Summer Stars 2012 Demo Sprints Onto Your System

49Games and DeepSilver have today released a demo version of upcoming general sports title, Summer Stars 2012. Giving you an early chance to try your hand at the 200m Sprint, Archery, and even mountain biking, the Summer Stars 2012 demo highlights the variety of events available in the upcoming game.

Summer Stars 2012 will be available come June 1st for all three major home consoles with the inevitable support for both PlayStation Move and Kinect. The demo version is unfortunately unavailable on the Nintendo Wii.

Join the forum discussion on this post

Free RE:ORC DLC Mission Arrives Tomorrow

Capcom and Six Slant games are planning to release the first of many DLC missions for Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City April 10.

The first piece of DLC for the tactical shooter will come as a free additional mission featuring a set of new characters. Players will take on the role of Harley, Dee-Ay, Tweed, Willow, Shona or Party Girl and set out to recover evidence that reveals the truth behind the deadly virus outbreak.

Additional DLC will arrive over the coming weeks but will come at a price. Both Xbox Live and Playstation Network downloads will become available on the same dates.

Join the forum discussion on this post

New Nike Uniforms Debut in NFL 13

We’ve just receieved word that EA Sports are hard at work to provide you football-mad fans the real deal for the upcoming NFL 13 video game. The publisher has been reassuring everyone that their upcoming release will bring with it the more realistic football experience to date with the developers being granted special access to the new Nike uniforms before anyone else to help in their efforts to recreate them perfectly in-game.

It sounds like an odd little piece of information to disclose in an email, but it surely acts as a gateway to reassure perfectionist that even the slightest detail will gain the developer’s full attention. It seems like you can all be sure that you’ll receive a true-to-life game this coming August. EA Sports had this to say;

The Madden NFL 13 development team has been working closely with Nike and
the NFL to ensure that all in-game uniforms are identical to their
real-world counterparts. EA SPORTS was given access to the earliest Nike
templates, and the two companies have had numerous meetings, working
closely together to ensure complete authenticity in Madden NFL 13.

Join the forum discussion on this post

Your PAYDAY Heist Just Got Serious

Those of you who like to pretend that you’re professional bank robbers will be glad to hear that a relatively substantial update has just hit the servers of popular bank robbery sim, PAYDAY: The Heist.

The MMOFPS title has just unleashed its newest patch featuring extended opportunities to those who have reached the huge level cap of 145, namely a new difficulty option and a slew of new tools to help your criminal efforts. Enhanced AI, new objectives, and even new acheivements await those who don’t fear prison stories.

Those of you with a Steam account have probably downloaded the patch unwillingly and without realizing, but it should be there for you to enjoy right now. You PSN users will most likely have to boot up the title to receive the update. It’s free to both platforms. The update highlights are available below:

• Masks of Disguise: Presidential masks are now available to those players that have reached level 145. Players can grab a Golden mask when all heists are completed on OVERKILL 145+. BEEEF masks have also been added to the game, and can be picked up in the lobby.
• OVERKILL 145+: Players that have reached level 145 can now play on a new difficulty called OVERKILL 145+, which opens up the possibility for new events and achievements. It also unlocks new weapons, such as the crowbar to open doors, as well as leaderboards.
• Drop-In: With the added in-game drop-in ability, players can set the server to allow for others to join the game mid-heist. Players can also filter players by setting server reputation and difficulty requirements.
• SWAT Tactics: The SWAT captain has trained a slew of new recruits, resulting in challenging new tactics and counter measures for players to face on each of the heists.
• Sweet Moves: Players can check out new weapon animations for the Shotgun.Law enforcers now move more tactically than ever before. Even civilians have new dance animations in the DIAMOND HEIST.
• Portrait Window Additions: Players can now see the name of the character they are currently playing in the portrait window while in game.
• Compare Worldwide: PC Players can now view statistics on how many players in the world have completed the different heists on all difficulties through the”SELECT HEIST” menu.
• Expanding Field of View (FoV): PC Players can now choose what FoV they want to use ranging from 60 to 100 through the advanced graphics menu.
• DIAMOND HEIST Music: For PC players, as a token of appreciation to the community, 200 of the most dedicated career criminals’ nicknames have been immortalized in-game. The DJ has added a new music track, doing shout-outs to 200 players in the community.

Join the forum discussion on this post

Ninja Gaiden 3 Review

Ryu Hayabusa and the Ninja Gaiden series has laid dormant since 2008  and everyone can agree we badly needed to slice some heads off with a katana. Ninja Gaiden 3 makes a lot of significant changes to the normal formula of the past two titles and fans of the series may be thrown aback by this more welcoming entry. This also marks the first main entry in the franchise not to be helmed by Tomonobu Itagaki since its revival into the modern console era. Can the franchise continue to be ‘AAA’ quality and have a top notch experience without the famed designer or should this ninja lay down his sword?

