What is the MOGA Pro you ask? Well, its a full controller for use with Android devices to emulate the console experience. It syncs via Bluetooth and provides dual analog control for many of the platforms popular games. As most people know, one of the the biggest hurdles to tablet gaming overtaking console gaming is the clumsy nature of touch controls in traditional games. First Person Shooters, Third Person Shooters, Platformors, Character Action Games, basically anything that is set in a fully rendered 3D environment, needs a control scheme that is not just buttons on a screen.

The MOGA pocket, which was released last year, is a handy way to fix this problem. It’s not really comfortable and the buttons feel cheap, but it gets the job done. The Pro version of the MOGA is wonderful and an improvement in everyway. Its light, comfortable, feels like a 3rd Party Xbox 360 controller and has tight, responsive analog controls to go with its perfect buttons. The D-pad has the same cross layout that all Nintendo controllers have, so in that aspect its better than the 360’s gamepad. The last thing that really makes the Pro controller shine is its rechargeable Lithium Ion battery.
As you can tell I really like the MOGA Pro, and it could be a turning point for mobile and Tablet gaming. Hell, the controller even has a built in clamp to hold and display your cell phone as you play. As much as I like this little thing, I can say with some degree of certainty that its marvelous potential will probably be squandered.

The MOGA Pivot App that can be downloaded from the Google Play store provides a shortcut for MOGA owners to find all of the games their new toy is compatible with. There are some legit classics in the catalog too. Doom, Grand Theft Auto III/Vice City, Jet Set Radio, Sonic CD, and Pacman were flagship titles in their heyday, but a platform cannot thrive solely on classic ports. I’m gonna love playing through Jet Set Radio on my lunch breaks but what I really want is a triple A title on my phone or tablet. That’s not going to happen any time soon if ever.

The MOGA potentially gives companies like Activision, EA, or Ubisoft an outlet to do direct same day releases of their console games on a handheld with enough power to handle the port. Even if its not a direct port, why is there no Call of Duty, Madden, Battlefield, or Assassin’s Creed game on Android? I’m sure it has todo with storage limitations, compatibility and pricing structures, but I understand that Android development is open and cheap and with an install base of 500 million devices worldwide with nearly half of those running Icecream Sandwich or higher, moving your flagship titles to onr of the most popular platforms in the world seems like a no brainer.

With the MOGA bridging the interface gap, the market is ripe for cross promotion and dynamite marketing opportunities. This can work well for Power-A, or it can work extremely well for Power-A. After five minutes of playing through Gameloft’s Modern Combat 4, on a Galaxy Tab 2 7 inch, I really wanted more and better games to play on it. While MC4 is totally passable and is clearly a rip-off of the Modern Warfare series, being able to detach the shooter experience from my TV, and take it anywhere is intriguing. Since I have my phone or tablet with me anyway, tucking that controller under the seat in my car or the glovebox on the trip to work seems doable and almost exciting.

Like any service, without games you want to play, it runs the risk of dying. I mentioned Gameloft, and they have taken an interesting approach to mobile gaming and brought the MOGA with them. Where the big publishers are dropping the ball, Gameloft is picking it up and making direct analogs of some of console gaming’s biggest hits. Modern Combat is basically Modern Warfare, Asphalt is Need for Speed, Gangstar is GTA, Dungeon Hunter is Diablo, NFL Pro is Madden, and N.O.V.A. is Halo. All of these games are compatible with MOGA and are seemingly trying to transfer the experience from the big-boy systems.
I played through all of Modern Combat 4 and had a wonderful time blasting away the enemies. The only tech problem I had with the controller was when the battery started to die. Once it was low on juice, it had trouble staying synced to the tablet. But a recharge of both devices fixed the problem immediately.

My only real hard-nosed complaint about the Pro controller is the rubber grips on the side. This is a very Power-A thing to do. Putting the grips probably looks good on a shelf or can be advertised as “soft, comfortable, non-slip grips” but they are not comfortable and make the controller look cheap. This opinion is not only present against the MOGA but basically every 3rd party controller ever made since the Nintendo 64.

$50 for a controller that allows you to play off-brand games may seem steep, but this MOGA could have really long legs. As someone that is going own a smartphone anyway, $50 is a small fee to make hundreds of hours of games actually playable on the device I am tethered to for at least 2 years.

Verdict: The MOGA Pro is really cool and sadly positioned to be widely ignored.

Clarence and Kary sit down with the nephews for a spoiler free discussion about Iron Man 3, fresh after leaving the theater. Does Iron Man 3 raise the bar for super hero movies? How does it rate as a post ‘Avengers’ Marvel movie? Does it kick-off the summer movie season in excellent fashion? We got you covered.

I started this as a review of the mobile game Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour. All I wanted to do was play it on my Samsung Galaxy S3 with the MOGA Pro Controller Techpedition was recently sent. I had also intended on writing a review of the controller itself, but the wonderful world of Android gaming made the whole project a bit harder than you can imagine. Let’s break down the parts of the kerfuffle and where everything fell apart, and see how and if I put them back together.

When you buy a MOGA, whether its the Pocket or Pro controller, Power A directs you to their Pivot App in the Google Play store to easily find what games are compatible. Its not really a store but more of a collection of quicklinks to buy games from Google Play or in my case Gameloft. Its designed to be super easy to find games that use your fancy new controller and in Power A’s defense it does a great job of laying things out easily. The games are sorted by category and there’s even a “Pro Optimised” section for owners of the MOGA Pro to jump right into. Having used the MOGA pocket I knew exactly where to go to get the few games I wanted to try with my “Pro” controller. The two I had picked out were Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Both of these are easily compatible with the Galaxy S3, and would give me both a first and third person experience with the MOGA Pro.

Here’s the problem. When I tried to download the games through both Google Play or Gameloft (Gameloft’s Android store offers Modern Combat 4 for $2 less) both stores were saying my Andriod device was not compatible with the Apps. That’s ludicrous, the GS3 is a high end Android device designed specifically to play these types of games at a high level. After using the magic of Google, I found that both games were indeed compatible with the GS3 and my phone was not allowing it to work. If fact, they are WAY compatible. Using a GS3 to play these games would be like a using a bazooka to skeet shoot. I made sure my Jellybean was up to date and started calling people. As always, I didn’t expect much from customer service. If I’m not just able to fix it, some poorly trained hourly phone jockey has little chance as well. It wasn’t their fault; I’m sure nowhere in their training manual does it say how to handle nerds complaining about cheap video game apps but I thought I would at least do my due diligence. Since the problem seems to be with my phone, I called C-Spire first.

                                      Just don’t try to personalize your games.

C-Spire is a decent regional carrier that offers reasonably priced 4G cell service in the South East. Every cell carrier has a different model number for their version of the GS3. C-Spire’s is SCH-L710. After C-Spire quickly blamed this on Samsung (something I expected to happen), I called Samsung. I went through some basic, and I mean basic, troubleshooting and they quickly blamed Google Play (again, totally expected that). So, I gave Google Play a call. I spoke with a very nice girl named Steph and she did the deepest troubleshooting so far, but it still wasn’t much. There’s obviously something wrong on the server end and we all know there’s nothing Steph could personally do to change the server stuff. There’s no reason that two different apps from two different developers and publishers, should have the same problem. This means the problem lies in the phone itself or its categorization in the Google Play store. The Gameloft store allows you to manually pick your GS3 model number and the L710 was not even a choice. This makes me believe that this is the problem in Google Play too.

Samsung’s flagship device is not compatible with two best selling core games, I don’t buy it.

If the Google Play store doesn’t recognize my model, I’m sure it’s programmed to just assume incompatibility. The only way to fix that would be to make Google Play recognize my model. After getting off the phone with Steph she promised a follow up. A few hours passed and I was slightly optimistic that something might actually come of this follow up. I knew better though, weird issues like this don’t get fixed unless there’s a huge outpouring of customers with problems. Whether or not I get to play these two games is not going to affect Google’s bottom line or the amount of time I spend using their products. I finally got my follow up email and it predictably said, please contact the developers of the games as they handle compatibility issues. Sigh…I guess I can email them, but simple logic says they are not to blame here. I’ve already found a work around for Modern Combat 4 and I may just play my PC copy of Vice City I got from Steam. I’m sure this kinda crap doesn’t happen on the iPhone, but then again, I couldn’t use my MOGA.

