Batman Reviewed!

The game that much like the film has returned Batman’s title of the dark knight, the much feared vigilante that prowls the night hunting the criminals of Gotham city. This game delivers a true to character portrait of Batman including the bat mobile, gadgets, a gliding cape and of course kick ass martial arts.

The game begins with Batman racing his way through the streets of Gotham before reaching the High security psychiatric prison known as Arkham Asylum. shortly after you arrive control is given to you and you make your way through the asylum. It’s not long before Joker makes his move and breaks free from the guards taking him into the depths of the asylum, aided by his lovely assistant Harley. The story progresses steadily from here and I have to say I really enjoyed the game,  the combat system is described as innovative on the box but to be honest it seems to be a run of the mill combat system. It has your strike, stun and counter attack all with their own unchallenging method of pulling off your finishing moves. Beating down a variety of bad guys can be entertaining and as your gadgetry grows with your upgrades, you can also purchase new finishing moves adding to the combat experience. This helps to prevent the game from becoming too repetitive and as you make your way through the asylum the thugs get new weapons and attack methods keeping you on your toes. alone nobody is really a challenge but in groups you can find yourself mashing buttons trying to strike, counter and throw your baterangs all at once.

On the other hand you also get a predator style approach to taking out your enemies where you’ll need to remain hidden and stay silent as you try to take out an entire room. This is much more fun than it sounds as each time you take out a guard then return to hiding you can hear them running around in the darkness terrified they’ll be next. All the while you watch from the darkness or high in the roof.  The predator mode of picking off your enemies has a whole variety of gadgets to itself as well as a selection of silent and dramatic takedowns such as the smashing through a roof method and of course the infamous glide kick. The detective mode activates Batman’s high tech vision which allows you to see enemies through walls and points of interest around the room such as collapsible walls and places to hide giving you the extra advantage.

The game was a lot more in-depth than I had thought it would be as well as having the main storyline of Arkham asylum Edward Nigma aka the riddler contacts you and presents you a challenge. The challenge is one of those annoying find and seek type challenges that also requires the solving of riddles in each new location you enter. The good thing about this however is that you can find out more about Batman than just running through the asylum on the main story. This gives a pretty detailed look at most of Batman’s enemies that are deepened with the discoveries of interview tapes from the asylum, some of which being pretty disturbing themselves and as if that wasn’t enough there is a big mystery to be uncovered in the asylum.

The game is perfect for hardcore comic book fans and any casual gamer looking for a good interesting game to play. The creators managed to achieve a beautiful mix of both comic book story telling and cinematic look to the game. The graphics are ore than a little impressive and the design of the asylum is perfectly dark and sometimes twisted to really help reflect the inmates that inhabit it. Arkham is a pretty big facility and you’ll definitely visit the same locations more than once, especially if you’re out for the riddlers riddles. Some may see this as a bad thing some may see it as a good I personally thought it was a good touch by the creators as each time you return somewhere you can find it more enthralled in the madness of the joker and the other psycho’s he let loose changing it more each time you see it, so enjoy the view while it lasts.

Arkham is choc a block of crazies and bad guys waiting for some Batman branded punishment and it’s more than enjoyable to deal it out. The gadgets and toys Batman uses also make it more interesting to travel as you’re walking one minute grappling the next and finishing with a glide to the floor. The storyline is interesting enough to keep you wanting to play through the game and with a dose of scarecrows fear gas the game takes a few interesting looks into the mind of Bruce Wayne. The game play is smooth and easy to enjoy. The controls are simple enough and it doesn’t take long to master the finer points of Batman’s combat techniques. All in all just playing through Batman shouldn’t be too hard to get a grip of so if it’s a challenging game you’re looking for it falls down a little there. The game boasts a host of interesting bosses to fight all of whom old enemies of the Batman himself.

All in all Arkham Asylum is an amazing game that has something to give any gamer hardcore or otherwise. The time spent on the game is obvious in every aspect whether it be design, game play or graphics. If you take the time to do the riddler challenges this only heightens the games enjoyment by helping you feel more like the detective that Batman is known as instead of just the vigilante. Not to mention with each puzzle solved you unlock another character bio or interesting fact about the Batman comics helping you to appreciate the character a little more. The way all these aspects of his past are put into the game also makes it enjoyable to seek them out. The only real disadvantages of the game is that it can get a little repetitive as each progression is usually you finding someone or tracking them down which isn’t as exciting as it sounds. also at the end of the game you get free run of the asylum but without anyone to fight or any puzzles to solve it begs the question what exactly is the point?

The challenge modes feature just combat or predator based challenges to achieve points to be compared on the world leader boards. These challenges usually come with specific goals which can help to make playing them more fun but they would probably get boring after a couple of plays. All in all I give the game an impressive 9 out of 10 and if you really spend the time  to enjoy the game I know you would agree. So get out there and put on your cape it’s time to fulfil your childhood dreams in the most true to character game yet.

ufc 2009 review!

UFC was a game I had worried about for a while, I wasn’t sure if it would live up to the hype but after trying out the demo a couple of times I decided it was time to play. UFC offers players the chance to start a career with their own custom made fighter, exhibition fights to play a head on head match with another established UFC fighter.

The game UFC is a pretty intense game that keeps the player on their toes, the one time you miss a block or fail to get out the way of a move is the time you get Ko’d from a superman punch to the face. The graphics are pretty impressive and the animation between the fighters and the moves they pull off is at times almost seamless it could be an actual UFC fight as far as anyone’s concerned.

The controls are pretty basic and easy to pick up as you go, the tutorial also helps you pick up the things you need to know so it’s best to start there. Just like the UFC the game features both striking poses like boxing and kickboxing as well as wrestling moves. The great thing about it is there’s a way to counter most attacks so your opponents attempt at tackling you can end with them on the matt being pummeled by you.For those bloodthirsty or punishment driven players the game really lets you deal out some serious damage and see the results.  As your fighters play through the rounds you can see them getting physically tired as their stamina begins to thin out or if your opponent likes kicking you legs you’ll start limping. The face is by far the worst place to get smacked around though as your cheeks, nose, mouth and even your eyes will bust open and make you look like you just got hit by a train. This all adds to your advantage though as this allows the player to work strategy into their game instead of just button mashing pain. It’s easy enough to knock around someone’s legs until they start limping then you can dive in with some hard hitting punches or kicks because they can’t get out the way.

The ground work also lets players work strategy because if your opponent doesn’t have very good ground attack or defence then being on the matt is the last place they want to be and speaking from experience sitting by desperately hitting buttons to get up is depressing as you see you opponent use your face as a stress ball. The wrestling moves differ from boxing though as you need to use the analog sticks more for transitions and submissions but it pays off if you can get them down.

Now there’s no health bar or stamina bar here so it really keeps you on your toes as you’ve no idea when that knockout is coming. Some people see that as a negative but I think it’s a plus because UFC makes you feel more excited and cautious by each fight as you’re constantly unsure what’s coming next and whether or not you could take the hit.

The game also has this slow motion effect for whenever you’ve dealt a serious amount of damage to a player, specifically to what place you’ve dealt it. This is good for two reasons it shows the fighters weak spot and means he’s probably close to a KO.

The game is pretty good in exhibition for all these reasons but it’s when you start playing career some cracks begin to show. Unfortunately you can’t change your weight class after you begin a career so make sure you pick a weight class you really like, or you can just create fighters for all classes it’s your choice. Before you can begin you need to create your character, the custom choices are pretty varied so if you have an idea the kind of fighter you want chances are you’ll be able to make a carbon copy in the game.

Your choice aren’t just looks you need to choose attributes and fighting styles as well as what technique. A cool little thing to notice is each fighter has different stances for their chosen style so it gives that different look to each player. You begin your career with some small fights against some unknowns and you get to train up each of your stats through simple speed, strength, cardio or sparring training. This is where the problems started to show up, because when you go to a training camp in order to improve your levels of striking/ground work you need to perform moves in order to get the points. Now I tried doing this a lot and more than once the game refused to acknowledge the hits meaning I walked away with 20 points when I had done enough to earn 50.

One of the other things that bugged me about the game was the time spent training didn’t always leave me with a satisfied time spent fighting. Sometimes you can end the fight in the first round and the 10-15 minutes spent in training feels wasted on the 2 minutes in the ring. Unless you like dominating your opponent with no real competition because if that’s the case chalk this up on the advantage board.

As you progress through your career your fights become more important and you start fighting against actual UFC fighters earning sponsors and raising through the rank heading for that title. As you continue through training and keep fighting your training becomes more noticeable as your fighter doesn’t get tired so quickly or you can notice him hard hitting or getting even faster, it’s impressive to see your fighter get better with each match. All in all UFC is a great game requiring you to stay on your toes and keep an eye on your opponents attacks because throwing up your defence and waiting for him to get tired just isn’t going to work. UFC is one of the best fighting games I’ve played because of the actual ability to implement strategy into your fights and seeing the damage you inflict before you go in for the KO.

If you’re looking for an exciting and fun fighting game then UFC is the one for you and I’m more than happy to give the game a knockout 8/10.