Just Cause 2 brings players to new heights

Wade Manns - The Corsair

 

Just Cause 2 by Square ENIX

Genre: third person freeroaming, action-adventure

Rating: Mature for Blood, Drug Reference, Language, Sexual Themes, Violence.

If you’ve read my articles for a while, you’ll know that I really like the Grand Theft Auto series. Not for the actions of  crime, or its extreme violence, but rather for the exploration factor. I never know what I’ll find around the next corner, but with this game, as well as its prequel, I am able to rise above and see around all the corners at once.

The amount of  verticality in exploration is quite unprecedented in this game. You can take a plane or helicopter up to a seemingly limitless altitude, jump out, and parachute endlessly to the land below. If you’re on land, you can fire a wrist-mounted grappling hook at any time to latch onto buildings and reel yourself in, climbing to new heights, or you can deploy your  parachute at any time to get even more height. You can even latch on to cars with your grappling hook, and take control of them whenever you  like.

This unique method of parachute and grappling hook mobility enables you to reach any point in the game at any time, as long as you’re willing to work for it. There are even several achievements that you can unlock for getting to various places on the very huge map.

The story, like the first Just Cause, takes place on an island country, this  time in Southeast Asia, Panau (the first one, San Esperito, was more Latin American). As in the first game, you are Rico  Rodriguez, guerrilla revolutionary and globetrotter extraordinaire. Your mentor from the first game, Don Sheldon, has gone rogue and hidden himself somewhere in Panau. Your job is to find him, determine if he is a threat to the agency for  which you work and, if he is, terminate him.

If you remember the first game, you’ll know that the voice acting is really not all that good. In fact, it downright stinks. This holds true to the sequel as well. There are three gang bosses that you work  for in order to take over the various regions of the country for their use as well as yours, and the cut scenes in which the bosses appear, while looking very good, are filled with some of the most atrocious voice acting you’ll hear in video games.  And Sheldon himself, once you get to find him, is found to have had the exact same verbal tic as in the first game, that being enunciating every single word rather stiltedly and not ever placing emphasis on the appropriate syllables. Still, you learn what you need to learn, even  if you have to read the subtitles because you had to mute the sound.

There is a massive variety of terrain to explore in the game, and you’ll see most of it from the air: from seaside shanty villages to heavily  fortified military bases, to air bases and seaports, full-f ledged cities, tropical paradises, high, snowy mountains, arid deserts and a certain island with a somewhat familiar ambience; you’ll know it when you see it. Your goal is to cause enough chaos by destroying property of the Panauan government, almost always clearly marked with a white star. Radio  antennas, radar installations, surface-to-air missile sites, generators, water towers—all of these fall before your guns and rockets, which you may purchase from the black market, given enough money. From the same black market, you can also purchase various vehicles, some with weapons of their own, and you can upgrade both your weapons and vehicles with myriad weapon and vehicle parts that you find strewn throughout the locations that you’ll explore.

There is a whole lot of  stuff to do in Just Cause 2. You can get lost doing (as in, completing the disruption and collection at over 350 locations on  the island) various side-missions, but working for Rico’s agency is what pushes the story along. It doesn’t really stick  round long enough for you to care about it, but it gets the job done. I’ll give this an 8 out of 10. As I said, the voice acting  is not really up to par, and some things that you get to do can be a little repetitive after a while, but I forgive the game. Mostly.

‘Final Fantasy’ adds number 13 to its series

Wade Manns - The Corsair

Final Fantasy XIII
By Square Enix
Genre: Role-playing
Rating: Teen for mild language, suggestive themes and violence.
Release: Tuesday, March 9, 2010

The epic (and epically long) “Final Fantasy” series now has 13 games under its belt. All of these games feature a band of disparate adventurers banding together to save the world from an unknown threat, which they think is known at first, but turns out to be more than meets the eye. That’s the superficial; the details are different, but that doesn’t make these games any less original or fun.

