Throughout gaming history there have been two staple weapons of choice, the gun and the sword. Both have been wielded by heroes and villains a like, and of course there have been all different varieties of these weapons from rocket launchers to demon possessed blades. So if you were a hero or indeed a villain, what staple weapon would you choose? The gun or the sword?

Let’s start with the weapon that has been round since the dawn of gaming time. The sword has been wielded by many a hero and is probably more of an iconic weapon compared to its projectile based counterpart. There have been many iconic swords that have graced our gaming screens over the years. Such as Rebellion and Yamato wielded by the half demon brothers Dante and Vergil from Devil May Cry, these were passed down from their demon father Sparda who wielded the demonic Sparda sword. There has also been the Buster sword that has been passed down from Angeal’s father to Angeal to Zack and finally to Cloud in the Final Fantasy VII saga, there have been other iconic blades such as the soul reaver, the master sword, soul edge and soul calibre, The Dragon Sword and The Dark Dragon Blade. Just to name a few. Swords are not just sharp objects that you can swing around and decapitate people with. They are weapons that can possess powers beyond human imagination and they can harness both evil and holy power which in turn can influence the wielder sometimes against their will.

The Soul Reaver has to be one of the best evil swords out there.

Guns on the other hand have sheer variety on their side. You can get guns of varying types from tiny pistols with precise aiming to great big rocket launchers that can blow any foe sky-high. Gaming’s iconic guns include the Lancer from gears of war, the perfect mix between chainsaw and assault rifle. The BFG from Doom and Quake; the perfect gun to have in your arsenal to obliterate foes in mere seconds. Both the freeze ray and shrink ray from the Duke Nukem series also bring a nice variety when it comes to destroying your foes, and even the portal gun can get the most creative of killers juices flowing. The sheer amount of variety and customisation when it comes to guns in video games that is available has shown us that there is no stopping how powerful guns can become.

Wouldn't like to be on the receiving end of this BFG

This surely means that as guns have an enormous amount of variety, they can easily out trump their melee counter parts? Well I have always been a keen believer in the phrase ‘quality not quantity’ and I have always favoured swords. I know this may sound really strange coming from an FPS fan, but swords have always appealed to me more, and when used correctly have the power to deflect bullets, cut guns in half and give the wielder the opportunity to obliterate enemies with a high amount of skill. Take Halo for example, Sure someone may have a rocket launcher that could blow a sword wielder sky-high but faced with an energy sword time is very limited because sooner rather than later you will have that energy sword impaled through your torso before you can reload.

Don’t get me wrong though. I am not damming all guns to hell, There are some guns out there that could take down the most skilled swords man. The sniper rifle is probably the most efficient gun for taking out a sword wielding maniac, from a nice long distance a sniper can easily head shot even the most skilled swords man.

In a lot of ways swords and gun are on the same level, I could spend the whole article going on about which weapon is better in what situation. However, when you combine the two something magical happens. You have possibly the most epic weapons ever made in gaming. A perfect example would be the gunblades of the Final Fantasy series. Both squall and lightening wield gunblades and it is defiantly something the gaming universe needs more of. They have the range of a gun and the deadliness of a sword, what more do you want?

Yes squall...that gunblade is awesome!

With that all said I will now leave it to the gaming public to decide. Is the gun mightier than the sword?

Garv

When I think of hack and slash games there are only two games that cut the mustard. Devil May Cry for its awesome story and stylish combat and Ninja Gaiden for its fantastic game play and its steep learning curve. The amount of time I have spent trying to complete Ninja Gaiden II is unreal. I still go back to it every now and again just to see if I still have the skills to beat the game. That and I just love chopping the limbs off of enemies with a huge scythe.

Now Ninja Gaiden III has been announced I am once again looking forward to playing as Ryu Hyabusa and ridding the world of demons knows as the fiends.