I ended up playing MC4 on a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 I borrowed from my girlfriend and had a grande ole time. With the MOGA Pro controller it was a smooth playthrough. Expect a full review of that experience soon. This type of problem is representative of the type of future culture we live in today. Back in the 50′s through the early 90′s if you had a problem with a product you would take it back and bitch at a manager until you got a new vacuum cleaner. Now-a-days with the tech being so advanced that the there’s no hope of customer service reps being empowered enough to actually make change, and most consumables being pretty much disposable, we either have to spend hours upon hours of time getting to the right depts to explain our funky specific and in the end not important issue, (at the risk of looking and sounding like a crazy person) or we have to suck it up and deal with it. I’m gonna choose the latter, as a consumer, I probably have more important stuff to do.

Maybe I’ll just keep playing games on my girlfriend’s tablet, let me check to see in Vice City is compatible… Well, would you look at that…it’s not…dammit!

Random technology, gaming, comic, movie, television, and anime ramblings and entertainment from the techpedition pundits.

Episode Cast

Carl Minor, Kary Brown, James Allen Knotts, and Clarence Brown

Episode Summary

We are back after a year’s hiatus! We talk PS4 announcement –the good, the bad, and the ugly–, Nintendo’s place in the upcoming generation, and a tad bit of Star Wars VI.

Ah Bioshock, I love you. Seriously, no other game from the this or any generation moved me like you did. You created a world of wonder and had the most mind bending story I ever experienced in video games. Bioshock 2, you were good, but nothing could touch the magic on display in the original game. I am always telling people how amazing you are and refuse to spoil your magnificent ending/twist. Look at me, reminiscing about games gone by when there are new experiences to have. Let’s let go of the past and talk about your new sibling Bioshock Infinite.

Pre-release I was very careful not to expose myself to much Bioshock Infinite press. I saw the setting of Columbia, and that it was an FPS from Irrational, and needed no additional convincing. What I didn’t understand was why it was called Bioshock. At first I assumed it was a marketing ploy by 2K to ensure that the game got the attention it deserved. As slimy as that sounds I was ok with it, business is business. After playing through Infinite, the “Bioshock” correlation is very apparent.

Outside of the story, setting, characters and lack of a morality system, everything else IS Bioshock. The interface, controls, tonics/vigors, sound effects, narration, audio-logs, world layout and mystery are all lifted directly out of the original game. It was comfortable to be playing a game that felt familiar and It felt good to let 2K off the hook for using the Bioshock name, but most importantly having the same tone as Bioshock helped move the story along with the appropriate amount of tension.

In many respects, Infinite’s setup is the exact opposite of it’s predecessor’s. Where Rapture (the setting of the original game) was constructed around the idea of having a city free of the oppression that comes from religion and government, Columbia was created as a land where God and country reign supreme. Rapture was set underwater, Columbia is set in the sky. Jack in Bioshock was silent, Booker in Infinite is very talkative. A central theme in Bioshock was being alone in a foreign land, but in Infinite Booker has Elizabeth for most of the game. These differences make Infinite distinct, and fresh and the setting of Columbia by virtue of its openness makes the gameplay very different.

While personally I didn’t like Columbia as much as Rapture, and the later chapters in Infinite are so dark that the initial bright draw of the setting is nearly gone, but this city in the sky is much more interesting than what you will find in most FPSs. What is very different in Infinite are the citizens of the cities. In Rapture there were no innocent bystanders, everyone was a splicer, and everyone wanted to kill you. Columbia is a functioning city, with residents and stores. Its not always obvious which citizens will attack you and that causes fight sequences to break out with little warning. Luckily none of the battles are too difficult. On normal, I was able to blow through Infinite with a minimal non-frustrating amount of dying.

The guns and powers are play like they did last game, except the powers mapped to the left hand/trigger, don’t fit into the fiction as well as they did before. In a land ruled by science, its feasible to believe that gene splicing led to superpowers like fire and lighting shooting. In the land of god in the sky, the level of science needed to pull off these powers seems less possible. Sure, Columbia floats in the sky using a “science” but having the vigors, while fun, seems a bit anachronistic. Also, the ease of the game itself makes most of the powers unnecessary. I found myself using other guns and vigors, simply to unlock achievements.

Elizabeth, your partner for lack of a better word, is the crux of the entire story. You are contracted by a set of twins in New York to go to Columbia and retrieve Elizabeth under the promise that a debt you owe will be wiped clean. Very quickly you realize that Elizabeth is no ordinary girl. She has the power to create and discover tears in the fabric time and space. This allows her to see and interact with things in alternate/parallel/tangential universes. This power is the setup for the story itself, and also is a handy gameplay mechanic.

After obtaining Elizabeth you can pull objects like turrets, cranes, cover, and other things through tears at predetermined places in the world. Its a fun mechanic, albeit optional and not nearly as helpful as you would imagine. Elizabeth is also a handy scavenger, she will scour the area for supplies and throw them too you on the fly. I found that really really fun. During the more intense battle sequences, to get the most out of your offensive abilities, its smart to use heavy combinations of vigors, and dimensional tears. Having all these things at your fingertips made the action thrilling and the inclusion of Elizabeth is a huge plus where usually games like this turn into a long escort mission.

Lets get down to the brass tacks, everyone knows what you buy a Bioshock game for, and that’s the story. The twist-laden emotional roller-coaster that the mood and setting create is why you’re here and in this aspect, Infinite delivers in spades. I’m going to try to avoid spoilers here, and anyone interested in playing Infinite would do themselves a favor by avoiding ALL internet discussions about the game until after they’ve completed it. Its very easy to become attached to Elizabeth’s character. Her Disney princess-like appearance and the fear of her dimension ripping power very quickly demonstrates how dynamic her character is.

Her imprisonment immediately makes her a sympathetic character, and both the player and Booker feel the need to protect her and get her away from Columbia even if the seed of his heroics was selfish. The first act of the game carries a very familiar “damsel in distress” vibe, and its used well to develop a contentious relationship between Booker and Elizabeth. The landmark moments in the story, center around the Songbird. Its a giant robot bird, who was created to both protect and imprison Elizabeth. Obviously, the Songbird’s directive is at odds with Booker’s and multiple scary encounters occur in the Songbird’s pursuit of recapturing Elizabeth.

Most of Act 2 is spent fleshing out the history or perceived history of Columbia, while exploring both a citizen uprising by a rogue minority group called the Vox Populi (Infinite has fantastic names across the board Booker Dewitt, Vox Populi, Zachary Comstock, Daisy Fitzroy, etc.) and Elizabeth’s relationship with her mother Lady Comstock. Booker is reluctantly pulled into the war between Comstock (the founder and leader of Columbia) and the Vox Populi, in his attempts to free Elizabeth. All of this leads to Elizabeth exploring her dimension tearing abilities.

To give a description of what happens in the third act would rob you, the player, of the experience of the game. Going into the final hours of the game, you will have theories of what exactly is going on. Some of them may be right, some of them may be wrong, and in some cases all of them will be right or all of them will be wrong. The end of Bioshock Infinite will have you second guessing the reality you just played through and will have you remembering things in the game you initially did not think were important. The deliberateness of the pacing and placement of every single detail of the story is done in such a masterful way, that when everything is revealed in the end the pieces you didn’t know where there reveal themselves in marvelous heart stopping ways.

The argument of whether video-games are art is an ongoing one and I know no other game that proves they are art more that Bioshock Infinite. Art, whether its a movie or a song or a painting is meant to solicit an emotional response. The best movies are not watched they are felt. They feed a portion of our brain that controls the uncontrollables. That feeling you got in your gut the first time a song reminded you of a dead loved one or the feeling of comfort a poster on your wall gives you is the result of art being art.

