Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Review

The fourth and presumably last game to the Metal Gear Solid series brings a whole new element into the idea of gaming. You play as Snake, a special agent used for extremely important and dangerous missions. In game, you can select between 3rd person fighting mode and 1st person fighting mode. The default controls force you to use the 3rd person mode while walking and running but when firing a gun or using a weapon, you can select 1st person mode. The fighting combat in game is intense and keeps giving that little mental burst of action that tells you, “I must complete the objective”. The game lets you roam freely through some parts, you can take the path with all the gunfire and no stealth at all, or you can take the one with the silent but long path that lets you sneak up on enemy soldiers and slit their throats. By pressing the START button, you can access many different customization options. You can choose your suit’s camouflage, you can choose what face you want ( Its not what you think), and best of all, you can buy guns in the middle of a war! Yes, just by going to Drebin’s Gun Shop from the start menu, you can access all the guns you have picked up and sold to Drebin, the gun launderer. All you need to do is pay small fee from your in-game point’s bank and you get the gun. One small thing though, you can buy ammo too, for a small price. The game has a very well written storyline that keeps you involved. Every step you make, a new enemy pops out and in this way, you have to keep thinking about what you’re going to do. It’s not like those other games where you meet one soldier and you keep having the same types of encounters all through the game just in different environments. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots gives you a realistic burst of what your surroundings are. Say for instance, you are outside in the freezing cold, your energy bar goes down while your stress bar goes up.

The game is an excellent 3rd person shooter and is recommended for all hardcore gamers. It’s a must play for any gamer that likes shooters and had exceptionally great graphics!

Fallout 3 is a special videogame. It’s an open-world role-playing game that delivers an experience unlike anything on the market right now. It’s a gripping and expansive showcase of how much depth and excitement can be packed into one videogame, and it does justice to the Fallout franchise. This sequel is the first made by Bethesda, the developers responsible for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. You don’t need to play any of their past games or any previous Fallout games to enjoy this one. It stands on its own as a memorable and well-crafted videogame.

The Fallout universe paints a picture of a dystopian future. It exists in what people on the cusp of the atomic revolution in the 1950s saw as the sci-fi world of tomorrow… if several thousand nuclear bombs were dropped on it. It’s a quaint sci-fi view of a future filled with atomic cars, robot servants, and incredibly basic computer terminals. A nuclear war has taken away most of these technological comforts, providing the backdrop for a game with a dreary, desperate atmosphere filled with glib and dark humor. It’s a world that is both fantastic and somehow believable. And it is one that’s exciting to explore.

You play as the Vault Dweller, a blank slate for you to write your story on. The game begins with your birth and then quickly moves through childhood with snapshots of pivotal events, such as the day you get your Pip-Boy 3000. It’s a cleverly veiled character creation and tutorial sequence that sets the backdrop of the story. You live in Vault 101, a bunker designed to keep its occupants alive through the nuclear war that ravaged the surface. However, this vault didn’t reopen when the war finished and as the opening cinematic informs you, it is here you will die because nobody ever enters or leaves Vault 101.

But that wouldn’t make for a very interesting game. At the end of your childhood, you awake to alarms and confusion. Your father has opened the vault entrance and taken flight. The fragile existence of the other vault inhabitants has been shattered. Nothing will ever be the same, especially for you since it is your charge to leave the relative comfort of Vault 101 and search for your father out in the wastes.

The atmosphere and attention to detail are top notch.When the vault door rolls back and you step into the sun for the first time, the sense of awe and wonder as you gaze across the wasteland that was once the United States’ capital is palpable. Life is absent where it isn’t hanging on by a thread. Few buildings remain standing, most reduced to piles of rubble. In the distance you can see what was downtown Washington D.C., a standing but wrecked Washington Monument dominates the skyline as the tallest remaining structure. You can already tell this game is going to be extraordinary.

And then your thoughts turn to survival, just as they have for every other human; for every feral dog; for everything.

The war did more than crumble the United States government and its infrastructure. It left behind a reminder of man’s transgressions. The effects of radiation are felt everywhere, none more strongly than in the water. Thirst and desperation are constants in Fallout 3 and you won’t know the true definition of either until you drink irradiated water from a toilet to gain a few health points. Water and food can heal you, but almost everything has been poisoned by radiation. You’ll have to use medicine to manage the levels of radiation you take in from eating, drinking or wandering into hot zones, creating an unending give and take that underscores the struggle for survival that everyone you meet faces.

Such pressure could make even a good man do bad things. For those who are already bad, it provides the excuse to do great evil and take advantage of the weak. You will have to decide where you fit in this world. If you want to be good, there are beggars to give water to and people that need a champion. If you want to be bad, well let’s just say that you won’t have any problem finding places to ruin lives. If you haven’t figured it out yet, this is not a game for kids or anybody with a developing moral compass. Foul language is pervasive and that is often the smallest sin on screen. Fallout 3 shies away from sexual content and giving you the option to kill little kids, but that’s about it. The world is filled with twisted people who do nasty things and you yourself are often presented with the option to perform terrible, terrible acts. Several times while playing as an evil character I found the situations so extreme and wholly wicked that I had trouble taking the low road.

But, as they say, karma is a bitch. The choices you make — be they good, evil or neutral — will have far reaching consequences. Take the high road and you’ll anger the seedier elements in this semi-society. At that point you’ll find hit men trying to take you down. Steal from a shopkeeper and they might close up shop and leave. Blow up an entire city… well you can see how that might change things a bit.

The conversations you’ll have with the various people you meet in Fallout 3 range from disturbing to hilarious, but they all have one thing in common: fantastic writing. You’ll want to hear everything every person has to say, but to do that you’ll have to play the game more than once and likely more than a few times. While the dialogue system doesn’t take the cinematic leap that Mass Effect did, it brings so much depth that the simple listed responses become quite powerful. Some perks, stats and skills add new conversation options. If your strength is high, you might be able to intimidate someone. If you’re playing as a female character, you might be able to flirt your way through a sticky situation with some men. Or, if your speech skill is high enough, you might be able to lie your way to key information. The way you talk to the people you meet can drastically change the story.

The Pip-Boy is your best friend.Unlike many games that offer the level of freedom and choice found here, Fallout 3 has an exciting, top-notch main story. It all comes together for a spectacular climax that is just flat out awesome. Rather than spoil the story, I’ll simply say that it does not disappoint. What left me most impressed was how many different ways you can progress through the game. Lying, stealing, hacking, fighting; they’re all open for you to use to solve problems. If you play your cards right you can even talk your way into, or luck upon, situations that offer massive shortcuts. The system is so flexible that the possible permutations are almost mind boggling. And yet it all ties back together in the end. And there is a true end to this game. Once you finish Fallout 3 and view the ending, you’re booted back to the main menu. You’ll have to load up a prior save if you want to continue exploring with that character.

The same level of flexibility and focus is found in the side quests of which there are only a dozen or so primary ones. That may not seem like much, but it goes hand in hand with the focused story. Each of these primary side quests can take a few hours to complete and all of them are excellent. You could easily get lost in these for hours and forget that the main quest even exists. And, like the main quest, each side quest feels organic with numerous routes to completion.

