They say that sex sells – and I’m sure this has its merits. Any gaming connoisseur will know to generally avoid a game that plasters a scantily clad heroine across its cover – I’m sure most of us have made that mistake at least once. But the truth in many of these cases is simply that the game is low-budget, and aimed at a male teenage market that will snap it up because their brain immediately takes notice of the hot girl on the case – before playing it and realising that the game was clearly put together by people who didn’t really care about quality – just something that would sell.

Lollipop Chainsaw could easily appear to be one such game – after all, it’s about a chainsaw wielding cheerleader, and the case definitely looks like one I’d feel awkward taking to the checkout of my local game store, and sounds very clichéd at that. So, why do I have faith in a game revolving around a blonde girl in a short skirt fighting zombies with a chainsaw?

Well, the reason is because this game is being directed by the one person who I would trust to pull off such a concept – Goichi Suda (aka Suda51), along with his team from Grasshopper Manufacture – creators of No More Heroes. Famous for his quirky style, the difference with Suda is that he understands that the game’s concept is ridiculous – he thrives on it. Acting as more of a parody, Lollipop Chainsaw is doubtful to take itself seriously, and be full of humour. The game is also being published by Warner Bros, who seem to be finding a good place in the gaming market of late – with the successes of the recent Batman games, as well as Mortal Kombat 9, F.E.A.R. 2 and 3, and Lord of the Rings: War in the North, which was better than I expected.

When an evil goth sorcerer named Swan unleashes a zombie outbreak in Juliet’s former high school, her family and her boyfriend accompany her to fight the undead. When her boyfriend, Nick, gets bitten – she does what any sane person would do, and decapitates his head, taking it with her (still alive!) to stop him from becoming a zombie. She then carries him around with her as she proceeds to maim and destroy the rest of the undead hoard.

The game itself looks to be a stylish hack n’ slash game, reminiscent of No More Heroes, but developed for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 – something I’m very glad to hear, as I’m hoping more depth will go into the control scheme, rather than worrying about motion control in the way that NMH did. Juliet looks to be an acrobatic fighter with an array of chainsaw moves, and so far it’s looking like it could be shaping into something fun.

Aside from that, it’s also been said that the game will include rock n’ roll zombie lords – such as Zed – a punk-rock themed boss. With Suda commenting that some of the gameplay may involve elements of sound, I’m wondering if some of these battles could involve some kind of rhythm based elements, which I’d personally love to see – maybe something in the vein of Scott Pilgrim’s battles against the musically inclined evil exes in the movie adaptation Scott Pilgrim vs. the World – a film produced by Edgar Wright, who was also responsible for zombie comedy Shaun of the Dead. I’m probably clutching at straws here, but that’s just what popped into my mind – Scott Pilgrim meets Shaun of the Dead. I’d love for Lollipop Chainsaw to feel like that.

The newest trailer has also showcased some moves that Juliet can pull off with her lover’s head – such as placing his head on a decapitated body for him to temporarily be able to control it, giving her a boost to jump over an obstacle, and kicking Nick’s head into an enemy as a projectile. With a pop up menu of these abilities, I do hope that you can unlock a good selection over the course of the game. On top of that, you can apparently upgrade Juliet’s chainsaw by completing certain tasks, which is always a nice extra.

I’m not going to go on and tell you how incredibly deep Lollipop Chainsaw is going to be, because it’s likely not going to be the next Bayonetta or anything – but, unlike the teenage-male-abusing title it might look like, I’ve got a feeling that Suda’s going to pull off a game that is quirky, enjoyable, and funny. I’ll definitely be buying a copy as soon as I can.

Lollipop Chainsaw is currently set for release sometime this year – but I wouldn’t expect it till late 2012. For now, sit back and enjoy the Valentine’s Day trailer below!

- Leon

The 3DS has already been demonstrating its power in terms of 3D gameplay – with titles such as Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D literally porting a 3D console title (albeit an old one) to the handheld format with better graphics than the original, and Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D showing the console’s capability to handle gameplay matching Resident Evil 5, although in the form of a score-beating mini-game style as opposed to an actual story.

Now, Resident Evil: Revelations is perhaps the biggest title on the 3DS so far – presented on a higher capacity game cartridge than other 3DS titles, it’s a fully-fledged Resident Evil game on a handheld. This is no spin-off, or arcade game – it’s a full entry into the series, set between the events of Resident Evil 4 and 5. And not only that, the title was promised to return to the series’ more scary roots. Anyway – that’s enough of my waffling, on with the actual review.

The game’s main plot revolves around that of Jill Valentine – who finds herself on a deserted cruise liner at sea – following a distress call from Chris Redfield after the BSAA lose contact with him. She is joined by her partner Parker, who is a likeable character that I enjoyed fighting alongside – people who disliked Sheva’s AI will be pleased to hear that he doesn’t die on you or use any of your items, however. It is questionable as to how much having a partner takes away some of the horror of the game, but I felt his place in the game was well deserved.

The game plays in a third person perspective, much like the modern console RE titles, and any fan of the series will very quickly feel at home. There’s no awkwardness to the controls (and I played without the Circle Pad Pro), which is something that handheld shooters have suffered from in the past. The touch screen is available for weapon switching and item usage, but generally you can do everything using buttons if you so choose – aside from a couple of touch screen puzzles that work well with the game. The tocuh screen can also be used to freely move the camera around Jill, but I didn’t find this to be something I ever needed to use – the third person camera functioning perfectly well on it’s own. After all, who can see behind them without turning, anyway? But honestly, I never really felt handicapped without a second stick, and the few times I did want to use the free camera, the touchscreen sufficed.

The ship that Jill is exploring for the most part of the game is very much like a floating mansion from the old games – that is, the areas are non-linear and you are able to back track around the ship and find keys that open doors elsewhere. This was a very welcome return to the series for me, exploring the ship brought back fond memories of what I loved about the original games – making the place feel more self-contained and claustrophobic, while never knowing whether to feel safe even when returning through an area you had already explored.

That said, the game plays in a chapter based episodic style, which does spoil the exploration a little – chapters have you swapping to other characters in other locations for different parts of the story. The chapters revolving around other characters are more linear, and break away from the fear of the cruise liner. That’s not to say that these sections were bad – the episodic style helps for shorter sessions on a handheld, and it helps the plot progression – but at times I did wish I could just stick to Jill for a more cohesive experience. This isn’t particularly helped by new characters Grinder and Jackass (yes, that’s his actual handle), who are very much cookie-cutter characters that I didn’t really care about and actually questioned whether their presence in the game was really necessary, other than to add extra characters for the game’s Raid Mode (more on this later).

The main inhabitants of the Queen Zenobia (the cruise liner) are creatures called Ooze – the idea being that a new type of virus has been released on the inhabitants, turning them into deformed monsters. While I didn’t find them as visually scary as a zombie (seeing as they look less human), the Ooze do offer what I love about zombies – they take quite a few bullets to go down, and they skulk in silence – unlike the gun-toting enemies in RE5 that felt more or less like normal people (but crazy ones). There are a few varieties of the enemy, gradually adding tougher ones as the game goes on. Ammo is fairly plentiful but not given to you in surplus, so the mixture of the Ooze’s relative toughness and the need to conserve ammo does keep things tense, which is nice.

