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.

It was a fair while ago when MGS: Rising was announced, with the news that it would be the first Metal Gear Solid title to go multi-platform – perhaps due to the amount of Xbox 360 owners who hoped Metal Gear Solid 4 would eventually be ported. However, the announcement didn’t really tell us much at all – just an image of MGS4’s version of Raiden with the words “Lightning Bolt Action”. It was said the game would be more hack n’ slash based, but to be honest all we could do was wait.

However, E3 has finally given us some real news on the subject. Kojima came on stage to proudly present “The Next MGS”. Keeping with what little word we already had on the game, it looks like the title will indeed have more some of the most impressive melee combat seen so far – and we got a small glimpse into what we can expect. Starting with a more CG looking video, we first see Raiden taking on some kind of armoured soldier – possibly not human but more than likely some kind of cyber-human hybrid, not unlike the B&B Corps from MGS4. We then proceed to watch as Raiden cuts him in half, and pulls out some kind of synthetic spinal cord. He then crushes it in his hand, apparently draining it of power. What does this mean? Well, apparently but the term “zan-datsu” meaning “cut and take“ has been emphasised, and it seems part of the game will revolve around collecting life, energy, parts, ammunition, items, and even information in a similar manner – most of which have obvious uses, but one or two being more intriguing. The one that catches my eye is “parts”, perhaps suggesting some kind of customisation may be apparent in the game. Information may be more for the sake of story progression, perhaps finding out passcodes or other data – but that’s merely me thinking aloud for now.

After cinematic introduction, we see a bit more in depth gameplay. The area featured shows a city-like area, reminiscent of Metal Gear Solid 4’s earlier chapters. Thankfully, it’s looking as though the same level of quality has gone into the detail, so we could be looking at something quite impressive. As a fan of both MGS and hack n’ slash titles, the game play looks pretty exciting. Wielding his high-frequency blade, Raiden can be seen executing quick combos. But better yet, we see a lot of potential for exactly what the blade will be able to do. This is only a sneak-peek, but it seems the environment will be destructible, showing him cutting pillars clean in two, resulting in a collapsing structure that crushes some enemies.

The main focus, however, is the new cutting ability. Using a sort of bullet-time slow motion feature, the video shows us that Raiden has the ability to take his time with precise slices, giving the player control over a geometrical plane that shows the exact angle of the cut, and allowing them to execute slashes with extreme precision – cutting limbs of of enemies in mid air, and even slicing a melon into increasingly smaller pieces. It really looks very precise, and I’m not sure we’ve seen swordplay quite this controlled in a game before. And being part of the Metal Gear Solid franchise, I expect we’ll be something of high quality.

That’s all the video shows, but we do know more than that. One of my major concerns is that the title would lose one of MGS’s best features – stealth gameplay. However, it seems that the game will allow a degree of flexibility over how you play it, still retaining stealth elements – so I can see some exciting ninja-style infiltration in the works. Raiden’s upgraded frame will apparently give him boosted agility so we could even see some new stealth techniques we have yet to have seen in the series so far. He will apparently have access to “sub-weapons”, so I’m sure that there will be more aspects to combat than we know so far. We have no idea whether he will get any type of projectile weapon, however – so we’ll have to wait and see if it’s all going to be up-close and personal, or perhaps have some more “Snake-like” elements. Hopefully we’ll be seeing some hand-to-hand combat in there too, which doesn’t sound too far of a stretch.

As far as plot is concerned – little is known at the moment except that it is set before MGS4, with Raiden looking a little more dishevelled than we saw him before – the game should show a bit of his transformation, and hopefully cover some parts of his involvement before Guns of the Patriots. Although I would like to see the game heavily-story based (although not as much as that of MGS4) I have a feeling that the plot will be one that works on it’s own to a fair degree – what with the new Xbox 360 market that can’t guarantee players will have had access to the fourth instalment. MGs2 was released on the original Xbox, however – so hopefully it will have a few connections here and there as to his involvement in the general time line of the series.

There’s no solid information on exactly what we can expect from this new and exciting title, but everything we do know sounds as though it’s going to be something special. The swordplay looks as though it will be quite unique, and as long as the game continues to keep feeling like a Metal Gear Solid title in spirit, perhaps the Raiden-haters from the days of MGS2 will finally enjoy playing as him. I for one am excited – lets just hope Kojima Productions get the ratio of stealth, action and storyline just right.

