The Good:
Once again, the voice acting is superb. Of course, Jennifer Hale as FemShep was outstanding, but the other voice actors were also excellent. Even the background characters sounded real and fleshed out- something that is a rarity in most video games. I only played as a female Shepard, so I have no clue how the voice acting for male Shepard was. The only character whose voice acting I could not stand was the war reporter, Diana Allers (voiced by Jessica Chobot). It was very clear, especially in comparison to the other characters, that Jessica Chobot is not an actress. Her lines were stilted and not very convincing.

The characters themselves are also a high point. Old friends and enemies show up in various ways, and getting to talk to them (even briefly) made me very happy. The people who have been interacting with since Mass Effect 1, Kaiden, Ashley, Joker Wrex, Garrus, Tali, and Liara have grown and developed in a way that is realistic. Even the squadmate you did not save (in my case, Kaiden) is mentioned numerous times, making your relationships seem much more real. A few new characters appear, such as James Vega. At first I didn’t know what to think about him, but in the end I really enjoyed talking to him. He is pretty damn hilarious, and his conversations with other crew members on the Normandy were a high point. One of the best parts was hearing the characters interact with one another. As I ran from one part of the Normandy to another, I would walk in on shipmates talking with each other. Liara would be talking to Garrus, Joker and Edi would be mid conversation, etc. Stopping to listen to these conversations was fun and enlightening.

Shep is back and she's as badass as ever (or 'he' if you prefer).

The story itself was also great. You start off with Earth being attacked by the Reapers, and it just goes non-stop from there. It is up to you, as Commander Shepard, to reunite the races for the upcoming war. This is not an easy task, and centuries of mistrust and bad blood run through all of the races. Supporting the Krogan to help cure the genophage will result in the losing the support of the Salarians. The Quarian and Geth conflict also comes to a head. It is possible to get almost all of the factions on your side, but you have to play an almost perfect game.

The Average:
The combat system has improved even more from Mass Effect 2, but compared to most shooters it’s still average. There is a new cover system that is good in theory, but doesn’t always work in practice. Many times I found myself running to a point, only to suddenly find myself in cover, facing the wrong way and getting shot at. This was frustrating and made what could have been a really good combat system hard to work with at times. The best improvement was allowing all classes to carry any weapon they want. This is balanced out with a weight system- the heavier the weapons, the longer it takes your powers to cool down. I played as an infiltrator, and after I got an awesome sniper rifle, I only carried that. As a result of having only one weapon, my powers cooled down within seconds, allowing me to use them more often.

Bioware took the complaints of Mass Effect 2 leveling up system to heart and tweaked it for the third game. It has much more of an RPG feel to it, similar to the first game, without all the issues. You have many more choices when leveling up powers, and modifying your weapons is satisfying and shows actual changes. You still don’t have the depth that was available in Mass Effect 1, but I think Bioware found a good balance between RPG and Third Person Shooter.

Multiplayer is something that was added for the third game. It directly affects the single player game by helping your “galactic readiness.” You and three people can choose between the 6 classes and various races and have to hold off ten waves of either geth, reapers, or Cerberus troops and survive. Sprinkled in the 10 waves are different objectives, so you aren’t able to just camp out and shoot people. I played both with random people and with friends, and it is much more satisfying with friends. This is a game you need to communicate with your teammates, and it’s much easier to do that with friends. Plus, who hasn’t wanted to play as a Krogan?

Go ahead punk make my day

Kinect voice commands were also added to Mass Effect 3. I do not have a Kinect, so I was not able to test it myself, but I had a friend (and fellow Mass Effect junkie) test it out for me and give me her results. She said it took a while to get used to using it in combat, but once she got the hang of it she loved yelling out commands during battles and seeing squadmates react. She enjoyed it the most during conversations. She was able to put down the controller and get into the scene, and just speak the prompts and watch her Shepard react. Other people have told me they have trouble with the Kinect system, and there is not guide on what commands to use, so a lot of it is a guessing game on what you should exactly be yelling.

The Bad:
The scanning system is back. No, you aren’t scanning for minerals like in Mass Effect 2, or driving around planets on the Mako finding hunks of rocks, but it’s still just as irritating. Now you fly your Normandy around the galaxy map, and scan the systems for “war assets” that help you in your cause. That in itself is not a bad thing, but now if you scan too much, the Reapers fly in and you have to evade them. Essentially you are playing Pac-Man with the Reapers. I found this system to be jarring and it took me out of the game.

If you play the game without playing Mass Effect 1 and 2 first, you will have a perfectly fine game, but I don’t think you will be getting the full experience. As much as Bioware claims you can jump in without playing the first two, I think that is doing yourself a grave disservice. Part of my enjoyment of the game was seeing the loads of people from the first two games show up. Actions I did in the first two games directly affected my galactic readiness. Conversations that brought up past actions were common. I can’t imagine I would have any clue what was going on if I hadn’t played the first two games. I cried a few times during the game when certain characters died. I don’t know if the emotional impact would have been there if I hadn’t gotten to know the characters previously. This is truly the end of a trilogy. It would be like reading the last book in a trilogy without reading the first two. You will probably enjoy it, but miss a lot of the backstory and richness of the culture and world as a whole.

