The battle within finally begins. Final Fantasy XIII captures the true nature of story-telling in the pages of gameplay that make up the masterpiece of the narrative. Final Fantasy XIII ensorcells players into a world of action, and a contrasting dichotomy of good vs. evil which furthers the nurture and attention that an elegant storyline requires. The struggles make us forlorn to the protagonist, the themes make us feel in tune within the world, and the form and mood of the storyline allow us to experience a decent narrative. Final Fantasy XIII uplifts the senses in its outline through encapsulating the audience in a RPG with unforgettable storyline which grasps our hearts, a diverse cast with personalities that are a wonder to discover, and presenting a unique piece of art designed with Fabula Nova Crystallis in mind after a long wait which was well deserved. Despite problems of repetition through the linearity, Final Fantasy XIII brings form of emotional tenacity that is tangible every minute within the world of Cocoon, and action which engages the audience through every plot-twist woven through drama.  Final Fantasy XIII acquiesces a storyline that is exceptional, achieving some level of respect in the name of the Final Fantasy series.

Over centuries ago, a prenatural being created through a crystal in his body created a floating Utopian continent in the atmosphere, which was to be isolated from the lascivious lands below. The fal’Cie creature created the grand Pulse as a new world without the Gran Pulse below. Machines were commissioned to be the guardians of the citizens as barriers were fortified to prevent any and all contact with the outside world, giving the bulging metropolis the name of Cocoon.  Seclusion came easy to the citizens of the world for many years, but the Cocoonians became curious as to why the Gran Pulse is restricted. With a recent contact with people from below, citizens became rife with doubt and curiosity, questioning their morality and scruples. The Sanctum, the governing entity of Cocoon, issued an edict:  any and all individuals suspected to be in contact with the world of Gran Pulse are to be banished from the safety of the continent and cast out into the ruthless underworld. Within this essential background, Final Fantasy XIII creates a revitalizing group of characters with exceptional voice acting that have their own reasons for taking a journey to the Gran Pulse. The thaumaturgic tension within the narrative, combined with the intricate character interaction is unforgettable. Lightning is the protagonist that is essentially on a quest to save her sister the fate of being marked an l’Cie, and she has a propensity for fighting and putting down anyone in her way. Characters themselves are part of the journey within the Final Fantasy XIII series, and as such no more details will be given. What does remain to be seen is unfathomable, parapsychological, and simply a story that revitalizes the soul through incredible narrative direction.

Final Fantasy XIII takes linearity and makes it a part of the gameplay mission structure aspect within the world. While some exceptions exist given certain side-quest monster missions, players are constantly moving forward within the Pulse Vestige.  When in the Pulse, there are several crystal points where the party can acquire missions.  These missions become similar to Hunts from Final Fantasy XII and involve battling monsters around the Pulse.  As these l’Cie failed to complete their assignments, this gives the party an interesting look into l’Cie tasks despite lowering the pacing of gameplay as a slight distraction in the midst of chaos. The linearity becomes further pronounced as the corridors of the level designs are usually narrow during mission.  Players do not pick and choose which characters they want to play as the storyline is divided amongst more critical chapters giving different aspects of the story from different perspectives and furthering the choice for storyline over convenience of the audience to select a certain individual to complete missions with throughout. The gameplay mission structure is described with the context of the storyline, which macadamizes one difference between Final Fantasy XIII and its predecessors comes to fruition: there are no towns to explore, no puzzles, no offset missions to complete. While this may seem like a negative thing to legacy players of the Final Fantasy series, this allows for the storyline to seem more focused than ever, and less about simplicity and more about balance between complicated and simple storyline aspects.

The battle system within Final Fantasy XIII has been more customized and tweaked to provide an increased nuance with tactical and seamlessness. The Command Synergy Battle begins the moment the player runs into an enemy, which transforms the field into a battle arena with a few enemies on-screen. Players can control one character out of the party of up to three characters. Every action is guarded by an Active Time Battle bar, essentially the stamina bar for the battle character. Every command for the battle party places the ATB Cost as a strategic and manageable aspect of the battle system, with the ATB bar being divded among different sections to represent higher costs. Variety of commands and attacks for each character is stunning and traditional moves such as Attack, Cure, Fire, and Summon make a return, with notable area-field strength spells that target larger groups. From these battles, players gain Crystarium Points in battle, and can use Crystarium Points to purchase statistic increases, abilities, and finally spells all of which can be used to further advance the character into higher levels of battle difficulty.  Final Fantasy XIII’s battle system takes a page from the predecessors, while focusing the need to be less turn-based and more dynamic and strategic through the use of linear item collection and character progression that works well for the type of battle gameplay.

Masashi Hamauzu work within Final Fantasy XIII is simply something worthy of mention. As a notable composer of the Final Fantsy X soundtrack, Masashi Hamauzu has composed melodies of string quartets composed of the Viol, the slow tone of the Lute, the sagely wisdom of the violins with the bold flavor of the techno inspired heavy beats creates a memorable Final Fantasy XIII soundtrack that is worth the purchase alone.

Final Fantasy XIII brings elements from the series into a new light of day while still reflecting on the traditional origins, making a game meticulous and beautiful at the same time. While Final Fantasy XIII revolves around the linearity of the gameplay that makes action repetitive, it superimposes a believable narrative with more focus and attention to minute detail with the enhanced Command Synergy Battle System that is more focused. Final Fantasy XIII paves the way to declare that despite repetition, a game can still hope to be great in a form of its own through other means despite some problems.