Beyond that are smaller, non-primary side quests that don’t have big stories that accompany them. These are your fetch and collection quests that can be useful for building out your character and killing time, but can’t hold a candle to the bigger quests.

Each time you level up, you’ll also be given the option to choose a perk. These bonuses are always-on buffs that can do everything from give you a permanent skill or stat boost to reveal locations you haven’t visited yet on the map. Some of these are flat-out awesome. The Mr. Sandman perk allows you to instantly kill any sleeping character and get an XP boost for doing it. The Mysterious Stranger perk causes a guy to show up occasionally and blast your enemy into oblivion. You can even get a perk called Cannibalism that allows you to feed on humans after you kill them. That would be for those with bad karma only.

The game also doesn’t put such an extreme emphasis on leveling up, either. There’s a cap at level 20 which took me roughly 40 hours to reach. At that point, you won’t even be close to maxing out all of your skills or snagging every perk, which encourages you to go back and start a new character and replay the game. Perhaps the level cap will be lifted when downloadable content releases for Fallout, at least some of which is exclusive to the PC and Xbox 360 versions, but as it stands you’ll hit the cap long before you see everything. This is both good and bad: It prevents you from becoming a god-like character, at which point combat wouldn’t be exciting. However, it also takes away some of the fun of combat because you don’t get any experience points for killing things once you hit the cap.

Poor little Super Mutant. All he wants is love.If you want a single aspect of the game to show your friends exactly how cool Fallout 3 is, you’ll go with the combat. The Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System (VATS) is the icing on the cake. The entire game can be played in either a first- or third-person perspective (playing in third-person isn’t nearly as enjoyable) as a straight action game. Your accuracy and damage will still be based on your skills and stats, but if you want this game can be played as a simple action-RPG. However, you’d be depriving yourself of one of the coolest combat systems to ever grace an RPG.

At any point during combat, you can call on VATS to come to your aid. This pauses the action and allows you to target specific parts of your enemy. Aim for the head and you’ll do extra damage. Go for the legs and you can slow down a fast creature. If you want, you can even shoot a grenade in someone’s hand to blow them up before they can throw it. You’ll see how likely you are to score a hit on each part, taking into account distance, obstacles, and your stats. From there, you can queue up a number of attacks based on your Action Points and let it rip.

Each attack through VATS happens in slow-motion while the camera switches to a more cinematic angle. Occasionally, this camera switch can get confused and wind up hiding the action, but most often it delivers an awesome-looking slow-motion attack. Heads get shot off and explode. Arms and legs can get ripped off with spouts of blood pouring from each limb. I once bounced a feral dog off of the ground with an overhand baseball bat swing. The weapons in Fallout 3 are awesome and when you combine them with VATS you get some fantastic results.

One thing that surprised me is how well some of the traditionally non-combat oriented skills are incorporated into the action parts of the game. Sneak, primarily used for shady activities like stealing in towns, can be a lifesaver in combat. A sneak attack is an automatic critical hit. The only thing more effective is pick-pocketing a raider and leaving a hand-grenade in place of the stolen item. If you have a high lockpick skill, you’ll find that you can open boxes to restock your ammunition supplies which can be a lifesaver on long quests. Raise your science skill enough and you can hack terminals to open doors and avoid combat entirely. Repair allows you to combine similar weapons by scavenging parts from one to raise accuracy and damage on the fly. You’ll want a high level on all of these, as well as the combat-oriented skills, but picking which to focus on is part of the role-playing experience.

Even once you’ve beaten the game and done all of the major side quests, there is still a ton to do. Upon completing the main story for the first time, I loaded up an earlier save and took a look at the world map to see how much ground I had covered. It wasn’t even close to everything. In fact, it was almost embarrassing how little I’d seen at a point where I felt I had "beaten" the game. Since then, I’ve played dozens more hours and still have yet to see everything. It took me about 20 hours, some of it spent exploring and doing side quests, to complete the story. You could easily spend over 100 hours trying to do and see everything.

You’ll want to see everything, too. Simply exploring the world in Fallout 3 is rewarding as you brave the wastes and slowly expand your horizons. Each new ruin you find tells a story of its former inhabitants (and brings a few XP points for finding it to boot). Part of what makes it so much fun is the excellent way the game scales to you. From the very start of the game, you can find any of the cool weapons if you know where to look. You can also wander into some areas with enemies that will simply slaughter you. As you progress, the enemies will get tougher along with you, though you’ll still run into some low-level baddies that your improved character can destroy. This system gives the satisfaction of feeling like a bad-ass without turning the game into a cake-walk.

The Rock-It Launcher lets you fire any random garabge at enemies. The weapon scaling is also quite clever. Early on, the good weapons you find will be in various states of disrepair and only have limited ammo. It’s sort of a tease, as you find some cool weapons but can only use them in a limited fashion, but even as a tease, it gives Fallout 3 grounding in reality that many RPGs lack (I’ve never understood why some RPGs have a progression where each new town you visit has slightly better equipment than the one prior). It also makes the game more fun early on than most games of this length. Who wants to toy around with crappy weapons for hours while trying to level up? Fallout 3 gives you a taste of the best weapons early which helps to make the combat exciting from start to finish.

Though, it’s almost impossible to say that you’re actually finished with the game. Even after you’ve uncovered every location on the map, you’ll find that some places to explore don’t even pop up on the map as being found. Hidden raider tunnels, sewers that house collectibles and more are still waiting to be discovered. It’s enough to make a budget gamer weep with joy. It’s incredible just how much compelling content there is here.

It can be quiet out on the wastes while you’re exploring and, though it may seem backwards, this minimalist approach to sound only adds to the experience. Your Pip-Boy can pick up radio stations that have a limited set of classic songs and offer some commentary on what is going on in the Capital Wasteland. Wander out of the station’s range and you might find yourself with nothing but the sound of wind rustling through decaying trees and blowing dust across the barren plains. While so many games assault your ears with licensed popular music, Fallout 3 proves that less can be more. When that music kicks in to signal a battle or you catch some tunes on your Pip-Boy, it’s all the more meaningful and engrossing.

This comes in contrast with the voice work which most definitely does not take a minimalist approach. Massive amounts of dialogue were recorded for conversations and, since you can play the game as either a male or female, many were even recorded twice. All of it is quite good and a testament to how much sound can add to a game. It’s one thing to read text of a kid saying something so nasty that I can’t write it here. It’s another thing entirely to hear it.

Fallout 3 is such an engaging and fantastic experience that it’s easy to overlook its few minor flaws, but they do exist and should be mentioned. With any game of this size and scope, you can likely expect a few bugs to slip through the testing process and that is the case here. I had the game crash a couple times, amongst other small bugs. In all of these cases, reloading the game has been enough to fix the errors and nothing was frustrating or detrimental enough to make me not recommend the game.

