Brain Hood

You will feel right at home with this year’s offering , If you’re familiar with Tiger Woods games. In terms of its interface, Tiger Woods has become quite an intimidating beast to newcomers over the years and there are a number of aids and control schemes that must be learned. Thankfully, the tutorial is excellent and those who spend a little time getting to know the game will be enjoying themselves on the virtual fairways in no time. PS3 owners have even more to get excited about with PS Move support being added in the coming months. At the beginning you create a golfer in the impressively detailed set-up menus; added camera support allows you to put your own face on your creation. Novices are then encouraged to play through the handy tutorial, which will familiarise them with the various aspects of the game and introduce them to this year’s new features.

Last year’s Tiger Woods 10 became the apex of everything that the series had achieved to date and it seemed an impossible task to improve on what felt like the perfect formula. It’s therefore a credit to its creators that, once again, Tiger Woods is the go-to-game for golf fans, offering enough new tweaks and features to keep them enthralled without changing the game’s much loved core aspects. After a rough year in the spotlight, Tiger Woods is back to grace the cover of his new PGA Tour release, and for the 15th game in the series, he’s joined on the cover Rory Mcilroy in celebration of the Ryder Cup. Though competition is notoriously light for this genre of game, this is easily the best golfing sim on the market, mixing in the various aspects of the sport precisely and layering on features that lend the gaming experience a sense of realism.

So, what are the new features that make Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 worth a look? Well, outside of the usual tweaks and upgrades, Tiger Woods 11 has two genuinely game-changing additions that loft this year’s release to dizzying new heights. The first is the focus meter displayed on your HUD. This meter is drained every time you use additional boost, spin or accuracy aids on your shots until it is empty. The only way to build up this meter (albeit slowly) is by playing shots without the use of such aids. While this sounds simple enough, in reality it has a major effect on how the game is played. Whereas in previous versions use of boost and spin on each shot became the norm, this time round you must pick and choose your moments carefully for fear of having nothing in reserve when you really need it. The focus meter helps in delivering a much purer golfing experience by concentrating the gameplay on your aim and swing, while limiting the additional aids until they can be used strategically to gain an advantage.

The second main addition is the True Aim mode. Here Tiger Woods attempts a true simulation of golf by stripping away most of your tools that aid your progress. This means that you’ll be relying solely on your swing and knowledge of the course to land on the green. No longer will you be able to aim at the direct spot you wish to hit, instead seeing the course from the golfers perspective with only an arrow on the horizon giving any indication of where you’re aiming for. Thankfully a helpful satellite image of the course stands as a reminder to its layout, although unlike in normal play this can’t be used to aim your shot. From here you’ll play each hole and even watch the ball fly from where you stand, adding a new sense of realism not seen in the series to date. While most may find this mode too difficult, it’s a welcome addition to the game that is sure to delight its hard-core fans by going further down the route of simulation than ever before.

The career mode doesn’t deviate too much from its structure in earlier releases; players take their golfer around the world, earning and spending experience points on levelling up various stats. While this mode is still impressive, I did find the first few months (in game) quite a struggle. Players face a bit of a grind in the early stages before they’re able to boost their statistics to a decent competitive level. When not concentrating on levelling up your character, there is also the chance to represent either Europe or the US in the Ryder Cup tournament. Here the regular golfing format is mixed up so that each hole is played in teams. On top of this there are a plethora of other game modes to keep players occupied including the regular stroke play, match play and four ball to name a few. There are also a selection of eight mini-games that are fantastic fun (either in solo or co-op) and which help to players hone their skills.

As always, Tiger Woods is absolutely brimming with enough content to get any golf fan excited. With over 25 professional golfers and 17 real-world courses on offer, there is more than enough variety to keep the various modes fresh. Alongside the old favourites are 5 new courses to get your teeth into including Celtic Manor Resort, The Greenbrier, Liberty National, TPC Scottsdale, and Whistling Straits. There are also endless customisation options including everything from the swankiest set of leather gloves to the snazziest pair of Plus-Fours money can buy.

