Review - Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS)

I've loved the Castlevania series ever since I experienced the pixelated, hanging nuns on the NES. The sad thing is, I haven't played a new Castlevania title since the Castlevania 64. That is until I got my hands on Portrait of Ruin for the Nintendo DS. I needed a good platformer and I had heard good things about PoR, so I picked up a copy. That was the beginning of the end for me, as I've been hopelessly addicted ever since. Allow me to explain.

I'm a sucker for leveling, which has lead to past addictions with
RPGs and the like. Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin combines the classic
whip-weilding, vampire killing action fans have come to love, with RPG
elements that allow your characters to grow stronger as the game
progresses. Anyone who's played last year's DS title, Dawn of Sorrow,
will recognize the system. It's all really basic: you kill enemies,
earn EXP, and your stats increase. It's nothing groundbreaking, but it
adds depth to the game.

The game takes place when Johnathon Morris and Charlotte Aulin, the
story's protagonists go to the newly raised Dracula's Castle to slay
the legendary fiend. Instead they encounter a different vampire named
Brauner, who has taken control of Dracula's castle with the magic
power of several paintings located throughout the building. While
leaping into portraits and exploring the worlds within (a la Mario
64), you'll come across a helpful ghost, named Wind (who played a role
in the Genesis classic, Castlevania Bloodlines); Brauner's two vampire
daughters, Stella and Loretta; Dracula's right-hand man, Death; and an
item-selling priest named Vincent.

As noted above, This time around you control two characters:
Johnathon, your whip/other melee weapon using protagonist, and his
magic-weilding sidekick, Charlotte. You can control either character
individually, switching between the two characters by pressing X, or
control both at once (really basic AI controls whoever you're not).
Both characters share HP and EXP, and the system allows for the
occasional puzzle. The main idea is that some enemies are weak against
certain weapon classes or spells, but if you have a strong enough
melee weapon equipped for Johnathon, it's easy to overwhelm an enemy's
physical defense. I only ever used Charlotte when one of her spells
came in handy to heal or access a secret area. Also, if you have
enough magic points, you can execute a Marvel Vs. Capcom-style combo
attack, in which your two characters will team up to bring the pwnage
to whatever unfortunate ghoul you're fighting.

PoR is addictive, but it's definitely not perfect. After beating
the first four levels, you get the pleasure of playing through them
again with rearranged rooms, tougher enemies, and different bosses.
I've never been a fan of recycling levels or bosses, but it wasn't a
huge problem for me here, because it meant fighting enemies with more
EXP and better item drops. Nonetheless, it felt like a cop-out, and
I'd have liked to have seen some added original levels. Speaking of
originality, the 4 levels that get recycled are a town (that might be
the town surrounding the castle), a pyramid, a carnival/funhouse, and
a wooded area/academy. I thought the pyramid and funhouse were
especially out of place, generic level concepts, but like I said
before, I was too busy hacking away to be too bothered.

There were a couple things that did annoy me, however minor they
might be. The first of which is the fact that item pickups (with the
exception of enemy-dropped items) are unique. Once you pick up an
item, that's it. The problem here, is that some of the optional quests
require finding one or several of these items. I came across a couple
and sold them before the quests opened up, and now there's no way to
complete those quests without knowing someone who has the game,
getting them to link up, and buying the items from them(via the wifi
shop mode), but then they'd be S.O.L. Also, in order to find much of
the game's secrets, you need to destroy breakable walls, floor, and
ceilings to access hidden areas. These breakable walls look no
different from any other surfaces, however, so without a certain rare
item, you literally need to attack every surface in the castle and its
levels if you want to conquer all PoR has to offer.

So, it's got a few little problems, but in terms of sheer fun,
Castlevania Portrait of Ruin has turned out to be the best game I've
played on the DS. The 2D graphics are pretty basic, but the animations
are all top notch, with quality backgrounds and the occasional 3D
enemy or effect. The voice work is also well done, though hearing each
character yell the others' name every time you switch can get old. As
for the music, it's standard Castlevania fare...it's all moody and
atmospheric, but isn't as memorable as some of the older titles.

If I were to rate PoR on an out of 10 scale I'd give it an easy 9. If
they had put a little more work into the level designs, thought of the
annoying little quirks, and made the 2-character gameplay a necessity,
this game would be perfect. Also, I should note that the touch screen
capabilities aren't used at all in the main game, with the action
taking place on the bottom screen, and maps and enemy and character
stats on the top screen.

