Last episode, Marty was about two steps away from getting Doc Brown away from the figurehead of a totalitarian Hill Valley, CA, and back to his mad scientist self from the timeline we all want to see. But in typical Back to the Future fashion, some complications arise leaving Marty stuck in 1931 with Doc. Wanting to prevent the Hill Valley he saw, and just go back home, he has to work on powering up the time machine, inspire young Emmett Brown in just the right ways to lead to ideas of time travel, and then ruin his relationship with Edna Strickland, the true ringleader behind the squeaky clean and overly oppressive timeline.

This episode is a return to familiar territory, with Marty causing some modern day-type trouble in a more conservative 1930’s environment. The writers at Telltale seem to feel more comfortable with this setup as well, as it’s also a funnier. This makes the experience overall a little better this time around, if a little redundant. The first two episodes covered this territory quite fine, after all. What helps this one is the story itself. The time travel and problem solving is all good and well, but it ends with quite a cliffhanger. The final episode can literally pan out in countless ways, and thinking about some of them as the credits rolled, I was both pleased with a solid episode and more intrigued to play the next than with any of the others.

Gameplay remains the same. If you want to get the gist, I suggest reading the review of the first episode. In short: Standard Telltale formula at this point: 3D environments, moderate difficulty, lots of dialog and inventory clicking… like most adventure games. Movement can be a bit clunky, but overall it’s very playable.

This is a solid middle that leaves the ending hanging in the best way: with one absolutely clueless how it’s going to pan out, but dying to see more. No doubt that it will end happily, but those particulars are the most exciting part. How will Marty get around the new complication that’s not mentioned here? What might change about 1986 when he gets back? Surely Hill Valley of 1986 won’t be exactly how he left it. Gah! No slacking now, Telltale! Here’s looking to June optimistically.

The story takes place in a fictional British town called Clappers Wreake. It’s a dump. Prostitutes hang out just outside the police station, kids ask cops for drugs, and the local park’s entrance sign warns visitors to avoid being shot by simply not going in. One day, a very angry terrorist with a rifle roosts in an apartment building and holds some people hostage. He’s a better shot than anyone on the police force, and, rather shockingly, kills a few cops in the opening cutscene to keep them from drawing near. Most are negotiators that get killed because they aren’t to the terrorist’s liking, and demanding to speak to someone with intelligence, they try to reach Hector, who’s hung over and locked in a jail cell at headquarters. That’s where you take control.
After solving some puzzles just to reach the hostage scene, the terrorist, who is simply fed up with the worsening climate of Clappers Wreake, lists his demands: Fix the clock tower, show support to the man wanting to raise funds to improve conditions citywide, and get the local porn shop closed down. Such are your tasks for the duration of this episode, and where my disappointment began.

The story is pretty intriguing as this textbook hostage situation with a misanthropic detective referred to as “The Fat Arse of the Law” for a negotiator. I was expecting to come across some fun situations where I was underhandedly screwing over the faceless killer. To my disappointment, that was not the case. The dialog in the game, for all its crass witticisms and threats of violence, lead to only one outcome: I was to carry out a criminal’s demands… all by myself… and more or less to the T. So much for rule-breaking. My character didn’t even want to support a guy wanting to save the city much less take down a porn shop, so why should I? Because of this, I felt like a huge tool through a lot of the game. The puzzles have you humiliating juvenile delinquents, blackmailing petty criminals, and bamboozling larger profile criminals, but all to satisfy the wants of another bad guy who’s actively shooting people. Something just seemed off about that.

The humor was also a bit hit or miss. With most of the humor aiming at silly shock value (using a condom to get a paperclip out of a toilet bowl) or Hector giving colorful insults or threats of violence. Once in a while, the jokes land, and they are pretty funny. Most of the time, it’s pretty juvenile.
Gameplay was also, unfortunately, a bit hit or miss. The controls are surprisingly simple. Click on things to look at them, and double click to interact or pick them up. For items in your inventory, it’s the inverse. This seemed appealing at first, but I could never shake the old habit of single clicking on an exit to leave, like in nearly every other adventure game. This was made worse by the fact that inspecting a doorway was never once useful. Other than that, though, it worked out pretty well.

What did work, though, were the puzzles. They were surprisingly challenging, solving many of them can feel pretty satisfying. The game makes no effort to rewrite the book on adventure gaming, and it doesn’t need to. The joy in the challenge still has its appeal.

