If you recall the last time I reviewed Operation Anchorage DLC for Fallout 3, I was less than happy about it. It was short, boring, and I felt like I was ripped off after completing the new content. That was alittle over a month ago, and we have now been given a new set of DLC for Fallout 3 called “The Pitt”. Is this new set a letdown like the previous DLC, or has Bethesda learned from their mistakes and made it worth our wild? Hit the jump to find out.

Just like in Operation Anchorage, you are given a distress signal from an unknown source, and you walk your funky butt to the top of the map to see what all the hub-bub is about. After taking out some Slavers, you end up saving the life of a slave who comes from The Pitt. Your new slave friend explains what he was doing creating the distress signal, and then asks you to come along to help him flush out a plan that he has, which will save the dying citizens of The Pitt. Unfortunately the rest of the story is all spoiler from here on out, so I can’t say much more. What I will say, is that The Pitt’s story and set up are vastly improved to what was given in the Operation Anchorage DLC. Instead of a VR sequence, it’s actually your character that you are controlling the entire time you are in The Pitt. The story is the saving grace of the DLC, as it lets you be the goody-two shoes, or complete jerk off that you are in your regular game. There are also some interesting aspects to the story, such as what the cure actually is, but that is a major spoiler in its own right.

Just like in the previous DLC you’re going to get good armor and weapon sets which were not accessible in the original release of Fallout 3. Unlike the previous DLC though, the armor and weapons are actually pretty awesome to use. From a melee chainsaw weapon, to a machine gun that doubles as a sniper rifle, all the extra goodies that you get are greatly appreciated. There are even more armor sets that you can get if you want to complete the fetch quest that has been included in the DLC as well. You once again receive an extra 100 achievement points by completing the story missions, but 20 of those points come from completing the fetch quest I just spoke of.

Where the DLC takes a turn for the worst again, is because of the same points I made in my last review. Once again, the DLC is set at 800 MS points ($10 dollars), and once again it is very very short on completion time. Clocking in at 2 hours and 17 minutes, I beat the game faster than the Operation Anchorage DLC, and there is even more things to do this time around. What’s even worse is the fact that if I wouldn’t have bothered with the 100 Steel Ingot fetch quest, I would have completed it in an even faster run. I do also want to point out that I’m running around looking for odds and ends when I did my review run too, and I still finished in the 2 hours and 17 minutes I just spoke of.

The worst problem with this DLC by far goes to the glitchy issues that came up from the moment I started the DLC. Frame rate issues were a small issue in the original release of Fallout 3, but the problem gets turned up to the max when you’re playing in The Pitt. There was one time the frame rate was so awful, I ended up dying because I fell off a roof that I didn’t even know I was on. Then there were the freezes. Dear lord the freezing was a major issue for me. The game would just randomly lock up whenever it wanted to. During loading screens, during conversations, just about any time was a good time for the game to just not want to work. I ended up saving literally every two minutes or so, just so that I could ensure I would be able to get to the end without having to start a section all over again. What’s even worse is the fact that this version I downloaded is the “good” version that has been released on the XBL marketplace. Look Bethesda, if something clearly isn’t ready, don’t release it to the public. You’re going to create more of a backlash from the public by putting out something that is garbage, rather than just delaying it a few weeks.

Rounding things out, we come to the point that I made in the last review for the DLC, and honestly it’s still the same issue as the last time. In fact, I’m going to just quote what I said before because it still stands. Quote:

“Finally, this DLC is only available if you are actually IN game. For those who may not know what I mean, let me explain. Fallout 3’s last section of the game locks you into a room, in which you cannot exit from (hence why I said it locks you in). If you have tripped this event, there is no going back to the Wasteland, and you have to start a new game if you want to finish side quests you may not have found, such as this “Operation Anchorage/The Pitt” download. Lucky for me, I had an extra play through save ready; otherwise I would have had to start a completely new game in order to access this content. The next series of downloadable content comes with the release of Broken Steel, which will increase the game’s level cap and get rid of that locked room problem which I just described. My question is, why the hell wasn’t the locked room issue not cleared up in this patch? Why am I forced to start a new game if I want to play the content? It is, in a word, unacceptable.”

Final Verdict:

This time around the story, extra items, and general fun of the DLC much higher terms of a rating than its brother Operation Anchorage. The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree though, because the price, length, and general bugs/issues from Operation Anchorage carry over to The Pitt. The verdict this time is more of a crap shoot, because you can’t “rent” DLC. Despite the issues, I would say that it is an ok piece of DLC, and that you should probably look into it if you’re a fan of Fallout 3.

-J

I won’t lie. When I initially saw the original DS (known as DS fat in some circles) at E3 2004, I wasn’t super impressed with the little device. Granted, the device on the E3 show floor was not the model they finally ended up releasing, but that’s besides the point. With the release of the DS Lite, I was won over with the quality of games and the complete overhaul of the hardware. Our little buddy has over 100 million units sold since it was introduced, and is also the highest selling handheld platform of its generation. Nintendo has decided to go back to the drawing board with the DS, and has thus introduced the Nintendo DSi. The real question to the DSi is… should you part ways with your DS Lite and your $169.99 to get your hands on the newer version?

The original Game Boy saw its share of hardware redesigns, and the Game Boy Advance had many as well. Not all of the upgrades of the original Game Boy and GBA were worth it, but usually one of them was. For instance, the Game Boy SP was an amazing update to the handheld, while the GameBoy micro didn’t really make a whole lot of sense. The DSi falls in the middle of the grouping of hardware redesigns. Lets explain why.

Ok, so lets get stats and things out of the way before we start talking about the pros and cons of the system:

CPUs: The main CPU is an ARM9 processor clocked at 133 MHz
RAM: 16 MB of RAM (four times as much as previous models)
Storage: 256 MB of internal flash memory (extra storage listed below)
Wireless: 802.11 internal wireless connectivity
Added: Two integrated cameras (on on the flip up screen, the other on the inside of the DS), SD/SDHC card expansion slot (up to 32 gigs), DS screens enlarged by 0.25”,
Removed: GBA slot

Those are the stats in black and white for you. The DSi is slightly thinner than the DS Lite at around 2.0mm, but it’s such a slight change, you don’t really notice it unless you’re putting both handhelds up for an up close look. Unlike the DS Lite compared to the DS Fat, the overhaul is not nearly as much.

The biggest aspect to the upgrade in this reviewer’s opinion is the DSi Shop. Using the Wi-FI support that is in the DSi, you can connect to a wireless store and buy games right to your internal memory or to an SD card via your SD card slot. Lucky for us SD card holders, you can use a boat load of different SD cards with the DSi, but you can easily expect branded Nintendo SD cards in the near future. While currently only having a handful of downloadable items in the DSi shop, the idea of having this portable downloading store is an amazing idea. Developers can now take a risk on a DS game, without having to invest on spending money on cartridges, and all that other jazz it takes to release a full on DS game. I expect this store to explode similar in nature to the iPhone app store did a few months back.