To counter the lack of ammo, a new move has been added to the game – the dodge. If you tap the analogue nub toward the enemy right before an attack hits, you will duck and run under their attack, avoiding damage. It’s very handy and a nice addition, but if you mess it up you leave yourself open to take the hit. The game also includes a weapon upgrade system – you can hold up to three weapons at once, and when you collect more you can change your loadout via the various storage chests dotted around the game. When on the weapon menu, you can attach various upgrades to slots in each weapon, such as boosts in firing rate or damage. It’s not an incredibly deep system, but it does add a little tactical customisation which I appreciated.

One new tool of note is the scanning device you have access to in the game. By selecting it, you enter a night-vision style first person view that allows you to scan enemies and the environment. Every time you scan a certain amount of enemies, you will be awarded a green herb – obviously this leaves you vulnerable while scanning, but offers you the chance at healing when you are desperate. You can also scan to find ammo in the area if you are desperate, as well as ghostly hidden hand-prints that work towards unlocking an achievement (more below). While this feature is handy, I did sometimes feel that it was a chore to keep scanning each room and slowed the game’s pace a little more than I would like. Thankfully, it’s optional for the most-part so is more for those who want to use it.

Another new feature worth mentioning is the ability to swim – due to the ocean setting of the game, there are times when areas will flood, and you can swim in deep water to progress. The controls work well, allowing you to swim in any direction – and you do need to worry about breath, so it’s important to keep finding places to top up your air. The swimming sections felt like a natural progression for the series’ gameplay, and I always find underwater sections to be quite scary as you are vulnerable from every direction and under pressure to move quickly.

Also new to the game is achievements – by completing certain tasks in the game, you unlock achievements – much like you would in the 360 or PS3 games. However, rather than giving you bragging rights or a general completion score, each achievement you pass unlocks a new item – such as a new weapon or upgrade item. This is a nice extra incentive and adds some extra play value, though it does have the annoying function of being able to add new achievements to beat via Streetpass - something that doesn’t do much good when you don’t live in an area hugely populated with 3DS owners who actually use Streetpass. However, I haven’t beaten all of the achievements so far, so I hope that other ones will always open up as I clear the ones I already have – I don’t want to miss out on any potential unlocks simply due to where I live.

As I mentioned earlier, the game includes a side game called “Raid Mode”. This acts in a similar way the Mercenaries mode offered in previous games – a more arcade style side-game which involves working your way through areas and killing all of the enemies on the way. While the gameplay doesn’t offer anything hugely different to the game, the ability to play as other characters and the addition of co-op are the main draws here. Sadly I had no opportunity to test the co-op, but I can see this being a good way to extend the game’s play time – with the mode incorporating a levelling system to unlock new achievements and access new guns and characters, there’s a certain level of appeal that keeps you coming back.

Overall, I believe Resident Evil: Revelations does what it sets out to do – it’s a true handheld Resident Evil title, merging the gameplay of the modern games with more of the horror aspects of the older titles. While I wouldn’t say it’s the scariest game in the series, there are some good jumps here and there and a good atmosphere. While I feel the game could have been scarier if Jill was alone for the most part and there weren’t regular side-scenarios with other characters, the 10 hour story holds its own against Resident Evil 5 and is an incredible experience in terms of a handheld title. Definitely one of the best 3DS games so far.

- Leon

With Resident Evil: Revelations out in a week, Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City due for release in March, and rumours of Resident Evil 6 scattered over the web, I must say I wasn’t actually expecting an announcement AND trailer this suddenly. But it’s here – the official reveal of Resident Evil 6. And judging by the trailer, I’m excited.

Zombies, glorious zombies. While the Resident Evil series has moved away from them at late (in favour of the less dead-looking and agile Majinis), it seems that Capcom are finally bringing Resident Evil’s iconic zombies back to the core, numbered series – not totally unsurprising, what with prequels Raccoon City and Revelations also focusing on our skin challenged friends. Of course, people cry – how can zombies be threatening in today’s games considering how slow they are? Well, it seems the location of Tall Oaks has been majorly compromised – with 70,000 infected. It’s all about numbers with zombies, assuming you have the amount of ammo we saw in Resident Evil 5.

That’s not to say that zombies will be the only enemy in the game – with powerful BOWs (Bio-Organic Weapons) also popping up around the world, and it seems that the Majini threat is also still present, giving us the gun-toting parasitic threat as well as the zombie outbreak. While I wasn’t a huge fan of Majinis as a replacement for zombies, I can happily see the two co-existing nicely.

So who are the lucky ones to deal with this new threat? Well, it seems many of the fans will finally be getting their prayers answered – Chris Redfield and Leon S Kennedy are co-starring for the first time in the series, with co-op modes also confirmed to be making a return (although no real details have been given at this point). While it’s clear that the game will not be returning to Resident Evil’s survival horror roots, it seems that Capcom are trying to pull out all the stops in giving fans what they want while evolving the gameplay in a way that feels natural – the bioterrorism threat becoming ever closer to a zombie apocalypse. With a game-style executive producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi calls “dramatic horror,” it sounds as though we’ll be seeing a mixture of action and horror – so hopefully that means that although the game will still be action-based, we’ll be seeing a few more scares than in RE5, which was sorely lacking for a Resident Evil title.

The plot itself of course revolves around more attacks from bioterrorists, though who is pulling the strings is anyone’s guess. Ten years have passed since Raccoon City, and the President has decided to go public with the truth of the events. However, Leon is forced to make a tough decision when the President, who is also his personal friend, becomes infected. Elsewhere in China, another attack has taken place with Chris on the scene – and it seems that the world’s population has to unite under the common threat of bioterrorism, though filled with fear that nothing will now be able to stop what has been put into motion. That said, it’s a little strange as Resident Evil 6 seems to be set before Resident Evil 5 – set ten years after the Raccoon City Outbreak in 1998, while the events in Kijuju took place in 2009. Considering the scale of things happening in RE6, it seems very odd that everything’s been cleared up within a year. That, and I was fairly sure that Chris had never encountered a Majini before Resident Evil 5, though that might have just been my own assumption. Hopefully more light will be shed on this closer to the game’s release.

There are, of course, new characters joining the fray as well. An unnamed mercenary who fights bare-fisted is featured prominently in the trailer, his female companion stating “the world needs you”. He responds “no, no, not me. Just me blood. Well the world can have it, long as someone ponies up the dough.” Perhaps his blood contains an antidote for the zombie virus, at least that’s my guess. Sounds like he’s going to play a key role in the plot, but doesn’t appear to be taking a particular side – he’s featured fighting against BOWs, yet doesn’t seem in a hurry to relinquish his blood for whatever greater good it holds. There is also a woman who claims to be at fault for the outbreak, and Chris seems to have a vendetta against a certain woman – though it’s not clear if this is the same lady. Could she be a villain, or just a pawn?

Gameplay wise, Resident Evil seems to play similarly to Resident Evil 5, although with some changes. Firstly, it’s clear that Chris and Leon have a few special moves up their sleeves, such as shooting whilst leaping backward, and rolling manoeuvres. Also, melee attacks look as if they could be a little deepened, as Leon is shown planting an axe in the head of one enemy. Looks like enemies have been given a few new tricks, too – with one Majini extending it’s parasitic arm over the cover that Chris was hidden behind and grabbing him, yanking him up into the air.

