A messed up experience still worth having

Fallout: New Vegas might be one of the most poorly made games I've played recently. When the game isn't locking up every few hours, the framerate is either dipping to sickening levels in some spots or the game is otherwise breaking in some other amazing way that will either make you cringe or laugh hysterically. Naturally, a game in this state would be very difficult to recommend, but between all the rough spots is a title that is very much a worthy sequel to 2008's Fallout 3. Whether or not you're willing to look past these annoyances is entirely dependent on how much you cared for Bethesda's iteration.

There are still Super Mutants as well as lots of brown

The Mojave Wasteland is very different from the Capital Wasteland. The geography of the land is much more mountainous and treacherous as a result, but in general you can expect to see lots of browns and grays in most places that you visit. In addition, the culture is vastly different; overalls and hats of the straw and cowboy variety are certainly not rare in this scorching desert which seems to take many cues from the southern lifestyle. Country music and lever-action rifles are all commonplace, as are your typical bands of murderous thugs and raiders as well as the plethora of down-on-their-luck citizens just trying to get by.

It is in this Wasteland that you'll begin your hunt for the man who shot you in the head and stole the item you were carrying across the desert. Unlike Fallout 3, you aren't starting life out in a Vault, so there is no childhood tutorial to go through. Instead, you wake up on a doctor's bed, and after building the framework of your character, you are cast out into the world to find the gentleman who left a hole in your cranium. At first glance, this seems like an altered version of Fallout 3's find-my-daddy story. But in reality, it's much, much bigger. Several factions are fighting for control of New Vegas, and eventually the time will come for you to join with one of them and decide the fate of the Mojave Wasteland. There are four very different ways the story can ultimately play out, and it's thrilling being able to experience the ending from many different perspectives.

Among the new additions is iron sight aiming, which helps tremendously during the real time combat. The ability to add different attachments to your weapons is also really neat, albeit arbitrarily limited because the mods are all specific to certain weapons (a .357 Magnum Scope can only go on a .357 Magnum, and so on). The Reputation system, previously seen in Fallout 2, makes a return and plays a much bigger part than Karma did in Fallout 3. Your actions will influence your reputation for all the major factions and towns in the game. Do good deeds in Novac, for example, and the people will like you better. Kill NCR troopers, and you'll be more likely to come under attack by them in the future. The Reputation system not only influences people's behavior towards you but also the quests that you'll get. Should you become enemies with Caesar's Legion, you're going to have a hell of a time trying to get anything from them besides bullets to the face.

Many things remain unchanged from Fallout 3

Chances are, most of your time will be spent exploring and taking on side quests, of which there are an exceptional amount. Although some of them can be rather dull (one quest simply required me to fast travel between two locations several times and talk to a few people) there are certainly some real fascinating tasks you can get yourself involved in. From launching ghouls into space to finding a robot that performs questionable sexual favors for people, there is plenty to do in New Vegas. As you might expect, the Strip makes an appearance and plays a big role in the story. It also serves as a safe place to just hang out when you don't feel like risking your life out in the grime of the Wasteland. There are multiple casinos to enter to, each with their own unique theme and interior. You can gamble your money away on casino games like blackjack and roulette here and snag some additional side quests if you wish.

It's just a shame that much of New Vegas is a horrendously-constructed mess. I find myself questioning whether all the repeating bugs and glitches I've experienced came up during testing or if they just couldn't fix them. The biggest problem, by far, is the constant locking up. I've had the game completely freeze five or six times; two of the lockups occurred on two consecutive days. Whenever I see a Radscorpion or Giant Ant, it's usually clipping through the ground and flailing about like a moron. My companions are often incapable of navigating around a group of rocks and must catch up with me later. I once had a quest not register as finished. The majority of the time I enter V.A.T.S., my character simply stands in place and lets the enemies take pot shots at him, never once firing a shot. I've had my arms completely flip out and warp all over the screen while holding different rifles. It's just a crazy, crazy experience from beginning to end that in some ways is totally unpredictable while also being extremely predicatable at the same time. You know that bugs are going to happen. The question is where and when. It shouldn't be like this, but it is. Another issue I had that probably ended up being more annoying than the bugs was the invisible walls. They are everywhere and it's disgusting. The terrain of the Mojave Wasteland is extremely difficult to navigate in some parts because it's so rocky. But there are many spots where the game forces you down a specific path because an invisible wall prevents you from simply climbing over the hills and rocks in your way. It's seriously headache inducing, and I find myself struggling to comprehend why a developer would cover an open-world game with arbitrary barriers.

