Disclaimer: I am a GTA Fan. I’ve played all of the games, including the London expansion and the Stories spin offs. I actually know the layout of the streets in Vice City than I do of the city I live in. If I had to pick only one game to play for the rest of my life, I’d choose San Andreas in a heartbeat.

So yeah, I might be a little biased. But if you can trust the opinions of people who were given exclusive reviews or were locked in a room playing it non-stop before the game was released, then you can probably trust me.
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When Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 came up for review for this website I immediately tried to fend off all the other reviewers on the site who also wanted to review the game, even going so far as to give away the naming rights for my first child to secure the reviewing rights to the title. So if it isn’t obvious already let me just state it to those reading: I am a fan of the Rainbow Six games.

Of course that is sort of a loaded statement. In reality there are two types of Rainbow Six fans, those who like the earlier PC games and those who like console titles. While there are many fans of both, the former like to complain about the latter since the PC Rainbow Six games were more tactical than their console counterparts. Personally I could care less, I like the console titles. Specifically the Xbox titles, with Rainbow Six: Black Arrow being my favorite of the series until now.

The Rainbow Six games were always more tactical games than other shooters. If you tried to run and gun you’d die. Often. One of the things I’ve loved about the Rainbow Six games is this little bit of strategy, often time the game was more like a puzzle game than a shooter, each room would present a different layout and you’d have to figure out how to get through it. Rainbow Six: Lockdown was a game that had me worried for the future of the Rainbow Six series, until Vegas came along. Vegas added several improvements to the formula and truly brought the series into the next generation. A great cover system added even more tactics to the game and made it so that you didn’t have to flashbang yourself, the persistent character creation system became the foundation for just about any other FPS afterwards.

Vegas 2 has a lot to live up to, was it able to live up to the high standards the previous game set?

Yes…and no.

Despite the cliffhanger ending of the last game, Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 starts you off as a new character, Bishop, and starts of with a flashback to set up character motivations. I thought this was actually a good thing as the previous Vegas game’s storyline was more of an excuse to shoot terrorists than anything and had a cliffhanger ending that few people enjoyed. While Vegas 2 could have also just had a plot that wasn’t any deeper than just giving an excuse to shoot terrorists, Vegas 2 manages to go beyond any of the previous games in the series as far as plot goes. Throughout the levels there are several great moments, moments that for a second make you care about fictional digitalized civilians in a way few other games manage to accomplish.

Even the smaller details with stuff like one terrorists trying to explain to another one about how it really isn’t his fault that he is doing this because he needed a job, and others trying to brag about how many people they’ve killed. Moments like this really help create a great atmosphere. There are games out there that present more cinematic moments, but these events that happen during the level add some intensity to the experience.

The game does tie into the original Vegas game, and if you’re worried about another cliffhanger ending, don’t worry about it this time. The game definitively ends, which hopefully means the next Rainbow Six game will take place in a new location. Vegas was fun, but it’s time for something else. Time for Rainbow Six: Midwest?

That’s not to say that the locations in Vegas feel repeated from the first game. If anything the locations are also an improvement over the original title. After awhile the casinos sort of blended together in my head. In Vegas 2 there’s a much wider variety to the locations showing that Vegas isn’t all Casinos. There’s a whole community around Vegas needed to keep the Casinos running and in Vegas 2 you get to shoot at a lot of it. A theater, community center, and even through random backyards.

Even though the locations are more varied, don’t turn on Vegas 2 expecting a graphical advancement over the original title. There’s very little difference graphically between the first Vegas game and this one. A lot of the non-main characters still look like they’ve stepped out of a Nintendo 64 game, which is mostly noticeable for the fact that the main characters are look so much more detailed. Compare your teammates to some of the hostages you rescue and it’s an amazing difference. Not that the game looks bad, it looks good, but maybe not the graphical leap fans were expecting.

Were the game truly separates itself from the previous title is in the new additions to the game. First up, a sprint button. In many ways this was an odd design choice since as mentioned earlier run + gun = death in Rainbow Six. This does add a little bit to the tactical experience though since it’s now possible to run from cover to cover or to sprint across open areas. Mainly though this is a great addition to the online game, especially if you were among those that thought the original title felt to slow online. Also it gives more reason to use the shotgun and other close range weapons when you can close the distance between you and your enemy.

The biggest change, and I’ll put my money that this is a feature you’ll see in every shooter next year, is the experience system. While other online shooters have the ability to gain experience to gain ranks and unlock content in multiplayer, Vegas 2 one ups all of them by making the experience system cross over to the single player game in addition to the multiplayer game. While some people might brush this addition off as being no big deal I guarantee that this will be the most copied feature from any game in 2008. If you suck online now you don’t have to worry that you’ll never unlock certain items, you’ll just need to grind through the single player game.