This installment follows the adventures of a group of citizens of the world known as Cocoon, a perfectly spherical world located near another, much harsher one, known as Pulse. Pulse and Cocoon were both created in antiquity by creatures known as fal’Cie, extremely long-lived beings possessed of unspeakable power; being like gods, they leave the running of the day-to-day affairs of Cocoon to Sanctum, the governmental body that runs Cocoon. Because of their fear and hatred that many of the citizens have of Pulse, as well as those who have come in contact with it, the Sanctum has instituted a program known as the Purge, which ostensibly relocates citizens who have been exposed to elements of Pulse down there.

However, one beautiful night, a lone fal’Cie from Pulse is discovered within the limits of a Cocoon city, and a Purge is ordered of the city and all of its citizens. It becomes evident then that the Purge is not intended to relocate the citizens, but to exterminate them.

The origin of the fear of things from Pulse begins with the power of the Pulse fal’Cie, to turn those who come in contact with it into l’Cie, slaves to its will, compelled to complete a Focus, or a task, or be turned into a mindless being. That is the fate that awaits our heroes: Lightning, a former soldier from Cocoon; Snow, a freedom fighter whose fiancé is also a l’Cie; Sazh, a mysterious hanger-on, whose motives are unknown; Hope, a little boy who bears a grudge against Snow, for apparently not being strong enough to save his mother’s life; and Vanille, an over-energetic young woman who never feels any remorse or despair, but is always bright and cheerful, who attempts to encourage Hope in his quest to confront Snow.

They tangled with a Pulse fal’Cie and have been branded; now they must complete an unknown Focus, while the full force of Cocoon’s military is bearing down on them. Some of our heroes believe it is their job to save Cocoon, being led to believe that by Snow’s fiancé, who was turned into a crystalline being (as do all l’Cie who complete their focus); others, knowing that Pulse fal’Cie are the sworn enemies of Cocoon, believe it is their calling to somehow sabotage and destroy Cocoon.

Yes, the story is complicated and contains much confusing terminology, but thankfully there is a data log within the menu that allows you to review any of this information at any time, as well as to peruse the history of the game and all the character profiles (as well as enemy intel) of those you meet.

Exploration in the game is fairly linear, but is filled with many amazing and interesting sights to keep you busy for a very long time. Combat is quite hectic at times; even though you only control one character directly, up to three may be in a battle at once. Efficiently switching between the various roles of your characters to provide adequate attack power, healing, and defense is vital to your survival, especially among some of the battles with enemies that have massive amounts of health.

This is a “Final Fantasy” game; it’s one of my favorite series ever. This game is a very welcome addition to my library, and I will gladly give it 10 out of 10 stars.

‘Dante’s Inferno’ falls short

Wade Manns - The Corsair

Dante’s Inferno
by Electronic Arts and Visceral Games
Genre: Third-person action/exploration
Rating: Mature, for blood and gore, intense violence, sexual content and nudity.

Between 1308 and 1321, the Italian poet Dante Alighieri wrote his epic poem, which would come to be known as “The Divine Comedy.” This was a three-part epic, which covered a fictionalized version of himself and his journeys through hell, purgatory, and heaven respectively. This game covers the first part of the epic, and changes a few things around.

Dante served as a crusader in real life, as he does in this game, but he was allegedly given leeway by a bishop who said that God would absolve all of his company’s sins, and so in the course of his duties, he indulged in his basest desires, expecting to be forgiven and was ultimately disappointed.

The ideal woman, Beatrice, whom Dante admired from afar in real life, is now made into Dante’s love interest. Beatrice implored Dante to enter into the service to protect her brother. He promised to do so, swore by God, but ultimately failed at this task. By this time, however, Beatrice had fallen in love with Dante, and made a dark deal with Lucifer, the Prince of Lies, that he would protect Dante from death in exchange for her soul. He was killed, unfortunately, but cheated Death (and stole his scythe, even) and was able to return to life.

At this time, Dante was beginning to feel guilty about the many atrocities he had committed in the name of God, and so began sewing a tapestry of his life right into the flesh of his chest. When he had finished, he returned home to his love, only to find her and his father dead, run through by an assassin’s blade. Beatrice’s soul then appeared before Dante before being quickly taken away by Lucifer. After going to a nearby chapel to retrieve a holy cross, he is allowed to enter the gates of hell and begins his journey to find Beatrice.