If you are somehow able to look past these flaws, you will find a game that improves on many of the aspects of Fallout 3. New additions like iron-sight aiming, improved companions, item crafting, and an absolutely enormous amount of weapons make New Vegas a better playing game. It's too bad that for every great thing about New Vegas there's a hideous technical glitch that hampers the experience. If you loved Fallout 3, then by all means dive into this game. Just know what you're getting into.

A chase worth experiencing

It says a lot about Criterion as a developer when I find myself thoroughly pleased with Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit despite not wanting a Need For Speed game since... ever. Hot Pursuit embodies many of the things that I could possibly ask for in a racing game, from the constant and powerful excitement that is felt in every race to the occasionally stiff but always rewarding competition of the online multiplayer. Simply put, Hot Pursuit is one of the finest and intense racing experiences to come out recently. Although the game can occasionally be frustrating, the satisfaction one feels after violently taking out an opponent at 200 miles per hour is enough to make you forget most of the game's flaws.

Just as you'd expect from a racing game, Hot Pursuit puts you behind the wheel of exotic cars that go faster than any car should legally be allowed to go on public roads. And that's where the cops come in. Both the cop and the racer have tools at their disposal to gain advantages or to use against opponents. Racers are equipped with extra turbo that can be used once for a big boost of speed and a jammer that will prevent the cop from using their abilities. The cops themselves can call in helicopters that drop spike strips on the track and radio in roadblocks that set up further down the road. It doesn't end there, however. Both sides of the law are also able to drop spike strips behind them and use EMPs which function similar to guns but take a while to lock on. These features make the game stand out and causes even more chaos and excitement in every race.

Hot Pursuit has a hefty online component, complete with a Facebook-like Wall that allows you to post record times and screenshots and even comment on them. One of the biggest new features is the Autolog, which recommends single player events to you based on what your friends are doing. You'll be able to jump straight into the events from the Autolog list, and it's a good way to experience the otherwise dry and rather pointless career mode. Should you decide to dabble with the single player component, you'll be pleased that you can jump between racer and cop events on the fly, giving you the ability to advance through the game the way you want to. However, many of the single player events are simply not fun to participate in. You'll find yourself facing plenty of irritating time trials that just aren't worth the effort. Both the racer and cop careers have 20 ranks for you to advance through, and playing through the single player career exclusively will not be enough to get you to the top. Ranking up will upgrade your abilities and unlock more vehicles for you to destroy others with. Unlike many other games, Hot Pursuit has no economy whatsoever; you won't be buying anything. Mainly, you'll be focused on expanding your collection of cars, although you'll probably find that you'll be sticking with the same 4 or 5 vehicles for most of the game.

The online multiplayer is where the game truly shines. Three game modes are available, which may not seem like a lot at first glance. Frankly, the game could have easily just shipped with the Hot Pursuit mode, because the other two are largely forgettable in comparison. You can do 1-on-1 cop versus racer event or a normal race, but neither of them contain an amount of excitement comparable to that which is found in the Hot Pursuit mode. Four cops and four racers battle it out in this mode on tracks of varying lengths. The cops must destroy all four racers before one of them crosses the finish line. The racers need to primarily focus on getting across the finish line, although they also need to prioritize not getting killed by the police during the process. These races are always more intense than anything else and they are what people will likely be coming back to later on down the road.

But where there's a rose there's also a thorn. In this case, a few thorns. The A.I. in the single player can be exceptionally irritating because it makes heavy use of rubber band artificial intelligence. In addition, the helicopters make no attempt to decipher between friend or foe. This means that you'll probably get spiked by your own chopper many times simply because it was too eager to try and take out an opponent who was in front of or behind you. Lastly, there are a number of people online who's only wish is to ruin other people's day. Sometimes you'll come across a player who decides to take you out at the last second during a Hot Pursuit race simply so they can have the glory of finishing before you. Other times you'll just have guys who will straight up spike you for no reason. Overall, though, the online experience was quite enjoyable.