It’s after you get past the DSi Shop and its greatness, where you begin to see the downsides to this newly redesigned DS. Easily the most noticeable part to the redesign are the DSi’s cameras which are located on the inside hinge and on the outside the flip up screen. While the cameras work, they’re not of the highest quality. Coming in at a whopping 0.3 megs, these cameras are pretty much useless. They are not a high quality camera, but you can find better cameras in low end phones out there which make you wonder why Nintendo went with QVGA quality for both of its cameras on the DSi. While the cameras do their job for games like Wario Ware: Snapped, you’re not going to do much with them outside of games that you might play.

You’re not going to see much in terms of speed or enhancements on the internal hardware at all either. While the CPU and RAM have been upgraded, it’s hard to notice much of a difference. I played New Super Mario Bros on both systems, and they both played exactly the same..
The removal of the GBA slot, is in my mind, a complete deal breaker when it comes to the DSi. It makes it so that you can’t play GBA games, use any of the GBA slot add-ons for the DS, and makes it so that you can use homebrew/flash card setups on the DSi. Nintendo is clearly trying to get people to use the DSi Shop, but I really don’t like the removal of the GBA slot even when the GBA is many years old. It’s preference really on the removal, but it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

Final Verdict:

In this reviewer’s opinion, it’s not worth it right now. While the DSi Shop is great, there isn’t much there right now to actually buy, which renders it useless. The cameras and the other upgrades don’t really have that “wow” factor that the DS lite had when it was released, which also play against the system. In time, the DSi will most likely receive a price cut, and the modding community will crack the system wide open so you can use homebrew via the SD card slot for your advantage, but who knows how long that will take. If you’re going to buy a DS Lite or DSi, stick with the DS Lite for now. You’ll get more features that you’ll use, and it will be at a cheaper price.

Hadoken! Easily one of the most recognizable words from any game released in the last fifteen years, it is a word that screams the name of the Street Fighter series. Starting way back in 1987, the original series was designed by Takashi Nishiyama and Hiroshi Matsumoto for use on arcade machines. As Ryu, a player competed in a worldwide martial arts tournament, which spanned the globe and had ten opponents to fight. While the original game is known to start the series, it was Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, which started the movement of the fighting genre as we know it today. The success of Street Fighter II continued on in further releases under the Street Fighter 2 name, but also had plenty of spin offs, and finally a real numbered sequel with Street Fighter III. It has been nearly eight years since the last true numbered sequel has been released, but Street Fighter IV is finally coming home. Producer Yoshinori Ono has gone on record stating that he wanted to make Street Fighter IV accessible like Street Fighter II was back in the arcade days, in which any user could walk up the game and begin to play. While some people have already had the experience of playing Street Fighter IV on an arcade unit, it begs the question, does Ono’s plan of going back to the “golden years” of Street Fighter make the series flourish once again? The answer in a few words is… YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT.

Editors Note: Our copy of Street Fighter IV was recieved from an anonymous source. As such it is a pre-release version, which may differ from the final version available in retail stores. If necessary, an updated review will be made available after the game is released siting any changes that may need to be made in the review below.

Gameplay:

Street Fighter IV (now known as SF4 for the rest of this review) takes place directly after Street Fighter II, and before Street Fighter III. Unlike in Street Fighter III, the original main roaster has been brought back to play, alongside some new comers as well. New to the party are El Fuerte, Crimson Viper, Rufus, and Abel. While on the outset it may seem that these new characters may not be welcomed, each character has his or her own strengths and weaknesses to make them stand out. Rufus, an incredibly large individual, may not seem like of the best fighters on the outset until you learn his moves. From his Snake Strike to his ultra combo, Rufus adds a style of play which can be deadly when mastered. That’s not to say any of the new comers, or our old pals Ken and Ryu aren’t balanced to take on the new comers though, as the ol’ fireball still does wonders. While you may not see some of the series vets like T-Hawk or Dee Jay on the roaster, it’s because they just weren’t balanced enough to go up against the other fighters. Balancing characters is key to any fighting game, and SF4 may have just gotten it right. From Ryu to Blanka, everything feels as it should. The only character who is unbalanced is the final boss in the arcade mode, Seth. Having a variety of the best moves from certain characters, this final boss does not mess around. Screw up once, and it’s all over. Outside of the final boss, who can be unlocked during gameplay for arcade or versus play, the balancing is top notch.

Over the years, Street Fighter has taken on a lot of systems to add new ways to play. From the super meter, to EX moves, parry’s, tech moves, air blocking, and so on, there were quite a bit of mechanics that you needed to master in order to get the most out of the Street Fighter game you were playing. As part of the plan to bring the series back to its roots, Yoshinori Ono has removed a lot of the mechanics that have been piled onto the series over the years. Gone are air blocks and parry’s (a very notable addition to Street Fighter III), alongside of picking one’s super move to use. What has been implemented and left alone, makes the series become more refined and easier to play, while still giving the hard core players more than enough to try and master.

The new focus system, is what I believe to be an easier version of the parry system implemented in Street Fighter III. A parry was performed when the user would press forward on the d-pad/joystick when another user was about to attack. Doing so would block attacks, as well as projectiles, but it was all in the timing. This lead to the eventual overall known as the focus system in SF4. To perform a focus attack, all the user has to do is press and hold the Medium Punch and Medium Kick together. Once the user lets go, it will release an attack which can knock an opponent down if it connects. Where the focus attack really starts to come into play, is how it can absorb incoming attacks when the buttons are held for a long period of time. While the parry was more of a defensive attack, as it was mainly used to block an attack, the focus attack can be used as defense and offense by both the novice and hard core players. The depth to the focus system is mind blowing, and makes me wonder why I ever tried to master how to parry in the first place.

With the super meter making it’s debut back in Super Street Fighter Turbo days, and then seeing more action in later iterations of the game, it has once again graced us with it’s presence. This time around, it has new properties associated to it. Unlike in previous games where a user would have different levels of a super meter, of which they could unleash for different levels of damage, the super meter in SF4 is broken into four slots. Once one of these slots is filled, the user can perform an EX attack. The EX attack will vary from character to character, but it can give moves different properties like allowing Zangief to take in a projectile attack while still reaching to grab for the pile driver. If the user can fill up the super meter to the max, they can then unleash a super attack on their foe. The management on the system depends on the player. If you don’t care about getting in the super attack, go for using EX moves, and get your opponent with normal attacks. This can also be the same if the user doesn’t want EX moves, but instead wants to destroy their enemy with a big flashy super attack.

The other new gauge present, is called the Ultra attack. The difference between the Ultra and Super attack meters is that the Super gauge will fill when you attack, and the Ultra meter will fill when you take damage. The Ultra gauge is an interesting addition, as it allows players to unleash a game altering combo in their favor. There has been too many times where one fighter is beating the other player senseless, and the player on the receiving end of the beat down could not do anything about it. With the addition of the Ultra gauge, all of that has changed. The balance that the two meters have, once again goes to show that Capcom wanted to make this game as balanced as possible for all newcomers and hard core players alike. A word to the wise when using Ultra combos though. If you miss the attack, you’re usually open for an attack for a long period of time, so use it wisely.

