Madden NFL 2011 bursts into the fields with an ultimate power that is insurmountable in terms of improvements in graphics, gameplay, announcer dialogue, incredible animations and most of all action and emotion. Madden NFL 2011 aims for what you see on Sunday, you see in Madden approach, and it is an approach that proves worthy to the confines of the gameplay and the action of the field calling plays. While Madden NFL 2011 has its fair share of issues which include Ultimate Team Mode as an unmemorable addition to the game while having issues of offensive linemen as being less responsive. Nevertheless, Madden NFL 2011 is one of the best titles of the game series to date and is sure to please footballers around the world.

Gameplay in the Madden NFL series has always focused on the informative quickplay books and trying to memorize dozens of plays like an actual NFL coach. EA Tiburon by default has decided to shift away from the complexity of memorizing multiple plays per scenario and introduces a revolutionary new engine feature eloquently dubbed “GameFlow.” GameFlow enables players to make calls within the press of a button for casual football players, but the option to have Conventional gameplay is still available. In terms of actual scenarios, GameFlow makes intuitive decisions to make plays based on distance and most importantly game situation. There are some issues present in terms of GameFlow and just how intuitive it can be. Draw moves and screens of certain areas are called frequently, thereby making it seem that the A.I. can easily figure out your gameplay moves. The variety is there, but the actual diversity is lacking in terms of the unpredictability of an actual Coach and his calls.  Regardless, Madden NFL 2011’s GameFlow is an exciting addition that allows casual gamers to experience the game and the actual drama while still feeling like a part of the technical accomplishment of a play.

Game planning is definitely incredible from GameFlow and to further changes including A.I. and other changes that effect the action. A.I. is definitely more improved from previous titles, where certain cornerbacks could not follow slant routes properly. Increasing the difficulty leads to a very tough game that requires less big plays and more minute plays to increase the action and get that touchdown. The offensive linemen are more vigilant in terms of blocking runs during plays and making it easier for your linebacker to follow the play path to the goal. The only sad part about this newfound change in A.I. leads to a lot of technical issues. Linemen sometimes try to block any player that is too far to be a threat to you as a quarterback and are immobile sometime altogether. While linemen are realistic during every single play, there is also more of an issue with the technical bugs which can hopefully be patched later on.  Despite this, running mode is incredible and everyone feels like a part of the team.

Madden NFL 2011 takes notable improvements to the Franchise Mode, which was incredible in Madden NFL 2010 but needed minor improvements which should have been addressed through a patch, but have now just shown up in this new title release. There is a new Rookie Draft Class that reveals the classes have been recreated from scratch with 8000 new rookies. Contract Values were an issue to Franchise Mode players due to there being a gap between intermediate Role Players being more incrementally expensive compared to their average pass-catch ratio than someone who had incredible gameplay statistics and a lower ratio in comparison, something which ends up being inconsequential on the field.

The Madden NFL series has always found its birth in being the first realistic football simulation title that introduced the world to online gameplay with something as cultural as football. Madden NFL 2011 is all about the online gameplay and continues this exciting trend. Cooperative action gives players the ability to group with each other and control specific players or parts of the team. While this is complicated in essence, it is an easy and relatively fun concept for two minds to come together rather than it feeling like you have full control. In contrast to NFL Head Coach, Madden NFL 2011 cooperative online play allows players to share the calls, which in reality many plays are made through the coach and his advisors.  Further online game modes include the Madden NFL 2010 released Ultimate Team mode, a mode offered as DLC which allows players to create their own team and then receive random players to add to the roster. The goal is simple: make this team the ‘Ultimate Team’ of the playoffs. This mode, while interesting for the fantasy football roster, seems too artificial with the coins and this random collection of players seems too informal to even begin getting better players for the roster or unlock a new MVP.

Presentation within the gameplay is complemented with incredible sportscaster commentary that is improved and revitalized. Commentary is led by Gus Johnson and the exciting Cris Collinsworth has been refined and polished to call out run-blocks and incredible goals with excitement depending on the event, and even the type of weather difficulty on the field. The audio of the crowd has also been improved which includes team-specific chants and more Super Bowl energy. Visually, Madden NFL 2011 is the best looking game of all the titles in the series and one of the best looking football games on any console to date. The improved broadcast style animations make Madden NFL 2011 feel more dynamic and alive than ever before. Madden NFL 2011 has increased the amount of vibrance and sheer energy of the presentation that makes it one of the best finely refined football title to date.

