SAW II: Flesh and Blood (PS3 & 360)

I know what you are already thinking, after the ordeal of the first game why on earth would anyone play another one of them? well to put it simply I had to see what it was like. SAW suffered from sloppy controls and utterly ridiculous fighting abilities, by the time you hit a button a random psychopath has caved your head in with a baseball bat ..lovely. So is SAW II as bad as the first? and has it got any redeeming features? – keep reading to find out!

As per usual with SAW once the game begins you are already given an awkward choice, you either stay there and get crushed or willingly put yourself through hell as you try to survive a set amount of tests and endless traps by the infamous Jigsaw killer. So on with the show, SAW II picks up right after the first game so you can actually play one and then go straight into the next one. Again the player is given a speedy introduction to the character, I don’t want to spoil any of the story or character evolution. From the get go the game did feel almost identical to the first one, it was after all a rushed title with not too much time put into the development, all that aside it still stands on its own two feet quite well. You play a SAW game to experience a complete and utter barrage of hair pulling and mind melting  scenarios that will have you swearing like a sailor in the first hour alone.

The character controls a lot better, thank god for that. The overall controls are a lot more responsive now so instead of frantically bashing buttons to get him to do anything you just have to be good with your timing. The broken mechanics of the first game was one of the main reasons so many people avoided it, it’s clear there has been a huge overhaul and its certainly for the better. That doesn’t mean the game is a walk in the park, apart from the various traps there are victims of Jigsaws games lining up to take you down in the hopes it will earn them their freedom, so head on a swivel seems to be the best option. The tools and weapons are pretty much the same and are all used for causing serious hurt and death to whoever is unlucky enough to cross your path. To top up your health you have to find and use syringes, they are dotted around different rooms on the map and are essential in making it to the finishing credits.

As for the traps and puzzles, they seem to be a lot harder than the first game, you can’t just start randomly press buttons and hope it works. The logic that goes into some of the more intelligent traps is mind numbing, and of course when you mess it up the person on the other end of the trap meets a very ghastly end. Save points can be found scattered around the map and even if you think you don’t need to save its always worthwhile, I found myself wishing I’d saved so many times. Another thing I found with the puzzles is that though they might appear to be easily solved that’s not always the case, many of the puzzles seemed to have more than one stage so just as I was pausing to have a breather more terror ensued.

As with the first game I really enjoyed SAW II, I bring to my gaming experience my love of the films so I’m already happy that the games even exist. That’s not to say I didn’t find any problems with the game, constant circuit board puzzles to open door after door got old quick, one or two puzzles seemed almost identical to past traps in the previous game, the floor puzzle with the flickering pictures must have showed up 5 or 6 times.

In the end you really won’t play the game unless you are a fan of the movies or the previous game, no one wanted to be in the same room as me when I played because they could feel the frustration I was going through. It was a real test of temper and patience, there weren’t as many broken elements this time around and visually there was a bit of improvement in graphics and sound. To make the game last longer there are collectables such as tape recorders and billy puppets hidden off the beaten track. Instead of the usual constant same same corridors there are wider open rooms and areas full of traps that just look so much better than the first game.

Thrown in for good measure are shoot outs with various characters, arsonists bent on turning you into a fireball, psychopaths with long spikes protruding from their explosive vests and a lot more. If you are a fan of the films or liked the original game I’d say go ahead and give it a try, but only if you are ready for skull shattering traps and patience testing puzzles that would drive even the most level headed gamer completely insane. I’m giving SAW II Flesh and Blood 6 out of 10, its a lot better than the first one but there is still room for some serious improvement.

Playing Catch Up: Gaming [ps3]

I have been ridiculously busy over the last few months (year?) and haven’t posted since February. I’ve been working on countless shows and gigs shooting all kinds of bands and events all over Dublin and elsewhere. As for gaming the summer has made it take a serious backseat but with the coming winter months down the line I’ll be getting back into gaming soon. And because as everybody knows the games companies always try to flaunt and flog their biggest titles for Christmas I’ll be adding a bunch more titles to my collection. 

I’m looking at the list of games I’ve reviewed versus those that I’ve actually played and so far the ones that have been played and lack a review would be the following:

Batman Arkham City
Assassins Creed Revelations
The Sims 3 Pets
Battlefield 3
Modern Warfare 3
Skyrim
SAW 2
SSX
Saints Row  The Third
Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare
Fallout New Vegas: Old World Blues / Honest Hearts / Lonesome Road

Along with those I should be buying the following when they are released and reviews should hopefully follow:

Grand Theft Auto 5
Borderlands 2
Hitman Absolution
Aliens Colonial Marines
Assassins Creed 3
Far Cry 3
Metro: Last Light
Sniper 2: Ghost Warrior

Dark Souls: game review (ps3/360)

Demon’s Souls was on its arrival quickly tagged as an insanely difficult game, for that reason it both drew players to it but also kept many away. Now a few years later comes the following title in the series, but this time regardless of the high difficulty level gamers are finding it nearly impossible to stay away. Dark Souls is not just more of the same unforgivably hard dungeon crawling it’s a refreshing breath of innovative strategy and brutally punishing death that will satisfy even the most hardcore Demon’s Souls fan for a long time to come. For those of us who stuck with Demon’s Souls to the bitter end there was a tremendous sense of achievement that no other game could replicate. Dark Souls is no exception, it’s equally rewarding and equally hard. If you are up to the challenge and ready for the fight of your life then read ahead.. and prepare to die.