When anyone reviews a game, there is a lot of ground to cover in the gameplay section, and that statement carries even more truth when you’re reviewing a fighting game. Fighting games need to have extra modes, and other things to do besides the main portion of fighting in versus mode or against the computer, so that it allows the user other things to do. SF4 has a Challenge Mode section in which the user selects his or her fighter and goes through a different series of modes. While there are only three modes of play, Time Attack, Survival and Trial, they all provide more substance and other things to do. There are also “hard” versions of the modes listed, in which the difficulty is bumped up in order to give you a greater challenge. I’ll go on record and state that the hard versions, are pretty rough. The time attack mode pits the user against a clock, and the faster they beat opponents, it is added onto their time. If the clock runs out, you lose. Survival puts you in the ring with consecutive fighters, giving the user only one health bar to fight over the series of opponents. Your health bar will recharge to a certain amount depending on the difficulty level of your fight. Just like with time attack, if your health bar runs out, you lose. Trial mode puts the user in a series of challenges ranging from combo practice, and super move practice. Unlike in the other modes, there is no time limit and the computer will not fight you. It is pass or try again in this mode, and you can not fail, unless you decide to quit. Trial mode was actually my favorite of the group, since it teaches you some complex combos and moves, which will help out the novice players. The fact that you can’t lose, also helped a bit as well. When the user completes any of the modes, all of which have multiple levels of difficulty, the user will unlock items for that character. Items range from new colors, to new titles and icons (which we’ll get to in a moment), and a few other goodies. With a total of twenty five characters to play with, there can be lots of time put into any of these modes, and the modes can change dramatically depending on what character you are good or bad with. The modes themselves, are varied enough to add different types of gameplay to keep the user playing. There aren’t any “silly” modes that you might find in other games (of which will not be mentioned, use your imagination), and always stick with the SF4 formula, so that you don’t have to change your game just to play a certain mode.

In an age of online gaming, a fighting game needs to have some sort of online component. For full disclosure, this review was performed on a Xbox 360 machine, and therefore I could not test the online functions associated with the PS3. That being said, the net code used in SF4 is better than most fighters out there, but you’re still going to have occasional lag and game drops from time to time. What it comes down to is the connection of the other user that you are playing against, and it brings up how you actually get into a match with others online. There are two different ways that you can get into a game. First off you can start by creating a lobby, and waiting for someone to join in with you, or look for someone’s lobby and hop in. The next way is to set up your Arcade Request settings, which can be done via the main menu. By changing your settings, you can allow people to challenge you (both ranked and player match) when you are playing through the arcade mode. Seeing this in action brings back the days of when you were challenged by someone in the arcade, as the “HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER” message pops up on the screen when a user joins in. The best new addition to this, is that the game will not place you into a game unless you decide that you want to play. When the challenger comes into a game, you’re taken to a lobby where you can see their connection, check their stats, view their gamercard, and lets you ready up for a game. If someone has a bad connection, you just don’t have to play. This is a much welcome addition, as I was challenged by a few people who had less than optimal connections during my playtime for this review. As with any online fighter, or online game for that matter, your connection and performance will vary on a case by case basis. If you were to put a gun to my head though, I would still say to stick with local multiplayer though. Reason being is that there is no greater feeling to destroy your buddy sitting next to you, and then do a pelvic thrust towards his head once you have beaten him. Good times.

I mentioned earlier in the review about Titles and icons which could be unlocked during various play throughs of the game, and during challenge mode sections as well. These titles and icons can be set via the Edit Status menu, which also allows you to set up your Arcade Request settings, which was previously mentioned. The titles and icons don’t do anything except add flare to your player status screen, which will be seen by users when you are on a lobby screen to get into a game. There are a lot of titles and icons to rack up in the game, so the more you play, the more unique you can make your player status for online play.

Controls:

When you’re talking about a fighting game controls, most people immediately think of a joystick from the old arcade days. With the next generation of consoles, the joystick hasn’t been used as much as it was back in the day. Well folks, the revival of the arcade joystick is at hand. SF4 is at heart, an arcade game, and if you want the precise control of the game, you’ll need to have an arcade stick of some sort. For the purpose of this review, I was able to use an arcade stick and a Xbox 360 d-pad. The thought that is probably going through most people’s minds at the moment, is how poorly designed the Xbox 360 dpad is, and that it probably makes the game hard to play. Fortunately, I’m here to say that the d-pad holds it’s own when playing SF4. Unlike in previous versions of Street Fighter released on the Xbox 360, you can pull off special moves with ease. The mushy control of the d-pad come into play when you’re using a “charge” character like Guile or Blanka. Executing moves on the d-pad with charge characters, comes with a lot of care, as you’ll accidently move the d-pad the wrong way and not perform the move. One other downside to the d-pad itself, is the location on the controller. The left bumper and left trigger are very out of place, and make those button almost useless to assign commands to. This is not SF4’s fault, as it is a design issue from Microsoft, but it still needs to be mentioned for those who will not get an arcade stick. For those who are going to use an arcade stick, you’re in for a treat. The controls are nearly flawless during play, and it feels as if you are playing in an arcade from the good ol’ arcade days. Be warned though, most of the Mad Catz arcade stick and d-pad peripherals are in high demand and short supply. To round it out though, you’re not going to find better controls in a fighting game, than you will in SF4. Yes, they’re that good.

Graphics and Sound:

The initial reaction to the art style of SF4 was a mixed bag. Some people liked the new style, while others immediately hated it. There were then the people that thought SF4 was going to be like the Street Fighter EX series, which would have been a horrible thing all together. What you have with the finished product though, is highly detailed character models, all which are amazing to see in action. The characters themselves do have a cartoon-like look to them, but it really enhances the overall look when you see their mouth wide open, and eyes bug out when they’re getting smashed in the gut. There are more animations that you can pull off with 3D models, and it really shows in the game. From Rufus having his fat gut shake and move throughout the fight, to Sagat’s muscle’s tightening up for a Tiger Knee, the animations look great and make you wonder why this wasn’t done earlier for the series. The best part of the graphics have to be that it still plays like a 2D fighter, despite the fact that the game is completely in 3D. Not once during the gameplay did I ever want to side step an attack, or do anything that you would do in other 3D fighting games.. Even though the fighting is in 2D, there is still a depth to the gameplay and the graphics that are above other 3D fighters today. Capcom has also made use of the 3D engine to showcase flashy special, super, and ultra moves from all the different characters. If you set off your ultra move against an opponent and connect with it, be prepared for a little show. This is especially true when you can knock out an opponent with a super, and boy does it look good. Rounding out the graphical capabilities of SF4, are the particle and other lighting effects that are present. From flame bits coming from a Dragon Punch, or a Hadoken fireball, it just looks simply amazing. The cooler effect comes from when you connect with a focus attack, leaving behind an ink-spot like splash on the other character similar to what was shown in the teaser trailer for SF4. There is no doubt in my mind that this style may catch on for other fighting games, or even future iterations of Street Fighter, and I hope it doesn’t ever change.

