Call of Juarez: Gunslinger Gameplay

Hitman HD Trilogy Review

The Hitman series, which has moved more than eight million units around the world at last count, certainly has plenty of fans. Hardcore ones, too. The kind that relish tough, intelligent gameplay. To sate said fans, and perhaps muster up a few more, Square Enix and Hitman dev IO Interactive have seen fit to stitch together Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, Hitman: Contracts and Hitman: Blood Money in one convenient package. The PC-only original is absent from the bundle but it’s worth remembering the best parts of it were actually re-imagined for consoles in Contracts.
HD compilations of last generation’s biggest franchises certainly aren’t uncommon these days, but the Hitman series is no less worthy of the same treatment. No-one will mistake these games as anything but products of a previous era – even Blood Money, which straddled the previous and current generations, is almost seven years old – but the end result is a compendium of confident stealth classics that hold up better than one might imagine.

Absolution massaged the Hitman formula somewhat by dividing levels into discrete stages and including sections that didn’t feature a target to kill. The nature of Absolution’s story mode, with 47 on the run, also meant he didn’t have the luxury of selecting his weapons and gear before each mission. That’s not the case here in these titles. The case here, in Silent Assassin, Contracts and Blood Money, is very simple. Listen to your briefing, choose your gear, enter a level, kill your target or targets, and leave. With few exceptions, this is how it unfolds across all three games. This is Hitman at its most pure. Each of the 40 levels across the three games is a self-contained ecosystem. Think of it like 40 different aquariums where you’re always the shark.

If you’re familiar with the Hitman series you’re probably already recalling how you worked you way through them. If you’re not, a world of possibilities await. How do you want to kill a Yakuza boss: fugu poisoning or lead poisoning? What’s the best way to murder a morbidly-obese Scottish crime boss relaxing at a Romanian slaughterhouse: a surprise attack through the skylight or a gun smuggled into his room inside a roast chicken? What’s the ideal method to snuff out a playboy douchebag at his father’s mansion: a shot into his glass-bottomed Jacuzzi and a horrible fall, or… something else that isn’t half as funny?

You need to think about this stuff because there’s no point playing through these games and turning every encounter into a shootout. Absolution benefited from a variety of improvements that meant when a situation descended into a firefight you could still play the game like a robust third-person shooter. The original Hitman titles featured in this collection were never designed to be played like that, so be prepared to be underwhelmed if you plan on blasting your way through. They’re awkward games to play impatiently. The focus here is pure stealth, whether you’re gliding around in the shadows undetected or hiding in plain sight, blending in amongst your enemies. Plan, then move. Walk, don’t run. Save, then experiment. Stalk, then pounce. Trial and error; that’s what Hitman has always been about. It’s not just a stealth game, it’s a puzzle game. The perfect hit is always there, somewhere. You just need to put all the pieces together for it.

Those who’ve gorged themselves on the teat of largely shallow, modern run ’n gun shooters may find the slow pace of the games in the Hitman HD Trilogy nightmarish. There’s no recharging health. There are no corridors full of bodies to pile up. In fact, played correctly there’ll just be a stage full of survivors who never even knew you were there. For gamers with at least a vague recollection of when Germany was two countries (and Czechoslovakia was one) it’s like a welcome window into the past. The days before on-disc DLC and dubstep came and dropped a deuce in everyone’s corn flakes.

Hitman’s disguise system, a fundamental part of proceedings since the very beginning, shouldn’t require much explanation. However, if you’re a bit rusty (or playing these games for the first time) it may take some time to work out the wrinkles in the tension meter. It’s slightly different from Absolution’s Blend mechanic in that you don’t have to actively push a button to slip past enemies, but you do need to be very careful near them. Lingering too long near a guard or bursting into a jog at the wrong moment can render a disguise useless instantly. It’s at its worst and most binary in Silent Assassin. One second you’re covered face to foot in a firefighter’s uniform, the next you’re being cut down by gunfire for no apparent reason. How the guards can tell one identically-dressed fireman from another, each with full facemasks, is anyone’s guess. You’ll never know; you just have to cop it. It can get frustrating, particularly on the harder difficulty settings with fewer mid-level saves, but you learn to adjust.