So what are we expecting from Ninja Gaiden III? Well story wise not much is known, Ryu has been has been requested by the Japanese self-defence force to make a trip to London, England to fight a terrorist threat and a mysterious hooded opponent, it will be interesting to see how Team Ninja portray England’s’ capital in the Ninja Gaiden world and how the fair city ties into the overall story line. This time round Ryu’s right arm has been cursed, this will more than likely play a big part in the game’s story line and game play, Is he turning into a fiend himself? We’ll have to sit tight and find out.

After doing a bit of research on the game I have found out that there have been one or two changes that can swing the game one way or the other. In Ninja Gaiden II, I loved the fact you could chop your enemy limbs off and watch them try to take you down even though they would be missing a leg or an arm. There was a lot of blood, but it wasn’t too excessive and gave the game a unique and appealing feel which, in my opinion, other games haven’t quite got the grasp of.

Ninja Gaiden III however may have taken a step back when it comes to dismembering your foes, this time round Team Ninja really want the player to feel the resistance when it comes to lopping off a limb. They have implemented a cutting mechanic where you have to saw through your enemies bones with your sword. Sounds cool but Ninja Gaiden is well-known for its fast paced combat, so this could slow things down somewhat.  Team Ninja have also removed the classic flying swallow move from the previous games that enabled Ryu to take out a legion of demonic foes in mere seconds (when used correctly) and they have now thrown in some Quick Time Events, which again could slow down the pace of the game. In all honesty this has made me slightly nervous but I am remaining open minded, this could possibly be a good thing as Team Ninja stated they want the game to be more accessible to gamers.

Update: After looking at Team Ninja’s twitter feed (http://twitter.com/TeamNINJAStudio) The Quick Time Events in Ninja Gaiden III won’t be a key feature in the game, they were added as a limited tutorial feature for demo purposes only. Making me feel alot better about the gameplay.

It isn’t all bad on the new game mechanics front though, it appears that Ninja Gaiden III has taken a page from the Kratos’ (from God Of War) book. Ryu can now climb walls armed with a pair of kunai. A neat little trick which I always admired in the God of War series as it brought nice element of platforming to the game.

What I am hoping is that Ninja Gaiden III will give you the same variety as its predecessors did. Ninja Gaiden was great for the sheer amount of weapons you could wield and the different skills you could learn. I just hope the changes aren’t to earth shattering.

Ninja Gaiden III will be playable at this year’s Eurogamer Expo, I will be sure to get some hands on time with the title.

Garv

Most people out there see me as a gamer geek, it’s not surprising really as I run a video game review site. However there is another side to my geeky nature and that’s my love for anime, or Japanimation as I like to call it. So when Tecmo Koei and Namco Bandai posted Plus XP a copy of Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 to review, you could probably imagine my excitement

Gundam is a very popular anime series that has been taking the Japanese market by storm since the late 70’s. As you can imagine since then the Gundam franchise has seen many incarnations, but the core premise stays the same. The story of the whole franchise is based around a futuristic war between multiple sides. The battles are fought using heavily armoured Mechanised suites known as Mobile suits which are driven by a human pilot. The franchise is named Gundam after the main protagonists’ mobile suit.

Much like Fist Of The North Star: Ken’s Rage did for the Fist of The North Star franchise, Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 does justice to the Gundam series. This title does a heck of a lot of fan service which may alienate people who don’t know the Gundam universe. However the game shouldn’t scare new comers off too much as the story is a standalone tale that brings the much-loved characters of Gundam into one simple, clean-cut narrative. Even though the storyline is quite basic this game gives Gundam and non Gundam fans alike a great opportunity to focus on character and mobile suit customisation.

Much like any other Dynasty Warriors game you can buy and give new abilities to your characters, from special moves to stat boosters which will all help in the heat of battle. However the more in-depth customisation takes place when it comes to modifying mobile suits. Each battle you play, more often than not, will unlock plans for mobile suits. You can then modify these plans in two ways. First you can up the physical stats on the mobile suit, such as defence, attack, shot, boost et cetera. These updates are limited to how advanced the plans are, and the more you battle the more advanced suits you will come across.

