As far as I know, this is the first game that allows users to instantly upload videos. Expect more video reviews if this feature is made available in future releases.

Just to reiterate, I don’t dislike Pixeljunk Eden. Just look at the final verdict. I know that the above video has a negative spin, but that’s only because the few missteps are so glaring in a game that gets almost everything else right. Eden is so often transcendent, with one of the few virtual worlds that truly feels alive (one of the few instances in which “organic” is not at all pretentious). Not even the vomit stained walls of Garden 6 can take that accomplishment away from Q Games.

Easily worth $10!

Overall: 4 Stars

Revisionist history

Backbone Entertainment’s revival of Capcom’s 194X series does many things well. Decent graphics (much truer to the original inspiration than their Commando retread), responsive controls, and smooth online play are always welcome, while the slower pacing makes the second-player wingman easier to keep track of than in your typical “Bullet Hell.” However, even though this 30 minute tour through the Pacific Theater will keep your trigger fingers busy, your mind will wander elsewhere – perhaps to the lush jungles and crumbling cityscapes of Assault Heroes or the monochromatic skies of Ikaruga.  Joint Strike just cannot compete in terms of clever level design and enemy variety (TWO boss palette-swaps?!).

1942: Joint Strike is a decent time waster, but the game’s value hinges almost entirely on nostalgia. And as much as I revere 1944 (and the Strikers 1945 homage), this remake does nothing to evolve the series. Don’t let the name brand lure you away from games more deserving of your 800 space bucks. ESPECIALLY during this August!

Overall: 3 Stars

Then again, Square isn’t ripping anyone off. The 129 MB download features an extensive campaign, a fully localized story, 50 different troops, and enough other bullet points to entice even the most skeptical fan. Rather than cashing in on the Final Fantasy name, the developer sought to create a new IP, a fantasy take on “The Matrix” with a pervasive music theme (seems like the starting point for a bad rock opera). The “mechanical assimilation” angle may not be entirely original, but the world is fully realized and the dialogue is competently written. Song Summoner follows a standard SRPG rule set, with the familiar grid layout and five distinct classes. Fans of Final Fantasy Tactics will know exactly what to expect.

This sprite may look cool now, but wait ’til you see her other frame of animation!

Unfortunately, that’s also the game’s biggest shortcoming. If you’re reading this review, it’s safe to assume that you have a half dozen similar titles scattered about your game room, begging to be played. Hell, you may even have one or two still in their shrink wrap. These games are notorious for being huge time investments, and I found it hard to justify my time spent with this Strategy 101 approach when Final Fantasy Tactics A2 is lodged in my DS. The game has a basic Fire Emblem inspired weapon hierarchy and a few other twists such as the power-boosting Groove meter, but this is about as by-the-books as you can get.

All of these problems are compounded by the prosaic presentation. The iPod may not be a graphical champ, but I have to believe that the game could have been much further optimized. Song Summoner is rife with slow down, long loading times, and anemic animation. Whereas a round of FFTA2 can be completed within twenty minutes, there were later missions in this game that were pushing the hour mark, simply because of this constant sluggishness. The art direction fairs no better. The games color palette is depressingly muted and the character designs are uninspired at best, with many looking surprisingly mundane for a game with a David Bowie reference as a protagonist. What I wouldn’t do for a Tetsuya Nomura belt buckle or two to spice things up.

Whether you like Mr. Electrochemical or not, he’ll be dead after five missions. Each troop can only be deployed a handful of times before they’re stolen from you, so try not to get too attached.

By now, hopefully I’ve done enough to deter you from a purchase, but you may still be curious about the game’s much touted “Tune Trooper” feature. Using mp3s, you can create randomly generated soldiers to fight alongside Ziggy, presumably encouraging players to use their entire music library to see who they can generate. But even this idea is poorly executed. After dozens of trials at the Hip-O-Drome (where these Tune Troopers are born), there was no discernable pattern or logic to how characters were produced. Furthermore, using the same song twice usually produces different characters entirely, essentially negating the value of the game’s sole interesting feature.

It’s a shame too, because further music integration could have worked wonders. You’re rewarded for listening to songs outside of the game (via Groove points), but why can’t I customize the soundtrack to my own liking? Battle fanfares, village themes, even the game over screen could have all had a personal touch. And why are there no rhythm-based or record scratching attacks? I know that these ideas are within the realm of possibilities.