The sound in SF4 is all pretty standard stuff that has been included in all previous versions of Street Fighter. You’re going to get your standard set of punches, kicks, fireballs and the like, except that it is in Dolby surround sound. When you got the system cranked up, it sounds great. The booming sound of crushing someones face with a Dragon Punch over your speakers will just bring a smile to your face. The low-lights of the music starts with the main intro music, as it carries a combination j-pop/hip hop sound to it, and doesn’t really fit into the overall game. Alongside of the anime cut scenes for the story arc of the game are the English voice overs, which are some of the worst I’ve ever heard. It is as if Capcom pulled people off the street, told them to read lines in one take, and called it a day. You do however have the option of turning on the Japanese voice acting, and I pray that you do so.

Final Verdict:

Buy it.

I have given quite a bit of praise to Street Fighter IV, but it’s not to say that it is without some minor issues. The first being the actual story arc in the game, and how it doesn’t really tell the user anything about the story of Street Fighter at all. The anime cut scenes are pretty lame, and what is there, is just way too short. Lets be honest though, you’re not reading this review or playing Street Fighter for it’s in depth story though.

Capcom has taken the love that people have had for Street Fighter II and Street Fighter III, and made a new game which appeals to all types of gamers. They’ve balanced it, made it look and sound great, and even let you punch out people across the globe with little lag. It’s funny that I was not interested at all with Street Fighter IV until I picked it up and played it for myself. I was, and still am hooked. It’s true what they say about not being able to judge a book by its cover, so if you were on the fence about buying it, do yourself a favor and pick this one up. It will be a purchase that you’ll be playing for a very long time.

The game was relatively un-reviewed, and there wasn’t much content online about it aside from trailers and product descriptions, so I thought I would do something different. I hope you enjoy it…even if the game kinda sucks.

Before I even start, I want to just say that Fallout 3 was one of my favorite games from 2008. I had it right behind GTA4 as my game of the year, and I actually went back into it recently to achievement grab some of the stuff I didn’t pick up yet, and it still amazes me how big the game actually is. Flash foward to last night when I downloaded the “Operation Anchorage” downloadable content, and my feelings about the game at the moment are less than happy. Hit the jump to find out why.

The back story on this DLC is that you stumble upon a distress signal from the Fallen Brotherhood of Steal members, who are asking for backup. After helping them out, they explain there is a VR mission set up which allows the VR player to liberate Anchorage from the Chinese. If you agree to help them, you go on a series of short missions in the VR sim. If you complete the sim, you are awarded with a weapons cache and one of the better power armors in the game.

Now that the back story is complete, lets talk about the positive aspects of the DLC. To start, if you are playing the game, you get some good armor and weapon sets which were not accessable in the original release. On top of the new weapons and such, you also get an extra 100 achievement points by completing the story missions, which is always nice to see devs include achievements after the fact. Outside of those two things though, you’re not going to find much in terms of content, or you giving a shit about the liberation of Anchorage.

Moving onto the negative aspects, the first point we’re going to touch down on is the price. Coming in at 800 MS points ($10 dollars for you and me), this is some pricey DLC. Yes, it adds in a few more missions/achievements, but you’re going to complete them in a short amount of time. My time completion was around two and a half hours, although your mileage will vary depending on how quick you walk through the content. Even that said though, there isn’t much in terms of exploration to do in this DLC, so you would probably average the same. I just can’t justify the spending of ten dollars on such a small amount of content, when that same ten dollars can buy something from the Xbox Live Arcade which will give 20x the amount of fun and time played (I’m looking at you Geometry Wars 2).

The content itself is well, boring. The liberation of Anchorage is not as much fun as it the game runs it, and it’s quite shocking if you’ve played some of the other missions in the main portion of the game. While running through the VR Sim, there are just way too many health and ammo points along the way (which end up making the sim too easy) and in turn adds to the bore factor. I wouldn’t want the game to be down right hard for no reason, but less check points along the way would increase the tension a tad. When I initially heard that the section was going to be a VR sim, I immediately thought back to the Tranquillity Lane simulation, which I was hoping it would be similar along those lines. I won’t spoil it for you if you haven’t played through the main quest of Fallout 3, but the Tranquillity Lane simulation was one of the best parts of the game. Alas though, this DLC was not like that, and was painfully boring at times to just have to wade my way through enemies in order to finish.

Finally, this DLC is only available if you are actually IN game. For those who may not know what I mean, let me explain. Fallout 3’s last section of the game locks you into a room, in which you can not exit from (hence why I said it locks you in). If you have tripped this event, there is no going back to the Wasteland, and you have to start a new game if you want to finish sidequests you may not have found, such as this “Operation Anchorage” download. Lucky for me, I had an extra playthrough save ready, otherwise I would have had to start a completely new game in order to access this content. The next series of downloadable content comes with the release of Broken Steel, which will increase the game’s level cap and get rid of that locked room problem which I just described. My question is, why the hell wasn’t the locked room issue not cleared up in this patch? Why am I forced to start a new game if I want to play the content? It is, in a word, unacceptable.

Final Verdict:

I can’t justify the purchase of this DLC to anyone out there. The length, price, and the general lack of fun really make it hard for me to. Bethesda should have just rolled out one giant update, with mounds of content for users to eat up. Instead, we’re left with a short, expensive, boring snippit of gameplay which will remind gamers of the 2006 horse armor fiasco that Bethesda pulled way back when. After this DLC update, I’m going to really have to wait and see if the next sets are going to be worth my money. For now though, just stick to the regular game.

-J

The title says it all, this is our slide show review of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix. Race posted one of these awhile back, and I wanted to start to do them again for reviews. Reason being, text reviews tend to take awhile to not only write, but to also read if you’re sitting at your computer. So instead of doing a full blown video review, we have a slide show review which contains a two minute review with my comments on certain sections of the game, a final verdict, and of course the screenshots o’ plenty to view. Hope you enjoy.

If you have any comments about the review, be sure to hit the forums with your comments.

-J

Screenshots

Story:

The story picks up right after the first Gears of War left off, with the lightmass bomb being set off, and the COG thinking the war was over. What the humans did not know, is that the Horde actually grew stronger, and are now able to sink entire cities with a single blow. Losing cities and the war at a startling pace, the COG decide to launch an all out assault on the Locust homeworld, in order to make a last stand for the human race. The set up is very simple, but the story continues on to spawn more moments that really leave a lasting impression on you as a player. There were multiple times in the story where I was expecting one thing, and then the story took the other direction to blow my mind a bit. The story drives the game at a much better pace than the first, and feels more cohesive in general. While it still has some moments tacked on which don’t explain things again (similar to how they talked about Marcus’ dad in the first game), the story continues to be top caliber despite this small set back.

All the characters, the ones that survived anyways, all make a return in Gears 2. While the story tends to gravitate towards Marcus and Dom again, there are some new characters introduced on both the human and locust side of things. Some of these new characters are interesting, while others aren’t around very long for you to care much. In general, Marcus, Dom, Cole and Baird are going to make up the core group and advance the story. It would be nice if the developers would have gave you some face time with Baird and Cole, but hey, maybe in the next game. Speaking of Cole, he’s hands down my favorite character. His opening sequence is just pure awesomeness, and he just has a lot of memorable moments in the game similar to how he stole the show in the first Gears.