Head online and you’ll still find the vast majority of play modes available (though sadly not the mini-games) to play with friends and strangers alike. Like last year there are a number of weekly tournaments to take part in via the uploading of your scores onto online leader boards. Perhaps of more interest is the inclusion of online team play where up to 24 players can compete in pairs to represent Europe and the US in a Ryder Cup-style competition. Overall the online features of Tiger Woods 11 are excellent; additions such as on screen information showing how your opponents are doing are cleverly delivered via a news ticker and even your opposition’s shots are traced with lines showing their paths.

The graphics in Tiger Woods have once again been tweaked with some detailed new grass textures and golfer’s clothes now flapping in the wind. Despite these new additions onbe can’t help but feel that the Tiger Woods engine? is starting to show its age. Though by no means a bad looking game, one can’t help but feel slightly disappointed by some under whelming character models, stiff crowds and occasionally bland courses. The same can’t be said for the sound which is, and always has been, sublime. The whip and crack that comes with striking the ball perfectly and hearing it soar is as satisfying as ever and the gentle course effects such as tweeting birds and murmuring crowds set the tone perfectly. Though the commentary does occasionally become repetitive, it’s still solid and offers up some very comical one-liners, which raise the occasional smile.

. That having been said, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 is the best Tiger Woods game to date, and if you’re a fan of the series and the sport then it’s an essential purchase. While Tiger Woods’ real world form may have taken a slight dip as of late, the same can’t be said of the latest video game with his name stamped on the box. If you’re a casual fan of either the franchise or the sport (or both), then Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 may not hold that much appeal – especially if you own an earlier iteration. While the new features are certainly interesting, the series hasn’t moved on significantly enough to make it a must-have title

Playing video games for hours on end may perhaps prepare your child to become a skilled surgeon one day. That means  It may not be that bad after all.

Motor processes are linked with acquiring skills or skilled movements as a result of practice.

Playing video games gives one an advantage not only in the games themselves but also in performing other tasks requiring visuomotor skills – connections between visual and motor processes in the brain.

Researchers at the Centre for Vision Research at York University in Canada compared a group of young men in their 20s, who had played video games at least four hours a week for the previous three years, to a group of young men without that experience, reports the journal Elsevier’s Cortex.

The subjects were placed in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine and asked to complete a series of increasingly difficult visuomotor tasks, such as using a joystick or looking one way while reaching another way, said a York University release.

‘By using high resolution brain imaging (fMRI), we were able to actually measure which brain areas were activated at a given time during the experiment,’ said Lauren Sergio, associate professor in the Faculty of Health at York University.

‘We tested how the skills learned from video game experience can transfer over to new tasks, rather than just looking at brain activity while the subject plays a video game.’

The study found that during the tasks, the less experienced gamers were relying most on the parietal cortex (brain area involved in hand-eye coordination), whereas the experienced gamers showed increased activity in the prefrontal cortex at the front of the brain.

Prefrontal cortex is linked with personality expression, decision making and moderating correct social behaviour.

The finding that using visuomotor skills can reorganise how the brain works offers hope for future research into the problems experienced by Alzheimer’s patients, who struggle to complete the simplest visuomotor tasks.

Lead author Joshua Granek added that in future, it would be interesting to study if the brain pattern changes are affected by the the actual total number or hours player has played and type of video games a he has used.

It’s typical to assume that most of the people in the world who play video games are male.

However, the truth is that roughly 40 percent of video game players in the world are female. In a fast-paced changing technological environment, the market for female-oriented video games is growing.

According to the Entertainment Software Association, “women over the age of 18 represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (33 percent) than boys 17 or younger (20 percent).” That may seem startling.

Nancy Drew’s mystery video games that Her Interactive produces are one example of these games. Megan Gaiser, CEO of Her Interactive, said while she knew nothing about video games when she first joined the company, she learned that it was about storytelling and making it into a game. In the Nancy Drew videogame series, players can interrogate suspects, navigate environments and have interactions with characters, all of which lead to ultimately solving the mystery.

Her Interactive is a pioneer company in the female video game industry, and Gaiser said the rapid growth of a female audience for video games came about because of the changing technology to more accessible game arenas like the Wii and Facebook. Therefore, the industry has attracted a larger audience.

While the days of shelf after shelf of first-person shooter games, role-playing games and games where the entire purpose is to steal a car, are not by any means gone, a new era has dawned; it is one where games for popular female icons are relevant.