Visually, the game is looking good and the animation looks clean – one gameplay scene shows Chris running through a street in China as civilians flee, pushing them out of the way and shoving a reporter’s video camera out of his face while making his way through the wreckage. One thing I also noticed was that the game seems to be set mostly at night – one thing that RE5 deviated from that did seem to take away some of that Resident Evil atmosphere.

While it’s unclear on exactly how the game will turn out at this point, the initial footage has definitely got me excited. It looks to me that Capcom have taken the Resident Evil 5 style and worked upon it, while simultaneously trying to put lots of fan-service into the mix. I do hope the game will have a good amount of scares in it, but I’m sure it can’t have less scares than RE5. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this one.

We’ve also been given a release date – the 20th November. A while off, yet – but better than some of the waits we’ve had to endure between announcement and release *cough*FinalFantasyVersusThirteen*cough*. Plus, we’ve got Operation: Raccoon City and Revelations to keep us busy till then – two titles I’m even more excited for now.

-Leon

A week or two back, Xbox Live’s gallery leaked a screenshot that showed M. Bison and Ling Xiaoyu’s portraits as tag partners, which sparked some new hype for me and Garv – some of our favourite fights being between Ryu and Bison, and Xiaoyu being a childhood favourite of mine from playing Tekken 3.

Anyway, this week rolled around and Capcom suddenly announced that they would be unveiling 6 new characters, as well as 2 “secret” announcements – and now, here’s what they announced on Tuesday morning:

Street Fighter

Juri – Introduced in Super Street Fighter IV, this is her first time participating in another title – C. Viper having beaten her to a spot in Marvel vs Capcom 3. Bringing her Feng Shui Engine powered fighting style into SFxT, I’m looking forward to seeing what little changes or new moves they’ve implemented into her style. She’ll also make a fine partner to Bison – evil purple auras for the win!

Vega – One of Street Fighter’s more iconic villains, Vega’s claw weapon is infamous – as well as his unpredictable fighting style. Good to see him included as he’s a personal favourite of mine, and I’m glad to see his Bloody High Claw move makes a return from Street Fighter IV. I’m personally going to team him up with Poison for one hell of a crazy team.

Balrog – Not totally unexpected, what with him and Vega completing the set of classic Street Fighter villains – and a perfect rival for Tekken‘s boxer, Steve. Balrog is one of Street Fighter’s heavyweight characters, and with projectile-free move-set I’m sure he’ll fit nicely into the mix with all the Tekken melee fighters joining the fray.

Tekken

Xiaoyu – No surprises here, with the leak and all – but a welcome addition for me all the same. Xiaoyu is a quick-hitting character with the capability to create long attack chains. She’s looking good and seems to be having a bit of a rivalry with Juri going on, as well as her old friendship with Jin – more on that in a minute.

Law – With Street Fighter’s Fei Long and Tekken‘s Law both being very obvious homages to Bruce Lee, I was wondering how Capcom would handle them. Would they both be included for some epic Bruce Lee fight-offs? Would they pick only one? Or would they ignore both. Well, we’ve now got Tekken‘s Bruce Lee in the game, and I must say he is looking very similar to Fei Long in terms of fighting style (which isn’t a surprise, of course). I do hope this doesn’t mean that Fei Long is out of the game as I’m a big fan, but I doubt they’ll actually include both. Either way, Law is looking awesome, and I can just stick a “Fei Long” name sticker on my screen.

Paul – Competing for most hair gel with Guile comes the hard-hitting American from Tekken – who I can also see being confused with Ken Masters by a certain overweight warrior. He’s seen tagging with Law and reminds me a lot of Ryu now he’s rendered in Capcom’s style – albeit without the projectiles. His super punch move (I forget its official name, it’s been a while since I was into Tekken) has been shown in his super art, but otherwise I’ll be very interested to see what tricks he has up his sleeve to turn the tide on his projectile using rivals.

While there were only 6 characters “announced”, the latest in the series of full CG trailers has also been released, featuring M Bison and Jin squaring up to one another, while Juri and Xiaoyu also fight. Both Jin and M Bison have been hinted at already in the past, but this pretty much confirms the two of them (unless Capcom are insane), so that’s looking good. Check out the trailer below – looks like Devil Jin will be making an appearance in this game, too.

Last but not least, at the end of the gameplay trailer (featuring the 6 officially announced fighters, shown below), there’s a short section about the Vita version. At the end of that, there can clearly be seen the silhouettes of Pac-Man, and what appears to be the terrible old box-art version of Megaman. I seriously hope this is Vita exclusive, as I’m no fan of these characters that are neither part of Street Fighter or Tekken – with the Sony exclusive characters already pushing me into going for the Xbox 360 version to avoid Cole, Kuro and Toro. And if that really is Box-Art Megaman… I have no idea if Capcom are actually trying to troll Megaman fans (or perhaps they actually are insane).

All in all, it’s been a good announcement and it’s got me excited for Street Fighter X Tekken all over again. A nice batch of characters, and hopefully Capcom will keep the info coming over the next few weeks.

- Leon

Considering the premise of Asura’s Wrath, in which players take the reigns of the demigod Asura as he battles gods in angry revenge, it set itself a high bar to meet in terms of expectations. Dubbed by gamers as a potential “God of War-beater” in terms of epic battles, I was excited to see what Capcom and CyberConnect2′s game had to offer in its demo (out today on Xbox, tomorrow on PS3), seeing as over-the-top action games are among my favourites – especially those made alongside Capcom, who are responsible for Devil May Cry and God Hand which share a similar genre. So how did the demo measure up to the hype?

Presented as an episodic story similar to a Japanese anime, the demo gives players access to two “episodes”, numbers 5 and 11, both stages pitting you against one of the game’s bosses. Right off the bat I must say that the game does look fantastic, and while it doesn’t attempt to look visually like an animated cartoon, the actual camera work and storytelling are done in a way that the game does feel very much like an interactive anime in the vein of Dragonball Z or suchlike. The actual visuals look very attractive, very colourful and vibrant the whole way through.

First off, I played through Episode 5: Hollow Victory, which pits Asura against the gigantic god Wyzen. Having apparently taken Asura’s daughter, Asura commenced to tackle the mountain-sized deity in hand to hand combat. After a quick press of the left stick in time with an on-screen prompt to land from being thrown by Wyzen, Asura dashed toward the boss and the first stage of the boss began. At this point of gameplay, Asura was automatically running toward Wyzen, while I could move from side to side and jump to avoid energy blasts that were being thrown toward me. While doing so, a reticule on the screen allows you to target multiple points on the boss’s body and release a volley of energy blasts by pressing Y. While seemingly doing no direct damage, these blasts helped fill up the Burst Meter, which I’ll explain later.

Once close enough to Wyzen, Asura leapt up toward him and I had to tap A in time with prompts to leap between floating platforms or else be grabbed by him and thrown back. Once I got above Wyzen, Asura flew down toward him from the sky, in a similar fashion to the running section, where I could evade blasts and release lock-on volleys. This whole process serves to fill up the Burst meter, which seems to act as a way of pushing the boss to the next stage – usually by allowing Asura to pull off a big attack to change the tide of the fight.

