There are controllers, and then there are controllers. Today, most of us just use whatever comes with the console, and nothing else. Microsoft or Sony did a tremendous job with their gamepads, but it has taken 3rd parties too long to match or better that quality. They just haven’t been as good. That finally changes in a big way.

The MLG Pro Circuit box is expertly crafted

Mad Catz decided to best the millions of man-hours and research put into the 360 and Dualshock controllers by aiming for the high-end consumer and not the everyman gamer. I’ve gotta say, the MLG Pro Circuit Controller fits that bill.

Available for both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, the MLG Pro Circuit Controller shares the 360 gamepad’s shape, but what sets it apart is one feature: interchangeable parts. Faceplates are secondary. The d-Pad, analog sticks, faceplate, wrist holds, even the cable are all detachable, replaceable, and customisable. It may seem useless, but consider you’re a PS3 gamer who likes the concave 360 analog sticks. It’s an easy switch: twist the convex ones out, put the concave ones in, and done. The snap-on system isn’t as easy to open as they should be, more akin to opening a bottle of pills with that child-safety lock. Both the 360 and PS3 models are identical (save for the Xbox/PS button).

In the box is the controller, a set of analog sticks in both PS3 and 360 style, d-Pads for both, a 9′ braided cable that screws onto the controller, two weights (35g each), and a carrying case for all of the above. It isn’t wireless because it’s a pro-gamer controller. Wired controllers are faster, more reliable, are also the only ones allowed in tournaments.

I’ve been using the Pro Circuit for the past week and it’s a real pleasure to use, not just because it’s a good controller, but because of the interchangeable parts. I played through the Metal Gear Solid HD collection on the 360, but clearly the game was designed for the PS2′s Dualshock. For that game, I switched the d-Pad to the PS3′s and put it on the top left, put a 360 analog stick on the bottom left, and kept a PS3 analog stick on the right. For me, this setup was the most effective. Fast paced 360 shooters, like Modern Warfare 3, are easier for me with the PS3 right stick and 360 left stick.

In a sense, it’s like having both consoles wrapped into one. The only sad news is that because of licensing, there’s no way to get one controller that would work with both consoles.

But the Pro Circuit isn’t perfect. The face buttons are a bit mushy, especially so out of the box. They’re better after being broken in, but the style of the buttons may not appeal to all players, including pro gamers. The buttons have a lot of give, compared to the mouse-like buttons of the Razer Onza controller.

The Pro Circuit with both back panels, with and without weights

It’s also expensive. For $100, the Pro Circuit is an investment, one that may prove to save money. Like I wrote in my hands-on preview, I have a stack of working but worn out Xbox 360 controllers, four with completely worn out indents on the analog sticks. A set of analog sticks will be available for purchase for $15 each, which will make the controller worthwhile for the long-term. It just depends on your gaming habits. I just feel that Mad Catz is a little late to the controller game. If the Pro Circuit came out at least a year ago, it would have a much better chance to succeed and prosper. With today’s rumors of a new Xbox and Playstation within the coming year, even if the current controllers work with new consoles it limits just how well a new controller can do today.

Mad Catz will also put out additional parts for the Pro Circuit, including different style faceplates, different length cables, and potentially even different style joysticks. The MLG Pro Circuit Controller is a very solid gamepad, one with an exceptional switch system for analog sticks and d-Pads. I think that the Pro Circuit can be better over time, as more faceplate, palm rests, joysticks and d-Pads become available, though right now it’s still a great controller.

Editor’s Rating:

3.5 out of 5 stars

Very Good

Bottom Line: The MLG Pro Circuit Controller is a great gamepad that thanks to interchangeable parts is highly customizable, more than any controller before it.

Pros:

• Comfortable gamepad
• Interchangeable parts are a brilliant direction for a gamepad
• A good long-term controller investment

I’ve seen many TVs, but few have the simplicity, style, and dazzling high-quality picture as…a Playstation branded TV? Yes, you read that right. Not only is Sony’s first “for-gaming” TV crazy good, it’s an HD 3DTV for $500. I can’t remember the last time I played console games on a display that looked this good. The clarity, the accuracy in colors, the excellent backlight that only brightens the picture and not the screen…color me impressed.

It’s sad then that the only reason I can’t recommend it to everyone today is the tiny size and first-gen design quirks. Almost nothing else limits this brilliant TV.

Inside the Box

The Sony Playstation 3D Display a TV that doesn’t follow typical television nomenclature (Vizio VX32L, Sony Bravia XBR HX929, other terrible names that mean nothing to users.). Whoever started naming TV sets must have hated marketers, and this TV bucks that trend. Instead, the full name is too long. “Sony Playstation 3D Display” is too long. PSTV, or Playstation 3DTV would be far simpler and better. For the purposes of this review I’ll keep the name PSTV.

Out of the box, two realities immediately hit home: it’s a small TV and the TV is all you get. The PSTV is a 24” TV, as small as home TVs get. For comparison, most 24″ HDTVs are 720p and under $300. The PSTV is strange for it’s screen size; it’s a small TV but a large computer monitor. The integrated speakers are like elephant ears, and take up a lot of horizontal space. More importantly, the display itself is awfully small for a TV set, whether it’s for games or TV viewing. But more on screen size later.

When opening the box, users will find only three things: the PSTV, a set of 3D glasses, and the power cable. It really is as bare-bones as TVs go, which is good because Sony keeps things simple, but how about a remote? No remote is included and Sony currently doesn’t have one available (media controls are available through the Playstation 3 using a Bluetooth remote or controller). The PSTV does have an IR sensor, so universal remotes do work with the set.

Build and Design

The PSTV is slim, and surprisingly so. For a 1080p display, it crams all of the essentials while maintaining excellent picture quality. With a completely black coat remeniscient of the Playstation 2 design (the older finish, not the newer PS3 original glossy decal or updated gunmetal matte), and it looks great. Product shots provided by companies of their own products generally make those products look better than they actually do. In this case, Sony is dead on. The PSTV looks great, and on the whole it is really well designed.

But piece-by-piece, there are three major snags. The first is the lack of ports, or rather, the lack of a coaxial port. The PSTV includes two HDMI ports and Component ports, and that’s it. For a TV, this is a surprise. The only way to watch cable through the PSTV is to have an HD-ready cable box (which most of us still don’t have), or through your game console. My office cable box is SD-only, but I was able to watch streaming TV through my Xbox 360 (thanks to the Verizon IPTV app). Unfortunately TV streaming for the PS3 is still in its fledgling stages in the US.

The controls are also very oddly placed on the back right of the PSTV, and they are hell to reach. With no included remote this is especially tiresome. The menu system is designed with those poorly placed buttons in mind. It points to which button to press for what action, and the menu navigation is very fluid and easy to use, the best I’ve ever seen on a TV.

Picture and Audio Quality

As I said above, the picture quality is excellent. When I met with Sony representatives a few months back, they said the PSTV was completely a Playstation-branded initiative. Sony Electronics, which builds Bravia TVs (among many other things) didn’t make it. The focus was clearly on perfect picture quality, and they did a damn fine job. The only thing that really matters with any display is great visuals, and the PSTV nailed it. I’ve never seen a TV that looked this good for under $1,500.

The only problem I’ve found is the very glossy display, which because of the screen’s small size and how close I regularly sat in front of the TV to see it, compounded glare and reflections. The closer you are to a reflective surface the more reflections and glare you’ll see, and the PSTV is oh so guilty of the crime of reflection.

I am also very impressed with the backlight, which produces no lightbleed or oversaturation at any brightness. This is uncanny among both TVs and monitors, and damn amazing for an LCD panel. Colors are very accurate, and the framerate is consistently excellent. This is because of the 240Hz refresh rate, which seems incredible but is designed for two people simultaneously playing in 3D (more on that in ‘3D Quality’).

The built-in speakers produce adequate sound for a display of this size. I wouldn’t recommend them for serious gaming though. I regularly had trouble placing directional audio, and the sound in general was light and at higher pitches tinny. At higher volumes the sound cracks. For regular TV viewing or light gaming the built-in speakers are good, but more serious gaming or for watching movies I recommend using a dedicated 2.1 speaker set.

3D Quality

3D is unique on the PSTV because it uses Sony’s own developed technology called SimulView. SimulView displays two different images on the same screen for two different people to watch simultaneously, and each will only see the picture intended for them. It works by using the included (1) shutter glasses to only show half of the picture. That’s why the PSTV has a 240Hz refresh rate: 60Hz for each eye, for two players.

Today there are only games that support SimulView, including Motorstorm Apocolypse, Gran Turismo 5, Killzone 3, and Super Stardust HD. I tested all of the games, and SimulView works great. It greatly improves playing coop on a single display. I never found a lack of clarity, and there shouldn’t be. The human eye sees at 24/25Hz, so 60Hz per eye is more than enough.

General 3D image quality is also excellent, though it really depends more on the game than the display. The screen produces crisp 3D picture, and there is very little movement from bobbing heads (moving your head side to side produces a slight movement of the image on the screen). It isn’t the best 3D I’ve tested, but the combination of excellent picture quality and very good 3D quality makes it the best 3D display to date.

My only concern regarding 3D is the small display size. Over the years my biggest complaint for 3D gaming is that the screen needs to be large for the 3D effect to be meaningful. Computer monitors max out at 27″ for 3D, and 3DTVs can get very large but often come with their own 3D glasses and technology. Even with larger screens 3DTVs are relatively smaller because of the greater distance from the TV than a computer monitor. PC gaming has so far provided the best home 3D setup, though that will likely change with better 3D projectors.