You, as Dante, will travel through all nine circles of Hell: first through the gates themselves, then the shores of Acheron, then upon the back of the great boat Charon as you do battle while floating down the river. The first circle of Hell proper is Limbo, where the un-baptized (including very angry children with blades for arms) and virtuous who died without taking sides, come after you. You’ll then pass into Lust, where undeniably sexual, yet grotesque and disfigured visions await you, including a gigantic Queen Cleopatra; you must also fight her love (who is about your size), Marc Antony. Next, in gluttony, you face bloated, disgusting demons, and also battle the great worm Cerberus, basically a three-headed worm. In the circle of Greed, we discover that Dante’s father, Alighiero, a wealthy landowner in life, received an offer from Lucifer of a great reward and money for killing his own son, despite the fact the money really has no use in the afterlife. Alighiero definitely tried, but failed, and was absolved by Dante.

Actually, I had to stop playing before I got to Alighiero. Though it is a really good game, with wonderful graphics, sound, and a disturbing atmosphere, which really fits the theme of hell, it is extremely frustrating and unforgiving. I said before that twitch action games, if done well, can be very rewarding. This was not as good as “Bayonetta,” which I reviewed a few issues ago. One wrong move, a failed strategy or lack of one, can result in disaster. You’ll be surrounded by enemies and hacked to death before you can recover.

In case you’re wondering, the remaining circles of Hell you go through are Anger, Heresy, Violence (including the Forest of Suicides), Fraud (including the Malebolge, or Evil Pockets), and Treachery.

I really hate to give this game a low score, but I owe you the truth: 6 out of 10. It hurts me to give that score, as the game could’ve been so much better, but it wasn’t, at least in my view. If it were up to the graphics, the sound and the atmosphere, I would give this game a 9 out of 10. But the controls hurt the game very much. Would I recommend this to someone? If you’re extremely patient and have a lot of good coordination, yes, I would. Apparently, I have neither.

‘Star Trek’ joins the online gaming world

by Wade Manns - The Corsair

Star Trek Online
By Cryptic Studios
Genre: Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game
rating: Teen (fantasy violence, mild suggestive themes)

I was recently given the opportunity to try out a 10-day free trial of “Star Trek Online,” the new massively multiplayer online RPG set in the Star Trek universe. As first MMO’s go, it’s not bad at all. I’m not a massive fan of the genre, but this definitely has enough to keep me interested.

The storyline follows the original timeline established in the original “Star Trek,” “The Next Generation,” “Deep Space Nine,” “Voyager,” and “Enterprise,” but directly follows the events that lead into the reboot movie, which was recently released.

Shortly after Spock used the red matter to create a black hole to try to save the two home worlds of the Romulan Star Empire from a supernova (an attempt which failed, resulting in the destruction of Romulus and Remus), the condition of the Federation and its relations with various other inhabitants of the Milky Way Galaxy quickly deteriorated: the Klingon Empire declared war once again, the Borg again found a foothold in the Alpha Quadrant, and the Romulans schemed by clandestine means to regain their prominence.

As a newly christened Captain of either the Federation or the Klingons (eventually), you’ll command your starship and travel among the various clusters, systems and planets of the Federation and beyond, trying to save the galaxy from utter annihilation. In space, as you would expect when commanding a starship, its movement speed in close quarters is extremely slow, especially while turning. You have impulse and warp drive to help you out, but this does not do any good in ship-to-ship battle. Also, you must sweep through the arcs of your weapons; meaning you must turn your ship so that all your weapons can be brought to bear in a broadside. Your ship has forward and aft weapons, each with limited firing arcs, and you must position your craft relative to the enemy in order to ensure maximum coverage of your weapons.

