Red Faction: Guerrilla Review

Though repetitive, this third-person action game is a great open-world adventure for anyone with an appetite for destruction.
Of all the weapons you'll find in Red Faction: Guerrilla, the simple sledgehammer is one of the best. This powerful object has the ability to bring down entire buildings, giving you an almost tactile feeling of gleeful abandon as you watch your character leave nothing but rubble and havoc in his trail. The brutish, direct sledgehammer exemplifies what the excellent Red Faction: Guerrilla is all about. Destruction is this game's currency, and it puts its considerable wealth to good use. Mars is yours to annihilate, and while the main story is uninvolving and the action can get repetitive, you'll find plenty to like in the game's mayhem-filled single-player campaign and impressive multiplayer offerings.

Mayhem is built into Guerrilla's DNA, and its impressive physics engine realistically showcases destruction on a massive scale. The game ditches the deformable landscapes that were a staple of its predecessors, instead offering the ability to blow apart anything in the game. Any man-made object can be reduced to rubble, and every structure or vehicle--and every one of its composite parts--features its own unique physical properties. Everything from smokestacks to bridges appears to have been built with real-world engineering principles in mind, and you can see the various supports and reinforcements in their design. So to demolish a small building, you needn't take out all its walls--simply identify its support columns, take those out with charges, and watch the whole thing implode. All of this destruction is performed in real time, which means no structure collapses in the same way.

The realistic nature of this rampant destructibility is the standout feature of Guerrilla, and it will affect many of your gameplay decisions. Cover, for example, is at best a temporary haven for you and your enemies, since all walls can be demolished. Height is also of little concern--if an enemy sniper is perched on a building, you can easily destroy the floor underneath him. You can stop pursuers by blowing up a bridge as you pass it, or even level an entire building to kill all of the troops inside. It's hard not to get swept up in all the damage you can cause, and you'll find yourself wanting to lay waste to an object just to see how it crumbles simply because it's so much fun.

If it sounds like the game is frenetic and chaotic, that's because it can. Despite the fact that your character, Alec Mason, is a guerrilla--a member of the underground group Red Faction, which is trying to take out the all-powerful Earth Defense Force (EDF)--there's little scope for anything other than full volume action, even if you are trying to approach a mission with subtlety. Mason is initially an unwilling recruit to Red Faction, joining only after his brother is killed by EDF soldiers. What follows is a lengthy main storyline which is fairly cliched for the most part. Mason's motivation for revenge doesn't ring that strongly throughout the campaign, and there are very few twists and turns to keep the plot engaging.

Story, for the most part, takes a backseat to Mason's continuing mission to free Mars. The EDF have total control of the six sectors of the planet, oppressing its population of miners with a heavy security presence and upfront brutality. To free the planet, you'll have to do it sector by sector. Each will have its own level of EDF control that you'll have to lower while at the same time raising the population's morale. The game's eight different mission types will do one or the other, and in many cases they'll do both. Lowering EDF control opens up new story missions which will move forward Guerrilla's main narrative, while improving morale means more of the population will randomly jump in and support you when you get into a fight with the EDF. On the surface, the mission types are varied--for example, protect a settlement, join a group of rebels in storming an EDF stronghold, intercept an enemy shipment, destroy EDF property--but the game's aggressive AI means most missions will end up in large explosions and a hail of gunfire. You may want to take a more circumspect approach, such as finding an unguarded path into a group of structures that need to be taken down, but as soon as the first explosion hits, EDF troopers will swarm to your position to try to take you down with force. While this doesn't make the action one-dimensional, it does make it one note. Sure, you can blow stuff up in a variety of interesting and creative ways, but in the end, it's still the same thing--blowing stuff up.

It's to the game's credit (and to the credit of its remarkably robust physics engine) that despite repetitiveness, Guerrilla's destruction manages to be engaging and entertaining for the 15 or so hours it will take you to get through the single-player campaign. Even after you finish the game, you can go back into the world to complete any missions you may have skipped, as well as try your hand at the "insane" difficulty level you'll unlock after your first run through. The game is quite challenging even at lower difficulty levels, and you'll find yourself pushed to survive most large-scale fights at medium difficulty. Guerrilla has a cover function which will let you stick to walls, but it's not something you can rely on--you'll sometimes fail to stick to objects properly (particularly low bits of cover), and trying to pop out to shoot can cause you to leave cover completely.

Thankfully, the rest of Red Faction: Guerrilla's controls are solid, particularly its shooting mechanic, which feels just right. You'll be able to equip only four weapons at a time, but you can quickly switch between them by holding down the right shoulder button. Most are typical weapon archetypes--there are pistols, machine guns, shotguns, rocket launchers, and sniper variants--but Guerrilla does feature some unique weapons, such as the killer disc-spewing grinder and the electricity pulsing arc welder. By far the most interesting is the nano rifle, a weapon which sends out a bolt of microscopic nanites that corrode anything they hit--and this includes people as well as buildings

Driving is similarly strong, the only caveat being that most vehicles are floaty and too easy to flip.p (although any science geek can probably justify this by pointing to Mars' lower gravity compared to Earth). You won't find the variety of vehicles as in other open-world games, but what are here seem functional to a mining colony and fit within the gameworld. There are large earth-moving vehicles, smaller two-person transports, and plenty of trucks, with a surprising number of them packing onboard weapons. You'll also run across beefy mech-like walkers which are great to pilot against hordes of EDF soldiers--these are pretty rare, however, but they're so much fun you'll be left wishing there were more instances when you could use them.

You won't get to drive any vehicles in Guerrilla's multiplayer, but it does offer plenty of unique experiences you won't find in the single-player game. The game supports up to 16 players online and features the stock standard deathmatch, team deathmatch, and capture-the-flag variants. All of the single-player game's destructibility adds another level of strategy to matches, as you're only ever one sledgehammer blow away from instant death, no matter how thick your cover. This makes all matches tense affairs, and camping is a definite no-no. Added to this are new items exclusive to multiplayer which can radically affect how you play. The main additions are 10 different backpacks which act as either offensive, defensive, or support aids during combat. The rhino backpack, for example, will allow you to charge straight through walls at a hiding player, while the thrust backpack can propel you quickly up a few levels to take out snipers. The stealth pack, on the other hand, will make you invisible for short periods of time, while the heal pack will quickly regenerate lost health.

Multiplayer also gives you the power to rebuild--an ability which features heavily in two of Guerrilla's three unique online modes. The reconstructor gun can repair damaged or destroyed structures and is used in the Siege and Damage Control modes. Siege has two teams taking turns to see how much damage they can do to a map, while Damage Control sees two teams fighting for control of three structures. To gain control of a structure, you'll need to destroy it first before rebuilding it for your team. The third unique online mode is Demolition, where one player on a team is randomly chosen as a destroyer. To gain points, the destroyer must wreak as much havoc as possible. These new modes are fun, and Damage Control in particular is a hectic affair as your team continually scrambles to destroy and repair the various checkpoints. Guerrilla's online component, in fact, is a definite winner--games ran almost completely lag-free during testing, with the most noticeable issue being an occasional lapse between hitting an object with the sledgehammer and seeing it crumble. There's also an offline multiplayer mode called Wrecking Crew, where up to four players can take turns in doing as much damage as they can to a certain area. Wrecking Crew is a fun little distraction at best, and it probably won't hold your interest compared to the large scope of the game's online multiplayer offerings.

The area of Mars you'll traverse in Red Faction: Guerrilla is big even by open-world game standards, but there's not an awful lot to see. There are plenty of red hills, open plains, and dust, and what few populated areas there are seem sparse in comparison to other games in this genre. It's hard to fault the game for this--after all, this is what a human colony on Mars would conceivably look like--but it doesn't change the fact that you'll be looking at dirt a lot of time in Guerrilla. That said, the game does look quite impressive. The textures on Mars and its architecture look realistic, as do many of the lighting effects with the various explosions and pyrotechnics on show. There's occasionally some pop-up, particularly in the open badlands section, but for the most part the game's problem with draw distance is obscured by small hills and other geographical landmarks that are conveniently placed in between you and the gameworld's horizon. Sound also fares well--the game's voice actors do well with their limited scripts, and the various explosions, gunfire, building collapses, and other sound effects are uniformly impressive. The solid "thunk" you'll hear every time you use your sledgehammer is especially satisfying.

You'll end up hearing that "thunk" a lot in Red Faction: Guerrilla, but you'll never get tired of it because its deep, crunchy sound is tied so intrinsically to the satisfying visual destruction you see. Guerrilla's gameplay is similar--many of the missions may feel like they're at the same, loud, all-out pace, but when devastation is this well presented, it's difficult not to get swept along by its primal energy. Red Faction: Guerrilla mixes a long and involving single-player campaign with a fun and satisfying online segment, with both adding up to a game that proves that a little chaos (or in this case, a lot) can be a positive thing.

