It has come to our attention that some people still haven’t picked up the excellent action/shooter, Vanquish. With all the great games 2010 has brought us thus far, it would be easy for people to forget to try Platinum’s new IP. But make no mistake, we will… stop that from happening.

We’re giving away a copy of Vanquish for the Playstation 3 to one lucky commenter. To prove to us that you’re man enough to take the game on, read the rules below and give us your best grunty, space marine line below. Examples from the game include “I’m gonna need a bigger gun!” and “This fight is for the men going home in pine boxes!” Just keep you’re lines PG (unlike the game) and make sure to grunt a lot while you type them.

Contest Rules:

1. Leave a comment below and give us your best, gruntiest space marine line (example: “I think I’m gonna need a bigger gun!”)
2. Limit one entry per person
3. All entries must be made by legal U.S. residents
4. Entries must be accepted by 5:00pm PST on Friday, November 19th. We will then randomly select one winner

Good luck! And don’t forget to check out our review!

When Shinji Mikami first described how Vanquish would blend the third person shooter genre with the fast pace of an action game, my interest was immediately piqued. I loved the concept, but at the same time I had no idea how it could successfully be pulled off.

Amazingly enough, they found a way. Vanquish has all the normal concepts of a cover based shooter, but polished up to be incredibly smooth. They then added an insane sense of speed and mobility for both you and your enemies, creating a game that really evolves the genre into something truly special.

One of the reasons Vanquish is so satisfying to play is that the core mechanics are such a potent recipe for fun. You can’t help but enjoy yourself no matter what situation the game presents to you. You take control of Sam Gideon, a researcher from a special organization known as DARPA, equipped with an Augmented Reaction Suit (ARS). This robo suit let’s Sam do some amazing things, provided he’s got the juice.

Don’t worry, you don’t need to collect anything to power up the suit. It uses a simple energy bar that begins refilling as soon as you stop using it. However, use the entire bar up and the suit will overheat, causing it to have to completely refill before you can start using it again. Since so many of Sam’s abilities use this gauge, you’ll want to be careful to avoid overheating.

Often you’ll use Sam’s robo suit to go into bullet time. Since the action in Vanquish is so fast and frantic, it might be more accurately described as “Normal Time”. Besides initiating it while stationary, you can also slow down time while rocket boosting at insane speeds across the battlefield or flying through the air.

All your actions chain together surprisingly well. You can rocket boost right into cover. You can then easily walk away from cover without having to press the cover button again, so you never feel stuck when you’re trying to move around. And cover isn’t just chest-high walls. Some cover is so low that you’re practically laying down behind it.

If you don’t mind a guaranteed overheat, you can do a melee attack from a rocket boost as well. This will often cause you to backflip off the enemy, allowing you to go into bullet time in the air to finish them off if they’re still alive. Speaking of melee attacks, what Sam does actually changes depending on which weapon you have equipped. There’s only one melee button, but your equipped gun will determine whether it lets you perform a barrage of fast punches, a kick, or another close combat maneuver.

The cool ideas don’t stop there. If you pick up a weapon you already have full ammo with, that weapon will level up. These levels stay with you throughout the campaign, so it pays to look for guns lying around. Besides in boxes, you can also get weapons from reviving fallen soldiers on the battlefield. You’ll have to be quick, though. Leave a fallen soldier alone too long and he’ll die.

Then there’s Sam’s transforming gun. At first, I thought the gun’s ability to transform into the various weapons you collect was purely aesthetic. However, this allows you to switch weapons with no delay. Almost used up the clip in your assault rifle? No problem! Switch to the heavy machine gun with no break in your fire, then reload both when you’re done and have a free moment. This lets you take an even bigger advantage of an enemy’s most vulnerable situations.

Sam isn’t the only one who’s agile. Often times, enemy robots will leap great distances (sometimes aided by a jet pack) over cover. Some of these robots ARE cover, but transform into laser shooting spiders. In fact, a lot of different enemies transform. Some turn from mini helicopters into bipedal robots. Others roll around like invulnerable bouncy balls before unfolding into death machines. And these are just examples of some of the small enemies.