Here's a video of some in-game action that does a pretty good job of showcasing the game.

Verdict - Buy this game 9/10

XBOX 360 promoting PS3 down under?

Microsoft's Xbox 360 was apparently used to promote the Playstation 3 recently by an Australian electronics store called Harvey Norman.
As you can see by the photograph, there's a cardboard cutout sitting overtop something in a pretty display case. Because Australia hasn't actually received any PS3s yet, this is the only way to advertise, apparently.

Its unknown as to what exactly the Xbox 360 is doing underneath the display cutout. Is it promoting Xbox360 games as Playstation 3 games? Are they using it to play videos about how wonderful the PlayStation 3 is? They may as well sell the Xbox 360 and give up on the PS3, but that's just my opinion if they are this desperate.

The photo and information was taken from Xbox360Fanboy's blog site at http://www.xbox360fanboy.com/2007/02/15/ps3-kiosk-can-you-spot-the-360/

Globalization vs War

Until aliens come to conquer us like in the movie Independence Day, or until we conquer the Final Frontier, Globalization is a foolish idea to me.

The key points to it seem to be that if we unify as a globe economically, then we'll be more peaceful and prosperous. Frankly, I think its stupid. So... China is the key to our manufacturing. United States is the source of education and high-priced, high-tech equipment and services. So, what happens then when someone gets destroyed after we concentrate all our supplies in one country? Its like putting all our eggs in one basket.

So... South Africa makes cheap wool. Well, let's move all the jobs over there. That'll lower prices, neh? What happens when the Aliens bomb South Africa? Or, a chemical disaster wipes out their population? What happens then? The wool market jumps.

Also, look at Columbia and what happened when foreigners came in and planted bananas and only bananas everywhere. That country's entire economy was based on the banana market. If it crashed, columbia starves. No security or anything. But that's what globalization does.

My teacher warns about US-centric market theory, and I don't think this is US-centric, I just don't see globalization as an absolute-good idea.


Globalization and the gaming industry? What happens when I want to make games and all the games are being made in India, or Japan? Right now, this isn't an issue, and most likely won't become one as long as the United States continues to excel at the top of the educational ladder. Not everything stays the same. In the future, things may be different. Well, the word may is optimistic. Things will change, and unless we continue to be as creative as we can be, we will lose our place as the head of innovation.

Note: Japan is seen as the head of innovation for the gaming industry right now for good reasons. Many of our arcades are filled with relics, while theirs are filled with replenished gold.

Xbox360 HardDrive upgrade and Streaming DivX from your PC

I found this interesting site yesterday where it shows you how to modify your xbox in various ways.

The ones that interested me were the hard drive upgrade and the streaming DivX. For those of you who don't know, DivX cannot play on your Xbox 360. Microsoft had DRM issues with the format and therefore is only using its own format, WMV or Windows Media Video files. WMV sucks by the way, DivX has like 2/3 better compression.

Anyway, here's a nice site link:
Xbox 360 Tutorial for Streaming DivX

Also, the harddrive one is here:
http://360.xbox-hq.com/xbox-tutorials-17.html

Hope these work well for you. There is one other one that hints at the fact that you can reformat your drive, which means... if you buy an SATA Hard drive, and stick it in there, why can't you use that? You can... so there. Just format the drive in the System Tab under Memory. :)

God of War 2 Preview

God of War 2 is being developed by David Jaffe and his crew. The same person who made God of War. Its being released onto the Playstation two on March 13th.

For those who haven't played God of War 1, it was amazing. To describe it, I would have to say it is an intuitive, powerful and puzzling game all at once.

God of War 2 doesn't seem to stray far from this and may even improve on the original formula. Using chains and an orb healing system popular in other games, Kratos, the God of War dispatches many different mythological enemies.

There is magic, which uses a large blue bar. The large green bar is your healthy, I'm assuming.

There seems to be a lot of history and almost humor involved. At one point, you're fighting the Colossus of Rhodes, which was a very very large statue on the island of rhodes in the mediterranean. History has it that an earthquake broke the huge statue, but War destroyed it. The earthquake toppled it in 226 BC, leaving it broken on the ground but still intact for the most part. Then, the Arabs conquered Rhodes in 654AD and disassembled it completely, selling it off to a merchant from Syria. Broken by nature, and Obliterated by War. Perhaps it was Kratos leading the way, huh?


