(Unless otherwise noted, all content is by Vanessa and Tiffany.)

Dark Souls (Click any game name to buy it from Amazon through an affiliate link: $34.99)

Rated: M — Ages 17+

Dark Souls is the predecessor to 2009’s acclaimed Demon’s Souls. If you’re shopping for a gamer this Holiday season that LOVES a challenge, and has a great deal of patience, Dark Souls is the perfect game to choose. Not only does it have a lot more content, some of the challenges it poses will daunt even the most seasoned veterans of Demon’s Souls. Because of this, it also provides one of the most rewarding gaming experiences around. This is the ideal game for anyone who enjoys a high risk, high reward venture in a dark medieval fantasy style setting. It would also provide the perfect holiday drinking game — take a drink every time the words “You Died” come up on the screen! (Note from the editor: Do not do this. You will probably die.)

The ICO and Shadow of the Colossus Collection ($39.99)

Rated: T — Ages 13+

Team ICO’s two legendary games for the price of one. As someone who previously played and purchased the original PlayStation 2 versions of the game, I still couldn’t pass this one up. The collection is definitely a must-have for those who have never experienced either masterpiece before. Both games have been polished and updated into splendid 1080p resolution and for those with a 3D TV, both titles are now fully compatible. The two games are also considered the pre-cursor for Team ICO’s third and upcoming title, The Last Guardian, and would be the perfect gift for anyone looking for a more unique, artistic gaming experience.

Assassin’s Creed Revelations ($58.99)

Rated: M — Ages 17+

Two years ago in Assassin’s Creed II, we were introduced to the Italian noble-turned-Assassin, Ezio Auditore. The follow-up to last year’s Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood was released this November, and we’ll finally have the conclusion to Ezio’s story and impact on the assassins. With revamped multiplayer returning from its predecessor in addition to the main single-player, sandbox-style game, Assassin’s Creed is one of Ubisoft’s most revered properties, and Revelations definitely delivers.

Metal Gear Solid HD Collection ($49.99)

Rated: M — Ages 17+

Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid series is renowned for its innovation, amazing characters and its top-notch, action-oriented tactical espionage gameplay. The HD Collection has been fully upgraded to 1080p, and includes Metal Gear Solid 2, Metal Gear Solid 3 (my personal favorite in the series) and PSP’s Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. This set of games would be perfect for anyone who ever wanted to play Metal Gear Solid 4, but never caught up, or anyone in anticipation of next year’s Metal Gear Rising. The total package has quite a bit of replay value, and is a convenient choice for anyone looking to get into the series for the first time, but who doesn’t know where to begin. (Hint: Start with MGS3!)

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim ($59.99)

Rated: M — Ages 17+

Despite not being a fan of the series’ previous entry, Oblivion, Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has gone above and beyond to create a unique gameplay experience unlike any other. This medieval fantasy adventure allows players to go whenever they choose and play the game in any way they’d like. With such a wealth of content, there’s no end in sight for when it comes to what you can do in this game. You can collect books, weapons, join a variety of different orders, groups or schools and collect just about any item that’s lore appropriate. Wanna’ wipe out an entire town of villagers? Go for it. Feel like getting into a bar fight with a Drunken Bard? Skyrim literally offers something to every type of gamer, and even the most jaded of gamers can find something to take away from it.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine ($56.99)

Rated: M — Ages 17+

Do you like finding nasty ways to kill hundreds and hundreds of green orks? Do you want to play a shooter that doesn’t rely on cover? Look no further than Space Marine, the best game that no one is playing right now. Players take on the role of Captain Titus, one of the best Ultramarines in the Empire, as he tries to save human colonies from being completely massacred by orks. The gameplay is unique, the story is deeply woven, and many, many orks will die. (Recommended by Keri.)

Batman: Arkham City ($51.96)

Rated: T — Ages 13+

The Batman is back, and he’s ready to brawl. Once again, Rocksteady has gotten the formula just right for a game that’s not only hilariously fun to play, but will also provide hours of treasure-hunting entertainment. If you loved Arkham Asylum, this is really just more of the same, but in a great way. Also, the addition of Catwoman makes for a fun new way to play, whether you resent her being add-on content or not.

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception ($43.96)

Rated: T — Ages 13+

Nathan Drake’s on another adventure. This time, he’s focusing on Sir Frances Drake and T.E. Lawrence — better known as Lawrence of Arabia. The single-player is, once again, downright cinematic, and the multiplayer’s a ton of fun, especially with friends. In any case, the gang is back and you’re on the search for another legend. Is there really anything else you need to know?

inFAMOUS 2 ($39.99)

Rated: T — Ages 13+

What’s life like as a Conduit — an electric man? The first inFAMOUS game gave us that answer, but this one introduces a bigger threat and a city that almost exists as a character in itself. If you lived in or remember New Orleans post-Katrina, maybe the game’s New Marais will hit a little close to home, but the simple fact that it might be a little too much is an artistic achievement in itself. Ultimately, the game itself isn’t that kind of meaningful, but it fixes the problems of its predecessor and then some. What’s left is some of the best open-world fun you can have this year.

L.A. Noire ($34.62)

Rated: M (for very, very good reasons — see our podcast and traditional review) — Ages 17+

1940s L.A. isn’t all glitz and glamour. Not unless you’re counting the sheen of blood as glitz, and incredibly graphic murder scenes as a special kind of glamour. Rockstar appropriately captures the feeling of L.A. post-WWII as a place in a struggle between what it once was and what it is becoming. You play as Cole Phelps, a rookie detective working his way up the ranks at the LAPD. He finds himself in the middle of a horrific mystery that tests relationships and turns his life upside-down. The new “complete edition” of the game includes all of the downloadable cases — a true bargain, here. I suppose that we could also talk about the fantastic facial animation technology on display, but that’s been done to death at this point. Suffice it to say that no game’s faces look better or more realistic animation-wise.

