Prototype starts out with a preview of what to expect as the game ends which is a pretty freakin’ awesome way to start a game since you get a taste of what powers you’ll be wielding. You are Alex Mercer, you wake up in a morgue with strange new abilities like shapeshifting and running on the side of buildings. This is after a viral outbreak that starts to change Manhattan’s population.

Your final goal is to find out what happened to you no matter what happens and whoever you have to kill incidentally. You do this by killing (as said) and absorbing people who hold relevant information regarding the situation in Manhattan.

Prototype doesnt look extra impressive per se. Textures are not that detailed, polygon count is a bit on the medium to low side. However, if taken all together, makes for a fast paced awesome looking game. The visual details perhaps were a bit toned down (not significantly) to make room for all the crazy things that happen as you play the game (example: running on the side of a building then jumping to catch a helicopter as explosions surround you).

The game sounds amazing. In a crazy firefight with the military and the infected (people who move like zombies – well they’ve become zombies) explosions, shell impacts, zombies growling and people screaming for their lives give you  an adrenaline rush. What really sets you over the edge is when you can still hear radio chatter from soldiers trying to call for a strike team back up.

The gameplay of Prototype is what really hooked us. It is simply exhilirating. You can go stealth by consuming people and transforming into them. Or, you can just wreak havoc around the city bringing buildings down and killing thousands.

The game is set in an open world where you can frolic in your superhero boots doing side mission and main missions. Side missions range from killing as many enemies as possible given a certain amount of time to racing in rooftops. The main missions follow the story of Alex Mercer . Both types of missions offer experience points that you will need to learn new abilities.

These abilities make for one crazy game. You can throw cars, lift tanks, hijack just about any vehicle (maliban sa mga taxi at kotse ng mga civilian, dapat military). You can also glide, run like the wind and turn your viral infected body into blades, whips, boxing gloves that will shame Manny Pacquiao.The only problem is there are soooooooooo many abilities and moves you simply cannot remember how to activate them all immediately, after long hours of gameplay though, you get used to them.

You also need to balance out the control of the city between the Military (who are quite abusive), and the infected (lahat nalang kinakain nila at pinapatay). So you destroy military bases and infected hives to do this. All the while, you will need to consume people and follow the story. You will never run out of things to do.

After you finish the game, you are allowed to keep playing and finish all the side missions, save the populace, destroy military equipment and turn Manhattan into your super heroic stomping ground. You are given rewards once you finish the missions so there is plenty of replay value.

If you are  a fan of GTA type open world games, if you like wreaking havoc in densely populated areas or if you simply are looking for a really good game to pretend you’re a superhero in, this is it.

Pinoy Gaming Rate

Wanted: Weapons of Fate is loosely based on the movie expanding to its universe. You are the previously weak now super soldier bullet bending dude. You go by the Weapons of Fate (WoF) universe looking for clues to who killed your dear old mommy. What results however is a series of revelations and shocks, right after the guns and explosions of course.

The story is told with ingame cutscenes that so very much look like they got ported from the console versions. Well, it IS a console port but they could have beefed it up a bit for the PC crowd. No surprise there. Graphically speaking, Wanted is not very impressive. Anti-aliasing is enabled ingame but it doesn’t do much to help the bad textures and even worse special effects.

There are several events in the game that you come up to an enemy and have to stab him in the throat. The satisfaction of that kill is ruined because blood splatters on the monitor ALL THE FREAKIN’ TIME and it does so with the same predefined pattern that obscures the kill. When you are hit, the screen turns bloody red then blood splatters then the screen goes black and white. Too much!

The game sounds are satisfying none the less but could use a little more umphf. Too bad there are only a few weapons in game that you can use, two types of handguns and a sniper rifle. Had the developers added a few more guns for the player to experiment with, this would have been a totally different game.

As for the gameplay, its not totally bad to our surprise. The cover system is done pretty well in conjunction with the bullet time features and the bullet curving features. I love curving the bullet on this game, especially when the enemy hides behind several pieces of cover from yards away then BAM! Bullet curves to his position and hits him square in the nose. You can only curve bullets if you get enough adrenaline though, thankfuly adrenalin is easy to get, you just have to kill an opponent normally and it recharges.

The controls are fairly easy to pick up as well, however we have some complaints. To cancel out of the bullet curving aim procedure, you need to let go of one button at a time, if you let go of 2 buttons, the gun fires completely missing your target. A minor annoyance, but won’t ruin the experience.

Wanted: Weapons of Fate is a game made for fans of the movie (it would have garnered more players if Angelina was involved). There is little to no replay value except to play the game again with another difficulty, discover hidden codes to unlock “gameplay enhancers” and additional characters to play as.

Overall, its a good game for gunfight fans akin to those who follow Gears of War cover system. But for anything else, it’s a good rental.

