The “NEW XBOX EXPERIENCE” as everyone is calling, will be coming in just a few days.  The NEW XBOX EXPERIENCE will bring a completely new dashboard and the ability to create personalized avatars. Some what like Miis from Nintendo Wii, but….with more than 5 polygons. For those of you who have been anxious to see how avatar creation works with the NEW XBOX EXPERIENCE, simply check out the video below to get your answer.

PS3 owners will have to wait until Duke Nukem Forever is released to access PlayStation Home.

[via kotaku]

Listen, I’m a huge Call of Duty fan, hands down, but I’m an even bigger zombie fan. So when I found out that the new Call of Duty: World of War would include a co-op zombie slaughter-mode, I nearly wet myself…seriously. Over the weekend it was released to the public that after players completed the games campaign mode a co-op zombie slaughter-mode, similar to that of Gears of War 2’s “horde” mode, would be unlocked.

[youtube]S1asyOH8rs0[/youtube]

Four players will be faced with an unlimited onslaught of zombies in a dark, extremely creepy building. Players will have access to a variety of weapons and will be able to board up open windows in order to avoid their impending doom. Most excitingly for some of you hardcore COD4 fans is the return of the infamous Last Stand mode. When knocked down by a zombie, you will enter last stand mode and fight the zombie invaders from your back. Friends can revive you, but depending on how far your in, that could prove to be  extremely difficult. Well, I’m gonna go start prepping for the zombie apocalypse . Resistance is futile. Peace.

So I picked up a copy of Far Cry 2 this week and boy am I glad I invested in this game. Aside from being an excellent game from a game-play standpoint, it looks spectacular when you turn up the graphics on the PC (and looks amazing on the XBOX, though the PC settings can go higher than that of the console if you have the processing power). Only issue I had with the game thus far was the day I bought it. When you go to start the game for the first time you need to register the game with your cdkey. Problem was that the validation servers, on the day of the release mind you, weren’t up and running yet. So I actually couldn’t play the game for a short while. Solution? Serial Bypass from a very special someone. Made me quite mad that I had to use a crack for a game I bought though.

Anywho, Far Cry 2 changes things up for those who have played the first game. This time the game takes place in an Africa without the mutants and Government research of the first game. Instead, realism was the goal. This includes the real time weather and time-of-day systems, zero loading times between areas (everything is loaded as you travel so no area loading times, even between indoors and outdoors), realistic damage to vehicles you’re driving (they don’t just blow up anymore), and realistic damage dealt to NPC’s (Non player characters to those of you unfamiliar with the term) and yourself, which means you’ll find yourself digging bullets out of your arms and legs pretty often as well as trying to put out that fire you lit and accidentally burned yourself with!

*****WARNING, POTENTIAL SPOILERS*****

You start the game, as with most games, selecting your character. Yes, I do mean “selecting” as there is no character creation process for single player, but you can select from a group of 9 playable characters. Every selectable character will be found in game (minus the one you select of course). All of them can be befriended, or killed, all based on decisions you make, but I suggest saving them if you can. Once you select the character you want, it will cut to a semi cut-scene after you’ve stepped off a plane and get in a “African taxi” (AKA Jeep). You can look around while you’re driver is talking to you and taking you to your destination (hence semi cut-scene). He explains the situation in the country and how much of a mess it really is, and at some points while driving you can see how much of a mess things are with all the mercenaries and soldiers there. As you arrive into town your vision begins to blur and you slump over in the cab. When you wake up again, you still feel sick (and you can see that visually as a blurring with cells shaded in at the edge’s of the screen, which is a pretty neat effect) but you’re in your hotel room, don’t expect a Hilton either folks :P, as someones going through your briefcase and throwing papers everywhere. He grab a particular paper and begins walking over to you reciting its contents. Long story short, he is the guy you’re there to kill, but you’ve caught malaria. He figures you for dead, makes a point of the fact that your going to die, and he leaves. Meanwhile you pass out again from the sickness. When you awake again, it sounds like a war zone outside with gunfire everywhere. An explosion rocks the hotel outside your door as you try and get up to grab your gun in hopes of escaping whatever is outside.