The larger, and far more recognizable, blemish in Fallout 3 that all versions share is the animations. Everything in the world, from the fantastic landscapes to the oftentimes over-the-top personalities therein, comes together to create a believable and engrossing atmosphere. And then you’ll see a person or animal move and be given a reminder that this is just a game. The way people move is stiff and lifeless and is a stark contrast to the rest of the outstanding look and feel of Fallout 3. This is especially noticeable in the third-person view. It’s great for seeing the unique armor you find, but your character moves awkwardly and doesn’t even look like he’s interacting with the world he’s standing on.

Character animations could be a lot better.Even with the wanting animations, this game is quite the looker. Browns and grays dominate the color palette, creating a stylized and convincing post-apocalyptic wasteland. It’s clear that care has been paid to giving Fallout 3 a look that adds to the atmosphere of desperation. And even as the bleak style provides clear limitations in terms of how much visual variety can put into the game (don’t expect to see many greens, blues, or bright colors in this fallen civilization filled with death, decay, and remnants of former glory), Bethesda has used attention to detail to create unique locations that beg to be explored. One small bunker I found contained little more than a skeleton at the foot of a locked door. I searched the ground around him and found a book on picking locks and a bobby pin — safety was just a few feet away, but unreachable. These little implied stories make it fun to explore every little nook.

Both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions look great, even if they do suffer from occasional framerate issues that cause the game to stutter. The difference in looks between the two console versions is small compared to the leap that comes with a top of the line PC.

Closing Comments
It’s rare that a game can hit the mark in so many different and often conflicting areas. Fallout 3 offers freedom without sacrificing a focused story. It delivers fantastic combat without forgoing a deep role-playing system. The characters you meet are engaging and oftentimes hilarious without feeling out of place in this harsh world. The game has a few flaws — most of them technical — but it’s a case where the whole is greater than the sum. It’s a fantastic game with incredible atmosphere that offers fun in so many different ways that you’re almost sure to get hooked. This is one of the best games you’ll play this year.

Another Take
When a title like Fallout 3 comes along, it reminds you of just how good videogames can be. Fallout 3 has undoubtedly delivered the best gaming experience so far this year, and the epic wait since Bethesda announced it took the reins four years ago has proven to be well worth it. The dystopia you find yourself dropped into immediately takes hold as you first explore your initial environs in Vault 101, only to thereafter be catapulted into the realities of post- nuclear existence in the Capital Wasteland. And it’s only then, when you experience the true size and scope of Fallout 3, that your appreciation for the game will go from cautiously measured to completely unfettered.
Fallout 3 is a top notch shooter-RPG that fails to disappoint in any substantial way. There are minor problems with the game — issues such as clipping, the occasional framerate chug, and some questionable animation (especially in third-person view) — but nothing that takes away from the overarching enjoyment you should derive from even a few hours of gameplay. The action is fluid, the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system, when combined with skills and perks, makes developing your character a fun exercise in customization, and the combat system, especially with V.A.T.S., is masterfully executed.

But to me, Fallout 3 is all about story and interaction. If you’re into post-apocalyptic literature, film, or games, especially those taking place in the United States, then Fallout 3 was made for you. Combine the unusual amount of realism found in every corner of the game with the endless conversation permutations with just about everyone you meet, and you have yourself one of the most truly interactive experiences of the generation. Fallout 3 comes highly recommended — it’s an experience that shouldn’t be missed. Just remember, life in the Capital Wasteland is rough. The beauty of the game is in the choices you make in order to survive.

Another year, another FIFA game, and another chance to see whether EA has realised its intentions to create the ultimate football simulation. And, of course, it’s another chance to revive the aging debate over who rules the virtual football roost. Carrying on the momentum that EA has built up on the current generation since 2006’s title, FIFA 09 makes a convincing case for trumping PES in being the definitive take on the beloved sport.

EA’s pre-season talk has been full of self-belief in the build-up to FIFA 09 — the sixteenth iteration of a series that first blossomed back in 1993 — talking of the 250 improvements made to the already impressive engine that powered last year’s game. But have they been enough to push EA’s series to the forefront of the genre?

Customisable tactics now feature, and can be swapped online.Many of the improvements in FIFA 09 will be familiar to those who dabbled in this summer’s take on the European Championships, and here they nestle well with a package that’s as deep as any football fan could possibly hope for and that constantly glistens with an overwhelming amount of polish. FIFA’s huge cast of footballers have been imbued with an added physicality that’s apparent upon working your way through your first match, with collisions between two players now resulting in a series of bespoke and realistic animations. Players running into space will call for the ball, while defenders will raise their arms to alert the linesmen of an offside attacker.

It all adds to an engine that could already proudly claim to be the most realistic depiction of football to date, with FIFA 09 taking it to the next level. Matches play out with a slow and measured pace that rewards the patient and wily, and the best way to create goal-scoring chances is to slowly build up attacks, exploiting space, fiercely protecting possession and employing the right mix of brute force and delicate finesse.

With player’s attributes now more pronounced it’s worth familiarising yourself with your team and capitalising on the stronger members, while FIFA’s unique trick system returns and an enhanced vocabulary of moves — executed with a series of inputs on the right stick — gives more skilful players another route of attack. It all adds up to one of the most faithful facsimiles of the beautiful game yet seen.

Playing forward is about keeping momentum, and there’s a steep learning curve in getting this right.This slavishness to reality may be jarring to those who’ve plied their trade in other football franchises, and it’s fascinating to see how FIFA has now set itself up as the more simulation-minded game in opposition to the instant gratification that PES offers. It could well prove frustrating to anyone making the jump from Konami’s series, as, in FIFA 09, goals are genuinely hard to come by. All of which means that slotting one in is all the more satisfying, and you’ll want to milk the player-controlled celebrations that return after their debut in EURO 2008.

Playing the ball around is now more assured than in EA Sport’s past efforts, with crosses and through-balls proving more malleable than ever before. It’s not all good news, however — returning from the past FIFA are some erratic decisions made by the game when selecting a defender, and often the player’s off-the-ball movements will leave you scratching your head in bemusement.

It’s also debatable whether the dedication to realism actually equals more fun. Although there are many settings that can alter the game speed and how much the computer aids the players, the game constantly demands a more studied approach to play; an approach that puts it at odds with PES’s feisty zip. Indeed, there’s such a demarcation between the two now that the age-old argument over which is better seems moot — it’s now a question of choosing which package suits your requirements better.

And of course what goes in FIFA’s favour is the sheer amount of content that’s included. There’s no doubting that the licence goes a long way, and with an unbelievable amount of leagues faithfully represented there’s enough here to satiate even the most rabid football fan. Gone are some of the factual inconsistencies that riddled the last game — in an answer to last year’s review’s gripes about the inaccuracies of the FA Cup, it’s good to see that the final now takes place in an exquisite looking Wembley Stadium. While we can’t vouch for the authenticity of some of the foreign leagues, we can attest that the lower English Leagues are all in order.