Other battles include a large Rock Golem, the Barbarian King, Medusa and Cerberus as well.

Most of the more creative parts include a button-tapping minigames instead of cutscenes. Just make sure you press the right button or you could lose a good chance to really hurt your enemies.

And now, a video, courtesy of GameVideos.com.


Hope this gives you an inkling of what the game is about. See you in stores March 13th!

F.E.A.R. (PC)

F.E.A.R. for the PC was developed by Monolith Productions and published by Vivendi Universal Games in 2006.

Overview:

Yes, F.E.A.R. came out over a year ago so why should I bother telling you about it? Well, there is one simple answer to this: F.E.A.R. is one of (if not) the best First Person Shooters out there. Newer titles such as Quake 4 and Prey, while being fun, fall short of the suspense, the excitement and the pure goriness of F.E.A.R. Everything from the feel of the weapons to the ambiance of the environment is spot on. Anyway, I'm not really going to give you any background story wise because I don't want to spoil this game for you, but i will cover some of the basic requirements of a good FPS.


Story:

• Like i said, I won't tell you anything about the story, except that you are an operative in an organization in charge of dealing with paranormal activity. The story in F.E.A.R. is above average in terms of FPS games. It is still linear, but in this genre its very hard to get away from this. The plot is interesting, though I found myself ignoring the mission briefings in favor of getting right into the action again. Even without knowing what I was supposed to be doing, however, I still found myself completely immersed in the story. The story itself is very well planned (and freaking scary/weird). While it is no Half-Life 2, it beats the hell out of most other games.
  
• Pros: SCARY. I think i pissed myself at least 3 times while playing this game. I had trouble turning this game off. It got to the point where i actually had to tell myself that if i didn't stop it would be over too quickly. There is quite a twist that i won't describe.
• Cons: It is linear. Now while the pros/cons of linear stories can be debated for hours, I'll just say that its linearity does not detract from the experience. There was also one plot hole (kind of). While nothing major, it left me wondering "What happened with that?"

User Interface/Environment:

• I figured I'd lump these two together. The interface was basic and intuitive. By this i mean there was the standard HUD with health, ammo, slow-mo meter (which I'll talk about later), and the weapon equipped. There aren't any on screen menus to navigate. Everything you need is assigned to keyboard keys (which i feel is much better than on screen menu navigation). The feel of movement and gun fire is what you would expect from a good FPS. If you've ever played one before you'll pick the scheme and feel up in about 2 minutes. The environment was in an industrial setting. There were no forests or towns just industrial buildings and offices. Unlike DOOM 3, however, it did not become monotonous. Never once was I like "Didn't I play this part three hours ago". I'm not really sure how they achieved it, but the scenery was varied enough that I didn't notice it was the same (if that makes sense). The area layout in F.E.A.R. is superb. You can tear the hell out of people in hallways, open outdoor expanses, and large multi-leveled floors. There is also plenty of things to take cover behind if you find yourself out numbered. Every battle in F.E.A.R was unique, and there were many different ways to get through a group of enemies. This also enabled the A.I. to show itself off. Many times I caught the enemy trying to flank me, by having one or two guys draw my attention as a third and fourth got behind me (and they know the maps well). I lost a good number of health kits because of this.

• Pros: Easy to use non invasive interface. Learning curve of 5 minutes if you've played a FPS before. The feel of movement and the weighting of the guns was done well. Environments, while being similar, never felt overused and there was plenty of cover to hide behind. Multiple routes through areas combined with stunning A.I. made every battle challenging and different.
• Cons: None really.
  

Graphics:

• The graphics in this game are stunning. Its hard to show in pictures and videos, but believe me... damn. Even a year later with all the improvements in graphics cards, this game still looks amazing. The character models are pretty and the movement is natural. The level of detail that this game is capable of is truly amazing. The decals on walls look good and the blood splatter is killer. It is also possible to blow parts off of enemies. I'm not sure why other games don't incorporate this feature, but i wish they would. Soldier Of Fortune 2 was the last game that I've played where this was possible, and I remember having such a good time with that game. Theres nothing comparable to turning a corner only to find and enemy and then unloading on him with your shotgun and blowing his torso from his legs. The lighting in this game is also amazing. Theres not much you can say that would make the game lighting sound exciting, but believe me, if you play this game you will be impressed. The special effects we nice as well. When you threw a grenade, there was an area of distortion around it when it exploded, which looked cool. Fires looked on par and the rag doll type physics of dead enemies was a nice touch. I could actually sum up this game's graphics with one work: gorgeous. You will be impressed.
• Pros: Stunning visuals. Top notch textures, amazing effects and lighting. Being able to separate limbs off of enemies is a great addition. I could go on forever about how amazing this game looks. You will not be disappointed by this games graphics.
• Cons: To get this game to play at maximum detail you need a decent computer. This really isn't a con, because unless you're new to PC gaming, you know what to expect in terms of graphical horsepower from your PC.

