This was my first PSP minis game. I played it for a while on the PS3 and then transferred it to my PSP. It’s definitely more suited for a handheld system and iFun4All obviously knew this as the game is coming soon to the iPhone and iPad.

Fish Tank is a Match 3 type of puzzle game that borrows heavily from Tetris and Bejeweled. It is set underwater, in a Fish Tank (duh), and its game board is set up horizontally with the game pieces (fish) coming from left to right towards rows and columns of bubbles. As they reach the right side, they become encased in a bubble and can only disappear when 4 or more fish of the same color are lined up. You can control which bubble row you what a particular fish to go with the D-Pad. When 4 or more fish are lined up, a button icon appears and you must press the corresponding button to make the cluster of fish disappear. You can speed up the fish with the R button and you can activate power ups with the L button.

The game is pretty straightforward although, I had a bit of a tough time with it my first time through. Once I read the directions and got used to its horizontal set-up, I was kinda hooked. The game features Easy, Medium, and Hard difficulties and each level will vary in the number of colored fish available. You have a time limit and a mistake limit and when either of these are up, the game is over. There is also a Challenge Mode with 24 sets of various challenging “puzzles”, each with its unique level handicap.

Fish Tank also features Trophies on the PS3 and Achievements for the PSP. There is no multiplayer in either the PS3 or the PSP versions but that doesn’t hurts its overall value; it’s definitely a single player experience.

The graphics aren’t the greatest and on an HD TV with the PS3, it is quite apparent with the jaggy lines. It looks far better on the PSP, as to be expected. The music is annoying but catchy as I am humming it in my (can’t get it out of my) head right now. Once you get into it, it’s a fun and addicting game. If you enjoy these types of puzzle games, you may very well enjoy Fish Tank. If you have an iPhone or iPad, you may want to hold out until those versions come out.

Fish Tank is available now on PSN for the PS3 and can also be downloaded onto a Sony MemoryStick and played on the PSP. The iPhone and iPad versions are coming soon.

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

It’s great to see all three titles on one disc and at such a great price, $39.99.  In addition to the games, the disc also comes loaded with a premium Tomb Raider theme for the XMB dashboard, avatars for PlayStation Home, and 30 minutes of bonus videos for all three games.  All of the videos are Developer’s Diaries and are all available online, but it is nice to have them all in one place.

All three games remain unchanged, although Tomb Raider Legend and Tomb Raider Anniversary have both been remastered for HD resolution.  The disc info states that the available resolutions go up to 720p while the Xbox 360 versions (except Legend) are all available up to 1080p.  Not quite sure how this qualifies for a “remastered in HD” but all three games look good on the PS3. (I did a quick side by side comparison between the 360 versions and the PS3 versions and I found the 360′s graphics to be slightly superior.)

A few drawbacks in this collection are the absence of the two downloadable Underworld episodes, Lara’s Shadow and Beneath the Ashes, as well as the  the PSN title Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light.  The DLC episodes were both Xbox exclusives and may never see the light on the PS3.  The inclusion of Guardian of Light would have been a nice addition but it is understandable why it was not included.  However, two Guardian of Light trailers are included in the bonus video content.

Trophies are included for all three titles and are split out per game as opposed to being listed under “The Tomb Raider Trilogy”.  Trophies unlocked for the regular retail version of Underworld will be unlocked for the Trilogy as well.  Although Trophies are “shared”, you cannot load game saves for Underworld in the Trilogy and vice versa.   Those are stored as completely separated game data and noted as Tomb Raider Trilogy saves.

While the Trilogy disc is a slight disappointment for me, I can’t help but still recommend it.  This collection features three excellent Tomb Raider titles and is a great deal for the $39.99 price tag.  Fans of the series probably own all of the games but the debut of Legend and Anniversary on the PS3 will have some great appeal to fans with only a PS3 only.  Die hard fans of the franchise may get it to add it to the collection as well as for the bonus footage and items on the disc.