One of the most glaring things that not many other reviews touched on, deals directly with how the single-player game ends. I’ll say flat out, that this is one of the worst endings I’ve ever seen in a videogame, and really pisses me off that Epic Games decided that this was the correct way to end the game. It’s been stated many times that the ending to Gears 1 was pretty sloppy, but the ending to Gears 2 makes the original look flawless. After all the insanely good story moments that this game brings, the ending is just a straight kick to the balls (or to the baby maker for all the girls out there), and I would be doing a disservice to anyone reading this if I did not mention it.

Gameplay:

With any sequel, the general question for most buyers is about what was changed and what stayed the same. The general singleplayer set up that was in the previous game is back, allowing you to play through the main game solo styles, or hop online to play through the campaign cooperatively. New additions to the single player which also translate over into multiplayer are the new weapons, and the ability to pick people up and use them as shields when they are down on the ground. The design team knew that the original Gears nearly perfected the third person shooter and cover mechanics, so in Gears 2, there is nothing changed to the core mechanics at all outside of refinements to the cover system. Shooting, reloading, and the rest are all the same and if you have played the original, it will take you only a matter of minutes for you to get yourself back into form. This could sound like a negative thing to some people, but the developers knew that new mechanics and modes into the game to make it be the bigger, better, and more badass sequel they were looking for.

As far as new game modes, there is a new multiplayer mode called “The Horde” and before I go on and explain it, I just want to say that this thing is fucking awesome. That said, it is a multiplayer game type that can be played on or offline with up to five people, or just even by yourself (if you’re that crazy). The premise is that you and your buddies pick any map, and try to survive wave after wave of locust. Kill one wave, get points, stock up on any ammo, and get ready for the next wave. The fun here is that each wave gets progressively harder and harder, with more enemies coming after you too. When you get past ten waves, the Locust swarm resets back to a smaller swarm, but attributes (such as health) for the swarm go up. By the time you get to level 50, the Horde is mighty mighty strong. Hands down no doubt in my mind, this is the best part of Gears 2. The computer isn’t any slouch either in this mode, giving me and my initial buddy an extremely hard time on level 30… in casual mode. While hard, the mode is fun and tactical at the same time. Going in balls out works some of the time, but it’s working with your friends that will get you through the hard times. While somewhat repetitive, it is easily the best mode included on the disk, and worth the purchase alone.

Other multiplayer modes from the original game are back, alongside of a host of new ones to boot. You have a capture the flag mode, VIP mode, 2-man squad mode, and they all work really well. The multiplayer is as good as it ever was (and while I’ll get to the changes in a moment) I want to mention that you can play the multiplayer maps offline with bots. If anyone has played Unreal 3 or any of the other Unreal games, you’ll know that you can populate an Unreal game with bots to fill the empty void. In Gears 2, you can fill all the slots with bots, and just play without having to even have an internet connection. This is a big big deal, because I know people who owned the original Gears, but were not able to see the fun of multiplayer, because of not having Xbox Live. Now those same people can experience the fun which many have been having for the past two years. It also gives a player the option to play multiplayer without having to deal with people cheating, or just being plain annoying.

Since the guys over at Epic Games have had the time to really play around with this version of Gears, they have balanced a lot of the mutiplayer problems that were associated with the first game. For those who may not know, the terms “shotgun match” and “host lag” where coined from the first game, and were one of the first areas to be changed. The lag has been significantly cut down during my play sessions, and most of the time when I died, it was because of how I was playing and not the lag. Next was the shotgun. In the first Gears, players would run, roll, whip the shotgun out and just destroy you with one shot. This would happen even if they were shooting you, which was pure bullshit. To combat this, they shortened the range of the shotgun, and introduced stopping power to bullets. If you are running at someone who is shooting at you, you will slow down, similar to how it would really be. You can still move/roll during this time, but it makes it so people can’t get those cheap kills in. Shotgun is still one hit one kill up close, so watch out for that. Other balancing issues with the sniper rifle have been fixed as well, making it so that a user can’t rush the gun, reload, and then instantly down you. Again, headshots are one hit kills, so watch out. The chainsaw lancer was even balanced by adding in a button mini game if two people come at each other at the same time. The users will need to press the B button as fast as they can for three seconds, whoever has the most presses wins, the other is fodder. While many issues were fixed, there was a new mechanic that was introduced, which I know is going to be abused to no end. Users now have the ability to stick grenades into the wall on any map, and set traps. You can shoot the grenade off the wall if you see it, but you’re going to be leaving yourself open for getting hit, and there is nothing you can do if you can’t see it. I got nailed quite a few times by the same guy who would just sit in a single spot with frag grenades in the wall, to the point where I would either get shot and die, or get hit by the grenade while playing online. Since this will not be patched anytime soon, one should really watch how they navigate the corners. In all, the multiplayer is just as strong as it was in the first Gears, except that there is just more here to keep you online and blowing stuff up with your buddies.

Taking the bad with the good, I did run into my fair share of bugs and issues while playing through the single player and multiplayer. One of the issues I had with the game, is that the developers really like to shake the camera a lot during the single player when things are going on. While this is minor, it really gets in the way of being able to see what the hell you are doing when the screen is going ape shit. In terms of bugs, I got stuck on a box during a boss fight, to the point where I couldn’t beat the boss until the game decided that it would finally let me go. I also ran into a few floating enemies during single player and during Horde, which resulted in the enemy character falling through the ground before completing the objective. These could have just been random things that have happened, but it’s still what I experienced during my playthrough.

Graphics and Sound:

For the better part of a few years now, the Unreal 3 engine has seen its share of work throughout the industry, but Gears 2 really shows off what this engine can really do. The first game was, and still is, one of the best looking console games on the market today. From the textures, to the character modes, everything just looked amazing. With Gears 2, you might not notice the changes right out the gate, but it’s when you hit some of the other areas in the game or get to see some of the new lighting tech that is in there, you really see how great the game looks. Epic also made the choice to include some real colors in the game, instead of just keeping it brown, brown, and then more brown.

During the play through, I did notice that there was some screen tearing at parts, some of which happened when the screen would shake like a mad man. The terrible fade in textures make a comeback, but unlike in the last version, they fade into the character/setting with a lot more ease so that it’s not as noticeable. Even though it’s not as “poppy” as in the original, it’s still an issue in my eyes since the rest of the game is almost flawless.

The sound track has a lot of new music, but it carries the same tone of the original version. Music picks up and gets very big during firefights, and then there are lower tones and emotional music types playing during off beat moments and story segments. The voice acting is less cheesy this time around, with all the actors hitting their lines with the proper tone for the setting they are in. There is much more chatter during the fire fights as well, which keeps the player in the game, and is a nice touch. The sound effects are just as good as the first, and you’re not going to hear much you haven’t already heard in other shooters, or from the first Gears of War.