Pinoy Gaming Rate

Rockstar is at it again. Here in Pinoygaming, you read from us statements regarding immersion in games and Rockstar has created, for us, one of the most immersive games in recent memory. They have built an entire city, from the tallest skyscrapers, to buildings with interiors and even down to the last alley complete with trash bins and empty boxes and bottles and bums sleeping in trash.

Grand Theft Auto IV – PC Edition brings in more than just a port from the console versions. It offers enhanced graphics (depende sa PC mo pre, wag ka na mangarap pag tatay ng abacus PC mo), more detailed textures, more cars to choose from, missions not present in the consoles and much much more.

We do have a few problems with the graphic tweaking options though. You are only limited by the memory of your video card. On our test PC with a 9600GT, we only got up to 1GB of graphic enhancements and on the GTX 260 we got 1768Mb. For PCs, being limited to a certain memory requirement is reducing the PC into a console. This totally defeats the purpose of enhancements on the PC. Second, there is no AA control (ang AA kapatid ay Anti-Aliasing – ito yung nagpapa “smooth” ng mga blocks of pixels para yung curve sa kotse sa GTA mukhang curve, hindi mukhang karton na pinagpapatong patong). Anti-Aliasing is an essential element in graphic enhancement and not being able to control it in a PC game goes to show that Grand Theft Auto IV has a bit of “Console-it is” (Sakit ng mga games na galing sa console).

Now onto brighter things, despite these short comings, GTA IV in its scale is pretty frakin’ impressive. The visuals still run smoothly despite everything that needs to be rendered by your video card. This in itself is a testament to Rockstar’s technical genius.

Liberty City – the town you live in ingame, is a bustling, thriving, perennially moving metropolitan. The sounds the town produces add to the total immersion. The sirens of police cars and ambulances, the roar of jet engines as planes pass by, the squawking of people on their cell phones and the tunes played over the radios of cars you steal make you feel you are part of the city.

The sound immersion doesn’t stop there. We would not have believed it if we didn’t hear it with our own ears. Gunfire sounds like gunfire. Glass shattering as you fire a few rounds from a combat pistol makes you cringe. This game is not without its auditory magnificence.

On to the gameplay! You are Niko Bellic. You are an eastern European who came into the country searching for a few people and trying to make a new life for himself. As you might have guessed, things don’t turn out too good as you get involved with the mafia, the Albanian organized crime ring, the Korean and Chinese triads, the US government and heck even a few dirty cops. The storyline will have you cheat, kill, steal and sometimes watch strippers and sleep with prostitutes (ito isa sa mga dahilan kung bakit hindi ito pangbata). The story is told directly through play as well as game engine rendered video sequences. Speaking of which, the voice acting in this game is superb! The characters are over the top and quirky but very relatable.

Controls are pretty much the same as old GTA games. Aiming and taking cover have taken new leaps though. Gun play is much more satisfying in this new instalment. We do have one complaint . Cars are too sensitive to inertia. They simply won’t stop if you want them to. You lose control of them more often than you breathe air. You do get used to it over time but driving a car without hitting a single pedestrian shouldn’t be this hard. If you think driving a car is hard, the game will later on ask you to fly a chopper! (pinagpapawisan ako kasi ayaw ko magasgasan yung helicopter pero kailangan ko i-land sa makitid na lugar).

Our favourite game feature will have to be making friends. You can make friends with the people you interact with on a more regular basis. You can take them out to dinner, play darts, bowling, pool, go on boat rides and chopper rides and even watch comedy shows and strippers do their ‘thang’. Once your friendship level gets to a certain percentage, they give you some perks. One sells you weapons on discount prices. Another dude, brings a helicopter for your transportation needs. And we also have someone who sends in guys to help you out in sticky situations, as one affiliate of Pinoygaming refers to as “BLACK UP” (back up na African American).

The gameplay is deep and is loaded with extra features and missions. This will keep you coming back to the game just to unlock everything. The main story is a good 3 day romp in a virtual world if you play it straight. However, if you want to unlock every single little thing, prepare to devote a lot of time into this game. You will have to find hidden birds you have to kill to get achievements, jump from 50 or so custom platforms, find hidden weapons, find custom built cars, meet interesting people and more often than not, kill or steal from them.

This is the tip of the iceberg since GTA IV offers Multiplayer as well. You and your friends can compete with or help each other out in gunbattles all over the city; this alone promises unlimited fun in the form of unadulterated mayhem.

Replay value does not end there. You can log onto Microsoft Live and Rockstar Social Club where you can interact with other GTA IV players. In MS Live, you can get gamer points that you can use to purchase other stuff from Microsoft. When you’re logged into the Rockstar Social Club, you will be able to upload videos you’ve captured ingame and share it with players from all over the world. Replay value is through the roof.