Visually, Hot Pursuit is quite astounding. The game runs at a solid 30 frames-per-second and looks remarkably good. The weather effects specifically look incredible. The sounds of the engines and crashes is also well-produced, as is the police radio chatter. Whenever you are involved in a chase, a dramatic orchestral score kicks in that surprisingly fits the action quite well.

Anyone looking for an explosive and intense racing experience should look no further than Hot Pursuit. While the game's single player component leaves something to be desired, the online experience is what makes it worth checking out.

The Problems With Raising The Difficulty - A Response To A Blog By Greg Kasavin

Greg Kasavin is one of the busiest men in the video game industry. He's seen it all from the journalist side, the producer side, and most recently the development side. In his spare time he maintains a blog where he shares his thoughts on stories in video games. It's pretty deep stuff. Most recently, Greg put up a post about power fantasies, the concept of playing as a character who is superior to yourself. He cites games such as Halo, God Of War, Mass Effect, and many others as examples of power fantasies, games where the player character is someone who is far more skilled than anyone else. In essence, a power fantasy is "the idea that if only you were a better more capable person."

I left a comment on the post mentioning something that I believe contributes to the issues with a power fantasy that Greg outlines, specifically the "risk of creating emotional disconnect or sense of inadequacy in the player." I said that difficulty levels are something that almost always contribute to the aforementioned issue, but I wanted to take the time here to flesh out my response.

"Risk of creating emotional disconnect or sense of inadequacy in the player." A smartly written sentence and idea that carries much meaning. However, I feel that Greg left out a key component, and that involves difficulty levels. They are in the majority of games being released nowadays, regardless of genre or type. By increasing the difficulty in a power fantasy game, such as Halo or Mass Effect, what is the player really doing? In essence, they are creating this emotional disconnect, and essentially forcing inadequacy on themselves. As a result, their character who is supposed to be powerful, superior, and often heroic suddenly becomes poor at their job, and the game never gives any explanation for this whatsoever. Sure, the player should expect the game to become challenging, but in a power fantasy it makes no sense when a tough character is reduced to a weakling without any reason being given within the game's fiction.

Halo and Mass Effect are two examples that I like to use. In the former example, Master Chief is a genetically enhanced super human who is supposed to be capable of really dishing out the pain on the Covenant. He is idolized by even the toughest marines. But when players decide it's time to play the game on the Legendary difficulty, this sense of being a vastly superior warrior is tarnished. The concept of power fantasy is effectively thrown out the window. It's established that Master Chief is a hero. So why is he all of a sudden being destroyed by the simplest of foes? Why isn't he capable of decimating the Covenant anymore?

In Mass Effect, Commander Shepard is a savior of the galaxy. Shepard travels from planet to planet, fighting bloodthirsty mercenaries and merciless Geth. But because Shepard is a highly trained professional with access to the highest quality equipment and crew, he or she is able to deal with these foes without much challenge... on the normal difficulty. When players raise the challenge by switching it to Insanity, all of a sudden Shepard becomes as weak and vulnerable as the enemies he or she is supposed to be mopping the floor with. The sense of being a savior of the galaxy is gone. Shepard becomes terrible at his or her job, and no reason is given for this other then to challenge the player.

Is that a good reason? Should developers be willing to throw logic away in favor of a challenge when players raise the difficulty? I personally would be very interested in a game that tries to explain why a character is weaker or less powerful when the difficulty is raised. It would be awesome if raising the difficulty caused a twist in the beginning of the game that gives a reason for the main character's sudden drop in efficiency. Perhaps they get severely injured in the beginning, causing them to lose their edge. Maybe it's discovered that the enemies had done some research and found ways to make themselves more powerful.

Power fantasies become a problem when the player can easily disrupt what the whole game is about by simply raising the difficulty. You can think of the idea of a power fantasy as being structurally weak. Players will only get the true sense of being a superior individual if they play on the default difficulty or lower. Anything higher, and the effect is gone. It creates situations where characters say things like, "Oh, thank God, Master Chief is here! We're saved!" and then thirty seconds later they watch him get worked by a lone Grunt with a plasma pistol. It makes you realize that not only do you suck at being Master Chief, but now Master Chief sucks at being Master Chief. The problem should be apparent by now.

