NHL 12 Review

Story
Brendan Shanahan, long time NHL player and future Hall of Famer, was once asked if playing hockey was hard. “Is hockey hard? I don’t know, you tell me. We need to have the strength and power of a football player, the stamina of a marathon runner, and the concentration of a brain surgeon. But we need to put all this together while moving at high speeds on a cold and slippery surface while 5 other guys use clubs to try and kill us, oh yeah did I mention that this whole time we’re standing on blades 1/8 of an inch thick? Is ice hockey hard? I don’t know, you tell me. Next question.” There is no doubt that the men and women who play the fastest sport on Earth have to have plenty of skill and determination. For the rest of us who enjoy the sport, but can barely stand on skates let alone put a puck past a goaltender, NHL 12 is there to let you suit up and skate with some of the best.

Gameplay
NHL 12 gives you so many different ways to play hockey that you’re not likely to be done by the time NHL 13 rolls around. The previous incarnations of the series established solid options for players who enjoy different things. NHL 12 is no different. You can play a casual game, practice your skills alone or with the team, pit your team against anyone else in the NHL and a smattering of other leagues included in the game or settle in for some serious action. Be a GM, a standard feature now, lets you be an armchair General Manager and trade and draft your way to a winning team. For an online flavour of building a competitive team, last year’s Hockey Ultimate Team mode has been brought back and refined to let budding strategists jockey their way to the top.

The Be a Pro mode’s options have been vastly improved. The ability to play a custom-made character, an existing NHL player in the midst of his career or a kid from major junior hockey throughout his whole career gives you a chance to keep coming back to the game and building on what you’ve done before. This year EA has given players the opportunity to import their NHL 11 profile to continue playing the career that may not have been finished before NHL 12 was released. No more having to give up a year’s worth of gaming and start over as a rookie!

NHL 12 has stepped up the game with plenty of new features as well as improvements on existing features. The Winter Classic, held outdoors on New Year’s Day every year now, is a great addition. Many teams will never get to participate in the real Winter Classic due to their location (for example, we’ll never see the Phoenix Coyotes take on the Tampa Bay Lightning because hockey in the desert and sub-tropics doesn’t lend itself to outdoor games), but players who are also fans are able to send their teams out into the snow to battle for bragging rights and two regular season points.

The introduction of hockey legends as unlockable characters is another much-touted addition to this year’s game. Retired players have been off-limits in the past unless you used the Creation Zone to build them from scratch. Now, through reaching various goals (the out of character gaming kind, not the kind that lights the red light and makes goalies annoyed), the likes of greats Wayne Gretzky and Steve Yzerman can be unlocked for use on any team and give a boost to current rosters battling for the Stanley Cup.

For a newcomer to the series, the controls take some getting used to. There are tutorial options for those who like to be walked through how to get the buttons and joysticks to do what you want. However, the controls are intuitive enough that fumbling through a few games will teach even a casual gamer how to throw a hit, make a pass and aim towards the net in hopes of getting a goal.

Graphics
Every year the graphics in the NHL series improve. The most noticeable difference in NHL 12 comes with the upgrade of the physics engine. Hits are more realistic and bone-shaking, and passing and shooting feels as smoothly as it should when you’re sliding a puck along a sheet of ice. The level of detail going into not only the gameplay, but each individual player, continues to improve every year. With the sheer number of players available, not every player’s features are accurate (many default to basic features that look nothing like the actual person), but they have stars like Alex Ovechkin’s crooked nose and Henrik and Daniel Sedin’s small mouths and knitted brows down perfectly.

Female Character Angle
Hold the phone. This year there actually is a female character angle. Previously, the series has been the exclusive domain of big, bulky men, many with crooked noses and scars galore (and yes, the mullets too). EA has taken a step in the right direction for making the NHL series more female-inclusive. After a letter from a young female fan requesting a female avatar be inserted into the game for use in Be a Pro and the Creation Zone in general, EA’s NHL team in Vancouver went ahead and did just that. The options are limited to two generic heads, as opposed to the multitude of customisation options that the male avatars have, but it’s a great start and hopefully one that will continue to develop in future incarnations of the series.

