Brain Hood

Four years ago, Nintendo took the game in the world upside down with its movement controlled by the Wii console. The 2010 title is the main competitor of Nintendo has finally followed suit: KINECTS with Microsoft, Sony PlayStation Move. At first glance, it seems a bad year for players who prefer to sit on the scourges like dervishes.

But the game is driven by software and hardware, and the best games of 2010 will instantly make an old-fashioned way – working with the driver comfortably your favorite chair. Kinect technology and Move is impressive, but (with one exception) the games that do not have the creative heights of the best.

1. “Red Dead Redemption” (Rockstar, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3): It’s more than “Grand Theft Auto” on a horse, and it’s all because of John Marston, the repentant former bandit at the heart of this Wild West drama. He’s the first Rockstar protagonist with a heart, and his journey toward redemption is the most rewarding trip I took all year.

2. “Mass Effect 2″ (Electronic Arts, for the Xbox 360): Engaging characters and an absorbing mystery help BioWare expand its sprawling intergalactic empire. It’s as ambitious and thought-provoking as the best science fiction.

3. “Rock Band 3″ (MTV Games, for the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii): New keyboard and “pro guitar” accessories bring fans of this exemplary franchise closer to the stage than ever.

4. “Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies” (Square Enix, for the Nintendo DS): This delightful role-playing game is a satisfying throwback to classic sword-and-sorcery.

5. “Enslaved: Odyssey to the West” (Namco Bandai, for the Xbox 360, PS3): This vision of a post-apocalyptic America, featuring two of the year’s more intriguing characters, deserves a wider audience than it has received.

PS3 online service is completely free. So, how to make money? It does not. But now, thanks to some new decisions by Sony, could actually begin to turn a profit.

Microsoft could easily have made the network profitable, because it will charge those who want to play online to pay a heavy $ 60 per year. PS3 gamers will receive the same property for free.

But Sony needs to pay for those servers somehow. That’s why it charges only for premium content, like game downloads, movie rentals, and add-on content. It also recently launched a “PlayStation Plus” subscription service, giving players a constant stream of deals and free content in exchange for a monthly or annual cost.

It took a while for these kinds of sales to cover the cost of running hundreds of online games for free, but it looks like it’s finally working.

Customer payments through the PlayStation Network reached $434.3 million in the 2009 fiscal year, but Sony Computer Entertainment president Kaz Hirai said in a Reuters interview that by FY2012, that will be $3.6 billion. And, “We’re aiming to enter the black during the 2011 fiscal year.”

This would mean that Sony can continue offering its online service free to the millions of PS3 owners. It will continue to be a competitive advantage for the system, which is poised to have its best year yet in 2011.

Xbox Live does not appear to reduce the cost of $ 60 per year, but if people are concerned about the prices finally start thinking about the next generation of consoles soon, you will easily realize that the PS3 is actually better decision long run.

Sidhe, the largest and most successful game development company has announced the Rugby Challenge for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. The game is scheduled in between July and October in 2010, which should be fine in Rugby World Cup next year.

Perhaps the best news for local rugby fans is that the game will include licenses for the All Blacks, ITM Investec Super Cup Rugby and among others. It will support online multi player, and has a franchise mode over several years, extensive customization options and “dynamic, real-time feedback” from famous commentators.

Thankfully, Sidhe has a pedigree of sorts when it comes to football games; the team also developed Rugby League 3 for the Nintendo Wii, which was generally well received. In fact, most of the criticism leveled at that game tended to focus on the limitations of the platform it released on. You can read Game Console’s review of Rugby League 3 here.

“Following the success of sports video games, we are very proud to be taking on New Zealand’s national sport,” said Mario Wynands, Managing Director of Sidhe, “It’s an exciting time for rugby in both New Zealand and overseas and it is fantastic to be part of that.”

CHICAGO – It is not uncommon for major awards season contenders in the world of film to come off more like very expensive paintings with all the right visual flourishes and technical elements but lacking the soul or the heart to make them truly effective. It happens every year. 2K Games’ “Mafia II” is the equivalent in the world of gaming. The developers have created a truly stunning experience in terms of graphics that nonetheless feels hollow where it counts.

