MadWorld is stylized game, consisting of mainly three colors – if you haven’t guessed already. Taking the look from Sin City, MadWorld does it extremely well. The graphical presentation is nice, smooth and creamy; or rather, nice to look at as the spectrum is actually really fitting for the game. The game does a good job making the world, well Mad, as it seems to a broken down trash heap of no humanity left. The level design sports good variety as no two levels looks the same, giving out nice atmosphere to the bloodshed that is all around you.

The game itself is genuinely fun, very fun in fact. Using the Wii Remote and the Nunchuck to a good extent. Using the A and B buttons to attack and actual movements to finish off people is a splendid combination, like No More Heroes. The game does rely a lot on the motion of the Wii Remote, but to a good extent – as in, not completely revolving around the motion. The game controls well but the only complaint is that at some points in the game, it will not completely register some movements, or it may register any movement. There are some Quick Time Events in the game which does a good job of not disrupting the action and continues the flow, as the action sequence is a very beautiful sight to see every time.

The game play itself can be described as a classic beat-em up, except with more blood. Though simply pounding on enemies is not where all the fun is; it’s exactly how you kill your enemies is the fun part. There are many different ways to kill your enemies, it never loses it touch. Why beat the crap out of someone when you can throw them on a wall spikes? Or into a grinder? How about slamming a pole through their face and then grind them against a saw? There are many possibilities and combinations on how to finish off your enemies, it never gets old. Anyone who has played God Hand for the PS2 will feel at home as you can tell it has the Clover touch to it, even some references here and there.

The enemies seemed varied but at the same time the same. There the weak guys, the strong guys, and then mid-bosses. First their street punks then ninjas then aliens, so on… just reskins, except the zombies which act a bit differently as well. Small minor complaint but it never really bothered me when dismembering them. The great thing is that all the bosses are all different and are very fun. Each stage will have a different boss with a different strategy to take them down.

Though I usually not fond of rap/hip-hop, I thought the soundtrack of the game went really well with the style. I tend to like it old school and the soundtrack takes me back and can’t wait till the soundtrack actually comes out. That’s saying something since all I listen to is metal.

The story itself is nothing too spectacular but it binds it all together. A city has been taken over by terrorist, released a virus, and made a game show called DeathWatch. The protagonist, Jack, enters the games as a bounty hunter and his own personal reasons. The game story gives it a definite dark feeling and a bit sense of mystery throughout. There’s no real character development and all that jazz but they are hilarious. The announcers throughout the game that describe your every action kept me laughing throughout the game. Though at times they will just repeat themselves depending on what you did, I don’t really mind hearing it a couple more times. The announcers really give the game a feeling that you are part of the DeathWatch experience. Nothing else much to say about the story itself, but the dialogue from the announcers makes up for all of it.

Of course for those of you who are in Euroland, some of those countries over there might be saying bad things about all the violence, saying the game isn’t meant for a “family” console. There is indeed a lot of violence, but there was also a lot of violence when I watched Tom & Jerry or Looney Toons when I was a kid. The only difference is the blood as the violence in this game is way too over the top, I doubt kids are going to shove streets signs up another’s asshole. It’s game perfect for the “family” console, after all, the dads, the moms, the teenagers may want something else than colorful rainbows farting lollipops doing the same thing over and over again.

Overall, the game is fantastic and if you’re a fan of beat-em ups and over the top violence, you should definitely get this. I know some of us are having a bit of buyer’s remorse since getting our Wii’s but I can assure you that MadWorld will make it worthwhile, or at least dampen it a bit.

You see, I wouldn’t consider myself a sadist, and it’s not even that I don’t like replaying games– I love to, especially with a “New Game+” option. I just don’t like the idea that all the strategies and plans and skills I’ve devised and employed could soon become redundant just by replaying the game on harder. This is why FE shocked me so much.

I’m sure if you’ve found this blog you’re aware Nintendo currently is wearing it’s casual gaming hat. Easy games aimed at your mother and your sister are being developed faster than Fanfiction can be written which is much to the chagrin of us more hardcore gamers. I’m sure you’re wondering whether I’ll get to the point by now, so here it is.

Do you see this on the left? This is the menu I was presented with. After choosing hard mode. That’s right kids, FIVE variations of Hard mode. Now, I want the full experience first time, so I chose Merciless (which will here-on out be referred to as h5). Little did I know, Nintendo are actually capable of making a difficult game. I begun playing it like Advance Wars. Moving the archer behind the meatshield etc ready for them to hit the meatshield so I could strike with him and the archer back. This was my first mistake.

This game, is not Advance Wars. This game, on h5 is the mother of all hardcore SRPGs. The first soldier came, and SWAM AROUND my meatshield, and double attacked my archer. He was dead. I was on a IRC network at the time, and I had asked if I just suck or this really is that hard, I was informed that I did not suck, and my archer would be dead. Permanently. After the battle, he was not going to be magically revived. He was dead forever because of a mistake I made. I was also informed that this happens even on NORMAL difficulty.

At first, I was shocked and confused that such a thing could take place. I was angry at myself for not knowing that Gordin had met his fate so soon. I pressed the suspend button and restarted the battle. Clearly, Nintendo knew that if you choose Hard, you’re going to lose. As a result, all cutscenes can be skipped by pressing start making the time from quitting the FIRST battle to restarting it about 5 seconds long. Over a period of 24 battles, I devised strategies, formations, tactics all of which after every loss only made me more formidable. Soon I knew exactly what the AI would do if I moved Shiida into a certain square and lured them into the southern sea. I knew exactly who to rotate onto the fort and when to minimise downtime and maximise healing potential. Just to give you an idea of what I’m talking about, these strategies only cover the first 10 or so moves of the first battle. But I didn’t care. Onward I proceeded losing time and time again until it was me and the boss. Thankfully the Boss is incapable of movement (probably because if he did I could capture the throne and win the map.) and can only attack directly above, below and to the left and right. I set everyone who could hold a ranged weapon to hold one and after about 20 turns of misses and hits and regeneration, I got him to the point where Marth could run in and take the final slash, deciding the battle.

Marth ran in, sword in hand with the hopes of the entire company resting upon his caped shoulders. He swung and nay- it was not to be. The pirate leader evaded the attack and proceeded to kill Marth. Ending the mission. Six hours of effort and planning and failure, only to result in more failure. But I could feel the game overtaking me. It was a good pain. Eight battles later I had made it to the boss yet again, with only one loss (I’m sorry Shiida, I miss you and your winged horse but you were not strong enough for my army.) And finally..

Gazzak was slain, by no less than the brave warrior Cain.

The battle was over and I had felt a sense of accomplishment akin to that of finishing an entire game. When I realised that was the OPENING battle of the game. I smiled to myself, saved the game and went to bed.

Get it, and get it now.

For the most part, the graphics are still somewhat the same, there is a slight upgrade, but I still think the original graphics are still good. I know they updated the sound as well, to me it sounds all so much clearer and of course there are the squawking noises some of the characters make when you perform actions, like jumping. If it annoys you so much, there’s always a console command to get rid of it. The only complaint I have is there are no longer any gibs and guts flying all over the place, instead you just get vaporized. I believe this is due to certain countries having something against guts – since this game is international.

The game play is the exact same thing and they haven’t changed a thing, after all, why mess up such a great game? You run, you dodge, you jump, you shoot, you get fragged – all there is to it. To somewhat of my surprise, bunny hopping is in the game as I always thought it was some sort of glitch with the engine but instead it is now encouraged. If you played any another “tactical” shooter before, well you’re going to have a very hard time with this one as it is a completely play style. This game is all about reaction and quick thinking, there’s no time to hide behind corners, it’s time to be constantly on the move and learn how to do split second aiming. There is a bit more skill involved when playing clan arena or duels as then you have to predict what your opponent is going to do next.

Speaking of skill, Quake Live will try to determine the best of your skills when you first start up. Go through a minute obstacle course which consists of jump, rocket jumping, and then bunny hopping to determine your initial placement, and then you have to fight Crash. You know from the first game, the pipsqueak you can frag a million times without breaking a sweat? Yeah well, prepare to get your ass handed to you by her as her difficulty changes on how you play. After all that, you have your skill placement and Quake Live will determine for the most part what games will be best for you. Which is great and all since you won’t be fighting anyone too high or too low for you to handle.

Like I said before, the maps and weapons have been slightly tweaked to better balance them. With the maps, some of the of satanic imagery and such have been replace with giant billboards that say either Quake Live or an advertisement – after the game is free but they still need money. The ads within the game are not inhibiting in anyway so don’t worry; if you are any veteran quake player, you’ll be going way to fast to even notice them.

Since this is a completely multiplayer experience, there’s the online community to look out for. If you read one my of previous articles, you would know I had some sort gripe against the online community in every online game except Quake III and I am so glad the friendliness is still there in Quake Live. Of course there’s the occasional asshole here and there, but the community as a whole is still good – as in good outweighs the bad. Of course, it might different on where you live and since now it is open to the public it might change.