The Romance:
Bioware certainly stepped up the gay factor on this one, and I love it. Our gay brothers finally get same sex romance options. Yes, that’s plural. There are two males that can romanced by a male Shepard: Kaiden and Cortez, a shuttle pilot. For the ladies, there are three options. First, you can continue your romance with Liara, start a relationship with your com officer Samantha Traynor (lesbian only romancable by female Shepard), or hook up with war reporter Diana Allers. You can also continue your relationships from Mass Effect 2, with a few exceptions. I found my relationship with Liara to be the most in depth one of the three ladies. You have many conversations with her about the past, the future, and your relationship. I haven’t done that much processing since my last real life relationship. The romance with Samantha Traynor was sweet and definitely sexy (one word: shower.) I thought the relationship with Diana Allers was forced and not very realistic, and was my least favorite of all them, gay or straight.

Great game and then there was that ending we can't discuss due to spoilers.

I applaud Bioware for taking the time to add the same-sex relationships to Mass Effect 3. It made the universe seem much more realistic. You will randomly hear conversations from people of both sexes talk about their husbands and wives, and no one so much as bats an eye. The first time I talked to the shuttle pilot Cortez and he casually mentioned he lost his husband, I about dropped my controller in shock. My second thought was “That was so cool!” It takes a lot to shock me in a video game, and Bioware did it in a good way. My only complaint was that I was unable to romance Ashley Williams as a female Shepard. Kaiden is romanceable by both genders, but Ashley is not? I don’t understand why that was overlooked, Ashley really grew on me over three games and I would have loved have romanced her. That is, hoever, a small complaint in what is otherwise a great game.

The Ending:
No, I won’t spoil the ending for you. All I will say is that I thought the last 5 minutes were jarring and seemed very out of place in the Mass Effect Universe. The “optimal” ending (or what constitutes as one) is up for debate, and is very difficult to get if you do not play multiplayer. Not impossible, but difficult. If anyone wants to talk more about the ending privately, feel free to PM me on the forum (Name: Xan) or hit me up on the Lesbian Gamers Facebook page and I am willing to discuss the ending in depth. But it does bring closure to the end of a trilogy, and that is the important thing.

Overall, it’s a satisfying conclusion to 6 years, three games, and countless novels and comics. I love this universe, I love Commander Shepard, and I did love this game. It has some flaws, and there are a few things I wish was done different, but I felt like it was telling MY story of MY Shepard. In the end, I think that was what made the game great.

Alice: Madness Returns – Has it really been 11 years since we were graced with the joy of American McGee’s Alice on PC? As someone who is more of a console gamer than a PC gamer, back then, American McGee’s Alice was just too good to resist. The game was creepy, gothic, funny and engaging, and by using the Quake 3 engine, it was a game that was definitely advanced for it’s time.

Story
Now here we are in 2011 and we have American McGee back, brining us more trippy gameplay from the dark and unnerving Alice, in Alice: Madness Returns on Xbox 360. The story kicks off with Alice as a teenager, under the watchful eye of Dr Bumby, a psychiatrist. For those who have played the first game, this probably isn’t too much of a surprise, since Alice’s mind and her adventures in wonderland have clearly taken their toll on her idea of reality. The story progresses from there, and it’s not long until Alice is thrown back into a world of gory, creepy, gothic horror.

Gameplay
Alice: Madness Returns, is a solid platformer which has its fair share of hack and slash goodness. The controls feel effortless and you can easily shrink Alice down to enable her access to smaller areas in the game. The weapons such as the Vorpal knife and the pepper-grinder, are sufficiently gruesome and weird that they fit perfectly into the overall feel of the game. At times there are plenty of enemies on screen and the AI is pretty good, so the controls and the weapons work perfectly well together to make hacking and slashing your way through levels quite enjoyable. You can lock on to target and kill them at long range, as well as hop around on different levels to avoid them if you need to. As well as Alice’s excellent fighting abilities, she’s also perfectly capable of jumping and floating effortlessly around the levels. The checkpoints are strategically placed so that it doesn’t become infuriating if you need to do part of a level again and the fact you can’t fall off ledges helps ensure you make it through many levels unscathed. There’s no multiplayer in Alice, which is probably how it should be, but there are cute rhythm mini-games in it, although you don’t need to play these if you don’t want to.

Graphics
One of the most impressive aspect of this title is the graphics. From the beginning, it has a very surreal feeling to it, reminiscent of the French animated classic “The Triplets of Bellville”. NPC’s are as full of character in their faces as the characters you can interact with and you feel that Alice’s madness pours out through the depiction of these characters beautifully. The backgrounds and levels of the game are also absolutely gorgeous to look at, accurately representing Alice’s troubled mind. The game grabs you with it’s aesthetics and although there are a few pop up issues here and there, the frame-rate is solid throughout.

Audio
As with the graphics, sound plays an important part of this title and the creepy score which accompanies the game is spot on. It adds to the overall experience and the dialogue from the characters is great. At times it becomes a little cliched, but there are some stand out characters, including of course the dryness of the Cheshire Cat. Alice herself sounds a lot like Lara Croft which is always a nice bonus.

