Borderlands 2

Buckle up, because there’s a lot to talk about….

Mighty Switch Force 1 & 2

Mighty Switch Force is a series that managed to keep my brain entertained for quite some time, and after buying both games on the 3DS e-shop, the puzzle speedrunning-mania started.

Trine & Trine 2

    Three ordinary adventurers. One legendary team.

Borderlands

When I picked up borderlands, I was expecting an FPS with RPG elements that would be relatively short. Boy was I wrong about that last part.

Beat Hazard Ultra

What is Beat Hazard Ultra? Well, the best way to describe it would be a mix of Asteroids and Audiosurf. Beat Hazard is a simple yet effective and addicting concept that provides endless hours of gameplay, arcade style: you control a ship and the objective, obviously, is to survive. For that you will have to keep cleaning entire armadas of enemy ships off of your screen. Nothing new here, except this time, everything depends on the soundtrack: your soundtrack.

To the Moon (PC)

In the last few years, pixelated games seem to have made a pretty strong comeback, much to the delight of older gamers, who fondly remember the 8/16-bit gems of ages past. And yet, even in the middle of this pixel revolution, the name RPG Maker still seems to carry a negative connotation strong enough to keep many potential players at bay.  This is where To the Moon comes in.

Made by Freebird Games, To the Moon is pretty much a story-driven game. Truth be told, the gameplay is very simple, and it consists of walking around in a 2D world looking for objects and talking to characters, which…sounds like every RPG ever. However, save for a humorous moment near the start of the game, there is no battling in here.

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed

Genre: Racing, Sports

Developer: Sumo Digital

Publisher: SEGA              

Release Date: 31 Jan 2013
Platform: PC (Steam)
Other Platforms: PS3, Xbox360, Wii U, Vita, 3DS, Android

Kart racers have always been regarded as some of the most fun multiplayer games involving vehicles, but with several mediocre releases over the past couple of years, the genre hasn’t really been on the top of its game. That being said, a game with a long and familiar name such as Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is sure to raise some eyebrows, whether due to the weird concept of transforming vehicles or due to people thinking it may somewhat be a Mario Kart ripoff. While I've played pretty much every Mario Kart in existence (except double dash), I must say this game felt pretty refreshing and did a good job of pumping adrenaline into my veins. Let’s take a look:

Lots of stuff to do, and 232 stars to collect.

So, here we are presented with characters from many of SEGA’s beloved franchises, each one with their unique vehicle and seven different Mods (basically configurations that change things like the speed, boost and acceleration of the vehicle) which are unlocked as you level up the characters and progress in the World Tour in Career mode. This works as the ultimate fan service, since it lets you control good old characters like Vyse and B. D. Joe (this last one in his faithful, and now, transforming yellow taxi) and many others, while still having characters from recent franchises, and of course, Sonic and friends. The rooster consists of over thirty characters (if you include the DLCs), and in addition to SEGA characters, there are some special appearances, like the Team Fortress character and more recently Yoggscast (most of the characters added are exclusive to the PC version).

One of my favourite transformations, complete with sound effects and all.

There’s a lot of variety in terms of game modes, more so than in your average cart racer. All of the basics are here, Career mode, Matchmaking, custom event, etc, and inside each mode, there is yet more variety. Inside the World Tour in Career mode, you get to collect stars by completing events, and the higher the difficulty you play in, the more stars you unlock (initially there are three difficulty levels with a fourth one unlocked later). There are several types of events, like regular races, one-lap sprints against ghosts, Bosses who throw obstacles at you and must be defeated before you vehicle falls apart, boost races, traffic attacks and the list goes on.

The tracks themselves are also from SEGA franchises of course, and in none of them will you be driving on solid ground all of the time. Most, if not all of the tracks change on their final lap and even before then there might be water/lava or air sections. Here your vehicle will transform to suit the environment, and by doing this, changing the way the controls feel (driving a wheeled vehicle in the road isn't anything like driving a hovercraft on water). In addition to these three different forms your vehicle can take, one of the game’s power-ups (All-Star) changes you into a fourth appearance, granting you invincibility and a speed boost for a limited amount of time. The other power-ups are within what you might expect for this sort of game. Rockets and snowballs to throw at your opponents, boosts, homing missiles that look like a miniature version of you and the Blowfish, which works as a bomb, which you can leave in the road or launch forward. There are also baseball gloves which grab whatever others might throw at you and lets you keep it so you can then throw it back.

Enough with just describing the game, here are my thoughts:

Traffic Attacks are one of many challenges present and can be pretty insane.

•         Having your vehicle transform into four different shapes gives the game a great deal of variety. That, combined with the fact that most of the tracks change every other lap, makes it so that you don’t feel like you’re always doing the same thing.
•          Having seven different mods for every character makes it so you can use whatever character you like, even if you can’t deal with the way it initially plays (lack of handling / acceleration / speed / etc).
•          Has a decent amount of tracks (and of course, mirror versions) but could use some more. One of the DLCs added an extra track, but since not everyone has it, it never gets selected in online matchmaking. In addition, the new track feels pretty bland, there aren’t many obstacles or variety at all.
•          S class is pretty damn hard, mainly due to abusive amounts of rubberbanding. But once you master those tracks, it’s an awesome challenge and feels pretty rewarding to win. However, even S class isn’t much compared to online matchmaking, especially if you put yourself in a lobby full with players with their ranks in the 1500’s or above. S class challenges are also pretty difficult and require practice most of the time.

Seven mods p/character guarantee a good amount of customisation.

•  The online matchmaking itself works pretty well and it’s fun, but there’s (arguably) too much time between races. Ten seconds to vote for one out of three tracks, and then forty-five seconds just to choose a character is too much. Also, don’t make me choose my character after every race. Just give me the same one I used in the previous one by default. If I want to change into another one, I can…after all, I have forty-five seconds to do it….
•          Speaking of characters, the AGES character comes as a pleasant surprise, with its unique sounds and transformations which you’ll no doubt recognize. On the other hand, having NiGHTS and Reala in the game AS THE vehicle feels like a bad joke. At least their All-Star transformations look good.
•          There’s a healthy amount of achievements, even though it would have been cool to see every in-game sticker have its own. Some achievements involve playing with four local players, which is not a good idea. Not many people have that amount of controllers, not to mention the fact that split-screen multiplayer is becoming a thing of the past. It would have been more sensible to make these achievements doable with Steam/PSN friends.
•          The game runs great and looks amazing and crisp on PC, but as usual with sonic PC ports, there’s a specific zone (in this case the Samba Studios track) that tends to drop the framerate. That being said it’s still a pretty good port, but still suffers from the same problem as all the other sonic PC ports that came before it: the graphical options menu is in a separate executable and must be run before the game. Also it forces you to skip through a bunch of stuff before you get to the main menu every time you launch the game but at least on the PC, there’s a fix for that.