At 24”, the PSTV is small for both a TV and a 3D display. This minimizes the 3D effect unless you’re sitting very close to the screen. Because 3D today goes into the TV (deep) instead of outside the TV (in your face), closeness to the screen is only a problem your grandmother will complain about (“if you sit that close to the TV you are going to go blind!). The overall 3D experience, unless you’re very close to the TV, is lacking. For two players this poses a unique problem of being very physically close to one another while playing, though relatively speaking a single 24″ display provides more picture than a 50″ TV going split-screen.

Conclusion

The Playstation 3D Display has the best video quality of any TV three times its price. It may be one of the best gaming products ever built, and I hope to see more in the future. As the first Playstation TV it has a few design mistakes (no remote, poorly placed buttons), but the exceptional build of this TV is undeniable.

The biggest problem, both for everyday users and 3D gamers, is the size. 24” is small for a TV. It fits on a computer desk, though it doesn’t make the best monitor. Text isn’t very clear, and it doesn’t make for the best computer monitor. But for anyone with one display interested in getting a second, the PSTV is a great option for viewing media, playing games, and even for applications such as picture and video editing.

As a standalone TV, the PSTV lacks a coaxial input but works well with today’s game consoles. If you’ve forsaken cable TV for internet TV and videos or have an HD cable box, the PSTV will fit right in. College students and anyone on a budget can’t find a better deal than this. Assuming it meets your needs, I highly recommend the Playstation 3D Display. If it doesn’t, wait until Sony puts out a model twice the size. With this kind of quality, the company would be crazy not to.

Editor’s Rating:

4 out of 5 stars

Great

Bottom Line: The best TV you can buy for $500. Excellent video, perfect for gaming, but it needs to match your conditions. A perfect display as a secondary PC monitor/game console TV at a workstation. There’s a reason why it fit in multiple gift guides.

Pros:

• Excellent video quality
• Solid 3D reproduction
• Minimalist hardware and software design

Sony’s Vita isn’t exactly destroying sales records.  The portable console went on sale in Japan already and reports have flooded in stating that it is anything but the run away hit the company needed.  As a result, and to help bolster sales here in the US, Sony will be rewarding those who preordered the Vita as well as those who stand in line on launch day, February 22nd.

For those that preordered the $350 bundle, Sony will now toss in 250mb of 3G access for anyone that activates the device on AT&T’s network, as well as one free Playstation Network game.  Remember, this is in addition to the included items, which are a 4GB PS Vita memory card, a limited edition case and the Little Deviants game.

And for you folks that plan to stand in line on February 22nd, you’ll be rewarded with a an 8GB PS Vita Memory Card, 250GB of AT&T DataConnect Pass and a PlayStation Network game all for $299.

Still pondering that Christmas gift for the gamer in the family?  Well, odds are, that is assuming they have any level of self respect, they’re a Portal fan. The game is a real head scratcher, and while we are anything but die hard fans, there are more than enough of you out there to warrant such a product as the Portal 2 Aperture iPad Sleeve.

This case fits both iterations of Apple’s tablet, but truthfully, it’s designed for the latter version.  Unfortunately, it won’t teleport you or your cousins out of your aunt’s harrassing reach, but it surely will please any Portal fanboy.  Aside from the fact that it’s an officially licensed Portal product, it features the Aperture Science Logo, a small outside pocket for storing your “test orders” and pencils, the same wonderful orange finish as Chell’s jumpsuit and wait for it, a rubber grommet allowing you to plug in your headphones while it’s protectively wrapped from harm’s way.

This officially licensed Portal sleeve will cost you $29.99.

Many would argue that Battlefield 3, without a shred of a doubt, makes Modern Warfare 3 look like child’s play when it comes to graphics and perhaps even that sense of realism we all pine for when it comes to an FPS. And while both games are compelling in an epic battle, blood shed sort of sense, nothing compares to this supposedly fan made Battlefield 3 video.  We say “supposedly” because its production quality is just that top notch, nailing it all the way down to the in hand weapon cycling.  Anyway, why don’t you be the judge for yourself and hit the above video.

When I was a wee lad, I used to go over to my friend Dave’s house just to play wrestling games.  Back then we would watch WWF RAW and then switch the channel to WCW Nitro (I think that’s what it was called) before switching on the N64 to try and mimic some of the matches we had just seen.  When more than four of us were there is was a mad round robin game, where the losers were eliminated.  It was simple, it was fun, and it’s still probably one of the fondest memories from my childhood.  Now while I haven’t watched any wrestling myself in number of years, I find myself with a son who does just like I used to, and he wants to play wrestling games like I did as well – so how well did THQ do here?  Did it fondly remind me of days gone by?

The short answer is “not really”.

I’m normally the guy who likes games with a few miss steps in them – like the runt of the liter when you’re picking out a puppy.  I might not give those games the best scores, but I’ll let my readers know that I genuinely enjoyed playing them despite those flaws.  In regards to the single player experience here, that’s sadly not going to be the case.  For starters, the A.I. doesn’t actually do anything intelligent at all, but rather spams grapple the entire time you get close.  It’s the equivalent of playing a Mortal Kombat or a Street Fighter game against someone that only knows where the high kick button is.  It’s more than annoying, it’s downright boring.

Even worse, is when you go to try and do something with a partner, and they seem to want to make your help pointless.  I was in a match of the Miz and John Cena vs Kane and the Undertaker, and when the ref was down and I ran in as Cena to do his finisher on Kane, the Miz just kept walking up to him punching – effectively ruining any two one one bonus.  It’s simply mind blowing to me that things like this even happen in games today – especially in one like this with so much potential in the single player realm.

Modes like The Road to Wrestlemania could have been great, had they just worked on it a little more.  Maybe get some of the actual WWE writers to come up with the story next year to start, because the story here is an extreme yawn fest, and more predictable than if they had just included the transcript in with the game.  Not only that, but the action never feels fresh at all – like you’re doing the same thing over and over (and I don’t just mean wrestling).  Even the backstage brawls lose their excitement as soon as you realize there is only one backstage area.

Fortunately for THQ, this game does have a few saving graces.  For starters, the character models are pretty damn amazing to look at.  Modeling a character on a game after a real life person is always hard work (unless you have the crazy face tech of L.A. Noir at your disposal), and WWE ’12 does a decent job at it.  While the models might not look exact, they’re the best any wrestling game that I can remember has come to replicating real life.  That doesn’t apply to the wrestler entrances though, as a lot of the animations look sloppy, and the sound is kinda like listening to your television from two rooms away.

The wrestler creation mode is nice as well, with plenty of options for you to fiddle with if you want to make absolutely sure your wrestler is perfect for you.  I spent a few hours messing with it and was happy, but I’m sure someone with more time and talent than me could really make someone look special (or just like any old wrestler that’s not in the game).  The other really big thing for me, and the only reason I’ll keep coming back and playing this (because is SURE isn’t for the single player experience), is for the multi-player fun.

While my son is only nine, going on ten in two months, we haven’t had this much fun playing video games together before.  We tried loads of lame Kinect titles, and some of the pathetic Move offerings, but just sitting there with controllers was more of a bonding experience than those two “gimmick” systems could hope for.  We trash talked.  We pushed each other around.  At one point he threw a pretzel at my head to distract me and go for the pin.  Those moments, and those moments alone are what made me truly happy to be playing this game.  It also still has four player multiplayer, which means when his friends come over it’s gang up on dad when I’m around, or round robin battle royale when I’m not.

Editor’s Rating:

2.5 out of 5 stars

Fair

The Bottom Line:  Look, I know this game has more than its fair share of problems in the single player realm, but if you have a few friends to call over and have a couch war with, it’s well worth the money (it also has an online mode, but when I tried it that was down and I haven’t had a chance to go back to it).

Pros:

• The Create A Wrestler mode is very well done, and can lead to some nice looking players
• The graphics are really improved over any other wrestling game I’ve seen in the past, and the characters look “right”
• The amount of fun you can have in a room full of friends with this can not be quantified – words won’t do it justice

Cons:

• The A.I. is laughably abysmal – or at least it would be if it wasn’t so cheap that it made you swear every five minutes
• The story is just downright pathetic – were the writers found behind a dumpster?
• The intro sequences are literally painful to watch, and you’ll want to turn them off ASAP

You may have heard. Gaming is one of today’s most expensive hobbies. Games for major platforms like the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 cost $60 each, while Wii and PC games are generally $50 a pop. Mobile games are cheaper, but for big, cinematic experiences, players need to be sitting at their couch or at their computer, facing down hordes of demons, zombies or whatever else comes their way.

So what games can you get for your significant other, for your kids or parents, or for friends? We’ve got a great list of titles you should pick up, but just make sure they don’t already have it!

Xbox 360 Exclusive Games

Gears of War 3

It promised to be one of the biggest action titles of the year, and developer Epic Games pulled through on that promise. Gears of War 3 is an amicable conclusion to the Xbox 360 sci-fi saga, one that includes a fun, sordid campaign and several excellent multiplayer modes that continue to excite even months later. You don’t want to pass on this.

Forza Motorsport 4

Forza Motorsport 3 was huge, with over 400 cars and a disc just to install a ton of content. Forza 4 does all of that and more, with better photorealistic graphics, more cars and tracks, Kinect functionality, and the same great racing. If there’s a racing game to get this holiday, it’s Forza 4.

Dance Central 2

The original Dance Central was revolutionary; it took the dancing games we all wanted to enjoy on the Wii and made dancing in front of a TV fun. Whether it’s to work out, to learn some dance moves, or to make a fool of yourself at a party, Dance Central 2 ups the ante with two-players dancing side-by-side and a slew of new songs to get jiggy with. I wouldn’t call it kid-friendly; most of the tracks are fairly explicit (no bad words, but there is plenty of questionable content), though you’re likely to hear them on the radio nonetheless. Games like Dance Central are the reason to own a Kinect.