There are a ton of large enemies that I figured were one-time boss fights. To my surprise, some of these turned into normal encounters. One such enemy can be described as some sort of panther/scorpion hybrid that (surprise!) transforms into a giant bipedal bot with a lance made out of what use to be its tail. Oh, also it can shoot flying turrets at you! The first time I encountered one was intense, but later I encountered two at once, which was (for me) one of the most difficult portions of the game. Later I made my way through an empty looking hallway only to have one jump at me from behind cover.

Remember that giant spider boss from the beginning of the game? Well, sometimes he’ll just come crashing in through a wall to say hello while you’re dealing with swarms of other enemies. With a few exceptions, the characters often viewed as “bosses” are seamlessly worked into levels instead of making a huge deal out of their arrival.

Taking place on a space station creates the opportunity for some interesting set pieces. Everything has an appropriately futuristic look to it. One section had me traveling through a cylindrical area where I could walk up the side of the walls/floor, unhindered by gravity. Another section had me running to stay alive across a crumbling highway. I thought at one point I had found the cliche “two trains shooting at each other” section, until one of the trains started riding on the ceiling track, upside down above me.

Whether it’s any combination of the stages, the enemies, or the incredible speed of the gameplay itself, Vanquish is a constant adrenaline rush. Sure, the story is forgettable and all the voice work is downright silly, but none of that will matter when you’re being shot at from every direction and a giant mech is dashing toward you with drill arms.

It’s a bit on the short side (I finished the campaign in six hours), but would you honestly rather have the campaign diluted just to make it longer? Vanquish makes sure you’re constantly having fun during the entire campaign. Even when you’re dying repeatedly like I did, you’ll be happy to retry knowing that the scenario will never play out the same way twice. It’s a campaign you’ll want to play again and again, especially after unlocking God Hard mode.

You’ll also get more time out of the experience by tackling the Challenge Stages. These stages re-purpose a few set pieces from the campaign to make challenges where you must destroy several waves of enemies in order to get the best clear time and shame your friends’. That is, if you can even survive. The waves get exponentially more difficult and they’re no walk in the park to start with. But any excuse to play more with Vanquish‘s fantastic combat is welcome.

If you’re a fan of shooters or action games, you’re going to want to play Vanquish. Games this satisfying don’t come around that often. The pace is relentless, never letting you feel safe. You’ll definitely want to take breaks to catch your breath, but you’ll be happy to know that no matter where you are in the game when you return, you’ll be coming back to “the good part”.

This review is based on a copy of the Playstation 3 version of Vanquish provided to us by SEGA.

When I first heard of Monday Night Combat, I awaited its release cautiously. I’m not saying that the game looked bad when it first came to my attention, but I wasn’t sure I could trust the folks at Uber Entertainment to deliver on such a bizarre concept.

As some one who has a difficult time playing a Call of Duty match type any more complicated then “SHOOT ALL THE DUDES”, I approached the supposed “Tower Defense Shooter” with cautious optimism.

Guess what? It’s great. I recommend it specifically to those who, like me, are quickly growing tired of the military shooter as the only source of quality online multiplayer shooters on the console front. It mixes a balanced, third-person shooter with some defensive options for a really high quality experience.

What sets MNC apart from the average online shooter is the spontaneity of its matches. Where your standard game of Halo 3 is going to begin and end with dudes killing each other, the defensive nature of MNC gives each match a push and pull. One team could be dominating the map, only to find themselves facing a force of robot soldiers.

The six classes in the game are your fairly average third-person fodder: the primary offense character, the assault, the assassin, the defensive support, the tank, the other tank-like character (named the gunner), and your standard sniper. As you kill opponents, your character starts building up funds. You can use this money to power up your characters various skills and powers.

The use of these power ups gives each bout a sense of escalation, which is really uncommon in a multiplayer shooter nowadays. When you start a match of Team Deathmatch in Modern Warfare 2, you’re going to remain the same guy you came into the match as. In MNC, you feel pretty awesome when you start out as a weenie class and build up to an unstoppable, level three supersoldier.