Check out the E3 trailer below.

-Leon

I am forever coming across titles I havn’t heard of. One of my most recent disscoveries was Fist Of The North Star a pretty old maga series in the 80’s that started a guy called Kenshiro. He was one of the few of his kind in a post apocolyptic world, with the awesome fighting style of Hokuto Shinken. This fighting style focusses of hidden parts on the body, if hit right you apponent will pretty much spontaniously combust into a bloody mess.

So why am I telling you this? Well it would be a bit silly if i wasn’t going to talk about a game eventually, that’s right, you have guessed it. Fist of the North star is coming out with a game for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation3. This title is developed by Koie, the same guys who do the Warriors games. In all honesty I have not played much of dynasty warriors or samurai warriors but I am looking forward to this title.

The gameplay to me looks like a bit of a mixed bag of awesome. With huge amaounts of enemies surrounding you, much like the warriours games, but mixed with the combo stylings of games like Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden. So we are in for some horrific bloody battle with some fantatsic combos thrown in for good measure.

Now the original manga only had one main character, and that was kenshiro and his unique Hokuto Shinken fighting style. In the manga his immence fighting stylke could not be matched. Looking at the trailers for the upcoming game though, there seems to be an absalute tone of characters to use. Weather they are unlocks, avalible from the get go or both, remains to be seen but if the trailers are anything to go by, you are look around maybe 20 playable characters, and no I am not exagerating, See for yourself.

With that many playable characters I am wandering how loyle the games is going to be to the story line. From my Fist Of The North Star Knowledge, I can tell you now that some of theoes characters are Kenshiro’s rivals that he meets on his throughout the styory line in the manga, so will this mean you will be able to play the game from their points of view? If so we are looking at something huge here. But hey, I have been wrong in the past. Lets just hope they stick to Kenshiro’s story well, which It looks like they will.

Fist Of The North Star (working title) is coming out for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. As always you will get more info about the game as I hear it, for now, enjoy the trailer.

Garv

So I went and tried the demo for a laugh to see if it was any good. I was hooked, I never thought I would see the day where i would enjoy a Star Wars game as much as this one. Sure Knights Of The Old Republic is a gaming classic but to be honest I never got fully into that title *hides* But with The Force Unleashed you actually felt like a Jedi master, throwing people around at will with the force and just causing mayhem. I think I liked it because you were in fact a superhero. If your still mulling over the idea of the first game check out my review, it may sway you.

So where am I going with all of this? Another review? A DLC announcement perhaps? Well I am glad to say it is non of the above and the sequel to The Force Unleashed has been announced. It was announced last month at the Spike TV Video Game Awards that the sequel will be gracing out consoles by the back end of 2010. Yes I know, the Spike TV awards were back last month but this is still news to me.

So what will the next outing for Starkiller entail? Well as you can probably gather not much has been announced at all but it seems the story carries on from the good ending from the last game. I assume this because in the teaser trailer for the second outing. Our old buddy Starkiller is wielding two (yes two how cool is that, better be a game feature) blue light sabers. This makes a hell of a lot of sence because the Ultimate Sith Edition of the first game was released not so long ago, and showed the story of Starkiller as he became one with the dark side. So it will be very interesting to see how Starkiller develops as one of the good Jedi and also it will be very interesting to see how they pick up from where the last game left off, not wanting to spoil what happened for the people who haven’t played The Force Unleashed but wouldn’t this be a little…..impossible?

So I for one will be eagerly awaiting the next installment in the chapter of Starkiller’s story, I wander how it work within the original Star Wars trilogy time line. Sadly we are just going to have to wait till some more information arises, till then, sit back and relax as you watch this Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II teaser trailer.

