10 out of 10

- The Good: Amazing self shaping story and ability to import characters from original game.
- The Bad: Some RPG elements have been taken out that were in the original game.
Let us begin with the graphics in Mass Effect 2.  They are nearly flawless, with a few low textured shadows that do not take away from the cinematic awe of the game.  Cinematic scenes, environments and even graphics during the core game play are breath taking.  They are far superior to the original Mass Effect.

Continue to read the full review here.

Check out TheGrimBunny.com guest post review of Army of Two: 40th Day.  Here is an excerpt:

“The Good: Campaign is co-op intense fun with a lot of character customization available.
The Bad: Online is rough around the edges and could use some work.

Let me start off by saying that Army of Two: 40th Day is superior to the original in just about every department with the possible exception of the story.  Army of Two: 40th Day, without a doubt, provides a generous helping of fun.  The game series has always put great emphasis on the co-operative play, so playing this game with a friend will maximize your enjoyment.   The customization in the game is extremely in depth but that applies mostly to the campaign…”

Read the full review over at GamingBolt.com

Check out TheGrimBunny.com guest post for the Modern Warfare 2 Review on GamingBolt.com.  Here is an excerpt:

“Modern Warfare 2 actually lives up to all the hype that has been surrounding it.

* The Good: Action packed story that keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole time. Multiplayer and Spec-Ops will leave you with endless hours of fun while still keeping the core gameplay of Call of Duty 4 but adding tons of more features.
* The Bad: Fairly short campaign.

(Note: This review was done on the Xbox 360 version of the game)

The single player story for Modern Warfare 2 is absolutely stunning. Infinity Ward has kept true to there style of game development by once again making sure you never leave first person view…”

Read the whole review here.

10/10

Where do I begin with this game?  I suppose I’ll start off by saying that if you own a Playstation 3, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is a must have title.  The single player campaign took about 10 hours and it was fucking epic.  At times I forgot I was playing a game because I felt like I was in a movie.. a modern day Indiana Jones movie.  One second you will be watching a cinema scene and the next you will be part of the cinema scene running from a train of a truck to just barely make it to safety, with the camera angles really making it feel amazing.  The landscapes and temples are beautifully detailed.  The story is good and the characters are funny, charming as well as impossible to not grow fond of.  The campaign is an experience you will have to have.

To add the the amazing single player is the online.  There is versus which puts you in a team deathmatch or objective team game type where must retrieve the treasure and bring it back to you base.  The online play is kind of a mix of Call of Duty and Gears of War but then again really can’t be compared because Uncharted 2 is it’s own style.  There is a leveling system and as you gain rank/gold you will unlock different characters to play as, as well as perks like more ammo, increased hip fire accuracy and down the sights accuracy that you will have to purchase.

It doesn’t end there as there are different co-op modes you can play which is kind of like horde mode in Gears of War 2 but adds more of a sense of co-op where you’ll need you buddies to continue through the level.  Another co-op mode in the game is the obejective one which is very similar to the online objective mode, your just playing against AI now which is still fun.

With an amazing campaign and a deep online experience that are both extremely fun, this game is well deserving of a 10 out of 10 score.  Even Microsoft’s own Major Nelson stated he will be picking up a copy of Uncharted 2.  If you don’t have a PS3 then that sucks because this is truly a game not to miss out on.

8/10

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising is an amazing game.  Playing missions by yourself can prove to be quite hard and mediocre when it comes to fun.  Playing with other people and friends is a ton of fun.  The AI in the game is a bit buggy at times but usually can take any of the many orders you can give them but when you compare them to real life people you could be playing with instead, it doesn’t compare. When playing with friends you have to communication you need for this game.

Dragon Rising is as real as it gets.  You get shot in the leg and survive; you will not be able to sprint and you will limp until your are fully healed by a medic.  The one thing that was a bit annoying was when they dropped you into battle with a gun that just has iron sights.  All battles are long range pretty much and considering your a spec ops team, I couldn’t see a team like that with only iron sights on their weapons.

The multiplayer is good but has a lot of room for expansion.  Two modes; Annihilation and Infiltration.  Each mode will let you play on only two maps but it is rumored that a free DLC update is on it’s way.  The PC version has more features when it comes to multiplayer with more players online.  Fans of Operation Flashpoint will love this while people who have not played it will need to make use of their binoculars and use different tactics, especially in hardcore mode where you have no HUD, Radar or Mission Objective Markers.