Even though Song Summoner has a lot of factors working against it, Square-Enix could have made it work if the product had its own identity. Harmonix proved last year that a successful iPod game only requires a little ingenuity and vision, so it’s a shame to see this SRPG experiment stumble so badly. Even though this game offers plenty of missions at a very attractive price, it’s hard to recommend when there are so many better ways you could be spending your time.

Overall: 2 Stars

*I cannot attest to the quality of any of these titles, but it’s common knowledge that cell phone gaming in Japan is light years ahead of what we have here.

Everyone knows Space Invaders: one turret, four shields, and fifty-five alien ships whose only strategy is to “increase speed, drop down, and reverse direction” (thanks, Futurama!). Well, this “extreme” version adheres closely to the feel of the original but has abandoned the defensive structures and tight formations of the original. Shields are apparently obsolete in this day and age, so Taito saw fit to arm your turret with several new power-ups, including screen-filling lasers, bombs, and a broad shot. The alien armada also kept busy during the cease fire. Gone are the days of “trembling in terror” at their three kinds of ships. Expect to fight an updated panoply of powerful foes, including suicide bombers, teleporters, bouncers, and shielded enemies that can reflect your shots back at you.

These odds don’t seem fair…perhaps the upcoming Space Invaders Get Even is a bit redundant.

All of these new enemy types of course require new strategies, but the true genius of this production is realized when you start seeing three or four types of ships stacked together. All of the sudden, new layers of strategy come into play as you try to figure out how to take out the exploding troops without setting off the suicide bombers, or how to remove the reflective shields of some smaller baddies while a huge mother ship is besieging the stage with a tree-trunk-thick laser. Each subsequent wave forces players to adjust. Your special weapons certainly pack a punch, but what good does that do when precision is of the highest priority?

However, the game still finds opportunities for you to cut loose even in the later stages. By shooting four enemies in a row of one color, and then four of a different color (again, another wrinkle), you’ll be launched into a brief mini-game with some randomly generated task. Quick! Shoot the right ships to trigger domino-styled explosions! Collect 100 golden items from a retreating UFO! All of the sudden, this becomes the WarioWare Inc. of 2D shooters, constantly forcing you to be quick on your feet. Your reward for succeeding is “Fever Mode,” a roughly ten-second window in which you’re given obscene amounts of firepower.

Just leafing your way through the instruction manual reveals almost endless facets to what at first appears to be a simple shooter. Dual screened boss battles, roulette rounds brought to you via golden UFOs, score multipliers, a leveling up system, and branching paths à la Starfox…this game’s straightforward appearance truly belies almost limitless depth.

That screen gap is a slight annoyance during boss fights but rarely results in death.

Perhaps “straightforward appearance” isn’t fair either, because while the graphics are simple (aside from the pre-rendered background flybys through neon drenched Tokyo), there’s a musical component to the game that is reminiscent of the sublime synesthesia of Rez. There isn’t just a driving techno beat and some strobe lights here. Whenever you shoot an enemy, collect a power up, or deflect an enemy attack, the game produces a distinct musical sound that always fits to the beat. There may be a hidden component to this as well, since the top screen mysteriously keeps track of your “bass” and “chord” among other things. Speaking of bass, be sure to play with the Rumble Pack. I know that many of our readers will opt instead for the import-only paddle accessory, but the rumble here serves as a thumping bass to complement the slightly tinny musical arrangements. Fans of Rez will know how much this vibration can enhance the game play experience (and no, I’m not talking about the risible Trance Vibrator). The developers should be commended for making the most of a usually worthless feature.

So at twenty bones, you shouldn’t even be asking yourself whether or not this is worth it. This game will capture your attention in the same way that fellow throwback Geometry Wars did several years ago. With online leader boards and multiplayer*, this game will have you dropping virtual quarters for a long time to come. This is as close to an arcade revival as you are going to see.

Overall: 5 Stars

*This review focuses on the DS version. Apparently, the PSP’s multiplayer doesn’t support infrastructure mode.