Now you can survive outside and escape the town, but I kind of died outside and even if you do escape, you pass out outside of town and get picked up. I personally don’t like using the front door in any possible instance so I happened to jump out a second story window onto some rooftops to escape. Yeah….that failed a little bit. Six or Seven men with assault rifles vs you with your little pistol are pretty good odds, but not with malaria constantly blurring your vision over. Needless to say, I “died” but was rescued by some folks on the “good side” of the war.

So, once your rescued and all that junk, you find yourself owing some favors to an army officer for one of the two factions at war. Completing these missions will earn you some daimond’s (the currency in this country as paper monies useless) and your freedom from him. Meanwhile, your still sick and need to find some medication somewhere.

*****YOUR CLEAR OF THE OPENING STORY NOW, YOU CAN READ THE REST :3*****

Now that your done with that guy, your free to explore the rest of the game and do mission for various people and such (theres a little more to the intro missions but thats going into too much detail to be honest. All you need to know is that your stable at this point). At first you might be a little lost as the game doesnt tell you specifically where to go, but as you find agents and buddies and such to help you out and run missions for, the game progressively gets faster paced (as you choose, you can take as much time as you want between missions and who you do them for as well as how slowly you do missions, so the game could potentially be a bit slower for some folks).

The games pretty fun. You can play however you wish, either stealthily killing your enemies with a machete, silenced pistol or a sniper rifle (though you need to change positions a lot when sniping, else they find you), or simply getting on a jeep with a mounted machine gun and parking somewhere advantageous and gunning down the inhabitants of an outpost, choice is really yours. If your playing on Infamous (thats the stupid hard setting btw), I suggest stealth, as you go down only taking 2 direct hits to the torso or head. The games pretty huge to boot. Takes probably 10 minutes to drive across the map in a straight line in a dune buggy, though thats nearly impossible to do cause some one somewheres gonna be on a patrol and your gonna be in a car chase at some point. I’m not saying it *might* happen, I’m saying it will happen! Each faction has guard posts and checkpoints that send out routine patrols via jeeps or cars. They are going to attack anyone that isn’t aligned with their faction (and at the start you really aren’t aligned with any faction). So it makes for a hectic car drive at the very least!

Getting around is pretty simple. Either walk, take a vehicle from one of your safe houses, or (my favorite) stealing someones vehicle at an outpost. Cars are much faster, but attract attention of people around you as you travel, so sometimes its better to walk that 4 kilometers then it is to try and drive it. Movement controls (on the pc) are easy enough and pretty straight forward controls on the XBox version (explains everything in the beginning). There are a system of buses that you can take to travel around the edges of the game world and to the very middle of the game world, so they don’t get overused by the player. Basically they go to the four corners and each runs to all the other bus stations as well as the neutral zone/town in the middle of the game world. Aside from that, there isn’t any other way of getting around. Its all getting yourself from point A to point B which makes for a fun time in Far Cry 2.

Controls are very easy to learn on the Xbox, and on the PC they are simply customizable, though I used all default controls. The game teaches you everything you need to know at the start of the game as you progress, so there really shouldn’t be any problems learning how to play. Only control the game doesn’t teach you is the running slide, which is probably my favorite way of avoiding bullets! While running forward, hit the crouch button and hold it. Your character will slide across the ground for 10 or 15 feet before getting to a crouch and keeps running again. REALLY useful for getting past corners while taking fire! Accidentally found out that one while trying my damnedest to get behind a rock and avoid AK fire!

The Buddy idea is pretty neat too. In the game are all the other characters you could have chosen to play as at the start of the game. Most of them have to be saved from various things around the map (randomized, they aren’t always in the same situation each time you play. One guy I found was laying near a downed airplane, had to go over and revive him with a med kit I happened to have on me), and they become your friends (or enemies) when you help them out (or work against them). You can, alternatively, simply kill them, though that doesn’t get you too far in the game. It’s still possible to complete the game but you miss out on lots of missions and side quests or (as your best buddy does) the mission alternatives for each factions. Your “Best” buddy will give you alternate ways of completing storyline missions, giving you the option of simply doing the mission the way you were assigned it, or changing things up a little to make it easier to complete (or harder as I found out a couple times).