Portal 2 ($39.90)

Rating: E-10+ — Ages 10+

Portal 2 is one of my favorite games of the year, mostly because I got (and continue to get) so much mileage out of it. But even for the non-Portal-superfan, it’s just a great, challenging game. The puzzle game once again returns you to Aperture Science, ruled by malevolent AI GLaDOS. This time, you’re not so alone in your battle against her. Here, you’ll play through the (much longer) single-player game, but you’ll return for the co-op campaign, where you play as two robots and get to play with twice as many portals. The brain-stretch and subsequent feeling of glee you get when you finally solve a puzzle can’t be beat by anything out there. The PS3 version of the game also comes with an additional, PC/Mac copy of the game for when you’re away from your console.

No More Heroes: Heroes’ Paradise ($29.95)

Rating: M — Ages 17+ (Again, for very, very good reasons)

Travis Touchdown, the pitiful otaku-turned-assassin, makes the jump to PlayStation 3 with this remake of the one Wii title that always stood out to me as being strictly for adults. Suda51′s crazy edge is fully on display here, and the best part is that the game even uses the underutilized PlayStation Move peripheral to recreate the Wii experience. Of course, if you don’t have that, it’s cool. There’s an alternate input method using the controller. If you’re looking for something just a little zany with a ton of nerdy jokes, this is your winner.

Hopefully out of all these suggestions, you find something you want this holiday! Unfortunately, most of these aren’t exactly kid-friendly, but for everyone else, there’s a good chance that you can find something among these.

See anything we left out? Leave a comment and make your case!

Rating:

BUY FOR THE MULTIPLAYER

EA’s Battlefield series has touted itself and spurred its fans to tout it as the chief rival to and potentially better than the current most popular series, Activision’s Call of Duty. Who’s really to say which is better than the other, as each offers different experiences. But in the case of Battlefield 3, the real rivalry is not with Call of Duty, but within itself in the form of single-player campaign vs. multiplayer. The end result is incredibly unbalanced, leaving me to strongly urge everyone who prefers campaign play over multiplayer to leave this game on the store shelves.

“Unbalanced” is really the best description for the campaign. The gameplay flips from being easy to the point of boring to hair-pulling frustrating in a nanosecond. The same can be said for the plot. It also flips back and forth from being intriguing to boring, sometimes within the same chapter!

And when it comes to the plot, don’t look into it too closely or you’ll become just as frustrated as I was with all of the plot holes. So many things do not add up at the end, and if you think back on certain chapters, you’ll wonder why a couple of them were there at all.

Gameplay was fairly standard from what you would expect from a first-person shooter, although I have to say it was quite a rude awakening to come from Gears of War 3 and Deus Ex and suddenly no longer have the ability to take cover. Yes, you can lie prone and that provides some cover, but you can’t always hurl yourself flat on the ground when the enemy is shooting at you from all directions. That aspect is just me being a little nit-picky, I’ll admit that; however, my annoyance at the overuse of quick-time events (QTEs) is not. In certain situations, the occasional QTE is understandable, but the amount of QTEs thrown at the player, especially in the last few chapters, was down right ridiculous. The fact that the only way to defeat the final boss was with a QTE is unforgivable.

But enough about the lackluster single-player campaign. The real reason why people buy Battlefield is for the multiplayer experience, and BF3 does not disappoint. Unlike other multiplayer shooters, BF3 does its best to force players to play as a team. Individual soldiers can only level up if they perform actions that fit their selected classes. So if you choose to play as the support class–a returning class to Battlefield–you will only gain experience by supporting the other members, such as laying down fire while your assault members rush in. It brings in a refreshing element to usual versus style multiplayer games. Of course, like most theories, sometimes the team aspect is really only a theory and difficult to apply, as many people will just lie in wait and kill you for the fun of it instead of trying to accomplish team objectives. But hey, if you go in with a few friends, you can easily form a team mentality and play according to the underlying theory.

In reality, though, either method is a lot of fun–especially once you learn how to fly a helicopter.

As you have likely gathered, the experiences between the two forms of play are night and day. Not only do they come on separate discs for the Xbox 360, they feel like they’re two completely different games, created by two completely different studios. It’s unfortunate that the campaign leaves such a black mark on the game, but it’s unavoidable.

This is one of those instances that without a doubt, Battlefield 3 should have been a multiplayer-only game. If that is indeed all you care about, then you will have an absolute blast and find BF3 to be worth every penny. If you’re looking for a fun and well-developed single-player FPS experience, this is not the game you’re looking for. Move along.

Rating:

TRY

PayDay: The Heist has been highly anticipated since its announcement, as it allows for co-operative shooter gameplay without the zombies AND it’s on the PlayStation 3. As you can probably gather from the title art to the left, PayDay is all about committing heinous robberies and stealing ginormous sums of cash. A couple of missions vary from this boilerplate, but the overall gameplay is about the same. You can do so either alone with three AI bots or with friends, much like Left 4 Dead. Also like Left 4 Dead, it’s really not that fun to play alone or even with strangers over the PSN. You need friends to go a-heisting.

PayDay pits you in some crazy plot devices for your acts of thievery, many of which seem like they’d be better suited in an episode of Mission: Impossible. It’s all to keep you interested and to lengthen the time of the heist, but they’re too obviously so. After five or six “go here” and “do that” objectives, the mission becomes stale. Even though the leveling system and skill trees change every heist–new weapons, items, or bonuses–it’s not enough to keep you going for extended periods of time. At least…not by yourself.

If you play alone, then you are responsible for every little piece of the operation. You have to fetch the drill, place the thermite, load the loot, etc. The bots will help you shoot the cops and security guards, and they’re really good about reviving you if you get shot too many times, but don’t expect them to help you get any Trophies. For those, you’re going to need companions with a working brain who can follow instructions other than “follow me” and “shoot that!”

However, the only way to play with companions are with your friends. Playing online with total strangers is not pleasant, to say the least, and it’s actually harder to successfully coordinate a heist with people you don’t know than with bots. At least with friends, you can dole out orders or announce which cop you’ll chase down without inadvertently making another player mad or prompting them to call you an idiot (or worse). Honestly, find at least one other friend to play with or don’t bother loading up the game at all.