Battlefield: Bad Company was a premiere shooter that marked the entry of DICE into the first-person shooter series category designed for consoles exclusively on June 23^rd, 2008. Bad Company offered singleplayer, a decent online offering of 24 players from the native 64 from Battlefield’s 1 and 2, and provided a venue for console shooter fans to play if they did not fancy Call of Duty: Modern Warfare on Nov 7^th, 2007. Bad Company offered a markedly watered down version similar to elements of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare in terms of multiplayer minus the ranks and perks system.   Not surprisingly enough, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is a sequel that uses the same formula and delivers on what the first title came close to doing itself: being a game with an unoriginal storyline of revenge and profit centered on repetitive gameplay and missions structure, while capitalizing on the online warfare craze with bland online elements revolving around statistic aficionados that find an all too endless joy in the clunky destruction engine of the environment’s flawed realistic scope.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 creates another compendium of unoriginality through a drastically exaggerated sense of camaraderie, a predictable and unimaginative set of personas within the Bad Company, and furthermore a narrative that is as pedestrian as the missions themselves. Battlefield: Bad Company ended with the main characters driving off with a truck full of gold and features similar characters. Private Preston Marlowe is still the “newbie” (player character), Haggard is the Alabama bomb-tech, and Sarge is still the commanding captain.  After losing the gold, the characters end up back in Bad Company, a rogue B-Company squad. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 starts with the rescue of a prisoner that is captured in the jungle.  Of course, Bad Company is given an offer of rescuing the soldier in order to go home, but things go from bad to worse in more than one way. The storyline continues on the trend of the Bad Company carrying out missions to alleviate the world of a foreign threat.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 seems to be extremely traditional, but unfortunately if this was the case in the sense of the franchise, Battlefield 1 and Battlefield 2 would still both not be considered far superior titles in terms of gameplay mechanics, singleplayer, and multiplayer. Battlefield: Bad Company 2’s vapid single-player campaign establishes a lot of the flaws in the gameplay elements that makes Battlefield: Bad Company 2 lacking in elements such as believability and variety. The players control Preston Marlowe and embark on the campaign missions where the core mechanics are dreadfully simple, and unfortunately repetition and lack of attention to detail leaves Battlefield: Bad Company 2 extremely antiquated. The gun mechanics for the most part are simple of any first person shooter: point and shoot. The key thing that made Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, a symbol of great first-person shooters, such a craze was not the simple fact of point and shoot elements, but the title had a lot of nuances in terms of level design, mission structure, and even a focused set of weaponry. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 strides upon the same mediocre facets that Battlefield: Bad Company did: it solely relies on giving players weaponry, something to shoot at, and does not consider anything else to broaden the gameplay. Furthermore, lack of variety in enemy types and randomly a lot of cowboy-hat wearing enemies are just a sight for disappointment. Grenades do not have an indicator for other players to avoid, so it becomes hard to avoid them as the terrible A.I. uses grenades all too often. Teammate/Squad A.I. is even worse but fares slightly better than the first title and they do not get in the way of shooting.  The campaign is more linear than the first, which hardly offers any sort of excitement, even when the scripted actions provide a banal sense of excitement with the atrocious voice acting to supplement. It is almost as if DICE expects players to be enthralled and enticed with mediocre and predictable storyline elements that are too scripted for the action to remotely believable. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 relies too much on unoriginality of simple point and shoot gameplay elements grouped with a disappointing and predictable storyline while furthering the banality with an intense lack of variety including misguided attention to details.

Destruction seems to be an element that Battlefield: Bad Company 2 relies too heavily upon in the marketing of the title, but all it does to accomplish any believable destruction lies in the gameplay crumbling down like a building itself. Frostbite 1.5 can only make the game exciting to a limited degree, while not being entirely believable as well. Every environment in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is stale and uninviting, mostly being green jungle areas, snowy fields, and brown desert fades with a very limited gameplay area. While the environments are gorgeous and details to character models are helpful, the mission structure itself is alarmingly dreadful to play and gameplay is built on a constant reminder of the lack of variety and originality that Battlefield: Bad Company 2 represents.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 provides online elements that represent the overall feel of unoriginality and lack of variety that Battlefield: Bad Company 2’s gameplay builds upon during the campaign.  Various modes include Rush, Squad Rush, Team Deathmatch, Deathmatch. The newer modes revolve around destroying crates in another team’s base which is more exciting than anything Bad Company 2 presents for the sheer reason of having other people around. Multiplayer permits players to choose from a set of weapon kits before each spawn, each of which represent the four classes from the previous 6: Assault, Recon, Engineer, and Medic. Specialists no longer exist. In addition to the hand grenades and sidearms standard for all classes, each class is equipped with a weapon and a pair of tech-gadgets unique to that class.  The traditional system of Battlefield: Bad Company 2’s multiplayer and customization of weaponry is the only thing that represents the still major successes of Battlefield 1 and Battlefield 2 that fare better than Battlefield: Bad Company 2’s gameplay. Limited Edition comes with six advanced unlocks in multiplayer and a bonus. Unlockables are key in multiplayer, which is relatively better but is plagued by the same problems as the campaign itself.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is definitely a surprise. An abhorrent surprise considering that this is a product of the same developers of Battlefield 1 and Battlefield 2, which itself is quite honestly difficult to believe. Battlefield: Bad Company 2’s campaign makes flaws in the gameplay elements apparent of lacking in elements such as believability and variety. Campaign missions rely on a deformed set of core gameplay mechanics that are dreadful at best and unfortunately repetition and lack of attention to detail leaves Battlefield: Bad Company 2 extremely antiquated. While multiplayer tactical adventure fairs better for the simple fact that it borrows elements from Battlefield 1 and straight from Battlefield 2’s unlockable weapon and ranks system, the gameplay is still plagued with problems. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 strides upon the same mediocre characteristic that Battlefield: Bad Company did: it solely relies on giving players weaponry, something to shoot at, and does not consider anything else to broaden the gameplay. With the first one being mediocre, and the second one following its stance, it is hard to believe in the Bad Company franchise. With all these heavy flaws of gameplay and $59.99 MSRP price-point, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 should be equally pointed straight to the bargain bin, and shot at.