"NiGHTS has gone All-Star!"

As a conclusion, this is definitely an extremely satisfying and challenging game, especially if you have a couple of friends to play online with. SEGA will certainly milk this game some more by slowly adding more characters as they’ve been doing in the past. This is reinforced by the fact that the game is still selling and the online community is still pretty active.
The game isn’t expensive and has been on sale again and again, with prices reaching under 7€ at times. Definitely a good buy for any fan of SEGA and/or kart racers.
And since I don't like to read reviews by people who barely play the games either, here's some of my Personal Stats:

• 55 hours played so far (still play occasionally)

• 50/50 Achievements Unlocked

• Game completion: 102%

Fairy Bloom Freesia

Developer: Edelweiss
Platform(s): PC (Windows) - 7.99€
Genre: Action

Made by Doujin developer Edelweiss, Fairy Bloom Freesia is a game reminiscent of old-school action sidescrollers. The base idea here is that you control a fairy (Freesia) and fight off incoming waves (or in this case, a rain) of enemies in forest-themed environments in an attempt to protect said forest.

Fairies don't get cold.

Once upon a time….

So it’s a simple game with a simple story: Freesia lives in the Lita Forest and does her best to protect it from both creatures and humans, who both threaten it. Freesia “has a very strong fairy-fu” and is friends with the ancient Jomon Tree, which holds a great power and keeps the forest alive. Starting here, the story revolves around how freesia defends the forest and the challenges and enemies she will have to overcome when the humans come and attempt to take the power possessed by the Jomon Tree to themselves.

Ore ni makasete!

The story mode is comprised of a series of levels (“Days”) and in each one freesia must defeat all the onscreen enemies to be able to progress. Each enemy gives freesia experience, mana and some others drop health restoring baubles. Every 3 levels there is an intermission which acts as a checkpoint, since you can only save your progress during these, and at the same time, it gives you a chance to spend your hard earned mana in new skills or special moves. All of these are pretty easy to use and the control system is pretty simple. More skills will unlock as Freesia levels up (by gaining experience) and there are several types of skill you can buy. Let me exemplify:

If used correctly, certain enemies may be used to help you get rid of other enemies.

I played using an Xbox360 Controller, so my special skill button was Y. From here I have four slots for four special skills which are used by tapping one of the cardinal directions on the analog stick (or d-pad) together with the Y key. The other buttons are for simple attacks, guarding and jumping. Guarding at first is simple at first, but as you face stronger enemies you will have to learn how to use it more efficiently since you can only guard against a certain amount of damage at a time.

In addition, you have 2 bonus slots which you use to equip enhancement skills. Like for example a simple boost to Freesia’s maximum health, or a regeneration ability, which continuously and slowly regenerates your health (good for longer levels for example) or others like, for example, an ability that increases Freesia’s damage output the lower her health is or one that instantly fills your health up when it reaches zero just once, giving you a second “life”. There are many to choose from but only 2 slots, so you might want to change those depending on what kind of level you are trying to clear. Some of these abilities are one-time buys (you buy it and that’s it), but most have several ranks and require you to spend more mana on them so they reach their full potential.

Thoughts

Time to check our progress.

The first thing that comes to mind is that character names are awful. Freesia is acceptable, but Shinye sounds weird and Listine sounds like mouthwash. The design isn’t bad though, and the characters are likeable enough. The scenarios are decent but not great in number so they eventually become repetitive as you go through level after level after level without anything changing around you. The enemies have the same problem, there’s only a handful of different ones, which you will be facing ad nauseam in waves.
The difficulty is pretty solid, especially if you play on Cruel mode and the extra modes are challenging as well and require some practice, especially the levels where you have to defend the rifts. It took me quite a while to get past some of them in Hard difficulty, but after that when I went into Cruel I already had the tactics down so it was easier. The bosses are challenging as well, at least until you learn their attack patterns. From there on you can avoid damage completely as long as you are careful.
That being said, I liked the game, it was all about frenetic fun and slashing through endless hordes of enemies, levelling up, gaining new skills and going through the story. If you want a decent and challenging button masher (heh), you might want to get this one.

Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock

Platform: PC (Steam – 6.99€)
Other Platforms: PS3, Vita

DooWeeDoooooo

Daleks are definitely the most aggressive and difficult enemy in the game.

Doctor Who….. A franchise that spans 50 years, with over 750 episodes, tons of books, a massive fanbase which, as of the last few years has grown ridiculously and an array of famous actors and writers. Making a videogame out of it sounds like a good idea. A bunch of cash is generated from sales and some new fans are brought aboard as well.
However, if there’s one thing the videogame industry has never exceled at, is making videogames based on movies and TV series. And I don’t know which is worse: if the fact that a big Hollywood movie nowadays implies a videogame counterpart, or the fact that those counterparts always feel like they were made using the last remnants of the movie budget, and on a Sunday afternoon.
DW:TEC, of course, is crippled by this cash-grabbing  mind-set and thus suffers considerably in most regards. But it does manage to get some things right. Let’s take a look.

Wibbly-Wobbly, Timey-Wimey

Get a tight suit, add some silicone and voilá! Lame fanservice.

The plot here is simple at first. Something or someone is causing a temporal maelstrom, and it’s up to the Doctor to stop it from tearing up time and space. Well, in a way, it’s mostly up to the TARDIS, since the poor girl acts as a plug, keeping the many holes in the fabric of time closed. Consequently, the TARDIS becomes slightly omnipresent. “Slightly omnipresent?” Well, yeah, since there are several time rifts and she’s keeping them closed, she is wherever there are any of those, which is….in several places simultaneously. Needless to say, moving her isn’t such a good idea in these conditions, so the Doctor is forced to use several time corridors that seem to pop out of nowhere with an unsettling accuracy, both time and space-wise.

Just as expected of a mess of this nature, along the way, the Doctor will face all of the major enemies of the most recent seasons, Cybermen, Daleks, the Silence and so on, each chapter being dedicated to outsmarting and defeating each one of these. All of this of course, while you go on with your quest of saving the universe once again and still be home in time for dinner.

BUGS! TOO MANY BUGS! EXTERMINATE!

Waiting for the AI to do its job.

Soon enough, you will most likely run into problems. Due to the 2-player nature of the game, and due to the fact that when you’re playing single your companion is as AI, several puzzles involving both players quickly become frustrating. Sometimes the AI will take too long to do what it’s supposed to do, or sometimes it might get stuck, meaning it won’t do anything at all, forcing you to restart from the last checkpoint. There’s also the fact that the enemy AI seems weird, being completely unable to notice you as long as they don’t face you, but if they do they will detect you even if there’s a thick wall between you and them. Some controls aren’t intuitive at all, especially elevator controls: some require you to use the sonic screwdriver, some others require you to just push up or down and others require you to press the action button. This might seem minor, but an inconsistency of this kind becomes a major annoyance, since you will be riding a lot of elevators and platforms.
On the other side of things, we have the configurations. The video options menu won’t save your chose settings, so you are forced to use the default graphic profiles (Low, Medium or High), which is also annoying (changing the config file directly had no effect whatsoever), and frequently, you will notice popping textures.