But while the puzzles themselves are fun and satisfying, it’s a bit disappointing that the game is so shoddily presented on the whole. For being branded as “a lewd, crude, and gritty law enforcement comedy,” I wish it was crude against the main villain a little more, or that it was a bit funnier. The jerk protagonist and focus on humor are meant to be selling points, but they just don’t deliver. The story can still take a positive turn with the episodic formula, but the humor probably won’t interest most people aged 24 and up. It’s a promising setup, but right now it doesn’t seem to meet its own potential.

Hector: Badge of Carnage: Episode 1: We Negotiate with Terrorists is recommended for ages 17 and up and is available now for PC and Mac for $9.99 and is coming soon to the iPad.

A review code was provided and did not affect the outcome of this review.  This review is based off of the PC build.

True to Telltale Games’ seasonal format, this latest episode leaves you right where you left off in Episode 2. Despite Marty’s/your valiant efforts, it looks like 1986 is still a bit messed up. In fact, this is the farthest from normal that McFly has ever seen Hill Valley. The town has now become a gated society that governs and sustains itself. In this timeline, everyone calls each other “citizen,” drives electric golf carts, and are constantly assured by “Citizen Brown” via speakers throughout town that everything will be alright. Of course, it’s not long until we see that this is a 1984 sort of perfect, with cameras all over the place, people earning “demerit” slips for things as petty as chewing gum or holding hands in public, and a law enforcement that operates mostly out of squawk boxes connected to said cameras. Oh, and Citizen Brown is actually the one and only Doctor Emmett Brown. As for Marty, everyone calls him Martin, he has a reputation for being a straight-A goodie goodie that wants nothing more than to solve equations and look through microscopes, and his usually-girlfriend Jennifer Parker hates him. Naturally, he wants this timeline gone, and fast. Feeling that Doc’s the only person he can talk to about his situation, he has to find a way of getting face time with him. So most of this episode is spent causing trouble in utopia so Marty is sent his way for disciplinary reasons.

Of course there are other factors at play, and it’s fun to see some characters’ reactions to the world, such as a brainwashed Biff, a frustrated Lorraine McFly, and a rebellious punk rock version of Jennifer. But at the same time, this twist never feels very appropriate to Back to the Future. The setting is a little overbearing and drastic. Sure, we’ve seen a heavily corrupted Hill Valley, but it feels here like too much time is spent showing a repressed society and all the Big Brother tactics. Marty even has lines of dialogue railing against the suppressive government. There’s nothing wrong with a good “fight the man” story, it just never felt like a place that Back to the Future, with its catchphrases, giant guitar amps, and tossed milkshakes, should go.

Adding to that is that Marty’s main goal in this episode just isn’t very exciting. In the first game, you had to break Doc out of jail. In the second, you had to get Kid Tannen caught smuggling hooch. In this one, you just have to rack up a lot of demerits by breaking rules. In their world they’re major offenses, but in ours, where letting a dog walk down the street is just fine, it’s not that big a deal. So after spending over an hour struggling to get seen with Einstein, it’s just not too satisfying when the puzzle is solved. It’s essentially going from crimes to misdemeanors. Also, this episode felt like the most difficult, so it suffers from heightened challenge with lessened payoff.

But even so, come the end of the episode I wanted more. It’s clear that the fourth episode is going to see Marty go back in time and cause some familiar shenanigans to make sure this Orwellian Hill Valley never happens. And despite an awkward turn, it doesn’t diminish Telltale’s ability to weave a story. Just like with a quality TV show, the creators are bound to slip once in a while, but that doesn’t make the rest of a season unwatchable. Heck, this is still a good game. It’s just been better, and will very likely get better too.

A review code was provided and did not affect the outcome of this review.  This review is based on the PC build.

Story picks up right where we left off. Marty and Doc Brown evade the dangers of Kid Tannen, Biff’s grandfather, in the year 1931 where he’s a big shot bootlegger. Things seem great until Marty starts to fade away. Doc’s newspaper then shows that his grandfather was brutally murdered, which would pretty much negate his existence. So off and away to save Arty McFly you go! Of course there are more twists, and some more characters are introduced as well. It’s all good fun, you’ll get some good laughs, and you’ll love the music when you reach the end credits because it’s Huey Lewis and the News. Who honestly doesn’t love Huey Lewis and the News?