Yes, you heard me right, you get to play as both characters, but unlike driving an SUV (and kinda like handling a Lambo) experiencing both characters is a blast. Dante is as familiar as ever…and apparently following DMC and before DMC2 (remember: DMC3 = prequel) he has become a GOD. When you first handle him, it will be like a reunion with an old friend. But, as with all things, Dante has changed with time. Seriously, this man is beefed up and ready to destroy anything or anyone in his path. Yes, you can switch weapons on the fly still. But they added something even better; now you can switch fighting styles on the fly as well. While that may not seem like a big deal, as you begin to get accustomed to how it works, switching styles and weapons end up becoming incredibly fun. You also get some Devil Arms as Dante, the two coolest being Pandora and Lucifer. Pandora is a box with 666 different forms; in game you use about 7 of them, all of them being ridiculously powerful. Lucifer is a melee weapon that sticks exploding spikes into your opponent; it also provides Dante with the opportunity to make jokes about his male member. Either way, playing with Dante has become even better and more badass. However, the star of this show is Nero; and let me tell you, this star shines bright.

Ok, so Nero looks much cooler than depicted above (although how cool would that be if he were in Mario Galaxy?). But what sets him apart from Dante (aside from being the whiny Raiden to Dante’s badass Solid Snake) is his arm, the Devil Bringer. This demonic arm not only looks awesome, but drastically changes gameplay. In fact, how you fight with Nero and how you fight with Dante are two drastically different styles. Basic move sets are similar yes, but the Snatch ability that Nero gains early on means that you no longer have to run down enemies, you can bring them to you! Even if they are too big to pull near you (for example, the GIANT BOSSES), you can use it to pull yourself towards them. Either way, this allows you to string up massive combos in no time. Also, the devil bringer is unbelievably powerful, allowing you to punch and throw every demon in your path…EVERY DEMON. But enough about Nero, let’s touch a little bit more on the pace of the game and the visuals.

While the gameplay has experience some very refreshing changes, the story very much follows our traditional DMC formula. Boy has demonic power. Boy progressively unlocks true potential of demonic power. Boy becomes involved with some sort of girl. Boy runs into ridiculous amounts of evil spooky scarecrows. Boy pounds the crap out of giant boss demons. Boy fights other variety of lesser demons. Boy pounds the crap out of giant boss demons again. Boy finds out about greater plot to destroy/take over/both the world with even giant-er demon/person with demonic powers. Boy saves the day with ambiguous ending leading to further titles??? DMC 4 is no different, but it does this much better. The cast of characters you meet along the way has never been so good. The relationships these people have make you feel for them, both the good and the evil.

It also helps that DMC 4 sticks you in rich, colorful environments that appeal to the eye and provide great context for your battles. Also, the character models are very well polished and look great during gameplay. The only disappointment are the movie visuals. While the don’t look as good as they absolutely good be, I believe this is because they were rendered with the same graphics as the gameplay. The game is also completely voice acted, and voice acted very well. You feel the characters, and their personalities shine through their voices.

So a game with excellent gameplay, great visuals and good sound, what’s downside? Well, one of the most notable is difficulty. Overall, the game is not terribly difficult. However, there are times where you are stuck in a situation where you are entirely flooded with tons of baddies. Yeah, you can fight your way out, but it really becomes a pain when you can’t see your character because enemies are all around you on one side and a wall is in the way on the other. DMC 4 also has refused to fix a couple of it’s old problems as well. Platforming is still a huge pain and the cause of a countless number of thrown controllers and roars of anger. The camera will still choose really inconvenient ways to switch and lock into position, causing you to run back and forth in place for 4 minutes till you figure it out. Oh, and if you lose your way…good luck on finding where to go next.

Still, even with all the bad, overall Devil May Cry 4 is a spectacular game. Flawless work of art that deserves all the Best Game awards this year? Ehh…maybe not, but I would be offended if I saw it walking away with maybe one or two. Let me tell you this, as of right now, this might be the best hack and slash game out there. You should definately play it at least once, if not own it and play it multiple times. Even if you can’t buy into the story, the gameplay is worth it all.

Art Direction: Very pretty environments and great character models earn it praise. However, I would have like to see more out of the movies.

Sound Design: Fully voice acted, and done very well for that matter. The music of the game is the typical pipe organ followed with thrasher metal during combat, so nothing new and exciting there. Also, at times Nero comes off sounding like a whiny little bitch. Though, if he was meant to be one, then the voice actor got it down pat.

Gameplay: The best I’ve seen in a long time. Sure the platforming kinda stinks, but who cares when you’re playing a game known for it’s combat? It will be really hard for the DMC boys to top themselves when DMC 5 is release (you know they’re gonna make it).