Halo: Anniversary

The game that brought the Xbox into the limelight returns, completely revamped with new HD graphics, online coop, and new game modes available in last year’s Halo: Reach. It may not look quite right to play the old classic with such updated graphics (I myself just love the old-school blocky textures), and the game isn’t an exact duplicate. Grizzled ancients will have new secrets to hunt and unlock while younger gamers who missed the original can give the game that started it all a serious go. For $40 it’s a great buy, even if you own the original Halo: Combat Evolved like I do because of the improved resolution and the chance to play it over Xbox Live.

Playstation 3 Exclusive Games

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

If there’s one definitive franchise for the Playstation 3, it’s Uncharted. The first title, Drake’s Fortune, was great, but had a lot of room to grow. The second, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, quickly became a fan favorite, and the third, Drake’s Deception, is a stunning cinematic experience. A stunning single-player campaign, a fabulously fun cooperative play mode and a different yet still bombastic multiplayer make Drake’s Deception a must-buy, for the few who don’t have it already. Because if you don’t, you are surely missing out. It’s one of the few games where you can actually enjoy watching someone else play, and never picking up a controller yourself.

Infamous 2

There are few games that inspire the feeling of “I wish I could do that in real life” more than Infamous 2, at least for me every time I see a power line. While the original was a strong game, Infamous 2 picks action up a notch and gives players not only several different massive cities to explore, but the ability to take on player-created missions, and even make their own. That, along with some very fun DLC, makes Infamous 2 a must-have.

The Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection

Both Ico and Shadow of the Colossus are incredible games, both ahead of their time and timeless. I sadly missed both when they released back for the PS2, but caught up and am so glad I did. Both of these games are just incredible, the kind that make you gape in wonder, that make you constantly feel astounded. Your kids may hate you because both games feel slow, with limited action going on at any given point of time, but few games ever manage to reach the level of sophistication and artistry these two do. Bundling them together with improved graphics is just a side bonus.

Great Multi-Console Games

Batman: Arkham City

The return of the Dark Knight this decade has just been astounding. First two (and soon a third) film, then an amazing game, and now a kickass sequel. Batman: Arkham City is not just a romp around a fine prison; it’s a full-scale town to silently stalk through. Arkham City is a definite best-buy for any player, not only because the game is just so fun, but because many gamers missed it in the flood of holiday games. Don’t let this one pass you by.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

It’s big. Everyone wants it. It’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. In fact, if you don’t already have it, the only question is why not? We loved it, all your friends are playing it, and unless you’re stuck in Skyrim (see below), there’s no reason Modern Warfare 3 shouldn’t be in your game collection.

Rage

As good and bad as some games are, few are as jam-packed with excellent content and top-of-the-line features as Rage. It’s got a lot of holes to plug, and a lot of minor gripes that will annoy. But I guarantee that it‘s not only an excellent first person shooter, but that it really pushes the bounds of what it means to be a shooter. Rage may not be the greatest game to come out this year, but it will certainly open your eyes to the possibilities of future games, and be exciting the whole while. Just don’t forget to save often.

Portal 2

The best puzzle game this year, period. It’s bigger, smarter, and has a deeper story than the original, plus room for two players with double the portal action. Coop alone makes Portal 2 a great buy. Free future updates only guarantee that you’ll want to keep it.

Battlefield 3

Modern Warfare 3 may own the multiplayer Rambo-style of gaming, but Battlefield 3 is for the team-players, the ones who will grab their friends for an hour-long bout against an equally intelligent group for serious, vehicle-filled combat. Battlefield is for console strategists. Feel free to run and gun, but unless that’s your specialty, your team can definitely use another great member of the crew. Be it.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

As a sleeper hit, Human Revolution isn’t quite the game that the original Deus Ex was, but that doesn’t take away from the game any. It pits players in the same neo-techno future, with body augmentations, incredible combat maneuvers, and multiple ways to play the game, including stealth, engineering, and soldier. It’s one game that’s easy to miss, but don’t. There is so much to do in the big city, it’s like a miniature RPG.

Rayman: Origins

Rayman: Origins is one of those really great games that everyone in the family can enjoy. The simple platforming is complex enough to remain entertaining for hours on end, yet with instant cooperative play with up to four players on a home console, it’s always a fun time with everyone racing and slapping each other all the way to the finish. If there’s one way to spend the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, Christmas, or any family time together when you’re snowed/rained in, Rayman: Origins is it.

Dark Souls

Beware: this is for masochists only! Dark Souls, the sequel to Demons Souls, is an RPG with a difficulty curve that will either make you break your controller in frustration or feel right at home with the sheer insanity of this unforgiving game. If that sounds like the perfect gift for someone, either because they’d love it or end up breaking their game console in frustration, then this is a must-buy.

Saint’s Row: The Third

Saint’s Row: The Third is not what you’d expect from a massive sandbox game in the vein of Grand Theft Auto. It’s goofy, over the top in every way, and rombunctiously fun. So much so that I had to make up a word to describe it, because this game is insane in just about every way. That’s not to say you won’t love it…just keep it out of reach from the kids.

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations

Assassin’s Creed is one of the few game franchises where every game may feel oh-so-similar to the last, but even then the games are still so damn fun it’s impossible to put down. All of the Assassin’s Creed titles have just been incredible, even though Shawn and I may disagree on just how good. But there’s one thing we both agree on: these games are a blast to play. Assassin’s Creed: Revelations doesn’t quite take the franchise to the next level, still following Ezio Auditore from Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, but it further unfolds the tale, both past and present, of the everlong struggle between the Assassin’s and Knights Templar. A blockbuster hit you won’t want to miss.

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Skyrim is the one game you’ve probably seen not only a handful of ads in larger cities, but new internet meme’s popping up daily about. In fact, you don’t have to go far to learn what Skyrim is, which is one of the biggest, most incredible RPGs to come out this year. Our own Shawn Kline loved it. A definite must have, but be warned: you probably won’t be seeing much of whomever you give it to. That may make it a great, or terrible, gift idea.

Metal Gear Solid: HD Collection

There are few games that stand the test of time. Metal Gear Solid isn’t just one game, but an entire series that does exactly that. That’s why the game’s creator Hideo Kojima keeps making new ones even after consistently saying he’s done. That’s why years later people talk about the incredible experience they had in Snake Eater, or how they once ate Alligator meat in the game. Sure, it’s zany and over the top, but putting the Metal Gear Solid 2, 3, and Peace Walker in one bundle, in  HD, is just another reason to play it, or to buy it for the new generation that didn’t grow up with METAL GEEEEEEAR!

When it comes to gaming, the Playstation 3 may be your best bet for a hardcore gaming system. All games work in 3D, most games have Move support, and the PS3′s power is finally being realized over the older Xbox 360. Some of the games you see below, available on multiple consoles, run and play better on the PS3. Plus with the holiday deals on console bundles, it’s hard for anyone to compete with the PS3. They used to say you get what you pay for. Today, it feels like you’re getting a lot more.

Hardware

Uncharted 3/Infamous 2 Holiday Bundle

When it comes to holiday consoles, there is no better deal than either of these two bundles. Not only do buyers get a Playstation 3, they get the new, slimmer model, with a 320GB hard drive (which you’ll want, especially with game installs and plenty of DLC) and everything you’ll need to get started to play, you also get a great game. The price is so low, it’s actually cheaper to buy one of these Playstation 3 models with another game and controller than it is to buy the cheapest Xbox 360 holiday bundle. And for that price, you get everything mentioned above plus free updates, free online play, and free online communication for life! It’s the gift that just keeps on giving.

Playstation 3D Display

This niche display is pretty spectacular in actual use. It’s a 3D display that eliminates the need to ever have split-screen gaming again, thanks to some pretty advanced technology dubbed SimulView. If you and a buddy throw on your 3D glasses, you’ll each see two completely different pictures on the same screen. That’s because the screen flashes two separate images, both at 120Hz. At 24″ it’s a tad small, but for the college dorm, that tiny closet of an apartment, or even for your workstation, the 1080p 3D display really is something else, especially in games like Uncharted 3 or the Ico & Shadow of the Colossus, which have giant landscapes and players traversing high and low.

The 3D effect really comes to live with scaling multi-leveled platforms and giant levels, and so many games on the Playstation 3 already have far reaching games like that. God of War 3, Infamous 2, Killzone 3…these are all games that really take advantage of the 3D effect, and with this display – built from the ground up by the Playstation team – you get every bit of that.

I almost wish it were smaller, so I could hide it fancifully in a giant stocking.

Wireless Stereo Headset

It may be named Wireless Stereo Headset, but this headset is anything but stereo. It supports 7.1 audio and looks huge, and that’s so it can fit comfortably over your ears and last for hours. In fact, the cans are perfectly designed for just that, similar to some of Sony’s more expensive audiophile-quality headsets, with deeper cans for the ears. The boom microphone hides and volume controls are hidden on the left side for easy adjustment. There are plenty of surround headsets available for the PS3, but few have the build quality and finish, not to mention the audio clarity and sleek design, of the Wireless Stereo Headset. PS3 owners would be remiss to not have one.

Playstation Credit Card

You want a real gift that keeps on giving? Get your loved one a Playstation Visa. Every purchase earns points to use in the PSN store, all Playstation and Sony products earn 3x the points, and anything bought on PSN earns 10x the points. Before you know it, your bank account will be empty but you’ll have a handful of free PSN downloads to keep you company. Until the electric company cuts off power, anyways. And the best part is if you do get the card, you’ll immediately get $50 off on the Uncharted 3 PS3 bundle. It just keeps giving and giving and giving…

Playstation 3 Exclusive Games

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

If there’s one definitive franchise for the Playstation 3, it’s Uncharted. The first title, Drake’s Fortune, was great, but had a lot of room to grow. The second, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, quickly became a fan favorite, and the third, Drake’s Deception, is a stunning cinematic experience. A stunning single-player campaign, a fabulously fun cooperative play mode and a different yet still bombastic multiplayer make Drake’s Deception a must-buy, for the few who don’t have it already. Because if you don’t, you are surely missing out. It’s one of the few games where you can actually enjoy watching someone else play, and never picking up a controller yourself.