UFC 2009 Undisputed Review

This great fighting game nails the look and feel of the UFC and demands strategy as well as quick reflexes.

Regardless of how well a fighter can talk trash about an opponent or how spectacular an entrance he can make, his performance in the ring is ultimately what he's going to be judged on. UFC 2009 Undisputed is a fighting game that's best appreciated in much the same way, because while its presentation is far from perfect and its Career mode is unnecessarily clunky, the action inside the octagon is enthralling. Combat is accessible but deep, and demands strategic thinking and quick reflexes in equal measure, making this an enjoyable and unique game that does a great job of re-creating the mixed martial arts action of the UFC.

Dozens of real UFC fighters represent five different weight classes on the game's roster, and for the purposes of the game, each of them specializes in two fighting disciplines--one striking (boxing, kickboxing, or Muay Thai) and one grappling (Brazilian jiu-jitsu, judo, or wrestling). The intuitive controls, which map your fighter's limbs to the four face buttons, are largely the same regardless of which disciplines you're using, but the moves at your disposal are varied enough that every style feels different. Playing predominantly as a striker, you spend your time throwing punches and kicks, targeting your opponent's legs and body if you want to slow him down, or his head if you're looking for a knockout. As a grappler, on the other hand, your goal is to take your opponent to the floor, where you can indulge in some brutal ground-and-pound or use the right analog stick to transition between different mount positions in the hope of gaining an advantage. Forcing an opponent to tap out and submit is an especially satisfying way to earn a victory as a grappler, and the frantic button mashing (or analog stick rotating) that both fighters must engage in when a submission hold is initiated and the struggle ensues feels appropriate, if inelegant.

Though Undisputed's basic controls are easy to pick up, the depth of the combat system can initially be intimidating. Fortunately, the tutorial does a great job of introducing you to some of the game's more unusual mechanics and incorporates a practice mode in which you can go to town on an opponent who'll retaliate only if you want him to. That's great for figuring out which moves can be strung together as combos and at what range they're effective, but the real lessons start when you step inside the octagon and have to contend with very different opponents. Even fighters who employ the same disciplines can have very different styles, and it won't take long for you to realize that adjusting your approach accordingly is often the key to success. It would be an exaggeration to say that no two fights are ever the same in UFC 2009 Undisputed, but they're always a little unpredictable, because at any moment a well-timed reversal or counter can change everything.

Your defense is every bit as important as your offense in UFC 2009 Undisputed, and that's something that you need to bear in mind when creating a fighter for use in the clunky-but-compelling Career mode. The options for customizing your fighter's appearance are rudimentary compared to those in recent wrestling and boxing games, but by contrast there are an impressive number of different attributes and skills that you can put points into. In addition to the basic strength, speed, and cardio attributes, there are no fewer than 16 different offensive and defensive skills to consider. You might decide that you want to specialize in standing kicks and clinch strikes when you're on the offensive, but also devote some points to making sure that you can defend against takedowns, ground grapples, and submissions, for example.

Even if you don't want to win with submissions you need to be able to defend against them.
One of the best things about Career mode is that you really progress as a fighter as you play through it. By training and sparring in between matches you can both improve your attributes and add new moves to your repertoire. Unfortunately, the training itself is rarely compelling. Physical attributes are improved simply by clicking on menu options; skill points are earned in dull two-minute sparring sessions; and new moves are unlocked during camp visits in which you must perform specific tasks within a time limit. Given that you generally have anywhere from 8 to 18 weeks to train between fights, you unfortunately spend more time navigating menus, reading repetitive and occasionally inaccurate e-mails, and managing your schedule on the calendar than you do fighting inside the octagon

Worse still, when you start making a name for yourself and gain new sponsors, applying their logos to your shorts (which earns your fighter credibility) is a painfully time-consuming process. You have to click through six or seven menus, pick a spot for the logo, find the logo among all of those available to you, apply it, and then click back through all of the same menus again to return to the gym. Regardless, Career mode is definitely a highlight of the UFC 2009 Undisputed package, and when your career ends (after 30 to 40 matches) and you're forced to retire, you're left with a finely tuned fighter that you can use in exhibition matches both locally and online.

Like most fighting games, Undisputed is best enjoyed with human opposition. The AI is challenging and mostly believable, and there are multiple difficulty settings to choose from, but it's much more satisfying to go toe-to-toe with a friend who is within striking distance. Online fights against complete strangers are also a lot of fun, but sadly, lag-free action is the exception rather than the rule. Many online matches suffer from enough lag to make animations look a little jerky, and occasionally the lag is bad enough that it can throw your timing off.

Outside of Career mode and the exhibition matches, there's a challenging Classic Fights mode that's well worth checking out. Here, you're treated to history lessons on some of the UFC's greatest matchups and rivalries via video clips and interviews and are asked to re-create them. It's not enough that you win these fights; rather, you have to win them in the correct round and in the correct way, which in some instances means using a specific move. The video highlights of the real fights that you unlock for succeeding are worth the effort, though, and serve as a reminder of just how accurately these fighters and their respective styles have been replicated in the game.

Like practically every other aspect of Undisputed, the game's visuals are at their best when you're inside the octagon. Fighters are instantly recognizable, the animation is smooth and believable, and the way that an opponent recoils after taking a heavy blow makes punches and kicks feel like they have some weight behind them. You might tire of always seeing the same cuts and bruises appearing on fighters' faces, but they're certainly preferable to health bars and the like. Outside of the octagonal cage's walls, different fight venues have almost no distinguishing features and are filled with fight fans who aren't nearly as lively as the noise of their enthusiastic cheering and booing might suggest.

There's certainly no shortage of enthusiasm in the fight commentary, which comes courtesy of UFC announcers Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg. It's well delivered and invariably accurate, and it really adds to the TV-style presentation of each and every match. Outside of the octagon, audio largely consists of hard rock music from the likes of Papa Roach, Puddle of Mudd, and Hollywood Undead. Like it or loathe it, it's a perfect fit for the game.

Despite some clunky menus and the lackluster online performance, UFC 2009 Undisputed is a great fighting game that you don't have to be a fan of the sport to appreciate. Whether you're playing as a UFC superstar like Chuck Liddell or Georges St-Pierre, or nervously stepping into the octagon as an athletic approximation of yourself, great fights and good times are guaranteed.

Terminator Salvation Review

This bare-bones movie tie-in is like a machine with synthetic rubber skin: it's not fooling anyone and you should stay away from it.

Of all the weapons you'll find in Red Faction: Guerrilla, the simple sledgehammer is one of the best. This powerful object has the ability to bring down entire buildings, giving you an almost tactile feeling of gleeful abandon as you watch your character leave nothing but rubble and havoc in his trail. The brutish, direct sledgehammer exemplifies what the excellent Red Faction: Guerrilla is all about. Destruction is this game's currency, and it puts its considerable wealth to good use. Mars is yours to annihilate, and while the main story is uninvolving and the action can get repetitive, you'll find plenty to like in the game's mayhem-filled single-player campaign and impressive multiplayer offerings.

Mayhem is built into Guerrilla's DNA, and its impressive physics engine realistically showcases destruction on a massive scale. The game ditches the deformable landscapes that were a staple of its predecessors, instead offering the ability to blow apart anything in the game. Any man-made object can be reduced to rubble, and every structure or vehicle--and every one of its composite parts--features its own unique physical properties. Everything from smokestacks to bridges appears to have been built with real-world engineering principles in mind, and you can see the various supports and reinforcements in their design. So to demolish a small building, you needn't take out all its walls--simply identify its support columns, take those out with charges, and watch the whole thing implode. All of this destruction is performed in real time, which means no structure collapses in the same way.

The realistic nature of this rampant destructibility is the standout feature of Guerrilla, and it will affect many of your gameplay decisions. Cover, for example, is at best a temporary haven for you and your enemies, since all walls can be demolished. Height is also of little concern--if an enemy sniper is perched on a building, you can easily destroy the floor underneath him. You can stop pursuers by blowing up a bridge as you pass it, or even level an entire building to kill all of the troops inside. It's hard not to get swept up in all the damage you can cause, and you'll find yourself wanting to lay waste to an object just to see how it crumbles simply because it's so much fun.

If it sounds like the game is frenetic and chaotic, that's because it can. Despite the fact that your character, Alec Mason, is a guerrilla--a member of the underground group Red Faction, which is trying to take out the all-powerful Earth Defense Force (EDF)--there's little scope for anything other than full volume action, even if you are trying to approach a mission with subtlety. Mason is initially an unwilling recruit to Red Faction, joining only after his brother is killed by EDF soldiers. What follows is a lengthy main storyline which is fairly cliched for the most part. Mason's motivation for revenge doesn't ring that strongly throughout the campaign, and there are very few twists and turns to keep the plot engaging.