“Mafia II” looks like a sandbox game, but it’s not really. Sure, there’s a gorgeously-rendered city clearly inspired by the world of “Grand Theft Auto” but it is a much more linear title than you might first believe. The game is divided into just over a dozen chapters and while most of them include at least one variation on driving from one part of town to another and you do have the freedom to visit body shops, weapons stores, and more, there are no side missions and very little freedom within he story structure. “Mafia II” is essentially a straightforward third-person shooter with some of the more annoying elements of the sandbox world grafted on top of it.

Despite disappointment at the lack of control over almost any element of the story (other than what you’re driving and wearing), the plot of “Mafia II” is actually pretty entertaining (and enhanced by excellent voice work, screenwriting, and sound design). The player takes on the role of Vito, who we meet in World War II, fighting for the Americans but in his home country of Italy. After the War, Vito returns to Empire City, one of the most remarkably-conceived gaming worlds in the history of the modern console. With elaborate architecture and an incredible amount of space, Empire City is a game designer’s dream come true — a fake urban landscape that often feels strikingly real. The most impressive accomplishment is in the depth of field. When you’re standing on a rooftop (or a window-washer platform as you must do in one chapter), don’t forget to merely look around at the skyline. The effect is breathtaking.

The game primarily takes place in two time periods, the one right after the war in which Vito gets drawn into petty tasks for the mob and then in the ’50s after your guy has done some time in jail and is now rising up the ranks. The first half features some mind-numbing missions like selling ration stamps to gas stations or loading crates on to a truck. It’s not hard to see players getting incredibly frustrated at the lack of action in the first two hours of “Mafia II.” Who knew life in the mob could be so dull?

After Vito earns his stripes, the action of “Mafia II” gets a bit more intense with some notable shoot-outs, but it’s here where the game falls a bit too deeply into cliche. And the title never loses its sense that unnecessary action was added to give the impression of user control when there’s really none there. For example, you can turn on the faucet in your bathroom. Why? Why not? You will walk up and down the stairs to Joe’s apartment so many un-entertaining times that you’ll have counted them by game’s end.

And it’s not just the small things but the big ones as well. Empire City is beautiful, but you can’t access 90% of its buildings and the few you can are merely repetitive, mission-based, or designed for customization. Body shops allow for car repair or customization. Weapons and clothing stores are pretty straightforward. There are people everywhere but you can’t talk to any of them or even start a random fire fight. The most interaction you have with Empire City is when you drive too fast during one of your “point A to point B” missions and the laughable EC police force chases you for about 2.5 seconds before giving up.

But what about the actual missions? Way too many of them are made up primarily of cut-scenes or drive-and-talk scenes in which it feels more like you’re watching the inevitable then helping craft a story. The incredible look of the game and variety of environments from snow-covered streets to prison laundry rooms to skyscrapers to a slaughterhouse help the title from getting too stale. “Mafia II” is too good-looking to ever be an extremely-frustrating experience, merely a regularly disappointing one. I loved looking at the game, but very rarely loved playing it. And the complete lack of multiplayer combined with the very direct-and-unchanging storyline makes for a title with very little replay value.

In an attempt to combat that last problem, the PS3 version of “Mafia II” includes an arcade-esque experience called “The Betrayal of Jimmy.” It takes place in the same world as Empire City and features the same controls and weapons, but it’s based around missions in which the player racks up points to compare against others on a leaderboard. For example, the first mission involves shooting up a couple of shops in Chinatown and getting back before your enemies or the cops kill you. Why not just add these as side missions in the real game? Why make them a separate experience that Xbox players can’t even access? The DLC is entertaining and helps with replay value (and makes the Sony version the obvious choice if you’re trying to decide between the two) but it reminds one of the variety that’s missing from the actual story.

LONDON: Super Mario Bros has been named the ‘Greatest Video Game Ever’.

In the game, Italian plumber Mario and brother Luigi must negotiate the Mushroom Kingdom to rescue Princess Toadstool from the clutches of evil Bowser.

The game topped a top-20 list compiled by a poll of 2,000 gamers.

More than 40 million copies have been sold since it was first released on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985.

Pac-Man, which was released in 1980, landed the second spot.

“Games which were invented years ago, like Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, Super Mario and Pac Man, all appear in the top ten,” the Sun quoted John Sewell, spokesman for OnePoll, as saying.