Infamous 2

There are few games that inspire the feeling of “I wish I could do that in real life” more than Infamous 2, at least for me every time I see a power line. While the original was a strong game, Infamous 2 picks action up a notch and gives players not only several different massive cities to explore, but the ability to take on player-created missions, and even make their own. That, along with some very fun DLC, makes Infamous 2 a must-have.

The Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection

Both Ico and Shadow of the Colossus are incredible games, both ahead of their time and timeless. I sadly missed both when they released back for the PS2, but caught up and am so glad I did. Both of these games are just incredible, the kind that make you gape in wonder, that make you constantly feel astounded. Your kids may hate you because both games feel slow, with limited action going on at any given point of time, but few games ever manage to reach the level of sophistication and artistry these two do. Bundling them together with improved graphics is just a side bonus.

Great Multi-Console Games

Batman: Arkham City

The return of the Dark Knight this decade has just been astounding. First two (and soon a third) film, then an amazing game, and now a kickass sequel. Batman: Arkham City is not just a romp around a fine prison; it’s a full-scale town to silently stalk through. Arkham City is a definite best-buy for any player, not only because the game is just so fun, but because many gamers missed it in the flood of holiday games. Don’t let this one pass you by.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

It’s big. Everyone wants it. It’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. In fact, if you don’t already have it, the only question is why not? We loved it, all your friends are playing it, and unless you’re stuck in Skyrim (see below), there’s no reason Modern Warfare 3 shouldn’t be in your game collection.

Rage

As good and bad as some games are, few are as jam-packed with excellent content and top-of-the-line features as Rage. It’s got a lot of holes to plug, and a lot of minor gripes that will annoy. But I guarantee that it‘s not only an excellent first person shooter, but that it really pushes the bounds of what it means to be a shooter. Rage may not be the greatest game to come out this year, but it will certainly open your eyes to the possibilities of future games, and be exciting the whole while. Just don’t forget to save often.

Portal 2

The best puzzle game this year, period. It’s bigger, smarter, and has a deeper story than the original, plus room for two players with double the portal action. Coop alone makes Portal 2 a great buy. Free future updates only guarantee that you’ll want to keep it.

Battlefield 3

Modern Warfare 3 may own the multiplayer Rambo-style of gaming, but Battlefield 3 is for the team-players, the ones who will grab their friends for an hour-long bout against an equally intelligent group for serious, vehicle-filled combat. Battlefield is for console strategists. Feel free to run and gun, but unless that’s your specialty, your team can definitely use another great member of the crew. Be it.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

As a sleeper hit, Human Revolution isn’t quite the game that the original Deus Ex was, but that doesn’t take away from the game any. It pits players in the same neo-techno future, with body augmentations, incredible combat maneuvers, and multiple ways to play the game, including stealth, engineering, and soldier. It’s one game that’s easy to miss, but don’t. There is so much to do in the big city, it’s like a miniature RPG.

Rayman: Origins

Rayman: Origins is one of those really great games that everyone in the family can enjoy. The simple platforming is complex enough to remain entertaining for hours on end, yet with instant cooperative play with up to four players on a home console, it’s always a fun time with everyone racing and slapping each other all the way to the finish. If there’s one way to spend the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, Christmas, or any family time together when you’re snowed/rained in, Rayman: Origins is it.

Dark Souls

Beware: this is for masochists only! Dark Souls, the sequel to Demons Souls, is an RPG with a difficulty curve that will either make you break your controller in frustration or feel right at home with the sheer insanity of this unforgiving game. If that sounds like the perfect gift for someone, either because they’d love it or end up breaking their game console in frustration, then this is a must-buy.

Saint’s Row: The Third

Saint’s Row: The Third is not what you’d expect from a massive sandbox game in the vein of Grand Theft Auto. It’s goofy, over the top in every way, and rombunctiously fun. So much so that I had to make up a word to describe it, because this game is insane in just about every way. That’s not to say you won’t love it…just keep it out of reach from the kids.

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations

Assassin’s Creed is one of the few game franchises where every game may feel oh-so-similar to the last, but even then the games are still so damn fun it’s impossible to put down. All of the Assassin’s Creed titles have just been incredible, even though Shawn and I may disagree on just how good. But there’s one thing we both agree on: these games are a blast to play. Assassin’s Creed: Revelations doesn’t quite take the franchise to the next level, still following Ezio Auditore from Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, but it further unfolds the tale, both past and present, of the everlong struggle between the Assassin’s and Knights Templar. A blockbuster hit you won’t want to miss.

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Skyrim is the one game you’ve probably seen not only a handful of ads in larger cities, but new internet meme’s popping up daily about. In fact, you don’t have to go far to learn what Skyrim is, which is one of the biggest, most incredible RPGs to come out this year. Our own Shawn Kline loved it. A definite must have, but be warned: you probably won’t be seeing much of whomever you give it to. That may make it a great, or terrible, gift idea.

Metal Gear Solid: HD Collection

There are few games that stand the test of time. Metal Gear Solid isn’t just one game, but an entire series that does exactly that. That’s why the game’s creator Hideo Kojima keeps making new ones even after consistently saying he’s done. That’s why years later people talk about the incredible experience they had in Snake Eater, or how they once ate Alligator meat in the game. Sure, it’s zany and over the top, but putting the Metal Gear Solid 2, 3, and Peace Walker in one bundle, in  HD, is just another reason to play it, or to buy it for the new generation that didn’t grow up with METAL GEEEEEEAR!

As I sit here with blood shot eyes, and cramped hands from my marathon sessions of playing on of the biggest games of the year, I have to do the impossible job of now writing about the beast – without going on too much.  My family complains that they’ve had less of my attention than the consoles these past two weeks (with all of the triple A games released that I was on deadlines for, how could they not), but in all fairness most of that missed time was the fault of Skyrim.  I know this review has posted later than those of other outlets, but when you’re told “You can post your review when you’re finished with the game” on a game that easily has over 100 hours of content – how do you know what “finished” really is?

Now let me start off on a rant here – yes, I know that Skyrim has glitches in it.  It’s an Elder Scrolls game, and more than that it’s a Bethesda game.  You know that going in – hell, you should just expect it.  Most of the glitches in games like this actually make some parts of it more enjoyable – like how much better is it to get your Speechcraft skill maxed by just talking to the same person over and over rather than search high and low for people to try and persuade.  It’s a single player sandbox game – you’re not ruining anything for anyone else by taking advantage of it.  I’m not going to slam the game for these little faults – with something this massive they’re just bound to happen.

With that being said, let’s get to the actual review.

Graphically, Skyrim is the most superior game to bear the Elder Scrolls name.  Rather than look like lumps of clay – or worse than that, blocks of wood – the faces on people finally look like real faces.  The hair still looks like someone put way too much sheen in it, but compared to what we were given in every other Elder Scrolls game, this is a huge improvement.  Another thing that struck me as looking amazing were the trees.  I know there was talk about them not using auto tree for this game, and it really shows.  The trees look like real trees (the faces look like faces, the trees look like trees, and the snozzberries taste like snozzberries)!  Just going back one iteration and playing a few minutes of Oblivion will show you exactly how much better things are now.

It’s not all snow in Skyrim either – while it’s true that there’s no lush tropical jungles, there are a number of places that look and feel like they’re in a season of Spring.  Sure you have places like Winterhold who’s very name screams permafrost (and the blizzard effects are definitely something to behold, but Riften has positively pleasant weather.  It’s that very variety that makes me wish that Bethesda could somehow acquire the rights and license to put out a game based on “A Song of Ice and Fire”.  I would be willing to throw buckets of money at them to get this going – but I digress.

Something else that’s changed from previous games – and in my opinion (though I’m sure not all feel the same way) for the better – is the level up system.  No more do you have to worry about which attribute you’re going to put points in – rather there are no attributes at all.  Now each skill has a number of perks that you can assign to them if your skill level is high enough.  Want to be able to smith your own Ebony armor?  There’s a perk for that.  How about combining two spells for a more powerful effect?  Yup, there’s a perk for that as well.  You get one perk point each level, and you stop gaining them at level 50 – so you need to plan out your perks well.  There’s no re-rolling unless you completely start a new character.

This lack of attributes means that one of the easiest ways to “break” the old Elder Scrolls games is now gone.  No longer can you fortify a single attribute to the levels of gods.  Also gone sadly, is my favorite way to break the old games – the Chameleon spell.  I used to rush as fast as I could to get the things needed to make a 100% chameleon enchanted suit – with that you could go anywhere and no one would ever see you.  It made exploring fun, and dying nonexistent.  That’s one of a number of spells they’ve removed though – and I guess it’s for the better.  Now if you want to really break the game, you have to exploit the inherit flaws in the Smithing, Enchanting, and Alchemy systems – something I won’t go into here since it’s very deep.

One of the problems with the new systems, is that while not all skills are created equal, the game treats them as such.  For example, I made a character and got their Speech, sneak, and Lockpick skills to 100 with ease – the perfect Thief.  This brought my level into the mid 20′s while I was attempting to do the Thief’s Guild quest, which was a very bad thing.  You see, the enemies scaled to my level, but I had no combat skills to match where I was.  Simply put, things would kill me in two shots while I had to beat on them for roughly five minutes a piece.  If it weren’t for the one summon spell I had, I would have never gotten anywhere.

