Its been a couple of years since the release of the highly acclaimed Grand Theft Auto IV and now PS3 owners can finally get their hands on the two expansion packs that Microsoft’s exclusivity cunningly prevented them from grasping. If you enjoyed the revolutionary experience and play-through of GTA IV, then you will certainly have no qualms in returning to Liberty City yet another time.

In Episodes from Liberty City, you get not one, but two brand new expansions of the original game, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, bothof which have their own characters and story that has been carefully constructed to intertwine with some of the events that took place in the original story arc of GTA IV. The core gameplay behind these episodes is primarily the same as you saw in the original GTA IV. For the Lost and Damned, you play as Jonny Klebitz, who is a member of the Lost Motorcycle Club in the State of Alderny. This episode has a pretty strong storyline with plenty of tense gang hierarchy moments along with the feature of gang wars which is a welcome addition to the game. Alot of the missions will see you riding up and down Liberty City as part of a convoy in order to take down rival gangs such as the Angels of Death. A lot of missions will have you working as part of a group with your fellow bikers. There is a plentiful weapons arsenalin both episodes which includes automatic pistols, grenade launchers and a variety of shotguns. As you spend a large proportion of your time on motorbikes in the Lost and Damned you can now perform drivebys with the sawn-off shotgun (the gang’s trademark weapon). In the other episode, the Ballad of Gay Tony, you play as the protagonist,Luis Lopez, who’s swinging high in Algonquin. Like in the Lost and Damned, there is a whole suit of new features, weapons, vehicles and minigames to freshen up the experience. One of the most noticeable additions to the Ballad of Gay Tony is the ability to use the parachute and perform base jumps. It is certainly a new and unique way of getting around.  

If you have played GTA games in the past then you will be aware of how frustrating it can be to keep having to replay a mission from scratch if you keep failing one. Fortunately, a new checkpoint system has been integrated into the game so that if you do fail a mission you can get right back into action without having to see the contact again and again. Whilst there are some fun and amusing minigames in both episodes, the ones in BoGT such as dancing at clubs and playing golf at the driving range offer it bit more diversity. In addition, there isa bit more variety in the missions in the Ballad of Gay Tony, and if you prefer the bright lights and glamour of Algonquin then you will probably find this episode has a slight edge on the Lost and Damned.

Each episode will likely take you around 10-15 hours to complete the main story but there are plenty of other things to do once that is over. Both games comprise of several awesome multiplayer modes which have refined further to heighten the experience. For example, in some of the race events, you can equip nitrous boosts to you car which certainly ups the adrenaline factor and makes them far more interesting. Even under close scrutiny, other than a few framerate issues, there are few faults to pick out from either episode.

All in all these two expansions are excellent value for money and deliver a tremendously fulfilling experience for you back in Liberty City.

+ Two fantastic storylines.

+ Great addition of characters, weapons and vehicles.

+ Great new features such as the checkpoint system.

+ Great value for money.

- A few visual distortions and framerate issues.

9.2/10    

Now, my task is to preview Runes of Magic. See the issue here? Having lost access to a non-subscription-based WoW clone with micropayments funding updates, that was pretty good, I need to evaluate a free, non-subscription-based WoW clone with micropayments etc. After a ridiculously long download of the client (although my Internet connection has all the joie de vivre of a paralytic on Death Row) I eventually managed to start the damn thing.

There was a fairly standard character creator at the beginning (very like Guild Wars and WoW) that is more detailed than either – giving plenty of options for your character. After that, there was a tutorial which explained the basic concepts of the game to me, and then I got thrust into the world. I got greeted by some crazy guide-woman who told me to go over to a town. What followed was extremely predictable: grind quests, fetch-and carry – the usual MMORPG shmuck. There were a few skills, which involved right-clicking trees/herbs/ore deposits to gather raw materials. Yes, it’s a grind game. Whoopee! I got a little house, which was cool, but then it turned out that to make it bigger I had to spend REAL MONEY, which was less so. I’d love to go into more detail than this, but unfortunately I managed to take out the press client via over-zealous use of the ‘delete’ button. However, I think that I learned all that I needed to – MMORPGS are fairly shallow, and the fun comes from playing with friends.