Engagement: This game definately keeps you in there and wanting for more. Not only do the things you do look awesomely badass, but as you do them you feel like a badass yourself. It also helps that you can end up caring about your mission, and for the characters and their relationships. The new weapons and aspects to the combat will make you come back to see just how long you can keep that SSS rating going. This game will have you engrossed while you play it and will make you want for more. Especially more Dante. Wasn’t nearly enough Dante.

OVERALL: 4 STARS

Don’t get your hopes up yet…

We’ve been waiting eleven years since that dorky purple jester first took to the pastel colored skies of Nightopia, so I think it is fair to say that fans have been very weary of the Wii sequel NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams. Though the motion controls seemed well suited to a flight game (on paper), the aforementioned decline of its developer only inspired dread. Well, even if the signs were there, I still believed because I figured that such a special property would get the treatment it deserved. Sonic and his crew gave up their integrity in exchange for guns and human lovin’, but NiGHTS just had to be different. Foolish, foolish Justin. While Journey of Dreams is far from a turd, the developers have chosen to bury the core game in broken platforming levels and endless cut-scenes that only take away from the overall experience. Quite a nightmare after all of my anticipation.

In its best moments, Journey of Dreams seems to do a passable job of mimicking the Saturn classic – and little beyond that. For those of you unfamiliar with NiGHTS, the game is a 2.5D game that places an emphasis on high scores and flying through levels at high speed. On occasion, the perspective will shift to an overhead or behind-the-back view, but usually Nights just flies from left to right trying to chase down an enemy with a key before advancing to the next course. After you’ve covered a stage’s three courses, you move onto a boss stage.*It takes some time getting used to, but learning to chain together hoops and blue bits for high scores gradually becomes addicting. Course design in this installment is also a high point, as most of the levels feature tons of variety and colorful scenery, such as giant pool tables and halls full of mirrors. However, before you can play the game, you’ll have to deal with the story.

Quite possibly the worst boss ever

Part of the charm of Into Dreams was that you were just dropped into a dreamlike landscape without any in-game explanations or dialog. While the surroundings and music were a bit too saccharine for my tastes, the title character had an enigmatic charm to him that just felt right. There was a sense of mystery, of otherworldliness, that fit perfectly with the dream motif. It boggles my mind then that the first thing greeting players in Journey of Dreams are CG and garish, in-game cut-scenes. We’re introduced to two British children whose parents apparently no longer love them. I can’t blame Mom and Pop in this instance. From the get-go, these characters are just so completely nondescript that it’s impossible to care about them. Ditto for Owl, your uptight guide throughout the game. However, considerably more offensive is Nights him/herself. Sonic Team just assumes that we find their androgynous hero endearing, but by giving this creature a personality, they’ve essentially ruined him. The sense of wonder in this world is gone. The fact that these cut-scenes continue to appear before every single mission in the game just adds insult to injury.

This mission structure is the game’s other major failing. Fans of our podcast may remember us complaining earlier this year about Sonic and the Secret Rings awful objectives in between levels. The main game was the closest we’ve seen to a return to form for the hedgehog, but what should have been a nonstop roller coaster ride ended up getting bogged down in obstacle courses and time trials. However, in that game’s defense, at least you could choose to ignore much of that content, a luxury that we don’t have in Journey of Dreams. Prepare to go back into each level four or five times before you’re able to see the next area. While some of these missions are fun, others are complete chores. Does transforming into a boat with an inability to turn sound fun to you? Or how about a 3D maze stage with translucent platforms, an uncooperative camera, and a timer that’s constantly ticking? The original game was smart enough to keep the kids on the sideline, but the British brats and their disgraceful digressions in this installment enjoy way too much time in the spotlight.

If only every challenge was this fun

Besides the horrid plot and pacing, I found myself completely ambivalent to the rest of Journey of Dreams’ additions. Motion controls certainly sounded exciting, but the execution does not work at all. Luckily, the classic controller remedies any of those concerns. Equally terrible is the next generation of A-life. It seems odd to me that this distraction is somehow both uglier and less enjoyable than the chao hatching from the Sonic Adventure games (from more than five years ago), but nobody is going to play NiGHTS for the virtual pet angle anyway. Other changes include transformations via masks (think of a lamer take on Majora’s Mask), 2-player modes, Weather Channel compatibility, and online rankings, but these really don’t add up to anything besides bullet points on the back of the box.

