Batman: Arkham City

The dark knight returns to the gaming world once again in what can only be described as the best game of 2011. Arkham city is bigger, badder and well the only other word i can think of right now that comes close to doing it justice is "Awesome".

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The story follows on directly from the successful 2009 Arkham Asylum and it doesn't waste any time sending you straight into the action. This game is every Batman fans wet dream, there are so many famous villains thrown into the game that you will literally be squealing with joy. Its not just the villains that are make Arkham City the big game that it is, rather than just Batman and with the help of DLC packages, you can now take control over Catwomen and my own personal favourite hero Robin.

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Graphically, Arkham City is absolutely stunning in every single way that a game can be. From the detailed backgrounds to the eventual wear and tear of Batman's costume through out the game, a lot of attention has been paid to the level of detail given in this game. Of course a game featuring the caped crusader would not be complete without the scores of music that it has become most known for. Also the voice acting throughout the entire game is both immaculate and gripping.

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If you have played Arkham Asylum before then you will be no stranger to the gameplay that you would expect with Arkham City. The way that you control Batman is almost flawless, everything seems to be very well thought out. The movements during melee fights are easy to master and even easier to chain together to build up combos. Even though the odds may be overwhelming at times, thanks to the simplicity of the controls, it actually makes you feel like you could take on the world as Batman and still come off the winner.

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Arkham City is not just about swooping in and kicking the crap out of the goons that roam the streets of Arkham city, sometimes the best way to deal with your enemies is to be as stealthy as possible. Hiding in the corners of the rafters and using your batarangs to misplace the enemies attention while you swoop down to take them out as quietly and quickly as you can is amazingly rewarding, giving you a very unique Batman experience. Its even better to wait for your enemy to wander below you, drop down and string them up as a warning to their fellow goons.

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Arkham City's story is very loose so it gives you plenty of chance to get out and explore your vast surroundings at your own leisure. There is a lot more to Arkham City than just it's story, the city is literally littered with countless amounts of side quests to keep you occupied. The best of the side quests has got to be finding the Riddler trophies, this will definitely take up a lot of your time. All the side quests add to the already vast lifespan of Arkham City complimenting the story mode perfectly as they run along side each other.

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Arkham City has also recieved a fair amount of DLC content. I have already mentioned the Catwomen package, which runs along side Batman's story and is a must have really as it expands the entire game. There are also costume packs and a character packs that can be used with the challenge maps.

Another DLC which was released is called Harley Quinn's Revenge and is possibly the main DLC content that you should purchase as it continues Arkham City's main story from several weeks after it ended. You also get the chance to play as Robin who is searching for a missing Batman.

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For all comic book fans, movie fans, game fans and basically any human being out there that has any taste, this game is a must have. Arkham City is possibly the best super-hero focused game that is out there.


Arkham City deserves the 9.5 that i am giving it.

Lollipop Chainsaw

There are so many reasons as to why Lollipop Chainsaw should stand out from the crowd. For one, it's heroine is a typically blonde cheerleader. Not just any cheerleader though, Juliet is a kick-ass zombie fighting cheerleader. Its almost as though this has been plucked from the darkest corners of the anime fantasy realm. So what exactly went wrong, that Lollipop Chainsaw has all the ideas but zero follow through.

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Lollipop Chainsaw has so many intriguing  ideas behind it that should keep the gamer interested to a certain degree. It has an amazing rock filled soundtrack. The game is also filled with some witty humor and to a certain extent some bearably average voice acting. Lollipop Chainsaw's main appeal though is the bright vibrant colours that it uses through out its scenery and the characters.

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Lollipop's biggest downfall, in my own opinion, is the way that everything it has to offer becomes extremely repetitive. There is only so much you can possibly take of Juliet's naive personality and even more so of the comments the undead will make about the lead character. It's not just the characters personalities that get old fast. Although the action at the beginning of the game seems to be enough for what it actually is, by the time you get half way through the game it gets extremely repetitive.

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All that being said though, I would recommend at least giving the game a try as it does have its moments where it will genuinely surprise you. I wouldn't recommend paying full price for it however. There are a lot of moments in the game that will either make it or break it though, either you will appreciate the humor that it uses or not.

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Lollipop tries to offer the gamer reasons to continue playing through it. There are costumes to be unlocked, soundtracks, moves and lots more but i honestly wouldn't waste your time. One play through is more than enough really.

^ign.com

I give Lollipop Chainsaw a 5 out of 10. There are some aspects of this game that did appeal to me.

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City

Ah once again we find ourselves back onto the subject of Resident Evil. Once again though, I'm sad to say that this isn't a happy subject.