Gameplay-wise, it’s what you’d expect. Walk around, talk to people, gather items, use items, etc. Occasionally this changes up a bit like when you avoid a fight with Biff and his cronies, but overall it’s a good ol’ adventure game. This episode moves along briskly for the most part, but did have a couple hiccups. Mainly, it was a little jarring that I couldn’t explore the Hill Valley Courthouse Square in the same way that I could in the first game. I understand why they did it, but then the newly-present invisible walls just made it difficult to head to certain areas. There is even one spot where you need to run toward the camera to get to an important location. It feels like shifted camera points could have addressed this a lot better, and maybe Marty could have made some cursory mention that he sees no point in going to certain spots. I’m making more of this than it is, but it was a bit irksome.

The puzzles themselves felt a little easier this time as well. Again, I’m not sure if I’m just getting Telltale’s “style” with these or if this really was a bit easier, but I had much less trouble getting through this chapter. I even turned off hints completely and had little trouble. Having said that, I never lose the sense of triumph in gaining access to a new area or finding the perfect item for a situation.

Basically, it’s still good. Some minor mechanical quirks aside, it’s the personality that wins out in this game, just like the last one, and I’m willing to wager like next month’s episode, which I’m looking forward to quite a bit. If there’s one thing Telltale is supremely good at, it’s making me say “Aw man it’s over!?” because it ends with a brand new dilemma that I just really want to solve! I mean it’s just at too many timelines!

A review code was provided and did not affect the outcome of this review.  This review is based on the PC build.

This review was written by Mary Carlson and Manny Martinez. They were featured in our November 2010 2-Player Spotlight.

The good:  New lands to explore, more flight paths, new gear to acquire, higher level cap, guild bonuses and achievements, new quests, dungeons and raids.

The bad:  All character spells and skills get wiped requiring characters to pay for training again, too many flight paths, and the portals in Dalaran or Shattrath have disappeared.

Some of the major improvements made in Cataclysm that I really enjoy are the story scenes and world changes after completing certain quests.  Before, it just felt like quest after quest with no feeling of accomplishment except for leveling up.  Now, after completing certain quests, there are cinematic scenes and parts of the world around you change.

The level cap is now set to 85 and 5 new leveling zones have been added.  The zones are different and fun.  A lot of thought has gone into the quests, and it appears that all or the majority of group quests have been abolished, making it easier to solo quest but still receive zone quest achievements.

Two new races are available for creating characters.  For the Alliance side, you can now choose Worgen and on the Horde side, you have the choice to be a Goblin.  Along with new races, levels, and lands comes new gear.  As usual with level cap increases, all that lovely purple gear is quickly replaced!   You can now learn to use flying mounts in the lands of Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdom for a mere 200 gold, much better than the expected 4k!

Cataclysm offers more quests with the use of vehicles.  They have expanded the vehicles from flying bombing runs to mounting cannons and tanks.  There are also quests where you mount a giant and go around bashing the enemy.  On a bad note and sort of a hint here – you really need to have wowhead.com at your side for some of these quests as little to no explanation is given on how to use these vehicles.  Sometimes the quests will start right away with you needing to do something in the vehicle and not knowing what to do.  So make sure to have wowhead.com open to the quest so you can quickly understand how to use the vehicle.

It’s important that you know that my [Manny] background is mainly console gaming.  I love online shooters on Xbox 360.  So my views towards World of Warcraft Player versus Player (PvP) are not very positive!  Basically, Blizzard’s version of PvP in this game reminds me of the very first PvP games offered on the console.  There are designated spawn locations, so welcome back to spawn camping.  The balance has been improved a little than in previous PvP battlegrounds.  The matches I have joined have started off with a close balance of teams versus previous battles where a match could start with 15 versus 30.  On a positive note, the level ranges are now every 5 levels instead of the previous 10.  So now, the character levels will range from 20 to 24 or 30 to 34 and so on.  With the change in level ranges and balance of teams, it basically comes down to making sure your character is equipped with great gear to give you an enjoyable PvP experience.  Maybe now I will start playing PvP some more!

The addition of guild levels was a great idea – characters gain reputation with their guild and the guild itself gains levels when members quest either solo or grouped, and run instances together.  Benefits to higher guild levels include additional XP and reputation, faster move speed, and additional cash directly deposited into the guild bank.  There are also a variety of guild achievements focused on dungeons, raids, and levels!

