Mercenaries 2 World in Flames - Great Game, Fantastic Theme

By Simon Bailey

Mercenaries 2 World in Flames is a new third person shooter from EA which was developed by Pandemic Studios. The game is the sequel to the 2005 hit: Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction.

Set in an open world environment in modern day Venezuela during a war broken out as a result of an oil dispute in the South American country. As a mercenary, the hospitable climate creates a great many opportunities.

The in-game story follows the main character, hired by a guy named Solano to rescue the top Venezuelan Army General, Carmona. However, once rescued, the person who hired you makes an attempt on your life to avoid payment.

You manage to escape, taking a bullet to the behind in doing so. The games focus then shifts to you planning revenge on Solano.

Taking control of a great many vehicles (thought to be around 170) and weapons, your character has the chance to build a private military company, recruiting your own mercenaries to help fight your cause.

The game is absolutely fantastic, but the them to the game, which came out of the media campaign is truly fantastic. Reminiscent of a hip hop style musical, the song talks about how sweet revenge will finally be. Performed by the Wojahn Brothers, the song is available on the Mercs 2 website and is called Oh No You Didn't.

Interestingly, on release of the game, EA took over the Last Stop petrol station in Finsbury Park London, where they transformed the station into a military bunker and gave away £20,000 worth of petrol.

Simon writes for the Online Spy Shop who offer spy equipment, including voice recorders, spy phones and internet monitoring solutions.

Review of the Upcoming Resident Evil 5

By Musa Aykac

The newest episode of the survival horror series Resident Evil 5, has now been scheduled for release in March 2009, after being pushed back by Capcom from its original release date in October 2008. After the major success of resident evil 4 in 2005, there is much higher expectations this time around for the horror genre game, although information on the game is very shady at the moment (not much being said I see, great to see that they want to keep there users in suspense!) it evolves around the main characters Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar as well as a few other team members.

The game itself is set to start in a shady alleyway a bit like the beginning of resident evil and then make its way to Africa, there will be some new aspects to the game such as a predicted split screen mode in which you can play, besides this it is said that the game will not only be set in the dark. The franchise is now looking to also bring the game to lightness, not to mention the different types of weather conditions. The game somewhat has a starching resemblance to Black Hawk Down.

The outbreak is set to be in full swing by the time Chris Redfield and his fellow team get into the action. The zombies will be a lot wiser and will be able to use weapons, a bit like in RE4. Chris will basically be looking to discover the origins of the progenitor virus seen in resident evil code veronica.

The combat will be more or less similar to what we have seen in older versions of the game with shooting, stabbing and fighting.

We all know that this will be a major hit for Capcom, since the rejuvenation that RE4 brought to the dying series. Resident Evil 5 looks to have the same concept as its predecessor, but with that extra bit of humph. It will be interesting to see Resident Evil being based in another country and we all know how big Africa is and the developers can take major advantage of that.

Already looking likely to take the best game of the year award for 2009. I would just like to warn you that RE5 will be telling one great heck of a story and with the combined processing power of the PS3 and Xbox 360 we look to in for a zombified treat!

Compared to all other horror games such as dino crisis or silent hill, this beats them hands down.

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Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 Vs Fifa 2009

By Musa Aykac

Well the time of year has again approached where the two rival football games go head to head in the Christmas war. Who will come out the most successful? Who knows, only time can tell. But let's have a look at both games and rate each one.

Fifa 2009

First we take a look at Fifa 2009, the game which is highly anticipated every year looks to have improved itself on the game play side of things. From the start Fifa have this time wanted to get the game completely right, they begun the creation of Fifa by gathering criticisms from gamers and critics and it has sure paid off.

The game is much more improved then as of previous years, including ball physics and the collision system. You can also switch the camera view to any specification that you would like. But it does not end there, Fifa have made some amazing additions to the game such as the Be a Pro Seasons mode, the Adidas Live Season, and the 10-on-10 football. This all sets Fifa up to potentially dominate the football games industry once again.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2009

Well pro evolution soccer look to have put its gear stick on full throttle, and have realised they needed to bring back the game that won so many peoples hearts on the PS2. The game play is very much similar to that of its golden days, but it looks as though PES have not really considered the graphics side of things very well.