Garv

Once upon a time there as a little girl called Little Red Riding Hood. Miss Hood lived in a happy fairy-tale land, and though she stood only knee-high was happy in every way. One sunny day she decided to take a walk with her good friend, the naked emperor. It was so sunny outside that the King even decided not to wear any clothes, but Hood did not mind and so they set off into the forest. They ran happily through the lush green landscape for many many minutes but soon they became surrounded by a variable onslaught of bloodthirsty lumberjacks. It looked as if poor Hood was outnumbered, but then, in the distance, she saw a golden chest gleaming in the forest light. Hood ran to the chest and was able to use her powerful fists to smash it open before the lumberjacks drew too near. With one final almighty blow the chest burst open, reviling a host of shiny and sharp weapons inside. What joy Hood felt! Without hesitation she picked up the largest hammer and ran happily towards the lumberjacks, swinging it about her with wonderful speed and agility. Following suit, the emperor picked up a shiny silver saw and began to slice and grate his way through the crowd. Bright red blood as vivid as the cheeks of the happiest of children gushed forth as the lumberjacks flew about them in a sea of dismembered limbs. Hood turned to the emperor, blood rolling down her cheek and laughed merrily. Smiling back, he took her hand and they happily skipped on through the forest.

The End

Well its not really the end, it wouldn’t be a proper review if it finished there now would it! As you have all seen by now, fairytale fights was another of the games on show at this years Eurogamer expo. Advertised under the tag line “Welcome to the Tragic Kingdom” the idea of this game initially confused me slightly. Was it going to be a play on fairytales as I had expected? Or more of a dig at Disney? Well people, you need wonder no more because I am going to try and make sense of this bloody yet cute new release.

Just moments into the game it becomes obvious that the story centers more around traditional fairy-tales than anything else. The tagline may have been eye-catching, but I can now report that I did not see a single Disney reference in the entire time I played. Sorry to disappoint you if you wanted a chance to kill Mickey, I could be wrong so it may yet happen. Instead, the level we played involved journeying through the forest to find the stolen magic storybooks. This was a simple enough quest, though I must say that I was disappointed with a lack of wider context to the story. With random characters including Snow White, The Emperor, Little Red Riding Hood and Jack (and the beanstalk), the story would have been confusing enough if well explained, let alone how it was presented at the Expo. The game charged into the first level with only a brief explanation of characters and scenario, and I would have liked a little more. I am guessing this was merely due to the fact it was a demo, however if the start of the game is the same as it was in the expo, prepare to spend the first few levels a bit confused. Besides that, the game had simple objectives, mainly find the stolen storybooks whilst killing as many evil fairytale characters on the way as possible. Easy really.

As expected the graphics in this game are extremely colorful and over the top. The trees, houses and even characters themselves are robust and chunky, giving the game an extremely childish feel which was obviously meant to make it more shocking when blood begins to flow. Set in a magical fairytale land, the levels are taken straight out of a storybook, and though we only played in the forest setting I am sure that similar inspiration will be taken throughout the game. I liked the way this game had a great sense of depth, making you feel as though you could run far into the distance instead of being restricted as you are in so many 2d platform games. Though I generally liked the look of the game I did feel as though a little more thought could have been put into making the level design more inventive. Everything was as expected, and It would have been nice to include some adult jokes in with all of that childishness.

As for the gameplay… well there is no way of defining this apart from simple hack and slash, with A LOT of added comedy blood. The controls are very easy, with simple actions such as running, jumping and slashing allowing you to progress quite far into the game. One thing about the controls I did like though is that combat is controlled by the right hand stick. This allows you to spin your weapon up down or in full circles really quickly, and adds a much more manic, out of control feel to the gameplay. The game also has an abundance of different weapons, including hammers, saws, clubs, guns, sticks and rolled up newspapers. These weapons can be picked up either from the corpses of enemies or gained by breaking open chests placed frequently throughout the levels. As well as the obvious killing, other challenges along the way include moving saws and swinging axes which block your progression through the level. Though they are well animated and fun to play with, the difficulty level is nothing like that of their ‘Tomb Raider’ pre-decessors, now that really does take us back to our childhoods….

Anyway, where violence is concerned, there were things I liked and things I hated about this game, so time for a sum up. I liked the over bloody violence mixed with the fairytale theme. For example; when there is enough blood on the floor your character actually slides about in it, which is very funny to watch. I also like the variety of weapons, as sometimes you reach for a hammer and end up with a rolled up newspaper. I did however find the game too easy, and if I find it easy I’m pretty every hardcore gamer in the country will think likewise. Another thing which I found distracting was the close up views it insisted upon showing me of my enemies dismembered bodies. I’ll explain. When an enemy was killed in a spectacular way the game would show a massive (and I mean half the screen) shot of the body being flung about with blood flying everywhere. I found this not so much disgusting, but distracting and after a while I ignored the left hand side of the screen completely. I mean everyone loves comedy violence, but there is a limit, and I can’t help but thinking that anyone over ten would find this not so much amusing as confusing. I can’t help feeling that this space could have been put to better use, and therefore I think this is a major failure in the games design.