Overall, the new additions and changes bring new life to the game for old and new players alike!

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is rated T for Teen and is available now for the PC and MAC.  World Of Warcraft: Cataclysm is an expansion to World of Warcraft and requires the full version of World of Warcraft, The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, and a Battle.net account to play.

The story hurdle is pretty big. You’re dealing with a franchise beloved by just about every Generation X and most of us Generation Y Americans. It’s a series that made Michael J. Fox not just famous, but a household name. It has a theme song that we all hum just at the thought of it, and made it almost cool to say “Great Scott.” Telltale is good, but they had to nail not just a good pace of plot points, but a feel. They had to earn that theme song,  “Great Scott,” and especially that DeLorean. So the question is are they THAT good? They even chose to make the story follow the events of the third movie, effectively making a sequel to the story. Ballsy.

Fortunately, it feels pretty damned close to a Back to the Future movie. Telltale wisely played it safe and played to familiar impulses. Marty McFly gets word that Doc’s in trouble and without hesitation hops in the DeLorean to the 1930′s to save him. Naturally, the game takes place in Hill Valley, CA, so some forefathers of the McFly and Henderson families show up, and a few others as well. It all works, and it’s an amusing little romp that ends with enough intrigue to leave one wanting when the credits roll.

The second is gameplay. Strictly speaking, Telltale didn’t go for any gameplay innovations here. Their MO with these adventure seasons seems more about racking your brain for a bit and entertaining you with a solid story. To that end, they deliver. Again, Telltale played it safe and remained consistent. I found the overall feel of play to be identical to their other adventure games, and being as simple as it is, that can only mean more fans of the movies can get going without spending too much time learning the ropes.

Where the gameplay could really muck things up, though, is in the fact that you’re controlling Marty McFly. The game could well walk you through some silly adventure game tropes that don’t make sense in the world of Back to the Future, or worse, make more sense in some other franchise Telltale has handled. Thankfully, this pitfall was avoided as well. From the dialog choices to the very actions done to solve problems, it feels like things Marty McFly would do. Of COURSE he’d lie to the younger version of Doc Brown to coax him along on his quest. Yeah‚ he would make up a crappy name just like Doc Brown called himself Carl Sagan. But best of all is that the character totally comes through as the well-meaning trouble maker that Marty McFly is. It’s no small help that Doc Brown is played once again by Christopher Lloyd with the mad scientist verve we know and love, while AJ LoCascio voices the main hero instead of Michael J Fox, don’t let the name disappoint. He comes damn close with everything from “This is heavy” to that scratchy and panicked “Whoa!”

The rest of the game is all pretty consistent Telltale fare. The visuals are solid, capturing the characters’ likenesses in a great cartoon style, and the music is the awesome music of the films. In all this consistency lies the game’s only real weakness, which is that it’s not a really fresh experience as a game. Take away the Back to the Future aspects, and really you’ve played this game before. The setting and characters really are meant as the main draw here.

The thing is, while I call it a criticism, it can go either way. When it comes right down to it, people interested in this game aren’t going in for innovative interactions. They just want to enjoy what they love about the movies, and really, a simply and consistently solid point and click (or move-with-analog-stick and click if you choose gamepad) adventure game is the perfect genre to offer that. There is just the right amount of challenge (give it half a day to clear out‚ no hints!), and the perfect reward in seeing those classic characters face a new conundrum to overcome. Whether or not I recommend the game rests almost completely on whether or not you like the Back to the Future movies. If you do (as you should!), then hop in.

Back to the Future The Game: Episode 1: It’s About Time is available for download now for the PC and Mac for $24.95 as a full five-episode pack with new episodes releasing monthly.  You get both the PC and Mac versions.  You can purchase and download the game on Telltale Games’ website.  The first episode is expected on the PS3 and iPad in early 2011.

A review copy was provided and did not affect the outcome of this review.  This review is based on the PC build.

Your mystery begins in the small, quaint town of Little Riddle when the Mayor is murdered.  Good thing you are a part of the Blue Toad Detective Agency!  The game is broken down into a series of cutscenes, puzzles, quizzes, and a Whodunnit round (where you guess who the culprit of the episode is).  During the episode, you will be given clues to help solve the mystery as well as different and challenging puzzles to solve that will move you through the town of Little Riddle – helping villagers and getting clues.  The puzzles are mainly logic, math, and other problem solving puzzles some of which may require the help of a pen and paper to solve.

