It’s no surprise to discover that World Cup South Africa (WCSA) is far less progressive than its tournament-based predecessor. Now that the main series has settled into a successful groove EA needn’t be as daring with the mechanics. Refinement, not revolution, is the vibe behind this one: tweaking and fixing FIFA 10′s niggles without dislodging the fine balance of the on-the-pitch action. Expect smarter keepers who are less inclined to stray forward, tougher chip shots and small control improvements like chest-trapping and allowing a long ball drop over your shoulder.

JULES RIMET
The biggest changes all feed off of the World Cup license. As the official tournament game, WCSA stars all 199 participating teams, all ten tournament stadia and a selection of extra pitches from each of the qualifying region. The tournament can be taken online too, and Battle of the Nations mode collates information from every match played to discover which nation has the best FIFA players.

As well as incidental improvements (fireworks, streamers and all the other back-of-the-beer-mat extras) EA is keen to bring the match location into play.

Home advantage will often swing the match stats in favour of one side, while teams playing at a high altitude will become fatigued quicker than during a match at sea level. Ball behaviour will also change in stadia with less air resistance, though we’re promised this will be only slight, to avoid moon physics.

For once the news of minor improvements is a good thing. With MW2′s online mode, Infinity Ward proved that adding too much to a winning formula can ruin a great game. Luckily EA knows how close FIFA is to perfection and isn’t prepared to jeopardise the position any time soon.

By ComputerAndVideoGames

Portions of this interview have appeared in other stories from Gamescom (see below left), but we thought he had so many interesting things to say that our chat deserved reproducing in full. So here it is. Our questions are in bold, with his answers beneath.

The obvious question is, why a new PlayStation 3 now?
Well, it’s closing in on our third anniversary in November in America and Japan, and we felt it was the right time to kind of pass on the benefits of the fact that we’ve been able to reduce the number of components and their sizes.

And we wanted to pass the cost savings on to our consumers, in the new price point as well. We also felt it was the right time in terms of the great line-up of software titles we have coming out.

Is the new machine really an admission that sales of the existing PS3 have been disappointing?
If you look at the growth of the installed base, it is slower than the PS2 was but it’s pretty much on track with the growth that we had with the original PlayStation.

We also always look at our business as being a 10-year lifecycle for all of our platforms. It’s kind of difficult to say whether a platform has been successful or not going into our third anniversary. The fifth anniversary and beyond is when we really start to say how’s our trajectory looking?

In retrospect, do you wish you had packed less into the PS3?
Had we done less, I think we’d have gotten into a situation where, especially with the way technology ramps up, it would have been very difficult for us to embark on a 10-year life cycle with this particular console.

I think that because of all the things we were able to pack into the platform – Blu-ray’s a great example – we were able to make sure we could take advantage of some of the great services we are offering.

Those things aren’t possible if we didn’t put that kind of power into the platform.

A marketing person once told me that the most difficult thing to sell is a Swiss Army penknife, because it does everything. Do you think you made the same mistake with the PS3?
Right. That was more of a marketing issue than anything else. When I came back to Japan in November 2006, one of the first things I did was to go out with a very clear message that said the PS3 is first and foremost a video game console, before we talk about any of the other great things it can do. I think the PS3 had a bit of an identity problem.

We focused therefore in the first year and a half or so on talking about the great games and also we sent that message to all of our development partners.

I think we’ve done a pretty good job of doing that, which is why we’ve got this great raft of software coming into this holiday season. Once we’ve done that, then we can talk about all the other things that it can do in terms of the non-game video content, whether it’s the video delivery service or the catchup TV service or the movie rental service. But none of that makes much sense unless we can say first and foremost it’s a great video game console.

It’s well known that Sony loses money on every PS3 it sells. Will that still be the case with the new machine?
If you’re just talking about the hardware alone, the quick answer is yes. That makes good headlines, but I don’t actually know that that’s the true nature of the business that we’re all in, whether it’s PlayStation, Xbox or the Wii. I think the better indicator is to look at the business as a whole platform, to ask: are you profitable in terms of the hardware, software and peripherals. And the answer t o that question is yes on a gross profit level since the last fiscal year.

Is PS3 the machine to turn Sony around?
It’s not just the PlayStation business, but overall. It’s some of the other businesses that I’m managing now at the Networked Products and Service Group level, but it’s also a combination of the cost reductions that we’re now embarking on on a corporate level, including the Bravia business, I think all these things need to come together for us to be seen and perceived as having turned a corner. It’s not just one business. It’s not just the PlayStation business, it’s not just the TV business, it’s a combination of all of the things that we’re involved in.

Will PlayStation thinking infiltrate the rest of Sony?
This is one of the things that Howard has tasked myself and Kunimasa Suzuki to do at NPSG, where the majority of the sales and visibility, if you will, comes from the PlayStation business. Since I manage both there’s obviously going to be a bit of a ruboff from how I run the PlayStation business. and how that’s going to impact how Kuni’s going to be running the Vaio business, and because of the cross-pollination that I wanted I’ve asked Kuni to become second in command at SCE. So there’s a lot of cross- pollination going on at management level.

I certainly wanted to make sure that the kind of corporate culture, the atmosphere if you will, the kind of information sharing, the openness that I think I’ve been able to impart on SCE, I want to make sure that that culture extends to NPSG, and by extension if it’s a culture that breeds success, then it should naturally extend into other parts of Sony as well.

Nevertheless, as a company that also owns a film studio and a music label, the digital age must present as much conflict as opportunity? How can Sony reconcile its two roles?
There’s always been that difference of opinion or perspective, and that’s bound to happen, because on the one side you’re coming from software, from the other side you’re coming from hardware.

There is always going to be that, but I think it depends on the management of the organisations to really harness that energy and conflict in the right way or to exacerbate the situation. I’d like to think that because we at SCE are one of the very few companies within the Sony group, probably the only one, that deals in both hardware and software under one roof, we have that conflict built in.

It’s part of our culture to manage that conflict and to manage it in a right way, so that it becomes a positive rather than something that takes down the organisation. I’d like to think the folks at SCE have a lot of experience and knowledge about striking a balance between the two and hopefully we can impart that across the wider Sony group as well. Sony needs to get to the point where we’re not talking about hardware or software, but about a total consumer experience. We don’t talk about hardware and software at SCE. We talk about how we can bring the best consumer experience under the PlayStation umbrella. Nobody questions whether we’re a hardware company or a software company, and that’s the way I think Sony needs to move as well.