Overall I enjoyed playing this game at the expo, but I am not sure that I would enjoy playing it all the way through alone. With friends around the novelty of fairy-tale characters beating each other to a pulp makes the game enjoyable, but playing on your own I have a sneaking suspicion that this one could get a tad repetitive. It is as if all of the ingredients for a great game are there, but that it is aimed at an audience much younger than the violence allows it to go on sale to. I hate to say it, but for a dark fairy-tale it could really do with growing up a little.

Not every story has a happy ending, but if your lucky even the worst ones end up with you being tucked in and kissed goodnight.

GuitarGirl24

At Eurogamer I was very excited to get my gaming mitts on Dante’s Inferno. Now in all honesty I was very skeptical that the game play may be too much like the great God Of War, having seen footage of the game and the use if quick time events I was slightly doubting this games potential. But now as I sit here reminiscing about the time I had with the game, I can tell you all that you will not be disappointed with this gem.

Just think for a second, if Ninja Gaiden and God Of War had some sort of love affair and produced the perfect offspring combining both Ninja Gaiden’s weapon play and level layout, with God Of War’s Quicktime Events (QTEs) and sheer brutality, you would have one hell of a game right? Well for me Dante’s Inferno takes those elements, twists them into its own style and then adds a sprinkle of classic Renaissance poetry. For me this game is a great combination of classic 1900’s source material with one hell of a new millennium twist.

So let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. You are Dante, you have just arrived in hell because you are after the love of your life, she has been kidnapped by Lucifer and all you have to guide you is a spirit by the name of Virgil. Hell in this game in comprised on nine circles, now I only got to play a small snippet of this game, and I got to experience about a circle and a half, maybe less. Now, when playing the demo I had really no indication of what circle I was in, but having thought about it a little bit (and please correct me if I am wrong) I think I was in the circle of Greed for the most part. The demo threw me straight into battle, I had Dante’s bone scythe to hack and slash the hell beasts, and I couldn’t help but smile at the way I was mowing these demons down with combinations of the square and triangle buttons. This game gets what Hack and slash is about, taking down hordes of foes with outlandish weapons and also giving you the opportunity to juggle their bodies about a bit with free-flowing combinations. So, after taking down those guys I was confronted with a huge hell demon which looked like a cross between a goat, horse and one very angry giant. After taking down it’s rider I could control this beast myself, I won’t tell you too much but lets just say that this was a great element, making you really feel that you were pretty much unstoppable for a short amount of time.

After that, there was some decent platforming to be had, you scaled walls God Of War style and followed QTE’s that quite frankly looked brilliant. I’ve gotta say the on-screen instructions for the QTE’s do not look out of place at all and complement the game play very well as a whole. I then had a great boss battle with King Minos, which was pretty well structured, I only have one slight problem with it mind, and that was the camera angle, having found myself at one part not being able to see what I was doing - but with that said it was an enjoyable boss battle, utilising both QTE’s and classic hack and slash boss battle game play. As a note I must say, the amount of gore and brutality in this game is insane, this is not for the faint hearted and quite frankly I think it is awesome. I mean, Hell is never a nice place to be and you can definitley tell EA have thought about that, a lot.

After demolishing King Minos I then was taken on a nice raft ride down the river Styx. Upon arrival I was confronted by a person who had been banished to hell, and I had the opportunity to either save him, so he could go to heaven, or damn his sorry ass. What I thought was odd was that the demo didn’t let me save him, I pressed the button, but nothing happened. Seeing as this is a pre release taster I didn’t hold a grudge, so I jammed my crucifix into his head and he was banished to hell forever.