Story, for the most part, takes a backseat to Mason's continuing mission to free Mars. The EDF have total control of the six sectors of the planet, oppressing its population of miners with a heavy security presence and upfront brutality. To free the planet, you'll have to do it sector by sector. Each will have its own level of EDF control that you'll have to lower while at the same time raising the population's morale. The game's eight different mission types will do one or the other, and in many cases they'll do both. Lowering EDF control opens up new story missions which will move forward Guerrilla's main narrative, while improving morale means more of the population will randomly jump in and support you when you get into a fight with the EDF. On the surface, the mission types are varied--for example, protect a settlement, join a group of rebels in storming an EDF stronghold, intercept an enemy shipment, destroy EDF property--but the game's aggressive AI means most missions will end up in large explosions and a hail of gunfire. You may want to take a more circumspect approach, such as finding an unguarded path into a group of structures that need to be taken down, but as soon as the first explosion hits, EDF troopers will swarm to your position to try to take you down with force. While this doesn't make the action one-dimensional, it does make it one note. Sure, you can blow stuff up in a variety of interesting and creative ways, but in the end, it's still the same thing--blowing stuff up.

It's to the game's credit (and to the credit of its remarkably robust physics engine) that despite repetitiveness, Guerrilla's destruction manages to be engaging and entertaining for the 15 or so hours it will take you to get through the single-player campaign. Even after you finish the game, you can go back into the world to complete any missions you may have skipped, as well as try your hand at the "insane" difficulty level you'll unlock after your first run through. The game is quite challenging even at lower difficulty levels, and you'll find yourself pushed to survive most large-scale fights at medium difficulty. Guerrilla has a cover function which will let you stick to walls, but it's not something you can rely on--you'll sometimes fail to stick to objects properly (particularly low bits of cover), and trying to pop out to shoot can cause you to leave cover completely.

Thankfully, the rest of Red Faction: Guerrilla's controls are solid, particularly its shooting mechanic, which feels just right. You'll be able to equip only four weapons at a time, but you can quickly switch between them by holding down the right shoulder button. Most are typical weapon archetypes--there are pistols, machine guns, shotguns, rocket launchers, and sniper variants--but Guerrilla does feature some unique weapons, such as the killer disc-spewing grinder and the electricity pulsing arc welder. By far the most interesting is the nano rifle, a weapon which sends out a bolt of microscopic nanites that corrode anything they hit--and this includes people as well as buildings.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Review

The Half-Blood Prince is a lousy representation of the best-selling novel.

Although the Harry Potter novels are some of the finest fantasy works around, the famous wizard's foray into other media has been met with uneven success. The movies based on these books don’t contain all the story details, but they have been saved by their fantastic special effects and beautiful art direction. Unfortunately, their video game counterparts have struggled to capture the brilliance of the books. Half-Blood Prince continues right where 2007's disappointing Order of the Phoenix left off. An accurate representation of Hogwarts is the main draw, but simple gameplay and a lack of any coherent storytelling mar the whole experience. For fans of the books, there is a certain joy in tromping around the weathered school grounds and dueling death eaters, but the Half-Blood Prince ultimately feels like a half-finished game.

The story is barely comprehensible if you haven't read the book beforehand. There are a couple of references to the titular Half-Blood Prince whose notes dot Harry's potions book, a trip or two through Dumbledore's memory to see the young Tom Riddle, and a quick peek at Harry's ever-growing suspicion of Draco Malfoy. But you'll have to fit these pieces together yourself because the game doesn't spend any time filling in the details. The cutscenes are not only short and sporadic, but they are also poorly acted and look awful. None of the movie's actors lend their voice talents, so you'll have to make do with sound-alikes who sound little like the real people. The character models are based on the actors but are poor imitations of their real life counterparts. Hermione's long hair hardly moves, Professor McGonagall is cast in perpetual shadow, and Ron is cursed with a laughably small head. Furthermore, the game's plot takes liberties with the source material, putting Harry in preposterous positions that clash wildly with the book.

Order of the Phoenix was the first game in the series to faithfully re-create Hogwarts, letting players explore its many hidden alcoves and winding passageways at their leisure. For people who have not played the previous adventure, it can be a kick to walk around the world's most famous fictional school, navigating the moving staircases and taking shortcuts through the many portraits that line the walls. But if you've already played Phoenix, there's very little new to see in Half-Blood Prince. The environment is nearly identical to the last game's so series veterans will find no new thrill in checking out Harry's school. At least it's easier to find your way to your next objective this time. You can summon Nearly Headless Nick any time you're lost, but you'll still spend way too much time backtracking.

Aside from running all around the school grounds (complete with unnecessary motion blur), you partake in three different wizard-themed activities. Seeing as the Half-Blood Prince has greatly improved Harry's potion-making ability, you'll be spending a lot of time in the potions dungeon, brewing up a number of tasty concoctions. This plays like a magical version of Cooking Mama, placing a number of ingredients in front of you with the recipe lining the side of the screen. You can pour, stir, and heat your mixture with a few flicks and turns from the analog stick, and it is cool to combine the often gross ingredients into something even viler. However, you'll need to make so many potions throughout your quest that you'll wish you could slip one of your classmates a few Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans to prepare them for you. What starts as a simple though entertaining minigame quickly reaches tedium as you go through the same motions over and over again.

Quidditch makes a return after a brief hiatus in Order of the Phoenix, but it's less imaginative and even less fun than making potions. You play as a seeker, Harry's chosen position, and once atop your broomstick, you need only worry about flying through hovering stars in the sky. The controls are extremely simple--use the left stick to make your way through the stars and let Harry worry about the rest. When you zoom through enough of them, you automatically nab the golden snitch and end the match. There is a real disconnect between your midair maneuvering and what's going on in the match below, though. In the books, Harry is constantly forced to avoid angry opponents trying to knock him off his broom and heavy bludgers being thrown his way, but none of those obstacles factor in here. You won't have to pull off any fancy evasive moves, and given that your path is preset, you don't even have to search for the fast-moving snitch. This mode is predictable and bland, never capturing the exhilaration of playing an airborne sport.

Your final task in Half-Blood Prince is dueling, and though it's more fun than anything else in the game, that isn't saying much. These one-on-one battles have you slinging magical spells at your opponent and dodging out of the way to avoid losing your own energy. You control your wand with the analog sticks, so depending on what direction your flick them, you perform one of six different spells. Casting a well-timed protego is satisfying because, if you summon the shield at the perfect moment, you can deflect your opponent's attack right back at their face. However, the battles often boil down to one cheap tactic: Stun your opponent with a powerful spell and then spam your weaker attack. For instance, if you can nail your foe with levicorpus, he or she will float defenselessly in midair, and then you need only flick the right stick frantically to let loose a string of stupify attacks, quickly dropping your opponent's health. Going head-to-head with a friend is more unpredictable, but the lack of depth limits the long-term appeal of this mode.

The Harry Potter video games should complement the other media, providing gleeful interaction to match the excellent story from the books and the visual splendor of the films. But Half-Blood Prince isn't much fun to play once you've gotten a taste of the few simple activities. The game is ultimately a forgettable experience, pushing players through the same three minigames over and over again, without ever capturing the thrill of being a wizard. The story lacks focus and is difficult to follow, giving players only the faintest motivation to continue on before it finally ends on an emotionless, anticlimactic note. The Half-Blood Prince squanders its impressive license; you're better off reading the book again.

NCAA Football 10

NCAA Football 10 is a great football game that offers a new level of accessibility for newcomers, but keeps the core mechanics that veterans love.

The theme for NCAA Football 10 is simple: Play the game the way it's meant to be played. Whether it's an entirely new mode or a gameplay option that helps with defensive play, nearly every addition to EA's college football series feels like it's there to nudge you into becoming a better all-around player. For the most part, these new features work well--especially if you don't understand some of the intricacies of the sport--and they're executed in a way that preserves the depth that NCAA 10 offers the pros. But even for those people who already know where to move a linebacker in certain kinds of zone coverage or how to use setup plays, NCAA 10 offers some satisfying mechanics that enhance the already fundamentally sound gameplay.

Perhaps the biggest indicator of NCAA Football's drive to reward good play is the Season Showdown mode that functions as both a self-contained mode, as well as a feature you can turn on in other modes, such as Dynasty. This mode rewards you with points in various categories for accomplishing feats during the course of a game. For example, you can earn two skill points for executing a user tackle (which means the computer didn't provide any assistance) or several points for successfully running a specifically designated setup play where you run the same play a few times before faking out the defense with something different. To put it simply, picture running the ball up the middle several times before selecting a play-action pass play that fakes out the linebackers and defensive backs. Likewise, you can also earn points for good sportsmanship, such as punting on a fourth down--again, going back to the "play the game the way it's meant to be played" idea--but you can lose sportsmanship points for trying to run up the score on an opponent. While you can't actually participate in Season Showdown-specific competitions with other players until the start of the real college football season, there are leaderboards in place that serve as ample incentive to rack up those points as often as possible. And despite the fact that Season Showdown is a little too quick to rob you of sportsmanship points (is throwing a 10-yard pass on third down with more than three minutes left that bad?), it's a fun addition that almost serves as more of a true test of skill than the typical achievements or trophies that are easily earned in simulated games.