The game’s mechanics are sound, but the game’s presentation is not. None of the game’s controls are explained to you at the outset or even in the main menus. I couldn’t figure out how to crouch down for the life of me until I sat in a corner and pressed all of the buttons to see what they did. The game’s skill trees are also never fully divulged while playing. I didn’t know I could swap between three different skill trees until I heard Greg Miller discuss the game on his IGN podcast. I checked the main menus to see if I missed anything, and they mentioned the skill trees, but not much beyond “oh yeah, they exist.”

Even when a game is based on co-op play, a game should still teach players how to play. No one wants to sit and read a bunch of instructions about how this works when you have three other people waiting on you. All it takes are some carefully placed pop-ups.

In the end, if you have three friends you’ve been dying to play some co-op shooter action with on the PSN, then this is a perfect game for only $20. If your only option is to play alone or with strangers, then I strongly urge you to download the demo first.

Also available on: PC

If you played the Legacy DLC, you’re already familiar with how these things are working. In Hawke’s Kirkwall estate, there’s a new statue in the library that activates the story for the DLC. You’re transported to where the quest starts – ‘it’s a trap!’ and then the new character (the one modeled after Felicia), Tallis, shows up and starts throwing her knives around. Yes, much like the our other DLC companion, Sebastian, Tallis is a rogue. Once she’s in your party you’ll be able to level her up to match the rest of your party, but overall I found her more annoying to have in my party, and I longed for that companion slot to give away to one of my other companions. Yes, for the entirety of the DLC, one of your three precious companion slots is taken up by Tallis.

Now, let me stop here and say that if you’re not already overwhelmed by Felicia’s presence everywhere right now – or even if you are, and you still love her for it – that for the points, this is interesting DLC and probably worth the few hours your are going to get out of it. Much like Legacy, there’s a ton of new banter between party members and a bit more lore for you to enjoy if you’re a fan of the Dragon Age series.

That said, if you’re a bigger fan of Dragon Age than you are of Felicia Day, chances are this DLC might make you do a few double takes. The story in Mark of the Assassin, is that Tallis asks Hawke to help her get into a party given by an Orlesian Duke so that she can break into his house and steal something back from him, otherwise, in his hands (or anyone’s hands, it could cost a lot of lives). That’s all well and good really, but here’s the thing (and if you watch the Dragon Age: Redemption web series also staring Day’s character, Tallis,you’re going to see it there too) – Tallis’ character follows the Qun. But, as the story progresses (and I think it’ll be much the same in the web series) there seem to be a lot of inconsistancies in the lore regarding the Qunari and the Qun.

Because the story in Mark of the Assassin takes place outside of Kirkwall, on the estate of a Orlesian Duke we get a glimpse at a few new things – like different creatures. In fact, several of the bigger fights in the game are going to require a bit more strategy than you might be used to and might take more than one or two tries to get it right. Also, since once you’re at the estate, you can’t chance party companions, who you take with you to the party (aside from Tallis), especially given that you CAN play post-game which could change who you have available to take, will make an impact on how well those fights can go.

Overall, it’s these inconsistances and the constant presence of Tallis (and efforts to make her character look cool) that really make the Mark of the Assassin kind of a disappointing experience. I already felt burnt out on Day’s presence in geek culture right now and this DLC feels more like a fan letter to Dragon Age by Day, than it feels like true canon to the Dragon Age series. What makes it worth getting, in my opinion is not Tallis’ character or story, but the chance to expand on your character’s interaction with your companions (it can be played post-game, so some of the new party banter relates to how your game may have ended) and the chance to get your behind kicked by some new creatures. I know I’ve been a little down on the experience as a whole, but if you’re a big fan of the series (as I am) ultimately, you’re still going to want to get this DLC to experience it for yourself.

And, to that end, we’re giving one lucky PS3 owner a code to download the Mark of the Assassin DLC for themselves. If you’d like a chance to win, comment below with your favorite thing about the Dragon Age series.  I’ll hand over the code this Sunday, October 23rd.

Rating:

BUY

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine was one of those games I saw at this past E3 and brushed it off over the droll name. Space Marine? How unoriginal could you get? I was talked into waiting in the line at the THQ booth anyway, and after that ten minute demo, I knew I needed this game.

Space Marine is aptly set on a distant planet, one that humans are in the process of inhabiting and one that Orks are in the process of invading. The player takes on the role of Captain Titus of the Ultramarines, a highly decorated veteran of numerous wars. It his job to stop the Ork invasion long enough so that the Liberation Fleet can break through and save the day. It sounds contrite and overdone, but as the game progresses, players will easily see that this game is anything but something they have seen before.

For starters, Space Marine appears at first glance to be a typical third-person shooter. After a few minutes of gameplay, however, it will become quickly apparent that there is no real cover for Titus to take, and there are no controls to force Titus into a taking-cover position. Fortunately, Titus has no need to take cover because he has a chainsaw sword ready at his disposal for taking out hordes of enemies when he is surrounded. In fact, the main way that Titus regenerates health is to use this bloody melee weapon and execute his enemies at disturbingly close range. Your typical Gears of War shooter this most definitely isn’t.

As such, it does take time to get used to the unique style of combat, since you do switch between the various range weapons and melee weapons quite frequently. Mastering this technique and solidifying your hack-and-slash/shooter combo strategies are the only ways you will survive at any point in the game, especially when hundreds of Orks flood the scene in a style I haven’t seen since the days of Smash TV. When you get down to it, these sequences are the real boss fights and the “official” boss fights are cake comparatively. The learning curve is a little steep, but fortunately, the game gradually introduces the various weapons to you so you don’t feel too overwhelmed at the get-go.

While several nuances of the game pay homage to its Warhammer 40,000 roots, you don’t have to know really anything about the Warhammer universe to enjoy the game and understand what is going on. The Ultramarines will mention the Machine God and the techpriests, but neither of these really needs much explanation for players to grasp what is going on. As the game plays out, these pieces of Warhammer lore easily make themselves known via context, so players who know nothing–like me–will not feel clueless.