Bioshock Infinite has deep emotional hooks in it and while it may not speak directly to you in the end, any player looking to get invested in this fiction WILL be moved by its outcome and your uncontrollables will be affected. On my playthrough, I simultaneously had butterflies and a knot in my stomach watching the ending playout. Even the aspects of the tale that I was able to predict where heartbreaking and and breathtaking.

As I watched the final scene with my mouth agape, I knew I had experienced something special, something unique and something people will be talking about for years to come. Is the ending of Infinite better than Bioshock? Yes! Bioshock’s twist was unexpected and thrilling, but the overall story was one dimensional (pun intended). Infinite is as mind bending as Inception and has just enough breadcrumbs to leave much of the underlying plot open to interpretation and mysterious.

Much has been said about the themes and characters in Infinite. One of the most interesting discussions about the game is its position on religion and zealotism. Clearly Infinite paints fanatical religious beliefs in a negative light. Zachary Comstock is not only the founder and leader of Columbia but he is portrayed as a spiritual savior. As an agnostic, I can’t speak for the religious people of the world, but I see the story as only a possible outcome of blind fanaticism. There are religious nuts in the world (Westboro Baptist Church) and they do horrible things in the name of their god. Any level headed Christian can see that what WBC does is wrong and Infinite simply shows what that type of group or entity can do when in power. Its inclusion in this game isn’t a denouncement of religion, its a denouncement of zealotism.

Looking at Infinite’s themes juxtaposed with Bioshock’s Ayn Rand inspired themes, its easy to see that Irrational is clearly dabbling in the land of theoretical fiction. If the two camps on display here are No Religion and All Religion and chaos comes from both, then neither is the sole right answer. Therefore, both faith and reason must exist for a society to function. Taking the sensitive nature of religion and the fact that ignorance leads to anger, its very easy to see how someone unfamiliar with the ideas at play here could become upset with how religion fed the story. I don’t mean to sound like a prick, but that comes off as a personal problem.

Video Games are a form of expression and nowhere in the game is religion denounced outright, so any problems people have with the game would be an extrapolated interpretation that’s far removed from the story itself. If they simply take a moment and remember that they are playing a game that not only involves a floating city, but also the existence of and interaction with alternate dimensions, they would see that it’s sci-fi. Quit trying to apply its foreign themes to your life, you’re being selfish.

The last thing I’m going to talk about is the gore. During my playthrough at no point did the gore upset me or even have be questioning its placement in the game. Maybe its because I just finished Telltale’s The Walking Dead, or maybe as an M rated game player I have grown accustomed to a certain level of maiming and dismemberment. Yes, Infinite is gory. The melee kills alone are enough to warrant the M rating. Some critics are saying the violence seems out of place, and the the level of gore actually took them somewhat out of the experience. I didn’t get that, but they might be onto something, I don’t know. However, why they would come into an FPS thinking there wouldn’t be some level of gore is beyond me.

In summary, (I say as I wrap up this term paper of a review) Bioshock Infinite is something special. It brings a legitimacy to the gaming as whole that is not available in most games. Its good to see that this generation of games still has a little life left in it and if Bioshock Infinite ends up being the ceremonial bookend to the PS3 and 360 era I would say video gaming will be fine. Anyone remotely interested in Bioshock, deserves to experience Infinite. Ok, I’ll shut up now…

Verdict: Would you kindly…GO PLAY BIOSHOCK INFINITE!

Where to start with this game? Well, we’ve got a blonde ditsy-kinda cheerleader who is a zombie hunter that wields a chainsaw to kill the un-dead, while carrying around the living severed head of her boyfriend with her wherever she goes… WTF?

Yeap, that is exactly the premise of this game. In this story you control Juliet Sterling, a cheerleader at San Romero High, who is also part of a family that hunts and kills zombies. The severed head is her boyfriend Nick, who while trying to protect Juliet gets bitten on the arm. To save him she performs a ritual –you don’t see this– that keeps his severed head alive, while still being able to talk. Absurd right? Well Nick also agrees with you.

Taking some cues from most of the bigger games in the hack n’ slash genre, Lollipop Chainsaw provides lots of collectibles, and un-lockables to keep you playing. From health, combo, and chainsaw power-ups, to new costumes to wear during your zombie-logging (chainsaw… logging… get it?). You also get power-ups for Nick as well. Even though he’s a severed head with no body he’s still very useful and gets his own power-ups. Juliet can employ him in several ways. There are scripted events where she will place Nick’s head on a glowing blue headless corpse –gender doesn’t matter– and you enter a quick-time event mini-game to clear obstacles, orr in conjunction with certain partner-esque attacks. Such as Nick Cannon, where she takes poor Nick and loads him into a big party favor and shoots him at enemies. Now in order to use Nick in non-scripted events, you have to collect or buy Nick Tickets. Using these tickets allow you to perform various special attacks.

The combat is fluid with some twists. Juliet has two attack types. Of course there is the chainsaw, but there is also her quicker pom-pom attacks. You use these to daze the enemies, making it much easier to kill them with the chainsaw. A growing trend in the genre the past few years has been to take away the ability to block and force you to master your evade or dodge reflexes. You will have ample opportunity to use the dodge, since the game will try to overwhelm you with enemies whenever it can. In your zombie killing, if you kill three zombies or more in a single swing you’ll activate what is known as Sparkle Hunting mode. When activating this you’ll acquire not only the common gold coins, but platinum coins as well. Which is the buying currency in this game. The gold coins are used for your general things, where the platinum coins are used to buy the extra costumes as they become available. You’ll need to make a bunch, as most of these costumes run more than fifty coins a piece.

The game world is done up in a very decidedly comic book style. With the backgrounds and most enemies in a cell-shaded look to better represent the comic world they are putting you into. You’ll run through several locals in your quest to stop the zombie hordes. Along the way you’ll meet survivors you’ll need to try and save. Saving these guys will give you a big boost in gold coins. You start off in Juliet’s school where we will see the madness start, then go to a junk yard, next to the farmhouses, then later to the city. The game is setup in the standard, go through level, kill drones, fight boss. The big difference here is all the boss Zombies know what they are doing. And they like it. You’ll fight everything from a punk rocker to a floating hippie. The story is all ludicrous so this is definitely a game that’s not to be taken seriously. The best I can describe it is Japanese manga brought to life. You know what I mean. Just weird off the wall things going on, that really don’t make much sense, but your along for the ride cause it’s weird, and the chick is hot, and you want to see her naughty bits.

The game is very linear, you go from point A to point B, with very little side areas to explore. Most of these side areas you wouldn’t know were there unless you really took the time to look. Generally you are going to be so bombarded with baddies you won’t think to look, but get to the next area. Which I guess is where they try to sneak the replay value in. That and the amount of platinum coins you’ll need to unlock all of the costumes.

While this game got a lot of hype –especially with Jessica Nigiri’s paid modeling work, I have to say it most definitely was not worth the full price tag when it came out, which most gamers agreed with, as the game sold only 325,000 copies the entire summer season it was released. But for the gamer on a budget, like me, the twenty dollar price tag you’ll find these days does give this game a very appealing look. It’s fun, it’s quirky, and even though the story is bad B-movie quality, the game-play is tight, responsive, and gives quite a bit of satisfaction once you learn it.

Oh did I mention that Michael Rosenbaum is the voice of Nick? Well he is, so there’s a bit of a plus.

Final Verdict – While extremely shallow, for a budget gamer this game is one to play. With lots of innuendos and just funny weird moments, it can tide you over until you get the cash for your next big thing.

Reality Breached is an in-depth look at the Video Game industry pretty much whatever and its business practices. Our pundits random fanboys break down parties involved and give their stance on pressing industry trends. It’s time to get deep ya’ll.

Episode Cast

Sergio Lugo, Josh Alcaraz and Reid Walker

Episode Summary

Rebre turns 20 and with it comes growth…well kinda. Having exhausted most Video Game topics, our team fearlessly attack superheroes…and their movies. That’s right, we’re branching out. Listen as Josh tries to convince Sergio and Reid that Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight and The Crow are good movies. Reid gushes about Mystery Men and Sergio sets some not so popular rules. It’s movies!!!!!!!