A mode that might seem familiar to those who played last year's game is Road to Glory. Essentially, this is the Campus Legend mode from the previous game but with a new coat of paint, otherwise known as ESPN's popular field reporter, Erin Andrews. As you progress from your senior year in high school to your college career, in which you play a single position, Erin occasionally pops in with ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit to deliver some news about your career and some highlights. Unfortunately, the biggest problem with Road to Glory isn't that it's mostly just a retread of modes from years past, but rather, it's the fact that the new presentation elements just aren't that interesting--unless, of course, you have a shrine to Erin Andrews somewhere. On top of that, and much like last year, playing anything other than the QB position means you have to deal with some weird passing choices, not to mention terrible play calling that's out of your control. Still, working out in practice and earning points to climb the ranks into a starting position (provided you weren't already offered it) conveys a solid sense of progression. And, like Season Showdown, the leaderboards--along with the option to import your player into other modes--help give that extra little push when it feels like there's no real point to becoming a college football superstar on your own.

One other thing you might notice about the Road to Glory mode, especially if you've selected a position on defense or the receiver spot, is that the camera is locked behind the player instead of the default near-overhead perspective. While this was similarly featured in NCAA 09's Campus Legend mode, this lock-on feature is now available in every other mode in NCAA 10, but is completely optional (if you can navigate to that option before the ball snap). It's actually pretty useful for getting closer to the action, which, in turn, makes it a little easier to spot gaps and running lanes for one your backs. If you're on defense, it's easier to spot these same things as a linebacker. However, it takes some time to get used to this new feature. Because the camera usually tries to stay behind your player, you have to be aware of the direction you're pressing in relation to the camera; you might be running toward the right, but a quick camera rotation will make you briefly run upward. Given that, it's not worth risking a big play.

Some may overlook the Road to Glory mode and head right to the meat and potatoes of the NCAA Football 10 experience: the Dynasty mode. Much like last year, NCAA Football 10 offers offline and online dynasty options (with the ability to convert a dynasty from offline to online and vice versa) with the online option allowing for up to 12 players, as well as customizable teams that can be created through the wonderfully deep and easy-to-use, Web-based Teambuilder site. As the commissioner of an online dynasty, you can rework conferences and schedules, change general settings, and advance the week if you find that other players are lagging behind. The mode is streamlined and works well, and it's especially interesting to see how other players are progressing through their respective seasons. Unfortunately, manual player recruitment is still rather inelegant because it just drowns you with information--and it's almost not worth the effort of diving into it when it can be done automatically. Of course, if you're going up against other players who are active in the recruitment process, it's fun to compete for specific prospects, yet it still feels like there's no middle ground if you don't want to take the full plunge

It's also worth mentioning that in the Dynasty mode, along with others, NCAA Football 10 does a lot of odd nickel-and-diming for features that essentially function as cheats. Want to boost your player attributes in the Road to Glory mode? Just go buy them on Xbox Live or the PlayStation Store. Think your school needs more prestige? Throw down some more cash. All of this stuff is completely optional, but it is still inherently annoying knowing that some players are going to bite on this stuff and cheat instead of working toward those same goals the old-fashioned way of playing the game, especially when the latter offers such a great football experience.

Indeed, on both sides of the football, NCAA 10 does a lot of things right. On the offensive side, the running game is finally close to where it needs to be and an absolute blast if your team has some decent backs. There's nothing more rewarding than chipping away at the defense with a few gains up the middle--thanks to some smart lead blocking on the offensive line--and then busting a 15-yard-or-so run on the outside. Sure, there are times when an offensive lineman inexplicably blocks the wrong defensive player, but any decent running back can compensate and still squeeze out a few yards. But be aware: The refs are a little quick to throw holding flags on the default settings. As for passing, the interception problems plaguing previous versions of NCAA Football don't seem as prevalent. Yes, there are some odd stretches here and there where you throw an interception, and then on the next play, the other team throws an interception. But more often than not, a bad pass is just a bad pass, and the defense is more likely to juggle the ball in its hands than bring down the interception; depending on which side you're on, this could be either good or bad.

On defense, NCAA 10 gives you a lot of tools to help play the game properly. One such tool is the defensive assist, which puts your defensive player back into proper positioning on the field and is especially useful when engaged in zone coverage. Normally, this kind of option might seem like a cheat, but it's more of a tool to help those players who aren't comfortable taking the reigns of a defensive back or linebacker and would otherwise avoid playing defense at all costs. This is similar to another defensive feature where you key in on a specific player on the offense that's giving you problems. Veterans will already know how to compensate for these kinds of things, so these features are mostly here as a means for getting everyone else up to speed and teaching them how to play defense correctly.

But even with these assists, defense still has one glaring issue with its AI. At certain points, defensive players seem to just stand around a bit too much and not pursue the quarterback when the situation obviously calls for it. For example, on a containment play, the defensive ends will dash out to the sides to prevent the running back or QB from sprinting out toward the sideline for an easy run. But why would they continue to sit in the containment position unblocked when the offense is obviously passing the ball and the QB has been standing in the pocket for almost 10 seconds? It doesn't make much sense, and when it happens during a close game, it's unequivocally annoying.

Both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions share the same issues with gameplay, but interestingly, the PS3 version seems to handle some of the visuals a bit better. More specifically, the cutscenes (that show the cheerleaders bounding around after a touchdown) take a hit on the Xbox 360 version, while the PS3 version seems to maintain the same brisk frame rate throughout most of the game. Additionally, both versions have some visual problems with replays near halftime during a late afternoon game--the lighting tends to jump around a bit and give everything a choppy look. Otherwise, the player models look good, as do the stadiums, but it's not a massive leap from last year's game.

The audio falls into a similar category. The trio of Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, and Brad Nessler is joined by Erin Andrews on the sideline, who chimes in with injury updates but not much else. The core commentary seems to have trouble keeping up with the action at times, and you have to deal with hearing Lee Corso saying "sweetheart" in the most condescending way possible. Overall, the commentary still gives it that authentic broadcast feel, but it might as well just be background noise at this point.

Despite some of these presentational shortcomings and relatively minor issues here and there, NCAA Football 10 is a worthwhile update to last year's game. The new modes and gameplay tweaks really help make NCAA Football more accessible and more exciting to play because the gentle emphasis on playing the game properly. It really opens your eyes to a whole new level of strategy that was previously buried underneath a seemingly impenetrable wall of sports simulation. And best of all, it does all of this without sacrificing the core mechanics that have kept players coming back for years. If anything, the whole game is better for it.

Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires Review

It's another Empires iteration of a Dynasty Warriors game, and it comes with all the tedium and light strategy you'd expect.
The human thumb is a resilient thing, and the Dynasty Warriors franchise has exploited that digit's agility for years now. So if you find your own right thumb growing particularly stiff of late, Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires is here to provide your workout routine the button mashing needed to whip it into shape. This comes as no shock to those accustomed to the monotonous and unoriginal combat for which the series is known, of course. Like other Empires rereleases in the franchise, this version of last year's Dynasty Warriors 6 offers a light turn-based strategy overlay to the tedious battles, providing them some welcome tactical context. This addition doesn't make the mind-numbing swordplay easier to stomach. It does, however, allow you to take a breath between battles and exercise your gray matter while crushing rival factions. This makes for better pacing, and while it isn't enough to raise this series from its years-long rut, it does lead to a slightly more fulfilling experience than many other Warriors games.

Like previous Dynasty Warriors games, this one offers a humongous number of different playable characters, each with his or her own weapon and poorly acted, excruciating dialogue. Like with previous games, you endlessly mash the attack button to slice through swaths of cookie-cutter bad guys that only occasionally find it in their hearts to swing back. And like with previous games, you can unleash a powerful musou attack that lets you hew through even thicker hordes of baddies. So it's more of the same, though there are some additions and tweaks to combat that add a tad (though not a lot) of variety. As you progress through the game, you'll be able to purchase weapon effects that, for example, increase your attack radius or let you do elemental damage. You can also purchase special attacks and abilities, up to four of which can be assigned at any given time; these include fire attacks, falling rocks, and more. Enemy lieutenants and generals are tougher to take down and seem to do a lot more damage, and these effects and attacks help balance the slightly higher level of difficulty. The renbu system from last year's Dynasty Warriors 6 works differently in Empires as well. In DW6's renbu system, you increased your combo count by sustaining a long chain of attacks. Now, your renbu level rises (and your combo potential increases) as you upgrade your weapon, which means there's less reason to care about racking up long chains during battle.