Everything Else:

• First of all, the A.I. in this game is smart. Like i mentioned earlier they know the areas and use them well. Its not uncommon for them to show up behind you and just pwn you. They also take cover well and work as a squad.
  
• The sounds in F.E.A.R. are also done well. When you're pumping people with bullets from your automatic you can hear the *squishthunk* of them entering wet bloody meat. The sounds are a key element in game play. If you're hiding around the corner from the enemy you can hear them issuing commands and giving other squad members directions. They will call for reinforcements and alert the others if there is a grenade nearby or if they're throwing one. These cues give you an edge on them and make outmaneuvering them very fun.
  
• The variety of weapons in this game is satisfying. You have weapons ranging from the pistol (which can be dual wielded with another pistol) a few assault rifles, a sniper rifle (though not in the strict sense), several types of mines/grenades, and many other weapons that you can use to slaughter the hell out of the opposition. While I'm on the subject of weapons, you are limited to carrying three gun type weapons (you can carry all the grenade types at once). This works well and adds some planning to your arsenal.
  
• The slow motion in this game is necessary. This game is not a run and gun shooter. you will need to use tact, especially when you're in an open area with a lot of enemies. In these types of scenarios the slow-mo is especially useful. Whether you want to get to cover while unloading on an enemy or you want to thin them out a bit by taking the extra time you now have to line up head shots (which is how i usually use this). The slow-mo meter doesn't last all that long and needs time to refill. This makes the game more challenging/fair.
• Pros: Great A.I. and useful sounds make getting the drop on enemies possible and fun. The rang of weaponry is nice and the limit on how many you can carry is appropriate. The sow motion also works well, and does not seem ripped off.
• Cons: None really. The one assault rifle is kinda of useless, but thats just my personal opinion. My friend actually loves it. Sometimes the computer will yell "He's flanking" when in reality I'm hiding behind a crate (If this sounds like nitpicking its because thats what you have to do to find cons about this game).

Overall:

• F.E.A.R. is the best FPS I've ever played (Actually its tied with Half-Life 2). I have no complaint about any part of this game. It is wonderfully polished. There was never a time that I (or the A.I.) saw through a wall or got stuck in one. The game was challenging but not overly difficult. All in all this game is FUN. Not only is it fun, but it's pretty. Sometimes a game can be on or the other (take Doom 3. It was pretty, but it got kind of boring). What makes a game truly great is a combination of both. If you haven't played this game yet, please do yourself a favor and buy it. You will not regret it.
  
• Now I'm going to score it. Please remember these scores are based on my personal opinion.
• Overall: 10
• One of the best games I've ever played
• Graphics: 10
• Even for a 1 year old game it looks fantastic.
• Sound: 9
• Great use and variety of sound.
• Gameplay: 10
• Good story. The controls feel good, as do movement and the weapons.
• Replayability: 8
• I've re loaded this game on my computer several times to play through again. The online play is alright, though not as fun as the single player (to me).
  

Buy/Rent/Trash: Buy this game right away.

N-Gage 2?

Ha ha, you wanna hear something funny?

Nokia N-Gage 2.

There there, did that make you laugh? :D

I'm looking for more information on it, just gimme a sec.

And by the way, their site sucks. So if they maintain their game console/cellphone like they maintain their site then it is going to suck hard.

Ha ha ha, I just watched their video, and their slogan right now is "When it comes to N-Gage, all roads lead to play." And they have this woman saying it, its so silly because she is definitely NOT excited about it at all.

Anyway, apparently the details from the flash video they have hidden on the site is that its just a cellphone with an achievement-like system set up including gaming profiles with your friends.

Check it out:
http://futurewatch.n-gage.com/futurewatch_loader.swf?page=nextgeneration

That's about it. The system looks to be tastefully done, and are apparently backed by EA's Mobile division and some company GameLoft which seems to be a development company purely devoted to mobile play.