The Tomb Raider Trilogy is rated T for Teen and is available now for $39.99 exclusively for the PS3.

A review copy of the game was provided but did not affect the outcome of this review.

Within the Arcade Mode are two menu items called Falling Wonder and Pudding Deity.  These play out similar to the Arcade mode but features a story, if you can call it that, as well as a boss battle at the end.  With the game featuring cute little Anime girls, I was disappointed to see that the story mode did not feature animation but instead was a text based dialog between characters.  The stories were quite lengthy and didn’t make a whole lot of sense either.  I tried to read through it but I ended up just skipping past most of it, speed reading it along the way.  The story, as with most fighting games, has no bearing on the gameplay before you so it’s purely up to the player how into the game they want to get.

The battle system was very simple, no complicated combos to learn or pull off.  I think that it is nice to have simple controls since fighting games as of late have become super ultra complicated.  However, this seemed to work against AoSXE.  I found that, in most cases, the control was consistently inconsistent no matter what character I would choose. I could just find that one attack that worked against my opponent and literally just button mash the heck out of it and win.  Other times, nothing seemed to work and I would get my butt kicked, continue the match, and then annihilate my opponent. The characters themselves were not very balanced either.  Some felt a lot more powerful than others.

Despite the game’s simple control scheme, there was no training or tutorial, just the button config in the options menu and a lame practice mode.  In Practice mode, the CPU does nothing so it’s a good place to try out new characters and learn what their attacks are.  For me, this worked a little bit but I had the same experience whether I knew the moves or not.  (OK, I did a little better after knowing what button did what). (Note: As I was writing this review, I discovered that a week or so after the game’s release, a downloadable game manual was added to the media section of the game’s official website.  This manual explains a lot about the game.)

The gameplay itself can only be described as frantic and confusing.  The two fighters battle it out within a circular boundary before some rather nicely rendered background locations.  You fly about the screen and the camera uses a zoom in/out style, much like Super Smash Brothers Melee.  The characters are tiny in comparison to the screen and, even when zoomed in all the way, are barely recognizable.  With missiles and other projectiles all over the screen paired with several elaborate special attacks involving huge lasers, chains, electric fields, and ice, you can lose sight of exactly which character you are playing and where you are on the screen.

The local co-op has its fun moments but it isn’t a game you can necessarily pick up and play nor is it a game that makes you want to learn how to pull off the moves (because it has none).  Norm and I played through a few fights but since he hadn’t played the game prior to that, I was button mashing him to death with the same attack that it just got old for both of us.  There is no online multiplayer support for AoSXE and I think that hurts the game’s replay value.

The music is the best thing that the game really had to offer.  A bumpin’ and upbeat techno soundtrack fit well within the look and feel of the game.  I liked the music so much, it made me want to pick up some glow sticks and get my rave on!  I have left the game on the menu or in practice mode just to have the music on in the background.  Side note: Your PS3 controller automatically turns itself off after so long which will suspend the game (and the music) until the controller is reconnected.  You can also stream the tracks on the official Suguri website.

Another nice feature of the game is the ability to save replays of matches and then upload them to YouTube.  You will need a YouTube account, and of course, Internet access for this to work, but most people probably have both these days.

While I was not the game’s biggest fan, I did play through it several times and, while inconsistent, I was always pleased when I won a battle especially if I had lost the first time through.  I think the game does have its audience within the fighting game genre and with fans of doujin.  Practice makes perfect and I think that if the player is willing to invest the time into each character that may boost the game’s replay value.  Unless you love fighting games of all kind or are just a fan of quirky and strange Japanese doujin-style games, Acceleration of Sugeri X Edition may not be the game for you.

Acceleration of Suguri X Edition is rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and up and is available now for $5.99, exclusively on the PlayStation Network.