You start the game by building your own custom character, much like Demon’s Souls you are given a choice of classes such as knight / cleric / wanderer / thief / bandit and pyromancer. Each class determines your ability and overall power at using particular weapons and magic spells, as well as your various strengths and weaknesses. It’s a good idea to read through the stats first and judge the character you want but even if it doesn’t go right the first time there is always the opportunity to customize your abilities by levelling up. Oddly enough there is a new class in Dark Souls known only as deprived, you start off without armour and proper weapons instead you have a plank and must build yourself up with any equipment you happen to find – it’s a perfect example of the games unique styling when it comes to putting together a real challenge.

As for the story itself initially it’s rather bare, all you know is you have awoken in an old decrypted asylum and things are about to get a hell of a lot worse. Though you won’t be following a story as such there are tips scrawled into the floor and a very short but to the point tutorial that teaches you the basics of combat and survival. If you take the time to read the tips and master everything from blocking to parrying you will survive a lot longer in your quest, longer but not forever. Dark Souls is all about learning from past mistakes to conquer the next pitfall, that pitfall could be anything from a squad of heavily armed undead knights to a gargantuan demon hell-bent on pummelling you into the ground. Thankfully the combat in the game works exceptionally well so each player is given a fighting chance, constantly pressing the attack button won’t get you far ..if anything it will get you killed even faster. Combat in the game whether it be with mindless foot soldiers of hulking bosses depends on you knowing how to fight, learning to block effectively and with the right shield is paramount to defeating your foe. If you fail to learn an enemies attack patterns or they are strong enough to break through your defences while your stamina is low the result will most definitely be messy. The good thing is most of the enemies are easy to read so getting fatal blows in can easily be dished out in an even flow, not only that but the enemies always respawn in the same locations making it even easier to plan and execute your attacks more precisely.

To help you dispatch the many legions of demons there are all manner of weapons and magic spells available, if that’s not enough armour too can be found all over the game world making it that little bit harder for the forces of darkness to annihilate you. Wandering through Dark Souls you won’t just find swords spears and bows, you will find many magically enhanced weapons that when coupled with the right skills and stats will provide you with invaluable killing tools. Demon’s Souls had so many weapons and sets of armour that in order to use them all you would have to play through the game numerous times, many people did and again in Dark Souls the tradition continues. Since dying is common place and you will die over and over again many people start the game all over again with a different class, I originally started as the thief class then switched to the knight it’s all part of the learning process.

Dark Souls never lets up or apologizes for its unrelenting abuse of the senses, but there are ways to even the odds. When you kill an enemy in the game you are rewarded souls, it can start off low and you have to take out area bosses to gain enough to make a substantial amount but by farming locations you will soon be on your way to going up a level. The catch of course is if you die while carrying your unused souls you will lose them all, they can be gained back if you find the place where you died and touch your bloodstain ..die on the way and they are lost forever. You can also find the slightly more rewarding souls of knights/heroes and warriors on some bodies but its rare so you have to keep your eyes peeled when you are exploring a new area or you could miss them. Souls can also be used as currency to buy weapons/upgrades/spells/armour and so on, just like the weapons and other items in the game there is no shortage of vendors willing to trade their wares for your precious souls. Vendors can be found all across the gaming world and there does seem to be a lot more of them than in the previous game, depending on your current status the items and materials they sell can come in very useful. You could always decide to just concentrate on getting all of your weapons and items off corpses on the battlefield but it’s always worth checking a vendors wares because you never know what they might be selling. Weapons and armour can be upgraded by visiting one of the many blacksmiths you will find, initially they will only make light improvements but once you start finding the right stones and materials more powerful weapons with magic properties can be made.

This time around instead of visiting the nexus and finding herbs to regenerate health you visit bonfires that when lit serve as resting points, while rested you can fill up your health flask and upgrade your skills by spending souls. Be warned that once you rest at a bonfire all of the non boss enemies in the game will automatically respawn, this might sound unfair but it’s a plus because you can keep killing the same enemies over and over again to collect up even more souls. Eventually by progressing through the game and buying certain items from blacksmiths you will be able to do all manner of things from bonfires such as upgrade your weapons and store everything in a bottomless box, given that you pick up so many weapons and armour sets while playing the box soon becomes invaluable.

