Batman: Arkham City - Hemp Knight Rising [PS3]

The best way to fight crime is to punch it right in its teeth. The Bat is back in black to get to the bottom of Arkham City and to see how and why it was constructed. This is how you make a sequel to one of the best comic book games in history. Updated and improved fight mechanics, more ninja tools and high tech gadgets, you are seriously the goddamn Batman in this game. Just when I didn’t think it was possible they managed to stuff even MORE characters from the Batmythos into the game and still managed to make a coherent, airtight storyline.

Trying to not spoil anything, the Batman goes to foil the plans Harvey Dent (Two-Face) has to horrendously murder Bat’s on-and-off fling, Selina Kyle (Catwoman). Shortly after that that you get sidetracked from your main goal, the mastermind behind Arkham City, Hugo Strange, to go after The Joker. To make a long story short, The Joker infects you with something and you have to go around the cordoned section of Gotham City to find a cure, running into all sorts of denizens of the Batman’s rogue’s gallery along the way.

If you thought the brawling mechanics in Arkham Asylum were brilliant, these are fucking genius. More quick gadgets to use to make amazing combos, the ability to counter multiple enemies at once, more special moves to use after you’ve built up enough combo multipliers, just amazing. The predator aspect got some more toys too, with hanging ledge takedowns and speeding glide kick to name a few. The Riddler is up to his old schemes again, hiding his trophies around the city, but now with puzzles that had me kicking myself in the ass once I figured it out. One complaint I had about Arkham Asylum was the uninspired boss fights, luckily this issue was addressed in the sequel and they are nothing short of awesome! The Mr. Freeze fight was easily my favorite and most difficult to conquer.

I’m not sure if it’s my love for the caped crusader, but I can’t find any flaws in this game no matter how hard I try. There is some WTF!!?! Moments in the story, but I believe it’s all to set up for the third installation of this series and hopefully they will be answered...though I’m not sure where they can take the series after this, maybe space? Rocksteady is planning on dropping some DLC in November, so even more content to keep me content. This Dark Knight has received the score of…

8/8 or 1 OUNCE!!

L.A. Noire, Finally [PS3]

Ever think you would make a good detective? LA Noire takes the Grad Theft Auto sandbox experience and puts you on the other side of the conflict as Cole Phelps; former marine, current detective and ass kicker. Team Bondi utilizes the Havok Engine as well as an in-house one to create the fantastic facial animations throughout the game. The setting is immersive; cruising down Main St. in 1940’s Los Angeles with sirens blaring at top speeds gives me quite the “thrill.” Grab your smokes and hat; we’ve got a case to crack!

The Game Toker takes on the role of Cole Phelps, a boy in blue trying to make a name for himself on the force, while struggling with a family and dealing with a seemingly haunting past from World War II. After solving a case you are promoted to Detective! As a Detective you are assigned a partner, a car and a hat. With your snazzy as fuck fedora, you get to rub shoulders with movie star...wannabes and get to interrogate little girls who may have been raped, not much has changed with cops I guess. You will be working your way to different desks starting with traffic. I will be honest right now, I did not finish the game, I just couldn’t stay interested. I made it to the Vice Desk and put down the controller soon after.

LA Noire’s game play is kind of bland in this reviewer’s opinion. Lacking the freestyle of raising hell and gunning down civvies hurt the enjoyment for me. Without the openness of actions like in other sandboxes the game boils down to: asking questions, running after a suspect, walking around looking for clues. On the flipside, questioning and interrogating people in this game is amazing I have to say, the facial animations are unparalleled, though it gets repetitive and easy once you can point out the tells of the unlucky individual across from you. The saving grace here is I have high hopes *snicker* that the face engine will be used in the next GTA installment (you know there will be another one.)

I might just be me, but I can only seem to enjoy a detective experience when a cape and cowl are involved. LA Noire lacked in gunplay and action, should have had a bit more to keep that genre exciting. Team Bondi has set the bar with face animations and storytelling with LA Noire, too bad the story couldn’t hold my attention. LA Noire is a good game by all means, but not one that catered to my tastes, I will have to give this classy title…

6/8’s

Going Batty for Batman: Arkham City

Bats, birds and cats, what more can you ask for in a game? Rocksteady’s sequel to their brilliant Batman Arkham Asylum will truly carry the mantle, giving Batman more rooftops to stalk and more characters than I thought they could fit into a game like this. A few days before the Con, it was announced that certain preorders will have access to Robin, a character available in the challenge modes. This Robin seems like he was modeled after Eminem and is much more hardcore than what we are used to out of the Man-Boy Wonder. He goes by the name of Tim Drake, though I feel Damien would have fit with the character design better.

And speaking of Damien Wayne, Bruce Wayne’s son conceived out of guile and a hint of rape, his mother will be in Arkham City. Stana Katic will be the song behind this siren, and it would appear the face behind her too given the resemblance. It is not known what her role will be in the story since it would be big spoilers, but true to the character she will have “conflicting loyalties.” Another reveal was the addition of the prominent “legitimate” businessman Oswald Cobblepot, or “The Penguin.” Everyone’s favorite zombie born on a Monday, Soloman Grundy will also appear in the game, and according to Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) he is “the most gnarly” version of the guy he has seen. A mighty pen-master to the bat-mythos, Paul Dini, also mentioned that a large story-arc was scrapped from the game, though there is talks of bringing it back somehow in the future post release.