The second way to modify your mobile suit is by giving it upgrades, such as quicker boost recovery or a higher special attack gauge. This mixed in with the stat boosts and the character upgrades means you can pretty much have the mobile suit and pilot combination of your dreams. However, if you do want a specific mobile suit coupled with a specific pilot, it’s going to cost you. You have to buy licences for each mobile suite from the in-game shop, in order for a suit to be unlocked to all pilots. Licences as well as all character and mobile suit upgrades have to be paid for with money, known as G, earned in-game . G  is obtained by completing missions and facing the heat of battle. Of course as well as G completing missions will unlock more characters and story lines. This gives players a fantastic amount of unlockable content which is in my opinion something many video games are lacking nowadays.

The gameplay of Gundam 3 is your typical Dynasty warriors affair. So seasoned Warriors players will feel right at home here. For those of you who are not so familiar, this is a third person hack and slash game with a tactical twist. You’re thrown into the heart of battle with your army by your side. The objective is to gain possession of the whole battle field and then go in for the kill by tacking out the enemy base. In the later levels the objectives may change but it mainly consists of defending what you have and gaining more ground before going for the proverbial Jugular.

During the course of battle you will be given mini objectives that are optional, complete these and you will see the G rolling in. Some may say the simplistic mission structure might be too straight forward and may come across a bit repetitive, but the drive to unlock every single thing in the game makes the mission structure a little more compelling.

Combat wise you have a few moves at your disposal. You have the standard charge/heavy attack and your normal/light attacks. These moves mixed together can make for some epic combos that can take out a legion of mobile suits, but not only that each mobile suit is equipped with boosters to navigate the playing field faster. Combos mixed with your booster make for some even more devastating attacks. Also at your disposal you have special attacks, which deal out a considerable amount of damage. One of my favourite additions to the combat system though is partner attacks. Partner attacks are when an additional pilot flies in and unleashes a huge attack which deals a great amount of damage. Any pilot that you unlock through playing the game can be selected before the mission to come in and save you. It is a very small thing but still a great addition which I think adds to the whole Gundam fighting experience, as the Gundam franchise prides itself on team battling.

The cell shaded graphics in the game pay homage to the Gundam franchise as a whole very well ,from what I can tell there haven’t been many graphical faults in the game except maybe some slight draw distance issues. What I really do like about the Gundam3 is that it feels like a game based on an anime. Other games based on anime such as One Piece: Ultimate Cruise Episode 1 and Bleach: Soul Ignition feel typically Japanese and Gundam 3 also fits into that bracket. Its bright colours and epic Japanese style background music make for an atmosphere that no other game genre can create.

All in all Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 is a great homage to the Gundam franchise. Its typical Japanese anime style mixed with the game play of the Dynasty warriors series makes for an enjoyable game. The mission structure maybe a little basic and the story is not that in-depth but the sheer amount of unlockables and the fact that it stays true to the Gundam series makes Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 an enjoyable game.

Pros:
+ A great homage to Gundam franchise
+ Loads of unlockables, and I mean loads!
+ Great mobile suit customisation

Cons:
-Basic Story Line
-Missions can feel a little samey
-Graphics aren’t the best I have seen

Score: 7/10

Ever since I have been sinking my teeth into curtain game genres such as Hack and Slash games and fighting games, I have come to realize that some titles seem to get to a point where the game stops being difficult and just becomes frustrating. This is typical of some hack and slash titles and some fighting games as well. I am of corse talking about cheap boss’s.

An example of a non-cheap boss and he is called DR ROBOTNIK not Egg man!

So for those of you who don’t fully understand the concept of a cheap boss let me explain. imagine Your pretty much at the end of a level/game and there is the final boss staring at you and you launch into battle. Next thing you know you are being pummeled by all sorts of over powered moves that you can’t block or find it near on impossible to dodge. So you find yourself dying time after time to beat this git, untill you A)extremely lucky and beat the boss out of sheer luck. Or B) Find yourself going to your latest video game retailer and buying yourself a new controller because the last one you had is now in tiny pieces scattered around your living room/bedroom.