In addition, Gaiser said gaming has “infiltrated” society; businesses now look to incorporate game products in their products and interactivity is popular in school and government work.

“Now, everyone’s playing games!” Gaiser said. “And everyone’s also going after the female market.”

Despite this widespread popularity, Gaiser said video games are still in their early stages; companies are still segmenting the market to address different preferences. Gaiser said it was dangerous to “pigeonhole” or stereotype what kinds of games girls like to play.

“It’s like saying all boys like island games,” Gaiser said. “Some do, but I think that’s dangerous. It’s a limited way of thinking.”

This past June, Her Interactive released “Nancy Drew 22: Trail of the Twister” and the remastered version of the first game in the popular Nancy Drew video game series, “Secrets Can Kill.”

The series’ games take characters to new locations around the world, seeing different cultures and mixing fact and fiction. The games have been very successful among girls ages 10 to 15.

Gaiser said she believes Her Interactive has found success because of the teamwork and quality that goes into making each game.

“Everyone feels comfortable spelling out their ideas,” Gaiser said. “We really did a good job of creating both a great game and also one that preserves the integrity of the Nancy Drew brand. The combination of those two made it successful.”

Likewise, Her Interactive’s success owes itself in part to a dedicated fan base.

“When you first say Nancy Drew to most women, they’ll bow down out of respect for her,” Gaiser said. “The moms start buying the games for their daughters; they got hooked, and now give them to their girls. Now we have girls from 8 to 88.”

This is Her Interactive’s 23rd game, and Gaiser said the Nancy Drew video game series is the longest running and most popular mystery series to date.

Nancy Drew is a name familiar in most households, because as Gaiser said, “she always wins” at the end of the story. Whether she’s solving mysteries or being a regular teenage girl, Gaiser said she has inspired women to pursue their dreams and be the best they can be.

Gaiser said she herself was drawn to the video game industry, in particular in the idea of creating products for a female audience, because she was struck by the obvious lack in the area, as well as the prejudice in the field.

Gaiser had a career in the film business and was editing a documentary about political correctness on university campuses when producers filmed reenactments that made the women appear like delinquents, and not as professional as the male characters in the reenactment.

“They had the women spray paint their hair purple,” Gaiser said. “I had to stick to wide shots as an editor to give an objective point of view.”

Gaiser hoped that through a nonlinear and multimedia venue, she could “broaden people’s perspectives as to what women are, as opposed to looking through a stereotypical lens,” Gaiser said.

Gaiser joined Her Interactive and began work on the Nancy Drew video game series, but after failure to sell the videogame to distributors, Gaiser said they went to the “back door” and sold the videogame on Amazon. The game sold well and Her Interactive received the attention of mainstream media like the New York Times.

Another unique marketing decision was made to avoid pink packaging.

“We believe in not just the stereotype but in creating as many preferences as there are women,” Gaiser said. “So we decided to make it un-pink. It’s not a girly-girly game, but they still came.”

Barbie is another example of a female icon in the video game market; after years as a classic “girl’s toy,” Barbie has emerged from the pink box and gone digital. While she is still decidedly pink, her video games are popular among young girls.

Perhaps more important than the mere existence of a market for female video game players though, is the fact that girls are no longer boxed into playing only Barbie-type video games. Increasingly, girls are engaging in games that were formerly assumed to be only for boys, like car racing, music and even shooter games.

Gaiser said Her Interactive intends to continue working with young women, in the hopes that these games will instill a sense of empowerment in its audience.

Nine states and Puerto Rico joined to file a brief with the Supreme Court late Friday night urging the justices not to uphold a California law that bans the sale or rental of violent video games to minors.

Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch, supported by lawyers from Irell & Manella in Los Angeles, submitted the brief (pdf) in the case Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants Association & Entertainment Software Association on behalf of his state and Arkansas, Georgia, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Utah and Washington. In addition to raising the “specter of censorship,” the states agreed that California’s law if replicated would waste scarce law enforcement resources and provide support for a Twinkie-style defense argument that “the video game made me do it” for accused criminals.

“The road to unconstitutional and unwise over-regulation is paved with good intentions,” the brief states. “Though it fixes nothing, it raises the specter of censorship for any media that finds itself at the center of a politically charged societal debate. This Court has consistently recognized that the Constitution blocks entry to this slippery slope.”