In fact, even though the main storyline is deeply rooted in Warhammer lore, players will have no difficulty picking up on what is going on. This is mainly because the story is your usual we-gotta-save-the-world schtick, which–I’m not going to lie–does start to feel a little old near the middle of the game. You know exactly where the story is going to go, so it’s a good thing that the gameplay is so fun it’s a great distraction from the lackluster plot. Or do you know how the game is going?

A twist in the middle totally took me by surprise, and it made me even more intrigued about how Titus was going to save the world now. Even if you are versed in Warhammer 40,000 and the twist doesn’t surprise you, I can practically guarantee that the ending will. I don’t know the last shooter (non-RPG) I played that kept me guessing, so it was unbelievably refreshing to be surprised more than once. It just goes to show you that once again, despite its boring name, Space Marine is really anything but.

Visually, the game looks how you would expect a current generation game to be. There were no frame rate issues, no texture popping, and no grainy imagery. The only complaint I have with it is that during cut scenes, Titus would not always be holding the last weapons I had him holding. For example, as soon as the Power Axe was unlocked, I swapped out the chainsaw sword for this weapon, but in every cut scene, Titus held a chainsaw sword instead of the Power Axe. Obviously, the cut scenes were restricted to one possibility, which may have attributed as to why the game’s visuals were so seamless, but it also comes across as lazy. At the very least, it was nice to have shooter game that wasn’t over-inundated with brown colors. The backgrounds may have been war-torn brown, but the Orks are a bright green with red garments, and the Ultramarines themselves wear bright blue. It really helped make it easy on the eyes.

The ending didn’t scream that there would be a definite sequel, but the ending made me WANT a sequel. I really hope that this game sells well so that Relic and THQ will make another. If you’re a PS3-only owner or are a shooter fan who doesn’t care about Gears of War, I cannot recommend Space Marine enough. If for no other reason, just for the fact that it never gets old shooting Orks in the face. And I mean never.

Available on: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC

BUY

Eleven years ago on my birthday, American McGee, a game designer introduced the world to his own dark, sinister version of Alice in Wonderland; American McGee’s Alice which developed quite a cult following, along with a fair amount of critical and commercial success. His grim, macabre version of Alice took place a few years after Through the Looking-Glass. Alice narrowly escapes her burning home, only to listen to the cries of her family as they’re incinerated while trapped inside. She then retreats back into Wonderland, albeit not the wholesome and light hearted version we’ve previously known as a coping mechanism. The original game left many questions unanswered, and American McGee and his studio, Spicy Horse finally decided to answer them, while bringing Alice’s story to a close after lengthy hiatus.

Is it worth your time and money to return to Wonderland again, and discover the truth behind the death of Alice’s family? I certainly think so. Madness Returns [which is set exactly a year after its predecessor] opens with Alice mid therapy session with her psychiatrist, Dr. Bumby, who encourages her to let go of the painful memories and guilt she harbors over the loss of her family ten years earlier. The game boasts some really great cinematics, with selectively colored black and white ink sketches not unlike the actual drawings you’d see in Lewis Carroll’s source material. Alice is finally free after spending 10 years in Rutledge Asylum, but is still left wondering about the truth behind her family’s demise. The game’s rendering are MUCH improved over the previous installment, but don’t see their true potential unless you’re playing the PC version, on a very game worthy PC.

Alice is beautifully rendered herself. From her varying range of dresses, to her flowing hair, the character model is exquisite. The costumes in the game are beautiful, and Miss Liddell has a plethora of dresses to choose from, a new one for each area. Her animations are smooth, and her hair has some of the best physics I’ve seen in many a game. Unfortunately, only some of the environments match Alice herself in their aesthetics. The first Wonderland area of the game, The Vale of Tears was rich in color and detail, while one of the later areas; A Samurai themed world later in the game looks pretty unpolished throughout. It’s textures are bland and didn’t seem to have much care put into them, while the colors are extremely pallid. When recreating something like Wonderland, it’s disappointing that the developers didn’t devote more time or imagination to every area, as the source material certainly gives a lot for creative freedom. The immersion, while great in some regards wasn’t entirely consistent either. You might find yourself faced hitting quite a few invisible walls in Madness Returns. What annoyed me the most was the inconsistencies with the walls as well; In the Queensland was able to jump up on ledges in one of the Chess rooms, but unable to in a subsequent room of identical design.

That being said however, I felt that these intrusions didn’t detract from my enjoyment too much; Madness Returns has very solid platforming mechanics without being tedious. On a personal note, I’m actually quite picky about what platformers I’ll dedicate any of my gaming time too; I find many to be clunky and either too redundantly straight forward, or overly convoluted in an attempt to create depth. I found that Madness Returns found a really fantastic balance between the two; the platforming challenges the player is face with felt rewarding, and required some planning, without being frustrating or overly simple. When you do make a mistake, the game’s auto-save feature puts you back right where you died; which prevented the game from becoming repetitive. Madness Returns integrated the lore of Lewis Carroll’s work beautifully as a game experience as well; Alice will have to use her “Shrink Sense” (Shrinking Violets, “Drink Me” Shrinking Potion) to reveal hidden platforms or pathways throughout the level. There are breakable obstacles with her very appropriate Teapot Cannon sub weapon, as well.

In addition to the Teapot Cannon, Madness Returns boasts a creative arsenal of weapons, which can be used in a variety of situations and manners. The signature Vorpal Blade from the first game returns as your primary weapon of choice. Other weapons from the previous installment have been replaced; but with creative and fun counterparts. You get a Hobby Horse for powerful, wide range attacks. A Pepper Grinder, to shoot enemies from afar with; The Clockwork Bomb, which comes complete with a pocket watch detonator, and the Umbrella, which you can deflect projectiles with. Rather than forced rigid combat aspects, players can use any of these weapons to combat enemies. You can choose to keep your distance and take down opponents with your Pepper Grinder, or beat enemies into submission with powerful Hobby Horse strikes. These weapons are of course, only present in the Wonderland portion of the game however, which is the majority of the game. The plot shifts according to Alice’s on goings in Victorian London, centered around the Whitechapel District.

