Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was the furthest thing from my mind for 2012. Yeah, it looks like a pretty RPG, but I don’t have time for that. I’ve barely scratched the surface of Skyrim, Final Fantasy XIII-2 releases in a couple of weeks, and don’t forget, Mass Effect 3 drops in about six weeks. I have my RPG fix, thank you. But of course, the developers just have to cross streams with Mass Effect 3 by offering weapons and armor that you can only get by completing the demo. So yeah, I downloaded it and played the entire thing, including the 45 minutes of additional exploration just for the ME3 goodies. The things I do for Mass Effect…almost shameful.

But then something unexpected happened: I LIKED Kingdoms of Amalur.

If Dragon Age: Origins and Dungeon Siege III had a love child, this game would be it. It has all of the character creation and depth of DAO, and the hack-and-slash gameplay and bright colors of DS3. In many instances, it’s like a hack-and-slash version of DAO, but without a party–at least, I never got to the point of recruiting partymembers. There is a dialogue wheel like in DAO, and your character is silent like in DAO. The skills and leveling up trees are also a page right out of DAO.

However, there is no talent wheel that DAO and ME both have, which is very welcome. Instead of pausing the game to call up a wheel of all of your skills, you assign skills to different buttons on your controller, which is very much like DS3. It keeps the action smooth and seamless, two vital points for decent hack-and-slash gameplay.

It's so pretty!

It may sound a little like Skyrim, but there are two distinct differences: it’s third person POV only and there are bright, vivid colors. The coloring reminds me a little bit of the colors found in Skyward Sword and WindWaker in terms of how bright they are. The land is just as overrun from battle as Skyrim, but the environments are still beautiful. After playing so many “brown” shooter games, I can’t help but be wowed with the beauty of the colorful environments, characters, and creatures.

The visuals aren’t 100% perfect yet, though. The game suffers from a ton of texture popping problems. Normally texture popping is more of an annoyance than anything, but in this demo, they were downright distracting. Environments would only correct themselves when I walked through them. At times I couldn’t tell if what I was seeing was part of the environment or a beastie. It wasn’t a constant occurrence, but when it did happen, it was horrific.

Release date isn’t too far off, so I can only hope that these graphic problems can be fixed before shipping or at least with a day-one patch (even though these are far too prevalent). It’s too beautiful and fun of a game to have texture issues leave a permanent black mark on it.

That said, it didn’t prevent me from preordering the game. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is in many ways, an RPG made just for me: deep character customization, hack-and-slash action, beautiful and colorful environments, a fantasy setting, and big swords. The demo barely touched on the story, so I don’t know much about it other than it takes place during a war (shocker!), my character has unusual abilities that no one understands, and, um, my character was dead at the beginning of the tale. How’s that for intriguing?

Seriously, though, the things I do for Mass Effect. At least this time it paid off and has enticed me to look into this game that I would have readily dismissed.

Publisher: Screenlife
Players: 4 player vs
Genre: Trivia
Release Date: November 30, 2011

BUY

The Scene It? Series is always a great game to play with friends at a party. Gamers or not, the controls have always been easy to understand and the quizzes are fun to play. Besides, who doesn’t love proving they know more than their friends about Movies?

My Scene It? controllers from Box Office Smash and Lights Camera Action, have been sitting in our controller bin for quite some while. I was surprised and ecstatic when Screenlife PR contacted us with a chance to try their newest title for XBLA and PSN, Scene It? Movie Night. The game is a downloadable for 800 MS Points or $9.99 on Playstation Network.

My husband is a movie know-it-all, so I love playing the previous Scene It trivia games with him. But what he enjoyed most about Scene It? Movie Night is that the questions were really focused on the movies. The questions were relevant to the movie clips.

There are many types of sections in the game. Each game has 7 rounds that you play. It ranges from questions about a movie clip, to finishing the quote or putting movies in order of release. The child-drawn movie questions are back. There are fourteen question types that are combined in random ways. The last round is “quick pitch” which is a rapid combination of questions. The last round usually changes the outcome of the game.