Keepers have been improved, and they now feel more…. human.The attention to detail throughout never fails to impress, whether it’s the score boxes that are tailored for each different league, the excellent commentary track from Sky Sports’s Andy Gray and Martin Tyler or the improved player likenesses. Each major team has its fans’ chants reproduced — find yourself in command of Chelsea and you’ll hear ‘From Stamford Bridge to Wembley’, and bring Manchester United out at Old Trafford and you’ll hear a chorus of ‘Glory, Glory, Man United’.

For all the action on the pitch, FIFA 09’s biggest strides have no doubt been taken in the online arena, with the game taking a multi-faceted approach to embracing the connectivity of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Its greatest innovation is the Adidas Live Season, a feature that brings in statistics from the real-life football scene on a weekly basis to keep the game fresh. Joined by a host of multiplayer modes, the greatest of which is surely the implementation of 10 vs. 10 online play, it all adds up to a game that’s well ahead of its competition in these stakes.

Wet weather returns from EURO 2008, bogging down the pitch with puddles and slowing the play.Not that the single-player experience is neglected. Manager Mode is a little more fleshed out, and though it does falter under the weight of some cumbersome menus it offers an in-depth campaign where you’ll be working your way through the boardrooms of various clubs. While it’s still not as immersive as PES’s Master League it’s a weighty diversion nonetheless. Perhaps the greatest addition is the return of Be a Pro, now fully featured and enabling players to take a single footballer up from the reserves and through to international glory over the course of four seasons.

Closing Comments
FIFA 09 returns to the pitch full of swagger, and it does its very best to deliver on EA Sport’s promise of creating the definitive football title. An exacting game on the pitch and an overwhelmingly comprehensive one off of it, it’s still got a number of minor niggles that blight the play. But when the package is so vast and offers so much, it’s hard not to be impressed. Is it better than PES? It’s certainly different, and which game you go for this season ultimately depends on what you want from your annual dose of football.

Having been cancelled on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 owners got a taste of a little place called Stillwater in a game called Saint’s Row. On the surface, the game took much of what made Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto series such a hit across consoles but Saint’s Row travelled a familiar road in its own sharp, witty and downright gratifying way. Finally, PlayStation 3 owners get to jump into the gangster shoes of a young thug attempting to regain control of a city that has seen a number of changes. Saint’s Row 2 takes us back to Stillwater for yet another action-packed wild ride worth revisiting.

The first game follows a nameless young thug who is suddenly recruited by a feared Stillwater street gang known as the 3rd Street Saints. Rising above the ranks, this character of your own design quickly becomes a force to be reckoned with until you fatefully step into a boat that explodes via a remote control triggered by none other than a Lieutenant of the same gang who happens to be an undercover officer of the law. Years pass and a comatose inmate wakes up in prison next to a young thug who reveals that a lot has changed in Stillwater.

It is at this point in the game that you get to create your character from scratch … only this time you are given the choice between making the character a male or female. There are subtle differences between how characters treat your male or female character but mainly the core story remains the same. The customization features are slightly deeper than the first game so you’re still able to create a character that closely resembles you or any outrageous odd creation of your own design. You can even pick different facial expressions, taunts and your voice (this time your character will be speaking more often).

After this, the game truly begins with a jailbreak and the sudden realization that Stillwater has changed and the 3rd Street Saints are no more. So it is up to you to restore the 3rd Street Saints to their former glory and, with the aid of a number of familiar faces, eliminate new rival gangs that have popped up throughout the city over the years. Like the last game, different gangs control different territories throughout Stillwater as well as run various fronts that are scattered through each district. Once again, the mixed gangs offer a real challenge whether you go up against the Yakuza-led Ronin gang or the tough Brotherhood gang.

Much of what we remember from our past visit to Stillwater remains somewhat the same but thanks to a new Mayor and a corporation known as the Ultor Corporation, there are new districts that change the face of the old ones. Downtown is nowhere near as neat as it was the first time around and now there’s a marina district complete with casinos, Miami-styled hotels and trendy new restaurants. There’s even a lovely beach where you can hop on a jet ski and join other water sports enthusiasts. Apart from some nice districts (such as the lovely university district), there are some eyesores (such as the trailer park district). There are also various properties up for sale and strongholds to take over.

Saint’s Row 2 follows the same open-environment, tackle-any-mission-any-time structure of the last game but certain missions only become available when your respect level goes up. The higher your respect level goes the more followers you’ll be able to take with you during missions as well as take on more story-based missions. One of the original’s many highlights was the fact that the missions were rarely annoying. In fact, they were actually well conceived and fun to play. The same can be said about this sequel. The various story-based missions have you performing a number of fun tasks such as escaping a cavern with one of your main rivals or help bust out that soccer-mom-turning-drug-dealer from the first game out of prison.

The memorable side missions from the first game are back such as Insurance Fraud, Hitman, Mayhem and Snatch just to name a few of the ones making a return. Saint’s Row 2 adds a few more of them such as Crowd Control (where you assume the role of security for celebrities), Fuzz (where you dish out some police brutality for a television show much like “Cops”) and Septic Avenger (where you spray, um, waste material on property for cash). There’s also a demolition derby-styled side missions (like Trail Blazer and Demolition Derby) and since the long line-up of vehicles now include aerial ones there‘s Heli Assault. On top of that, there are taxi missions and you can compete in an ultimate fighting tournament for money and respect.

On the vehicle front, there are a number of them that include everything from muscle cars to SUVs and - as I mentioned above - you can also fly airplanes and helicopters. There are now watercrafts as well such as speedboats and water skis that allow you to get from the mainland to Stillwater’s two islands (one houses the prison while the other a nuclear facility). The good news is that the vehicle customization features are back so you can take a simple-looking car and turn it into a tricked out ride worth showing off. The customization features also apply to your hideouts so you can add everything from a huge bed to stripper poles. There are even more clothing options available this time around so there’s no shortage of apparel to make your character stand out even more.

While the missions and other diversions make for a fun time in Stillwater, not all is perfect. There are glitches aplenty that didn’t even show up in the original and some that make a return. Do you remember how a follower would be stuck behind a building? Well, this time it’s possible for a follower to somehow disappear altogether when they are stuck. Cars often disappear without a trace, which can become a great annoyance when you’re in need of some wheels. I mean, it’s plausible if the car turned a corner and disappeared into the distance but disappearing altogether just isn’t acceptable. Some glitches make for some really hilarious moments such as when I accidentally ran over a woman who was suppose to fly up into the air but instead fused with my front bumper with her legs sticking out comically. It’s funny but its things like that that have no business showing up on the PS3.

The game also makes use of the SIXAXIS controller for driving boats and flying. It’s a bit tricky at first but actually makes flying or jetting across water a tad easier. You can always switch back to manual control but it’s good to see that the tilt controls were put to use in the game. It’s also good to see the online multiplayer action back. The original Saint’s Row certainly beat out GTA: San Andreas by adding a number of fun online multiplayer game modes and up to 12 gamers can really have a blast in this one. What is definitely appreciated is Co-op Mode that allows you to have a friend join you online or via a LAN match.