In this way, the boss fight essentially acts as a mix of simple gameplay sections and QTE (Quicktime Events) that comprise a set series of events that take place in a set order. At all times, at least in the demo, Asura is able to jump with A, do a melee attack with B (although this is largely unused in the first episode) and fire rapid shots with X. The Y button functions as an action button that changes function depending on Asura’s current situation – a lock-on shot in the running sections, a counter-attack when certain attacks are coming toward you, or a heavy strike in melee combat. The Left Trigger can sometimes activate “Unlimited Mode” (which seemed to have a kind of meter that was hard to distinguish), which seemed to help fill the Burst gauge faster. The Right Trigger executes a Burst Attack, which as I stated before is a large attack (which is a scripted QTE style sequence) that pushes the battle forward. The general aim of the boss battles is to fill this meter by executing regular attacks, activate the Burst Attack and then progress to fill the Burst meter again in the next stage.

While I’m no adversary of the QTE system (I loved them in God of War, and some other games), Episode 5 felt so scripted that it really didn’t feel as though I had any control over the battle. The QTE’s felt easy to respond to (though I generally don’t struggle with them in other games anyway) with long windows to react, and even when purposely failing them I only found myself being thrown back slightly – or even in some cases, Asura seemed to act in the same way as if I had hit the button anyway, making me wonder what the purpose of pressing the button was at all. While the fight looked very impressive, the simplicity and ease of the scenario left me feeling uninterested and the fact that my actions seemed moot in many cases made my input feel almost redundant – I only needed to mash a button now and then to prevent myself from being crushed in a couple of QTE’s, but even then I only realised they could kill me because I purposely avoided acting to see what would happen. While the fight looked fantastic, the lack of effort it took really made me wonder when exactly I would be feeling any “Wrath”, because I was expecting a lot more frenzied button mashing than what was delivered. One section did involve a couple of regular enemies thrown at me while I proceeded to hold X to shoot down a flying battleship, but they died in a couple of hits and seemed to pose no real threat.

Hoping that Wyzen was just a QTE-heavy section of the game, I gave “Episode 11: The Final Lesson” a fair chance. Pitting me against Augus, Asura’s old fighting master, this episode was more what I had in mind. A more traditional fight with an enemy of equal size, this episode allowed me to run around the arena freely, whilst avoiding Augus’ attacks and attempting to beat him with my own. With a flurry of fists (Asura grows four extra arms when he fights), it wasn’t long before Augus tried to do a special punch on me – which I could then counter by tapping the Y button when prompted, allowing me to knock him down and leave him vulnerable to beatings or a grab attack (also performed with Y).

Much like the first boss, Augus had no health bar – rather, it was a matter of building up the Burst gauge to pull off a cinematic QTE attack to move the fight into its next stage. The first one was quite funny to watch, as Asura and Augus proceeded to hit each other with slugger punches, until I was then able to activate Burst Mode again. I was then greeted with a small cut-scene involving Augus un-sheathing his blade, and he began using blade beam attacks with his sword.

I don’t know whether this is the difficulty the game will be in the full game, but these attacks (and most others) made barely a dent in my health bar, so served more to keep me away from him than actually kill me. Still, I enjoyed this part as you had to alternate between jumping horizontal beams and dodging between multiple vertical ones, something that reminded me of a Devil May Cry boss mechanic I always liked. When I got close, he would attempt to attack me directly, and I could then avoid these attacks by jumping or dodging (performed with RB) and wail on him some more. After one more Burst Attack and an insane QTE scene involving a sword getting stabbed right through the planet, the demo ended.

While the second episode was more what I was looking for, the ease of the battle and the sheer abundance of QTE’s again left me feeling unchallenged. I really wanted to enjoy the battle – it looked fantastic and the music was equally epic (one of my favourite parts of the demo), but I just felt like I wanted to get stuck in a bit more and actually have some real control over Asura.

Seeing as the demo was purely boss fights, I feel like I’d need to see more of the game to make a real judgement of the game – some trailers have shown Asura battling more regular enemies which could be enjoyable if done right. Perhaps if the game were a bit harder I’d also have felt more of a challenge – which could also be remedied by difficulty settings. Overall however, the demo was something of a disappointment – while the combat was indeed over-the-top, so much of it was scripted and QTE-based that I didn’t really get into any kind of rhythm, nor did it give me any kind of blood-pumping excitement that I’ve experienced with other action titles in the past.

I look forward to seeing more of Asura’s Wrath in future as I sincerely hope that the demo was merely a poor choice of representation for the game, but I’m certainly more wary that the title may not quite be the God of War beater that many have deemed it to be thus far.

- Leon

A new trailer revealed at the Spike Video Game Awards 2011 on Saturday has now come to light - along with a smattering of new information on the latest entry in the Metal Gear saga - and it’s been very interesting. First off, the game’s name has now been revised, now known as Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Secondly, the game will now be set after Metal Gear Solid 4, effectively making it the next chapter in the Metal Gear series. While it’s speculated that part of this change was made in order to set the game in a more futuristic scenario with more cybernetic enemies (due to Japan’s unease at the portrayal of dismembering human beings), the changes to the game’s name and plot make me wonder whether this will be the start of a new “Metal Gear Rising” saga.

Perhaps the biggest announcement was that the game is now being co-developed with Platinum Games, the developers of Bayonetta and Vanquish. Seeing as the game is going to be oriented around fast-paced sword combat, Platinum should be a perfect fit, having shown their expertise with their previous work (including their history with Capcom and Clover Studios before they became independant).

The trailer shows Raiden fighting against military opponents, as well as Gekko and Metal Gear RAY units as seen in previous Metal Gear titles. The trailer shows a mix of the regular combat, as well as the cutting ability and other more cinematic moments (such as grabbing and throwing a RAY) that look as though they could be QTE or something of a similar style. It also appears that Raiden will have a sword-wielding rival, although it’s unknown who he is at this point. The trailer ends with Raiden talking in a gnarled voice, saying “I think it’s time for Jack to let ‘er rip!” – referencing Raiden’s darker alter ego (Jack the Ripper) that he dealt with as a child soldier, suggesting he may be regressing into his more psychopathic nature at some point.

The trailer has recieved a mixed reception, and I myself have similarly mixed feelings about the trailer. On one hand, and most of all, I am excited. Playing as cyborg Raiden is appealing, and the idea of Platinum Games taking the reins of a Metal Gear hack ‘n’ slash title sounds fantastic. The idea of Jack the Ripper making a return is also exciting – as the darker side of Raiden is something we’ve only really heard about in the past tense so far. As a standalone game, Revengeance is looking amazing and I’m sure it will be a great game with Kojima and P* working in conjunction. The issue that I have in the back of my mind, however, is how the game will reflect upon the Metal Gear series as a whole. The title is looking very over-the-top (in true Platinum Games style), while the series usually feels more serious, albeit with a few strange individuals in the mix. While I’m looking forward to playing as Raiden, there’s a worry that the title won’t have that gritty, almost realistic style that the series is known and loved for, and I fear that the storyline might undermine the events leading up to it and how the story concluded with MGS4. That said, I have a great deal of trust in Hideo Kojima watching over the project, so I think I’ll need to hear more before jumping to any conclusions.

We’ll supposedly be hearing more information on the game this week, so keep an eye out for more news soon. In the meantime, check out the trailer below for the first real trailer for MGR: Revengeance.

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- Leon

When Dynasty Warriors 6 made a lot of changes to the series, mostly for the worse in my eyes, Tecmo-Koei did the right thing – they returned to the formula from the earlier games and built upon it with better graphics, new gameplay elements and the best re-telling of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms so far – while retaining all that made Dynasty Warriors a series that I enjoy. So, keeping in line with Dynasty Warriors 4 & 5, they have now released an Xtreme Legends expansion to add even more features to the latest version of the game – however exclusively on Playstation 3, which some Xbox 360 players may be disappointed to hear.