But it runs as a double-edged sword. Where Modern Warfare 2 has an ongoing metagame where prizes are awarded for in-game achievements, MNC remains static from match to match. Money is awarded, but it’s not really used for anything important besides unlocking custom classes, which are essentially the same six except with adjustable DnD style perks. I still think the game is a blast, but some people need that incentive that Modern Warefare 2 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 have to keep playing an online shooter.

The Skills give each class versatility, and with their proper use they become invaluable. They alter the way you play a match. Say you’re using the gunner. You can upgrade his ability to transform turrets and become a brick wall of gunfire or you can build up your gunner’s grapple attack for a near one-hit KO on a close up enemy. This makes each match a different experience every time you try out new, unique combinations of powers until you eventually grow into the ultimate form of your class.

The actual tower defense is… interesting, but not quite fleshed out as I hoped it would be. Honestly, it’s all pre-planned turret placement, and not much else. Certain turrets are much more helpful when used in the right place at the right time.

I would have liked to have seen the guys at Uber Entertainment really push lots of cool, interesting forms of defense for your base. Maybe it’s the simplification that keeps the game balanced, but I think upgrades like forcefields and heat seeking rockets could have really escalated the insanity when the enemy’s robot drones start invading. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still something totally unique for an online multiplayer game, but it’s very apparent that Uber Entertainment wanted to create a balanced class based multiplayer shooter more than a tower defense game.

Of course, any online game has its fair share of glitches and networking problems. But at the cool fifteen dollar price point, the game is absolutely worth the money. It’s a blast to play with friends, and if properly supported, MNC will hold up much longer then the average XBLA multiplayer game. It’s a sound investment, and I hope this game is successful enough for us to see what the folks at Uber Entertainment think up next.

"ICED TO MEET YOU!"

Watching trailers of the original Lost Planet was what made me want an Xbox 360. When the game finally came out, it had its flaws, but I still loved it. When the sequel was revealed, I was very excited.

Lost Planet 2 takes place a decade after the original. This time around, the planets snowy regions have begun to melt, revealing jungles, deserts, and other areas. That’s both a good and a bad thing. On one hand, I really enjoyed the lonely ice planet of the first, but it is nice to have a little more variety in terrain this time around. You’ll even have some missions near the end that take place on a space station, complete with low gravity.

The first major change apparent in Lost Planet 2 is the new focus on co-op. Missions now are taken on in groups of four. Ideally, this means teaming up with three friends or randoms online. You can also play with one friend locally through a staggered split-screen, similar to Resident Evil 5.

The way the campaign is broken up is a little confusing. Episodes are broken into chapters which are then broken into missions. What really confused as well as frustrated me, is that missions don’t save your progress. While they will take you to a mission results screen, you’ll need to make it to the full chapter end in order to save.

Technically, this isn’t any worse than the original Lost Planet, which was already known for having ridiculously long levels. Still, the long nature of these sessions doesn’t lend itself well to keeping a team together in multiplayer. And frankly, you will need to keep that team together.

"This is a four man job."

Lost Planet 2‘s campaign not only allows co-op, it practically requires it. Yes, the game lets you play by yourself, assisted by AI comrades, but the game’s difficulty doesn’t seem to scale based on the number of players and your AI buddies are almost completely worthless.

Some of the level design also shows its singe-player hostility. One boss fight in particular involves a giant turret on a train that requires one person to fire while others use separate devices to rotate the turret, load and energize gigantic shells into it, and run to far away cooling devices to heal your train car. Your AI partners are too dumb to handle those jobs properly, so you better find some friends to play with if you want that mission to go smoothly. The game makes it abundantly clear it was not designed to be played alone. In fact, there is even a re-spawn countdown timer when playing by yourself in offline mode.

When you are playing with other human players, things can actually be pretty fun. You’ll all share a pool of lives via the Battle Gauge. Each time anybody dies, the gauge will lower, but capturing data posts and completing missions within a chapter will raise it. Capturing data posts will also provide you with new spawn points and fill in your map.

In each episode, you’ll control a different group of characters, none of which are ever named, making the story really hard to follow. As you progress, you’ll earn credits for customizing your character, and most importantly, your weapon load-out.

The biggest downfall of this system is that what you unlock with your credits is determined by a roulette. While weapons and abilities are a thrill to acquire, more often than not, random chance will instead award you with an emote or title. It can be incredibly frustrating.