Saint’s Row 2 isn’t a visually gorgeous game on the PS3 and yes the game’s technical problems also include heavy clipping problems. What we do have is a game that looks just as good as the original yet not taking full advantage of a next-generation console’s ability to display some impressive visuals. Still, there are many good things to look at in this game and Stillwater’s many districts all have their own distinct appearance. The character models aren’t bad either, although the in-game models seem to have a plastic look about them that’s just a tad on the creepy side. The visual effects such as explosions and water effects do look good, though.

The game’s sound is still just as excellent as the original with an impressive number of great tunes that play over the radio as well as the funny commercials that play throughout the game. The soundtrack spans a number of musical genres from reggae to alternative rock and even a number of 80s pop tunes from the likes of Tears for Fears or Night Ranger. The voice acting is also handled well and that’s good considering the fact that the dialogue is witty. As far as the sound effects are concerned, they’re not bad but not as good as they should be in a game with a living city.

Saint’s Row 2 for the PlayStation 3 is not only a worthy sequel to a fun game but it’s also bigger and better in many ways. This is not to say that it’s perfect, it does have its share of problems but rarely do these problems get in the way of the fun and plentiful missions and other amusing distractions. Like the first game, it’s not visually stunning either but sometimes graphics aren’t everything when the game play is this gratifying. If you enjoyed the first game, this outrageously fun sequel is one of those games you simply must not miss.

Review Scoring Details for Dead Space

With Street Fighter IV only months away from release on the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, it’s little wonder that Capcom has dedicated quite a lot of space in its TGS booth to the home version of the reinvigorated franchise. The Japanese game company had 20 units set up at its booth–10 each for the PS3 and 360–and we managed to take in a few bouts on both versions during today’s show shenanigans.

All of the Street Fighter IV games playable at TGS featured eight-button arcade sticks, although they didn’t seem to be the official sticks that Capcom is reportedly working with peripheral maker Mad Catz to produce. All 12 of the playable characters who appeared in the arcade versions were available for play, as was hidden character Akuma (known as Gouki in Japan). There was no sign of other rumoured included characters for the home versions, such as Cammy, Fei Long, Dan, or arcade boss Seth (or even of superhidden character Gouken), but in a nice surprise, perky schoolgirl and Ryu-wannabe Sakura was playable.

Just as with the original world warriors, Sakura’s look in Street Fighter IV sticks extremely closely to the design seen in her debut in the Street Fighter Alpha series (she still sports her trademark short blue skirt, red sneakers, and red sparring gloves). Her move list also remains the same: a weaker version of Ryu’s hadouken, a modified shoryuken with a small run-up, and her own tatsumaki senpuukyaku spinning kick. We played several rounds with Sakura and found her to control as well as she did during the Alpha games. She’s got greater speed than Ken or Ryu, but does quite a bit less damage, which means that you’ll have to rely on smart combos to get past bulkier characters.

The console versions of Street Fighter IV are looking as pretty as its arcade counterparts, though we’ll need a lot more play time to give a final verdict. As for the perennial fanboy fave question–which console looks better–our play time showed very little difference between the 360 and PS3 versions, although we did notice a slightly longer load time between bouts on the PS3 game.

Street Fighter IV is due for release on the PS3 and Xbox 360 in February 2009. Check back with GameSpot soon for more updates.

Publisher: Midway
Developer: Midway
Category: Sports
Release Dates
N Amer - 09/09/2008
Intl - 09/12/2008
Official Game Website

Since its launch, the PlayStation 3 is home to the only licensed wrestling title that can be found and under the WWE and Raw banner, it excelled in bringing a true professional wrestling game to pro wresting fans. Midway, no stranger to fighting games thanks to its Mortal Kombat series, brings grappling fans a game featuring the TNA brand that looks to compete with the WWE giant. TNA Impact! brings all of its licensed stars and wrestling action to the PlayStation 3 but a few technical flaws simply hold it back from being a great wrestling title.

Wrestling fans new to the TNA brand will find some familiar faces seeing as wrestlers such as Kurt Angle and Booker T have jumped off the WWE/Raw ship to join the successful organization that’s filled with all the same scripted drama and DDT-filled wrestling action. TNA Impact brings a number of its stars in the lineup including Booker T, Kurt Angle, Samoa Joe, Sting, Shark Boy and Brother Devon to name a few. Sadly, the ladies of the TNA Knockout division are not present … although Christy Hemme is present during the load screens.

TNA Impact! includes Exhibition, Online multiplayer and Story Mode. Story Mode is the main single-player mode that tells a somewhat interesting story that’s actually good. As Suicide, you were at the top of your game and future TNA star. Then you’re attacked by a tag team duo that has it in for you and left disfigured and nearly dead. Waking up in a rundown hospital in Mexico, plastic surgeons prepare to reconstruct your face so it is here that you actually create your character. From there you must wrestle your way back to the top to join the TNA franchise just as you had once planned. This, of course, means you must go up against the hopefuls and finally the big names like Christian Cage and the likes of AJ Styles. Story Mode is surprisingly deep and you’re able to earn points to purchase new clothes as well as unlock new moves for your grappler such as new body slams as well as hard-hitting chops.

Exhibition mode brings a number of matches that include Handicap, Tag Team, Free for All, Submission, FCA (Falls Count Anywhere) Match and FCA Match Tag. Fans of Ultimate X and Ultimate X FFA matches will be pleased to find the match type that has grapplers attempting to unlock an X while climbing cables overhead. The good news is that you can play these Exhibition matches with a friend and more than makes up for the limited fun that is the online multiplayer.

The good news is that controls are simple to get into so gamers new to wrestling games can easily pick up this game and perform a DDT or an Irish Whip without any trouble. Like to pull off Sting’s famous finishing move the Scorpion Drop then chances are you’ll find out how to do it on accident. This is good seeing as you can concentrate on pulling off these cool moves and the match at hand rather than worrying about how to pull off the more complicated moves. What doesn’t work is the fact that you need to rapidly move the analog sticks to get out of a pin.

Unfortunately, great controls don’t mean a thing when the AI isn’t very smart and that your opponent thinks that the virtual fans would love to see the same moves performed repetitively. How many times must we suffer through Booker T’s Bookend move? Yeah, it gets very annoying. Yet the worst part is that opponent’s can be so dumb that sometimes they wait for you to smack them over the head with a chair rather than pull off a reversal. Pairing up with a tag team partner also becomes annoying since your partner is also prone to making some boneheaded decisions in the ring. Then again, most TNA stars do provide a real challenge so don’t expect to always breeze through this game.

Graphically speaking, TNA Impact! is a mixed bag. For one thing, the TNA stars and other unfamiliar wrestlers look good and are nicely detailed. You’ll immediately recognize a star’s signature move or familiar gesture and it’s impressive to see how natural they move during matches. Then again, certain backgrounds look rather dull and the washed out textures feel out of place when the characters look good. The virtual fans look good in some arenas while in others not so good.

