Hands-on previews, PC, Platforms, PlayStation 3, Previews, Xbox 360

Dishonored (Hands-on Preview)

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Chances are, you’ve probably heard about Dishonored being a game keen to emphasise the vast amount of choice when approaching an assassination mission. Rather than trying to muscle in on Assassin’s Creed’s turf, the game is a first person title.

The game world is a strange mix of Victorian architecture and steampunk mechanics. Narrow foggy streets are patrolled by police on mechanical stilts. There are regular policeman too, although they’ve got something of a WWI German feel about them thanks to single-spike helmets and over-enthusiastic moustaches.

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Hands-on previews, Platforms, PlayStation 3, Previews, PS Vita, PSN (PlayStation Store)

Ratchet & Clank: Q-Force (Hands-on Preview)

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You might be wondering where Insomniac Games have been since announcing their multi-platform title,Overstrike. Well, since then this is their second Ratchet & Clank title, it would seem they’re not quite ready to move out of mama Sony’s house quite yet.

In recent years we’ve had the awesome Crack in Time and last year saw the enjoyable inclusion of multiplayer to the series with All 4 One. Today’s demo was single player but there will be online and splitscreen co-op options for two players. This could work very well as the action was a little dumbed down for All 4 One to allow four players to share a single screen. It was fun, but not quite the full co-op experience long-time fans craved.

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Hands-on previews, PC, Platforms, PlayStation 3, Previews, Wii U, Xbox 360

Darksiders II (Hands-On Preview)

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Death is coming. August 21st specifically. So make sure you’ve made all the arrangements, because Vigil’s eagerly-awaited sequel is going to demand your presence, no questions asked. As protagonists go, brother number two of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is certainly someone you don’t want to piss off.

My hands-on session starts at the opening of the now-finished game. A noisy Manchester Comic Con environment made taking note of any cutscenes a redundant luxury. So, eager to savour the full experience come review day, I skipped ahead, keen to let Death to do his thing.

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News

Play Darksiders II, 3DS XL And More At Manchester MCM Comic-Con Expo Tomorrow

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Fancy getting your hands on this summer’s hottest titles before release? Of course you do. Northern gamers should get to Manchester Central (formerly the G-Mex arena) for the MCM Comic Con event taking place all day tomorrow for the only way to spend a Saturday.

While mainly focused on comics and anime products, there’s a solid line-up of games to try out too. THQ’s killer sequel, Darksiders 2 will be there in playable form and as an added bonus, a live panel will be hosted by lead designer Haydn Dalton and art director Han Randhawa around 1:30pm.

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News

Play Darksiders II, 3DS XL And More At Manchester MCM Comic Con Expo Tomorrow

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Fancy getting your hands on this summer’s hottest titles before release? Of course you do. Northern gamers should get to Manchester Central (formerly the G-Mex arena) for the MCM Comic Con event taking place all day tomorrow for the only way to spend a Saturday.

While mainly focused on comics and anime products, there’s a solid line-up of games to try out too. THQ’s killer sequel, Darksiders 2 will be there in playable form and as an added bonus, a live panel will be hosted by lead designer Haydn Dalton and art director Han Randhawa around 1:30pm.

Still not sure about picking up a 3DS? Well why not try out the new and improved 3DS XL at the expo? You’ll be able to play unreleased games like Super Mario Bros 2 and Pokémon Conquest. Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance was released today, but why not try before you buy?

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Platforms, PlayStation 3, Reviews, RPG

Rainbow Moon Review – Grinding to the moon and back

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With PS3 RPG numbers being on the worryingly low side, I certainly wasn’t expecting one to appear on the digital PSN platform, but that’s exactly what developers SideQuest Studios have given us. Their ambitions are clearly high and I couldn’t wait to see if they could pull it off. Continue reading Rainbow Moon Review – Grinding to the moon and back →

Platforms, PlayStation 3, PS Vita, Wii, Xbox 360

Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (Review)

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Even Batman needs a little help from his friends, despite hating them all.

If going on a mad collecting splurge in Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7 was too much of a guilty pleasure to indulge in, you might be more comfortable with Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes. Even in Lego form, comic/movie icons don’t come much cooler than the Dark Knight. Even if he is stubby and spends most of the time sulking.

As long as you’re not expecting any dark plot elements like Nolan’s films, the 90s animated series or Rocksteady’s recent games, you’ll be fine. This is for fans who don’t mind a bit of fun poked at Batman. If the Joker was going to make a Batman game it might be like this. Everyone is so happy and cheerful, except for Batman of course.