Female Character Angle
Obviously the female character is the lead character in this title, so it’s always welcome to see that. Alice is a very interesting character and her background and decent to madness is quite gripping. Through the 15 hours or so it takes to play the game, you’ll find yourself becoming more and more intertwined in Alice’s psyche and she’s definitely a character that can hold her own on screen.

Overall
Alice: Madness Returns is a welcome return to gaming for American McGee. The game is eerie, interesting, gory, surreal and extremely dark. It’s a very close likeness to Lewis Carroll’s original vision for Alice and the levels and gameplay compliment this perfectly. If you haven’t played the original, you can still pick this up and will enjoy it as it’s a solid platformer with great aesthetic touches.

8/10

Hedkandi Kandis in-ear headphones for gaming…
Of the two sets we were sent, the Hedkandi Kandies would be the headphones (earphones) we would use for portable gaming and for the price point (around 7UKP) they’re not too bad, with good clarity and connector. These are low end earphones though and feature no noise reduction or other glitzy options available with other makes.

Tech Specs:
Driver Size: 13mm
Frequency Response: 12-20,000Hz
Impedence: 160hms
Sensitivity: 103dB
Max input power: 50mW
Cable Length: 1.3m

Hedkandi Ministry of Sound headphones
Let’s say this right of the bat, the hedkandi Ministry of Sound headphones are essentially the hedkandi discotheque headphones with a nice Ministry of Sound logo on them. Technically speaking you’re looking at padded over-ear headphones in a few different colors.

Let’s think about these from a videogaming perspective. As mentioned hedkandi don’t do specific gaming earphones / headphones because they are essentially a music company, pushing Hed Kandi dance music. Having said that, for the price bracket these aren’t that bad for gaming, the only downside we had was cable length, which comes in at only 1.5m, nowhere near long enough for you to couch sit whilst playing.

Here’s the tech specs:
Driver diameter: 40mm
frequency response: 20-20,000Hz
impedence: 32 Ohms
sensitivity: 108 dB
max input power: 100 mW
cable length: 1.5m

At around 18UKP the hedkandi discotheque / Ministry of Sound headphones are pretty good, but for the gamer there are better headphones on the market. The main downside of larger gaming regular headsets is of course the lack of USB connectivity for the PC gamer and of course the hedkandi headphones feature no built in mic for in-game chat. If it’s just purely a listening experience you’re after, both of these headphones will do the job, with clarity being pretty good as entry level peripherals. For the hardcore gamer though hedkandi is more suited to the music fan than the video gamer.

Fable 3 developed by Lionhead Studios originally released only for the Xbox 360, and then for PC in 2011, is an action/role playing game that I feel everyone should have a go at. Whether you want romance and babies; communicable diseases and clever innuendo; intrigue; kicking defenseless chickens to death; or you just want to kill monsters and characters that get in your way, Fable 3 has something to offer you. The game gives you the option of playing as a male or a female character. Both genders serve the same purpose, however for this review I will focus on the female character, keeping in mind that there is no difference except for the appearance of the character and minor characters making reference to your gender when marking your status within the kingdom.

The central female character does not conform to modern stereotype of the female figure; she is a statuesque brunette, and not particularly beautiful. As you gain power and experience in the game your height and weight increases, leaving you to be an amazon of a woman, though obesity is not an issue. To become a truly successful hero, your height and weight are monitored in your in-game menu. As you gain weight and height your hero status improves, which is wonderful for women because there does not appear to be any of the subliminal messaging, within the storyline, about body imaging that you see in so many other games that include female characters.

Basic storyline of Fable 3: You begin by choosing whether you will be a prince or a princess, once you have chosen this you are to begin the inevitable cut scenes that describe the games setting and prepare the player for the story to begin. In Fable 3 your story begins with you discovering that the country is in revolt against your brother, who has gone mad with power. After he makes you choose between the lives of your countrymen or the love of your life, you are forced to escape the castle with two trusted companions Walter Beck and Jasper (voiced by John Cleese!!!). Throughout most of your journey these two characters assist you in various ways, by gaining you access to various communities and supplying you with items and advice to help you in your various quests. But I digress from telling you that the main point is to travel the country to find and obtain the help of various rebel cells and communities to help overthrow the tyrant, your brother. In doing this you must pledge various favours to these communities, in the event that they should join you and help you successfully overthrow your brother.

Now I won’t ruin any more of the storyline, but I will go on to tell you that amidst this massive quest there are over one hundred minor quests to complete that award you guild seals that help you on the “Road to Rule”. The Road to Rule is a separate part of the storyline which maps your progress as a hero/heroine and allows you to upgrade your perks as a warrior.