On top of the experience/rank system is the A.C.E.S. system, which is like a separate experience point system for specific types of kills that are separated into three areas: Marksmen, Close Quarters Combat, and Assault. Shoot an enemy from far away and you’ll gain Marksmen experience in addition to the usual experience. Erase a terrorists face from point blank range? Close Quarters experience. Assault has more to deal with killing enemies with explosives or who are behind cover. There are several different type of kills that fit into each category, and between the experience point/rank system and the A.C.E.S. system it seems like there’s always something on the screen telling you that you accomplished something. That constant feeling of accomplishment over both single-player and multiplayer for one persistent character almost give the game an MMORPG vibe. I’ve played Terrorist Hunt online with random people who were playing to just get to the next level.

Other than that the game also smoothes out some control issues from the previous game, and adds a thermal map to the collection of gadgets at your disposal. There was one big flaw from Vegas that carries over to Vegas 2; poor voice recognition. One of the reasons I loved the first two console Rainbow Six games was how well it integrated voice recognition into the game. It really added to the atmosphere of the game and it’s a shame to see that some voice commands work okay while others cause my team to just stand around. Still the button interface is actually easier to use in the Vegas titles than voice commands, but I’d still like to use them. The fact that there will be a Tom Clancy game that uses nothing but voice commands has me really stumped as to why it’s so bad in the recent Rainbow Six games.

There are also some other bugs. AI is a problem. For the most part your team reacts well and the enemy will attempt to flank you, although there are still more than enough WTF moments where your team decides that life is no longer worth living anymore and just stand in the path of bullets. Enemies are the same way; on Realistic difficulty I ended up almost right on top of an enemy while sneaking around and was kneeled right in front of him. He looked at me and then went back to what he was doing. On the hardest difficulty level this shouldn’t happen. For a game with an experience system designed around close quarters combat, both allies and enemies act funky when you get too close to them.

On the multiplayer side of these, one of the things that make Rainbow really stand out is the co-op modes. The single player story has had it’s co-op slimmed down to just two players, I didn’t really have much of an issue for this, but if you had three friends who you play Rainbow with this might be a disappointment. Terrorist Hunt still supplies the four-player co-op action though, and it’s done really well. More online shooters need to find new ways for players to play together instead of against each other.

The competitive modes are all there, but compared to other online shooters the maps are small. Like claustrophobically small. This makes this fast and intense, but for a game that prides itself on being more tactical than other shooters it’s hard to develop good tactics when the other don’t spawn very far away. Maybe it’s the new sprint feature that makes familiar maps seem cramped.

There was a large jump in both quality and features between Lockdown and the first Vegas game, and if you were expecting the same leap for the Vegas sequel you might find yourself disappointed at first since the gameplay hasn’t really changed between the titles, and there are those out there that will try and claim Vegas 2 is more of an expansion pack than a sequel. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Vegas 2 packs in the same great tactical gameplay of the previous title, and while it may not add much new to how you play the game, the title certainly adds to why you play the game. If you are a previous fan of the series than Vegas 2 is an easy recommendation.

The Scores:
Story: ENJOYABLE
Graphics: GOOD
Sound: GREAT
Control/Gameplay: GREAT
Replayability: VERY GOOD
Balance: ABOVE AVERAGE
Originality: MEDIOCRE
Addictiveness: GREAT
Appeal: GOOD
Miscellaneous: VERY GOOD
FINAL RATING: VERY GOOD!

Short Attention Span Summary:
Are you a Rainbow Six fan? Get it. Are you a Halo 3/Call of Duty 4 fan? Try it for the co-op modes, experience system and cover system. You just might like it. There are some flaws in the game, but what Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 does right is fantastic. If you like First Person Shooters than you should try it out just to see what all the other shooters will be copying next year.

It’s been a long, hard road for D3’s new shooter Dark Sector. Originally announced for the “Xbox 2” four years ago, it disappeared into the abyss before making a big comeback to hit store shelves this Spring. Was it worth the wait, or should it have stayed in the video game black hole with so many other promising games that never saw the light of day? Let’s review…

The game starts with a black and white prologue where the world is introduced to Hayden Tenno, a government issued badass sent to take down a terrorist named Mezner. The evil Mezner is turning people into superpowered freakshows by unleashing a dangerous virus on the world. Think along the lines of the classic George Romero zombie flicks with a twist. Without spoiling too much..well..Hayden gets infected, which in turn leads to the main storyline of the game – getting UN-infected (along with revenge, of course), and the birth of one of the most innovative weapons the genre has seen in a long time, the GLAIVE.

The glaive can best be described as an oversize ninja star/boomerang of destruction. It can be used to decapitate enemies, slice off limbs, and even steal weapons and power-ups. Your gun inventory throughout the game is very limited, and you must make a lot of choices along the way on which guns you prefer more than others – but the glaive is always there, and frankly – you may forget about the artillery if it means more chances to slice and dice with the glaive. The game does a great job at slowly training you on the powers of your weapon, seemingly allowing you to master one trick per chapter, before moving on to learn yet another cool trick.