There are Helicopters, Trucks, Tanks, Buggies and other vehicles as well as a large variety of air strikes and mortar strikes.  At this point, where this game has it’s best moments are in four-player co-op.  It is amazingly fun.  You can play ranked multiplayer or co-op mission, which both allow you to rank up through experience.  Two Thumbs up and it is definitely worth a buy especially will DLC on the way.  You can have access to bonus co-op missions by typing in the following codes in the ‘Extras’ menu:

RaidT18Z – Night Raid
StrongM577 – Coastal Stronghold
AmbushU454 – Ambush
CloseQ8M3 – Close Quarters
OFPWEB1 – Encampment
OFPWEB2 – Debris Field

6 out of 10

Halo 3: ODST first off does not have any multiplayer in it.  It has co-op Firefight mode which is fun and can be compared to Gears of War 2’s Horde mode or CoD: WaW’s Nazi Zombie mode, adding more skulls to make it harder as rounds go on.  Even though Firefight is fun, the fun only lasts so long and to top that off if you don’t have any friends online you won’t be playing it co-op because there is no matchmaking for Firefight mode.

Once again the campaign was fun but only lasted max 6 hours on Legendary for me and my friends.  This game is definitely not something you should buy.  I mean there are exceptions, like if you are a hardcore fan of Halo 3, then you you might want to pick it up as the second disc that comes with the game is essentially Halo 3 but just the multiplayer as well as all the DLC and 3 maps that are conveniently not available for DLC.  So if you NEED to play those maps and get your Recon armor then you might want to pick it up.  Another reason you might want this is if you don’t actually own Halo 3, then you get the multiplayer disc but no Halo 3 campaign.

In the end is this game worth 60 bucks?  Not in a million years.  $60 is a price tag reserved for new games.  Halo 3: ODST has it’s short lived campaign and Firefight mode that act more like souped up DLC add-on to a game with Halo 3 multiplayer tossed in there.  If you are dying to play this then I suggest renting it or picking it up used somewhere down the line.  The hype for this game really should have never been made as big as it was because you’ll be done with this game in a week.  I’m giving it a 6 out of 10.  Peace.

WET is with out a doubt a very fun game.  This game is not for the girl next door as is has cursing and Katana to the crotch scenes, which I’m always happy to see more of in games.  Now a days, little kids are far from the only gaming audience and it’s nice to see games not tend to just them .:cough:. Nintendo Wii .:cough:.  There is not much story to the game but really the game is not about the story, it’s about kicking ass with a sword, some guns and a bad ass chick named Rubi.  The slow down time feature of the game kind of reminds me of Stranglehold but the game itself is way better.  Where WET is much more unique than other game is it’s raw and random art style.  The game almost feels like you’re in a Quentin Tarantino movie with it’s punk/grunge soundtrack and random retro fictional TV ads that I can’t seem to figure out why I’m watching.

Aside from the normal story mode there are two other modes. Points Count mode will basically let you play through each level at your will with the goal to get a target amount of points which will net you some Achievements/Trophies.  In Challenge mode, it’s basically a races to get through the different courses as fast as possible while performing certain acrobatic moves on the way will give you targets to shoot for extra time.  Beating the game will also unlock Golden Bullet Difficulty to play through campaign on, which is pretty much one shot kill.

WET has some familiar voices too; Eliza Dushku(Doll House, Buffy), Malcolm McDowell and Alan Cumming.  I’m going to give this game two thumbs up but suggest you rent it instead of buy it as it is fairly short and it’s just hard to recommend a game for purchase now a days if it doesn’t have multiplayer or something special.  This game kicks ass… but only for a week and then I need something else to keep me interested.

Alright well considering Guinness has kind of just made up an award for ‘Most Critically Acclaimed Superhero Game Ever’ to put Batman Arkham Asylum in the Guinness Book of World Records and other reviews for the game I’m sure you can kind of tell how this review is going to go so I will also make sure I point out some of the con’s of the game.  Right away I’m going to give this game two thumbs up as far as single player games go.  The game was very enjoyable and would be enjoyable to hardcore fans of Batman comics to people that only know of Batman from The Dark Knight film.  The story was creative and kept you interested while the gameplay was for the most part very easy to get used and flowed well.  I personally wound up having my ‘detective vision’ on most of the time to help find collectibles/riddles/progression paths which also puts the game in cell shaded mode and that doesn’t really show the hard work put into what I think were very good graphics.  Not the best graphics, but very good.  One thing that did get annoying at times but wasn’t too bad was the fact that the action buttons(jump over wall/drop off ledge) only worked properly if your camera angle was pretty much directly behind Batman.  The game can be pretty short depending on how much you play it, but it took me about 10 hours including collecting all of Riddler’s Challenges which I must add are much more fun to find than any other collectibles I’ve searched for in other games especially with the ability to find a ‘Secret Map’ with all the locations of Riddler’s Challenges.