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

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And why not? Let’s be honest, the market could use some more faces getting half the attention of the “leading brands.” The real question is how they plan to stand out. Sure, the game is visually distinct, and footage to date looks pretty fun, but how does it play? We recently got a chance to check out the game’s co-op mode for ourselves, and even ask the developers a few questions. There was a lot to take in, and our two missions just weren’t enough (I want to play more!), but what I could gather is that this game want the player to, more than anything else and more than competing titles, have a whole lot of fun doing everything it has to offer. For better and worse, it looks like they’ve succeeded.

Before even playing, we were all shown a training video that explained a bit of the game’s particulars, like an objective wheel where you can literally choose how you plan to help your team out, and a quick rundown of the different classes (Soldier, Medic, Engineer, and Operative) and their distinct special abilities. It also showed some familiar territory, like an experience system that helps unlock new abilities, perks, weapons, etc. This was a good little primer to get us in the frame of mind for this game. It really helped me, having been on a killstreak-focused Black Ops binge the past couple months. I was also informed that just watching those videos will give the player some experience points.

The first mission had us escorting a vehicle from point A to point B, and then covering that vehicle and holding off the AI-controlled enemy team once we got there. I was an Engineer through most of the mission, and expected my abilities to be used mainly on the vehicle. Not so. When we started, Media Director Richard Jolly pointed out that I could throw little stat boosts to my team mates, boosting their armor or damage for a short while. Each toss gave me experience points, too. And when we hit our first wave of resistance, I was surprised to see that I wasn’t necessarily weaker than a soldier with my firepower. I could take guys down with the best of them. I could actively contribute to the battle at hand AND help in my own way. Turns out all classes are this way. A soldier may be bigger on guns, but they were most welcome as the only class that could give out ammo and plant charges on walls to pave the way forward for us. Everyone has their role.

Shortly after a certain wall in our path was taken down, I got the itch to try a different class, and switched into an Operative at the team spawn’s command station. Almost immediately, I missed being able to be an instant help to my team mates. But a quick look at my objective wheel showed some closed off doors that only I could break open. So off I went, away from the action, and found a sealed off door that I was able to use a handy hacking device to unlock. No one was around, so I went for it… sort of. The tool didn’t work when I walked too far, so I had to hang close and feel even more vulnerable. I got it open, though, and thus offered a brand new path for my teammates to take. Because it was a completed objective, I also made bank on more experience points. My satisfaction didn’t last long, though. My team reached point B while I was hacking a door closer to point A. Whoops. I even learned that my former Engineerness could’ve helped set up the vehicle once it his point B. Right… so I stuck with Operative and noticed that I could scan a dead enemy and disguise myself as one of them! Sweet! To boot, I gained even more experience for just being disguised! But once at point B, victory involved shooting guys, so that disguise had to come off and I had to start blasting away. No problems there, though, because shooting people is ALWAYS great.

Come the next mission, we were all in the groove of the game and opted to go from Easy difficulty AI to Normal. Crazy, right? We were ready. Normal it was! And they certainly did up their game against us. Still we fought on. About here, Richard Ham, the Creative Director, came around to me and pointed out that as an Operative, I was the “most important” guy on my team since my choice skills were needed to complete the main objective. I had to reach their safe room and crack it open with my trusty hack tool I’d learned to use in the last mission. With a clever disguise, I made my way there completely unscathed. I hung back and watched the enemy team head off to fight the rest of my hard-working team. All but one. Jerk would NOT leave that safe, and I was warned that hacking the safe with him around would be a bit of a dead giveaway. So I gave him one to the face with my rifle butt. It took him to the floor and I thought “Hah!” for a only moment. He then got up and gunned me down! At this point, Ham told me that this game wasn’t about instant kill moves. The game always has an out. Prior to that, I had noticed I was able to sit tight and wait for a medic to come revive me after being gunned down. “Neat” I thought. Now if only I knew that earlier…