While the main quest takes only a few hours (it took me roughly 5 hours each time) of gameplay, the offshoots of the main story and the smaller quests that you pick up along the way turn Fable 3 into endless hours of fun and challenges. If you want to contract STD’s from prostitutes, either male or female, these working people have no qualms about your gender, your marriage status, whether you are already infected with a communicable disease or your stature in life, they are more than happy to service your needs. Marriage is not an essential part of the game, but it is an amusing pastime, especially if you intend on gaining a few extra points for your gamer card. One of the achievements that you can complete on your quest is to marry at least 6 characters, and then kill 2 of them. There are many Xbox live achievements to complete, and every time a new downloadable content pack becomes available, more achievements appear. For those out there who play the game and attempt to obtain all of the live achievements, be warned that it is no easy feat to do so, and it will take a lot of time in single player and co-op missions.

There is a lot of downloadable content, both free and pre-paid that you can obtain for Fable 3. Quest packs, weaponry and various items for use within the game can be downloaded from within the game or from the DLC menu on the Xbox live dashboard. Fable 3’s in game menu (known as ‘The Sanctuary’, where Jasper, your butler, lives and communicates with you) allows you to view all relevant data for the game, including your progress on quests, comparative data from your friends’ games, and what DLC you have downloaded. There are free DLC packs available that provide you with the files to join the co-op games of other players who have already obtained the quest packs. In saying that, downloading the free items does not allow you to make us of the quest packs in your own game without paying for them.

Throughout the whole game, whether you are a prince or a princess, all characters, and their treatment of you is gender neutral. Both male and female characters complete the same quests, meet the same people, and are treated with fear and respect by all of the subjects, though this does not mean that your subjects automatically like you, for your subjects to like you, you are required to interact with them personally and complete tasks and quests for these people.

In summary, I feel that Fable 3 is a wonderful game suited to anyone, over the age of 16, who enjoys challenging quests, a good joke, and a great storyline. The game is not sexist, nor does it seem to be aimed at any particular gender. There is romance and wild and violent creatures for all, as well as a whole lot of innuendo, and bad jokes for everyone to enjoy. So if you own an Xbox 360 or a PC I would recommend you give Fable 3 a chance, it might just be the boredom buster you have been looking for.

Review by Sarah

It’s finally here, “Portal 2″ is with us. When “Portal” released back in late 2007 as part of “The Orange Box” compilation we were impressed. As our reviewer at the time stated “If you want to play something that’s a little different from the norm, you should definitely check out Portal”. Check it out many of us did and we fell in love with its innovative game mechanic and some of the best faceless characters (antagonist and protagonist alike) to invade our gaming.

It’s now 2011 and “Portal 2″ has hit shelves, I of course grabbed my Portal gun, headed to the game store, picked up the game, fired an orange portal into the wall to tie to the blue portal hole I had left in my office. I stepped through and the magic commenced.

“Portal 2″ picks up a century after the events of the first game (which I will brush over on the off chance you did not play it!). Our hero Chell is brought to by Wheatley, a personality sphere (a ball shaped robot) voiced by Stephen Merchant to great comedic affect. Fear not “Portal” fans, GLaDOS is also back, setting up a multitude of tests for you. For those who have not played the previous game, here’s a brief rundown on just what those tests involve. “Portal 2″ is – like its predecessor – a puzzle game. As female protagonist Chell, you must solve tests, the end objective of which is to get safely to the exit of a room / rooms. Chell uses a ‘portal gun’ as her main means of escape, the device fires portals (doors essentially) into flat surfaces, one orange and one blue. Stepping into one or the other sees Chell exit through the other. This innovative form of gameplay essentially bends the reality of a given room, with Chell able to fall from ceilings, appear in distant areas or utilize the portals to reach the all important exit.

The portal mechanic goes from fun and simple to the truly insane, with the introduction of gels, white that can be splashed on non portal surfaces to make them portal ready, orange to make surface super slippery and therefore fast and blue to make the surface bouncy. Though nothing is insurmountable, there were a couple of spots I found went from challenging to frustrating. This by no means ruined the experience however.

Along with its hugely clever gameplay mechanic, what makes “Portal 2″ brilliant is the characterisations. Though the game features essentially faceless characters, they are some of the most memorable, witty, charming characters in videogames.

Female Gamer Angle
Chell is the female protagonist in the game. She doesn’t speak and given the game is first person, you will rarely see her, only mere glimpses of her / you as you skip through portals. Despite her non vocal nature, she’s a great character and it was cool of Valve not to take the usual route and give us a male protagonist. The antagonist in “Portal 2″ is also female, if GLaDOS, a Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System can be said to have a gender. GLaDOS is superb, she is the Alexis Carrington of the game world, she’s bitchy, self absorbed and truly unforgettable. I’ll leave it at that given I don’t want to spoil any of the story in game, which is brilliant and ties Chell and GLaDOS together even further than the previous “Portal”.

The voice acting in “Portal 2″ needs to get a shout out, it is just superb. Ellen McLain as GLaDOS is just wonderful as the sarcastic bitch and charismatic antagonist. Stephen Merchant aka Ricky Gervais best mate plays Wheatley, an AI in the game who lends himself heavily to the story… and we’ll say no more about that. Finally there is J.K.Simmons who voices Aperture Laboratories CEO Cave Johnson, he is truly wonderful in the role as he imparts his wisdom and wit upon the player through soundbites in various levels, again though, you truly must discover it for yourself.