(Relatively) High IQ 

The only thing to do inside the TARDIS....is to exit the TARDIS.

The puzzles are all pretty mediocre and easy even on the highest difficulty. The mind map puzzles were the most interesting idea out of all the challenges present here, but even those are easy to figure out. In here you have to correctly align an image in a circle by rotating its sections. In easy mode that’s literally all you need to do but in higher difficulties each section you rotate will simultaneously rotate other sections, each in a different manner, thus increasing the challenge. The platforming element is decent and for any Doctor Who fan, using the screwdriver to unlock doors and other shenanigans feels delicious. Too bad that is everything you will use in this game (besides River’s gun).

Still I can’t help but feel that this is quite a cheap cash-in. There was so much that could be done, and yet, we are left with a hollow game that consists in jumping across platforms, sneaking past enemies, and solving a few easy puzzles across the way. The collectibles don’t really add much to it, but at least there are several achievements for timed runs which will most likely make you do certain sections more than once. Good thing all sections are pretty small and can usually be done in under 10-12 mins each.

Another very disappointing point in this game is the TARDIS herself. How could such an important element of the whole DW universe be shoved aside and just used as a cheap way to have a simplified plot? Fiddling with the inside of the TARDIS would have been a dream for any DW fan, since there are endless possibilities as to what can be found inside (as seen in Season 7’s “Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS”). The control room is so pretty and detailed, and yet it’s used for nothing. The ONLY thing you do inside the TARDIS in this game is…….walk out of it.

Geronimoooooooo

Despite all its flaws, the game manages to get some stuff right. The ability to point your sonic screwdriver and use it to mess up with stuff is pretty damn funny, and it's pretty cool to personally evade and defeat the Daleks in a post-apocalyptic London, while listening to Matt Smith's occasional witty one-liners. That being said, some stuff, like the overall looks of Dr. River Song were totally uncalled for and are just a petty fan-service attempt.

So, in conclusion, if you’re not a DW fan and you’re just looking for a platforming game…….don’t bother. There are so many better alternatives out there for you, and this one doesn't really stand out. If you’re a big DW fan like me, go ahead and give it a try, you might like it.

A Virus Named TOM

By: Misfits Attic

Where: PC (Steam), Playstation Vita
Category: Action/Puzzle

“Destroying Tomorrow, Today!”

So, it’s a game about a virus, one named TOM apparently. Background check? Sure.
So, Mr. Eccentric Scientist here goes about creating a city of the future for this company called Mega-Tech. Robot dogs, sidewalks that take you wherever you want, special tech suits that change your appearance….that kind of thing. Eventually, his eccentric side gets the best of him, and he ends up creating Globotron, a massive robot that “terminates” anyone who doesn’t use his inventions. Needless to say, he gets fired. “‘How is that even profitable’ they said”.

So, as any “normal” Eccentric Scientist, he decides to take revenge on Mega-Tech. This is where you come in. You are TOM, a green funny looking virus created for the sole purpose of giving those idiots at Mega-Tech a lesson.

Contagious Fun

So, how do we go about ruining everything? Easy. Get TOM inside those gadgets and have him turn those circuits into a mess. All you need to do is to spread the infection (green) to the whole circuit and you’re done! That easy? No.

Ok, so the primary objective is to spread the infection to the entire circuit. To do this you have to rotate each piece in a way so that the infection reaches everywhere. The initial circuits are simple, but as you progress, things get difficult. Circuits keep getting bigger and more complex, enemies are added, your time limit (aka Energy) gets lower….in short, a whole bunch of stuff to make your life harder. Still, all these game mechanics are introduced in intervals over the campaign, giving you time to get used to each one of them.

Each gadget is composed of various levels, and from some point up you will start getting Skips, which you can use to (obviously) skip levels. The level will be considered solved, and once you really DO solve it, you’ll get your skip back!

Endless TOMfoolery

There is also a multiplayer campaign with even more complicated puzzles and an additional game element, this time a barrier, preventing players to cross over to the other player’s half of the puzzle. Some of these require two pieces to be rotated at the same time to succeed, so it takes a bit of practice. Additionally, there is a versus mode where you compete with up to 3 friends (the multiplayer campaign also supports up to 4 players) in a custom sized circuit where each player attempts to capture more squares than anyone else. Of course, you can kill other players and get their squares, turning it into a random pool of death and robotic laughs. There’s also a tons of achievements, some of which pretty hard and global score leaderboards (via Steam). It’s such a shame that there’s no online multiplayer (yes, it’s local, so either you have a couple controllers or I surely hope your keyboard can have 10 keys pressed at the same time).

So, in conclusion, if you like a good interactive kind of puzzle and want a good brain teaser, this might just be what you’re looking for. Difficulty gets pretty crazy further down the road. Even more so if you grab a couple of friends.

The game can be found here:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/207650/

A Walk in the Dark

Worth the weight….of 200 MB 

Whereas some titles are better the more developed they are, that doesn’t automatically mean simple games aren’t good. And just like I came to realize after playing a game with one of the most simple setting I have ever seen, just because a game doesn’t have a storyline worthy of a light novel adaptation, doesn’t mean it won’t be an extremely pleasant experience. A Walk in the Dark is an Indie game by Flying Turtle Software that has been present for a while in steam’s Greenlight page. However, at least until it gets enough votes to reach the store, you can get it from its official site for 5€. The soundtrack is also available.

http://a-walk-in-the-dark.com

Not your everyday walk

The (short) story begins with little Arielle and her cat Bast happily together in the forest when BAM, an evil looking wizardry creature just flies by and kidnaps Arielle, enveloping the forest with a dark aura. Suddenly, the green forest is turned into a never-ending corridor of obstacles that Bast must overcome in order to save his owner. Simple, no?

Don’t go towards the light…oh wait

So, after the short animation sequence depicting the events described above, we begin the first stage. Needless to say, we control a slender black cat (pretty much everything in this game is black except for the backgrounds) and our objective is to take him to a pillar of light representing the end of the stage, without allowing him to be hurt (no life bar here, if something bad touches you OR if you touch IT, you instantly dissolve into a smoke cloud and are put back at the beginning of the stage). At first there aren’t really any threats to the cat’s integrity except for some spikes here and there, but as you progress through the one hundred stages, things get tricky. Levels get longer and/or more confusing with gravity -changing devices, rotating blades, less safe ground and an increasingly smaller margin for jumping errors.