Similarly to the older versions, Dynasty Warriors 7: Xtreme Legends is a standalone title, but is designed in a way that it can be combined with the original for a fuller experience. Therefore, none of the original gameplay modes (Story, Conquest) are included on disc, aside from the tutorial. I’ll talk more about the “Remix” combining system in a bit – but for now, I’ll tell you about the main modes of Xtreme Legends.

The main mode in XL is “Legend Mode”, which puts you in a small ruined village that develops as you progress. Similar to pre-battle camps and Conquest Mode cities from the original game, this is a fairly small hub filled with NPCs that you may talk to for information and various services. When you begin, you decide which officer you want to play as (from any of XL’s roster of 65 characters), and a second character to act as an Adjutant for the city. The character you choose as Adjutant affects how the city will grow, as well as any perks you will gain as it does so – as you complete missions, more NPC’s will arrive in the city, and their mood will depend on the atmosphere of the city. For the most part, though, the city acts as a base from which you can organise yourself before a battle – with dealers to buy new weapons, a Strategist who lets you buy stat upgrades, and a few other things.

By talking to the guard at the city gate, you may access the main meat of Legend mode - the various battle scenarios that are included. These stages follow various battles throughout the Three Kingdoms story, but are mostly told from the perspective of different characters than in the original DW7 story mode. This means that many of the characters that weren’t playable in the original Story mode - including “Other” forces such as Lu Bu, Dong Zhou and Meng Hou - have their own scenarios  in Xtreme Legends. When you choose a stage, it will tell you which character it recommends you play as, usually being the focal character for that section. However, unlike the original Story mode you are given free rein to choose any character you wish, so if you’d rather play as someone else that’s also possible. Aside from these character focused stages, there are also an assortment of revamped stages from earlier Dynasty Warriors titles, which all allow you to play from both sides of the battle. There are over 40 stages, so there’s a fair amount to be getting on with.

The stages themselves are much the same as you’d expect from a Dynasty Warriors game – as this is an expansion, the gameplay retains all of the same mechanics as before, crunching your way through thousands of enemy soldiers on large battlefields as you take down various officers to complete objectives and win the battle. I won’t go too into detail here – if you’re new to the series, feel free to check out my review of the original title for more detail on the game’s battle mechanics. The Legend Mode does include its own assortment of cut scenes, so there’s new sections of story that mostly help to develop characters who didn’t get as much limelight in the original title.

As you beat stages, you gain gold which you may use to purchase items from the city, and you may also work on unlocking other bonuses – such as gaining new Titles. By beating certain character specific goals that gradually get harder as you progress, you will gain ranks for that character that grant them additional bonuses – such as strength bonuses using certain weapon types, or reaching certain KO counts within strict time limits. As a bonus, the last medals for each character unlock accessories that change the appearance of that character – a very nice touch for people who like customisation options. On top of that, every stage in Legend mode has one or two new Secret Weapons to obtain – by meeting special objectives within the individual missions when playing on Chaos (or the new “Nightmare”) difficulty. This adds another element to the stages, which makes replaying them worthwhile and more exciting.

Since Dynasty Warriors 7 only allowed you to use many of the characters in its Conquest Mode, it seems that the developers have taken that issue into consideration, with every character being able to access every stage and mode that Xtreme Legends has to offer. Even more importantly to me, they have also done the same with multiplayer functionality – meaning that all modes now incorporate local and online co-op, save for Challenge mode which is local only.

The Challenge mode is something that Dynasty Warriors has seen in the past, adding a few side distractions with online leaderboards. There are four challenges in total – Rampage, where you try to defeat as many enemies as possible within a time limit, Arena, which is similar except the fight is purely against other officers, Bridge Melee, where you have to knock off as many enemies as you can without falling off yourself (harder than you might think), and Speed Run, where you have to run through a series of gates, defeating enemies as you go in order to get to the end as quickly as possible – very similar to the ”Guan Yu’s Escape” scenario. While these stages are a bit of fun, they’re unlikely to keep you busy for long unless you really enjoy competing on online rankings.

Aside from new modes, DW7XL also adds three new characters to the mix – Pang De, Wang Yi, and Guo Jia, all on the side of Wei. Pang De is a returning character from Dynasty Warriors 5 who wields twin axes, and has the ability to call a charging troop of cavalry for his musou attack, which is quite original. Wang Yi, a strong female character, introduces a new weapon, the Trishula which works as a pair of bladed trident-like tonfas capable of quick combos, with Wang Yi able to pull off a quick string of hits as her EX special. She has one of my favourite musou attacks - running to an enemy and backflipping off of them, pulling off a cross-slash with her blades from the air. Guo Jia stars as a young strategist of Cao Cao’s, weilding a rod type weapon that looks like a pool cue, his attacks summoning orbs that circle him until he utilises them in other attacks. His first musou is quite unique, summoning an orb vortex that pulls in large numbers of enemies making them vulnerable. Overall, Pang De makes a welcome return, and the two new characters add some fresh moves to the game with their new weapons and musou attacks.

Alongside the two new weapons added with newcomers Guo Jia and Wang Yi, four other new weapons have also been added. While every character can use almost any weapon (although with varying skill) giving plenty of variety in DW7, a couple of the characters did feel as though they lost a little of their unique flair when given a less personalised weapon. In XL, I’m happy to say that Xiahou Dun has been updated to specialise with a “Podao” scimitar, giving him a more familiar stance than the regular swords could offer him, and Zhou Yun, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei have been updated to utilise the new Dragon Spear, Crescent Blade and Double Pike respectively – weapons that were sorely missed as they are almost synonymous with the characters. It does seem that the clans of Wu and Jin have been a little ignored in the updates to the roster and weaponry, but the changes that have been made are definitely for the better.

Now, the Remix mode is where Xtreme Legends really comes into its own - that being the mode that combines the two games together. When you initially boot Xtreme Legends, it will ask if you want to import your save file from Dynasty Warriors 7, allowing you to transfer over your progress to the side game. Once the game has loaded, you can access the Remix option which will allow you to briefly insert the original game disc to open up the old modes in the XL game. But it’s more than just having access to the old modes, it adds new features to them. While Xtreme Legends does work as a standalone title, I do think that the original game’s story mode is the best in the series so the game feels incomplete without it.

Remixing adds multiplayer to the Story mode, something I really missed in the original title. But not only that, it also opens up the ability to play as any character when using the chapter select mode – essentially creating a Free Mode that was also sorely missed in the original game – allowing you to play through any of the main missions with any character, alone or in co-op. The new characters are also merged into the stages, replacing the generic officers with the same name that were in the original title. Remixing also adds the three new characters to the Conquest mode, so that you may meet them and gain bonds with them in the same way as with the rest of the cast. On a side note – all of the DLC from the original game is compatible with Xtreme Legends - such as costumes, music and such, although you can only access the Conquest Mode DLC if you have the original game and use the Remix function to access Conquest Mode.

Warning: Completionists!