I would like to say that the sound fairs a lot better but it doesn’t. The various songs are hard rock tunes that are hit or miss depending on your taste but by the fourth match it just starts sounding the same. There’s commentary to be found here from the likes of TNA announcers Don West, Jeremy Borash and Mike Tenay. For the most part, they sound good but much of what they say during matches is recycled repeatedly. Your character’s voice work during Story Mode is actually good and there are some decent performances from other key characters as well.

TNA Impact! for the PS3 packs quite a punch but just doesn’t connect well enough to make this a perfect wrestling game worthy of rivaling the WWE franchise. This game has all the right players, moves and match types but it lacks finesse and better AI opponents to make the single-player mode more enjoyable than what is presented here. Sorry, Midway, it’s a good attempt that just isn’t as good as it could have been. Here’s hoping the next TNA Impact! game will be better.

Review Scoring Details for TNA IMPACT!

Gameplay: 6.5
All the recognizable TNA stars are here and they each have their own unique signature move that looks cool in action. Unfortunately, you’ll be seeing a lot of the same moves in the same match. The Exhibition match types are plentiful and Story Mode isn’t too shabby. Still, we wish the AI opponent’s weren’t so dumb.

Graphics: 7.5
Visually, the grapplers look good during cut scenes and in the ring pulling off flying suplexes and body slams. The backgrounds and crowds could have used some more attention but what is here isn’t entirely bad. At least the characters move realistically.

Sound: 6.0
Sadly, the sound doesn’t make much of an impact either (no pun intended) and that goes for the rocking soundtrack or the two-man commentary team that repeats the same phrases over and over again. Story Mode has some solid voice acting, though.

Difficulty: Medium
You can expect the likes of Sting and Samoa Joe put up quite a fight but then again the inconsistent AI makes even Kurt Angle seem like a newcomer with very little to offer. In some matches, the AI shows some improvement but not by very much.

Concept: 6.5
The TNA brand is represented well enough in Impact and it’s great to see that they included the nifty Ultimate X matches in the game. Story Mode tells a rather interesting and fun story that lacks championship belts but is not short on enjoyable matches. What happened to the TNA Knockouts division?

Multiplayer: 6.5
While it’s a bit simplified and doesn’t offer a multitude of matches, the game runs smoothly online and there are enough TNA superstars to pick. Where’s the four-player action, though? Come on, Midway, let’s see four-player multiplayer for the next game.

Overall: 6.5
Unlike the WWE wrestling titles already available for the PS3, TNA Impact! fails to deliver a true grappling experience TNA or wrestling fans will thoroughly enjoy. While there are a few match types that really shine through, the grappling action just isn’t fun or diverse enough to do the brand justice.

It’s hard to believe that, prior to Half-Life 2, Valve had really made only one game. Of course, it was a masterpiece. Half-Life single-handedly reinvented the first-person shooter, putting the emphasis on cinematic pacing and complete immersion in the experience. As a result, it paved the way for many of the outstanding first-person shooters that have followed. And while there was little question that there would eventually be a sequel, no one could have imagined the long and torturous development process that led to Half-Life 2. Well, it’s time to forget about that, because Half-Life 2 has arrived. And, in many ways, this big-budget sequel does what it sets out to do: Half-Life 2 is a technically amazing, sharply honed first-person shooter that pulls all the tricks that made Half-Life such a beloved experience. With that said, many of those tricks feel more than a bit familiar now, and the game itself is saddled with a disappointing story. Still, that doesn’t stop Half-Life 2 from being a very impressive and engaging shooter, and a faithful follow-up to one of the greatest PC games of all time.

In Half-Life 2, you once again assume the role of Gordon Freeman, the theoretical physicist and dimension-hopping commando who saved the world from an alien invasion at the end of Half-Life. Or did he? Half-Life 2 starts you off facing the infamous G-Man, the mysterious blue-suited character from the first game. At the end of Half-Life, the G-Man offered you a choice: work for him or die. Since there would be no sequel if you chose the latter, Half-Life 2 assumes you chose the former, and you start the game in a train entering City 17 for your introduction into this new world.

City 17 is a run-down urban center that’s the equivalent of the Warsaw ghettos during World War II, but instead of Jews being rounded up to live in City 17, it’s all the remnants of a defeated humanity. Half-Life 2 takes place an untold number of years after the Black Mesa incident, but it’s clear that much has changed. A mysterious enemy known as the Combine has conquered the planet and installed a human puppet government to carry out its rule. Black-clad security forces patrol the streets, while propaganda blares endlessly from omnipresent video screens. If there’s one thing that Valve does extremely well, it’s capture a sense of atmosphere–this vision of a dystopian police state is chillingly effective. But you won’t spend a lot of time soaking in the scene before you’re thrust into the struggle to defeat the Combine and free humanity.

As soon as the shooting begins you’ll join an essentially nonstop battle that will last the remainder of the game. Like the original Half-Life, Half-Life 2 is presented as a nearly seamless experience–you play entirely from Gordon Freeman’s perspective, there are no cutscenes or perspective changes to take you out of the moment, and are there no narrative jumps that skip ahead in time. (At least, there are none from your perspective.) There also aren’t very many long loading times to interrupt the flow of the game, as all the levels are discreetly broken into sections, and when you transition from one section to another, there’s only a slight pause for the new section to load (at least, on a high-end PC). Put it all together and the game’s single-player campaign, which will probably take you between 15 and 20 hours to complete, comes off as a very long day in the extraordinary life of Gordon Freeman.

The original Half-Life was highly cinematic in nature, the virtual equivalent of starring in your own blockbuster sci-fi action movie. Who could ever forget the first time a headcrab leapt out at you from a dark corner? Or the moment when the commando tossed a satchel charge into the sewer pipe you were hiding in? The movie analogy is apt, not only because Half-Life 2 packs a few cinematic moments of its own, but also because, like most movie sequels, it plays it safe and doesn’t deviate much from its storied predecessor. Half-Life 2 doesn’t revolutionize the genre, instead sticking with the familiar formula of run-and-gun action, occasional puzzle-solving, and scripted sequences established by Half-Life. And it’s an effective formula, for the most part. The game gets off to a rousing start, as the opening levels combine these three ingredients masterfully. You start off on the lam from the Combine, armed with only a pistol and your wits, and embark on a chase through a train yard and tunnel system that’s filled with all sorts of hairbreadth escapes. The sense of pursuit hurtles you forward so quickly that you don’t have much time to admire the cutting-edge graphical prowess on display.

The Good

* Gorgeous, cutting-edge graphics
* Solid, engaging single-player gameplay
* Excellent voice acting
* Counter-Strike: Source offers great multiplayer.

The Bad

* Disappointing story
* Somewhat lackluster AI
* Game is a bit easy.

After you reach safety, Half-Life 2 settles into a more conventional and familiar style of play. Aside from a detour through a deserted town full of all sorts of booby traps, there are a lot of echoes of the original Half-Life in Half-Life 2–so many, in fact, that there’s a strong sense of déjà vu at times. Still, it’s hard to knock Valve for not wanting to tinker too much with a proven formula, and Half-Life 2 is as fast-paced and enjoyable as its predecessor.