There are 12 puzzles per level as well as quizzes given throughout just “to see if you were listening”.  Most of the questions can be answered by simply paying attention to the cutscenes but be sure to listen AND watch as some questions will be asked about things you saw during the cutscenes.  If you get one of the four questions wrong, you are deemed a Loser…so make sure to pay attention!  You can still fail all the quizzes and puzzles and win the game by guessing correctly in the Whodunnit round.

As you get clues, you will be able to visit key places in Little Riddle by simply selecting it on the map.  The order you choose the location can possibly affect what you see and hear so choose wisely.  As you investigate each lead, you will have to solve a puzzle to either help the villager you just interrogated with a task or to get more clues out of them.

Each puzzle has a Gold Award Time which will award you a gold medal if you correctly solve the puzzle within that time frame.  If you guess wrong, you can try again but you will not be able to get the gold medal, only the silver or the bronze.  More than two incorrect answers and there will be no medal.  You can try as many times as you want as there is no time limit.  If you choose to give up, you will get the answer, along with a detailed explanation of the answer (if needed).

Each scene is replayable if you think you missed anything and in general, solving the puzzles doesn’t affect the actual the outcome of the game for as long as you guess the correct culprit, you are deemed the winner.  At the end of the episode, your medal score is tallied up in a meter but that was it.

The game can be played solo or in co-operative multiplayer locally with up to 4 people.  Nothing changes except you alternate puzzles and quiz questions.  You can opt to help each other with the puzzles or not, but in the end, you are all on the same team so it makes more sense to help each other out.

Graphically, the game looks great.  They really paid attention to the smallest of details which is especially important in a mystery type of game where all the details are important.  The town of Little Riddle looks almost as real as a town seen in a model railroad and really gives you a great sense of the town.  The voice acting is top notch and is reminiscent of old radio dramas where it is about as much fun to just listen to it as it is to watch it.

It should be noted that Little Riddle takes place in the UK and is also developed and published by Relentless Software, a UK company.  This is important since the units of measure are using the metric system and the money is listed in pounds.  This is mostly for American gamers who are probably less familiar with meters and liters as we are with inches and gallons.

All of the episodes end with a grand cliffhanger, making me glad I had all the episodes on hand.  I would say that the game is best enjoyed by playing all of the episodes, however, the gameplay stays the same throughout all episodes so if you aren’t sure if you will like the game, you should try it out with the first episode.  The game is a lot of fun and will either make you happy at how smart you are when it comes with puzzle solving or you will feel incredibly stupid if you have had a hard time with the puzzles.  There is little to moderate replay value as once you complete an episode you can go back and play the puzzles again as well as watch all of the cutscenes.  There is nothing to gain other than your own satisfaction of solving the puzzles and getting gold medals for all of them.  (The trophy is only unlocked by getting all gold medals in the story mode only).  While it can be a fun game to play with others, that just depends on the group.  The game is slow-paced and requires most of your attention.  Each episode can take you anywhere between 1-3 hours to complete and that just depends on how long the puzzles take you and how many times you opt to try to solve them.  If you like logic and math puzzles wrapped up in a mystery package, this is a great game for you.  Having the puzzles wrapped into a pretty decent story line made me keep coming back for more.

Blue Toad Murder Files is rated E 10+ for Everyone 10 years old and up and is available now on the PSN for $26.99 for all 6 episodes and for the PC for $19.99 for all 6 episodes.

A review code was provided but did not affect the outcome of this review.  This review is based on the PS3 version.

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Since it’s a five dollar poker game, you won’t be surprised to learn that it’s not so elaborate on plot. It does have a funny little setup about a secret society of people who play games that stay secret just in case the government decides to illegalize them, as was the case in an early draft of the 18th Amendment. The society seems to be comprised of other characters from the respective worlds of the main four players. In case you didn’t pick it up earlier, the four are Max from Sam & Max games, Heavy from Team Fortress 2, Strong Bad from Homestar Runner, and Tycho Brahe of Penny Arcade fame.

You are known as, simply, The Player. As such, you get to witness a very convincing meeting of these four characters from decidedly disparate worlds, and honestly it’s the charm that is needed in a good game of Hold ‘Em in real life. Hearing Tycho question the kinds of bullets that Heavy uses in his gun which he names Sasha, Strong Bad taunting in that signature Strong Bad way, and just about everyone being mildly perturbed at the gleefully twisted thoughts of Max. It’s the absurd banter you’d expect, and delivered pitch perfectly by all parties. It’s the best episode of Celebrity Poker never made provided you’re a huge game nerd.