On the ground, the action takes the form of a third-person shooter, though many non-combat actions can also be performed such as equipping your characters for maximum power, protection, and efficiency; communicating with those whom you meet in order to trade or get missions; and communicating with Starfleet in real time to get more information about your mission. Each weapon you can have has three modes of attack: a normal attack, which uses little energy, but does relatively little damage; a secondary attack, which may cause an Expose, or a temporary lowering of an enemy’s stats; and a melee attack, to be used when the enemy is at extremely close range to knock them back, setting them up for other attacks.

In both space and on the ground, you may be joined by myriad other players on the same mission, and in the same instance (any MMO’s name for an actual game session being played in a certain area of the game world). They may help you, or hinder you, and if you happen to be on their team, then you will share experience and loot from defeated enemies.

Graphics in the game are actually pretty good; I do notice a bit of texture pop-in when they’re first being displayed (a much lower quality texture is displayed followed by filling in of a higher quality one), but it turns out not to be too distracting.

The controls seem to be quite confusing at times, with my fingers straying all over the keyboard at some point just to keep my starship from exploding at the hands of the latest Orion Pirates. Bu,t I’m eventually able to destroy them all (that is, if I’m joined by someone and if my enemy is a level sufficiently lower than mine).

If I were a fan of this genre, I would give this game five out of five stars. As it is, well, what can I say? I’m enamored of this game; five out of five stars anyway!

2k Games releases the ‘BioShock’ series

by Wade Manns - The Corsair

Genre: First-person shooter/adventure
Rating: M (for violence, blood, gore and strong language)

In the field of video games, few settings serve as effective dystopias like the Rapture of the BioShock series. This underwater city was founded by the wealthy industrialist Andrew Ryan, a staunch objectivist who believed that mankind should be free to pursue its wants and aspirations without the cold hand of morality or ‘the state’ or any kind of higher authority blocking its path. As a result of this, his citizens began research into genetic engineering, which is a risky proposition in any society. (And, to warn you, some plot points here may also bend standard morality.)

They made a breakthrough in the discovery of what they called ADAM. Secreted in a processable form by a previously undiscovered species of sea slug, this substance had the power to rewrite its users’ DNA, giving them new abilities or simply changing their looks.

This substance, when paired with specific DNA rewrites known as Plasmids, gave the users actual powers they could use in their world, whether the ability to set things on fire with a snap of the fingers, or to pick up objects from across the room. With the advent of these chemicals and the ambition to better themselves, the citizens of Rapture slowly decayed into a frayed mental and physical state, becoming known as Splicers.

A doctor working under Ryan, Tenenbaum, discovered a way to implant the ADAM-producing slug in the stomach lining of certain citizens of Rapture (and later on, even those who were not citizens), and condition them to go around and extract the ADAM from the inevitable corpses resulting from excessive splicing so it could be reused. These extractors became known as Little Sisters, for they were, after all, only little girls.

A bloody riot on New Years Eve of 1959 forever altered the landscape of Rapture and turned it into about as desolate a wasteland as an enclosed, urbanized space can be. Ryan managed to survive this ordeal, and repurposed the maintenance workers of Rapture, encased in diving suits, to be the mindless protectors of the Little Sisters. These protectors were known as Big Daddies.

That’s where the protagonist of the first game, Jack, comes in. He hijacked a plane and crashed it into the Atlantic near the lighthouse entrance to Rapture, where he worked for a revolutionary who called himself Atlas. Atlas wanted to kill Ryan, apparently for turning Rapture into the leaking, derelict waste it was, and he needed Jack’s help. Jack fought through multiple levels of the city, killing ravenous, mind-blasted Splicers, as well as taking much of the ADAM he needed from the Little Sisters. He did this by either directly harvesting the sea slug or removing its influence on the Sister without harming her. He did, of course, have to deal with their Big Daddy protectors beforehand; these are arguably the toughest fights in both games (though in the second, the Big Sisters, who are even tougher, make appearances).

Ryan was found and summarily killed, and Atlas turned out to be one of Ryan’s competitors, Frank Fontaine, who now believes he possesses the ultimate power in Rapture; he had become a monster due to his excessive splicing, with brass-like skin and incredible powers. He too is slain after an epic final battle, and Jack, depending on how he dealt with the Little Sisters, either returns to the surface to live out his life in peace, or stays in Rapture to cruelly use the resources under his control and build his own empire.