After her release from Rutledge Asylum, Alice is trying to live as normal of a life as she can. Under certain circumstances, she finds herself falling back into Wonderland, which is apparently in grave danger. An “Infernal Train” poses a threat to Wonderland, complete with an eerie, abandoned station in every realm. Alice discovers saving her sanity can also save Wonderland, so she sets out to do so, along with discovering the nature of the train, and what it symbolizes. As Alice ventures through Wonderland’s twisted scenery, she discovers memories revealing hints about the truth behind her families’ deaths, and her descent into madness. What occurs in Whitechapel impacts Alice’s hallucinations and descents into Wonderland. Without wanting to spoil much, while I enjoyed the plot, I felt it the narrative was a bit scattered and erratic, yet haunting and engrossing. This may have been intentional on the part of the creators, to reflect Alice’s own insanity, which I can respect. The Cheshire Cat’s cryptic bread crumb trail of hints is present in this game too, and works nicely in tandem with the memories you discover. Some parts of it are deliberately vague, and while each character you encountered in the original game seemed to represent something, it’s difficult to discern what some of them symbolize now, yet some of these figures also tie in nicely with details we already know.

Game play feels similar to a Zelda title, which is enjoyable in most regards. Alice’s Will meter is now gone (since weapons don’t rely on Will, and only the Pepper Grinder and Teapot Cannon have cool down restrictions) and her HP is now represented by red roses, not unlike heart containers. Combat is centered around finding enemies weakness’, striking at the correct time and dodging with your extremely pretty butterfly teleport. The combat is built on EA’s Unreal 3 Engine, which makes it pretty solid to play overall. The combos are fairly basic, you can transition from your Vorpal Blade and chain into your Hobby Horse. But if you were expecting a combo system on par with games like Bayonetta, you won’t find that here. Alice is also unable to attack while in air; a decision I felt could have made the game more strategic if included. And while its predecessor was more tailored for playing with a mouse, Madness Returns seems geared for a controller, and I felt maybe a little more development in combat could have supported the newer control type too. There are also quite a few mini games, primarily puzzles scattered throughout Wonderland as well. A lot of these are actually optional, but some of them are pretty fun and provide a nice reprieve from the denizens of Alice’s mind. The Oriental Grove chapter features a fun 2D side-scrolling mini-game that feels like a throwback to older adventuring titles, with a very interesting water color art style.

The talented Chris Vrenna of Nine Inch Nails, who composed the soundtrack for the first game has also returned. I felt the music in the previous installment was better than this one, but still enjoyable and supported the atmosphere and tone of the game nicely (Especially in the House of Cards area in the Queensland.) Most of the [appropriately talented] original voice actors have returned as well. What really makes the game a solid package for me is the free copy of the original American McGee’s Alice. Exclusively available on the PC when it was released, gamers like myself can finally enjoy it on a home console (either PS3 or 360, each version of the game will come with a voucher.) I will admit, the controls don’t compliment a basic controller too well, but the game is still very fun to play, and completes the experience for those of us who didn’t have gaming PC’s in the early millennium.

Overall, I feel Alice: Madness Returns, while lacking in certain departments is still a quality title. I feel that some of the issues present don’t detract from the unique experience the game offers you; a very solid platformer with some interesting weapons and a variety of game play mechanics, complete with mini-games. There’s even a set of DLC dresses and weapons available for the game as well. I definitely enjoyed the game, but it’s source material offers so much creative freedom, I felt they could have done even more with it. It has some brilliant ideas and concepts, but could have executed them in a more polished, refined fashion in some departments as well. I would still highly recommend this game to any gamer looking for something to shake up the monotony of current generation games that are afraid to try anything new, or fresh.

BUY

If swords and sorcery is what you crave, then Hunted: The Demon’s Forge has all the qualities you might be looking for. It is a third person action RPG published by Bethesda and running on an Unreal Engine. It has a fine pedigree. It doesn’t happen too often but there weren’t many disappointments with it either. It is a pretty seamless third person action adventure with easily accessed RPG elements. You can play as your choice of two mercenaries, a guy Caddoc and E’lara, a hot female elf.

In the summer we need more games like this. It has two person co-op on the one console. You can sit down with your cousin, at that rustic family cottage on Cape Cod which has no internet service, and actually have some fun. We need two person co-op for date nights, and just for the congeniality of playing games with actual people on your side. I enjoyed Hunted’s single-player experience over online co-op.

Is E’lara short for or ‘elf Lara’? I wouldn’t complain about that comparison too much. Since the svelt E’lara can do some acrobatic moves like her human name sake, and she is a tremendous new female character, but she can’t jump. No jump button in a game is short hand programming. Even if developers had some misguided notion of justification for that, at least by the time the game got to QC someone should have dissuaded them from putting out a game with an elf who can’t jump.

E’lara makes up for the slight by being very talented in other ways. She has the ability to cast spells by hand or enchant them onto her weapons. She is excellent with the bow, and they can be set up to light on fire which comes in handy on many of the missions. Sometimes when you have enough points she will give your camera a ride along on an arrow as it plummets into an enemy in slow motion.

E’lara isn’t limited to ranged weapons, she can hack and slash with swords, although her slight figure does put her at a disadvantage. Health potions and magic potions as well as gold provide the drops. The potions fit on E’lara’s Belt so she can’t keep too many of them. You also collect crystals that are desired by a sorceress character played by Lucy Lawless. She gives out magic upgrades and mixes metaphors to go with them.

Up to now probably the best ever western style RPG on PS3 was Oblivion. Very few games since have compared in overall completeness to that game. Though it is now dated, in many ways it became the standard that carved in stone what gamers would expect in a console RPG. The amount of depth and attention to detail that was pioneered in that game has yet to be matched in the genre.