Narrative continuity is absolutely essential in games where players participate in a story. If a character is supposed to be extremely powerful, he should be just that. If the player raises the difficulty, some sort of justification should be given to explain why the extremely powerful character suddenly is not. It breaks the continuity, and that's just one of the issues with power fantasies. They are too vulnerable to be manipulated in negative ways, and the game's narrative often suffers because of it.

L.A. Noire Review - Enter the streets of '40s Los Angeles in one of the year's best games

It's rare for an open-world game with the Rockstar logo on it to put zero emphasis on murderous rampages, but that is exactly the case in L.A. Noire. Rather than focusing on a disturbed individual who's perfectly fine with ending any life form he comes across, L.A. Noire does a 180 degree turn and throws the police into the spotlight. The result is a fantastically crafted open-world adventure game with little emphasis on action and and more emphasis on stellar investigation mechanics and unbelievable facial animation technology that combine to form one of the year's best games.

Cole Phelps will find himself investigating some pretty gnarly situations

The protagonist, Cole Phelps, is a former war hero (although his former squad mates may argue that point) who has chosen to continue serving his country in the form of police work. He's a very by-the-books kind of guy. He isn't someone who will break the rules often, and there's a conspicuous professionalism about him. Starting the game as a regular cop, Cole finds himself investigating a murder which ends up getting him promoted to detective. It is at this point where the game really takes off and enthralls you in a 1940s rendition of Los Angeles, a city where just about everyone has something they don't want other people to know, especially the LAPD. These people can potentially hinder Phelps's investigations, but he is surprisingly adept at reading people and picking out the lies in their statements. As you progress through the game, Cole will be promoted to different desks serving different purposes such as homicide, arson, and vice. Each desk not only has its own unique storyline but also its own unique partner. Each partner has a distinct personality, and some might be more trustworthy and easy to get along with than others.

Cole's efficiency during investigations is entirely dictated by you, the player. Investigations can be broken up into two major parts. First, you must go over the crime scene, examining clues, checking for hints, and interviewing any witnesses who may be present. After gathering as much evidence as you can, you initiate what is essentially the second part, which involves following leads, interrogating suspects, and eventually making an arrest. This process is largely the same throughout the whole game, but each case is entirely unique in its own way; therefore, you never really feel like you are constantly doing the same thing over and over again.

The cases themselves are linear, but there is some wiggle room in the way you go about reaching the end. Sometimes a piece of evidence you find will reveal a new location that's relevant to the case. In some situations, you may already have a pretty strong lead. Therefore, you might need to decide whether to follow up on that or investigate the evidence more to see if you can gather additional information that may be vital later on.

The detail on all the objects is great

An important tool in Cole's arsenal is not a gun but a notebook. Every piece of evidence you find is recorded in the notebook with a description and a sketch. In addition, every person who is mentioned gets an entry, as does every location. Almost everything that you could ever want to know during an investigation is found in this handy notebook, which fortunately can be accessed at any point during the game.

It is through this notebook that interviews and interrogations are conducted. During a conversation, available topics to discuss are shown. Once a topic is selected, it's important to pay very close attention to how the person responds. After their statements, you must decide whether to believe them, doubt their claims, or prove that they are lying by presenting a piece of evidence you found that directly contradicts something they said. The mechanic seems easy to grasp at first; just watch their face and if they are visibly uncomfortable and avoiding eye contact, they are clearly lying, right? As it turns out, that's not always how it works. As you progress further in the game, the conversations can become devilishly difficult; you'll find yourself having to consider more than just facial movements in order to make a correct judgement. I'd be lying if I said that the game didn't get frustrating at times. I often found myself screwing up conversations simply because I didn't trust a person enough to believe anything that they were saying. Other times, I was too trustworthy, and I ended up believing someone's false leads and incorrect information.