Overall, my impressions were that if you want a World of Warcraft-esque game, which you don’t have to pay for, it might be world giving Runes of Magic a go, but only if a bunch of mates wants to come along for the ride.

In the old style of something called a Board Game, arises a digital board game Greed Corp. a strategy game taking place in a fantasy world above the clouds. But unlike the Monopoly board game, consisting of building and cooperating (there’s a little cooperation), Greed Corp. is about beautiful destruction. This is a highly polished first effort from W!Games.

Greed Corp. is played out on hexagonal boards with the twist being that each hexagon can be destroyed in order to harvest resources and build units turning the earth beneath your very feet into a landscape that is by the end, mere skeleton of what it was when you began.
Whole idea of choice and consquence makes for great fun and I never tire of watching those columns crumble away and disappear into the nothing below.

Your objective is always the same: be the last man standing. When the dust settles, the player that survived the longest is the winner. Enemy Factions are eliminated once all of their units and buildings are destroyed, but it is actually quite difficult to get a sense of who has the upper hand at any given time with destruction happening all around you at any given time. This is one of those games where the player with just one unit and one tile to their name might end up the victor in the end. The destructible nature of Greed Corp. makes it an unpredictable beast.

Although there are many levels to the game, you only have a few units to build such as Harvesters that will drain resources from the land at the beginning of each turn until its tile is destroyed, Armouries will produce Walkers, your one and only movable unit that can claim tiles for you. A Cannon can be built to blow up your enemies and destroy their tiles and finally, the Carrier will transport Walkers to any tile on the map.
Although your options are every, every limited, Greed Corp. offers plenty of interesting strategic possibilities.
Do you build a lot of Harvesters to earn massive loots? It’s tricky because each Harvester you build dooms all the tiles surrounding it. Another option is to go on the offense and build a couple Cannons so you can hopefully pound your enemies into dust.
Players will be able to develop their own tactics with Greed Corp. Up to four players can join a game but besides their visual traits there is no difference between the four factions. Any combination of players can get greedy both locally and online.

Even though Greed Corp. is designed as a multiplayer game, the lengthy single-player campaign is loads of fun and serves as a useful training ground where you can develop your skills. It does take a few matches to really get an understanding of how the game works. Spend a little time with it, though, and you’ll find Greed Corp. is successful at creating both an original world and great gameplay.
If you fancy yourself a fan of either turn-based strategy games or heady board games, you’ll definitely want to check out Greed Corp. The fact that you have to destroy the ground beneath your feet in order to harvest resources makes for some fascinating choices. It’s designed for multiplayer and has friendly on- and offline features, but the single-player campaign is also great fun. Watching Greed Corp.’s tiles crumble into dust has been one of my favorite gaming moments of the year so far.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) has announced the millionth sale of Heavy Rain for PlayStation 3 (PS3) worldwide - just five weeks after its launch at the end of February. The game has become an overnight sensation for its combination of gripping plot, thought-provoking themes and emotional involvement. The critics are raving about the new possibilities in emotive, open-ended play and cinematic gaming that Heavy Rain delivers. Now, just five weeks in, the sales figures show that more than a million gamers agree with them. Years in the making, developer David Cage’s hugely innovative and ambitious project has paid off.

“It has been hugely gratifying to see the positive response that Heavy Rain has received from gamers” says David Cage, the Writer and Director of Heavy Rain and CEO of Quantic Dream. “It shows that it is possible to create games that break with convention, games that seek to tell complex stories, and games that can inspire unexpected emotions in players — and that such games can be commercial as well as critical successes. I hope that this success will continue to help pave the way for new, groundbreaking experiences.”

“It’s a stunning achievement not least because Heavy Rain is not a traditional blockbuster game,” says Mark Hardy, European Product Marketing Director at SCEE. “It’s a blend of gaming, drama and cinema, groundbreaking and utterly immersive for players that defies the normal rules and lets you shape the story you play. It’s been wonderful to hear the reviewers admiring the game’s ambitiousness; however, the real delight has been in seeing the gamers taking Heavy Rain to their hearts so quickly. It shows that gamers are ready for more: more interactivity, more choice in how to play and more of the open-ended gaming experiences that only PlayStation is delivering.