And I guess that’s why it’s taken me a thousand words to bitch about a game that’s actually pretty decent. Rather than making this the big event it should have been, a return of a lost franchise with limitless potential, Sega really just wanted to make a buck. I guess that’s the end goal for any development cycle, but I was just expecting a bit more love to go into this production. Well, I’ve finally woken up from this dream. If a new Burning Rangers revival is announced tomorrow, I want no part in it. I have too many memories of Sonic Team’s past triumphs to continue settling for merely “decent.”

Overall: 3 Stars

*Journey of Dreams also features some pretty horrendous boss battles. I cannot fathom how a developer could think Will’s second boss could be anything but tedious. Flying around in endless circles trying to find a hidden boss behind a giant curtain is just as miserable as it sounds.

As someone who doesn’t play a lot of FPS (I’m pretty awful at Halo, and haven’t owned one since Goldeneye), I’m kind of sick of seeing one mindless shooter after another being crapped out of western game studios. The angsty inner teenager within me’s“why should I care?” attitude was quickly taking over my thought process. Then a little game called The Orange Box (you might have heard of it by now) came out, and for the first time ever I stepped into City 17.

Perhaps the first thing you’ll notice when you step into the original Half Life 2 is how detailed the face of the mysterious G-Man is. His eyes shift back and forth, you can see every little indentation in the skin on his face, and his lips are perfectly in-sync with his wavering voice, eerily calling you to “wake up.” From the train you first begin on to the climactic enemy Citadel, everything in Half Life 2 looks crisp, detailed, and alive. Although definitely not the best graphics by today’s high-definition standards, the environments you traverse throughout Half Life 2 are still great enough to make you say “wow.”

“So Wake up, Mr. Freeman. Wake up and smell the ashes.”

But there’s tons of beautiful games out there, let alone FPS (see Crysis). What can Half Life 2 offer in terms of gameplay? Two words: Gravity-Gun. To meet someone who has played Half Life 2 and doesn’t gush about this simple yet incredibly innovative contraption is an extremely rare occurrence. Literally, it’s a gun that lets you pick up items (from a distance, like a high powered vacuum) and then shoot them at extremely high velocity at whatever gets in your path. See that barrel? Send it through the window. How about that piece of wood? Now it’s a spear. And is that a saw blade? Uh oh…

It’s easy to see how creative one can get using the gravity gun, and it’s an excellent medium through which to view the entertainingly realistic Havok engine. But what about the other guns? They behave normally, no qualms there. Unfortunately, the platforming aspect of the game doesn’t hold up quite as well as the shooting portion. Although you have access to sprinting and jumping abilities, getting from one small beam to the next tiny platform can be quite the frustrating affair. Needless to say, you’ll have quite a few unfortunate falls.

So there’s some really nice graphics and solid gameplay. Still kind of sounds like your typical FPS, right? Here’s where that line of thinking falls apart: the story and storytelling techniques used in Half Life 2 are nothing short of incredible. The game begins with a few curious words from the enigmatic “G-man,” and you soon find yourself exiting a train and thrust into an Orwellian city, complete with what seems to be a totalitarian regime and the face of Dr. Breen, (the “Big Brother” if you will) talking at you from monitors as you’re hustled along at gun-point to each new location. But things change quickly, and you soon meet the incredibly charismatic Alyx Vance, Barney, Dr. Kleiner and the rest of the cast and become wrapped up in a struggle bigger than you can imagine. Of particular note is the fantastic character development throughout this relatively short game. If you become attached to the Half Life 2 characters at all (and Valve will pull every trick in the book to get you to that point), you’ll find yourself slightly sad every time you get pulled away from them…and all the more anxious to fight through whatever stands in your path to become reunited. Their voice acting is amazing and their emotions are palpable. Absolutely breathtaking.