While my general opinion of the game is rather good, I do have one issue that’s caused me a bit of grief, and it’s concerning the Dynasty Warriors 7 trophies. Now, I’m no stickler for gamerscores and whatnot, but when I play a game I enjoy, I do like to try to accomplish all of the trophies for that particular game – seeing them as part of that “100% Complete” status. When you import your Dynasty Warriors 7 save data into Xtreme Legends, it essentially takes a snapshot of your current save file, and uses this as a basis for what your Xtreme Legends data uses as a starting point. So, if you had already beaten half of Conquest Mode and only two of the Story Mode campaigns, that would carry over into Xtreme Legends. However, beating those modes in XL’s Remix Mode will not grant you the trophies in the original DW7, and neither of your save files updates the other after the import is complete – making them essentially two different saves.

While this might not bother some people, it’s a big issue to me as I’d like to achieve both 100% Game Completion for the Remixed game, and Platinum trophies in both titles as well. But if I am to import my current DW7 data (with Conquest Mode incomplete), I will be required to finish Conquest Mode twice – once in DW7 for the trophy, and secondly in the Remixed DW7XL for the sake of completion (and all the unlocked weapons and rewards that come with it), and that’s no small task. The alternative is to get the Dynasty Warriors 7 Platinum trophy before importing to XL, but if you’re anything like me I don’t really have the patience to do all of that before I can enjoy the expansion. Like I said, this isn’t an issue if you don’t care at all about trophies – but it’s left me in a bit of an awkward situation where I have to decide if I’d like to hold off on playing XL till I’ve maxed the original title, or else know that I’m going to have to beat Conquest mode all over again at a later date (among other things) if I want to achieve that 100% goal somewhere down the line.

Trophy issues aside, Dynasty Warriors 7: Xtreme Legends does a great job at expanding the original title with a couple of extra modes, multiplayer support, new characters, new weapons and a few other things. The game can be played standalone, but I wouldn’t reccommend it, as without the main Story Mode the game feels incomplete – and if you haven’t already got Dynasty Warriors 7 I’d suggest you get that instead. The newly added features bring a bit of fresh life into the game for fans of the original, but the standalone game wouldn’t make a good starting point for new players. Essentially, if you enjoyed Dynasty Warriors 7, I’d reccommend this. If you haven’t played the original, I wouldn’t go for this first.

Pros:
+ New stages, characters and unlockables expand Dynasty Warriors 7 nicely.
+ Freedom to choose any character for any stage, which combines into DW7′s Remixed modes.
+ Similarly, co-op mode both local and online available for most modes from both titles.
+ Some of the old characters improved with new weapon classes.
+ Legend Mode gives new storyline and missions focused around characters who weren’t given Story Mode scenarios in the original game.

Cons:
- Somewhat lacking if played standalone – it is essentially an expansion, not a full retail title.
- Dynasty Warriors 7 Trophies are not linked to the game when combined, which is a pain for completionists. 

Score: 7/10 –A good expansion for Dynasty Warriors 7, but only reccommended if you played the original and are thirsting for more to do. If you haven’t played Dynasty Warriors 7 – get that instead.

Dynasty Warriors 7: Xtreme Legends is released today, Friday 18th of November.

- Leon

When I first heard about Batman: Arkham Asylum, I can’t say I really took interest. Being a casual fan of Batman thanks to the recent movie series, it wasn’t until I had a moment of boredom that I randomly decided to give the game’s demo a shot. I was glad I did – because Arkham Asylum ended up being one of the best games I’ve played – Rocksteady catching many people off-guard by producing a Triple-A title seemingly out of nowhere – creating a game with a great engine, beautiful visuals and an incredible portrayal of Batman and his enemies – full of the colour and imagination of a comic book, but also dark and gritty at the same time. Arkham Asylum turned me into a real Batman fan, even convincing me to purchase the latest issues of the Batman comics.

I’ve been highly anticipating Arkham City since it’s announcement, and enjoyed the official Arkham City graphic novel that leads up to the start of the new game (I’d recommend it as it bridges the two nicely), eager to get a taste of what’s to come. On release day, my copy arrived and I’ve since been playing the game to pieces at every opportunity. While Arkham Asylum was an unexpected hit, Arkham City is in a completely different situation – attempting to match or even beat the success of its predecessor. So, how does it measure up?

After the events of the first game, Warden Sharp took the credit for stopping the Joker - seizing power by using his lies to be elected as mayor of Gotham City. Using his new position, he deems Arkham Island unfit for containing the criminals of Gotham, instead turning a large portion of the city into an open-air prison surrounded by high-security walls – dubbing the area “Arkham City”, and leaving it under the control of the mysterious Hugo Strange - a psychiatrist and ex-patient of Arkham Asylum who has managed to deduce Batman’s true identity. Within the City lurks The Joker - still alive, but suffering from fatal Titan poisoning after using it on Arkham Island – vying for power against masterminds such as The Penguin and Two-Face, each fighting to take control of the city while Strange’s TYGER troops make sure that no-one escapes.

Rallying against the proposal of Arkham City, Bruce Wayne is kidnapped by Strange’s troops and thrown into the prison along with anyone else who opposes it. After a nice introduction where you get to play as Bruce being lead into the prison – including a fist-fight in handcuffs, he soon has his Batman gear airdropped in and proceeds to patrol the city as the Dark Knight to keep a watch over the inmates, and investigate Hugo Strange’s plans – an operation codenamed “Protocol 10″ apparently going to be set into motion very soon.

Obviously, one of the main changes to the game is it’s setting. While Arkham Island was a free-roam environment, the game was majorly set inside the various buildings of the island, all connected by outdoor grounds that were still fairly self-contained. Arkham City, however, is a large map consisting of several districts full of tall buildings. While Batman feels and plays very much the same as in Arkham Asylum, he has of course been tweaked to incorporate long-distance travel – most notably with the updated gliding mechanics. When you leap off of a building, you can now dive bomb during a glide to gain speed, and then open your cape to gain extra lift and speed. You can also unlock a grapnel ability that allows you to grapple onto a building and use hook to slingshot yourself forward to keep yourself airborne, which is a handy trick. The city itself looks great, and the fact that it’s set in a portion of Gotham means that there are a number of notable locations from the comics – including The Monarch Theater, Ace Chemicals, The Iceberg Lounge and the Gotham City Police Department Building. Obviously there are a fair amount of regular “filler” buildings, but generally there’s always something unique to see wherever you are.

In terms of combat, the game again feels much like Arkham Asylum - rather than changing or re-inventing Batman from scratch, they have simply upgraded him with some new abilities and gadgets. The free-flow combat system is much the same, utilising combo chains and counterattacks to access special attacks that range from disarms to instant takedowns. Enemies with weapons and guns return, as well as new enemies that carry shields – these can really cause problems when facing large groups of enemies as you need to perform a specific aerial attack to damage them, especially when combined with armoured opponents that need to be stunned with Batman’s cape attack before they can be attacked. While the old gadgets return, the explosive gel has been given a quick fire mode to help mix it into combat, and most other gadgets have combat uses as well – for instance, the REC Gear is a type of electrical device used to activate certain devices, but also doubles as a sort of taser that can be fired to shock an enemy in battle.

Speaking of gadgets, most of them return from Arkham Asylum (even with some new features), as well as a few new gadgets too. One such gadget is the Smoke Pellet, which allows you to escape from armed guards more easily, or else can be thrown into a group of enemies to disorient them and make them vulnerable. Almost every gadget has a secondary function or two, so there’s a good mix of abilities to play around with and multiple ways to tackle certain groups of enemies. As much as I’d love to spill all of the different combinations, I won’t spoil the fun as discovering some of the gadgets is half the fun in my eyes.

