Some games have a hook – a mass appeal which instantly grabs the player by the britches and makes them stop, look, and listen. Others need a little coaxing before they become playable, while some are like a fine port wine – Dark Chocolate and a tall goblet makes port some of the most delicious sweet wine in the world.

In the meantime, game franchises such as Marvel v Capcom have been around for what seems like forever, filling a spot for fan-boys of either the Capcom universe or the Marvel comic-book worlds. Personally, I’ve always found better games to play. Yes, even better games in the same fighting genre. Remember the last Marvel v Capcom? Sega Dreamcast hosted version 2 about the same time the legendary SoulCaliber was giving out rain-checks due to players not finding it on store shelves. I remember playing Marvel v Capcom 2 – vividly. I was one of those poor kids who couldn’t find SoulCaliber and bouncy Ivy’s bouncing chain-sword attack where she bounced and bounced some more. God did she ever bounce.

Sorry, back to Marvel v Capcom, where the last SoulCaliber – or any fighting game which stands a chance to be sold next to this game – is nowhere to be found. Street Fighter IV is the closest one can get to a good fighting game, and MVC3 kicks it out of the park.

I made mention earlier about the fan-boys because I honestly believe only people who know the characters themselves will want to play. I did a small scientific test Mythbusters-style to see if my hypothesis was correct in this assumption:

Test Subect 1: Wife. She’s a movie fanatic, hates games other than Zelda. Picked up a controller and was bored after 15 minutes. She knew who approx 5% of the characters were. When I pointed out some were X-Men or Hulk and Spiderman characters, she simply didn’t care and told me to stop sitting on her.

Test Subject 2: Oldest Son (7): He’s a games fanatic with no idea who any of the characters were from, however he doesn’t do well with fighting games. When I came back downstairs after grabbing a can of Coke, he was playing something called Just Dance. The boy can dance, that’s for sure.

Test Subject 3: Ex-step daughter from ex… We’ll just call her Little Lori: Huge Marvel fan, not big (as in never heard) of most of the Capcom characters. Played for over 4 hours using only Marvel characters and didn’t want to go home. Also of note: She woke me up the next day and asked if she could play. Make note to disable doorbell before sleep.

Test Subject 4: Jack. Subject Matter Expert (SME) and fan of the entire series, both genres of Capcom characters and Marvel Characters and can kick ass at just about any video game period. Still playing the game currently.

Real world test:  In true Mythbusters fashion, I laid out copious amounts of Amfo (Ammoniun Nitrate Fuel Oil: Big Boom) and left Jack to his own devices.

What did my little test prove? Players – regardless of how awesome the game looks, how amazing the game plays, how fluid the graphics are, and how lifelike the animations are – will only play when they’re familiar with the characters they’re playing. The exception to this rule would be my daughter, who simply likes fighting games and will pick anyone to play with as long as they beat someone up.

Now, onto the game itself:
This is a fighting game with a one-page storyline, a tutorial system which was written by an S&M Dominatrix (call me if you’re still up for Saturday) and a limited number of starting characters (which will probably be remedied in a DLC since you only start with 32 characters compared to MVC2′s 50+…)

Those are the bad points. That’s it. I could only find three things to complain about.  If you know me at all, this is remarkable.

The rest of the game is brilliant unless you’re a seven year-old boy who would rather play “Just Dance,” (and lets face it, the boy can dance.) The graphics are crisp, clear and perfect for what you would expect a comic book “come to life game” would be. The animations are solid, with attacks and combo’s flying out of every single button mash you can throw at the screen. Honestly, I believe if cats had thumbs, THEY would love this game. My cats sure enjoyed watching it being played.

I could go into details about the sounds which are bridged together when you do combo’s in the air against the poor face of an opponent, but why? This is a fighting game. You will mash buttons to do cool stuff against your opponents. You know this already. This game is better than any other fighting game ever made. FACT.

Just remember this: Marvel v Capcom 3 is worth every bamf cent.

Bottom Line: Buy it. Buy multiple copies and give them to people you don’t like for no other reason than to beat the hell out of them in the game. It is an extremely fun game and doesn’t require a huge amount of time invested to have a great time.

5 out of 5 stars.

Young people definition: LAN Party: A group of networked desktop computers (usually located in someone’s basement) where friends would congregate and scream at each other on a weekend night.  LAN Parties consisted of typical college-age boys (sometimes females, usually who have fallen asleep by 11) who would carry a 75-pound 19″ CRT Monitor and tower computer to a friends how to game and consume unhealthy quantities of greasy pizza and sugary soda pop/beer.