There has been confirmation that this Scene It will get proper DLC support. There will be updated questions for download. The next pack will be a Sci Fi theme pack and will be available in early 2012. Let’s hope for some Serenity questions!

My only negative is that while I’m sure the game has a large group of questions to choose from, I’ve run into the same movie clip three times and a couple rounds of the same group of questions. I’ve played maybe eight to ten games with friends, so I’m pretty surprised to get the same questions so early.

In the end, I recommend Scene It? Movie Night for people that want a fun, trivia game to play with friends. It’s easy to pick up and learn how to play and everyone loves testing their movie knowledge skills against each other. I hope they continue to offer DLC for the title and make it a more robust trivia game. My recommendation….Disney DLC. ^_^

RENT

The sequel to Earth Defense Force 2017, Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon takes place on an Earth that is once again devastated and infested by giant alien insects. Naturally, only Earth Defense Force can stop them. it’s up to you and your team, Strike Force Lightning, to defend the city of New Detroit against the otherwordly invasion by deestroying the hordes any way you can (even if that means using a building to crush them into an alien insect version of crunchy peanut butter).

 I’ll be honest: I’ve never even heard of the  Earth Defense Force series of games so I didn’t have any expectations when I loaded this up on my Steam account. The game is a third-person shooter, and you can play through a Campaign, Survival  or Co-op mode, each consisting of your generic military dude working his way through wave after wave of alien insects. As Pvt. Hudson would say, it’s  a straight up bug hunt and that’s it. There isn’t much in the way of character customization, there isn’t much in the way of story, but there is a lot in the way of killing big alien bugs. A lot. It was super boring after about ten minutes.

Now, my finding this game boring could be due to a few factors. First, I mainly stuck to Survival Mode because I didn’t have any Steam friends to play Co-op with and I got tired of there being no checkpoints in Campaign (you die, you start the entire mission from the start). Second, because there isn’t a story this is mainly a game where you repeat the same thing over and over again, horde after horde of gigantic alien bugs you have to make your way through. Grinding, in the video game sense, is not my forte and it makes me very sleepy very quickly. Third and finally, I had issues with trying to control the camera and my PC on a massive scale. This one I’m willing to take on as user error since I’m not the most expereinced computer gamer beyond the point and click story games. I feel like I would have had less issues (and less motion sickness) if I were playing it on a console istead, but like I said that’s definitely a personal issue and not a game issue specifically.

The good points of the game were that, before it got old hash, mowing down huge bugs was just good old fashion fun, especially in a destructible environment. All the vehicles scattered about the city streets could blow up, all the buildings could crumble to the ground, and both could damage anything around them in the process. Again though, playing single instead of multiple player made the process of destruction seem to drag on forever (the entire game itself isn’t very long - three chapters, each consisting of five missions), and I feel like if I had friends to destroy stuff with I would have been left with a more enthusiastic attitude toward this game. If you’re a lonely bug hunt like myself, you’ll be left with the feeling that you’re destined to repeat Groundhog’s Day until you reach that final mission. If you have it in you to reach that final mission.

Rating:

BUY

I will first admit that I have not played the previous Saints Row games. I’ve heard good things, but they just never appealed to me. That is until I saw promos for Saints Row The Third. The game itself just looked so over the top and fun because it wasn’t taking itself seriously. Plus their promo stunt at E3 with the carwash was pretty funny. So not long after it was released my boyfriend and I picked up the game and I’ve been having a blast!

To start, character creation is over the top. It was honestly hard to decide if I wanted to first play through as a guy or a girl. I did wind up choosing to play as a girl, and decided to re-create Christina Hendricks to the best of my ability. I do however plan to go back and make some over the top juice head muscle man for fun for another play through. And also to the devs: Nice job adding in some signature moves done by WWE wrestlers!