Gotta go fast

Make it into the light and you get a super simple “stage clear” screen, with your time, your best time and the PAR time. The PAR time is predetermined for all levels, and if you manage to beat it you are awarded with a Speedy badge. This proves to be a simple but extremely effective way to make you want to perfect each level, extending the game’s length. There is also an additional Shiny Badge, awarded if you manage to collect a shiny bauble found in every level, most of them in very tricky spots (just floating above some spikes or similar, making a perfectly executed jump mandatory). Of course you don’t need to get both badges on the same run, in fact you don’t need to get them at all, they’re just “Achievements” of sorts.

Not all levels are the same, some levels title “The Cave” have the cat run forward automatically, leaving you the challenge of jumping or ducking at the right time to avoid death. In my opinion these are the hardest stages.
Since here the cat runs by itself, instead of par time you get a “First Run” should you successfully complete the stage on your first try. Seems a bit buggy though, if you fail your first try, you have to quit the level, load another one and then re-enter the original level in an attempt to do it “on the first try”. And it still doesn’t unlock sometimes.
There are also Arielle’s stages, which follow the same mechanics as Bast’s, except here you move around and press the jump button to invert your gravity as you go over/under obstacles towards the end of each stage. This mechanic is also present in the cat’s stages but it’s only activated by stepping on certain light panels.

100 stages of challenge

All in all, a pretty challenging experience with a decent length (took me 6 hours to finish it with all the badges) and with a well-balanced difficulty increase over the stages. Control-wise it doesn’t get easier than this: analog stick to move, a button to jump and one to duck (as Bast). Arielle doesn’t even have the ducking button so you just move and press the jump button to change gravity, pretty much like in VVVVVV.  Some stages might look near-impossible at first but as you repeat each section again and again you will start to mechanize your button presses, eventually perfecting every jump and timing. The last level especially, takes a while to master.

Shortest credit roll ever

As I see it, A Walk in the Dark is a pleasant and challenging experience that all platforming lovers will enjoy, and the short but brilliant soundtrack fits in perfectly with the game’s setting. Also, did I mention it’s only 5€?

Darksiders (PC)

Developer: Vigil Games
Publisher: THQ
Release Date: September 22, 2010 (PC) Platform: PC, Xbox 360, PS3
RPVP: 19.99€
Size: ~9972 MB (PC)

Overview / Plot

In Darksiders, a relatively simple hack-n'-slash game, you take the role of the Horseman War, falsely accused of triggering the apocalypse. The premise is simple: to cut through hordes of demons and angels alike, solve puzzles, and while you're at it, get some cool power-ups. Darksiders has been heavily criticized over the years as a God of War / Zelda ripoff, and I'm willing to agree on some points there. But, then again, even if I do agree that the game took most of its elements from those two other merchandises, it's also true that the resultant mix can be looked at as something unique. And in a time where originality seems to be dying, it's good to see that some studios are willing to try new combinations with ingredients that we're already used to. If it works for food, it might work for videogames. After all, videogames are "brain food" (some more than others, of course). After being presented with a short cinematic explaining the plot behind the happenings in Darksiders in one minute or so, you can begin your button mashing. In the early phases of the game you are presented with some hints, telling you how to do stuff. Still, there's really nothing complicated here, so you'll soon feel at home. In fact, after playing through the game twice (in different difficulties) the aspect I find most difficult to understand about this game is still the plot itself. If you get distracted for 2 seconds on the opening cinematic or in any of the first parts of the game you will be left behind and in complete confusion of what is happening and why is it happening. The opening cinematic just compresses a lot of information, and it takes concentration to understand everything that's being told to you. This of course, if you don't just skip the whole thing just so you can start slashing away sooner.  The comic book included might help a bit, giving some background info on certain characters and explaining the reasons behind some of the game's events. In a somewhat generic way, it all comes down to a war between Heaven and Hell that has been dragging on for an eternity, without any victory for either side. Then arrives The Charred Council, whose purpose is to maintain balance between both sides. For this they use the Four Horsemen (War, Death, Strife and Fury) to enforce peace and kick either side's butt when necessary.

Only later do the humans come into the picture, and since these are "still weak, but cunning" according to the Council, a truce is formed between the kingdoms od Heaven and Hell. The plan is to have the decisive war (the Endwar) when all three kingdoms are ready (the new kingdom being called the Kingdom of Men). The go-sign for the war being the breaking of all of the Seven Seals. All remains peaceful, until demons start raining from the sky. The war rages and War, the Horseman is summoned, but of course, he soon realizes that something isn't right. His brothers are nowhere to be found and Abaddon, general of the Heaven's forces insists that War shouldn't be there, since the seven seals were never broken. Eventually, War gets to face Stragga, a powerful demon, and it would have been a pretty easy fight for the Horseman, were it not for the fact that he had broken the law, by waging war with the seals intact. For this reason, his powers are taken and he is defeated. Saved from death by the charred council, War is accused of causing the apocalypse and of siding with Hell's forces (kinda stupid since all you do up until this moment is kill demons). War defends himself, and asks to be taken back to earth so he can find whoever is responsible for this and punish him, thus clearing his own name. The council agrees, but not without linking War to The Watcher, an agent of the council that is to keep an eye on war and kill him should he stray from his path. This is where the game truly begins.

Opinion

Lets begin with gameplay. Combat mechanics are easy to get around, and this might be the reason many critics said the game is an excessive "press X to win" experience. While correct up to a point, I wont agree on it being boring or too easy. After playing other games of the same kind that contain an abusive amount of skills and button combinations you need to memorize to play decently, I felt Darksiders was more "light"in terms of what you need to learn and use. There's not that much variety in what it comes to tactics, certain enemies require you to hit and run to be able to defeat them and leave with your health intact (at least if you're playing in a higher difficulty) and bosses aren't too difficult. Additionally, if you don't rush headlong into them you can defeat them in your first try with little trial and error. This helps keeping the game's difficulty balanced. The Amount of weapons feels insufficient, even though with the experience needed to level up each one, it's unlikely you'll reach the end of the game with more than one maxed out. Weapon enhancements are very well hidden, and some require backtracking to find, once you obtain certain abilities. Thus, 100% completion is very hard without a guide. Graphical options, once again, are the ones we're used to in console ports: resolution and a v-sync switch. The graphics however, are pretty polished and the game runs smoothly on any decent computer. As for bugs, nothing to point out.

Cut-scenes though, are pre-rendered at a lower resolution and quality, so if you are playing in 1080p, you'll definitely notice that. It's quite annoying, since they could have just used the game engine to do that in real-time at whatever resolution the game was running at. Having cut-scenes with less quality than the game itself is annoying. As for longevity, the game is considerably long, and the dungeon maps can prove to be really confusing, should you need to backtrack in order to get hidden power-ups or valuables. Some achievements require an awful lot of grinding as well and the Dark Rider achievement is just ridiculous. I had to put some rubber bands on the controller's analog sticks and let the character go around in circles for several hours to get it. Some abilities, such as Stoneskin have an abusive cost, there's no way you're gonna rank up even one of them to its highest state if you don't grind souls for hours. Even after getting every single chest in the game and grinding for some achievements, I didn't manage to get any ability to maximum rank. Good thing there isn't an achievement for that.