So why do developers implement cheap bosses into games? Is it just to piss gamers off? Are the Developers trying to get 1 up on the gamers, thinking they worked hard on this game so we should work hard defeating it? This I cannot answer now, but what I can do for you is give you some warning. I bring to you the top three cheapest Boss’s in my opinion. This is hope that you can save yourselves from hours of frustration, or you can just have a go at these guys and see what I mean.

WARNING: The next bit of this article will now contain spoilers for Devil May Cry 3, Dante’s Inferno and Street Fighter IV. You Have Been Warned.

Arkham – Devil May Cry 3

This demonic blob from the demon realm has to be a pretty cheap ass boss because he just doesn’t let you get near him. His main trick it to push you backwards with demon power and then pummel you from a distance with things like flying demon tentacles and demonic eels sprouting from the floor. It’s only once you get close to him you can deal some damage. If you don’t have infinite DT then your pretty much screwed. You have to be very precise with dodges, so i suggest your best bet here is to use trickster and dodge like you have never dodged before. Then as soon as the eels come from the floor it’s a case of jumping and firing your rocket launcher at the floor.

Lucifer – Dante’s Inferno

It may come to no surprise to you that the lord of Hell is the boss in this game. When you first fight him your thinking this is easy. But it is his second stage you have to be aware of. He attacks you in his humanoid state, what really annoyed me about this was that my attacks were doing hardly any damage, and every now and again he would teleport and then spam an uber move on me leaving me incapacitated. Weather it was smashing the ground or firing hellish demon power at me, moves like that would take half my health bar down in one. So my advice here is get yourself the holy armour spell, equip it and spam the crap out of him, yes it may take you several years and a million tries but it works eventually.

Seth – Street Fighter IV

Now this is one of those cheap bosses which I have no strategy for. This is the cheapest boss I have come across in my gaming career. He loves to spam moves such as the pile-driver which takes a huge chunk of your health out, and the chain three shyroken. If your lucky he may do both at the same time. Oh and don’t forget the move where he kicks you and it suddenly becomes a million kick combo. That’s a doozy. So that’s what to watch out for, I suggest using maybe Bison or Dhalsim so you can teleport and dodge his attacks, or maybe fight fire with fire and use Seth himself if you have Super Street Fighter IV.

So there you have it, the top three cheap bosses in my recent gaming career that have really given my a hard time. There are probably more which I have blanked from my mind because they annoyed me that much. So with all this in mind, what are your top three cheapest Bosses and why?

Garv.

When you hear the word Troy, what do you think of? History’s first case of a bait and switch? The average movie version with Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom playing themselves? Well, now you can think of the awesome new hack and slash game brought to us from the makers of the Dynasty Warriors series, Tecmo Koei.

The game has you playing through a variety of Heroes and Heroines from Homer’s Iliad, showing all sides of the conflict through gameplay and a mixture of CG and beautifully rendered amphora-like images that drives the main plot. Each character has various strength and weaknesses: Achilles is fast and has a good reach with his sword, Paris uses a bow for his power attacks and Penthesilea (the Queen of the Amazons) wields an awesome battle-axe with a great reach.

The combat is fast and fluid with maps the right size to engage enough foes, so you don’t feel like you’re trekking for miles just to get to your destination. You accumulate Kelos by hitting foes, which fills a fury bar that when unleashed doubles your attack speed and rendering most enemies into mincemeat. The enemies come in a good variety of shapes and sizes, meaning you have to mix up your attacks if you want to deal with them effectively. For example, if you come across a squad of shield and spearmen then your best bet is to pick up a fallen foe’s weapon, preferably a spear and slash at their feet. You have to take cover behind your shield as rows of archers fire off volleys at you, and the enemy combat specialist can make for some very desperate fighting.

There is also the added feature of duelling with particular foes. This involves both sides’ allies creating a ring of spears while you duke it out in the middle, which can make for some frustrating yet rewarding gameplay; having to avoid, block or counter their various attacks and watch out for their power attacks, or you are going to be in a world of pain. The enemy A.I, while occasionally spotty in places, does an excellent job of adapting and challenging you. You will find yourself responding to foes that back up when you attack, counter and block well, and even break and flee if your attacks are awesome enough. There are few things in the game as satisfying as picking up a spear and watching it zoom in when you pin some poor sod from 100 meters.