Madden NFL 2011 is simply one of the best titles of the Madden NFL series, but might come off as geared to mainstream NFL fans than hardcore gaming veterans.  The action is lively, the voice dialogue is unforgettable, and the new GameFlow mode adds a necessary expansion into the action on the field than in the interface of playbooks. The commentary by Gus Johnsonn and Emmy winning Cris Collinsworth makes the presentation feel lively while the crowd has more purpose and feeling. Despite problems with the linemen at the call line and Ultimate Team mode as being a little difficult to handle with the coins system, Madden NFL 2011 has a lot of excitement that players around the world will be invested in. Mainstream NFL fans will love Madden NFL 2011 more so as a lot of the features seem geared to casual gamers, but hardcore fans will equally still enjoy it even though it might leave them wanting something more, as every year there always is something that can be improved. As 2011 begins, one thing is clear: Madden NFL 2011 is an incredible football experience with notable achievements in presentation, and style that players every year take for granted. Not this time.

E3 2010 was a spectacle, due to the opening of admissions to smaller retailers and media publications – with numbers nearing the similar peak. We were there to get every exciting moment: from Dead Rising 2, to KINECT and everything in between the PlayStation Move inundation. E3 2010 was marked through displays of motion and 3D, similar to our coverage of the 3DGS Convention. As always, it was certainly a great time, and now that time is over. It’s time to look forward, ahead to newer and better releases, and to ennoble titles in this year’s WhatIfGaming’s Best Of E3 Awards 2010.

Criteria: The Best of E3 Awards, a subcategory for the WhatIfGaming Prizes, are given solely to those video games that demonstrate a pure excellence in the field for which they are not only nominated but also chosen. These awards only apply to playable games at E3 given a few exceptional categories.

Nomination & Selection Process: Compared with other site awards, the WhatIfGaming Prize nomination and selection process is long and extremely rigorous. This is the sole reason why WhatIfGaming Prizes have grown in importance over the years to become the most important prizes in their field. Forms, which amount to a personal and exclusive invitation, are sent to 150 (2010) selected individuals to invite them to submit nominations months in advance from the latest builds per video game. Self-nominations are disqualified. For WhatIfGaming Prizes, inquiries are sent to such people as developers, industry experts, analysts, among others. After our deadline passes, the nominations are chosen by permanent committee of 5 selected individuals from staff and only the final stage of nominees remain per category. From all of these, a winner is chosen.

The names of the nominees are not publicly announced, and neither are they told that they have been considered for the WhatIfGaming Prize. Some are announced publicly by practice. Nomination records are revealed approximately 2 years after each respective award year.

As racing games go, they all  follow the same basic concept of  drive fast and win. Very few actually differ in levels of realism and skill they strive to achieve with a passion.  Luckily, Split Second takes the task of start to finish and makes it revitalizing, new, and an overall decent title to play that provides a sense of experience and realism. Split Second pushes for an added new dimension to the basic structure by allowing players to affect the racing environment by blowing up boats, cars, trains, and basically anything that litters the side of the course, allowing for more tactics to come into play. The game can turn from boring, to unexpected and for everything that goes right on a track, things can go wrong. This aspect can both be beneficial and a hindrance when it comes to enjoyment and frustration and it lets the game down to a point. Regardless, the title is some fun as long as it lasts through core gameplay in singleplay and finally the multiplayer aspect that transitions this into the real world scenario.

Blackrock Studios has tried to add as much of a story as they can to a genre of game which is notorious for having worthless stories, but unfortunately the idea of being in a reality TV show where cars race to move onto bigger, more elite events seems to lack any plausibility and reminds us of Jason Statham’s Death Race, but nonetheless it was a worthy attempt to try and crowbar a story in no matter how ridiculous or implausible.