Some Aspects

• Cinematics rendered in low quality;
• Difficulty is well balanced;
• Plot is confusing at first;
• No side-quests / Too Linear;
• Voice acting is good in general, but War's voice sounds forced;
• Interesting puzzles and good gameplay in general;
• Fair amount of weapons and skills.

With Darksiders II out now, I'm expected to see the first game getting some more sales within the next weeks.I haven't played the second one yet, but I can only hope that there is more to do than the main storyline. Because Darksiders tends to turn into a boring desert after you finish it and there simply is no reason to keep playing it. Nonetheless, it's a good and solid game, and a starting point for what could become a big franchise. Hopefully, we will see it getting out from underneath the skirt of its older brothers and developing into something unique, shutting up the naysayers.

Final Gameplay Stats:

Time Played:	55 Hours
Achievements Unlocked:	43 / 43 (100%)
Difficulty played the most:	Apocalyptic

Anomaly: Warzone Earth

Developer: 11 Bit Studios

Platform: Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Xbox360

Release Date: April 2011

RPVP: 9.99€ (Steam)

Size: ~ 430MB (PC)

Genre: RTS, Reverse-Tower Defense

Overview and Plot

The story starts in the near future when parts of an alien spaceship fall on earth (more specifically in Baghdad and Tokyo) and the so-called “Anomalies” appear around them. Your first mission as the 14th Squad is to investigate the first anomaly in Baghdad, see what’s causing interference with the communication systems and find gather information about why and what is happening inside the anomaly (which is where the first mission ends).

Gameplay

The gameplay is simple: you control a given set of units that must complete objectives, such as destroying target buildings or simply reaching a specific point in the map. Obviously your enemy will do everything to stop you from doing just that. You path will be riddled with various forms of enemy machinery, from small laser towers, energy charged towers, giant cannons and so on. During the first couple of missions you can’t buy any units, but as you progress (the first 2 or 3 missions are like a tutorial where game elements are gradually introduced and explained) you will be able to buy or sell units. Also, along the way, new units will become available for purchase, each one with a set value of armor and power, which dictates how much damage they can do or take. Each unit has its own strengths and weaknesses and to be able to progress in more difficult missions or higher difficulty modes you will have to do some micromanagement, since each unit is better suited to deal with a specific kind of enemy. There is also a shield unit that doesn’t do any damage but instead, protects the 2 units around it, one in front of it and the one in its back. This protection comes in the form of a second health bar that regenerates with time should your units stop taking damage for a while. Each unit can be upgraded three times, each upgrade increasing its armor and damage values by a set amount. Each upgrade costs more than the previous one and to get money you need to gather rare minerals found through the missions. You also get some money just for killing enemies. Upgrades need to be well managed, since you need to decide which unit should be upgraded for each situation, since the money is scarce, at least on Story Mode.
You can modify the path your units take based on available roads in the map, and in most situations you must choose wisely, whether it is to take less time to get to your objective or to minimize the amount of enemies you will have to face. Your character (the captain of the 14th Squad) is the character you control directly, moving him to any spot by clicking on the map. With his combat suit, he needs to be constantly used to help your units in their mission. The combat su8it has several abilities that are introduced one at a time over the first couple of missions, except the first one with is the Repair ability, which you already begin the game with. Each ability can only be used a very limited number of times and recharges aren’t abundant so you have to manage them well.

At the end of each mission you may be awarded medals for your performance. The three medals are for Directionability (usually attained by going through the fastest path), Ruthlessness (killing lots of enemies) and Efficiency (usually ending a mission with a certain number of ability charges left). Moreover, each medal has 3 different ranks (bronze, silver and gold obviously). There are a couple of different game modes besides the story mode like the Baghdad Mayhem or Tokyo Raid where you have to go through a large level without your captain (meaning you can’t use any abilities) or beating a set number of enemy waves in a regular map (each wave spawns after you kill the previous one and its harder to beat). These modes have some extra cash for you to be able to further upgrade your units.

Opinion

First off I’ll say that the way game mechanics are introduced is pretty good, not too fast, not to slow. Everything is pretty intuitive except certain effects that specific weapons have on your machines, for example, when energy-charged machined fire at your tanks, the shoot twice as fast, and how this must be used in  order to take advantage of certain situations. Casual difficulty is pretty balanced but Harcore revealed itself completely impossible for me from mission 11 onwards. The plot is very very simplistic, wich is good on one hand, theres not much information for players to absorb on that side. The extra modes are fun to play but pretty difficult and the Story mode could be longer. Just like almost every game in my account, I picked this one up on a sale and I liked it. If you don’t like strategy or tower defense games you probably should star away from it though, because if you don’t like the style of gameplay itself, other game elements like the story wont help much either. if you like this kind of game, go ahead. There’s achievements of course and a Leaderboard which tracks your total game score.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Good	The Bad
Simple, not too much information to absorb; Variety of vehicles and enemies; Interesting extra game modes.	Difficulty ramps up too quickly in story mode;  There’s not much story to it, but then again I didn’t really expect it to.

Conclusion

If you’re not a fan of this genre, I suggest you stay away. Otherwise, well, it’s a simple game that’s pretty fun, at least for a while. I recommend getting it while it’s on sale.

My Final Gameplay Stats

Time Played:	21 Hours
Achievements Unlocked:	20 / 43 (47%)
Difficulty played the most:	Casual / Hardcore

Screenshots taken at 1920x1080. Title image taken from Steam Grid view. I do not own it.

Audiosurf

Developer: Dylan Fitterer Platform: Windows, Zune HD Release Date: February, 2008 RPVP: 9.99€ (Steam) Size: ~ 375MB (PC) Genre: Rhythm, music, puzzle.

Overview

Created by Invisible Handlebar, a company composed created by Dylan Fitterer, Audiosurf is a mix of a rhythm and puzzle experience. After choosing a song offered by the game or imputing one of your own personal collection, the game analyzes it and creates a space track where in an F-Zero –like ship you struggle to collect (or evade) blocks.