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Operation Raccoon City, as the title suggests, is the return to the ill fated town in America. Home to the Umbrella Corporation and their ambitious experiments that seem to have unexpected results, they reanimate the dead and there is much worse than that waiting in the shadows to strike you down.

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At first you are put in charge of Umbrellas Security Service (USS), allowing you a peak at what goes on within the Umbrella Corporation. Don't get excited though, as good as all this sounds these are some of the dullest and poorly structured characters ever to grace the gaming world. None of the team has a personality just different traits to be used in gameplay. There is very little importance provided by, well anything that happens in this game. Its basically a game that was hoping to earn all its sales on its nostalgic title. 
This is truly the worst part of ORC. All the ideas that have been put into the game are pretty remarkable but obviously something went terribly wrong during its production because they don't really seem to to work to well.

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Returning to Raccoon City should have been an amazing opportunity to relive all the events that took place during RE2 and RE3, but seriously this game is just lacking in all aspects.
There is no real story as to why your team are here, just a bunch of missions given to you that you follow without question. All of which has no real relevance to anything just a bunch of gimmicky levels that scream "Hey. Look. Its Raccoon City" but unfortunately the reality is that the nostalgic feeling that gives the game its appeal fades within minutes of playing and the game becomes very tedious very quickly.

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The graphics for ORC are at least better than the actual gamplay and are definitely better than the god awful voice acting that has been thrown together. 

ORC's only redeeming feature is one of its online features in which you get to play in two teams of four. One side you have the heroes Leon S. Kennedy, Claire Redfield, Jill Valentine and Carlos Oliveira. On the other side you have the villains Ada Wong, Nicholai Ginovaef, HUNK and LONE WOLF. The object of the game is pretty simple, wipe out the opposing team before they get to you. But yet again this also gets old fast.

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If you are a fan of the Resident Evil series then please avoid this game at all cost. It is simply terrible and extremely pointless. The only plus side , which even this feels very forced, is being able to go up against two of Residents Evils biggest and most famous tyrants: The Nemesis and William Birkin. 

This game is best left gathering dust on the shelves 

Operation Raccoon City is possibly one of the most disappointing games out there.

ORC gets a massively disappointing 3 out of 10. Its just that bad.

The Walking Dead (Season One)

I'm guessing that there isn't a lot of people out there that isn't a fan of the TV show "The Walking Dead". Lets face it a TV show that revolves around a post apocalyptic world over run by zombies, well whats not to love! But have you ever been sat watching it and  wandered what you would do it that situation?

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The Walking Dead game sees you in control of Lee Everett, a guy who as the outbreak begins, is being escorted by a police officer to be charged for murder. Its not long before you find yourself trying to figure out out how to survive this world that you have just been thrown into. Its not just about making sure that you survived the world around you though, Lee will find himself becoming the guardian of a little eight year old girl called Clementine. This becomes the main focus of the story, how you go about dealing with your new responsibility, how you will protect Clementine and the rest of the survivors you meet along your journey.
This is where The Walking Dead gives you the ability to shape the way this story plays out. As you play through the game, you will ultimately be presented with a lot of choices to be made. Some of these choices are just in things you say to other characters, but the other choices can be life and death. No matter what you do though, these choices influence the entire game.

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The story is broken up in to five chapters, but all the choices that you make bleed through into the next installment, providing a steady flow in the way the story is told. There are a few hiccups in some of the dialog but its pretty easily overseen by everything else that goes on.
Even though the choices that you must make have a lot of influence in how the story plays out, you have to remember that Telltale made this game with the story in mind, so no matter what the end will always be the same, its just what happens in between that you are controlling.
This game will have you hooked from the very start to the very bitter end, craving more and more the further you get into it.

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The graphics for The Walking Dead game are best described as a graphic novel style, which really adds to the atmosphere of the game. The voice acting, although it can be a bit patchy at times, is impressive most of the time given the way you choose the type of dialog you wish your character to have.
The Walking Dead is best described as a unique experience and in my own opinion is possibly one of the best games out there that even comes close to giving the player this much freedom to choose how things will go.

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Recently Season One of The Walking Dead game has just received its first DLC called 400 days. The story itself centers around a truck stop diner where you will get to play out five very different stories of survivors during the 400 days since the outbreak began.

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It was also reveled that The Walking Dead game would be getting a second season that will continue from season one.
Aside from a few technical hiccups, The Walking Dead game is a beautiful, well thought experience. I honestly cant put into words how highly i would recommend this game.
For the trophy hunters out there, this is possibly the easiest platinum trophy you will ever get your hands on.

I give The Walking Dead a 9.5 out of 10 and i honestly cannot wait for its future releases.