The brief adds, “The law enforcement cost outstrips the questionable benefit of having the government itself dictate and enforce another minimum age requirement in retail stores.” Furthermore, Lynch wrote, “California’s statute legitimizes the off-loading of personal responsibility on to a video game.

We wrote about the intense lobbying of states by the video game industry in this story. Both Lynch and Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff have received campaign donations from the industry, which generates $10 billion in annual sales. One indicator of the industry’s clout is that only 11 states joined in a brief supporting California’s law — an unusually low number given the political appeal of a law claiming to protect minors.

Also filing a brief in support of the video game industry on Friday was the Motion Picture Association of America and other movie industry entities. They assert that upholding the California law and creating a new exception to First Amendment protection would have a “dramatic chilling effect” on filmmakers too. Williams & Connolly D.C. partner Kannon Shanmugam wrote the MPAA brief (pdf).

“If the Court’s reasoning is not confined to the particular medium of video games, state and local governments could attempt to impose similar restrictions on depictions of violence in other media, including motion pictures,” the brief states. “Such restrictions would have an obvious chilling effect, particularly given the inherent amorphousness of restrictions of that type and the potential for a patchwork of nationwide regulation.”

A brief for the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression also makes the point that “to be insulated from depictions and descriptions of violence, one would have to be insulated from the great works of religion, history, art, literature, and culture.” The author of the brief is Michael Bamberger, partner in the New York office of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal. He cites numerous violent passages from the Bible and adds that Shakespeare’s Macbeth “drips with blood.” The case is set for argument at the high court on Nov. 2.

VIDEO gamers are used to immersing themselves in virtual worlds, so filmmakers turning video games into movies are aiming to use this to keep them as involved, by adding 3D.

Sony Pictures’ Resident Evil: Afterlife is the first video game movie filmed in stereoscopic 3D.

Writer/director/producer Paul WS Anderson even used the same 3D camera rigs that director James Cameron used on Avatar to bring the fourth installment of the popular survival horror game franchise to the big screen.

“I wrote things into this script that I knew would work well in 3D like lots of sets with depth-like tunnels, elevator shafts, and big wide landscapes,” said Anderson, who has had a creative hand in all four films.

“It’s the reason (actress) Milla (Jovovich) has an airplane in this movie – so I could shoot over these fantastic glaciers in Alaska with a tiny plane over a huge white landscape,” he added.

Anderson said particle matter in the air worked well in 3D, so he also wrote rain and smoke into the script, as well as underwater sequences to accentuate the 3D experience.

Before Resident Evil: Afterlife began filming, Japanese game publisher Capcom had already released Resident Evil 5 in stereoscopic 3D for PC gamers with NVIDIA 3D Vision technology.

Sony Computer Entertainment America and Sony Electronics are banking on the new PlayStation 3 3D upgrade, which is expected to also drive sales of the higher-priced 3D movie tickets.

“Almost all the games being adapted to film lend themselves to these big, immersive, visual effects-driven, exciting movies,” said Ari Arad, who is producing upcoming game adaptations like Lost Planet, EverQuest, Twisted Metal, Infamous and Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.

“While dramas and comedies will eventually have 3D, if you’re going to invest the resources and if you’re going to create 3D product, that 3D product is action movies, horror movies, adventure movies, sci-fi, and fantasy – and most of these video game adaptations fall right into those genres.”

Screenwriter Kyle Ward, who wrote big screen adaptations for Eidos’ Kane & Lynch and Hitman 2 games, believes video games naturally lend themselves to becoming 3D movies.

“When you play a first-person shooter, you’re basically throwing yourself into the world of the game and interacting with it,” Ward said.

“The same is true for 3D films … if done right, they’ll bring you into their world.”

Ward doesn’t believe every game adaptation should be filmed in 3D.

He believes Kane & Lynch, which will star Bruce Willis and Jamie Foxx, will work fine in 2D, but he wouldn’t be surprised if bullets fly out of the screen for Hitman 2.

Both the upcoming Walt Disney Pictures TRON Legacy film and the PlayStation 3 version of Disney Interactive Studios’ TRON Evolution will offer 3D experiences.