Eventually my team caught up to my covert shenanigans and burst into the safe room. April, a Medic, went clutch at this moment and healed the crap out of the team. Thanks to her, my pleas to everyone of “Don’t let them shoot me!” went fully answered. Everyone was able to hold off the enemy while I cracked the safe. Now holding the contents therein, we still had to get out. Couldn’t disguise myself anymore, so I had to just sit back and hope my team would clear my path. They almost did. I had to kick it out myself at the end, taking down the remaining few with my SMG and bolt for the finish. Normal difficulty? Psh…

The final stage of this mission involved escorting a wounded NPC from point A to point B (expect a lot of this). For this mission, I spent most the time noodling around in disguise and pointing out mines for my team mates so they’d be nice and highlighted on their HUDs. Another of my skills as an Operative. Aside from that, I tried fiddling with the game’s SMART navigation system, which lets you climb, scale, and slide around for a little added mobility. It was pretty cool, but I think I was missing some key components because while it helped get me around, I felt like a monkey with a broken foot half the time, not looking half as cool as some of the demo footage I’d seen (Note: I didn’t fiddle much with character customization, but there are Light, Medium, and Heavy body types which likely played a hand). That happened, and at some point I hijacked an enemy turret in their base and started unloading on a mess of dudes waiting for the cavalry to arrive. My score this mission was low, but I like to think I softened the dough for the real pulverizing. Going back to experience points, it’s worth pointing out that I still got a decent amount for pointing out those mines, and that April was a top scorer just for healing a whole lot.

Ham explained that all the experience points are intended to tell players that what they’re doing is right. He also mentioned that a medic who heals a lot will probably get more experience than someone who just kills a lot. The logic goes two ways: First, Ham described that taking down an opponent is a reward in itself, so they decided not to reward that with experience; Second, the system seems to be based more on just how much you’re contributing to the objective and your team than how badass you are with a gun. This philosophy fuels all of Brink, right down to their stat tracking, which does not list one’s Kill/Death ratio, which to many Halo or Call of Duty players is essentially your worth as a player. The end game score screen won’t even show how many kills you racked up. Honestly, the shifted approach sounded awesome. I love the idea of being able to see that I am a stealthy bastard, a great healer, or even a kill-hungry maniac, and not just how efficient I am at aiming. On top of that, it also lowers personal stress from wanting to look good all the time. I can just have fun while I learn the ropes, and get rewarded for exploring the deeper aspects of the game. This all sounds great, and I love game that’s just happy to see me have fun, and not necessarily win. It’s nice that a low rank on a final score only says “You could’ve helped more” instead of “You suck.”

HOWEVER, it’s possible that this focus on teamplay and this “you can do it” attitude will not jibe with players looking for a more strictly-competitive experience. It seems that the more stark environment of “N00B vs 1337” shooters is the way of the land right now, and the masses want kill counts and ratios. And while the action itself feels good and fluid, and SMART system adds a dimension to the play style and maneuvering, the maps we played were very focused on mission objectives, and not the arena combat one usually sees. We were told the game would launch with “14 missions” when asked about map count, so I am also led to believe that there won’t be much, if any, presence of Deathmatch-style layouts. I want to note that I’m not saying one mode is better or worse; both have their place and are fun in their own right. I just have difficulty imagining Brink stealing a whole lot of multiplayer fps thunder from the big names when its focus isn’t what the masses are flocking to.

Having said that, I do want this game to succeed. I want it to find its niche, and to take its slice of the pie, much like Battlefield: Bad Company 2 has. I love that Splash Damage didn’t throw their hat in the same ring as everyone else and opted to offer an honest and actual alternative to what’s out and popular. The best thing I can say about it is I want to play it more, and I don’t want to wait until May to do it.

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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With SkyHeroes, you are able to customize your character from the ground up starting with gender to facial features to the voice.  There are a lot of options in each category so you will definitely spend a lot of time with character customization, at least in the beginning.  You can go back and edit your sim as you progress through the game.