Set in a grimy, rain-soaked and fear-ridden town on the east coast of the USA where young sons are going missing, Heavy Rain is a dark and utterly absorbing thriller where you set the rules and where the buck stops with you. With a killer on the loose and time running out, you must decide how far you’ll go to track him down. You get to play as a combination of four characters, each with their own demons to battle and their own roles to play in cracking the case. The magic is in the flexibility of the story, you don’t just play it; you shape it. The decisions you make at key points can send the plot spinning off in entirely unexpected directions and change the story completely. Your path through the dark and unsettling world of Heavy Rain changes according to how you handle things and you’ll never play the same game twice.

Developed by the renowned Quantic Dream exclusively for PS3, the million-selling Heavy Rain is in stores now.

With an immense physics engine, enormous sandbox environment and the ability to do pretty much absolutely anything you want, Just Cause 2 rests on firm ground in delivering its unique and extremely fulfilling gameplay experience. While the game drifts off the plot slightly in terms of realism, it certainly scores high on the fun factor.

On the enormous pacific island nation of Panau, Rico Rodriguez is one tough agent with a ravenous appetite for destruction. The Government of Panau lies in corruption and three criminal gangs contest in their grasp for power. You are given missions from each of these gangs to carry out which mainly involve disruption and destruction of Government property. You will meet a few interesting characters along the way but the rather unfulfilling story is not the game’s high point and some of the missions can be frustrating, particularly the more challenging ones in later stages of the game. It won’t take you long to figure that the true shine to the game is not Rico but the island itself. Panau is absolutely massive and if you’ve played the ample sized demo you will have been astounded at how big the full map is. It is split into various sections featuring different terrain ranging from snow-covered mountain peaks and sandy beaches to dense jungle and urban metropolis. There is also a day and night cycle along with various types of tropical weather conditions to add further variety to the landscape. The vista from high points such as clifftops is spectacular draws in a sense of scalse of the game as well as helping you get to grips with the surroundings. The overall presentation of the island is outstanding with very long draw distances and immense detail right the way across.

  In such a huge open ended environment, there are over 100 types of vehicle such as jet airplanes, helicopters, speed boats, tanks and motorcycles to assist you in getting round the island. However, the most satisfying way of getting about is using your combination of the parachute and grapple hook. You can hoist yourself along and project yourself into the air with great effectiveness using this method and it is a great tool to use for escaping the island’s authorities and getting airborne in those heated situations. The grapple hook has a variety of other purposes such as its melee attack, hijacking vehicles, pulling enemies of buildings and even latching any two objects together to create some ridiculous but hugely entertaining scenarios. However, all the credit goes to the game’s powerful and robust physics engine which makes all this action packed gameplay possible. Armed with various weapons, countless parachutes and your multi-purpose grapple hook, you can really let rip on this living breathing playground of paradise.

You have one principle goal - to destroy and blow as much stuff up as possible. You will never be running low on adrenaline fuelled action as there is so much to destroy and so many ways in which you can go about doing it. Anything marked with a red and white star is Government property, be it a radio tower, fuel depot or even a satelite array. You will be able to use a broad variety of weapons to assist your destruction ranging from SMGs, grenade launchers, shotguns and even miniguns. As well as being highly financially rewarded for all this sabotage, you also earn chaos points which allow you to progress through the story and unlock new missions. You receive  faction missions from the various criminal gangs after reaching a certain threshold in chaos (These are basically just side missions). This then leads on to Agency missions where the real story backbone lies… or at least what’s left of it. In addition you will also be rewarded for causing chaos by gaining access to the Black Market where you can purchase vehicles and weapons of your choice. As you can imagine, all this property damage does not go unnoticed and the island’s authorities will quickly be on you tail. You will definitely end up in some intense chases land, sea and air and while performing multiple stunt moves to escape your pursuers. The game becomes considerably more challenging during the later stages and a steep increase is put on military strength.