Your second best buddy is basically your guardian angel. He follows you around on occasion and saves your ass when you go down from serious wounds and such (he/she is basically the occasional extra life in a way). To be Honest there was a lot of times that my buddy was available for missions where he can come and save you that I died on purpose just to watch him come in cut-scene-esque and basically ooze awesome. My Buddy is the big russian guy in his late 40’s. That man radiates awesome in my own opinion! When you do go down and your buddy can save you, you’ll awaken in a fuzzy discolored haze while he’s attempting to help you stand up, you watch him fire his AK at near-by enemies with one arm, then he continues to pick you up to move you away from the fighting so you can heal yourself. Best thing is, the scene you see in the semi-cutscene is almost always different and is based on the situation your in.

Hell, first time it happened, I woke up to him picking me up, killing a baddy with his AK one handed, dragging me a little ways away. The enemies followed him while he attempted to move me, so he drops me in the second section of the semi-cutscene, only to pull out his desert eagle and start dumping the clip firing as fast as he can at them! He empties his clip and hastily picks me up again moving me YET AGAIN to a safer place behind some rocks. He is STILL firing at some bad guys that followed us even there, this time with a shotgun while I can now fully control myself (and need to pull some bullets out of my left leg). He sticks around until the areas clear to boot. Second time that happened was totally different and had about 6 or 7 of those mini cutscenes. Now I just abuse that and use him every time I have a mission!

Now, there are TONS of weapons to pickup and buy in this game. I mean LOTS! Hell you can get to a point where your special weapon is a mortar, so that should give you an idea of the variety. You can shell an outpost or enemy patrol before they even know where you are. The currency in this country is rough daimonds, since paper money is pretty much worthless (you know, there being a war and all). Gun dealers can be found every here and there where purchases can be made to upgrade weapons and buy new ones. All the weapons you buy are kept in an armory located next to each weapon dealer (once a weapon is bought its stored at every armory you visit). Once bought, you never need to pay for the weapon again. If you lose it or your weapon degrades to the point of rusting (which makes it more prone to jamming and such), simply visit the armory and grab a new one off the wall.

OverView: Far Cry 2 is story based game as I have come to realize. There isn’t really much worth doing aside from missions (unless you simply want to rampage, but even rampaging’s a bit slow). Driving around and raiding guard posts can be fun for a while, but gets old after a couple days and exploring is about on the same par. Missions on the other hand, are quite fun as they give you a purpose as your out there fighting through checkpoints and car chases. The large variety of weapons guarantee’s some destructive fun and working up the money and missions to get them all takes some time as well. Storyline missions are awesome fun. Anywhere from breaking out of jails to being kidnapped, the storyline is great. Improving reputation with different characters and your buddies adds some more playability to it all as well.

Good

- Lots of missions, nearly endless

- Gorgeous game, amazing environments

- Aggressive AI that can actually think

- Engrossing Stroyline

- Great Game Mechanics

Bad

- Roaming around gets old quick

- A number of High Ground area’s are not accessible, shrinking the actual map size

- Had to crack the game when it came out AFTER I BOUGHT IT (I hate validation servers)

SCORE: 8  /  10

I’d give Far Cry 2 an 8/10 for amazing graphics, decent gameplay, and an engrossing story.

Far Cry 2 is out for the PC, XBOX 360, and PS3

*update* The song in the trailer is called “How It Ends” by the band DeVotchKa

Gears of War is a hardcore testosterone filled game. So needless to say when the first Mad World themed trailer came out for GOW2, I was a bit surprised, but it worked SO WELL!

Now a new trailer has come out another great song (I can’t find the song’s artist, sorry), and I have to say that it makes me want to play the game now.

Here is the old Mad World trailer, case you missed it.
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I did play the first GOW, and I was un-decided with my feelings on it. I sorta liked the story and I sorta liked the game play, but I HATED the clunky controls. I stoped playing after the first berserker boss because the controls kept doing the opposite of what I wanted (I did beat the boss). I guess I could give it another go, my Assassin’s Creed needs trading in anyway :3

If I have to give credit to Soulja Boy for anything, it is that he is down with current technology. The guy knows how to use Adobe Flash to make cartoons and plays videos, and not just the really popular ones that EVERYONE knows about.