Gameplay

Of course, there's a bit more to it. the shape, and orientation of the road depends on the rhythm of the music (on easier tracks the road will be something like a diagonal line pointing upwards. If the music has a faster rhythm, the opposite occurs. The traffic indicator serves as a difficulty indicator for most game modes, giving you an idea how how hard the track is (the highest the traffic, the more blocks you get). Also, the speed at which you navigate the very track depends on the speed of the music. If you use a calm, classic music for example, the speed will remain more or less constant. However if you use a song with lots of drumming, the speed will vary a lot (making it harder on several game modes) and the bumps in the road will be more frequent. There are several game modes, the most common being the Mono mode, where your objective is to simply clear the track getting as many colored blocks as possible while at the same time avoiding all the grey blocks. They will disappear a couple of seconds after each time you match 3 or more together, thus, giving you a little extra time to add a couple more to the combo. The more blocks matched, the more points you get. You also get a set of points for each block collected up to a maximum of 200 per block. however, if you get a grey one the score count will reset to 1, posteriorly increasing to 2 and to every other even number until it reached 200 again or until you get another grey block. you can clear the grey blocks from time to time using your score as your payment and you can get extra bonus points by fulfilling certain requirements, such as matching 11 blocks at once, dodging all grey blocks or finishing the song with your block storage empty. Your score will then determine which medals you will receive, if any (point requirements for each medal are shown before you start).there are other game modes such as the Pointman, the Eraser and even a two-player mode, where one player uses the keyboard and other the mouse to move his ship.

Different game modes include having to to grab match blocks of various different colors at the same time, while being careful not to overfill you block storage space. There are no grey blocks in these modes, but here certain colors are worth more points than others. Consequently, they are also less common. Some of these modes count with special tools to aid with your mission, such as the option to shuffle your blocks or “Paint” found during the track to change the color of all your blocks or even a simple block boost you can get that gives you some blocks of a specific color easily identifiable by looking at the item. There is also a Visualizer mode, in case you need a fancy Ambience for your parties (heh). There are also three categories for the game modes, each being more difficult than the previous one. Some game modes are exclusive to some categories. If you create an account and keep yourself logged in you can compare scores to your friends and receive emails in case they beat yours (some achievements involve doing just that).

Opinion

There’s not much to say here, basically it’s a good game to pass the time, and as long as you have new music, it has an infinite replay value. The only downsides are graphic-related but the game has low system requirements any normal computer nowadays can run it. I think it should include another game mode like the Mono mode but without grey blocks and more colored blocks. Here the challenge would simply be to get as many colored blocks as possible. Oh and by the way: I picked it up while it was on sale….for 1,36€.

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

The Good	The Bad	The Ugly
As long as you have music files, it has an infinite replay value; Various game modes; Achievements and e-mail notices.	Needs more visualization options, you cant change the resolution on window mode;  Full-screen imput lag, not good in this kind of game.	The Achievements are all pretty easy to get as long as you “cheat”. A couple more achievements wouldn’t hurt.

My Final Gameplay Stats

Time Played:	13 Hours
Achievements Unlocked:	19 / 19 (100%)
Game mode played the most:	Ninja Mono
Longest Music Played:	~15 mins

Screenshots taken at 1920x1080. Title image taken from Steam grid view. I do not own it etc.

Alice: Madness Returns

Developer: Spicy Horse
Publisher: EA
Platform: PC, PS3, Xbox360
Release Date: 16, June 2011
RPVP: 49.99€ (Steam)
Size: ~ 7.9 GB (PC)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Platform, Hack-n'-Slash

Overview

Alice: Madness Returns continues the story of the PC game American McGee’s Alice out in 2000. Like its predecessor, it was developed by the Chinese studio Spicy Horse. The PS3 and Xbox360 Versions of the game include a code you can use to download a console port of American McGee’s Alice, but even without the code, console players can purchase the game using Microsoft Points on XBL or with regular cash on PSN.

Plot

Madness Returns goes back to Alice Liddell, who lost her sanity after surviving the fire that destroyed her home and killed her whole family. Years later, she is released from Rutledge Asylum and began living in London, where along with Dr.
Bumby, she attempts to forget her traumatic memories of the death of her family in hopes of getting rid of her mad nightmares. Unfortunately, Alice’s subconscious ends up puling her back to Wonderland. Upon arriving, though, Alice soon discovers that this Wonderland is infected with destruction and it’s being ravaged by an infernal gigantic train of origins unknown. Thus, Alice begins her quest to find out about who runs the train and what purpose does it serve, regaining lost memories along the way. Memories of her past and her family and the fire that took place years before, in an attempt to regain her sanity and save Wonderland from destruction. While there, she is always accompanied by the cynical Cheshire Cat, who watches over her, providing advice, often in the form of more or less philosophical sentences.

Gameplay

Like its predecessor, this game consists mainly in progressing trough the ever-changing Wonderland, by platforming, solving puzzles and killing enemies along the way. There is a good variety of enemies, with many being exclusive to each chapter of the game. From dark slime enemies with a doll face to giant slime enemies with several faces, ghosts, samurai, maniac baby dolls, walking piranhas and of course card guards, there sure is a lot of stuff to kill. For this you have the aid of five different weapons, acquired throughout the game. These are: The Vorpal Blade, a runed dagger used to strike repetitively in rapid succession, the Pepper Grinder that can be used as a rifle using pepper for ammunition, the Hobby Horse, a bigger, slower weapon that works pretty much like a two-handed mace and that can be used to break certain walls or breaking through enemy defenses and shields, the Teapot Canon, that you can use to shoot balls of boiling tea to kill enemies at range and the Clockwork Bomb, a funny looking bomb resembling the always late Rabbit from the original story that you can detonate from afar. This last one is often used to apply weight on buttons so you can progress through the game.

Each weapon can be upgraded three times (with the exception of the Clockwork Bomb), each upgrade increasing the speed and/or damage and changing the way the weapon looks (the dagger gets a shine to it, the hobby horse gets a unicorn horn, etc.). This can be done by collecting “Hollow Ivory” (teeth) scattered everywhere in the game. Each enemy throughout the game has weak spots, and even though increasing the difficulty makes them sturdier and stronger, once you figure out the right way to kill each one of them it makes little difference, except when facing larger groups of enemies, which requires just a bit more of attention and reflexes. Your health bar is represented by a string of roses, each one divided into 4 parts. If you die in combat you are often taken a bit back in the game, to the last save point. However, if you die by platforming (falling, hitting spikes, etc) you will be taken to the last platform you were standing in. When close to death you can activate Hysteria Mode, making Alice invulnerable and increasing her damage for a while. This also makes everything go black and white (and blood-red) for the duration.



You can also increase the number of roses by completing the “Radula Rooms”, hidden bonus levels that may contain challenges such as, surviving in a sea of enemies for a set amount of time, killing a group of enemies or just answering a riddle from the Cheshire Cat. There are also some occasions in the game where you will be presented with some kind of mini-game, which is good to keep things interesting, as the game is considerably long and may get tiring or repetitive if you play it for a while. In addition, each chapter of the game has its designated dress for Alice to use, and upon completing the game you may then choose which dress you want Alice to be in, regardless of the chapter. Each dress adds a bonus effect to Alice, like getting more teeth from enemies, more roses or getting health regeneration abilities. Along the way, there will be tons of collectibles to gather, in case you want to completely unlock the character list, which contains some data about each character in the game, some text telling you more about Alice’s history, and all the cut-scenes. As you get closer to the end of the game, Alice will find out the truth about her past and will begin to comprehend what the train represents. The last chapter will happen inside the very own train where the final battle will happen.