If you want a good value game, this is it. If you want immersion, this is it. If you want action, this is it. If you want drama, this is it. Rockstar again has given us a masterpiece.

Pinoy Gaming Rate

Ninja Town is a game to be played with an open mind. It involves strategy, quick thinking and a lot of patience. The game’s concept is unique in a sense. You need to build huts that contain unique types of ninjas to protect either an artifact or an entrance to another area. Strategy is involved since you have lots of choices in the game for instance, what to put in a particular area a building – that adds damage to ninja hits, or an actually ninja hut. Even then the decisions don’t end, what type of ninja hut will you put there? And to make matters worse, there are flying enemies, tough enemies, fast enemies and even enemies that have “skillz”. So you better know what to put where.

The game is played like a real time strategy game that only involves defense. No attacking ninjas here, which is quite an oxymoron – defensive ninja. Gagawin mo lang, anticipate the enemy, and place your defenses factoring in anything and everything that could go wrong. You get “powers” too. You get to use the DS’s microphone to blow enemies away by aaahhh… blowing on the microphone! Kala nga ng kapatid ko nililinisan ko screen ng DS ko kasi ihip ako ng ihip.

The graphics are cartoony, silly and sooooo adorable! Never have I found killing machines soo cute! The art design of the game is simplistic and yet still conveys the said deep gameplay and fluid game mechanics. At first it may seem that the art design would hinder the strategies involved in the game but it doesnt.

Ninja Town has, as you can expect, cartoony sound effects and a nicely upbeat musical score. Although one enemy type produces a gutural sound that kind of reminds me of the Grudge films.

There is a multiplayer option to the game where you and a friend can share in the mayhem adding to the game’s replay value. There are so many ways to defend a ninja town that you will want to replay the game to try out new techniques.

All in all, Ninja Town is a solid title no DS owner should be without.

Pinoy Gaming Rate

Mirror’s Edge is set in a time and place governed by a totalitarian government. You play the role of Faith, a runner. Runners are highly trained, very agile agents who physically pass messages to avoid government surveillance. You got caught in a plot to wipe out all the runners in the city as your sister is framed for the crime of killing the top handler of runners. The story is told in in-game cutscenes through the eyes of Faith and some animated sequences thrown in here and there. The animation though are not that impressive.

Mirror’s Edge uses the Unreal 3 engine with a new lighting solution. The brightness burned my eyeballs! So to those who are very sensitive to brightness (you frakin’ vampires), you can turn down the brightness a bit. The scenery differs widely from one point of the game to another. One you’ll be running through a rooftop, then crawl through airvents and get shot at by policemen in an office building. They all look realistic enough despite the pupil shrinking brightness. To add to this, the game supports Nvidia’s Physx Engine. So cloth moves like cloth, glass breaks like glass, and metal bends as bullets hit them.

Sounds in the game are convincing. But what I prefer to listen to more is the soundtrack. Heck, I would want to buy the soundtrack for it and use it as an excercise mix yokyokyok. Glass breaking as you run through display cases as you are being shot at, simply exhilirating! Makes you want to run in your seat too.

The game is played with case-sensitive controls. So pushing the up button will make you jump, climb a barrier, vault up a ledge, depending on what’s infront of you to interact with. For example if you’re running and you push the down button, you slide down. If you’re walking, down makes you crouch. Running and precisely timing when to push the buttons as you encounter barriers makes for very exciting running sequences. You’ll slide under low bars, jump through chain fences, walk on side walls, leap across impossible distances and roll as you land.  The game keeps your adrenaline pumping.

My one complaint is the gunplay. When you take out an enemy and pick up his gun, Faith can’t shoot! You fire a couple of rounds and the shooting feels clunky and unimaginative. So you’re left to throw away the gun and use hand to hand combat. Speaking of hand to hand combat, it is absolutely amazing! Depending on where you stand and your stance, context sensitive controls will allow you to do amazing martial arts feats.

Mirror’s Edge has no significant replay value though. You can do the runs again timed if you really are very anal and want to beat your own time. Also there are runner’s bags hidden all over the maps that will unlock a few goodies. Other than that, Mirror’s Edge’s primary pull back for replay is the exhiliration.

If you’re an adrenaline junky who doesn’t mind falling off buildings once in a while, this game is for you.

The premise is pretty simple. You are Professor Layton a very well known scholar in London. You take a trip to a village with your apprentice Luke only to find out there is a foul plot afoot. You wade your way through puzzles and mini games until you lift the hood and see exactly what’s going on.

This is where the simplicity ends. The puzzles? They range from easy to “HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO SOLVE THIS?”. Not to worry, you can purchase tips and hints with coins you find lying around the village. If you are a gamer who loves to find solutions to many a problem, this is the game for you. You will be overwhelmed by the sheer number of puzzles and mini games in this title, you’ll be frozen on your DS for a long long time.