The video below shows him flipping out over the XBA game Braid. Apparently, you should only play the game when your high, at least that is what Soulja Boy seems to think.

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While we are on the topic of Soulja Boy, let me point out that he has a new dance.

[youtube]u_WPvB23uQo[/youtube]

Oh and also, he made a pretty funny cartoon while feuding with Ice T.

[youtube]cZ4ycHTOkyk[/youtube]

[via albotas]

As most of you know, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed came out yesterday on all the consoles (and hand held gaming devices), and from what I have seen across the web, it has been getting mixed reviews. A lot are saying the story is great but the game play lacks reply value. I just wanted to get the community’s thoughts. So answer the poll below and discuss the game in our forums by clicking here.

*Note* I am talking specifically about the console versions PS3 / Xbox 360

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There is nothing really groundbreaking this demo, but it sure is interesting to watch. Plain Sight is a neat little game where you take control of a robot that must fight other robots to become bigger, faster, and stronger. In doing so you collect points, and the way to bank on the points you have collected is to blow yourself up with as many enemies near you as possible.

Yes, the whole point of the game is to commit suicide to collect points. Check out the video below.

Looks pretty neat right? I just like all the jumping around and such. Like a little robot Spider-Man or something.

Plain Sight will be released on the Xbox and PC in the first quater of 2009.

[via kotaku]

So all of you folks out there that have played Mercenaries, you pretty much know what your in for with a little bonus on the side, but for the rest of you who haven’t played anything in the Mercenaries series yet, your in for a semi-sweet treat.

For those unfamiliar with the new series, Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction took place in a volatile North Korea with multiple factions (Russian Mafia, Chinese, Allies, and the South Koreans) trying to gain a foothold on the situation. You come in as a hired mercenary and attempt to capture the upper-most 52 North Korean military Leaders (also know in game as the deck of 52). You have the ability to call in air support, have vehicles dropped off for you to use, and weapons crates for you to swap at. Without getting into too much detail, the game was pretty free roaming, and there was always something going on.

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is much the same game as Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction though there are a lot more new enhancements made to the game. Along with a load of new features, including the ability to drop MOAB’s (Mother Of All Bombs) and Nukes from the support menu, the games location is also new. Instead of taking place in North Korea, the game now takes place in Venezuela, where a military coupe has appointed a new leadership (Ramon Solano) and applied a hostile takeover of all oil producing companies in the area. This leads into the basis of the story. You, as a mercenary, helped all this happen by saving the leader of the military coupe. But he double crosses you on payday. Your character manages to escape, but not before being shot in the….ahem….ass. Angered over this as well as not being paid, you plan to take revenge. Problem is, you can’t find the son-of-a-bitch that shot you.

Thats where the game begins (though you play the tutorial at the start, its the background to you being shot. The tutorial plays out your character saving the military leader). You take over the Presidents estate in Venezuela as your base of operations, and begin running missions for factions in return for money, supplies and information leading to the Venezuelan president, aka Ramon Solano (he goes into hiding to avoid this sort of thing, you know, safe houses and the like lol).

So your mad. Real mad. Someone shot you in the ass and that is just not the sort of thing they do to a person like you. Time for some revenge! First thing you do after the tutorial: Steal the Venezuelan presidents home. Why you might ask? For you new base of operations of course!

From this point on, the game starts to get really interesting. It leaves things a little open for you to go out and do what you will, but progress cant be made until you start running missions for U.P. or Universal Petroleum, the first faction you will get to work for (personally, also my LEAST favorite faction, though blowing up their headquarters is pretty amazing, every time i do it, lol). Once the first set of missions is complete for U.P., you can start opening up new outposts for them (and with each outpost you secure, your fuel storage, a necessity for dropping any sort of support craft or bomb) and running side missions from the contacts that are opened from each of the new outposts. But your forced to run missions for the P.L.A.V. or People Liberation Army of Venezeula if you want to progress. Why? Well you find that UP only has half the information on a certain meeting between Solano’s top brass, more specifically the time of the meeting, just not where it is. Later you find that the PLAV has the location of the meeting, just not the time, so you got to put 1 and 1 together to get all the pieces. With this more of the map opens up and more factions become available to talk to (Jamaican pirates of the north for example).

