The dark knight makes his return in Batman Arkham City

After all the acclaim and praise for Batman Arkham asylum and two years of waiting it is finally time to unveil Batman Arkham city. Time has passed after the events in the asylum, Quincy Sharp is now mayor of Gotham thanks to some underhanded help and the eerie Dr. Hugo Strange has now opened Arkham City, a dark gritty run down section of Gotham that will hold all the prisoners of Black gate Prison and the previous Arkham Asylum. Sensing dangerous elements Batman enters Arkham City to get to the bottom of this growing plot.

The presentation for Arkham City is amazing to say the least, Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamil seem to be the two destined actors to live out the epic struggle between the dark knight and the clown prince of crime, and yet again they do an astounding job along with the rest of the returning crew from Arkham Asylum on Arkham City's amazing story full of twists and amazing turns. In Arkham City the environment itself seems to be alive, teeming with side missions and activities happening alongside the main storyline to keep you busy, trophies to collect and crimes to solve, assaults and brutal beatings happening all over the city. A phone booth killer and a mysterious figure watching the dark knight are just a few of the events that will keep the Arkham City disc spinning in your disc tray.

Unfortunately all this content can be a double edged sword, while it is great to have so much to do in Arkham City it can at times dilute the main storyline with all the random happenings around the city that seem to all be urgent when they occur. There are also a plethora of villains in this game, almost to the point where some A-list villains like two-face or Poison ivy end up playing second fiddle to the main opponents. While some would call this a strike against the game I will call it even because rocksteady has been dedicated to one goal and one goal only giving us gamers a true Batman experience and this is part of that experience, giving you the feeling the while, yes you are Batman you still are only one man in a city that is screaming out for savior and full of deadly opponents.

The first thing you will notice in Arkham City are the similarities and the differences from Asylum. The one button combat system has returned and been built up and expanded on, now Batman can takedown multiple enemies while countering and combat is smoother in AC making Batman a more polished and lethal combatant. The bulk of the caped crusaders gadgets have also returned along with new tech to keep Batman armed to the teeth, and as well as the basic functions most of the gadgets have combat capability’s and have a hot button setting so they can be effectively used during battle. These improvements empower players and truly give them the feeling of being the Batman and wielding all of his technology, suddenly walking into a room full of opponents is not such a daunting task because u have the equipment needed to succeed.

Improvements have also been made to the dark knight's aerial tactics as well. Dive bombs, flying kicks and swooping down on enemies adds new dimensions to Batman in traversing the city and in combat. Batman can dive through the air to pick up momentum and then continue to glide and soar through the snowy skies of Gotham, or in combat use the new dive-bomb attacks allowing him to come screaming out of the skyline and take out enemies. These new skills and abilities transform Batman's image from a physically dominating land master into a truly dangerous aerial predator, able to take out enemies from the ground or air with equally lethal tactics.

Another element that makes this game a great experience is the inclusion of Catwoman as a secondary main character. Those who buy the game new, or used and download the Catwoman content will get to have Selina Kyle and Mr. Wayne alternate between having the main role in the story, also Catwoman gives an interesting and very different perspective on the happenings in Gotham than the caped crusader with different morals, goals and gameplay. Where Batman is a big, powerful, extremely physical fighter and a dark brooding character; Catwoman is a smaller, sleek, more agile combatant with a very sultry attitude and her change of pace and four levels in the main storyline are a must have to get the full Arkham City experience.

Overall this game is amazing, developers rocksteady have once again given us a truly awe inspiring Batman experience. The balance between protector, detective and predator truly make you feel as if you are the dark knight and rocksteady has taken that core that is Batman and put it into an amazing storytelling experience with Arkham City. While tasks and opponents may be daunting no matter what difficulty you play on you are given the feeling that you are Batman and you can rise to the occasion through tactics, use of your tools and mental as well as physical execution, the skills that make this hero without superpowers arguably the greatest of them all. Batman is a fictional character in the DC comics’ universe, but if the dark knight were real, with that ever-present scowl on his face; Arkham City would be at least one thing for the caped crusader to smile about. Needles to say any and all Batman fans and gamers looking for a great action adventure experience should pick up a copy of Batman Arkham City.

Rage game review

Its not very often a game comes along that really pushes the limits of the current generation systems ability in the graphics department. Well thanks to ID software it seems like its finally time for the xbox 360 and ps3 to get a good workout with Rage.

Rage is a very beautiful game, as dirty, gritty and grimey as the game is the graphics are still so top notch that it qualifys for the word. The graphics are actually so good it is recommended to download the game to the 360 hard drive to fully enjoy the graphics abilitys. Its only then that you can really appreciate all the work ID software clearly put into this games graphics for the overall game experience.

Speaking of game experince that may be one of the few areas that the game lacks. Rage is amazing on the outside, the wastelands are big bright wide open spaces, and the towns though run down are vibrant and full of characters. Unfortunantly there doesint seem to be a huge emphasis on story with Rage. In fact at times its seems the missions you recieve in the form of odd jobs from the towns folk are really just an excuse to move you from one firefight to the next, and as amazing as those fights may be you expect more from a great game. Great video games are expected to have a level of innovation along with the polish and execution, while this isint a dealbreaker for Rage that innovation or x factor that really makes a game standout is missing from this tittle.

