Sgt. James Heller was infected with the Blacklight virus in a subplot that was never revealed in the original title, but is the essential premise of the new title. 14 months have since passed by and New York is in a terrible condition than before. New York Zero is a quarantine base and the military is using Heller to hunt down Alex Mercer and kill him once and for all. This action itself leads from a viral destructive mayhem momentum to gameplay mechanics in the moves itself. Sadly, the real problem with storyline is not the actual cutscenes with narrative elements, but what Prototype 2 is missing: real dynamic variability when it comes to character and plot development. A lot of targets have no real background given to them, and a lot about Prototype 2 borrows too much from the same mechanics of flashback storytelling which leaves more to be desired.

Prototype 2’s gameplay staple focuses on a lot of combat and button mashing, but moves have been more streamlined than its predecessor to encourage moves that are fluid and easy as much as they are destructive. These powerful moves become stronger the more you have a chance to delve into the upgrade system which involves a system exactly identical to the last title which helps previous players accommodate easily to the new game’s upgrade system. Mission structure itself is a problem that blends together with storyline development which could have been so much more. The mission control objectives are straightforward A to B to C and the linearity of the system accounts for more of the actual gameplay portion than anything else. If Activision added more plot twists than before including gameplay elements that shifted and were more challenging, missions could be worthwhile in the carnage of it all. Of course, this comes at the paradoxical quality that the person with Blacklight viral components is vastly superior to any military force, so to claim the game is not challenging enough comes with its own statement of ridiculousness.

Prototype 2 largely bases itself on Prototype, but adds moves and fluidity that is more appreciated and that were desired by a large fanbase of Prototype. Even then, Prototype 2 has its issues but it also provides great action for the consumer that needs it the most: viral destruction.

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City has officially made itself one of the worst Resident Evil titles I have come to play in a long time. Strong words for a title that deserves much more from a franchise that has set itself on the basis of atmospheric horror and mayhem. Terrible gameplay mechanics, a spotty online matchmaking system, and even a badly designed campaign storyline hardly add to the lack of things this title has to offer. Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City could have had an element of shock and twist if done right, instead everything about this just gives a bad name to zombies worldwide.

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City follows a bland introduction narrative of the outbreak in the view of Umbrella Security Service, those in charge of making sure that Umbrella’s name was not sullied in the process of the virus experiments. The storyline campaign is the weakest aspect of Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City. One would think that Capcom and developer Slant Six Games would create something noteworthy out of this, but the only thing that is clear from this is that Resident Evil 6 is the focus in terms of storyline, while Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is for quick money to fuel that project.

Regardless of a terrible storyline aspect, gameplay mechanics also play into the disappointing array of showmanship in developer efforts. Inventory slots are attributed to directional pad and ammo cannot be shared between a partner, which is rather odd and uninteresting in terms of survival. As players run across this short game of 12 levels, they soon find it is mostly just a corridor shooter in which the shooting is lackluster at best. Run and gun gameplay has always been a requested feature for main Resident Evil titles, but this one fails at doing that properly and makes us wonder if this is for the best that premiere Resident Evil titles do not feature run and gun. Either the developers cannot pull off run and gun, or are just too lazy to do it properly. In any case, if someone is bitten by the massive horde of terrible zombie A.I., they become a zombie which is definitely welcome, but then they run around frantically which feels more like a gimmick than anything. All of these disappointments can be summarized in a short paragraph, but their effects are long-lasting and nothing short of disappointing.

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City’s versus mode besides the equally disappointing campaign cooperative mode carrying through short and terse single-player elements is another major disappointment. As if fighting zombies is not enough, players have to fight each other or race towards an objective for XP points that contribute towards better weapons and better abilities in multiplayer campaign or versus. The entire skill tree is badly worked out and the fact that it even exists for single-player cooperative campaign is confusing at best and ineffective. Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City tries to provide something in a zombie game, but hardly does so.

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is definitely the worst zombie title to be released in the franchise and dare we say one of the worst zombie titles we have come close to playing by a major publisher as Capcom. Hopefully, Resident Evil 6 will redeem Capcom as it truly seems Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City was just a backburner title and nothing else.

Commander Shepard slowly walks away from the spaceport window in glory, called to the battlefield once more to finally end the Reaper threat and take back earth. BioWare’s Mass Effect 3 seemingly is introduced as the finale and the grand exit of Commander Shepard in the planned and conclusive Mass Effect trilogy, but nothing is preventing this series from saga potential in the future. An entire new weapon arsenal, an innovative new inventory system, and not to mention deeper pre-save variables in the RPG action narrative and adaptation to play styles has made Mass Effect 3 a game that far exceeds the reach of previous title of the series in some ways. In other ways, however, Mass Effect 3 keeps to a formula which is too similar in terms of combat and the in-between of the game’s narrative which is lackluster. While multiplayer is lacking to respects of originality in cooperative mode rewards and transitory elements, Mass Effect 3 includes multiplayer for the first time which is more than welcome even if relatively mediocre. Mass Effect 3 has encapsulated somewhat of a vision that takes the core elements of the original Mass Effect and infuses it with newer graphics and improved gameplay for a relatively decent Mass Effect experience but certainly not the one most people have been looking to for heavy improvements for a final title let alone a dialogue journey.

Mass Effect 3 carries on after the assault of the Reaper base from Mass Effect 2, where Shepard’s last words were of a continued struggle which was undying and imminent in what the Illusive Man stated as a “time of war.” As for the storyline itself, playing over 8 hours of Mass Effect 3 makes one thing immediately clear: there is less of a Gears of War with dialogue options spin given here, and Mass Effect 3 really does feel more branched than any of its predecessors in terms of a converges reasonably than just predetermined endings regardless of specific choices. While there are clearly still limitations to telling a predominantly linear story, there is more decided personality to Shepard with less dialogue options to choose from, which is perhaps the most disappointing Mass Effect 3 element. In previous titles, Shepard was anyone we made him but still held some core beliefs, now he seems more like a predetermined robot with cinematics in storyline. Mass Effect 3’s storyline is more improved regardless, and the play style of narrative gameplay eases the difficulty of combat so certain story lovers can focus more on story and less on hard rail-shooting combat.

Combat itself in Mass Effect 3 has little changed in core mechanics in comparison to the change that Mass Effect 2 made to the original Mass Effect. Inventory has been integrated into the GUI more fluidly which is great rather than constant stat-checking items and armor. The battlefield mechanics are sadly still similar to Gears of War, which while not a big burden in Mass Effect 2, is definitely dated here and now. Regardless, there is a fluidity that the combat has in terms of increased enemy Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) that is more improved from the past titles. Enemies are quicker to respond, and their coordination is faster. Weapons are largely improved with any class being able to yield any type of weapon with a moderate limit, and powers themselves are relatively the same but the skill tree is larger and more varied for Mass Effect 3 with more than Rank 4 powers in two variations of a specific skill. Nova, Lift, and Carnage are newer powers that have been added to mix up variety in the power skill tree.

Online aspects of Mass Effect 3 are the worst. Downloadable content (Day 1 DLC) is charged, which is rather disappointing despite Mass Effect 2’s initial DLC free models. EA’s Origin service for PC and Xbox 360 (reviewed on) is essentially stifling with bad lag and the whole Online Pass trend with consoles is something that seems like a market control to prevent people from playing a used game at its fullest. Multiplayer in Mass Effect 3 leaves little to say about it. Online cooperative mode involves simplistic objectives and is rather linear for the same type of mission. Players create new characters and there are leveling trees for weapons and powers which is a confusing mix as it involves having a character for multiplayer separate from the singleplayer. While this seems like a feasible idea, the result is a largely confusing and haphazard mix of two individual characters that split the uniformity of multiplayer to be optional and almost completely useless. Optional is a good thing, but useless is another thing entirely.

Exploration within Mass Effect 3 involves traveling around the solar system to unite allies for Earth’s recovery and this itself is grand on its own with the narrative tale. Space combat exploration, however, is one aspect people have been asking for repeated change and one that has been noted as stale at best and sadly while BioWare changed this they failed to largely change enough of Mass Effect 3 to make this aspect seem plausible of a $60 purchase. Graciously, they did not include too much vast amount of ship exploration and this is a relief but for a game in its third iteration, players are looking for a change that is realized and there does not seem to be a lot of it going on in terms of exploration.