It’s not always a lonely road in Dark Souls, just like before there is a complex co-op mode that allows players to drop in and out of your game. In most games co-op comprises of a friend helping you out in those tricky moments where the odds really are stacked up against you and though that’s true about Dark Souls it also allows for more sinister opportunities. Playing the game online means you can and will interact with others playing the game, some will leave messages on the ground offering strategy on what’s around the next corner / some will leave summoning signs for you to activate thus drawing them into your world to help you slay the next demon / and some more deviant will use the opportunity to invade your world and kill you so they can steal your souls. The same system was paramount to Demon’s Souls online experience only this time the emphasis is on helping others rather than terrorizing them, by implementing a system where you can report the invading player the game actually punishes wrong doers and makes for a more interesting gaming experience.

Making your way through the gaming world is much more fluid than I expected, from the very start you are given the option to just start exploring not only at your own pace but also in the direction you choose. One thing I really liked was opening connecting areas by unlocking sealed doors or gates that I previously hadn’t got the keys for, the world of Dark Souls can be vast and dangerous so opening doors and activating elevators is something that really shouldn’t be avoided. As for the levels themselves quite a few do remind me of their counterparts in Demon’s Souls, Blighttown for instance is a lot like The Valley of Defilement but its different enough to feel fresh and unseen. The levels are expertly constructed and contain lots of secret rooms and pitfalls that will test you at every turn. Each part of the world has its own specific look and feel, Blighttown is dark and toxic, Undead Burg is a lot like the first area in Demon’s Souls surrounded by high castle walls and crumbling battlements, the Darkrook Gardens are lush and green but contain deadly secrets all of their own, there really are so many painstakingly detailed areas to explore that I can’t possibly talk about them all.

The detail and graphics really are highlighted in every step of the way, each area has a certain glimmer of authenticity that integrates itself seamlessly into the vast environments you can and will explore. There is a seriously accurate atmosphere to Dark Souls, the threat of defeat and pulverizing death around each corner really radiates from your surroundings and makes you feel that little bit more on edge. The sound effects are nicely done and really don’t seem too different than they were in Demon’s Souls, but then why fix something if it’s not broken. The music does play a bigger part this time and the score is exceptionally well written fitting the game perfectly, though at times it will seem as if there is no score present it manages to sneak up on you right as your combat situation escalates.

The enemies in the game are the second star of the show and command a serious presence around every corner. At first you will tackle mindless undead who are for the most part a pushover, as the game progresses the legions of demons and undead escalate in difficulty to the point where you are up against a serious challenge. Just as the first game had a whole host of infernal demon’s guarding the passages to the next area so too does Dark Souls, and they won’t let you pass without a fight. For the most part it did feel like the bosses were a little easier than those of Demon’s Souls, because not only could I summon up help online I could also summon up the help of offline characters I met by joining special covenants. That said even with the extra help some bosses can be quite the handful and can do more than their fair share or damage to your character. There is a catch in summoning help, since your character is undead you must find and use humanity sprites to restore your human self and interact with other players willing to help you slay an undefeated boss or minor demon.

Humanity is an interesting enough concept that seems to work, it also restores your health so it can be used as an alternative method to staying alive a little bit longer when your flask has run empty. The undead and demons in the game don’t just do physical damage with slashes of swords and spears, some have the ability to curse you which can be devastating if you don’t have the proper tools to reverse it. When cursed you lose a substantial amount of your health and stamina bar and you won’t get them back until you find and take the cure, the first time this happened to me I felt cheated but it helped harden my skills for survival and there was a tremendous sense of accomplishment when I finally had the curse lifted. It’s these little moments of fear and progression that really propel Dark Souls above and beyond the realms of all other games, they are all victories in their own right as everything you work towards is for a reason and it all serves to toughen you up for even more hell raising encounters.

To really grasp the Dark Souls experience you have to play the game with the proper skill and respect it deserves, if you come to it expecting a simple hack and slash romp then the chances are you won’t last very long. Each enemy requires you to learn an attack pattern so you can dispatch them with enough skill that they can’t in turn drain your health or kill you, this takes time effort and above all else strategy. If you go about playing the game properly you will find progression comes much quicker and death comes more sparingly, you can’t escape death because it’s a core element of the learning process and needs to be experienced to toughen you up. The controls for the game are solid and extremely responsive, fans of the previous game will be happy to know what your character has a few new moves such as jumping and plunge attacks that give the combat a more balanced approach.