Ryu Hayabusa is called upon to help an agency on a rescue mission but quickly turns out to be a ploy by a cult-like group of alchemists who need Ryu’s blood to create a new world order. The story heavily deviates from the past two titles focus on fiends and archfiends until later in the game and instead looks to examine Ryu’s decent for all of the killing over his lifetime. This is portrayed early on by his right arm being taken over and turning into a demon arm. As the player kills enemies the arm fills with a blood aura type of energy and when it starts to tingle and glow the player can then hold the triangle/Y button to unleash the power to cut enemies down around him in a few slices of his blade. This is primarily a function that happens automatically and will help you out in a pinch so it is smart to save this power if you think it is going to be a long battle with waves of enemies. Ninpo is now on a gauge that fills as you defeat enemies and can be unleashed with the usual O and triangle/B and Y press which plays out as an in game cutscene that unleashes the ancient power and destroys enemies in the area.

Players will no longer collect karma or use items in general. All projectile weapons such as the bow, which will upgrade with his sword as the game progresses automatically through story progression and shuriken have unlimited ammo. After a certain point in the story, the bow even comes with explosive tips that make a nice boom when you fire them. Graphically the title is slightly better than the second with improvements in detail on characters and enemies but cutscenes seem to remain the same. Enemy diversity encapsulates the majority of enemies from the past two titles as well as a few new ones for a well-rounded mix. The difficulty however is mashed due to the streamlined approach and lack of features that made the first two progressively difficult, like leveling up weapons and limited healing items. The hard difficulty does offer good challenge but pales in comparison to what fans are used to. However at the time of this review, planned free DLC will include a new difficulty, Ultimate Ninja Mode which will hopefully satiate fans.

To say that Ninja Gaiden 3 has been streamlined into a user friendly title is almost an understatement. In between taking out the main features like weapon upgrading, items, and a simplified HUD that now only appears when Ryu is in battle they even have it now so that when Ryu is finished battling his health automatically replenishes, however loses his nimpo gauge as well. Saving and full health replenishing (which adds another one quarter to his overall health) is now done by a scripted falcon that flies in and once the player initiates contact, flies onto Ryu’s arm saving the game. The combat has also taken a much more button mashing approach where players will find themselves not needing to mix up their attacks on the medium and easy difficulties. As the Ryu lands attacks on enemies they of course become weaker and more likely to fall for the new ‘Steel & Bone’ move which after a few attacks the game goes into a slow-motion mode and the player is given a button prompt to sever parts of the enemy. Players can sever parts also by doing normal attacks and special moves but the steel & bone moves become sort of a requirement as failing them means Ryu takes damage from the counter attack. The boss battles gradually get better and one of my personal favorites is the one during the Hayabusa Village level. Some enemies weakpoints will be pointed out and others will be more of a trial and error battle.  Another feature is the ninja sense which can be used by pressing the left stick in to allow Ryu’s senses to show him where to go next. The title features a few new ways to traverse the environment like kunai climbing which players go hand over hand with the L1/LB and R1/RB buttons to climb steep areas and walls. This is also used for rope climbing going hand over hand to cross and attacking with O/B and swaying side to side. Sliding will not only be Ryu’s main tactic during battle to quickly evade but also to slide under obstacles and incoming debris in levels by pressing L1/LB in conjunction with a direction with the left stick.

The online portion this time around has been reworked a little allowing for karma now to act as XP that you can gain offline or online. Offline can be fun as the ten different trials in the ‘Ninja Trials’ mode have an increasing difficulty as you progress through them as well as gain experience for leveling. Leveling up online or off will increase your customization options in the mode. Online allows you to bring another player into the trials for co-op trials or compete in a clan battle with up to eight players of two teams looking to kill one another. As you progress in rank you will gain new abilities like walking so slow you move with a ghost like ninja capability as well as more capacity for your projectile weapons. DLC is constantly being added in the form of new costumes and selections for customization for the oline whereas free DLC has already been added for new weapons and even added stages for trials.

Ninja Gaiden 3 has deviated from the planned path that the original team may have had in mind all those years ago. Many Ninja Gaiden purists may not be happy with the linear gameplay and simple subtraction of many key features that made the title challenging and different. However, at the end of the day, Ninja Gaiden 3 is a solid six to eight hour slicing slash of a menacing action fest that will keep many gamers on their toes. The story picks up towards the end and the comfort of future DLC weapons may soothe any blade-hate you may or may not hold towards the title. The online itself is solid and fun to play with a lot of customization options and even a periodic level cap increase. If you are a fan of Ninja Gaiden, you owe it to yourself to pick this title up, and if you are an absolute purist at least rent it.

Final Score: 3.5/5

Join the forum discussion on this post

MadCatz and Ubisoft Team Up For Ghost Recon Peripherals

Gaming peripheral giant, MadCatz, have recently announced their venture into more video game branded products. Following the release of next month’s Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, MadCatz will release alongside it a range of new products designed specifically, but not limited to, the upcoming strategical shooter.

Products to come out of the gate include a branded Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier gamepad and a branded version of the popular Tritton 7.1 Gaming Headsets. Both products will be available for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 systems.

Join the forum discussion on this post

Ninja Gaiden 3 PS3 Patch Live

Today marks the announcement of Ninja Gaiden 3′s DLC as well as the first packs release. If anyone is interested in getting in some action in before the PSN Store updates, now is the time as the 1.02 title update has been released.

The title update adds new features to Ninja Gaiden 3 such as the new weapon of Falcon’s Talons, a new clan battle stage and finally a higher level cap for online. The update also adds a Playstation Store option on the main menu for easy access to the impending DLC as well as a set of five hidden trophies, no word yet what these may be associated with but hopefully will add fun. The patch tracks in at about 185MB and should only take a few minutes. Who can say no to free stuff? Get out there and slice up the competition.

Join the forum discussion on this post

Rockstar Announces PAX East Attendance

Rockstar has just announced their attendance at PAX East in Boston. They are looking to give fans their first public experience with Max Payne 3 since 2011′s NYCC.

Rockstar will be showing off Max Payne 3 at booth  #912. This will be the first public hands-on of the title. If you are planning on attending PAX East this would be an awesome reason to do so as Max Payne 3 is shaping up to be one of this summers most anticipated releases.

PAX East will take place April 6-8 at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. Max Payne 3 releases in North America on May 15 for consoles and May 29th for PC. Europe will see the console release on May 18th with a June 1st PC release.

Silent Hill HD Collection Lets In Giant Patch On PS3

Silent Hill HD Collection has been out and has seen some great reviews from IGN and GameInformer. Despite this, one would assume to work out bugs it seems that Konami has released a rather hefty patch on the PS3.

Upon the next time you put the game in the system you will be greeted with a 1.01 patch weighing in at 297MB. Examiner has all the details on the patch. However, no word if the Xbox 360 will be receiving the same patch. We will keep on the story and see what develops.

Street Fighter X Tekken Review

The ultimate matchup that has been years in the making and many fans hoping for in the years prior to the announcement is officially available. Two powerhouse franchises in fighting games, Street Fighter and Tekken, each with their own unique style and approach to the genre have locked fists for the first time. Does this mixture bode well and leave a possible franchise open for the future or is this one fight that we wish was cancelled?

Street Fighter X Tekken is essentially a brand new franchise that melds both worlds into a hybrid game that primarily caters to the Street Fighter fans but also allows accessibility to Tekken fans. The title offers a bevy of characters from both Tekken and Street Fighter along with some Playstation 3 exclusive characters. Street Fighter X Tekken also has a wide array of new gameplay aspects along with an overlaying story arc for the arcade mode. The first character you pick will be the primary story character which you will view the opening movie for as well as the ending sequence. The main idea is that Pandora’s Box has appeared and caused the greatest fighters from all over to unite with one another in search of the box for ultimate power and glory. In the end, Pandora is guarded by ‘Ogre’, an immense figure that is an opposing force and can be quite a pain in the butt if you are playing with a Street Fighter character as the primary or Akuma as the final if you are playing with a Tekken character. The Arcade mode can be played with up to four-player co-op on the Playstation 3 essentially like a real arcade which is pretty awesome.

Street Fighter X Tekken is one of the more intricate fighting games that we have come across with a lot to piece together. Some may say that makes it more cluttered than fun however if you are a hardcore fighting game fan you will appreciate it, but newcomers may be a tad bit lost at first. Returning are the  normal special moves and normal moves that we have grown accustomed to over the years as well as EX moves, which use one block out of the three on the new Cross Gauage at the bottom of each side’s screen. You can build ‘Cross Gauge’ by preforming attacks and blocking. Switching characters is as easy as hitting medium punch and medium kick at the same time. Boost Combos and boost combos into Cross Rush become a key part of gameplay as they do not require any of the cross gauge and can simply be pulled off by pressing any light, medium then hard attack buttons in that order but only one type so they all have to be kick or punch to work you can’t mix and match.

‘Super Charged’ attacks allow for characters who use such attacks, like Ryu’s Hadouken to charge them by holding down the attack button for up to three levels of power. Super Arts have become the new special moves which differ from character to character and use two Cross Gauge blocks. ‘Cross Arts’ is one of the three moves that utilizes the entire Cross Gauge and is performed by quarter circle forward and medium punch/kick buttons at the same time. If done correctly it goes into a massive combo that automatically switches characters and finishes the combo with the secondary character. Cross Assault is uniquely different but also requires a full Cross Gauge. Performed by quarter circle back and medium punch/kick buttons simultaneously, it brings the secondary character in and allows you to wade out the remaining Cross Gauge with both characters on screen at once pummeling the opponent. The final new move is the ultimate special move in the game but also is only to be used as a last ditch effort as it sacrifices the character that is currently in play as well as requires the player to have twenty-five percent (25%) life or less. ‘Pandora Mode’ can only be activated under these conditions as well as having full cross gauge and is performed by pressing down, down, medium kick and medium punch at the same time. Your partner will get all the benefits of Pandora mode once you sacrifice yourself such as increased strength, maxed out cross gauge, as well as receiving twice the original characters remaining health. Pandora mode adds an outlet for players who find themselves the underdog the entire time and some may see it as a cheap maneuver to make the game easily accessible, however, Pandora only lasts about 10 seconds. The fact that a lot of the moves in Street Fighter X Tekken take a note from the Tekken side and allow for juggling actually assures that an exceptional or great player will never allow their opponent a chance for Pandora mode.

New to both franchises that is special for this crossover is the ability to equip each character with up to three gems. Gem loadouts are customizable in a separate section of the menu’s and are on a per character basis, as in you will have to go into each character and customize them individually even if you plan on using the same gems with every character in each of the two available loadouts. Some gems that are higher power and less of a negative effect on the player require two slots out of the available three instead of one. Gems vary in type as well as well have different output levels of a selected type with maybe a decrease in a certain aspect but may also have different requirements. For example an immense power gem level 1 requires you to connect with five normal attacks for an added ten percent increased damage output for twenty seconds whereas an immense power gem level 2 has you connect with ten normal attacks and has twenty percent increased damage output for fifteen seconds while also lowering your movement speed by ten percent. There is a huge cause and effect with many of the gems and it is up to the player to decide if they are willing to sacrifice defense, speed or power to get the upper hand or create a loadout with all gems that have no negative effects but are hard to activate, like connecting with four special moves. There are many types of gems in the game and each are color coded for ease, blue effects your cross gauge, red effects your attack power, yellow is for defense, green is for speed, orange are vitality gems that restore health and pink are assist gems that allow for assists like easy input, auto-block or auto-throw escape. The depth of the gem system is quite interesting implementation into a fighting game and is actually something that you may forget about as you play because the default loadouts for each character are pretty good but on higher difficulties or when playing online is when the customization and specific loadouts will become necessary.

Customization in Street Fighter X Tekken is deeper than usual fighting games of this nature that are not built around customization like Soul Calibur. A separate menu is available to not only customize your battle profile with titles and comments but also individual character colors. A side note is that there seems to only be three pages of comments which feels low given the amount of characters in the game. Each player has the default costume colors and three custom slots to customize a characters skin, hair and different pieces of their cloth and parts (necklace, headband etc.). Sadly there is only four colors to choose from, there is no creation palette for the colors as what you see is what you get. On the other hand, the option is there and very welcomed for fans who want more personalization online. Another customization option is the ability to customize quick combos, which has you hit preset buttons (light kick and hard punch or light punch and hard kick simultaneously) to pull off combos that you can customize for each character. You can create two presets per character, it adds more depth which is really what Street Fighter X Tekken appears to offer the most of, choice.

If you are getting tired of the arcade mode and feel that you are not quite ready for the online thing yet than Challenge Mode is right for you. Featuring three different modes including a straight tutorial mode that will help you get the basics as well as a few special moves pegged before you go into battle. The trial mode which has become a regular part of the newer Capcom fighting games returns with every character available to go through twenty trials. Trials exist so players can practice and get better with just about every character if they choose to do so with varying arrays of combos to pull off. Mission mode is sort of like the Tekken mission mode however with a Street Fighter twist, requiring set parameters, like using only normal attacks or only special attacks to finish the enemy. They vary in difficulty and can be pain to beat without the proper gem setups or training. There is a total of twenty mission modes to play through.

Online looks to be a heavy component of Street Fighter X Tekken allowing multiple modes and features. Since Street Fighter X Tekken is essentially a tag title from the main online battle menu you can invite random players or friends to chat in the menu while you decide. Briefing Room exists so players can enter into training or practice type of mode while they chat it up. Ranked Match is the only options for those looking to raise their battle rank. Scramble mode allows for four separate players online or offline. You can even create a large room with many people where winners stay and losers switch it up, however battle points will not be affected. Endless battle makes a return in which your battle points will not be here either affected. It is pretty cool that you can team up with friends online and locally then take the game online against other partnered teams. Replays have been implemented to showcase your cool moves, prowess or just to show off to friends. You can save these replays and view them in the Network menu as well as share them online or view your friends saved replays.

Street Fighter X Tekken is a very solid fighting title but the future and longevity is in question. New gems are set to be added throughout the future and can lead to balancing issues in the online mode but work very well offline. The focus on an arcade type of play with four player versus/arcade (Playstation 3) and ability to take a local player with you online is great. The individual story segments are welcome however most of the endings are written and not acted out which some may feel as lazy but can also be defended as it would require a lot of work for the massive amount of characters in the title. In the end the introduction of this new versus series is one long awaited by fans and very intricate and requires time to learn and master. A few missteps with maybe being too intricate and difficult as well as a sketchy balancing of online that may require patching or tweaking of the gem system, make this title a great buy for hardcore but a toss-up for casual players. Let us hope Tekken X Street Fighter learns from the mistakes to make the perfect crossover while keeping the awesome dubstep music.

Final Score: 4/5

Delve into the Dark Eye with these Demonicon Screenshots

Kalyspo Media have a new almost fan-built action RPG on its way early next year, and a good number of screenshots are starting to burst onto the scene to show just what the universe of “The Dark Eye” will hold for players once they dive into the world of Demonicon next year. The tale of siblings in their quests to do what is right in a kingdom on the edge of demonic ruling, Demonicon will see players performing brutal combo attacks to get by in their tortured lives avoiding demonic temptation to reach a comman goal.

Demonicon is due to release across PC and high definition consoles early next year.

DLC Mission Announced For Operation Raccoon City

The first DLC has been announced for Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City and it takes you back to between Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. The Spec Ops mission looks to have fans anxious for its release this April.

The Spec Ops mission will have players deployed as a member of a team attempting to determine the source of the viral outbreak in Raccoon City. They will  rush through the city fighting off hordes of zombies, U.S.S forces and B.O.W’s in their fight to find the source. The storyline takes place between Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis allowing players to re-visit the first time Jill Valentine meets Nemesis.

The DLC will be available April 10th in North America completely free of charge. Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City releases on March 20th in North America & March 23rd in Europe on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. PC version is set for May 18 globally.

Armored Core V Takes A Small Shot At Playstation 3 HDD

Some people don’t feel hard drive installs are news anymore. Well, we see them as news as sometimes gamers don’t realize that certain games will require an install. Today we find out that Armored Core V actually has a small install that takes around five minutes.

The install for the highly anticipated Armored Core V on the Playstation 3 racks in at around five minutes and is 3.6 Gigs. Not a whole lot, but I have a 320 Gig and have only 80 Gigs left with games like Gran Turismo 5, DCUO, and MLB 12: The Show all having between 5-10 Gigs of option or mandatory installation.

Look for our Armored Core V review sometime next week when the game releases   on March 20th in North America  and March 23rd in Europe.

Top Gun Hard Lock Requires Online Code For Multiplayer

Top Gun Hard Lock is the first major retail release in the Top Gun franchise in many years and a few gamers are eagerly awaiting its return including myself. Promising fast paced action and an array of online explosions with up to sixteen (16) players is awesome. However, it looks like if you want to play online you might want to think about your investment be it new or used.

Top Gun Hard Lock  appears to require an online activation code located on the back of the instruction booklet. It simply says “Top Gun Hard Lock requires an activation code to unlock Multiplayer mode” This comes as a surprise as this appears to be the first 505 Games title that requires an online activation code.

What are you thoughts on this new development? Will it effect your possible purchase of Top Gun Hard Lock? Top Gun Hard Lock is out now on Playstation 3 & Xbox 360 in North America and April 6th in Europe.

Will Future 505 Games Titles Have Online Passes?

It seems we all can add another company to the online pass requirement list. 505 Games’, Top Gun Hard Lock requires an online pass.  However does this mean future titles will as well? We decided to reach out to 505 Games and see what they have to say about the matter.

As we reported yesterday, Top Gun: Hard Lock which recently released on PSN and Xbox 360 has a $9.99/850 MSP online activation code for those who do not purchase the title new. We decided to reach out to 505 Games and ask more in depth questions about the decision for this. We decided to ask Lisa Fields,  Director of Public Relations for 505 Games if their forthcoming titles with online capabilities will also have online activation codes/passes. To which she responded, “Our next boxed game is Sniper Elite V2 and we will not have an online pass for the MP feature in that game.” We followed up by asking why 505 chose Top Gun: Hard Lock to feature the Online Pass in to which she responded, “On behalf of our interests and that of our licensing partner.” There you have it, the official word from 505 Games regarding future of online passes and reasoning for Top Gun: Hard Lock having one.

If you break it down, it seems that Paramont Interactive maybe pushed them to do it which is sort of sad fact, but business is business nowadays. Thankfully the highly anticipated Sniper Elite V2 is now confirmed not to require any type of online code to access the multiplayer. This does not mean that future 505 titles are out of the woods though. What are your thoughts? Let us know in the forums or below in the comments.

Silent Hill: Downpour Scares Up Playstation 3 Hard Drive

Silent Hill fans across the globe are eagerly awaiting their chance to pick up the next entry in the Silent Hill franchise but Playstation 3 fans might have be wary of the risks as they enter the town of Silent Hill this time, especially if they lack hard drive space to spare.

Silent Hill: Downpour releases today in North America and players are geared for the released. The Playstation 3 version will require roughly a 4.5 gig install based on the back of the cover art. How do you feel about this? Is it a pain or to be expected now with high profile releases on PS3?

Silent Hill: Downpour is available now in North America on Playstation 3 & Xbox 360.

FIFA Street Review

FIFA Soccer has become a staple of the EA Sports lineup and an integral part of many gamer’s lineups. The yearly iteration has seen consistent improvement to which many fans have praised the series for its ball control and trueness to the sport. Touted by EA as the number one selling sports franchise in the world, FIFA looks to take players back to the street, a place where they have not been since 2008. FIFA Street is a complete reboot to the franchise adding realism and real life street venues from around the globe to take players into the life of a street soccer rookie playing in small time court games and moving up to high intensity 6v6 championship tournaments. Can this breathe new life into the street series or does it belong on the curb?

FIFA Street offers fans of the FIFA Soccer franchise a chance to transfer their created ‘Virtual Pro’ from FIFA 12 right from the start, enabling them to build a street team around him. Players will be able to customize their team and create more players than just their import in the ’World Tour’ mode. Customization of individual clothing, team name, logo, attributes, play style, and various other in depth team options. Throughout the World Tour mode you’ll travel the globe facing off in a variety of game types from 2v2 to full on 5v5 or 6v6 tournaments made up of three qualifiers and then bracket play. Events also range from ‘freestyle’ - where you gain points to your bank by doing tricks and pannas while scoring goals to reduce the opposing teams bank to nothing. Last man standing requires teamwork and great solo effort to win, as each time you score a goal, your team loses a member until one man is left and you score the final finishing goal. Another great mode is ‘First To Five’ where you simply have unlimited time and it requires you to be the first to five goals. The World Tour mode is littered with modes like these aside from the 5v5 and 6v6 solid street ball or Futsal - which is like regular FIFA but with dribbling and street mechanics.

Each event in World Tour will put you to the test and allow you to choose one of three difficulties; bronze (easy), silver (medium) or gold (hard) with each giving you a different reward for the win while unlocking the lower tiered rewards. For example, if you beat an event on gold, you unlock the silver and bronze rewards which range from clothing, street teams, or even new arenas to play in. World Tour also gives you the option to play the events online against other players but sticks the AI at a set gold difficulty. In order for you to progress and be eligible to compete in the variety of game types in Street you should have at least six players on your created team, but you can have a maximum of ten. Through online connectivity you can take the Virtual Pro from your friend’s FIFA Street team and use him as your own. World Tour will throw players on a lengthy ride through four tiers covering regional, national, European and global street ball. Each tier requires you to place in the top three in the finals to progress. Tournaments play an integral part in advancement giving you points in the current tier on your teams rankings. Another great element is that your opponents during World Tour are gathered by the EA Online servers and are actual teams created by players around the world. It assures that no two players will ever have the same opponents at a given time.

The controls are one thing that FIFA Street take to heart, and players will agree when they pick it up. FIFA fans will be familiar with the control layout and take to it almost immediately. Dribbling and juggling will become a key attribute with many players as it will be your easy way to deke around defenders and even fake or trick them so you can kick home the goal which is simple and done by holding down the R1/RB while pressing a direction the left stick to kick the ball up or juggle it over the defender. Dribbling is done in what is referred to as street ball control by pressing L2/LT and utilizing the left stick to confuse the defender. Players who get a little over confident can show off some flair with the L1/LB button while passing (X/A) or shooting (O/B) to do some over the top techniques; like kicking it with the back of your foot or a behind-the-back shot. Skill shots can be done by toying with the right stick against a defender and deking them in a variety of true to street, stylish ways where the ball passes through your opponents legs - s0mething known as a ‘panna’ or ‘nutmeg’. As you progress with each player, you can use attribute points to purchase more skill moves to use. On defense your job is simply to regain the ball by either square/X or O/B while doing your best to defend your ground. The game also usually auto selects the player closet to the ball when the ball changes hands to the opposite team or chosen manually by choice with L1/LB on defense.

The more you play in FIFA Street with your team, the more experience you will gain by competing in events by doing tasks such as scoring, pannas or simply deking around defenders. Players will be notified after every event regarding level progress via a progress bar by each character who participated in the event. Players on the bench or not participating will also gain experience albeit at a lowered rate. Once you level up you’ll earn a smaller little ‘level up’ symbol - a green ‘^’ sign by the players name. Every time you level up you will gain ten (10) attribute points to distribute throughout your player’s various seven attribute categories (athleticism, defense, dribbling, goalkeeping, passing, shooting and speed). Depending on how you choose to distribute these points throughout your players progression, they will earn various specialization roles. Starting out at ‘balanced’ and branching out into varying types that sort of mark their importance to the team such as power finisher, keeper, playmaker and so on. You can also choose to spend attribute points on styles as well as new tricks for the player to learn, but it isn’t necessary. To say the least, the character and team development are some of the deepest in any sports game  to date. And that is a plus for any FIFA fan. As you progress and defeate licensed teams from FIFA, or real street teams you’ll unlock the ability to have a key player join your team if you choose to. They’ll be unable to level up but will retain the base stats they were created with.

Online takes to the streets as you would expect and allows the usual ‘play now’/'quick play’ type of modes. But the bread and butter is the online head-to-head seasons where you can compete online in seasons with your team where ten games are equal to a season in fifteen different divisions for you to engorge in either 5v5 or 6v6 game types. Also available for online play are cup matches which reset every few days with a new game type to keep things fresh for players. Leaderboards are apparent in World Tour events and even in the online modes. Players can capture video at any point to show off tricks or incredible feats and upload them online on the fly. EA Sports Football Club makes a return and will contribute to your identity across all FIFA titles.

FIFA Street manages to hit all the notes on the gameplay side of things. Solid controls, addictive gameplay and a deep team creation system as well as a diverse World Tour mode makes for at least 8-10 hours of main mode football, and even more if you plan to level your team and take on the Gold standard. Graphically it is on par with FIFA 12, which is great, however the crowds seem to suffer and for the most part appear lackluster. The soundtrack is engaging and upbeat as you would expect any street title would be, something that makes you move your feet in tune with the almost graceful action of the players. All in all, FIFA Street stays true to the sport and crafts a near perfect street soccer title. FIFA Street as a reboot is better than any fan could have hoped for and one for gamers to enjoy for some time.

Final Score: 4.5/5

Order Up!! Review

Cooking is a part of everyday life and can be a fun activity for some. In the gaming world there are very few games that focus on the art of cooking while managing to make it fun and engaging for the medium, especially on consoles. ‘Order Up!!’ has been on many platforms, most recently the Nintendo Wii but has now made its debut on the Playstation 3 with Playstation Move support. Can the title stand up to other PS Move titles on the market or is this title a little bit under cooked.

Right from the start, once you choose either a male or female chef, the player is tossed into a fast food burger joint which teaches you the basic controls of slicing, grilling and frying food as well as taking orders and getting tips. It serves as a tutorial as you don’t keep any of the cash you earn at the start. The controls for the regular controller can be kind of a hassle and they feel very tight and almost confusing. If you plan on purchasing this title, it’s in your best interest to already have a Playstation Move controller. Once you pick it up with the PS Move you will see that this was made with it in mind as the primary play style. It’s fun, intuitive and very accurate, and a simple one button press for recalibration makes it all the more enticing. The mechanics of the gameplay with the PS Move controller feel great;  flipping burgers (spinning the controller to the left like you were flipping a burger), or flipping food in a sauté pan to keep it from burning (down then up in a scooping motion like flipping in a real frying pan) all are true to their counterparts.

The player will reside in Port Abello, yes like the mushroom (the game is full of cheap little novelty wordplays like that one). Port Abello is the culinary capital of the world and the player has chosen this place to make a name for themselves and own various restaurants on the island. The end goal is to have various restaurants at a five star level, all which require tasks to do so; from cleaning the place when you first buy it, owning all the different menu items, purchasing chef’s specialities from the market, reaching a set money goal for the restaurant and finally impressing the local food critic. The island has three main areas, Olde Town, Downtown and Market District each having a few restaurants to buy and own. However, you cannot unlock the next restaurant until you five-star the previous one. Each restaurant has an outside which serves as a safe zone where you can do various things like check the paper for assistant chefs to hire who help you in your duties with their unique abilities. Some candidates are good at frying, baking, cutting or being able to earn more money per customer, but you’re only allowed a maximum of two assistant chefs at time, so mix and match their abilities to suit your needs.

The paper also allows you to upgrade the restaurant for faster cooking or just clean it up. The payphone outside allows you to pay for a set amount of services like a slot machine capable of dishing out key ingredients for your culinary uses. It also allows you to call a tip line or critic to come in once available – but note: the critic will show up automatically once you reach a four-star rating. Besides the area outside your restaurant you can also visit the Farmer’s Market where you can visit the Spice Emporium to purchase spices and unlock based on your resaurant level. Sweet and spicy seasonings are important in making your customers happy and some are even required for Chef’s Specials so be sure to stock up as they do go up in price as you progress. The Spice Emporium also has two mini-games, one involving slicing a pepper mid-air, and the other, a timing game of chopping a carrot in half. The one-a-day activities reward cash for those who do good. Also at the Farmer’s Market is the Black Market where you will purchase up to eight ‘Chef’s Specials’ per restaurant. It’s an expensive way to cook, but you’ll earn some nice extra cash if you manage to pull them off.

The basic gameplay will involve the player waiting for customers to choose their table and have the waiter/waitress take their order and bring it to the kitchen, then you’ll choose what to do from there. Speed is usually good as customers who wait tend to become irate or just leave. Some customers like their food overcooked, undercooked or have special spices applied which can be seen by a question mark on their order ticket. If you choose to click the question mark you will see what they like for a fee. Usually that character becomes a regular and returns so it is good to memorize what each different character enjoys. Each order ticket is essentially a recipe telling you what to chop, sauté, grill, fry, boil or steam. You can give tasks to your assistants as well if you are either in a hurry or believe they are better at a certain task than you can do. You are graded from ‘Poor’ to ‘Perfect’. Perfect garnering the most tip but being somewhat difficult to achieve as each item has to be cooked to the customers liking perfectly. It can be annoying when slicing that if you cut one slice of tomato with a good or even poor rating you lose the perfect for the entire dish – the practice sort of becomes addicting. Every now and then you’ll sometimes get mini-games such as a rat infestation or slacking staff members endangering the professionalism of your business for you to fix.

Other than the main story, players can go into co-op or split-screen multiplayer to enjoy it with a friend in the ‘Play Now’ mode where players can pick up to four different dishes and compete or work together. It adds a cool layer to the game but is really all there is for replay value.

Order Up, is a very fun title for Playstation Move fans with new restaurants and elements that aren’t available in the Wii version. This is really the definitive version of the title, but in the end the replay value is not quite as spectacular as we hoped and can become repetitive rather quickly. For adults the game is great in short bursts. However, for a title that sits at $29.99 and offers roughly eight hours or more of gameplay if players plan to unlock every recipe in the game, then heck it is well worth it. Graphically, the game is as cartoony as possible, and that’s fine as the title is clearly aimed with families and children in mind. If you’re looking for a game that’s fun for the family but light on the mini-games, then Order Up for you.

Final Score: 3/5

Dirt 3 Races Back with a Complete Edition

Codemasters just dropped the news of a rerelease of their popular rally racer, Dirt 3. The game will be hitting store shelves again with a ‘Complete Edition’ packing everything from the base game along with over £20 worth of additional content ranging from vehichles, tracks and extra modes. 12 new tracks spread across 2 new locations, more cars and more events completes or starts your racing experience.

Dirt 3 Complete Edition launches across PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 tomorrow (March 9) for a RRP of £30 allowing you to race a Mini Cooper around Monté Carlo and Tokyo for whatever weird kick you get out of that.

Retail Release ‘Order Up!!’ Lacks Platinum Trophy

Order Up!! is a series that has made its way across on the Nintendo Wii and various mobile platforms and has been released on the Playstation 3 for the first time at a bargain price. However, it lacks something that other retail move titles have.

Order Up!! for the Playstation 3 is a lot like the series Cooking Mama except with a story and is a great concept to bring to the Playstation Move. Sadly though, trophy fans who like to use Playstation Move titles to pad their trophy list will be at a loss as Order Up!! has just 14 trophies and no Platinum trophy although the title is a full retail release at $29.99. We have reached out to the publisher for comment.

Look for the title on store shelves now on Playstation 3.

SSX Review

Anyone who grew up with a Playstation 2 or even an Xbox in their house will remember the first time they got the chance to play SSX (Snowboard Supercross). No matter who you picked, Mac, Zoe, Kaori, Elise or any of the many players who made their mark on the franchise in its various iterations throughout the years, you always had a great time riding down the mountain pulling off insane tricks and crazy Uber Tricks. Has the franchise been reborn for a new generation or can you not teach an old dog, new tricks?

Think you are ready to go sliding down the mountain and take on the nine treacherous peaks in the game? Well, you aren’t seeing as the game boasts a new control scheme that is very intuitive as it is based on the trick/flick it system from the Skate series. Your movements with the right stick mirror the part of the board you touch and interact with. Push left you grab the left and do a trick, push left then right quickly your left hand will grab the right side of the board. After that all you have to do to take it up one more notch is hit the right trigger or R2 (depending on console) and you have a tweaked trick. The face buttons can be used as well for veterans of the series who don’t like change, but after playing Skate and going into this, it was the control scheme SSX was built for. As players pull off more tricks and variations without doing too many duplicates or bailing they will raise the boost bar which doubles as the special bar. Once full the player enters ‘TRICKY’ which turns the players tricks into slightly more insane versions that are more dangerous but have a higher score reward for pulling off. Then, once the word ‘TRICKY’ is filled, it turns it into what is essentially your Uber bar, where you are able to pull of absolutely mind blowing stunts that should in no way be performed by a real person. Once Uber is available, one push of your triggers stringed together with any move will activate your character’s unique special trick.

The ‘World Tour’ mode acts as the title’s story which chronicles team SSX’s journey across the globe for adrenaline fueled glory and to conquer the nine deadly descents against ex-team member, Griff, who has gone off on his own to bask in the glory selfishly. Each mountain will have you control a different member of the group  and once you initially face them with Zoe Payne, you will then unlock them for the other game modes. Every mountain each has a unique distinction between it and the other mountains such as trees, rocks, avalanche, whiteout or ice. Sadly only two out of the three peaks in each mountain range utilize the hazard. Throughout the progress of the story you gain currency based on your performance as well as badges for preforming certain tasks over a variety of categories; which will in turn earn you more currency for purchasing boards, suits and accessories. Accessories will be helpful when conquering the descents and range from wingsuits, to armor (which are the only time you will have a health bar) and headlamps. Each character has their own unique accessories that come standard but can buy any of the varying types of different quality and stats. The boards also come in varying types and each character also has their own unique boards for them, they boost the players speed, boost and trick ability. Suits also are unique to each character and not only give style but they also give stats boost at times. There are a total of 450 unique suits across all characters and 750 unique boards, so players will be grinding for extra cash in ‘Explore mode’ for plenty of time before they get the choice gear.

Explore mode takes the SSX franchise to the next level, yeah you can stay here and grind for currency and fun perusing all the mountain ranges an peaks that were developed via global data from NASA, or you can step your game up on any of the 159 drops. Using the RiderNet feature that is like Autolog for the SSX franchise except a lot more addictive, players will get notifications when they sign on of anyone who has beaten their scores, collected their Geotags or any other online feature. It gives players the drive to hop back on and outdo their friends or better their friends scores. Geotags are collectibles within the game as well as ones that players can place and earn currency for how well they can hide them within the game. Global Events are timed events that are open to everyone in the world, some require a currency buy in and the top four people win a share of the pot. Some have certain rules and players can even make their own events. It is pure genuine genius and addictive.

SSX is one of the greatest snowboarding games we’ve had the pleasure to enjoy. It takes the classic gameplay we know and love from the franchise and implements an amazing new control scheme while catering to fans in every way possible. The nostalgic factor alone made us burst with glee while playing several times. The game does not go on without sometimes disappointing, the rewinds given to the player are limited at times and sometimes hurt the player instead of help and half the time you are better off completely restarting the level. Being an wide-open title players will get stuck behind rocks and trees which will sometimes frustrate the player but not diminish the overall experience. The soundtrack is amazing and upbeat and the ability to utilize your own tracks is a great feature especially with the remixing on the fly as you turn out tricks. SSX has given the series new life and an absolute must own for any fan or those seeking a fast paced snowboarding game to challenge their friends to. Now, hopefully it won’t take forever for a sequel or DLC mountain ranges to bring us back to the hills.

Final Score: 4.5/5