FIFA 13 Review

One of the new additions to Fifa 13 is the Match Day feature. The Match Day feature (Which can be triggered on and off) updates the players stats from the each team to how they played recently so if in real life a player isn't doing so well he will lose stats along with this you will be alerted with a red icon telling you they have gone down. Not only can players lose stats but if they had a good match in real life their stats will be higher and you will be shown with a green icon telling you they have higher stats.

Not only does Match Day change up players stats but it also has an affect on commentary. The commentators will mention what place both teams are in their league which really impressed me because it added that realism factor that they was trying to hit this year. Not only does commentary mention things about both teams they will actually update the players with false scores for other matches that are being played at the same time. You will see the scores in the top right corner with the updated score during the match.

Another new feature to Fifa 13 is the Skill Games. Skill Games is a playable mode in the game, and can also take place before a match instead of the previous years just shooting at the keeper. Skill Games can be a way to help you improve at Fifa as well as being a mode to play fun challenges. You can improve on many different skills needed to be a good player like shooting, dribbling, crossing, free kicks and passing are just some of the many skills you can learn.

Each skill has different objectives and obstacles in your way. An example of one of the objectives in the game is in Advanced Shooting were you have to shoot the ball over some boxes and try and get the ball to hit the target for big points or at least get the ball in the net for some small points. Each Skill Game also has bronze, silver and gold versions of the challenges were you have to get the set score to progress to and unlock the next level.

Customisation is still huge in Fifa 13. There is so much to customise in this game like creating your own player, editing current players, adding your own menu music, adding your own fan chants for teams and it doesn't just stop at that before starting a match you can edit lots of different settings like match half, difficulty, what stadium you want the match to take place in, weather, time, season, pitch, game speed and you can even change what football you want to use in the game. Although its the same as previous Fifa games its still worth mentioning and praising all the customising in the game.

Gameplay has some additions as well. The first addition is the first touch controls. First touch controls are a very good addition to the gameplay because it makes gameplay unpredictable, and also you have to be much more careful when receiving the ball. Gone are the days were you can run at the ball full speed during a pass and still have the ball because this year when you run at the ball during a pass it is likely that you will lose possession of the ball to the other team. Other improvements you can expect is tighter gameplay, improved physics and A much smarter AI.

Fifa 13 is stacked with content, and I mean STACKED! Game modes include Be A Pro (Keeper and Player), Tournaments which include real life ones like the F.A Cup and you can even create your own tournament, there is a career mode where you can play as a player or manager where you will have certain goals and tasks you have to achieve and this mode can be played a real life player or you can use your own created player and finally the most popular mode in Fifa returns and that is Ultimate Team mode. Ultimate Team mode is pretty similar to previous years but this year it has the addition of Fifa Points.

Finally there is online mode where you can play against friends or random people and test your Fifa skills against them to see who is the better player. Along with normal online matches you can play Seasons. In Seasons you have to reach the target points within 10 online games or you go down a division if you hit the target you get a promotion to the next division.

I also dusted off the Kinect and tried out the Kinect features in the game,  I was impressed. The Kinect can recognize voices very well and adds a funny feature were you can swear at the ref and get booked for it. Other Kinect features include calling for substitutions and switching tactics in the game. You can also act as a manager and shout things out to the players on the pitch.

The Final Verdict

Fifa 13 impressed me the most with its new Match Day feature. Match Day was a big surprise and really managed to push Fifa's TV presentation to new heights. Customisation in the game is crazy with so much to change and do in the game and the amount of game modes in the game will keep you coming back for more until Fifa 14 comes out.

+ Match Day
+ Presentation
+ Gameplay
+ Amount of content

Final Score

9/10 

Borderlands 2 Review

When Borderlands was released in 2009 it ended up being one of the best games of the year. After releasing some very good quality DLC we wondered "When would we get more Borderlands?" and last year we got the answer when Borderlands 2 was confirmed for 2012, and I was very excited to see what they could pull out the hat with Borderlands 2. Let's see if Borderlands 2 managed to be the same quality game that was released 3 years ago.

