Review

Last Rebellion Game Reviews
Last Rebellion is a console role-playing video game developed by Nippon Ichi Software and Hit Maker and published by Nippon Ichi Software in Japan as well as in North America and Tecmo Koei in Europe exclusively for the PlayStation 3. The game was released on January 28, 2010 in Japan, and in North America on February 23, 2010 and it will be released on March 26, 2010 in Europe.

The game takes setting in the world of Junovald which is governed by the will of two gods, Meitilia and Formival. Meitilia is the god of death presiding over the destruction of life while Formival is the god of life presiding over the birth of all life and the creation of things. Meitilia is said to have blessed two types of people namely Blades and Sealers each with special powers. Blades have the unparalleled power to destroy things physically while Sealers have the magical power to destroy the souls of things.

Formival’s power on the other hand grants him the ability to revive any dead object. Creature’s in the face of death allow their souls to escape from their body, once escaped these souls are controlled by fragments of what is known as the Formival’s Soul. The souls of the creatures would then manifest into monsters which are more powerful and stronger than before. These creatures are known as the Belzeds, they cannot be killed by normal means instead requiring the skills of both a Blade and a Sealer to destroy both its body and soul.

The game follows the main protagonist, Nine Asfel, whose homeland which was ravaged by civil war nine years ago led to the land becoming a nesting ground for the Belzeds. A group of sorcerers, Necromancers and Wizards had created a barrier surrounding the kingdom to prevent a massacre by the Belzeds. In order to solve the problem of the Belzeds, King Arzelide summoned Nine whose skills are widely recognized as the best of the blades and Aisha whose Sealer powers have isolated her from the rest of kingdom to eliminate the Belzeds.

Army of Two: The 40th Day Game Reviews

Army of Two: The 40th Day is a third-person shooter video game that is developed by EA Montreal and released by Electronic Arts for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Portable. It is the sequel to Army of Two. Army of Two: The 40th Day was released on January 12, 2010 in North America and January 15, 2010 in Europe.

More weapons and upgrades will be available, adding interchangeable upgrades between weapons, such as adding the barrel of one assault rifle to another. The “pimped” option returns with new camouflage schemes. Weapons can now also be earned from downed enemies, increasing the player’s arsenal to four weapons (up from three in Army of Two). Bullets will be able to penetrate weaker materials such as wood and sheet metal. Certain weapons can only be unlocked by morality moments, from both good and bad outcomes. Weapon parts can be obtained in the game levels for free, either by searching armored boxes (which are locked as soon as the enemy detects the player’s presence) or simply exploring.

New Heavy and Super Heavy enemy types can appear that wear thick armor and often require a special method of attack to defeat, such as shooting the gas canisters or grenade bags on that particular enemy. The Super Heavy enemies will carry weapons that cannot be purchased or found otherwise, such as a flamethrower and a Gatling gun.

Aggro is a system that allows two players to tactically control the target of their enemy’s attacks. Aggro is measured by a HUD element that displays which player the enemy characters are currently focusing on. By performing aggressive actions, such as firing one’s weapon, a player gains aggro and in turn causes enemies to focus more of their attention on that player. While one player has aggro the other is being ignored and as a result can then freely perform actions such as flanking. In Army of Two: The 40th Day, additional non-aggressive actions can affect aggro. For example, by performing a mock-surrender the enemy combatants will focus all of their attention (and aggro) on the player that is surrendering.

Tyson Rios and Elliot Salem begin Army of Two: The 40th Day a few years after the story of the original game ends as self-employed private military contractors who run, with the aid of Alice Murray, their own private company called Trans World Operations (TWO). They are engaged in a routine mission in Shanghai when things go very bad. A group of PMCs work together to attack the city, causing mayhem, destruction and threatening Rios and Salem’s survival.

White Knight Chronicles : International Edition Game Review

White Knight Chronicles is a fantasy role-playing video game developed by Level-5 and Japan Studio and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3 which was released in Japan on December 25, 2008, and was released in North America on February 2, 2010. It is Level-5′s first project for the system. As per the playable demo at the 2007 Tokyo Game Show, some enemies are extremely large in size, in one piece of concept artwork, a massive turtle-like creature is depicted carrying an entire city on its back.White Knight Chronicles is presented in third-person perspective. The player can freely select which character to control. Like most other RPGs, the characters gaining experience points and level up, becoming stronger over the course of the game.SImilar to Soul Blazer, one can choose locations on a world map that the player has already visited to instantly go to, along with a preview of that area. Each area also has a quest list that shows quests the player has yet to complete. The player can choose a quest to do before going to the desired area.