In the console side of the world, a remarkable game would later become reprinted as a “Greatest Hit” or some similar moniker so the publisher could sell more copies of the more popular titles.  For the PC, publishers typically packaged multiple titles together or simply sold them for less cash so stores like Comp USA (God rest its soul) would put them in a  giant box in front of the check-out registers.

In this fashion, there are games which should have been remembered over the years such as Diablo, Age of Empires, Planescape: Torment and Rise of the Triad could easily be accessible for the masses for cheap coin.  However, stores like Comp USA would throw garbage titles into the mighty box of PC Gaming titles for no other reason than to move titles.  Games like Blair Witch, Bejeweled (whatever cheap imitation they could seal in a jewel case and sell for $4.99,) and other shareware-converted titles were in such abundance one honestly worried CompUSA might single-handedly kill the PC gaming market by only selling crap software at Christmas.

Which brings us to the original Two Worlds game; an epic RPG with more bugs than Vampire the Masquerade.  I shouldn’t compare these two, since Two Worlds would actually load.  Two Worlds was a jittery, A.D.D. style of European RPG game that had to be made to get the developer where they are today.  Instead of bad-mouthing the first game, let me spin the situation around and state Two Worlds – as bad as it was – was absolutely necessary for Two Worlds 2 to be created.

“But wait, why is there a Two Worlds 2?  I’ve never even heard of Two Words to begin with!”  And you would be absolutely correct.  Two Worlds was a game whichwasn’t openly advertised states-side and unless you followed some of the bigger European gaming magazines and websites, you would have never known it existed.

Therefore, comparing one to the other will make no sense to many readers who might not have heard of the original.

The world itself in which Two Worlds 2 encompasses is one of epic proportions.  Every animal can be hunted, and every mob (or guy-trying-to-kill-you in non-gamer speak) can be looted for random items such as internal organs.  The aspect I found most interesting is everything in your backpack can be broken down to make parts.  Parts you can use to improve or upgrade your existing equipment.  Found a crappy two-handed sword from a one-armed man?  (Yes, this is an actual early quest…) Break it into pieces and use metallurgy to improve your own junk.  No more will you have to carry around bags full of random drops to attempt to sell it and make cash, or “maybe I’ll need this random plant” down the road.  Everything is recyclable for use on or in something else.

The world in which you quest is filled to the brim with amazing quests – many of which are humorous.  The spell crafting system will more than likely be stolen by different game developers since it is the first like it.  The way spell crafting works, is you have specific slots available to make a spell chain.  Think of it as legos – take a few and click them together.  If you want a slow spell, fire, and next ice, use those three legos and make the chain.  It is quite brilliant.

Overall, the game is still clumsy, the camera will annoy the hell out of anyone watching – including you, and the storyline is fairly non-existent (your sister has been kidnapped again by the same guy – again.  Maybe she likes that sort of thing?)  Sounds are pretty good while questing (pick up a stomach of a slain foe…listen carefully to the *squish* it makes) however the voice acting and movement of character actions are off badly.

I’ve heard from more than one friend XBox 360 version is much worse.

Bottom Line: I can’t wait for Two World 3.  This isn’t bad, however it’ll be in the giant box in front of the registers before too long.

-Chris

Instead, this commercial is for a video game.

I’ve played this video game, many times actually, since 2008.  The second incarnation of Dead Space takes the good points of the first game and evolves them into what the developers hoped would be a much more dramatic and engrossing storyline.

To bring readers up to speed, the first game took to you the satellite moon of Saturn: Titan.  You play the role of an engineer named Isaac who simply wishes to finish his job and get home to his girlfriend.  So far, it seems simple enough, however that’s all the storyline you have until you start delving deeper and deeper into the game itself.  Your first mission is a recovery mission to uncover and destroy a specific rock formation known as a Marker; something is never explained as to what – or why – these need to be destroyed.  As you play through the story of the original Dead Space, you learn different facts about the real situation as you go forward: the planet has been overcome with aliens (which surprisingly all look-alike,) and you need to find your girlfriend in the medical bay so everyone can go home.  The problem is all the employees were on the planet and more importantly – this ship – has been infected and mutated into something worse than death itself.  The game play from the first Dead Space was unique with the monsters themselves could be specifically shot on parts of their body to prevent them from doing things to you.  For example, you shoot off a tail to prevent them from impaling you like a scorpion stings their prey.  Or even shoot their legs off to prevent them from coming at you further than they have.  It is for this reason alone, Dead Space was 1) Horrifying and 2) bloody as all hell.

Which is why Dead Space 2 is so important of a game to players of the survival genre.  To say a few different ideas and plot devices were taken from other games and movies is a complete understatement, however I’m not here to point out the obvious.