The second game places you in the role of the first Big Daddy to be pair-bonded to a Little Sister. Subject Delta, as you are known, has free will and a much more agile style than the production-scale Big Daddies which are encountered in both games; unfortunately, you’re just as vulnerable as Jack was in the first game, at least at first.

You’ll go through a more linear form of locations you touched on in the first game, but exploration still exists. You’ll also have to watch over your own Little Sisters as they extract ADAM (and are attacked by Splicers who are attracted by the prospect of getting more of the vile-but-necessary substance). And like Jack, Delta has his own personal agenda in Rapture; he must find the Little Sister (now grown) to whom he was first bonded ten years prior: Eleanor, daughter of the new “leader” of Rapture, Sofia Lamb, who’s developed a religious following after the deaths of Ryan and Fontaine.

The graphics in these games are top-notch, showing Rapture the way it’s meant to be shown, a leaky, cracked, falling-apart underwater city, due to implode at any time due to the pressures of the ocean. Though prosperous in its time, it’s clear this place is no longer habitable in a normal fashion. This is aided by the sound design, which casts ominous creaks and groans throughout the sound stage and makes one feel very claustrophobic.

Add to that some of the best voice-acting you’ll hear in games, both by the main characters and the roaming Splicers, and you’ve got a pair of tremendous, epic, immersive experiences. If you can stomach some of the more controversial plot points in the game, and enjoy this type of game, you’re sure to love this. Five stars out of five, for both.

Bayonetta Review

by Wade Manns - The Corsair

Bayonetta
by SEGA and Platinum Games
Players: 1
Genre: Third-person action
Rating: Mature for blood and gore, intense violence, partial nudity, strong language, suggestive themes
Release 1/05/10

—–

One genre of video games that I didn’t really think I’d be into is the twitch action genre; in this genre, the player must make split-second decisions to ensure his survival. My coordination doesn’t usually allow me to enjoy those games, but in rare cases a game breaks through the mold and keeps me interested. Hideki Kamiya, maker of two of my favorite game series, Devil May Cry and Resident Evil, has again brought hope to my reflexes with “Bayonetta.”

The protagonist in this game is the eponymous Bayonetta, a 500-plus year old witch (not looking a day over 25) risen after a civil war between her clan, the Umbra Witches and their rivals, the Lumen Sages, sent her into a long slumber in a coffin at the bottom of a lake. Bayonetta, like others of her kind, has made contracts with unholy forces; the rules of her world state that because of this, she is condemned to Inferno. This also means that once she rises, she is the target of a myriad of attacks from the angels of Paradiso, who keep trying to send her where they feel she belongs. Fortunately, her compatriots are never far behind her; in fact, they’re in her hair.

Bayonetta’s “costume” (which looks like ostensibly shiny black leather), is actually cleverly manipulated hair, which she also uses to summon forth her infernal allies, in a technique known as the Wicked Weave. She uses this technique to send those angels foolhardy enough to confront her (who are not necessarily beautiful in form), packing back to Paradiso. She wants the companion piece to her large medallion which she always wears; together forming the Eyes of the World, a quarter of the way through the story, they seem to be a MacGuffin, a plot device the functioning of which is not important but serves as the impetus for the journey.

Bayonetta often finds herself in the city of Vigrid; there, she’s been told, are clues to restore her faded memory. Vigrid is crowded with people; however, they don’t see her, and we only see their shadows, because Bayonetta is almost always in Purgatorio (the parallel dimension in which she fights the angels who try to kill her) and cannot interfere in their affairs.

Aiding Bayonetta on her journey is her bumbling underworld contact, comic relief Enzo, as well as a Samuel L. Jackson wannabe: bald, trash-talking arms dealer, Rodin. Against her, amongst the many angels, are the four representations of the Cardinal Virtues; they take the form of epic boss battles at the end of every quarter of the game. Her main rival, Jeanne, the possessor of the other  Eye of the World, shows up to harass her at several points.