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What are your own personal criteria for a successful gadget?
Ease of use. One of the standards is how many times I have to look at a manual. I look too for industrial form factor and design. Does it look nice and does it function very well?

Talking of form and design, I see you’ve ditched the Spider-man typeface from the new PlayStation…
We wanted to make sure that we set a new direction for the PS3. The PS logo with the capital P and small S has always been our logo, has always been synonymous with video games and I wanted to reset the thinking. Also internally I wanted to send the message internally that we are resetting the thinking, going back to our roots. What better way to do it than by resetting the logo? That puts the entire organisation on its toes. On a practical level, when you have PlayStation 3 spelt out, the aspect ratio was such that if you wanted it on a billboard it became tiny. It didn’t work in terms of visibility.

In the meantime, Nintendo has done more to popularise video gaming than any other company.
It’s a very astute observation, but it doesn’t take in history. The most successful console is still the PS2 and it’s still going strong. I think that’s the console that really broke the barrier from video games being just for video gamers into more of a mass market on a global basis. Nintendo’s obviously done a great job in following that mass acceptance.

But there is a new constituency of video game players. How will you make sure they come to the PS3?
First and foremost it needs to be done through compelling video game titles. That is a two-pronged strategy where we always need to make sure that the platform is perceived as a videogames platform. Once you increase the installed base you cannot say, OK we’re not going to do any more games for the hardcore gamer. You lose them, you lose the whole foundation. A great example is games like God of War. Those games we will continue to do.

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Titles like Singstar and Buzz are great examples of family type games. Number 2, I think that the accessibility of the PS Network and all the different content that we offer and will bring in the future – people who realise that it’s a great console to have for all the other things it offers. It’s a great entrance into the PS3 for some people and once you’ve got one, why not try video games as well? I think that’s more of a long-term proposition. But since we’re on a 10-year lifecycle, it’s the sort of thing we’ll be looking at in a couple of years.

And what about the “magic wand” motion control system you have shown glimpses of here and at E3? When will we see that in stores?
We are slating it for spring of next year. One of the things is that we just don’t want to put out the controller. We need a great software that supports the controller at launch. It’s something that we’ve been working on for the longest time.

Finally, the PSP Go is coming in October, and has no drive for UMD disks. Do you think physical media such as DVDs and even Blu-ray have a limited time left?
No. Perhaps we can sit down three years from now and have a beer, or two or ten, while we wait to download 40 gigabytes of data for a full ps3 game. That’s still going to take a lot of time. We’re in over 100 countries and there are areas where consumers still don’t have access to the type of broadband that we have. The death of physical media is a very nice conclusion, that seems to be nice to say, but it’s not something we’re going to see soon. We are committed to the PSP 3000 and the UMD business. A lot of people like to speculate that we’re getting out of that business, but nothing could be further from the truth. We’re not going to deprive consumers in all those other countries.

The Slim is hitting stores September 1 in North America and Europe and will cost $299 (or for those who live in regions, 299 euros or 29,980 yen). Hirai says the device has the same features and functions as the “old” PS3 but is 33 percent smaller, 36 percent lighter, and comes with a 120GB hard drive. (See photo comparison here).

Sony says that to achieve the new form factor, the internal design architecture of the new PS3 system has been completely redesigned–”from the main semiconductors and power supply unit to the cooling mechanism.”

The PS3 Slim is powered by a new 45nm version of the Cell processor, which runs at the same speed as the 60nm processor in the “old” PS3 but is smaller and more energy efficient. According to company reps, power consumption for the Slim has also been cut to two-thirds, “helping to reduce fan noise,” which is important.

Kaz Hirai unveils the PS3 Slim in Cologne, Germany.

On the cosmetic front, this model has a textured surface finish that gives the PS3 a fresh, casual look that the company hopes will make it more appealing to a wider audience (read: casual gamers). As previously rumored, the PS3 logo has undergone a redesign and Sony’s changing the PS3 brand name from “PLAYSTATION 3″ to “PlayStation 3″ (we’ve actually been calling it the PlayStation 3 for a while).

Like the 80GB and 160GB models, the 120GB PS3 Slim has built-in Wi-Fi and two USB ports (sorry, Sony didn’t add IR or backwards compatibility for PS2 games). You can also upgrade/replace the hard drive without voiding the warranty, though Sony has moved the hard drive from the side of the unit to the front for “easier access.” (To remove the hard drive, you simply unscrew two screws). The one feature missing from the Slim is the ability to install another operating system (i.e., Linux)–Sony is doing away with that feature.

With earlier PS3s, you could prop your unit up vertically or lay it down horizontally. Out of the box, the Slim is only designed to be used in a horizontal position, but Sony will sell a $24 stand that allows you to stand it up vertically.

In making the move to the PS3 Slim, Sony will be upgrading the firmware to 3.00 and phasing out its legacy 80GB and 160GB models, selling them for $299 and $399 respectively.

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John Koller, director of hardware marketing for Sony Computer Entertainment America, says they’ve been able to run down inventory of older models, but he didn’t have the best answer as to why someone would buy an old 80GB model over the new 120GB Slim. “Some people want a unit right away and they may like the look of the old unit,” he said. “People will have their reasons for wanting one.”

We’re expecting our review sample to arrive tomorrow. But GameSpot’s Ricardo Torres and Sarju Shah were lucky enough to already get a Slim.

Source: Gamespot & Cnet

Chocolat dvd No one could have suspected that the sequel to 2004′s Killzone would be this good. Killzone 2 is a tremendous package, offering an exciting campaign and terrific competitive online play, neither of which create new paradigms for first-person shooters, but rather set new standards in subtle but significant ways. From groundbreaking visuals to well-crafted multiplayer maps, most of Killzone 2′s individual elements stand out in a crowded genre, making its meager attempts at storytelling easy to ignore. PlayStation 3 owners looking for a shooter to keep them busy for the rest of 2009 and beyond need look no further: The fierce action will keep you glued to your television screen for some time to come.

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The M82: Is there nothing it can’t do?