This year I played several new RPG’s, all of them had some of the qualities that might make a great game, but none of them had all of them. In each game, there was at least one element that was glaringly omitted. Especially lacking would be the department of including playable female avatars. It seemed as though every one of them failed by using some sort of odd compromise, instead of having character customization and playable female avatars. These misguided games would come up with just about any pretense, include a female, but then exclude her either from game play entirely, or to give her an odd job instead.

The RPG I reviewed most recently was Two Worlds, where you couldn’t play as a female character. You could see female NPC’s, talk to them and listen to them, they were more interesting than the main character. Plenty of space must have been left over on that disk because the map was practically a blank too. Then there was Enslaved where the female character had a male character on a “leash”. That game portrayed that she couldn’t make it without a male. Many new RPG’s have been giving a confusing message about gender and power. Dragon Age 2 had a mixture of males and females in playable roles as well as in leading roles in the story. But you were pretty much stuck in terms of the navigating through the game, it was claustrophobic. You were kept inside a castle keep for most of the game. And the outdoor missions were entirely linear without any chance of straying off a very pointedly defined path.

The better ones have been Mass Effect 2 and Fallout New Vegas. Then coming up, presumably will be Skyrim on the game of the year expectancy track. ME2 and New Vegas were excellent, but were not in the tradition of Baldur’s Gate and Dungeons and Dragons. Now a new game that has potential has finally appeared with Hunted: Demon’s Forge which lands at the top of the heap so far this year.

It doesn’t have character creation which is a lost opportunity. It is forgivable because the two mercs it does have are fun and are more than one dimensional. It does do its homage to those in the board rooms who are were nervous about putting out a game where you are “stuck” playing as a female character the whole way through, while at the same time giving her enough power and agility to solo it through the game herself in the single player experience. Yet, it does a good job of giving you that warrior princess who makes it against all the odds kind of experience that many of us enjoy.

The story is a long rescue mission of Townsfolk and their mayors across the land, who have been disappearing as kidnapping victims of some deranged despots. You will cut them down and release them by various means depending upon their dire circumstances when you find them.

The two mercenaries E’lara and Caddoc will pick up gold during their travels also. The tone is dark, there is plenty of blood and death. The bodies or survivors that you can see have been through slavery, torture and there and human sacrifice. The dungeons really are what they should be, it is very gritty and gruesome. The game is sombre without any preaching, it is mature without being slutty, and the warfare is tastefully violent.

The maps are severely lacking. But that is one of the few flaws. They have cut away so much of the clutter that you find in RPG’s and made it sleek like a slim archer. Most of the time when games do attempt to bang genres together it doesn’t work and it just seems so obvious they have skipped some things. However this game seems to get quite a few things right for a change. The game mechanics for the spells, and the targeting with the bows is excellent.

The pale visaged enemies this time are mainly undead such as skeletons, or the Wargar who are zombie-like but have become that way from drinking a mercury-type substance which has caused them to turn. There are also minotaurs, and even a few dark lords. The bosses can be interesting looking, and some have spells of their own. Those are good times to use E’lara’s blasting powers from a distance. If you are quick enough in between a boss battle and a cut scene you can grab their rare dropped weapons. I enjoyed the inclusion of the old weapon racks which you can hack down to yield randomly occurring weapons. The game gives up enough loot and items to balance the avarice of collecting bounty with the speed at which this game moves. You aren’t going to be bogged down by flicking through menus forever. Everything has a place, and usually it’s mapped right to the controller buttons. At first some of the placement of the functions doesn’t seem right. Once you are used to it, you can quickly switch from arrows, to swords, to fireballs, or engage a health potion or toggle other commands easily.

Hunted has as one of it’s many strengths the cinematic atmosphere. The environments are very well rendered. The twigs and branches look very realistic. The houses, barns and other structures have well detailed looking wood. Instead of having graphics that look like smeared peanut butter everyplace the way scenery has looked in other games this year. You do get the feeling of walking through dilapidated towns just after monsters have been through them. There is fire and smoke, the floor boards creak under foot. Even though it is linear, it still packs in many surprises, the paths twist and wind around intricately. It isn’t all entirely predictable.

Unfortunately not being able to jump is usually a sign that you are in for a very linear experience, as is true here. There is only one specific way to get through the areas. You may wander, map-less through underground mazes, finding treasure rooms and sparkling crystals, but ultimately there is only one way out, and to solve the mystery that you came there to resolve. Still, no map is unforgivable, who let that get by? The glitter ball that is deployed by a downward click of the L3 button leaves a trail for you to follow. But it isn’t always right. It can only tell you certain things such as how to go back to the beginning of the check point. It’s clever enough to the point where it almost works. Almost. Basic gaming 101, map.

The two characters can be switched in game if you feel the need to call upon Caddoc’s melee abilities, or E’lara’s marksmanship prowess. Midnight purple crystals send up a beam of dark light, as a beacon to those who would swap genders.The two banter back and forth giving a few entertaining lines. If you listen closely they crack insults on each other and the townspeople.

E’lara’s bow and arrow mechanics and the spell system were very competent. Making it a pleasure to get in there and shoot the bow. Well made bow sets can rival the satisfaction from virtual guns in a game. It is a welcome change from shooters. Looking at E’lara’s cute figure in that, shall we say, ‘interesting’ battle costume and tattoos is certainly an improvement from looking at the back of some burly guy avatar wearing a baggy jumpsuit and dirty armor.

Sure there are plenty of flaws to go over. The fun factor in the game stands up to it anyways. The lightening spells look bright blue white and they ark and crackle. Making a boss with annoying habits explode is very satisfying. Special effects, shinny lighting, glowing weapons, big kills and explosions, helps you to get over it when the cover system sticks your character to a wall when you want to run and shoot.

The co-operative AI between the characters is supportive and intuitive. You would never expect a computer controlled character to be as sympathetic to the gamer. When playing as E’lara Caddoc took up the slack, he’d shoot his crossbow, take on a few guys with his big sword, or toss her a healing potion when she would have had an otherwise untimely death. Your character can die, and you would be returned to the last check point. The game frequently auto saves, and there are walls and gates in between compartmented levels.

