells me I have to go it alone and leaves me be. But before he goes, he tells me of a contact in The Pitt. So I make my merry way down a road towards the bridge pictured above. I am decked out in my power armor with my trusty missle launcher on my shoulder, blowing away mines that are littered on the bridge and avoiding slaves trying to escape. Here is a tip, just let the damn slaves blow up the mines. Much easier and they pretty much make a path for ya. Finally across the bridge and I think its going to be too easy already, well…….. Out of no where guards come at me guns drawn and the main guard takes all my gear (weapons, armor, ammo, meds, everything!), and tells me to get to the marketplace like a good slave. Yup no weapons or anything. So I go in, find my contact, and start the DLC called The Pitt.

Thats where I stop telling you what happens. Yup ya hate me I know, well to bad! Play the DLC and enjoy it.

The setting for The Pitt is amazing. It pulls off the crazy chaotic crap hole that used to be called Pittsburg by filling the skies with giant smoke stacks that blot out the sun, slaves being made to dismantle everything metal and clean the place up with guards willing to take them out with a shot to the head if they even take a breath without asking, and the feeling that something bigger then you were told is going on here. The visuals make this DLC! Without the ambiance that Bethesda setup here I know I would not have enjoyed this as much as I did. And the story, wowza. Talk about a turning point towards the end. And I gotta say, I completed both endings and neither one has a better outcome then the other. This really plays on your moral standpoint and how much of a d*ck you want to be. But just when that time comes and you think you thought it through fully… Well you don’t have a clue what you just set in motion. And yes, the AutoAxe is freaking amazing. Nothing like a giant saw you carry around on your back!

My only gripe with this is that there is very little to do other then the main quest in this DLC. I want to see a DLC with more sidequests and secondary objectives to have fun with. I am tired of just doing one main quest and having the reward be kinda blah. I thought the reward for this whole mission would be a bit more, but again just like in Anchroage, I was wrong. Overall this is a great expansion and I liked it a lot better then Anchorage, but honestly Bethesda has to pull out all the stops for its next DLC. Otherwise I can with out a doubt say I will not pick up any of their DLC packages again. I still think the price was a bit to high. Maybe 600 points would have taken the edge off for me. But 800 just annoys me because you have the options to purchase 500 or 1000 points. So you have leftovers afterwards. It just annoys me. But enough with the rant. If you are a fan of the Fallout universe, then I say get this DLC now! It is very enjoyable and a lot more fun then Anchorage. It has a little remenance of Oblivion at one point that made me very nestaligic for it.

Any comments? Questions? OMG WTF ARE YOU THINKINGS? Feel free to email me or leave a comment below.

Also if you are interested in becoming a writer for the SparkBoxShow.com website, please feel free to email Andy or myself by going to the staff section and asking us any questions you may have. We will get back to you with all the info you need.

Thanks again everyone. See you next month after The Brotherhood of Steel comes to all our 360’s. Now where did I put that extra cash for that 120 gig drive……

Finally we got the demo the week before the release date, but was it worth the wait? Or does it not live up to your hopes and dreams?

I turned on the xbox a few days ago to see the demo for Guitar Hero: Metallica was available for download. So I clicked download, searched for my guitars, found batteries and prepared to rock out! And I was very pleased with the results. You are given 4 songs, Sad but True and Seek and Destroy by Metallica, along with Stone Cold Crazy by Queen and No Excuses by Alice in Chains. The song choices for the demo really show off the diversity in this game. From the slow grunge rock of Alice in Chains, to the solo crazed seek and destroy, and finishing up with something you wouldnt expect, Queen!

Now the play factor is just like world tour, except it has been tightened up a bit. The game-play feels more fluid and solid, while the music itself sounds amazing. These master tracks beat the hell out of what you would normally hear in games. I have never heard Seek and Destroy sound so good before. It’s crisp, clean, and sounds like it was recorded a few years ago. I will be honest though, I am only a medium player on guitar hero. Once we get to using that orange button I am screwed. But I gave it a try and funny enough I was able to get through all the songs on hard this time, and I havent played Guitar Hero for about a year now. So I think that has something to do with how they tightened up the response in the game.

The motion capture is amazing and looks like they took their time on this one. The movements of Metallica are definitely there and you do feel like you are watching a mini concert when you play the game. Except Hetfield is like a man tank in the game. His shoulders are larger then Batista’s! (Lil wrestling tie in for you fans out there) In the demo you were also given a small sampling of the create a character which looks great and I cant wait to make me! Er…Well…. at least a more buff awesome version of me…

Overall I say you need to get this demo and try it out. If you are a fan of Guitar Hero or a fan of Metallica, I am sure you will fall in love with this one. Now all we can hope is that they toss us some more Metallica DLC down the road to keep us coming back for more overtime.

Oh and to those wondering where the ShredBox has gone, well work has been hell and a car accident will definatly set you back. So look for the next edition of the ShredBox this coming Wednesday! Until then, ROCK ON!

-James

So it has finally come, Halo Wars has landed in my console and its time to share my thoughts about the game.

The first thing I thought when I saw this game was “UMMM, it’s an RTS on a console? That’s gonna suck!” And I felt that way for a long time, that is until I played the demo and was hooked. I immediately went out and did the preorder and began the long wait until release day. I’ve had a few days to play the game and get into the meat of it, so lets take this one step at a time.