Overall “Portal 2″ is a wonderful game. Refined from the already innovative “Portal”, “Portal 2″ offers the player puzzles aplenty, wonderfully developed characters, great level design and some of the most comical in-game dialogue you’re likely to hear. The addition of the gels. those incredible physics based conundrums and a story that imparts a lot of history to the player means “Portal 2″ is a must buy for players of the previous game. For those who never purchased “The Orange Box”, naughty naughty! Go get it, then you can purchase “Portal 2″ and enjoy it in its entirety… oh one last thing, when you finish it, stay for the credits.

“Portal 2″ features multi-player elements. This review covers the single-player aspects.

The year is 2023, New York is in widespread panic and it’s up to you and your team to come to the rescue. Sound like every other action movie you’ve ever seen? Well it’s not, this is Crysis 2 on the Xbox 360 and you’re about to be in for a very exhilarating, wild ride.

You take on the role of Alcatraz who leads a team setting out to save Dr Nathan Gould, a nanobiologist who might be able to help stop the biological outbreak sweeping through the city. As with most titles of this ilk, you’re not simply some human making his way through a war-ridden town, you’re actually provided with a suit that gives you superhuman powers and with this, the game gets just that little bit more interesting.

The plot of Crysis 2 might not be as engaging or outstanding as some other titles that are currently available (Dragon Age II anyone?), but it doesn’t detract from what is a fun title to play. The gameplay makes up for any weaknesses in the plot and although the main characters aren’t as outstanding as some in other titles such as Mass Effect 2, there’s still enough depth to make the story interesting. The ability to upgrade your suit across three different areas (armour, stealth and speed) definitely helps the gameplay of Crysis 2. You can use them often because the energy meter replenishes quickly. This is great as it means there’s none of the frustration of having so many abilities, but not being able to use them. You can choose whether to use stealth to get through a mission, or go in all guns blazing and that’s a nice way to make the gamer feel like they’re more in control of the outcome of the game. There’s plenty of chances to blast your way through if you want to and your suit gives you a beautiful number of stats so you can see which weapon is working best for you. There’s a bunch of cool modifications for the weapons you find and when you start building up your favourite weapon, it can feel pretty powerful against AI that isn’t overly bright.

As shooters continue to populate the gaming market, people are demanding more from their graphics and Crysis 2 certainly does seem to live up to the hype. It has beautiful environments that are full of detail and in places they look photorealistic. Most of the big special effects such as explosions look amazing, but there are little issues now and again with pop-up in places. It’s not so noticeable that it ruins the game however, so it’s really not a deal-breaker. Crysis 2 has some gorgeous graphics and that really can’t be taken away from this title. One of the oddest things in Crysis 2 is that the environment now and again feels a little inconsistent at times. Some items were interactive and some weren’t and Crysis 2 could have been more consistent to keep you engaged in the game. At times you can hit things and you get some kind of onscreen effect, at others nothing. Very odd.

With great graphics, gamers always expect great sound and you won’t be disappointed with the audio on Crysis 2. There are fantastic explosions, gunfire, blasts, high-pitched ringing when you’re too close to other explosions, glass shattering and more. If you have a surround sound system set up, prepare to be wowed by it. The voice acting is pretty good, nowhere near as outstanding as other titles (Ahhh Heavenly Sword, why don’t you have a sequel), but decent enough when combined with the music soundtrack.

Most people are going to love playing Crysis 2 in single-player mode, but there are plenty of other options also. Multiplayer is a well-refined system where you can play a multitude of gameplay modes. There’s the usual death-match and capture the flag and as you level up, you unlock other classes of multiplayer games.

Overall, Crysis 2 is a fantastic shooter. It’s stylish, engaging, graphically appealing and immersive. The plot could be a little more fleshed out, but the gameplay makes up for it. Crysis 2 is definitely a shooter worth checking out and is one of the best around at the moment. The length of gameplay is right on track and the suit and other aspects make it stand out from the crowd. Get yourself a copy today.

The latest game in the Need for Speed series is here in the form of “Shift 2: Unleashed”. Part arcade racer, part racing sim, this game is going to appeal to a fairly specific demographic. This isn’t a fun arcade racer, even if it does try and wear that hat. When you get down to it, the controls and race mechanic dictate this is more racing sim than arcade blast. Slow into the turns, fast out of them and tight controls places this more in the “Moto GP” gaming series than say the “Burnout” series. It also differs from the “Need for Speed” racers in this same respect.

“Shift 2: Unleashed” sees you racing tracks in different cities to gain experience and in turn experience points. XP opens new tracks, cars and vinyls and is essentially the main reward concept in the game. Earn XP get more stuff. I liked this reward based system, such as the event objectives: perform a clean lap, beat lap time, lead for an entire lap, perfect corners etc. Doing all of these things adds to your XP count and in turn opens more up for you, it’s a clever way to add to the replay value.

Aesthetically “Shift 2: Unleashed” is really nice, though the frame-rate could do to be slightly better. Car models are sweet and there’s some improvement to the damage system fro the previous title. Though this title isn’t the best looking racing title on the market, there’s nothing here that’s so detrimental it’s going to ruin your time with the game.