Sometimes the response time for the glaive isn’t ideal. You can fling the thing, and while it’s in mid-air get shot up by the sometimes endless enemies firing ammo from all angles at you. This is where the game adds challenge, as much as you’ll love the glaive, there are times where you’ll need to find a place to hide and fire your limited weaponry a la Gears of War. Your health is monitored by heartbeat and a redness that takes over the screen the worse and worse things become. I died…a LOT, usually for trying to be a glaive-toting hero and not taking cover like a person who would like to live. Using actual discretion, and depending on your shooter skills, Dark Sector can be beaten anywhere from 8-12 hours. At which point you can up the difficulty level or take a stab at the multiplayer on Xbox Live.

Finding and buying new weapons, upgrading the glaive, and taking down the conspiracy can be a lot of fun the first time around, but the replay value in this game is fairly low. The cutscenes are beautiful and the voice acting is well done and cinematic-quality, but to me Dark Sector was like a solid action movie. Entertaining, not ridiculously long, a bit repetitive at times - yet intriguing enough to keep playing.

Outside of the cutscenes, the game visually is solid but not spectacular. Us kids these days are spoiled, as while Dark Sector looks great on a HD screen, it doesn’t stand out compared to other games on the market during actual gameplay. Enemies tend to blend together and at times are completely indistinguishable. Dark Sector runs almost entirely in third-person mode and you don’t really get a good look at Hayden in action either. Overall there’s just nothing to write home..or a review about in terms of graphics, they’re just…good.

More than just…good, is the audio – which is a true highlight of the game. Those indistinguishable bad guys do have a bit of personality coming through the speakers. Groan as the baddies scream “I found him!” and then smile as the glaive slices them up and they scream in complete and utter pain for losing one of their limbs. Combat action, regardless of the fight is captured fantastically, and if you’ve got a surround sound system you’re in for a real treat.

As for controls, the biggest complaint is hand-to-hand combat. Sure you have the glaive, and guns, but you can also sneak up on a bad guy and lay the smack down. This combat is all captured with the B/Red button on your controller. Time it right and you’ll be prompted to tap it again for a devastating finisher. The problem is, the response is very clunky at times, and you’ll end up kicking a wall, missing entirely, or tapping it 500 times in a frantic effort to get the job done. This same button is used to open crates, but if you aren’t perfectly lined up you won’t be prompted to open the crate, and instead will be unleashing melee spin kicks on air and around the box. It can be frustrating, especially if you’re in a hurry to get out of a certain spot or were trying to be superman in the middle of a multi-bad guy attack, failure probably results in a frustrating death. The guns are easy enough to manage, anybody who’s played a shooter can get the hang of that aspect, and I’ve already covered the glaive’s skills. The hand-to-hand combat hurts an otherwise solid control scheme.

The Scores
Story: Very Good
Graphics: Good
Sound: Very Good
Control and Gameplay: Decent
Replayability: Average
Balance: Decent
Originality: Good
Addictiveness: Average
Appeal Factor: Enjoyable
Miscellaneous: Good
FINAL SCORE: ENJOYABLE GAME

Short Attention Span Summary
The Glaive brings a new twist to what would’ve been just a good ol’ fashioned shooter. It adds an extra dynamic and will help cure the wants of shooter fans needing to try something a little different, while not straying too far from their genre of choice. A solid story and reasonable completion time make Dark Sector an easy recommendation for even the most casual shooter fan to give a try.

If you have beaten Mass Effect and are looking for more adventures in the life of Captain Shepard, the first thing you’ll notice is that you can’t immediately jump into the Bring Down The Sky content unless you have a previous save from earlier in the game. I don’t know why if Bioware was planning on developing DLC why they wouldn’t have something in place to access it immediately. I did not have a previous save I could access so I had to go through the beginning of the game again. I was okay with this since I love the game, but there are those who might not be as patient as I am.

Once you can access the Bring Down The Sky mission it will jump to a cut scene showing an asteroid being propelled towards a planet. Your mission is to make like Bruce Willis in Armaggedon and stop this from happening. Without spoiling the story aspects of the mission the actual objectives are slightly disappointing in some ways. The asteroid is very similar to many of the random planets you can land on around the galaxy. You land in the Mako and drive to certain points and fight enemies in variations of the same base that you’ll find on a dozen other planets.

I mean seriously, no matter if your a space pirate, terrorist, survey team, planetary outpost, and on and on, they all appearantly have the same contractor. It’s like they shop at the biggest Ikea in the universe.