All that aside there were a few times where I felt the game was tipping the scales too high against me, one particular time involved two armoured archers on either side who had direct line of sight and were able to hit me every time making me plummet to the ground below. It didn’t matter what my skill level was nor what my characters class was the only way across was to not get hit and then take out one of the archers, there was no room to really navigate and the ledge was about a foot wide – it took over 10 tries to finally roll forward across the ledge dodging incoming fire and then dealing with an archer. I knew to expect a serious fight when I started the game because I had played Demon’s Souls long before Dark Souls was announced, but the archer section was a case of the game using a cheap trick to push the difficulty level up another notch and though examples like that are few and far between a lot of players will find those moments unacceptable.

In certain areas of the game you may find the camera can get you killed as you manoeuvre your way through the darkness only to find you are now on your way either off a cliff or into an enemies ambush, though it’s rare that this will happen when it does it can be very frustrating especially if you were carrying a lot of unused souls. Ironically enough the same area where the camera can be tricky is the only area I ever noticed any substantial drop in frame rate and it all was over so quickly it didn’t impact my fun. Those are the only negative points I ever noticed about the game and they are minor in comparison to the epic scale of what Dark Souls has to offer, every little detail is perfectly suited and expertly executed. This is not the kind of game that overloads you in story and lore, instead it distances you from other characters keeping you on a constant battle of survival and strategy.

The difficulty level is continuously adjusting itself so as soon as you beat one enemy you start to encounter more that force you to fight even harder and with more skill, to make things even harder if you die in an area the enemies fight even harder and are more brutal than ever – unfair? That’s just how the game plays out. Its clear Dark Souls aims itself at a specific type of gamer and if you don’t fit the bill you might not last very long, it’s immersive and deeply overpowering with enough lifespan to satisfy even the most hardcore gamer. Demon’s Souls was and still is only available as an exclusive to the ps3 so many 360 gamers could only rely on their expectations and not have the raw power of the original to compare it to, having played both I can say that all of my expectations were more than met in every possible way. It’s not rocket science what the game does but it manages to effortlessly exhaust and drain your senses without skipping a beat, in short it’s a serious dose of psychological warfare that is more than worth the ticket price. I loved every minute of Dark Souls, it rarely frustrated yet managed to keep me motivated enough every time to keep pressing on even when I was getting annihilated by creatures three times taller than me.

It’s rare I give a game serious top marks because realistically they all have some flaws here and there, Dark Souls is quite the opposite it doesn’t apologize for the extreme difficulty but it does reward you for persisting even when the odds are stacked against you. I’m giving the game a well deserved 10 out of 10, the minor issues that I experienced were minimal enough to not result in any hampering of game play. If you liked Demon’s Souls then you will lose your mind when you play its brutal predecessor, if on the other hand you haven’t and are up for a serious challenge then Dark Souls just might be the game for you.

Prepared to Die: a first play of Dark Souls

Though I review lots of games there are very few I blog about before actually reviewing them, Demon’s Souls was the exception and now Dark Souls follows in those footsteps. I will be writing up a full detailed review of Dark Souls in the near future, until then here is a brief rundown on my first few days of gameplay.

Bonfires serve as checkpoints and a place to rest.

Having had to wait a few extra days for the European release I was really excited to play, and it sure did meet all my expectations and more. After waking up in an old gothic asylum I quickly got to my feet and started exploring, with a broken sword in hand (that’s all they gave me) I carefully ventured through the place but soon met some demons. As you would imagine they were low level demons that were easy to slay, going further still I soon encountered my first boss.

Earlier bosses can put up one hell of a fight

Compared to the first boss in Demon’s Souls it was rather easy to kill and soon I found myself being carried off by a giant bird to an even more expansive world. Straight away the game started to really show that there were many different routes to take so I took the opportunity to explore as many places as possible, naturally the different areas have different enemies with low to high health power so attacking some early on was suicide.

The undead army are worthy foe

The key to really staying alive and pushing through to the next area is to scavenge the best weapons and armour you can find but in Dark Souls that was easier said than done so I spent a lot of time just farming until I’d reach a good enough level to take on the next big task or foe. Unlike Demon’s Souls there was no nexus instead I had to find and light bonfire, when lit they save your progress and give you flasks of health. The online worked well and when I got stuck I easily summoned up another player to help me vanquish a really tough demon, thankfully I wasn’t invaded by a black phantom.

Building an efficient character through upgrades is essential

So almost 3 days in and I have to say I love the game, it’s VERY unforgiving and it makes no excuses about its insistence to punish you for not being strong enough to survive. So far I have defeated quite a few demon bosses and put together a good strong knight character equipped with some very damaging weapons but I still have a ways to go so a full review won’t be posted for another while.

FROM SOFTWARE in join development with SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT JAPAN STUDIO (SCE Japan Studio).
directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki of FROM SOFTWARE and Produced by Takeshi Kaji from SCE Japan Studio. Music composed by Shunsuke Kida.