The gameplay for Split Second is where the meat of the game is and as far as arcade racers go, it is up there with the best in terms of simplicity. The driving itself feels realistic giving leeway for slight crashes into barriers and other obstacles, while also being generous for cornering walls.  The game adds the challenge further to the total damage system as your car does total if it hits any solid object with too much force, which evens out the playing field with even more tactics coming into play.  The A.I. directly affects the experience and the action with opponent cars both blocking you and applying the same destructive options that the player can apply to them. There is no infamous car-rubberbanding as seen on such titles as Need for Speed: Undercover, a similar game that lacked in everything excluding boredom. While Split Second is different in terms of gameplay to some levels, it is just a pity that there are limited tracks to compete on and once you have seen all the explosions and track changes that can be activated on each course, the game becomes a bit stale and boredom soon sets in when the game is reaching its peak.Another annoyance comes in the form of opponents activating an obstacle to wreck your car just as you are near the finishing line and ends up with you placing second or third which, although part of the game, really frustrates the player as it shows that luck is more of a fact than skill.

Playing with friends or strangers is where Split Second shines and although the single player is decent it needs the audacity and guile of human players to really make it worthwhile. The split screen option where you can play alongside one of your friends has all the necessary options needed to make a couch rivalry really build up and the gameplay allows this excellently. As with the split screen, online is played out beautifully with the gameplay in place and lets even novice drivers compete with more experienced ones and gives them a chance both with driving ability and status of their car. Unfortunately, this is a major let down by the fact that the player has to unlock the better cars through the less intense season mode or pay a premium to unlock every vehicle, an unrealistic aspect of the game that leads to major disappointment considering the better cars should be able to be unlocked through skill online aswell. This is the only thing that lets down an otherwise strong online game but it is a big downside and should definitely be looked at for consumer considerations.

As an arcade-racing game with a twist, Split Second: Velocity has all the bits and pieces needed to make it a quality title with decent single player and excellent online capabilities but certain features like frustrating outcomes after being wrecked and the need to unlock better cars through single player need to be adjusted to make it a proper standout title. Blackrock Studios has definitely done a good job trying to think up a change to a stale genre of game but major tweaks were needed to make it thrilling to a point beyond the simlistic racing style and the dreams to try something different.

The Prince will never be in the forgotten realms of every gamer that has encountered him. The Prince returns in Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands and this time the mood is entirely different from Prince of Persia 4, the storybook equivalent that focused more on the inveterate storybook version as the original and truly defined a new height for the series with humor, and action combined into one. Thankfully, the new title pushes the series back into its former Sands of Time inception and critical storyline atmosphere with a central but memorable antagonist, and a tale of vengeance and time packed into one. Newer abilities and an upgraded combat system with smoother mechanics without a companion makes the Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands truly refreshing. Even though the gameplay does not  live up to the same standards in relation to mission structure and design by the original title, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands feels nostalgic regardless. With a detailed storyline, splendid graphics, and moreover the ability to finally rewind time – the Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands truly feels like a decent sequel to The Sands of Time, but nostalgia can only go so far.

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands takes the fan hearkened and desired The Sands of Time universe and reignites this iteration of Prince of Persia to provide a storybook rooted version of the tale as the previous title as just the first step into recreating the nostalgia and prestige of the original.  Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands begins with the Prince on a visit to his brother Malik’s kingdom, following his adventure in Azad, to learn how to become a true leader as ordained by his father to carry on the rule. As original of the series in the past, the Prince always manages to arrive at the right place at an all too wrong time.  The visit has unfortunately coincided with an attack on his brother’s royal palace by an unnamed army set on destruction and and incipient corruption of the foundations of the kingdom. When the decision is placed to use the ancient powers of the Sand in a lackluster gamble to save the kingdom from annihilation, the Prince is the one who has to stop the danger that is unleashed. Through the large sets of enemies encountered, and the fate of his people laying in the balance, the Prince will learn to bear the burden of true leadership, and discover that great power often comes with a great cost.

A story can only go so far in aiding a form of gameplay that uses a similar structure to a previous title. While using same formulas is fine, the gameplay is not as detailed or powerful to be interesting in a storyline that can only do so much to outline the need from jumping columns to columns in a platform game. The storyline gives players the inherent need to engage in a weak effort to create a purpose for swinging from well placed poles and columns throughout the palace, but there are certainly notable and enjoyable moments despite the repetitive gameplay design.

The heart of the game mechanics lies is in the acrobatic gameplay, the notable ability to rewind time, and finally the abilities system planted in nature.  The ability to rewind time  makes a consequential return yet keeps the challenge as there is only a limited time interval that can be used for rewinding a certain scenario.  The new abilities create the majority of the gameplay mechanics, and are very strongly implemented if sometimes feeling a bit overused. The abilities are meant to reveal how the Prince can wield powers of nature and time, and can this unparalleled mastery over his environment and his enemies. The Prince discovers that the harnessing forces of nature itself prove to be the only companion needed to his ability to rewind time, than an actual companion and no ability to rewind time out of the Sands of Time universe, as the last title used Elika in a major pendulum support for the gameplay interaction.  The ability to solidify water for a short period of time is the feature that is used the most and is also used in the obstacles to progress gameplay which is initially enjoyable,  but when you reach the fifth or sixth area in the palace that has a water theme it starts to feel a bit tacked on. Another ability is  rushing towards an enemy in mid-flight to jump wider gaps, although well implemented,  starts to become overused and rather blasé. There are also four powers you can upgrade to:  trail of fire, stone armour, whirlwind and  ice blast, but all seem quite weak and unessential to any combat to be rather meaningful. The combat itself is again flawed with the same enemies cropping up time and time again and giving ample warning to avoid their attacks which provides a detriment to any meaningful challenges throughout the game.

The Forgotten Sands is still an excellent addition to the Prince of Persia series but does not match up to the standards set by Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. While the previous Prince of Persia title did not have the significant ability to rewind time, it did have something more meaningful: better gameplay, and a great atmosphere with a humorous mood all set in a brilliant storybook setting and blue overtone that earned it our highly prestigious WhatIfGaming Prize: Editor’s Choice. For all the things Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands does correctly to reach a nostalgic existence in the Sands of Time universe, it reveals major problems in terms of the rest of the gameplay that make this nostalgia all too forgettable.

WhatIfGaming - Game Of The Year 2009 Awards

It is with proud pleasure that we ask all of you to join us to celebrate the 11th year anniversary of our WhatIfGaming and read all about the video game industry’s most exceptional and gratified 2009 titles specially chosen by us here again this year. Similar to the previous year, WhatIfGaming is first to give out Game of the Year Awards this year. We just rolled out the red carpet and the winners for 2009 are here with us live!

Happy Holidays and Happy New Years to our beloved millions of WhatIfGaming readers (this means you)! See you all in 2010.

Musicians can finally be made through the effort of a deck, and the harmony of music combined with game mechanics through plastic peripherals to create the experience of music professionals. Rock Band and Guitar Hero brought the feeling of playing a guitar and feeling like a Guitar ‘Hero’ to many amateurs and professionals across the continents. DJ Hero allows players to feel like DJ’s without the need to be one.

DJ Hero provides a similar introduction to traditional style play that requires music aficionados to change their beat and rhythm to the scale of the music in the tracks included. An amazing set of skill-sets allows players to live through the DJ dream. FreeStyleGames and Grand Master Flash provide an experience that makes the DJ Deck board the premiere for an exciting sense of style and musical creativity. Players will find themselves introduced to the five game mechanics that comprise the entire gameplay core: simple button mixes, cross-fading, scratching, and DJ Hero’s Star Power comparable besides Euphoria. Gameplay itself is largely similar to Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises: follow the notes. Instead, DJ Hero provides more of a complexity in terms of the additional components that allow the music to dynamically change, providing a unique listening and playing experience.

DJ Hero is definitely exciting in terms of the complexity scale. Medium difficulty is crafted to give the most fearful players a friendly introduction to the DJ experience whereas the progression scales up evenly. FreeStyleGames cleverly builds on progression to reward players. Playing through DJ Hero unlocks newer more complex mechanics that blend the rest together to allow players to learn not just how to use the deck, but also learn its intricacies. One minute players will be scratching with cross-fades, the next they will need to combine this with button presses. DJ Hero groups 24 sets of songs that are locked to begin with. Each set comprises of about five songs that will unlock once a set begins and progresses. Performance is graded by stars that are the primary form to unlock newer sets, stadiums, outfits, decks, characters including additional content. DJ Hero gives players the DJ experience while also giving them the ability to learn the intricacies of the deck.

DJ Hero is undoubtedly made for the single-player experience. Players can still get another turntable or guitar to play alongside each other, but the painful truth is that the cost of the title makes it a problem for cooperative gameplay.  Turntable two player modes place players in a standoff to play the same track and also achieve their highest final score.  DJ Hero nevertheless does bring life to a party that requires entertainment. DJ Hero provides for great moments both in single-player mode and cooperative local play.

FreeStylGames’ DJ Hero gives players a reason to feel the need to experience what a DJ does: tracks are incredibly fun and artistic to play spin riffs towards for aficionados and amateurs alike while the creativity and level progression provides an incredible sense of style and grace. DJ Hero does come with problems in two player cooperative modes which involve unbalanced play of two DJ’s fighting it out to their own creative vibe – something that is particularly unusual but not misguided. DJ Hero will definitely live on to see many more sequels and further amazing artists looking to contribute into making something more special for their fans: the DJ experience and the beat of the music.

Realism in games has always been hit or miss. On one hand we have racing,sports and real life simulator games which constantly try and upgrade to become proper simulators and for the most part it works. Whereas on the other hand we have first and third person shooters where in the past have proven that if made too realistic detract from the fun and enjoyment that comes from blowing enemies away left, right and center. The team at Codemasters tried to buck this trend and wanted to make Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising realistic while keeping the fun at the forefront, but has largely failed.

When you load up a new campaign, a fantastic opening sequence completely immerses you within the story giving the background to Skira Island and why the character played, as an American soldier, is helping Russia save this island. The story itself is unfortunately really just a backdrop for the developers to place you in this situation and allows them to set basic military missions based on this. There is no character development or any form of a decent plot throughout the rest of the game. This dismally turns the game’s shining beginning into a lame storytelling experience similar to a standard first person shooter title.

The area where this game was supposed to win the Medal of Honor away should have been the gameplay, but the truth is: there is no medal awarding ceremony for this title. While the weapons are decently varied and firefights verge on realism in terms of bullet damage, the apparent and non-existent enemy A.I. is extremely atrocious. An enemy soldier can be sitting 50 yards away on a hillside looking straight towards you and not make a move until you or your squad mates fire at him, killing the immersible atmosphere. The main aspect that continues to kill the small amount of fun the few moments of realism provide has to do with distance. While trying to fulfill the missions, the large and seemingly attractive in-game area that was shown off as attractive ends up becoming frustrating. Completing missions themselves is easy, but there does not need to be an unbeknown and disappointing element that adds a good 10 minutes of no action.

It is not all doom and gloom for Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising. The firefights are a strong feature especially at long distances and the guns are varied and provide a lot of punch which feels excellent. The squad A.I. is also very well behaved and rarely will a friendly cross your path. Luckily, the squad A.I. themselves are good at picking off the opposition and gives a sense that you are actually a part of the team. It is just upsetting to a level that so many singleplayer flaws outweigh any level of fun this title offers.

The main selling point for Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising has to do with the multiplayer. The co-op mode allows three of your friends to join you through each campaign stage and features an excellent level of team based operation play that a lot of first person shooters fail to incorporate. Unfortunately, online cooperative play is still plagued with the similar problems of singleplayer, leading to many long walks and even more Asian enemies sitting on a hillside getting ready to be shot first. The Player vs Player mode, Annihilation and Infiltration are fun for a while but are basically the same standard fare we see in so many other games. On average, the multiplayer fairs slightly well than singleplayer only because of the friends and not by any other reason.

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising tries to break the mould and give a realistic firefight experience while keeping the essence of a game based on the forefront, but gets hit with a bullet in major areas.

The Beatles: Rock Band focuses on the influential British band The Beatles, the primary stars in Harmonix’s highly-loved rhythm-game Rock Band. The game has a pretty self-explanatory title: influential British band The Beatles stars in Harmonix’s popular rhythm-game franchise Rock Band. Rock Band: The Beatles offers rare exclusives such as behind-the-scenes pictures, videos, and audio to give players a taste of The Beatles. More importantly, the game gives players a chance to play the music and experience what it felt like to be a popular band. Unfortunately, a limited setlist, narrow gameplay, and a short length makes The Beatles something just to be heard in the car.