Hey! Another portable Castlevania game, someone tell Carl! Wait, its not sprite based like its predecessors and its a sequel to the PS3/360 Lords of Shadow? What the hell is going on?

Yeah Mirror of Fate is the first proper portable Castlevania game since 2008’s Order of Ecclesia and not only is it polygonal, but it’s a sequel to the character action game Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. Remember that game, the one Hideo Kojima kinda had a hand in creating? Yeah, this is a sequel to that. Apparently it did well enough to warrant a portable sequel and a proper sequel scheduled to be released later this year. Let’s collectively try and get over the wordiness of that title right now. Not only does it have two subtitles, but both of the them follow the “blank of blank” pattern. While dumb, this pattern is not anything new for the franchise.

Like most Castlevania games since Symphony of the Night, Mirror of Fate fits into the the genre it helped create, as a Metroidvania style game. Armed with the familiar Combat-cross from the previous game the characters fight through a castle periodically gaining abilities. These abilities allow the character to access parts of the castle they were previously unable to access. This style of game is unique in that it promotes backtracking that is not a complete bummer. The backtracking is not as prominent in Mirror of Fate as it is other games in this genre, but its there and it works. There is always something super satisfying about getting a new skill and remembering where you can run back to and use it.

Unlike the first Lords of Shadow, Mirror of Fate is a 2D game with 3D graphics. Everything is done on a 2D plane, but the power of the 3DS allows for decent looking polygonal enemies characters and environments. The downside is that going polygonal leaves Mirror of Fate in somewhat of a limbo between the classic portable Castlevania titles and the modern Lords of Shadow. The Japanese charm that came with the big classic and detailed sprites is gone, completely gone (which for me is a good thing because that means the overly anime art is mostly gone too). However with the game being 2D, it doesn’t carry the same weight and sense of scale that Lords of Shadow carried. It draws enough from its predecessors to feel familiar, but at the same time feels like a red-headed step child.

Coming off of a convoluted story in the first game, Mirror of Fate not only delivers an equally convoluted story, but ups the ante tri-fold before the opening cut-scene is over. After a history lesson on the Belmont family its revealed that the first character that gets play time is Simon Belmont. Very little happens in the story during most of the game, much of what happens is just in service of Simon finding Dracula (his Grandfather). About halfway through the game the focus shifts to Alucard, and his story is also in service of him finding Dracula. Trevor Belmont comes out to play too. I’m not going to spoil anything, but lets just say the Belmont family gets plenty of attention throughout the game. Its typical Japanese, Castlevania stuff, and is kinda dumb, but there’s a large audience for this type of soapy Gothic storytelling. I’m not going to say its bad or poorly written, I’m just going to say its typical.

Simon, Alucard and Trevor have decent move sets with the Combat-cross and they control the same. However their magic powers differ greatly. The combat is fast paced and the enemies are varied. Probably the biggest problem with the combat isn’t the combat itself, but the checkpoint system its built around. Checkpoints are everywhere! When traversing the map, there’s little worry to be had. Dying doesn’t come with much consequence so there’s little need to dig deep into the combo system. Not needing a deep combo to take out enemies makes the combat feel shallower that it actually is.

The checkpoints may be bad in most areas, but they are wonderful in the boss fights. Each Boss has multiple checkpoints, making the normally impossible seeming baddies able to be handled with the appropriate level of difficulty. Blocking is a must when fighting most of the bosses, and as in most games, learning the patterns is necessary.

Mirror of Fate is a hard game to target. On one hand, Castlevania fans will love the structure, but any of them that are attached to the sprite art style will be turned off immediately. We are really dealing with a Windwaker-style divide here. Pardon me while I editorialize a bit deeper. Why make this a Lords of Shadows game? I get that Konami wanted to completely reboot the franchise, but the name Lords of Shadow carries some baggage with it. Not necessarily bad baggage, but baggage nonetheless.

Putting the Lords of Shadow name on this makes me think of the God of War/Devil May Cry style of game-play that was in the first Lords of Shadows game. If that’s your starting point as a fan, stepping into the 2D world of Mirror of Fate will be jarring and probably won’t be well received.

Portable technology has come far enough to allow full 3D games to easily be playable on handhelds. A true Lords of Shadow style game could have been made, easily and it could have been on either 3DS or PS Vita or both. It just feels like Mirror of Fate is purposely trying to pollute the waters for both Castlevania and Castlevania: Lords of Shadows. Maybe I’m crazy, and this shake up was needed, I don’t know. What I do know is that despite these oddities the 3DS needed a game like this in its library.

Its a fun romp that’s just tough enough to be challenging. The voice acting may not be awesome and the localization doesn’t look to have been the highest priority during development but it looks good and sounds great.

Verdict: I liked Mirror of Fate, and highly recommend it to Metroidvania fans, and that’s probably the best thing to take away from this whole review.

Ninja Theory has released their new take on Devil May Cry and the titular character of Dante. Capcom, wanting to breathe new  life into what they felt was a old formula, turned over the reigns and actually pushed hard for changes. Personally, I think Capcom just didn’t want to have to figure out where in the continuity their next foray into Dante’s world was going to be. If your new to Devil May Cry, then the games flow from 3, 1, 4, and 2 for story continuity. Odd? Yes. Which may be the reason we are being treated to this re-booting of the franchise.

So what are the major changes? Dante’s hair is black not white, and he wears a hoodie — causing many fans have cried foul. Stating they’ve made Dante emo. Guess I’m showing my age when I look at him and his attitude and think 80′s British Punk. Oh well. What other changes do we have? First off, Dante is not the son of a Demon father and Human mother, but a Demon father and Angel mother. So that makes him –in this world– a nephilim. His father Sparda did betray the demons, but he didn’t defeat them. He and his wife Eva went into hiding, but were eventually found. Mundus personally kills Eva by ripping out her heart, while having Sparda banished to eternal torment.

In our first meeting of Dante, he doesn’t know exactly what he is, nor does he really care. In his own words, “I just look to kill demons and get laid.” While Dante’s attitude is not as comical as his original mold, he is still cocky, and very sure of his abilities. What are his abilities? Well when you start the game you will have access to his trusted sword Rebellion, and his pistols Ebony and Ivory, along with the basic set of combo choices. As you progress you’ll gain the abilities to use demon and angelic weapons. Each mapped to a trigger button to activate. Much like the different stance buttons of Heavenly Sword. Dante is quick, agile, and can dish out the damage in slick fashion. Which is good, because the Style Ranking System of combos returns. So of course your going to be doing your best to hit that SSS rank.

Mundus is in charge of the world. Running things from the shadows, controlling the world through manipulation, mind control, and debt. Debt? Yep, as a plot point he uses debt as a political maneuver.

The combat system is fluid, with tight responsive controls, and the ability to free-flow from one weapon to another. By the end of the game you’ll have a grand total of 8 weapons to waste the demon hordes with. 5 melee and 3 firearms. You of course have Rebellion as your default weapon, but when you switch to your demon or angel stances you will have two weapons each. Your angelic weapons are suited for quick strikes, and distance, where the demonic choices are slower, but hit much harder. The Devil Bringer ability of Nero’s from Devil May Cry 4 was so popular that it’s made a return, in a fashion. With a demonic and angelic version that works into combos, and level progression/exploration. The demonic stance yanks enemies to you, where the angelic stance pulls you to their position. Using these two I actually sat in a big horde of smaller enemies to see just how long I could stay in the air. I launched the first one and didn’t come down until they were all dead. So you can really come up with some excellent options. No longer do you have a block button. Now you just have an evade button. I guess this is to make sure you are always on your toes. Time a strike just right as an attack is incoming and you’ll parry the move. Which not only leaves you with big advantage, but also adds big to your style combo rank. Many projectile-based attacks can be sent back to their owners this way as well, or –if you got the skill– batted into a cluster of baddies.