That said, it will only feel like a great mixup if you know and love at least two of these characters. If you don’t, then the banter will just seem quirky and get a chuckle from you at best.

One other caveat is it’s probably not the quintessential Poker game. On its own, Poker doesn’t need the frills of video game personalities. The game itself is more of a backdrop to these characters interacting than a focus itself. Indeed, one of the options is to crank the chatter between the four players to basically go between nearly every single event in the game. Turning that off completely gets you a rather pretty poker game, but nothing that will draw in a competitive crowd, where a green backdrop would do just fine. For five dollars, that game probably exists, and with a form of online multiplayer to boot. What that also means, unfortunately, is that the game may not have a lot of longevity once you hear everything there is to hear in terms of that banter. But a short term burst of entertaining Poker seems palatable at the asking price.

What the game ultimately feels like is something conceived from a ridiculous conversation among cohorts at Telltale, or perhaps the lead designer and some of his friends. It’s easy to imagine one thing lead to another where somehow liscensing these characters and their voices just worked out for a little card game to be produced. It seems a small miracle, but probably not to everyone. Mainly fans of occasional poker nights who love at least a couple characters here. At five bucks, it’s a small miracle worth witnessing.

Poker Night at the Inventory is available for download now for the PC and Mac for $4.95.  You can purchase and download the game on Telltale Games’ website.

A review copy was provided and did not affect the outcome of this review.  This review is based on the PC build.

In 2011, Codemasters Studios will be releasing the third game in the series with Operation Flashpoint Red River. With the new title, they have kept all the good things from the previous titles such as the authentic looking equipment, the intense fire-fights and the constant threat that a single bullet may pose. They have also addressed some of the complaints that were levied against the originals like the inconsistent graphics, the poor enemy and team member AI, and the overwhelming difficulty.

They have completely rebuilt the graphics engine from the ground up, and the game looks pretty good from the two levels we saw. Draw distance is drastically improved, and the sheer detail of both areas was astounding. In fact, the improved graphics actually makes it harder to spot enemies, as they tend to blend into the details as they would in real life. This makes the camouflage that the enemy wears very effective.

The improved AI makes the game a little easier, as you won’t be having to constantly save team member’s lives. The enemy is smarter too, but this can work to your advantage in this game as they tend to hunker down a little more and behave a little more predictably. When one bullet can kill, it is more realistic that no one just goes rushing out in the open.

They also introduced some new ways to enjoy the game, particularly if you a new-comer to the series. They have including an aim assist option that allows you to better lock-on to targets. You can even enable a snap-to aiming system that locks on and follows the enemy.  With an improved Heads-Up Display, the game just gives you a few more tools to get the job done, which always makes it a little easier.

Another addition to the series is a character class system, complete with leveling up and customizable options. Each class has their own strengths and weaknesses, and you can add buffs to each of them to improve things like their sprinting ability or their toughness. Like any good Marine, you will be proficient with a weapon that is common for the class you choose, but using a gun that is alien to you puts you at a disadvantage. But you can practice with weapons and get better at using them.

We got to see a couple of the character classes, the Automatic Rifleman and the Scout. They definitely played a little different during combat, but I couldn’t say how much customization will actually add to the enjoyment of the game overall.

There is a lot of love that the developers put into this game. It shows in all of the detail that they put into the game. Each gun has its own weight and recoil that is really felt when firing. The gun models have little touches such as duck tape and things written on them that you might find on a Marine’s gun. You can be injured in different areas, such as the arms or legs and your injuries affect your character. For example, if your legs are injured, you lose the ability to sprint. It’s all these little things that make this game an engrossing experience.

Although the AI is vastly improved, the game is still best enjoyed as an online co-op experience. Communicating with your team and employing tactics to slowly infiltrate the enemy lines is a rewarding experience that is best shared with friends. Besides, the AI isn’t THAT much improved that it replaces a person. The game features a drop-in/drop-out feature that makes it easier than ever to join a team online.