Yaaaaaaaays

-Good voice acting
-Slick graphics
-Great gameplay (unchanged from the first)
-HORDE MODE!
-More multiplayer options and modes
-More balanced multiplayer

Boooooooos

-The single player ending

Final Verdict

Buy It

Game of the Year? It’s pretty damn possible at this point. The game is a ton of fun, with the exception of the ending (HATE HATE HATE) really just putting a small sour patch on a good game. It should be stated that a good chunk of the enjoyment to Gears is going to be in some sort of multiplayer mode, and this may be an issue with some. If you’re going to play the game just for the story you might want to rethink the purchase just a bit. For everyone else, it’s a full complete package that should not be missed. I’ll see you online.

-Justin

War. War never changes. It’s been years in the making, but Fallout 3 is finally here for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC. While some would be quick to call the game an Oblivion clone from Bethesda, there is enough changed and added to the gameplay to make Fallout 3 worthy successor to the name.

Story:

Set in a post-apocalyptic Washington DC, your character is literally born into the world of Fallout, which sets up brief tutorials and character customization for you to partake in. Cut into a series of specific meaningful times in your life, you will learn about your father, life in Vault 101, and watch yourself grow up into the character you’ll become. Your “life as you know it” will be thrown to the way side when your father mysteriously disappears from Vault 101 one day, which has sent the entire place into a ravaging death trap. You eventually decide to try to find your father, which means leaving the Vault, and exploring the world. What comes after this opening story section, would be littered with spoilers, so it would be best to leave it at that.

The story is pretty straight froward as far as RPGs go, but how you want to tackle it, is 100% up to you. In the playthrough that I completed initially for this review, I actually skipped over a HUGE story point, just because of how I explored the game. In the end, it didn’t leave me with a gapping hole in the story, and allowed me to come back to the mission later on with points being somewhat relevant to the events that I had already completed. Similar to the story that was in Oblivion, if you decide to plow through the story and not take any time to do anything else, you can probably finish the game in about 20 hours or so. While not great, the plot keeps you interested to complete story sections to finish the game, and just see what happens. Unfortunately, the endings pale in comparison to the game that you will put the time into completing, but they do allow for some closure depending on if you played the game as a good, bad, or neutral character.

Gameplay:

Fallout 3 is set up just like Oblivion, which is why most people make the immediate comparison for the two games. You are in a gigantic open world, have a main story quest, and then are also aided by side quests that are at your leasure to complete… just like in Oblivion. Generally, if you are a good character, you’re going to try to stick to the positive outcomes for missions in order to not lose karma in the game. The Karma system is set up so that if you do things like save a person in the Wasteland by giving him water, you’ll gain good karma. Randomly kill a woman who just said hello to you, will obviously gain you negative karma. The karma does not have an immediate impact to most things, but it will affect the dialog tree’s that appear, as well as other quests that you might take. While you can be good and bad, you can also be neutral in most cases, by just not doing something that would be considered good or bad. The outcomes… well I’ll leave you to find out what happens at neutral karma to not spoil the fun. Side missions are generally the way to level up your character, but the main issue here is that they don’t provide a variety of fun things to do most of the time. The Megaton “Power of the Atom” mission was great because it gave you an option… ok, that’s spoilers, so lets just say that the outcome is pretty neat depending on how you beat it. Other missions just don’t live up to what you just completed in Megaton, and then just drop off to “go here, get this, bring it back, fin” structure that has been present in too many games recently.

So while there is a giant world to explore, you’re going to have a different variety of enemies hunting you down to kill you (it is a wasteland after all), and you’re going to have to dispose of them in some sort of way. Enter once again, the similarities to Oblivion in terms of how combat is played out. Your basic set up is that you are in first person mode or third person mode to take on an enemy on screen. You can use the first person mechanics, but a first person shooter this is not, and one should not go into this game thinking you’re going to get a Halo or Call of Duty style of play out of it. The first person aspects are very clunky, and result in using the RPG element called VATS. While in VATS, you go into a type of freeze mode to where you can take aim at specific body parts on enemies. This helps you cripple enemies, knock guns out of their hands, or straight up shoot ‘em dead in the face (which is the best course of action at all times). Immediate thought that would come to mind is that one would just use VATS all the time, but it has a certain amount of ability points that need to recharge before you can use it again. So a good 50-50 relationship from real time fighting to using the VATS system is how it plays out, and for the most part it works pretty well. The hang up with the combat system is that you always just aim for the head in VATS, because it hurts the enemy the most of course. This leads to lots of running up to an enemy dead to their face, turn on VATS, aim for head, and then INSTADEATH. The third person aspect of the game is completely and utterly useless. Not only is it terrible for battle, but you can’t properly see what you are doing because of the angle of the camera whenever you go into third person. It’s just something that is just there which adds nothing to the game, and I advise to not even bother trying it.

While the review probably sounds like it has a very negative tone to it, I should talk about some of the great parts of the gameplay. Easily the best thing about the game is the sheer scope of the world that you are in. Once you leave Vault 101, and get that first look at the Wasteland with DC off in the distance, the size of the game really hits you. I don’t know what it was, but I always seemed to gravitate towards where people were in the game, and when you were alone, you felt alone. There were also a ton of moments within my two playthroughs of the game, which made me actually think to kill someone or not, and more so than how it was in Bioshock when you had to save or destroy the little sisters. I knew that taking out that one person may have an impact later on in the game, and I always had to think out things, which was an interesting morale issue with ones self. The choices may be limited in what you can do, but doing things have repercussions, which doesn’t happen in some games with similar “choices” you can make. The perks that you get when you level up, always added a new way of playing the game depending on what your choices were. During my first play through I was a fairly balanced character, which made it harder and easier in some spots. During playthrough two, I poured all of my abilities into weapons and talking, and just completely dominated everyone I talked to. The leveling system leaves the door open to your own style of play, while leaving the door open for replayabilty.

Graphics and Sound:

If someone said that Fallout 3 looked like Oblivion, it would be hard to disagree with them. Reason being is that Fallout 3 is using the same engine from Oblivion, bugs in tow and all. This is not to say that the game looks bad in any sense, in fact, it is one of the best looking games that I have seen. The sheer scope alone really puts other games to shame. Looking out over DC to see everything in ruins, while still making out famous landmarks, it’s really just a sight to be hold. Unfortunately with all that massiveness going on, the game does some weird things at random. I experienced frame rate skipping from the moment I turned the game on, until the credits rolled. I also experienced a couple of freezing issues, all of which were random, and I contributed to the game just freaking out due to everything that was going on while I was playing.The color pallet in the game is brown, brown, and then a darker shade of brown. With a setting like this, it’s hard to move away from anything but dirty colors, so get use to sitting there and looking at brown textures, muddy water, and other items of that nature. Character models are straight out of Oblivion with a new coat of paint, so don’t expect anything new there.

The voice acting in the game is top notch, with all the main characters and side characters giving their lines perfectly to you, as if you really were the character. You have the occasional person who is alittle to over happy for the character, but it still fits (and boy is it great to shoot them in the face when you don’t need them anymore). The sound effects are pretty standard, with gun shots and lasers sounding just like the should. I will mention that the game doesn’t have any real “music”, with the exception of when you come upon enemies, or if you’re listening to the Pipboy 3000’s radio. There is more of an overtone which fits with the setting very well, and after hearing some of the radio songs for an extended period of time, you’ll be happy you can turn it off and listen to nothing at all.