“This shows that classic games will live on forever in the hearts of computer game fans.

“The gaming industry is getting more and more competitive, releasing more and more innovative games by the minute – but this survey proves that sometimes the most simple formats work well to keep game players hooked,” Sewell added.

The Top 20 Video Games, as voted for in the OnePoll survey:

1. Super Mario Bros. 2. Pac-Man 3. Tetris 4. The Sims 5. Sonic the Hedgehog 6. Space Invaders 7. Grand Theft Auto – San Andreas 8. Donkey Kong 9. Mario Kart 64 10. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City 11. Tomb Raider 12. Wii Sports 13. Final Fantasy 14. Gran Turismo 15. Lemmings 16. Frogger 17. Pokemon, Red, Blue and Green 18. Street Fighter II 19. Wii Play 20. Guitar Hero

The year has been riddled with quite a few video game sequels. Most of them have been high caliber, exceeding expectations and overcoming what held them back in the original. After players have finished one game, he or she is able to jump right back into the experience and count down the days until the next installment.

However, there is Kane and Lynch 2. This game somewhat improves what held it back in the first installment but still has a long way to go in order to reach the ranks of games such as Mass Effect 2.

The game does have a few good aspects, including its very unique look. It has a shaky camera style seen in films like “Cloverfield” and “Paranormal Activity.” The camera work is excellent, selling you on the “made for YouTube” approach to the game. Along with the camera style, there is a definite sense of dark grit. Headshots are censored by a blur effect, making the act feel more gruesome than it is. Voice acting and sound work are also both excellent.

The story draws players in immediately when Lynch meets his former partner Kane. It is clear that neither of them is very comfortable with their new lives nor with each other. Their body language and tone reek of uncertainty.

It is when players actually start playing the game that Kane and Lynch 2 falls apart.

Overall the game is a very bland third person shooter. The games’ title would have been more accurate if it were called “Kane and Lynch 2: Mediocre Days.” For the most part, the mechanics are there, but, unlike most good third person shooters such as Gears of War and Uncharted 2, there is nothing special about Kane and Lynch 2. All players end up doing in the game is moving from open space to open space, shooting waves of enemies that were made from the “Copy/Paste” school of design. As a matter of fact, during the first 20 minutes, players will have seen all that Kane and Lynch 2 has to offer. All the things players do in this particular game have been done before and done ten times better.

There is nothing to note about the story either. There are a couple of disturbing moments, but it never reaches the crime/thriller cinematic experience that it longs to achieve. It falls apart by the half-way point and players will find little reason to care about what is going on.

There is co-op, both split screen and online. It is suggested that players avoid split-screen entirely, as this game has some of the worst split-screen in recent memory. The black borders on the top and bottom of the screen are so big that it wedges the two screens in the middle. It virtually makes it impossible to see anything. When either Kane or Lynch gets shot, flecks of Kool-Aid blood coat the screen, adding to the already annoying presentation in split-screen. Even rain will impede progress, splattering on your reticule. There is virtually no discernable difference playing as Kane or Lynch, and it is very apparent that the game wasn’t made for co-op of any kind. The challenge never gets ramped up. The only good thing about co-op is that at least players won’t have to suffer alone.

Multiplayer is also available in the form of Cops & Robbers (which is like team death match), Undercover Cop and Fragile Alliance. In each of the three forms, the robbers have five minutes to steal a large sum of money and make it to a getaway car while the police are on their tail. Undercover Cop has a disguised cop in the team of robbers, and he or she has to take out the team before they find out. Fragile Alliance has everyone working together, however, if one of the team members becomes too greedy, he or she can eliminate the other team members and make off with more loot. Undercover Cop and Fragile Alliance are very memorable and plays on your deepest paranoia, as anyone from the team can betray you. Unfortunately, while the ideas are there, it suffers from technical problems. The AI cops all spawn in the same places and the maps are very short. It also suffers from lag, even if you have a good connection. Characters will dart across the screen like they’ve been infused with superpowers, making everything very confusing. More than likely, players will treat multiplayer like a novelty at best.