The game itself can be seen very easily as another GTA, and I know it’s been compared as such many times in the past. I must say though that with all of the similarities, unlike a GTA game, I’ve been playing through all story missions, most side missions, and I’ve been doing random mayhem for kicks. With a GTA game I’ll do the first mission or so, not bother with side missions, and go straight to the mayhem. Then I’d give up on the game and move on to the next. I honestly can’t fully pinpoint what exactly makes Saints Row The Third catch and hold me more, but it does. And it’s going to make me go and play through the previous games at some point.

I thoroughly enjoyed the world that was created for the game. It seems huge, and there are several city sections that you can explore. I think one of my favorite zones though is when you are sent into cyberspace and everything turns Tron-like. It’s pretty creative and was seriously unexpected. But on top of that you have to play through some old school like games in order to break through a firewall. I’m talking things like old school text adventures. But cyberspace aside the city is well done and everything in it looks fantastic!

Story wise it stays engaging. You start off playing as Johnny Gat and leading a bank heist. Now unfortunately this bank is behind another rival gang ring who does not appreciate the Saints. Needless to say this heist doesn’t go over that well, Johnny doesn’t like the tone of the ringleader of the rival gang, and due to this a giant plane winds up crashing. This is where your character comes in. You play as the leader of the Saints and you have to work to rebuild the Saints from the ground up (considering the other gang took all of your assets).

Most of the missions deal with you working to get more income, members and to rid the streets of Steelport of the other gangs who are after you. The side missions can be fun little jaunts to help other members of the Saints, or to earn money by Insurance Fraud, blowing things up with a tank, or escorting hookers to safety from bad pimps. Oh and escort Escorts and their clients around town. And then there’s some of the over the top weapons, like the massive dildo bat. Yes this is one of my more favorite melee weapons just because of how ridiculous it is. Plus it’s quite fun to run around beating down citizens of Steelport with it.

However sometimes the missions can be a bit frustrating. There were some where I had to keep repeating parts just due to some glitches, for example my partner not wanting to get into the getaway car and drive me to the next part of the mission. But in the end I guess you can say that it makes it a bit more rewarding once you complete it, though honestly it got a little too frustrating at times.

But one thing that I absolutely loved about the game was the phone interface that you used to do missions, get upgrades, call for backup and set your GPS. It was very nicely done and easy to use. The map that you could reach from there was also fantastic and seemed easier to navigate and read from the last time I played a GTA game (Liberty City to be exact).

Overall, Saints Row The Third is amazing and engaging. I’ve been playing it for hours, and I’ve watched the boyfriend play (and beat) the game. I’ve enjoyed it both ways, plus I like that with certain decisions I’ll be playing a different game than he did. If you haven’t picked up the game yet, I highly recommend snagging it during potential after Christmas game sales, or even used from Amazon or GameStop. The best part is you really don’t have to play the previous games in order to play this one, but like me you may want to just play them after playing this third installment. Also? The Professor Genki DLC was totally worth it.

As Marcus was most likely still in the Slab during this time frame, RAAM’s Shadow instead focuses on Kim and Tai’s original squadron, Zeta, which at one time included Val and Barrick. Barrick is an uglier, angrier version of Marcus, and Val is a hybrid of Anya and Sam. Even though none of these squad members have as much depth as the usual Delta team, it’s a bit refreshing to play as completely different characters.

Rating:

BUY

Before I get into my Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary review, I have a confession to make first. I have never played a Halo game before I picked up this one. Some may say this makes me the best reviewer for the game, as I have no nostalgia to fall back on. Some may say that this makes me the worst reviewer for the same reason. In terms of seeing how well Halo has withstood the test of ten years time, I’m really the best person for this job. But, for better or for worse, this is what you get. And before you start flinging the tomatoes, please read the following sentence first: despite some of the outdated mechanics and the severely outdated level design, I relished my entire Halo experience.

Just in case you are like me and never thought of playing a Halo game before this year, here is a brief plot synopsis. Mankind is at war with an alien race simply called “the Covenant.” One of the space marines’ fleeing ships is attacked by the Covenant, and p the stupids–they must waken Master Chief from his cryosleep to save them all. Sadly, he isn’t able to save them, so they had to settle for saving the ship’s AI and preventing the Covenant from learning about Earth. What starts out to be a simple shipwreck and a search for a weapon that will wipe out the Covenant quickly spirals into uncovering a secret that could destroy all sentient life as we know it.

