In the distant future, the United States will once again split into two sides. This time, it’s the east and west instead of north and south. Genetic human modification has become a huge controversy: the west coast is almost totally in favour of it while the east is against. The President of the United States has passed a bill stating that genetically modifying a human is a federal offence, causing the west coast to secede. At least, that’s the story of Fracture. You play as Jet Brody, a soldier for the Atlantic Alliance (the east coast). Your job is to capture the president of Pacifica (the west coast) at all costs.

The first thing I noticed with this game, almost immediately, is that it strongly resembles Halo. And I mean strongly. From the weapons, the settings, even Jet’s armor, the game feels a lot like a Halo knock-off. And not even a good one at that. The game-play is different though in the fact that it relies heavily on altering the ground with a weapon called the Entrencher. With it, you can raise or lower the ground to create cover, burrow under walls, or even raise debris out of your way. This is pretty neat at first, but it quickly looses it’s fun after the game makes you do it for almost every small task. It begins to feel very repetitive, especially since it doesn’t work perfectly and is very awkward to use.

That being said, I should tell you that a lot of the game is this way: repetitive and awkward. The combat is very difficult, not because of enemies, but because of the controls. There were many times where I’d die simply because I couldn’t get a good combination of cover and aiming abilities. Most of the time it is impossible to shoot anyone while behind cover. If your crouched, instead of shooting over the cover, you simply shoot whatever your hiding behind, forcing you to stand up and get hit by enemy fire while trying to aim. Even when you are aiming, the weapons have terrible accuracy and take a lot of ammo to take down one Pacifica soldier. Throwing grenades doesn’t work to well either. When attempting to throw a grenade through a window, no matter where you aim, the grenade will almost always land in the same exact spot. So if you miss the first time, you must move to a new location to try again. Grenades also seem to have little effect on enemies, typically just knocking them down instead of killing them.

Aside from the awkward controls and pathetic weapons, the game feels very over-done. While the story is unique, the game play feels a lot like a mix of past games. While sometimes a mix can be good, this game didn’t offer anything good to help it out. I felt like I had played it before, although I could never figure out what other game it reminded me of specifically. The graphics, most notably the suit or armor you wear, reminded me a lot of Halo or Gears of War, or some offspring of the two put together. While Gears of War is one of my favourite games and Halo wasn’t bad, this game managed to not have any of the joy of playing that those two games did.

Fracture attempted to be groundbreaking, literally, with it’s focus on ground altering, but it simply didn’t do it right. This game was hard to force myself to keep playing, especially when my hope of it redeeming itself was lost after the first several hours of playing.

Sound: 4

Graphics: 3

Story: 3

Gameplay Mechanics: 2

Replayability: 1

Written by: Nikolas Mason

Downloadable games have a knack for being small and relatively simple. They tend to not match the scale of disc-based games. Most titles available on the Playstation Store are like this. Simple puzzle or shooter games. This isn’t the case, however, with Ratchet and Clank Future: Quest For Booty, the fully downloadable game from Insomniac.

The game is a direct sequel to the disc-based game released with the launch of the Playstation 3, Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction. While not near as long, Quest For Booty is by no means just a side game. The game takes place after the events of Tools of Destruction, following Ratchet on his search for Clank. His search takes him to a fleet of pirates, the fight against which is what most of this game is based around.
Graphics wise, Quest For Booty is beautiful. All of the environments are rendered in full high-definition and look just as good, if not better, than that of Tools of Destruction.  The animation is really smooth, the loading times are relatively short, and the colors are very vivid, and the locations all have a unique tropical feel to them to match the pirate theme.

The story of the game isn’t too deep by any means, but it is quite enjoyable. The acting and comical script are superb, even making me laugh a few times. The game features a decent sized cast of intriguing characters whom you interact with through dialogue trees. These give you several options of what to say to the characters you talk to, but ultimately only one of the options is ever important while the rest tend to only add more details or just funny one-liners for entertainment.