You still collect red orbs to use in the shop, which can be accessed at the mission select screen, or in game when you come across a shop statue. You also get green orbs to refill your health, and white orbs that once they fill up the level meter will give you a level point. You use the level points to buy new abilities, or augmentations. If you want can respec any upgrades you’ve used said point for, then redistribute them as you see fit –without any type of penalty. Every melee weapon has a plethora of options for you to choose from. So if you don’t like what you’ve used your points for, do not worry about it. Just redistribute them.

If you want to test out what you’ve got and get the hang of it before going into the thick of it, Ninja Theory has added a training mode. The only downside to Training Mode is that you cannot choose which enemy or enemies to train on. It is just basically a combo trainer. But if you want to figure out how to do the combos you see in the loading screens, this is the place to go. Don’t worry, you will get plenty of opportunities to work your combo magic in game. The game does give you a bit of replay value in having to use specific weapons to unlock or move to specific locations in all levels. See a key you can’t get yet? Come back later when you have the right tool. Keys, have been added into the exploration of the levels and stages of various things to find. There are four types of keys that each unlock specific doors that correspond to them. Got a gold door that you need to open? Find a gold key. The keys don’t disappear out of your inventory once you beat the level. You may find a key that you can’t use until four or five levels later. These doors lead to secret missions. Once unlocked, you can choose to play them from the Mission Select menu. These babies are diverse, and some of them are downright insane to finish. With each one you complete, you will unlock either a health or devil meter cross fragment. Collect four and you will increase said meter.

Ninja Theory is known for their great story telling in their games. Giving us characters to care about, and involving us emotionally in their struggles. In DMC they do a very decent job pulling us in. While many reviews I’ve read from others bash the games script, I personally didn’t see what they were talking about. Dante is foul-mouthed in this game, but I never felt like it was forced –nor is it extreme, in your face, and all the time. The main story revolves around Dante being recruited by his lost twin brother Virgil to take down Mundus and avenge their family. While not investing me in the story like they did with Heavenly Sword and Enslaved, they did a great job in giving us a good reason for Dante doing what he does, with the staple large boss battles. So that, they got right.

The world that you traverse is devious to say the least. When your in your mud-stomping shoes the world turns to Limbo –a very twisted-mirror image of the real world. The world is against you, many times attempting to squash you its self. I rather enjoyed this idea of a world gone made, rather than the previous games just giving us weird places and leaving us wondering how on Earth anybody actually built them –come on you know you wondered too. Each stage has a very different feel to it than the last. From the amusement park, to Mundus’ tower, each level has it’s own distinctive  flair. Though the way Limbo goes it almost can just all seem the same. As the black smears, and broken floating pieces can take your main focus and feel like everything else. Not to worry when it comes to enemies though, you won’t have to worry about the environments keeping you from seeing your prey, of which there is a fairly decent diversity. Of course later on in the game you’ll get points where you have two enemies, with one needing demonic weapons to hurt, and the other angelic. Therefore causing you to play a serious game of tag.

Overall this game gives the total package and is a great addition to the DMC franchise. While changing up a lot of what made the DMC franchise and Dante iconic, Ninja Theory’s take does bring in some notable changes. With solid gameplay, and decent story-telling, this game should hold up well to its predecessors. If your worried about challenge, just try the Dante Must Die mode. One hit from anything and your dead.

Final Verdict — No matter what you may think of the new Dante, this game is a pure –and true– DMC game that is worthy of your time. Trust me, you’ll like it.

Visceral is taking us back into the shoes of Isaac Clarke and the horror of Necromorphs for a third time. Now you have the option of facing the mutated hordes with a buddy to watch your back while you work to stop the Necromorphic apocalypse at it’s source.

Ditching the competitive online modes, Visceral gives us the ability to co-op the story this time around. Unfortunately the only way your going to do this online, as you can’t run and gun together on the same screen. Which for me kinda sucks, but I can understand where they are coming from. So much can be going on at one time, that they most likely felt that you needed the whole screen to catch everything that is happening.

Set two or three years after Dead Space 2, Isaac is in rough shape. He and Ellie got together, and then split up. He’s hiding from EarthGov and the Unitologists, since both basically want him dead for destroying the Marker on the Sprawl. Things only get worse from here. Much worse.

DS3 brings in a lot of changes from 2. First off is the addition of co-op campaign play, with the exclusion of the competitive online MP modes that many fans (including this one) really enjoyed playing. The aiming system is sorta changed, but not really. Originally depending on the weapon you would get one to three laser sight guides to know where you were aiming. Now you will get one that can look different for each set up. I say set up because Isaac no longer finds schematics of weapons to buy. Now he uses work benches to make weapons. Now as you take down enemies, and open crates you not only get ammo, and health packs, but now you will pick up various resources to craft your own weapons. Taking out the well known store menu, you now collect these resources, and use them to craft what it is you need. You’ll still find weapon schematics as you progress through the game. The dev team have quite a few in the blueprint menu for you to try out should you have what you need. You no longer carry 4 separate weapons, but two “weapon frames”. Weapon frames are what you will use to create your custom pieces. Even though you can only carry two of these at a time you can have two weapon tools on most every frame. Of course you can make all the classic weapons from the series, but making a pulse rifle with under shotgun, or rocket launcher is awesome. The up on the control star now equips the Scavenger bot. These little guys can be used to gather resources while you work on other things. You pull them up, aim like you would any other weapon, follow the homing beacon, set him down, and go about your business. So far I’ve found 3. These little guys run and in 10 minutes are back at a work bench, and viola. More resources for your destructive pleasure. I’ll delve deeper into the crafting system in a moment.

Not everything is going to take place in space this time around. You’ll also have to deal with living Unitologists trying to do you in. To help deal with being shot at with weapons Visceral has added a crouch, and basic cover system to utilize. As well as a rolling dodge maneuver. While a lot of other reviews have criticized the inclusion of these let me go on record and say the roll can be a real life saver. The floating in space sections that many fans have asked more of are here. You’ll come across a destroyed fleet above the frozen planet you’ll be on soon. While you’ll run around some of the ships, you’ll also get the chance to check out what’s to grab around the outside of them. Now you don’t get infinite air for your rig suit, but keep your eyes open and you’ll find O2 canisters floating around to keep you going. Once your done in space you’ll be heading down planet side. Talk about plans going to hell quick. You don’t even get in the atmosphere good before fit hits the shan.

Dead Space 3 really takes you through a journey of different environments this time around. From urban areas, to familiar spaceship interiors, frozen waste lands, to alien ruins. The set up here is that Ellie has found the Marker home-world, and needs Isaac to come and help deal with the problem. See the head honcho for the Uni’s is Danik. Danik at this point has destroyed EarthGov, and has been destroying the protective coverings of the Marker test sites. Releasing the Necromorphic plague across human civilization. Seeing how Isaac has destroyed two (more if you count all the finished and unfinished smaller ones on Titan station) he is on the top of Danik’s “To Kill” list. Now if you choose to play co-op John Carver is there to watch Isaac’s back. Carver is a soldier, and his attitude reflects that. He’s all business. Course seeing how Danik’s Marker release agenda caused the death of his family, I can sympathize.

Speaking of the decision to co-op or not to co-op, you’ll get slightly different campaigns depending on the choice you go with. If you go solo, your solo. No A.I. controlled partner here. Many of the puzzles are easier to do, yet there will be some side missions you can’t do because they are co-op only. Side missions? Well they are labelled optional missions. These are opportunities to explore a little more, and gather more and in most cases rare resources. Such as specific weapon frames, and upgrade circuits. Choosing to play with a partner? Well many of the puzzles are set up to be done by two people at the same time. Some of the cut scenes are different to include Carver. Now for anything that is all about Isaac, the focus will be Isaac. So if it’s section that requires Isaac to complete a QTE to survive and move on, you’ll be stuck watching the proceedings. For the co-op only optional missions, which thankfully there are only three, both Isaac and Carver will see things differently. While both have been affected by Markers, Isaac no longer has any hallucinations, where Carver is out of his gourd at times. Carver will see and hear things that the player as Isaac will not. Which helps to explain the exclusion of split-screen co-op. So you’ll want to play these missions as both Isaac and Carver to get the full-monty so to speak. Also while playing co-op each player will pick up resources laying around, found in crates, dropped by enemies, or picked up by individual scavenger bots separately. While you’ll find the same things in certain places that are scripted, many times you will each find something different in other situations.