You can also upgrade your aircraft.  As you progress through the game, you will unlock pieces that you can use to upgrade your existing aircraft or build new ones.  You can have a plane that you use for racing and one that you use for dogfighting and you can fine tune each aircraft by switching out parts and even painting your plane to help camouflage it.  You are armed with a machine gun and a missile launcher on your plane as well as several pick ups found in most of the levels.

The game features a Story Mode as well as Quickplay and Multiplayer Modes.  In Story Mode, the game takes you through each challenge and through the underlying story.  You take on several little challenges like dogfights or races, all of which will lead up to more grand battles that will feature a little of both.

In Quickplay, you can choose to Race or Dogfight.  Within each, you can choose Free-For-All or Team Battles.  Once you have determined the kind of game, you can choose all the options like how many laps or AI you want in the game as well as the time limit and whether you want to turn on/off pick ups, missiles, and/or your machine guns.  You can choose to play the game locally in splitscreen co-op or you can go online for 10-player action.

The game controls rather well and offers a variety of controller configurations. Even though I don’t like the inverted Y axis, I found it to be the best configuration for me.  Some of the challenges felt way more difficult than they should’ve been, some missions taking several tries to pass.  I admit, flight games are not my forte but I doubt a 10 year old could’ve done that much better which may make the game a little frustrating to some.  You can crash into buildings and such without dying but there are other things that will harm you so there is a little trial and error on your part to see what you can get away with.  The game moves rather fast and you will find enemies flying past you while you are trying to find them.  There is a radar system with your plane’s reticle in the middle of the screen and a series of green or red arrows that are more confusing than helpful until you get used to it.

The graphics fit the MySims style and made a nice backdrop for the story.  The levels were pretty small as I hit the out of bounds territory rather often.  The game would warn you that you were out of bounds but the opponents could be found further out of bounds so I’m not sure where that balances out.

My biggest issue with the game was the annoying gibberish that the Sims use to speak.  Honestly, I had no idea what the story entailed as they use the most annoying gibberish to replace talking.  It was so obnoxious and annoying, I tried to cycle as quickly through the dialogs as possible.  Sadly, I couldn’t find anything in the options menu that would mute the horrible voices so I was stuck with quickly going through the dialog portions.  I’m also pretty new to the franchise – not only have I never played a MySims game, but I have never played a Sims game.  The gibberish voices is enough to keep me away.

Overall, MySims SkyHeroes is a decent flight game and fans of the MySims franchise or the Sims franchise may thoroughly enjoy the game.  This game is obviously aimed at kids but parents may be more interested in Kid Adventures Sky Captain for the Nintendo Wii which was a lot easier to control and had more dynamic challenges.  Kid Adventures lacks the character customization of SkyHeroes as well as a brand name like MySims but may be more age appropriate especially for the younger crowd and for parents looking for something a little less aggressive than SkyHeroes.

MySims SkyHeroes is rated E 10 + for Everyone 10 years and older and is available for the Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3, and the Xbox 360.

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

Kick-Ass New & Improved is a PlayStation Network downloadable beat ‘em up RPG.  This is a new and improved version of the game that was released back in April 2010.  Those that purchased the previously released version can update it with this version for free.  New enemies and levels were added to this version as well as extra moves and missions.  Other enhancements like AI balancing and improved sound and trophies were also added.  I did not play the previous version so this review is based solely on this new and improved version.

The game is played with a semi-top down view and is really a lot of button mashing to kill thug after thug.  You have your light and your heavy attacks along with some Special Abilities.  You can level up your character as you earn experience which is earned by killing enemies and busting items found in the levels.

The game is presented in a cell-shaded style with actual cutscenes from the movie which is fitting for a game based on a comic book/graphic novel.  The voice acting is decent as well although some of the lines get repeated a bit much.  However, there is nothing greater than Hit Girl spouting out obscenities like she’s an adult.