The battle system used in White Knight Chronicles is a real-time system, where the battle mode is started automatically when enemies are present. Before a battle, the player optionally goes into the “Battle Preparation” menu (accessible at any time) and chooses up to three sets of seven commands for each character in the party. This set of twenty one commands is called a “Function Palette”, and several of these palettes can be saved, making tactical palette preparing and switching essential to the game. The commands can also be linked in order to create combos. These can then be used in battle. The player controls one of the characters, while the others are controlled by the AI, as also seen in the Tokyo Game Show trailer. Players can freely change the character they’re controlling. The main character can transform into the White Knight using action chips which are acquired by defeating enemies. Boss battles also take place in a similar fashion except that they may include cutscenes for in-battle events.

Enemies can be attacked with various kinds of elemental attack magic, while the player can heal the party by resorting to divine magic. Magic is an essential part of White Knight Chronicles battle system, but it comes with one pitfall. Magic skills do not improve a character’s physical strength. This means magic users have to avoid enemy attacks. Among the featured weapons are swords, two handed longswords, two handed axes, spears, bow, and staff.

After defeating an enemy, players will obtain raw materials. While this occurs in both the story and online modes, some raw materials will only be obtainable in online quests. These materials are used for crafting and upgrading equipment and items.

The story of White Knight Chronicles begins in the kingdom of Balandor, where a princess’ coming-of-age banquet is raided by an evil organization called Magi. A boy called Leonard grabs the princess’ hand and leads her to safety in the castle cellars, where he finds a strange suit of armor that transforms him into the White Knight – an ancient warrior with the strength to defeat Magi’s forces. This marks the beginning of a life-changing fantasy experience, fighting against the powerful enemies.

The motive behind the kidnapping is due to the princess’ ability to unlock any of the five knights (which she is unaware of at first). The leader of Magi is a general called Dregias. Nobody knows what Dregias looks like, because his body and face are hidden under his dark armor. What is known is the fact that he is capable of transforming into the winged Black Knight, Ebonwings.

Section 8 Game Reviews

Section 8 is a first-person shooter developed by TimeGate Studios and published by SouthPeak Interactive. It uses the Unreal Engine 3 and was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360.It was released on September 1, 2009, on the Xbox 360 and September 4, 2009, on the PC in North America, September 11, 2009, in the UK and Asia Pacific, September 18, 2009, in the rest of Europe,and on the PlayStation 3 on March 25, 2010 in North America.

In Section 8, characters wear powerful armor suits which provide damage absorption and augmented mobility. Players can use “overdrive” to move horizontally at superhuman speeds, or activate vertical thrusters to achieve new heights.

Players will be able to “burn-in” by dropping onto the battlefield from orbital dropships hovering at 15,000 feet from the surface, thus eliminating fixed spawn points.”Burning-in” also creates the opportunity for the player to choose where they drop on the map, making the game unpredictable. This process is an interactive experience as players can be shot down upon entry by players and anti-aircraft turrets alike, though these situations can be avoided or mitigated by using the “air-brake” feature which allows the player to make mid-air adjustments.Players may build defensive structures to protect friendly-controlled objectives, or ride vehicles which they can operate to assault enemy-controlled objectives.

Section 8 includes a single-player campaign mode that allows the player to proceed as a character named Alex Corde of the 8th Armored Infantry. Previews indicate that the single-player campaign will be objective-based.

Players will be able to choose their primary and secondary weapons, such as assault rifles, pistols, shotguns, and sniper rifles, as well as grenades, explosives, knives, mortar launchers and healing units.The player is also able to create their own player class through various stackable modules that determine the player’s speed, stealth, or the regeneration of the limited-use jetpack. Excessive damage endured by the player to certain parts of their body, such as their legs, arms, head, or chest, may disabled or hinder the use of these upgrades.

Players are be able to deploy a variety of vehicles and equipment, including heavy-armor suits, tanks, turrets, supply depots, and sensor arrays. Some such devices must be “bought” within the game using “Requisition Points”.

Dynamic Combat Missions (DCMs), a type of mini-game, can be activated mid-combat by the player, and can reward the player with Requisition Points when completed successfully. Some DCMs will include protecting a convoy, destroying a bridge, or assassinating an enemy character.