Sound familiar? It should. It’s a sci-fi plot line we’re all familiar with–particularly with two of my favorite franchises, Mass Effect and Gears of War–but it’s also something we have to remember came 10 years before any of these other games employed it. It’s best not to dwell on that fact, or you’ll start to become disappointed with current games, especially any games that include zombies.

If that doesn’t disappoint you, then the level design definitely will. While I can see how innovative Halo must have been back in the day, it doesn’t resonate well with those who don’t have a nostalgic tear in their eyes. Every level is virtually the same: a circle. You may circle upwards, and you may wind downwards, but it’s still a circular pattern. Even two different worlds looked exactly the same due to their identical walls and identical circular paths. To make matters worse, after you reach the big revelation about the Halo and the Flood, you get to run back through the levels again…but this time it’s backwards!

However, despite these typically major flaws, I could not stop playing the game, be use it’s just so gosh darn fun. Even though I couldn’t count on my marines to do anything useful besides absorb bullets, and even though I would get overwhelmed with the sheer masses of the Flood in later levels, I really loved every minute of it.

I attribute some of it to the fact that this is the first shooter I’ve ever played that fully implements and requires effectively swapping between two different weapons. Unless you develop a smooth rhythm between jumping between your two weapons, you will not survive any onslaught, especially when entering the Library. With most games, you typically fall back to using only your favorite weapon and use others when you have to, but with Halo, there is really no time to pick favorites. You have to get comfortable with a wide variety of weapon combinations or you will hear Master Chief scream like a little girl a lot. At first it was a little annoying, but as the game rolled on, I learned that this facet is part of what makes the combat so fun. You never feel like the combat is bland because you’re always switching things up.

To further help matters, the controls were absolutely perfect. I never once felt like the sensitivity was too high or that the controls were laggy or twitchy. It just felt right instantly, as though I had played the game ten years ago–which, as I’ve said, I hadn’t. If only every shooter felt the same from the beginning of the tutorial.

So while old game is definitely old, old game is fun, even to someone ten years too late to the party. As much as I’ve fought against it, I’ve become a Halo fan and I now want to play all the other games in the series. Well done, Bungie. Well done.

I was pretty bummed when my Xbox Dashboard updated and the UFC tab had the old fight on it. Then reports came out that UFC application would not be updated until December 20th in time for the UFC 141. Even UFC posted about it!

This may be only available to certain users, but I was able to get the UFC application working and found that it’s updated with all the latest fight information! Amazing videos about all the fighters in UFC 140. You can make your picks as well as see who your friends picked to win. Basically it’s my husband and I fighting to see if Mir or Nog is going to win this Saturday.

Voting is easy and you get a plethora of information on the fighters. Not only the Tale of the Tape that shows all the measurements/age/history of the fighter, but also the last three fights and the outcome of those fights.

Check out this video where I walk through the available options. I am so excited to continue to play with this application. The amount of pre-fight content available is staggering. Currently it shows I can order the event for $0, but I’m pretty sure that will change when the application does go live.

The Xbox 360 is well known for its mature games, particularly in the shooter arena, and while these titles are still very prevalent, the Gaming Angels would like to point out a couple of the E and T games that are suitable for anyone on your holiday shopping list. Of course, our favorite M-rated games are highly recommended as well for your adult gamers.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (M) - I am a fanatic about games that have amazing story combined with great gameplay. I was allowed to get a sneak peek at Elder Scrolls: Skyrim and I honestly was trying to figure out a way to steal their dev kit so I can have more time with the game. Skyrim is robust and allows you to explore. In three hours that I played, it took me about an hour before I even got a quest, but I discovered four new areas and almost got in trouble with giants. You’ll be floored by the graphics, the soundtrack is amazing and there are noticeable improvements to the controls. I highly recommend this title to be on any mature gamers list. ~ Trina