After each stage you can buy items that upgrade your various stats and add special attacks, while it can be pretty confusing at first it’s not so much that it makes it unusable. The camera can also be irritating at times, especially during big boss fights or when you’re trying to lock on to an enemy to attack. The battlefields, while being great replicas of the Turkish countryside, do feel a bit spare despite the large squads of men waiting for you to carve them up. The music and voice acting are solid enough to do the job well but aren’t all that memorable.

TK has done a great job working with the story surrounding siege of Troy over the ten-year siege and especially the supernatural element when the Gods get involved. Fighting great mythical creatures provides a great change of action and challenge for the player.

As well as the main campaign there are also unlockable challenge modes where you can earn more points for upgrades or if you just fancy a new challenge. The difficulty does fluctuate on some levels and challenges, but that often corresponds with the character you’re playing as and the objectives you have to complete to finish.

Overall, Legends of Troy is a solid and very enjoyable hack and slash game with plenty of re-playability. The setting is great, the action is engaging and rewarding and more often than not you’ll finish a stage feeling like a world-class badass. Despite a few problems here and there, they don’t detract majorly from the overall enjoyment of the game. Dynasty Warriors fans will find plenty of familiar and new gameplay to enjoy and new players will find a suitably fun challenge reward system to keep them playing

Pros:

+Story is handled wonderfully, amphora cut scenes are wonderful

+Badass moves and great use of weaponry

+Great combat, challenging but not too challenging

+Rewarding gameplay

Cons:

-Limited number of moves

-Camera can be annoying

-Some boss battles can be very frustrating

-Battlefields can feel desolate and uninteresting

8/10

- That Bloke In The Beanie

Warriors: Legends Of Troy supplied for review by Tecmo Koei Europe.

Out now on XBox 360 and PlayStation3.

Hack and slash games for me have become one of my favorite video game genres, ever since I first got my hands on Devil May Cry 3 (The first DMC I ever played) I have had a love for them. The way you can mix up attacks with different weapons plus the fact you feel awesome taking down several enemies at one time with a flick of few buttons. It is definatly a satisfying game genre.

Most hack and slash games though totally miss the mark, games such as Ninja Blade and Afro Samurai, these games had so much potential but didn’t hit the mark when it comes to fluid game play and balanced enemies etc. But some games really do hit the mark such as the legendary Devil May Cry and one of my all time favorites Ninja Gaiden.

Most people argue that Ninja Gaiden is one of the hack and slash games that miss the mark, this is mainly because Ninja Gaiden is notorious for its harsh learning curve. Both Ninja Gaiden I and Ninja Gaiden II gave me hours and hours of frustration, but it was the kind of frustration that got me wanting more and more. The balance of both games was perfect and (don’t let Leon hear me when I say this) in some respects I do think Ninja Gaiden is better than Devil May Cry.

Since November 2010 there have been slight murmurs of Ninja Gaiden III, the next instalment in the epic ninja hack and slash series. Die hard fans of the Ninja Gaiden series are a little bit skeptical though, as ??Tomonobu Itagaki, the head of Team ninja and pretty much the creator of the Ninja Gaiden series left the game developer to create his new development team, Valhalla Games. Since then Yosuke Hayashi has taken his place, notorious for his work behind Ninja Gaiden 2 Sigma for the PS3 and Metroid Other M for the Wii, Yosuke is not alien to the Ninja Gaiden Concept, but will it be the Ninja Gaiden we all love and cherish?