Professor Layton introduces its world to the gamer in a slow but sure fashion. First delivering a brain teaser or two then slowly ramping up. This ensures you don’t get stuck on a puzzle longer than you should be. Also, there is a feature called a riddleshack. Here you will be able to go back to the puzzles you haven’t solved yet.

The bonus features also contains what we at Pinoygaming love most about the game, weekly online puzzle downloads. There is no end to the puzzle solving!

The world of Professor Layton is presented with sprites with talk bubbles and the occasional superbly animated cutscenes. On top of that it features superb sound quality and minimal yet convincing voice acting.

All in all, this is a DS game every puzzle solving nut should own.

Pinoy Gaming Rate

All communications has been lost between the earth colonies and the mining starship Ishimura. You are Isaac Clarke, whose girlfriend happens to work on the Ishimura. You are sent to repair communications on the Ishimura. You find more than you ever expected. A simple repair becomes a slow, painful fight for survival.

Graphically, Dead Space is a masterpiece. On a 9600GT standard monitor it looked good. On a 3850 with a High Definition widescreen, it made my eyeballs pop out of their sockets but it still ran smooth. The visual art style resembles Doom from Id software; dark corridors, doors with power locks covered in blood, air vents crawling with mumu. The visual effects however, are leagues away from Doom’s; Dynamic lighting, high detail shadows, bump mapping, particle effects and a whole lot of eye candies make the game more in depth. The art style not only sets the mood, it dictates the mood.

I don’t presuppose what a mining spaceship would sound like but in terms of creating the overall feel of the game, Dead Space delivers bone chilling background music and hair raising sound effects. The clamour produced by objects hitting the ground as you turn on the artificial gravity is deafening in close quarters. The roar of air as it passes from one room to another to repressurize a vacuum room singes the ears. The sound of an exhaust vent being opened by a mumu from the other side is wholy frightening.

The game is played from a third person over the shoulder view. You are guided from task to task by your other surviving compadres while you wade your way through monsters and bosses with varying degrees of difficulty. You need to traverse airless areas, blood drenched floors and zero gravity rooms, all make your task extra difficult. Your tasks range from repairing communications, finding missing computer cards and something as weird as finding a corpse and inspecting it for items.

It can get quite annoying getting ordered around like that but all the ordering serves a purpose especially since each task reveals snippets of the story. Sobrang kainis lang.

Kendra: “Find the central computer card and repair the tram.”

Me: “Ahh potek ikaw nga mag ayos ng computer na yan, kanina pa ako kinakagat ng aswang kala mo gaano kadali, biyayatch.”

Gameplay gets complicated by areas without oxygen as well. You have to move fast through an area with very limited supply of oxygen. To add to the complication, zero gravity not only gets confusing, it also disorients. After taking a break for a short while when I come back I dont know which way is up.

What’s next? More complications. You are a mere engineer in the story, so you know absolutely nothing about combat. Your melee attacks are so slow and so hardswinging, attach an axe to your suit and you can cut trees for a living. Oh the weapons, my god the weapons, they are mostly just mining tools. Only a few of them were designed to kill. They were designed to cut rock, dig holes and push boulders. You can upgrade your weapons but upgrades are very limited.

One complaint is the controls. It takes a long long while before you get used to it. To see behind you, you have to use the mouse and then use the keyboard to turn that way. This is different from other third person over the shoulder controls. Plus, controls are fidgety. I think the control system got consoleitis (sakit ng mga PC games na may verson sa Xbox o PS3 na na dumb down to fit the consoles).

Dead Space doesn’t have much of replay value aside from playing the game again with all the items you’ve unlocked and upgraded in the previous game.

Overall, Dead Space is a unique survival horror experience and a welcome addition to the genre. The story is quite compelling and you’d be willing to wade through all the tasks just to find out what happens.

Pinoy Gaming Rate

Graphically, it’s not the technical marvel most survival horror games are these days. The source engine is already a few years old and it’s starting to show its age on Left 4 Dead. With all the bells and whistles turned up, it still looks passable yet you notice a lot of things you won’t like such as clipping (lumulusot sa pader ang mga ulo, kamay, baril. Minsan may zombie pumapasok sa drum kalahati ng katawan.)

The game sounds like any other survival horror game and the weapons are pretty much like counterstrike. The zombies don’t sound creepy at all. In fact, the way they sound, they seem to be begging for a bullet to the head. One exception is the “witch” creature that brings a hair-raising moan and laugh once in a while which really ramps up the tension.

