GAME: Dead Space

My friend recently purchased the newly-released EA game "Dead Space". The game is a 3rd person survival-horror game set in, you guessed it, space (a space-ship to be more exact). Plot Summary: You are an engineer named Issac who is traveling through space with a small crew to answer a distress call from a mining vessal. Upon arrival, you notice that somethings wrong, and before you can get your suspicions up, you are pulled in to the ship and crash. After you and your crew emerges from the wreakage, you enter the main hall. There is where the nightmare begins...Before you know it half your crew is gone and the game has officially Halo1owned you by having you run through dangerous areas with no gun. Me and my friend were playing this together for most of the game and we can both assure you that the developers did well in the scare factors, our favorite? There's one that we can't tell you due to spoilers and but the other is when sometimes you will walk into a hallway and suddenly you are attacked by a tentacle and you have only a few moments to destroy the arm by shooting it (sounds easy except the fact that you have to do this while being dragged around and your aim is all over the place). Moving on...One of the interesting aspects is that for once you are not some millitary manly-man. You are a lonley engineer who has no combat experiance (however after this game you will have plenty). Thanks to this your best weapon is a plasma cutter. This is also effective since the best way to kill these creatures is to dimember them rather then directly shoot them. However no matter how non millitary trained you are, you should at least be able to jump right? no. In DS you cannot jump over a simple fallen cabinet but you can jump around a room if it's zero-gee. This is also another fun experience for a game that I have not seen before, zero-gee fighting, it makes you have to expect to be attacked from any angle and makes a heck of a lot scarier at times.

Plot wise, DS hits the mark. I've seen a lot of sci-fi alien games however I have seen few "zombies in space" games like DS. This game introduces some interesting enemies who are mostly based around tentacle attacks (for all of those with Hentai thoughts, NO!). My personal favorite? a human baby that was modified to shoot explosive pods at you through 3 tentacles on its back. They're small, fast, and extraordinarily creepy. But back to the plot, most of the game will have you doing the usual get room key or open hatch door to get to the escape pod with your last 3 remaining crewmen/women. This is one of the biggest problems with the game in using a repetitive idea that just makes it feel like Resident Evil in space.

All in all the game is a step forward in thinking and originality. The fact that for once you are not some marine or millitary trained person who knows how to use all sorts of guns but instead an engineer who knows how to slice and dice is truly fun to go with. DS is kind of disapointing in that it offers no multiplayer. Think about it a deathmatch where one friend goes in as a undead while another is the engineer. Not that hard to create yet it there is nothing in this game "live" wise except downloadable contant. DS is a fresh step in survival horror games and I hope they will make a second one.

GRADE (Out of 10): 9.3

+Original Idea

+Scary!!

+Well made

-No multiplayer

-Redundant at times

"Hey you. Out there in the cold. Getting lonely, getting old. Can you feel me?"

-WK2029

GAME: Mirrors Edge (DEMO)

Mirrors Edge is a new EA game coming out for 360 and ps3 about a girl named Faith (I think). Mirrors Edge takes place in the future with a dominating government (ie: Eon Flux, Ultra Violet, V for Vendatta style) where people like Faith run messages to and from different underground orgainzations. They're called "runners" (real original). The demo begins with a lengthy tutorial teaching everything you'll need to know for the rest of the demo. On the 360 (sorry PS3 I only an 360) you use the L bumper to jump, L trigger to crouch, R bumper to swith sides on ledges and pipes, and R trigger to punch/open doors/shoot. You also have the ability to slow down time with X and disarm/pick up/drop weapons. The whole entire game is played in 1st person so this is not for the weak in motion sickness (I already got a little vertigo from when you roll on the ground after falling from hight up). The interesting thing about the game is that the whole entire game is based on momentum. The more momentum you keep, the faster, ther better, and the harder the game gets as your vision blurrs around the edges. Also you have police as enemies however the best option usually is to just run away. You also have a series of disarming moves to take down opponnets and their weapons. You can steal their guns to shoot however you usually end up dying in 5 or 6 shots due to your light clothing/armor. One of the coolest features by far of the game is the stream-lining. When you'r running your path is marked by red colored pipes, platforms, doors, etc. showing the best place to continue your line. Back to the demo: after playing through the tutorial, you are given a short story mission with a pretty awesome opening cinematic in first person of you pulling off some incredible jumps. Thereafter you proceed with the mission, About halfway through you get attacked by police and are forced to make a run for it. After emerging onto a roof you have the chance to try disarming another cop (which surpirsing looks amazing in slow motion). Finally the demo ends with you transferring the package to another runner. You are then attacked by police and you have to (WARNING!!! IF YOU ARE GOING TO  PLAY THE DEMO, DO NOT READ THE NEXT PART IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW HOW TO BEAT IT IN ONE RUN (its far too much fun to just fall off the edge anyway) jump over a fence, under a pipe, and running and jumping onto the landing rails of a passing helicopter where you drop down and finish the demo. This final section took me 7 deaths to understand but I guess thats a good part of the game, be prepared to die, a lot. All in all it looks more like a fun game to rent but not buy. Find someone who owns the game, borrow it, gain some achievements and return it.