But the positive site of things is that the game play is very natural in itself and not to mention that they have the UEFA champion's league licence, they also have Manchester Utd's and Liverpool's licenses, but besides from that the rest of the players have obscure names.

Conclusion

Well in my eyes there can only be one winner, Fifa's new revamped look and game play over the last few years has set them up to dominate the gaming industry. There graphics completely trumps over those on PES, and with Fifa owning a lot of the unique licences, PES still has a long way to go. The once dominating football game for the PS2 has been outwit and outrun by the all so mighty Fifa.

This being said though, the overall game play of PES does still grow on you after a while, but as technology progresses that just is not enough and more needs to be done.

Compared to all other football games these two knock the socks off the rest.

Looking for Heating Oil Suppliers and Central Heating.

What Are the Most Popular Car Racing Games?

By Mike Selvon

Thirty years ago, you could actually find individuals who could not explain what a video game system was. Today, virtually everyone has heard of an X-Box or a PS3. With the popularity of these gaming systems came the advent of many popular video games.

One of the most popular genres is the car racing games. These games depict very realistic characters and vehicles. Age does not seem to come into play, as everyone loves them. However, there are certain types of sports auto racing games that are more popular with certain age groups than others.

One of the auto racing games that has stood the test of time is the Need for Speed series. The series first appeared on the car auto racing game scene in 1998. It has been a gaming favorite ever since. All of the games in this series are similar in one aspect; they offer no frills thrills to the gamer. The gamer is offered a variety of races and then attempts to win.

By winning through the different races the players are able to unlock different vehicles, different tracks and even special features that will allow them to extend their game play and give them even more exciting gaming play. This very popular series of car racing videos has won the hearts of many gamers and continues to grow in popularity.

One of the most popular car auto racing games with younger individuals is the Mario Kart series. This series of car racing games has truly stood the test of time. Many older individuals remember playing the original Mario Bros games, and Mario Kart keeps those characters alive and up to their old tricks. The game combines some of the old familiar types of play, such as collecting coins with driving go-karts and facing new challenges.

Mario Kart can be great fun for even the gamer that really isn't into auto racing games. It provides lots of action and fun and the continuing amount of titles keep you longing for the newest game to play in this fantasy auto racing category.

Car racing games seem to appeal to individuals of all age groups and even to people of all walks of life. Some individuals love to play all types of games, while others are more into car racing sports games. Whatever type of game the gamer loves to play, there are many different auto racing games available on the market to keep them paying for hours.

A free car auto racing gift awaits you at Mike Selvon portal site, where you can enrich your knowledge further about the car racing games.

Star Wars The Force Unleashed - Ups and Downs

By Joe L. Peyton

Ups

First off, the game had amazing graphics. The characters, the environment, and the CGI cutscenes were very detailed and clear. Walking around in the different worlds it took you too I could not help but admire the background scenery while I was slashing up rebels.

As far as the game play goes, it was fun running around cutting up Imperial robots and cloners. Most of the game was about getting to a specific place and in the process half the galaxy was in your way trying to stop you. If you're into the constant saber slashing, this game is diffidently for you.

The storyline was good. It was a remake of the graphic novel that followed after the third movie where Anakin turned to the dark side. You play as Vader's unknown apprentice the whole time. Quite a few plot twists and the ending left off to the beginning of the fourth movie.

Downs

Although the game play was fun, it wasn't as outgoing as I hoped. Killing hundreds of Imperials over and over using different combos, powers, and lightsabers was cool, but afterwards it just became redundant.. I would of preferred more of a role playing environment that gave you more freedom to walk around and speak to the people around you. The customization of your outfit, lightsaber, and different spells were as close to an RPG that this game was going to get.

The game was too short.

Excellent story line, but it just seemed to abruptly stop. The gameplay levels were not long, and the cutscenes were not much longer. The game should of had more levels and cutscenes. I feel like they might have cut to much out of the graphic novel that the designers thought were irrelevant. But like every Star Wars fan, nothing Star Wars is irrelevant...