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What makes Killzone 2′s single-player campaign so much fun? First and foremost, the weapons are a lot of fun to shoot, even the standard assault rifles that form the core of your loadout. The M82′s effective scope makes zooming in on your target a breeze, yet this rifle is effective at close range as well, establishing itself from the beginning as a formidable firearm. The LS13 shotgun is also powerful and rewarding to fire; though you may only shoot off a foe’s helmet with other weapons, you’ll watch entire heads explode with a single blast from this close-range powerhouse. The bolt gun is another favorite, skewering enemy soldiers onto surfaces and exploding a short moment later. Though you’re traversing a sci-fi setting, your weapons are decidedly modern-day, from the sniper rifle to the vicious flamethrower, with one exception: the lightning gun. This mighty instrument showers enemies with overpowering jolts of electricity, and though it’s not available for long, it makes short work of robotic and humanoid foes. Each of these weapons feels just right; fantastic spurts of blood, outstanding animations, exquisitely detailed weapon models, and explosive sound effects fuse seamlessly and give a satisfying sense of impact every time you land a shot.

Although there’s a great variety of weaponry, you won’t encounter that many different kinds of enemies as you fight your way across the war-torn landscapes of the planet Helghan. As in the original Killzone, your enemies consist largely of Helghast soldiers, yet though this limited selection led to monotony in the past, an assortment of factors in the sequel hold tedium at bay. The action is constantly pushing forward, leading you from one quality scripted event to the next and pitting you against bright AI opponents that have a remarkable grasp of battlefield tactics. These soldiers put up a fight and exhibit authentic behavior as you rain bullets on them. If you set your sights on a soldier peeking from behind cover and fire off a few rounds in that direction, he’ll patiently wait until all signs of fire have vanished. Helghast will flank you and shoot blindly from behind cover, and should you toss a grenade in their direction, they’ll quickly scatter. You’ll normally be fighting alongside a computer-controlled teammate or even entire squads of fellow infantry. Enemy AI is just as concerned with your comrades as it is with you, so you’ll never feel as if you have a bull’s-eye plastered on your forehead, as is common with many other team-based shooters. As a result, Killzone 2′s thrilling large-scale battles unfold dynamically and offer a legitimate challenge while rarely feeling unfair–a frustrating rocket-heavy final battle serving as the only exception.

Some excellent turret sequences and other segments also provide welcome variations on the shooting theme. At one point, you’ll climb into a robotic shell and mow down infantry and tanks with machine gun fire and rockets. The way your transparent protective shield exhibits cracks as you take damage and the remarkable fire and smoke effects that light up the screen add to the excitement of the level. In another fun and visually stunning sequence, you’ll use an antiaircraft turret to take down squadrons of enemy fighters. Even operating a standard turret is more appealing than you would expect, which is a result of great map design and well-scripted enemy entrances. If you’re just using your standard arsenal, missions are diverse and engaging. You’ll take aim at tanks (and in one boss fight, a hovering aircraft) using Killzone 2′s potent rocket launcher, and you’ll fight your way through a besieged air base in which winding corridors and intersecting passages have you battling multiple enemies on multiple levels.

Most levels take their cue from the usual first-person shooter formulas, and though it takes place in the spacefaring future, Killzone 2 feels more akin to a modern-day day FPS by way of its standard weapons and mostly humanoid enemies. It’s an interesting blend of two disparate sensibilities that works far better than in the original, and it’s further ripened by gameplay touches that feel authentic within that framework. Movement and turning speeds have a real feeling of weight, which is appropriate considering the heavy armor burdening you. This can make the controls feel somewhat sluggish at first, given that you take a moment to gather momentum. It doesn’t take long to get accustomed to this sense of overall bulkiness, though, and it’s consistently delivered across multiple mechanics. For example, when you jump, the way that you bend into the leap and cushion the landing with another slight crouch feels surprisingly realistic. That weight also informs movement in and out of cover. Killzone 2′s cover system is solid, and it never removes you from a first-person viewpoint. Though some objects can obscure your view if you try to take potshots from behind them, sticking to cover and leaning out from behind walls is generally effective and intuitive.

This armored suit is the ultimate death machine.

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Whether you go for a pop-and-shoot approach or just gun your way through, the mission design keeps you constantly moving from one objective to the next. The quick pace is one of Killzone 2′s finest facets; battles don’t wear on too long, and they aren’t so brief as to be anticlimactic. Like many other shooters, mission objectives often involve turning a crank or pushing a button. In Killzone 2, this may mean rotating the controller to simulate the onscreen activity. These moments feel unnecessary and ironically disrupt the sense of immersion, but as tacked-on as they are, the actions are too brief to be especially annoying. You’ll also use your gamepad’s motion sensitivity to stabilize the sniper rifle, though the implementation here is subtle and therefore relatively harmless.

It’s a real pity that there is so little context for the exceptional action. If you’re familiar with the original Killzone, you’ll at least have an idea why the ISA (International Strategic Alliance) is attacking the Helghast homeworld; if not, it’s clear that as Thomas Sevchenko, you are on the side of the good guys–just not clear why they are the good guys. The dialogue is rudimentary (a discussion regarding sandwiches jumps immediately to mind), the characters forgettable, and the plot serves purely as a thin framework to move you from one environment to the next. Yet the cutscenes are top-notch, and unlike their counterparts in fellow PS3 shooter Haze, there’s nothing intrinsically offensive or wearisome about the fist-pumping grunts at the core of the story. The story isn’t deep or involving–it’s just there, neither enhancing nor diminishing Killzone 2′s action.

That action is enhanced by groundbreaking visuals that elevate Killzone 2 to the head of its class. Both technically and artistically, this is a real stunner. You’ll first notice the obvious expressions of its technical prowess: environments jam-packed with objects and textured architectural details, pipes and crumbling rebar jutting from dilapidated buildings, and gorgeous lighting that drenches market squares and sandy battlefields with an incandescent glow. As you peel away the visual layers, your appreciation will only grow. Soldier animations are the best in the genre: Enemies move so fluidly during battle, and shift from cover to firing stance so smoothly, it’s clear that meticulous attention was given to making each limb move authentically. Even the smallest details are striking. Raging fires react to the wind as it blows through the level, lightning flashes across the gloomy skies, and billows of smoke so thick you could choke on them cloud your view–but never so much as to be a gameplay annoyance.

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The environments are dripping with grim ambience.