A few examples of this are the overused post apocalyptic setting and traditonal shooter style gameplay favoring small closed off zones as opposed to the open spaces seen in games like Farcry and the Halo series. Characters who are key to progressing the story can seem very bland and boring and this can really throw off the experience. As uninteresting as some of the characters are in Rage the gameplay is fastpaced and fun enough to keep you going through the storyline,wepons tools and vehicles are customizable and fun to use. Each bullet has a different effect and you will need them for the different groups of enemies you will face in the wasteland. Rage also boast an interesting multiplayer, composed of car combat, races and cooperative missions and though it isnt the main attraction its something to do after the story is over, which will run you about 15 hours max.

All in all Rage is a good game that will keep you engaged and having fun. While it has its flaws if you are looking for a solid shooter and can deal with the thousandth post apocalyptic borderlands style game then this will be a fun outing.

G.O.W 3 Aftermath

Its been almost a month now since gears3 was released in september, and that has given the majority of gamers an oppertunity to play throught the story alone or with friends, so with the queen dead and the locust seeming defeted whats left for marcus and the rest of the humans on sierra, these are all questions that epic clearly stayed away from at the end of gears3 for whatever reasons they had to not truly end the story but here are the thoughts that I have had and im sure most gears fanatics share some of the same questions

1. What will humanity do now?
With 99% of humanity dead, a destroyed planet low on resources and the main source of fuel proven to be a deadly virus how can humanity possibly continue life of sierra? Even if the locust & lambent are all dead (which we dont really know) how can this be called a "victory" for humanity and even if it is where does the human race go from here? It seems highly unlikely that humans can continue life on sierra with any level of success with the planet left completly barren.

2. What is stopping the lambent from returning
From what was explained the lambent came from immulsion, the gears version of fossil fuels on sierra, and somehow they came from it and caused the mass infection of the locust and humans, it is not explained if the immusion is used up or distroyed but assuming it isint all gone what is stopping the lambent from returning?

3. Why didnt humanity leave sierra?
Gridlocked in a nasty war that has seen 99% of the species murdered for a cause largely unknown why didnt it dawn on prescott and the government to leave sierra and venture to other planets with the rise of the locust army?
What was so precious including immulsion (which was the tipping point in this extreamly heinous war) that was worth the potential death of the species?

These are the big questions i have in the aftermath of gears3, hopefully in some form or another they will be answered, in the mean time I would love to hear from all of you on what you think went down after gears3 and whats to come for the franchise...

Brothers to the end Gears of war 3 review

After what seems like an eternity in waiting epic games and Microsoft studios once again reunite to bring us the third installment of gears of war, and it has been well worth the wait. The game continues the storyline set by the previous two installments following Marcus Fenix, Dominic Santiago and Augustus Cole a.k.a COLE TRAIN BABY!!!!! WHOOOOOO!!!! As they continue to fight off the locust armada and Marcus continues his search for his father. The story is very well crafted and while I wont give away any endings don’t be surprised if u find gears getting the halo new trilogy treatment sooner or later. While the story is a good appetizer with a dash of closure, the main course for gears of war games is always the multiplayer and this time around it is better than ever, thankfuly shotguns have been regulated and multiplayer should be a mutch more level playing field. The addition of new weapons like the retro lancer and the sawed off shotty also help to round out the gaming experience.

The standard team death match, capture the flag now called capture the leader and other suspect game variants are in gears of war 3 but by far the biggest attractions to the online multiplayer has to be the revamped horde mode and the all new beast mode in GOW3.

The reason these two game types stand above the rest is because they demand a level of teamwork and strategy that most games simply don’t. In horde mode you and your fellow Cog must fend off the locust onslaught for 50 rounds, with locust getting boosts like extra health and dealing extra damage as the rounds go on, with each kill you will earn money you can use to boost your defenses as you defend your position from the locust. A new addition to horde mode in gears 3 is the inclusion of Boss monsters, every 10 levels you will be faced with a boss monster from the story like the brumak and berserkers

(A revamped horde mode including boss monsters will push ur gears skill and teamwork to its limits)

this adds a really nice change of pace to what at times can feel like going through the motions after wave and wave of enemies. Beast mode is the newest game type in gears3 where you take control of the nightmarish locust horde and set out to destroy the remaining gears and stranded, unlike horde mode beast mode is timed and this really adds a level of strategy forcing you to use the money you have wisely when selecting what locust you will control. You can add time by killing the gears and destroying their defenses along with killing key characters from the story, which is pretty awesome in itself. Overall gears of war 3 is a great game the main story and multiplayer combine for an amazing experience and with downloadable content for multiplayer and an extension to the main story in the works you can expect gears to remain in your gaming library for quite some time. Gears of war has been a great series, it and halo along with a few other great tittles have combined to make the xbox 360 into the must have console for gamers. We don’t know if there are any serious plans to continue the series but it is a must have in every 360 gamers library…