Alice, being “part frog”, as described by her little sister, has a great jumping ability which is aided by the fact that she can use her dress to glide and double, triple and quadruple jump, allowing her to travel considerable distances without touching the ground. She can also shrink from a certain point up in the game, which must be done either to just progress trough the game, to collect hidden items or to activate the Shrink Vision, revealing invisible platforms and marks on the wall, that may act as a guide, telling you which direction to follow or as a clue, indicating hidden collectibles that may be close by.

Opinion

Well, first off, I should say that one of the first things I had to do after trying this game for the first time was to find out why my framerate was locked at 30. Turns out, the graphical engine is limited to 30 fps since that’s how the consoles run it. That’s all fine but why the heck would you limit it on the PC version? So, I went looking for the responsible file andchange the fps cap to 60. The graphics are pretty good and fluid when you do this, and the ambience of the game, at least the initial ambience is beautiful. Everything is so shiny and colorful, the artists and designers did an excellent job on that part.

 However, pretty as it might seem, this is definitely not a game for children. Unlike the animated movie, here we have a cruel reality where Alice’s condition gets pretty serious at some point in time, getting her sent to an asylum where gruesome things are done to her, the “treatment” so to speak (as you see later in the game). There is a considerable maturity level to this game, there’s swearing, dark secrets and dark and twisted zones that can frighten you a bit. There is even child molesting in the story.


The game is actually pretty big, I didn’t expect it to take me so long to finish being a relatively simple platforming game. The first playthrough on Hard difficulty took me 14 hours, plus I din an extra play-through on Nightmare difficulty to get all of the collectibles. In fact, although I really liked the game when I started playing it, about 8 hours in it began to feel a little repetitive. Not that much though, as the chapters changed, and so changed the scenery and the characters (most of them at least). There are various mini games along the way that help getting a bit of variety in the game (some are pretty fun). Also, as you advance trough the game, the story continues to develop, and you start to find out what really happened in Alice’s past that created such an internal conflict (initially, Alice is convinced that she somehow started the fired that killed her family, even though she can't remember it clearly) and you feel increasingly curious and eager to find out what really happened, keeping you glued to your controller (or keyboard). Speaking of keyboard, this is where the greatest flaw of the game resides. Even though it's a kind of console port, aside from the 30 fps lock detail (which can by easily dealt with) I saw no graphical issues at all, as expected of Unreal Engine 3 I guess. What I DID see was a disastrous keyboard support. The boat mini-game can become unplayable with the keyboard as the assigned keys for firing the canon or dropping mines may or may not work (re-assigning keys apparently only makes it worse, eliminating what little functionality you might have) and after about 10 hours in I was forced to change to a controller as an action key needed to progress wouldn’t work at all. I don’t really mind using a controller, in fact I have an Xbox360 controller for windows and I love it, but to play in Hard difficulty in a way you’re not used to at all (keyboard to controller) makes it a lot harder for you to progress, as you’re not used to the new key settings. As such, if you are going to play it on PC, I recommend using a gamepad from the start.

 As for the characters, they are bizarre to say the least, the Hatter seems to care with nothing but having tea, and that’s not everything. One of the first major objectives is to retrieve his arms and legs, stolen by the Dormouse and the March Hare to use as additional work force in their factories. Them too, seem completely fixed on getting stuff done (whatever it is), maniacal about their work. The Cheshire Cat is somewhat creepy with his skeletal appearance and mischievous aura, although maybe due to his soothing voice or apparent wisdom, is the kind of character I’d like to keep close.All the characters in the game are somehow weird and funny at the same time, some more than others, as you will find out if you ever play it. As an additional curiosity, the voice actor is the same one that did the voice for Mojo Jojo (The Powerpuff Girls) and The Eye of Sauron (Lord of the Rings).

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

The Good	The Bad
Four different levels of difficulty, none of them unreasonably hard (I actually finished the game on nightmare!); Engaging story, keeps you glued to the game; Mature setting, it’s a darker game than what you might think.	Bad keyboard support; On the PC version the game engine is stupidly capped at 30fps. Even if this is fixable….what the heck, it’s Unreal Engine 3 we’re talking about;

Conclusion

Just like Alice Liddel, one experiences a variety of emotions throughout the game, either by the bizarre errands the main character has to do or the strange events Alice uncovers little by little, in the real world, as she finally solves the mystery of her past, the death of her family but also the trauma she suffered which might have been the reason of Wonderland's existence. A strange, yet captivating game. I picked it up for a bit over 10€ in Steam's Christmas sale and I didn’t regret it.

My Final Gameplay Stats

Time Played:	37 Hours
Achievements Unlocked:	Not available in the PC version.
Difficulty played the most:	Nightmare
Overall Game Progress:	100%

Aliens vs Predator

Developer: Rebellion Developments Publisher: Sega Platform: PC, PS3, Xbox360 Release Date: 19, February 2010 RPVP: 19.99€ Size: 15412 MB (PC) Genre: FPS

Overview

Aliens vs Predator is yet another game from this franchise, released in 2010 for Xbox360,  and PS3. At first glance is seems like a generic first-person shooter where you have to fight your way through a strange world infested with these things. But there’s actually a lot more to it, as you might discover in this review.

Plot

There are 3 campaigns in the game, one for each species. They are all related since they all happen mostly in the same areas and within a short time span. What follows is a small description of how each campaign begins, now giving out too much information as to how it develops further on (no spoilers!).

Marine

The marine campaign starts with a cinematic showing the inside of the spaceship where you and your squad are. When getting close to the planet where you are supposed to drop, a large predator ship appears out of nowhere shooting down another ship similar to yours, containing another squad, forcing your ship to land. You are knocked out by an object flying inside the falling ship, and wake up later, alone, after the rest of your squad is already gone forward. Here, you are contacted by Corporal Aquila T. (referred to as “Tequila”) who guides you trough deserted human bases (well, not deserted, as you eventually find out) so you can help her getting the power back on and getting communication systems back online, to later search for the rest of your squad. Eventually you find your captain after he is captured by Xenomorphs, but its already too late, since he has already been planted with an alien inside him. He talks to you and instructs you to kill him before the abomination is born. After that, you continue by yourself trough the wrecked bases, hoping to get a ride home. I wont spoil any more than this.

Alien

As an alien you see a cinematic showing a laboratory where infected people are kept, so the newborns are extracted and taken for experiments. As one of those newborns, you are kept alive since Karl Weyland Bishop, the head of the investigation thinks there might be something special about you. After a time skip, you see yourself fully grown restricted in a laboratory. A man appears, to experiment with you, asking you to perform some simple tasks (this is the tutorial where you learn how to control your character and how to make use of its abilities). Eventually you hear the call of the brood mother and attempt to escape without success. After a while there is a failure in the electric system in the entire lab, allowing you to escape. You then proceed to complete the tasks you are assigned by the brood mother, mainly killing marines and disabling their systems. The story goes on from here.