The game will serve as a bridge between the two films, setting up the story for the sequel.

Hollywood writer/director Matty Rich is developing a new 3D feature film and corresponding 3D game based on Curandismo, which is an action adventure story of an unlikely African American boy born with special healing powers. “I think 3D across the board in both homes and in theatres is going to be very big,” Anderson said.

Nintendo has Mario, Sony has Metal Gear and Microsoft has Halo. When the original Xbox was released almost 10 years ago, it was considered such an underdog in the console war that it may not be around today if not for the “Halo” franchise.

‘Halo Reach’

3 1/2 stars = Very good

Ratings explained

Developer Bungie claims that “Halo: Reach” marks the end of the series that has left its mark on gaming history.

“Halo: Reach” is a prequel that leads directly into the original game. It takes place before Master Chief awakes from his cryo-sleep, which means human forces are without their eventual cyborg savior. Instead, we are introduced to Noble Team: four capable Spartans who carry out extreme missions.

The prequel is set on the planet Reach, colonized by humans but under attack by the alien Covenant forces. The “fall of Reach” was spoken of in the first “Halo,” but until now these events were never really clear.

If the folks at Bungie wanted to end the series with a gripping epic, moving story and fantastic gameplay, they hit the mark. The graphics are the best we’ve seen, setting the bar slightly above “Halo 3: ODST.”

The gameplay is slightly different if you’re used to “Halo 3.” A player can pick a class of soldier to start each new life, a la Call of Duty. My favorite class produces a holographic image of the player that draws fire from his enemies. Classes also determine your starting weapon.

Mutiplayer gameplay offers the same great experience we’re used to with the franchise, although with some tweaks. Firefight is a mode similar to Horde mode from the “Gears of War” series. Your team of four faces waves of enemy attacks that get progressively harder the longer your team survives. It can certainly burn the late hours if you’re playing with a team of friends.

That said, uneven teams remains the major issue in multiplayer “Halo.” I would like to see a drop-in option so you aren’t penalized if someone quits.

The online ranking system are among the changes from other “Halo” games. Each player now has a skill ranking that depends on performance in the previous match; so far, I’ve seen rankings from 0 to 3,000.

The “Halo: Reach” campaign is engaging, but nobody buys a “Halo” game just for the campaign. The multiplayer, along with Firefight, will keep you putting in the hours for a long time, or at least until the next “Call of Duty.”

Max Parker blogs as The Game Guy for the Post-Gazette. Find his blog with video games news and reviews at communityvoices

Nintendo has Mario, Sony has Metal Gear and Microsoft has Halo. When the original Xbox was released almost 10 years ago, it was considered such an underdog in the console war that it may not be around today if not for the “Halo” franchise.

Developer Bungie claims that “Halo: Reach” marks the end of the series that has left its mark on gaming history.

“Halo: Reach” is a prequel that leads directly into the original game. It takes place before Master Chief awakes from his cryo-sleep, which means human forces are without their eventual cyborg savior. Instead, we are introduced to Noble Team: four capable Spartans who carry out extreme missions.

The prequel is set on the planet Reach, colonized by humans but under attack by the alien Covenant forces. The “fall of Reach” was spoken of in the first “Halo,” but until now these events were never really clear.

If the folks at Bungie wanted to end the series with a gripping epic, moving story and fantastic gameplay, they hit the mark. The graphics are the best we’ve seen, setting the bar slightly above “Halo 3: ODST.”

The gameplay is slightly different if you’re used to “Halo 3.” A player can pick a class of soldier to start each new life, a la Call of Duty. My favorite class produces a holographic image of the player that draws fire from his enemies. Classes also determine your starting weapon.

Mutiplayer gameplay offers the same great experience we’re used to with the franchise, although with some tweaks. Firefight is a mode similar to Horde mode from the “Gears of War” series. Your team of four faces waves of enemy attacks that get progressively harder the longer your team survives. It can certainly burn the late hours if you’re playing with a team of friends.

That said, uneven teams remain the major issue in multiplayer “Halo.” I would like to see a drop-in option so you aren’t penalized if someone quits.