Overall I believe it was worth the time to play the game. I enjoyed beating it and others who have done the same will probably say that as well.

Joe Peyton is a webmaster of http://www.nutz4art.com/ where you can view our large selection of Star Wars prints and posters.

Fable 2 Review

By Cameron Bankord

Introduction:

Fable 2, the long awaited sequel for the massively popular RPG 'Fable,' on the original Xbox. Massively denounced for its promised features and ridiculed developers, Peter has publicly stated that he has learned his mistakes and will offer a fully dynamic world this time around. Unfortunately, the only aspects of this game that are dynamic is the economy. There are a few things that might change the world depending on your alignment and reputation, but these subtle changes do not make a huge impact on the game environment. For example, you have a choice later in the game to destroy 'Oakvale,' if you decide to slaughter the town, you will eliminate the 'Temple of Light,' which almost ruins your chances to become good later in the game if you are fully evil. However, if you go with the good decisions, the 'Temple of Shadows' will be destroyed. This is predictable later in the game and there are very few moments where events like this occur. Unlike the first fable, this game offers two different schemes for alignment, corrupt or pure, and evil or good. Fortunately for these schemes, they do factor in neutrality and change your looks throughout the game in 9 unique appearances. Some of these look amazingly cool and you will either feel like a hero in the game, or an evil warrior that slaughters innocent children like no tomorrow.

Story:

You start out in the streets as a poor boy with your sister, looking to make money for this special device that grants a wish. Once you have received this item, your one wish is to live in a castle, due to the oncoming winter that you may not survive being homeless. You are awoken from your sleep as Lucien "the evil dictator" orders you to stand in a magic circle in his castle. Lucien shoots your sister and you because you are one of the four heroes of Albion. Your whole mission is to stop Lucien from resurrecting the spire and exacting revenge for killing your sister.

Gameplay:

Boy with a sword

The Game-Play aspect is much improved over its predecessor. It's fluent and simple to switch styles of combat, between ranged, magic, and combat. The targeting in the game is amazingly simple to use, and very accessible later in the game. Once you upgrade your characters styles, it is possible to auto-aim and sub target specific points on your enemy. The melee combat is deep and hard to master, but simple to use and efficient. The game allows you to button mash if necessary. Will combat was somewhat annoying to me; you must charge your spell up which takes around 5 seconds minimum. This process only allows you to use one spell at maximum capacity during a battle. Spells in this game do not offer enough variety, only taking back a few from the first game, some of the fan favorites are lost and offer no buffs whatsoever. After a battle is over you are rated on how well you dispatched your enemies and receive bonus experience, if you did well and used advanced techniques. You are able to create a combat style unique to your own character, by either ranged (skill), magic (will), or melee (strength). These three attributes encompass your characters abilities and create your hero in Albion. However these abilities can be maxed-out within a few days and do not offer variance or limits when playing, so your character cannot become specialized when playing with a buddy or various people over Xbox Live. This was the same with Fable 1, but it wasn't a co-op experience back then. The multi-player portion of the game is a huge let down. You are unable to use your unique character you've built in other people's games. This will promote players to stay in their world and play alone. Furthermore the camera of the online portion is ridiculous, you are unable to move it and both of the players must stay on one screen. I have played multiple games with friends and this camera has ruined the entire experience for me. Sometimes you are unable to move due to the camera, so they have integrated a teleport button just incase this happens. Fortunately the online experience has a few good things going for it. You are able to change the settings of how the experience and gold are distributed between the two players and the innovative way to the games lobby. The whole lobby is the world; you are able to chat to players in almost an MMORPG like experience. This is refreshing and a letdown due to how the games online component could possibly be great.