It's worth noting that interrogations and interviews mainly influence how efficiently you will be able to clear a case. Screwing up conversations can provide you will bogus or zero information, whereas successful ones can reveal a breakthrough that might just lead you right to the suspect's doorstep. It's a thrilling mechanic that is made so amazing by the incredible facial animations. The facial capture technology employed by developer Team Bondi is one of the most breathtaking things I've seen in a video game. Every little movement of the actor's face is recorded and show in-game with astounding results. From raised eyebrows to forehead crinkles to shifty eyes, it's sometimes hard to believe what you are seeing. L.A Noire represents a major step forward in the way conversations are held in video games, and it would be a real delight to see this become the new standard someday.

1940s Los Angeles looks really nice

In traditional Rockstar fashion, LA. Noire presents you with a massive open-world to explore. In all honestly there isn't a whole lot to do out there, but I found myself having a good time just driving around vintage 1940s Los Angeles and taking in the sights. There are landmarks to discover as well as hidden vehicles and other collectibles, which is pretty standard stuff. The driving itself feels great; you can easily drift around corners and quickly navigate through heavy traffic with ease. Cole can commandeer any vehicle he sees, but when you're in a LAPD vehicle you'll occasionally receive dispatch calls that you can respond to. These are the game's side missions, and each of them typically lasts anywhere from one minute to around five minutes in length. They're incredibly short and there are forty total to complete, but they're still neat little things that you can do in between investigations. If driving really isn't your thing, you can also fast travel to your destination by simply handing the wheel over to your partner.

Being a cop, you can expect to have to chase and even gun down people who just don't feel like cooperating. The combat system specifically feels very similar to Grand Theft Auto IV, which unfortunately also means that the cover system is still clunky, slow, and awkward to use. Foot and car chases are much more common; the latter of the two is definitely more exciting, however. During the chase your partner will lean out of the window with a handgun and try to pop one of the suspect's tires, but he won't be able to do this unless you get them close and keep the car steady. Although these car chases are always intense and thrilling, you'll probably end up slamming into an unbreakable pole here and there, which always brings the momentum to a grinding halt.

Characters animate with unbelievable realism

L.A Noire doesn't break any standards with its visuals, but it certainly doesn't look bad. The game has a very distinct and lovely '40s aesthetic, which is enhanced by the great period-appropriate music that includes some surprisingly fantastic songs that I instantly loved, such as "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens" by Louis Jordan. Voice acting is superb all around. You'll meet some real scumbags during your time with the game, and all of them are voiced to perfection - creepers sound like creepers, pedophiles sound like pedophiles, violent murderers sound like violent murderers, and so on. Every piece of evidence you find in the game is also remarkably detailed. You can easily read every piece of bloody paper you come across, see the serial number on a gun you dug out of a trash can, determine the caliber of a bullet by examining its shell... the list is endless.

The open-world of Los Angeles is flawed in a few disappointing ways, though. For one, the framerate can dip pretty low at random times, but thankfully it's usually quick to get back up to speed. I've encountered a very strange and irritating glitch where cars randomly disappear off the road when I look away from them. (In fact, I once had a car disappear as I was getting into it because I turned the camera away from it to look behind me.) Also, the shadows in the game have a really weird grainy look to them, which can be distracting at times.

These issues seem like minor inconveniences when you consider how amazing the investigation process and story is. From beginning to end, L.A. Noire grabs hold of you and doesn't let go. It's stellar cast of characters and beautifully laid out cases are well worth the price of admission. For those who are concerned with replay value, you need not worry. Every case in the game can be replayed from the main menu, allowing you to see how things could have gone differently if you had discovered a crucial piece of evidence you may have missed on your first time through, or what would have happened if you didn't completely bomb an interview. On paper, L.A. Noire sounds amazing, and it's rare that a game fulfills those expectations and its potential at the same time. L.A Noire is one such case. Don't pass this experience up.

Borderlands Review - An exciting and entertaining experience all the way through

Borderlands is an example of a game that successfully merges two popular genres, creating an exciting and entertaining experience that's hard to forget. Those two genres--first person shooter and RPG--are melded perfectly by Gearbox Software and together they make Borderlands the addicting and long-lasting game it is. It is fortunate that neither aspect of the game falls short, leaving the other to carry the load. While the game is obviously built around the first person shooter genre, the developers manage to implement and work in the role playing aspect with near flawless results.