Dead Island: game review (ps3/360/pc)

Welcome to the beautiful island of Banoi, situated in the south pacific this lush and picturesque paradise is soon to become a living hell for its many wealthy vacationers who come to the island for a nice peaceful getaway. Out of no where a strange and deadly epidemic hits the island turning all but a few into mindless bloodthirsty walking corpses, the few who are left must work together if they are ever to leave alive. What i like about the story is it goes out of its way to really leave you in the dark about what has happened and how you can stop it, instead you have to either work hard through the story missions or if you are lucky find some of the many news excerpts scattered across the map. What you do learn is this, the royal palms resort is no longer a beautiful getaway with all the trimmings of pure luxury, instead its overrun with hordes of the walking dead who are hell bent on making your stay a living nightmare.

The first thing about Dead Island is this, yes it’s easy to draw comparisons to games such as Borderlands/Dead Rising and of course Left 4 Dead but it’s a bit more complicated than that because really the game adapts and crafts itself to your own choices and so it’s not the same for everyone playing. There are four different characters to choose from each with their own sense of style and special moves, they range from the usual gunning expert/throwing expert/sharp weapons expert and the more in your face brawling expert. As you would expect each character has more power in their chosen field than the others so it makes for a lot of replay value.

At the same time i find it hard and unfair to group the game in with so many others because a lot of what it is actually doing is more original than the usual type of game in its genre. Dead Island is at its core an RPG styled survival horror game, the horror comes in the form of the many hordes of zombies who never fail in instilling a sense of dread and fear in the player, and the RPG comes from the ability to tailor your chosen characters skills and build in order to make a more efficient and deadlier survivor. What really makes the game special is the many moments gamers all over experience one time another in their quest for survival, for some it might be something like diving off a roof only to land on a truck below in a desperate attempt to escape their undead pursuers while for others it might be taking on a whole horde and narrowing escaping death while a thrown knife just misses your head. It’s these little moments that really get the blood flowing and there are an almost endless supply once you take your first step into the infected world of the undead.

Playing the game really is easy and even if you are not that familiar with RPGs you will soon get a hang of the skill tree, it’s a very simple formula and it goes as so: killing zombies earns you XP (experience points) once you have enough you earn a skill point which you can use to enhance your chosen abilities. Abilities help you stay strong and make you a more effective zombie slayer, some will enhance the damage you do while others can help you pick locks on crates/run for longer/and much more. Players familiar with the skills and levelling up in Borderlands will feel right at home here because it’s almost identical to the same system the game used. With my own character i used a lot of skill points to enhance my fighting abilities with edged melee weapons, without these skills and enhancements it really would not have been possible to finish the game because like most RPG styled games once you level up the enemy does too.

Zombies are no stranger to recent and past video games but no where have they been as deadly or utterly relentless as in Dead Island, when it comes to motivation they are on a whole new level. Its brutal how they are so well done, they don’t just look the part they really are the part. The zombies are a huge part of the gameplay and its immense immersive styling so you would expect them to be good.. just not this good. As you explore the island you will see zombies eating many of the fallen victims, banging at doors and windows to kill the remaining survivors hiding inside or just aimlessly roaming around in a world of their own. Like almost everything in the game they are not just there for looks they serve a purpose and the game will try its hardest to make you their next meal. The first time you encounter the infected wearing their beach clothes while their faces rot off they are easily dispatched with a few whacks of a blunt instrument, when the game really gets going they start to move faster and prove to be more ruthless.

Not only that, there are many different kinds of zombies from the early shambling walker zombies to the fast and agile infected whose shrill screams will make you jump even before they come at you with their red eyes glowing. Bigger zombies will make their presence known and when they do you really have to react fast because as you would imagine the bigger ones do most of the damage. The Ram were already insane before they got infected, so kitted out in straitjackets all they can do is charge and ram you ..but that alone is enough, Suiciders are as their name suggests bad news and they go about killing you by exploding once they get within range of the uninfected. Further on in the game other zombies such as The Floaters and the Butchers will make themselves known, the former being a grotesque bloated behemoth capable of inflicting large amounts of damage as it spits up corrosive slime and bile. The Butchers ..well as the name suggests they are good at slicing and tearing their prey, they share the speed and agility of the faster zombies and put serious fear in even the most experienced player.

Combat in the game is quite realistic and you soon discover that even with so many upgrades you are far from invincible, luckily for you Dead Island not only gives you tons of weapons it lets you upgrade and modify them making them the more deadlier. For example early into the game you might pick up a kitchen knife that takes about 6 hits to permanently put a zombie to rest but after upgrading it the strikes needed are halved.. modify the knife to give them an electric shock too and you have a more reliable weapons. Thankfully kitchen knives are only just the beginning, on offer are all manner of weapons including machetes/axes/sickles/samurai swords/hammers/handguns/assault rifles/shotguns, the list goes on. They all serve a purpose and it’s a good idea to use weapons that suit your characters fighting style because you will deal more damage and earn more XP to use in crafting weapons and items. Crafting weapons and explosives cannot be done unless you have the required items and materials that make it possible but the island is packed full of places and things to loot so you will always be stocked up on items – though at times the items might seem useless its worth looting everything you can because you never know when you might need it. Driving is something i never expected to appear in the game so i was surprised to see drivable trucks popping up on the map, they do come in useful on the island as some of the locations are so vast you will need some wheels to get around where fast travel teleports don’t go.