Overall
NHL 12 is an impressive step up from NHL 11, which was an impressive step up from NHL 10. The team at EA Sports that develops the NHL series take on board player feedback each year and the amount of effort that goes into not only the big, flashy additions but the small details that make the game is obvious. Every year takes a step towards creating a more realistic hockey gaming experience while giving players plenty of customisation and gameplay options to keep it fun. NHL 12 is such a big step up from NHL 11 with the new features and the improvements on the old that it is definitely worth checking out for anyone who already plays this series. Gamers who are into sports games in general or hockey in general would do well to check out NHL 12 as well. It’s a well-designed game that caters to a broad audience. The gameplay is fun to tinker with casually or to spend countless hours scrambling up the points ladder.
9/10

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

Hey guys welcome to my review of “Child of Eden”, if I sound excited to be reviewing this title, I am, because in a word, it is awesome. “Child of Eden” is a music game with a difference, for those gamers familiar with the likes of “Rez” you’re going to go one better here with “Child of Eden”. The game was created by Tetsuya Mizuguchi, best known for the aforementioned music game “Rez”, and was developed by Q Entertainment and published by Ubisoft.

It’s hard to explain, so I’ve included a lovely trailer. Essentially “Child of Eden” is an on-rails shooter that utilizes music in a powerful way. Q? and Ubisoft have worked wonders here, though having said that, “Child of Eden” is not going to appeal to every gamer.

The real magic of “Child of Eden” lay in its immersion, if you can lose yourself within the beats and the colorful graphics, you’re in for something really special. As you’ll see on the boxart, “Child of Eden” also features the “Better With Kinect” label, meaning you can play a slightly enhanced version if you have a Kinect Sensor. Personally I wouldn’t bother, the standard game itself was enough to keep me entertained for many hours, but if you have Kinect it’s good to get up off your butt and use your hands as the controller.

So how does it work? As stated “Child of Eden” is an on rails shooter, you ‘fly’ through levels locking onto various things and shooting the enemies before you take damage, a simple enough premise. As mentioned, if you have Kinect, you can up the stakes somewhat by using your hands to sweep across the enemies as you fire with your other hand. Simple yet engaging.

Now for the downsides, well as I kind of tried to cover, if you’re not into these types of games, “Child of Eden” may well leave you bored. If however you can let yourself become immersed in the colors and music, you’re in for a real treat, both audibly and visually. Length of play may put some off paying full price, given it won’t take you too long to play through (I think it took me about 6 hours), but the replay value is pretty high. A somewhat odd story also isn’t fantastic, but you know what, who cares, “Child of Eden” is a feel good game that works with Kinect. I say at the very least this is a rental, though I don’t feel in anyway guilty for telling you to just go out and buy it, you won’t be sorry.

Hooooo boy, where to begin. Okay positivity is good, so I’ll start this “PlayStation Move Ape Escape” game review by saying I liked “Ape Escape” on the PS2, when it was fun, fresh and a bit silly. The “Ape Escape” franchise has been bobbing along for over ten years and in that time we’ve seen a couple of great additions, sadly “PlayStation Move Ape Escape” is not one of them.

Female gamer angle, right, well the overall story is built around an all female affair, with two girls trying to find their missing granny. The story isn’t going to keep you gripped, there’s little depth and sense, but then the “Ape Escape” games aren’t overly known for their in-depth character driven stories. Still at least there’s some female character goodness.

There’s two ways to play “PlayStation Move Ape Escape”, Story Mode and Mini Games. Unlike other “Ape Escape” titles, the idea here isn’t to catch mischievous monkeys, these monkeys sort of drop in via UFO’s, again, with little sense. Things are also now on rails, rather than running around an open level looking for the cheeky guys. So what we have is an on rails shooter that sees you shoot the monkeys and the UFO’s or use the net to catch them. The whole thing feels more than a little flat.

The PlayStation Move controller does the job, it just doesn’t help the game is a bit of a dog after the initial fun wears away. I hate writing such a short review, but fellow gamers, there really isn’t much more to say, this is an average video game aimed – one imagines – squarely at the kiddie market, with its bright colors, simple setup and naff story.

Given just how good the initial couple of “Ape Escape” titles were, this is a sad state of affairs, the addition of the PlayStation Move does little to add to the game, even though it does work accurately. The charm and fun of the original is lost in “PlayStation Move Ape Escape” which feels like a free demo as opposed to a full game. No monkey business here, just an unpolished, slightly below average title. Shame.

This is my first video game review for Thumb Bandits, a site I have looked to for many a year for my video gaming news and reviews. The first game I am reviewing is none other than Rockstar Games “L.A. Noire” which released just last week. I have spent many – MANY – an hour with “L.A. Noire” and I have also read many a review. You may wonder why read reviews of a game I have already purchased, why not, reviews are generally a goldmine of information, even for those games that adorn my gaming cabinet. I am flabbergasted by the reviews I have read for “L.A. Noire” and believe many reviewers are blinded by how very pretty the game is and by the name Rockstar, after all, they generally make great games.