The main enemies of the game are pirates, but not your ordinary pirates, but robot space ghost pirates. Yes, a very odd combination, but the game pulls it off quite well. Although the combat with these pirates is my biggest gripe with this game. At times you’ll face one enemy and have a lot of health near by that you can easily avoid needing, while at other times the game will throw a ton of enemies at you and give you very little health pick ups. There were many times where I’d die because of this overwhelming amount of enemies and have to go way back and start over. While it’s fun the first time, it can get quite tiresome, especially with how far the game will sometimes make you backtrack.

The controls are relatively simple to learn, just like most third person shooters. You have a decent sized arsenal, most of which are the basic weapons from the disc-based game. There is, however, no stores or upgrades that I saw, a major feature in the first game. This isn’t too surprising given that this game is basically just episodic content. Available for $14.99 on the Playstation Store, this game is worth a purchase if you were a fan of the series, but if you didn’t like Tools of Destruction, I wouldn’t recommend this game for you.
Sound: 4
Graphics: 5
Story: 3
Replayability: 1
Gameplay Mechanics: 3

View more screenshots at IGN.

Posted by: Tyson Moffitt

First PixelJunk Racers came out, and then PixelJunk Monsters, and finally PixelJunk Eden, the newest installment to the series. You play as a small creature that jumps and swings around from plant to plant trying to find the little objects called ‘spectra’ which are located throughout the stages.  As you are jumping about looking for the spectra you also have a little meter at the bottom of the screen that is full at the beginning of the game, but gradually lowers unless you find ‘crystals’, or the spectra.

First level of PixelJunk Eden from Nikolas Mason on Vimeo.

The game looks and feels delightful, but the controls are at times difficult, and stubborn to jump and maneuver. The game has a fantastic soundtrack, and a great look and concept. But I just wasn’t feeling it.

The game was fun sometimes, but mostly annoying. In my opinion, I could usually over look the annoying, but I just couldn’t find myself doing that with this game. It took longer than I liked trying to get used to the controls. I could only play this game for about 30 to 40 minutes before getting bored. The game seemed to have the potential to be really fun, but it just didn’t deliver. For only $4.99, you can try this game yourself from the Playstation Store.

Sound: 5

Graphics: 5

Replayability: 2

Controls: 1

Concept: 2

Posted by: Nikolas Mason

With the launch of the Playstation 3 came the launch of a new racing series known only as Motorstorm. The game gave you a varied selection of cars, anything from dirt bikes to rally cars, racing trucks to old semis. With a brutal style of racing, very detailed desert setting, and great vehicle physics, Motorstorm quickly made a name for itself as one of the best racing games available for the PS3. Everything wasn’t perfect, however, as the game seemed to be lacking in several areas. For starters, and my biggest complaint, it had no local multiplayer. If you’ve read my past reviews, you should know by now this is a major pet peeve with me. Along with that, the game also featured very long load times and very little variety in the maps.

Motorstorm Pacific Rift fixes all three of those problems. The load times are much faster, notably when selecting your vehicle, there are now twice as many maps to race on, all of them very distinct and varied, and best of all: split screen multiplayer. Pacific Rift throws the same violent racing style from the first game onto a tropical, volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean, along with a lot of new vehicle styles and game play modes.
Pacific Rift is beautiful. The island is extremely detailed and every course has a very distinct style. From forests to beaches and volcanoes, and even an abandoned sugar plantation and mountain top observatory, Pacific Rift is far from lacking in the location department. All of the different locations feature unique game-play modifications, such as if you’re driving in a wet area with a lot of water, you’re able to cool your engine off and boost for much longer periods of time. But if you’re near volcanic lava, your engine heats up very fast, allowing for much shorter boost periods. These of course also have their opposite sides. Some vehicles can’t make it through deep water, so in an attempt to cool your engine down, you could drown yourself completely. Also many of the courses with lava feature showers that you can drive your car through to cool the engine down.