These modifications don't make the combat in Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires feel substantially different from that of previous games. You mash-mash-mash the attack button, and it's just as wearisome as ever, though combatants throw in the occasional string of frustrating knockback attacks to keep you on your toes. It's up to the turn-based Empire mode, then, to breathe life into this otherwise stale endeavor--and to its credit, it makes a stand-up attempt. Rather than plowing through one of the franchise's typically nonsensical stories, you can play as a ruler and attempt to take over China by capturing regions from rival factions. You and each AI officer in your employ possess a card that may be played prior to battle, and you draw an additional one at the beginning of each turn; together, these cards comprise your deck. Cards have various effects, such as increasing troop attack power, increasing the number of resources you earn at the end of the turn, restoring lost troops, and more. Each card has a resource cost; when you can't or don't wish to play any more cards, you can then purchase new upgrades and effects, buy a horse from the stable for riding in battle, or train your base stats. Then, it's off to battle.

During battle, you capture bases to raise troop morale and get access to valuable healing items, and you can also assign actions to your officers. If you want the strategy element to play a less substantial role, you can play as an officer or vagrant, rather than as a ruler. Doing so strips away some of the strategy and sees you completing assignments for an AI-controlled ruler instead of playing cards and making invasion decisions on your own. You can even customize your own character using clothing and other items you unlock as the campaign progresses. Of course, there are a stupendous number of characters already available to you, which means as with most Warriors games that there are potentially hundreds of hours of gameplay available here. The true replay value doesn't come from the soul-crushing combat, however, but from shuffling officers and messing around with cards, weapon effects, and special skills. Leveling up your character and customizing his or her abilities is--dare we say it--almost enjoyable.

Unfortunately, developers Koei and Omega Force haven't improved upon Dynasty Warriors 6's lackluster visuals and other technical qualities. There's simply no reason for any game on current systems to look this substandard. Environments are bland and lifeless; water looks awful; and character models, while clearly upgraded from Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires, still look primitive by today's standards. There are hundreds of models on the screen at a time, sure, but these crowds aren't so impressive that you'll overlook the unattractive visuals--or the occasional dips in frame rate when things get extra busy. The horrible sound effects (the grunts of massed hordes as you carve into them are incredibly grating after a short while), laughable voice acting, and generic grinds of guitars make the game sound almost as bad as it looks.

Warriors fans get more of what they seem to want with Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires. Some subtle differences distinguish it from previous Empires entries, but this is, more or less, what you'd expect. A second player can join you in split-screen play, and franchise faithful will enjoy unlocking various wallpapers, voice clips, and other goodies. Yet there's no doubt that in spite of the fresh coat of paint the Empire mode offers, chipping it away reveals the same tired, worn-out action that Dynasty Warriors games have embraced for years--and will likely embrace for many more to come.

Virtua Tennis 2009 Review

Virtua Tennis is too easy and inconsistent to entertain you for long.

To climb to the top of the tennis ranks in real life, you need to be a world-class athlete, put in countless hours perfecting your craft, and have an innate talent to hit a felt-covered ball extremely hard. In Virtua Tennis 2009, you just need stubborn determination. The only skill that will be put to the test in Sega's latest entry in its long-running tennis franchise is persistence. It will take more than 10 hours in World Tour mode before you face a competent opponent, which means it's harder to stay awake during matches than to win them. The core mechanics are well done, letting you easily hit the ball anywhere on the court, but the game is so devoid of life and is so insultingly easy that it can never capture the thrill of victory. Virtua Tennis 2009 eschews an in-depth tutorial, but the mechanics are so easy to pick up that it hardly matters. After just a few minutes with the game, you'll easily be slapping shots all over the court, volleying with precision, nailing difficult cross-court shots, and doing a very good impression of a tennis marvel. You can smoothly glide across the court, getting in optimal position for a powerful return shot or rushing the net to keep your opponent constantly off balance. You won't break a sweat mastering Virtua Tennis because your move set is so limited. There are only three types of shots--top spin, lob, and slice--so the focus is on positioning rather than juggling between different special shots or worrying about your fatigue meter dropping. However, after spending a few hours on the court, the problems become apparent. The game is far too forgiving, so you don't have to worry about crushing the ball out of bounds or slamming it into the net. As long as you can make contact, you are almost assured of getting the ball in play. The animations are also inconsistent. Although serving the ball or swinging your backhand looks fine, whenever you do something slightly abnormal, the game doesn't feel right. For example, when you run backward, your character never looks toward the ball, which makes return shots awkward, and you have a tendency to hit a stumbling shot even when the ball is in easy reach. None of these quirks by themselves kill the fun, but when combined, they make the action feel unrealistic. The main draw in Virtua Tennis is the World Tour mode, but like the on-court action, what initially feels like a robust experience quickly devolves into monotony. You start as the 100th-ranked amateur in the world and must win tournaments around the globe to earn some credentials. Winning a tournament has you rise one to five spots in the rankings, so it will take quite a few matches before you get to the top. However, while it should be a thrill to finally prove your worth, it turns out to be a seemingly never-ending drag. Virtua Tennis is just too darn easy, so you can blow past your embarrassingly awful opponents, rarely losing a point, let alone an entire game. But you have to play through dozens of these tournaments to finally achieve pro status, which takes more than 10 hours of beating on helpless opponents. With no difficulty switch to toggle, you're stuck playing against these incompetent buffoons for hours on end, which makes for a tedious experience. If you get tired of walloping the artificial intelligence, you can compete against humans in an online World Tour mode. This seems like a cure for the easy AI that makes tournaments so painfully boring. By winning an online match against real opponents, you can move up in the rankings, which lets you circumvent the repetitive nature of the single-player competition. However, this novel mechanic is ruined because of a laggy online experience. The jitteriness manifests itself in strange ways. Although you can move your character with ease, the other side of the net is an unpredictable mess. Your opponent will teleport from sideline to sideline, the ball will frequently hover in midair, and sometimes your opponent can return a shot even after the ball has bounced twice. Despite the infantile difficulty level, it would have been fun to see your character blossom into an awe-inspiring king of the tennis world, but you don't even get to level up your player. When you finish training lessons or minigame challenges, you earn experience points, but these have only a mild effect on the action. Instead of building up your attributes, these unlock different play styles, which provide an almost imperceptible boost to your on-court abilities. For instance, if you level up your footwork, you can unlock Solid Defense, but you won't even notice a difference in how your character plays. Ironically, the minigames are the best part of the game. They let you compete in a number of wild activities, from playing billiards to destroying falling blocks, and are easily the most exciting part of this otherwise bland experience. Each of the 12 minigames has eight difficulty levels, and they get mighty hard as you get deeper into the challenge. It's a shame that it takes so long to unlock all of them, because they are more engaging and satisfying than the real tennis action. Each has you use your racket to clear events that don't relate to real tennis, and it's silly fun to try to feed a hungry penguin a fish (by slapping the fish right at the penguin's gaping beak) or to nudge a curling stone into 200-point territory. Even though the reward for completing these is meager at best, it's still easy to get lost in their wackiness for a few hours as you avoid the drudgery of the main tournaments. It's a shame that Sega didn't capture the frenetic energy of the minigames in the rest of the game. There is a distinct lack of energy in Virtua Tennis 2009 that makes the experience feel dull and lifeless. From competitors that don't seem to care whether they win or lose to mechanics that are accessible but lack depth, Virtua Tennis gets stale within a few hours. The audio brings it down even more, pumping bland rock music during the matches without even a commentator around to spice things up. Virtua Tennis used to be the king of the racket world, but it's going to have to put in a lot more work if it's going to regain the top spot.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Review

Despite a slow start and some lingering issues, Revenge of the Fallen really makes it fun to be a Transformer.
Imagine what it would be like to become a Transformer. Walking, jumping, and climbing in your humanoid form would be pretty familiar, and you could easily get the hang of whipping out your guns to blast enemies. Driving yourself around might be a bit awkward at first, and flying would be significantly trickier, but the real problems would come when you tried to transform. Shifting your physical form would be really disorienting, and it would take a while before you really mastered it. That's actually a pretty accurate breakdown of what it's like to play Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. In the early going, the controls are uncomfortable but functional. As you play through either of the solid campaigns, you'll get better and better until you reach a point where you can fluidly move between different forms and dispatch your enemies with style. Then the game becomes a fun, engaging romp through the Transformerverse, and taking your skills online gives you a new tactical challenge. Though it takes awhile to get there, and it never outgrows some of its problems, Revenge of the Fallen is an entertaining way to step into the chassis of a giant transforming robot from space.