Hunted looks stunning, it has more than one palatte and it isn’t drab. There are many vibrantly coloured areas and the locations change up. There are jungles, country acres and not just one run down town and dungeon after another. There is lots of browns used in the palette which has caused me to shoot Caddoc more than once. The black, gray and brown can make it hard to distinguish who is who in a battle. If you can get up to a higher vantage point with E’lara that changes. The lighting changes along with where you are.

Hunted: The Demon’s Forge is an enjoyable enough game. It will be interesting to see if InXile will take this idea and run with it an enhance what is all ready a solid game, which is a contender to stand up against some other more well known franchises. It is worth it to pick up since it has multiplayer to try as well as several hours of story mode gameplay. It also has level customization, so you can check out some of your own dungeon-ing skills, giving it more long term value.

RENT

Unexpectedly Two Worlds was an engaging and enjoyable RPG. Even though you could not play as a female avatar, it did well enough for what it was. As RPG’s go many people have distinct favorites. This game isn’t going to be replacing any mega hit JRPG’s anytime soon. But like that secondary anime that you watch in between episodes of your favorite, this game’s few flaws aren’t bad enough to prevent you from wasting some time on it.

With a Gandalf clone named Gandahar as the villain, although it seems very LOTR-esque in some ways, the story does have a female at the center of the plot. The main character’s sister has been abducted and an evil sorcerer who held your character captive as well, is extracting her magical mana from her for himself.

Perhaps the game’s best effort is the graphics. It does feature detailed beautiful graphics. This is the best looking game that I have played in a while, after a spate of either drab or just simplistic game designs in reviews. This one gives a feeling of adventure by having pretty green forests with trees that look like trees. There are branches in the trees which are round, and leaves that are leaf shaped and aren’t only sharp, one dimensional, bare polygons. When the character walks through tall grass and shrubs, they move around. The wind moves the scenery. There are snowy mountain ranges that don’t look like a painting sold by a busker on the street corner next to a Dunkin Doughnuts.  There is abundant foliage and scenery, with all those nicely realistic looking plants. I spotted hawkweed, dandelions, blue chicory and yarrow. Each of them nodding as they individually move as you walk through them. They have done equally well propagating jungles, or deserts which are more than texture maps. Another pleasant discovery was their excellent use of lighting effects.

Equally well detailed are the enemies’ character models. The Orcs are ugly muscular fighting brutes. They do resemble Infinity Blade’s Orcish fighters. They are luridly colored in deep tones, with crenellated, wrinkled skin and cut muscles. All of which are visible, showing that equal care was taken in the many aspects of crafting this game.  The Orcs play an unusual dual role in his game. They are in some places enemies, and in other places friends. The game speaks a lot about taking appearances for granted. It challenges your character’s sense of trust and preconceived notions about the race of Orcs. It makes you wonder how much of the political commentary is intentional. Your character is saved by a band of not so usual Orcs in fact, at the start of the game.

The NPC character Dar Pha is a female who wears a kerchief across her face. Could she possibly be a half Orc? The gemale character is much more intense looking than the male character you are stuck with. I can’t help wondering why we aren’t playing her? Hers is surely a more interesting story, will it be a missed opportunity, or one for another day?

In many games of this nature you will get a character who doesn’t feel right while walking. The physics for walking never seems to work right. Not this time though. He doesn’t float above the terrain. He doesn’t sink down and loose his feet into the textures, and he doesn’t bobble up and down either. His shoes are ordinary, but you can see them. That is a plus. There are sound effects for walking which are plausible and the tone changes depending on the surface he is on. RPG’s have a general theme of traveling on foot, while on some grand quest. There is usually plenty of walking involved. Exploration potential is important in games and the way the character travels on foot is a large part of the immersion.

When a developer chooses to put an avatar in a third person game it can draw you into the scene more fully if it is done right. (Boo for no female avatar!) The amount of details in the avatar relates directly to how involved you can get into the game. Fine details like shoes and the interaction between the character and the environmemt when outside of combat shows how much the developer was thinking about the user. With an RPG the experience does weigh heavily on the story and your involvement in the characters.

You don’t find many games these days that allow you to customize your own character class. Even though the cosmetic customization for the character lacks the choice for female avatar, and isn’t very expansive for your male character either, they do make up for it with the unique way that they deal with the sets of skills.  You can choose from the whole buffet of abilities. Everything is there from swords to magic and archery. Then there are layers and levels galore above that.

This goes for crafting as well. There is tons of loot in this game, and all of it is craftable by breaking it down into components. The various enhancements can be used to power up weapons and create other buffs for your character. You can spend a limitless amount of time just collecting stuff and creating things. You use the skill points, and add stones too that will enhance your weapon’s powers. If that is how you feel about it, you can take your time on the main quest.

The magic system in the game is based on the popular set of elements like fire or water. It is also card based. The cards indicate the element, it’s range and type. As you collect them or complete tasks you can divine your own spells. The potential to make spells is unique. If you want long range blasts, or something to prevent enemies from coming too close, you can decide on the best course of strategy.

You can skip the cut scenes huzzah! If you aren’t particularly interested in the voice acting, it can thankfully be skipped.

The ambient noise is much more than just the buzzing of a fly in Dragon Age 2. The lilting sounds of birds and flying insect wings has just the right balance to make it sound like a natural environment. The music to stealth kill by sets the right tone. It has an epic feel to it at the right moments. It is rich with many instrumentals and what sound like aboriginal instruments. There is native sounding chanting, and primal drums. They did an excellent job on the sound track it has a World sound to it.

Two Worlds II is set in an expansive semi-open world and does offer a good value for single player experience with many hours of gameplay. Many of the missions are hunt and fetch of course, there isn’t much innovation. It does feel comfortable and accomplishable though. With the ease of use of the interface it doesn’t make you feel like you are going to get stuck right away.