Along with water and fire, the game features a lot of vegetation. At times the course can seem completely overgrown in some areas. Smaller vehicles can have a lot of trouble making it through, getting caught and stuck on plants, where as larger vehicles, such as the new monster trucks, can plow right though. Along with the course obstacles are also the course paths. Every course has multiple paths, all made up of different styles. The road could fork into three paths, one path going into deep mud that only larger vehicles can drive through, another path going up to a narrow ledge that only smaller vehicles would be safe driving along, and the other course could have water or lead to a big jump. Finding which course is right for your vehicle mostly involves a lot of trial and error, as there is no perfect route.

Along with the new locations and vehicles, Pacific Rift features several different modes of play. The first and most basic mode is just your standard race mode. You are up against 15 other drivers all fighting for the first place spot, usually in two laps. Besides this mode, there is also the Eliminator challenges in which every few seconds, whoever is in last place blows up, slowly narrowing the race down to one driver, and your job is to make sure that driver is you. This can be rather hard at times, especially when stressing that you’re in last place and the screen flashes at you warning of your impending death. But still, it’s a lot of fun. The third and least fun of the game styles is the Speed challenges. In this mode, you must race against the clock to hit checkpoints. In standard arcade style, each checkpoint earns you a few more seconds and you must hit them all without running out of time. This can be quite challenging however as the game only shows you one checkpoint at a time. With all of the different paths you can take on the course, it is very easy to miss a checkpoint, causing you to loose the challenge.

Besides the gorgeous locations and great selection of vehicles, possibly the best thing Pacific Rift has to offer is local multiplayer. Noticably missing from the first game, split screen multiplayer adds a lot of replay value to this game. You can play with up to four of your friends locally against 11 computer racers in either standard race or eliminator modes. Along with local split-screen, Pacific Rift also features online play, which much like the first game’s very basic race against up to 16 other players.

Pacific Rift presents itself very well. All of the locations are extremely detailed and varied, the colors are all very vivid and the lighting is almost always perfect. The sound effects really make the game feel more intense, along with the loud, rowdy music that plays, fitting the style of the game perfectly. On the downside, however, the controls seem to sometimes be inconsistent. At times the controls are too sensitive, making a small mistake turn into a large crash, or the complete opposite, and they aren’t sensitive enough, making you miss a turn that could have gotten you ahead in the race.
Over all, Motorstorm Pacific Rift surpassed my expectations. Fans of the first game will love this one, and fans of racing games in general would surely enjoy the fun and different style of racing Motorstorm provides.

Sound: 4

Graphics: 5

Fun: 5

Replayability: 5

Gameplay Mechanics: 4

Verdict:

Posted by: Nikolas Mason

Very rarely are military shooters innovative. But in 2006, Resistance: Fall of Man was just that. Set in a post World War II Europe, Resistance followed the story of the human species fight to survive an invading alien species known as the Chimera. You played as Nathan Hale, a Sergeant of the United States Army, sent to Europe to help contain the invasion. The human’s resistance was a failure, however, and the Chimera made it to the last remaining uninfected continents. That’s where Resistance 2 picks up.

Europe has been lost and the Chimera have invaded the United States. Taking place immediately after the events of the first game, Resistance 2 has a lot to live up to, and it definitely does. Resistance 2 manages to improve on virtually everything good about the first game, everything from graphics to weapons. Let’s start with the latter.

Fans of the first game will quickly recognize most of the weapons featured in Resistance 2, which also features a handful of new weapons to choose from. The Bullseye is my favourite gun from the first game, and in this one it seems much more powerful, as do all of the weapons. Only being able to hold two guns at once can be kind of annoying, especially with the very low maximum ammo you’re allowed to carry. Choosing what weapon to take with you can be difficult, but it usually depends on what the situation calls for.