Yosuke has explained that Ninja Gaiden III will be different from the first two games. Ninja Gaiden I was all about cutting people, Ninja Gaiden II was all about dismembering people. Ninja Gaiden III will all be about how it feels to cut into your enemies with your sword. You will actually feel resistance when it comes to cutting into people, you will feel the bones breaking as you do so, so Yosuke Says. How will this work? He has stated that you will have to press buttons in order for your sword to go through someone (Does he mean a Quick Time event?) and there will be an element of force-feeback as well. Sounds interesting but will it take away from the fast game play that Ninja Gaiden in famous for? I ask this because Yosuke stated that, and I quote “The intention for this title is to focus on the feeling of cutting someone instead of just going through entire armies of bad guys.”

So will the difficulty be compromised for the reality of cutting into your enemies? Or will this just be classic Ninja Gaiden with a new game mechanic? Who knows, but more will be revealed at E3 this year as a teaser trailer has been released which has got me excited, check it out.

Garv

Hack and slash games have ranked highly in my opinion for some time now. These games are classic for releasing some rage and more importantly a great genre to mix up some button combinations giving you a good variety of ways to attack your enemy.

I have always been a manga fan and in recent times, video games of manga series haven’t really gone that well in my opinion, except for maybe pokemon but that’s the only exception. But in recently there has been a game I have been really excited about and today I finally got to play the demo of it when it was released to Xbox LIVE silver members. I present to you my first reactions of the English version of Fist Of The North Star: Ken’s Rage.

Back in MCM in may I had a go with Fist Of The North Star on the Tecmo Koei stand. It was the japanese version of the game at that point and it was on the PS3. I also took some time out for FOTNS to talk with Will the main guy from Tecmo Koei europe about the game, if you missed the interview here it is again:

So as you can see I was pretty excited about the game. Now to the subject in hand. The Demo, now for a starters the demo was in English so I could understand what I was doing more, but in true Tecmo Koei fashion it hadn’t completely westernised the game for European Audiences. You get to select from two characters in the demo, Kenshiro and Rei. Me being me I went straight for Kenshiro and was thrown into a boss battle. The battle, this enabled me to get used to the controls, which translate well on the 360,and I was executing combos in no time. The boss battle came three stages each varying in difficulty as the battle progressed.

What I did automatically fall in love with was the fact that this was a true hack and slash game like Devil May Cry, mixed with the craziness of the dynasty warriors series, each combo that was executed in the boss battle was amazing to look at, you could really tell the developers had done their home work when it came to signature moves for Kenshiro and his kick ass attitude. The boss battle for me was enough to win the game over in my opinion, finally a manga game that doesn’t suck.

The second part of the demo puts you in control of Rei, the best way to describe his fighting style for someone who knows nothing about FOTNS, is basically wolverine on acid. This translates beautifully into the game with each of his signature moves being executed perfectly. In the demo you play as Rei through a level which ends up in a boss battle, this is where the demo gives you a true insight into the game, for me the only niggle I had with it was that the motorcycle riding and the general movement from place to place wasn’t as fluid as it could have been, but with that said the combat totally out ways that.

Each character is given 4 signature moves which can be selected on the fly using the D-Pad, integrating these moves in with your combos when you have a mass of enemies around you is the most satisfying thing I have seen in a game in a while, so I was quite impressed with the combat here, and the ability to pick up enemies, combo them then throw them into a mass of thugs like a proverbial bowling ball is just hilarious and awesome.

Sadly there is not that much platforming in the demo so I don’t know if that is a representation of what the game has when it comes to platforming, so I will leave my judgements to the final game.

All in all the demo is a must play for any hack and slash fan and indeed any Fist Of The North Star Fan, I cannot wait for the final release.

Garv

It is very simple to compare a game like Nintey Nine Nights to the Dynasty Warriors  games both the games have the same sort of game play and mission based system. The idea behind these games is to take down armies of soldiers and complete objectives to win a war against your foes.

So as you can imagine with these type of games you get a stupid amount of soldiers coming towards you and you have to fight them all off,  it is pretty much a whole army vs you. Now in all honesty when I first played these type of games, the whole game and concept didn’t capture my imagination, it didn’t draw me in. You think it would as I do love my hack and slash games but there was something about the Warriors games and indeed the first Ninety Nine Nights (which we will now label N3) .

