God of War Origins Review

Sony repurposes Kratos' PSP adventures. Praise Zeus.

Look up "dumb character" in the fictional dictionary, and you'll find a photo of Kratos. He screams everything he says, he disembowels everyone he meets, and he can't muster a smile to save his life. I find him about as deep as a puddle, and as an admitted "story whore," the fact that I enjoyed playing as the big idiot in God of War Origins surprised me.

Spoiler Alert: you don't need me to tell you God of War Origins rocks. A bundle of two PSP God of War games that each scored around the IGN 9.5 mark, Origins ports Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta into high definition, adds 3D, and slathers on PlayStation Network Trophies. Sony succeeded in making good games better.

In 2005, Kratos and PlayStation became synonymous. The original God of War introduced quicktime events, the Blades of Chaos, and insane finishing moves. Every iteration of the franchise pushed the limits a little bit further -- that includes these two titles. God of War: Chains of Olympus acts as a prequel to the original game,casting the protagonist as a servant to the Greek gods. Kratos deals with a Persian invasion and things go from bad to worse when the sun disappears. God of War: Ghost of Sparta fits in between God of War and God of War II. A vision invades Kratos' brain, and he sets off to find his brother

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

 In the battle between terrorists and counterterrorists, no matter who wins, we also win in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

Since its initial release as a humble mod roughly 13 years ago, Counter-Strike has grown into a first-person shooter icon built on quick matches and hair-trigger reflexes. At this year's Penny Arcade Expo we got the chance to play Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, the latest chapter in the ongoing struggle between terrorists and counterterrorists. The game is being developed by Hidden Path Entertainment, which codeveloped Counter-Strike: Source and runs on an updated version of the Source engine. The result is a crisp and smooth FPS that's every bit as frantic as we remember it.

During our hands-on time with the game we made sure to sample the three new pieces of gear that were on display: the Molotov cocktail, the decoy grenade, and the Taser gun.

Xenoblade Review

 Xenoblade Chronicles is a sublime, wonderfully paced game that both refines and modernises the Japanese role-playing game.
The Good

    Excellent sense of pacing 
    Combat is fantastic, in-depth, and fun 
    Locations are vast and beautiful 
    Huge game with loads of interesting things to do 
    Thoroughly modernises the genre while respecting tradition.

The Bad

    Occasionally difficult to find where to go.

UK REVIEW--It begins with an epic battle, a clash of titans in a world without time or form. The scale, the scope, and the vast expanse of the gameworld are established in this moment. The two giants collide, swords clashing in the misty gulf of the universe, and developer Monolith Soft makes it very clear that you're about to embark on something special. Much like the thundering behemoths that mark the game's opening, Xenoblade Chronicles is groundbreaking. It's a true evolution of the Japanese role-playing game, shedding the restraints that have caused the genre to stagnate, while retaining the tropes that made it popular in the first place. It's fast-paced yet in-depth, challenging without being punishing, and features a combat system that draws on the best parts of the RPG world, both Eastern and Western. It's remarkable to think that this understated release--which sadly hasn't even been confirmed for North American territories--might justifiably be hailed by many as one of the most important JRPGs in years.

Spider-Man Edge of Time Video Game Preview

Spider-Man: Edge of Time follows the present-day Amazing Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2099 in their efforts to prevent a catastrophic event from taking place, the death of the Amazing Spider-Man. The story starts out in the future as Miguel O'Hara (Spider-Man 2099) works at Alchemax. Walker Sloan, a rival scientist who works in the temporal physics lab, has decided to go back in time and remake Alchemax in his own image, decades before it was originally founded. He eliminates Stark Enterprises, Fujikawa and all other competitors. This creates a new, alternate timeline. In Miguel's attempt to stop Sloan, he becomes caught between the two timelines and the world changes around him. He's spit back out into the revised future as the only one outside of Walker Sloan with the knowledge that the timeline has been altered.