Section 8 takes place in the future after the human race has discovered interstellar travel and has colonized across the galaxy.At the time of the game, a group called the ARM of Orion, has begun to separate the outermost frontier planets from the main governing body, taking them over while keeping their presence hidden from the government. As space travel is slow, it often takes weeks to communicate with or travel to a frontier world, affording the ARM with enough time to seize worlds and build their base of power, ultimately preparing an ambush for the government forces that will eventually respond. The government then discovers the ARM of Orion, and sends in the 8th Armored Infantry, including Alex Corde (the player), on a mission to investigate, and presumably fight, the ARM invasion.

Dante’s Inferno is a third-person action-adventure game developed by Visceral Games (formerly EA Redwood Shores) and published by Electronic Arts, released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable.Dante’s Inferno is an action-adventure where players take a third-person control of Dante, the game’s protagonist, and commence heavily in fast-paced combat, platforming and environment-based puzzles. In the game, Dante’s primary weapon is Death’s Scythe that can be used in a series of combination attacks and finishing moves. His secondary weapon is a Holy Cross that fires a volley of energy as a projectile attack. In addition, Dante can use enormous magic based attacks and abilities channeled from a mana pool to help in combat, many of which are obtained as the game progresses. A quick time event system is used when attempting to discharge the demon of its master and during boss fights, where players must press the highlighted button on screen in order to continue the chain of attacks, or be countered and wounded otherwise.Many attack combinations and abilities can be unlocked and/or upgraded in exchange for souls, an in-game currency that is collected upon defeating enemies or locating soul fountains. Each of these purchasable skills fall into two categories; into Holy (represented by blue orbs) and Unholy (represented by red orbs) skill trees.Overall this game is similar to God of War.Dante’s Inferno was first released across Europe on February 5, 2010. In addition to the standard retail copy of the game, a second limited special edition of the game for both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 was released alongside known as the “Death Edition”.

Upon the its release, a series of downloadable content (DLC) game packs were released, each containing an amount of souls, used for purchasing new abilities. The first contained 500 souls and was free of charge while the rest contained 1500, 3000 and 5000 souls and cost a relatively small amount and could only be downloaded once.

The first traditional piece of downloadable content was released a month after release on March 4, entitled Dark Forest, a prologue level loosely based on the opening of The Divine Comedy, that sees Dante in a dark forest before meeting Virgil. The content includes two new enemies known as the “Forest Siren” and “Death Knight” and involved a series of puzzles to overcome. In addition to the level, the download also includes an additional “Disco Inferno” costume, a novelty piece in the style of polyester disco fashion wear.?

Bayonetta is an action game for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, directed by Devil May Cry and Viewtiful Joe creator Hideki Kamiya at Platinum Games in cooperation with publisher Sega.Set in a fictional city in Europe, the game centers on its eccentric character, Bayonetta, who uses  dualpistols and magical attacks to defeat enemies. The game has five difficulty settings; its two easiest settings contain a game mode playable with only one button, similar to a mode used in Devil May Cry. Its developers designed its characters with modern style and fashion in mind, and composed for it a largely upbeat rhythem and feminine soundtrack.Bayonetta is a single-player, third-person 3D action game.The player controls a witch named Bayonetta, and using both melee and long ranged attacks, complex combo strings, and multiple weapons, is encouraged to explore ways to dispatch angelic enemies with as much flair as possible. Special commands or actions are formed into events, finishes, executions, and unique “Torture Attacks” in which Bayonetta summons a variety of devices to deal powerful blows to her enemies. Such devices range from chainsaws to iron maidens.

The player can double jump for extra height, perform evasive manuevers such as backflips, and destroy background objects and doors. Camera views can be rotated, enemy targets can be locked on, and weapons can be switched during play.Many enemies and objects drop halos, which simulat to the  rings from Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog games, when destroyed; the player can collect the halos to buy items, techniques and weapon upgrades.