The two campaigns--Autobot and Decepticon--loosely follow the plot of the movie. Each one takes a solid amount of time to complete, and they are different enough that it is worth playing through both. The Transformer models are shiny and detailed, capturing the look of the movie nicely. The voice acting is less impressive. While some Transformers, such as Megatron and Optimus Prime, sound great, others are almost unintelligible, thanks to poor volume matching or overzealous robotic effects. And the human characters (specifically Shia LeBeouf and Megan Fox) are so badly voiced that you'll be thankful only some of the missions actually parallel the movie. Other missions diversify the action with familiar mission archetypes: escort/kidnap, defend/destroy, checkpoint race, miniboss fight, and the like. Each mission plays out in an open area full of items you can destroy (cars, tankers, and light structures); though your wrecking power is so substantial you'll probably wish for a bit more environmental destructibility.

Between the mission types and the maps, there isn't a whole lot of variety. It's not quite tedious, but things can start to feel a bit too familiar as you progress. Fortunately, a healthy array of bonus challenges and unlockables do a good job of keeping things interesting. Accomplishing the two bonus objectives in each mission nets you a solid haul of attribute-boosting energon, and shooting the five targets in each area will earn you even more energon, as well as stall the clock so you can strive for a higher medal by finishing quickly. Overarching objectives challenge you to accomplish certain tasks with certain characters, and doing so unlocks episodes of the original Transformers cartoon, as well as vintage paint jobs and concept art. These goals help flesh out the experience and keep you engaged because they give you something else to do during missions besides focus on the primary objectives. Accomplishing all the bonus objectives and earning a gold or a platinum medal is a tough challenge, and you won't even come close until you've mastered the controls.

There are three different forms ("modes") that each Transformer can take: robot, weapon, and vehicle. In robot mode, you walk around in humanoid form and can jump, climb buildings, and melee attack. Holding the left trigger changes you into weapon mode, allowing you to strafe and blast opponents with your primary and secondary weapons. These two modes are easy to master and switch between, but vehicle mode is a bit trickier. Holding the right trigger will transform you into a vehicle, and you'll immediately start driving or flying, depending on your character. It's cool to watch, but figuring out how your momentum will (or won't) be preserved through the transformation is a bit tricky. Until you get the hang of it, you'll often find yourself on an unexpected vector, speeding off in the opposite direction or just plowing into a building.

Freeing yourself from environmental hang-ups is a hassle, especially when you're trying to escape the battle fray in order to lay low and regenerate health. Driving around the maps, you may find yourself getting stuck on low barriers or other objects that you were previously able to drive over or through. Flying can be even more finicky, especially if you get into a tight spot where you can't transform. Jet and helicopter controls may also present a problem for some because there aren't many customization options when it comes to the steering and altitude-adjustment controls. Expect to suffer some frustration and awkwardness throughout a good chunk of your first campaign. You'll be able to accomplish your objectives; you just won't look pretty doing it.

But once you've mastered the controls, you can really start to flex your metal muscles. You'll be better at avoiding awkward transformations and getting back on track should you get hung up. You'll get the hang of flying and driving skillfully, and you'll be tearing around each area with confidence. Some of the coolest things you can do in the game are so-called "advanced" maneuvers that you execute in vehicle form. The advanced jump launches your Transformer out of car form and into a high jump (fliers are stuck with the strategically powerful yet unexciting hover ability). These jumps are great for leaping over low buildings and obstacles, but when you string a few together, you can drive/hop from rooftop to rooftop, traversing crowded areas in a speedy and exhilarating fashion. And let's say your enemies have appeared down the street and are heading your way. You transform into a vehicle and race to engage them, firing your vehicle weapon to soften them up. When you get close, you fluidly shift out of vehicle mode, throw your momentum into a deadly melee attack and watch a slow-motion close-up of your Transformer obliterating your enemy. It's pretty awesome.

Not only is the advanced melee attack really satisfying, but it and other stylish kills (like offing an enemy while jumping, scoring a headshot, and the like) will also fill up your overdrive meter. Overdrive makes you tougher, increases your weapon damage, and keeps you from overheating, allowing you to tear through groups of foot soldiers with ease or whittle down a boss' health quickly. Earning and using overdrive is a great way to exercise your formidable moveset, and it's essential to getting through levels quickly and earning a top medal. While it is very satisfying to earn a platinum medal, the real enjoyment comes from wielding your diverse abilities in a skillful way. You feel powerful and excited to be a Transformer, and that is Revenge of the Fallen's greatest success.

Online multiplayer offers a distinct new challenge that is best tackled once you've mastered the controls. The modes and maps are pretty standard fare, and they serve as a competent stage for battle. Each Transformer has a unique loadout that includes a primary weapon, secondary weapon, and special attack. In the single-player campaigns, these different abilities provide some welcome variety. In multiplayer, they add a whole new level of strategic depth. Having Long Haul's combat healing ability can help a Decepticon team stay alive long enough to capture a control point, while a well-timed electromagnetic pulse attack from Bumblebee can give the Autobots a deadly window of opportunity. Teams have to strategize in order to make the best use of the complementary special attacks, though team-only chat doesn't kick in until the match begins, so be careful about how much you say in the game lobby. Coordinating your team roster and experimenting with different lineups yield a surprising amount of possibilities. The interplay of abilities and weapons also makes the otherwise run-of-the-mill game types much more complex and engaging.

Though it isn't immediately accessible, Revenge of the Fallen has a good amount of fun and satisfying gameplay. The initial awkwardness of the controls is a bit vexing, and some issues linger no matter how good you get. The single-player missions and multiplayer game modes aren't very diverse, but the various bonus challenges and strategic nuances add some welcome depth. What Revenge of the Fallen does best is make it fun to be a Transformer by giving you a powerful set of abilities and open maps where you can put them to use. It's enjoyable and engaging, and it's probably the best Transformers product you'll see this summer.

Fight Night Round 4 Review

Though definitely an improvement over its predecessor, this boxing game isn't without a few problems.

To the untrained eye, boxing involves little more than two fighters punching each other until one of them falls down. There's a lot more to the sport than that, though, and Fight Night Round 4 is a game that, while not necessarily realistic, encourages you to think about every punch you throw in much the same way a real boxer does. The action is fast-paced, the career mode really sucks you in, and there are some neat online options to boot. On the flip side, the career mode places too much importance on frustrating training minigames, and all too often opponents in ranked online matches suck the fun out of the fight by mindlessly spamming punches. Regardless, Fight Night Round 4 is a great boxing game, and one that improves upon its predecessor despite a few noticeable shortcomings.

From the moment you start playing, it's clear that Fight Night Round 4 is a unique animal. Some of the controls will feel familiar if you played Round 3, but as you play through the brief-but-adequate tutorial it becomes apparent that this year's action has a much more organic feel. Almost nothing about the fighters' movements feels scripted, so you need to look for openings before throwing punches, and every time you flick or rotate the right analog stick to throw a punch, any number of things can happen. Your punch might catch your opponent off guard and stun him temporarily, it might glance off the side of his head doing very little damage, your arm might become entangled with your opponent's as he tries to throw a punch at the same time, you might miss completely and leave yourself open, and so on. Furthermore, if your opponent manages to perfectly time a block or dodge move, the action will slow down for a moment as he's given the opportunity to land a powerful counterattack. It's a great gameplay mechanic that doesn't interfere with the flow of the fight and that encourages you to place as much importance on defense as on offense.

Boxers in Round 4 are capable of throwing a lot more punches in each round than their real-life counterparts, but that caveat aside, fights play out in an impressively believable fashion. In a fight that lasts 10 three-minute rounds, for example, it's not uncommon for the momentum to shift from one fighter to the other as fatigue, heavy punches, and different strategies all play their part. Also deserving of a mention is the ingenious new corner system introduced this year. In between rounds, you get to spend points on replenishing your stamina and health and on repairing damage, and the number of points that you get to spend is determined by different aspects of your performance in the previous round. For example, you earn points for having a high percentage of your punches find their target, for avoiding your opponent's punches, for stunning or knocking down your opponent, and even for managing to get back to your feet via a first-person minigame after hitting the canvas. It's a great system, because it acknowledges that a boxer throwing five times as many punches as his opponent isn't necessarily throwing better punches, and so while he may well earn more points from the judges, he's also going to expend a lot more stamina, and if many of his punches are being blocked or dodged, he's handing his opponent more to points to spend in his corner at the end of the round.

There are more than 40 instantly recognizable professional pugilists on the Round 4 roster, and that number is growing thanks to users who are taking the time to create them as custom fighters and share them online. Zab Judah, Evander Holyfield, Danny Williams, and Floyd Mayweather are just a handful of the fighters who have been brilliantly re-created using photos uploaded to the EA Sports World Web site, along with all manner of celebrities. The powerful toolset for creating custom fighters is easy to use, but satisfying results are much easier to achieve by uploading digital photos to the aforementioned site than by using the console's own camera. Whichever method you choose, the head generated using a frontal and a profile photo requires some major tweaking afterward, but the rewards are well worth the effort--especially if you're keen to play through the Legacy career mode as yourself.