These visuals coalesce beautifully to give Killzone 2 a cohesive look that relies as much on its art design as it does on its technology. A subtle grain filter, a good amount of motion blur, and deep color saturation give most levels a dank, overcast ambience, and asymmetrical architecture and other small stylistic touches make Helghan feel more like a grim alternate-universe Earth than a completely foreign world. The sound design offers an equally intense palette. Explosions are obnoxiously loud, and the din of gunfire spreads across the map. The largest battles, such as one that rages across a decrepit bridge, sound intensely chaotic, and the crack of lightning bolts on Blood Gracht may cause you to jump out of your seat. The stormy soundtrack rages at all the right moments but gets a bit overwrought, which befits the hammy voice acting more than it does the layered sound effects.

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Although the campaign is over in eight or nine hours, many levels are eminently replayable thanks to tough enemy AI and multiple difficulty levels, and the game makes it easy to revisit specific sequences within its mission menu. But what gives this shooter legs is its fantastic online play, a fun and competitive extravaganza that issues a constant stream of benefits. Like the most recent Call of Duty games, Killzone 2 rewards you with bonuses as you play, which in this case can mean new weapons, extra grenades awarded upon respawning, and most intriguingly, entire classes. This is done not only via a leveling system that pushes you ever closer to the next reward, but also with ribbons earned by completing specific tasks, such as getting a certain percentage of your team’s kills. These bonuses are earned separately from leveling, which makes for two layers of online play enhancements to keep you ever addicted.

These dividends flow in a seemingly endless current, though they aren’t the only facet of online play that will keep you gripping your controller; the team-based gameplay itself is outstanding, which serves as reason enough to stick with Killzone 2. The modes themselves offer few surprises, what with variants on Team Deathmatch (Bodycount), Conquest (Capture and Hold), and Capture the Flag (Search and Retrieve), among others. Rather, matches are unique because these modes are strung seamlessly together, forcing teams to move from one objective to the next with barely a breather in-between. Up to five modes mesh into a single game, which keeps teams on their toes and spreads hotbeds of action about the maps. In a single match, you’re likely to band with teammates in an exposed courtyard, navigate tight walkways as battles rage in the artificial gulley just beyond, and defend an objective in a claustrophobic alcove. It’s unlikely that you’ll have trouble finding players online to join you in one of Killzone 2′s 32-player engagements, but should you be so inclined, you can fill out the games that you host with up to 15 AI-controlled bots. You can even practice offline in one-off matches with those same bots if you prefer.

The eight maps included are exceptional, largely because they are flexible enough to make every mode feel like a natural fit for the precise layouts. Aspects such as the varying spawn points of the propaganda speaker in Search and Retrieve, and the vulnerable locations of capture points in Capture and Hold, provide focused hot spots and send you to every nook and cranny of the maps. Be prepared to think vertically because the pathways wind up stairwells, through hidden tunnels, and across balconied walkways. The addition of techniques available to each of Killzone 2′s seven classes makes the ensuing action even more dynamic. An engineer’s turrets can make Pyrrhus Rise’s natural chokepoints even more treacherous, whereas a cloaked enemy may pounce on you as you navigate Tharsis Depot’s constricted walkways. All the while, visual flourishes such as floating embers on Visari Hammer and distant artillery fire on Salamun Market keep the mood oppressive.

Online play offers an embarrassment of rewards.

Additional features flesh out the robust online play. You can join other teammates in a squad, a la Battlefield 2 and Enemy Territory, a feature that lets you coordinate attacks with ease. Full support for clans and clan challenges should make Killzone 2 a natural destination for competitive teams, and you can use killzone.com to schedule clan matches and tournaments. But whether you’re a lone wolf or a clan enthusiast, you’ll be happy to find a mostly smooth online experience, with only rare and short bouts of visual slowdown and online lag. In light of this extraordinary suite of online options, it’s a pity that there is no cooperative play, and the single-player campaign seems ripe for such an addition, given that you’re usually accompanied by an AI teammate.

You’ll have to look to the inevitable Killzone 3 to find out if developer Guerilla can dig any diamonds out of this series’ rough narrative. Otherwise, Killzone 2 is an exceptional first-person shooter, not because it does anything particularly new, but because it does everything extraordinarily well. There’s certainly no doubting its graphical superiority, but though its moody visuals invite incessant superlatives, it’s the tight, electric action that will make this an off- and online haven.

Source [GameSpot]

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It should come as no surprise to anyone that they made another 50 Cent game. Despite its chilly critical reception, 2005′s 50 Cent: Bulletproof sold remarkably well. What is likely to surprise many people is that the new game, 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, is actually quite good. The fast-paced gameplay, tight controls, and arcade-style scoring system form a solid base for the simplistic yet fun action. Layered on top of this foundation is a heaping helping of 50 Cent and G-Unit flavor; vulgar dialogue, ridiculous one-liners, and a whole lot of licensed music give Blood on the Sand the bravado it needs to stay entertaining when the action begins to wear thin. Neither the action nor the attitude are particularly inspired, but together they are enough to make this an enjoyable ride.

Gangsta Fire mode makes killing twice as easy.

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The premise and story serve as little more than a backdrop here, but that’s just fine. 50 Cent and G-Unit play a concert and get stiffed by the promoter. Hoping to avoid Fiddy’s wrath, the promoter offers them a BeDazzled skull. Everyone’s happy until the crew is ambushed and the skull is stolen. It is then that you commence shooting anything that moves. 50 and his chosen G-Unit companion (Tony Yayo, Lloyd Banks, or DJ Whoo Kid) traverse a war-torn urban Middle Eastern landscape, slaying countless goons while pursuing one criminal figure after another. Though there are a few vehicle segments to vary things up, most of the locales kind of blur together in a blend of gunfire and earth tones. Regardless, they are impressively detailed and do a solid job of setting the stage for the explosive action.

50 Cent: Blood on the Sand is a third-person shooter, so you’ll be running and gunning with your overly muscled character in full view. The only differences between characters are aesthetic; both 50 Cent and his G-Unit sidekick run at a good clip and can dive in any direction. They can also snap into cover with the press of a button, but this mechanic is a bit too sticky to be convenient. Fortunately, you’ll rarely have to use it. Your character is very durable, and when things do get hairy, you can take advantage of the gangsta fire mode (read: bullet time) that makes it easy to lay out a squad of enemies in seconds.