What do I think? This is crap. The system may work well, but this won't compare with the new Apple Iphone, there is just too much hype to compete against. What would make this system great is if your friends would actually buy it, and right now, I don't think that's going to happen. They need a new marketing division. Even Sony's guerilla marketing (Youtube video : "All I want for Christmas is a PSP") is better than this.

Bully (PS2)

Bully for the Playstation 2 was developed by Rockstar Vancouver and published by Rockstar Games October 17th of 2006.

• User Interface

• Pros: The User Interface on Bully was fairly easy to use. A lot of the time I did find myself fumbling to find which button was the right one for what I was trying to do. I liked picking the lockers and stuff, and the fact that they usually highlighted where you needed to stand to do certain things was cool. Other very good things they did was to make the world easy to get around in. If you jump high enough to reach the top of the fence, generally you can climb over it. Or, there are other things you can climb too. You can go almost anywhere, but it tends to become useless. The maps were very nicely constructed and polished.
  
• 
  
• Cons: The whole thing about sneaking around was cool for a little while, but I got tired of it. Especially when you get caught right when you're about to finish a mission. The skateboarding I found frustrating as well, because I was trying to run away, and then I'd have to like hop off the board to open a door and that's when, of course, the camera angle decides its gonna spin 90 degrees which makes me accidentally go the wrong direction away from the door. Yeah, camera angles definitely got old.
• Graphic Detail
• Pros: In most games, you tend to find one or two spots where everything just gets all crazy, rendering-wise. I didn't come across any spots where I was looking through a wall, or through the back of someone's head. But, that's because of what they did with the cameras. Also, since it was a PS2 game, its possible I didn't get the full graphical hit that would come with playing it on a better system, so I'm going to refrain from saying too much about it. It looked just fine for the PS2. The screenshots from GameSpy looked better than the game itself. Lot more anti-aliasing issues than shown.
  
• Cons: When you get close to a building, it forces you to spin if you're looking back on yourself so you're not looking through the inside of the building at yourself. Why didn't they just make this transparent or something? I got caught more than once because of the camera issues.
• Storyline
• Pros: The storyline was long enough that I doubt many of you would complain about it being too short. Also, it did include seasons as the story progressed, so the graphics changed to snow and such. The storyline wasn't linear either, which was nice. It had a nice thing where if you wanted to do some missions, you could, but you didn't have to. If you want to hate the nerds, go ahead. Don't help them out, instead just beat the crap out of them and take their money. Man, some of them were trying to be hideous.
  
• Cons: Maybe some people are into the whole going back and doing things over again, but I really didn't enjoy revisiting my high school years. I thought the other students were all a little too agressive. I became frustrated. I was trying to do a mission for them, and they were all like, "I hate you, Jimmy, F*** you." And it wasn't just one nerd saying it, it was like all of them, saying just one or two lines. You'd think there'd be more than just two lines for them to say about hating you so much.
• Fun Factor
• Pros: Not for me.
• Cons: I guess maybe this game wasn't targeting me, but I really didn't enjoy it. Most of the time, I had to keep telling myself, "It'll get better soon, just play it a litlte more and you'll unlock something really cool, I'm sure." I tried to stick with it, but cherry bombs, sticky things, marbles, and everything else just didn't do it for me. And, as I've reiterated several times, Bad Camera Angles Ruin Games. That's BCARG.
  

The Wrap-Up! This game, while polished and clean, tends to be frustrating because of camera angles and unsatisfying combat/bullying. It is intense to run away from the good guys/bad guys, right up until you get caught because the camera angle swings around to some awkward angle. That's when you breathe the Last Sigh. The sigh the signifies that this game will not be being played much longer if it keeps up this bad behavior. Severe Intensity must include Perfect Gameplay or it will achieve Complete Disappointment. And that's where I put this game. Intensely Disappointing.

Definitely worth a rent.

David Jaffe's Blog link

Just found this awesome blog by David Jaffe, developer of God of War and Calling All Cars. Check it out on the links to the right.

He did a focus test recently, and was posting live blogs about it. Its very funny, and should be read. Especially if you want to know part of what really goes on inside developers' heads.

No Next-Gen Contest

It has been said by many that there is a heavy competition between these three consoles and it is going to be a war. I would have to agree that there is a limited money source, and they are definitely all competing for the same money. Yet, I find it difficult to believe they are all competing in the same race.

The three systems; the Sony Playstation 3, the Nintendo Wii, and the Microsoft Xbox 360 are three completely distinct consoles and can be viewed quite simply in this way.