The missions themselves will send you to the far corners of the map but since the island is so massive you will discover most locations out of curiosity rather than obligation. To register a new location on your PDA you will have to have actually been there so if you want to keep your map well informed then you will need to go on a lengthy exploration. Every single location has its own chaos statistics so you can always check what you have or still need to destroy before you complete that settlement. It will probably take you hundreds of hours of play before you discover every last military base or village settlement in Panau so there are plenty of distractions at hand to add length to the game.

You are now probably thinking that Just Cause 2 looks like heaven in the eyes of any gamer - indeed it does from the outside. However, there are some persistent problems which can become rather frustrating at times. Although, the game appeals strongly to the eyes with great character animations and scenic environments with tremendous levels of detail, it doesn’t sound nearly half as good. The voice acting is sloppy and the character dialogue is superficial and lacks meaning or passion. The vehicle controls can take a while to get to grips with. This is especially the case with aircraft, which seem to be particularly hard to manoeuvre. The run n’ gun combat could also do with some refinement in terms of the auto-targeting system which is a bit too generous in some instances. Nevertheless, many of these issues are easily forgiven due to the size and flexibility of the game.

It cannot be denied that Just Cause 2 makes messing around and exploring with little or no purpose hugely entertaining in the best possible way. The amount of substance which has been implemented into the game prevents things from becoming sterile. It may not be a story driven game but this is one of those rare exceptions where that doesn’t matter. With tonnes of stuff to do in so many different ways, this game will not get old for a very long time. Never before has freedom been so rewarding in the gaming world.

+ Huge detailed island to explore.

+ Constant high intensity action.

+ Loads of wepons and vehicles.

+ Plenty of detructive opportunities throughout.

- Voice acting and dialogue sound superficial.

- Auto-targeting system needs some refinement.

- Weak story line with a few dull missions.

9.0/10

This game has achieved one thing: I enjoyed it less, the longer I played it.

Usually, I tend to be wary of games, and it takes about an hour before I can get into it fully. However, in the case of ‘Prison Break: The Conspiracy’ which I’m told is based on a hit US TV series, the opposite was true: I enjoyed the first hour, and hated the last one. I haven’t seen the TV series so I shall be evaluating this game for its own merits (or lack thereof).
The plot is based on you being a secret agent who has to make sure that someone dies in the electric chair. Is he innocent? Probably, but I have no idea, because the storytelling is so convoluted and intangible. Initially, I understood what was going on, but by the seventh chapter I stopped caring. The characters are unlikeable (which is probably fine, since it’s based on a prison) but they also lack any real personality or even relevance to the story. For example, when someone who tried to kill you returns from prison hospital, you might think: Uh-oh, the proverbial excrement is going to hit the proverbial fan. It doesn’t. I think the developers realised how appalling the plot becomes half-way through and left it to the cleaners to finish it off. Apparently, the characters were voiced by the actors from the TV show, which means that I will do everything in my power to avoid watching the show. I doubt that anyone cared enough about the game that they did something as ambitious as reading the script before recording started. The script is as dull and non-descript as its voicing.

Cutscenes are irritating, too. Usually, I don’t mind mediocre dialogue, because it gives me a chance to switch off and stop concentrating. Unfortunately, the developers decided to instil some ‘fun’ into cutscenes. The result is a button-mashing mess that nearly gave me RSI. There are so many cheap failures that make you restart the dialogue that are irritating and serve no real purpose – they don’t improve the gameplay, they do nothing for the plot and they are pretty damn frustrating, all in all.
Okay, so the plot and characters are crap. Will the gameplay redeem it? Erm…no. The problem is that the game does three things. Badly. You have to: fetch things (ENDLESSLY); fight things (BADLY); and sneak past things (FRUSTRATINGLY). All you do is fetch and return missions, and while the attempt to create an open-world prison seems pretty good initially, it turns out that the developers have achieved the remarkable feat of making it completely linear. There is only ever one way of doing a mission, featuring a stealth system that, when compared to MGS4’s stealth mechanics, looks like it has been set up by a bunch of primary school pupils. I wanted to be able to go around the prison to find side-missions, but there were none whatsoever. I wish that I could say something nice about it, but I can’t. It is absolutely hopeless – I started a swear-count during some of the missions. If you get caught, can you resist? Well, no. If you’re seen by even a janitor, it’s back to the checkpoint. Oh, wait – maybe an AI system would adapt to your way of going through? No, all that changes is that if you’re noisy they’ll catch you automatically. There are some options, like hiding in a cupboard, turning off the lights or switching off the radio, but you use them so infrequently that they don’t feel will integrated – you use the latter option TWICE in the whole game. According to the website, it’s ‘immersive’. Being drowned is ‘immersive’ and between re-playing the game and that, the decision could go either way.

