Xbox 360

Blur (X360) Preview

The developers of Blur, Bizarre Creations, are responsible for one of my most favorite racing games out there (granted I do not play racing games that much), Project Gotham Racing 4. Blur is a step back from the serious Sim-style racing of the PGR series and it delves a bit into the arcade style racing game. Similar to most Kart Racing games, you pick up power ups throughout the race, using them to either protect yourself or cause your opponents some serious trouble.

The first thing that you notice is Blur’s very stylish neon graphics. Everything has beautiful colors reflecting or running off of it and this adds to the beauty of the tracks. Unlike most betas, Blur offers quite a bit in its, giving us 12 cars, 4 game types, and 4 tracks. From the tracks given, they seemed very varied and out of control in a good way.

Halo Reach Legendary Edition Announced

Recently Bungie announced their new edition for Halo Reach. This being the super expensive Legendary edition. The collection will include the game (of corse), a 10 inch statue with the main characters, multiplayer armor, a journal containing info/documents of the history of the Halo universe, and a flaming helmet code for multiplayer. All this will be packaged in a futuristic looking black box that looks like it was taken right out of the game.

Halo Reach Beta Info

Bungie has revealed their plans for the Halo: Reach beta, and it’s looking substantially different than Halo 3.

The beta will feature the mode Invasion, which has 3 maps to breach, with Spartans defending and Elites attacking. Invasion looks like a Battlefield take on Halo, with the ability to respawn on your teammate, and being able to pick load outs before battle. The load outs are simply choosing between the different armor abilities to use, and there’s a significant difference between the Elites and Spartans here. Spartans will get a sprint ability, as well as an armor lock which makes you duck and activate shields. This makes you invulnerable, at the cost of not being able to move. If you stay in the armor lock long enough, an EMP will burst from your armor and take down anyone’s shields that are near you. Elites get- unsurprisingly- a cloak mode, which makes the player invisible, as well as jamming the radar of nearby enemies. Elites can match the Spartan’s sprint with a dodge maneuver that somersaults the player to the side.

Batman Arkham Asylum Review

When many of us gamers hear about a video game coming that’s based off a licensed property, we may initially dismiss it or expect mediocre at best results, but that’s far from the case with Batman Arkham Asylum. This is one of the few times in gaming where you can tell the licensed game was built by true fans with love and knowledge of the source material, and simply not a thrown on gimmick to sell extra copies.

The basic premise of the game is that Batman has caught The Joker after one of his plans seemingly goes awry. Batman then delivers The Joker to the psychiatric hospital named Arkham Asylum, once on the island The Joker takes control of the facility and reveals to Batman that was his plan all along. With Batman trapped on the island with hundreds of thugs and several super-villains the player takes control of Batman and must stop The Joker’s plan.  From there the story goes fairly deeper and starts to incorporate other super-villains as well.

Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 – A Bit More Rearmed

As most people know, the only real good Bionic Commando game to be released in the past few years is Bionic Commando Rearmed. Since the developer, GRIN,went under, we figured we’d never see a sequel to the great PSN/XBLA game. Luckily, Fatshark AB (developers of the new Wild West shooter, Lead & Gold) has proven us wrong.

The most exciting addition so far to Rearmed 2 is the ability to finally jump. While it may sound like a minuscule addition, it’s sure to change the way you play the game.

Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 is scheduled for release in 2011.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Review

The biggest game of the year is finally here, but did it deserve the hype? Modern Warfare 1 (MW1) pushed the Call of Duty franchise to an all time high, garnering it the same level of prestige as the other top series in gaming. Though it’s up for debate, MW1 was followed up by the sub-par sequel World at War. Luckily, Modern Warfare 2 (MW2) is a return to form. Like the other Call of Duty games, you take the perspective of different soldiers in different units throughout the world. This time you bounce between a Marine unit and a Special Forces unit, which also has Sgt. Soap from MW1 in it. The two narratives with these units are much more significant than in previous COD games. This time instead of taking the role of a random soldier and experiencing the war through their eyes, you’re actions are much more instrumental to how the entire war pans out. This installment overall feels much more “action movie” than any other COD game. Since the game does this in a none cheesy and clichéd way it feels fitting, but those looking for a realistic experience maybe turned off. If MW1 was parallel to the TV series 24, then MW2 is more like the movie The Rock, especially towards the end.

Gears of War 3: Ashes to Ashes

There are some games that people can’t wait for a sequel to, and Gears of War is without a doubt one of them.  They have created a series that has created a large fan base very quickly, and it only continues to grow.  Everyone already knew a third installation was going to be made; we all just had to wait quietly for some actual details about the game.  While we haven’t gotten any real details from the developers they have released a trailer, Ashes to Ashes, and for a short one minute trailer it shows a good amount about the game.