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Action, Platforms, PlayStation 3, Reviews, Xbox 360

Lollipop Chainsaw (Review)

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Bored of zombies? Here’s an under-dressed cheerleader with a chainsaw. Oh look you’re back.

Hmmm, a Zombie-hunting Cheerleader armed with pom-poms and a chainsaw you say? Throw in one of gaming’s quirkiest developers in Suda51 and you know the game will be a memorable experience. Although, it will probably be remembered for boob-filled screenshots rather than gameplay.

Like most zombie games, there isn’t a lot of explanation. There are zombies, zombies are pests, let’s re-kill them all. You play as Juliet Starling, head-cheerleader slash pro-zombie chopper, and must clear up the undead mess. All on her eighteenth birthday too, yes Suda-san, we get it – she’s barely legal.

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Action, Platforms, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Move, Reviews

Sorcery (Review)

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The magic the PS Move has been waiting for

Delayed for years and almost forgotten, Sorcery makes a late bid for attention on the criminally under-supported PlayStation Move. Considering most Move titles are based on sports, minigames and dancing, there’s no denying the potential excitement offered by a full-on adventure title that takes advantage of the motion controller and the often forgotten navigation controller. 

Unlike the on-rails action of Medieval Moves, Sorcery allows complete control over your character’s movement. This can be done by holding a PS3 pad with just your left hand for the analogue stick. Or better yet, use the navigation controller (like a Wii nunchuk without the annoying cable) for the first time since Killzone 3.

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Action, PC, Platforms, PlayStation 3, PSN (PlayStation Store), Reviews, XBLA, Xbox 360

Harley Quinn’s Revenge (Batman: Arkham City DLC Review)

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Take me down to Arkham City, where the grass is dead and the girls show no pity.

It’s encouraging to see some premium downloadable content that attempts to expand on the single-player experience of a game. Like many games, Batman: Arkham City has seen more than its fair share of extra costumes and challenges for characters like Robin, Catwoman and Nightwing. But after the huge events at the end of Arkham City, fans will be excited to jump over the prison wall again to ruff up the inmates. As a warning, this DLC review contains spoilers for the end of the main game, so consider yourselves warned.

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Features, News, Video

Sony E3 2012 Press Conference Highlights

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To kick things off, Jack Tretton (President and CEO of SCEA) welcomes David Cage to the stage. The creative mind behind Heavy Rain finally announces the next game from Quantic Dream, Beyond: Two Souls. Here’s what he had to say:

“Death is the biggest mystery of mankind. What will happen after we die is something no-one knows. We all have our hopes, our fears, our doubts. But what’s on the other side remains unknown. Jodie Holmes knows a little bit more about all this than you and I. As far as she remembers, she has always felt a link with an invisible entity. Some presence around her, a spirit or ghost; she doesn’t really know. Something living between our world and the other side. Beyond tells Jodie’s story over fifteen years of her life. We will see her growing, evolving, learning to live with a difference. And discovering more about what’s beyond. For the first time in a videogame we will live the life of a character, go with her through happy and difficult times and help her to become who she is.”

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PC, PlayStation 3, Racers, Reviews, Xbox 360

Dirt Showdown (Review)

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This is not a traditional rally game. It’s an important point to remember for fans of Codemaster’s epic Dirt series. What it is though, is fun. Car smashing, exhilaratingly arcadey fun.

While Dirt 3 seemed caught in two minds as to whether to carry on with the impeccable rallying from the near-perfect Dirt 2 or try and turn your car into a demented pole-dancing skateboard, Showdown feels much more focused, admittedly more towards a Mad Max meets X-games mashup.

Gone are A-B timed stages in favour of a full on festival of car on car violence and general, well, pissing about. Think back to games like Destruction Derby and Twisted Metal, but pretend they were never crap.

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Platforms, PlayStation 3, Reviews, RPG, Xbox 360

Final Fantasy XIII-2 (Review)

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The beautiful and the damned

If you didn’t finish Final Fantasy XIII, you’ll have saved hours of your life from a torturous grind. However, the story was one of the best the series has ever done. The brooding star, Lightning, was a fantastic character that proved you can have a female lead that eschews the tiresome ‘big boobs, brassy attitude’ design and we were gifted an understated portrayal of conflicted charisma. A real boot up the backside of the series’ recent rosters if ever there was one.