Along with the weapons, the enemies in which you fight have also gained more in number. There are now a lot more types of Chimera to fight during the game, ranging from weak to almost impossibly strong. All of the enemies feature a great and horrifying design, and the shear numbers they attack is sometimes amazing. The bosses of the game, and there are a lot of them, are also very well made, and very big.  You get your first taste of just how big the bosses are almost immediately also.

As I already mentioned above, Resistance 2 takes place in the United States, far from the World War II battlegrounds of Europe. The locations in Resistance 2 are breathtakingly realistic and beautiful. At times I was distracted from the task just to gaze in awe at some of the areas, namely the games rendition of San Francisco. The level of detail put into each and every level is a great sign of Insomniac’s attention to detail. The colors are more vivid, the buildings are more structured, and the draw distance features a very good view in most cases. The colors of each level seem to differ greatly from the overall grayish tone the first game had, which is quite refreshing.

The story of Resistance 2 isn’t too spectacular, but it’s good enough to keep you playing for the 9 or 10 hours it takes to complete. The battles are very intense and very large, and at some points they can be almost impossible. There were times where I would get aggravated at how easily I would get killed, and at many times, how many times I’d die trying to get through one small part of the game. Overall though, the single player campaign was very fun, and to make it even better, you can run through the whole campaign in co-op if you wish.

Where the game really shines, however, is in it’s multiplayer. Resistance 2 features a very Call of Duty 4-esque online multiplayer, allowing you to earn XP points and unlockables the more you play. Some of the modes also allow for up to 60 players at once, which is very intense. The game has several different modes to choose from, all of which are divided up into two teams, obviously either human or Chimera. You also have your own customized player of each species. Earning XP points earns you unlockables, which you can use to customize your player’s appearance and weapons. The game would almost be worth the $60 just for the multiplayer alone.

In the end, Resistance 2 managed to completely surpass my expectations. This game is a definite buy for fans of the first game. Almost every aspect of the game has improved, and other than the times where it’s a little overly hard, this game was a lot of fun. Do not resist this game if you own a PS3. I give it a five out of five.

See more screenshots at IGN.

Posted by: Nikolas Mason

Along the shores of Toluca Lake lies a sleepy resort town, famous for its amusement park, beautiful hotel, and even a strip club. The town of Silent Hill seems like the perfect place for a romantic get away or just to get away from work for a few days, but for a select few, the town is hell. Literally.
So far there have been six major games placed in the quaint town, starting with the aptly named ‘Silent Hill’ on the original Playstation. All of the games so far have had deeply thought provoking stories, grotesque graphics, disturbing creatures, and enough scares to keep me up for nights afterwards, but I’ve loved every moment of them. That is, at least up until the most recent entry in the series. Silent Hill: Homecoming marks the debut of the series onto the current generation of consoles, and also the first game in the series I didn’t like.