Mass Effect 3 has done several things right in way of improving a formula that made the franchise so successful by adding more variables for a dynamic non-linear storyline, and better balancing out the elements of pacing in terms of storyline to combat and back. Sadly, there are just too many familiar elements after a long wait and they remain rather unoriginal from combat to a tack-on multiplayer cooperative element. What is worse is this: the dialogue is virtually nonexistent now. There are far too many few choices, and this seems like a Dragon Age 2 mediocrity all over. While this formula for the time had its pros and cons, it was exciting and fresh in Mass Effect 2 for a step up and beyond in terms of action. Mass Effect 3 tends to strictly adhere to elements of its past structure and also detract from what made them work, which essentially weaken it as a whole in terms of something newer or even similar. This does not even seem like Mass Effect. While the gameplay storyline elements are the only real aspects which have been improved in fluidity in terms of deliberate cutscenes and Shepard personality, the rest seems dwindled down and there needs to be more than slight tweaks to keep a title in the AAA category not to mention lesser dialogue options. While Mass Effect 3 is a runic title in some regards, it falters in other places that could have been much more. Commander Shepard departs from the windows of his spaceport valiantly in pursuit of regaining Earth and saving humanity once again in the universe of Mass Effect 3 which presents a world half-lit and half-dark.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 is all about the search for Lightning in a journey through the vortex and magic of time and the consequences of fate. Final Fantasy XIII-2 is definitely one engaging RPG, but just comes off a little short in terms of its display of pure RPG elements that really elevate the gameplay to a whole other level. Decent action, and a lengthy and impressive storyline with more relaxed gameplay elements are incredibly effective, but something still seems missing in the long run with a heavily popular and anticipated title that could have been so much more.

Final Fantasy XIII-2’s storyline takes place shortly after the conclusion of Final Fantasy XIII, where Lightning is still in search for her sister Serah after she was placed in a crystalline prison. Lightning is locked away in a different realm outside of Valhalla, caught between a time struggle that she cannot escape and an enemy force of nature. The tale follows different protagonists Serah and Noel, with lesser focus on Lightning and former villain antagonist Caius. Noel heralds from a time in the future, where Cocoon has been shattered with the Pulse long before the events of the original title. When arriving in Valhalla and witnessing Lightning and Caius battle furiously, he manages to get whirled into the past where Serah resides, giving hope to the other protagonist of Final Fantasy XIII-2. Having witnessed what becomes of the world in this Final Fantasy iteration, Noel plans to change the future while Serah humbly just desperately clings to her sister’s memories and the realization of heart that she is and always will be alive, albeit in another time zone.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 sadly still focuses on one word: linearity. There are definite advancements in terms of the gameplay when it comes to time hopping nodes (which is padding at best) and some city-wide free exploration elements, but everything still feels rather restricted when it comes to the actual pacing of the elements. Gameplay wise, narrative fuses more seamlessly than ever, which is something that a lot of people can be thankful for, especially those people that spent $60 on the original game. Party system is relatively similar to the originator title in terms of its turn-based style, but there is more cohesiveness in terms of the moves and the reflectivity of how well they work off of each other. Regardless, Final Fantasy XIII-2 needs a lot more polish for a game that has so much potential and yet that which is never realized.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 does bring about a better and newer sequel to Final Fantasy XIII, and in many ways tries to stick to traditional elements without being overbearingly difficult, but there is the rub – it seems to come off hodgepodge in terms of its features. The wide consortium of various elements going on make it a confusing mixture for RPG players that naturally expect so much from such an established series, but sadly will leave players wanting a lot more for their dollar.

Star Wars: The Old Republic heralds the collective embrace of the mythical and metaphysical binding known as The Force to a reality of the galaxy which took 7 production years in the making. This binding element introduced in George Lucas’ acclaimed Star Wars franchise relives with Star Wars: The Old Republic in the hearts and decades of devoted fans that have waited in patience for a Star Wars Massively multiplayer online game that holds true to the genre in terms of tradition meets reinvention. While Star Wars: Galaxies aimed to do some of this, it largely missed out in terms of its difficulty, uneven balance of character development, and lastly a lack of true community features. All the hard efforts by developer BioWare, makers of the Knights Of The Old Republic and Mass Effect franchises, has determinately been envisaged in Star Wars: The Old Republic through a level which is redefining and a prescience of elements that utilize classical Massively multiplayer online (MMO) game genre staples and combines it with storyline that is similar to Star Wars: The Knights Of The Old Republic in its excellence of style, attention to unique elemental and metaphysical surroundings, and an environment that is designed as beautifully as it is filled with people of different cultures in the Galactic Arms and the fight between the Light and Dark.

Dates: 11/20 – 11/22 (12:00AM – 11:29PM)

Star Wars: The Old Republic has proven to be so vast and expansive, that this review promises to not just be one of the most conclusive reviews on the internet, but also one which is continually updated as needed and one which can serve as a brief guide to the vast expanse of Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Star Wars is undeniably popular, and Star Wars: The Old Republic makes it clear that the queue times are something that are first to appear. Regardless of this, the game begins with no problems after a queue on the servers of 200 people. This approximately took 8.35 minutes for login, which is rather tiresome if accidentally disconnected during the game, but nothing that is not worth waiting for and something fans will not mind. The storyline of Star Wars: The Old Republic is immediately made translucent in terms of detail, and considering developer BioWare added this fourth main important staple that defines their MMO experience, it is something dozens of writers have clearly worked out on.

When I asked Dallas Dickinson (the game’s Director of Production) about why this specific time in Star Wars chronology was chosen, he simply said:

“Well, it makes sense. At first the team did struggle with trying to find a workable idea into the storyline, but it made sense that for many Jedi to be present, it would either be years before or years after the sequence of the films. The latter would only serve to hinder any sort of actual dogma, so we went for a prequel, where the end questions were.”

The fact is that everyone wants a lightsaber, but this made sense for the team at BioWare the most to write a MMO that is more of a prequel to a saga of massive scale and character depth already established.

Star Wars: The Old Republic begins at a time after the Great Galactic War, 3,500 years before the rise of Darth Vader, where the Sith Empire resurfaces but there is a definitive ceasefire between the two forces of the galaxy. The Great Galactic War has shown that the capture and Sacking of Coruscant is the last powerful move by the Sith in forcing the Republic in its coup de grâce and these rising tensions set off the various class storylines that BioWare crafted individually with many writers. With this level of storyline detail and believability in the lore, true Star Wars fans will not be disappointed in the offerings of this massive multiplayer online game looking to reshape storytelling in a journey where the player is key and not the leveling systems with grinding.

Dates: 11/23 – 11/26

It all begins with the subscription pricing model. This is where Electronic Arts have served to clearly confuse a lot of people, and something which needs to be elucidated. Subscription pricing models need to be added to an account on top of the Game Product Code, which is the actual physical game key with a 30 Day trial. You must use your credit card to add a subscription. Most people assumed that EA does not allow for anything else to avoid paying upfront without getting their full 30 days, but they allow Pre-Paid Game Time Code (60 days), should you not wish to add your credit card details – however this confirms you spend money on 60 extra days. Instead, the best option is to add a payment method (which we did not have to do) and in that way you can easily cancel before Day 30 (hopefully you do not for BioWare).

BioWare’s billing plan does not charge any amount on any payment method until whatever pre-paid/automatically redeemed time is used up, so this is the benefit in securing themselves from spammer accounts that signup just to spam their business on the text chats. One thing we received a lot of e-mails about was the following: “You have 29 days left.” If you get this message, it means you still get your full 30 days up until the hour you registered time. If you redeem at 9:00 PM PST, the game system will renew 30 days later at the same time (not by days or actual nights). Once this is all done – it is time to get into BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic with a game client. The game client is undeniably hefty with a supplemental download of 18.7 gigs, but the great scale of this MMO in terms of graphics at 18.7 GB for a massive world with even cards at 768MB video card RAM is great for medium-high settings, which is something we tested extensively and will not be detailed here.

The gameplay mechanism is the highlight of Star Wars: The Old Republic, creating one of the most memorable experiences for players and something which BioWare promised to take seriously with traditional elements inculcated. Creating the character is one of the main important steps in creating a storyline that is so uniquely specific to race and even class. After choosing a faction between the Sith Empire or Galactic Republic, Species and Classes are diverse and not overly complicated, which for a beginner makes the learning curve moderately easy of the Star Wars lore that takes place well in advance of Darth Vader. Species include: Human, Chiss, Cyborg, Twi’lek, Miraluka, Sith Pure Blood, Rattataki, Zabrak, and lastly Mirialan.