So, gameplay. Its fun as hell! Everything in the game is destructible and I do mean EVERYTHING. U.P.’s main headquarters is in the middle of a semi-large city. You can level the entirety of the city including U.P.’s building. There is an oil platform in the middle of the bay. Yup, that one goes down too, and it goes down in a long drawn out sequence of awesome! The sheer number of different types of artillery and bombing runs and bunker busters and exploding things that can be dropped on a target is amazing. Just don’t drop anything close to yourself because the explosions can get REEEEEAAAAAALLY big, even the inexpensive ones.

All manner of support is dropped via a support menu which has three items on it at a time. You can swap out whats on your support menu and pause the game at any time by using your PDA (back button on the XBox controllers). Your PDA has just about everything you need: Maps, Faction standings and information, short bios on important people, a log of your last few conversations with agents or characters, and of course, your support menu with all manner of interesting things. Vehicles alone, i believe there are about 160 or 170 different vehicles. Most similar vehicles between factions aren’t just painted to look the same, they all actually have an individuality to them, so these are 160 - 170 UNIQUE vehicles (some silly vehicles are to a degree the same, you can get a little inflatable boat with a .50 Cal machine gun on it, between factions this vehicle is the same with different paint, though some are a little smaller, others are a little bigger, they have the same shape).

The difference in the support system between Mercenaries and Mercenaries 2 is that you cant simply call support on demand anymore in Mercenaries 2. You must first pre-buy all the support items in your arsenal at faction outposts or Hq’s, then you must either have recruited a pilot (Helicopter for supply and vehicle drops, Jet pilot for Bombs and such) to drop your specific support. And support calls cost fuel. Fuels pretty easy to come buy thankfully, you can just nab some while on your wanton destruction path at enemy bases by calling in your helicopter pilot and carrying away big tankards of the stuff. Another way is to simply destroy vehicles. Depending on the size of the vehicle you get 15 or 25 fuel out of it by picking up the destroyed vehicles gas tank, which gets flung out onto the street somewhere near by. Only issue is that at the begginning of the game your total fuel storage is only 300, which is enough to call in one or two strikes. Only way to increase this amount is by doing outpost missions (where the rewards are usually an offer of $300K and the ability to purchase and oil storage upgrade which cost $100K).

Hijacking vehicles. This is probably the funniest form of hijacking anything lol! Taking a tank is easier then just blowing up a tank in 90% of cases you find them, and generally MUCH more fun. To hijack a tank, you need to remove that pesky Machine-gunner on top of the turret first, then you can climb onto the tank and start the hijacking process. Your character will try and remove the latch, which comes as pressing a specific button depending on the vehicle and your position on it, when the symbol shows up for it on screen. Then, also depending on what type of tank, you’ll start fighting with the tank driver for his grenades by rapidly pressing a specified button as fast as possible. If you cant tell where that grenades gonna go, well then, lemme tell you! In the tank! You smash the driver around a little bit, and *kerplunk* in goes the grenade! From there the tanks all yours. Unfortunately, the sequence is always the same on each type of vehicle. Light tanks are always the same, but different from heavy tank hijacking sequences. Hijacking other things is pretty fun as well. Hijacking a helicopter for instance. Same type of helicopter, Two different hijacking sequences based on where you manage to land a grappling hook on it. Jeeps and such, unfortunately, can’t be hijacked. You have to simply shoot the driver out or remove the gunner (the driver gets out and attempts to sit in the gunner seat if his gunners dead)