The game starts off with Isaac waking up in an insane ward thanks to visions of his girlfriend haunting him, and the trauma the entire first game played upon his normal mind, when more of the story starts to unfold from the first game.  EA isn’t making a simple game here, folks, they happen to be creating a series of mind-twisting stories which makes the player of the game while attempting to feed the insanity the main character Isaac also feels.

Game play through Dead Space 2 is dead-on to the original, with a few handy and helpful improvements.  First of all are the weapons, which have been vastly improved.  The old favorite Plasma gun is still there, however it has been balanced so you can’t take it with you through the entire game and still be a viable opponent, unlike in the previous.  The new weapons are a dramatic improvement to the arsenal Isaac gets to use.  The Javelin Gun fires a large metal spike through opponents and has the ability to pin baddies against things like walls and other objects, and the amazing option with this gun is the alternate fire option which shoots a lightning bolt through “tagged” enemies so you can create a field to shock other mobs.  They also brought a Sniper Rifle which isn’t as useful as I had originally hoped (although excellent in multi-player mode) and a Detonator Gun which launches mines into rooms that are useful for large crowd control moments.

My favorite new addition to the franchise are the different models for the aliens.  No longer is every alien running at you the same creepy model, you now have oodles of creepy aliens running at you giving you nightmares and making more blood and gore splash around your feet!

If you enjoyed Dead Space 1, or simply enjoy horror survival games which remind you of Half Life, Left 4 Dead, Resident Evil, Gears of War, Doom, BioShock, Manhunt, Wolfenstien…And the entire “Alien” franchise of movies, you will love this game.  The story and game play become fairly repetitive after 5-6 hours of play, and are well worth at least a look.  If blood and gore isn’t your game, you may wish to choose something less violent since there isn’t anything more gory than this.  Yet.

It wouldn’t surprise me if blood poured out of the DVD case when you opened it.

Put the kids to bed, this is stuff that will give Wes Craven nightmares.  And real nightmares, none of this Scream nonsense.

Bottom Line: Excellent game, great build on every horror/Sci-Fi game and movie made in the last 30 years – and does it well, hard to improve on an already solid game, and this pulls it off in spades.

5 out of 5 stars.

The Sony universe that contains the community of LBP2 is similar to our own: every growing and mostly unknown.  The players themselves create the worlds using the tools within Little Big Planet itself and I believe this is the reason and the actual purpose of LBP2: to use the imagination of the players themselves to create the worlds they themselves play and interact within.  It’s a brilliant development tool: create a palette for the users to build whatever they want.  Think of it as a Second Life without all the suck.  You have a cute little Sackboy that looks like a homeless child’s favorite toy, and you put him in worlds and levels that are created by the community of players themselves.  Brilliant!
To be perfectly honest, I’m surprised this hasn’t been done before.  Well, other than in the first game.
I love the fact you can use the levels and objects from the first title, I love the fact you can download and use virtually anything you can imagine to build your own special world and levels that you can share with friends, or post in the community to have others play, build upon and re-upload.
It’s been said on more than one occasion Little Big Planet 2 is the worlds biggest virtual sandbox.  And everyone who said that is absolutely right, but they forgot one major point: Little Big Planet 2 is the biggest sandbox full of awesome.

This weekend left my son having dreams about Little Big Planet 2 to the point where I might have to cut him off.  To everyone I annoyed comparing life to Warcraft, I deeply apologize and honestly wonder why you guys didn’t simply rise up and beat me with heavy stone objects.
5 out of 5 stars, this is a great reason to buy a PS3.  Sony, Start selling this game with PS3′s and you might sell more units than Microsoft for a change.

The easiest way to define DC Universe Online (hereafter abbreviated as “DCUO”) would be to classify the game as a console-shooter in an open world environment.  I’ve talked with friends who are deeply playing DCUO, and they constantly compare DCUO with World of Warcraft; which I can only assume would come naturally to anyone playing a multiplayer online game, but I believe the two games are different enough that DCUO and WoW shouldn’t be classified as similar to DCUO in anything other than game genre.  I play both games currently and DCUO is more fast paced and action oriented where WoW is more, well, WoW.

DCUO is the first MMO to be released on a console while still having a PC counterpart.  Granted, the two servers are segregated and cannot be cross-played from PC to PS3, but DCUO made a milestone appear by releasing a console version of an online game.  I understand that Conan was supposed to be released for 360 and ABP was supposed to be cross-platform as well, but neither came through with their idle threats.

The simple fact that still scares me is that if DCUO fails as a console game, that would set the console “pay-to-play” MMO genre back a bit.  MMO’s fail on the PC all the time, to going as far as changing their billing strategies (see Dungeons and Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online,) to the “Free-to-Play” microtransaction models, but given the fact that DCUO is the first console MMO, it could have larger implications than we currently realize for future franchises.