The game has a very music-and-candy-oriented slant; Bayonetta bounces and whirls hypnotically through her attacks, and cutscenes showing off her dancing abilities are common. CDs (or pieces of them) acquired from mini-bosses may be redeemed at Rodin’s for new weapons, and many of the items Bayonetta uses for recovery or augmentation take the form of lollipops or other confections.

The entire game does not really take itself seriously, from its storyline to its flippant yet alluring protagonist and solid supporting characters. The combat is satisfying, the story ridiculously cheesy, and the visuals great. The only minor gripe I may have about the game is that the camera often focuses on the latest and greatest spectacle, of which there are many, rather on what I need it to focus on, namely the ground around Bayonetta and where I need to go next. This doesn’t stop me from giving the game five out of five stars.

Assassin’s Creed 2

Wade Manns - The Corsair

 

Assassin’s Creed and Assassin’s Creed II
by Ubisoft
Genre: Third-person action-adventure-platforming
Rating: M for strong violence, sexual situations, blood, and strong language.

Back in 2007, the software company Ubisoft, which had previously done more realistically-themed stealth-heavy action games such as Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six and their sequels, came out with a cross-time tale of genetic memories and conspiracy, Assassin’s Creed. Players took on the role of Desmond Miles, a modern era bartender with a somewhat shadowy past, but seemingly more interesting ancestors.

A callous, uncaring scientist, Dr. Vidic, at a research firm called Abstergo forces his prisoner, Desmond, under the supervision of his subordinate Lucy Stillman, to use a machine called the Animus, which is able to retrieve Desmond’s genetic memories and visualize them. One of Desmond’s more important ancestors, at least to Abstergo, was known as Altair, a Middle Eastern man living in the 12th century Holy Land. Altair was one of the Assassins, whose sworn enemies were the Knights Templar.

While the details of the epic story are best experienced for yourself, suffice to say, Altair is able to safeguard the Holy Land against the Templars, but Abstergo has a hidden, sinister agenda for the information the Animus reveals…

Assassin’s Creed II continues the story just seconds from where the first game left off; Lucy and Desmond, revealed to be modern-day Assassins, realize that Abstergo has become a very dangerous place and that they must leave quickly; Lucy escapes with Desmond to a secret hideout, where a new Animus is set up.

Together with Lucy and a new support team of a historian and technician for the Animus 2.0, Desmond explores the life and times of Ezio Auditore da Firenze, a young man in late-15th century Renaissance Italy, and experiences his trials and tribulations first hand. Ezio, who discovers his Assassin heritage fairly early, gets many opportunities to test out, among others, that most important weapon of the Assassins, the wrist-mounted Hidden Blade, which can kill a man before he knows he’s in danger. Over the years, Ezio has many experiences, good and bad, and assassinates many behind the conspiracy against his family, who were killed or traumatized in the opening hours of the game, and attempts to subvert a plot that could threaten the entire world.

Ezio makes a home base at his family’s villa, and is able to repair and renovate many aspects of it using the money he finds or earns in his journeys, and is even able to make more from the visitors to the shops and amenities of the surrounding town. Ezio, and through him Desmond and the player, adventures through many regions of Italy including Ezio’s home city of Florence, Venice, and the Tuscan countryside. With his uncle Mario and several other Assassins, Ezio begins to piece together the mysteries surrounding several ancient, extremely powerful artifacts and strive to keep them from the Templars.

The graphics in this game are simply beautiful; review sites have said this is the best-looking free-roaming game ever, but I believe it’s about tied with Grand Theft Auto IV. The animations, just like in that game, are pretty spectacular; you’ll rarely, if ever, see Ezio miss a nook or chink in the wall while climbing unless you cause it to happen. Each one of his movements is accounted for in the architecture.

Free-running, sometimes called Parkour, makes its return in this sequel. Letting nothing stop you from going forward, always finding a way over or under obstacles, the several locales that Ezio finds himself in are very fun to navigate. With methods created in the first game, you as Desmond control Ezio’s movement, fighting, climbing and jumping with the greatest of ease. It can be very dangerous when you run out of rooftop during exploration or a chase, and if should you fall, you don’t automatically heal in this installment; you must use pain-numbing smelling salts.