The Necromorphs have also evolved. While the creepy scare horror of the original is truly present, the threat of gruesome death is definitely real. Enemies come at you hard. No matter what they are, they are all out for blood. Also many times you come across human targets in an area you’ll have Necros pop up as well. Which of course you can blast at all of them, or be sneaky and let them take each other out. After playing through the campaign several times each of these scenarios can come up different. With either side wiping out the other. Along with our mainstays we now get a new type of Necro the Waster. These guys are the most human looking, with the ability and knowledge still to use weapons. From axes to guns. With the added ability to mutate depending on where you hit them. The living enemies carry everything from handguns, to rocket launchers. Throwing grenades, or suicide bombing you, they come on. To help combat this you can use your kinesis to grab their grenades and give them back, or catch rockets and send them back to their owners. Which is quite satisfying I might add.

More changes is now you no longer have save stations. The game will auto save at certain points for progress. Want to take a break? Just pause and select the “save and quit” option. Of course make sure you know where your progress save was. I had to replay a very hard section a couple times in a row because I just didn’t go far enough to hit the progress save area. Got things in certain levels you missed? Well now you can choose the chapter you want to play. The chapter select option is available right out the gate. Granted you have to reach each chapter to be able to select them. You can even select any optional mission to do in any chapter that has them. So if you and a buddy, or random player want to just do the co-op missions, then you can select to go to them straight away.

Also added is “Weapon Crafting Arena”. In this mode you can make any weapon you can think of, or have blueprints of. Of course making sure you have resources to do so. This is tide to the game in a sense. Anything you make will be in your inventory once you start up the story again. Of course you can just completely dismantle almost every single piece to it’s resource components. I say almost, because specialty weapon frames that you find can’t be broken down. As you go through the blueprint list you’ll see a plethora of weapon schematics from the game developers. Many made for co-op play, with still more blueprints to find in game. In crafting your weapon you must first choose a frame. The frame is your basic start. It will decide if your implement of death is small or large. You’ll have light frames, heavy frames, and special frames that will allow for specific weapons to be made. Some frames will only allow one weapon to made on it, with most allowing two weapons on a single frame. Giving you over under options. You can have a classic plasma cutter that will rotate between vertical and horizontal with a press of the alt fire button, or you can have a plasma cutter that is static at horizontal with alt fire activating a ripper. There are add-ons that enhance the weapons functions. With parts that add stasis, flame, electricity, and acid damage to rounds. Automatically picks up ammo, restores both you and your partners health/stasis when one or the other uses the packs for each.  With the loss of power nodes you now have upgrade circuits. These things come in a huge amount of diversity. Each frame has a 4 slots for each weapon that is available on it. Some frames will have them all open, or require you to unlock them with resources. As you find circuits in the game you’ll gain the ability to craft them. Find a +2 damage/+1 clip circuit and want more? You can make them. Beat the game once and you unlock the ability to make +3 circuits. I currently have +3 damage/+3 clip on all of mine. As long as you have enough resources you can make any weapon part that is in the game. Frames, cores, tips, add-ons, and circuits.

Running low on ammo, stasis packs, or even health packs and you can’t find enough? Well now you can make them. Or find to much of one thing you can sell them at a bench and get those resources. Can’t gather resources fast enough? Well the fine folks at EA have added a micro-transaction system into the game. In attempting to cater to the mobile gamers that don’t mind them, you can now spend real world money, to quickly up you cache of resources. Or as your scavenger bots find them, use in game ration seals to acquire the same resource packs. So before any of you cry foul, remember you don’t have to spend that money. With the chapter select, and the scavenger bots you can go to certain spots and farm like crazy. You have a total of 6 different resources you stash as you dash. With ration seals only being picked up by the bots. Of course the bots always, and I mean always pick up and deposit some of each resource type every time.

The infamous Hardcore mode makes it’s return, and is joined by Classic mode, and Pure Survivalist mode. Classic mode is always set to Hard difficulty, no co-op play, and you can’t craft special weapons. You can make classic weapons from blueprints you find along the way. You also get the classic aiming lasers. In Pure Survivalist enemies never drop ammo or health packs. So you have to make everything you need to carry around. Hardcore is just that, yet now to the nth degree. Where in two you were limited to three saves, your not anymore since this iteration has auto saves. The kicker is that if you die you don’t go back to the last progress save. Oh no you back to the very beginning. And seeing as how you can play Hardcore in co-op if one dies, both go back to the beginning. So if you think your bad enough, and want the challenge then co-op Hardcore is for you.

With modes to please fans new and old, enemies that make you feel like they truly want you dead, and a great diversity to level and game-play Dead Space 3 is a seriously solid game. Where many have questioned why for some of the story, I’ve enjoyed every minute of the game. With lots to do, and great ways to bring the challenge Dead Space 3 carries on the series in easy stride.

Final Verdict — With great atmosphere, solid game-play, excellent level designs, and ways to stretch your imagination, Dead Space 3 is one of 2013′s must have titles. Especially if you’ve been a fan of the Dead Space series.

However, since this game was mostly developed by Platinum Games(Bayonetta, Vanquish-and if you count their time as Clover Studios-Viewtiful Joe and Okami) I expected something a bit different from your Solid Snake led Kojima mind-fu**. I think Platinum successfully blended the two ideas well, but things could have gone smoother.

Revengence is a hack and slash in the vein of games like Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry, or God of War. Raiden wields a sword that not only is the main weapon but also the crux of nearly the entire game. The big gimmick that supposed to set Revengence apart from other sword based games is the ability to cut anything and everything. You may not be able to cut “everything” but it does make good on the promise to a point. There is a lot of damn stuff you can cut.

The real gimmick comes in when you activate blade mode. Blade mode allows you to cut basically anything from a nearly first person perspective. When activated, the camera whips around to just over Raiden’s shoulder and you control the slices that he makes with the analog stick. If the mechanic were to stop there it would remain a gimmicky and pointless feature, but Platinum has done a great job making this analog slicing a functional and necessary portion of the game.

The incentive to use this feature comes when enemies start to show weakness in certain parts of their bodies. In blade mode, Raiden is able to slice arms and legs off enemies significantly weakening them and during certain sequences it also offers a finishing move that if performed properly completely restores Raiden’s health and energy. When in a pinch, being able to slice your way to full health can be a savior. In this reviewer’s opinion, the unique blade mechanic saves this game from being just another slasher with too steep a learning curve.

Ah the learning curve. First off, there is no block button and there is no parry button. That’s really unfortunate for a game the relies so heavily on blocking and parrying. To block you must point Raiden in the direction of an attacking enemy and press the light attack button at the right time. If it sounds unnatural it’s because it is. I am so used to having an easy way to block and catch my breathe that this active parrying system that is in essence just a timed anti-attack system was so foreign to me I simply couldn’t do it.

The tutorials for how to use this feature aren’t that great and getting used to it takes at least half the game. However, it isn’t until about halfway through the game that it becomes absolutely necessary for you to survive. So, what that leads to is a breaking point about 3/5th of the way through the game where you are getting your ass handed to you relentlessly until you master the art of the block.

This makes the game infinitely harder than it actually is. Once you break that wall down and understand the combat system, enemies fall apart at the sight of your blade, but until then, especially during the bosses, Revengence will seem impossible to complete. Does that make it a bad game? No, its just not a well communicated game. Most of the rest of the game is straight forward with items being basically optional and collectibles being strewn around the world. The boss fights are interesting enough and the story has a self importance to it that most game stories don’t have. Its not bat-sh** crazy like other Japanese developed games **cough-Bayonetta-cough** but its very obvious that no one in the states made it.