Fortunately you are able to do practically everything in the game with your buddy, If you are able to get someone to join your world. Unlockables in this game are difficult and unrewarding. I had spent over 4 hours looking for 50 silver keys around the game and received 50,000 gold for it. All of which is useless because the games economy is extremely easy to take advantage of. If you buy out every house in the game you will make 20,000 gold every 5 minutes. You are also able to cheat the game by changing your Xbox system clock and receiving billions. This ruins the whole experience of the game and is aggravating due to the crappy reward for all of the hard work. Most of the rewards earned can either be bought from the shop, or are inferior to equipment that you have already earned by doing a simple quest. Silver keys are easily found throughout the game and more than 75% of the chests only require 20 keys at most, and all of these chests have junk in them. Unfortunately the game is also cheated in other areas, such as experience. You do not have to fight one bit in the game to max out all of your abilities. All you have to do is become rich and buy your way to the top, due to the unbelievable experience potions that offer nearly 70,000 exp for only 4,000 gold. Once you have bought up the stock, you are able to sleep a week and re-purchase the potions again. This ruins the whole game because players who cheat the game with the system-clock can also just glitch their characters to the top. The dog in this game is fairly smart but sometimes has trouble navigating over obstacles and you will find yourself running in circles trying to find its dig spot. This will become painfully obvious when you follow it and all of a sudden the icon stating, "dig spot" disappears and you are 100 yards off the beaten path. There is no mini-map in the game, instead a breadcrumb trail was added that leads you to your current quest. This is accommodating, but the trail sometimes doesn't know where its going and you will find yourself running the wrong way multiple times and asking yourself "WTF Q+A?" The environment has its ups and downs; you are able to explore 90% of what you see in the world. I sometimes get lost in it and I've spent around 30 hours in the game.

However, you are able to fast-travel, and not that it's a bad thing, but players who do so are missing out on the great game world. All of the buildings and shops are purchasable, even little cottages you find throughout the game-world can be bought out. The civilians of Albion are at the mercy of your doing, you are able to set rent, and evict npcs if you will. It's great watching bewildered citizens roam the streets, asking themselves why and where they will get their next paycheck. Surprisingly one thing that I thought would be in bulk in this game was the amount of clothing and appearance options. Unfortunately this isn't the case, it actually has less options than the original Fable. This is horrible due to it being an online experience this time around. I for 1 would love to have a unique looking character with rare loot received from a dungeon. However fable isn't that type of game, and appearance options are secondary to the actual game, it would be nice to actually have something others would have a hard time getting though. Not be a pessimist, but the only accomplishment this game offers game play wise is the innovative world lobby that is almost like an "MMORPG," and the lush free-roaming landscape. This game is far better than the current RPGS on the 360, but the game is just riddled with bugs and could be so much better than it is in its current form.

Graphics:

Graphically the game is great, very smooth, and the environment only extends to that fantasy immersion. It's no Elder Scrolls IV, but it is up there in the graphics department. The textures through the world look amazing and the art direction is top notch. Every square foot of the world feels like a piece of art. I couldn't have asked for a better world than what was given in this installment of the fable franchise.

Sound Design:

Sound design in the game is horrible; there will be delayed sounds and expressions. This will make the game feel like it's skipping on your 360. It's because it is, the game skips like no other, sometimes actually freezing the game for a few moments when trying to navigate to your start menu. Personally this game made my Xbox sound like a generator with a fan and a few rocks inside. Although the voice actors are done quite well, every person in the game sounds like they're from Great Britain for some reason. Sound effects in the game are perfect, it's almost hard to tell like sounds and it doesn't sound repetitive.

Man with dog

Final Thoughts:

This game has many flaws that would scare away most gamers if they knew them, but it also provides great entertainment. It is fun, but not necessarily worth a buy unless you enjoy replaying games. The replayability for this game is great due to the astounding amount of ways you can play it. This is not a game that you play by yourself for hundreds of hours, it is a game that you get on once in a while, do a side mission, and hopefully it doesn't get boring. The game doesn't reward you enough to keep playing once you have unlocked everything the game. I regret buying it just because of these reasons. I have completed the game 100% and I don't see myself playing it anytime in the near future. Once and if 'Lion Head' fixes the online play, it is definitely a buy.

Source Material: http://www.gameogasm.blogspot.com