Scott Pilgrim VS The World: The Game

If you have seen the movie or read the graphic novels, then I'm guessing that the story of Scott Pilgrim doesn't need much explaining to you then. If you haven't seen the movie then seriously, what the hell are you waiting for!

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Scott Pilgrim has an immense nostalgic feel to it. The creators haven't gone for insane life like graphics or deep scores of music. No, instead they have kept it simple. Scott Pilgrim returns to the roots of the gaming world, with its side scrolling gameplay and 8-bit graphics, this truly gives the game the feel of an arcade game brought back from the past.

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You take control of the hero Scott and/or his friends, Stephen Stills, Kim Pine, the love of Scott's life Ramona Flowers and thanks to two different add ons you can now choose Knives Chau or Scott's gay roommate Wallace Wells. Each character is equipped with their own unique special moves.

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You are set on a journey to win Ramona's heart by defeating the league of evil exes, yep that's right. So that Scott can call Ramona his girlfriend he first has to defeat her seven evil exes.
The game is amazing fun but is so much better to go through with a friend rather than solo. It features up to 3 other players being able to join in the fun. There is also a leveling up system during gameplay that will allow you to learn new skills and kick more ass from the waves upon waves of enemies that stand between you and the boss of that level. It's not just the evil exes that you have to worry about in this game, along the way you will face bullies, skater, ninjas and even flying piggy banks. If you do find it being to much for you though and you get beaten, your doomed to wander the screen as a ghost till you either get resurrected or worse case scenario, its game over.
Rather than going off the movie, Scott Pilgrim has taken its looks and its humor from the graphic novels.
Scott Pilgrim is an extremely addictive game to play through, and its a lot more fun to play through with friends. This is possibly one of the greatest games that's available to download and my recommendation is that you download it immediately and get a little 8-bit love in your life. You wont regret it.

^ign.com

Scott Pilgrim VS The World: The game gets a 8 out of 10 from me.

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (Beta trial)

I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to be part of Final Fantasy's beats test. I will start by saying that i have never really played a MMORPG before, so i didn't really know what to be expecting, so i figured i would give it a shot to see what it was like, and i must say, I'm really glad i did.

The first thing that i will say that truly makes FFXIV remarkable is its stunning graphics. There is such a great level of detail that has gone into this game and it really shows, watching the opening sequence i could not believe just how great the graphics really were. The word mind blowing maybe a little strong but its probably the only way to really describe the games graphics and do it some justice.

Now as a new comer to MMO games, as I've said, i wasn't really sure what i should be expecting from the game in terms of a story, but it would seem that there is a pretty intriguing story that will no doubt be unravelled with lots of dedicated hours playing through it. Once you have finished creating your character, which I've got to say was enough fun for me in itself, you begin your journey as an adventurer setting foot in a land where adventurers come to begin their journey. This is after a much lenghty intro though, and you don't really get any control of your character for a while during all this, although you do have to answer a few questions so an old man can figure out what kind of person your going to be.

From what i have played so far suggests that, story aside, there will be a million and one different things to keep you occupied, the start of the game is literally full of side errands for you to complete if you choose to. I only played for a couple of hours and figured if there are this many errands to do this early in the game, there can only be a lot more as you progress.

Unfortunately though, that's all i have managed to see of the game so far, so as i progress through the Beta test i will be updating this blog.

All i can say at the moment is FFXIV is shaping up to be one hell of a game.

Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 3

Although as the title suggests, this is actually the fourth installment in the chain of Naruto games for the PlayStation. And is by far the best one in the series, mainly because of it's huge roster of ninjas to choose between.

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For those of you who don't know, Naruto Uzumaki is the featured character from the anime series of the same name. There have been many Naruto games released over the past few years on various consoles, but in my own opinion the ninja storm series is by far the best. It has so far, detailed all the events that have happened within the anime series and giving you the opportunity to relive so amazing epic battle moments.

If you haven't played any of the ninja storm games before or haven't followed the anime series then this game isn't really the one you should be starting with. The story takes place at the very beginning of the great ninja war and follows on from there up to an unreal final battle between the lead Naruto and the mysterious masked man Tobi.

Aside from the main story, there are plenty of other things to do to expand the games lifespan. There are the obvious side missions, friendship building missions and tasks and there is also a set of flash back battles that will take you back to events spread out across the Naruto time line.

Graphically, Naruto is very eye pleasing. It features cell shading, which isn't really a surprise for a game based on an anime, but there is a big improvement in this game as to the previous titles as the movement feels less blocky and more smooth.

If you are a fan of the anime series, you will already be familiar with the of voice acting, the game plays as smoothly as watching an episode at times, other times the voice acting can be pretty patchy. Lets face it though, your not playing this game for its sophisticated dialogue, you playing Naruto because you want to kick some ass. 