Skill balancing issues aside, the combat is also not a high point for the game.  Oh it’s leaps and bounds better than any Elder Scrolls game that went before it – but it still has issues.  Bad AI pathfinding is the main one – there were plenty of times I would hide behind a pillar and move out to fire an arrow or two at a dragon, and when I went back behind my pillar the dragon turned into a two year old child playing a game of peek-a-boo, sitting there like it had no clue where I had gone.  Now the dragons in this game are ferocious to look at, mighty to behold, and damn well seem like they’re the biggest threat in any Elder Scrolls game, but they end up just being comedic relief.  Yes, I was playing on Master – for all those curious.

Even those negatives can’t bring down the story however, something that Elder Scroll games have always excelled at, and Skyrim is no different.  Not just one of the best narratives in an RPG I’ve played (besides Planescape), it’s one of the best narratives in any game genre I’ve played.  The overarching story is great, but there are so many tremendous smaller story arcs (such as the Thief’s Guild, The Companions, or The Dark Brotherhood), and even more good one-shot quests that you’ll find it easy to just get lost in the world.  Especially if you’ve played all of the other Elder Scroll games – it’s nice to see where the series is going.

I’m on my second play through now, and am finding new things all the time.  That’s not just because my first time through was a speed run for review purposes only – that’s because there’s just so damn much to actually find.  It’s maddening to me (and that OCD that I’ve talked about before) to see so many places on my compass that I have yet to discover.  I run to one, and there’s ten more to take its place – it’s a devastating cycle for my time.  Thankfully December is a veritable ghost town when it comes to games coming out, so I’ll be able to fully enjoy this at least one more time before Mass Effect 3 comes out.

Editor’s Rating:

4.5 out of 5 stars

Excellent!

The Bottom Line:  For RPG fans, this is definitely Game of the Year material – especially if you’re a fan of the Elder Scrolls; however this is a love it or hate it kinda game, so if you know it’s not your thing, nothing will probably change your mind.

Pros:

• A revamped leveling system allows for more streamlined play
• The graphics are out of this world for an Elder Scrolls game, and for any game of this type
• The narrative is top of the line, and easily puts this in my GotY list

Cons:

• The combat mechanics can be somewhat off – especially when fighting brain dead AI
• Your followers are just a brain dead as the enemies
• Skills need to be weighted differently to make it more of an enjoyable experience

You can get The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim from Amazon for $54.99 for the XBOX 360, or $57.99 for the Playstation 3

It’s been a hard last two years for Activision, though the game publishing giant never showed it. After Infinity Ward all but disappeared and a serious lawsuit between the developer’s founders against Activision for unreceived bonuses, a major portion of Infinity Ward’s staff left to create Respawn Entertainment, now working with Activision’s biggest competitor EA. After Modern Warfare 2′s lackluster single-player and cooperative play modes, there were serious concerns whether Activision and what was left of Infinity Ward could pull together a proper sequel in two years time.

Modern Warfare 3 not only puts those sentiments to rest, it blows them the hell out of this world.

Infinity Ward spokesman Robert Bowling was right when he said that MW3 is Modern Warfare‘s gameplay with Modern Warfare 2‘s technical excellence. Like the classic original, MW3 is a three-part masterpiece cut in two halves, a single player campaign and 16 cooperative missions playable solo, online or split-screen; and a deep, feature-filled online multiplayer made to last for months of continual play, if not years. MW3 is packed to the brim.

The single player campaign is a huge improvement over MW2′s mess of a story, which threw characters in and out of play on the whim of a single plot line, held like a thread for players to reach for but never get. Like teasing a cat with string. No,  MW3 offers a coherent story, well defined goals and characters, and understandable events that make sense. It doesn’t pack the overall punch of the previous two cinematically, with nuclear explosions in space and on the ground, or watching two men beat the stuffing out of each other while pulling a knife out of your chest. What MW3 does have is amazing action during gameplay, without quick-time events. That is a real achievement.

What MW3, which was co-developed by Sledgehammer Games, Infinity Ward, and Raven Software, does so beautifully is that it gives players just the right amount of combat. It doesn’t get boring, it doesn’t get tiresome, and you’ll never go “oh this again?!” Levels and areas are unique, cityscapes are vast and pretty damn impressive, and there’s a real feeling of grandeur at the scope of some segments. It’s not like God of War 3′s full boss-as-a-level or the urban jungle of Crysis 2. Instead, MW3 delivers very focused, very story-driven gameplay. There’s no player choice, but that’s not the point. The point is to have a ton of action sequences that kick ass, and that’s exactly what we get.

I’m particularly impressed with the cover system, or lack thereof. For years I’ve spouted that FPS games should use cover, albeit no game has done a good job at it. The three developers, however, have found a very simple trick around it: conform the cover to players. Now instead of cover fully shrouding players, it’s at gun-level. That means you can shoot over walls at actually at enemies, all while standing or crouching. Players can still get shot, but they’re much more hidden than in other games, where cover leaves players exposed when firing. It’s a wonder no one has thought of this ingenious concept before.

Cooperative play, once again called Special Operations (or Spec-Ops), pits one or two players in various missions with simple objectives. Free the hostages, capture the president, steal data, etc. Nothing too fancy, but every mission actually fits with the story’s overall plot in some fashion, although some don’t actually occur in the game. Players will be both the good and bad guys, will go in stealth and walking-tank body armor. It’s the closest thing, unfortunately, that players will get to full campaign coop, but even then Spec-Ops is tremendous fun. And those are only the missions.

Survival mode  pits two players against a never-ending wave of enemy combatants. Each new wave brings harder, stronger enemies with better guns, better armor, and more chemical and explosive devices. Suicide bombers, dogs with bombs strapped to them, juggernauts (remember those walking tanks? Yeah, you fight them), attack choppers, etc. Whatever you see in the game can come and bite you in the ass. Meanwhile, players have a full arsenal of purchasable items available, spread across three computers for armor, weapons and artillery. Each kill earns money, and specialty kills (head shots, melee kill, killstreaks, etc.) earn even more. It doesn’t take long for these teams of two to feel overwhelmed by the overbearing onslaught of weapons fire, and there is no end. Play on until you’re downed on any of the multiplayer maps.

Survival mode is incredible fun, so much so that I’m surprised that it’s only a two-player mode. Two players just aren’t enough, especially on larger maps. Considering how fun this mode is, and how it’s basically Modern Warfare’s answer to the bi-annual Call of Duty title with Zombies, it really needs to work with more than just two players.

Online multiplayer…with a few days of playtime, it’s hard to say just how good online play is. The game is made to last through the next year, and that’s very clear with just how long it takes to level up weapons. While in one night I managed to level up to 20, I couldn’t clear a single weapon even 10% through in that whole time, using it nonstop. Weapons leveling is just as important as personal rank, if not more important, because it opens up new features for weapons, such as weapon perks, attachments and camo. Unlike MW2 or Black Ops, it takes a long time to really unlock new weapons and get the most out of them.

Several new gametypes are included, though the standout is Kill Confirmed, a twist on standard Deathmatch. Players must not only kill enemies, but collect their dogtags before enemies get them first. Without those dogtags collected, kills don’t count. It makes the game a tug-of-war, where players have to keep an eye on both the enemy and their own teammates, to collect any and all tags. Because it’s easy to steal an enemy’s kill, as well as lose your own.

The perk system has also been upgraded to match three different playstyles. Traditional killstreaks (now called pointstreaks) can earn standard strike packages under the Assault class, where three perks can be gained and used by players as they get kills. The Support class doesn’t reset it’s pointstreak when killed, but has limited access to what perks are available, and none of them can hurt the enemy. Instead, the support class has access to reconnaissance and general support abilities, but no calling in airstrikes or missiles. Finally, the Specialist class starts with no perks, but each kill adds a new perk, so players can theoretically become a powerhouse if they don’t die and have a raging pointstreak.

Multiplayer in MW3 is excellent, plain and simple. I’m not a huge fan of the maps, and think that there are far better maps in the past few Call of Duty titles, though MW3 does have a few gems. Too few, however.

There is one major aspect of MW3 that was a disappointment; the score. Modern Warfare 2 was scored by the good folks at Remote Control Productions (the Hans Zimmer studio, which also produced the scores for both Iron Man films, Christopher Nolan’s Batman films, Inception, etc.), and there are several scenes that even now stand out in my mind because of the incredible music. MW3 had nothing of the sort. The score was simply there, simply good enough to move the game along but not enough to make any impact.

As I sit here, completing this review, my biggest thought is to just go back and have fun. That’s really what Modern Warfare 3 is, a good time, and it offers that excitement for all sorts of players. The solo campaign is a mad dash of action and shooting, with an exceptional normal difficulty and challenging hardened and veteran modes. Cooperative play meets two standards, mission play and the never-ending survival mode, a great way to kill 20-30 minutes and really test your skills. And to round it all out, a very deep multiplayer that will keep players enthralled, equally excited and passionate, for months, if not years to come.

Editor’s Choice

4.5 out of 5 stars

Excellent

If there’s anything that can be said about the Assassin’s Creed games, it’s that each iteration is consistently better than the last; Revelations continues that trend by taking everything you loved about Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, and expanding upon it.  As much as it saddens me to think that this is the last game with Ezio Auditore da Firenze and Altaïr Ibn La’Ahad in it, it is also quite a joy to see how their stories play out, and how they effect everything else.  While I’m really anxious to see where the series goes from here, this is a perfect swan song to send those characters off into the ether.

One thing that really surprised me about this game, was just how open it was.  In Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, you were artificially limited from going everywhere at the beginning – you had to wait until the story allowed you to get to a particular area.  Now In Revelations, it is in the third sequence where you’re giving free roam abilities, and boy do they mean free.  In short, I was 33% done with sequence three (about an hour in for “normal” people), and I had synchronized every viewpoint (except one – the only place locked off to you), bought every business and monument, recruited every assassin (and got them all to master status), and pretty much did everything a normal person would have waited on – curse my OCD.