Events are pretty much the same as the film but there is little to no story introduced so the game does assume that you have either read the comic or have seen the movie.  I hadn’t seen the movie or read the comic book before I played the game so some of the game didn’t make a lot of sense but it didn’t really ruin it for me.  In fact, it was kinda cool to watch the movie and see how well they were able to recreate some of the scenes and environments from the film.  Apart from that, it wasn’t that impressive.

You can play the game as Kick-Ass, Hit Girl, or Big Daddy and you can also play along with another character in local co-op.  I didn’t realize how much harder the game got as you went along until I started up the third level with Norm and I was level 10 and he was level 1.  We ended up having to start the game all over again so that he could level up his character.  The controls are a little wonky and sometimes the camera will position itself so you can’t see anything at all so you end up fighting the camera control a bit.  It’s quite a bit worse in the local co-op. If one of you should die during the game, you can revive the other player by holding the circle button down for a few seconds as their life meter goes up.  This is pretty difficult with a bunch of thugs on you so generally, you are left to fend for yourself.  If you do survive, then you can revive the other player.  If you don’t, you restart from the next checkpoint. It’s pretty particular as to where you stand so sometimes it’ll take you a few tries to get the revive meter going.

The game does have an autosave feature but sometimes it doesn’t save the game for quite a while so you may find yourself restarting levels as the game progresses.  It’s not necessary to play the game with another person, but it sure does help things.  It was hard to tell if the game’s difficulty was upped by the fact that there were two players instead of one.

The game’s AI isn’t anything to write home about.  Thugs are triggered basically by invisible checkpoints so if you have a ranged weapon like Hit Girl’s guns, you can stop a little before that happens and get a head start on their health meters.  Once you hit them, they do come running – and from all directions too.  Sometimes, you will find groups of thugs all running into each other or running into walls.  You can also kill by using the environment around you like power boxes, fuel barrels, and fork lifts.  So there is a small level of experimentation to see what works best.  I have found that as long as you keep moving and get a good hold on your jump/slam attack, you can almost survive everything.

There isn’t a ton of variety in the gameplay, it really is a button-mashing  beat ‘em up.  Leveling up is done in the pause menu by accessing your FaceSpace profile.  It should be noted that the film was all about MySpace with no mention of Facebook, but for some reason the game went with the hybrid name.  Not sure why and I guess it doesn’t really matter, I just found it worth noting.  For a little added spice, there are pickups in the game including lost comic book covers that you can collect to view in the gallery later.   If you can collect all 8 covers, you can read the entire first issue of the Kick-Ass comic.  The game holds a moderate replay value if you are interested in playing the game using all three characters and if you want to play the game with friends.  If you complete the game, which will you take you about 4-8 hours depending on your skill and if you played it in co-op or not, you will unlock Extreme mode and The Arena Mode.  Extreme Mode is the game on a higher difficulty setting which is a lot like playing the later levels of the game as you are probably at about level 20-25 by this point.  The Arena Mode is a survival mode where you must survive waves of enemies.

The game has its fun moments but has just about as many frustrating ones.  It’s definitely a lot more fun with a friend than playing alone.  The good thing is that as you play each character, they will keep the levels they have earned thus far.  Just like the movie, Kick-Ass New & Improved holds nothing back and features all the blood and guts, profanity and spunk as it’s celluloid counterpart.  Unfortunately, the game doesn’t quite live up to its name.

Kick-Ass New and Improved is rated M for Mature and is available now on the PlayStation Network for $9.99.

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

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.

You take the role of Chuck Greene, who lost his wife in the first wave of an outbreak in Las Vegas.  Chuck’s daughter, Katey, was bitten by her infected mother, and the only thing that keeps Katey from turning into a zombie is a pharmaceutical drug called Zombrex. Chuck, along with his daughter, travels to Fortune City, which is near Las Vegas, to take part in “Terror is Reality”, or T.I.R. – a pay-per-view gore fest with X-Games-like sporting events where killing zombies is a main objective. He does this in order to earn money to buy Zombrex for Katey.  One of the mechanics of the game is that you will need to administer a dose of Zombrex to Katey every day between 7 and 8am,  but you’ll need to FIND it first.  Some Zombrex can be found lying around Fortune City, from certain survivors or Psychopaths, or if you have the cash you can purchase Zombrex at a pawn shop.