Starting DCUO:

Let me start by talking about a solid and excellently designed game directly from the beginning: Starting a character lets you pick either a Hero class or a Villain class and then the game assigns you a Mentor.  You create your character and your Mentor gets to choose where you begin your gameplay.  For example, if you create a Hero class and choose Superman as your Mentor, you start in Metropolis.  On the flip side, if you create a Villain and choose The Joker, you start in Gotham.  The current Mentors are Superman, Lex Luther, Batman, The Joker, Wonder Woman and Circe

Character Creation isn’t as customizable as other games such as City of Heroes, but there are enough levels of creativity to hopefully satisfy the stingiest paper-doll fanatic out there.  Most options for character creation have a minimum of three basic levels, such as height, weight and so on.  The color of your outfit is where you get into the insane levels of customization.  You literally have the entire color palette to play with.  But be warned, there are people who will look like you.  This is an MMO, and being an MMO, everyone wants to look the coolest and best; in the end everyone looks the same for each model.

The starting zone is a ship where you learn basic movement and combat controls, and also gives you the skinny on how to do quests.  Even for the newest gamer out there, this process (and the voice explaining how everything works) is extremely slow-paced.  You will be on your way out the door while the tutorial voice is still explaining how to do the quest.

Combat:

The combat system for DCUO is different from other MMO’s for the fact that the combat system is more like Tekken or Tomb Raider, rather than Everquest or another MMO.  Combat is performed using key/button combinations to perform special moves and stringing together combinations to create a pattern of button-mashing insanity.  This all leads up to pummeling your targets with different abilities and powers by simply pressing random keys until your target is dead.  On the PC, you use the mouse to look/move and then the keyboard keys to fight and do specific powers, while on the PS3 you simply use the controller to press button combinations.  Seems simple enough, but with the larger bosses and mobs you might encounter, doing the same old button presses don’t cut it.  It does help considerably to learn what each combo does ahead of time before being thrown into Tank role at the end boss.

Quests:

I do like the fact that DCUO allows players the ability to solo the game all the way to the current level cap of 30.  There aren’t any quests that you need a group to finish, and the questing system is similar to other adventure style games: someone asks you to do something, you go do it and get experience for completing the task.  DCUO isn’t a grinding game by any means, since killing a mob will garner about 25 xp per kill at your level, finishing a simple quest will give you 500+ experience.

PVP:

The servers for both PC and PS3 games are either PVP or PVE, which basically means that the PVP servers have free open-world killing between factions, while the PVE is slower and more laid back.  I haven’t seen any RP, which is odd since most people playing these games are usually into the RP and dress up side of things, but the ability to choose “instadeath” ala Warhammer servers, or PVE ala Hello Kitty, is a nice touch.  Yes, that was sarcasm.

Group:

I haven’t seen a need for group abilities yet, thanks to the lack of group content.  There are a few dungeons that require a group to finish, but DCUO hasn’t actually delegated specific roles for each class combination yet.  What I’ve noticed is that once a group attempts to go into a dungeon, there will typically be one tank and four damage players.  DCUO hasn’t been clear while trying to classify roles within groups and how to properly switch into said roles to complete group makeup.

Graphics:

The graphics are what one would expect for a standard PS3 adventure Role Playing game, which is amazing for an MMO.  The cinematic intro rivals Blizzard’s own movie cinematic, which is quite an achievement by itself.  The fighting moves and abilities are brilliant to watch, the city landscapes and buildings are lifelike and believable and the characters themselves are not cartoonish or overly exaggerated which makes playing the game more connected than other games.

Sound:

The sound in DCUO is what one would expect for an MMO: lush background ambiance with vibrant and crisp effects.  The place where the sound stands out is the cut scenes where the original voice actors (such as Mark Hamill for The Joker) lend their talent to fray as well.

Cons:

Grouping isn’t currently relevant until new “end-game” content comes out.  Role responsibilities still lacking – no one knows who-how-where to switch to different roles.  The level 30 cap is awfully short.  No crafting of any kind yet.  Pay to Play for a short game…we’ll see how that pans out for the creators.

Pros:

Graphics and sound are top-notch.  Very fluid leveling, very fluid quest lines to continue story.  Other players aren’t douches’….yet.  Fun and engrossing gameplay and PVP action.

Bottom line: A great game, but not sure how long Sony can keep players in DCUO at $15 a head to only go up to level 30.  There are excellent reasons to play DCUO and give non-DC people a chance to try out their own superhero.

5 out of 5 (with the hope that Sony keeps the content coming-which they have said they would do.)

Nintendo is known for not letting go of characters from their past games, and thankfully they haven’t beaten them to a pulp in horrible spin-off games (see anything Sonic has made in the past decade) instead breathing sweet life into their story lines for whichever console they happen to be designed for.