The sound in “Shift 2: Unleashed” features the generic racing sounds we’ve all come to know, the roaring engines, soft metal / rock bands in the breaks and it also features the dulcet tones and video of racing driver Vaughn Gittin Jr telling you how to play the game. For true fans of the Formula D series, this is pretty cool, for the rest of us he might register as stopping the flow of the game.

Female Gamer Angle
There didn’t seem to be any gender pronouns used to suggest the game assumes you’re male, so that’s nice, even though the intro seemed to suggest all racing drivers are of the male persuasion. The narrator does say things like “sick man” “Nice one man” throughout the game, though this could be taken either way really. The driver where’s a full helmet so you can’t see the ‘player character’ as such. The pit girls in hotpants with giant boobs are there as one would assume they are in reality.

Overall “Shift 2: Unleashed” is a great game for those that love the more hardcore racing genre. This probably isn’t going to appeal to the arcade racer fan who is used to the drift filled mayhem of slamming the pedal to the metal with no thought for leading into bends and accelerating out. If that is your cup of tea you’re going to enjoy “Shift 2: Unleashed” because you get all that and the reward / upgrade system to boot. All in all “Shift 2: Unleashed” is a nice addition to the franchise, for me personally I enjoy the more loose racing titles in the “Need for Speed” franchise.

Epic Games and People Can Fly are fanning the flames of our “Gears of War 3″ wait with their new title “Bullestorm” and I’m here to give you the lowdown.

You play as Grayson Hunt, a big butch bohunk of a guy who is sort of an anti-hero, oh and he bears more than a little bit of a resemblance to Wolverine. I’ll be purposely vague about the story, because it’s quite good and I wouldn’t wish to spoil it. Suffice to say you are fighting a cause, with your buddy after being betrayed big style by evil dude number uno. The usual thing for this sort of game, though the story is good, it’s not going to break the boundaries of what this type of game generally does.

So how bout that gameplay?
Bulletstorm feels like a “Gears of War” game, third person. macho, gung-ho action title, but it feels a little less dark, more like an arcade romp. Why this is may well be down to the game mechanics, which enable you to do combo kills and gain points for doing so, rather than just outright kills (though these are possible also obviously).

Bulletstorm feels fluid enough, tight controls, nothing too taxing and its fun to play. On that note, I hear two friends playing it suffered some fairly substantial motion sickness. They inform me they were only able to play for an hour or so before needing to turn it off. I didn’t overly have the issue, but I thought it worth mentioning given the chance of two out of three people in my circle of friends becoming ill seems a pretty high ratio.

There are various modes available to you in Bulletstorm, though the reasonably compelling story mode is probably where you’re going to spend your time. This is cool, though I should probably mention there didn’t seem to be any cover mode like there is in “Gears of War”, which at times left me getting my ass kicked and was thus frustrating as hell (note to self, play on an easier difficulty perhaps). The weapons in Bulletstorm are clever and linked with the skillshot system, really add to what might otherwise be just another projectile laden frag fest.

What about the girls
Bulletstorm features the female character of Trishka, she’s a total hard ass with a mouth like a sewer. From memory her first words to Grayson and Sato are something akin to “I’ll shoot your dicks off”… nice. I’m not personally sure why the developers had her saying this and I recalled a lesbian gamers Twitter conversation I saw a few weeks ago wherein one of the devs stated: “@lesbiangamers When Gray meets Trishka for the first time… I won’t spoil anything, I’d be very surprised if you didn’t like it. Cheers.”

I’m not sure what the dev was talking about, since, as I just stated, that first meeting has Trishka saying the shooting dicks off thing? Seems strange and hopefully wasn’t a case of said dev playing the ‘lesbians hate men’ card, so lesbians would obviously enjoy that little repartee? I didn’t, I found it overdone and vulgar. I asked Lesbian Gamers admin about the conversation and she said she didn’t know what was meant, stating only that it was a short and pleasant conversation, so let’s leave it at that.

Now back to the female content, I was glad they added in the female element, though I think it would have been better had Sato, the sidekick been a woman, no feeling of contrivance, just two marine buddies kicking ass together. There is a twist in the story involving Trishka, but obviously I can’t cover that here.

Overall Bulletstorm is a lot of fun, though far from perfect. It almost feels like the developers made an amazing title, but then started adding bits that bring the overall central idea down. The skillshot system is a sweet idea and it works really well within the game, the controls are solid and the characters what you would expect. There’s nothing overly serious here, the characters are over the top parodies, the story is driven by yet more over the top design, with quick time moments splattered throughout, sometimes slowing the overall flow of the action. If you like Gears of War, or titles akin to that, and you’re not a huge sufferer of the dreaded video game motion sickness, grab a copy of Bulletstorm, you’re going to enjoy the cheesy action, insane weaponry and those wicked skillshots.

Review via LesbianGamers.com
Used here with permission.