The game opens with a bang – there has been a zombie outbreak and all hell has broken loose.  You must find your daughter and get to a safe place.  You can rescue people along the way, but it is complete and utter mayhem so you may want to wait until you have played through the game once before you take the time to rescue a bunch of survivors.  Once you get to the a safe house, you will be able to scout around Fortune City looking for survivors and killing psychopaths while waiting for the military to arrive and rescue you.  Unfortunately, Chuck has been singled out as the one who started the outbreak and you will have 72 hours to uncover the facts in order to clear his name before the military arrives.

There are a lot of changes introduced in Dead Rising 2.  Gone is the picture taking from the first Dead Rising.  You still earn Prestige Points (PP) in order to level up and gain new skills and moves, but you do so by rescuing survivors, killing psychopaths, and of course, killing lots and lots of zombies!  As you level up, you can combine weapons to make more powerful ones, and using these combo weapons will earn Chuck PP with every kill so you will need to have one on hand. What’s nice is that almost everything can be combined to make a new weapon. You can only combine weapons in special maintenance rooms which are spread out all over Fortune City. You can also earn Combo Cards when you level up or when you kill a Psychopath, which grants you more PP when you use the weapon.  You can also earn additional PP by using items like treadmills so try everything out, you may be surprised with 1000 bonus PP.

The AI has also been greatly improved in DR2.  You can give other survivors weapons so they can fend for themselves, however zombies will focus on attacking Chuck if he is nearby. You can carry or offer your shoulder for survivors who are injured or are too slow.  You can’t use food or weapons while doing so but you can maneuver around the zombies with some ease.  One of the issues I have is when traveling into different areas where the game’s loading screen comes up, I had to really pay attention to a special icon that shows up on the AI character’s view screen.  If it didn’t appear, they wouldn’t follow me and would have to sit through the loading screen again.

The firearm aiming controls have also been greatly improved so you can now fire your weapon AND move at the same time.  You can also engage in hand-to-hand combat and as Chuck levels up he will gain other melee skills like front kicks and dodge rolls.

Another welcome change is a currency system has been added. Money can now be earned to purchase items and gamble (after all, this is Fortune City).

You can save your game in any restroom, which are plentiful in Fortune City.  There is no autosave or checkpoint function in the game so if you die, you will restart from your last saved game.  The worst is dying during a boss battle (psychopath) and having to reload your game.  It would have been much better if the game allowed you to restart just before the battle.

The biggest change to the game is the online multiplayer and co-op modes. You can join another player online to play through  the story or just kill zombies.  You can still level up and earn Combo Cards, which are shared between both players.  Money, however, will only go to the player who finds and collects it first.  While both players can save their games, only the host will be able to keep the story progress.  The invited player’s story will not advance, but their levels, combo cards, and cash will remain.  Sadly, zombie kill counts are not saved.  When your health is low, you will not die immediately. You have a moment to call out to your partner, who can  restore your health with a food item.  If one player dies, it’s game over for both of you.

The four player multiplayer mode is a “Terror is Reality” challenge.  You play through four different games to determine the winner.  Make sure you have at least 20-30 minutes to play, as it does not give you an option to drop out between games.  Any cash earned will be added to your in-game cash, so you may want to play T.I.R. if you need more money.

Even though there have been these changes and improvements, I feel there is room for more.  The combat system is still a bit weak and Chuck has no defensive moves in the beginning.  As you level up, you gain skills that allow you to do things like knock down enemies, dodge roll, and other cool moves like the front kick.  These skills are assigned at random so you don’t get to choose what order you get them in.  I got the Dodge Roll on one play through, then I died before saving. After I reloaded the game and leveled up again, I got a different move.