Homecoming follows the story of Alex Shepard, a soldier who is sent back home after a brief stay in a military hospital. Upon returning home to his hometown of Shepard’s Glen, he finds that things aren’t like they should be. The town is suddenly nearly empty, most of the inhabitants are either missing or dead, and an unnatural thick fog blankets everything. Sound familiar? Alex makes his way to his house, only to find his mom sitting alone in a near insane state as she informs him that his younger brother, Josh, is missing. Oh, and that there is a monster in the basement. You spend the majority of the game chasing your brother through abandoned and creepy environments, meeting several more characters, all of whom lack true personality.
For the most part, the locations in Silent Hill Homecoming are rather nice. All of them are greatly and grotesquely detailed, as always in Silent Hill games. Several new locations are featured in this game, such as the Grand Hotel from the movie, and even the full town of Shepard’s Glen. Most of the locations also have two versions: the foggy realm and the ‘alternate’ realm, which the game transitions between the two with a really awesome looking ‘peeling’ effect. Though this seems to change the way the Silent Hill universe used to be. In previous games, the town actually seemed alive. It would change based on the character, and be completely different and unexpected every time. However, in Homecoming, the town seems stuck with two basic worlds: fog and rust. The rusty ‘alternate’ world no longer feels as creepy as it used to in the previous games, most notably Silent Hill 3, where the alternate world seemed to be living.
Creature design has always been one of the best parts of Silent Hill games. The monsters are typically scary, gross, or just down right disturbing on multiple levels. Homecoming marks one of the first games in the series to re-use a monster, which is ok if you like that sort of unoriginality, but personally I found it kind of disappointing. The biggest of which was the bringing back of the red pyramid monster from Silent Hill 2, known by most as ‘Pyramid Head’. Though seeing him in high definition was quite cool, it was still more disappointing than having a new and original boss show up. But overall, the creature design in Homecoming keeps up the disturbing trends set by the previous games, introducing several new and kind of cool enemies. The most interesting thing about the enemies, however, was the fact that they now show damage from your attacks. Melee attacks now show up on enemies as bloody cuts and slashes, making attacking them all the more fun.
Now to talk about the actual attacking them. It’s long been a problem in Silent Hill games that the combat was way to difficult, not because of enemy strength, but because of camera angles and controls. Homecoming fixes this with a style much like Resident Evil 4. The camera now goes to a ‘over the shoulder’ view when attacking enemies, and even gives you a crosshair to aim with when using a firearm. While this does make it a lot less frustrating, it also makes it a lot less scary. Originally, Silent Hill games gave a lot of their fear out in the form of helplessness. Not being able to see an enemy or not being able to aim properly added a lot to the fear, but since that’s no longer a problem, the monsters become a whole lot less scary.
The story isn’t quite as much of a mind-twister as some of the previous ones, sticking to a similar ‘searching for a missing person’ story that has already been done several times. The game does toss out a few unexpected twists, but in the end it’s just not as good as it’s predecessors. Silent Hill games have long held a place in my heart as one of the only things truly capable of scaring me. Silent Hill 2 gave me nightmares for a week, and Silent Hill 3 made me terrified of mirrors for a whole day. This is the biggest disappointment of Silent Hill Homecoming: Complete lack of fear. Homecoming never once messed with my mind quite like the previous games, but relied more on surprise scares rather than disturbing scares. Have high hopes that they’ll learn from their mistakes with Silent Hill 6, but I’m worried the Silent Hill series is finally dead. Homecoming is worth a rent if you like the series, but probably not worth a buy.

Sound: 5

Graphics: 5

Story: 2

Replayability: 1

Gameplay mechanics: 3

Verdict:

See more screenshots at IGN

Posted by: Nikolas Mason

While racing games aren’t usually my thing, the Midnight Club games from Rockstar have been one of my favourites ever since the first one on the Playstation 2. Their free roam, full city maps were always one of the biggest attractions to the games, especially when other racing series kept you in closed areas, such as Need for Speed. Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition then introduced real and deeply customizable cars, making it one of the most addictive so far in the series.

After the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, I began to get really high hopes for Midnight Club Los Angeles, the first Midnight Club to make it’s way to the newest generation of consoles. The vehicle handling in GTAIV was very realistic, something I loved about that game. I was hoping that trait would move over to the new Midnight Club, but it didn’t. However, in Los Angeles, the car handling is still almost perfect for a racing game. Repeat: almost perfect. At times turning can be a little too hard, making you take a turn too wide and run into trees while the AI takes the turn sharply. Other than some small problems, the handling is great for a racing game.

One thing I loved about DUB Edition was the huge variety of cars to choose from and the massive amounts of customization for each. While Los Angeles does have a decent car selection, it is notably smaller than DUB Editions, with fewer upgrades and parts also. This isn’t too bad because the game still gives you a decent variety, but it was definitely a step down from the previous entry in the series.