Most people will find themselves picking this up for the title alone, and the name alone. The game starts each chapter of its Story Mode with exuding cinematics from the opening movie to the intro for the game’s final level; these very well created snippets are as rewarding as the unlockable pictures and bonus content themselves.  The core reality of the gameplay is exactly as similar to Rock Band, which was probably the easiest aspect for Harmonix to pull off. When Story Mode is done and over there is realistically not much more to do other than try to attempt getting 5 stars on every level, passing through gigs and different background scenarios. Once done, exclusive bonus content is unlocked. The Venue Challenge mode sees itself as an extremely limited function, only allowing any song to be played on different stages, which does not present anything magical. When it comes to The Beatles: Rock Band, there is a great amount of songs to play, but there is a very limited replayability which causes a large problem.

The Beatles: Rock Band is undoubtedly focused on the casual market and Beatles fans. Unfortunately, Beatles fans who have not bought a full set of instruments from previous Rock Band titles face the reality of paying not only for the $60 software, but drums, two guitars, and three mics to get the full game experience. Even with the current bundles, the price is extremely exorbitant considering only a mediocre 45-track setlist. There is not just the problem of an overpriced kit, but also the issue that many songs are missing, especially iconic ones. “Help!”, “Let It Be”, and more that will serve to alienate even the casual forms of the market. Downloadable albums are proposed to fill in these major gaps, but with a price of $14 an album or $2 each song, that is a steep addition to an already expensive game. The Beatles: Rock Band further rubs in the salt on the wounds with the inability to exchange songs or DLC. The Beatles: Rock Band has severe problems in terms of pricing and musical setlist that really needs to be questioned when even thinking of picking this up at the store.

The Beatles: Rock Band does have some decent qualities about it: three-part singing with three players. The vocal note tracking lays out the words and notes for each part using easy to read colored lines. Unfortunately, even the nice aspects of The Beatles: Rock Band has issues.  The game does not allow allow multiple people to play the same instrument Guitar Hero 5 understood this concept extremely well, but Harmonix flailed at this, especially when it is reasonable.

The Beatles: Rock Band is troubled with a lot of issues, not to mention an extremely limited offering. Despite all this, The Beatles: Rock Band still exhibits great traits of Harmonix’s other Rock Band titles: great note tracking, descriptive sound composition, and very life-like venues that add for a great experience. The Beatles: Rock Band still remains a great tribute to a band that deserves, if anything, to have their own game. But unfortunately the “Rock Band” leads to certain quality expectations attributable to Harmonix that sees a severe disappointment in terms of scale and playability. With a huge price tag for newcomers and only 45 songs, The Beatles: Rock Band sadly failed to provide what it set out for: creating an amazing game with The Beatles as the focus. Consumers might feel slightly cheated with only 45 songs, not to mention the experience as far too short. While The Beatles: Rock Band will eventually turn players away to other substantial offerings by either Harmonix or Neversoft, the excitement and thrill will still remain for anyone that wants to catch a glimpse of what the love of music was like for their favorite band: The Beatles.

DiRT 2 is finally out for rallying fanatics that love the only series to ever carry the tradition of being one of the only rallying video games available.  While DiRT 2 has been long awaited, part of it ends up on the loose side due to actual limited rallies and A.I. flawlessness. Regardless of these flaws, DiRT 2 remains exciting to anyone that enjoyed GRiD when it came out. Codemasters designed DiRT 2 to provide a lot of action and thrill to players of all skill levels, and still creates a memorable rally racing experience in the part of the new iteration.

DiRT 2 definitely has some exciting additions and improvements, such as the addition of a Flashback feature. Flashback allows the game to be more approachable without negatively affecting player progress. The feature allows a lot of players to go beyond the limits. Wiping-out can easily be rewinded. The flashback feature definitely allows this rally racer to play without any problems, while drastically increasing the action beyond the fury of the sand.