The action is smooth and the controls are responsive, but it begins to feel repetitive after a while. There are a few bells and whistles to spice things up, such as counterkills, which are brutal quick-time melee attacks in which your character pummels, perforates, or otherwise brutalizes an enemy. However, the big incentive to keep playing is the scoring system. Every enemy that you kill earns you points, and killing them in quick succession will get a multiplier going. Additionally, you earn bonuses for the manner in which you dispatch your foes; scoring a headshot or taunting your enemies after you kill them will further boost your score. Even if you’re not the kind of gamer who normally strives for high scores, Blood on the Sand’s scoring system has a way of sucking you in. Your multiplier and kill bonuses are displayed prominently onscreen, and this visual reinforcement spurs you onward, motivating you to kill your enemies harder, better, faster, stronger.

Though it may seem like 50 could punch through a man’s stomach, what you see here is actually a stabbing.

To further quicken the pace, timed scenarios appear on the screen occasionally and challenge you to accomplish certain objectives within a certain time period. Target enemies are outlined in red, so you’ll always know who they are, and completing scenarios will earn you souped-up rounds for your pistol and extra grenades. Red danger arrows also appear to steer you toward the action by indicating where your enemies are about to come from. When there is a lull in the action, you can busy yourself with hunting down collectibles that will boost your score significantly (five posters and five targets in each mission). There are also loot crates that earn you cash to spend on new guns, counterkills, and taunts. Between your score, timed scenario announcements, your health meter, the gangsta fire bar, danger arrows, your cash total, and your kill multiplier, the heads-up display can get very crowded. It manages not to intrude on the action overmuch, but it can be distracting, especially in this day and age when the minimalist HUD reigns supreme.

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Nevertheless, this bustling HUD somehow fits well into the blustering swagger of 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand. The game is saturated with overblown gangster bravado, and it matches the over-the-top action perfectly. From the cutscenes in which 50 Cent vows to kill almost everyone he meets to the vulgar (and often amusing) banter between characters, it just doesn’t quit. The only place vulgarity is omitted is in the unlockable music videos, which are incongruously censored. Fortunately, the music tracks are not. As you progress and unlock new songs, you can tweak your playlist in the pause menu. 50 Cent and G-Unit songs make a great backdrop for the action and really tie the whole package together.

Blood on the Sand is better enjoyed with a friend, and the well-implemented drop-in/drop-out Cooperative mode is a solid addition. It’s easy to let people join your game, and just as easy to keep them out or boot them should they become a nuisance. Whether you play solo or cooperative, you’ll get a solid 10+ hours out of the campaign, in addition to any high-score runs that you attempt for the sake of making the online leaderboards. The run-and-gun gameplay isn’t particularly inspired, but the scoring system adds enough to keep you engaged. The pervasive attitude is so excessive that it borders on parody, but when underlaid with a robust offering of authentic songs, it works surprisingly well. This isn’t the best action game you’ll play this year, but that doesn’t mean you won’t have a damn fun time playing it.

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Source [GameSpot]

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Universal Soldier: The Return rip The image of a pasty-skinned, greasy-haired young girl has become an iconic one in horror films like The Ring, and the original F.E.A.R. introduced a similar figure with great success. Of course, that game gave its ghostly visions a chilling context, drawing you into the unnerving story of a paranormal prodigy named Alma and the horrific suffering to which she was subjected. F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin returns to this fertile universe, but rather than scrutinize even darker reaches of the soul, it merely skims the surface, offering up a series of eerie visions without delivering a good mystery to bind them together. The good news for shooter fans is that the bullet-blasting core of the experience is sound, propelling you forward with enough intensity to keep the single-player campaign engaging. Most of what’s here has been done better before, but the unspectacular elements have been stitched into an enjoyably moody first-person shooter that relies on rock-solid mechanics rather than true inspiration.

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After a short exposition, F.E.A.R. 2 picks up where the original left off–with a bang. The city is in tatters, and as Michael Becket of Delta Force, it is up to you and your squadmates to capture the elusive Genevieve Aristide, president of the nefarious Armacham Technology Corporation. Too much description would risk spoiling the game’s few surprises, which are better experienced than narrated, though as it happens, there are few enigmas to unravel. F.E.A.R. 2′s story paints itself into a corner, offering very little new to players already familiar with the Project Origin referred to in the title, and nothing compelling enough to wrap newcomers into its fold. With Alma now a known quantity, paranormal secrecy has been replaced by a series of near-cliche bump-in-the-night scares and murky visions that do the unthinkable where a horror-themed game is concerned: They become predictable.

Because the pacing and story layout of the game can be a bit predictable at times, F.E.A.R. 2’s real scares come from its atmosphere–and this actually works, sometimes. Expect to jump out of your seat on occasion, when your flashlight flickers and ghostly visages surround you, or when staccato orchestral chords signal the emergence of abominations as they break free from their confining cells. Other attempts at scares just seem stale, given that the game’s pacing and level design foreshadow these encounters, therefore emasculating the necessary sense of surprise. However, the excellent sound design is never to blame. A variety of creaks and groans gives ebb and flow to the sense of tension, and musical swells and increasingly hectic clatters and clangs will get your pulse pounding when needed. Unfortunately, the visuals don’t paint a picture dour enough to match. Some areas are shrouded with moody environmental shadows, in which light and dark contrast to excellent effect. In other levels, the lack of ambient lighting and accompanying silhouettes are noticeable, and the surrounding frights just feel flaccid. The PS3 version in particular suffers from some rather unfortunate aliasing and occasional dips in frame rate, which further detracts from the atmosphere.

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The level design also falls victim to a fair bit of predictability, though to F.E.A.R. 2′s credit, you’ll break away from the endless office corridors of the original and journey through a greater variety of environments. These areas are usually just as claustrophobic, but they won’t often deliver that spine-tingling fear of the specters lurking beyond the reach of your flashlight. Trekking through the rubble of decaying city streets is a good change of pace, but the ultraconvenient manner in which the debris holds you to your narrow path is a familiar design ploy. Similarly, there’s no more excitement to be found in F.E.A.R. 2′s same-old subway than that of any other game. It’s at its best when it leaves these stale tropes behind and builds on its roots as a corridor shooter, such as in a nail-biting sojourn through the halls of an elementary school that hides unspeakable horrors. Entering a dusky music classroom to find a hideous mutant pounding on the keys of a piano with abandon is a singular moment, and the ensuing battles are ripe and exhilarating reminders of the series’ explosive origins.