Clad in your rugged hazard suit, you’ll battle your way forward against all manner of enemies, only to recover quickly by picking up health packs and recharging your hazard suit at energy stations. Some of these foes are familiar, such as the headcrab and the barnacle, while others, like the manhacks (essentially flying buzz saws) present whole new challenges. Meanwhile, you’ll be armed with a formidable arsenal, most of which is recycled from the first game, such as the submachine gun, shotgun, crossbow, and, of course, the ubiquitous crowbar. These weapons haven’t changed much, and they feel roughly the same. There are only three new weapons, including the pulse rifle, which is a sort of beefed-up energy rifle with a devastating secondary attack and a meaty sound to it. Much more fun are the pheropod–otherwise known as "bug bait"–which allows you to summon and control vicious ant lions, and the gravity gun, which can be used to pick up and manipulate objects.

The gravity gun is one of the great new features introduced by the game. Thanks to the new physics engine, it has all sorts of applications in and out of combat, and you’ll spend a lot of time tinkering around with it. It’s just as useful for picking up and hurling a grenade back at an enemy as it is for solving any number of puzzles in the game. Most of these puzzles are clever but not too difficult, particularly if you’ve played previous shooters, like the original Half-Life. Half-Life 2 also features a fair number of jumping puzzles, though nothing on the frustration level of Xen in the original game. The jumping puzzles are a weakness in Half-Life 2, but thankfully you can take a more aggressive approach and bypass most of the jumping altogether.

The other noteworthy additions to the gameplay are vehicles, specifically an airboat and a high-speed buggy. While these sequences offer a visual rush, they’re also not too far removed from some of the rail sequences in the original Half-Life. In many instances, you’ll be funneled down a narrow channel or road with little chance to explore or veer off the beaten path, battling enemies in a high-speed engagement. You’ll then encounter an obstacle that requires you to jump out of your vehicle and solve a puzzle to proceed. The controls and physics in these sequences are a bit loose, but the vehicles are fun to drive, especially when you get some room to maneuver.

You’ll be on your own during most of the game, but there are levels in which you’ll have the opportunity to fight alongside allies, both alien and human. Some of the best team moments come later in the game, when you’re battling the Combine in the streets and buildings of City 17, with large-scale battles going on between groups of humans and the Combine’s huge, spiderlike striders. You never really develop any attachment to your teammates, though, as they tend to be very disposable, and replacements are available at regular intervals. And teammates have a tendency to get in your way in cramped interiors–while they’ll slowly move out of your way, it’s still a little annoying. In addition to taking on teammates, you’ll occasionally have the opportunity to set up sentry guns to assist you in defense. The toughest sequence that we encountered in the game involved setting up a handful of sentry guns in a defensive alignment, and then holding out against waves of incoming Combine soldiers.

Surprisingly, Half-Life 2’s story is one of the most disappointing aspects of the game. The first half of the game feels a bit unfocused, while the second half seems rushed. Even worse, the story leaves behind a mess of unanswered questions, and it doesn’t touch on any of the lingering questions left over from the first game. Valve likes to leave tantalizing hints and tidbits everywhere in the game, but few of these actually develop into anything interesting, and by the end you’re left wondering what the game was all about. In many ways, Half-Life 2 feels like the middle chapter in a much larger story, and it suffers as a result.

Another surprise is the somewhat disappointing performance by the game’s artificial intelligence. Even on the tougher difficulty levels, most of the humanoid enemies don’t seem to show the same kind of intelligent behavior that they did in the previous game. They’ll seek cover and then peek out to fire, but invariably they’ll charge at you, making it easy to take them down. And maybe it’s due to some of the weapons being a bit overpowered, but most opponents don’t present much of a challenge at all–a few rounds is usually enough to stop them. There are a few fearsome foes in the game, not the least of which are the larger ant lions, which will tirelessly pursue you while you frantically unload every bullet you have at them. Then there’s the strider, the 50-foot-tall, walking, organic tank that fires devastating bursts and can spear you with one of its legs if you get too close. But for the most part, Half-Life 2 is a surprisingly easy game, even on the tougher difficulty levels. Case in point is the end of the game, which feels anticlimactic–you’re given a horrendously overpowered weapon to use against relatively weak opposition.

Half-Life 2 uses a checkpoint save system, allowing you to quickly restart at the last checkpoint if you die, and there’s usually a checkpoint right before most of the game’s combat zones. The checkpoint system is effectively employed throughout most of the game, and it allows you to immerse yourself into the experience without having to worry about saving the game constantly. Saving the game manually is an option, and it’s helpful in one or two passages where the checkpoints are spaced too far apart, but it also takes you out of the moment.

Half-Life 2’s presentation is extraordinary, thanks to the new Source engine. Even though Half-Life 2 debuted a year later than originally anticipated, it is still very much a cutting-edge game, featuring state-of-the-art graphics technology. While Doom 3 features superior lighting and shadowing, it didn’t really succeed at bringing a credible and cohesive world to life. Half-Life 2 does, and the environments in the game are simply stunning, from the plazas and streets of City 17 to the rusted interiors of an abandoned factory. There’s also some excellent level design in the game, including a deserted town full of deadly traps and the gaping interiors of an alien citadel. The engine does a great job of rendering both indoor and outdoor environments, and there’s a lot of eye candy to absorb if you have the hardware to handle it. Most surfaces nearly glisten with the latest shader effects, and the textures are sharp and richly detailed.

One of the big new features is the incorporation of physics into the engine, and that has an effect on the visuals as well. Basically, everything moves and behaves as it ought to, so when you hammer a strider or a gunship with a rocket, it shudders and recoils from the impact. Characters also move in a lifelike manner, and the animations are smooth and believable. You’ll also discover that objects in the environment can be used against you–there’s nothing that zombies like more than to hurl a metal barrel in your direction. On the other hand, you can use the gravity gun to hurl objects about, or even to pick things up and use them as a shield.

While Gordon Freeman doesn’t say anything, you’ll quickly discover that some of the best parts of the game are when a character has a one-sided conversation with you. This also lets Valve showcase its remarkable new facial technology, which brings human characters to life like never before. You can literally see the gleam in characters’ eyes when they speak, and they can display a wide range of emotions, from fear to familial pride. It also helps that Valve enlisted notable talent to supply the voices for many characters, including Robert Guillaume, Louis Gossett Jr., Robert Culp, and Michelle Forbes. The voice acting is superb, and the script itself features wit, warmth, and humor.

The sound effects are also well done. Once again, it’s the little details that stand out, like the buzzing noise of manhacks as they approach and the clatter of a gutter pipe as something climbs up to reach you. As in the original game, there’s very little music, and what’s here is electronic in nature and reserved to emphasize important moments, such as when you’re headed for a showdown with a major foe. Most of the music is forgettable, but there are a few standout themes, one of which is recycled from the original game.

Meanwhile, the multiplayer aspect of Half-Life is veritably a game in and of itself.