There are some really cool set pieces

Let's get the weakest aspect of the game out of the way first: the story. Borderlands takes place in the future on the planet Pandora, where an ancient and legendary Vault is rumored to contain untold riches. The character of your choice has traveled there to try and unravel the mysteries surrounding the Vault and to discover the mythical treasures inside. The notable lack of cutscenes and spoked dialog (there is some of the latter, but usually only a few lines from major characters) means that in order to understand anything, you'll need to read all of the text that comes with each quest. However, there is a chance that you'll end up skipping most of it and by the end of the game you might not know what happened (this actually happened to me on the first playthrough). Even if you do choose to read the text, you'll probably forget most of it anyway. And since you really don't accomplish much by the end of it, it's probably safe to say that the story is mainly there to serve as a reason for doing everything that you do in the game, and not much else. The humor in Borderlands, however, certainly makes up for the rather weak story. There is a satisfying amount of forth-wall breaking, suggestive insinuations, and references to popular culture that thankfully prevent the game from taking itself too seriously. And in a messed up world like Pandora, who wants to go through life feeling down all the time?

It's a good thing, then, that Borderlands is a blast to play. At the beginning of the game, you choose to play as one of four different characters. Each character has a unique action skill that they can use. Roland, who is efficient with assault rifles, can deploy a turret; Lilith, who is good with elemental weapons, can turn invisible for a short period and move about at increased speeds; Mordecai, who is best at sniper rifles, can throw out a vicious bird that attacks enemies; and finally, Brick, who can use rocket launchers better than anyone else, can go into a furious rage and beat up opponents with his powerful fists. There's enough variety to draw players with different tastes to the game, but I found that Roland is usually the best choice due to his prowess with automatic weapons and useful turret ability. The combat in the game feels especially good; all enemies in the game have weak points that you can exploit to cause massive damage, but not all of them are as obvious as Lost Planet's bright orange blobs. Boss battles are also present, but none of them really require much strategy. It is a shooter after all.

Guns that shoot lightning rounds can produce comical results

Where the RPG elements come in is leveling up. Every time you kill something or complete a quest, you'll gain experience points. As you level up, you'll receive skill points that are used to acquire perk-like abilities for your character, and each character has a unique set. Some of them you've probably seen before, like increased weapon damage or reload speed. Others, like Roland's ability to heal teammates by actually shooting them, make Borderlands stand out on its own. You won't actually be able to acquire every ability by the time you hit the level cap. This created many situations where I sat at looking at the screen deliberating with myself on how I should use my skill point. In addition to these are mods that you will acquire that you may use to modify your class or grenades. Some class mods may benefit yourself (like increased damage with a certain weapon) or the team if you're playing with others (like one that increases the XP that everyone gets). Grenade mods are probably the most interesting, since they can do anything from shooting multiple grenades out of just one or causing the grenade to suck life out of enemies and give it to you. All of these combine to create some truly chaotic moments in the game.

Borderlands' gameplay is essentially loot-driven. Chances are you've heard about the plethora of guns in the world of Pandora, and it's this unique feature that helps make Borderlands stand out. You find guns everywhere: in lockers, in special weapon chests, on the bodies of dead enemies. And while a lot of the weapons are just vendor trash, nothing beats the excitement you feel when you open a weapon chest and find a gun that's better than the one you were using. The guns themselves have many variables, like reload speed, accuracy, the type of scope it has, and others that differentiate them. This often lead to moments where I would find a submachine gun that's drastically more powerful than my other weapons only to find that it shoots slower than a revolver. Gearbox's method of creating all of these weapons really paid off well, and I'm very excited to see what they'll do with the technology in future Borderlands titles.

As I hinted at earlier, Borderlands includes a coop mode where you and three friends (or strangers) can tackle Pandora together. The cooperative play would have been great if it wasn't plagued by frequent lag issues. [Note: I have only played the game on the Xbox 360, so I can only speak for that system]. Lag is a major killer in games, so it is unfortunate that a lot of the games I got into were almost unplayable because of it. When matches are lag free is when the strong online component really shines through. You can use your single player character online, so any neat weapons or gear you found in your game can be shown off to your friends. On the contrary, any weapons or gear you find in multiplayer can then be brought into single player. Such a system should be enough to motivate players to head online, as you'll never know what you'll find when playing with others. A big hit to the multiplayer, however, is the lack of a trading system. All loot in the game is up for grabs, although money is shared. This means that there is nothing stopping a player from grabbing all the weapons in a weapon chest or all the ammo from a dead enemy. It would certainly be wise is Gearbox implemented a trading system should they decide to make develop another Borderlands game.