It does improve; in Blood Money suspicious guards will regularly challenge you first before opening fire, allowing you the chance to disarm them and defuse a poor situation. It’s interesting to see how far the core mechanics of the series progressed between 2002 and 2006, and playing all three titles in quick succession will highlight the evolution. It’s a shame some of the rough edges of Silent Assassin and Contracts’ gameplay couldn’t be smoothed out along with the graphics, but everything is as it was when they were first released, for better or for worse.

That said, the HD Turtle Wax actually doesn’t flatter the Hitman series as much as it does, say, platformers like the Ratchet & Clank series, or the Sly games. Colourful, heavily-stylised games like the latter don’t date as rapidly and have a habit of looking surprising sharp and sexy after a high-definition refresh. The visuals here in the Hitman HD Trilogy are certainly crisp, but they remain quite plain. It’s understandable of course, considering Hitman 2 in particular is over a decade old, but it’s worth mentioning. These are old games; don’t expect a miracle.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Part Metal Gear Solid, part Devil May Cry, Revengeance attempts - and largely succeeds - at reinventing Raiden, a character that, until now, may have divided opinion.

Indeed, from the moment you're treated to the awe-inspiring, kinetically-charged combat, you know that you're in for something special.

A large part of this is due to an ingenious fighting mechanic called the Zandatsu. Here, you are propelled into a slow-motion mini-game where you have to target and sever specific points of an enemy. It's brilliantly responsive and makes a welcome change from overused quick-time events that plague games of similar ilk.

General gameplay is blisteringly fast. Blocking and parrying (both of which use the same combination of a timed button press and directional input), are the bread and butter with a focus on Raiden being as offensively-minded as possible. 

This, coupled with cleverly intertwined slow-motion and a repertoire of acrobatic aerial manoeuvres makes battles some of the most visually spectacular around. 

It's a shame, though, that the camera can sometimes be inconsistent - making it hard to see exactly what's going on. However, the wonderful set-pieces offer no such irritation. 

Raiden's main weapon is an electric blade, but modifications to it later on in the game help to stop repetition setting in. 

Enemies, armed with a variety of rocket launchers and heavy weapons, are ruthlessly aggressive and although it's relatively easy mowing them all down, the real challenge is pulling off the most stylish and brutal moves in Raiden's armoury, meaning that no battle is ever the same.

However, the 'S' level difficulty will prove tough enough to please even the most hardened Ninja Gaiden fans.

But it's not all action, and there's a lot here for Metal Gear fans to enjoy. In keeping with tradition of the games, there are special bosses - this time, four cyborgs called the Wings of Despair. 

Although fleshing out their characters is primarily left to cutscenes 'Hideo Kojima style', boss battles have a very different feel which may jar with some hardcore fans of the universe. 

Thankfully, the game is packed with trademark Metal Gear humour. The ability to perform a sneak attack after running around in the iconic cardboard box is a particular highlight.

Although some have criticised the game's length, it's still a solid nine to ten hour journey that never takes its foot off the gas. Graphically, the game holds up well with a solid framerate, but some textures are bland and muddy on close inspection.

But this doesn't take away from Revengeance being a brilliant action game - and one that's worthy of its Metal Gear title. That is perhaps the greatest accolade of them all.

Diablo III War Guide

If you've ever wanted to make obscene gold and decked out in Rares in a ridiculously short time, then this will be the most important page you ever read...

Over the next 6 minutes, I'm going to show you exactly how we went from poor and flat out noobs to becoming one of the most recognized names in Diablo 3. I'll also show you precisely how you can copy our results quickly and painlessly so that your accounts look just like ours...