The biggest crime Kane and Lynch 2 commits is charging the public $60 for a game that is bland, forgettable and short. The main campaign lasts only four hours and after players are finished, they have a feeling that they have been shanghaied. In no way should anyone pay that much for a game that’s behind on the times. If players are looking for a good co-op game that’s low on price and high on fun, then go download “Lara Croft and The Guardian of Light.” It’s beautiful, creative and ten times better than Kane and Lynch 2.

Shares of GameStop Corp. sank more than 8 percent Thursday after the Grapevine-based video game retailer reported increased second-quarter results that nevertheless missed analysts’ expectations.

The company also slightly lowered its outlook for the third quarter, but it kept its full-year guidance intact.

GameStop said it expects a recent surge in sales of video game consoles and new games to lead to a boost in used game sales, which is the company’s most profitable segment.

The company is also accelerating the rollout of two initiatives: a new customer loyalty program and in-store kiosks that allow customers to purchase downloadable game add-ons.

Those moves are adding costs.

“We kind of surprised people with the aggressiveness of the rollout of our strategic initiatives,” chief executive Paul Raines said.

The retailer reported total sales of $1.8 billion, up from $1.74 billion a year ago, turning a profit of $40.3 million, or 27 cents a share, compared with $38.7 million, or 23 cents a share, last year.

Analysts had been expecting revenue of $1.82 billion and earnings per share of 27 cents.

Shares closed down $1.70, or 8.2 percent, at $19.06 Thursday.

GameStop’s digital strategy is of particular interest to investors and analysts concerned that the disc-based industry will soon migrate online, as the music business already has.

GameStop recently bought online gaming service Kongregate and is building in-store kiosks where gamers can download additional content for their games.

Raines said more than 5 percent of purchases at GameStop include digital add-ons.

Still, many analysts are skeptical that GameStop can manage the transition from packaged-goods retailer to digital distributor.

The company is also developing software for its kiosks that will allow customers to swipe their payment cards and PowerUp Rewards loyalty cards at the kiosks, rather than at the store’s cash register.

That technology could allow GameStop to place stand-alone kiosks in shopping malls, convenience stores and other locations.

GameStop officials said, though, that they have no intention of mimicking Dallas-based Blockbuster Inc.’s plan to rent video games by mail.

“You’ve got a high-cost, short shelf-life item that gets rented and gets held for weeks,” said executive chairman Dan DeMatteo. “So your number of turns on this thing is very, very short. That was a real head-scratcher. At this late stage, getting into that business, I don’t get it.”

Store openings have slowed considerably, with GameStop adding a net of 99 stores worldwide so far this year.

While that rate is about one-third less than it was three years ago, Raines said, there are still about 1,400 locations in the U.S. that could ultimately accommodate a store.

GameStop now has 6,549 stores in 17 countries.

It seems that the Russians are doomed to forever be the villains in American videogames. The Soviet Union collapsed nearly 20 years ago and the Cold War is over, but Singularity still manages to make those dastardly commies the enemy. How you might ask? Time travel, of course!

Singularity asks the question, ‘What if the Soviet Union discovered a source of Element-99… and what if it had special powers that could warp time itself and create monsters?’ It’s a question we’ve all stayed up pondering and now you can live that nightmare through the shoes of American soldier Nate Renko, the unfortunate soul tasked with correcting history. There’s a five minute introduction explaining this backstory in great detail at the opening of Singularity. From there, things continue to be just as corny right through to the end.

Singularity is a first-person shooter that draws inspiration from games like BioShock or System Shock 2. There are lots of meat-monsters and Russian soldiers to blast, plenty of weapons to do so with, and along the way you’ll upgrade Renko with new powers and tools to make him even more super. Interspersed with the shooting are some simple puzzles, heavy doses of storytelling and plenty of blatant clues to let you know that things are perhaps not the way they appear. The production levels are pretty high here for the most part, so most enemies and creatures move pretty well and look decent enough.

The selling point for Singularity is a special gizmo Renko is quickly bestowed called the TMD, or Time Manipulation Device. With it, he has near limitless power that is, in fact, only limited by the developer’s rather mundane imagination. This device can alter time with incredible precision enabling its user to age or revert single objects. Decayed crates filled with ammo can be made new again. Boxes can be aged to pieces for easy transport. Locks can be aged to dust to open safes or lockers

The idea sounds pretty neat, but it isn’t much more than a gimmick. Only an extremely limited set of objects can be manipulated with the TMD, and even then the results aren’t anything to write home about. Through the course of Singularity, you’ll use the TMD to solve age-old “puzzles” and in less involved single-use situations to fix or break things like voice recordings and switches.