The locations and world the game offers spoils the player in a way unlike anything you would ever imagine. I was quite content to just explore the resort and miles of lush beautiful beaches, little did i know there was more varied locations to come. As the story progresses other areas open up such as cities and even jungles, each one really is a testament to the work that has been put into the game and each one has something new and exciting to offer. Though the story missions are the main focus of the game they are not all that is there, through the player’s journey many side quests are made available and all offer a perfect opportunity to interact with the game world and its characters. Some side quests will require you to search for specific materials or kill specific targets; they all have the fun factor in common and can be done at your own pace with no timers to be seen. What i liked about the missions was the realism, characters will ask you to find them gas for cars, food and supplies and even fuel to burn decaying corpses; they all seem to be things you would expect in a real life outbreak. The realism makes the game all the more enjoyable because you feel like you really accomplished something by helping the people around you and in a way it makes you more aware of what’s happening.

The graphics are not the best the gaming world has to offer but in some parts especially outdoors they are really well done and very vividly portray the island and its surroundings, the trees and vegetation are lush and crisp, the oceans and water are beautifully rendered to the point of calling you to jump in and you will even if it’s just to crush the head of a fallen zombie. One of the most savage examples of the games graphics is the brutally vivid way a zombies body can be taken apart only to leave a staggering pile of limbs. The physics are not perfect but they are no way near horrible, if you toss a propane tank a quickly placed bullet will cause it to explode destroying anything within its devastating range. Throwing a knife at a zombie will result in a walking pincushion, then you can pull the knife back out when they are dealt with. Kick a zombie into water and funnily enough they will start to lose some of their life bar, equally running past with a sword at neck level will cause the head to come right off like a hot knife through butter ..is this all sounding violent? It is.

Dead Island is a not a game for the kiddies it’s a veritable gore fest of mass proportion, heads will fly, arms and legs will fly and it all gets washed down in a river of blood. Similar to Borderlands and Left 4 Dead the story quickly takes a back seat when Co-Op is in session, with or without other players its one of the most addictive games you will ever play. If you are not familiar with Co-Op in games then Dead Island is the perfect place to start, whether it’s with long time friends or just random strangers playing online is very enjoyable and the added company comes in very useful when you are swamped with a zombie horde coming at you from all directions. For the trophy and achievement hunters out there a whole host of challenges and requirements await, some are easier than others but most seem to be picked up through story progression or just random exploration. Levelling up is fun and adds to the games lifespan, along with that the choice of four different characters to play with opens the replay value to a whole new world of possibilities, in short you will never be lacking for something to do or see. I started playing the game the morning it was released and after 70hrs of game time and levelling up all the way to level 50 i’m still finding lots to do, it really is the game that keeps on giving. There are many games on the market which offer the zombie survival horror experience but none have been this fun or rewarding, though it has its small problems (see below) the glitches reported in no way hamper or take away from the real Dead Island experience. I loved this game and everything it had to offer, i’m giving it a much deserved 10 out of 10 and though it’s not even October yet it is already a serious competitor for the coveted game of the year.

Glitches & Bugs

When the game was originally released it was plagued by an infection of its very own, glitches and bugs. People who played before the patch and then installed it reported a loss of progression and even corrupted save data. My own experience was nothing short of brilliant, initially i only played the game offline with the Co-Op disabled on the main menus options screen and i had no problems. I then tried with the Co-Op enabled and i not only lost save progression, my trophies would not activate. Strangely enough now when i play on Co-Op with friends my saves don’t malfunction and my trophies work. Other people have not been so lucky so unless you want to wait for an updated patch to fix the bugs and glitches i’d advise playing it offline to prevent any data getting lost or corrupted. Even with the glitches the game is nothing short of brilliant, and to completely avoid it because of some release day bugs would be a bad idea and a complete loss of possibly one of the greatest games ever made. Dead Island is on sale now and DLC has already been announced.

My top 10 games of the year

1. Dead Rising 2
2. Assassins Creed: brotherhood
3. Red Dead Redemption
4. Gran Turismo 5
5. Castlevania: lords of shadow
6. GTA: episodes from liberty city
7. Guitar Hero: warriors of rock
8. Fallout: new vegas
9. R.u.s.e
10. Heavy Rain

Dead Rising 2: game review (PS3/360/PC)

Zombies are everywhere these days from movies to games they have infested our cities our pubs and even.. Vegas, that's right its the sequel of the 2006 zombie smashing hacking and slashing hit Dead Rising.