Some of your early encounters with psychopaths may prove to be very frustrating if you haven’t unlocked or mastered some of these moves.  One odd thing is that you can leave an area in the middle of a boss battle and come back without their health regenerating.  This comes in pretty handy if you are caught off guard by a Psychopath and don’t have enough weapons or food, but it lowers the challenge a bit.

Another downside is that lack of a storage system.  You have a limited amount of space for items in your inventory, so you must choose your items wisely, especially at the beginning of the game.  As you level up, your inventory capacity will increase, however it is frustrating to find an item  far from a safe house and find it disappears if you drop the item and leave. Even something as simple as the Resident Evil storage system would have been nice.

Friendly fire is another issue in the game.  I can’t tell you how many survivors I managed to kill or turn against me while trying to kill the hordes of zombies trying to eat them!  If you hit them too many times, they will start attacking you.

The graphics are excellent and you really get a sense of how large the area is when playing the game.  Along the way, you may find some shortcuts, but be prepared to walk around a lot.  It will require several additional play throughs to cover everything, making the replay value of the game quite high. The voice acting is also quite good which makes the overall presentation very cool.

Overall, Dead Rising 2 makes many improvements over its predecessor and, while it has some frustrating moments, is a fun game to play.  With high replay value, a decent story-line, and lots of zombie slaying, the game is a definitely worth playing.

Dead Rising 2 is available now for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC and is rated M for Mature.

A review copy of the game was provided and did not affect the outcome of this review. This review is based on the Xbox 360 version.

You play as a strange sort of being – a mix between a teddy bear and a strange little alien creature.  The areas are all underground in a cave-like environment but you float around almost as if you are swimming.  You can jump or float up or down and you can give yourself a boost in any direction.  If your feet touch the ground, you simply walk.

Some of the flora that you awaken will grow fruit that will help you progress through the level like the heavy fruit plant, the lantern fruit, the exploding fruit, the floating fruit, and others to be discovered in the game.  Each fruit does exactly what their name suggests.  When you pick up fruit and musicians, a bubble will appear and anything within that bubble will become attached with an organic leash.  You can let go of the items at any time.  The control scheme is simple and works nicely with the game.  There are moments where you may fight them while trying to get into some areas, but in general, they work great.

The game is quite relaxing and really has no stress level to it.  There aren’t any traditional enemies, just obstacles along the way like creatures that will not allow you to pass by them and these bright globby things that will take your pollen if you run into them.  The visuals are quite beautiful with the flora lighting up and creating a beautiful, glow-in-the-dark underground garden.  The music is subtle but fitting, a nice relaxing soundtrack to a nice and relaxing game.

The game features 14 levels, each one increasing in difficulty from the next, but never so hard that you get frustrated or cannot finish.  The game keeps track of your progress per level, so you can always go back to get all the items or pollenate 100% of the flora.  As you play through the levels, you also unlock costume items for your character which consist of different color skins, colored ears or horns, and different types of hats.  There are also Leaderboard stats so you can see how you compare with your friends and the rest of the world.

A friend can jump into your game at any time by pressing the start button on another controller.  The game features local co-op only, no online multiplayer support.  While the game does work as a co-op game, it does not have the zen-like feeling it does when you play alone.  Anytime the second player disappears off the screen, it will warp back to the first player.  This can be a little annoying for the second player.  Also, both players can grab the same items which can also be a little frustrating but can solve the issue of one player being off screen.

Overall, the game is a lot of fun and is one of those nice, relaxing games that you can sit and play for hours or play a level or two when you just want something to wind down with.  A little more challenging than a game like the PSN exclusive, Flower, and not quite as difficult as Pixel Junk Eden but still a game worth playing.

The Undergarden is rated E for Everyone and is available now on Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network for 800 MS Points/$9.99.  It is also available for PC.

A review code was provided but did not affect the outcome of this review. This review is based on the Xbox 360 version.