One of the things that really drew me to Borderlands was the visual style. Were it not for the loot-driven gameplay and the beautiful cel-shaded visuals, Borderlands would have felt like another generic shooter. Everything in the game has the nice hand-drawn look with the dark outlines and slightly cartoonish feel. It's a nice break from the depressing sea of brown and grey you find in many modern shooters nowadays.

I sincerely hope that more developers will be willing to combine several genres into one in the future, as such a thing was done brilliantly by Gearbox Software. The combination of RPG and FPS elements, cel-shaded visuals, and satisfying piles of loot make Borderlands a remarkable game that shouldn't be missed.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Review - It's your standard Call of Duty, but with a few twists

Say what you will about Treyarch, but after spending numerous hours with Black Ops it seems like this company is fit to be the main Call of Duty developer should Infinity Ward officially shut down for good. The core gameplay, although largely the same, does have some subtle and not-so-subtle tweaks and changes that help to keep the experience fresh.

Don't be surprised when you hear "Fortunate Son" playing during one Vietnam mission

The story in Black Ops is really unlike anything you've seen in the series thus far. You play as Alex Mason who is actually strapped in a chair for the majority of the game while he is interrogated about numbers that he keeps hearing in his head. The missions you partake in are mostly flashbacks of missions that Mason went on during the 1960s. The way the story is told gives Treyarch leeway to bounce around the timeline at will, and they actually do a pretty nice job with the presentation. You'll play as other characters in certain parts of the game, but for the most part this is Mason's story you are experiencing. Black Ops even takes place in the same universe as Call of Duty: World At War, so some familiar faces will pop up, like Sergeant Reznov.

Anyone who's played Call of Duty 4 or any of the entries after it will know that the series is all about big set pieces, and Black Ops certainly delivers in that aspect. But to be clear, this is mostly your standard Call of Duty campaign experience. Black Ops definitely feels toned down a bit coming off of Modern Warfare 2, but that isn't to say that you won't find yourself in some really unique and fascinating situations, like one where you are parachuting off a cliff after barely escaping from an avalanche. In another part, you'll even get to jack a helicopter off the Vietnamese and pilot it. It's moments like these that will most likely bring people back to the campaign for another go, since you are never really doing the same thing twice. (Well, except for blasting dudes in the face. That happens quite a bit). That being said, it should be mentioned that the Black Ops campaign lasts about 5-6 hours, which seems to be the norm for the series now.

You still aim at stuff and shoot. Occasionally, that stuff blows up

World At War for the most part felt like a reskinned version of the first Modern Warfare. Thankfully, Treyarch was able to take the multiplayer formula established by Modern Warfare 2 and do some interesting things to it so it doesn't feel like you are playing the exact same game you were last year. Of the drastic changes is the inclusion of COD Points, which are earned after matches and by completing Contracts, which are essentially limited-time challenges. These COD Points (or simply credits, as I like to call them) are used to purchase everything from weapons to attachments to gun camos and more. You still maintain a rank and will accumulate experience points as you play, but these ranks simply unlock the ability to purchase guns. This means that you still have to level up to buy certain weapons, but you aren't required to purchase the ones you don't want.

All of your standard multiplayer mods are there, like Domination, Team Deathmatch, and Search & Destroy, but there is also a separate playlist called Wager Matches that allow you put your money where your mouth is in some truly unique game modes. There are three tiers of Wager Matches, with the first one having a small entry fee of 10 COD Points and the third one catering to the big leaguers willing to throw a hefty 10,000 COD Points on the line. Each of the four Wager Match modes offer a different experience, and some of them are definitely easier than others. I think Sharpshooter is my favorite. In it, everyone starts with the same random weapon, and every 45 seconds each player automatically switches to another random weapon. This creates chaotic situations where everybody in the match has dual pistols one moment, and in the next they all have China Lake grenade launchers or ballistic knives. Heck, in one match I got into everyone started with a minigun. There's also a really intense mode called One In The Chamber, where you only have 1 bullet and the only way to get another is to kill an enemy. With only three lives, this mode is definitely not for the faint of heart. Sticks & Stones has everyone using only crossbows, ballistics knives, and tomahawks, and fans of Counter-Strike will probably recognize Gun Game right away.