Taking the time to do all of that will give you some of the game’s best weapons and armor, and really makes things easier in the long run.  In effect, Assassin’s Creed Revelations allows the player to set their own level of difficulty.  As I mentioned, recruiting assassins is also back, as are the missions that you can send them on – however everything there is extremely expanded upon.  Now not only can you send your assassin on random missions in various cities, but you can also lower down the Templar’s control on said cities, and take them over yourself.  Doing this gives you extra money every twenty minutes, and a steady supply of bomb creating ingredients.

Oh, what did I just say?  Bomb creating?

That’s right – in Revelations, Ezio can craft over 300 varieties of bombs to distract, incapacitate, or just outright kill your enemies.  Basically you can think of Ezio as the Batman of the Renissance – if Batman went around and just randomly murdered dudes.  Whether it be a caltrops bomb that explodes on impact, or a sticky bomb that blows up guards, or a tripwire bomb that spews gold coins to attract a crowd, you’ll have an absolute blast figuring out what works best in what situation.

Back to the recruiting of assassins, like before you need to control dens in order to gain more followers, and just like in Brotherhood you need to kill the den commander and light a fire to claim it as yours.  The big difference there now is that the more you do (buying property, killing Templars, etc), the more notoriety you gain.  Gain enough, and the Templars will randomly attack one of your dens.  When you go to it, you’re taken to a mini game that reminds me a LOT of a tower defense game – you send leaders on roofs, and then send other assassins in front of them to attack.  In order to facilitate this, you need to get morale points to spend (gotten from killing the attackers).  You have a number of different units at your disposal, and even barricades that you can build – however once you do it a few times chances are you’ll grow to hate this game.

Luckily, you can bribe heralds, or kill certain Templars to lower your notoriety – or better yet you can level an assassin to 15 and do a special mission for them, and then they will protect your dens for you.  It’s definitely a reason to get them leveled up as quick as possible!   Something else different about Revelations, is you don’t just have to worry about Byzantine Templars, you also now have the Ottomans on your ass.  The only saving grace is that they both hate each other as well, so if you can lure one group to another you can start a rumble and then just sneak on by.  Just try not to get caught in the middle, because when one group wins they will inevitably turn on your if you’re still in sight.

Yes Byzantines and Ottomans – Revelations takes place in the city of Istanbul (not Constantinople) during the time of 1511 A.D.  History buffs will know that this is around the rise of the Ottoman empire, and Ezio meets a lot of historical figures from this time (Prince Suleiman, and Manuel Palaiologos to name two).  The look of the area is a lot different to the Rome that was presented in Brotherhood – from the sun baked sandstone, to the giant bazaar atmosphere – and boy does it look good.  Not only has the gameplay mechanics improved from the previous game, but all of the graphics look a lot better – which is a feat considering how good Brotherhood really looked.

In the way of gameplay mechanics other than the bombs I spoke of earlier, Ezio gains a new weapon called the “hookblade”.  Basically a blade with a hook on the end (hence the name – genius, right?), it allows you to extend your reach when jumping (or falling), and adds some new flair to the combat combos you can perform.  The hook roll is especially impressive, and works great when you’re running from people.  Counter kills and counter grabs are also a breeze to pull off, and you’ll find yourself doing them in combos when you want to end combat quickly.

I didn’t get much multiplayer time in before writing this (because I was more interested in the narrative), however I did get to play some.  Most of it is exactly what you played in Brotherhood, however there is a new mode called Deathmatch.  In deathmatch, there’s no longer a compass to tell you where your target is, but rather a small box in the top right shows you who your target is, and it glows blue when you’re in the line of sight of them.  It’s a lot more difficult, because some of the maps are quite large, and it really feels like looking for a needle in a haystack (with other needles trying to jab you in the ass).  All in all though, the whole experience is just as fun as it was last time around, and it still feels like one big Turin Test.  One thing that was improved beyond a shadow of a doubt is the connectivity.  In Brotherhood I has issues out the wazoo with connecting to people, and even though there were only reviewers playing pre-launch, I never had any problems finding a match.

The last thing I feel compelled to mention, is how Ubisoft seems to be on board with the Playstation 3 on this title.  Not only did PS3 users get to enjoy the Beta for the multiplayer, but they also get the entire first Assassin’s Creed game for free on their Blu-Ray disc.  I know lots of developers are going the console specific bonus route, but it’s nice to see something that big as one.  Granted it’s a couple years old, but playing that made me remember where this series had its roots at (as I hadn’t even picked it up since beating it right after it originally came out).  I don’t want to get into a 360 vs. PS3 debate here, just letting you know that one has a definite advantage with this specific game.

Editor’s Rating:

5 out of 5 stars

Perfect!

The Bottom Line:  This game epitomizes the way I want every one of my favorite franchises to be done with characters – everything shows a level of polish and detail that screams out to how much they care about Assassin’s Creed.

Pros:

• The game looks gorgeous – artistically, there is nothing that I would change one bit
• The voice acting is spot on like always
• Desmond’s sections, while odd, are a welcome and refreshing break

Cons:

• The den defense mini-game loses its fun very quickly
• Trying to remember which enemies were weak against which bombs made my head hurt
• Ezio and Altair are gone after this

You can get Assassin’s Creed Revelations from Amazon for $59.96

Ahh the gang from Stillwater is back again – how much we’ve been through together during the last five years.  We’ve seen them take control of their not so fair city from the likes of the Vice Kings, the Los Carnales, and the Westside Rollerz.  We’ve seen them Ultor Corporation to become the only dominant force left in Stillwater.  We’ve seen the highs and the lows of the stories of Shaundi, Pierce, Johnny Gat, and your own character – the Boss.  Throughout the previous two games, we’ve be exposed to a treasure trove of comedy gold both through random things happening in the game world, and through the scripted events and dialogue.  Everyone knew there was going to be a third, and it’s finally here – but does it live up to the standards that the first two set?

In Saint’s Row the Third, players again take on the role of “The Boss”, with plenty of backup from his comical crew – however this time the story departs the familiar city of Stillwater, and goes to the New York stylized city of Steelport (it even has its own Statue of Liberty-esqe monument).  From the very start of the game, you feel like a total bad-ass.  You’re thrown in the middle of a bank heist gone wrong, and you’re mowing people down like they were made of paper.  In short, you feel like “The Boss” should feel.  Throughout the next few minutes, you end up in prison with Johnny Gat and Shaundi (where Johnny waxes poetic about what the Saints have turned in to), and that’s where the Syndicate finds you.

The Syndicate bribes the cops to let you out, and then tries to get The Boss to turn over two thirds of the Saint’s territory in order to live.  Well if you’ve played the previous two games you know that the Saints won’t have any of that and a mid-air fight breaks out.  This leads to one of the craziest intro scenes I’ve played on a game in a long time (free fall gun battles for the win), and drops you off in said town of Steelport.  Now this all happens in the first twenty or so minutes of the game, so that should tell you how action packed it’s going to be right there.

I won’t get into any more plot, because while some of it you can see coming for miles, there are little twists here and there that are true joys to find out as they come.  What I can talk about though, is just how much fun this game really is.  If you’re not too worried about the realism of a game, and more about the fun factor – this is for you.  What other game has a special mode called “Whored Mode”, where you can be chased around by prostitutes in leather “geek suits” wielding long purple dildos.  Yes, it’s that kind of over the top fun that has been a staple of this entire series.

It’s not just the physical or graphical gags that get you though – there are some dialogue areas in Saint’s Row the Third that are true comedic gold – for example during one mission your character is driving with Pierce.  Pierce then proceeds to change the radio station to play Sublime’s “What I Got”, and both your character and Pierce engage in an impromptu karaoke.  Now the voice that I picked for my character was one that sounded much like Jason Statham, so you can imagine how that sounded (especially when he tried to beat box).  That’s just ONE specific instance – these things literally happen every few minutes though.

Another real big thing is the character creator, where you can literally change every part of your avatar – which can lead to some pretty crazy looking people running the gang.  You can also upload your created character to the community site, and download ones that others have made.  I’m sure before long we’ll see a lot of celebrity look a likes because of how much control you really have in the creator.  I’m sure if I was more creative I would have come up with one on my own, but I unfortunately don’t have an artistic eye for that sort of thing.

Inside the game itself, there are lots of fun activities for you to partake in while wasting time between missions.  For starters there’s a “Tank Mayhem” activity that’s brand new.  In tank mayhem you’re placed inside a tank, and then tasked with causing a certain amount of damage to things before the time runs out.  It’s pure bliss to sit there and just continually blow things up with no fear of death.  Then there’s “Guardian Angel”, where you have to drive around with a tiger in the back seat (The Boss’s reaction to this is saying: A fucking tiger?) – drive safe and you’re safe – hit something and the tiger mauls you; fun times.  Trafficking is another new activity where you ride shotgun with Pierce and protect him while he distributes “things” to buyers.  Old activities like Heli Assault also make a return.  In it (for those un-initiated) you’re placed in an attack chopper protecting Pierce as he makes some stops (at one point he stops at a gas station for food, and the dialogue that follows made me spit out my beer from laughing so hard).

While all of those activities are fun, it’s Professor Genki’s Super Ethical Reality Climax is probably the best of the best.  In this “game show”, the player has to run from room to room while avoiding traps, killing mascots, and hitting correct targets to earn money.  Once enough money is earned, the final door opens, and a Hunter (a super powerful hulkish brute) charges out to beat the crap out of you.  You can try and kill him for a mega cash bonus, or run like a scared little girl to the exit and escape with the cash you have collected.  All the while, two announcers spit our random commentary about your performance like you hear watching Wipeout or Takeshi’s Castle.  The whole experience is just surreal.

Unfortunately, with all of these positives, a few negatives must fall.  For one, there were plenty of times where the frame rate just chugged.  I was playing on a new 360, with the game installed to the hard drive, and while it only happened when driving a fast car on the highways, it was extremely noticeable.  I was literally skipping every two seconds.  Now if I slowed down or changed where I was driving it stopped, so it was more than likely a loading issue – but still it shouldn’t have been happening.  Also, while you have to activate an online pass with the game, there’s only two player co-op modes.  Even the Whored Mode is only two players.  I was hoping to get in a game of Strong Arm – but alas there are no competitive multiplayer modes at all in Saint’s Row the Third.  I understand the reasons for removing it, and that they felt like it would just be “shoe horned” in, but I would still have loved to give it a shot – especially with all of the different looking characters that could have been in it.

My final complaint comes with something extremely annoying in the game.  I would like to find whoever it was that thought it would be a good idea to give every enemy in a helicopter a laser sighted sniper rifle, and kick them right in the genitals.  Over, and over again.  I can’t tell you how many times I died to these cheap bastards.  What’s bad, is that when you’re clearing out a gang holdout, and one flies in because you’ve built up too much notoriety – then it shoots you in the back and kills you when you only have one guy left to take out.

Editor’s Rating:

4.5 out of 5 stars

Excellent

The Bottom Line:  Saint’s Row the Third is an extremely fun game that is a welcome distraction from the ultra-realistic titles like Call of Duty or Battlefield – as long as you can get past the few annoyances, you’ll see just how wonderful of an experience this game offers.

Pros:

• EXTREMELY fun – you’ll be laughing your ass off through half the game at least
• Professor Genki is the ultimate mascot for a game – he should be plastered everywhere
• The voice acting and script work is all top notch

Cons:

• Frame rate can take a serious hit at times
• No competitive multiplayer options
• One hit kill snipers in helicopters?  Why not just give them RPGs while you’re at it

When the original Batman: Arkham Asylum was released a scant two years ago, it was not only the best Batman game I had ever played, it was likewise not just the best game I had ever played based off of licensed characters; rather I was able to put it up on my list of the top ten games I had ever played period.  Everything about it was fantastic – the combat felt and looked like Batman, the score was perfect and able to set every scene, the graphics were simply stunning – and while the story might have taken a few hits from some gamers, to me, someone raised on Batman comic books, it felt just like playing a graphic novel instead of reading one.  So what could the guys from Rocksteady do to the sequel to make it have the same effect – if anything?

Thankfully, Rocksteady didn’t in fact change that much from the first good Batman game in years – they obviously learned quite a bit from other companies that have made sequels to successful franchises turn out badly.  While I’m sure that’s going to lead a lot of people to complain that there’s not enough different, The saying “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” didn’t come around on its own.  Truly, the system they first put in was so close to perfect, that all they had to do was tweak some things here and there, and they would have landed in comic geek gold yet again.

Tweak they did then – combat is much more fluid this time around, with a lot more variation on moves.  So long as you’re not hitting buttons before you should, you can effortlessly move from attack to counter to special move.  The ability to use gadgets in with your combos is also quite nice – whether it be spraying some gel on the floor in order to gain some breathing room, to hitting someone with an electric shock to make him inadvertently shoot someone else, your gadgets are now a completely crucial part of keeping your combo string going.

Gadgets are one thing that Batman always has had in spades, so you know there were upgrades done to that system as well.  While I’m not completely sold on how they make you select some (two presses in one direction, but press a second too slow and you do nothing), for the most part it all works nicely.  Veterans of the first game will also be pleased to know that about 75% of the gadgets you end Batman: Arkham Asylum with are yours at the beginning of Batman: Arkham City.  Now that doesn’t include what I’m calling the Prologue – where you learn how Bats gets in to Arkham City, but the way they pull everything off there just works.

One of the things that I really found odd in the game, was that for some reason rather than beat the hell out of every villain around, Batman starts working with some.  Now the ideals are good (For instance, you work with Bane – yes, the same Bane that breaks Batman’s back – to take out canisters of Venom), but it just feels completely out of character for Batman to become an errand boy for villains that would just as soon kill him and be done with it.  I understand they were trying to give the player more things to do, but these are missions where the game wouldn’t have suffered if they had been left out.

I say the game wouldn’t have suffered if there were a few things left out to keep in Batman’s character, because there’s just so damn MUCH to do in Arkham city.  Let’s be clear here – Arkham City doesn’t encompass nearly as much real estate as a Grand Theft Auto, a Red Dead Redemption, or even a Saint’s Row , but it’s packed just as much stuff to do as each of those other games into a smaller space.  The setting actually feels like an urban sprawl with how it’s all set up – and that feels good.  There’s also cameos from SO MANY iconic villains here, that if you’re a real Batman fan, you’ll be going nuts.  While the first game had a lot of items laying around from other villains, this game has the villains themselves (but still retains the item hunt for good measure).

Speaking of villains back for a second helping, the Riddler is back, and that’s the one thing that causes this game to drive me CRAZY.  You see, I’m a bit OCD about getting everything done that I can in a game; so much so that I played Just Cause 2 for months just to 100% every freaking island.  So naturally when I see green and shiny Riddler trophies, I have to have them.  This lead to many times throwing a controller when I realized I didn’t have the required items to get them all right away, but it wasn’t a big deal as this game constantly shoved more of them in my face.  There’s just a ton of these things – 436 to be exact – and later on you’re rewarded by being able to do certain challenge rooms that made me think of the Saw movies.

Editor’s Rating:

4.5 out of 5 stars

Excellent

The Bottom Line:  This is another solid Batman game, and while some things might not make perfect sense, it’s a home run in every other area that matters from graphics to sound to straight up game play mechanics – if you’re a Batman fan, you need to play this game.

Proc:

• Batman never feels underpowered for the sake of extending the duration of the game
• The new and improved combat dynamics make every fight a lot more fun than in the last game
• New gadgets are always a plus with Batman

Cons:

• Batman teaming up with villains to do things he could do solo is kind of silly
• Making specific Riddler trophies only for Catwoman ruins the flow of the game

You can pick up Batman: Arkham City from Amazon (or any retailer worth their salt) for $51.99

We totally forget about these.  In late September we scored 10 Call Of Duty: Black Ops Rezurrection codes for the PS3.  To win one just like our Facebook page and leave a comment below (makes sure you register and email address) and tell us why you think Modern Warfare 3 is better/worse than EA’s Battlefield.  We’ll pick 10 winners at random on Friday (11/11/11)

This contest ends 11/11/11 at 11:11pm.

Note: We’ll message you by email with the code, so make sure your comment includes a registered (not displayed) email address.

Just the first level of gameplay. It’s pretty damn good, and each level after (up to the fourth level, where I’m up to now) is even better than the last.

While I haven’t gotten there myself (too much coverage, too little time to play), I wasn’t surprised to see a familiar screen pop up before the game started, as you can see in the image above. I don’t know just how bad the level is (in terms of violence, morality, or whatever the Activision developers working on the game could cook up), but it’s there. Be ready to be disgusted, taken aback, and to hear complaints for awhile from self-righteous parents and videogame violence advocates.

Is the Grand Theft Auto series dead? Rockstar doesn’t think so and today issued a trailer for, you guessed it, GTA V.

The latest installment in the long running series seems to occur in Los Angeles, a town chalk full of greed, deception and, what else, crime. So there probably isn’t a more appropriate setting for the game to take place.

Our hats are off to Rockstar, since based on what little we’ve seen in the trailer, the game’s environment appears to accurately depict Los Angeles, minus the copious amounts of trash. The main character, who is unnamed at this point, can travel to downtown’s Skidrow district, which like the real world version, is full of drug addicts and the homeless. You’ll also be able to head west towards the beach and cruise around Venice, at least based on one location which is home to the Chinese restaurant Mows.

Unfortunately, Rockstar hasn’t issued an official release describing the game or its mechanics, so we’re left to our own devices to infer what they’ve got in store for us. Hopefully, they’ve done away with all the shortcomings of the previous games and by that we mean the repeative missions.

Release date? Probably sometime at the end of 2012 if we had to guess.

Fed up with all the co-branded MW3 gaming gear? No? Then you’ll be happy to read about Turtle Beach’s Call of Duty: MW3 Ear Force Bravo Limited Edition headset.

Yup, it sports MW3 insignias on the ear cups and a Call of Duty embossed headband. But Turtle Beach didn’t let that overshadow the tech found inside. First off, they’ve packed in 50mm drivers. To provide some perspective, most head cans are built with 40mm drivers. That means this headset should pump out some serious thump to your dome. But that’s not all this gaming headset has to offer.

Hit Turtle Beach’s website and you can download up to 18 presets that influence the game’s audio, allowing you to enhance enemy foot steps or reduce the intensity of explosions on the fly. A built-in boom mic automatically eliminates background noise and lets you toggle between a microphone monitor option if you want to hear what you’re saying to your fellow combatants.

RF connectivity means that you can take your audio experience wireless, which by the way can deliver CD quality sound for up to 10 hours on the rechargeable battery (charges via USB). In the event that the battery pack does die, despite it having an auto shut off option, you can plug in this headset using the included 3.5mm cord while you juice up the battery. There is also an AUX input for adding music to your COD audio experience, which will seamlessly blend in with the game audio. Fire up Spotify on your iPhone, crank up your favorite sound track and you’ll be in gaming audio nirvana.

The Turtle Beach Call of Duty: MW3 Ear Force Bravo Limited Edition headset is compatible with the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. It’s available now for $170.