After the closing scenes of the last game, Lightning disappeared almost as soon as she was reunited with her younger sister, Serah. This leaves the sequel without its leading lady. I wasn’t convinced that Serah had what it takes to take over the lead, but Square-Enix have done a great job at building her into a solid character. They must have been really confident in her as the old cast only really appear as cameos, admittedly perfectly timed ones.

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Platforms, PS Vita, Reviews, RPG

Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention (Review)

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After a strong launch line-up the Vita’s release schedule has been worryingly quiet. It has also been without anything resembling a decent RPG to really get our teeth into. Hopefully that’s all about to change as Disgaea 3 gets a re-release.

We’re not entirely sure why NIS didn’t release Disgaea 4 instead as it’s generally seen as the superior title. What you have here is a full priced game that has been out on the PS3 since 2008 and available for under a tenner today. On the plus side, Absence of Detention does come with all the separate DLC from the PS3 game, including an extra four chapters. Not that you’d miss it, this game is huge. You can level up to Lv. 9999 type of huge.

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Action, Platforms, PlayStation 3, Reviews

Yakuza: Dead Souls (Review)

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Shuffling up to the zombie party the day after the night before can hardly be called fashionably late, but here we finally are. The Yakuza series is renowned for its unique blend of beat em’ up RPG, so it was surprising and (whisper it), slightly disappointing to see them announce a gun-packed zombie game when all I really wanted was a new city to play in with Kiryu and the rest of the face-stomping gang.

Previously, the series only used firearms as brief power-ups before the game got back to doing what it did best: letting you swing street thugs by their ankles face-first into lamp posts. Sadly, there are no options to enjoy such violent delights here. A few melee weapons remain, but for the most part it’s all about the boomsticks.

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Platforms, PlayStation 3, Reviews, Sport, Xbox 360

Grand Slam Tennis 2 (Review)

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After a return to form for Sega’s Virtua Tennis 4, EA really have their work cut out for them if they want to take on the champ. In typical EA fashion, they’ve chucked a horde of player and tournament licenses and right analogue stick controls at the game in an attempt to dazzle us.

The first impression as I fired up the game was the usual disappointment with the menus that are the same clunky, basic ugly boxes we’ve seen FIFA drowning in for years. Yes, all the options you want are there, but why does every EA Sports game have to look the same?

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Horror, Platforms, PlayStation 3, Reviews, Xbox 360

Silent Hill HD Collection (Review)

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They always say you should never go back. And considering the gruesome nightmares of the body and mind that the Silent Hill tourist board have been selling for years, perhaps we should heed the old adage. Against our better judgment though, we’re going to go and poke its festering corpse with an HD stick.

There have been plenty of HD re-releases of late and the majority of them have been awesome.God of War, Metal Gear Solid and Sly Raccoon are still fantastic games to play. Silent Hill may prove to be a rotten horse flaying too far though.

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Books, Reviews

Bioshock Rapture (Book Review)

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Before the fall of gaming’s most beloved and feared underwater utopia, there was a story never told. This uncovered tale is a prequel to the first two Bioshock games and tells of the creation of the underwater city of Rapture. Beginning with the concept and construction, and ending close to the start of the first game.

The fragmented audio diaries picked up by the dedicated gamer left haunting gaps in the fall of Andrew Ryan’s idealistic city, but there was no denying the chilling sense of despair pulsing through a recent demise. Some of the recordings are integrated into this story, not as lazy filler material, more as important documentation of the progression of a citywide insanity.

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Horror, Platforms, PlayStation 3, Reviews, Xbox 360

Silent Hill: Downpour (Review)

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Survival Horror has been a festering corpse for a while now. Resident Evil and Dead Space have mutated in shooting games with limited ammo and we’re left with the Silent Hill series that’s been struggling since SH3. Nowadays we have Demon’s Souls (ish) and Amy, the later being my frontrunner for worst game of the year.

I’m all for giving Silent Hill: Downpour a shot as it has to be better than SH: Homecoming at least. And I’m glad to say it is. Thankfully, the new developers, Vatra have at least played Alan Wake, one of the rare gems the genre has produced in recent times. Hold it; I should probably put a hold on the semi-optimistic slant this review was heading. This game’s no Alan Wake beater, just so you know.

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Gaming reviews, previews and features by Brendan Griffiths