The main story takes place 5 years after the original events of Borderlands as we are introduced to a man called Handsome Jack who is the leader of the Hyperion Corporation. Jack rose to power in Pandora after taking credit for the original vault hunters actions. Hyperion Corporation finds a new vault in Pandora which contains a powerful creature called "The Warrior". The original 4 characters are out of here and in their place are four new characters called Salvador, Maya, Axton and Zer0. All of these characters have their own personal perks and abilities that we will talk about more later in the review.

Handsome Jack ends up seeing you as a threat to him, and leaves you for dead. The four new characters must team up to put an end to Jack. While trying to put an end to Jack's plans you will run into many of the characters from the previous Borderlands games which includes the four original characters. Along with past characters you will meet new characters as well. These new characters are all very likable and some are very humorous. That's all the main story details I am going to talk about because this is a non spoiler
review, and obviously you would like to read this review unspoiled. I can tell you though to look out for some shocking storyline swerves and some awesome cutscenes that will make your finger move far away from that skip button.

You will find yourself finishing the main story at around 30 hours. Yes you read that right you will finish the game at 30 hours!! 30 hours not enough? Well its going to take you even more hours to finish all of the side missions in the game. The side missions are pretty fun too and range from the normal kind of side missions like giving this item to someone but some of the missions are very, very different like having to find human body parts for a robot so he can become a human, organising  a party for claptrap or solving a murder. I must also say that some of these missions will have you laughing out loud which is something I rarely do while playing a game. Along with these side missions your final gameplay hours will total way past that original 30 hour mark.

One of the many positives in Borderlands 2 is the voice acting. The voice acting is awesome because all of the voice actors actually do their job very well. I mentioned before how there is a character called Handsome Jack and he is a big jerk, and I feel his whole bad guy character is well done because of the awesome voice acting. The voice acting doesn't only work for the bad guy but it works really well in funny moments in the game (When you play the game you will know what I am talking about)  I got to say Borderlands 2 voice acting is up there as some of the finest voice acting in video game history.

The graphics are decent but there are some noticeable hiccups with the graphics at times mostly during parts of the game that had lots of action in it. Other than the few hiccups the whole scenery in the game looks very detailed and there is a variety of different environments in the game.

Customization in Borderlands 2 has been upgraded a little from the original game. In this game you can have new player skins for your character and you can also edit the hairstyles of the character you have chosen. I talked earlier about the perks that the new characters can get well you get them by using the skill tree that has even more skills you can upgrade than the first game. Also in the game are badass points that you get when you fill up the badass meter. The points can then be used to increase certain stats in the game like maximum health and gun damage for example.


The Final Verdict

Borderlands 2 is pretty much Borderlands 1 with the heat turned WAY up. I love this game it is up there with the other 2012 greats for the 2012 Game Of The Year. There is many reasons why I love this game like the amount of content you get with your purchase is insane you could easily have a save with side missions at 40-50 hours long (That should keep you busy) I hardly found any flaws with the game except some minor graphic problems and other bugs, and the story is pretty solid as well. You can't go wrong with a Borderlands 2 purchase for sure. I just hope we get more Borderlands 2 via DLC with the same quality as the first game.

+Amazing voice acting
+Very funny and laugh out loud moments
+Very long main story with additional side missions

-Some minor bugs

Final Score

9.5/10

Jet Set Radio HD Review

Jet Set Radio is the next classic Dreamcast game to recive the HD remake treatment after such other Dreamcast classics got the HD treatment like Sonic Adventure and Crazy Taxi in 2010. Jet Set Radio was one of my all time favorites on the Dreamcast, and I still play it on the Dreamcast in the year 2012 so you should know how excited I was for the HD release. Lets see if Jet Set Radio still holds up well in 2012.