The little demo we got to see showed off a little section of the game’s center of conflict, the country of Tajikistan, which is located between Afghanistan and China. The mission was to clear a path for a vehicle envoy. The demonstration showed off the tactical side of the game, as it was necessary to scout and use flanking maneuvers to really expose and pick off enemy troops. While we saw some graphical glitches that surely won’t be in the final release, the overall look of the game was fantastic. We were shown the PS3 version, and everything seemed to play very smooth. The action was clear and distinct, and you could even see muzzle flash from enemy guns to help track their location.

We also got to play a little bit of what is going to be a survival mode. Our job was to survive wave after wave of enemies. We didn’t last too long, but we did get to handle a couple of the guns and they had a good feel. It was easy to track and shoot enemies, and while it wasn’t available for this demo, it was promised that structures in the game will be destructible. This means you can bring down someone’s hiding spot to expose them.

We didn’t get to delve too much into the customization, but we got to see a little bit. There seemed to be some cool options that will give the player good control of what works best for them.

Overall, this game is looking promising in the early going. Please keep an eye out for more information as it gets released.

“The brutal new chapter in the world-renowned, multi-million selling franchise, Operation Flashpoint™ Red River takes the tactical military shooter to new levels of intense authenticity. On a deadly new battlefield where one bullet can kill, Operation Flashpoint™ Red River takes gamers closer to the experience of the US Marine Corps on campaign than ever before.

Operation Flashpoint Red River delivers a personal experience of infantry Marines on mission in a hostile country, thousands of miles from home. Dispensing with corny heroics, corridor gun-play and unrealistic set pieces, players deploy real life tactics in a range of new scenarios and against new enemies. The tension, brutality and carnage of modern warfare is intense as players feel the rush of adrenaline that comes when it’s time for Marines to ‘get some’.

Players embark on a full expeditionary campaign set in the remote and beautiful country of Tajikistan, bordered by China and Afghanistan. A fictional conflict with contemporary geopolitical themes unfold over three distinct acts, presenting unique challenges which can be experienced in both single player and co-operatively by up to four players online. Empowered with the real life freedom of fireteams to take on objectives on their own initiative, players must think on their feet and act decisively as they take on determined, adaptive and reactive enemies. From the unpredictable chaos of close-quarters insurgency warfare to holding defensive positions against the full might of the Chinese PLA, players tackle the wide-ranging threats Marines face, with the assets of one of the world’s leading superpowers at their disposal.”

Operation Flashpoint: Red River will be available in Q2 2011 for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

The gameplay consists of pointing and clicking the mouse to move Flo, find items, and play the mini-games.  You must interact with the characters within the game who can help you with your tasks but will almost always present you with a whole new set of tasks to do in order to complete the main objectives.  You will collect items like balloons and bottles to recycle as well as task related items.  Most of the main objectives will involve a series of mini-games that you must pass in order to complete the task.  Games like book sorting, cooking cutting, cookie decorating, and dessert arrangement are just a few of the puzzles you will need to solve.

The game can be finished in a few hours – I finished the game in one day, playing for little bits at a time.  The game could definitely be a little longer but you can play Activity Mode for more mini-game action.  The game is addicting and the difficulty level is pretty easy but you will be hunting for those recycled bottles and balloons, some of which are harder to find than others.  The game features the quirky humor that fans have come to expect from the DASH series of games.  While you won’t do any of the traditional DinerDash stuff, you do get to wait on some tables.  Most of the game consists of memory challenges and logic puzzles – all of which offer a good amount of challenge without being overly difficult or horribly easy.

The game is also relatively stress free – there are no time limits or penalties for using hints.

The graphics were fine for a game of this style.  The game is presented using an illustrative style and I experienced some slight pixelation because the game automatically filled the entire screen of my 24″ iMac.  However, it didn’t lessen the experience one bit.  The music and background sounds fit the game and were neither annoying nor super catchy and the voice acting was spot on – better than some higher profile games on the market.

Fans of the DASH series will be happy with the gameplay and I think that newcomers to the series will enjoy the game as well.  I am relatively new to the DASH series – playing the PSN DinerDash downloadable and a few of the mobile phone series demos from a few years back (years before the iPhone and all the other fancy, phones we have now!).  I enjoyed Special Delivery so much, I downloaded the first game, Avenue Flo!

Avenue Flo: Special Delivery is available now for PC and Mac for $9.99.  The game is currently on sale for $6.99 on PlayFirst’s website.

A review code was provided and did not affect the outcome of this review.