Dragon Age 2 was not at all what I expected. Of course, I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. I knew the game wasn’t a true sequel to Dragon Age: Origins, and I vaguely knew it was going to be about the same time frame, but other than that, I went into the game with little knowledge, but high expectations of a good story. For the most part, Bioware has once again crafted a great game with compelling characters and a decent storyline. You play as Hawke, a refugee from Lothering who makes their way to Kirkwall, where you will eventually become The Champion. You can play as either a male or female, with the basic Mage/Warrior/Rogue classes. For this review I played through as a female warrior, and am currently on my second play-through as a female rogue. As with most of my reviews, I break it down to the Good, The Average, The Bad, and the Romance. This review is for the Xbox 360 version, and I will keep it as spoiler-free as possible, although expect some minor ones.

The Good: Some of the best parts of Dragon Age 2 are the characters and their interactions. Once again, Bioware has done a great job of creating characters that you not only care about, but are more than one dimensional. Some of the background dialogue was hilarious, and there were times when I stopped moving just to hear them finish out a conversation. The writing was so good I found myself bringing different characters to different missions just to hear the banter between them. Each character has a unique personality, and learning how to interact with them to get their friendship or rivalry up was a challenge. The rivalry/friendship aspect was also fascinating. Making someone a rival wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, as competition is good. Someone with 100% rivalry unlocked different skills and still made them loyal to you, though in a different way.

The graphics and the voice acting were also excellent. Without giving away any spoilers, some of the characters from Dragon Age: Origins return at different times, depending on if you imported a save from Dragon Age: Origins or went with a set background of your choice. The graphics and visual style were given an overhaul, for the better. The art direction was excellent, and some of the areas were gorgeous. Your main character has a voice this time around, and the dialogue tree is styled similar to the Mass Effect games. Icons show you how your response is going to sound. You can tailor your responses to 3 overarching types: the helpful, peaceful personality, the smartass who jokes around, and the hardass who is slightly arrogant. The more you use a certain personality type, the more your character begins to spout lines in cut scenes that match how you have been playing. So if you have been playing as the joker, during a random cut scene your character automatically jokes around. This system makes you feel invested in your character as a whole, and makes you feel like you created someone that is true to you and your style.

The Average: The combat system has been changed since the original story. I have heard mixed reviews of it, but overall I enjoyed the combat system. For those players who enjoy a true RPG experience where you micromanage every movement of your party, you will be disappointed. It’s still possible, but takes a lot of work. I was happy to set up some tactics for my party members (for some reason none of them had any healing tactics set automatically- and it took me forever to figure out why they all kept dying,) and then letting them go about their business. The combat was much smoother- you press a button and your character just flies into action. At the beginning, there is a little of button mashing and hitting the “A” button, but after you level up a few times, you can map your talents to different buttons. I found myself increasingly using different tactics for different bad guys, and the button mapping helped.

The inventory system has also been streamlined. The good part about that is all the junk you pick up is literally put in a slot called “trash can.” There is no secret trick- if an item you pick up shows up in this part of your inventory, you can safely sell it. The not great part of the inventory system is that most items don’t have a name anymore. For example, all rings are just called “ring” and have a different number of stars next to it. The higher the stars, the better the ring is. Once again, for someone who loves a pure RPG, this will not be a welcome change. For the casual player though, this is a welcome relief.

I personally loved the story, but I know there are many people who weren’t as fond of it. And since this review isn’t just all about me, I will look at the different aspects. The story is a break from Dragon Age: Origins. There is no real “ending goal” that you know of at the beginning. The story is told in a framing narrative, with one of your companions, Varric, telling the story of The Champion of Kirkwall (you) to a Chantry Seeker named Cassandra and the fight between the Templars and the Mages. You know something big happens, but not exactly what that thing is. It is truly a story of your life over 10 years. The story is broken up into a prologue and three acts, with a few main quests in each act, but a ton of side and companion quests too. People have lamented that there are too many side quests, but side quests do play an important role. They shape how people in the city look upon you, and slowly you begin to take a side:- Templar or Mage. I found this storyline to be fascinating, and watching someone you helped (or didn’t help) show up 3 or 4 years later could either be an awesome thing, or bite you in the ass. That mage you helped in act 1? They could come back as a blood mage in act 3 and try to kill you. Your decisions have consequences, and all the choices are morally grey – very few are black and white.

The Bad: The only really bad element to me was the lack of dungeon/mansion maps. They reused the same 5 or 6 maps for every dungeon or mansion you went into. This got to be boring and repetitive over time. Would it have killed them to create a few more different maps?

The Romance: Bioware really outdid themselves with the romance options this time around. There are four romance options, two men and two women, and they are all able to be romanced by either a male or a female protagonist. Well played, Bioware. It’s so rare to see bisexuality in a video game, that this pretty much blew me away. The two male romance options are Anders and Fenris, and the female options are Merrill and Isabella. In my first playthrough I thought for sure I was going for the rogue sea captain Isabella…. and then Merrill opened her mouth. Merrill is played by Torchwood actress Eve Myles, and I had no clue she was doing a voice in the game. In about two hot seconds I had changed my mind and went after Merrill. It takes awhile to be able to romance anyone (think in terms of years) but it was worth it. I did have a good laugh that you can ask her to move in with you the day after you sleep with her. I had about a thousand lesbian U-Haul jokes running through my head, but I’ll refrain from putting them in this review. Merrill was pretty easy to romance, and in my current game I am going after Isabella, and it is much trickier to win her heart.