The 3rd Modern Warfare will rocket into retails stores and people’s door steps in just over a week’s time.  With it will come millions of strained eyeballs, a result of fixating for endless hours on a screen.

To help reduce fatigue, and hopefully increase your frag numbers, Gunnar Optiks has released a pair of Modern Warfare 3 branded eyeware.  They’re designed to increase contrast, enhance detail, reduce glare and improve visual endurance.

We tested a pair of these out a few years ago and based on our experience they’re effective, though nothing beats taking a break from staring at the screen.  Nonetheless, if you know COD fans, than you know that the latter option, isn’t, well, an option.

The COD MW3 glasses will include not only Modern Warfare 3 branding, but a limited edition Call of Duty MW3 branded carrying case and pouch.  They’ll ship with standard lenses, though if need be they can be outfitted with corrective lenses.

You can purchase them online or at a Best Buy store for $99.

I must confess, ever since id Software announced Rage, I’ve remained unimpressed. At every turn I’ve been skeptical. No amount of wonderful textures, unique gameplay features or anything shown over the past five years of development has changed my mind. Then my friend and colleague Ben Kuchera at Ars Technica cemented my expectations with a brief pre-review of Rage: a terrible game wrapped in wonderful packaging.

It’s times like this that I love being wrong.

Rage is the best game I’ve played this year, so far. With the recent releases of Battlefield 3 and Batman: Arkham City, and upcoming titles like Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, Modern Warfare 3, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, et al, plenty of us will bankrupt ourselves into a frenzy of confusion. And while many of these games haven’t released yet , Rage is one I can’t recommend enough.

A cross between Mad Max and your choice of recent apocalyptic role playing games (RPG), Rage is an exemplary cinematic tale with a piss-poor plot but a brilliant world and exceptional gameplay. Rage is one of the few games to ever release that feels real. Things in the game world make sense, like they would in the real world. Driving is hard until cars are upgraded with better engines, better wheels and control. Objects in the world normally considered useless can be collected and sold, because after all, the world as we know it is gone. People actually need coffee cups and books. Even the level design, with massive landscapes that require no load time or buffering to get from one end to the other, immerse players so deeply that hours can, and will, fly off the clock.

id was able to do this because of the incredible technology of id Tech 5 and, more importantly, a deep understanding of how the real world operates. Like my colleague Ben Kuchera was belligerent about, missions can very easily go from simple one-objective treks to hour long adventures through hordes of mutants, wild races, or a hailstorm of bullets. And while I agree that it’s unsettling to be constantly taken for a ride by a needy mayor, a useless sheriff or just some stranger looking for help, that’s life. Every one of us has experienced it, where an easy five minute task turns into a three day ordeal. But you know what, games should mimic life, and even though sometimes it feels like players are given the run around, I couldn’t help but smile every time it happened. Because each time it did, there was always some excuse, some reason that characters in the game had to keep me on that leash.

In fact, Rage follows this sort of realism on several different levels. Graphically, for sure, though I’ll need to spend some time on the PC version to really appreciate it (not that the console version doesn’t look good, because it certainly does…but a solid PC will do it justice). The aspect of driving between destinations, similar to riding a horse in Red Dead Redemption, and staying on your toes because bandits come out of nowhere or keeping an eye open for treasures. Or even raving mutants dodging and weaving in an animal-like fashion instead of charging head-on, making them difficult to shoot.

These elements, and plenty more, combine into the most immersive FPS today. Not because of an interesting narrative, or fun characters, or even strong combat. No, Rage accomplishes immersion by making players feel at home. Because Rage isn’t about playing a game. It’s about being in the game. It’s about surviving.

Unfortunately, Rage fails to keep players fully immersed with a stupid narrative, intellectually bankrupt characters, and zero emotional investment. The tale of the post-apocalyptic world is just fine: governments cryogenically freeze people prior to an asteroid strike on Earth to help preserve mankind. But the second players are given control, all intelligence vanishes. The first major character, Dan Hagar, explains how valuable the player is as an Ark survivor…and does nothing about it! He describes how players are lucky this saint fount him, because Ark survivors are worth a fortune. Yet no one ever tries to turn players in. All game characters are honest and respectful. There is n double crossing, no cheating, and no poor manners. That is entirely inhuman.

Rage is by no means an RPG. It’s an exploratory open-world linear FPS with basic car mechanics and racing. There’s an  elementary engineering system to build items, the simplest form of weapons upgrades, and even the most rudimentary choice of character classes. But these all play into the larger FPS game, the larger complete-these-missions narrative. In that, Rage is exceptional, but with the sheer number of story oversights to the terribly slow beginning and an equally terrible abrupt ending, Rage falls into one of the same problems every id game before has: there is no plot.

As far as id Software is concerned, based on their past titles, that’s not important, and it really sucks to see that. I’ve been a huge fan of id, ever since Commander Keen, but after Doom 3 my faith in the company’s ability to make excellent games has faltered. Yes, they are all technically amazing and set industry standards. Yes, the combative gameplay is exciting and invigorating every time. But seriously, hire a damn staff of competent writers. Make a plot-driven title, or at least give meaning to the worlds you create. Is it really so difficult to make players interested in the plot, or give them a reason to want to talk to people? I trudged around the Wasteland and never once found anything to invest myself in emotionally. In the 90’s, that was fine. Today, it’s a travesty.

Furthermore, I do agree with Kuchera on one major point. Many of the reviews of Rage were written by so-called critics invited to play the game for two consecutive days. Rage isn’t the kind of game to restock the mini-fridge, bring in a microwave and lock the door for a few days. It’s a game made, properly, to enjoy over at least a week, if not longer. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was for me to pick up the game right where I left off, and have a simple mission and navigation system lead me where I want and need to go. But there’s only so much anyone can take in one sitting. You don’t eat a box of donuts all at once, or you’ll be praying to the porcelain god. Don’t try to gobble up this game either.

What may seem like a moot point by now is the fairly awful checkpoint system. Rage doesn’t save on it’s own, it relies on user-generated saves and an occasional checkpoint. That means if power goes out, you could be looking at around 30-minutes of playtime lost. If you die, if there’s a bug and your avatar gets stuck, or if your mom/girlfriend abruptly turns off the Xbox to get you to clear the damn laundry out, you’re SOL. Twice in one playthrough two separate bugs forced me to restart from a checkpoint. The first time, a bug in the physics engine wouldn’t let me get in my car and then it ran me over, and the second I jumped from an elevator and fell through the floor and under the level. Each death cost me another 20-30 minutes. The 13-14 hour campaign took about 16 hours because of this. id has included a defibrillator feature, so instead of just dying players get a second chance at life, which is an ingenious idea, but it doesn’t replace using a decent checkpoint system. Like, say, saving every time players enter a new major area or load screen.

Load times are also ridiculously slow. Not Mass Effect 1 elevator slow, but if you don’t install the game on your Xbox, then expect those 16 hours to be more like 18, especially if you’re a completionist like me. Just loading in and out of races takes 30 seconds a pop without an install, but only 8-12 seconds with it.

As for racing, I don’t know why id says Rage is an FPS and racing game. Races are such a small part of the experience and they earn nothing but more powerful vehicle parts. The races themselves are useful, especially early on, not only to improve vehicles but to get a strong sense of the wasteland for missions. Just like driving around in Grand Theft Auto IV builds familiarity with particular streets, the races in Rage ingrain those tracks through practice, and make the game both easier and more enjoyable.

Racing is also prominently featured as competitive multiplayer, where friends and strangers can compete in several different race types to see who’s the best. It’s fun, but frankly a poor substitute for a real multiplayer driving game. We haven’t seen a title recently like Twisted Metal. Rage, however, didn’t need to fill that void.

The cooperative online mode is more enticing, featuring ten slightly changed single-player parts of the game for two players. I had a lot of fun going through those missions. It’s very similar to playing Doom 3 with coop, though this time it’s focused on multiple players.

A few small tidbits as well: the Anarchy Edition, which includes two downloadables that includes four in-game items (a mostly useless car, a single-shot double-barreled sawed-off shotgun, spiked gloves and an all-encompassing body armor) and access to the world’s sewers (which act as bonus stages with lot’s of collectible items), was only available for pre-order. However, don’t fret. While the armor and gloves were helpful early on, everything else was excessive, and even on the hardest difficulty players won’t ever need to go into the sewers to find cash. It’s a nicety, not a necessity.

Rage is the type of game I normally avoid because of preposterously bad writing. Yet even with some horrible blunders, even with a lot of false allure and pretty pictures, Rage is an incredible experience. Every time I play I feel in the game. I live Rage. The fact that id could make a game this immersive without an engrossing narrative is remarkable. I recommend everyone play Rage, albeit with the above reservations in mind. Rage is one game that every game developer, without exception, can learn from, and it deserves a home in every household.

Editor’s Choice

4 out of 5 stars

Great

Pros:

• Exceptionally immersive world with honest-to-goodness realism
• Amazing graphics spanning from huge landscapes to tiny corridors
• An excellent selection of weapons that almost never makes you feel too powerful or too weak
• An inclusive world that has plenty of exploration, and plenty of basic RPG elements
• Easy to pick up from where you left off, no matter when the last time you played was
• Fun coop

Cons:

• Without an installation, load times are treacherously slow
• The overall plot has potential, which id completely squandered
• The narrative is exceptionally weak on every level, down to emotionless characters
• Checkpoint save system is seriously lacking
• A slow beginning and abrupt end leaves a bad taste in the mouth

Bottom Line: As much as Rage gets wrong, there is so, so much right. It’s the kind of game everyone should play because it’s real. That’s one thing most games today just can’t do, and that one thing tips the scales so far in Rage’s favor, that I can’t help but recommend it to all players.