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Those same inhuman atrocities will spawn clones while emitting ear-splitting, disorienting roars, and others scurry about at super speeds–though as it happens, you’ve got a helpful skill at your disposal that helps manage nimble and sluggish foes alike. Like the protagonist of F.E.A.R., you can activate reflex time, which slows the action to a crawl and lets you battle your enemies in a bullet-time ballet. You’ve seen a similar mechanic a lot by now, but it’s skillfully done here. Grenade explosions create impressive visual distortions, bullets leave an airstream in their wake, and spoken dialogue and sound effects grind to a muffled crawl. Landing headshots in reflex time is particularly enjoyable and gives F.E.A.R. 2′s gruesome levels of violence a temporary starring role. Foes erupt in red gushers, staining the walls with blood and flailing around in their final moments, an effect made even more effective by robust (and occasionally oversensitive) rag-doll animations.

Your instruments of destruction aren’t spectacular, but they’re varied enough to make shooting a pleasure, even when the flow of time takes its normal path. The two shotguns are particular delights; they feel weighty and dispatch most enemies with a single bloody blast to the noggin. The hammerhead is another delight, filling your foes with neon barbs and potentially affixing them to the wall behind. However, shooter fans should consider playing at higher difficulty levels, given that F.E.A.R. 2 feels noticeably easier than its predecessor.

The AI can offer occasional challenges, particularly in levels featuring intersecting corridors in which human enemies will flank you, use cover effectively, and tumble to the side should they find themselves gazing down the barrel of your automatic shotgun. They will also tip over furniture or other objects and use them as cover (a trick you can use, though will likely never need). However, enemy behavior is inconsistent; a table-tipping guard may not follow through, running away from his improvised cover rather than ducking behind it. Some enemies will blindly fire from behind low obstacles but may also do so when in plain view. The best adversaries are those not governed by rules of human behavior, such as ethereal foes that take shape as you enter reflex time. And in some cases, your enemies are so visually elusive that you’re better off finding a way out of the dark environs that spawn them.

The most notable additions to the formula are a couple of armored-suit sequences in which you climb into a giant metal mech and riddle your attackers with machine-gun spray and rockets. These sequences aren’t tough–you’re a powerful death machine plowing down your weakling foes–but the mech controls nicely and you’ll be treated to some impressive displays of environmental destruction and general chaos. You can move through these areas on foot if you like, so these levels do offer a bit of replay value, though you should take great pains to wreak fun robotic havoc when given the possibility. You’ll also take control of the turret atop the squad’s armored vehicle, but this weapon isn’t all that enjoyable to use, and these bits feel like filler.

The shooting is solid–it’s just not special.

F.E.A.R. 2′s multiplayer component also feels like filler, and though we’ve come to expect online play from most of our shooters, there’s nothing special about this suite of lackluster options. For fans of the original, the most notable omission is that of the slow-motion modes, which brought reflex time into an online arena and made for some clever and enjoyable showdowns. Without these modes, F.E.A.R. 2 feels a bit hollow online, serving up helpings of Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch, a couple of Conquest variants, Capture the Flag, and a mode called Failsafe that owes a large debt to Counter-Strike. The best of these is Armored Front, in which a player on each team can hop into one of those robotic exoskeletons while his or her teammates capture control points. Otherwise, the shooting mechanics don’t translate as well to a multiplayer environment, and the by-the-numbers levels are unimpressive. You have the ability to customize your loadout and level up in ranked matches, but this just isn’t enough to breathe life into the musty online play.

Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls movie download You’ll get the occasional heebie-jeebies from F.E.A.R. 2, but the magic of the first game hasn’t been re-created here. It’s true that some of the changes in the new game seem like they were intended to address criticism of the first F.E.A.R.: tedious and claustrophobic environments, lack of enemy variety, and so on. Sadly, though these changes were made, the resulting sequel, while fun and well-crafted, seems to have lost sight of the strengths that made its predecessor so unique. Nevertheless, playing F.E.A.R. 2 is a worthwhile way to pass the time while we wait for the inevitable next installment.

Source [GameSpot]

It’s obvious that each iteration of the long-running Street Fighter series has been carefully tuned and tweaked to the finest degree, and nowhere is this more apparent than in Street Fighter IV. The lessons learned in the franchise’s 20-plus years have been used to prune back the core fighting experience to create something truly special. Street Fighter IV isn’t a success simply because it’s one of the most technically complex 2D fighters ever made, it’s a success because it’s also wrapped inside a layer of absolute accessibility. Never has the old “A minute to learn, a lifetime to master” adage been truer than it is here.

Six new characters join the Street Fighter IV roster, all with their own unique backstories and abilities. Fire Down Below psp

The Street Fighter fundamentals have remained consistent over the years; your job is to knock out the other guy or gal. All 12 of the classic world warriors–Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Blanka, E. Honda, Zangief, Guile, Dhalsim, Balrog, Vega, Sagat, and M. Bison–are back and playable from the outset, and they’re joined by six brand-new and diverse characters. Abel, a mixed martial arts grapple-style character; Crimson Viper a female fighter with sweeping, airborne fire attacks; Rufus, a rotund fighter whose body makes him a bit of a sight gag despite his deceptive speed; and El Fuerte, a pro wrestler whose rushes and air throws make him a slippery foe. Ryu and Ken’s sensei, Gouken, also makes his playable-character debut in Street Fighter IV. Naturally, he didn’t teach the boys everything he knows, so when they meet again he has a few tricks up his sleeves, including a horizontal and vertical fireball EX move. The game’s new end boss, Seth, fills the last spot and joins the list once you’ve unlocked everyone else. Character balance is absolutely spot-on across the entire roster, and as a result, you should never feel that you can’t compete simply because you’ve chosen one character over another.

You’ll need to finish the game multiple times and in special ways to unlock the complete character list. Doing so will make fan favourites Cammy, Sakura, Akuma, Fei Long, Rose, Gen, and Dan playable. Like previous games in the series, Street Fighter IV lets you perform powerful super combos, but it has removed air blocking and parrying completely. Developers Capcom and Dimps have added a completely new gameplay system: focus attacks, a new multipurpose offensive and defensive ability that can be charged to one of three levels by pressing and holding the medium punch and kick buttons simultaneously. There’s no onscreen bar to show how charged your attack is, so you’ll need to rely on the progressively darkening ink splashes surrounding your character model. Each character features a unique focus animation, so you shouldn’t have any trouble working it out after a few rounds with each. Focus attacks make you vulnerable to damage because you need to be standing still to charge them (though you can dash forward or backward to cancel them), but the trade-off is that you’ll absorb the first hit without the penalty of an animation reset, allowing for an instant counterattack if you land it. They can also act as armour-breaking moves, shutting down more-powerful attacks. Successfully landing a fully charged focus attack will deal damage and crumple your opponent to the ground, giving you the chance to follow up with an unblockable hit as he or she falls.