The river Styx was your typical boat ride that gets invaded by flying hell beasts. At this point I noticed the circle button shot holy light from my crucifix, meaning that this was Dante’s answer to a projectile weapon. This was dead handy for attacking foes from a distance. The wonderful boat ride turned out not to be a boat at all, I was in fact riding on top of a humongous fire demon’s head, he jumped out of the water and decided crush me, this then led to a boss fight of sorts which involved a lot of dodging and some great platforming elements to boot.

For me, Dante’s Inferno is a great hack ‘n’ slash title, a worthy opponent for the genre’s top spot. It combines great game play with quite frankly stunning level design. If you have read the poem you will be quite satisfied with how well it sticks to the source material, that said it is also puts a great modern day style twist to it. This game is definitely one for my ‘I Want Now’ List.

Garv

hmm.

You play as a hired gun called Rubi Malone. You are a ruthless, brutal and very skilled woman who loves to get the job done in style. At first you are hired by a Londoner called Trevor Ackers to collect a heart from the black market in order to save Trevor’s dieing father. Someone gets to the deal before you and it’s your job to get back what is rightfully yours/Trevor’s. After a couple of levels you get it back, save Trevor’s dad then skip forward three years.

You are then approached by a guy who claims to be Trevor’s dad three years later. You’re then hired to collect Trevor and bring him to his father. Over a couple more mission you do so and the guy murders Trevor which is a bit weird. You then find out that he isn’t the guy who he said he was and all hell breaks loose. Not a bad story really, simple but effective, I found myself getting a little into it at some points, but it was kind of predictable once it got rolling.

What really swung this game for me when I played the demo was the game play. A lot of people have compared the gameplay to John Woo’s Stranglehold. I haven’t played Stranglehold so I dived into the game relatively fresh-faced. If you didn’t catch up on my demo review, here is the low down. You are armed with a sword and fire arms for combat, you also have abilities such as wall run, slide and jump. If you do these moves coupled with the firing of your weapons you will go into a slow mo mode, kind of reminiscent of Max Payne’s bullet time, where you can aim at you enemies. What I really love about this style of combat system is you could link moves together. For example you can wall run, jump then slide while you were gunning thugs down, and the beauty of this is the gunning in slow motion has a total 360 degree view so you you could shoot pretty much anywhere. The icing on the cake here is you can aim one gun at one enemy and your other gun at another, making for some pretty sweet shooting action.

On top of that you have your sword attacks, they are a nice addition but not exactly Devil May cry. You have the ability to link sword attacks after slides etc for some good chain kills, but for me the sword fighting could have been a little more in-depth.

Depending on how stylishly you kill your enemies you are given style points, which at the end of every level you can upgrade  Rubi’s abilities and weapons. What I though was a bit rubbish about this upgrade system is that some of the moves that you had the opportunity of unlocking were pretty mandatory moves, these should have been there right at your disposal, right from the start, like dodge roll for example, or mid air sword attacks. They could have done so much better with the upgrade system if they gave Rubi the fundamentals at the start then thought of more impressive/inventive moves to unlock.

The level design at the start of the game was pretty good I got pretty into it all. The Levels consist of killing enemies and basic Tomb Raider esqu platforming/scaling of enviroment. There is also some interesting sections where you were put into an open area with enemy spawn door, the idea here is to shut down all the spawn doors and kill all the enemies, again simple but effective. Then there was the rage sections of the level, each of these section started off with Rubi gunning a guy down, getting blood on her face which then triggered off her rage mode. The whole screen would turn black and red, kinda reminiscent of reservoir dogs, and you would play the level in this mode getting scored on kills alone. All these sections sound good in writing, but as your progress through the game, they kind of got predictable and tedious, which is a shame. The game tried to steer away from repetitiveness with levels here you would be riding on top of cars gunning people down, there is also a level where a plane has been blown up and you gunning thugs down while you free-falling through the air. A nice touch but it wasn’t enough to steer away from the repetitiveness of the later levels. They even tried to throw in some Quick time events, but I tell you this now, not trying to spoil the game for anyone here but the use of Quick Time Events in his game are over used and really, really should not be used in some places.

After completing the game you have the opportunity to do challenges, these challenges come in two flavours. Rubi’s boneyard challenges, which consist of speed trials where you have to run and scale the enviroment, while going into slow mo to take out targets, which in turn take seconds off your time. And there is the point challenges, where you pick any level and score the most point possible. Some pretty cool gameplay to keep the game going after you have completed the story.