Xbox 360: In 3-4 months, it will be seen how limited this hardware is when compared to the Playstation 3. Yet, developing for the Xbox 360 has been seen as relatively easy with their powerful development tools and large US customer base. As well, for any game that wishes to be online, the XBOX 360 is the only place to be. Ignore the pricing here for a second and think purely of online performance and matchmaking. There shouldn't be any argument. The Simple Truth about Xbox 360 is that it is the Online Now machine.

Nintendo Wii: This is yesterday's System of Nostalgia. It is easy to build, efficient and intuitive on all fronts. Ignore the corporations trying to shove the Living Room Media Center garbage down your throat and maybe you can see what this is. Its fun. Its a party system. It is not meant to be played online. It is meant for you to invite over all of your friends, grab a bunch of controllers and just go at it. No wires, no strings attached (except the extreme rarity and cost of the controllers). Just be gentle. Laughs are guaranteed.

Playstation 3: Despite all rumors, this is a great device. The only problem is that it is built for the future. And for once, it is not bull coming out of Sony's mouth. This system is a year ahead of its time. It may not be a great system right now, but give it 1-2 years and nothing will come close. The System of Tomorrow.

So who wins? That's like trying to say "He won the olympics because he won the hurdle race!" "No no no, it was the pole-vaulter!" "What are you two talking about, he won because he broke the world record in breast stroke!"

They are three completely different consoles, each with their own qualities. Which do you want, a system you can play tonight online, a system you can play with friends tomorrow, or a system that might work really really nicely in a year or two? Hey, that's your choice, but in the end, everybody wins.

Gears of War Review (Xbox360)

Gears of War is an excellent game on the Xbox 360 developed by Epic Games. Epic Games is the same company that created the Unreal Tournament engine, famous for use throughout most high-end graphical games. It was published by Microsoft and released November 7th, 2006.

• User Interface:

o Pros: Excellent player interaction. Menus are easy to read on a standard definition TV. Options are robust enough that you can change things to make sure they are the way you like them. Setting up the cooperative play is simple. The cover system on the control scheme is amazingly simple and innovative. How many people with guns run through a field shooting at their enemies while juking/jumping up and down? Usually we sit behind cover and blast them while they're reloading. Reminded me of the arcade game Time Crisis. This is good.

o Cons: None. Some minor bugs with the engine, especially online.

· Graphic Detail:

o Pros: Amazing detail. It looks great on an SDTV using composite cables. I can't imagine what it would look like with components and maybe progressive scan. 720p, 1080p, whatever, it would just look amazing. The texturing is amazing, and the whole color style of the Gears of war world really immerses you.

o Cons: In some places, minor bugs jump out, and sometimes you can't grab this gun because its on top of this shelf. And the environment, while mildly interactive, could use even more work. The whole "shooting the wall makes this circular black texture that disappears" thing was cool back around Duke Nukem 3D. Make some new particle physics so we can really chew away the wall if we so chose. or the chair, or the bleach bottle.

· Storyline:

o Pros: Good storyline. Not completely random, it actually makes some sense if you really felt like diving into it. I'm glad they didn't put more of a focus on it, because we really just came here to kill some bad guys. Replayability is strong with multiple difficulty levels and multiple paths.

o Cons: As you will always hear, it is linear. You can't go the wrong way, you can't do the wrong thing. Only one way forward really. Some would argue that there is more than one way, because of all the paths; but no, its still linear.

· Fun Factor:

o Pros: This game is a lot of fun. There are many ways to kill a bad guy, including shooting them in the knees and then walking up and stomping them to death. My favorite is the Grenade Tag. My friend and I killed General RAAM (final boss) with a grenade tag after a couple of preparation shots. Also, I'm glad for once that the bad guys aren't the only ones who can use the turrets. For once in a game, we get to turn around and shoot right back at them. I have shot some of them so hard with a turret, that my friend was like, "I was just shooting at this guy, and then he evaporated in front of the turret!" Yes, that's what I call fun. Then, you can kick around their bodies for even more enjoyment. Oh, how delicious this is.

o Cons: Cons? I dunno, some of the levels got kind of old. The kryll annoyed me after awhile.

Wrap-Up: Great game, with high replayability. 10 out of 10. Terrifying, cinematic, thrilling, and fun. Definitely better than watching a movie, kinda felt like we were playing one instead. Play with a friend!

Buy/Rental/Never: BUY!