The new mechanic also lets you use part of your EX power-meter charge to exit animations early and chain bigger combos together. They take a little getting used to and some serious thumb dexterity, but once they’re mastered, you can perform moves such as dragon-punch stalls directly into super moves or use them to juggle players in midair with multiple hits. Your revenge meter builds as you take damage, whereas the EX meter fills as you dish it out. EX power rolls over to the next round, but revenge must be built from scratch each time. This becomes a crucial risk-versus-reward mechanic. Do you take hits to build revenge and power up an ultra attack, or do you deal damage to burn your EX on improved moves, cancels, or save it for a super finisher? The flexibility of this system means that you’re free to play according to your strengths and style. But just like reversals, EX power-ups, and ultra combo attacks, focus attacks serve to mix up the experience only for veteran players; such is the game’s balance that they have never been required to win a match, and they act more as an additional weapon in the arsenal of a skilled player. They’re waiting for you when you want to take a step up and learn how they work, but well-timed basic punches and kicks are just as effective.

Classic world warriors make a return with gorgeous new character models.

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The single-player mode is robust and has a lot to offer across several components. Arcade mode pits you against a set number of fights from your unlocked-character roster and culminates in a showdown with Seth. Along the way to your goal, you’ll always encounter a rival fight. These are regular fights accompanied by an in-engine exchange with your opponent. They’re a welcome mix-up but often add nothing to the character’s storyline because some fighters clearly don’t even know why they hate one another. Each character’s adventure is bookended by an anime-style cinematic movies that explain his or her motivations for attending the tournament. They’re quite short and keep story to an absolute minimum, but they get the message across and do a reasonable-enough job of filling in the gaps. Given the amount of additional content shoehorned into this game, we were slightly disappointed to find that no bonus levels have been included, especially since we had high hopes of reliving our car and barrel smashing from Street Fighter II.

Regardless of whether you’re down with busting out a tatsumaki senpukyaku at will or think it’s some kind of egg-noodle dish, there’s a difficulty mode here for you. Eight levels ranging from very easy to hardest are available, so you’re sure to find one appropriate for your skill level. That said, even at the gentler difficulties, Street Fighter IV is no cakewalk because your opponents will occasionally mix things up with surprise super and ultra combos. First-timers will have no trouble picking up, playing, and learning as they go. Playing on the medium or above difficulty will also enable score tracking, letting you submit and compare to other players on the game’s online leaderboards.

Street Fighter IV’s training mode will challenge even experienced brawlers to improve. Given that SFIV straddles the line between classic SFII and SFIII gameplay, there’s bound to be some confusion about which of your old mainstay combos work and the timing that you’ll need to pull them off. The training mode is an excellent resource and is one of the biggest jewels in the SFIV crown. Once you’ve chosen your character and your sparring partner, you’ll be able to pose them in either a standing, crouching, or jumping position, toggle CPU control (and adjust its intensity), or give player two control of the action. There’s even the ability to switch to your opponent’s character, record up to 10 seconds of custom moves, and loop their replay. It’s a great way to practice your evasion, attack timing, and counters without requiring another player or needing to search for online games. As you’d expect, there are plenty of switches to fiddle with here, including changing your target’s block mode, stun frequency, ultra and super power-bar start, and regeneration levels. Live attack data can be enabled to show how much damage your moves are dealing, whereas input display can show you which way you’re pushing the sticks and mashing the buttons.

A built-in move list is available through the menu and details all of your characters’ skills, saving you the hassle of fumbling around for the manual when you can’t remember if it’s a double-quarter-forward fireball with a kick or a punch, or finding out which moves have EX variants or armour-breaking properties. Though training modes aren’t new, the amount of control here will have a genuine impact on your game, and can be used to pinpoint, and subsequently correct, your play shortcomings.

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Super and ultra combo finishing moves really rub it in your opponent’s face with drawn-out, flashy animations.

Training mode aside, one of the single best features of Street Fighter IV is the Challenge mode, which is made up of several sub-modes. Old faithfuls such as Time Attack and Survival mode make an appearance and see you completing fight after fight to best your rival before the timer runs out or you empty your vitality bar. The new addition to Challenge mode is Trial mode, a multitiered training tool that will teach you not only how to perform moves, but also how to string them together to best deal damage. Although the Training mode gives you the full arsenal and space to try it out, in Trial mode you’ll need to perform a specific manoeuvre or combo to continue. The five normal difficulty levels cover basic character-specific moves such as dragon punches, charge moves, and throws, but they get significantly tougher as you progress to cover specials, canceling attacks with focus, and stringing multipart combinations together. If you can get through these and feel up to the challenge, there are an extra five levels of bone-crushing general-purpose moves designed to help you improve your competitive play.

Street Fighter IV supports both online and offline multiplayer modes. In offline you’ll be able to go head-to-head with a second player using your unlocked characters. Online you’ll be given the choice of either friendly Player matches or Ranked games. Winning a ranked match awards you with battle points, which are used to both show off your prowess and help with the matchmaking process, though you can search for games beyond your skill level. Stat tracking will let you see your competitor’s win-to-loss ratio for the session. And if you’re after the true arcade experience, you can toggle online competitive challenge mode on and off to work with single-player. Just as you would expect in an arcade, if you’re battling the CPU and someone issues a challenge, your game will pause and you’ll automatically accept the invitation. Once the game has finished and you leave the multiplayer lobby, you’ll restart your offline game from where you were. You can set it to either player or ranked matches as per your preference. We’d recommend leaving it off if you’re keen to just play through arcade matches, given that we received back-to-back invites while reviewing. We played online against opponents with both strong and weak connections, and even at slightly less than full connection strength, you’ll receive an offline-like, seamless fighting experience. Poorer connections are more akin to a slide show, although we did manage to find games with supposedly poor connections that played quite well. There’s also no online tournament mode to be found here, a surprising omission given its inclusion in the downloadable game Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix.