One of my biggest complaints is the art design of Raiden specifically. I know he’s a cyborg and that’s what to expect from an anime inspired cyborg, but was Kojima not comfortable with ANY of Raiden’s traits being subtle. From his carefully groomed spiky hair, to the patch over his eye, to his terminator style jaw, to his giant metal cod-piece, looking at Raiden is a chore. Slow it down man, the more you iterate on him the dumber he looks, sometimes less is more and most of the time more is less. The rest of the characters have a similar disgusting over the top design to them but I expect that from enemies. Raiden should be relate-able and at least a cool looking. Homie has teeth ON his face, not in his mouth, but ON his face. Part of his face is teeth, there’s just something wrong with that.

Visually, Revengence looks great and runs smooth. The music is a bit weird. Rather than being orchestrated like a typical game it sounds like Platinum took actual songs with lyrics and used them in the action sequences. It helped accentuate the Japanese feel of the game, but at times in the heat of battle, it was a bit distracting. It should also be noted that the loads are hidden extremely well. It is a linear experience with alot of cut scenes, most of which are skipable, and not once was the load time between sections an issue. I say this because I am very quick to point out when a game has bad load times (Assassin’s Creed 3/Need or Speed Hot Pursuit) not enough games get mentioned when they get it right.

Revengence was as surprising as it was frustrating. Three different times I almost put the game down to never come back to it. Considering there’s only about 4.5 hours of actual game play, that put me wanting to quit nearly every hour and a half. I didn’t quit, and I’m glad that I didn’t. It turned into a satisfying experience. Much like drinking beer, Revengence is an acquired taste that at times will leave you on your ass, but once you figure it out good times will be had.

Verdict: I don’t know how it compares to other Metal Gear games, but I would say its worth the trouble if you have the patience to learn how to properly play it.

Reality Breached is an in-depth look at the Video Game industry and its business practices. Our pundits break down parties involved and give their stance on pressing industry trends. It’s time to get deep ya’ll.

Episode Cast

Sergio Lugo, Josh Alcaraz and Reid Walker

Episode Summary

Its time to attack the 8-bit era. Our journey through definitive games has us crash landing on the NES. Not surprisingly we talk alot of Mario, Final Fantasy and Mega Man. Let’s see what makes the cut!

For clarification on what a video game generation is visit this helpful Wikipedia article.

Wha’cha Playin’ takes the simple concept of playing games and turns it on its head. Our experts literally talk about the games they are playing. If that doesn’t blow your mind, I don’t know what will.

Episode Cast

Sergio Lugo, Reid Walker, and Michael Yates

Episode Summary

New guy Mike joins us for a nice episode of Black Guy, White Guy, Mixed Guy! We talk about Mass Effect DLC, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, RPGs and Sergio gets all hot and bothered by Assassin’s Creed III. Pardon the sound quality in the episode, Mike and Reid were casting from the depths of Orodruin, and as every knows…one doesn’t simply Skype from Mordor.

Like any good side story, everything Drake does in Golden Abyss is completely inconsequential to the rest of the story. Does it fit into the continuity? Sure. Does it contain the same lighthearted banter between characters? Definitely! Does it bring anything new to the Uncharted formula? Yes, but that something new might just piss you off. The same traversal, shooting and light puzzle solving that has always been part of the series is alive and well in Golden Abyss. The environments, while smaller than their big console counterparts, look great and have set a great bar for the Vita to live up to. Golden Abyss’ ability to replicate the console experience is really its strongest trait. Not everyone wants a console experience in a handheld game, but Uncharted Golden Abyss pulls it off.

The new things that they have added are very much Vita specific. Much like when the Six-axis debuted and Sony shoehorned motion features into its games, the Vita’s many bell and whistles each get their turn in the spotlight, with very mixed results. Throughout the game, it asks the player to rub the screen for a variety of actions. Cleaning off artifacts, charcoal rubbing, block puzzles, and quick-time event style swiping are a few of the oddball things it has you perform with the touchscreen.

I enjoyed the novelty of the front touchscreen, and the rubbing didn’t bother me at all. The touching wasn’t game breaking and didn’t have to be very precise. It was light, easy, and non-invasive so I found it nice. That kind of tomfoolery can really turn someone off. Having to perform precise movements was one of the main problems with the Wii, and Golden Abyss doesn’t suffer from this in the least. One thing that bothered me was the games insistence on you touching everything. The home menu cannot be navigated with the buttons, and d-pad. All the menus have to be touched and swiped through. I don’t mind swiping through menus but at least give me the option to do it either way.

Nolan North’s portrayal of Nathan Drake again is spot on and Richard McGonagle returns as everyone’s favorite white Danny Glover in Sully. The script isn’t as strong as the big console counterparts, but who was really expecting it to be? I was not a fan of the female character Marisa Chase at all, and was rooting for Nate to not hook up with her the entire game. On the other hand the weaselly character of Dante was great.

As for my impressions of the Vita. Two games in, I can safely say that I officially dislike the form factor of the Vita and wish the thumbsticks were higher. I know the placement of the thumbsticks isn’t really something they can change, and I’m sure internally they make sense where they are. What it comes down to is that holding the Vita with my hands and playing shooters kinda hurts. I like to use the tips of my thumbs on the sticks and this makes controlling the games very uncomfortable on the Vita. Also, the back touch panel is pretty dumb. Multiple times I was touching it without even realizing it. I can’t wait till games stop incorporating it.

If you like Uncharted you will probably like Golden Abyss. The controls take some time to get used to with the new weird thumbsticks, but enough of the core Uncharted experience is there to justify adding the goofy Vita features. I can see teens really liking the touch stuff and if you are one of the few that own a Vita, you owe it to yourself to play it.

Verdict: Its Uncharted, so why not.

Calling all Transformers fans. Here is our full-on review of Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, from someone who knows the lore and played the first game.

I make mention of fan review for good reason, granted fellow pundit Josh’s review is legitimate for someone who doesn’t know Transformers –and did not play the first game, however these games are made for the fans!. Although one can say it was made because of the recent resurgence of popularity following the Micheal Bay films. Be that as it may, we like to think mostly for we fans. With Peter Cullun reprising his role of Optimus Prime, and the inclusion of iconic Transformers, fan service is definitely in full effect.

In Transformers: War of Cybertron, we see how the War began. It was set up in Decepticon and Autobot acts, with five chapters per act. The first half being Decepticon and the second as the Autobots. Transformers: Fall of Cybertron is done much the same way. The main difference is that you do not have clear defined Decepticon/Autobot halves. You get a couple chapters as one side, then the other. Learning how things go from both fronts along the way. While the fan boys in all of us will enjoy seeing the Fall of Cybertron, there are some changes that will take a little bit of a pill to swallow. Primarily the retroactive continuity of Dinobot origins. More on that in a bit.

If you’ve played War of Cybertron the biggest change will be that unless your playing the online multiplayer, you’re going to be playing this campaign solo. So network tactics was not included this time around. Which from a story standpoint makes sense as some missions have you running around all alone and stealthy. For the most part the mission structure is still the same formula. You have a goal and you fight your way to said goal. As aforementioned this iteration has the inclusion of stealth missions. Plus you get to play as quite a few more of the bots from both sides this time around. In one level we get to play as Soundwave as well as making use of his little helpers.

So on to what the story changes in this game. The main change are the changes to the Dinobot origin. No longer are they built on Earth. I won’t spoil the story for you, but getting to play as Grimlock is a lot of fun –as is getting to lumber around Godzilla style as Bruticus made up by the Combaticons. Another change is Starscream takes his opportunity to take control of the Decepticons here –after Megatron’s “death”. So if your a canon purist you might be a bit put out by the changes. Just remember this has HASBRO’s full approval. Another add on is the ability to use Teletran-1 to use points for upgrades to your weapons, and your bot during the campaign.

I would have to agree with the previous review here on the site with the changes in environments –somewhat. While they all have a basic –and I do mean basic– look, they are vastly different. Basic look as in this is a Robotic planet. Not like we’re going to be seeing lush jungles here. You have a good change between open and enclosed environments. With lot’s of opportunities to make use of your bot’s different forms. The use of Grimlock’s Dino form is very satisfying by getting to stomp, swipe, chomp, and immolate your hapless enemies.