The online ranking system is among the changes from other “Halo” games. Each player now has a skill ranking that depends on performance in the previous match; so far, I’ve seen rankings from 0 to 3,000.

The “Halo: Reach” campaign is engaging, but nobody buys a “Halo” game just for the campaign. The multiplayer, along with Firefight, will keep you putting in the hours for a long time or at least until the next “Call of Duty.”

Chart Track’s released the first UK numbers for Halo Reach, which it’s said sold an estimated 300,000 copies in its first 24 hours on sale.

According to figures just released by UKIE/GfK-Chart Track, Reach is on course to set new records within the video games and interactive entertainment industry.

The impressive first day UK sales already position the 360 exclusive at number ten within the all-time best ever weekly sales for an individual title in the UK – and there are still plenty of days to go.

Earlier this morning Microsoft confirmed the game made $200m worldwide on its first day on sale, calling it the biggest entertainment launch of the year.

The Halo franchise as a whole has shifted more than 3.67 million copies in the UK up to the end of July 2010, making a total of £109,068,532 in the region.

UKIE Director General, Michael Rawlinson said of the numbers: “This is excellent news for the video games and interactive entertainment industry, demonstrating how games sales continue to increase despite difficult economic circumstances.

“With one in every three people classifying themselves as gamers, and with over half of UK households containing at least one video games console, the UK video games market is in great shape for the future.”

A new poll suggests 72% of parents support a ban on the sale of violent video games to minors, but the the video game industry says other polls show different.

The war of stats comes a few months before a U.S. Supreme Court hearing on the constitutionality of a 2005 California law banning the sale of violent games to minors without parental consent.

Common Sense Media released the Zogby International poll of 2,100 adults on Monday. The advocacy group aims to teach children to be critical media consumers, and filed a brief in court supporting the law.

The poll says 65% of parents are concerned about the impact of ultraviolent games on their kids, while 75% of parents would give the video game industry a negative rating when it comes to how they protect kids from violent video games. Zogby says the poll is accurate to within 2.2 percentage points.

“The results of this poll clearly show that not only do the effects of ultraviolent or sexually violent games weigh heavily on the minds of parents, but also that parents feel that the video game industry isn’t doing nearly enough to protect kids from accessing the most ultraviolent games,” said James Steyer, CEO and founder of Common Sense Media.

However, the Entertainment Software Association, which has filed a brief in court against the law, maintains it’s an attack on artistic freedom and first amendment rights.

“The California statute is unnecessary, unwarranted, and unconstitutional. Our industry is already partnering with parents and fulfilling its responsibility by supporting the leading work of the Entertainment Software Rating Board, the most robust entertainment rating system available,” said Michael D. Gallagher, president and CEO of the ESA.

“It would threaten freedom of expression not just for video games, but for all art forms. It would also tie up our courts in endless debates about what constitutes acceptable creative expression in our media. It protects no one and assaults the constitutional rights of artists and storytellers everywhere.”

When faced with Common Sense Media poll, the ESA cited another batch of stats.

According to a KRC Research poll of 1,003 adults between late February and early March, 78% of respondents believe video games should be afforded First Amendment protection.

The court will begin hearing arguments on Nov. 2.

Possibly we’re missed a few, but by our count there have been at least 14 separate video games based on Top Gun over the years. None of them have been very good and none of them have featured a homoerotic beach volleyball game. And that’s not a tradition this new download seems willing to break.

As film studios such as Warner Bros. and Disney expand their own increasingly competent games divisions Paramount Pictures has yet to make any real impact in the business. This is its most high profile release so far, but illustrates just about everything that can go wrong when exploiting (as we’re sure the company executives put it) a retro film property.

The one thing all the Top Gun games have in common is the complete absence of Tom Cruise. This does do everything it can to recall the militaristic cheese of the 1986 blockbuster though, from the blaring theme tune to the increasingly cringeworthy attempts to shoehorn in every famous line from the movie even though the plot and context of the game is very different.

Not to mention all the dialogue occurs only when you’re in the cockpit and Maverick, i.e. you, never says a word. In reality though Mav is getting off easy because the voice-acting for everyone else is awful.

The fact that that game is not a compelling piece of interactive fiction is not a surprise, or even really a disappointment, but the actual action is. Combat flight simulators are enjoying a bit of a mini-renaissance at the moment and so the awkward compromise this game takes, between realism and arcade action, seems more unsatisfying than it might otherwise have.