Left 4 Dead plays like Half-life 2 without the gravity gun and vehicles but with lots and lots of zombies. We have agile zombies, strong zombies, poisonous zombies, creepy little girl zombies and ordinary zombies I’d like to call “bullet depositories”. The senseless killing isn’t its strong point though. It’s the team play. Playing in versus mode or cooperative mode brings new thrills to the game as you go against human controlled zombies or play with human controlled teammates. Your body gets pumped full of adrenalin as you yell for your teammate to “cover me!” as you run to save another teammate from getting eaten alive. Left 4 Dead excels in this arena, albeit, that’s all it does.

The objective of the game is to move your entire team from one location to the next until you are able to escape the city. On the way, you encounter ghouls of every shape and size mentioned above, while stopping to restock your ever depleting stores of ammo.

The tools of the trade (mga baril) you wield in the game are fairly limited. I would have wanted an m60 or a p90 but sadly they’re not present. You’re stuck with the same guns throughout the game.

Replay value of Left 4 Dead isn’t as good if you play with the same people all the time. It sports 4 separate campaigns that can get old fast especially if you have very uncooperative teammates who would sooner shoot you than save you. The only thing different on each separate campaign are the places they’re set on, everything else is the same.

All in all, Left 4 Dead is a game you should definitely get for your LAN party for the sheer excitement it brings to the multiplayer scene. Although don’t expect much to be wowed by it.

Call of Duty: World at War uses the same engine as COD4 with some improvements. These include better water physics and fire propagation (yes, you can set things on fire now). Graphically speaking though, it doesn’t improve much from the original. Although, the lush jungle terrain and the mosquito ridden swamp lands definitely give it plus points. Cut scenes detailing stuff regarding WWII add to the mood somewhat but are not too notable.

COD: WaW sounds fantastic, from the authentic WWII guns sounds to the desperate charge of blood thirsty Japanese ambush troops. You’ll get shivers run down your spine as camouflaged Japanese foot soldiers jump from their hidden foxholes shrieking as they wave their bayonets and katanas at your head. As with all Call of Duty games in the past, the rumble of bombs exploding in the distance as you fire your rifle is exhilarating.

COD: WaW plays like any other WWII theme game. In fact, it offers nothing new besides killer action sequences. Riding tanks, and rescue gun planes hardly qualify as something new. However, this doesn’t mean it is less playable. You will still get your adrenalin pumping playing through the game. Running towards a bunker before throwing in a sachel charge while your buddies provide cover fire still gives you a high like no other FPS does.

The sad news about WaW if there ever is one, is the multiplayer. It’s basically a mod of COD4’s. It copies everything from point oF experience system to the unlocks upon mastery. Multiplayer is somewhat disappointing in this respect. However, Treyarch, the game’s developer didn’t want to fix what isn’t broken. They did add vehicles though but they’re none too notable. They change the battlefield somewhat. Also airstrikes are now attack dogs! If you loved COD4’s gut wrenching action, you will still like COD: WaW’s. Just don’t expect the same excitement.

Replay value on WaW is not too good considering most people have been jaded with WWII games in recent years. Perhaps that was why COD4 was a runaway hit being set in the modern times. However, if you still haven’t had your fill of WWII, COD: WaW is a welcome offering that will surely blow your socks off compared to other WWII fares.

Pinoy Gaming Rate

Red Alert 3 begins with a not so unique storyline. The Soviets are losing the war with the Allies and in desperation, decide to use their experimental time machine. They go back in time and kill Einstein, when they return, the world is changed. Problem is, without Einstein, there will be no nukes. Without nukes, Japan lives! Yes, The Empire of the Rising sun is a playable faction in RA3.

RA3 plays like any other RTS out there. In fact, it doesnt offer much innovation. What makes it unique is the complete exageration, (parang cartoony na nga minsan eh) of everything from weapons, storyline, graphics and even the acting! On a side note, RA3 doesn’t even need a supercomputer to run. A mid-range PC will do.

RA3 offers a new look apart from the other two Red Alert titles that came before it. It’s bright, has no visible attempt at scaling, and yes, over-the-top. Our verdict, fresh, unique and awesome. It feels like playing a Saturday Night Matine film (Parang B movie yokyokyok – kulang nalang si Lito Lapid nagpapasabog ng kotseng bulok). You know what, that’s what makes it awesome. If that’s not enough, RA3 offers another unique part of the gameplay, the cutscenes. The cast, composed of Holywood types such as Tim Curry and George Tekai (Yes, star trek Mr. Zulu – all your base are belong to us! woot~!), bring color to the game. And the women, oh boy. If anything, you will watch ALL the cutscenes for the ladies. (Drool on pics below)

As cartoony the graphics are, sound is right up there with it. The exageratted screams of horror make you laugh more than scare you. I especially like the electricity sound effect. The music follows RA3 tradition, heavy, compelling, exciting and makes you want to headbang while you play it, oldschool.