DiRT 2 comes with more variety in terms of track selection from mountainous rallies, to abandoned refineries, the reaches of Morocco, and even the tranquil marshes of China. DiRT 2 provides an incredible amount of environmental variety while also further providing interesting modes to choose from. The central mud-racing action of DiRT 2 is the Career Mode, which stars players as an up-and-coming racer and builds you into a champion. Races provide you experience points, which in turn increases the driver level. Through 30 levels, you additionally unlock even more new races, and gain a lot of iconic gifts. Dashboard items such as a hula girl and fuzzy dice to hang from your rearview mirror are just a few of the items players will be able to enjoy. Xbox 360 owners get an additional bonus to add a dangling version of your Avatar in the car as well. With these great rewards, DiRT 2 makes gameplay rewarding despite being more than fun in general.

DiRT 2 has an interesting dichotomy of AI balance. The rally cars have a realistic weight to them and give a sense that you are driving on the edge of control. Rookies will find themselves slightly struggling while pros will also find it difficult to beat the AI right away.

With decent customization, DiRT 2 makes decent improvements to cars but there is very little impact from the customization to make it effective in the overall car design. DiRT 2’s system is undeniably a great fit for casual players. Despite its simplicity, the system does provide immediate improvements to a race but the body modifications are specific to current events being played which is definitely limited.

While DiRT 2 does focus on rally races, very few of the events have actual time-trial rallies. Realistic rally races fall short with no hill climbing events except one level that just involves a twisting hillside. DiRT 2 is still a rally racer in terms of the different environments, but there is a lack of rally racing.

Multiplayer was a complete sore in terms of DiRT 1, as events were only timed and not on the same track. Every event type can now be played online with up to seven others. The online runs well and of course is extremely enjoyable to players of all practice. Every car is available, whether you own it or not in single-player, but custom liveries are still dependent on individual Campaign mode.

DiRT 2 manages to pack arcade racing into rally modes for an exciting out of control adventure. Despite limited customizability, and real time-based rallies, DiRT 2 is a decent improvement over DiRT 1. Hardcore players and casual gamers alike will have too much fun in DiRT 2.

Guitar Hero 5 sees casual rockers and plastic-instrument pro’s going back to what they love: playing music. Guitar Hero 5 still has its problems, but it manages to create a well balanced system between hardcore and casual that most players will not forget.

Guitar Hero 5 has definitely redesigned the menu interface to suit more casual players, creating a game that is admirable in more than one way.  The system is easier to navigate, with multi-panels and just a few of them. The real negative is that for newcomers, there is no real tutorial that explains any features that might have changed from World Tour. This ends up making Guitar Hero 5 a bit difficult to navigate around gameplay-wise.

The great new feature about Guitar Hero 5 is the ability to access any and every song through Quickplay without having to spend hours unlocking them.  To continue to an ease of play, players in a band can synchronize to play music on the same instrument. The multiplayer and local-cooperative play with multiple instruments makes for a more exciting title and game session.

The most noticeable change of Guitar Hero 5 is the individual Star Power meters. Players will no longer share the same bar for songs, which in World Tour and past titles created a hassle. One of the most annoying aspects of previous Guitar Hero’s was if your band mate flops on a song, the entire band would go down. With Guitar Hero 5, there is a “saving” band mates feature, which has no consequences or gimmicks. Should anyone in your band not keep up and drop out, as long as the other instrumentalists keep playing well, the game will automatically bring the fallen player back in the song. This was a well requested feature by all fans hardcore or casual for the series, and Neversoft has delivered.

The only sore problem in Guitar Hero 5 is the singing. Singing on the same note is difficult to synchronize. If anyone ends up missing a note, then synchronization is really impossible since the other players keep going, which just delays everything. Even though it is called “Guitar Hero,” there should be more of a welcome interface with regards to the songs and singing with your friends.

Rock Band 2 has been great for incredible DLC while also giving players the ability to import every song from Rock Band 1. But there is one thing that Rock Band does not match up to with Guitar Hero 5: a balance. Guitar Hero 5 is definitely the best iteration of the game to date, with newer additions and more of a welcome entourage to casual and hardcore players alike. The multiplayer is much easier to manage, and the difficulty still provides an incentive for people to play. Guitar Hero 5 has problems, but it does manage to make up for them in through more than one improvement.