While that’s disappointing there are some great new things. The Batarians, a new alien race, are interesting and I got the impression that either through future DLC or the next game that we will be seeing more of them. The alien race doesn’t just add interesting things from a storyline perspective; they also use slightly different tactics than the races from the main game. Above all the story is why I bought it and the choices that are presented through the story are great. The game asks you to make a decision at the end of the mission that is fantastic.

Pros:
-New alien race that fight differently
-More story and choices to make
-Additional achievement points to earn

Cons:
-How many times do I have to fight in the same base?
-I forgot how clumsy the Mako is.
-Short. About 90 minutes long.

Recommendation: Buy if your a fan of the man game. It doesn’t take too long to get to the point where you can access the content if you have beaten the game, plus for $5 you get an extension on the story and some fun new choices to make. I’ve spent more renting movies that I enjoyed far less than this extra mission. Hopefully future content will have more in the way of variety for the locations you actually fight in.

Of course, Sony and Microsoft combined to give me the perfect warm-up week, as the two services combined conspired to give us a grand total of one game, mainly thanks to the PS Store renovating their entire service. Makes for a slow week, but if it means region-free games, then they can take as long as they want.

GAME: Mr. Driller Online
SERVICE: XBLA
PUBLISHER: Namco Bandai
COST: 800 MS Points ($10)

Mr. Driller was a quirky Dreamcast and Playstation title with a very loose connection to 80s smash hit Dig Dug that developed a bit of a cult following, along with titles like Chu Chu Rocket and Space Channel 5, and like other obscure titles with a niche following, it’s found it’s way onto the XBox Live Arcade service for the highly manageable price of $10 in real world money. Considering I spent $30 on the DS game, $10 for one I can play against people online sounded like a bargain. Would I be let down? Let’s find out.

For anyone not familiar with Mr. Driller, you take the place of one of a few characters as you drill variously coloured blocks with the goal of hitting a specified distance; one block represents one meter, and you have goals ranging from 100m to 5,000m, with an infinite mode for experts. Blocks of the same colour link together into groups, much like Puyo Puyo. As you drill, any block that was under the now-removed blocks free-falls, and if it links together with other same-coloured blocks, it causes a chain, which is where the majority of your score comes in. However, this also presents the potential that you’re going to have a block fall on your head if you get stuck under it, and if that happens, you lose a life unless you’re using a specific character that gets two hits. For a shorter summary of the gameplay, take Puyo Puyo, Tetris, and an Astro Boy cartoon, put them in a blender, hit puree and serve cold.

The single player mode is nothing we haven’t seen before in a Mr. Driller game; you have standard and quest modes of varying lengths, and the only difference between the two is that Quest Mode makes you do other shit as well as dig to a specified distance, with examples including completing 100m within a specified time, destroying a set number of blocks, or using a minimum of air capsules. Scores from both modes are saved and posted to online leaderboards, but this is standard for Namco games. As a single player experience, Mr. Driller is a fun game, but this version is selling itself on it’s online mode.

Online mode in Mr. Driller, so far, is admirable. It’s not admirable in a “this is good” sense, but rather, it gives me hope for our society as a whole, as it shows that we have finally found good jobs for those with learning deficits and other mental abnormalities within Namco Bandai’s QA department. In less literary terms, online play in Mr. Driller is fucking broken. I haven’t had one match - ranked or not - that hasn’t had severe problems, not just with lag, but also with glitches. In one ranked match, I couldn’t drill the blocks I was supposed to drill; I tried and tried, but my boy’s drill bounced right off it, while my opponent merrily dug her way to a virtual default victory. Combine painful lag with glitches that make the game nearly unplayable with the fact that there’s no patch planned for the game, and you have a game that should never have been put online, or at best, should have been pulled, the way Sensible World of Soccer was.

Furthermore, as is the case with every Namco Bandai game I’ve seen on XBLA, if you want to play a local game with more than one player, you’re ostensibly fucked; the option simply isn’t there. Let me repeat this: you cannot play against a person right next to you. However, you CAN play against someone online… provided you’re an XBox Gold member. It’s inexcusable, and I’ve yet to see one reason why they cannot provide local multiplayer. What hurts things even more is that I had problems - even a day after release - finding matches online, much like a lot of XBLA’s games.

In short, Mr. Driller is a very fun game on it’s own merits, and this version is fine if you like the single player mode and want to put your scores up against players around the world. Furthermore, this game could very well be fixed later with a patch to make online mode playable. But as it stands, I find it hard to recommend a game this badly broken purely on principle, especially when the Driller Spirits (for the Nintendo DS) is around $10 nowadays itself. Thumbs in the middle, leaning down for Mr. Driller Online.

Images courtesy of Kotaku Australia

Ever hear of the DVD brand board game Scene It? If not, it’s understandable. It’s pretty obscure. Since it released in 2001, only a mere 10 million board games were sold. (more…)