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The fights in Naruto are very simplistic, once you have learnt the basic controls, there isn't really much more to know, to be truly skilled at Naruto it all comes down to timing.

As with most games there is an online mode to, where you will have your chance to battle players from all over and see who the best ninja really is.

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Naruto is among some of the best fighting games that are out there for gamers, but at the same time it's not really everybody's cup of tea, but i would say if you are a fan of the series or you are looking to try something new and have maybe played games like DragonBall or BlazeBlue then you should definitely be checking this game out 

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I give Naruto a 9 out of 10.

Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale

Have you ever wondered who would win in a fight between Nathan Drake, Kratos or Ratchet and Clank? Well now you needn't wonder any more as PlayStation Allstars Battle Royale provides the answers to that question.

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Sony have finally provided their fans a game much like Nintendo did for theirs with super smash bros. obviously featuring a roster of 20+ playstation favourites. From the likes of Kratos from the God Of War series, Dante from DMC, Nathan Drake from Uncharted all the way to the likes of Parappa the Rapper and Fat Princess. 

The gameplay itself is simple, beat up the other person to fill up your smash meter and perform either a level 1,2 or 3 smash move to eliminate your opponent. It's pretty simple! You can win matches by either having the most KO's or by eliminating your opponent a set number of times.

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There is a story mode for each character, that is just basically a couple of animations to start off with, leading into a few battles, then you get your rival match and then it's time to face the big (not so bad) boss and that's it, that's story mode.

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There is a also a levelling system to each character. Not a levelling system as in you can improve your character, but instead you unlock random content to do with that character suck as backgrounds, new music, costumes, taunts and much more.

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Now one of the better sides to this game is the online mode, there isn't much difference between that and a normal offline match but it its a lot more fun to battle people on line whether it be a single match or a doubles match.

There isn't really much to say about PlayStation allstars, if you like fighting games that are like smash bros. then this is a must have game.  But in my own opinion if your a PlayStation fan, then you will need to play this game.  Its simply a lot of fun.

Ni No Kuni: Wrath Of The White Witch

Ni No Kuni, at first glance, seems like a game that that could only come into being if Final Fantasy and Pokemon decided to have a one night stand and this would be its offspring.

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Now i must start off by saying that the story for Ni No Kuni comes across a little too familiar but that does not stop this game from being one of the most outstanding RPG's that i have ever played.  To actually complete the games main story, you are looking at clocking around 80hours which for me was the winning point of this game.  Theres nothing worse than picking up a good game only to be let down by a story that can be played through in less than a day.  There is a lot more to Ni No Kuni though than just its outstanding story, there are plenty of extras to keep you occupied for a very long time.
The graphics used in Ni No Kuni are among some of the most beautiful stunning graphics that I have seen in a game in a long time, the advanced style of cell shading gives the game so much depth and detail.  All the characters in the game are breath taking, as well as the cut scenes.  Even the voice acting is a thing of beauty, although it can be a bit touch and go at times as well, but i can promise you that Mr. Drippys voice will be stuck in your head for a long time.  There is also the background music which needless to say is just as beautiful as the rest of the game.

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As with Pokemon, Ni No Kuni features creatures called Familiars that eventually you will begin to collect throughout the game.  Each Familiar is a little different and can also be evolved using its particular sign (star, sun, planet and moon) So as you can imagine it can become pretty addictive to find all the familiars that you are wanting to train upon and have in your party.

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As well as how addictive you will find it catching and training your familiars, that is actually nothing compared to the alchemy feature.  A little way through the game, you will gain the ability to use alchemy, which is basically chucking a load of materials and ingredients together to give you something else such as new weapons, armour and better treats for your familiars.  You can either take a risk and mix and match or follow the recipes that will be unlocked throughout the game. 
As I've already mentioned Ni No Kuni has an extremely long story but i found that this wasn't a bad thing, as i personally didnt want it to be over.  There are an amazing amount of side quests to take part in and bounty hunt missions to keep you going throughout the game and more become available after the game has been completed.  There is also a casino that becomes available that offers four different mini-games and a chance to win some decent-ish prizes, and if all that isn't enough for you, there is also a range of coliseum battles as well.
Ni No Kuni is a game that i think alot of people will probably relate to in some way.  Ni No Kuni is a superb game that offers alot for gamers from its visually stunning graphics to it highly addictive gameplay. I can honestly say that even though the story was some what familiar, it is a very unique experience.  This is a game that all PlayStation owners should have in their collection
Ni No Kuni gets a 9 out of 10 from me.