But perhaps the most fantastic part of Half Life 2 is the main character, Gordon Freeman. After setting into motion the incident at Black Mesa in the first game, it’s easy to see why fans around the world have come to cherish the thin, goateed man. You see, this MIT Ph.D. is a hero in every sense of the word – he’s brilliant, he’s strong, he’s fearless…but most importantly, he’s you. Half Life 2 does a brilliant job of fulfilling what seems to be the exact purpose of the genre: making you feel like you’re really there. When the amazing characters speak, they don’t speak at you, they speak to you. You’ll be hard pressed to refuse a request from them when they gaze at you with their sad, war-exhausted stares. And they know exactly how much of a legend you are. As the Vortigaunts say, you are “The one free-man.” From the very outset, you’ll feel as if you’ve wandered into something completely epic, but trust me, you’ll never feel more at home than you will in that Hazard Suit.

You are the legend.

That being said, Half Life 2 is not an incredibly easy game – reaction speed, shooting skills, and puzzle solving capabilities will all be put to the test at some point throughout this 15 hour experience. But don’t despair, the game does an excellent job (at the standard difficulty) of providing you with ample health, bullets, and supplies. The game’s also quite obvious at times; you’ll know exactly when you’re about to run into a boss - you’ll see four health packs, a stack of grenades and 60 shotgun shells in front of you. The only real problem here is that one might be tempted to rely on the game’s “quicksave” system, in which you can literally save the game at any moment, and load exactly from that moment when you die. Imagine saving with 1 percent of health, staring at an enemy with a full clip directly in front of you. Do you really want to reload from that point? I didn’t think so. Overall, Half Life is very fair; although it can be challenging at points (and should be), you never feel powerless. Between the amazing weaponry and the ample supply of health items that you accrue throughout your journey, you’ll stand more than a fair chance against the hordes of enemies out to get you. That, and you’re Gordon Freeman. Better get that crowbar ready.

You’ll need all the help you can get.

Whether or not you’re fine with the FPS-ridden western game market, you’re going to have to face facts – the genre is popular, and it’s here to stay. Thank you God (and Valve), for bestowing upon us such incredible gems of gaming as Half Life-2. The game is not only a shining example of how incredibly immersive an FPS can be, but a masterfully woven narrative that rivals nothing short of the pinnacle of story-telling. To say that I fell in love with this world, its people, and its story would be an understatement – it’s easily classifiable as an experience that will change the way you not only look at the FPS genre, but all the games you’ve ever laid your thumbs on. Valve set the bar extremely high when they originally released Half Life 2 in 2004 – the fact that the game still outshines almost every high-definition, motion-controlled, rumble-enabled game released today is a testament to its’ timelessness. As a gamer you’ll be hard pressed to find a more worthwhile way to spend 15 hours of your life. Welcome to city 17.

Just. Incredible.

Art Direction: Not the best today, but still great enough to take your breath away. You’ve never been so intimidated by the huge enemies found here.

Sound Design: Awesome. A riveting soundtrack that kicks in *just* at the right moment to get you pumped for battle…or scare you like a little girl. Very well done.

Gameplay: Solid, fast paced, and overall just extremely satisfying. Although the platforming can be a little rough, it’s still absolutely one of the finest First Person Shooters ever made.

Story-telling: This is where I think Half Life 2 shines the brightest - although there are games out there which contain better stories, the way in which Half Life 2 conveys its plot is absolutely incredible. Just wait and see what they have in store for you in Episodes 1 & 2.

Overall: One of the best games I’ve ever played. Cool on about every level you can think of, this is one that you absolutely cannot afford to miss if you want to call yourself a gamer. If you’ve played it, you know exactly what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, you really have no excuse. Find a copy. It’s that worth it.

You are Nathan Drake, unknown descendant of Sir Francis Drake, and you have just exhumed your great great great great something or other from his watery grave. That’s how the game starts and it only gets more exciting from there. The story-telling in this game is easily the best part, and it is phenomenal. It is set up like any other treasure hunting/salvage story (you’re out to find a treasure but some dirty playing jerk is out to get it first) but has plot twists and surprises that make it fresh and exciting (if not a little cheesy). Character development and interactions provide such a rich cast that you are sad to see anyone go, even some of the “bad guys.” To add to this were amazing environments that would change through out the game. While you would generally find yourself in a jungle setting, you could at any moment be thrust into a (mildly) raging river or dropped into a dank cave. These environments have been put together so beautifully that more than once did I find myself stopping everything to just stand and move around the camera to take in the glorious view. To tell you how great it is would be to ruin the story, so now about the gameplay.