In Legacy mode, your chosen fighter starts out as a "bum" at the bottom of his 50-strong weight class. Your goal, of course, is to work your way up to number one and claim the title belt, but Round 4 takes several steps beyond that as well. After winning your chosen division and earning the rank of champion, you're really only about halfway to achieving your full potential, because in addition to defending your title, there are other belts in other weight classes up for grabs. The criteria for retiring as a Hall of Famer, a ring legend, or the greatest of all time are numerous, and not for the fainthearted. Examples include maintaining a win percentage of over 95 percent across dozens of fights, defending a title successfully as many as eight times, and holding three championship belts simultaneously. The road to achieving that kind of success is long, which is a good thing, save for those occasions when obstacles on the road seem unnecessary or are just the result of bad design.

Legacy mode fighters are 19 years old when their careers get under way, and because they age and must ultimately retire, you have only a finite amount of time in which to achieve your goals. Your fighter's attributes are mediocre when you compete in your first amateur tournament, and improving them is a long and often challenging process. After every fight, your first job in Legacy mode is to schedule your next one, which in itself is an unnecessarily clumsy procedure that involves picking the date that you want to fight on, choosing which of the available opponents you want to fight, and then choosing the date that you want to fight him on again. The only way to improve your fighter between bouts is to train, and the number of training sessions you get is determined by how far apart the fights are. To fit in the maximum three sessions, you need to schedule your fights a full six months apart, which would be fine if your fighter weren't growing old in the meantime. Compounding that problem is that even acing a training minigame session results in only a very small gain for your fighter, and while the six minigames are fun, some are so difficult that the gains you get are even smaller. There's an option to simulate the training and receive 50 percent of the potential gain, but earning two or three skill points just doesn't amount to much when your fighter's profile is composed of 12 attributes rated from 1 to 100.


The result of the training problems is that at some stage you're likely to move up the rankings to a point at which all of your potential opponents (or at least those who can further your career) are vastly superior to you on paper. It's still possible to win, and it's not terribly difficult to do so, but you're unlikely to knock these guys out, so every fight becomes a 30-minute exercise in making sure that you land more point-scoring punches than your opponent--even if they're too weak to hurt him. It's unfortunate that the training in Legacy mode isn't more effective, because while it's still compelling to create a fighter and guide him up through the ranks, maintaining a good win/loss record almost necessitates fights against guys you know you can beat while you wait for your attributes to catch up to your ranking. Pointless, poorly written, and repetitive e-mails sent to your fighter also detract from the Legacy mode somewhat, though they're so pointless that ignoring them has no impact whatsoever.

When fighting against AI opponents in Round 4, regardless of whether you're in Legacy mode or just pitting favorite pros against each other in a single fight, it's hard not to feel like you have an unfair advantage. AI fighters will, for the most part, throw something resembling a realistic number of punches in a round, but you can easily throw three or four times as many without risking tiring yourself out too much. Online fights, on the other hand, pit you against opponents who can fight just as unrealistically as you, and because the fights very rarely suffer from noticeable lag, it's here that Fight Night Round 4 really shines--at least when you play with friends.

In addition to one-off fights, which can include licensed fighters as well as custom creations, Round 4 features an Online World Championship mode that ranks you against every other player in the world on weight-specific leaderboards. The downside to ranked online fights is that too many players are simply creating fighters with long reaches and then throwing as many punches as they possibly can in every round. It doesn't guarantee them a win because, if you're patient, it's certainly possible to avoid their blows and counter-attack while they tire themselves out. It's no fun to come up against opponents like these though, and quitting out of a fight prematurely is only an option if you don't mind having a loss and a DNF (did not finish) percentage on your profile.

When you're in the ring, hopefully with an opponent who's not going to exit prematurely, Fight Night Round 4 is a real treat for the senses. The fighters, the audiences, and the arenas that they're packed into all look great, and the slow-motion replays of knockout punches are brutal, but the real star of the show is the audio. Punches sound satisfying, crowds get excited and shout fighter-specific chants, your corner men can be heard yelling useful instructions, and the color commentary is great. The guys on the mics not only call the fight accurately, but also offer anecdotes and analogies aplenty (enough that they don't repeat themselves too often) and drop a good amount of fighter-specific knowledge--mentioning things like Ricky Hatton's affiliation with Manchester City Football Club as well as a couple of his recent real-life fights. In Legacy mode, they also reference your custom fighter's career record, though they don't go into any detail about previous fights or anything like that.

Fight Night Round 4's greatest strength is that while it's accessible and relatively easy for newcomers, it can also be challenging and rewarding for pugilism perfectionists. It's unfortunate that online matches are being dominated by players who are mindlessly spamming punches rather than fighting realistically, because on those occasions that you do meet someone who's playing with some finesse it really is a lot of fun. Stepping into Fight Night Round 4's ring is definitely recommended if you have any interest in the sport whatsoever, just be aware that not everyone you come up against will be fighting in the spirit of the Queensbury rules.

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood Review

Top production values and exciting gameplay make Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood one call you should definitely heed.

Prequels are by definition concerned with looking at what has come beforehand, but Bound in Blood is anything but a backwards step. This game--a prequel to 2007's Call of Juarez--is a tense, riveting, and superb-looking first-person shooter that ditches the stealth elements that clogged up the original like molasses. Instead, it focuses on action-packed shoot-outs and set-piece moments that will make you feel like you've strapped on the six-shooters and stepped straight into the dusty, violent Wild West. And while it's over all too quickly (and filled with none-too-smart enemies), Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is sure to scratch the itchiest of trigger fingers.

The game's Western theme is presented with aplomb: it showcases an impressive world that bleeds with Wild West iconography. Bound in Blood is more spaghetti than Unforgiven--gun duels are preceded by intense bouts of staring, enemies will topple dramatically off high balconies when shot, and there is more than one large gunfight inside an abandoned church or saloon. The game's story touches on many well-known Western motifs, such as honor, betrayal, greed, faith, and even love, and while it doesn't tread any new ground, it does present a compelling narrative.

Set years before the first game, Bound in Blood follows the McCall brothers--Ray and Thomas--as they change from honorable Confederate deserters to amoral treasure hunters seeking a fabled fortune. If you played the first game, you know Ray as a religious fire-and-brimstone preacher, which is a stark contrast to the lustful, greedy, coldhearted Ray portrayed in Bound in Blood. It's one of the great pleasures of the game to see just how this transformation takes place, and while you'll probably see the ending from a mile away, it still packs a hefty emotional punch.

While Ray is a brutish type, his brother, Thomas, is more thoughtful (although just as violent), and you'll get to play as both in Bound in Blood. You could also play as two different characters in the first game, but while the two there were clearly delineated as action or stealth, this time around both characters are action-focused. Ray is more direct: he can duel-wield pistols, throw explosives, break down doors, and walk around with the occasional Gatling gun. Thomas is an expert with the rifle, is deadly with a bow, can use a lasso to reach high places, and can use knives for silent stealth kills. Ray is all about in-your-face confrontation, rushing in with both guns blazing and blowing up any obstacle. Thomas lets you play a more measured game, using the rifle's long sights to take enemies out from a distance. Each brother also gets his own special attack--called concentration mode--which slows down time to allow quick attacks on multiple targets. Though their attacks are performed differently--Ray's requires you to quickly move your targeting reticle over foes, while Thomas' has you flicking the right stick on the controller (or moving your mouse back and forth in the PC version) in order to replicate a gun's hammer--the effect is the same: mass carnage.

Apart from a few missions at the start and near the end of the game, you can choose to play as either Ray or Thomas throughout most of Bound in Blood. The two brothers stick close together for most of it, meaning that apart from a few instances where one brother has to take a different path, you'll see and do the same thing no matter which one you play as. How you play--aggressive as Ray or circumspect as Thomas--is different enough, however, to make it worthwhile to go through the game twice. This is a plus because of the brevity of Bound in Blood's single-player campaign. You'll likely finish it (including all side missions) in about seven hours on the first run.