Yaaaaaaaays

-Massive open world for you to explore
-Great voice acting
-Combat Shotgun (oh yeah)
-Replayability out the ass

Boooooooos

-Shares many of the same aspects to Oblivion
-Interior levels can get confusing at times
-Ending is kind of a bummer

Final Verdict:

Buy it.

War. It never changes, but Fallout has. This is easily one of the best games that I have played in a long time, and while there are some gameplay issues and bugs, the amount of things to do and sheer scope of the world make it easily recommendable. Stop what you’re doing, and go pick it up now.

-Justin

Hey out there! Race introduced me yesterday, but I’ll quickly do it again. I’m Justin, and I’ve been friends with Race for what seems to be about a billion years. In her effort to keep Level 99 fresh, I have signed on to bulk up the video game section for reviews and news. I’ll keep the reviews in the same tone as the others done by Race and Arlo, but I don’t tend to put a “score” on what I’m reviewing, so that you can make your own judgment from my blurb. Onto the review!

Story:

If you have not played the first game in it’s entirety, then I must put that there are some spoilers in the story portion of this review. Saints Row 2 (from here out will be known as SR2 in this review) immediately picks up from the ending of the first game, in which your character is presumed dead after a boat explosion. Your character has survived the blast, but was badly burned, and are now in prison for your actions from the first game. Due to the injuries sustained from the blast, you are forced into a robust create a character creation mode, in which you can pick your voice (more on that in the sound portion), face, etc etc etc. After making yourself once again, you learn that the Saints gang had disbanded after your apparent death, and Stillwater is being run by three new gangs and a mega corporation. One lonely Saint follower has informed you of these changes, and has come to bust your ass out of prison. You end up breaking out with him (a neat tutorial sequence is here as well), and then the meat and potatoes portion of the story takes over with you trying to bring the Saints back.

The story portion of the game is almost identical to the first SR, with the exception that you have more background than you did in the first. Someone has done you wrong, you have to go kill them, you kill them, story moves on in where someone else does you wrong, and then you repeat the process. While there were some moments that you weren’t expecting in the story line, the issue is that you just don’t give a shit about any of the characters in the game. If someone dies, there is no real reaction from your character which would motivate you to want to see what he or she is going to do. You already know what is going to happen, and that you’re just going to kill all of them, no matter what. It’s not just a typical “gonna kill them because it will move the game along” like in similar open world games, but it’s because your character is a complete psycho. From the moment you boot the game up, there is no remorse from your character about anything that he or she does, and it actually gets quite annoying as the story goes on. What’s more is that the ending is… well I won’t give anything away, but lets just say you’ll be less than satisfied with the outcome.

Gameplay:

The set up to SR2 is extremely simple, and follows the same exact path of the first game. You have the three gangs, which are The Sons of Samedi, The Brotherhood and The Ronin, who have taken over your turf, and are the people you need to take out. Towards the end of the game, you end up dealing with the Ultor Corporation, but their mission structure is the same way. Each mission requires a certain amount of respect in order to access, which you end up getting from the activities that are spread around the city. The activities from the first game (Snatch, Races, etc) are back, as well as some new ones. Unlike the first game, you are rewarded with unlockable rewards when you complete an activity half-way and then fully complete the activity. This is a great addition to keep people playing the side missions, but ultimately backfires when you unlock the unlimited ammo groups, which turns the game into a cake walk. So get respect, do a story mission, and then start that process over again (or your can get infinite respect by maxing out the meter by doing so many activities and just have access to the main story missions at all times).

It’s with this set up, the problems of the game really start to rear their ugly head. To start, the main mission story line is just too easy. Once you have gained enough money to buy different weapons, your character really starts to just dominate the enemy AI in all areas. What’s worse is the fact that you don’t ever really have to buy any weapons, because you mow down so many enemies, you just pick up what they have. Not once did this reviewer ever run out of any ammo, with the exception of rockets when I first got them. The enemy AI is just terrible when you are on foot, with wave after wave of enemies just coming at your for the slaughter. The enemy AI is also incredibly cheap when you are in a car, as it knows exactly where you are going at all times. Being in the fastest car of the game means almost nothing, because the enemies can keep up with you, and then tap you to send your car flying into the distance. While on the subject of AI, your “homies” are complete trash. You will spend more time reviving them because they will just get killed from walking into too much gunfire, or because they got caught on some geometry in the level. This reviewer would normally kill the homies on the outset, see if the mission would fail without them (and if it didn’t) would continue on like nothing would happen in order to keep the frustration levels down.

The fact that you are playing the same game as the original Saints Row is a real turn off too. The Violition team seem to have done nothing new in SR2, with the exception of the addition of a few new activities, better voice acting, and slightly better graphics. Outside of what I just mentioned, there is nothing that I could see which wasn’t already in the previous game. The original Saints Row took me about forty hours to get through, while SR2 only took 24 hours of gameplay time. This is extremely shocking considering that I complete quite a few of the activities and side missions of the game.

While there has been a lot of negative aspects to the gameplay, I found some great additions which will probably be included in other open world games to come. The first of which would be cruise control for the players car. If a user is driving, they can tap a button, and the car will auto-gas itself so that the user can concentrate on whatever they need to do. Very cool. The other big thumbs up goes to the checkpoint system. If a user dies in a longer mission, they can go to a checkpoint in that mission so that they don’t have to do that damn driving part which they already passed ten times. This is a great addition, because it just keeps those anger levels down, and rewards players for completing the first part of a mission.

There are currently co-op play and online aspects to the game, but I was unable to play them in time for this review. It would probably be safe to say that these portions of SR2 are just like the single player (for co-op) or unchanged from the original Saints Row (the online play), but since I have not played them, I will not make the judgment call and these missing portions will not affect the final verdict.

One final aspect to the gameplay that I wanted to finally bring up, is the amount of traffic on the road at any given time. In the original, there was never a car on the road whenever you would need one, forcing the user to run up the road to find something to steal. Once you stole a car, the road would be so jam packed with traffic, you would have no where to go. This same exact principle is in SR2, and really got on my nerves. Fortunately for the user, you can get the ability to call a Saint’s member to bring you cars from your garage, which makes life so much easier. Despite that, it’s still another frustrating aspect that many users will come by.

Graphics and Sound:

One aspect of any game that gets looked upon immediately before anything else in this console generation, it would have to be the graphics of whatever you are playing, and Saints Row 2 is no exception to this. For SR2, THQ has bumped up the polygon count for the main characters, which in turn gives each character more definition to them. The explosions are still great, although you get slow down if you go a little nuts. Animations for the characters are better or on par to what has been displayed in other world roaming games, and the color pallet is off the charts at times with bright reds, greens, and purples being shown off. This is great and all, but it is exactly the same graphics engine that you saw two years ago with the previous SR, just with some marginal improvements here and there. Any bugs and glitches that came up in the original, are going to rear their ugly head again, and believe me when I say that they do. With so much time in development, and so many things unchanged from the previous version, one would think that THQ would have spent their time wisely and improved the graphics engine more than what is currently being presented.