The Map system could use improvement. There is a fine line between keeping up the mystery for the sake of effect, or being irritating. This Map system fell into the category of irritating and obtuse. The Map looks like a tray of blowing sand with nothing written on it. Bright candy colored flags are available for use as way points, but unfortunately neither the terrain or it’s labels are to be seen.

The interface is clunky and stodgy. But what RPG control layout isn’t? They are attempting to fit everything into a console controller that would be better off with a keyboard after all. Getting to those cool weapons, your bow, or the great looking spells in a hurry is going to take practice. You’ll have to memorize where you put everything and then the sequence of buttons you need to activate it. If you end up dying over and over, it might not be because the game is overly hard. It might just be hard to get the game to actually do what you tell it to.

Like Elder Scrolls Oblivion, which showed up the original Two Worlds, your character can pick locks. You may be called upon to deliver a severed heads. Or pastorally collect herbs. You are able to ride horses and take off on side quests, leaving your sister to roast indefinitely.

But unlike Oblivion which came out so long ago, and Red Dead Redemption that came out only last year, neither of those skills are quite as good. The horse riding in RDR is still incomparable in any other game. The game is nostalgic. Not only in the medieval theme, but also in several other ways. They are competing with something that was new in 2007. When Elder Scrolls Skyrim comes out later this year, it will show exactly how these two franchises are years apart.

The women have various outfits that fit tightly, focusing on the boobs, which hang out. Does it pass the girl gamer’s Bechtel test? Not hardly. There doesn’t seem to be much if any consideration given to the underserved female portion of the demographic of Western style sword and sorcery RPG fans. Giving more of it’s curve to teen males.

If you find that you are working on your character and making weapons and spells to use, then it may have grabbed you. This game is subtle, it is a sleeper title that snuck up from behind a tree, before the summer blockbusters and the holiday lineup come along to blow it it if the park. On the whole this was not a bad game I’d recommend giving it a Rent, to see how long it sticks around before you’ve sunk in enough time on it to buy it.

Journey is a PS3 exclusive title created by ThatGameCompany, the developers of the games Flower and Flow. Santa Monica Studios – the creator of the God of War series – also co-developed Journey. However, Santa Monica’s role was not a huge surprise as they have worked on other similar projects, such as the PS3 interactive art piece, Linger in the Shadows.  Journey has a very mystical look and feel to it. As I wandered across a vast desert that the sand rippled and sparkled like a golden ocean. The sand dunes were like giant waves that I could slide down – but climbing them took effort and would slow me down.

Journey’s controls are seamless and works well with the gameplay. At game start, the Journey prompts you to move the PlayStation Six Axis controller around to view the environment. The Six Axis camera controls concerned me, however, I soon discovered that there are also analog camera controls as well.  Jumping and gliding is also a unique, and limited, experience in this game. The amount or length of times you are allowed to jump or glide is dependent on how long your scarf is. You must refill your “gauge” by finding red, flying scarves in the environment or interacting with other players or objects.

You can also interact with scarves, or other travelers, by using the circle button. By using this “call,” you can make new scarves to refill your gauge, and interact with objects that are within range.

While playing the Journey beta, I ran across two other players during co-op mode. The first traveler I found did not attempt to interact with me, as the player stood still. He glowed after I used my “call” on him, however, he still did not move. I saw a second traveler in running in the distance, but they were too far away for me to pursue.

Character interaction is limited in Journey, however, I am very excited to see how co-op effects gameplay when the game is fully released.

Just like in Flower, the music in Journey plays a meaningful and important role in the game. Interactions with objects and new discoveries shape the musical landscape, and as always, the soundtrack was gorgeous.

Playing Journey was also an emotional experience, as there were moments that I felt happy or at peace, which was an exciting and rare moment that I have experienced while playing a video game.

The half-hour segment I played of the closed beta ended way too quickly, as I wanted to keep going on my journey. However, I will continue to check back and see if the beta changes any in the upcoming weeks.

Some of you are nervous about this title, mostly because we have seen other Star Trek games that have come and gone. Some good, some bad, some terrible and some that seemed like the developers never watched an episode of Star Trek in their life!  This title is different.  How so? Well let’s go through the stats…

• In development for more than a year and a half, and not shipping for another year, by the same team behind Bioshock 2, Unreal Tournament, Dark Sector and the Darkness II: Digital Extremes. They are also working closely with Bad Robot, K/O Paper Products and Damon Lindelof.
• The demo was based on a pre-alpha version and it looked fantastic!  I saw games being released the week after E3 that did not look as good and sharp as this version did.
• They have been working closely with the Star Trek filmmaking team since this game has sort of a movie to video game take.  I use “sort of” because anything you know about movie to video game titles, this one seems to break that mold.
• BAFTA award winner and God of War writer, Marianne Krawczyk, in collaboration with the writer/producers of the 2009 Star Trek films, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman.
• The whole game was built around “co-op” with the capability of player two to jump in and out.
• The game is slightly different depending on who you play: Kirk or Spock.
• 23^rd century Weapons. PS3 getting a phaser to use with your “Move” controller.

So we have Kirk with unique Captain Issue phaser and Spock with Vulcan combat, including the mind meld, and weaponry. The video cut scenes to action is less noticeable, allowing you to always feel like you are in the game and part of the story.  At this point the game is working towards 12 hours of game play, which you can double by replaying it as the other character.

Much of the story as well as the enemies were not revealed at this time, and the game has still a long way to go as its release date will be sometime in 2012. Star Trek will be available on PC as well as on consoles.

Taking on a title like Star Trek is a very gutsy move, since it is world renowned and beloved by fans who have grown up and dedicated their life to it.  They are very few TV series who command unconditional fans like Star Trek does, but by the same token, they are some of the most unforgiving fans as well.  Digital Extremes knows this and they have made sure that when they do deliver this game they can say “we did all we could” and for a pre-alpha version it shows the passion, the love and the authenticity of the title.   Next year is going to be a very interesting year for games, and Star Trek is one title I am happy is not being rushed for the 2011 holiday season.