"Plenty of Vital Suit on Vital Suit action."

When you do earn weapons, the custom load-outs are a genuinely cool idea. Basically, you have different slots for different weapon types. On the character customization screen, you fill these slots with your desired weapons. At one point, I had the choice of a shotgun or revolver to fill my “short range” slot. Which of the two guns I could pick up from a short range gun powerup is determined by that customization.

Like the original, Lost Planet 2 has plenty of gun and grenade types to play with. There are disc grenades you can throw like a Frisbee, dummy grenades (some of which can fire their own guns), and even regen grenades that heal, to name just a few. Besides your own gun load-out, there are still plenty of Vital Suit (VS) weapons that can be used while piloting a VS or ripped off of one and used on foot.

This time around, there are Vital Suits that multiple people can ride. There are also other vehicles such as helicopters and speeder bikes. All the different vehicles and VS weapons really keep things interesting throughout the campaign.

The campaign missions vary in both quality and type. The best missions are those that take you through a natural progression toward a destination. The game, however, likes to break things up with other types including objectives like “guard this area for awhile” and “shoot through the window of a train at enemies on another train”. Because of this, I found myself only enjoying about half of what the campaign had to offer.

"Activating Data Posts grants you your map and spawn points."

The worst aspect of the game is blowback. When you are hit by anything, you’re interrupted. Luckily, you can turn friendly fire off, but enemies will still often prevent you from firing or healing. Worse still, you will get knocked over a lot. Often times, I would get stuck in an infinite loop of getting knocked over just as I was getting up from being knocked over. This is one of the things that make the game incredibly difficult.

Lost Planet 2 is visually stunning. This is especially apparent in the boss battles which often pit you against ridiculously giant Akrid. The scope of some of these battles is incredible. While they can sometimes run a bit long, they are pretty mesmerizing.

Unfortunately, the game’s controls are still a bit unintuitive. While you can (and will) immediately turn up the aiming speed, there is no way to fully map the buttons the way you want them. There are a few pre-made control schemes to choose from, but I found that I could only get about half the controls I wanted in one scheme, and the other half in another with no way to combine the two.

The campaign isn’t all Lost Planet 2 has to offer. The versus modes are actually a lot of fun. There are a decent number of options and modes. Grabbing data posts still grants you your map and spawn points giving it a Battlefield vibe (in a good way). There’s also all the different Vital Suits and other vehicles from the campaign throughout the maps. There’s nothing quite like taking out a bunch of other players on the ground with a helicopter only to be blown up by giant mech.

Lost Planet 2 is not something I’d recommend to offline gamers. The campaign just isn’t meant for one person, and even some of the missions can feel “understaffed” when you’re playing 2-player split-screen. However, if you have enough people to play with you, the campaign definitely has its “wow” moments amid the rough patches, and the versus modes are definitely worthwhile. After all, how many third person shooters let you pilot mechs as you storm a space station or let you get devoured by a behemoth and destroy it from the inside?

This review is based on a copy of the Xbox 360 version of Lost Planet 2 provided to us by Capcom.

Last May, I finally got around to finishing the original Mass Effect. This was mostly so I could do a write-up on the game for WingDamage.

Boy, am I ever glad I did. As I mentioned in that review, I was very interested to see how things were going to shake out in the sequel. Bioware had mentioned that you would be able to transfer your save file from the original game into Mass Effect 2. What I thought that meant was that your character would look the same and maybe a few key decisions would carry over. The reality blew my mind.

In Mass Effect 2, you once again take on the roll of Commander (Insert Name Here) Shepard. Only this time, he/she is not just some random space adventurer trying to save the galaxy. This time, if you brought over your character from the original, it is your Shepard.

"Coletrain Shepard"

I don’t want to get too much into the story, as fans of these types of science fiction are the kind that will burn you at the stake for giving away spoilers. I will say that even minor story events from the first game will be referenced in either small ways or with major consequences in this one; much more so than I was expecting. It will also lead directly into the third game. They even handled your character being returned to level one in an interesting way.

It seems that every gripe I heard about the first game was resolved. The Mako, your ground vehicle with spotty controls, is gone. You now take a shuttle directly to your destination. The massive piles of gear with a disorganized inventory system has been removed. You now find a few upgradable weapons. The upgrades work across all the guns in a category for all characters. Special bullet types are now powers that you gain through leveling up.

Another huge improvement over the original is the combat. Rather than having your accuracy based on a dice roll, your third-person shooting skills will be put to the test. Leveling your character will add powers and increase your health. This aspect of the RPG elements have been minimized quite a bit. Each character only has a few categories to spend your points on, rather than the original’s ten-ish.

Some have argued that the changes have made Mass Effect 2 less of an RPG than it’s predecessor. I say this is just a different kind of role playing. Rather than being stat driven, it is story driven. You play the roll of a space marine that can save the galaxy by doing whatever it takes, or by taking the moral high ground. All roads may lead to the same place, but each of them tells an interesting story.

What makes Mass Effect 2 really shine are the characters. Like any modern media, critics will nitpick what aspects of the character and story are “borrowed” from other sources. It all comes down to using those elements in fun and interesting ways, which Bioware has done exceptionally well. Even characters that I hated at the beginning of the game became vital members of the crew by the end. The addition of each party member’s personal quest helped a lot with this. It really allowed them to flesh out each of the characters. Near the end, when you have to make the difficult choices and characters can permanently die, you will find yourself thinking hard about each decision.

I normally don’t spend a lot of time going on about graphics, but in this case it should be mentioned how much better Mass Effect 2 looks than the original. The texture popping, which was horrible in the first game, is almost completely gone. Everything from the textures to the lighting effects have been revamped in amazing ways. This is one of the prettiest games I have ever played.

If you haven’t played the first Mass Effect, you will probably be a little lost in the sequel’s story. I recommend tracking down a copy and playing through it first if you want the full experience. If you really hated the first one and just want to skip to the much improved sequel, I suggest tracking down the key scenes in the first game on YouTube. Either way, play this game.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is one of the big Playstation exclusives this holiday season and as such has received all kinds of hype. Even my mom, who doesn’t follow games at all has seen enough commercials to ask me about it. Sony and developer Naughty Dog have high hopes for Uncharted 2. The game even made WingDamage.com’s distinguish list of anticipated games.

Let’s get the gushing out of the way. Uncharted is a roller coaster thrill ride. It feels like an awesome Hollywood blockbuster movie. The game moves from awesome set piece to awesome set piece, pausing just long enough to get you to laugh before throwing another huge action sequence at you.

If you consider yourself a gamer you need to see and experience the train level. Drake makes his way over, through and around a speeding train while an attack chopper tries to murder him. This is just one of several moments throughout Uncharted 2 that distinguish it from other games.

One of the main reasons the game works so well is the protagonist Nathan Drake. He is genuinely likable and funny without feeling like Naughty Dog was trying too hard. Even when he is acting a little shady you find yourself pulling for him. The other characters also work well and add little touches of humor to the proceedings. The story takes you from Turkey to Tibet to mythical locales, and each one is gorgeously rendered.

The game is beautiful, and I don’t just mean in a ‘wow that game has a really high poly count or super nifty textures’ sort of way. Uncharted 2 is beautiful in the way a sunset is beautiful. The game takes you to all sorts of exotic locales and the views are simply stunning. This is one of, if not the best looking game I have ever seen. What really sets the game apart is the animation. Drake braces himself against walls, he slips, he stumbles, he moves more realistically than just about any other game character out there. There are a few moments when you’ll see the game take a little skip to make sure you grab the ledge but these are more for gameplay purposes.

Uncharted 2 can best be summed up as Tomb Raider meets Gears of War meets Metal Gear Solid meets Steven Spielberg circa 1981 (the year Raiders came out). I know that’s a lot of meets, but it really does blend together all these disparate styles. You want to sneak around and take out guards silently? The game lets you do that. You want to go all guns a-blazing? The game let’s you do that too. Unlike a lot of games that try to cram different style of gameplay together, Uncharted 2 executes each style to perfection.

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune seemed to be broken up into platforming parts, then shooting parts, then some more platforming. Uncharted 2 does a better job of integrating the two segments together. At one point I was hanging off the side of a billboard trying to shoot hordes of machine gun toting bad guys.

My only complaint is that sometimes it is tough to figure out what Drake can grab onto versus what is background textures. I plummeted to my death a couple of times because what looked to me like a handhold was actually just a path to doom. It is frustrating when you are in the platforming zone, then suddenly plummet to your death because the game decides that you can’t hold those particular bricks.

The biggest surprise was the multiplayer. Matches were fast and fun. They play out like a faster paced Gears of War match with players lobbing grenades, taking cover and rolling around trying to shoot. The biggest difference is in the games verticality. Characters can jump up on ledges and shimmy to new locations which changes up strategies when you have to think in three dimensions. My favorite match type was Survival, where your team tries to survive wave after wave of steadily tougher enemies.

There is some talk circulating out amongst the interwebs that the Uncharted franchise is going to be made into a Hollywood blockbuster. I seriously doubt that any movie could really capture the intensity and fun of this game. When you play this game you will understand. This is my number one contender for game of the year right now. This is more than just a game, this is an experience. If you own a PS3 you need to play this game.

We all have those games that we miss the first time around. With the busy release schedule of modern gaming, no one has time to play everything. That is why we at WingDamage present to you “Fashionably Late Reviews“. This is our series on games from the current generation of consoles that we may have missed on their initial release, but have gone back to experience now.

Ratchet and Clank is a series that is known for it’s charming characters, odd-ball sense of humor, and over the top weapons. While I was aware of all this going in, I had never experienced it for myself. I think I had always confused them for those other two similarly named mascots, Jak and Daxter (a decent series in it’s own right).

On Dave‘s recommendation, I decided to finally give the series a chance. When I recently finished Uncharted, I realized Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction was the other PS3 exclusive that I was near the end of, but had not yet finished.

The fact that I was able to pick up right back where I had left off several months ago says a lot about how easy this game is to pick up and play. Right out of the gate, you get a good feeling of who these characters are and how visually interesting their world is. I’ve heard the game described as a Pixar film you play and I can’t say that description is far off.

When it comes to storytelling and humor in games, I am a stickler. Most of the time, games that attempt humor fall flat. Not only is the writing in Tools quick witted and genuinely funny in the old Warner Brothers cartoon sort of way, but the voice acting is top notch. To have humor in your dialog work, it’s all about the timing. This is one of the few games to pull that off.

It is also graphically stunning; part two of the Pixar comparison people like to make. Insomniac really used the cartoony style of the series to highlight just how vibrant and imaginative you can be with your games on Sony’s hardware.

Tools of Destruction is a platformer/shooter hybrid which has you exploring strange alien worlds. You, as Ratchet, are trying to discover clues as to what befell his race, the Lombaxes. This is another area where the performances shined through, making the strange alien creatures of the Ratchet and Clank universe come to life in a believable way.

While the platforming is competent, the fall speed on the normal jumps seemed a little faster than I was anticipating. It took a little time for me to get used to, but the jumps were made easy enough that it wasn’t a source of frustration. The game’s main focus is on combat and the platforming works well enough that you can focus on the enemies in front of you. There are no pixel perfect jump requirements here.

Throughout the course of your adventure, you collect an arsenal composed of a wide variety of strange weapons and gadgets that help you defeat your enemies. These range from a simple energy pistol to the much more elaborate nano-swarm (a swarm of nano-robots that attack enemies within a certain radius).

You can purchase upgrades for all your weapons giving them more ammo, higher amounts of damage against enemies, and even increase the radius of attack. They also level up through use, which encourages you to not stick with only one or two of the ridiculously large assortment of firearms. This really made me think differently about which weapons I was using in each situation. I normally play pretty conservatively with my ammo in shooters, but Tools does a great job of rewarding you for breaking out of that shell.

There are also a lot of gadgets that are fun to play around with like the Disco Ball, which makes all the enemies dance (even bosses), and Mr. Zurkon, an ornery robot companion that fights alongside you for a limited time.

There are also a few segments where you use the SIXAXIS to control Ratchet as he freefalls, or Clank as he glides. These worked pretty well and are less offensive that most games’ use of the PS3 motion control scheme. Other gameplay elements include controlling a rocket bike called the “Gyro-cycle” and a space combat rail shooter.

As the story unfolds, you also take control of Clank in special sections of the game designed just for him. Here he is assisted by the Zoni, a mysterious alien race that seems to know a little too much about Clank. These sections focus on the game’s platforming elements and also involve solving puzzles. While I do prefer the regular gameplay, these alternative sections were not completely horrible like they are in many 3D platformers that feel the need to “mix it up”.

The main storyline has you play a few rounds in the Arena, but there are many optional challenges in that section of the game. Completion of the main game also unlocks a special challenge mode. This is a “new game plus” situation where you get to keep all your upgrades and play through again against harder foes. On the second play-through, there is an added combo system so you can earn more bolts (the games currency) and finish maxing out your weapons.

Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction is an easy recommendation for any PS3 owner. It is fast paced, funny, and all ages can enjoy the goofy characters and stunning animation.

"Gears of War + Jetpacks + Awesome = Dark Void"

Truth be told, “Dark Void” is a game that I was not following very closely. At a distant glance, it looked to be yet another third person shooter in a crowded market of first and third person shooters. To my surprise, Dark Void ended up being one of the funnest demoes I played at this year’s PAX.

The demo started off by teaching me how to use the game’s most notable feature: the jetpack. Double tapping the “Y” button put me in a full-on flight mode. Using the jetpack in this mode was quite similar to controlling a plane. You can use the analogue sticks to steer around and rotate yourself. There’s also air brakes and a boost bar that allows you to go extra fast by holding a button down.

In addition to the actions mentioned above, there are also special maneuvers that can be performed. The most notable of these was a quick turn that allowed you to pull a very fast 180.There doesn’t seem to be any limit on how long you can fly and even the boost bar recharges itself when not in use. This gave me a great feeling of unreserved freedom.

While flying, you use guns attached to your jetpack rather than standard guns. The weapon I had in the demo was a simple machine gun with infinite ammo that never paused to reload. Later in the game, you will be able to upgrade your jetpack in various ways, but this was not shown in the demo.

Another function of the jetpack is hover mode. While hovering, you use the guns held in your hands rather than the jetpack’s weapons. My favorite thing to do in the demo was to fly at boosting speeds down toward a platform with enemies, switch to hover mode a bit before hitting the ground, and start shooting all the enemies below me as I floated to the ground. It gave off a fantastic sense of momentum that made me feel like an action hero.

While on the ground, the game starts feeling very similar to Gears of War. There is an almost identical cover system, though thankfully taking cover and running are mapped to different buttons. You can aim from cover, shoot blindly, or lob grenades. You can also acquire the weapons of your defeated enemies.

In spite of its competence, the ground combat didn’t really seem like anything new. The jetpack, on the other hand, made this game what it is. The ability to fly around really set this apart from the other shooters I’ve played. The Dark Void demo has transformed the game into a highly anticipated title for me and I look forward to getting my hands on the full version early next year.

EA and Dice’s new third-person-shooter / MMOG, “Battlefield Heroes”, has finally opened to the public. It takes the basics of the Battlefield series and boils it down to a much more simplified version of the game.

Once you get past EA’s overblown login system, it is a simple matter of making a character and hopping into a random game.

They have stripped down to only three classes: The Soldier, The Gunner and The Commando.

Each class has their own unique play style. The soldier is the most balanced, with medium armaments and the ability to throw grenades, the gunner is slow, but has a high defense and a shield ability, and the commando has a sniper rifle, a knife, and the ability to cloak.

I highly recommend making one of each character so you can find a play style suited to you. Personally, I chose the gunner. I love getting “all up ons” in the middle of a battle.

The basic game mechanic will be very familiar if you have played other Battlefield games. You and your team try to capture locations on the map by holding the area for a certain amount of time. The more of your squad on the flag, the faster you will take it over.

"Teamwork is key"

Each team starts with a number of points which slowly decreases based on the number of bases the enemy has captured. The more you have captured, the faster the enemy team’s number drops to zero. It’s a pretty simple mechanic that forces you not only to press forward, but to continually watch your back.