Of course there are some small gripes about one of my favorite games ever, but can’t really pass true judgment since it’s in open beta. For one thing, to actually play, most likely you’re going to have to wait in line to actually do it. Depending on what time of the day it is, it might range from hundreds to ten-thousands of people waiting in line, so it takes anywhere from five minutes to an hour just to get to play. Another thing is, you can’t really start your own server nor have a private one between you and your friends – which I believe is currently being added. Of course, like I said before, there’s just something wrong when I play Quake and there isn’t any flying gibs across my screen. All are really nitpicky stuff and the game is still in beta.

Overall, if you’re a fan of Quake III go play it; if not, go play it anyway – it’s FREE. This game is good, fun, and fast; there is really no need for commitment and there is really nothing to lose besides a measly hour of your time getting it setup. It’s a fun game with a large active community, so I hope I’ll see some of you on the fragging grounds.

Now that Microsoft owns Rare, and you have Banjo Kazooie on Xbox Live, with Banjo Tooie coming in April, you’d expect there would be some kind of project happening regarding Goldeneye, like there was a project involving Perfect Dark. If you did expect it, you were right, if you didn’t..  well there were plans. Sadly the project was started then aborted due to some shit regarding Nintendo having a sore ass wanting some funds out of it. Of course that has come and pass, and even though I really wish it had happened, there’s not much a person can do about it.

Let’s move on now to Goldeneye Source, a clever remake of Goldeneye made by some fine gentlemen using the Source engine. The beta has already been released, and frankly from what I can see, the remake is amazing. Only multiplayer at the moment, but hell, even that is awesome. There is some speculation that singleplayer may be worked upon in the future, and if this is made true, then my dreams will be fulfilled.

My only worry about this project is that Danjaq, LLC and United Artists Corporation have exclusive rights to the James Bond franchise, and in the past there has been some legal issues with obtaining rights to the franchise. Not to mention that Rare owns intellectual rights to the game itself.  I can tell you this much though, if these gentlemen were to pay royalties to the folks over at the UAC, they’d be paying a pretty penny. Anyhow, here’s to hoping that Goldeneye Source continues grow and develop into more than it already is, and here’s hoping that I buy Half-Life 2 sometime to access it as well as other mods.

And from the reactions that the browser-game community (if you can call it that), it seems like the chip makers did a pretty damn good job. I haven’t got too far in myself, with a lot worse things on my plate than horror games, but I can tell there’s a lot of effort put into this, and it’s worth your time.

You can only play the game from 6PM to 6AM, but if you’re really bored, you can fudge it by changing the clock on your computer.

As far as I can tell, there’s no mention of any kind of product placement other than the name of the “developers.” This might be the least-effective viral marketing game ever made.

Something that should be noted is the game’s use of microphone and webcam (which creates one of the most frightening player-photo collages ever made at the end), which doesn’t happen all too often. If you happen to live in the US, you can also give a phone number for extra layers of immersion.

Go on, give it a try. But if you scare yourself to death, I’m taking your doritos.

Metal Gear Solid 4’s gone and stole our hearts, LittleBigPlanet captured our imagination (despite Media Molecule being a total ASS with content moderation), and Killzone 2 is one of the many good-looking FPS games we’re still going to play despite how saturated the genre is already. What else can we look forward to on the Sony PlayStation 3 besides the next Final Fantasy?

Enter Ready at Dawn’s God of War 3, the next-gen sequel to the series that lets gamers play as the angriest man on earth. With swords chained to his arms. We see him in action via this trailer fresh from the Spike VGAs.

Looking at the trailer,  Kratos hasn’t lost his touch, still killing mythological beasties in his own style that’s just as brutal as it is fucking awesome. Whether you’re a towering centaur, a hulking cyclops or even one of those weird flying things, Kratos is going to rip you a new one and there’s not much else you can do about it.

While the trailer does show some pretty slick graphics, and Kratos looks like his own scowling self, there’s a bit of…well, typical-ness about the trailer. Sure, everything looks good, but the graphics aren’t something we haven’t seen before. Maybe it’s just the fact that the trailer takes place in the night stage, or something – but for some reason it doesn’t look like the polygon-crunching, boundary-pushing epic we’ve been hoping for. Hopefully this is just a peek at an unpolished first build, and we’ll be able to see the game in a better light soon.

You can view the trailer here.