So I thought I would give N3 2 a go, after playing Fist Of The North Star at MCM expo (which I love by the way) I thought I would give this a go as it was in the same kind of vain. To be honest, I liked it.

The demo itself is quite short. You can only select one character and do one mission of the overall game so it is just a little taster of what N3 2 has to offer but the graphics and the overall gameplay itself was quite engrossing. You have special moves assigned to each character which actually look special. I think that is one of the things that got me about the warriors games was that the special moves werent that uber or shiny looking (I like a lot of magic and shiny awesomeness to go with my special moves) and in this game the specials look pretty apocalyptic and look as though they are doing some serious damage as well.

One thing I do like about N3 2 from the demo I played was that the enemies seemed less static. In previous warriors games I played I though most of the enemies didn’t attack you as much and just stood there. True if a real horde of soldier attacked you out numbering you 500 to 1 you probably wouldn’t have a chance if they were all attacking you at the same time. But have just enemies run up to you and stand there I didn’t like much in the warriors games.  N3 2 on the other hand-made me feel I was actually fighting in a war. Less of the enemies were just standing there they actually felt like they wanted to kill me. Not just crowding round me to get my autograph.

The mission it self was simple but good. The aim was to destroy 3 spawn ponts on the map while fighting through hordes of enemies with your giant swords. I really did feel powerful. The challenge came with the mini boss fight at the end. This guy didn’t take no for an answer and I took a pretty heavy beating. But I managed to finish the mission in one.

Ninty Nine Nights 2 is a game that I would really love to play more of, and a step in the right direction with war based hack and slash games.

Garv

What I do love the concept of a Jedi. The fact that you have these telekinetic powers and an awesome laser sword really appeals to me. Now if you throw those powers into a 3rd person action/hack and slash game you’re gonna get something quite special. This is why I loved the first Force Unleashed game. It gave you all the power but at the same time left the game challenging. It was really fun to play even if it did have a hiccup here and there.

So you can probably understand my excitement when the force unleashed II was announced. To be honest I was a little confused as to how they could make a sequel with the way the first game ended but never the less they have. I have been waiting to spill some beans on this game, and now that I have the information to do so, I can safely say that this game is probably going to blow some people away. This is the first game times at least 20.

Image From IGN.com

So what does this new title have to offer? Well once again you are Starkiller, Darth Vader’s secret apprentice, and once again you have power beyond any basic Jedi. In the first game you had powers such as force push to launch enemies into the distance, force drip to pick up enemies and throw them wherever the hell you wanted, Force lightning to electrocute enemies and of corse your trusty light saber to sword combo the hell out of people. Of corse you could combine these powers, such as force gripping a storm trooper, throwing lightening at him then throwing him into a near by pack of storm troopers to creat a lightening grenade that took the troop of troopers out. The first game gave you a lot to play with and the second is going to give you a hell of a lot more.

For instance the second game is going to implement the Jedi mind trick. This is going to be awesome, simply because you will be able to make enemies do your bidding. Say you have a storm trooper in front of you, you can either turn him on his enemies, make him kill himself or fusing them with so much force energy that they become a bomb and will explode when put into another legion of stormtroopers. The choice is yours. Another addition to the force powers is Force Fury. Now the way I see this is I think it is some sort of Devil Trigger system, where by once activated Starkiller’s powers will be ampped 10 fold. Meaning force push will now be force explosion, while light saber attacks become huge ranged combos.

Image From IGN.com

Speaking of light sabers, this time round Starkiller will be going akimbo with his laser swords. He will be duel wielding light sabers in this game, and this puts a huge smile on my face. So I will be expecting some insane combos, but not only that, the light saber physics have been increased also. Meaning when a lighs taber goes through a stormtrooper the guy is actually gonna get cut in half this time round. But I’m afraid to say that there will be no light sabers going through ATST’s legs, because that would probably break the gameplay somewhat.