As your character progresses, points are earned that can be spent on new costumes for your characters, as well as some new weapons and gadgets. There isn’t a lot in there yet, but EA plans to add more in the coming months. There are only two extra long range, two extra short range, and one extra big explosive weapon per class. There are also bandages (for slowly restoring health) and wrenches (for repairing vehicles) that can be purchased. These all have a limited number of uses.

There are already a decent number of options for costume changes. However, only a few of these can be bought with the in-game points. Most of them require spending real money. You can buy points from the main site which can be used in-game.

"Costumes range from stylish, to practical, to just plain silly"

You will also unlock special “hero points” which can be spent on abilities. With my gunner being naturally slower than the other classes, I was able to unlock an ability that lets me sprint for a short amount of time. That is just one example of the type of class-specific upgrade that can be unlocked. This system adds that little addictive touch of role playing games that I love so much.

The vehicles are a lot of fun to use. The tank is a great way to cause some havoc without it being an instant win machine. While it is powerful, everyone has, at the very least, sticky dynamite that they can take you down with. However, you are able to run over enemy players and take them down with your cannon. You can also have a second player riding in the top of the cannon as a backup.

The jeep is extremely fast, but leaves you open to attack. You cannot use any of your weapons while you are the driver. You can, however, take two passengers who can fire with a limited range.

The plane is, by far, the hardest to control. If you can manage to control it, the machine guns built into them can take out tanks and soldiers very quickly. You can even take along passengers on the wings.

"I can see your impending doom from here!"

Another good point is that it is highly scalable. The cartoony graphical style lends itself very well to playing even on low-end machines. That is a must in getting a big audience with a free to play game.

I have been having a blast playing “Battlefield Heroes”. Even though it is fairly limited right now with only the three classes and four maps, the simplicity of the game mechanics allows for a balanced experience. If you are there for some cartoony, over the top, shooting fun, then you should definitely check it out. Just try not to take things too seriously. Oh, and did I mention to work as a team? Trust me, you’ll have more fun that way.

You can play right now, for free, on the official site.

"Extreme Crotch Punch!"

Most of us that have been around video games for a long time can tell you: avoid almost any licensed or celebrity tie-in game (sports sometimes excluded) at all costs. So why would I throw down with the Xbox 360 shooter “50 Cent: Blood on the Sand” when I know it has a huge likelyhood of being a cash grab?

Two reasons.

First, I rented it instead of buying it.

Second, I heard it was actually pretty good.

Did it live up to the “actually pretty good” hype that I was promised? Read on to find out.

“50 cent: Blood on the Sand” is third person shooter developed by Swordfish and published by THQ. The plot involves a crystal skull, that was given in payment for a show, being stolen and now 50 and G-unit have to get it back… guns a’blazin!

You control 50 and, with either an AI or actual friend as a member of G-unit, make your way through a fictional middle-eastern country killing anyone who gets in your way. The gunplay and cover system are straight out of Gears of War and work really well here as well. If you get in close, you can trigger an instant kill quick time event where 50 puts the beat down on his opponent. You can also push in the Left Stick to hurl insults at your adversaries.

The game is very reminiscent of an arcade game in it’s point system. While most modern games have ditched points as an in-game reward, BotS embraces them. You get points for nearly everything, from getting kills in rapid succession to jumping over exploding ramps in the games driving sequences. There are even little mini games that will pop up during the action like “take out the heavy weapons guy” which will give you even more bonus points. Each level keeps track of a high score and has bronze, silver and gold awards to go with various ranks.

You also collect money throughout which can be spent at payphones to buy new weapons, new up close kills, and new insults. The upgraded guns were fun to play around with, but the other two sections don’t really seem to affect the overall game and are just there for the fun of it.

Honestly, I don’t have a lot to say about this game. It is over the top in it’s characters and story and has the most swearing of any game I’ve ever played. It is constantly playing 50′s songs in the background, which also have a lot of language not suitable for a younger audience. It is definitely rated M for a reason.

I have read several of the interviews people have taken with 50 about his game and, when it comes down to it, he is a gamer that wanted to make a game that is, above all else, fun to play. In this, he has succeded.