The first game had you running around a shopping mall taking out zombies but giving you the option to save survivor's which in return netted you bonus points. this time around its pretty much the same deal except the story plays a more important part in your gaming experience and its much more open ended with almost double the lifespan.

You take on the role of chuck greene a former motocross star who is forced to enter a game show with a difference in order to buy the medication he desperately needs for his daughter. that game show is TIR - terror is reality, and the main aim of the game is to kill more zombies than the other contestants, simple enough really until the zombies escape and overrun the city tearing apart everything and everyone they come into contact with. so now with 3 days until the military arrive chuck has no choice but to fight it out until help arrives – there is of course the small matter of his daughters medication too.

So surviving the 3 days really is all up to the player, you have pretty much an open world to explore and game through which is similar to the original game but being set in Vegas its bigger and much more vibrant. crazy is a word i have used to describe this game many times and within the first 5mins of gameplay you will see why. chuck has at his disposal an almost limitless amount of weapons and props to use against the undead, these range from simple golf clubs and antique blades to pretty much anything you want or can find laying around. going to a hunting store will net you sniper rifles/shotguns and the like while going to a sports store will result in bats/clubs/rackets and even balls, that's right balls. this is where DR2 really shines, there is an almost limitless amount of novelty items to twist and turn into your very own killing tools. crafting your own items can be challenging at first but once you start to progress you will receive combo cards which work as a blue print in weapon design. i found that a simple bat with some nails worked wonders but you can get as creative as you choose.

Being set in Vegas means there is gambling aplenty to be done but its not always so easy to win, you can increase your luck at gambling by picking up gambling magazines in bookshops and scattered around zombie infested casino’s. the books also serve to raise the skill level of other things like your combat and even driving. the driving in the game actually works quite well but you have to buy whatever vehicle you want and no matter how many times you do playthrough you won’t be able to afford them unless you start gambling.

The enemies range from your average stumbling zombies to shoplifters trying to score big to my personal favourite, the psychopaths. these are individuals who have been affected by the zombie outbreak and they put up one hell of a fight but beating them gets you big reward points and most lead to more survivors who will tag along with you. the psychopaths all have their own unique traits but they all have one thing in common, they are hard as nails to beat and don’t expect to beat even half of them the first time round, but this is where one of my favorite features comes into play. the game gives the player the ability to quit at any time so they can start a new game but with all the skills and points they had from the last game. this really works in building up a stronger character with superior combat skills and a much higher chance of surviving.

There really is so much i could say about this game and i did indeed play it to death, mostly for the achievements but also because each playthrough was so different. the world is so open you can do whatever you want and save or not save the others hiding around Fortune City, its really up to you. the level design is top notch with wide spacious malls packed with stores/costumes/weapons – casino’s filled with slot machines and zany games which can be played, and so much more.

Dead Rising 2 is a game i really can’t say anything bad about, its was hugely enjoyable playing though your first playthrough will be the hardest. i’m giving it a 9 out of 10, i’m removing 1 point because of katey’s zombrex needs – though the medication could be obtained with a little work it sometimes felt repetitive getting back to her with it in time.

Things not mentioned: online co-op, i never tried it - DLC available: mostly costume packs, Ninja, Psychopath, Sports & Soldier.

SAW: game review (PS3 & 360)

Taking over after the SAW movies comes SAW the game. the character you control is that of David Tapp, a detective obsessed with catching the infamous jigsaw killer. his obsession quickly leads him into jigsaws biggest game yet, being a pawn in an ultimate test. waking up in an abandoned insane asylum he quickly finds how real the situation is, driven by his determination to bring jigsaw to justice he has no choice but to stay and play jigsaws deadly game.

The first thing the game developers did was successfully recreate the feel of the films in such a uniquely way that dangerous as it is you just want to explore it inch by inch. doing so will not only put you in the path of jigsaws maniacal traps it will also put in direct contact with the other inmates… that’s right jigsaw has concealed a key to the exit inside of your chest and people will be hell bent on getting it out of you to gain their freedom. the environments themselves like the movies are dark/dank but beautifully rendered, yes the game oozes atmosphere at every level.

the lighting is fantastic with everything from flame effects to the little blips of CCTV cameras adding unparalleled realism. the building itself is abandoned so expect decaying floors “pitfalls”/pitch-black offices/cold operating rooms and much more… of course the levels would be nothing without jigsaws own personal touch. some of the traps such as the jaw-split and shot-gun collars will be instantly recognizable to SAW fans but there are a whole host of new traps designed specifically for the game each one mechanically different from the other but equally as horrific.

Adding in the element of other people roaming the asylum really sets the game into overdrive, i soon found out that they don’t just attack with whatever they can find scattered around the environment “bats/iron bars/furniture” but they will also set traps of their own so the player is constantly on watch for trip-wires that could lead to a very sticky situation.