Which is why I was worried about Donkey Kong for the Wii.  The last iteration of the great Mr Kong appearing on the Game Cube involved a few games called “Donkey Kong’s Jungle Beat,” “Donkey Konga” and of course, the classic “Donkey Konga 2″ in which all three of these games were only playable with a controller in the shape and size of actual Conga drums.  Personally, I believe Nintendo was trying to cash in on the other plastic-instrument games at the time (i.e. Guitar Hero) by creating a rhythm game based on the franchise.  Nintendo usually excels in-game development when they draw their own line in the sand and create games they enjoy playing themselves.  I’m personally still waiting for a follow-up to Zelda’s Twilight princess for the Wii.

Donkey Kong Country Returns is a direct sequel to the Super Nintendo console’s Donkey Kong Country.  I understand it’s fairly obvious by simply reading the title, however it needs to be understood: the game-play for Returns is directly tied to the classic game and not any of the poor attempts from Donkey Kong on the GameCube.  Returns is a side-scrolling action game, where the whole entirety of the game-play is to jump from the beginning of the level to the end of the level and grabbing as many bananas as possible along the way.

Of course there happens to be all the goodies you would come to expect from a Donkey Kong Country game: Hidden areas all over the place, magic coins you can trade in for extra lives and such, giant KONG letters which gives the player special power-ups and of course bananas as far as the monkey-eye can see.

The Wii brings a few handy additions to the franchise-specifically with the controllers.  Returns is designed to be controlled with the Wii controller attached to the nunchuck.  For people who have played the older games (minus the ones on the GameCube,) this is a bit strange to get used to, however quickly adjustable in learning how to play.  For example: one of the new features is the ability to “blow air” to find hidden items in bushes and behind other objects in the background which is done by a similar movement to how one barrel rolls.  Many bad guys happened to get rolled into when all I wished to do was blow air on plant-life, however the controls ended up being fluid and easier to adjust to after a few levels.  My kids who have never played a “real” Donkey Kong game had no problem picking up the controls and immediately started to argue over who was going to play Donkey Kong and who’s going to be “his little brother:” Diddy Kong.  My son liked Diddy the best due to the fact he could pick up Donkey Kong and drop him down holes.  Ah, sibling rivalry.

The graphics are what you would expect from the Wii: good, however not breath-taking.  The thing that sticks out from other games whose play structure is similar, is the animation within the graphics.  Returns has a unique graphical feature where almost everything moves in some way.  The grass, the trees, the way the bananas rotate, the swaying of the wooden bridges-it all breathes life into a simple game which makes you want to play, not because it looks great-which it does also.

Bottom line: Donkey Kong Country Returns is a great platform game with excellent graphics, immense playability and most importantly: re-playability.  Returns isn’t nearly as good as the game this was created from, instead bringing new controls and new ideas to a solid foundation to create a game which is as fun as the original, and entirely as addictive.

5 out of 5 stars.

Enter Brotherhood, which should have been called “Assassin’s Creed 2: Multiplayer.”

The storyline of the game starts right where Assassin’s Creed 2 ends: You walk back home with your Apple product, the bad guys called the Borgia come and steal your Apple product and destroy your village.  You go into Rome to find your Apple product, meanwhile destroying as many Borgia along the way as needed.  Pretty straightforward, with a handful of side-quests along the way as normal, however not nearly as convoluted as the original AC2.

The game plays and looks exactly as the original AC2 does.  The running, the climbing, the falling, the attacks, the quest styles, and honestly everything down to the engine is exactly the same.  I still ran across the rooftops to look at Rome and found it more exciting than the actual game itself.  I’m still playing the game, I’m simply doing it my own way.

The difference, and this is a big one, is multiplayer.

Multiplayer Brotherhood is, how can I say this without being too “European,”  Its bloody brilliant.  The modes of play, the styles in which you have to play, all in this super-immersive highly detailed Rome?  I’d like to go on the record of calling Brotherhood’s Multi-player ”Effin’ amazing.”

The different modes in Multiplayer are:

• Wanted: in an eight player match, one is randomly targeted with a contract on his head, and the others have to fight against one another to be the first to kill the player.  Very exciting, extremely fast paced, and knowledge of Rome’s streets, alleys and rooftops are a plus.
• Manhunt: Eight players are divided into two teams.  One team hides while the other team seeks – I mean, kill those who hide.

The unique thing about the multi-player options are you don’t win for simply having the highest amount of kills.  Each kill is critiqued and graded for focus, flanking, being undetectable and killing from hiding spots.  Also, one gains points from not being killed in various methods.  For example: if you happen to be hiding in a crowd of other people and you see an assassin around the corner and jump at the last second before he strikes, you gain points for avoiding a death.  The RPG aspect of being able to upgrade your assassin after each match is also a nice touch I’d like to see other developers implement.