While Arkham City is huge, the majority of the storyline missions take place inside the various buildings dotted around the city – such as the Iceberg Lounge where the Penguin resides. Obviously, these areas are much like the buildings in Arkham Asylum (though not quite as big, as there are more of them), and you get to use Batman’s more sneaky abilities such as crawling through air vents and such while you are inside. These are generally some of the most interesting places in the city, all with their own themes and styles. One small detail I would like to note is that I was glad to see that they’ve not thrown gargoyles everywhere indoors – while gargoyles in Arkham Asylum were core to the gameplay, they were everywhere. In this game, however, there are a variety of different objects that serve the same purpose, just they’ve been designed to blend in with the theme of that particular area. Oh and by the way – enemies are a bit smarter this time round. If they spot you on one of these ledges in the rafters, they’ll promptly shoot it down, so you can’t abuse them quite so much as before.

In terms of in-game storytelling, the game has been crafted well, often flowing straight between gameplay and cinematic, sometimes taking you into a first-person view in certain situations, which gives you a more personal perspective in certain events. The cinematics themselves are of course as good as before, with all of the characters brought to life using the in-game graphics, all voiced excellently as well. While fans of the Scarecrow will be disappointed to hear that he doesn’t return, I’m happy to say that Rocksteady have found other ways of creating similarly surreal hallucination sections, so the game doesn’t suffer too much from his omission. Mr Freeze joins the cast also, fighting to save his wife Nora who has been taken from him – I found him to be a very interesting character and he’s among my favourites in the game.

Bosses have also seen some improvements in the game – while it’s still no God of War in terms of epic fights, there’s definitely been a reduction in battles that are essentially fighting large waves of enemies with the odd Titan thrown in – bigger bosses require Batman to avoid attacks while working out a strategy to damage the opponent (such as one that requires to set explosives in certain places around the stage), while some require more stealthy tactics to hide and strike when they’re not expecting it. That’s not to say that there aren’t sections where you have to fight groups of henchmen, but Rocksteady have obviously put a lot more thought into the bosses, which are more varied, fun, and look great. While you do fight a Titan henchman or two, it’s been made less systematic to take them down and you don’t have to keep repeating the same process of “dodge a dash, blind with a batarang, attack while they stumble around” like you did before.

Aside from the story missions, there’s a fair amount of things to do around the city. First of all, the Riddler returns with hundreds of challenges – finding his trophies, figuring out his riddles and destroying certain objects. However, the variety has been mixed up a bit more, and you often need to make clever use of the various gadgets to work them out, and I’ve found myself having to really think to figure some of them out. One small complaint I do have, however, is that while in Arkham Asylum you knew which room you were looking for a riddle solution in, this time it’s separated into districts, which aren’t clearly defined on the map – so it’s hard to tell exactly where to be looking at times, which is a bit of a nightmare considering how open the world is. While you can interrogate a Riddler goon to display where solutions are on the map, it then becomes a matter of just following markers around the map rather than genuinely trying to find answers. Of course, you can just ignore the map, but then as I said before it becomes quite difficult due to the lack of obvious area boundaries.

The best update to the Riddler is the new Hostage missions that have been added. Every time you reach a certain amount of Riddles solved, you unlock the location of one of his hostages. Going to that location, you’ll find a puzzle room which requires you to solve in order to navigate to the hostage and save them. And, unlike the first game, you can actually meet the Riddler in person in this game, rather than being purely a long-distance contact – making him feel like a real enemy, rather than just a random voice.

While the Riddler is by far the biggest side-quest, there are a mixture of other side-misssions that can be accessed – these mostly take place in the city itself, as opposed to the storyline missions that are usually indoors. For instance, one quest has you working alongside Bane to destroy Titan containers around the city, while another has you tracking the serial killer Zsasz by answering payphones and rushing to another phone within a time-limit. Some of these missions are better than others, but it’s great to see a few extra characters incorporated into smaller roles, and it adds some more variety to the game.

Assuming you bought the game new, the game comes bundled with a DLC code that adds Catwoman to the game. While many people tend to groan about DLC, it’s meant as an incentive to buy the game first-hand, which at this point you probably would be doing anyway. If you get the game new, the DLC would cost you £7.99, which isn’t cheap (the developers want a cut of your cash, if you buy it pre-owned), but Catwoman does add a decent chunk to the game. Make sure you download Catwoman before you play the game, as her chapters actually get slotted into the game’s storyline into the relevant places, and she’s quite fun to play as.

Although she plays similarly to Batman, she does have some differences – firstly, that she cannot glide, but can instead use her whip and claws to swing about and leap up walls, and she also has the very cool ability to crawl on the ceiling when there is a metal grating to grip into. Combat-wise, she plays using the same free-flow system as Batman, although her animations are much more agile, and she has a few of her own gadgets including caltrops to trip enemies, and special attacks utilising her whip.

While Catwoman doesn’t have as much storyline as Batman, she’s still rather well developed (pun not intended). She has her own set of upgrades (not as many as Batman, but she does also share some of his unlocked abilities), is fun to play as, and most importantly to me, is also able to free-roam Arkham City at certain points (and also post-game, so don’t worry you can always go back!), including her own set of Riddler trophies to find. She can also access all of the challenge maps, so aside from Batman’s story missions you can use her for everything that he has access to.

While the game is a good length and there’s a fair amount of missions, one thing I did find was that the game perhaps wasn’t paced as well as Arkham Asylum. When I’m playing games, I do try to spread out side-quests over the course of the story – while it was fairly easy to work out how much of Arkham Island you had explored, there’s no real indication in City that you are nearing the game’s conclusion. By the end of Arkham Asylum, you had defeated all of the villains who made physical appearances in the game, and it was clear that events were reaching their climax as events unfolded. With City, however, some villains make appearances but never really play major roles in the plot – Poison Ivy and Two-Face specifically had smaller roles than I expected, and Killer Croc was said to be loose in the sewers, so when the final parts of the story took place and they hadn’t been dealt with, I wasn’t ready for it - expecting some extra story arcs beforehand that never occurred. I’m not saying that the game lacks villains or content, because it at least equals that of Asylum - but City ends with villains that are still roaming the city doing their own thing, leading me to think there was more to do before the end. There’s post-game free-roam so you’re free to clear up any side quests, so that’s not a problem, and the story itself is very good – plenty of exciting moments, plot twists and shocking moments that often surprised me (in a good way.)

Overall, Batman: Arkham City is a worthy sequel to Arkham Asylum, which is no easy task considering the high bar the original set. The change of scenery has both good and bad results - while the open world looks impressive, opens up room for extras and is fun to navigate, it does mean that there are more areas that you will only ever skim past, perhaps not as easily appreciated as the few beautifully crafted buildings that made up the entirety of Arkham Asylum – making the game feel a little more Assassin’s Creed than Metroid, but the game does generally maintain all of the great qualities of the original and it feels like a natural transition to a larger scale setting. The story is very good with plenty of unexpected turns, and ultimately doesn’t disappoint.

I just hope that if Rocksteady continue with DLC support, they’ll be adding extras to the free-roam, not just the challenge maps – I’m not bored of Arkham City yet!