If this game has any one downside, it lies within the gameplay. While by no means do I feel that it greatly detracted from the overall experience, some of the gameplay handling left much to be desired. To begin with, while running around and platforming was usually a seamless activity, poor Nate Drake simply cannot figure out how far he can jump. Sometimes he’ll only be able to jump about 2 feet and other times he can leap across a 20 foot crevasse. This usually doesn’t bug me, until I find out that I just over shot my leap onto a floating plank the width of a quarter.

Gunplay also has a few issues with it. I get it, Drake is your average guy (that can run faster than a speeding bullet and conditionally leap tall buildings in a single bound). However, when compared to your enemies, who seem to scurry from out of nowhere like roaches in a wall, he’s a girly man. He can shoot, not great, but he will usually hit. The fact remains that when your bullet hits, it has to hit about ten more times. Also, the grenades they have must be WWI left-overs because dodging one means simply taking two steps away from it, and then you get away damage free. Also, melee combat is a bit tortuous since it is harder to pull off a power combo than it is to watch Theodore Rex in one sitting. Still, none of this proved bad enough to really detract greatly from the game.

In total, this game is everything a PS3 owner needed to hold him/herself over to 2008. Whether or not it is a rent or a buy is debatable. While the game has sported some of the best graphics and story I’ve seen in a long time, there is not a whole lot of draw to go back and visit the game again, at least not so soon. This game may be the very best out for the PS3, but there are still many titles out there that beat it. Still, after time I could see this as a game to revisit fondly and just get lost, maybe even literally, within the adventure that is Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.

Art Direction: This game might have given me the prettiest world to look at ever. And even when seeing the same environments would begin to get repetitive, it never got dull. In fact, the game was so beautiful I proposed to it. Come to the wedding, July 23rd.

Sound Design: The game is completely voice acted and at no point does it ever sound incredibly hokey or forced. The people sound and react as they genuinely would. The ambient sounds to each environment were also immersive enough to make me buy in (particularly in surround) , but were nothing extra special. I’ve heard better, but not a whole lot.

Gameplay: If there was a weakpoint to this game, here it is. However, for as much as I may complain, it is really only nitpicking. The gameplay and control is smooth enough that I never feel totally hampered by it; maybe just a little frustrated.

Storytelling: This game has one of the best stories ever to be put together. I realize that you have to take me to my word on this, but there are only a few parts that felt cheesy. The story does decline near the very end, but it is so consistantly phenomenal up until that point that there is no great loss.

OVERALL: 4 STARS

The story, first of all, is atrocious. While some of it may seem fresh at the start (you are rescued from a death sentence only to find you have to work for a mercenary group you once “betrayed”) it eventually turns into another tepid tale of revenge. That’s it…the only reason you continue on, revenge at all costs. Oh yeah, and your character is a despicable human being. Real bad. So bad that you really don’t care about your character or his well being at all. In fact, most of the main “protagonists” are so vile that you may end up hating them more than your villains. This game is also killed by the fact that there are major holes left in the story after completion, and all of these holes lie within character development. You wonder things like “Why does Kane have a Scar?”, “What is the story with that Japanese guy?” and “What did happen on that fateful day that you betrayed your group?”. None of these question are ever really answered, leaving your characters as superficial and loathsome as before. After experiencing rich stories like CoD 4’s or being immersed in an environment and scenario of grandiose proportion like in Bioshock, the story of Kane and Lynch is so banal it makes it makes The Great Muppet Caper seem like an epic Heist and revenge story by comparison. I’m sorry that was mean of me…The Great Muppet Caper deserves much better treatment than that.

The only thing that can redeem this story is that Kane and Lynch form a group of “Dead Men” who don’t suck nearly as much and seem to have much richer character, even though you heard them talk for about 4 minutes total in the game. They also provide a little bit of humor and freshness to a story that at the point of the game that they are introduced, is well needed. There is one more character, your daughter, and she is the most loathsome, angry, emo bitch ever. Not that some of her reactions aren’t undeserved, having grown up without her daddy and all…still annoying. So I suppose storywise, if you’re into cliches, then you’ll love it. Now let’s roll into gameplay.