The AMD ATI Radeon Sapphire Toxic HD 5850 brings a new era for increased level-enthusiasts to ramp up their gaming platforms to Microsoft’s DirectX 11 specification, while maintaining the core platform compatibility to use DVI-D, DVI-I, and finally HDMI for newer LCD monitors. The launch of the Radeon 5000 series has brought with it a change for consumers to meet not only a great price point, but benefit with the core integration of having features such as 1440 stream processors for every GFLOP unit and much more. Incredible design aside of the Toxic HD 5850, the AMD GPU launch of this latest card definitely quenches the thirst for a handful of enthusiasts from overclocking especially to pure stability per MHz increased.

The AMD ATI Radeon Sapphire Toxic HD 5850 looks incredible than the standard reference cards with a Cypress chipcore that is sleek and integrated on the main board. AMD ATI Radeon Sapphire Toxic HD 5850’s comes packed with 1 GB GDDR5 memory, heralded by the 4800 series, and packs 1 gigabyte and over 2 TeraFLOPs of processing power to give an enhanced edge on a 256-bit bus width. The Toxic is naturally overclocked to 765MHz / 1125MHz and Sapphire will be launching the Vapor-X model elsewhere in Europe. One of the best features of design for the ATI Radeon Sapphire Toxic HD 5850 is the cooler, which is a well-done cooler that is quieter than the standard heat pipe arrangement.  Compared to reference coolers, the ATI Radeon Sapphire Toxic HD 5850 cooler has a bimodal air distribution as the air goes through the front and rear of the card and not all out from the back, thereby dissipating the heat much more efficiently. The open-ended design makes cooling more efficient than having a fan behind the card for increased cooling.  The ATI Radeon Sapphire Toxic HD 5850 is definitely a greater card than the AMD reference cards for this line.

ATI Radeon Sapphire Toxic HD 5850 becomes a strong overclocking card with the OC label at the top of the box. With no toolset for overvolting, the volts remained at 1.088v. Using the AMD GPU Clock Toolset, we overclocked this to 145MHz on the core clock frequency and pushed an extra 80MHz on the VRAM frequency to 1195MHz. These overclocks are already in addition to the Toxic card default overclock set, which causes the games to be incredibly fast. The stability and quality of overclocking with the AMD ATI Radeon Sapphire Toxic HD 5850 is simply incredible for the price.

Power consumption efficiency in the Toxic 5530 is also incredibly well done.  The Toxic at 895MHz/1195MHz only adds a mere 25W and is still under the reference specifications released by AMD. In addition to great overclocking, the ATI Radeon Sapphire Toxic HD 5850 has very light decibel load to only 6 dB for sound at full-load while idle and maximum temperatures go from 36 degrees Celsius to 74 degrees.

The ATI Radeon Sapphire Toxic HD 5850 is simply an incredible buy for consumers looking to get the Cypress chip power with DirectX 11 support, Eyefinity power for multi-display processing, incredible overclocking and HDMI onboard output for an incredible power suite on a card that is ingenious as much as it is stable and prurient to enthusiast needs. What sort of release AMD is planning past the AMD ATI Radeon 5970 chipset is still to be seen and remains very promising.

We are doing a massive giveaway, as previously detailed. This involves 8 beta key giveaways from our Blizzcon Starcraft II Beta key stashes of our editors and correspondents themselves. In addition, 4 winners will receive a BioShock 2 Game Guide and we will upgrade select chosen ones to Limited Edition. If that is not enough, we are also providing a game giveaway with 4 winners and 1 grand prize winner (cannot be eligible for both contests). All of the contestants will be chosen from our e-mail pool and the only requirement is that the winners actively participate with us for over 4 years via e-mail, which will help to narrow down the millions of possible entries from our readers.

Starcraft II is irrefutably shaping up to be one of the best titles of 2010 in the RTS landscape, and this is all based on just what we have seen with one out of three faction campaigns.  Within this space opera adventure and sequel to perhaps one of the best RTS game of its time, Starcraft II lays a prominence which sways players into the nostalgic ruins of the lives of the terran, zertg, and protoss campaigns. We received our access to the single-player exclusive campaign preview January 16th, 2010.

Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty begins after the years of Brood War for the original Starcraft as the reprobate and vicious war placed between the iconic factions is still taking place: Terran space marines, Zerg maniacs, and Protosss aliens that are ready to slaughter anyone in their way. The heroic yet defiant human officer Jim Raynor finds himself in a dilemma with the human leader Arcturus Mengsk and his former stealth specialist lover that became the dominant Zerg hive queen Kerrigan. Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty shows Raynor is still trying to deal with the issues of the new threats and older rivalries. Considered a dangerous outlaw by Emperor Mengsk, Raynor is the symbol of freedom as he leads Raynor’s Fighters into battle against the totalitarian regime of Mengsk as first priority with almost all the hope and glory in the mindset. Suddenly, the TV monitor divulges details that the Zerg, having remained dormant for years, have resurfaced and launched a full-scale assault on sectors in the universe as the pernicious Kerrigan leads the onslaught.

Starcraft II gameplay interaction where players are able to choose missions through their choices and ultimately feel an emotional construct with Jim Raynor and how his character ends up, since multiple endings are part of Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty. The single-player campaign begins with a battlefield and a mission Raynor decides to choose. The mission types within Starcraft II: are designed to be varied and progressive, a more unique approach than the set pieces of Starcraft; early missions are concentrate on acquiring credits, munitions, and equipment while the rest focus on tactical advantages in the game. Rather than detailing the missions to an extreme, we will just generally detail two missions. The very first mission in the game acts as a tutorial and puts Raynor in the charge to head a small group of marines as they liberate a mining colony oppressed by Mengsk’s forces, and while the mechanics of the mission focus primarily on teaching you how to select, move, and attack with your units, the mission also serves to introduce the changed universe to Raynor. Raynor’s Raiders need to fight against other Terran marines in the Mengsk employ while avoiding the death of casualties of civilians who surround a holographic statue of the emperor. Another mission had an evacuation of a small medical facility dominated by the Zerg. Fighting across different outposts of survivors, we had to guard caravans as the Zerg attack ramped up and the medical officers contemplated the ferocity of the invaders this time around.

Starcraft II’s missions aim to have multiple objectives that can change over time and depending on the player choices throughout other missions. These missions are also supported with an incredible amount of in-game cinematic engine cutscenes along with picture briefings from various characters providing incentives and commentary face-to-face than COM-link to COM-link.

Starcraft II is necromantic from the gameplay aspects seen so far that are exhibited throughout every mission and choice, and to the core gameplay mechanics and storyline that is simply incredible at its inception in just a short glimpse. Starcraft II shows a lot of promise that seems to be in talented hands of Blizzard Entertainment.

Below is the invite to the beta we received January 17th, 2010 12:30 AM for our very eager, and incessantly e-mailing readers. Also, stay tuned for the big giveaway we are going to do with the Starcraft II Beta Giveaway. 8 very lucky people will receive a beta code for this [chosen from our readers that e-mail] which we obtained from Blizzcon 2008.

The world has evolved games into two categories that are both worth a closer reveal. The high budget ‘blockbuster’ titles can become very generic and live on an established name whereas smaller titles which are full of creativity just do not pack the punch compared to a bigger offering. Heavy Rain is a refreshing title that has the major themes of a large release yet has the innovation and creativeness within the storyline and production value needed to really make this stand out from the rest. Created by Quantic Dream’s inspiration from Indigo Prophecy and renewed sense of exploration and experiment, Heavy Rain takes psychological thrill with attention to details and dares to do things which other titles simply do not try. Unfortunately with such minutiae of details, Heavy Rain comes bundled with large errors such as generic voice acting, and a lack of combat interactivity for an action thriller that all take their toll.  Regardless of the issues, Heavy Rain provides a great sense of exploration and takes innovative steps to draw players into a fascinating story full of intrigue and mystery.

Quantic Dream always describes the story as an experimental narrative thriller when it comes to Heavy Rain. The storyline is dynamically split to a certain level and is told through four different characters all involved in the case of the Origami Killer: Ethan Mars – a father of two who is the real main character and the one the player gets to know best, Scott Shelby – a private investigator who is hired by the families of the Origami Killers’ victims to find out who killed their sons, Norman Jayden – an FBI agent, who is drafted in by the local police force to help them in their investigation and Madison Paige – a reporter who is doing her own investigating of the murders and gets caught up in the drama of her own cathartic experience. Each character’s story is intertwined with the other characters for a similar feeling to CRASH and it is not a choice for the player to decide from which perspective the story will be detailed through, an interesting narrative element choice but can present a limited aspect when given the already limited spectrum of 4 characters. As each scenario builds up the suspense, Heavy Rain uses different perspectives of investigation that gives a 12 hour experience over the differing storylines. The story starts with Ethan Mars in his home having a quiet afternoon in before his sons 10th birthday party that evening, which acts as a gameplay mechanic tutorial of getting the player used to the controls while also showing Ethan as a family man with a normal life. Something, however, happens to Ethan’s life forever and the story fast forwards to two years later which is the time in which the main story is set. Two years later seems rather ambiguous for an emotional connection within the storyline, but presents no issues in directly offering players the fact that there is a lot of tension built up by this time. Ethan now finds himself a part of another sad turn of events that percusses his life and embarks on a journey to find the Origiami Killer. Many questions are asked throughout the story: Who is the Origami Killer? How far will Ethan go on his journey? What happens at the end? Heavy Rain builds on this suspense within the gameplay and storyline while making sure the latter two have no real answer as each decision the player makes throughout the game affects the outcome of the story.

Gameplay is driven in Heavy Rain first and foremost by the storyline, which is the key concept of the entire choices and layout. Players walk around a beautiful environment that provides various interactivity options and can discover what the character thinks at special moments in the game, when he/she enters a specific room or scene, or is even conversing with someone in a ‘timed’ converse event (TCE). Heavy Rain and is primarily told by button-commands for conversations and actions with the environment in regular scenarios. Every single aspect in the suspenseful narrative of Heavy Rain includes investigation in one form or another, a key element that is blended across different moods and tones of gameplay than ever before and perfected in Heavy Rain. As the characters experience events, more interactivity builds upon structuring tension of scenario aspect elements that are furthered through the camera angles. The central control mechanism begins with the introduction of the Quick-Time Elements, similar to the same gameplay core followed throughout.  The QTE’s are very well implemented into the different motions of the characters and the majority actually feel like they map to a human body doing various actions. The QTE’s are also very clearly marked with flashing icons needing pressed several times, ones with triangles at the top needing held down, dotted outline needed careful movement and normal white outlines just needing pressed normally. Quantic Dream sets up the traditional Indigo Prophecy influence through real time camera angle showing different views for differing action scenarios. The character’s moods themselves also act to the intense action in which players carry out their moves. The players do not solely affect the characters, but the characters also affect the players and their actions to create a thaumaturgic effect.

Heavy Rain controls are decent for the most part but can present quite an issue when it comes to movement, an annoying factor in the game when combined with the different aspects of the environment to get a newer look. While holding down a button to see the environment in a new and different way, holding R2 down and having the right stick in a specified direction can be an issue. The game maps the movement differently when so many angles change and serves to confuse the player as to when the character suddenly turns around and walks in an opposite direction. Quick-Time Events themselves within Heavy Rain are unoriginal and not innovative compared to the storyline elements and presents a rehashed view of adding tension. Action and Tension, while both are well built in some areas of the game slowly through progression and character interaction surprises, are not about how fast a button can be pressed but should allow for more dynamic realism in the controls with an actual fluid fighting dynamic. Heavy Rain focuses on controls throughout but has double standards when compared to other aspects of the game where feet are mapped to rear triggers and provide a sense of some realism in the mapping.

While each character is different, certain characters have different abilities to their controls. One in particular is very keen on looking good, using great technology, and having a substance abuse problem.  FBI agent Norman Jayden is one clever fellow when it comes to investigative elements. He is armed with ARI: (added reality interface) prototype, which consists of a pair of glasses and a black glove that can detect and analyze DNA, certain traces, and footprint patterns in the environment in real time, something that is simply incredible and vivifies the CSI scene. The actual search for clues is probably the most tedious part of the game but once you have them and are sitting in your office searching for answers the virtual reality comes into play in full and makes you really want a pair of these glasses.

Graphical detail in the environments with Heavy Rain is absolutely fantastic and the actual character models  feel like they have a soul and have obviously been done by the work of an excellent mo-cap team with some strong physical acting and nuances. Unfortunately in the shadows of the killer’s wake lurks another terror in Heavy Rain: the voice acting. Heavy Rain characters can provide a great experience in the emotional expression through their faces while embarking on an incredibly detailed story, but the voice acting becomes stale at time and wholly uninviting.  The character’s thoughts in response to the environments are bland and the dialogue sometimes feels disillusioned in a gritty and realistic world.

Heavy Rain comes with an exquisite soundtrack for the tense scenes and musical tastes of enthusiasts. Heavy baritones build a tension and trouble that befalls a certain character, while sharp lapses in the euphonium takes a transitional scene into a whole new soundscape. A lot of Pensante instrumentals convey a heavy tone during investigation scenes combined with the emotional force of Patètico. Heavy Rain latches onto the suspense through the music but also the mournful, and abrupt by presenting different riffs with Spicatto and Mèsto to create short and very fast erratic musical scores that are parapsychological for the experience.

Heavy Rain cannot be called a game. Quantic Dream has created rather a great piece of interactive entertainment despite the very little realistic qualities of gameplay. An in-depth story keeps things focused, while the intriguing mystery and murders redefine a new category of gameplay where a game does not have to be a game in the traditional sense.  Heavy Rain is undoubtedly an interactive drama despite its problems that will entice and interest audiences to a newfangled definition of the word: interaction.

Collaboration by: Usman Ihtsham & Stuart Blair

Aliens vs. Predator showed a lot of promise during its creative façade with developer Rebellion. The balance between different characters seemed to be shaping up nicely and improving on the core concepts from the film, but ultimately Aliens vs. Predator has failed to deliver by providing a bland singleplayer campaign, and a decent multiplayer offering.  Aliens vs. Predator features three campaigns that give fans a look into all three types of species and thereby offers different types of play. Regardless, Aliens vs. Predator depends too much on the nostalgia of the previous titles to create a form of withstanding entertainment other than the sheer fact of controlling aliens of predators. While certain moments of the game are interesting, the game has too many prominent defects from gameplay design, to mission compatibility that is short-lived and receding fun. Miserably so, while gliding along the walls as an alien sees a short-lived joy, Rebellion’s newest addition in the franchise relies on recycled elements that disregard the game in its entirety.

Aliens vs. Predator has a familiar history: people find planet / a mysterious totem ritualistic crypt and bad things happen that transition into gameplay. Aliens vs. Predator takes the main appeal through three-sided campaigns of marine, alien, and predator. Each campaign has strengths and interesting factors to make gameplay great within the context of the storyline. The marine’s campaign revolves around an unnamed protagonist deemed ‘Rookie’ as their convoy crash-lands, resembling a typical shooter element storyline and something unoriginal on Rebellion’s part. Atmospheric lighting increase the tension as the environment becomes dark with xenomorphs. Aliens escape from their lab and have their own fun crawling around walls and what not, while Predator’s land due to a beam from the crypt and embark on a habitual rage.

Aliens vs. Predator only gets as fun as the simple features in each species type. The gameplay is dwindled down to a lot of the basics that are done poorly and tedious level design and gameplay becomes annoying. Dark thrills are interesting, but unfortunately there is no element of being the hunted as it sounds when someone chooses to be a marine. The environments get dreadfully bright, and kill any sort of tension in the core makings of a thriller, where the dark plays a pivotal role. Shooting is further terrible and there is no real audio-work for the death of the Aliens other than just a ragdoll animation. Apparently, melee gets intensely boring as that is all anyone will really need: melee, smash, shoot. Some levels add thrill, but in a badly designed way as they limit the moving space and make the gameplay feel cheaper than challenging if anything.

Online elements of Aliens vs. Predator revolve around the same gameplay concepts, but fares slightly better due to real people than similarly mediocre A.I. The online offerings are more delightful but are still struggling from the campaign’s mechanical flaws.  Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch allows players to mix species’ strengths and weaknesses, but ends up too linear in a level with just statistics.  In Infestation, one of the special modes designed to be fun according to Rebellion, starts off as an alien converts marines into xenomorphs. This is great and simply works well, but it can be rather annoying with certain maps that are too small for their own good. Predator Hunt is an advanced and upgraded version of tag in which one player begins as a predator tags another. The modes are fun, but are too traditional and seem to be heavily relied on simple numbers or waves of enemies like Survivor mode.  Lack of gameplay variety keeps most of these modes at bay.

Aliens vs. Predator unfortunately resounds a very mediocre offering from Rebellion and publisher SEGA, but it does offer some slight thrills oddly enough at certain moments of the game. Poor level design and lack of attention to detail in terms of gameplay of every species and overall mechanics makes Aliens vs. Predator one for the bargain bin.

Look above you as hundreds of people are parachuting towards their objectives. MAG reveals player ipseity through central command and engaging 256-player online matches that are a sight for the eyes to see. MAG is another wonderful creation from Zipper Interactive and Sony Computer Entertainment  (SCEE) to delve players into the strife of combat and the grueling circumstances in which it revolves.  While skirmishes are close and personal on an objective-based scale, MAG provides the thrill of bullets flying through the air and teamwork at an apex that is hard to withstand. MAG is without its problems such as small repetitive elements throughout the overall tone of the game, but becomes completely exhilarating during the moment. MAG undoubtedly presents a prodigious look into warfare and combat through an immense venue of a lot of squads and too much action at the same time. MAG is filled with objectives for different teams, formidable enemy squads, incredible map design, and a lot of opportunities to use individual skills and teamwork along with objective coordination to earn a powerful reward: the feeling of being a soldier and fighting for a greater cause.

Every player is required to choose a siding faction within MAG which involves three private military companies: S.V.E.R., Valor, and Raven.  The appurtenance of the combat is due to the world being engrossed in a Shadow War in which military contracts and facility wartime creates a competitive edge in the capitalistic world. Each faction itself comes with different customization options relating to appearance, weapon choices, and newer attitudes on the Shadow War. Zipper Interactive creates a sense of variety with these 3 limited choices to create a great personality that missions and MAG’s game design can work off.

Player design within MAG is monumentally important with faction-based gameplay at the core. Enlisting with a faction requires that a person stay with the faction and show loyalty at all times. MAG creates a level of teamwork and recognition not just through the battlefield or a simple lobby, but it also keeps players persistence and dedication to gaining a +5% bonus for their faction over another with a camaraderie of friends in the same faction. Players can choose to group up in one faction or players can choose to create varying teams with friends for different player profiles. Once players advance to level 60, they can change their faction for a new career type. Player design incorporates various maps that are central to certain factions that ensure different fronts are protected from the enemy. Every map for each faction has a different layout with four fronts and has its own challenges. While this can be great, there is a small amount of map repetition that can be exhibited despite the great level design. Luckily, this is nothing that a bunch of planned map packs cannot solve.

MAG mission structure in the key map areas involves four types, with only two being available at the beginning of the career Rookie stage. Supression is the typical team deathmatch mode while Sabotage presents players with a challenge to hold their own capture point, while attacking two other points from another faction to unlock and destroy a third point. These two introductory modes are 64 players only and give the audience a challenging look into the future as 64 slowly changes and grandfathers its way to 256 players in one map as part of MAG’s monumental battles.

The next modes become Acquisition (at 128 players) followed by the key gameplay element: Domination (256 players). These matches still focus on 64 player battle intensity in a certain quadrant of the multi-quadrant map that still manages to create an aptitude and concentration as part of the larger war. In Acquisition, the attacking faction tries to infiltrate enemy territory, steal a vehicle with wartime goods, and return it to their home insertion point. Acquisition can be quite intense as the quadrants are less than Domination and there are 2 quadrants in 64 player divisions as opposed to 4 that Domination makes really engaging. With Domination, the offense has to dominate a series of objectives to gain capture points which need to be kept in order to win. With not only mission-intensive objectives, the battlefields also contain strategically focused objects such as Bunkers for armored refuge on the front lines in addition to providing a haven for supplies. Turrets and sensor arrays along with mortars allow central rank-based Commanders in each unit to engage combat abilities while motor pools provide vehicles for mobility and further firepower.  These facilities are critical defense outposts and can create a tremendous impact with the small close quarters combat with varying factions. An opposing team can plant charges to or destroy the material goods to weaken another factions resolves. Repairmen with a high enough rank can fix these and the battles can be extremely significant and engaging as players fight to survive, support the team, or control individual loadouts to gain ground for their faction.

Zipper Interactive really focused on MAG gameplay and mission design solely by making sure command structure is a key element. MAG has tremendous shooting mechanics and controls to compliment gameplay which becomes both rewarding and enticing when it comes to command structure. With matches of 256 players, command element is important and beyond simple mission structure and design. Command gameplay design comes in the variety of squad leaders that can designate a target for the squad to engage. While staying near a squad leader, player receive an additional boost to their abilities such as reload speed and resistance to certain enemy damage along with the most notable form of advantage characterized by double the experience on the battlefield. When a squad leader actively creates newer targets, the players can keep close and the gameplay element is ramped up to a nostalgia that emits camaraderie within the squad only seen by one other title so far on the PlayStation 3 – SOCOM: Confrontation.  If a leader is not doing the proper job or the tactical advantages are not enough, squad members do not have to rely solely on rank and can nominate someone else if the need arises. Like Commanders, these Squad Leaders have access to localized abilities such as localized strikes, cluster bombs, and poison gas along with more diverse and broad help such as Sensor Sweeper and Bombardments.  Platoon leaders and Officers In Charge can voice chat with everyone on command and provide immense gameplay abilities that might not be as advantageous as Squad Leaders.  Role diversity and command design in MAG is completely incredible and well worth the time spent in-game fighting enemies despite a repetitive element in mission design.

MAG creates not just differing kinds of soldiers from Squad Leaders to Platoon Officers, but also it furthers a level of camaraderie in working for the team that has been exhibited on a more massive scale. While MAG may seem a lot like SOCOM: Confrontation in creating a beautiful atmosphere of wartime camaraderie and squad life, it is based on an entirely more massive scale with a different gameplay design and more strategic elements for different rank structures. MAG carries through not just an experience of war itself, even if it may seem repetitive to a point, but in addition an experience of teamwork, tactical dimension, and coordination unrivaled.

1968 has never been so cold and the water never this damp. Awaken as Subject Delta in 2K Marin’s BioShock 2, the sequel to BioShock that introduces the gaming world to an unraveling Dystopia in which philosophical individualism and seeping autocracy haunts the flooded corridors. BioShock 2 takes a very daring road to build upon the exotic backdrop of BioShock in which a plane crash lands the Protagonist Jack Ryan to the mysterious underwater world of Rapture. 2K Marin valiantly creates a new and recognizable atmosphere into a completely different storyline that evokes the responses through totalitarian dictatorship, improved gameplay based upon similar game interface as BioShock, and furthered incredible variety when it comes to the chills and haunting images that Rapture exudes. BioShock 2 furthers improvements and shooter mechanics beyond the first one and continues to up the par with a multiplayer mode from Digital Extremes. While something about the atmosphere, however, is not quite on par with the first title as things seem all too familiar and lose their substance that made the microscopicity of the original so daring, BioShock 2 still creates an atmosphere that is engaging and still very much provoking.  BioShock 2 incontestably creates an atmosphere that is prominent regardless of the familiarity that veteran players might feel and new players might not completely believe.

Hastily inscribed upon the walls of Adonis Spa are cries for a lost religious overtone in a philosophical narrative that is all too real. “Fallen, fallen is Babylon,” the great kingdom that was once the vision in the latter part of the third millennium, and it was here that the Bible says God confused the languages of mankind. Impregnable to incredibly different degrees of religious notions, Bayblon was lost in a bewildered flood of the Euphrates River from the Persian advance. The air is familiar as Subject Delta awakens in the decaying Adonis Spa in 1968. It feels like yesterday that you were with your Little Sister Eleanor Lamb through an unbreakable bond. As Subject Delta, one of the original Big Daddy protectors introduced in BioShock, you seek out to find Eleanor that is sending you troubled signals of being held captive by her mother:  the totalitarian Sofia Lamb, who took influence of Rapture after Jack Ryan departed on his own in 1958. Sophia Lamb is undoubtedly more different than anything Andrew Ryan preached as the wealthy founder of Rapture.  While Sophia Lamb may not be a shockingly similar match to the deep-rooted and downright maniacal beliefs of Andrew Ryan, she shares a level of disturbing presence engrossed in her own personal and moral philosophy that makes the senselessness of her persecution even more radiant.

BioShock 2 incorporates gameplay heavily through story as the original with a beautiful didactic narrative but comes with some inherent problems in the storyline progression. One of the central introduction aspects WhatIfGaming became concerned about makes itself known once again: the question of how BioShock 2 incorporates and furthermore pleases not just veterans but also newcomers of the game but also newcomers alike. 2K Marin assured that newcomers will have an equal experience as veterans of the series in terms of storyline narrative, but there are core storyline progression elements from BioShock that BioShock 2 simply does not touch upon. The first game focuses on the immense discovery and building façade of mystery on the city of Rapture and the downfall dynamic that engrosses any player who still plays it to this day. Unfortunately, BioShock 2 misses out on taking the same level of intrigue and placing it into the game in terms of microscopic details.  To fully understand the new game, players need to have prior knowledge. Some ancillary reading is hidden either in the menu or the tapes / tutorials of gameplay elements, but unfortunately it is not as powerful as incorporating these into the story directly.  The issues in terms of storyline do not end here. There are also issues in terms of the origins of Subject Delta never being truly explained along with the factors of key characters that played a monumental role of the first game being lightly delved into the sequel. Another problem that manifests itself is the lack of emotionality within BioShock 2. While Subject Delta wants to find Eleanor with tidbits of memories consistently being presented throughout the game, there is no real emotional construct to rely on other than the fact that the game simply bases the entire journey upon finding Eleanor Lamb. Despite these prominent issues, BioShock 2 still continues to present a strong case of philosophical undertones that furthers the psychological barrier that has already been established by the entire premise of the storyline.

BioShock 2’s mission structure revolves many enemies and few gains that create a survialistic nature in the horror-torn Rapture. Like Babylon, there is a lot of ADAM and an increased level of struggle with Lamb’s cult of Splicers, former Citizens of Rapture that went mad from using a drug called ADAM to give them superhuman abilities such as lightning shock and swarming bees. The ten years between BioShock reveals the splicers have gotten slightly religious and are more disfigured and confused with an even more dangerous combination than just disfigured.  Splicers encounters come with the typical enemy types from the first game which includes wall-latching splicers and teleporting splicers in addition to the fearful brute class splicers that throw concrete. Subject Delta soon reveals that he himself can use ADAM by injecting it into one of the situation cores in his suit (used to lock the Big Daddys in their suit and their body). ADAM is obtained through the unforgettable Little Sisters that made the first game iconic, brainwashed children under the aura of Rapture. Little Sisters discover various ‘angels’ or ADAM infused corpses to drain with EVE hyponeedles. The Catch-22 here follows the fact that each Little Sister is guarded by a Big Daddy that does not let another Big Daddy remotely near his ‘daughter. Once defeating the Big Daddy, it is up to Subject Delta to decide what to do with the little girl that cries and mourns for her lost Daddy like a poor orphan. As a Big Daddy, you can choose to ‘Adopt’ the Little Sister by placing her humbly onto your shoulder or sacrifice her (through murder) for ADAM. These two choices are constant throughout Rapture and the option to choose on the spot similar to the first game really extends upon the consequences of the choices players make. From here, if Subject Delta chooses to adopt the Little Sister, he can help the Little Sister to keep collecting ADAM while making sure to defend her. One interesting thing about BioShock 2 is the way the developers keep this aspect of the game astounding, through either momentary twists or dynamic variability with enemies to keep BioShock 2 from being one big escort mission.

Combat in BioShock 2 is extended with certain improvements but stays close to the original and traditional. ADAM can be spent on DNA plasmids to gain access to psychokinetic and potential powers with which players can freeze people or hurl fireballs. Gene Tonics make a return to create enhancement to certain passive abilities such as faster movement speed, quieter footsteps and more.  Combat options are not limited to genetic variability but extend to weaponry as well.  Since Subject Delta can dual-wield weapons, the combat feels more fluid and dynamic than the first game. This allows players to keep an active defense in one hand while creating a level of hard-earned damage with a gun on the other.  As players continue into Rapture, they can upgrade plasmid guns and add tons of improvements to give certain weapons secondary and tertiary abilities to grant bonuses.

BioShock 2 introduces the series’ first look into multiplayer that presents BioShock 2 as ‘part prequel in Sequel’ —with gratitude to our contact at 2K Marin for spilling the details the day the first teaser came out. Players will be the citizens of rapture that have joined the Sinclair Solutions Consumer Rewards program for self-defense to test various weapons and plasmids for the war between Andrew Ryan and Atlus, his nemesis. Multiplayer modes are pretty standard such as Team Deathmatch and Deathmatch with Capture The Sister as a capture the flag counterpart where players try and capture a crying Little Sister from the enemy.  Maps are set in notable locations from the first BioShock and multiplayer remains challenging while also adding more for players to accomplish into the game.

BioShock 2 is undoubtedly a great game with amazing improvements despite dismal issues with storyline and continuity for newcomers. Rapture continues to be the underwater city with a baroque style movement that creates the atmosphere for the continuing storyline. Sophia Lamb and her Family are constantly out to destroy older parts of Rapture to eliminate any of the remaining ego that Andrew Ryan possessed, while creating an even more interesting approach to religious backdrops of rebirth and retribution for the sins of Rapture and its existence as a whole.  The haunting atmosphere of Rapture carries through with the story embedded in the environment – the details being on the walls with crayon, neon markers, or sketchy chalk. Writings in the surroundings and the context of the storyline are undoubtedly still as disturbing as before regardless of the storyline flaws affecting the atmosphere and tone. Rapture remains an underwater city that still is impossible to escape as the struggle for Subject Delta to find humanity seems impossible in the environment. The city is undoubtedly perturbing with incredible gameplay improvements, voice acting, and soundtrack scores that make the surroundings in BioShock 2 as memorable and horrifying as ever.