Being in the SAW universe means that the player has to work their way around puzzles to not only free themselves but to also free others. Each major stage of the game has the player work to gain the freedom of jigsaws other victims, often they are there for their own personal reasons but some are directly linked to Tapp.

Ok so as a diehard SAW fan i can admit playing the game i really was in my element and so it would have been hard for me to find any faults in the game… but i did. my first gripe with the game was the fighting system it seems that if you get the first punch in then you win the fight, but if they get the first punch then they win. of course you can change the odds drastically by swinging an iron bar or nail-bat at their heads… this is SAW after all. my second gripe is with the puzzles themselves, although most of them are very well created and implemented i found myself looking for tips on YouTube and Google. of course the puzzles are supposed to be challenging and the brain teasers tricky but on many occasions i found it being a bit much when i couldn’t work a puzzle because the gas being pumped into the room kept throwing me off. the best example of this would be would be a puzzle that involved me connecting up three circuit boxes under an impossible time limit while the room filled with gas… i got it after about 10 tries.

So my final conclusion is this: SAW is actually a great game with stunning visuals and edge of your seat game-play which should be experienced by SAW fans and survival horror fans alike. if you are a fan of neither then there may not be enough to there to keep you playing, the ultimate question remains… do YOU want to play a game?

Dead Space - game review

Set in space (obviously) this bears an uncanny resemblance to the movie “event horizon” & “alien/aliens” ..not that that’s a bad thing & in this case it sure isn’t. dead space puts the player in control of isaac clarke an engineer sent to repair a mining ship known as the USG Ishimura which has recently come into contact with a strange alien artefact. Upon boarding the ship clarke & his crew are confronted with unimaginable horror as the ship is slowly turned into one giant bloodbath. Infested with aliens & mutilated crew the Ishimura has turned into a what can only be describe as hell, a hell the player must survive through in order to discover what happened & how to fix it before its too late.

Its no secret that the game borrows a lot from the movie event horizon & even some of the alien movies so visually that’s really what you get. The ship itself is full of atmosphere & seems to be ever changing - a rare enough feature in most modern games. The lighting effects really impressed me here & the first time the ship went into lock-down when the lights started flashing & I could only make out things moving in the shadows I was instantly hooked..not to mention a little scared! But then that’s the way the game is supposed to play, from the start to the finish you know you are playing a survival horror game. The level design is top-notch & includes, claustrophobic hallways, industrial type hanger bays, areas so heavily infested that the walls themselves are alive, medical labs, armouries, control rooms but one of my favourite little features is the areas where zero-gravity has kicked in. these areas as you might imagine are completely free of the effects of gravity so things in the rooms float freely through the air, but so do you & whatever enemies you may encounter, solving puzzles in zero-gravity can be tricky but equally entertaining & definitely rewarding.

The alien enemies are called necromorphs &a simple headshot will definitely not take them down instead you have to literally take them apart piece by piece. If you are squeamish then I really wouldn’t advise playing this game but if you aren’t then you will enjoy blasting your way through the game taking out all kinds of aliens & a number of bosses. A long the way you will encounter key characters & logs that will help you get to the truth. To deal with the alien threat the game gives you the option to buy all kinds of weapons at shop points throughout the levels, credit can be collected & found in many different places & on the bodies of the crew/aliens but you can also earn credit by selling items you don’t want..I really liked this feature because instead of roaming around looking for ammo I needed I could simple sell the ammo/items I didn’t need & purchase the things I did need

Your character is equipped with a spacesuit or “rig” which can be upgraded through the game by collecting power units & unlocking upgrades but it also gives you control to slow down objects in real time which can be very useful when faced with a swarm of enemies or trying to get past a broken door. Another ability unique to the game is the use of telekinesis which allows the player to pick up & move objects without actually being near them, you can even use the limbs of defeated enemies & fling them as weapons. As for the weapons themselves there really is everything you would expect & a little bit more - pulse rifles, force guns, flame throwers, plasma cutters, even an industrial saw which can shoot blades out to dismember the aliens, & as an added bonus every weapon can be upgraded using the same power nods as the your suit, my favourite was the plasma cutter but on my second play through I upgraded the pulse rifle & stuck to using that.

So my final thoughts about the game. The visuals are stunning & it has some of the best lighting I have ever seen, its full of atmosphere & the ship itself is truly unique, the enemies are constantly changing/evolving to the fit the level, the music & acting is a cut above the rest & the plot/story will grab you & not let go, the weapons/abilities are impressive & fun to use & upgrade. All in all it’s a solid game with a lot of features & intrigue that will have you playing for hours - I’d say I got about 3days play out of the whole game. If you are a fan of games like resident evil/silent hill or movies like event horizon/alien then you will really enjoy this game, I sure did.