Ironic, since the game play style which bugs me about the single-player option is the must entertaining in multi-player-something I normally try to avoid in these types of games.

Bottom Line: If you enjoyed the other Assassin Creed games, you will enjoy this.  It’s not a new game by any means and many people online were complaining about it should have been a downloadable expansion instead of a new title for sale.  I could understand their frustration, however the multiplayer aspect alone is worth the price of admission.  The multi-player is something I look forward to playing many times and reminds me more of Unreal Tournament’s innovative implementation of new designs which made the game fresh and exciting to play, just as Brotherhood will be remembered in the future.

4 out of 5 stars.

Sadly, Gran Turismo 5 was supposed to be out a few Christmases ago.  Worth the wait?

I say no.  Here’s my reasoning:

Other than a graphics update and a garage of cars which would compete with Jay Leno, what’s new and different?  Everything happens to be  different, and it’s good, but more bad.

With a game as high-profile as GT5, the developers have to make every nuance of the game itself flawless.  Imagine if Blizzard released StarCraft 2 and only half the parts of the game worked, or the UI similar to Starcraft 1.  Players would clearly be upset.  I look at GT5 as a simulation game for driving, similar to how F1 2011 and Forza 3 are driving-racing simulators.  And personally, other than the design of the standard gameplay, GT5 fails on every other level.  The expectation was too high from the beginning to have a game half-assed hit the shelves.

The graphics are excellent.  The details are good on each car, and with over 1,000 cars to play with, it’s a large amount of detail.  However, small oddities will grab your attention, such as a few people in the stands are still old-school EA Sports spectators simply running a loop of a clapping flat 2D animation.  With all this thought put into the detail, these small items stand out like a sore thumb.  There are “premium” cars, in which every little detail is painstakingly shown along with the interiors, why not every car?  My thought is if the detail on one car is amazingly gorgeous, why not do it to the rest?

I need to bring up the AI – The other drivers.  It is clear each other car on the track is pre-programmed to only drive a specific speed a specific way on a specific line.  No intelligence at all?  This game should have at least some variables which explain if your car tries to cut in on the inside, the car in front of you tries to cut you off – as would be in a real racing sim.  Instead, the car continues on their pre-determined path of normalcy to continue it’s already programmed course as if you weren’t there.

The menu system is horrible, with everything you’d ever want to do buried under other levels or stuck at the bottom of long menus.  The system for getting around this game is horrible.

Last, and certainly not least on this racing rampage is online.  The PSN servers either not expecting such a high amount of traffic or they didn’t delegate enough nodes to the GT5 services.  Each time I tried to connect, it would take sometimes 15 minutes, and to start a simple race was a nightmare if everyone didn’t click on “Start Race” before the icon disappeared, which you would have to log out of PSN to restart.  Simply aggravating to the point of exhaustion.

The good points: The driving physics are brilliant.  When you over-steer around a bend, you feel the car start to slide out from underneath you.  The crash physics are good, however I like the crash physics in Hot Pursuit or Dirt 2 more.  Also, the amount of cars you’re capable of playing with are simply out of this world.  Standard cars from a 2007 Mitsubishi Evo IX and 1993 Ford Festiva all the way up to SuperCar status like the Pagani Zonda C12 R ’07, and each with their own feel, handling and sounds.

The Career mode is where GT5 shines the most.  This is where you race and gain points and skills and ultimately: more cars.  Sadly, and thankfully, the designers at Polyphony Digital didn’t mess with this racing mode, keeping it the same as it always has been: fun and quick to play.

The newest feature is something called “B-Spec” which caught my eye and is something I’m still trying to come to grips with.  It’s a mode of playing where you don’t actually drive.  You play the owner or manager of cars and drivers and get the results from each race.  Think of it more as Fantasy Football for GT5 and it makes more sense.

All-in-all, a decent game, but not nearly as good as it could (or should) have been.  Personally, I prefer the fast action of Hot Pursuit, however if you want a solid racing simulator, try out Forza 3 or even F1 2011 first.  If all else fails and you’re a fan of the series and can look past the downsides, maybe asking Santa for GT5 isn’t such a bad idea.

I have to go see who finished the last race in my B-Spec mode now…

3 our of 5 stars.

Disney Epic Mickey takes an interactive story from the 1930′s era cartoon world and creates an RPG-Mario 64 crossover game kids will keep playing for hours and reminding adults about the first time they saw “Steamboat Willy” on the movie screen.

The game itself isn’t difficult to get into, however it is difficult as an adult to keep paying attention long enough to finish more than a few hours of game-play.