RA3 offers nothing new as said. However it improves on what’s already there, no holds barred. Units now have several other tweaks that make them more versatile in combat. Some launch troops, others transform into land from air units and others are just plain GIANT ROBOTS (man I love Japan). It is also interesting to note the enhanced AI (Artificial Intelligence) in this game. Brutal difficulty is, yes you guessed it, exceptionally brutal. If you want a challenge, this is for you.

RA3 does have some balance issues. Some superweapons are more powerful than others. And, there are units, that if mass produced, can become your entire army and no other unit is required. What RA3 lacks in innovation it makes up for with fun on multiplayer. You can go on cooperative mode and have a buddy help you in the campaign, or go head to head on LAN or over the internet. The versatility of the units makes for unexpected and outrageous gameplay. So, there is plenty of replay value.

Graphcis – 8

Sound – 8

Gameplay – 7

Replayability – 9

There have been quite a number of Star Wars games in the past but none of them were ever created to expand the storyline within the timeline of the 6 movies. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is one such game and it is epic.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed tells the story of Starkiller, Darth Vader’s secret apprentice. There are a lot of twists and turns in the storyline and they are all either revealing or shocking. Let me start out by saying that you are not going to play this game for the graphics nor the featured physics, you will play it for the story.

The game looks good by Wii standards and looks even better on other consoles. It paints a very gritty picture of the universe and still maintains a very movie like feel. The levels are well designed, pleasing to the eyes and yet easy enough to be immersed in. There are some parts however that feel hurriedly done. Worse, you will need to visit these places over and over.

The sound is pretty much Star Wars fare. Lightsaber swings and blaster fire sound very much like the movies. John William’s musical score is undying and still invokes awe and raw excitement.

The idea of the game is pretty awe inspiring. The way the game designers exaggerated everything about the force drops jaws and induces glee to Star Wars fanboys all over the world. The fact that you can use the force to push, pull, lift and electrically charge objects and even people leaves a lot of room for creative destruction. I however still can’t get over the fact that the main character was able to use the force to bring down a Star Destroyer. A freakin’ starship brought to the ground with the force!

The idea is great, the execution at times, flawed. There are a lot of bugs in the game, sometimes too annoying to play around. First, the camera doesn’t go where you need it to go. I fell too many times from ledges because I couldn’t see where I was stepping on. The force targeting system still needs a lot of tweaking. At times it targets a stormtrooper instead of a box so I end up flinging the wrong thing at the wrong person. There are also parts of the map where you get snagged in. There’s nothing that stops you from moving but apparently you can’t move!

Force Unleashed has a few extras that encourage you to play the game over again. Although linear, the game offers hidden secrets like new lightsaber colors, lightsaber combat crystals, costumes and characters you can use in versus mode.

Speaking of versus mode, it’s a fighting mini game. As you play the main story campaign of the game, you get to unlock characters you can use to beat the living daylights out of a second player. You can use your super exaggerated force powers against a human opponent or an AI opponent. All these add a couple more hours of gameplay.

All in all Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is a game you must get if you’re a Star Wars fanatic. The story is essential in explaining the time gap between Episode III and Episode IV. Don’t complain about the gameplay and the less than inspiring rendition. Once you get to the ending, prepare for the shock of your Star Wars fanboy life.

Noob Corner: The Force Unleashed is the game for anybody who secretly wishes to be a Jedi Knight or would like to play pretend with a lightsaber. Playing the game gives you the chance to release that inner geek in you while no one is watching. Graphics and Sounds are not that impressive but using the wii mote as a lightsaber has an interesting touch to it. It’s easy to play, though camera control can still be improved. All in all, The Force Unleashed is a game that serious Star Wars fans should not miss.

Graphics – 6

Sound – 8

Gameplay – 6

Replayabiliy – 6

Note: Screenies from forceunleashed.org

I have reviewed many great games before but none have come close to the epic realism that Far Cry 2 offers. Ubisoft Montreal has been experimenting in their mad scientist labs and has brought the Dunia engine to life kicking and screaming. Suffice to say, Far Cry 2 is a revolutionary new FPS, truly and open world.

Far Cry 2 looks absolutely spectacular. We’ve been fearing that it might have caught “Console-it is”; a sickness of PC games when they are ported into the consoles. It involves dumbing down of the game to fit the consoles. On the contrary, the game is absolutely brilliant in its execution.

Textures, shading, shadows, lighting and even environmental effects feel solid, tangible and yes, very Africa. You certainly feel like you’re in Africa with lush vegetation, open desserts, swamplands, and of course the occasional wildlife. All of which are rendered in real time with varying weather conditions and day and night cycles. Far Cry 2’s graphics really bring you to Africa although it’s not as advanced as its main competition Cry Engine2.