First off the graphics. Nothing too crazy here, but I have to say the details that are put in each unit are pretty nice. You can see small nuances in the armor that the marines wear, the treads on the tanks, and the cockpits on the warthogs. And the levels are pretty nice also. Though what can you really do to make the scenery all that amazing on an RTS? It’s detailed but nothing amazing. What really shines though are the cut scenes. WOWZA! Full painstakingly detailed CGI animation. If you let yourself go, you almost forget they aren’t real. The facial features, emotions, and backgrounds are just sick. If they were ever to do a Halo movie, this is the way they have to go to make it viable.

Lets go with what everyone wants to hear about, the controls. Ok this was the main thing I thought I would have problems with. With an RTS, you always needed a mouse and keyboard so you could micro manage your troops and jump around the board quickly. And with every RTS that ever ended up on a console…. well they sucked, plain and simple. So I was afraid that the same fate would happen with this game, but I was wrong. The controls, after getting used to them, aren’t to bad. Right bumper selects local units on screen, left selects all units, and when you select a group of units you can use the right trigger to cycle through the selected units to start the micro managing. You can also hold down A to open up a circle that will select all units it touches.

It seems like a lot to have to deal with in the heat of battle, but it’s really not that bad once you get used to the whole thing. And to make things simpler, they have put a unit cap of 40 points. That way you aren’t trying to control an army of a 100 units. Each unit uses a certain amount of points. For example the basic marine takes 1 point, the warthog takes 1, and a scorpion tank takes 3. This makes it so you must pick and choose your unit types to gain maximum effectiveness.

Base building. The bases you build have 3 stages.  The first has 3 spots to build from, the second has 5, and the third has 7. You must build reactors to raise your tech level to unlock other buildings and upgrades for your units. The supply depots are needed to keep bringing in more supplies to build units and buildings. The barracks make marines and their upgrades, the vehicle depot makes the tanks and heavy tread vehicles, the air pad makes your aircraft, and the field armory makes your tech upgrades like better mac cannon shots or being able to drop ODST’s. Now the thing that really helps out in the beginning is the fact that you start off with the ability to make warthogs from your main base. But BEWARE, they do not have gunners. You need to research those asap to give them a fighting chance.

Game modes. There are two core game modes, Story and skirmish. In story mode you go through the story of the reclaiming of the planet harvest which is where first contact with the covenant happened. The missions range from basic search and destroy, to trying to rescue units in certain amounts of time, to just surviving until help can arrive. And yes you do fight the flood. And yes they can reanimate your dead marines. To me the meat of the game is the skirmish mode. You can do 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 in either deathmatch (everyone for themselves) or teams. And in this mode you can pick your commander which each of them have different powers to help you out. For example Forge has the ability to have his supply depots start out upgraded and has a bombing run option, and Captain Cutter has the Mac cannon and the ODST drop ability. If you play any type of mode, I urge you to play skirmish online. Its insanely sick and hard as hell, but my god when you win, you feel friggin good!

All in all the game is very solid and it surprised me in many ways. The controls are solid, the cut scenes are top notch, and the skirmish mode is awesome. My only let down was that the missions felt either way to simple or insanely hard. They was really no middle ground to them. Does this take away from the experience as a whole? Naa not too much. Overall I would have to rate this an 8/10. If anyone wants to battle it out on xbox live, my handle is TenderRoast1.

GAME ON!

This has been boiling inside me for the past few weeks waiting to pop out like the chestburster from Aliens. It’s something so damn cool I want to show everyone, because I know there are some people out there who are hemming and hawing about how the newest Wolverine game is going to be mediocre at best. After sitting in on the Raven Software/Activision panel I can tell you it’s everything me and every other fan of Wolverine has ever wanted a game starring our favorite anti-hero to be.

Every game as far back as the 1991 release of Wolverine for the NES (yeah, that’s right) had me scratching my head saying, “This isn’t Wolverine!!!” Sure you had the claws, but that primal ferocity that is so much a component of the character was never there. Don’t get me wrong, Wolvie was my boy in Marvel vs Capcom, but still…something was missing.

This is where Raven got it right. They posed this; if you want to be Wolverine and you want to just tear into someone like soft bread with your adamantium claws, why the hell can’t you? Well now you can.

The game follows the same story line as the movie by the same name, X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Both are being released simultaneously on May 1st, which in my honest opinion is the smart way to do it. I get pretty pissed when some game companies release the game version before the the movie. Honestly, wtf? Where was I..oh yeah. The story follows the movie, for the most part. Raven told us that they’ve added a few things here and there to spice things up that everyone will enjoy immensely.

Raven explained that they’ve designed Wolverine in three layers: skin, muscle, and adamantium coated skeleton. This ensures that when you take a shotgun blast to the gut, you can see each layer healing back up over time. It looks just as cool as it sounds, believe me.

As you progress through the game you also gain access to abilities. You start off with a pretty good set of punching and claw attacks. Later on in the game you get the aiming and lunging about 30 feet across a level with claws retracted then plunging them into someone’s chest move, which was definitely one of my faves. There’s an area attack whirlwind move similar to the one in Marvel vs Capcom and I’m sure there are plenty more that I didn’t get to see.

All the fans of Wolvie will be eternally grateful to know that they’ve also incorporated the title character’s infamous berserker rage. I’m not sure how it’s activated, but you’ll know as your whole screen gains a slightly red tinge and you start tearing into anything that moves. Raven let us in on some of the unlockables, one of which being Wolverines iconic yellow, blue and black suit from the comic books. Personally I’m a big fan of the brown costume, maybe I’ll get lucky and they’ll throw that one in.

I’m really looking forward to this one and hopefully this seals the deal for a lot of you on this game. Raven/Activision put plenty of time and dedication into this and it honestly shows. Be sure to go check out the movie and pick up the game on May 1st.  So now, without further interruption…

yeah, sorry for the guy’s head.