As in real-life you spend most of the time waiting for little green boxes to go beep, as you shoot at tiny dots half a mile away. There’s also an attempt to have something like realistic flight control but controlling your plane feels frustratingly loose and imprecise, which may well be realistic but certainly isn’t fun.

And yet on top of this apparently slavish dedication to realism the game gives you magically replenishing missiles and armour, as well as a limited use camera lock-on that lets you take down particularly persistent MiGs. The replenishing armour is a particularly absurd idea, not least because it tempts you into running away from battle long enough for it to recover and then turning round to head back in as if your shields had just recharged.

The game isn’t a complete write-off though and the idea of your missile system being jammed and having to switch to cannons is handled quite well (did that happen in the film? It’s been ages since we’ve seen it).

There’s also a decent collection of multiplayer modes, including deathmatch, capture the flag and a variant of last man standing (called Top Gun). The best one though is called Bomber Run, where you and your team have to take out anti-aircraft guns to clear a path for your bomber.

These co-operative options neatly sidestep the problem that most virtual dogfighting just ends up with players circling each other in ever tighter formations, but it doesn’t solve the greater issue of the combat and controls just not being much fun (and the fact that hardly anyone is playing online). Nor does it help that the graphics seem to be based on the earlier iOS version.

If you want a big dumb flight sim themed game then After Burner: Climax is already on the PlayStation Network. If you desire something more involved then despite its issues H.A.W.X. 2 is far superior and the new Ace Combat games are likely to be even more so. Top Gun is okay in small doses, but after that you’ll feel the need… the need for a better game.

In Short: There have been worst movie tie-ins, but this fails to channel either the spirit of the film or the excitement of a real combat flight simulator.

Pros: Gameplay is more realistic than you’d think, at least in terms of basic controls. A decent range of multiplayer modes, even if no one’s playing them.

Cons: Boring combat and weak graphics. A bizarre mutilation of the original film script, made worse by terrible voice acting and poor storytelling.

Another military controversy is brewing, not on the battlefield, but on the television screen.
A brand new video game has been banned from military base shelves.
The new version of Medal of Honor allows you to play as Taliban fighters, and kill American soldiers.
That’s prompted the Army, Navy, and Air Force to take the game off their website and store shelves on base.

In a statement, Army and Air Force Commander Major General Bruce Casella said while he knows it’s an inconvienence to authorized shoppers, “We are optimistic that they will understand the sensitivity to the life and death scenarios this product presents as entertainment.”

That’s the Army’s version, but what about the soldiers themselves, are they offended?

“I was actually excited to play the game,” said Robert Lucente.

Robert Lucente is a soldier and an avid gamer. He spent time in Iraq, and now that’s he’s home, spends time in front of the TV. Taking on whatever foes he can find in the virtual military world. A world that he says includes shooting as the enemy.

“It’s like when you were a kid playing cowboys and indians,” said Lucente. “Sometimes you just want to be the bad guy. Experience that point of view. Its not about being a Taliban and killing American soldiers. Just to possibly experience what our soldiers ”

“He’s like, who cares,” explained Elizabeth Smith. “The company is making money”

That was Elizabeth Smith’s husband reaction. He’s deployed right now and plays military video games during his downtime.

“People are too sensitive,” said Smith. “It’s been 10 years and a lot of good things have happened over there. It’s a game. They are not out there in their gear, they are playing somebody. It’s all in the controls, it’s not something that will haunt them at night.”

“Soldiers are the ones who are buying and playing this game. Half the time I am online playing with soldiers,” said Lucente. “Someone with my point of view to where I’ve been overseas, I can differentiate between reality of a video game and reality of being over there and actually doing it.”

and if you don’t like the “reality of the situation? Lucente has some advice.

“It’s a video game. If you don’t like the game or what it entails, don’t play it don’t buy it.”

So far the Navy and Army say they haven’t heard any complaints about the ban.

Any reserve or preorders placed through shopmyexchange.com will be cancelled.

Preorders originally placed through GameStops on Army and Air Force installations will be transferred to the nearest GameStop off the Base or Post.