Mirrors Edge (DEMO)

+innovative game play

+looks like fun in short bursts

+Impressive handeling

-Difficult to understand at times

-looks like fun in short burst

-doesn't seem to hold much for after beating the game

GRADE (out of 10): 9.2

"You are only coming through in waves, your lips move, but I can't hear what your saying"

-WK2029

GAME: Tom Clancy's End War (DEMO)

I recently downloaded the End War demo from live and I have to say...this is incredible. You begin the demo by allowing the game to listen to your voice through the headset as you say some basic commands. It then recognizes your voice and saves the style for the rest of the demo. you then proceed to get a basic beginning mission to hold off some hostiles from Kennedy Space Center. You then have the chance to use by far the most innovative, smooth, and coolest feature of the game: voice command. Barking orders through the headset such as "unit 1 move to alpha" or "unit 3 attack hostile 3" as you pull the right trigger. The system also works very well and easily responds to regular sentances instead of requiring robotic monotone to understand you. By the end of the 1st mission I had a decently firm grasp of the concept and I decided to play the level again. The first mission took me 8min, the second run through I finished the mission in 4min. The game simply blew me away with how much fun it was to use the voice command system and I am certainly going to get this game when it comes out! Now let me move on to some negatives. The first is the lack of a true tutorial. You are given training to use the voice command however anything on how to balance and adjust your squads. This was not a problem in the campaign level, however in online mode it was devastating. Speaking of online, when you go to play online make sure your on the non-american side to get to games faster (everyone else is always on american and thus it takes 3-5min to find a game. The only other negative is the shortness of the demo. You only get a short 5-8 min level and a demo live level for multiplayer. All in all I believe that you should immediatly download this demo and also just buy it already!

Tom Clancy's End War (DEMO)

+Amazing Voice Command

+Incredible Graphics

+Very Fun!

-No tutorial

-Very short

GRADE (Out of 10): 9.0

"Deaf, Dumb, Blind. You just keep on pretending"

-WK2029

GAME: Guitar Hero World Tour (DEMO)

I finally got the chance to try out Guitar Hero: World Tour. And...it sux. Sorry but at least as a demo it does. The drums are in horrible positions and the new guitar just feels weird. Oh and to say guitar hero copied rock band would be an understatment. I stalked it, stole its clothes. and now goes around claiming its rock band. The guitar is being more based around the stratocaster from rock band. The strum bar is bigger and smoother (ie: rock band) which sux because between the Les Paul controller and the original stratocaster controller, I would gladly take the Les Paul (because I can actually hear the strum bar and I'm able to double strum!!!). Also with the new guitar (its not even a model of anything!!!) has a whammy bar exactly like the rock band controller which is not useful at all. The whammy bar is too long! I hit it evertime I hit star power! or I hit star power when I'm using it! But that brings me to one of the few good things about this guitar. Since my used Les Paul is funky with lifting star power (I have to tip it down and then up, and sometimes it goes off by itself, especially in guitar hero where I have to keep it tipped down or else it goes off as soon as I have the power) I now use the select button to activate my star power. The GH controller has a long select button behind the strum bar. Easy to push! The last thing about the new guitar is the slide bar...its by far one of the worst ideas I have ever seen. It completly does not work. It's too difficult to dermine when the right section is arriving (its marked differently as a series of clear notes) and just trying to find the buttons is difficult enough. The only distinction between notes feels like a 1/4 of a fret bar. Even if you are on the note. it is as easy as a finger twitch to accidently slip onto the next button and lose that notes points and your multiplier. Oh and heres the best part, when not being used, if you accidentlly touch the slide section, you will lose status (ie: rock meter), however the slide cannot be used for regular notes!!! WTF!!! Anyway moving on. GH:WT copied Rock Band's idea to now allow star power to build while already in star power. It also has the weirdest star power system I've ever seen. There is one big star power bar and whoever uses it first gets the power to themselves. Oh and heres the best part. If a single person fails out, the whole band fails out with them. No star power resurrecting. If nOOb-McGee cant play expert but claims he/she can (and thus ends up failing each time but blames it on someone else) he/she will bring down the wole ship. Finally moving on to the drums. I did not get to try the foot pedal (it was a demo). However for the rest of the set. It is a load of bull that the pads have hit sensitivity. I tired this set on the day it came out so it couldn't of have been already over used. Also the cymbals are in the worst position ever. Although you can adjust their height, it still has to stay in the same position which is nearly directly over the other pads. Thus I end up hitting the cymblas on a snare roll/tom hit. Also the cymbals are tiny. I've missed them way to easily (I play on hard for drums in Rock Band). Another problem is that the notes on the screen look strange. There is the normal notes, star power notes, and some strange almost bold-like notes which I have no idea as to what they do. One of the final problems is how to activate the star power. I tried many different ways until I remembered what my magazine said it was, you have to hit both cymbals at the same time. Sounds cool right? NOT!! If you hit the cymbals a little bit off (ie: not completly at the same time) you lose your multiplier which completly rules out the star power!!!! and If you hit the cymbals without star power, your basically f****d and you'll lose your multiplier unlike Rock Band which actually gives a section to tell you you have star power and makes it simple to activate. Game wise the graphics do look really good but it still has a cartoony charm (i like rock band for feeling a little bit more serious).Set list wise I don't know who copied who but both setllists are very similar (just to be bias here, I'm gonna say GH copied off rock band). It still is a great setlist though!  I have not yet tried the vocals but I probably will today and I'll put it in my next post.

Guitar Hero World Tour (DEMO)

+finally features whole band

+nice setlist

-horrible copy of rock band in attempt to win sales

-annoying new guitar

-annoying drums

GRADE(out of 10): 6

"Well I've always had the deepest respect and I mean that most sincere, The band is just fantastic that is really what I think, oh and by the way which ones Pink?"

-WK2029