The enemies variety has been upped as well, you are gonna get a lot more larger scale enemies in this game. Whereas the first game had a lot of humanoid enemies, this game will have more variety when it comes to enemies in general. With different enemies comes different tactics, you are gonna have to use all your force powers to full effect here as some enemies will be immune so some attacks and powers, while they are weak to others. For example there will be enemies with shields, you’re going to have to use force grip to get those shields away from them before you can inflict some heavy damage.

Image From IGN.com

This time around it’s not all about action action action. This game will feature more puzzles which will in turn make you use your force powers more. So there will be a lot of variety in-game play as well as enemies and combat.

The force unleashed II looks set to become an extremely good title. If the first one was anything to go by, I am really looking forward to this. scheduled for sometime in Q4 of this year, I cannot wait.

Garv.

Ever since I have been sinking my teeth into curtain game genres such as Hack and Slash games and fighting games, I have come to realize that some titles seem to get to a point where the game stops being difficult and just becomes frustrating. This is typical of some hack and slash titles and some fighting games as well. I am of corse talking about cheap boss’s.

An example of a non-cheap boss and he is called DR ROBOTNIK not Egg man!

So for those of you who don’t fully understand the concept of a cheap boss let me explain. imagine Your pretty much at the end of a level/game and there is the final boss staring at you and you launch into battle. Next thing you know you are being pummeled by all sorts of over powered moves that you can’t block or find it near on impossible to dodge. So you find yourself dying time after time to beat this git, untill you A)extremely lucky and beat the boss out of sheer luck. Or B) Find yourself going to your latest video game retailer and buying yourself a new controller because the last one you had is now in tiny pieces scattered around your living room/bedroom.

So why do developers implement cheap bosses into games? Is it just to piss gamers off? Are the Developers trying to get 1 up on the gamers, thinking they worked hard on this game so we should work hard defeating it? This I cannot answer now, but what I can do for you is give you some warning. I bring to you the top three cheapest Boss’s in my opinion. This is hope that you can save yourselves from hours of frustration, or you can just have a go at these guys and see what I mean.

WARNING: The next bit of this article will now contain spoilers for Devil May Cry 3, Dante’s Inferno and Street Fighter IV. You Have Been Warned.

Arkham – Devil May Cry 3

This demonic blob from the demon realm has to be a pretty cheap ass boss because he just doesn’t let you get near him. His main trick it to push you backwards with demon power and then pummel you from a distance with things like flying demon tentacles and demonic eels sprouting from the floor. It’s only once you get close to him you can deal some damage. If you don’t have infinite DT then your pretty much screwed. You have to be very precise with dodges, so i suggest your best bet here is to use trickster and dodge like you have never dodged before. Then as soon as the eels come from the floor it’s a case of jumping and firing your rocket launcher at the floor.

Lucifer – Dante’s Inferno

It may come to no surprise to you that the lord of Hell is the boss in this game. When you first fight him your thinking this is easy. But it is his second stage you have to be aware of. He attacks you in his humanoid state, what really annoyed me about this was that my attacks were doing hardly any damage, and every now and again he would teleport and then spam an uber move on me leaving me incapacitated. Weather it was smashing the ground or firing hellish demon power at me, moves like that would take half my health bar down in one. So my advice here is get yourself the holy armour spell, equip it and spam the crap out of him, yes it may take you several years and a million tries but it works eventually.

Seth – Street Fighter IV

Now this is one of those cheap bosses which I have no strategy for. This is the cheapest boss I have come across in my gaming career. He loves to spam moves such as the pile-driver which takes a huge chunk of your health out, and the chain three shyroken. If your lucky he may do both at the same time. Oh and don’t forget the move where he kicks you and it suddenly becomes a million kick combo. That’s a doozy. So that’s what to watch out for, I suggest using maybe Bison or Dhalsim so you can teleport and dodge his attacks, or maybe fight fire with fire and use Seth himself if you have Super Street Fighter IV.

So there you have it, the top three cheap bosses in my recent gaming career that have really given my a hard time. There are probably more which I have blanked from my mind because they annoyed me that much. So with all this in mind, what are your top three cheapest Bosses and why?

Garv.