The game starts with a cinematic about the start of the Disney world-specifically those characters which haven’t been seen since the early days.  As true with the history of Walt Disney himself, the main storyline begins with the introduction of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (who was owned by Universal Films – not Disney, until 2006) trying to trap Mickey Mouse in a world called “Wasteland” where all the old characters of Disney’s go to essentially die.  Oswald isn’t exactly the main villain in this game, the main baddie is an item called “The Phantom Blot” which takes the hearts from characters in the normal world to bring them back to Wasteland.

You move around Wasteland using the standard Wii controller and the Nunchuck, however the controls in this game are absolutely horrible.  Whenever Mickey is in Wasteland, he has this sinew-like viscosity to him which makes him stretch and bend strangely, in part because the Phantom Blot has infected him to make him act different.  To make Mickey jump, you have to flick the remote as you would snap a towel, or fling water from a straw, and the way Mickey moves on the screen is to slowly – almost delayed – stretching jump where his body bends and stretches over whatever it is you are trying to jump over.  My children died more from poorly timed jumps than anything else in this game.

The second complaint you will hear about is the camera positioning and the lack of being able to move the camera when you get stuck behind a wall or a tree.  The platform changes from Mario 64-style 3D movement to a 2D style Super Mario Bros platformer depending on the level you happen to be going through.  This is fine and dandy until a building decides to get between you and Mickey and all of a sudden your life starts to dwindle.

Other than those two main problems, there is no other issue with the playability of Epic Mickey.  My children loved it and want to keep playing it long after bedtime, while I became bored with the predictability of the game play after an hour or so.

The game play is exactly what it should be – if it was released in 2000.  Scrolling platformers were still fairly new and intricate enough to hold the attention of even Zork players (okay, maybe not.)  The game itself to me, seems a bit dated for play-style.  Epic Mickey isn’t bringing any new revolutionary styles to the table.

What it is bringing is a storyline which hasn’t been this entertaining for children since the old Genesis cart: World of Illusions.

My daughter specifically liked the ability to “Paint” and “Thinner” in Wasteland, which is how you either revive something or take away something bad within the game.  Simply select a house and start to paint – the house will become full of color and life.  On the flip side, you can “thinner” which is remove the ink from the scene to find treasures or make new paths to take.

I couldn’t spend much time playing due to having two ravenous prairie dogs who call me daddy jumping all over me as I opened something new, however I did get to watch them play for over 5 hours.  And any parent will tell you, 5 hours for a 7 and 8-year-old to be constructively quiet and play nicely together is well worth the price of admission.

Bottom Line: Entertaining storyline, totally designed more for children.  I could easily see Disney fanatics loving this game for all the little cameos the characters play.

3 out of 5 stars.

I have been extremely good this year.  In fact, better than last year with only four B&E’s, three DUI’s, two domestic assaults and a partridge in a pear tree.

In all seriousness, you can thank me later for putting the song deep in your gooey membranes, I would like to go over what I feel is this season’s “must have” in terms of technological gaming entertainment – and you can bring me whatever you feel I’m worth.  Yes, I do agree the iTouch box full of coal last year made me smile.  Do it again and I “forget” to turn the fireplace off next year.

Handheld Systems:

Nintendo DS (Lite, DSi, DS XL, DS LMNOP): The Nintendo DS platform is a great handheld system for children who are starting to get into video games due to their ever-expanding library of inexpensive games.  And with the median price-tag at $20 a title, this makes a great gift for any kid age 5-15.  My daughter doesn’t leave her room without this in one of her hands, I can vouch for her 8-year-old counterparts, while my 7-year old son plays whatever game she doesn’t have in hers at the time.  The games they most often play (or I hear them play) are anything involving the Disney Channel or cartoons (like Phineas and Ferb.)  While Professor Layton and the Unwound Future sucked my (then) pregnant wife into playing all the time, I thought about getting her a DS of her own.  I enjoyed playing Super Scribblenaughts, however it’s because I enjoyed the first title from last year.

Sony PSP:  Not worth having for playing games.  Yes, you can curse me out in the comments section, however I believe the PSP is great for watching movies, and horrible for playing games.  I have yet to play a game on the PSP I couldn’t play on another system better, other than the Fat Princess games.