The voice acting in SR2 is, in a word, good. While it is not class A talent from movies or what have you, the actors that are present in the game do a good job of pushing whichever character they play. My favorite guy was the leader of the Brotherhood, because the voice was so well played, and fit that character dead on. The other guns, explosions, screams, etc etc etc, are all standard, with some of the sounds being brought over from the original. If I had to gripe on one thing about the sound, it would have to be that there are only three voice choices for your main character. In the original SR, your character did not talk, much like the character in GTA 3. This time around however, your character is a regular chatter box and you can pick from one of these three voice types – Generic Black Guy, Generic Hispanic Guy, BRITISH GUY. Why a British voice for your character is there, I do not know. By putting in a British guy, it severely limits what character you thought you were building. I got use to it after awhile, but THQ should have included more options, or just made a default voice for everyone.

Yaaaaaaaays

-Fun activities
-Good voice acting
-Cruise control for driving(BIG UPS FOR THIS)
-Cooperative Play online (not tested for this review)

Boooooooos

-Same graphics engine and gameplay bugs as in Saints 1
-Enemy and partner AI is terrible
-Interior levels are a pain to navigate at times
-Never any god damn traffic on the road until you get in your car

Final Verdict:

Pass on it.

I made the decision to not compare Saints Row 2 to anything that was done in Grand Theft Auto 4, as to make this review as unbiased as possible. Even when taking such measures, Saints Row 2 does nothing more than recreate the original Saints Row with a flashy new coat of paint. The story is weak (especially the ending), the graphics are from two years ago, and the gameplay brings nothing new to the table. Do yourself a favor and steer clear on Saints Row 2, and if you really want to get a Saints Row experience, look in the bargin bin for the original and have at it.

-Justin

-Arlo

Summary

You are obviously Agent 47 in this, the 4th game in the Hitman series. Wait… you have played the first three haven’t you? No?!? What are you doing reading this? Go and play them… you can come back and join us when you’re done. So where was I… oh yes.

The bulk of the game takes place as flashback sequences that occur concordant to the present day, in which a reporter and the former FBI Director, Alexander Leland Cayne, discuss 47’s recent hits and his involvement in the whole thing. It eventually becomes obvious that 47 is apparently dead and that they are heading to his funeral. As the story progresses, the Agency’s hitmen are shown to be eliminated by an albino clone named Mark Parchezzi III, leader of a rival agency called “The Franchise”; the situation degrades to the point where Diana (your controller) informs 47 that they are the only ones left.

Gameplay (9)

There are couple of new features with Blood Money that help keep the series fresh and exciting. Firstly, my favourite, the ‘notoriety’ system. This system tells you how well you fulfilled the contract. If you go in gung-ho and just blast everything hoping that a stray bullet will hit your target, you will make headline news. As you can imagine this isn’t a good thing for a hitman. The better you perform the hit, i.e. make it look like an accident, the less notoriety you have. When you complete a hit, a newspaper will appear with a headline. The headline will tell you how well you did. I was called ‘The Cleaner’ when I did the first mission the proper way and ‘Murderer’ when I didn’t. I prefer ‘The Cleaner’; it has a nice ring to it. There are several other names as well but I didn’t want to go through the mission several times to find them all. I’m lead to believe that the best is ‘Silent Assassin’.

Another feature is ‘Blood Money’. Once again the game rewards you for doing well. The cleaner the hit, the more money to spend on things like new weapons, upgrades for weapons, and bribes. This system encouraged me to be a spend-thrift at the start when deciding if I should ask for intel or not. Later on when I had more money to play with I was a bit looser with my spending.

Overall these 2 features make the game interesting. If you are the sort of person who enjoys filling people with holes like swiss cheese, the individual missions will be easier, but the overall game will be harder. Whereas, if the idea of watching a chandelier falling on someone’s head after a ‘frayed’ rope breaks, then the missions will be harder and take a little longer, but the overall game will be easier.

Graphics and Aesthetics (8)

Pretty. While the game doesn’t push the PS2 to its limits, it is up there. It’s quite hard for me to comment on the graphics compared to the other games on PS2, as I played the others on the PC, but this game looks good. So I’m just going to leave it at ‘pretty’.

Sound (8)

I’m not the sort of person who really listens to the background sound of a game normally. I mean, I know it’s there and every now and then my brain will recognize it, but normally it just doesn’t register, I’m too busy playing the game. However from what I did notice it was good. The background music is well timed and fits the mood. The main characters are individually recognizable and the other NPC’s sound great.

Controls (8)

The controls are great. There is a little picture of the main buttons at the top left hand corner, and when you are near an object or person where you can do something, then the button will highlight with the action you can do. One problem though is with positioning. An example is if you are not directly behind a person when you try to garrote them, then you will either do nothing or enter hand to hand which could mean they make a noise and more help will come.

Difficulty and AI (8)

The AI is good. Guards will follow blood trails and investigate strange noises and behavior. The AI still has some flaws. At one point I stole some clothes from a worker and carried the briefcase that I walked in with and the guard didn’t say anything. I also shot a guard when dressed as said worker and when another guard came running and I was the only person there I just walked away and nothing was said. However when I just stood there, the guards found this suspicious and shot me. But all in all the AI is pretty good.

If you want to get perfect scores, i.e. Silent Assassin, every time, then the missions can be reasonably difficult but the game easy. If the thought of trying to find a way to make the death of a hit an accident every time is boring to you and you just want to kill them then you can do that also. It’s pretty much up to you how you go about performing the different hits, and therefore how difficult you make the game.

Replayability (8)

Whether or not this game has replayability really depends on the type of person you are.

Depending on how well you do the first time you can replay this game a couple of times to get a better result. There are several ways to kill your target and if you’re the type of person to want to explore each one, then you will play Hitman: Blood Money again. If you’re not that type of person, then you will play it once and that’s it. I played the missions a couple of times to get better results but for me, that’s it. I probably won’t play it again unless I’m feeling nostalgic and want to do some stealthy killing.

Boooooooos

• Sometimes positioning can be a pain in the arse. (-.15)
• I’m a Caucasian hitman, yet I can easily disguise myself as a South American just by wearing their clothes. (-.15)
• Frustrating trying to find the ‘accidental’ way of killing the target. (-.2)

Yaaaaaaaays

• Split screen shows when an important action happens (+.2)
• Great way to vent frustrations after a hard day at work/school. (+.3)
• Who doesn’t want to be Agent 47 (.5)

Overview

SHADOWSHIELD SAYS THIS GAME DESERVES AN 8.1, however I’m going to round it up to 9. That’s right I can do that. There are a couple of things wrong, but they’re pretty minor really. Trying to find the way to kill the target by accident can be frustrating, but when you do and get the good ratings then that is a great feeling. Overall this is the best in a line of great games.

-Shadowshield

Ed’s note: To maintain editorial integrity, Hitman: Blood Money for the PS2 officially receives an 8.1 for posterity. -Arlo