The bourgeois fighting systems seen in other games have been observed and then forgotten. You get three options – punch, punch harder and block. Apparently there were some reversal moves, but I couldn’t be bothered. Combos? No. Rewards for fighting? Tattoos. Whoop-de-doo. It was fun, admittedly, the first time. I did expect it to change a bit, but it didn’t. The only way to improve is with some tedious and repetitive mini-games. It’s lucky that the game only lasted 8 hours, because I was getting really irritable by the end.
The graphics in the game are the only thing that’s vaguely acceptable in the game, if you don’t mind something quite basic. Character models are passable, and the prison does, in fairness, look like a prison. Apparently, the prison is modelled accurately to the TV show, but I can’t confirm that, although it seems authentic. It’s a shame that all the graphics can show is a thoroughly mediocre game.

There you have it. If you really love the TV show, you might want to pick this game up, but I would really advise you not to – it’s too short, irritating and shallow to be of any value.

5/10

In the hallowed halls of classic shooters, Perfect Dark hovers in the heavens. A little less than ten years later and Microsoft is mining at our nostalgia and adding online multiplayer, HD resolutions, improved textures and framerates, and you know what, it aint half bad.

The nearly ten year old shooter has you slipping on the British accent of super spy Joanna Dark, embarking on a multitude of missions full of aliens, stealth, gadgets and lots and lots of shooting and lots and lots of guns.
Perfect Dark certainly shows it’s age with a number of things, but starting with the AI having a number of pratfalls, which leads to them sometimes running around like a headless chicken or once they drop their gun, or as I did disarm them, they’ll just stand on the spot asking you not to shoot. Which leads to some hilarity as I and a friend ran through an entire level disarming every guard along the way with not one really putting up a fight once we disarmed them.
The new improved textures look nice, even if they do tend to repeat, with some of the Rare staff providing their own faces to the grunts in the game. If you look out carefully you might see Peter Molyneux running round, so Fable fans that feel like they were lied to by the man, it’s time for your revenge. Most of the time though you’ll just won’t be looking at the new textures, instead however you’ll be looking more upon the cold asymmetric landscape of the maps and the square box hands, which hasn’t been changed/updated for this HD remix.
Speaking of which neither has the design of the game, which can make objectives sometimes seem murky with no waypoints marks or maps to push you in the right direction.
If you can surmount these hurdles you’ll enjoy multi-part goals, a cornball sci-fi script and an armoury of impressive and often useful weapons, such as the wall piercing Far Sight.

While far from perfect, 800 Microsoft points nets you a whole lot of game with over 15 missions, along with several degrees of difficulty that change up objectives. The number of multiplayer options is also staggering with online, splitscreen, bots, challenges, team games, co-op and a degree of tweaking for costume games that is nearly unparalleled.
There’s also a mode called ‘Counter Operative’ where you can spawn as the enemy in someone else’s single player run.
However multiplayer lacks the modern day refinement over the last years, so prepare to lean on auto aim, memorise weapon spawns and feel the cold asymmetric cut of maps as you punch your way to a laptop gun.

With cheats to unlock, multiplayer ranks to climb and new devious no specific crown awards to figure out this blast from the past is still a blast to play as an unevolved envoy of modern day shooters.

7/10

It’s been almost four years since fans of the Final Fantasy series got their hands on the 12th instalment. The long wait, along with loss of console exclusivity, has led to high expectations for the 13th game in the Final Fantasy series. As one might expect, Square Enix has implemented some radical new features that many RPGs of the future are sure to adopt yet there are some major flaws that taint an otherwise fantastic game.