This is definitely one of the best games I’ve ever played; from beginning to end, I was greatly entertained, from the great combat to wonderful exploration to shocking denouement, and I was pleasantly surprised at the portrayal of the real historical figures I met. If I could give this game six stars on my established scale, I would, but I give this five stars.

“Grand Theft Auto” adds another installment to the series

Wade Manns - The Corsair

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony
by Rockstar Games and Rockstar North
Genre: third person driving/action/shooting (downloadable content)
Players: single player, or up to 16 players over Xbox LIVE.
Rating: M (blood, intense violence, partial nudity, strong language, strong sexual content, use of drugs and alcohol)

Throughout the many installments of the “Grand Theft Auto” series, we have seen our share of flamboyant characters: those who wish to flaunt their masculinity, their prowess with weapons, their driving skills, and more. Now, for the fourth and final time (counting the portable release), we step back into the re-imagined Liberty City. But, this time we examine the story of a nightclub owner who certainly lives up to his moniker.

The over-the-top portrayal of Anthony Prince, also known as Gay Tony, may offend or turn off some people, but those who stick with the story will discover other over-the-top characters whom they may enjoy more, such as this installment’s playable character, Luis Fernando Lopez: Tony’s business partner, confidant and sometimes bodyguard.

Luis has problems of his own: besides working for one of the most emasculating men in Liberty City, he also has an overbearing mother and two drug-addicted friends for whom Luis does various jobs or missions. Throughout our time with Luis, he will work for the brother of one of the supporting characters from the original “Grand Theft Auto IV,” the son of a wealthy Arab landowner who wishes to be an entrepreneur himself; and other entertaining, sometimes overbearing characters.

In addition to new characters, there are now more entertaining activities in Liberty City, such as base-jumping. Now thrill seekers can jump off a very tall building and try to land with precision using a parachute.

Luis can also work the clubs that he co-owns, including standing on the club floor and looking out for any troublemakers (though this is often interrupted by a sub-mission which involves going outside the club to attend to trouble). Once Luis meets up with his friends Armando and Henrique, you can do special missions for them involving some rather heavy competition with other factions involving drugs. And, (at first) to clear up some of his mother’s debts, Luis can participate in cage fighting matches.

The standard complement of races, exploration, and other fun activities round out your time in the game. And, when you’re finished with the single player game, or even before, the multiplayer modes are still there to allow for more social opportunities, now including the ability to see each other’s base-jumping stats.

The graphics are, unfortunately, starting to show their age, but there’s nothing too distracting. Somewhat muddy textures and a few instances of pop-in can’t reduce this add-on’s overall quality.

The music is back in full force, including many new disco selections and a new radio station based on the music of an earlier “Grand Theft Auto” game that was based in Vice City (think Miami Vice in terms of setting and pop-culture).

Controls are as tight as ever, and not much about the core game has changed, this being an add-on and not a full game. Though this, along with “The Lost and Damned,” are also sold together in a standalone package called “Episodes from Liberty City.” You don’t need the original game if you have this package.

What is my final verdict? I will say that this ranks right up there with the previous expansion pack as well as the original game in terms of quality. Again, the subject matter, as with that of previous “Grand Theft Auto” games, is quite edgy, to say the least. But, if you like this kind of game, you’ll definitely love this.

Rock Band keeps The Beatles’ music alive for another generation

Wade Manns - The Corsair

The Beatles: Rock Band
by EA, MTV Games and Harmonix with the cooperation of Apple Corps
Genre: Music
Players: up to 4 locally or via Xbox LIVE
Rating: T for Mild Lyrics, Tobacco Reference

The Beatles is one of my favorite bands of all time. That magical combination of four boys from Liverpool (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison) has appealed to many generations since the early 60s and onward, even until this day.

It surely took long enough for a game to be based upon the Beatles’ music. But, fortunately a framework to bring their music to a whole new generation came into being two years ago: Rock Band.