These Species choices are sometimes limited to certain classes, where not every species can be used for ever class and rightfully so. Each of the species comes with an inherent ability, one which becomes important later on in the starting abilities sector of the gameplay. Once class has been chosen, players set out on their own beginning planet and lore in the Star Wars: The Old Republic. Classes vary in terms of specific inherent talent trees and also the names between the two warring factions in terms of class organization. Galactic Republic comes with four classes, each more specific than the next and multivariate in roles. Essentially all classes can use damage, otherwise nothing would work, but there are classes more specific to damage/roles and better to suited to some than others. Jedi Consular is the force-sensitive user capable of Tank/Heal or DPS (Damage) roles in a group setting. The Jedi Knight serves as Tank/Damage or Pure Damage class with little tanking abilities and more for support and controller skills for larger enemy types while the improvisational Smuggler utilizes its Damage-only blaster role or the Heal/Damage role for backup support in any group setting. Similar to the Smuggler, the Heavy armor brute of the Trooper carries a variety of heavy cannon-based weapons to decimate foes or a sniper rifle for massive critical shots in the heat of the crossfire. On the Sith Empire side, the roles are similarly interchanged for the ruthless Bounty Hunter, the cunning Imperial Agent, the skillful Sith Inquisitor, and lastly the vengeful and raged Sith Warrior. No matter what class you choose, every class and its respective storyline combines with gameplay for a memorable journey that a lot of MMOs have missed out on in terms of content distribution and delivery.

The rampantly paced action-adventure in Star Wars: The Old Republic makes use of the central quest progression gameplay structure system which has a central dogma in storyline development, and accentuates the magnanimously created concept that storyline and MMO can finally combine with voice acting in full dialogue choices. Players are not only the actor of their own journey, but they are placed as their own director with the uniquely crafted cinematic directional cameras placed for every scene. Star Wars: The Old Republic quests all revolve around the realistic dream of actual people in a world that is beyond our own. The characters all have a story to tell, and this is something the developers must have paid meticulous attention to when creating worlds and areas with the various voice-actors and their respective dialogues. In the Mission Log, quests are added on a list, with colors and preferred level choices recommended to complete quests (orange being the hardest and grey being extremely easy). Should you happen to find yourself having missed a quest at level 10 and coming back to it at level 40, you will not get the same experience points, which is something that is just and fair. The leveling system itself is not a fast one like DC Universe Online or other MMOs, rather it is more similar to World of Warcraft if not a bit harder past level 30 with the maximum being 50. Players can advance not just by doing main quests, but also side-quests which are more than a combined 400+ objectives.

Quests themselves are the critical reward and storyline progressional element that every MMO seems to be missing in the way of read-only A to B quests, but with open-world and dynamic quest system with terrific voice acting, Star Wars: The Old Republic shows a remarkable difference in how much higher the game’s quality becomes when storyline quests are meaningful in choices, and moreover consequences with voice acting aside. In between quests, you get bonus quests for certain mobs for terrific Experience Points (XP) which are used to level up your characters. Quests can currently be done in groups with same-class players (provided an option under preferences is turned on) but only one person can help a person in his/her quest first, without the other person being able to help back in an already completed quest (this will probably be fixed). Quests will eventually require players to start on one planet, and branch out across the solar system in search for being the best they can be in their eventual path, whether it is Jedi, Sith, or Revanite. Quests for end-game in higher levels range on to two categories: Flashpoints (repeatable) and Operations, flashpoints being done before 50 in worlds at a time. Flashpoints are themselves story-driven action experiences with a group of four players, which places them against Champion or Elite mobs of the same level as them (much harder to kill even a few levels above for one player). There flashpoints also offer better rewards, and better loot drops similar to raids. Operations take place post-level 50 and involve 8-16 man objectives that involves a lot of teamwork and comes with their own sets of rewards. Tionese (Rank 1), Columi (Rank 2), and Rakata (Rank 3) gear are the highest Player versus Environment (PvE) sets available and require extensive operations.

Quests involve a very branched storyline dialogue option choice, and there are multiple and hundreds of points in the game which involve awarding players with Light Side points or Dark Side points. Nothing is exclusive in the ways of the Force. Light side players can be morally corrupt, whereas Dark Side players can be as morally adept as a Sith is willing to be without any killing. All of these play into ranks that are respectively termed as “Light Side X (I,II,III,IV) or Dark Side (I-IV). Not only do players get a mark that show who their character is but moreover what their character looks like dynamically, with their face becoming disconcertingly evil if bad.

As the missions progress, players will run along with Companions, which are people with their own stories, alignments, and capabilities of becoming corrupted, or just outright hating whoever they are with in terms of the player. Han Solo had Chewbacca, and Anakin Skywalker had Obi-Wan. Companion roles are filled with incredible variety, whether they are  flirtatious, combative or  just plain adventurous, they always find a way to add to the adventure and may not always agree with your choices. They all have a reason for being with the player, whether it is greed or just rallying for a cause. It is these motivations which add to the substance Star Wars: The Old Republic has to offer. Companions come with their own set of gear that can be handed down to them or fully equipped new gear as players see fit.

Star Wars: The Old Republic instantly feels like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic I and II in its level of gameplay design and moreover combat utilization. Ground combat is perhaps the only element which feels a bit dated at times in Star Wars: The Old Republic, due to the point-click system with typical damage bars and what not over enemy display indicators, but then again this feels traditional and something that can be easily adapted to at the same time for veteran and new MMO players alike. Combats involve abilities that are given as “starting abilities” for each class and progressively advanced through levels. Every class has its own type of control system. Warriors have Rage costs while Inquisitors have Force Cost, while Troopers and Imperial Agents have ‘Ammo/Heat Costs respectively.’ This ability cost system is straightforward and though while not necessarily new or inventive, falls into the traditional classification of combat that Star Wars: The Old Republic wants to be known for in order to pull not just veteran players but new players that have played some MMO in the past.

Dates: 11/26 – 11/30

Space combat is also a bonus within Star Wars: The Old Republic, which includes daily space missions once players obtain their very own ship. Similar to Star Trek Online, Star Wars: The Old Republic has kept ship customization rather meticulous in terms of modifications of ship parts and different types of ships as the storyline progresses per class. Fury, XS-Freighter, D5-Mantis, Defender, BT-7 Thunderclap, and the X-70B Phantom are all the included ships, with more to be announced in future DLC. In the times of the Great War, shipbuilders made many types of unique designs of not just ships but also various technological enhancements that can be obtained through in-game ship vendors or made by other players in the game that focus on making parts and modification enhancements including Shield Armor, Energy generators, and much more at different grades. Each grade corresponds with a certain mission that recommends specific armors. These ships can be taken on daily space missions for XP, where there are objectives which require destroying certain turrets or escorting someone based on the type of mission. These all vary per space type. Combat control feels natural, and with added expansions for missiles that can be bought along with EMP generators to make ships stronger and more hard to take down, the space combat in Star Wars: The Old Republic is quite the innovation.

Dates: 1/1/12 – 1/8/12

Star Wars: The Old Republic carries cohesiveness of the elements into its item design as part of the gameplay and questing structure. Rewards give not just items for players and their companions but other inventive materials and much more that can be used later as players progress. Items form the natural pillar of any MMO whether it is armor, relics, ship parts, companion-specific armor, weapons such as lightsabers, vibroblades, sniper rifles, double-bladed lightsabers, all of which are the natural introduction to gameplay progression.  The combat direction in Star Wars: The Old Republic is central to not only what your character wears in terms of armor, but also how well a character performs in his/her class and power set. Sith Marauders make use of dual-wield lightsabers, and Inquisitors use force powers which require great force-bearing light armor. Armor ratings are the core of your companion and yourself, you naturally can buy better items through commendation vendors that have a higher ‘Rank’ which is based upon certain factors if the item is moddable (Orange): Armoring, Mod, and Enhancement. These 3 form the basis of item modding in Star Wars: The Old Republic, which effects the following statistics (primary and secondary): Strength, Presence, Aim, Cunning, Endurance, Willpower, and Expertise. Extra stats that unlock as secondary stats include Alacrity, Accuracy Rating, Absorption, Critical Rating, Defense Rating, Force Power, Power, Shield, Tech Power, and Surge.  Alacrity currently seems to be a rate haste effect, whereas accuracy and adsorption and the rest are straightforward in how they absorb attack and deal critical damage. Different statistics become important for different classes at the primary level while secondary statistics improve overall gameplay performance.

There are no such things as rare items which you may find being sold for millions that is necessary, except for some exceptional gear which must be earned but it truly feels like there is a vast array of special items for any and every class. Star Wars: The Old Republic has created so many varying types of items for so many different classes and types of play-styles (stealth, mobile trooper, stationary mercenary, etc.) that it all feels undeniably just and equal in the end whether you are a level 10 or a level 50 compared to any other level 50 of the same class. No two players are alike and this sort of unmatched item variety has only been seen in the most established MMOs to date that have been out for years. Star Wars: The Old Republic has prevailed in establishing a critically solid and vast foundation that should take years to create within just a few days of its launch, a memorable encompassment that is indelible in game MMO development.