CLICK HERE TO GO DIRECT TO THE GUIDES

You may have watched PvE videos and read some of our gold making guides of late.. and we’re here to tell you that becoming good in this game doesn’t need to take as long as you think it does.

By now, I'll bet you know somebody (or have at least heard of somebody) that is in full rares, with over 400k gold sitting in the bank with nothing else to buy. Basically all they do is pimp out their lower level characters. Here is the big question. So if they can do it, why are you still stuck? First of all, it's not your fault! You've been misinformed and misled, force-fed thousands of pages of useless information, the same information that is blocking you from getting the success you want to amass.

Here are the cold, hard facts...

Without devoting at least 4 hours a day to the game...you're screwed. You can't even consider being at the top among your friends, right?

What if I told you that by this weekend you could have everything you need to make a killing in Diablo 3 : 1) Top your game with Level 60 characters with Rare and Unique Weapons

2) Know which items you should be farming, items you should be seeking, where you should be going and grabbing expensive rare items and materials

3) More than enough gold to buy to your heart's content in the AH... Would you give us the next 6 minutes and read every word of this page? You see, just a short while back, we were in the same boat as you. I was wandering around trying to figure out how to get just a few measly pieces of gold and Brad was staring in awe at those items that cost over 2500 gold a piece. In fact, for me I was playing many hours a day only to go back disappointed and empty handed! The two of us didn’t have any idea what we were doing and when we tried to ask the pros for some help, we got the cold shoulder. But, neither of us thought to ourselves that things should be like that. We knew we could be better and so we started working harder, playing longer, and taking notes on everything we did as we developed a plan that would help us start beating the best around at their game. Today, I'm racking up three Level 60 Characters and Brad has over a million gold in all his classes combined. (Yes, you read that right!) The bad news is... I have spent nearly 105 days /played, while Brad is nearly double mine at 217 days /played. Altogether that's 3,800 hours between the both of us... time which we can never get back... It all started with a random chance meeting at Blizzcon 2011 in Anaheim... In a small area of the "Realm Meetings" section, we had a chat on what we were working on. We clicked instantly and ended up speaking for hours. Now many months later, and here we are... You might be wondering... why would I take Brad as my partner? Four main reasons: First of all, I needed an unfair advantage and Brad was the answer.

I didn't want to go through what Brad went through to learn how to earn gold. I wanted it now! The only way to skyrocket up the ladder is to partner with an 800lb. gorilla.

Second, I figured out how the missing pieces to what I know was earning insane amounts of gold, and that's exactly what Brad specializes in. I know all the in and outs of class builds, battlegrounds, the entire game...

Brad was the missing link, and he's the best out there. Third, I actually like that guy. Sure he has a "weird" voice, but when it comes down it, he's pretty cool. Fourth, and it's a biggie! There was something more we were both missing out on.. a chance to truly help players around the globe take a swat at being a pro without pouring as much time and energy into as we did (seriously, it was a lot of time). We knew exactly what we could do to help out newbies and seasoned veterans and that was when Diablo 3 War was born. Now, let's be clear on something... This isn't an e-book. It isn't even just a membership site. It's basically us drawing a line in the sand and saying "winners on this side, everyone else... step back".

Get it all here

 

Tomb Raider PC

Tomb Raider PC Review

Stranded on the mythical island of Yamatai following a freak storm, 21-year-old Lara Croft’s career as a videogame protagonist begins with suffering. In the opening hours of Tomb Raider she is stabbed, burned, drenched, assaulted and almost freezes to death: that’s if you’re doing well, meeting the demands of every linear climbing section, gunfight, finickety stealth sequence and quick-time event that presents itself. Fail any of these and you’ll also watch her be crushed, impaled, strangled, mauled and so on.This early cruelty is the game’s most strikingly idiosyncratic feature. Lara sobs and trembles, and evident effort has been made to slow down and focus on the details of her experience. 