However, those seven hours will be eventful, with gameplay flowing nicely between intense shoot-outs, large-scale set pieces, and intimate one-on-one gun duels. The available weapons for the many Bound in Blood shoot-outs are fairly limited compared to other shooters, although given the time period, that's hardly surprising. Both Ray and Thomas can use pistols, shotguns, and rifles, and there are several varieties of each that you can upgrade to as the game progresses. The large set pieces happen with good regularity and include using a cannon, blowing up a Union paddle steamer (don't worry, the Confederates get their due eventually), riding a raft through rapids while being pursued by angry Native Americans, using a cart-mounted Gatling gun to mow down enemies on horseback, and even fighting your way out of an ancient underground temple as it gets buried in sand. You'll also get plenty of time on horseback, although the horses can change direction on a dime and even quickly strafe, so they don't feel much like real animals when you're astride them

The gun duels are less hectic but just as tense. These one-on-one affairs act as boss fights, pitting you against an especially powerful enemy in an old-fashioned quick-draw fight to the death. The camera shifts down to a cinematic view low behind the player for these duels. You'll have to match your opponent's left and right steps to keep him in the centre of the screen, while keeping your hand close to your pistol. Duel controls are quite precise, and you'll never feel like they're preventing you from winning a quick draw. It's heart-in-the-mouth stuff most of the time, and you'll probably die plenty of times before you get the timing of a draw right.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 Review

Tiger Woods 10 for the Wii is as close as you can get to a golf course without paying green fees.

Last year, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 All-Play for the Nintendo Wii just missed the green. Despite its mostly stellar re-creation of a real golf swing with the Wii Remote, annoying issues with putting sensitivity cost it a couple of strokes. That isn't a problem anymore. The 2010 edition of Tiger is as close to perfect as any golf game ever made, with dead-on swing mechanics thanks to fine-tuned controls and the use of the new Wii MotionPlus add-on. This is a brilliant re-creation of real golf, loaded with little touches and tweaks that make it an addictive pastime whether you're a low handicapper, a weekend hacker, or a first-timer who doesn't know one end of a putter from the other. In short, videogame golf doesn't get any better than this.

With that said, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 is more of an intensive refinement of last year's game than an overhaul. You can't slam the game for suffering from sequelitis, though, because the many changes improve the quality of play across the board. The most noteworthy upgrade is of course the controls. As in the 09 game, gripping and ripping are still handled with the Wii Remote, although you can attach a nunchuk and swing in a more traditional videogame fashion if you prefer. To take a shot, you simply stand up, take the remote in both hands like a real golf club, and then go through a lifelike swing motion to blast little dimpled balls into the great blue yonder. It's all very realistic and addictive, and the challenge is almost on a par with real golf. The lack of a ball on your floor is the only thing spoiling the illusion, because in real golf you need to keep your head down when swinging, while here you find yourself torn between keeping your head tucked away properly and watching the screen to see if your movements are being accurately tracked by your avatar.

And they almost always are. The addition of Wii MotionPlus support has made swing sensitivity more authentic than it was last year. Simply plug the MotionPlus hardware (available both separately and in a special cut-price combo pack with Tiger 10) into the base of the remote, and every little wiggle and waggle of the controller is perfectly mimicked onscreen. This is particularly vital when it comes to approach shots and putting. Last year, Tiger 09 came up a little short in these areas. Lack of remote sensitivity occasionally made playing around holes an exercise in frustration. Approach shots from under 100 yards were tough to finesse, and putting required an absurd amount of effort to get even routine flat-lie 15-footers to the cup. At times, it didn't seem possible to even hit the ball hard enough to get it to the hole. This put you in bizarre situations where you had to swing the remote like you were wielding a driver, and it required adopting a lag-putting philosophy from distances as close in as 30 feet.

Neither are problems anymore. Greater control sensitivity allows you to put a more accurate touch on the ball on approach shots, letting you better handle in-close situations where you need to take a little off your swing to get close to the pin. Turning the remote even slightly is now all that you need to do to perform a fade or draw shot, which is often necessary when you're shooting for the green. Putting is completely different this year. The new Precision Putting mechanic causes the onscreen putter to move with every little twitch of the remote, allowing you to apply the same amount of oomph here that you would use on a real golf course. If you have any experience with putting in the real world, you don't even need to look up at the screen to putt; just check the distance and lie, and then lock your head to the ground just like you would on a real green and shoot. Tap-ins are tap-ins. Ten-footers are ten-footers. Sixty-footers are sixty-footers. These improvements are even noticeable without the MotionPlus gadget installed, although club responsiveness is noticeably better with it in place. The bottom line is that you no longer need to worry about clunky controls, just the greens. They are a real handful, too, with a lot of sculpted features and the kind of incredible speed that gives nightmares to even the finest PGA Tour pros.

Tiburon also took care of some feature oversights and made Tiger 10 a more comprehensive package. Basic golf-game accoutrements have been rounded out. There are three difficulty settings, which run from kid-friendly to a grueling advanced level that's nitpicky about swing movements and removes such crutches as the putting meter (which, oddly enough, doesn't make much of a difference to gameplay due to the outstanding controller sensitivity when putting). The game now includes 27 courses, among them seven newcomers, including Bethpage Black and Banff Springs. Career mode has been beefed up with a more comprehensive player creator and the ability to play in the previously absent US Open.

Online support has been greatly enhanced. You can take on fellow golfers over the Net in solo matches, as you could last year, as well as take part in daily and weekly tournaments in which your rounds are recorded and then posted to a leaderboard. You even get a chance to rehit rounds from the first tee if you get to the end of the back nine and aren't happy with your score. Tournies are categorized for rookie and advanced players, which does a good job of keeping the scrubs apart from the sharps. Don't go anywhere near the advanced tournaments if you lack the chops to shoot rounds in the 60s and 70s. Either way, you need to put in a lot of time building up a character's skills before you can really be competitive online, or even offline against a more experienced buddy.

Another nifty online treat is real-time course weather courtesy of The Weather Channel. If you turn this option on, you play with the actual weather conditions noted at the time of your round. So if it's overcast and blustery at Torrey Pines in the real world, it's overcast and blustery at Torrey Pines in your living room. You can also play along with PGA tournaments as they take place in the real world, comparing scores with the likes of Tiger himself. Golf Party minigames are back again this year, along with the Wii-exclusive Disc Golf. The latter game is goofy and addictive, although perhaps a bit out of place. It's hard to imagine casual gamers buying Tiger 10 just for this novelty, but it adds to the package and is at least a good game for the family. The motion controls are also so accurate that you might as well be throwing a real Frisbee in the park.

This is one of the better-looking Wii sports games out there, with some holes that look pretty when viewed from the right angles. But there are loads of visual jaggies on golfer models and trees, and spectators look like performance-art pyramidal sculptures. The sound quality is much better, at least. There is a ton of commentary here and a tremendous number of atmospheric effects. The lack of Dolby Digital 5.1 support is barely noticeable during tournaments, because the crowd noise swells up all around you in the aftermath of a great shot. About the only quibble would be with the unnecessarily punitive commentary. A double bogey is punishment enough without the incessant wisecracks.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 has turned last year's great near-miss into an all-time classic. Improved motion-control support, more game features, and expanded online modes make it incredibly immersive and authentic. Golf games just don't get any better than this.

Guitar Hero 5 setlist partly revealed

Activision may be sprinting to capitalize on the peripheral-driven rhythm genre with this year's Guitar Hero 5, Guitar Hero: Van Halen, DJ Hero, and Band Hero, but it's foot-dragging when it comes to releasing setlists for those games. After initially revealing just six of the 85 songs featured in Guitar Hero 5, Activision last month released the entire list of artists in the game.

Now the publisher is drawing the process out even further, today releasing another batch of new songs to be included on the game disc. The new tracks represent a variety of styles, from Guitar Hero veterans like David Bowie and Santana to relative newcomers like Vampire Weekend and Elliott Smith.

Guitar Hero 5 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, and PlayStation 2 is set to ship to stores September 1. The list of new tracks revealed follows below:

ARTIST--SONG
Band of Horses--"Cigarettes, Wedding Bands"
Beastie Boys--"Gratitude"
Beck--"Gamma Ray"
Billy Squier--"Lonely is the Night"
Blur--"Song 2"
Children of Bodom--"Done With Everything, Die for Nothing"
Coldplay--"In My Place"
Darkest Hour--"Demon(s)"
David Bowie--"Fame"
Deep Purple--"Woman from Tokyo ('99 Remix)"
Elliott Smith--"L.A."
Iggy Pop--"Lust for Life (Live)"
Jeff Beck--"Scatterbrain (Live)"
John Mellencamp--"Hurts So Good"
Queens Of The Stone Age--"Make It Wit Chu"
Rose Hill Drive--"Sneak Out"
Santana--"No One to Depend on (Live)"
The Bronx--"Six Days a Week"
Thrice--"Deadbolt"
Vampire Weekend--"A-Punk"

Previously confirmed titles for the game include the following:

The Rolling Stones--"Sympathy for the Devil"
Bob Dylan--"All Along the Watchtower"
The White Stripes--"Blue Orchid"
Tom Petty--"Runnin' Down a Dream"
Johnny Cash--"Ring of Fire"
Kings of Leon--"Sex on Fire"
Wolfmother--"Back Round"