Last but not Least, Co-Op online play (max 2 people). Blowing things up with two people? WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more fun then blowing things up by yourself. Doesn’t even have to be someone you know! Upon joining a friends game, the new player is given $5 million to toy around with and spawn on the original player in the game or spawns in a vehicle with them, but doesn’t have anything in their support stockpile, so you need to go and buy something first. And to boot, join and drop is seamless. Someone can join your game or leave without disrupting your actual game. Friends can join each others games at any time, unless they opt to keep the game private. Aside from that, Co-Op works pretty well. To keep things from getting laggy, developers simply gave less detail to enemy infantry, while everything else is at full detail. They also keep a leash on the players distance from each other (about half a kilometer, or one whole radar screen while your on the ground on foot, radar screen pans out when you get in helicopters or fast vehicles to let you see more). You can leave that tether area (I did it once, didn’t try it again, might have been a glitch I’m not sure myself) but nothing loads for you until you return to the tethered area specified on your radar by an area not covered in red. The area you can explore is, for the most part, centered on the player that started the game. Everything in the storyline can be done with two people, but nothing was made specifically for two people or for one person by themselves, you can even do challenges with two people (bets between your character and the people you hire as pilots or mechanics and such).

As great as this game is, its fairly buggy in any respects for a released game. From characters sniping with a long rifle one handed, to taking damage from simply standing on a moving boat, there is a whole slew of little bugs including taking damage as if you were hitting the ground from heights when landing in water. Oddly enough, most bugs don’t really detract from the fun of the game, and in some cases can make it funnier!

My Score: 8/10

The Good

+ Games hilarious and fun to play

+ Destruction, HVT/VIP missions, and level 3 missions keep coming back, allowing for near unlimited play

+ Co-op, you can play with your friends, seamlessly joining and leaving

+ Huge map to play on with tons of neat areas to fight in (There is a Castle!)

The Bad

- Games buggy. A few bugs are acceptable, but there is more bugs than i can count on my fingers, however small they might be

- A Bit confusing to a new player at the start of the game. Players might get lost, not knowing what to do.

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames was created by Pandemic Studios as a sequel to Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction. It’s available on PS2, PS3, XBOX, and PC.

To sum this game up as a whole: “LMAO WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT!!!”

Castle Crashers, man…I’m gonna have to recommend this game to everyone who enjoys a laugh! Every level is funny and more creative then the last one (except them damned scorpions, I mean…come on!!) and bosses, wow don’t get me started on that one. I think I’ve lost at least once to every boss by simply laughing to hard when i first saw them!!

Anywho, Castle Crashers is a 4 player co-op smash and bash game with humor oozing out it’s edges. Players kill hordes of enemies in an attempt to save their beloved Kingdom and more importantly their Princess girlfriends! Followed by a collection of friendly animals and helped by your King and his other Grey Knights, you fight to take back a Magic Stone that was stolen by an evil Sorcerer. Fighting his endless hordes of goons and bosses, you gain levels, find friends and pets, collect equipment, and have fun bashing everything to hell!

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Players can find new weapons and collect animal ‘orbs’ or pets all while killing enemies to level up. Everything you find can be accessed at the Blacksmith back near your home castle. The map is spread out a bit much like Mario World (SNES) tends to be, and all levels are re-playable after they are beaten, which lends itself to the games replay-ability. The map contains actual levels, shops, and arena’s. Levels are what your playing in, shops allow you to buy some items and equipment, and arena’s serve a dual purpose. Arenas, in single player, unlock new character after fighting a rather LARGE amount of souped up AI which tend to swamp you with ranged attacks. In multiplayer the arena’s are simply dueling areas.

So there is not really an “IN-Depth” story to the game: your kingdoms attacked, your women are stolen, go get that shit back son! But it is fun none-the-less. Fighting is pretty simple. You have your melee, some magic, and arrows (once you find them). Each can be upgraded via your stats screen when you level up (stats effect weapons, you cant upgrade weapons, only swap them out) one of your four stats. Each effects different things. Strength: offering more physical damage to your melee, Magic: opening new magic and offering more magic damage and regeneration for mana, defense: offering more health and more protection from damage, and Agility: offering faster movement as well as more range/damage for your bow and arrow. Max strength turns you into a melee killing machine, max magic opens up the longest range and most damage, max defense makes you a tank for the most part, and max agility makes you fire arrows like a machine gun if you time the button right (you can actually juggle an enemy with your arrows they fire fast enough).