The game is written by Peter David. Walker Sloan is the first character he's created for the 2099 timeline in 15 years. According to Activision, there will be cameos of characters from both time lines, as well as other new characters created specifically for the game. Josh Keaton voices the Amazing Spider-Man and Christopher Daniel Barnes voices Spider-Man 2099 in Edge of Time.

The game starts in the "Amazing" timeline. O'Hara must contact Peter Parker, who us quite content and doesn't believe this isn't the life he should be living. The two form an adversarial relationship at the start when Miguel contacts Peter across time to tell him that everything he knows is wrong. According to Activision, as they work through the challenges of the game together, they eventually build a strong friendship.

Picture-in-picture is used to show the two Spider-Men communicating with each other. Instead of a classic level set up, the PiP is used to switch between the two time lines. Equal time is given to both Spider-Men in their time lines. Spider-Man 2099 will have to react to changes in environment. Pathways will open and enemies will appear and disappear as Amazing Spider-Man acts in his timeline.

The two Spider-Men share the same core combat system, with slight differentiation. Amazing Spider-Man is more acrobatic, with ranged web attacks. He has a new ability called, Hyper-Sense, which is a half offensive and half defensive move. It taps into Spider-Man's spider sense to auto-dodge and avoid obstacles. During the course of game play you can upgrade your Hyper-Sense and use it for longer periods of time.

Spider-Man 2099 has a slightly different combat style. Because he's faster and has talons, he engages in melee combat and uses swipe attacks. His signature move is called, "Accelerated Decoy". He has accelerated vision, which allows him to see the environment faster. You can use it to shoot decoy versions of yourself across the screen to either distract enemies or as a offensive move. The two characters have a shared move called, "Time Paradox" and it can be used to freeze enemies in time.

In continuing the level we discover Spider-Man's foe will be Anti-venom, who is being controlled by one of Walker Sloan's chips. If Parker does not fight him, the building will explode and kill people for blocks around. Miguel's attempts to convince Peter to avoid the upcoming fight fall on deaf ears. As you fight in the "Amazing" timeline, it can have an immediate effect on Miguel's time. An explosion coursing through present-day Alchemax destroys atomic regulators in the building. Those explosions cause radiation to leak in 2099 timeline, slowly killing Miguel. Spider-Man must race against time to stop Miguel's death from occurring.

In Anti-Venom boss fight, Eddie Brock attempts to fight against the influence of the control chip embedded in his brain. Walker Sloan sends more power through the chip to set off his more bestial side. During the course of the fight, hits from Anti-Venom drain Parker of his powers and he has to dig deep into his arsenal to take his foe down.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution Review

 A weapon of choice.

The hype machine behind big games often mirrors the precarious Icarus myth - fly too close to the sun, promise too much, and you're just as likely to tumble out of the sky as deliver on your potential. Eidos Montreal have promised so much with Deus Ex: Human Revolution that it's hard to see how they could succeed, how they couldn't burn up in the harsh heat of audience expectation - of the potential assigned to a predecessor now more than a decade past. That heat already turned on one Deus Ex sequel, scourging it beyond all rhyme or reason. Playing the part of a better Daedalus, Eidos Montreal has given Human Revolution the wings to fly true - with just a few scorch marks to show for it.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution takes place in a future you can see from here through half-lidded eyes. The world of Human Revolution meets somewhere between Blade Runner and Robocop - caught between the utopia of revolutionary scientific discovery and the dystopia of the people inevitably left behind. Protagonist Adam Jensen becomes swept up in a globe-spanning conspiracy hinging on powerful - and dangerous - augmentation technology. Adam's employers sit on the cusp of a breakthrough that might fully "unlock" human potential, courtesy of a love interest from his past, Megan Reed. But before you can say "Alex Murphy," Reed is dead, and Jensen lays mortally wounded on an operating table, receiving an involuntarily hands - and legs, and lungs, and eyes - on crash course in humanity's future in the post-human era.