Hunger necessitates finding a bow and hunting deer. Her elbows shake believably when she mantles up onto a ledge. Her first human kill leaves her blood-soaked and distraught. Give it a few months and I suspect these opening hours will be what people will be talking about when they talk about Crystal Dynamics’ reboot. It’s certainly what they’ve been talking about until now.Play on for another few hours, however, and you’ll find yourself in a hybrid of third-person shooter and linear platformer, Lara trading the bleak little lethalities of life as a shipwreck survivor for a parade of regulation set-pieces: an escape from a burning building, a helicopter crash, a section where your guns are taken away, a climactic assault on an enemy stronghold.Moment by moment, the game evolves into something more familiar. During a battle with Yamatai’s savage Solarii brotherhood high up in the mountains, the camera crash-zooms onto a set of blast doors which burst open to reveal an armoured islander holding a riot shield. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: you beat him by dodging his machete blows and shooting him in the back when he stumbles. 

Everything about this character – from his introduction to his execution – is lifted from the Big Book of Miniboss Design, Third-Person Shooter Edition (Bleszinski/Mikami, 2005).Years trapped on Yamatai have warped the populace into an army of videogame henchmen.Shortly afterwards, Lara hops onto the bottom rung of a ladder leading up a rickety radar tower whose topmost transmitter is her crew’s best hope for rescue. Once you’re on that bottom rung, the game will only accept one input: forwards. Press forward and Lara climbs: press anything else and Lara stops. There’s no way to fail, though a few pre-canned moments will have a rusty rung give way and leave her hanging. There’s a point where the game slips into a cutscene but pretends that it hasn’t: nothing changes, with the exception that it’s no longer accepting your input. Let go and Lara will keep climbing without you. Adventure game sleight-of-hand, as taught at Uncharted’s School of Seven Bells – what is being pickpocketed, in this case, is your right as a player to have your agency reflected in the events taking place on-screen.Then, after another calamitous mountainside descent, Lara emerges out onto a familiar landscape – a hub area – from a new vantage point. Your options for traversal have been expanded by the acquisition of rope arrows that allow you to pull down certain doors and affix zip-lines to particular posts. There are letters and relics to find, and secret tombs to plunder for bonus skill points. Tomb Raider becomes about gentle exploration for a while, and there’s nothing particularly traumatic about it. It’s very, very pretty. You forget about the multiple times you watched Lara’s throat be ripped out by a wolf because you kept fumbling a quicktime event. You stop wondering if pressing the buttons to make Lara go through this carnival of horrors is not an act of cruelty in and of itself.The memory of that first traumatic kill fades as you kneel behind another piece of waist-high cover to ping arrows into the cranii of obliging brotherhood warrior after obliging brotherhood warrior. When the game gives up on being a story about a young woman having an absolutely terrible time, it improves. It relaxes back into the series’ matinee adventure comfort zone, and some of its later set-pieces are genuinely spectacular as a result.Dangle me from the ceiling once, shame on you.

 Dangle me twice, shame on me.“Lara herself is the game’s standout success, particularly when she stops running.”The quality of the writing varies. Conversations between Lara’s fellow survivors are believable despite their rote characterisation: nerdy twenty-something male, tough black woman, untrustworthy TV personality, spiritual Maori, and so on. Lara herself is the game’s standout success, particularly when she stops running and decides to take direct action: the perceptible change she undergoes is a good example of writing, performance, and animation working together to create a sympathetic and admirable person in place of a fantasy.The game spits out some real eye-rollers, though – it’s honestly a miracle that Lara can find anything to fall off given the amount of scenery the villain manages to chew through in his relatively brief screen-time. Enemy chatter doesn’t fare much better. I can think of a number of things I might say if I suddenly found myself with an arrow in my sternum, and “damn, she’s a good shot!” isn’t high on the list.The real weakness of Tomb Raider’s storytelling, though, is its failure to express its big ideas in the way it plays. Lara receives two pieces of advice repeatedly during the game: ‘trust your instincts’ and ‘keep moving forward’. Both jar with the reality of what Tomb Raider actually wants you to do. ‘Trust your instincts’ should really be understood as ‘trust Lara’s instincts’: or at least, trust Survival Instinct mode, which highlights objects in the environment you can interact with. Trust that this type of craggy rock will always be climbable, that these barricades will always yield to your rope arrows, that this particular type of scenery will always be flammable – and that you should always do all of these things because that’s why they’re there.