Melee fighting is a combination of light and heavy attacks either on the ground or in the air that you can string together to create combo’s. As you level up you open a few special combos that use specific button sequences and, obviously, do special attacks, but for the most part regular combos are pretty damned fun >:) (i like juggling a swarm of enemies in the air using light-heavy-heavy attacks and over killing them lol). You can collect a LOT of different weapons in the game. I mean, a metric SHITLOAD of em. I am guessing at least 50 by looking at all the spots for weapons at the blacksmiths area. Each weapon has it’s own set of stats and effects, so they are fun to collect and use.

Magic fighting is interesting since there are “tiers” of magic enhancements. You have three spells that change as your spell power increases, an AOE which does damage to an area in front of you, a ranged attack which sends a ball of your power across the screen, and an angled ball attacked when you jump in the air and cast. You don’t actually get “new” spells, but you get increased range on your AOE as well as more damage and increased range, but the animations and such do change at each “tier” (every 5 points you add into the stat) and once at max magic you get the ability to do a magic-jump. A sort of double jump which is magic assisted (different for each character you have). Magics very helpful as an addition to your combat skills and can be used on most enemies without the aid of your melee.

Ranged attacks (Bow and Arrows) are simply an addition to any combo you can make to your melee fighting, unless of course you max out your agility, in which case everything can basically be done with just arrows (like I said before, you fire them almost like a machine gun at max agility). At first your arrows are pretty crappy. Small range, little damage, and very slow to fire, but as your agility increases arrows become more and more useful. In addition to doing damage, arrows have a knockdown effect which there-in-lies their usefulness. Got a group of guys in front of you and only two behind you? knock the two over and focus on the group while they stand back up!

There are a decent number of items you can collect and use in-game as well (sandwiches, bombs, potions, a shovel, a horn, and some others i haven’t found yet). Sandwiches are by far the most hilarious though. Think HULK-SMASH kind of thing, except it’s power lies at your fingertips, or better yet your ability to eat a ’sammich’ lol! Rip down doors, carry your foes around, and battle them big guys all while on sandwich power! They only last 10 seconds, but it is fun to use here and there. Potions do what you might think they would do, heal you up (in single player you need to manually use them, multiplayer allows them to be used automatically once your life is down to zero). Bombs blow things up and allow access to secret items. The shovel lets you dig for secret items (i don’t know what the horn does, I’ve only seen it so far).

In total there are probably 20 - 25 unique levels in the game, all re-playable at any time, as well as a bunch of extra areas to roam in (non-combat areas, stores, and arena’s). And once the Game is beaten, you can unlock “Insane Mode”, which cranks the difficulty WAAAAAAAAAAAAY up to a ridiculous scale. You could play this game for days and still find loads of amusement in it, especially with your friends!

I give it a 9/10

The Good

• + Great game, lots to open up, easily re-playable, and with over 15 character to play with, there is a   lot of leveling up to do.
• + Loads of fun with your friends, even if you’ve all beaten the game a few times

The Bad

• - Connection issues in multiplayer, even brief ones, cause the game to drop completely.
• -No seamless entry/exit of players into a game. Must have all players present at start of game.

Castle Crashers was developed by The Behemoth and Newgrounds.com (creators of indie hit, Alien Hominid).

I am pretty sure once I start playing Fable II, I will be spending most of my time fending off my Loan Shark’s chronies because I am so far in debt that I might as well change my name to Turkish. I am jumping from town to town just to stay low and off the radar.

Now the guys over at Lion Head Studios have announced that more Fable board games will be released. The games will be web based games, so no downloading from the Xbox Market place. The web games will reward you with special prizes and coins. Not word on how the prizes will be transfered to your character, but I assume the games will be hosted on Lion Head Studio’s website which will connect to the game, or all the prizes will have some sort of pass code that will need to be entered in the game to redeem. Who knows…

No details on how many games will be released, or how they will play.

All I know is that I will be stealing hair style cards and wardrobes so I am not recognized the next time I am in Bowerstone North.

[via kotaku]