The main objective of the game is to tag your own grafatii in certian parts of the maps while also on a time limit. You think that's it? Expect some run ins with the police and their tear gas as well as other gangs are in the area to look out for. The stages are still fun and also challenging (Mainly because of that time limit) I still find some the "boss" missions annoying. For example there is a mission were you have to tag the rival gangs, and it can be extremely difficult to catch them in the right position to tag them. Although I said its annoying its still a good challenge.

The soundtrack is mostly left untouched which is a good thing because the original soundtrack for the game was awesome, and  still is today. Normally in remakes almost all if not ALL of the soundtrack from the original is removed so its good to finally see a remake have its original soundtrack. The new HD visuals are very well done and the artistic graphics look even better than they did in the original game. You might be asking "What is new? Or "Is there anything new in the game" and the answer is yes. Added to the HD remake is an online leaderboard and some achievements for the main game. Although not much its still cool to have.

The Final Verdict

Jet Set Radio still managed to hold up well in my eyes, and maybe took it a step futher with the brand new HD graphics. Having the original soundtrack really helped me like this remake as well. Gameplay is still as fun as ever. Some of the missions in the main game are as frustrating as they was over 10 years ago. Jet Set Radio only costs 1200 points which is a steal for such a classic. People who are new to this game should love it and people who played it many years ago will have a blast of nostalgia in their face.

+Fun gameplay
+Soundtrack
+Addition of online leaderboards

-Some levels can be annoying and not as fun
-While the graphics look nice there is still some noticable problems
-Physics

Final Score

7/10 

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Review

Tekken games have always been up there as my favourite fighting games. I love the fighters, the music, the gameplay, the fun/crazy side of Tekken games and many other things. Now I am happy to say that I feel that same way with this game the fighting gameplay while can be tricky for new comers is pretty solid once you get the hang of things which you might do this year with some of the features added to this game. Lets see how I thought this Tekken was another solid entry to the series.


Added to Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is the much needed Fight Labs. In Fight Labs you play as a robot called Combot, and play through crazy and fun missions. By completing the missions not only do you learn more about the basics of the gameplay you also earn money and experience which can be used to purchase moves and abilities for your own Combot. Your Combat can also be used in any of the offline other game modes. There is also the familiar training mode that can teach you the many different moves and combos in the game.

The customisation in TTT2 is unbelievable. Every fighter on the roster can be customised to your liking, and when I said unbelievable I mean unbelievable you can turn any of the fighters in to some of the craziest things you can think of. You can customise the fighter to the point where you can't even recognise the fighter anymore. The customisation of the fighters was one of the biggest positives in the game for me.

Now you know about the training, Fight Labs and the customisation lets get in to the real meat of this game and that is all the game modes on offer. In TTT2 you can play such modes as Arcade, Survival, Team Battle and more. The game really has been packed with content with all these modes, and I found all the offline game modes to be fun and addicting to play. Arcade mode is what you expect it to be (Including a tough boss) when you beat the final boss you are treated to a one of the many different endings in the game but with the amount of fighters in the game it's going to take you a while to finish arcade with all of them.

The online in the game is solid. I had no problems connecting to fights or problems during the fights it all ran very smooth and very well. It should also be known that TTT2 has a feature called "World Tekken Federation" which records all your online fights so you can look back and see some of your best moments or worst moments and learn where you went wrong so you can improve in those areas. I think this a very good feature to added to game.

On top of all this that you are getting with TTT2 you can also look forward to some pretty awesome looking graphics, a very good selection for a soundtrack and finally some creative arenas to fight in.

The Final Verdict

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is a solid fighting game although it does have some noticeable flaws in the game you can't argue that it isn't full of content, has awesome looking visuals, catchy themes and other positive features that make this game so good. Normally a fighting game wouldn't be one of those games you actually called "full of content" but this I can say is full of content. You will be spending most of your hours competing online, unlocking many different unlockables, customising fighters and the most important thing is you will be having fun playing this game. I defiantly recommend you buy this game.