Phone Gaming:  My picks for iPhone gaming are: Cut the Rope from Chillingo (and as of today is FREE for the iPhone!) and also Angry Birds.  I’m not sure why Angry Birds is as addictive and fun – as it is nothing more than “Scorched Earth” with birds being flung at pigs, however it is absolutely thrilling, especially in a public bathroom with the sound jacked all the way up.  Confuse your neighbors!  My current favorite RPG on the Android platform is a game called Crusade of Destiny.  Crusade is a powerful RPG set in a fantasy-style world similar to World of Warcraft and follows the standard RPG gaming elements with experience points and a “play-to-gear” attitude, all online and with a tiny little screen

Console Systems:

Nintendo Wii:  I started the console list with the Wii because it is currently my favorite console system in terms of playability and interactivity with my children and friends.  My favorite game for 2010 has to start with the game I’ve spent more time playing-next to Warcraft, of course: New Super Mario Brothers.  Other great games this year are Metroid: Other M, Epic Mickey, Super Mario Galaxy 2 and of course, No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle are all games any gamer would love to add to their collection.

Microsoft XBox 360:  My favorite 360 games are ones which are not usually ranked in these styles of articles.  I have to start with the latest NHL 11 entry from EA Sports due to a small game-play option called “Be a Pro.”  In this mode, you start off as a starting hockey-player with your own name on your jersey and start in the minor leagues of the team of your choice.  For me, I chose the Detroit Red Wings and then started playing for the Grand Rapids in the AHL; the Red Wings’ “minor league,” if you will.  The unique thing about the Be a Pro mode is you only get to play you – no switching players.  When you sit on the bench to gain stamina, you watch another line out on the ice.  When you cross-check another player in open ice, you sit in the penalty box for the duration of your penalty.  And most importantly, as you play, you gain experience and growth points and can adjust your character in the game to be better on the ice.  I fell in lesbian with the game as soon as I played the Be a Pro mode and would highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the NHL or NHL games.  Other games worth picking up are Super Meat Boy, which is an Arcade only game and definitely worth playing, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Red Dead Redemption, Halo: Reach and finally Call of Duty: Black Ops.  All these games listed here are worth spending time playing at least once – If you can.

Sony Playstation 3: The two main games released in 2010 for PS3 every gamer must have is simple: God of War 3 and BioShock 2.  These games are the reason PS3 exists: high impact action with movie perfect graphics.  Same goes for the “cross-platform” games also: NHL 11, Red Dead and Black Ops are simply must haves if you don’t own them on other systems.  The one game I played early in the year and keeps coming back to make me want to actually purchase my own PS3 is ModNation Racers, which uses the same sharing aspect with the PSN service Little Big Planet used.  Think of a Mario Cart where everything can be edited to create their own individual tracks and vehicles.  It is somewhat satisfying to bomb someone on a track while driving a polka-dot toilet.  Special love goes out to Alan Wake, I’m still looking for more time to dedicate to this game.

OnLive: OnLive is a system which uses streaming data (similar to Netflix instant-view) to download and play interactive “cloud” games.  The system and service are still fairly new with not many games (35 as of this writing) available for $4.95 a month.  The idea I enjoy about OnLine service is you can play the games through the television like a normal console or through a computer-PC or MAC.  I believe it’s still too young of a device and service to properly review without any hands-on time.

Computer Gaming:  In my eyes, only two games deserve to be on every MAC and PC in the world: Starcraft 2 and World of Warcraft Cataclysm.  Blizzard does such a great job in development and game-play, there’s no question why each game they produce is a blockbuster.  Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War 2 Chaos Rising is another fun game for the PC as well as Fallout 3: New Vegas.  Last but certainly not least would be Civilization 5, with many friends of mine no longer able to raid in Warcraft for a prolonged period of time, with an excuse of “just one more turn, man.”  My rule of thumb is this: if the game has gotten good press and is released on many different platforms, there’s a reason.

Music:  I added music games for one reason: my son.  To say he loves them would be an understatement.  Rock Band 3 released with a few new features: a Keyboard and a Pro guitar which actually uses real six-strings.  The guitar itself isn’t released yet, however he’s having a blast with the keyboard.  It seems the keyboard itself is designed for one-handed play only.  It isn’t to say you can’t or shouldn’t use two hands, however every song available from John Lennon’s Imagine to any of the other keyboard tracks can be played one handed.  There is a pro keyboard on the market I haven’t had a chance to experiment with yet.  The only other music games worth noting are DJ Hero 2 and Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock.  Both games are simply more of the original and nothing special to mention, other than Guitar Hero: WoR having the full 20 minute 2112 overture by Rush, which might be enough to sell the game itself, however not all the plastic equipment.

Santa, you’ll notice I didn’t mention the two main hardware upgrades released this year: Microsoft’s Kinect and Sony’s Move.  Personally, I feel these don’t have enough titles for them to make them anything more than expensive toys currently and look forward to new games with exciting new features.  I do hope 2011 brings more exciting movement-based games other than dancing teenagers and petting animals to the market.

Sorry about the rabid wombat in the Christmas tree, he typically only attacks the drunk next-door neighbor after a solid night of imbibing.  He must have thought your breath smelled rank for some reason.

Toodles,

Chris