Orcs Must Die (T) – Do you like defense games? Do you want to kill as many ugly green orcs as you can? Well this is the game for you! Developed by Robot Entertainment, Orcs Must Die is a fantasticly designed game that can give you hours of gameplay. Plus you can compare your orc killing skills with your XBL friends via the ranking system! ~ Stephanie

Dance Central 2 (T) – Don’t you feel like dancing? Let’s face it, the Kinect is great for controller free dancing and no one does it better than Harmonix. They are back this holiday season with Dance Central 2. With more songs, and two person multiplayer, Dance Central 2 is great to get your booty shaking. As a bonus it’s a great and easy workout to burn those holiday calories. ~ Trina

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (M) – 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. ~ Keri

Batman: Arkham City (T) – A follow-up to Batman: Arkham Asylum from last year, Rocksteady brings a bigger look at Gotham and the familiar Dark Knight. This time, we get a more open-world experience as Batman swings around Arkham City to root out the baddies in search of a cure to a mysterious agent given to him. He also has a little help from Catwoman, Nightwing and Oracle (and of course Alfred). ~ Elizabeth

Gears of War 3 (M) – At long last, Marcus and Dom’s tale regarding humanity’s war with the Locust comes to a close. Gears of War 3 builds upon the foundation of the prior Gears of War games and then presents numerous improvements to the original mechanics. Now four people can play co-op together, and not all the characters are men this time. There are also additional multiplayer modes, including the new Beast mode, which takes Horde mode and flips the roles for the players, allowing you to be a Locust and fight humans. This is a must-have for all Gears of War fans and even fans of the third-person shooter genre. Please note, though, that the game is rated M for a reason, and that reason includes graphic violence and plenty of foul language–especially in the realm of f-bombs. ~ Keri

Activision sent us Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure to review. It was sitting in the box on my table when Jackson and his brother came over for a visit. They spotted the unopened box and ran for it. According to them, I was the luckiest girl on earth because I had Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure. I sat on the couch with Jackson as he proceeded to walk me through the game, the figures and why it was so cool. He was so excited and obviously knew alot about the game already, that I couldn’t resist. I asked Jackson to play and review Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure for us. Below are his thoughts:

Today we are reviewing “Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure! So far, here are the ratings!
Graphics: 9/10
The moving graphic is at it’s best, but the talking animation is sometimes off sync. This is still one of the best definition non-FPS games i’ve ever seen! Overall, I give it a 9/10!
Plot:9/10
Controls: 7/10
Gameplay:10/10
Overall rating: 9/10

Great game, I like the idea of action figures coming alive on Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS/3DS, and PlayStation 3! Some special areas require a certain type of “Skylander” to go to it. The Skylander types are Magic, Water, Tech, Life, Death, Earth, and Fire! The really cool part is the “Portal of Power”! If you put a “Skylander” on it, instantly it recognizes it! The places you go to are divided into chapters, and there are many chapters to explore. Also, the Skylanders aren’t JUST different types, they also have stats! Some Skylanders are based on speed, others on attack, and others on defense.

On to NPCs, you always have to have a nerd, a self-absorbed jock, and a female character. Hugo, Flynn, and Cali are this game’s main NPCs. There are also some that take you to places like Gillman and Arbo. Kaos is the game’s villain, but he’s the kind of goofball villain that makes him have so much character, but he also can be really annoying. You may recognize his voice as Richard Steven Horvitz who voiced Zim in Invader Zim. Kaos is confident in winning, although he only uses dark Skylanders and spells.

The controls on this game are great, except for no jumping. There are launch pads for jumps but I think that for the small ones the Skylanders can jump, and for the big leaps, they should use the launch pads. In my opinion, Great game, the enemies are a bit tough, but it’s still a good game. It appeals to kids a little more than adults, but it can be fun for the whole family!

Thank you Jackson for your review! Jackson plays many game genres and hopes to be a video game reviewer one day. I think he’s off to a good start!

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.