+Customising fighters
+Solid graphics, music and arenas
+Fun

8.5/10

The Walking Dead: The Game - Episode 3: Long Road Ahead Review

Episode 3 carries straight on from episode two (A day after the events at the farm) you start the episode of walking around a street with Kenny who will talk to you about some of your choices in the last episodes before you come across the first choice in the game, which is either shooting this bitten woman to stop her from turning into a walker, but this will cause walkers to come after you or you can choose to walk away and leave her to become a walker, which will stop the walkers from attacking you. That choice is the first of 5 choices you will come across in the game. Without spoiling there is one choice to make in the game that I think is the the hardest choice to make out of all 3 episodes.

In episode 3 of The Walking Dead you find out that the walkers are not the biggest threat to the groups survival. The biggest threat to your survival is people turning against you or people from other groups attacking you to get supplies. This one thing can be said about The Walking Dead EP3, and that is TRUST NO ONE! The game will have you thinking that one person is wrong, but you didn't have all the details about the situation at the time, and later in the game you will find that maybe this person you thought was wrong was actually right in the end.

In my episode 2 review I talked about the lack of action (Not a bad thing) in the episode, as it seemed to take more of an adventure and building relationships route. Episode 3 easily has the most action out of all the episodes, as you will have to fight off many walkers and even people. Just because this episode has more action doesn't mean it lacks in story/adventure/building relationships. You can expect shocking twists and turns in the story, some really sad moments and also meet new people and build new relationships while increasing others.

The Final Verdict 

What did episode 3 bring to the table to make it so good? It managed to tell an even better story than the last two episodes, had good amounts of action in the game and the game made you have to go though with one of the toughest choices in the whole series so far. The voice acting in the game is still some of the best I have ever heard. The voice acting sounds very realistic and sounds what it should sound like when in these different situations. Although there is some noticeable glitches in the game, this episode ended up being the best episode of the series so far. I can't wait for episode 4 to come and hopefully be an even better episode than episode 3 was.


+Very good story
+Tough choices
+Awesome voice acting

-Noticable glitches

Final score

9.5/10 

Mass Effect 3: Leviathan DLC Review

This review contains some minor early spoilers/plot details

Finally! Some post Mass Effect 3 single player DLC. I have been wanting single player DLC for this game since I finished it back in March. Mass Effect DLC's are some of my favourites DLC's of all time. In short the DLC was great, and it managed to keep the same quality of past Mass Effect DLC's. Let's see how the DLC managed to be that good.

The DLC starts off with an Email asking Shepard to meet with him at the citadel and some things happen (No spoilers!) that cause Shepard to find evidence to where to go next. The first part of the DLC reminds me of how the Lair Of The Shadow Broker DLC started. You can actually leave with having 5 possible locations to go to, but if you do that you don't get a nice Achievement/Trophy for finding the exact location of the Leviathan. I actually found this part good some may find it boring because of the lack of action or dialogue, but I liked doing some detective work to find where to go.

The next part of the game is actually going to the place you have found. Except for a little bit on arrival and end there is no action again in this part of the DLC, but that isn't a negative at all I liked how they have paced the action/adventuring in the DLC so far. You don't go into big battles straight away it builds up very well in the DLC. Don't worry action fans there is plenty of action in this DLC as well and even in this part of the DLC were action is kind of rare there is an objective were you have to  open a locked door and tons of different kinds of enemies come at you trying to stop you fixing that door (Saw about 3 Banshees attacking me) lots of fun twists and turns to look forward to as well in this part.

Now because this is a non spoiler review I am not going to go in to more detail with the rest of the story, but I can talk a little about what to expect. You can expect even more action/adventuring being paced well, some interesting scenery (Going underwater for example), more story twists and turns and some epic battles.