BioShock Infinite

BioShock Infinite PC Review

Irrational’s BioShock sequel swaps a city under the sea for a city above the clouds, while exploring a different time period, different themes, and even different dimensions. You’re Booker DeWitt, a former Pinkerton detective sent to the frighteningly patriotic floating city of Colombia to rescue a mysterious woman named Elizabeth. This, naturally, is a process that involves wielding steampunky weapons, using various psychokinetic powers, and riding around on the tramlike Skyline system.When I finished BioShock Infinite – don’t worry, I won’t spoil anything – I was dumbfounded. I wanted to tell someone what I thought, but for a moment I had absolutely no idea. I’d experienced a kind of excited panic, then total delight, then momentary confusion, and then a rush of extraordinary sights, powerful scenes and sudden twists that left me struggling to keep up.It’s a spectacular ending. It’s just a shame it doesn’t make a lick of sense.Infinite is wonderful. Every single person who can play it, should play it. It’s a fascinating and gruesomely fun adventure in a genuinely unique, magnificent place. But the plot really does jump the shark. It jumps a lot of sharks. It jumps BioShark Infinisharks. That’s not uncommon in cinematic first-person shooters, but I mention it now because the game’s mysteries are such a big part of its appeal.You’re on a flying city of magical racists in 1912, and that soon drops to being only the fifth or sixth most puzzling thing about your situation. Who are those two? Why are they talking about me? What’s with the giant cyborg bird? What does AD stand for? How does he know… why does she think… when did they… why can I shoot crows from my hands? And how do these pants help me reload?

Bright lights, big city

Upon stepping into Columbia, our reluctant hero and former Pinkerton agent Booker DeWitt is welcomed extravagantly to the City in the Sky with its majestic statues of worshipped leaders and vibrant setting of multicolored buildings outlined by seamless bright blue skylines. Everything is peaceful, lively and succeeds in living up to what we imagine heaven to be like. The kids are laughing and playing on the streets while the men and women enjoy picnics and walk like the world is timeless. Everyone is dressed splendidly as though they are all equally privileged and prosperous.

But beneath that beautiful and holy façade lies a brewing turmoil, a raging war between factions that struggle to obtain dominance over Columbia and it all begins with Booker who breaks Elizabeth out of the tower she’s been imprisoned in for many years…

RAGE PC Review

RAGE PC Review

Rage is a first-person shooter video game developed by id Software. It uses the company's OpenGL based id Tech 5 engine. Released in October 2011, the game was first shown as a tech demo on June 11, 2007 at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC),and was officially announced on August 2, 2007 at QuakeCon. On the same day, a trailer for the game was released by GameTrailers.The game is set in a post-apocalyptic near future, following the impact of the asteroid 99942 Apophis on Earth. The game has been described as similar to the movie Mad Max 2 and to video games such as Fallout and Borderlands. Influences on the driving and racing gameplay include games such as MotorStorm and Burnout. Players can upgrade their cars with racing certificates won from racesGameplayThe game primarily consists of first person shooter and driving segments, with the player using his vehicle to explore the world and travel between missions.