Rather than build a new multiplayer component based on the single-player campaign, Valve has instead included Counter-Strike: Source with Half-Life 2. The original Counter-Strike was developed as a free team-based multiplayer mod for the original Half-Life, and it quickly grew into one of the most popular online first-person shooters in the world. Valve even released a retail package of Counter-Strike, and earlier this year there was an updated retail version, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero. Counter-Strike: Source is the updated version of the original Counter-Strike, bringing the graphics in line with the powerful new Source engine and making a few tweaks, but otherwise keeping everything else the same.

If you’ve missed out on the Counter-Strike phenomenon these past five years, the idea behind the game is simple: Two teams–the terrorists and the counterterrorists–battle it out in a series of fast-paced rounds to see who will win a match. The easiest way to win a round is to simply eliminate the other team, but there are other routes to victory, depending on the map. For example, counterterrorists can attempt to rescue hostages and deliver them to safety, while terrorists can plant bombs and protect them until they explode. Your success can influence your success in future rounds, as there’s a monetary reward for your team’s performance, which you can use to purchase realistic weapons and equipment for the next round.

Counter-Strike: Source features updated versions of some of the most popular Counter-Strike maps, including Dust and Office. Since these are essentially the same maps that have been played since 1999, they were battle tested and balanced years ago. There have been some improvements, however. Counter-Strike: Source implements a physics engine that lets you push objects around using gunfire, though this has relatively little tactical value in the game–you can’t barricade a doorway with desks, or drop an object onto an enemy below.

Nevertheless, there’s little question that Counter-Strike: Source is an exciting, well-balanced game of tactical combat. It’s also a highly social game. Its appeal lies in the fact that even if you’re killed early, you can still sit back and chat with other players, or simply watch the match. Since each round lasts only a few minutes on average, there’s not much downtime before the game resets and you’re blasting away again. Finding a game isn’t a problem, either, as Valve released Counter-Strike: Source more than a month before Half-Life 2, and there are hundreds of servers and thousands of players online at any given time during the day. Meanwhile, the standard built-in server browser can get you online in seconds, and you can sort by number of players, ping, and map.

Admittedly, for a beginner, Counter-Strike: Source can be a daunting experience. It’s easy to feel like an outsider, as an entire culture has evolved around the game, and most of the players online know what they’re doing, which can be intimidating. On the other hand, Counter-Strike: Source is relatively easy to pick up, and it doesn’t take too long to become proficient at it, though it will take far longer to reach the skill level of the better players online. Then again, the release of Half-Life 2 should mean lots of new blood on the Counter-Strike circuit.

While it’s hard to argue against Valve including Counter-Strike: Source with Half-Life 2, it would have been nice to have seen a multiplayer mode based on the single-player game that takes advantage of some of the single-player game’s settings and weapons. The original Half-Life shipped with such a mode, and it was fun to play with some of those settings and weapons in a multiplayer arena. There are some genuinely interesting weapons in Half-Life 2’s single-player mode, and it’d be fun to see what the gravity gun, for example, could do in a multiplayer setting, particularly with all the physics turned on. Still, Counter-Strike: Source is capable of providing countless hours of online play if you’re a fan of team-based shooters, and it’s a safe assumption that the game isn’t going to cool off anytime soon.

When you combine the strong single-player campaign of Half-Life 2 with the popular online play of Counter-Strike, the result is one of the most complete and compelling first-person shooter packages available. While Half-Life 2 breaks little new ground, it’s still a superb and engaging first-person shooter, as well as an amazing technological accomplishment.

Source: GameSpot
Written by: James Ocampo
Link: http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/ha…ew.html?page=4

Publisher: THQ
Developer: Relic Entertainment
# of Players: 1-8
Category: Strategy
Release Dates
N Amer - 09/19/2006
Digital Download - 07/17/2007
Official Game Website

Fallout 3 is looking good. Very, very good. This first-person role-playing game, a resurrection of the post-apocalyptic PC series, combines the best elements of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and BioShock to create a compulsively playable adventure. Though our official review is still a few weeks away, Fallout 3 is already poised to be one of the best games of 2008. The story is engrossing, the character options are practically limitless, and the art direction firmly plants you in the game’s corroded world. If you love role-playing games, shooters, or open-world adventures, Fallout 3 should be on the top of your list.

Four Hours in the Wastelands
I had four short hours to play with a near-final version of Fallout 3. I chose the PlayStation 3 version of the game (just to be different), and after selecting my starting skills and stats, I was off and running in seconds. Like its spiritual successor, Oblivion, Fallout 3 gave me all the character customization I could handle. With only a few hours of play time available, I decided to create a speedy, nimble character who focused on pistols and rifles, with some light lockpicking abilities. As I gained experience points by completing quests and killing foes, I added further special skills ("Perks") that can have a huge impact on your play style and overall experience. The developers asked us not to name the Perks available in the final game, for fear of ruining the surprises, but I can confirm that there are well over 50 Perks to choose from and some are downright shocking.

But enough with the preliminaries. The real question is, how does Fallout 3 play? That’s the best news of all: controller in hand, Fallout 3 feels smooth, responsive, and highly intuitive, even for a jaded shooter veteran like myself. I played primarily from the first-person camera view, switching to the third-person view only in certain outdoor scenes. Though Fallout 3 is first and foremost an RPG, the gunplay-heavy combat quickly grabbed my attention. Using the standard first-person view, I blasted away at enemy mutants, cannibals, and squatters. The results were mixed - accuracy counts big when shooting - until I tried out the V.A.T.S. targeting system. With one button press, I stopped time and repeatedly targeted an enemy raider’s head for maximum damage. The V.A.T.S. targeting allows you to cripple enemy limbs with surgical precision, a benefit that becomes apparent once you start fighting the mutated insects and beasts that plague Fallout 3’s nuke-blasted wastelands.

In the Year 2277
As in Oblivion, you can choose to undertake or ignore any quest that grabs your attention - there’s literally no wrong way to play Fallout 3. Though my overarching goal was to track down my missing father, I was quickly sidetracked into a series of enjoyable side missions that consumed all of my attention. In a nearby town, I met a researcher who wanted to use my field experiences to help her write a post-apocalyptic survival guide. Elsewhere, I encountered a tiny group of survivors who sought my help in tracking down a mysterious band of killers called "The Family." I also crept through the cannibal-infested ruins of an elementary school, an eerily abandoned supermarket, and an underground lair home to a band of drug-manufacturing ghouls (don’t ask). The variety of missions and settings was a real draw - the replayability here should be exceptional.

If the later content in Fallout 3 is as polished and as inventive as what I played early in the game, we could be looking at 2008’s answer to BioShock. Fallout 3 has the graphical chops, gameplay depth, and storyline sophistication to go the distance. In other words, if you’ve got an Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, or a gaming PC, this is one party you won’t want to miss.
Written by Sid Shuman

This makes one of the most hyped games of all time even more anticipated by fans of games every where, I’m sure glad I’ve already pre-ordered my copy!
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