If you feel the need to put "PWN" on your gun, then go right ahead

Treyarch has gone to greater lengths to allow players to customize their online persona as they see fit. Emblems can be heavily modified using the layer system that gives you the ability to create whatever sick and disturbing image you want, and you can actually stick this emblem on your gun for a fee. Speaking of guns, there are over a dozen camouflage patterns to cover them with, and every attachment for a weapon is immediately unlocked for purchase as soon as you gain ownership of that weapon. This is really great news for people like me who aren't always willing to deal with a certain gun's terrible iron sights for a few rounds in order to unlock a sight or scope that's actually decent. It was a rather thrilling moment when I found myself blasting people away with my blood red AK-74u that had RISE etched into the side and the Giant Bomb logo gloriously stamped on it. Oh, and you can totally change the red dot on your sights to anything from smiling faces to skulls to several different arrangements of geometric shapes that may or may not make it easier to aim. And you can change the color too.

Pro perks this time around are significantly harder to obtain because many of them require you to perform certain feats during objective-based modes. The new killstreaks introduce some interesting and unique ways to kill enemies. One of the three-kill rewards allows you to drive a small RC car around the map to detonate under the feet of an enemy. I was never a fan of the dogs in World At War, so I'm a little disappointed that they've been brought back. Tactical nukes are no longer in the game, which probably gives people less incentive to boost, and the carpet bomb killstreak has a nasty habit of killing people that are indoors. If you manage to reach an 11 kill streak, you'll actually get to pilot an attack helicopter around the map and launch missiles at people (if you have it selected instead of the dogs). This is insanely fun to use, although as expected it can be frustrating when the other team gets one and nobody is willing to step outside with a rocket launcher to try and remove it.

If you ever find yourself awe-struck by something you did in a match, the new Theater mode is there for you to capture the moment forever. Much like Halo 3 and Halo: Reach, the Theater allows you to record gameplay from any angle you like and take screenshots, both of which can be uploaded to your file share. But unlike Bungie's version, this Theater mode allows you to upload your clips to your account on the Call of Duty website which will then be automatically uploaded to your YouTube account should you allow it.

The new crossbow is definitely not easy to use

Black Ops runs on the engine that powered World At War, which may or may not be the reason why the game is visually not as impressive as Modern Warfare 2. There are a few moments of the campaign and even in multiplayer where the textures look pretty flat, which is strange considering that a lot of the levels, specially the Vietnam ones, look fantastic. Also, I experienced some pretty bad framerate issues at times while playing multiplayer on the Xbox 360 version of the game. Sometimes it occurred when a napalm strike fell, and other times it just seemed to happen at random. Despite these afflictions, much of Black Ops looks pretty good, especially the explosions and fire. This game is also one of the most violent entries to the series; you do plenty of throat stabbing in the game, all of which look pretty grisly due to the visible gashes left behind on your victim's neck.

Some big name voice actors took the stage for Black Ops, including Ed Harris, Ice Cube, and Sam Worthington. Worthington does such a weird job voicing Alex Mason that by the end of the game you won't be able to decide if he's from Alaska or the land down under. I felt that Ed Harris had one of the best vocal performances in the game, and hearing Ice Cube tell me that our Spy Plane is in the air is truly something else. Most of the weapons sound appropriately devastating, although the MP5K sounds comically like a toy.

Black Ops is without a doubt Treyarch's most ambitious contribution to the Call of Duty franchise yet, and the risks they took with the COD Points system and the way they tell the single player story certainly paid off well. Let's just hope that whoever is developing the next game in the series continues to evolve and bring everything forward, because keeping the experience fresh and exciting is what their main goal should be. Coming off of Modern Warfare 2, Black Ops provides that refreshing feeling, and it is most definitely a must have for fans of the series.