If you have bought the DLC The Exiled Prince, you have the option of a fifth romance with Sebastian. Only women can romance him, and from what I hear it’s a very chaste romance with no option of “closing the deal.” Not really my thing, but some people might enjoy going for that.
I enjoyed that the romance wasn’t just a one-time thing. If you visit your home at night, your love interest might be there and start up a unique conversation. If you bring them along on a quest, there might be some hilarious dialogue between them and the other companions about your relationship. During one quest a NPC (non playable character) was flirting with me and Merrill got jealous. Her comments made me laugh out loud. In general, the romance aspect was well written, well acted, and well thought out.

Overall, I thought the game was fun, the storyline compelling, and the ending made me scream “there better be a third game!” They ended the story on a cliffhanger that will make me storm the Bioware offices if they don’t make another game to answer the burning questions they left the players with. The gameplay was decent, the graphics excellent, and the chances of you playing this game multiple times to see different scenarios is quite high. As a lesbian gamer, the romances were just the icing on the cake, albeit a very tasty rainbow-uhaul-gay cake. I would recommend picking up this game, but be prepared to have 50+ hours of your life sucked away…. in a good way.

Review by: Dany, aka Xan

Images and content via LesbianGamers.com and used with permission.

Our hero Isaac Clarke is back for another round with the creepy necromorphs. We’ll try not to give away any major spoilers (who wants spoilers in their review! No way, it’s far more fun to have the story unfold for you). You may recall we kind of loved “Dead Space”, let’s see if “Dead Space 2″ can match it.

Visceral games and EA once more bring us a horror game that is very special indeed. Isaac Clarke somehow managed to survive the horrors aboard the Ishimura and finds himself on Sprawl, a habitat on one of the moons of Saturn and so the game throws you right in.

As with its predecessor “Dead Space”, you play Isaac Clarke in this third-person shooter. Problem is Isaac has a few psych issues and his dead girlfriend Nicole keeps popping up to throw him off his game (no pun intended). Add to this the environment you’re in is running wild with psychotic necromorphs, who basically want to rip your face and limbs off and things aren’t what you might call peachy.

Necromorphs come in a range of ugly, from the small fast ones, to the large regenerating ones, to all the ugly in-between. The trick with most of them is, shoot their limbs and if they’re a bit on the big side, shoot anything that looks like it might be glowing yellow (weak spot!).

This being “Dead Space 2″ you have a multitude of weapons, including your favourites from “Dead Space”. A smart cookie will choose a weapon and upgrade that sucker whenever you get the chance to do so, this will aid you no end in the later levels. Speaking of the levels, there’s 15 in the game, some long, some seem to fly by. All in all though you’re probably looking at around 10-12 hours play time to finish it. You will also get some cool armour upgrades if you choose to purchase them. Credits can be found laying around, or on bodies and in boxes, collect as many as you can to buy things in the shop. Nodes also exist as they did in “Dead Space” and you can collect and use these to upgrade your suit and weapons on the handy upgrade benches dotted around the levels (sparingly)

The story in “Dead Space 2″ is great, it’s compelling, interesting and keeps you on your toes. Characters are great and you never quite know what you’re in for, at least for the most part. Graphically things look similar, yet more polished. It even seems there may well be more than the odd nod in the direction of “BioShock” with some of the environments. The ambiance of the entire thing is smart, with movie touches throughout, steam vents gush at you when you least expect it, lights flicker, shadows jump and it all feels quite movie-like in its execution. The sound too is superb, adding more than a few scares in aural manner alone. The deaf or hard of hearing gamer should still be able to plow their way through without issue.

Female gamer angle
Although you play Isaac Clarke, there are some cool female characters in “Dead Space 2″. We won’t give away any spoilers here, we’ll just cover them briefly. Firstly there is your dead girlfriend Nicole Brennan, she is one creepy chick who just wants you to see the light… in her eyes and you will, oh yes, you will. Next up there’s Daina Le Guin (nice sci-fi shootout there we think), Daina is the first female character you meet in your travels aside from the aforementioned dead girlfriend Nicole. Daina sounds Australian, probably because she is voiced by Aussie actress Tahyna Tozzi. Lastly there’s Ellie Langford, a heavy equipment pilot, you’re probably going to like her the most, again, she sounds Australian, but it’s actually British actress Sonita Henry who does the voice. Not bad, three female characters, sadly all peripheral as usual, but at the very least you’re going to love one of them, so we’ll forgive that because the one in question is fairly awesome.

Overall “Dead Space 2″ is a fantastic game, I can barely think of a bad thing to say. I suppose the worst that could be said about it is, it’s linear, but then that is to be expected with this type of title. Environments are great and varied enough for you to really feel the sprawling nature of them. The developers have managed to craft a wonderful horror story, with a real human core. There’s mayhem, panic, a few fairly simple puzzles, zero-G environments and more, all packed into a finely crafted third person gore-fest. This is a truly great sequel to another fantastic game. If you missed “Dead Space” get it cheap, finish it, all so you can play this one. Wonderful and with a kick ass female character in the story to boot.