Let us begin with a brief rundown of “L.A. Noire”. You play as Cole Phelps, a Los Angeles detective back in the 1940′s. This is a sandbox game that sees the player go from quest to quest in linear fashion as the story opens up. There are also some side missions the player can do if they want. There is little doubt Phelps is a wonderful character, but he sits within a game that relies too heavily on aimless driving, pointless exposition, sloppy investigative runs and confusing script. Harsh? Not really, I’m just choosing to look at the game via a medium other than rose tinted glasses, or what I thought it would be as opposed to what it actually is.

At the start of the game, you may well be blown away by the ‘noire’ feel and all those actors / characters that you’ve seen on TV, but after a few hours it felt – at least to me – that this was just a repetitive, slow, confused muddle of something fantastic floundering in something fairly mediocre. This is Rockstar rehashed, there’s driving, hopping in and out of cars (to ‘collect’ them), more driving, almost getting to your actual main story destination, only to get a call to the opposite side of town for another mundane chase (in car or on foot) that leads to a shoot out. Mixed in with this Rockstar norm is the addition of gathering evidence, sounds awesome right? Not so much. Turn up at a crime scene or place of interest to your investigation, take a look around. The controller vibrates when you’re near evidence, so you’ll know to pick it up, only problem is other stuff that isn’t evidence also vibrates. By the time you’ve picked up that 5th hairbrush, wondering if this time, it is actually evidence, you’ll surely to God start wondering what the frack all these 10 out of 10 review ratings are about. Add to this the ‘truth’, ‘doubt’, ‘lie’ choices when you’re questioning someone and how frustrating this can be and you should be scratching your head wondering if those gaming magazines lied to you.

Good stuff? Sure “L.A. Noire” has a fair amount of good stuff, that’s why this is a good game and not a bad game. As I mentioned, the graphics are almost faultless, at least with regards to character animation. Touches also exist within the actual framework of the game mechanic that are clever, but they somehow feel an ill thought out addition, as opposed to something that flows. Herein lay the problem. “L.A. Noire” is a pastiche of the great and the mundane, and somehow, beyond all of the fervor, all of the anticipation, the mundane kicks the greats ass nine times out of ten.

As briefly mentioned, the presentation is sublime in “L.A. Noire”, but remember that bitch in school who all the boys (and some of the girls) thought was “soooo hot”, but when they got to know her they realized looks aren’t everything, she’s “L.A. Noire” in human form.

Repetition is something most modern day video games suffer from, but it needs to be pinned together with a story that is captivating and intriguing, but not so much that it’s confusing. Again “L.A. Noire” fails, with its staggered three tier story narrative and a lead character we can’t ever truly know or become emotionally attached to. Cole Phelps back-story and what he does in the ‘present’ are completely at odds with one another, leading to this sort of dissonance of thought from the player.

Don’t even get me started about his actual ‘family’ or lack thereof. This is somewhat saved later in the game and more specifically in the last half hour of the story, but by then, all that picking up hairbrushes and wooden spoons, along with driving from one end of a fairly dead sandbox is so ingrained in your memory, you’re kind of glad it’s over, or at least I was.

I’ve been told to cover the female component of the game, because ThumbBandits specialize in highlighting this area, though there really isn’t much on the positive here. As with most Rockstar titles, it’s almost as if the developer has no idea how to slot in good female characters. They’re all props or tools to push the story forth. Needless to say given the setting, there are no cool female detectives.

So why are all the gaming sites giving this title 9 or 10 out of 10? I don’t know, perhaps I’m wrong, games are subjective. Seriously, if you have played the game yourself and enjoyed it, when you truly start to dissect the title, what conclusion do you reach? Do you honestly feel “L.A. Noire” is an almost perfect video game and that it brings something new that takes it to that top tier? Is it so good at everything it does…. the environment, sound, story and gameplay, that you would rate it higher than say “Uncharted” or “Mass Effect”? If the graphics were poor and it didn’t feature recognizable actors from TV shows, would the gameplay in “L.A. Noire” truly stand up as being so amazing, so refreshed that it would warrant 9 or 10 out of 10? As a gamer and reviewer, my personal answer is no, which is why I’ve given the game a *7, with 5 being average and 7 good solid game that is above average, but nowhere near perfection.

*Note we review out of 5 here at ThumbBandits, but we’ve left this original score in the body of the text as originally written.

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.