We have however noticed a few jinks when you play the game at lower display levels than very high. Sometimes vegetation and even objects pop out of nowhere, seemingly because the draw distance has been reduced. However, it does not hinder game play. In fact, we’re just nitpicking here.

Good news to our kababayans who have not upgraded their systems yet. You do not need a super computer assembled by space aliens to run this game. The minimum requirements, despite doubts, can really run the game smoothly. Even if you want to run the game at Ultra High settings, you don’t need the top of the line PC. A midrange one will do. The Dunia engine used in this game is a technical marvel that can actually run on most PCs.

The game sounds fantastic. Adding to the immersion, you can hear animals, bugs, an African radio DJ in the background, depending on where you are. (Pero kakatawa nag E-english sila di sila gumagamit ng dialect nila. Yokyokyok). My only complaint is some of the gun sounds don’t quite feel powerful enough, even if you’re firing a high calibre rifle. I hope this can be corrected in future patches.

Far Cry 2 controls pretty much like a standard modern FPS, however, the way they coat the game with missions, mini games, and all other add-ons totally immerses you in the world the designers intended. Let’s take for example injuries, when you get injured enough, you have to perform “field surgery” on yourself. You need to stick your knife at your wound and pull the bullet out with a pair of pliers. Or pull a twig out of your thigh. Another notable immersive experience is that guns rust and jam. You need to purchase more reliable guns at a gun shop and if you don’t replace them once in a while, they will rust. In fact, the game is so immersive that you contract Malaria! You need to take pills to relieve yourself of the symptoms. Another important thing to note is fire. When you set something on fire in Far Cry 2, if given enough fuel, it can spread. It will burn down sections of a forest, buildings, heck even people. That said, there are things that I’ve noticed that are quite quirky. I shot a rocket into a stack of boxes, none of them were destroyed (karton ata yun ng mga damit ni Superman).

Far Cry 2, being an open ended world, has a lot of replay value. It has multiplayer capabilities but I’ve yet to see servers here in the Philippines that have decent enough ping. I end up playing at servers with my ping reaching 200 or so. What the game really centers on is its singleplayer campaign. Each decision you make affects the total outcome of the game. When an NPC dies, he’s dead, he will not be back. Later on, that NPC will not be able to help you in a certain situation.

If you decide to go off mission, and just start shooting at everything, you can. It has consequences however. I was sniping once when I accidentally shot a buddy of mine. He never came back. That was it. Trauma for me, my buddy is dead.

You can also decide to be a total jackass like what I did. I stole a jeep and started running over the wildlife. Yun yung first time nakakita ako ng zebra na lumilipad pagkatapos ko bangain. I also tried to impersonate Steve Irwin (yung croc hunter sa discovery channel) and took screenshots of the animals I saw. So far I’ve seen a water bison, gazelle, zebra, a goat, some chicken, and a chopped op cow. Yokyokyok.

As said, the game is brilliant in its execution. There are a few quirks here and there but they don’t ruin the experience. In fact, I am bold enough to say that Far Cry 2, is THE first person shooter of the year. Belat to Crysis and Crysis Warhead. yokyokyok

Graphics – 9

Sound – 9

Gameplay – 9

Replay Value - 10

Resident Evil 4 continues the story set by the previous Resident Evil titles. You’re no longer fighting zombies though, but parasite infested humans, ugly, Spanish, parasite infested humans. You’ll hear the word “morir” (Spanish for “to kill”) a lot.

You play the role of Leon a brash and dashing (papogi effect grabe) American agent assigned to rescue the President’s kidnapped daughter. Napaisip nga ako eh. Bakit di buong battalion pinadala dun, bakit isang tao lang at iisang baril lang binigay. Di man lang machine gun.

The game looks good for a game released a year or so ago. You won’t see advanced shaders, bump mapping and other new graphic technologies but the look of the game contributes a lot to its eerie “gusto ko nang gumising sa bangungot na ito” feel. The Wii renders the images so well since it is a dated engine. My only complaint is the troublesome over the shoulder camera angle that sometimes blocks your view of enemies coming from behind unlike previous versions of resident evil.

The game sounds fantastic. Plug your Wii to a TV or a sound system with true surround and you’ll be losing sleep for days. Ilang beses na ako napatingin sa likod ko baka may mumu pag naglalaro ako mag isa. Sometimes the music scares you even when there’s no scary event on screen.

For gameplay, this game is HARD. Even on regular mode the game is really hard for one particular reason. There’s not enough ammo for all the mumu to kill. You will keep trying to conserve ammo. You will use your knife instead of shoot 80-90% of the time. I myself shoot parasite infected Spanish people on their needs so when they hit the floor I just stab them instead of shooting them dead. What’s even harder is that there are hundreds of them. So when you see a savepoint, SAVE!! Naiinis ako dahil yung Leon di man lang nagdala ng bag na puno ng bala. Pistol lang dala kukonti pa ng bala.