Bayonetta takes place in Vigrid, a fictional city in Europe. The title character is a witch who shapeshifts and uses various firearms, along with magical attacks she performs with her own hair, to pulverize her foes. She awakens after a 500 year sleep and finds herself in an unfamiliar area with no memories of who or what she is. Over time, she begins to remember what caused her current predicament. 500 years before the incident that caused Bayonetta’s memory loss, there were two factions of warriors—the Umbra Witches, who are followers of darkness and their counterparts, the Lumen Sages, are followers of light. The factions shared two distinct treasures, the ‘Eyes of the World’ that were separately named the ‘Left Eye’ and the ‘Right Eye’, which they used to oversee the just passage of time. Both factions mysteriously disappeared from Vigrid under unknown circumstances. Bayonetta still has an ornate piece of jewelry which contains a small red gem, and believes this gem is the ‘Left Eye’ of the ‘Eyes of the World’. While searching for the “Right Eye”, she often receives flashbacks that make her remember what caused her current mission.Development of the game started around January 2007, and it was released in Japan in late October 2009, with a U.S. release following in January 2010.

Heavy Rain is an interactive drama video game developed by Quantic Dream exclusively for the PlayStation 3.Heavy Rain’s story is a dramatic thriller, the story around four protagonists involved with the mystery of the Origami Killer, a serial killer who uses extended periods of rainfall to drown his victims. Ethan Mars is a father who is trying to save his son from being the next victim, while investigative journalist Madison Paige, FBI profiler Norman Jayden, and private detective Scott Shelby are each trying to track down clues to the Origami Killer’s identity. The player interacts with the game by performing actions highlighted on screen related to motions on the controller, and in some cases, performing a series of quick time events during fast-paced action sequences. The player’s decisions and actions during the game will affect the narrative; the main characters can be killed, and certain actions may lead to different results in scenes and endings.

According to a demonstration given to Edge magazine, the game will use a unique control scheme. A trigger button on the PlayStation 3 controller will move the character forward. It will take advantage of the button’s analogue function, allowing the user to control the speed of the character’s movement by pressing harder or softer on the button. The left analogue stick will control the movement of the character’s head and the direction the character moves in relation to where the character is looking. David Cage explains that this frees the movement of the character from the perspective of the camera. The rest of the game is played using a series of context sensitive actions such as picking up a bottle in a grocery store and hitting a robber on the head with it or pressing the “X” button to call the player character’s son, Jason, and quick time events, normally for chase and combat sequences. Players are able to bring up a selection of their character’s current thoughts by holding the L2 button and pressing corresponding buttons to say or do what they’re thinking. These thoughts will sometimes blur, and selecting them at the wrong time will affect the character’s reaction, causing them to say or do something in the wrong way.

Action sequences, such as when the player is being attacked, will be played out as quick time events. Players will be given various symbols, requiring them to either press buttons, move the right analogue stick in a certain way, or shake or tilt the controller. Failure to execute these commands take the story along a different path, and certain mistakes will lead to a character’s death. For example, in one scene, Norman Jayden is interrogating a suspect named Mad Jack when he starts to suffer from withdrawal symptoms and button prompts will show up. If he fails to take his drugs, he will be taken to a scenario in which he will have to escape from a car before it is thrown into a crusher, killing him. In scenes like these, a ‘timer’ scene (a portion of the screen that is devoted to show the player how long he or she has until their time runs out, or another event is scripted to occur, which is shown through several different camera angles) is shown at the bottom of the screen, indicating how long the player has to escape from his/her sequence. If a character dies, the game does not end, and play control switches to another character, with the events of the previous character’s death affecting the story.In the event that all four characters die, there is a proper conclusion to the story and the game ends.

There are four main playable characters. Except for Madison Paige, their actors contributed both their voices and likeness to the characters.
Ethan Mars is an architect with a wife and two sons. Two years prior to the main story, his eldest son was killed in a car accident that also left Ethan in a coma. He is now stricken with grief and depressed, separated from his wife and distant from his other son, Shaun. Ethan soon discovers that Shaun may become the next victim of the Origami Killer, and is soon forced to go to extreme lengths to save him. He is played by Pascal Langdale.

Madison Paige is a photojournalist living alone in the city. Suffering from chronic insomnia, she occasionally checks into motels, as they are the only place she can properly sleep. She eventually finds herself involved in the latest Origami Killer case, conducting her own investigations. She is voiced by Judi Beecher, though her likeness and motion capture were provided by Jacqui Ainsley.

Norman Jayden is an FBI profiler sent to support the police force with their investigation into the Origami Killer. Jayden possesses a set of experimental augmented reality glasses called an “Added Reality Interface”, or ARI. It allows him to rapidly investigate crime scenes and analyze evidence. He is also struggling with an addiction to the drug triptocaine. He is played by Leon Ockenden.