Though it was unavailable for us to test at time of review, Capcom has confirmed that at some time postlaunch a free download dubbed the Championship Mode Expansion Pack will be released and will let you record, upload, and download player match videos. The patch will also add three more point systems–Championship, Tournament, and Grade points–and improve matchmaking for beginner and mid-level players. We’re hoping that the patch also addresses players who leave games early to avoid point loss, considering that currently there’s no penalty for bailing if it looks like you’re going to lose. Collectors also have plenty of work ahead of them, with coloured outfit variations, taunts, medals, icons, and text tags being rewarded for completing online and offline challenges. These can be assigned to your online profile and are unlocked by finishing games with certain percentages of your vitality bar remaining, dishing out perfect victories, or successfully performing reversals.

Street Fighter IV’s visual presentation is outstanding. The art style appears a lot more adult this time around, swapping the bright Saturday-morning kids’ cartoon looks of previous games for large, menacing characters with bulging muscles and environments with more muted colour palettes. The game’s pseudo-cel-shaded character-art style uses thick black borders and splattered ink to great effect, while fast, fluid animation sees your favourite fighters dance across the screen with grace. Long hair flows and trails, facial expressions contort and grimace as you deal blows, and eyes bulge as opponents see an ultra attack successfully executed. We observed a few minor character-model clipping errors during play, such as legs passing through each other and the odd missed sweep when we were sure that we should have landed a hit, but these are small quibbles because they appeared few and far between. Battle environments are a mix of old and new, reinventing favourites such as Guile’s airbase tarmac (complete with destructible plane wings), Blanka’s jungle walkways, and Chun-Li’s marketplace alleyway. New environments include a secret science laboratory, a highway underpass, a classic martial-arts dojo, and the rim of an active volcano.

Audio is a particular high point in SFIV, and though the J-pop soundtrack and cheesy intro theme will be driven into your head within minutes, it’s also worth mentioning the subtle environmental effects that go otherwise unheard in the heat of battle. The cheers of crowds, the rattle of old trains, and the barking of dogs in alleys all help create a genuine sense of immersion. Purists are even given the option to choose between Japanese and English voice-overs during cutscenes and as characters enter the ring.

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Blotchy ink splashes and thick character outlines are used to give the game an incredibly stylish look.

From our extensive play on both platforms, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game appear identical both in terms of visuals and performance. Even during the most frenetic battles, the frame rate remained solid. Both versions of SFIV offer an optional hard-drive installation, and though it lowered load times from about 30 seconds per game to the 10-second mark on the PlayStation 3, on the Xbox 360 it had no tangible effect, presumably because those loads are already around 10 seconds per match. Xbox 360 analog sticks seemed slightly easier to perform ultra moves with, though the Microsoft controller’s D pad left plenty to be desired. By contrast, the DualShock 3 analogs felt slightly sluggish, but the D pad made double fireballs and ultra combos easy. Your best bet, of course, is to invest in a good arcade stick or one of the controllers designed specifically for this game.

Street Fighter IV will welcome you with open arms, whether you’re a lapsed fan concerned that you’ve been out of the loop for too long or you’re dipping your toes for the first time. Amazing presentation, intricate and enjoyable fighting gameplay, and long-term appeal with online play make this a must-have. Street Fighter IV is undoubtedly one of the finest examples of the fighting genre in this generation.

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At a glance, Flower is a difficult game to explain. It’s hard to recommend compared to other games that are longer and are packed full of more unlockable content. But Flower does one thing incredibly well: It manages to capture the hypnotic movement of nature and then harness it using a motion-sensitive controller. The natural controls, along with the artistic visuals and beautiful soundtrack, make Flower enthralling–and something you experience as much as you play. Some people will still dismiss it as pretentious folly, but Flower delivers on its intentions, and it’s a beautiful ride while it lasts.

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You control the wind using the motion-sensitive controller, although there are times when you’re pushed through certain areas.

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The idea behind Flower is to collect petals by steering a gust of wind through idyllic pastures. You guide the wind using the motion-sensitive controller and use any button to accelerate, which lets you take the game at your own pace. In fact, you’re encouraged to lose yourself in this digitally created nirvana, and the time slows down to help you take it all in whenever you’re not accelerating. There’s no incentive to collect every petal in each level, but key flowers return the environment to its natural vibrancy. It’s a serene experience, and though it’s engaging, prolonged play will lull you into a deep state of relaxation.

Although most people will enjoy the simple mechanics of Flower, the reward that you get from the game depends on your appreciation of the audio and visuals. The game’s beautiful graphics and excellent score shouldn’t make that too much of a problem, but you should be aware that the game offers no rewards for skill or speed. Though a time counter or points system would arguably be at odds with the game’s pristine aesthetics, a speed-run feature would certainly have added greater longevity to the game. As it stands, the one- to two-hour completion time feels like an adequate length, but some bonus features, such as new colour schemes or unlockable extras, would have certainly encouraged repeated play. Thankfully, the game does offer trophies, and in keeping with the theme of the game, they reward you for taking breaks between plays.

To call Flower abstract would be an understatement, but you can read as much or as little into the dreamlike cutscenes as you want. We read the story to be one of nature torn apart by man, and each level expresses this theme via the repressed memory of a single flower. There are also allegorical references to global warming, sustainable power, and other environmental issues, but they’re used solely for visual cues rather than for preachy messaging. The moment when you’re torn from dusk into a nightmarish industrial disaster is genuinely affecting and one of the most memorable points of the game.

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Each level has its own visual identity, such as this psychedelic fusion of purple and green.

Basement Jack move Flower is endowed with absolutely top-class audio and visual production. From a technical level, the game throws around thousands of individually modeled blades of grass, but it’s the overall artistic quality that really impresses. Each level has its own distinct style, from natural to psychedelic to industrial, and though we preferred the first levels for their sheer natural beauty, there are some incredible set pieces toward the end. Flower’s greatest achievement, though, is the audio design, which is not only impressive from a technical perspective, but also has an impact on how you play the game. Each petal has a distinct audio cue, be it a string instrument or chorus song, and creating beautiful waves of sound is probably the greatest incentive for perfecting your path through each level.

At an asking price of $9.99 or £6.29 on the PlayStation Network, Flower will ultimately satisfy people who appreciate innovation more than a long-lasting experience. Flower is a small and focused game, especially in terms of length, but it certainly delivers a unique and relaxing experience. If you’re looking for an antidote to the many sequels and franchises on the market, then Flower offers something unique and while it lasts, it’s a great game in its own right.

Source [ GameSpot ]