Combat is undertaken from a first-person perspective; the player is armed with a variety of upgradeable firearms, as well as a crossbow, and boomerang-like weapons called "wingsticks" which can be used for stealthy attacks. There are several types of ammunition available for each weapon, to allow the player to further customize his or her player style. As an example, the crossbow's primary ammunition is metal bolts, but it also can shoot electrified bolts, explosive bolts, and more. There are two standard varieties of enemies, enemies with firearms which will take cover and exchange fire with the player, and melee enemies that will charge the player and attack with melee weapons.There are a variety of vehicular events for the player to participate in, including races and checkpoint rallies. Racing events may or may not have opponents, and some of them are armed races while others are not. Players have the ability to augment their cars with various items and upgrades they can gain by completing events. Rage also features some role-playing game (RPG) elements, including an inventory system, looting system, and different types of ammo. Players have the option to customize their weapons and vehicles, as well as build a wide assortment of items using collected recipes. There are also side missions and a number of other minor exploratory elements.MultiplayerRage has two multiplayer modes: Road Rage and Legends of the Wasteland. 

In Road Rage, up to four players compete in a free-for-all match that takes place in an arena designed to make use of the vehicles. The objective is to collect rally points that appear around the arena while killing your opponents and stealing their points. Legends of the Wasteland is a series of two-player co-op missions based on stories that are heard throughout the single player campaign. There are a total of 9 objectives in this game type.Downloadable contentDownloadable content (DLC) was mentioned to be planned for all platforms. The Wasteland Sewer Missions DLC pack, integral part of the Campaign Edition, was released on October 4, 2011, providing access to the sewer systems. A code for the DLC was given away as pre-order bonus with the Anarchy Edition that allowed early and free access to the DLC. The player character is given a task by people of various cities to rid their city's sewers of the mutant infestation.Anarchy Edition add-on DLC was released on 15 February 2012 containing all the content of the Anarchy Edition excluding the free Wasteland Sewer Missions Pack DLC code. The package upgrades the standard edition of Rage to the Anarchy Edition.On December 14, 2012 it was announced that a new Rage DLC would release called the The Scorchers. It was released on December 18, 2012 for Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3  The plot focuses on the The Scorchers, a bandit clan cut from the final release of the main game and only encountered in vehicle combat missions. The Scorchers are hatching a plan to eliminate all life by destroying the Wasteland and it is up to the main character once again to save humanity. The DLC adds a "Ultra Nightmare" difficulty level and the ability to keep playing the game even after the main questline has been completed. The pack features new characters, six new areas, new minigames, new enemies and a new weapon called Nailgun which features three distinct ammunition types. The DLC also fixes some bugs in the game

Aliens: Colonial Marines

Aliens: Colonial Marines PC Review

 Aliens: Colonial Marines is a first-person shooter video game developed by Gearbox Software and published by Sega. The game was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 video game consoles and for Microsoft Windows on February 12, 2013. The game is also set to be released on the Wii U in 2013. It is the third Aliens title that Sega has produced: the first was Aliens vs. Predator in 2010, and the second was Aliens Infestation in 2011. The game is set in the Alien universe and takes place after the events of the third film in the franchise, Alien 3If James Cameron ever built his own theme park,

 Aliens: Colonial Marines would be its haunted house. You’d visit it after you’d taken a spin on the Titanic Teacups and stopped in at the Termin-Eater burger stall for a bowl of greasy Schwarzenuggets, served to you by a guy who looked a lot like Edward Furlong because he was in fact the actual Edward Furlong. Hey, at least he’d be working.The point is that like any decent theme park attraction, Aliens: Colonial Marines presents a fairly convincing facade but its thrills are forced and entirely superficial. You don’t ever feel like you’re actually in danger. You don't ever feel overwhelmed. In fact, over the course of its six hour campaign the game never gets even remotely close to replicating the genuine feelings of fear and dread that simmer throughout James Cameron’s cinematic classic, simply because its xenomorphic enemies are so mindless. These aliens aren’t sophisticated human hunters, they’re merely acid-fuelled fodder for the seemingly neverending rounds in your pulse rifle. Consequently, Colonial Marines is for the most part a disappointingly mundane, run ‘n’ gun first-person shooter that fails to captivate once the initial rush of nostalgia has worn off. At its worst, it simply feels unfinished - which is a surprise given how long it's been in development.

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