Crew Skills is one of the most important aspects of any character’s gameplay and involves the following chart to map out crew skills. Many crew skills exist for different aspects, most of which fall into one of three categories: crafting, mission, and scavenging. Players can only have one crafting mission at any time or devote themselves to a hybridization of either for monetary gain, or specificity in their types of production (armor materials, epic materials, etc.). Crew skills level up starting with 1/400, 1 being the minimum and 400 being maximum. Examples of crafting includes Armormech, Cybertech, Biochem while scavenging includes Bioanalysis, Treasure Hunting, and more. These crew skills can be leveled from the beginning, but takes extensive effort and moreover a lot of time and precision of planning between three skills to advance them to 400. This, along with a level cap requirement per tier for crafting makes crew skills something which not only takes a lot of time, but requires you to be at specific levels like it should. Crew skills are no cake walk, but when done they can be exciting. By level 50, most people should be half way in all their skills at the very least.

Star Wars: The Old Republic Player versus Player (PvP) mode is another aspect of Star Wars: The Old Republic’s game design, all of which with reward items that make a significant portion of PvP experience points reward system and specialized PvP armor-sets that is found in the universe. At the level of 10, players can gain access to Warfronts, essentially Star Wars: The Old Republic’s PvP battleground. Many classes come to merge here, but this is where the problem lies in some essential elements. The most glaring problem of PvP is not that the XP was recently ‘nerfed’ (lowered to make aspects harder) which results in lower XP, but more so the lack of variety and choice with combat PvP. Alderaan Civil War, Huttball, and the Voidstar are currently only 3 elements being offered for PvP, which if inventive would have been more significant. While the matches are well thought out, the lack of choice is a problem that should be expressed in way of a patch allowing players that want to play PvP modes the way they want to play it. This does, however, seem like a way for BioWare to make sure there are no dead modes that people avoid so it is arguable if this will be done. Class problems emerge when it comes primarily to PvP balance for certain classses but most noticeably two: Sith Marauder/Jedi Sentinel and Bounty Hunter. There is an enormous problem is the notion of the glass cannon that is essentially our level 50 Sith Marauder class. Complaints are rampant about this class in Star Wars: The Old Republic with  PvP mechanics exclusively for lack of abilities for crowd control aspects and moreover lower cooldowns for slow mobility effects. While being Bobba Fett is amazing, it is very clear from PvP currently that the Bounty Hunter class is going to be nerfed (Something we tested extensively in warfronts) as they are currently able to spec not into just all sorts of roles (DPS, Tanking, Hybrid etc), but it is currently the one class which has a number problem in its advantage for survivability and health alone; This is something which is certainly overpowered otherwise in its abilities.

These two significant outcries aside, Star Wars: The Old Republic PvP has one thing going for it that may garner mixed feelings from types of players: the ability to play with level 50 players without the need for artificial boundaries or bracketing. While we do not necessarily love the bracketing system as it would limit players from playing with their friends much later in the game, but there should at least be a devoted post-50 Bracket with better rewards for players. Rewards for PvP players include not just XP and Valor Points for ‘Valor Rank’, but also commendations of two types: Mercenary Tokens and Warzone Commendations. Players can then trade Warzone Commendations for Mercenary Commendations with a ratio of 1:3 (1 Warzone for 3 Mercenary Tokens) at the PvP vendor near the PvP quest terminal who also sells Champion Gear Bags. For each 200 Warzone Commendations and 200 Mercenary Commendations, players can purchase Champion Gear Bags that contains either 1 Centurion Commendation and 1 Unassembled Champion Piece (usable to purchase Champion gear) or 3 Centurion Commendations. This is all random chance. On top of this, players can gain Battlemaster bags by chance as well through daily PvP quests (which are 2 so the chances of full Battlemaster is difficult). Battlemaster Gear Bags contain Battlemaster equipment or Champion Commendations and can only be used with a maximum valor rank in PvP of 60. Currently, gear ranks with Centurion being the lowest, to Battlemaster coming ahead of the mid-selection and still intricate Champion armor. From the PvP terminal players can get some daily and weekly quests (only at level 50). Every single daily PvP mission completed will award players with either a Champion Gear Bag or a Battlemaster Gear Bag (your choice). When players complete weekly quests, they are awarded with 2 Champion Gear Bags and, depending on their daily PvP choice, another Battlemaster Gear Bag or a third Champion Gear Bag. All of these selections and the way they are attained has to be one of the best PvP types of rewards we have seen. Every effort is rewarded for end-game PvP content (or mid-game PvP even if you cannot open the Champion Bags). Hopefully, BioWare focuses more on improving PvP aspects and refining certain classes (Marauder and Bounty Hunter nerf) rather than changing their rewards system which provides a strong incentive for PvP.

Dates: 1/8/12 – 1/21/12

BioWare has just released patch 1.1 which features Rise of the Rakghouls and a PvP change of a bracket for post-50 players. There has definitely been a substantial change between the PvP mechanics when it comes to health, but anyone below 50 and hence below Battlemaster Gear is still around until they hit level 50, which will be quite a problem going up against veteran players that have established gear since Early Access. Currently, BioWare is planning a new warzone, warzone selection, guild banks, and hopefully upcoming buff to classes of the Marauder. We have yet to get the specifics on this buff but this was confirmed to us by BioWare. In addition to these PvP geared focus changes, BioWare has implemented a change in gear bags. Now, Battlemaster Gear Bags contain Battlemaster commendations, which is much more fulfilling for gear than rare equipment token drops. Regardless, the most common of this Battlemaster Bag dailies are the Champion Commendation drops. As for the 2 part storyline content we have played to with Rise of the Rakghouls, not much has changed. There are still significant PvP improvements BioWare has yet to make.

Dates: 1/21/12 – 2/08/12

BioWare has undeniably changed mechanics in terms of PVP both sub-level 50 and 50s PVP. Level 15s can easily compete with level 49′s, but there is a definite gap in PVP Expertise gear that remains to be seen. With the latest updates, BioWare has also favored elimination of the random number generator element in bags, notably only the Champion bags, which provides not just Centurion commendations but finally after a long request Champion commendations, closing a gap on newer 50s and older 50s that have been geared with Battlemaster focus. Ilum itself is a World PVP planet that is still exhibiting some sort of issues but has been patched to prevent gold farming. In any case, most of the hard modes and raid operations are extensive but sometimes can feel like much of an unnecessary grind, but one that is welcome when it comes to epic loot drops. In any case, this is the portion where we finally wrap up our exclusive Star Wars: The Old Republic Review in continuation with more details throughout the months in a semi-yearly column by one of our correspondents (more than likely yours truly) in covering this game which has brought the Star Wars universe into a reality that Star Wars Galaxies never could.

Sony has not only become one of the biggest names in film entertainment, but also one of the biggest publishers in the current industry for entertainment in the evolving interactive video game medium. As of 2010, Sony set out on a mission along with many other like-minded companies such as Samsung, LG, Panasonic, etc to provide mainstream consumers with what we term as the “3D-Craze” in stereoscopic display blooms. WhatIfGaming  has been devoted to all thing 3D and unlike most other entertainment publications has been covering 3D for more than 10 years since 2000 from conventions to 3D technology industry events (3DFF, etc). This means those 1950s DVDs with the 3D glasses. Naturally, when Sony released this product November 10, 2011, it was essential to cover this highly enticing 3D TV set for any consumers for Christmas season and holidays, especially given what Sony claims to offer. We have conducted the most rigorous tests anyone can on this $499 MSRP 24” Sony PlayStation 3D TV bundle using our 2 sets in-office for reasons of control, quality, and multisampling. While the Sony PlayStation 3D TV is enticing for consumers who cannot necessarily pay more for a higher quality entry 3D-TV set, it comes with some noticeable problems in the testing rounds which should serve consumers to think three times before purchase. Colors are not saturated accurately, the reflective glare of the LCD coating is an abysmal problem, and the very notion that the 3D is even being utilized for all purposes is generally missing despite the “FULL-HD” moniker. Sony has made a 3D TV that is decent for a 24” TV set if it were priced at $199-299, but something which does not feel like it is even worth half of what more superior entry-sized 3D TVs offer at $499.

The Sony PlayStation 3D TV comes with a sleek black casing design that is similar to the stylish offering of a PlayStation 3 minus the substance. The PlayStation 3D TV does not come with a remote, but similar Sony branded remotes can work if you have a Bravia set laying around the house. The actual casing itself feels rather cheap, however, with a thermoplastic polymer alloy of polyvinyl, similar to earlier computer monitor casings but the outline of the housing does not matter too much in terms of functionality which the main importance of any review, especially a TV that offers a newly introduced mainstream technology that people just caught onto post-Avatar in their homes.

The Sony PlayStation 3D TV underwent few standard tests utilizing 2 screens and respectively 2 separate pairs of glasses. For this TV, we tested color saturation assay using Tripheynalmethane with direct capture off HDMI 1.4, accuracy of the frame-hertz and 3D imaging given various media tested from Avatar Panasonic 3D Blu-Ray, to Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception.  To start off with, color saturation in the digital scope is something that most people, reviewers included, fail to grasp. Color pigmentation or contrast of colors is essentially the value of a crystal diode being emitted by the current LCD source through the backlight being emitted through the liquid crystal medium. It is impossible to accurately claim colors as “vibrant or rich” without establishing some set of method to test this directly. Human eye-sight can only perceive about 200:1 contrast. This means for every full on pixel there is at least 1 out of 201 that is less than ideally lit. Considering only WhatIfGaming has ever done this test, we feel we have a handle on things. We tested the actual backlight function on a piece of white paper covered with Tripheynalmethane (an expensive chemical). For the less science enthused, this is a common polymer used in medicine to test the relative wavelengths of light through a sample of light emissions. The higher the wavelength, the less accurate the backlight is even given lighting conditions change person to person. Testing the Sony Playstation 3D TV’s light emission using a direct source exposure reveals something surprising: the contrast ratio and the actual quality of the backlight is cheaper than the more expensive but non-1080p TV screens. Likely, at $499 they had to downgrade this aspect of the screen immensely, considering most 3D-entry TV’s at ~$1000 start at 4x the wavelength at 850nm. One thing has been established: the colors themselves and the backlight themselves are relatively cheap and undersaturated compared to even high end lower contrast models. This is one thing buyers have to be wary about and it is critical. Even if it offers 2000:1 contrast in theory, the TV can ever only put out any deep color variances in a very limited range.

This screen’s accuracy and sharpness of colors gets more degraded when the active-shutters are used and the immense glare LCD coat is put to the test. Active shutter glasses constantly cycle between two frames in a dimensional analysis cross in the hypothalamus of the brain, creating the 3D variance seen.  Sony claims a “FULL-1080p” experience, but realistically at 24” and considering most of the Sony 3D video game titles such as Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, Resistance 3, and Killzone 3 are sub-3D. The utilization of the TV is just not there, which fuses with the other important critical point that the TV itself is not harnessing 3D accurately at 24” or even at all with sub-3D upscaling which somewhat falls on developer support itself and not the TV. This is not to say the 3D TV is not capable of actually outputting 1080P, but in terms of 3D 1080P per eye, the shutter cycling is a big problem.

In terms of actual 3D 240Hz quality, during testing we noticed a 3D Transmitter lag in the shutter frames, where there is apparent blacks appearing at high-action sequences. We further tested out the hertz of the frames using a physics imaging software and the cycles of hertz actually varies from 100-120Hz, which explains for the drop time to time. This actually counters the claim that the Sony PlayStation 3D TV is a full-120Hz constant shutter system.  As a TV itself or a PC monitor, the Sony PlayStation 3D TV is great for $499 and up-close 3D viewing of Blu-Ray films (where the 3D is just as incredible on full-sized 3D TVs minus the actual power of a bigger screen), but at $499 one can easily get a 50” standard LCD TV that is better in color, and quality.

Throughout testing, all the weaknesses of the Sony PlayStation 3D TV led to one question: Is getting a $499 TV with tax that offers little 3D use even worth buying for the holidays or at all given the the 3D itself is not technically “FULL-1080P” and downgraded by the monitor’s small size, shutter inaccuracy, and lastly weaker colors? The answer, while we fully can appreciate Sony’s push for 3D TVs in the low-cost markets, is simply: No. We cannot recommend this set even to people desperately wanting a cheaper 3D TV, as it is not worth its value in price. 3D projector displays that utilize shutter technology would be a better investment. This $500 can definitely be better spent elsewhere for consumers. If anyone is too desperate, then they may just want to go with a Samsung PN50C490B3D 768P 3D TV or the more superior 40”+ Sony Bravia 3D TV models that are much better priced in terms of quality and film entertainment use.  Sony continues to make strides in the higher-end 3D TV models when it comes to stereoscopic technology, but they should definitely stick to doing what they do best and price accordingly. This does not cut it.

The sound of guns and the call of your fellow soldiers perturb the air as the quick jolts of bullets whiz by in the air pockets away from audible sense. These are the sounds of Activision and Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and it is a title of realistic skirmish proposition. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 utilizes the same extensive and genius formula that made Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare an incredible success while taking the core foundational changes of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops to reinvigorate life into a newer and greater title. Singleplayer campaign mode is extensively chaotic with large and daunting set pieces, multiplayer is the best it has ever possibly been with just the right fast-paced amount of new additions along with Call of Duty: Elite services, and the dauntlessness with which Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 lives up to its name by keeping integrity with all of the prior titles shines through like a beacon of design achievement.  Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is unequivocally not just a title which lives up to its expectations, but a title that is the best first-person shooter for every hardcore and casual player. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 sees no shortage of shooter action and entrusts gamers with an august sense of thrill and graceful combat.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’s storyline is the best we have come to see of any first-person shooter in 2011. Taking place on a global scale from United Kingdom, Germany, and even France and more, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 brings a macroscopic storyline that spans the complexity of world political tensions which all are best known to be included in previous Modern Warfare titles. It is clear that the Russian invasion continues on the lands of the United States, termed respectively as the Battle of Lower Manhattan. In all of this mess, Captain John Price returns to continue his search for the infamous Makarov. Meanwhile, the Russian invasion makes it necessary where a team of highly trained and extremely important experts come into the political foray through Delta Force Metal. Keeping true to a call-sign that distinguishes the raw element of metal and the strength of its bonds, the Delta Force team under command of Sandman is unleashed in New York City to hinder the Russian forces in the territory of the East River.  A Delta Force team call-sign “Metal” under the command of Sandman is deployed in New York City to repel the Russian assault along the East River. Soon after, what takes place in political affairs and tactical espionage creates the enrapturing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 adventure everyone should play at least once.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has gameplay which balances in such a fashion that it transfers directly from singleplayer to multiplayer brilliantly through all types of modes. All of the singleplayer storyline missions tie in some way or another to strengthen the player for a multiplayer experience which is something Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 makes sure to tell players: multiplayer is not the only thing it has but it is extremely just as important. Multiplayer in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 comes in two essential outlines, from a more cooperative based Spec Ops to the competitive multiplayer that continues making Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 the best first person game in terms of sheer fearless gameplay with a stroke of grandeur of game mechanics that are simple and more satisfying than previous Modern Warfare titles.  Spec Ops delegates 16 missions that are supplemental to the events of the narrative legendary sequences, giving more of an idea of the actual background third parties involved with major events. Spec Ops missions are decent, though while not as lengthy as the main campaign missions, they are sufficient.  Spec Ops also enlightens one of the newer and best modes available that draws influence from Call of Duty: Black Ops Wager Matches for CODPoints. Spec Ops is just a rare nonpareil in everything offered in the exhaustively comprehensive Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 offerings. Survival mode challenges a pair of people against multiple waves, which is not necessarily a new or innovative idea, but the execution is formidable and nothing short of thrilling. Spec Ops profiles are separate from the competitive profile, and comes with its own unlocks for weapons, attachments that show variety and equipment that can help when in a tough spot at Wave 12+. The economy of Modern Warfare 3 is the most interesting and encapsulating influence from wager match types. While no money is wagered this time around, Spec Ops includes a money system where hotspots give players weapons, ammo, and survival essentials from their personal money pool. Best of all is the camaraderie and notion which sticks to the true concept of cooperative play is the fact that money can be shared with a partner if needed for their own sake. This Spec Ops is a dexterous portrayal of how much more exciting and intense competitive action can be, especially if A.I. is so smart and believably redoubtable in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’s cooperative multiplayer comes with 16 maps of varying types from the game’s single-player campaign and more different maps included and soon to arrive through confirmed downloadable content, which is one aspect of sales Activision always succeeds in. Modes include traditional options in Team Deathmatch, Search and Destroy, Capture The Flag, Headquarters, and Domination.  Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’s multiplayer comes with two newer modes Kill Confirmed and Team Defender that are immoderately fun in how fast paced they are in terms of thrills. Both of these modes are revitalizing to team action and moreover plenty of reason for more people to use communications like real soldiers. Kill Confirmed was initially announced at Call of Duty XP, where it was presented as a gametype similar to Team Deathmatch, but with two teams competing for dog-tags. This slight change in game mechanic from simple killing to killing and confirming the death of a victim as is military protocol style is one that is creative and thought provoking. Teams can also respectively recover fallen teammates dog-tags for an even more contesting match, where XP is directly based on dog-tags recovered by each team.  Team Defender is a literal translation of an entire team defending one person on their side that holds the map’s flag the longest. The first team to hold the flag the longest to reach a score limit or the time limit with the highest score will celebrate victory. Points awarded in all of these modes are where the mass attention of the entire first-person community of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is focused.

Ranking in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is extremely detailed and comes with its own changes that makes the multiplayer experience prevalently eloquent as a system which offers undeniable variety across statistics tracking and online services through the optional Call of Duty: Elite,  enhanced leveling refinement, 3 Strike Packages, newer and effective Perks, weapon proficiency to increase particulate carnage, exciting and sometimes rather humorous Deathstreaks, Theater Mode, and lastly a Prestige Shop. Call of Duty: Elite is the latest and greatest in hopes to acquiesce a community of like-minded individuals in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.  The service provides statistics, weapon load out overviews, match tracking, friend stats tracking, and an incredible amount of Premium features that will be covered in separate articles beginning 2012. Compete, Improve, and Connect are the three major facets of the service, and each provide a straightforward look into its category. The Call of Duty: Elite system itself for non-subscribers covers statistics tracking and helps players to converge their gameplay styles and analyze them effectively in terms of kills and much more.

The leveling of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has been focused and tweaked slightly, but these slight changes amplify the refined sense of gameplay through strike packages, perks, and weapon proficiencies. Earlier titles, particularly Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2 came with Killstreaks which are essentially rewards to strong players for multiple kills. Now, Killstreaks have been phased out for pointstreaks in the Strike Chain system, where custom classes can also utilize pointstreak progression. All of these pointstreaks can be used with one Strike Chain per package. Assault, Support, and Specialist packages have weapons and bonuses from UAV to “Predator Missile” and “Juggernaut Recon.” Amidst all this killing, Theater Mode is back for players to save clips and what not for their friends and family, creating a boasting aspect for players worldwide as they choose. Perks have been added, and the extensive list is available at the official Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 website or in-game. Perks for players who are not aware focuses on special abilities players are granted on their load-out to help with the game. This perks system has stayed the same in terms of design, and Infinity Ward knew to remain loyal to a system that many have loved for years. Weapon Proficiency is the weapon customization feature introduced in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and is the most demanded feature by community members of the franchise. Weapons can now be especially leveled, and have their own set of sub-perks. These “proficiency perks” aka proficiencies allow for upgrades and special abilities per weapon, causing players to choose wisely in a gun to invest their time in. The selections of proficiencies range from a list which includes: Kick for reduced recoil, Speed for light machine guns, and breathe for assault rifles, just to name a few. Simplifying the design to be more impactful, only one proficiency can be placed on a single weapon and only primary weapons are capable of proficiencies, not secondary which balances overpowering.  As players level up, they will eventually hit Prestige. Every Prestige has 80 levels to the next for a maximum of 800 leveling chances. This is 4 times the amount in comparison to previous iterations. Once hitting Prestige, there is more benefits to just the badge/emblem or titles accompanied with special ranks. The Prestige Shop offers awards to be claimed, from Reset Stats to Double XP and tons more included and some planned. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 heralds the strong philosophy we have deduced from the Call of Duty franchise, and it is a philosophy where people are more than their ranks when it comes to the over encompassing experience. At its essence, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is about the freedom of choices and the utilization of perks/strike packages/awards through ranks that only make it possible.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is the best first-person shooter experience of 2011. No first-person shooter matches up in terms of its scale, weight, and dedication to refined change but moreover controlled change in a franchise that many have come to familiarize aspects of and still want to see progress more than ever. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is here to stay and become yet another classic in a franchise that has managed to capture the real characters of the battlefield and the quintessence of anything entertaining to a distinguished form.

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations reveals everything in a storyline epic title of the year that took more than five years to complete. Ubisoft Montreal has kept the same action as its incredible predecessor from Assassins Creed: Brotherhood, the title which focused on the next adventure of Master Assassin Ezio Auditore da Firenze. Multiplayer action is still fast paced while a bit more refined, and the singleplayer campaign mode is just as adventurous and bloody. Regardless of these aspects, single-player mode does suffer from a few inherent flaws but manages to make a title that is quite possibly one of the best Assassin’s Creed titles to date. Altair Ibn-La’Ahad and Ezio Auditore da Firenze show the world that being an assassin is just the beginning in what becomes a title all about revealing everything in the secrets of the Assassin order.

Ezio Auditore da Firenze is in Italy where we last left him after 1507 and killing the Borgia influence for good and solidifying the Brotherhood. He soon embarks  on a journey to Masyaf, Syria – the home of Altair Ibn-La’Ahad seeking more from the Piece of Eden. A conspiracy largely unfolds, and there begins another mystery. The storyline of Assassin’s Creed: Revelations is unlike any other title in the series. Assassin’s Creed focused on Altair, while Assassin’s Creed II and Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood focused on the Assassin order and the rise of Ezio Auditore da Firenze and the mystery of Altair while solidifying a brotherhood to kill Borgia. In Revelations, players finally play a storyline with the return of Altair and Ezio together, not to mention the animus-strapped Desmond Miles, a test subject taken hostage by modern day Templars and then consequently liberated in later titles. These 3 storyline arcs meet an apex and converge to a grandiose ending that is simply something which must be seen. The storyline dynamic is fused throughout cinematics which are more refined in real-time and lastly the gameplay where different anachronistic portions of the game fuse together like an abstract mystery novel.

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations changes the formula that made Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and Assassin’s Creed II encapsulating titles very slightly, hoping not to stray away too far into a confusing game. Some changes are small refined segments, whereas some in particular are overhauled segments of gameplay itself. These changes for a sequel are largely decent, but do come at a price. Button layout has been changed, which allows players to select a secondary weapon on the load out as as well as a primary weapon. This has undoubtedly been the number one most asked change by any fan of the Assassin’s Creed series, and it is simply a great boon that Ubisoft decided to finally include this with all the gameplay combat mechanics. Now Ezio can toss a bomb and attack at the same time, or throw knives and attack right away without causing a disconnect for a wheel-menu layout.  Weapons are largely the same and include guns, poison, and a new weapon called the hookblade. The hookblade is a new way for Ezio or Altair to reel in an enemy, creating for a more realistic environmental sense of danger. Bombs can now be crafted from ingredients, which are variable in their effects but not as necessarily effective or meaningful.  All of the weaponry changes and layout enhancements were helpful to Ubisoft in aiming to perfect the title. Den Defense is a mechanics change in the territories region of Constantinople, Newer territories now focus on reacquisition by generals. Once conquered, they are no longer incapable of being retaken. Territorial defense is a system Ubisoft included, and it feels more like a RTS than an actual function of the game that seems to be important or even meaningful. While still a rational inclusion (considering enemies do not run away forever), the territorial system of managing assassin’s to guard land holdings that Ezio has becomes a bit stale. Ubisoft could have excluded this and produced a more meaningful gameplay change with minor improvements, even if the title feels more similar to Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood.. This is in no way deleterious, however, but with any new title people expect more changes for the better, not slightly detracting considering no title can ever be without the need for improvement.

Multiplayer within Assassin’s Creed: Revelations is delightfully fun and exciting. While leveling up back to level 50 might annoy some, this is standard with multiplayer games and Assassin’s Creed: Revelations is definitely a more enthralling multiplayer experience in comparison to Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. Various new modes such as Team Deathmatch and Artifact Assault (capture the flag type mode) have been added along with classical modes seeing improvements in gameplay. 2 Vs. 2 partner modes previously found in Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is also part of the game dynamic but matchmaking has improved in connectivity. Multiplayer aspects of games in today’s landscape come with cooperative mode (which mind you WhatIfGaming has been urging developers to do since Halo 1 and Xbox 1), and a straightforward competitive mode or either of the two. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood came with an opening Templar CG and competitive/team-based objective modes. Abstergo Facility now has a storyline in multiplayer, and allows players to delve into the history of the Templars. Assassin’s Creed: Revelations answers the calls that many have wanted in the multiplayer aspect. Customization options include animation changes, taunts, designs, and more. The interface layout has been improved and streamlined to also include weapon sets. Gone is the GPS with a blue indicator for targets. Now, a picture appears of a target to assassinate, which will proceed to vary from latent to beating and flashing blue when closer to the target. Punching/Counter dynamic in terms of defense counter has finally finished the unfair timing between punches. Not only improving the animation lag, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations announced contested kills bonus which is earned when counter and kill occur at the same time, giving the stunner “Honorable Death.” This also effectively places a negative effect on a person that does a contested kill for 30 seconds, which is excellent for balancing the gameplay between respawn times. All of these kills and bloody massacres go towards new Abstergo credits, which are awarded to players to buy items from the Abstergo shop.  Assassin’s Creed: Revelations multiplayer is undoubtedly the best one in the series, and makes the game worth the purchase even if for multiplayer alone.

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations comes with minute changes in the singleplayer adventure and a corpus of new features in multiplayer that makes for an assassin action adventure that is completely liberating to play. In contrast, Ubisoft Montreal has added Defense Den which is not the strongest of changes and actually serves to deter gameplay when an assassin is constantly out to defend his territories. Even with whatever changes, positive or negative, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations creates the same game in Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood but refines it with better storyline direction, more plot twists but this time one with a definitive conclusion, and finally multiplayer with the most requested features to date. Assassin’s Creed: Revelations may have kept to the formula and tried to keep safe in its gameplay campaign design, but it still tells a tale that is worth the assassin name. Bloodshed, justice, and the convergence of historical lore brings Altair Ibn-La’Ahad, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, and Desmond Files together in lustrum to create best Assassin’s Creed title to date.

Saints Row: The Third brings back the mayhem and rather “unique” nature of a franchise raunchy for references to sex, doing anything virtually naked, and engaging in a lot of chaotic heists for respect that can have hundreds of ways to go wrong in the city of Steelport. Saints Row: The Third is an excellent open-world sandbox adventure that is undeniably better than the first two, and is a game where the adventure is rampant even if the graphics are not extremely impressive on consoles. PC users get the full benefits of a world that aims to be a fun place and moreover a dangerous place, especially with mod packs and community features consoles cannot see the light of day with. While it may not be as glamorous as it is on consoles, Saints Row: The Third provides incredible over the top action, a decent storyline, and lastly cooperative gameplay modes that are worth not passing up if you are into over-dramatic action sequences and just pure bravado in some aspects of a video game that strives to be utterly insane.

Saints Row: The Third, like its predecessors, is all about the notion of rising to the top. By rising to the top, Saints Row: The Third envisions it as absolutely taking over a city and causing chaos, whether it be running a tank through the street or parachuting from planes gun blazing. As the leader of a group called the Saints, you are responsible for their rise to success and destroying anyone who comes in their way. The Saints have been caught during a bank heist job by other competition, and their monetary value goes down to nothing as their accounts are hacked and the only other choice left is to climb back to the top, no mercy included.  Storyline within Saints Row: The Third is not particularly the strong point, but it involves a lot of character humor that is refreshing to see with jokes and voice acting which are believable. Lastly, getting rid of the ridiculous respect system to progress through the storyline was the smartest choice Volition made when it came to Saints Row: The Third. Even if the storyline is not as developed, there is an ample amount of things to do in the city of Steelport itself and this storyline introduces these concepts in a way that is unique and original. Rob a bank, go broke, and then steal a car and reacquire street respect worldwide.

Creativity is where Saints Row: The Third flourishes, and character customization is one section that is apparent of this besides gameplay. Every character in Saints Row: The Third is affected through their actions in gameplay. Punch many people and you will become muscular, eat a lot and you will become pretty fat and less toned. This dynamic character system of the game’s engine (not the same Saints Row 2 engine) is fun to have and adds a level to the game. Customization can be done with slider controls for most parts of the facial and body features, while hundreds of hair selections and other add-on choices come bundled with a need to be unique. Hair styles go from insane to business casual. Taunts and happy stances can be changed throughout the game but mostly come with crazy words and dance moves that are definitely entertaining.

Saints Row: The Third gameplay can best be defined by the word undefined. Saints Row: The Third has completely changed its style of the game in terms of quality and gameplay design. With this level of change, the HUD is minimal and button indicators are reflective and shiny during a cinematic real-time scene. This change really brings out a cinematic nature with Saints Row: The Third (where PC graphics are leagues above the console counterpart thanks to DirectX 11), and it is a change that creates sequences that are realistic with all consoles. There are so many things to do in so many different ways, every person will find something unique that someone else will not in the way they do things. You can jump out of buildings through Diversions, and engage in many activities that form the main mission structure. Insurance Fraud, Mayhem, and assassinations are all in a day’s work. These missions are blended with major deciding factors that tie into the storyline and allow for multiple ending types in every playthrough. While the missions themselves are mostly run-and-gun with a mixture of over-the-top cinematics in between, the camera angles in real-time are perhaps the most impressive of the epic set-pieces that make up mission plot twists and a lot more for major storyline quests. Camera direction and better graphics (PC only) make this Saints Row the best in the series, and while that may not say much considering the series itself has been relatively not so exciting or great, it has finally reached a level that is engaging for a video game anarchy title.

Steelport is the new base for the Saints. Sick of marketing and campaign nonsense with their name, the two members of the 3^rd Row decide to regain the respect of the Saints Row name. Weapons within Saints Row: The Third can now be upgraded, rather than being big glowing icons on the street, which are undeniably bland and unfulfilling. This time, there is a level of depth to the action that Volition previously failed to achieve, and it is exciting to see a title redeem itself in any part of the series. Vehicles range from cars, planes, helicopters, aerial jets, hover bikes, cars, and many more special vehicles that can be found. The vehicles blend into the theme of chaos and the excoriating need to be daring. Vehicles themselves control realistically, and this is a relief to see in a sandbox game that is focused on fun but also serious about other aspects of believability as well.

Freedom and expression are central to Saints Row: The Third this time around; Carnage, butt nakedness, explosions, jumps from high buildings or through windows, dressing up in weird costumes, and a lot more are all transferrable in a full open-world online cooperative campaign/free for all mode. You can do all of these with a friend, which is something that is exciting and great. Of course, there are flaws with graphical hitches and also the fact that players cannot choose specific gameplay campaign quests to relive (or replay). Players will have a lot of fun in online cooperative mode through the main campaign cooperative mode or other party like modes included. Saints Row: The Third keeps fun in multiplayer even with its problems.

Saints Row: The Third is an overly inappropriate action title that fans of the appropriate and inappropriate will find enjoyable. Adult toys and all things aside, Saints Row: The Third provides a compendious amount of good content with ingenuity and fun. The third title in the franchise does not come without its flaws, but it also comes with a lot of improvements to a title that is all about doing things freely and without any cause. Freedom is naked with Saints Row: The Third, and when anyone plays it, they will not care if they are naked in reality or not. It is all still good fun.

Mountains start off as terrain regions of rock that accumulate a wealth of life, habitat, and moreover weather for ages to come. Tamriel’s mountains share their wisdom with the Elder Scrolls written on paper that can never be altered, and these Aedric Prophecies in return speak of these lands that hold unknown origin and magic in their existence. The mountains age with the times, and they see the struggles that make them the immutable forces of power and vast exploration beyond archaic and even a message for future prosperity. Whether through Morrowind or Oblivion, the mountains along with the lands have stood a test of time in man’s struggle for history and chronology. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim brings back the beauty of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and makes a world that is illustriously one of the most breathtaking environments ever created in 2011 for a video game. Through a profound development of customization, historical Elder archives of the Dragonborns, and a story to tell in all of its provincial lands, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim transports players into a medieval realm of Nordic refinement with the insatiable ceremoniousness of lands that are never forgotten and moreover so mysterious. Every abysm of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has adventure through limitless cultures brimming with the role of every person, whether it is by a grievous fire attack, a sharp but swift strike of the blade, or the devious subtlety in the stealth of a thief. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim opens a fairy tale in a video game title inspired by every Elder Scrolls title created, bringing back the last prophecy of one of the noble Elder Scrolls to life and effectively revealing to us the vast knowledge and truths revealed in the sacred pages of the Elder Scrolls themselves and the dragon language of the past.

Continuing from the Empire’s central province Cyrodiil, two hundred years come to pass and the dawn of the 4^th Era begins, seeing the new age of the 201^st year. The game sets open with a scene nearing a town, as the bold words of Skyrim adorn a simple road of an Imperial caravan with its prisoners. These prisoners essentially belong to the rebellion led by Ulfrid Stormcloak, the jarl of Windhelm that is accused of killing the high king of Skyrim in Soltitude and who is himself company to this morbid caravan. Among these prisoners is you, someone caught trying to cross the border into Skyrim. Conversations take place, and the dialogue is something Bethesda Softworks is ingenious with right from the inception of the storyline, giving players the gift of a game with as much depth in dialogue as storyline elements of plot and exposition aside in the rest of the game. Skyrim has been in utter civil unrest and disarray as the Nords essay to secede from the Empire while the rest of the province endures loyalty for the Empire. While everyone prepares for an execution in the town, and as you lay on the guillotine ready to hand over your head whilst smelling the newly carved blood of the previous rebel drying on the wooden engrains, a majestic dragon unleashes utter carnage on a town unwilling to burn but incapable of grasping the prophecy of the return of the Dragons. You soon escape and embark on a journey of discovery, exploration, customization, and the true gift in the nature of Akatosh’s blessing that leads to the Last Dragonborn.

The central identity of the player character is the most important aspect of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and comes in the form of 10 races to play: High Elves, Wood Elves, Orcs, Khajiit, Argonians, Bretons, Imperials, Nords, Redguards, or Dark Elves. Each race has its own defining characteristics that fit into not just appearance, but also special abilities. Khajiit can be sharp with their claws as felines while Elves are known for their magic prowess. Facial features can then be added on to each race from pre-built faces and bear to facial scars, war paints, or even eyeliner. Preset character face selections are definitely dated, but for Skyrim this is a very minute part of the game.  After the character selection is finished, players are familiarized with the combat and leveling gameplay design early on, within minutes of the game similar to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. A minimal HUD display along with a given option to completely omit Heads Up Display altogether under the settings menu takes hold as Health and Stamina are the primary heads up display markers. Pressing B/Circle on Xbox 360/Playstation 3 respectively enables a dynamic quick-access menu. Pushing left spins the screen to magic, right to inventory, up to statistics, and down for map. Items are comprised in 3D and can be viewed now through the inventory as this, which also gives useful stats in red/green identifiers. After the protagonist equips armor and weapons, these can be used in combat. Combat is straightforward but involves essentially weapons and armor sets that range from cloth materials to even steel for Imperial branded weapons and goods for the three central roles of play style: Warrior, Wizard, and Thief. To add a combat/magic benefit for weapons, players can utilize Guardian Stones across Skyrim, bearing the mark of the three Guardians each representing these three styles of play. Ranged weapons and melee weapons are later crafted in more superior quality through the use of town forges, with special customizations to varying types of weapons through blunt weapons to bladed. Bows, shields, axes, maces, and two-handed great swords and axes perform a strong arsenal. Armor is now combined but also more varied in the offerings, which gives a strong benefit to iron and steel renderings that are so notable for medieval armor. The armor and weapons go a long way. Without them, you can surely expect to see yourself in front of chaotic dragons, evil giants, and even angry hibernating bears during combat and without defense.

Combat for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim are symbolized in unique ways, whether through quests or nonsensical killings in a town for notoriety, it comes wherever a player is. When attacked in combat with weapons at a critical point of their health, enemies face an execution which can be done in a similar slow-motion compared to Fallout 3. With such a scene of bloodshed for justice, weapons loadouts changed dramatically to include dual-wielding along with the placing of spells for wizards in each hand. The only one combat aspect which is terribly annoying is the lack of switching from weapons to magic and vice versa. Time and time again, wizards will see themselves running out of magicka, and switching to weapons with the menu screen is a climax breaker at times and can be disappointing, but the favorites menu does help in terms of connecting this quicker. Thankfully, Wizards and warriors have the extended benefit of having items that can further be enchanted that provide boosts such as more magicka regeneration, critical hits, making the enemy bleed, etc. to help in combat. Dragon Shouts are a part of combat that tie into the storyline, which is something we want to avoid detailing too much other than the fact that they are shouts that are gained by absorbing Dragon Souls, a combat reward that strengthens the player beyond anyone in Skyrim and possibly closer to the Dragonborn legacy. After enemies are naturally beaten, XP is gained for the 50-level leveling structure of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Each style is assigned their own constellation, paying homage to what is clearly the Nordic and Icelandic interpretation of the importance of stars as constellation depictions for future promises. Red indicates skills of the Warrior, blue as the skills of the Wizard, and lastly green for skills of the Thief. These gaming styles are dissevered into 6 skills each, effectively giving access to perk trees in addition to general skill customization, without the attribute points. These perks require the base skills to be at certain values, which the player can increase by focusing attacks utilizing certain aspects such as: Two-Handed, Destruction spells, Speech for Thief, and many more. Bethesda Softworks removes attribute points as well with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, though while not a hindrance in previous titles, serve more of a useful purpose better left out not integrated. Attribute points are essentially all types of skills which contribute to three main attributes: Magicka, Health, and Stamina, each of which represents the three styles of play of Warrior, Wizard, and Thief. These perks number more than 280 perks through styles such as Destruction, Archery, Speech, Sneak, etc. The numbers of choices are vast, and if anyone has never played a Bethsda Softworks title, they should know that certain skills affect certain parts of the game. Speech directly affects dialogue choices which are similar to Convince, Persuade, etc. options given in dialogue in places where someone with lower Speech abilities might not necessarily be able to be charming. The perks system and skills tree eliminates the discontinuity issues that were present in The Elder Scrolls IV classes system.  While some preferred having the level of classes along with races, and this certainly is more varied, the balance in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is specific.

Once all the identity is realized, and combat has been introduced, players are remitted into the most breath-taking open-world free roam experience of a lifetime through the most important feature of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Exploration. Loading screens are sadly long with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and do not seem to be worth the wait given the size of certain buildings/towns, but the reason for these constant load times remain unclear given what someone sees after the load. Despite this, the world carries on. The universe of Nirn has flourished a lot to offer through the adventures in Morrowind, and even onto Oblivion’s imperial workings. Exploration within The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim appears overwhelmingly resplendent in every direction and meaning of pulchritudinous. There are tundras, artic planes, and even rural countryside. You can see the towering mountains as you pass a riverbed; You can cut across the woods as birds fluster about the trees and the wind; You can look at the bright sky and see the level of cold in the mountain air or the deciduous forestry. Xbox 360 graphics do appear pixelated closer to objects, but not by a lot. PC users will be in for a real graphical experience with high resolution texture mods and naturally better graphical capabilities. The unraveling of the tales of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim reflects every Elder Scrolls title to date, being told in exclusive and new ways through context, books, or even the mere signs outside houses or landmarks. Throughout every town and even the vast wilderness, there are surprises in the enemy types and even the eerie relationship of the player to the land such as vampirism and more.  Every township is separated by this vast wilderness similar to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and each town has its own economy that can be invested in for goods, weapons, horses or even properties. The people create this economy, and the core of the gameplay is quest interactions with kings, commoners, strangers of the roads, and the unknown beings of the lands. Radiant A.I. and Radiant Story are the two systems that the Gamebryo engine uses to create The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Radiant A.I. is describe by Bethesda Softworks to give every A.I. their own unique personality, which is seen throughout the game but the repetition in the lack of unique faces on the NPCs is rather quite annoying similar to Fallout 3. This does not disrupt the gameplay at all when it comes to the quest designs. Radiant Story alters quests in a unique way, giving reason to multiple variables or choices to specific quests in comparison to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which did not base it off of statistics of the player in his/her current stages. Because of this, the quests are more fluid and seem realistic given that it utilizes the variables of the protagonist.   NPC dialogue is extensive when quests are given and moreover detailed along with supplemental information carefully scattered across the world. Dialogue problems do exist, however, when NPCs talk over one another as is the case with most of Bethesda Softworks titles such as Fallout 3 and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Whatever reason it may be, whether technical or just bad coding, it does not harm gameplay aside from the points when a person gives out a quest and 4 people are talking over him. The quest journal helps to organize quests along with the map. This map can be used throughout travel, which features a mouse-like pointer across a landscape which is 3D and where the camera angle can be slightly shifted to outline quest markers and towns across the lands of the province. Throughout The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, no matter where you choose to go, there will always be unforgettable dialogue and numerous quests to partake in.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has been an intensely anticipated title with an exceptional wait time that has been realized fully through visuals, gameplay, dialogue, and quests. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim does have its problems in terms of dialogue technicalities, similar NPC faces, and irritatingly long loading times, but it offers a lot more than anything that is negative.  This is one title I had constantly been checking with Bethesda directly about since The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and when it was announced, it was perhaps one of the most appeasing days for me as a critic and a fan of the series but also the most worrisome in sympathy for Bethesda Softworks and Zenimax Studios. At this same time, one could not help but dwell over the level of effort it would take to not only match what The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion had to offer, but be creative, successful, and more thoughtful about what worked and what did not. Rest assured, through providing even more of a strong historical lore of the Elder Scrolls and a world that seems so lively in a video game box, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has effectuated what its predecessor did and ingeniously clutched with it a renewed sense of memories for previous titles of the series and brought them back to life. I only look forward to the day when The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim becomes a title about nostalgia, and we are looking ahead to what the Elder Scrolls have yet to prophesize next.