Challenge Mode is exactly what it says, it is challenging.  There are 8 Predator Challenges that you must be stealthy in and complete objectives in to gain medals, which is hard but very possible to master.  The other 8 challenges are Combat and are very difficult to attain all the medals in.  You will fight an onslaught of enemies throughout 4 rounds and to get all three medals for one of these your going to have to keep your multiplier/combo up.  You will also get bonuses and the end of the round for things like not taking any damage in that round.

The game was really amazing and the story really had some awesome surprises in it that I won’t spoil but expect to see things outside the normal perspective of Batman.  The enemies design was really good too, Poison Ivy was sexy and Scarecrow was scary.  There was also at least a little something that related to almost every enemy in the Batman series in the game, whether it be from the comic or one of the TV shows.  Once again two thumbs up but you might want to rent this one if your only going to play through it once.

‘Splosion Man which is available on the Xbox Marketplace as an arcade game and in short it’s a good deal for 800 Microsoft Points.  The game is a very creative platformer where you.. explode.  You can explode 3 times before your splode runs out and it acts as a jump among other things.  It may seem simple but moving through the game you will have to use your splode creatively to solve puzzles to advance through the game.  When you explode enemies, they turn into t-bone steaks and hams.  ‘Splosion Man is really hilarious with the animations, voice overs and music it proved quite entertaining.  The game does get difficult but not impossible and it also has 2-4 person co-op which is online and local.  The co-op is really where the game can get difficult because you have to sometimes preform complex moves by synchronizing with your partner(s) to explode off of each other.  This can get very difficult and can seem very chaotic when playing with 4 people as it gets more difficult the more players you play with.  I would have definitely liked to see the co-op be more of a leisure mode instead of a big challenge.  Another really cool thing about ‘Splosion Man is that fact that it is only 10 bucks and you can unlock 2 gamer pics and a premium dashboard theme by beating the game even if you ‘Take the cowards way out’ by skipping levels, which will not unlock achievements.  In addition, ‘Splosion Man is the first game that will have an avatar accessory that is unlockable through playing the game.  This accessory will not be available though until the new dashboard is released publicly on August 11th and a title update is released for the game.  Download the free trial game to see if you like it.  TheGrimBunny.com gives this game 2 thumbs up and recommends this game to anyone that has a sense of humor.

This game is a lot of fun.  The graphics are amazing and the campaign is very entertaining.  The original Ghostbusters cast retured for the game bringing the same trademark humor that was in the movies, only in a new fashion.  The story, partially written by Harold Ramis and Dan Akroyd, takes place after the Ghostbusters movies and although some of the themes are very similar to the movies, it is still original.  The campaign introduces a new female character voice by Alyssa Milano.  You can go back and replay mission from any checkpoint to pick up collectables you have missed (ghost scans, artifacts).  There are four different proton packs available with a primary and secondary function for each of them.  These are all upgradable from the money you gain through out the campaign.  The most fun you have in this game is online with a ranking system based on money earned, which will give you different uniforms depending on your rank (your rank can’t go down, only up).  The online play in a sense is competetive co-op where you all need to work together while but still compete for the most money made.  There are a bunch of different modes you can play online to keep it interesting.

Online Modes:
Survival – Survive as many waves of Ghosts as possible.
Protection – Protect the moving PKE device until it is fully charged (3 total)
Thief – 4 Artifacts must be kept away from ghosts that will grab them and float away with them.
Containment – Trap as many ghosts before the time runs out.
Slime Dunk – Compete to see who can slam dunk more ghosts in to a trap.
Destruction – Destroy the relics.

Pick-ups spawn like shields and others found in campaign. This game gets two thumbs up from TheGrimBunny and I would recommend it to anyone young or old. Buy it at Gamestop here.
And don’t forget, when online NEVER cross the streams.

Three words… FUN AS HELL. I don’t usually play games on the PS3, but if I do they are usually exclusives. I never got a chance to play the first Uncharted besides the demo but the multiplayer in Uncharted 2 is extremely fun. I have to say that I am extremely picky when it comes to multiplayer and for me the mechanics have to be up to par with my standards. Uncharted 2 has pulled that off as well as giving you a leveling system along with perks and the ability to earn money (even though I can’t seem to figure out what the money is for yet, unless that is just how you level up). In the Beta there are two modes; Deathmatch(team) and Plunder. Team Deathmatch is obvious while Plunder is a Capture The Flag type mode only instead of a flag there is a treasure. Picking up the treasure will slow you down but you have the ability to toss the treasure to a team mate or closer to a team mate. Some of the perks include extended clip, increased blindfire or aimed accuracy and hold more ammunition. I would buy this game just for the multiplayer and I would presume they will add more online modes once the game is released. Uncharted 2 Beta – Thumbs Up.
- Bean Out