Ok…so if we thought graphics were bad…just you wait. Let’s first begin with the staple of any shooter, combat. The combat style is very similar to that of Gears of War, only much much worse. First, you have no choice about when you edge up next to cover; all you can do is run up next to a wall and hope it snaps you into place. This auto-detection system becomes really frustrating not only because it doesn’t work most of the time, but sometimes you’ll snap into place when you need to be mobile. Second, shooting from the hip is worthless. Shooting while stopping and aiming is only SLIGHTLY less worthless. In fact shooting in general is just an exasperating mess. The accuracy of weapons doesn’t seem to change whether you burst-fire or you continually fire. I’m sure that it does, but you miss so often when you burst fire that it is almost easier to just spray the field with bullets and hope that one hits. Now before people come out to say “Well Kane and Lynch aren’t trained soldiers so of course their accuracy will be worse than what you’re used to,” that’s bull. If you believe in the lame excuse of a story at all, then Kane is some what of a successful mercenary and part of what is essentially an elite crime/merc organization. He should know how to shoot a gun.

That all being said, there are some amusing parts to the game. Neither of these are the club or the bank robbery, both of which are really just annoying or poorly thought out. The two moments that stood out the most as exciting to me were the prison break (it actually felt like you were staging a prison break/riot to “liberate” your crew) and when you repel through a window to take out a board meeting. Those were two novel experiences for me and I think that they were pulled off very well.

The remaining aspects were mediocre at best. The visuals of the game were nice, but definitely not up to par with some of the great stuff that has been coming out. The sound was present, and the story was completely voice acted, but nothing spectacular was put together. And the multiplayer? There’s only one mode and it becomes repetitive and a bit annoying at it’s finest. There may be some fun to be had in the multiplayer, but I never found it.

Art Direction: Nothing incredible done here. Some of the environments are nice and pulled off much better than others, but overall the graphics in the game fall in line with what I feel should be a standard for FPS now and in the future. Designs were well done, but nothing terribly creative or striking to make the art a big factor.

Sound Design: The voice acting for this game is actually rather good. Nothing ever sounds forced, but there can be issues where the characters say something at times that don’t make a whole lot of sense. For example, when I kill a guard and then he yells “HEY! What’re you doin’ here?” I dunno, it just feels a little unrealistic, ya know?

Gameplay: There are soooo many annoyances that I’m surprised that this game wasn’t delayed to fix some glaring issues. When my pistol is more accurate long range than my assault rifle, we have a slight problem. Also, locking into cover is frustrating and seems to occur only when you don’t want it to. There was a lot of potential there, but I feel that it lived up to none of it.

The Story: This was possibly the most disappointing aspect of the game. There was a lot of great potential, but it fell apart as the story became a trite tale of revenge for a character you could care less about. In fact, I didn’t want to get revenge because I felt the bastards deserved it.

Overall: Two Stars

If you’ve played any music game in recent years, particularly of the notes-on-a-track variety popularized by Guitar Hero, then the gameplay in Phase won’t really surprise you. Since you’re working with a touch wheel instead of a plastic Stratocaster, Harmonix returned to its simpler Frequency/Amplitude series for inspiration. Gone are the 4th and 5th notes, chords, star power - much of what defines the current crop of music games, but the remaining core is still fun. New to Phase are long chains that require you to slide your finger across the wheel. This mechanic feels great and helps give this game a bit of an identity.

What really defines this game though is the music selection. From the outset, you have seven pack-in tracks, most of which are great (”Dragonfly” remix) and one that’s nigh unbearable (”The Theme of Awesome”). These will entertain for an hour or so and could probably justify the game’s paltry $5 pricetag alone. However, Phase’s true value lies in its ability to assign beats to your own library of songs. Any MP3 can be used, so long as it’s not absurdly long or short, and the technology seemed to be very accurate in the few dozen songs I tested. Slower ballads occasionally throw the syncing off, but fans of any music genre can make this game work.

While Phase is fun for what it is, I want to be careful not to oversell it. Though this game is practically a must-have given its price, music games have evolved in the past few years and I cannot imagine this game holding your attention for very long, even with the custom soundtrack. I also want to give a head’s up to folks with large hands. If you have gorilla mitts like me (above), you’re hands will likely cramp up after fifteen minutes of play. Not a knock on Harmonix, just a general acknowledgment that the the iPod was not originally built for gaming. I’m sure that Apple already has taken this under consideration for if and when they’re truly ready to compete with the Nintendo DS and PSP. When that day comes, they’d be wise to use this game as a template for how to make a successful casual game.

Overall: 3 Stars