Predator

The predator campaign is rather simple, basically a ship of predators lands on this same planet where they drop several younglings, fresh out of their training ritual so they can hunt Serpents (the name they use for the Xenomorphs) and get into the great pyramid, where their ancestors fought long ago. The objective is to destroy the pyramid which has been trespassed by the humans, staining the Predators’ pride. The Game begins in the jungle, where one of your first objectives is to find a deceased young-blood and eliminate his body, so that humans don’t get hold of your race’s technology. Later you get to infiltrate the Weyland laboratories and marine bases, to disable their systems and recover certain artifacts taken by the humans. This is most likely the easiest of the three campaigns, due to the great physical abilities of this race.

Game Modes and Difficulty

In the single player mode, as said above, we have the three campaigns, Marine, Alien and Predator. I’ve played in a couple different difficulties in all of them. On Easy, everything is really easy to do, it goes as far as being able of go away for two minutes while being attacked and coming back to find you are still alive. In the Marine campaign you have a health bar composed by three blocks, who gets shortened when you take damage. If you can avoid losing an entire block and manage to stay out of harms way for a while, it will regenerate by itself. If you lose it completely, it’s gone. You can collect “Health Stims” that you can use to refill you health bar, but you can only carry three at a time. As a marine, alien blood is dangerous for you (it’s acid) so if you step on an alien corpse after you kill one of them you will lose Health. This isn’t a problem in easy difficulty, since you can barely see you health bar moving when this happens, but in Hard or Nightmare difficulty, if you accidentally walk over a corpse, you will lose most of your health bar. The weapons available  are all pretty cool, you have a machine gun with pretty big magazine, a shotgun with pretty good burst, a sniper that can kill aliens in one shot and a flamethrower that……throws flames. Aliens get increasingly hard to kill as you increase the difficulty, added to the fact that they are thin and move fast and in a random-like manner. The levels don’t seem to have an increasing difficulty with that boss right on the second mission, so you constantly need to be on your toes. The Alien campaign gives you a pretty simple tutorial right off the bat, which is cleverly blended into the plot. As an alien you can move pretty fast and even more so by sprinting. You have an indicator on the middle of your screen which always points to the ground (useful when you’re on the ceiling or walls) and that changes color depending on whether you’re hidden or in plain sight. You can execute a light attack or heavy attack and you can use you mouse wheel to get on walls or onto the ceiling. This is very confusing at first, as you constantly see the whole world spinning around you but once you get used to it, it becomes fun to maneuver. You can harvest civilians by sneaking up on them and grabbing them until a Facehugger comes and ….well.. hugs his face!

The predator campaign, probably the easiest of the three also has a tutorial at the beginning where you learn to use your basic strikes and your secondary weapon. This continues trough the first level, showing you how to use your cloak to become nearly invisible and you powerful jump that allows you to jump to seemingly unreachable places. This will be the skill you will be using the most to progress trough the levels. As a predator you have great physical skills, and can kill Xenomorphs with your melee weapons and execute finishing moves on weakened ones. You will also receive new more powerful weapons trough the campaign, some capable of one-shoting powerful enemies. Logically there are also a couple of boss fights.
In the multiplayer side of things, we have four different modes: Deathmach, where like the name says, the objective is simply to  get the most kills, supporting up to 18 players of all three species; Infestation, where a group of marines goes up against a single player controlled alien, where the objective is for the alien to kill each marine until there is only one left alive. Of course the marines who are killed turn into aliens too! Then there's Predator Hunt where a group of predators hunt a single alien with a short time limit where the objective is to get the most kills and the Survivor mode, which can be played by yourself or with friends where you stand in a relatively small area and attempt to survive as long as you can while waves of enemies keep coming, increasingly harder in intelligence and number.

Opinion

I'm not going to judge the graphics, I’ll leave that for each of the readers to do. For this I’ll provide some screenshots. Ok, so first off, there are a couple of aspects in which the difficulty level gets somewhat awkward. Aliens seem to take an excessive amount of bullets to die even on easy, and getting headshots on those sneaky guys mostly depends on luck. The ambience is very good, mostly dark and claustrophobic, but also with lots of open areas where you can see very detailed vegetation and nature elements, which is good. Tesselation works pretty well with this, enhancing several small details that make everything look more plausible. The radar on the marine campaign doesn’t seem to work all that well, many times indicating enemies that aren't there or that you cant\wont be able to see any time soon. On the other hand it’s a pretty good way to give good scares in most situations and to keep you on your toes. Same goes with the background music which sometimes gets faster or more tense suddenly, and tricks you to think you are about to be attacked. There also seems to be some problems with the alien AI, since sometimes you see them moving erratically over a small surface instead of coming for you as if they were stuck. This makes them even harder to hit, especially the smaller ones (the Facehuggers) that jump in your face and automatically kill you if you are low on health. There's also a couple of annoying bugs, such as falling trough the floor in certain missions, forcing you to reinstall the game hoping it gets fixed (this wouldn’t be that much of a problem if the game weren't over 15Gb) or getting certain sounds stuck and looping for the rest of the mission (most commonly being a small tap or click-like sound). The difficulties seem to be balanced, except Nightmare which removes checkpoints, making it extremely frustrating trying to execute a one-hour mission perfectly only to accidentally step on an alien corpse and dying. Well, no one told you you had to try Nightmare difficulty anyway. I did it on hard and it was pretty challenging already. and I died plenty of times in certain parts of the campaigns. The game has a decent longevity and with 3 different campaigns you have a lot of variety.

The good, the bad and the ugly

The Good	The Bad	The Ugly
Three different campaigns with interlaced plot. Play as either of the species; Doesn’t take long to load, even with everything maxed out; Fun multiplayer modes; Unlockable audio diaries that reveal more details of the story.	A couple of annoying bugs here and there; In certain sections, unless you have a specific weapon to do the job, its nearly impossible;	Strange alien AI, too much senseless movement.

Conclusion

Well, what can I say…if you’re not a fan of the franchise, you'll most likely like this game. If you ARE a fan, you’ll love it. It’s a pretty well done game, lots of different stuff to do, good longevity and unlockables and achievements that give you an excuse to play it again. I picked it up during a steam sale for 4.99€ and I didn’t regret it. And I'm not really a fan of the whole franchise. Perfect for when you just feel like blowing some alien heads off. The Ambience is great and the game is pretty solid.
The game can be found here:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/10680/ 

My final gameplay stats

Time Played:	28 Hours
Achievements Unlocked:	37 / 50 (74%)
Campaign Played the most:	Marine
Difficulty played the most:	Hard
Campaign Completion:	100%