I use the word “puzzles” lightly because even with the addition of time manipulation you’ll still be going through the same basic routines that games have been using as a crutch for years. All of the explosives and time-manipulation in the world is no match for a small ledge or chain link fence. For that, you’ll need a crate and that means you’ll have to age one to splinters, slide it through gaps in 5 foot fences, and then revert it back to normal size to use as a step. Raven didn’t go outside of the level design playbook in the slightest, nor do they allow the player to use any imagination. Once you’ve aged or reverted a couple of things, the wonder is gone and the limitations on when and how you can use the TMD ensure it never comes back.

Though EALA is doing the single-player for Medal of Honor, it’s DICE (makers of Battlefield: Bad Company 2) handling the multiplayer component. While the expectation may be for DICE to offer up Battlefield’s multiplayer with a different coat of paint, that’s not the case at all. Medal of Honor’s multiplayer certainly has elements of DICE’s design heritage, but it’s more about ground infantry combat. The battles, 12-on-12 online matches featuring special forces versus insurgents, are intense and brutal. You die quickly thanks to “faster bullets” as DICE describes it, and a lack of health packs. This is war. Good luck surviving.

You begin your online career as a U.S. Army Ranger, but progress up levels, unlocking new items on your way to becoming a Tier 1 Operator. And you definitely want to become Tier 1 — that’s when you unlock a beard. The beard doesn’t kill, it just looks bad ass. On the way to unlocking a beard, you’ll be opening up new modifications for your weapons. Weapons can support three mods, which can be switched out between rounds. DICE promises hundreds of combinations. Weapons will become one of the biggest variables in Medal of Honor, far more so than in more first-person shooters.

Experience is earned for completing mission objectives and for kills. There are bonuses for certain types of kills, as well as score chains. It’s not just about getting a bunch of kills in a match, but in getting quick batches of kills.

Score chains unlock Tactical Support Actions. These are similar to Killstreak Rewards in Modern Warfare 2, but have some notable differences. The biggest difference is that you always have the choice between offensive or defensive support actions. Do you want to give your teammates armor or buffed health? Or would you rather call in a mortar strike? The decision could be tactical or selfish, depending on your point of view and the choice that’s made. But it can certainly turn the tide of battle. And it’s great to have a way to better your team rather than earn a couple of extra quick kills.

There are four modes available in Medal of Honor multiplayer, two in the beta, spread out over eight maps. Combat Mission takes you to the Helmand Valley, an actual location in Afghanistan. This is a series of objective-based missions. The one I was shown had us playing as U.S. soldiers attempting to destroy a large weapons cache. Our opponents played as Taliban insurgents hell-bent on stopping us.

The mission has five objectives. Your ultimate goal is to call in your F-15s to blow up the weapons cache. But you need to first take out some anti-aircraft guns. To get to these, you’ll need to guide a Bradley tank past some obstructions. This includes a few roadblocks along the way. As with Bad Company 2, you can hop into the Bradley and have some fun destroying enemies. But Medal of Honor isn’t really about large-scale vehicle combat. Don’t expect to be flying helicopters everywhere or driving an army of tanks. This mission has a single tank, which your ground troops must protect.

The insurgents will have the upper hand in many areas. There are some places where they have the high ground and can dig in to protect their territory. Death will come quickly, but respawns are plentiful. Currently, there’s no kill cam or way to see who killed you, which needs to be addressed before Medal of Honor ships in October. There is minor environmental destruction, so you can bomb out a house where a sniper is camping, but you might have to die three times in a row to figure out which house he’s in.

In true DICE fashion, Combat Mission requires teamwork if you hope to beat down the insurgents and take out the weapons cache. Everyone can run around like independent jerks, which is exactly what happens when you get a dozen journalists in a room, but once this game is out, working as a team can only help.

The other mode in the beta is Team Assault, which takes place in the ruins of Kabul (at least for the E3 demo map). This is Team Deathmatch in the city slums, where players push to win a certain set of points on the map. The emphasis is on knowing the map and keeping on the move. There’s a lot of vertical gameplay in this one, with two- and three-story buildings. As I said earlier, combat can be pretty unforgiving. But the reward for sticking with it is readily apparent. The better you get, the more easily you can unlock the Tactical Support Actions. These are a lot of fun and since you aren’t tied to a specific set, feel more versatile than Modern Warfare 2.