Building on the success of Guitar Hero, Rock Band expanded the selection of usable game controllers to include a bass guitar, drums, and vocals via a microphone. This allowed for much more social interaction in the form of people working together closely to ensure that their band mates did not fail, and making a better sound overall.

Now, almost 2 years later, the late George Harrison’s son, Dhani, expressed an interest in his father’s and his father’s friends’ work being brought forward so that younger people could enjoy it; he worked with executives at Harmonix to make such a goal possible.

The result is The Beatles: Rock Band. It contains a story mode, similar to previous games’ career mode, that follows the exploits of the Beatles from their early days in the Cavern Club up through the Abbey Road studios and beyond. The Beatles’ time on the Ed Sullivan show in 1964, in Shea Stadium in 1965, and other memorable venues in different eras, are reproduced with typically nostalgic quality, complete with muted flesh tones that would be appropriate for the TVs of that time. Conversely, the Abbey Road studio recordings are accompanied by some of the most bright, flashy, psychedelic imagery you will ever see in a videogame.

Like the other games in the series, the guitar and drums take a great deal of personal coordination as well as coordination with your band mates to synchronize perfectly for the ultimate show. However, there’s a new twist with the vocals: you can now have up to three parts so as to reproduce the famous Beatles harmonies, which are heard in so many of their classics.

As before, a special mode, known as Overdrive in previous games, but called Beatlemania in this one, allows players to save their band mates from failure, boost their score, and raise the overall score of their band.

I didn’t really think I would be into music games such as this, but it turns out I am. I would gladly recommend this to anyone looking for a good time and who can scrounge up a few friends to play with, or who just wants to practice his or her singing talents alone. The lack of an ability to import songs from other games in the Rock Band series is a downer, but overall it helps keep the slate pure; we don’t expect the Beatles to sing anything other than their songs, and that’s what we get. I’m giving this game five stars.

Wet review

Wade Manns - The Corsair

“Wet”
developed by Artificial Mind and Movement (A2M)
published by Bethesda Softworks
rating: Mature, for blood and gore, drug reference, intense violence, sexual content, strong language.

Wet is a stylized 70s-style third-person action shooter, complete with film grain on the main playing field, filmstrips intruding upon the gameplay and cutscenes, and vintage promos (advertising the concession stand, for instance) in between each level. Think of it as an interactive version of the movie Kill Bill, except our main character, Rubi Malone, does not necessarily begin on a mission of vengeance, but is what we call a fixer: a person hired to fix problems of any kind by any means necessary. She uses her dual pistols, shotguns, submachine guns, crossbows and her sword to dispatch her enemies with the greatest amount of efficiency possible, and you are rewarded in-game for doing so.

Like most other games of this type, you have the opportunity to upgrade your character between levels to improve her abilities. She starts out with the ability to engage in slow motion acrobatic gunplay; whenever she jumps or slides on her knees, or runs across the wall and starts shooting, the game slows down to a crawl but allows you to aim very accurately—most times at more than one assailant at a time. Eventually you’ll unlock the ability to shoot while swinging from horizontally placed poles, shoot when sliding down a zip line, slice your enemies off at the knees while you’re sliding on the ground, and more.

At certain times throughout each level you’ll be locked into an arena, and faced with enemies coming out nonstop from doors which you must close. This harkens back to the days of the old school game, Gauntlet and its more popular sequel, Gauntlet II, where your chosen character must battle through dungeons and destroy the monster generators that you find in order to progress to the next level. You’ll have to guide Rubi through several athletic and acrobatic feats of daring in order to get to the control boxes that electronically lock each door when they are destroyed. At several points throughout the game, you will also have to take on “quick time events” which are prevalent in modern games, in which you are given a button to press and must press it quickly before you die (similar to an older game, Dragon’s Lair). The trial and error in these sequences may be a bit frustrating, but you will eventually get the pattern down since it doesn’t change.

As you can imagine, this is not a game for the kiddies. There is a great deal of swearing and blood and gore, but nothing adults shouldn’t be able to handle. It’s a refreshing bit of action, though nothing that’s not been done before. I’ll have to give it 4 out of 5 stars.

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