The real treat at Comic-Con was going to the Batman panel and seeing chemistry between some of the voice actors of these giants. Mark Hamill (The Joker) and Kenvin Conroy (Batman) appeared to be best friends, even though their alter-egos have a little bit more complex dynamic. Seeing everyone’s enthusiasm about the game and their characters I have no doubt that this game will be regarded as the best Batman game in HISTORY.

"Chronic"-Con '11 [REPORT]

The ’11 Comic-Con has come and gone, but Game Tokers were there! We were neck-deep in comics, movies, anime, booth babes, nerd rage, and the best of all, VIDEO GAMES. Riding sky high with a certain strain that goes by the name of Skywalker; we made a run for the trenches and tried to blow the con wide open from the inside. The Spaceman and I (Barbarian, rawr) got our munchie-covered hands on some sweet demos of some anticipated games, and ones that just might be sleeper hits. Get crunk and grab your junk, because this is the Game Toker Comic-Con!

Table of Contents:

Spider-Man: Edge of Time

X-Men: Destiny

Guild Wars 2

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Spider-Man: Edge of Time

X-Men: Destiny

Guild Wars 2

Arena.net has me thoroughly impressed by Guild Wars 2. In the rock-solid demo they had available for the con 3 races were available (Human, Charr, Norn) and ALL the classes announced so far. I had the chance to play warrior, guardian, necromancer, and ranger, and I can’t tell you which one I had the most fun with. The combat seemed very solid, and very dynamic. Tons of weapon combos (and therefore skill combos) were at my fingertips and did my best in the 25 minute timeframe I had to try them all for each class. From my investigation it seems different weapons are better for certain roles, some good for AoE, single target, healing, so on so forth. I could be mistaken, but there may have been collusion detection in combat, if I swung my sword and the animation hit an enemy, it did some damage. The graphics were nothing special, but the texture design made up for it and distracted you from the lack of polygons, and after finding out the build we played was considered “early alpha” from a dev, there is only room for improvement.

The Spaceman received a tip from the previously mentioned dev that there was a hidden dynamic quest that he didn’t see anyone at the con find, so after following this tip we ended up fighting a spider-queen after lots of searching for the last eggs to trigger her revenge. The people at Arena.net not only impressed me with their addicting game, they impressed me with how they treated their fans. After telling an Arena.net person the secret code somewhere at the con, they gave you a special pass that got you into a special meet-n-greet at the Hard Rock across the street from Comic-Con. The place was full of demo machines and music and an OPEN BAR! The night also consisted of giveaways that I got so close to winning, and I can’t forget about the night ending with an all too familiar Rick-Roll!

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Bioware’s fifth pillar of gaming is the foundation of SW:tOR and it does not disappoint. I played a smuggler since it’s the class I plan to play when it goes live, I had some fun with it; the animations are smooth and clean, the combat is much like other MMO’s out there, like WoW but lacking auto-attack. The graphics were good, but on the demo and machines they had it running on it would seem they don’t have their final textures going, so we’ll have to wait to see how the art design turned out. The story is really engaging, though the color palate of the game kept me from getting totally immersed, the quests however felt all too familiar. “Go and kill this many of these people, go deactivate (right click and wait for a few seconds) this over there,” I just hope later on the reasons are engaging enough to forget how tedious these tasks are. Still have hope for this game though, can’t wait to sail the stars smuggling questionable things.

Duke Nukem Forever, Finally [PC]

Hail to the King, baby! After 12+ years Duke is back to save us from the aliens again. The single player campaign is filled with raunchy toilet humor that probably smoking the ganj can only make funny. Duke Nukem Forever also brings back some nostalgic things like the freeze and shrink rays, as well as strippers and their money makers. The unfortunate thing about Duke is it was finished 2 years ago, so the graphics engine and shooting mechanics are dated for this day and age of shooters like Crysis.

"Chronic"-Con 2011

The Barbarian here with a quick update. The Spaceman and I will be attending Comic-Con International in San Diego this year and we plan on getting some juicy news on some of the most anticipated games of this year and the next. Expect some tidbits popping up during the Comic-Con weekend (July 21-24) and if need be a decompression of what we saw in the days following.

Some games we hope to shed some light on:

• Star Wars: The Old Republic
• Mass Effect 3
• Elderscrolls V: Skyrim
• And more!

In the mean time there will be a review for Duke Nukem Forever sometime between now and the Con.

inFAMOUS 2: Why it Feels so Good to be so Bad [PS3]

Cole MacGrath (no, he’s not a country singer) or better known as “The Electric Man” as one of the lamest super hero names ever, took a trip down south to the recovering city of New Orlea—err New Marais where he has to prepare for the final showdown between him and the Beast! He will also get a chance to smack down some inbred militia hicks and terrorize the kindly (or asshole-ish) citizens of this hedonistic city. Cole also brought his buddy, who has an infinitely cooler name, Zeke to the city since apparently there’s no more job market for Fat Elvis impersonators in the economy. New game means new powers; Cole gets tons of powers and plenty of opportunity to unleash hell.