It’s impossible to discuss any Final Fantasy game without mentioning the story and plot actions. In Final Fantasy XIII, you take control of Lightning, an inhabitant of Cocoon, along with her posse in a quest to discover the truth about why their people are so afraid of the inhabitants of Pulse. The gang come into contact with a fal’Cie, a mysterious mechanical being with godlike powers, in the exposition which brands them as l’Cie. Each l’Cie has a Focus given to them by the fal’Cie which they have to complete within a set time period, otherwise they turn into monster-like beings named Cie’th. It’s all very confusing to being with, as the game delves straight into story progression before setting the scene. I was confused as to what I was fighting towards to begin with. In addition to cut scenes are dialogue, the Datalog is used to portray story information. After each Chapter, you can enter the Datalog to read in more detail what has happened. It’s a feature I had to rely on for a few hours until I had a full understanding of the world and the motives behind the characters. The character progression is mostly sound as secret pasts get revealed and new opinions are formed. It is somewhat impossible to not be frustrated with some of the characters, especially in the exposition. In this respect, Square Enix have sought to broaden the appeal of the franchise by adding “witty” retorts which in reality are just awkward. It also seems that Nomura’s characters have become a stereotype of themselves. Hope is the quiet, troubled teenager who blows up later in the story. Vanille is the annoying, boppy, squeaky young girl who is rather disturbingly turned in a sex object. The characters broaden out as the game progresses, yet, certainly in the exposition, they grate on you and prevent the story from being clearly explained. The most frustrating aspect of the story is that it takes an incredibly long time to become totally engrossing. Final Fantasy XIII is the first in the series to have the “magic” that entices you into the world. It took nearly 15 hours for the plot action to really ramp up and become the tale of danger and adventure that you expect from a Final Fantasy game.

The Active Time Battle system returns in this instalment with some changes that really make battles feel more intense. You only fully control one character in battles, yet you can influence the actions of you two AI controlled allies. You have the usual assortment of spells and abilities at your disposal which can be unlocked by using the Crystarium system. The system is easily comparable to Final Fantasy X’s Sphere Grid system. You use points earned by battling to progress through a grid, some of which have multiple paths, in order to earn stat upgrades along with new abilities. There are different grids for the different “classes” which have a pivotal role in combat. At any time during a battle, you can Paradigm Shift into another class. This system can again be compared to a system found in another Final Fantasy game, this time X-2’s Dress Sphere system. As you progress, you unlock new classes, some of which have defensive advantages, other have healing advantages etc. For the first few hours, battling can be tedious as your one character has few abilities and classes to use. Yet as you progress, the battle system is arguably one of the best ever in a Final Fantasy game. The ATB makes battles feel intense while the Paradigm Shift system allows for micro managing which becomes a necessity as you battle tougher foes.

The presentation in Final Fantasy XIII is impeccable. The characters are intensely detailed and fit in well with the beautifully crafted world. A great deal of time has obviously gone into recreating the folds, stitching and texture of all clothing items. The characters’ animation is largely excellent with realistic facial expressions and body language that closely mimics various human mannerisms. The cliché running animation that looks your character is running against a strong wind has been a staple of many Japanese games is present in Final Fantasy XIII; at first it looks goofy but you soon realise that much of your time will spent watching the animation so it’s better than a stale animation. The CG scenes are simply stunning. The minute detail really makes the world come alive. Most cut scenes are well choreographed yet sometimes suffer from severe lack of action. Many scenes near the beginning feature stationary characters delivering lines which soon become a bore to watch.

Square Enix have crafted a world full of mystery and legend yet poor pacing taints an otherwise wholly enjoyable story. The battle system has been tweaked to near perfection. Battles are fast, engrossing and cater to many play styles. The graphics, sound and general presentation really excel due to attention to detail and the user friendly interface. Final Fantasy XIII is an investment beyond monetary. Any player who wishes to consume everything the game has to offer will have to invest many many hours and wade through a sloppy and tedious opening.

+ Simply sublime presentation; astonishing graphics, moving music and mostly solid animation

+Fast and responsive battle system

- Very slow opening

- Annoying characters taint a largely fascinating and interesting array of characters

8.5/10