Story wise, unless you are said canon purist, is excellent from a fan standpoint. All the characters are true to their established personalities. With all the somewhat corny or cheese ball dialogue we’ve come to know and love. The campaign chapters are generally of good length. Yet the difficulty level goes up and down during gameplay. Though I have to think that it’s for the given situations. If you got twenty enemy bots bearing down on you, your not going to just Rambo through all of them.

Multiplayer has been expanded a bit since the last game. First off, you get to pick between two different robots per class. This isn’t the Autobot/Deception faction pick either. You pick the one you want to use and off you go. Now no matter which bot you pick, they will still transform into the same vehicle mode –to start with. As you level up you get more bots to pick from, and vehicle modes as well. The heavy will allow you to get Grimlock with his T-Rex mode as well. Each character has special ability to use. Weapons are leveled up, with perks and new weapons unlocked as well. The versus mode is fast, frantic, and fun. With the return of all the game modes from War. The multiplayer levels are varied, with lots of space to use whichever class you want. With ammo and health pick ups all over the place.

Control wise they are much tighter and fluid feeling this go round. Whether your playing online or off, bot or vehicle mode. Stealth kills and brutal melee kills have also been added if you like to truly be up close and personal.

Final Verdict — If you enjoyed the first game, you’ll love this one. Especially since by this time it’s come down in price. It’s a solid single player, with great multi player flair.

Twenty-twelve was a big year for Resident EVIL. The franchise saw the release of two Resident Evil movies, and two console titles. Love or hate it, Resident Evil 6 is here and it makes a few interesting changes to shake-up formula.

Set in 2013, the story takes place in four different full campaigns, each with its own style of action. You’ll get to play as Bio-hazard veterans and newbies, with each character having traits that make them a bit unique from the rest of the pack. Each campaign is five chapters long, and depending on how good you are, the run roughly forty-five minutes to an hour long. And you don’t have to play the campaigns in the order they are listed. I’ll be describing them in the listed order just to make it simple.

First up is the Leon/Helena campaign. Leon’s first few chapters feel very reminiscent of Resident Evil 2. The city has gone to hell in a hand basket, in which you will see people mobbed by zombies, survivors running off in their cars, and shot zombie dogs all over again. As that this is not the T-Virus, but the new C-Virus, there are of course new types of zombies. You get ones with bloated throats that scream and attract others, an enhanced form of the Crimson Head, and a zombie that reached the 6th level of fatness, “OH HELL NO!”. Then on to some tunnels, a 747, and then finally a seriously screwed Hong Kong.

Then we have Chris/Piers campaign, which of course is much-like Resident Evil 5. Now you don’t have zombies but the J’avo. These are monsters made from direct injection of the C-Virus. Which has the basic function of the Las Plagas, with the added bonus of making the monster mutate depending on where they get hit. Just about every bad guy you try to put down will most likely mutate in some way. Some will mutate bigger arms, some will add armor, legs or wings, or even straight up mutate completely. You’ll start in an Eastern European country, then on to Hong Kong, an Aircraft Carrier, and a Underwater Base. With a twist or two for good measure.

Third is the campaign of Jake/Sherry. Which for me was the most fun campaign to play. Jake is Albert Wesker’s illegitimate son, and Sherry is THE Sherry Birkin from Resident Evil 2. Sherry works for the government, and Jake is a mercenary. Yet Jake’s blood carries the anti-bodies to cure the C-Virus, and quite possibly all viral outbreaks. So it’s Sherry’s job to get him in safe and sound. Unfortunately Ustanek doesn’t want you to do that. Who is Ustanek? Well, we’ve got a campaign that resembles Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 5, and now we get to hints of Resident Evil 3. Ustanek is very much like Nemesis from Resident Evil 3. He’s big, chases you, and you can’t just put him away with even the infinite ammo rocket launcher. Ustanek is all about Jake, and he comes equipped to do the job. He has a cybernetic right arm that will have a variety of attachments on in throughout the run. From big blade fingers, to a mini-gun, he’s got the tools to frustrate you. With this duo you go Eastern Europe, then on to a helicopter ride, some remote mountains, Hong Kong, and eventually an underwater base. Yes, these locations are starting to overlap.

Last is Ada’s campaign. Originally you needed to play the first three then you would unlock Ada’s, but due to the recent update from Capcom you now have her campaign unlocked from the start. Much like the Ada missions in Resident Evil 4 you get to use Ada’s skills to get around the levels. Also you get a better grasp of what is really going on from behind the scenes. Another thing added in the update is that you can now play Ada’s campaign co-op. Originally it was only a singular experience. Ada goes through a Submarine, Eastern Europe, Aircraft Carrier, and Hong Kong.

Well it seems you might have noticed that everyone seems to at some point be in the same area as someone else. That’s not a coincidence. There are cross-over chapters that have two or more of the individual campaigns coming together for a short time. Mostly for some interesting boss battles. If your playing online you can actually have four people playing these sections at the same time. I unfortunately have yet to experience this, but it could come in handy.

There are some game play twists as well. You are no longer subjected to the “stop n’ pop” style of game play. You can now move, aim, and shoot all at the same time. The “counter” move from RE3 has been redesigned. Which is a good thing cause man the enemies love to literally throw themselves at you. The entire item management system has been streamlined to allow quick access to everything. Herbs are made into herb pills that can be placed into your quick dispenser. Need some health just tap R2 once for each pill you want to take. Got some sprays, or want to pick your grenade type? Tap up or down on the control star. Tap left or right to pick your weapon. Want to rearrange the order your weapons are in? Just press the triangle button and your brought up to a more traditional style menu listing. Yet the game doesn’t pause, so you better make sure your in a quite area. While moving just hold down the X button and you’ll sprint a little faster. You can tap L1 to do a slide, or R1 to do (depending on the character) a shoulder ram, or jumping kick. The melee system has had a revamp as well. You can select the knife to wield or you can pistol whip them. Now you have an action meter that will deplete with every melee attack that you do. Unless of course your using the knife. You can also pop a herb pill and it instantly refills your entire action meter.

Mercenaries mode makes it’s return, and is joined with Agent Hunter mode. Mercenaries is Mercenaries. If you’ve played RE4/5 then you know what to expect. You run around, smashing time bonuses, killing enemies, and trying to be as bad-ass as possible. Agent Hunt is a different beast altogether. There are two ways you can enter Agent Hunt. As either an Agent or a Hunter. To enter as an agent just start a game, have it online, and have the Agent Hunter mode set to on. Or if you want to play as a hunter, select to join someone’s game as a hunter. You can have multiple people join a game as Hunters. While playing as a Agent Hunter you’ll spawn as enemies and attempt to kill the Agents. Or campaign heroes. Which can be fun or extremely frustrating. Depending on the settings of the Agents skills.

Skills? Yes as you play you’ll acquire skill points. These are used to buy and upgrade play skills. You will have eight skill medallions, and each can be equipped with three skills that you can change out mid game without having to go out of the campaign and set. The skills range from increased item drops, specific ammo drops, to infinite ammo to specific weapons. So you can buy infinite ammo, but you can’t have everything and infinite ammo at the same time anymore. As I stated earlier you can’t inf ammo the rocket launcher in this game because other than Mercenaries, you only get it in one spot during all the campaigns, and it’s a story use item. Also in Mercenaries mode you can only equip one skill per medallion, and no…. you can’t equip any of the infinite ammo skills.

Capcom is really putting the work to keep up the replay-ability of this game by including RE.net. A website that once you sync your PlayStation Network account to tracks all your stats, and allows you to connect with other Resident Evil 6 players. They run events from here as well. Going from specific stage time runs, to specific enemy kill count competitions. With many things to unlock along the way. Every time you log into the site you get points, Anything you do in the game unlocks points as well. With these points you can unlock things for the site and the game itself. For the site you can create your own dioramas, and for the game you unlock different color palates for ex costumes.

With more changes to game play set by Resident Evil’s last two iterations. Resident Evil 6 is looking to finally take the series in the direction the fans have been asking for. Well, at least some of them. There are many old school RE fans that want the series to go back to it’s roots in both setting and game play. No matter which side of the fence you are on, if your a Resident Evil fan that has been on the fence about this game, I would say get off and give it a try.