Visually the game had really good potential, the game was going down the whole ‘as if the game were a film’ route, with screen scratches (which thankfully could be turned off), breaks every now and then which consisted of 70’s american style cinema adverts, and the overall feel of the game was very Quintin Tarrentino/Guy Ritchie. Grimey, dirty street crime with no good manners at all. Kind of like a drunken hobo in that sence. Which would have been great if done properly, instead it felt like a half assed attempt, more work could have gone into it. What I really did notice though was the amount of screen tearing and glitches the game had, there was even one point where the game went out of focus for me. Not good.

What I really did like about this game was its soundtrack, the songs from the game fit in really well with the whole theme, and there is one from the very beginning of the game that still gets stuck in my head. The voice acting is well done, With Eliza Dushku (Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Tru Calling and Doll House) taking the roll of Rubi, she does a great job of voice acting the part but sadly her death cries are pretty rubbish. There are some other famous voices such as Malcolm McDowell (Heros, Doomsday), who plays the voice of the main bad guy, Rupert Pelham.

WET tries to be such a good game, there is apart of me that still wants to really like it, so I might go back for a second helping sometime, but all in all the repetitiveness of the levels, the glitches in the graphics and the overuse of Quick Time Events back this game fall into the Mediocre pile. This game is More…moist, and believe me, thats not in the good way either.

A while back I did a taster post on my first impressions of EA’s Dante’s Inferno. The 3rd person hack and slash game, based on the first part of the classic poem which is known as Dante’s Divine Comedy.

Back then I  had mixed feelings. I mean there is a good collection of Hack and Slash franchises that are out there already. With God Of War, Devil May Cry and even Ninja Gaiden holding their top spots on their proverbial leader board. That said the footage I have seen more of Dante’s Inferno and it looks pretty good, a lot lf thought has gone into it. So here is my little in site into the game, highlighting what you may expect from the  quite an adventurous outing for EA’s attempt at the Hack and Slash genre.

Lets start from the beginning. The original poem of Dante’s Divine Comedy was written back in around the 1300’s by an Italian known as Dante Alighieri. The poem outlined what he thought the christian afterlife was like, it consisted of three parts, Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso (Heaven). The first part of the poem, Inferno, outlines a character called Dante making his way through the nine circles of hell, being guided by Virgil, who is Dante’s guide throughout Inferno and Purgatorio.

Now I know what you’re thinking, and no, Capcom did not create the original Dante and Vergil. History aside, the makers of Dante’s Inferno have tried to stay loyal to the original poem by using lines from the text itself, so as you may gather the game is narrated by the main character.

The game will have you controlling Dante as he makes his way through the nine circles of hell; Limbo (not Purgatory), Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Wrath, Heresy, Violence, Fraud and Treachery. Each circle will be themed accordingly and will have end of circle boss battles. So far only a handful of bosses have been confirmed, with Limbo having King Minos, Lust having the ever so wonderful Cleopatra, Gluttony housing Cerberus, Greed the home of Plutus and in the wrath circle you will be pitted against Phlegyas. All these bosses are beings from the original text.

As it is the Tokyo Game show this week. Dante’s Inferno has ben showing off its Lust circle. Of corse I had to do some reading up about it, and I can safely tell you now that this game is by no means for the faint of heart. Now when we think of Lust its all about erotic nudity which makes all the blokes happy. The kind of Lust in Dante’s inferno however, is grotesque, hellish and somewhat sickening. Cleopatra herself (the Lust Boss) is indeed topless, but having demon tongues protrude from her nipples followed by demon babies - yeah, not the kind of thing to help you sleep at night.

Now there has been some controversy over he gameplay of this game. People who have played it says it plays like God of War, but with a new skin over it. In some ways, this can be good - because you know your probably gonna get some great game play. But in other ways, it’s not gonna be that original and will probably tick off those hardcore God of War fans out there. But that aside, the game play will feature you weilding a huge scythe made out of bones. You will get a healthy dose of Quick Time Events and just plain hack and slash fun. Your buddy Virgil will be setting you puzzles within the circles too, so it’s not just kill kill kill.

To me this game is definitely one I am going to keep my eye on, and when Plus XP hits Eurogamer next month be sure to check out my Hands-On preview of the game.

Garv!