Pros:
+ Great story with plenty of unpredictable moments and surprises
+ A natural evolution of Arkham Asylum’s abilities – updated movement, combat skills and gadgets
+ Arkham City looks great and is fun to explore, with both Batman and Catwoman
+ Deeper Riddler challenges and side-quests give plenty to do outside of the storyline

Cons:
- Ending came a bit suddenly for my liking, the game didn’t naturally feel like it was drawing to a close
- The size of the city makes things feel a bit more spread out than the original, leaving many buildings and areas that are somewhat forgettable, as opposed to all of Asylum’s intricately designed areas.
- The Riddler challenges are hard to find and left me resorting to secret maps more than before.

Score: 9/10 – Another amazing Batman game from Rocksteady delivers a worthy sequel to the amazing original. The move to a larger setting has both positives and negatives, but the game has plenty to offer and a variety of extras to explore. Definitely worth a purchase.

- Leon

The last game I got my hands on at this year’s Eurogamer was one of the many sequels I’m looking forward to next year – Mass Effect 3. While I found the original title took a little getting into, it was a fantastic experience in the end, and Mass Effect 2 was even more enjoyable, offering one of the best “space adventuring” style titles I’d ever seen, allowing you to captain your own crew in a galactic adventure in a brilliant mix of RPG and Third Person Shooter style gameplay. With Mass Effect 2 taking your own decisions from the first game into consideration - affecting the story and characters you meet depending on various events – and Mass Effect 3 promising to carry this on into its own story, it sounds like quite an undertaking and is said to be the conclusion of the saga.

The demo itself was presented as a ground based mission, and I was happy to see some familiar faces on my squad – Garrus, who has been by my side for a large portion of both ME1 and ME2, and Liara – who returns as a squad member from the original Mass Effect (while she did play a part in the second game). Also involved in the mission was Mordin (Mass Effect 2) whose goal was to evacuate a lone female Krogan, with my squad helping him through checkpoints and keeping the Krogan safe – from indoctrinated (Reaper-brainwashed) Cerberus members, who apparently wanted to stop him.

Before the actual level began, however, I was prompted to assign ability points – I assume to match me to the level of the mission I was about to tackle. I wasn’t given a choice of class, so I was stuck as a Soldier – not that I minded. The general system is very similar to that of the previous games – assigning points to level up various skills and abilities. However, when selecting a certain type of ability to level up, the game opens up a new screen specific to that ability tree, which is more aesthetic and informative than before. There seemed to be more options than the previous titles – with a decent selection of upgrades, and also branches in the ability trees that allow you to tailor your class even more to your liking. I personally upgraded my damage, grenades and Concussive shot skills, though there were options for different ammo types and such as well. Given the scenario, I didn’t delve into the influence/dialogue stuff. I really liked the look of the upgrade system – with more options than Mass Effect 2, yet more key skills than that of Mass Effect 1.

As the level began, I instantly noticed that the graphics had been given a definite overhaul – while nothing game-changing, the areas looked great, and Bioware are clearly keeping things up to date, the area looking vibrant, and character models looking that little bit more detailed. While I wouldn’t consider myself to be particularly shallow in the whole issue of the importance of good graphics, I must say that the improvement between Mass Effect 1 & 2 was one aspect that made ME2 better – it’s larger range of locations and appealing vistas making the various galaxies more exciting to explore – not just endless grey spaceship corridors. It seems Mass Effect 3 will be following in this trend – which I’m happy with, so long as the game’s size hasn’t been compromised in any way!

Now for the mission itself. Sadly, I was disappointed that the demo didn’t show off the new Omni-blade melee kills – while it’s one of the features I’m most excited to see, it didn’t seem to be available in that particular build – or if it were, the game didn’t tell me how to do it. However – that’s not to say that I was disappointed with the combat itself. Battling Cerberus troops has never been more fun – the general combat feels much like any other third-person shooter, although with all the usual Mass Effect RPG abilities we’re accustomed to. Shepard can now blind-fire – a favourite ability of mine – which makes all the difference in a shootout, and his abilities seem to tie into the action well. The concussive shot felt more useful than I remember, offering a high-impact round that can pack a punch when available, and the new conventional grenades are satisfying for some heavy damage.

Another noticeable difference in the game is that Shepard can now use ladders, and also drop down from upper levels where there is a ledge. While it doesn’t sound like much, it really makes the game feel less flat, and a bit more realistic – as they say, it’s all in the details. Once I had battled my way through a quite a few enemies, I eventually found myself face-to-face with a large Cerberus Mech that acted as a boss. It’s heavy attacks meant it was important to keep moving – staying in cover wouldn’t keep me safe. However, it didn’t take too long, and after plugging it with shots and a few grenades it went down without too much trouble.

One feature I almost forgot to mention was the inclusion of a weapon load out area that I discovered during the mission. While I didn’t have many options, it seems that you are now able to change weapons and upgrades mid-mission, which could come in handy. I am a little worried that this might suggest that there may be long periods where you don’t have access to the Normandy where you would usually do this – but hopefully my fears are wrong. Otherwise, it’s a nice addition for a few mid-level tweaks to your arsenal.

Overall, what I’ve seen of Mass Effect 3 is looking good. While the combat is only one aspect of the game, it does seem that Bioware have pulled out all the stops in perfecting Mass Effect’s RPG/Action combination – with plenty of upgrades and improved combat controls for the best of both worlds. If all the other aspects of the game have been improved equally, I think it’s easy to say that Mass Effect 3 will be the best in the series – and considering Bioware have stated that it’s been easier to produce than Mass Effect 2 (since it doesn’t have to link into a following title), I hope that they won’t disappoint! I just hope all my favourite characters return as recruitable squad members…

- Leon

So what games do I speak of? Well, for me, they are usually games with the potential to be mastered - each time learning a little more, making the overall experience feel as though I are learning and adapting, which can feel extremely rewarding. Amongst my list of special games are God Hand, (PS2) Street Fighter IV (X360), Capcom vs SNK 2 (PS2), Rock Band 2 (X360), Gunstar Heroes (Sega Megadrive) and Devil May Cry (PS2).

While this generation has brought us a solid fighter or two, and some older games hold up well against time, I’ve really felt like I’ve been lacking something lately. Devil May Cry 4 was a disappointment to me, but sadly the older titles haven’t aged too well either – although games such as God of War III and Bayonetta have given me good runs, nothing seemed to compare to DMC1 and DMC3:SE, and those titles are slowly gathering more dust on my shelf as the snobbery of modern graphics (and lack of PS2 functionality on my PS3) kicks in. That’s why I’m happy to announce that earlier speculation has proven to be true – Devil May Cry HD Collection has been officially announced by Capcom!

This is excellent news for me – but it’s also good news for Xbox players, the HD Collection coming to both Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Currently planned for release “early next year”, the collection will bring Devil May Cry, Devil May Cry 2 and Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition into the current generation in full HD.

Of course there’s also the usual updates for Trophies/Achievements which is nice to add a few more things to earn when playing, but better yet it seems we’ll be getting all of the content we’ve seen thus far, with additional content to boot. DMC HD Collection includes the Special Edition of Devil May Cry 3, which allows you to play as Dante’s brother Vergil through the whole game, as well as extra unlockables, features and difficulty modes that weren’t in Dante’s Awakening. Capcom stated there would be “Bonus Content”, which suggests there will be extras exclusive to the HD Collection, although there have been no details so far.

Aside from that, the main thing we do have are some screenshots – one image from each game for your HD viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

- Leon