Graphics wise, Rockstar has managed to beautifully recreate the city of angels. The cars are all very detailed and the city has many details strewn about, most noticeably are the placement of real businesses and ads. While it does look good, it doesn’t feel quite up to par with most other current generation games as sometimes the graphics feel a bit flat. This isn’t too much of a problem though, and at times I’ll find myself straying away from the races just to explore the city.

The races have a steep difficulty curve. They start out incredibly easy and quickly become more difficult, forcing you to cough up your hard earned cash for upgrades. And by hard earned, I mean hard earned. It takes several races to earn enough money to be able to afford anything decent, and upgrading car parts or buying new vehicles are definitely a necessity to progress in the game as opponents become tougher and tougher.

And speaking of opponents let me take a minute to stray away from my review to send a message to game developers: What happened to the good old days of local multiplayer? Almost every racing game I’ve played on the current generation consoles is lacking local multiplayer. This really annoys me because I simply don’t know anyone in real life with a Playstation 3 besides me. If I want to play against another human, I have to play online with people I’ve never met or that are sitting in a room completely across the country. I miss the days of having a group of friends over and just racing against each other rather than taking turns. And if you haven’t caught on, Midnight Club Los Angeles’ largest fault is it’s lack of local multiplayer. This game would’ve probably earned a 4 stars from me if it simply had this feature.

Aside from the subpar graphics, low number of vehicles, and complete lack of local multiplayer, Midnight Club Los Angeles is a great game. It’s better than most racing games available and is a very decent time-waster as the races can get addictive. The game features a very interesting menu and pretty cool soundtrack, something I’ve come to expect from Midnight Club games. The story attached to the game is simple at best and the main character can get pretty annoying during races, but Midnight Club Los Angeles still has earned three stars. If you can, rent it and give it a good play through.

Posted by: Tyson Moffitt

Just 13 years ago, the first PlayStation was released, and now in late October they just bumped up another peg on the totem pole. No, not a new console, but with the release of LittleBigPlanet (LBP). You play as a lovable creature referred to only as ‘Sacboy’ by the potently kind and helpful narrator through the levels of the little big world.

While looking at the commercials for this game I was thinking that it looked pretty good, and was probably going to be fun. And I was wrong, it wasn’t just good, it was amazing! And it wasn’t just fun, it was entertaining and brilliant! I could spend hours just randomly jumping about from side to side, performing the mindless tasks of pushing random objects around, or making a large object just to have it fall on and humorously squish me. The game has stunning graphics, life-like physics, and the story is cute and fun. There is almost nothing about this game that really let me down.

Although this game is amazing, it did have some faults. I think that the story mode was a little too short, and sometimes the controls could be a little bit stubborn. However, those are easily overlooked while having so much fun designing your character and having him childishly run about the place.

The story of the game is cute, but not too deep, (so if you were looking for a game with some amazing acting and a good story, I wouldn’t get this one, I would suggest Gears of War 2) but it is a fantastic way to take up about 4 hours of a day. The game’s replay value is great, the levels never really get old; every time you go through them you’re bound to find something fun or funny to do with them. The game hosts a multiplayer for you to play online and local matches (considering that it is hard to find a PS3 game that has a good Local multiplayer). The multiplayer is fun…as…hell, if you don’t like the game, the I would suggest getting it just for the multi-player. Not only can you play online, you can create your own levels so you can host them to the LBP network for you and others to play, so this makes it possible for the levels to never end, they just keep on coming.

LBP has breathtaking graphics and pretty good performance, the load screens are sometimes a little too long (but that will probably be fixed in the future), and it might not catch your controller actions as fast as you might like. Many times you will find yourself cussing at the TV, yelling that you jumped and it didn’t catch it. But then again, I feel that when it does happen, it can actually be fun and make you laugh.

Why people wouldn’t like the game is beyond me. I simply thought it was amazing, it is definitely a buy. If you don’t have the money, then I would definitely recommend renting it, because it is probably the best game I have played all year.

Verdict: