Top Gun: Hard Lock Review

Do you feel the need? The need for speed? well 505 Games and Paramount Interactive felt the need to make another Top Gun based game in hopes to clear the slate of all the bad titles and finally sink their teeth into the interactive entertainment portion of the industry while taking fans of Ace Combat. Does this title light the fires or does it end up too far into the danger zone?

Top Gun: Hard Lock’s story mode takes place after the movie where Maverick and the returning cast are simply on the sidelines and the aformentioned Maverick is actually one of the training instructors you have to take out at the beginning during a training mission. So essentially, the player character, newcomer to the ‘Top Gun Academy’, Lance ‘Spider’ Webb is a better pilot than Maverick. The setting for the title is the ever popular Persian Gulf and surrounding areas. Throughout the fifteen missions you will only be able to customize the decals on your plane as every mission requires a set plane. The presentation is seemingly grainy to keep with the style of the 80’s movie, or maybe the fact you’re flying at high speeds. Either way it is odd but nothing too annoying for the player.

Gameplay can get repetitive as players will enter ‘hard lock’ a lot, which is done by coming up behind the enemy and hitting square/X when prompted to do so. Once you are in hard lock the player can try their chances with the machine gun (X/A) or line up your sights with an inner circle on the screen for rockets/missles by hitting circle/B. Prompts or quick time events will appear as the enemy attempts to evade you, the prompts are various combinations of the left and right sticks. It is unique and fun but after a while hard lock can get into a tedious pattern of evade, shoot, evade,shoot. At least now we understand the titles name was chosen. Prompts and quick time events will also occur while you are trying to avoid enemy fire and the player themselves are in hard lock. Missions can sometimes vary between shooting air targets or ground targets, the ground targets will provide slightly more difficult challenge as they are a smaller target to hit and will require a few passes most of the time. As you progress you will unlock one of the fourteen playable planes and various weapons from bomb types to missile types. There are fifteen total missions in the game but no difficulty setting only progressively harder missions.

Danger Zone mode has players choose from all available planes and fight off waves of enemies as the ‘rules of engagement’ constantly change every wave. Some changes that may occur include having to fly below a certain height or other changes to gameplay. The mode is increasingly difficult and health doesn’t seem to replenish after rounds either. Online is handled with an online pass so if you either purchase the title new or purchase the online pass via the XBLA or PSN store players will gain access to this mode. The online versus is rather basic with deathmatch and team deathmatch for up to eight players. The online co-op has various modes with a maximum of four players. Base defense has players work together to defend their base, Carrier Strike has players attack an enemy fleet, while Aircraft Escort has players protect and escort bombers. The online is pretty barebones but allows more options for co-op than versus so that can be a good thing since it shows the developers knew that the online community may not hold up too long after release.

Top Gun: Hard Lock is a fun title for Top Gun fans but feels very repetitive in its implementation. The fifteen story missions with only one main difficulty and replay value being to score a better medal the story will take most players around 6-8 hours. The overall difficulty is increasing but primarily trial and error mixed with a pinch of luck with hard lock. The online is only great if you have friends who also have the title, if not there is really no point to it as there is barely any community. Top Gun: Hard Lock is a great purchase for fans of the series but it would be strongly suggested as a rental first or even a bargain bin purchase.

Final Score: 2.5/5

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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

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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.

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Defenders of Ardania Review

Firstly, the game is called Defenders of Ardania - Not Defenders of Arcania as we at TGH presumed. Defenders of Arcania evokes images of wizards and magic and would be quite fitting, but no – Ardania it is, even though it looks a bit like a typo.

Developer Most Wanted’s Majesty 2 spin-off defence-and-attack title is set in the medieval land of Majesty, where you’re tasked with overseeing the defence of your own castle along with developing various strategies to destroy targets owned by the enemy.

In practise Defenders of Ardania is a cross between a traditional tower defence game, an RTS-lite and resource-gathering sim. Tower defence titles are plentiful on all platforms, so a new title like Defenders of Ardania needs a bit of innovation to stand out from the crowd, and these cross-genre concepts flesh out what could have been a quite ordinary addition to the genre.

Each level begins the same way: with you being given enough resources to build a few towers before the attacks begin. Resources accumulate automatically (if slowly), but quicker when towers are placed on certain strategic grid squares. Resources are used to upgrade old towers and build new, as well as to create and deploy attack squads, however towers and squads have a seemingly arbitrary limit placed on them – once the limit is reached you have to wait for a tower to be destroyed or sold to build a new one, or squad members to die before replacing them, and there’s never a reason explained for the limit, which feels unfair. There’s a range of options for both attack and defence, with 24 different upgradeable defensive towers to build and 24 attacking character classes to choose from, all of which unlock as the game progresses.

Building towers, deploying squads and choosing targets is all very simple thanks to an intuitive control system. Choose your grid square, choose a tower, and as long as there’s enough resources and the limit’s not been reached, the tower is built before your eyes. It’s the same with attacking, you can send units out of your castle in squads of five in any combination (up to a limit of 30), although there’s rarely any need to mix units within squads. In fact it’s a bit fiddly to access the menu, choose a class, fill the squad and deploy, when it would be much simpler to only allow the player to deploy squads of the same character class, instead of being able to mix them up. The units are anything but a clever bunch, and willingly follow your instructions to walk into certain death, be that from tower, enemy or castle… Unless you actively tell them to attack anything other than the enemy’s castle using the game’s faulty Bounty system, in which case they completely ignore it and wander off to their previous destination. Spells complete the mix with a wide variety of offensive and defensive choices available.

There’s a nice tongue-in-cheek theme running through Defenders of Ardania, it never really takes itself too seriously which is a nice touch in a genre that’s often po-faced. The story is pleasant enough, we didn’t pay a massive amount of attention to it, but it’s there for you if you really need a reason for  the bloodshed. The real star of the show is the sadly uncredited voice-over artist who plays your assistant and hams it up with the most outrageous Sean Connery impression this side of Steve Coogan.

Although Defenders of Ardania is pretty – with its firework display battles and Roman candle distractions – closer inspection reveals some surprisingly low-res textures and some tearing, too. But it’s a trade-off we can live with; with so many units and towers having a bash at each other on screen, lesser tower defence titles would slow to a snail’s pace.

One of the main problems with the game is such a limited range of tactics available to both sides leads to each battle becoming a lengthy stalemate, with each castle’s health being deteriorated equally until a spell is cast to heal it, and round you go again. It’s a shame, because adding a new feature to an old genre like tower defence should be welcomed.

Defenders of Ardania arrived with low expectations and no hype, but it’s a solid if unspectacular tower defence game with a bit of a twist – whether the additional features have improved the game or not is up for discussion, but developer Most Wanted deserve credit for at least trying.

Final Score: 3/5

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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.

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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.

Developers Would ‘Love To Bring Omerta To Consoles’

We recently got a chance to sit down with Haemiont  Games and speak with Game Designer, Boian Spasov regarding the upcoming Omerta: City Of Gangsters and its possible future on consoles.

Boian replied to our question with seeming excitement “We would love to bring Omerta on consoles, as we did with Tropico! We believe that an audience for tactical and management games exists on consoles, even if the released games are few and far between.” Once we heard this we were excited as more tactical titles need to be on consoles if controls can be worked. He ended the question with the following, “Stay tuned for more information from Kalypso in the near future.” so it looks as though the future of the game may end up in the publishers hands.

Stay tuned later today for our full interview from Boian and Haemiont Games regarding the upcoming Omerta: City Of Gangsters.

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.

Modern Warfare 3 Content Collection 1 Launch Trailer

Attention Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 fans and those who love to play Modern Warfare 3 but do not have the Call Of Duty Elite subscription. The time is nearing where you can play all those maps that your friends have been enjoying for so long. First on Xbox 360 you will be able to purchase Modern Warfare 3 Content Collection 1 which includes 6 new experiences.

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Content Collection 1 includes everything from Elite’s Content Drops from January up until this month. Liberation, Piazza, Black Box and Overwatch are the multiplayer maps that are also playable in Spec Ops Survival. For the first time ever semi-story based Special Ops missions are available with leaderboard inclusion, Black Ice and Negotiator. This is the most massively content filled Call Of Duty Content ever and it might just be worth the price if you don’t already have Elite. Check out the launch trailer below.

Modern Warfare 3 Content Collection 1 drops on March 20th first on Xbox 360/ XBLA for $14.99.

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.

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.

Microsoft Launch 10 Year Anniversary Site

Worryingly it’s been a massive ten years since the original Xbox launched – man that makes us feel old – and to celebrate Microsoft have launched a timeline site.

Showcasing all the tidbits you’d forgotten about, the E3 videos, articles about the launch of services like Xbox live, they’re all here for you to reminisce over. It’s an impressive timeline and really shows how meteoric the rise of Microsoft’s little (well rather large) black box was, especially as it arrived on the console scene as the baby of the bunch.

You can flick through years of Microsoft’s – and your – past over on the Tenth Anniversary website.

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

Defend Ardania From Next Week

Paradox Interactive are gearing up to launch their RTS/Tower Defence hybrid title, Defenders of Ardania outside of the Apple App Store within the next few days.

The company announced a March 14 release date for the game across PC and XBLA offering a spruced up version of the app which launched in December.

You can read our December preview of the PC version here and watch the brand new trailer below.

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.

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

Agent 47 Means business on the Hitman: Aboslution boxart

Revealed exclusively through the official Facebook page, Square Enix recently lifted the lid on the packshot images of Hitman: Absolution, the fifth game in the stealth series. Sitting comfortably on the left side of the case, Agent 47 is looking just as swanky as he always has. Posing in-front of the velvet red background, those unaware of his line of work will probably piece it together themselves – especially when they read the title. We still don’t have a secure release date for the game, but be sure, not many of you will ever see that PC box – not in this day.

FIFA Street Will Not Have Any DLC Says EA

Looking at FIFA Street one would think there is a lot of potential for downloadable content with teams, All-Star Teams and even maybe guest teams like NBA Jam had. Sadly EA says no way.

We decided to reach out and ask EA Sports’ Steve Frost, the Global Brand Manager for all things FIFA, to ask if there is any DLC planned post launch for FIFA Street. To which he replied, “There will NOT be any DLC.” We were surprised at this but I guess understandable given that it has been a while since the last FIFA Street title.  He continued, “Right now we are going to see how Street is received before we make any plans for the future.” Well, there you have it. A pretty definitive answer on a topic that may plague a few gamers minds as we near closer to the release.

Be sure to check back for continued coverage of FIFA Street as we near the North American release date of March 13th and European release date of March 15th.

Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations Demo Now Available

You crazy Naruto fans get all sorts of games on all of your systems, and now you can play another before it’s scheduled release date – in demo form of course. Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations is the next chapter in the ‘Ultimate Ninja Storm’ series of fighting games set in the never ending Naruto universe. Featuring the biggest character roster so far, Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations will continue the story of the past entries and follow the arcs of the anime with clips from the show.

The demo just now released on the XBLA and PSN pits you against 3 of the battles you’ll see in the commercial release. Slamming fists against Sasuka Uchiha, Pain and even Madara – with Zabuza and Haku having a much awaited inclusion.

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations releases March 13 on both Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.