Scott Shelby is a retired police officer, currently working as a private investigator. On behalf of the previous victims’ families, he is conducting his own investigation into the Origami Killer. He is played by Sam Douglas.

The outcome of the game’s final scenes are dependent on choices and actions the player has made throughout the game; any of the four characters may die at some point, or fail in a way that they do not reach Shaun’s location. In the “best” possible ending, Ethan figures out the address and manages to find and rescue Shaun, while both Madison and Jayden have separately identified Shelby’s crimes and Shaun’s location. Shelby appears, congratulating him on his success but prepared to kill them both. Jayden arrives and chases Shelby, eventually killing him, while Madison arrives to clear Ethan’s name as the Origami Killer.

The details of the epilogue will vary depending on both minor and major events that occur through the game. Generally, a news report giving the status of the Origami Killer case is shown, and the surviving characters’ lives beyond the game’s events are shown. Other endings vary, and individual fates are crossed referenced accordingly.?

Just Cause 2 is a sandbox style action video game. It was released in North America on March 23rd, 2010 by Swedish developer Avalanche Studios and Eidos Interactive, published by Square Enix. It is the sequel to the 2006 video game Just Cause.The gameplay is similar to that of its predecessor, in which the player is free to explore the game’s open world at will, not having to focus on the game’s storyline.

Generaly, the player must acquire weapons and vehicles in the field of their own accord. Early in the game the player encounters a black market supplier, from whom weapons can be bought along with vehicles, with an option to have them delivered to the player’s location via helicopter drop. As the game progresses, additional weapons and vehicles become available on the black market. All weapons and vehicles on the black market have parameters that can be upgraded in several steps, by building upgrades with weapon and vehicle components. There are over 2,000 parts that the player can get.

Lost Planet 2 is an upcoming third-person shooter video game created and published by Capcom. The game is the sequel to Lost Planet: Extreme Condition which is also made by Capcom, taking place ten years after the events of the first game, on the same fictional planet. The game is being developed for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows.

The story takes settings back on E.D.N. III 10 years after the events of the first game. The snow has melted to reveal jungles and more tropical areas that have taken the place of more frozen regions. The game will center on an living war to gain T-ENG (Thermal-ENerGy). Player(s) will assume control of several different factions such as Yuri’s Snow Pirates, NEVEC (NEo-VEnus Construction) and many other groups battling the Akrid, a race of large insects native to E.D.N. III. The Akrid have reestablish their armies and return much more powerful in Lost Planet 2.

Lost Planet 2 will allow players to complete the campaign either in single-player mode, in split-screen local co-op, or online with up to 3 companions and/or AI bots.

There will be many boss battles in the game, and they will be larger in size than those of the first Lost Planet game. Additionally, there will be many different ways to combat them. According to Eurogamer, the giant monster bosses may be killed by standard gunfire, Vital Suits, or by entering the beasts’ intestines via their mouths.

Lost Planet 2 will be split into six episodes, each has its own story and hero, which all will come together at the conclusion of the game. Also, the campaign experience will change based on the players’ actions in the game, though it has not been announced how or to what extent.Unlike its prequel, Lost Planet 2 will let players to create and customize their own characters. Players will be able to customize their characters, and will allow them to unlock more clothing and body types after leveling up and downloading content. The game will also allow players edit weapon models, and color palettes used.

Red Dead Redemption is a sandbox-style action-adventure western video game developed by Rockstar San Diego, due for release on May 18, 2010 in North America and on May 21, 2010 in Europe and Australia for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.The game is takes palce in the American frontier in the early 1900s; it focuses around a former outlaw, John Marston. Marston has been given the primary directive by government agents to kill or capture his former gang members, which includes his old ‘friend’ and gang leader Bill Williamson. If he does not do so, his family will pay the price. Along the way Marston is given work as the game will use open world gameplay similar to the Grand Theft Auto series with sandbox environments and a free-roaming ability. The environments will include frontier towns, prairies, and mountain passes. The game will also feature over 40 different types of animals that can be hunted including cattle, bison, beaver, bears, cougars, rattlesnakes, deer, wolves, mustangs, coyotes, feral pigs, vultures, bighorn sheep, elk,and even birds that fly and many more.
Combat and gun-play is a major part of the game. Gunfighting in Red Dead Redemption are conducted using a third-person system. The player can slide to cover, target a specific person, blindfire, and free aim. Individual body parts can also be targeted.