The Final Verdict

The new Mass Effect 3 DLC will probably take you around 3 hours to complete and will cost you 800 Microsoft points, which is a very good deal in my opinion. For that 800 points you get a 3-4 hour epic Mass Effect story, and it could possibly be the best Mass Effect DLC that has been made. If you own Mass Effect 3 still go and dust that copy off and buy this DLC you shouldn't be disappointed. Hopefully we get more single player DLC of this quality.


+Good story
+I like the way the Action/Adventuring has been paced
+Get your moneys worth



9/10 

Madden NFL 13 Review

One of the major improvements we get this year in Madden is a brand new physics engine. Gone are the days of the canned animations for tackles and in its place is a much better physics engine.The new physics in the game help to make tackles look different, and instead of seeing the same few recycled animations over and over again it makes you belive you're actually watching a real live football game. Although the physics are good, and are much better than canned animations it can lead to some weird moments in the game like during a pile-up some of the players can and probaly will trip over each other, and the player will just fall to the ground like they are dead. Moments like I mentioned with the physics engine can really take away from the realism of the game, and causes moments that will make you laugh, which isn't really a good thing for a Football sim. Putting those moments aside you do have a pretty solid physics engine that does need some tweaks next year to make it even better.

Madden NFL 13's TV presentation shouldn't go unnoticed, as it is amazingly realistic, and also manages to capture everything we see on TV during a football game. When you start a game you will get real life tv intros and also a word from the brand new commentators (Jim Nantz and Phil Simm) in the booth. While I am on the subject of the new commentators let me just say the new commentary is much better than last years. Madden 13's commentary feels realistic it doesn't feel like they are just reading some lines from a script. Although a step up from last year there is still many improvements that can be made to the commentary for next year. Another nice feature added this year is now quarterbacks have their voices in the game this year. The voices are ripped from actual game footage as well, and really does improve that TV presentation that they were looking for this year.

The brand new mode this is called connected carrers, which is a combination of both superstar and franchise mode. In this mode you can choose to be a player or a coach.You can at any time retire a player/coach and pick a new one and even choose legendary players/coaches as well as creating your own player/coach! Added to this mode is a in game twitter feed that will generate some fake tweets with NFL headlines to add even more realism to the game. I gave both player and coach a try, and I like being a coach better with the main reason being you have a lot of control and I like having control in Madden, but don't let that make you think that being a player isn't as good because being a player had its own features that I liked that you couldn't do as a coach. Connected carrers not only allows offline play it has an online feature to so you can even play connected carrers with your friends.I enjoyed connected carrers and I look forward to see what they can do to improve it next year.

Gameplay is still pretty similar to the past Madden's with nothing really major to comment on. The soundtrack like in past Madden's is gone and in its place is an original score, and on the subject of sound the crowd sounds pretty awesome and reacts very well to the game I am playing so when I am close to the touchdown they react like any crowd would in a real game. Crowds also react to many different parts of the game, and it sounds/comes off very well as well as realistic. Not only has the "soundtrack" been revamped but Madden 13 gives us a brand new menu that is very easy to use and find things. Madden 13 was reviewed on the Xbox 360 and I have a Kinect so I tried out the Kinect features and they responded very well I didn't have to shout very loud or repeat things. If you are unaware of the Kinect features here is what Kinect will bring with Madden 13, Voice commanded menus, calling audibles and call time outs. The Kinect features aren't something you are going to rush out and buy a Kinect for, but if you own a Kinect already they are pretty nice features.

The Final Verdict

Madden NFL 13 in my opinion is similar to other Madden games, but it still managed to entertian me for hours with its brand new connected carrers mode, impressed me with its awesome, realistic TV presentation and created some awesome moments with it's brand new physics engine, but there is one question on everyone's mind who is reading this "Is Madden 13 worth playing?" the answer to that question is "Yes!"

+Very realstic presentation
+/- A solid physics engine with some noticeable hicups
+/- Improved commentary that needs some tweaks next year
- Still feels similar to past Madden games

Final score

8/10