Leveling up wasn’t part of the E3 experience, but my sense is that unlocking weapon parts is going to become addictive. If there really are as many possibilities as DICE promises, we should see hundreds of different weapons on the field of battle.

Medal of Honor seems to be the perfect combination of Call of Duty and Battlefield: Bad Company 2. You no longer have to fight over which game is better, because Medal of Honor offers the best of both. If the full game is as good as the E3 demo, then this may just be the multiplayer game of the year.

Last year at the Tokyo Game Show, I was led into a darkened theater, shown a game that I couldn’t understand a word of, and watched people get their bones broken on the streets of Japan. It was Yakuza 4. I was in love – and I wasn’t alone. The group of IGN editors there voted the title the best PlayStation 3 game at TGS, and I famously declared that if SEGA didn’t bring this game to the United States and Europe, it was “the dumbest company on the face of the planet.”

Thankfully for the West, SEGA isn’t stupid. Yakuza 4 is headed to our shores in 2011, and I got to play it.

If you’ve missed the previous games – shame on you as Yakuza 3 just came out in North America a few months ago and was great – the Yakuza series is a third-person brawler that’s part JRPG and part sandbox world. You’ll wander the streets of Tokyo, random people will fight you, and you’ll level up your character. Oh, and then there’s a movie-quality story, dozens of side quests, bars to drink in, arcade games to play, women to seduce, and so on.

It’s deep.

Yakuza 4 flips the script a bit. In the past, players have been rocking the white suit of former Yakuza member Kazuma. You’ll still play as Kaz in Yakuza 4, but there are an additional three characters (a loan shark, an escaped convict and a cop) whose shoes you’re going to step into via your controller. Each of these characters is going to have his own fighting style, so even though you’ll be seeing the same random battles, the action should feel fresher than it has in the past.

I picked up the DualShock 3 and stepped into the world of the loan shark – the man in the purple jacket you see in screenshots. My mission was to run around the streets of the fictional red light district and collect from those who owed, but Yakuza isn’t about missions. I stepped onto the street with the intent to explore the neon world of Tokyo.

If you’ve played one of these games before, Yakuza 4 is going to instantly feel familiar. You run around the streets, head to the pink markers for story missions, and wail on anyone dumb enough to run up and attack you. As I got my Yakuza 4 legs, I was instantly engaged by some punk who needed to be reminded of how things go in this world. The game was still entirely in Japanese at this point – the final version will pack Japanese voices with English subtitles – so I don’t know what this guy was saying, but after what I assume were his insults, I began bashing his face in with the game’s face button attacks and shoulder button dashes.

When you’re pounding on the bad guys, you’re filling a Heat gauge. When that’s full, you can perform sick finishing moves. In my first fight, this meant the loan shark hoisted the opponent into the air (a vertical suplex if you know pro wrestling), and then dumped the dude onto a bike rack so that his spine bent the entirely wrong way. As always, the bested and bloodied foe apologized for insulting the loan shark, gave him some money, and ran off.

When Yakuza 3 came out in North America and Europe, there was a bit of an outcry from the fans over here who had been waiting for the game. See, SEGA removed a Japanese history game and hostess clubs. Folks really didn’t care about the game, but the loss of women you could date and romance made some freak out. Yakuza 4 won’t have to deal with the same outrage; the Japanese history game is still out, but the hostess clubs are going to be in the game.

Being a red-blooded male, I ran to one of these clubs after beating that last guy’s ass and picked the first woman I saw. This leads into a conversation where you have to answer questions and say the right things to get the girl to give off little hearts and be impressed with you. I gave my girl a dress, ordered chicken, and drank champagne, but not being able to understand what she was saying put a damper on my romantic game. Still, I did get to see another player succeed in getting his lady, and the duo played a game of ping pong. Both the player and the lady were in robes with what looked to be nothing on underneath – your guess is as good as mine as to what led to this one – and when she served, the camera zoomed in on her breasts as a indication of the main character’s focus and made returning the serve all the more difficult.