The game is filled with puzzle after puzzle. Enemies that require strategy to take down and the best part of the game is it is totally immersing. Low ammo, all alone, hard enemies, by the time you finish the game you feel like you just climbed Mt. Everest while carrying a jeepney on your back.

The game is highly replayable too. You unlock new weapons, new costumes, new game modes and yes, new characters to play as you finish the game more than once. I for one discovered the Chicago Typewriter (Thompson submachine gun) and I couldn’t wait to play the game again with it. It made the game a lot easier when I had it with me. There’s also a game within a game using a different character but we won’t tell you too much regarding that, it will ruin the story.

Bottomline this game is definitely a must have for any platform, PC, PS2 but we highly recommend playing it on the Wii since the motion controls just fit in greatly with the gameplay. If you are a fan of survival horror or you just want to test your gaming skillz, this game is for you.

Graphics 8
Sound 10
Gameplay 7
Replay Value 8

Spore is the game’s name and even named after a part of the reproductive processes of small plants and bacteria, there’s nothing small about its intentions. I can sum up the goal of the game in one word, GRAND. You literally control the evolution of a species of your own creation and guide them to the stars.

The game begins with you designing a microscopic organism. You swim around in your micro-sized environment eating, killing and avoid being killed as you unlock more body parts to use. This part of the game is quite simple and its simplicity is the fun of it all.

Later, you develop legs and start to walk on land. As you try to befriend or attack other species in the hopes of domination, you gain allies, foes and body parts to continue your evolution in a mini action adventure game. Unlocking body parts is quite a chore though, especially at harder game difficulties.

As you grow in intelligence and become sentient, you move into tribal stage as you start using tools to build small villages. This part of the game is like a mini Real Time Strategy game. You gather resources, befriend or fight against other villages, and have a chance to further your village into a small town.

Then you enter the Civilization stage. Your town has grown into a city and your species has become the most dominant in the planet. Yet each city will vie for total world domination. It then becomes your job to convince those cities to join your side either by conquering them economically, religiously or using your military might. I prefer the military and blow the enemy to dust with nukes (yokyokyok). You will also get the chance to design buildings, cars, boats, planes and houses which is the most fun in this part of the game. The creative possibility of the game is endless.

Finally as you’ve conquered the world, it’s time to conquer the stars. Your specie will discover space travel and you will have to create your own space ship. This is where the game truly opens up as you move from star system to star system encountering other civilizations, conquering or annexing planets, terraforming (making a planet habitable) and unlocking the mysteries of the universe.

Graphically speaking, Spore isn’t exactly a technical marvel. It runs on most PCs smoothly. It even runs on my lady’s laptop. Yet, it looks like a well polished game especially when you’re creating stuff like your species. It gets high scores for the cartoony yet accessible feel of it. The game shines at keeping the graphics simple yet stunning which is an irony to say the least.

The sound isn’t exactly notable but acceptable. I have lots of fun listening to other species “talk” though, with a series of grunts, squawks, screams and they all try to resemble recognizable speech.

As for gameplay, Spore feels more like a collection of 5 games in one. All of these “mini-games” feel like they’ve been done before and way better in other games. The gameplay in these “mini-games” aren’t exactly revolutionary and notable yet when taken together as one, offers a compelling game.

Replay value? This is where Spore shines. The game features what it calls the “Sporepedia”. It is an online database of all the creations; (using the built in editors in the game) vehicles, species, buildings, of every spore game owner in the world. You can upload your own creations too and share them. The Sporepedia allows the integration of other people’s creations in your own game. I, for example encountered a species in the space part of the game that was made by a guy from Japan (at hindi giant robot – pero mukhang kalaban ni Shaider yokyokyok).

As said, there are no limits to the user generated content. As of this writing, the species created by users of Spore have overtaken the total number of known animal species on Earth. Crazy but true.

Spore has one big and fatal flaw and I can summarize it in three letters; DRM (Digital Rights Management). Since it’s published by Electronic Arts, it’s protected by Securom. This piece of badly written security software will only allow you to install the game a total of 5 times (3 pa nga yan noon, dinagdagan na). After that, you will have to call EA customer support and plead your case to them. It has gotten so bad that someone had the brilliant idea of suing Electronic Arts since they discovered that Securom leaves malicious data in your system to monitor your installations.

Overall if you don’t mind only installing it 5 times, and you absolutely love playing god, Spore is for you. Just don’t expect us to worship you though. Yokyokyok

Graphics – 9

Sound – 8

Gameplay – 7

Replay Value – 8 (would have been a 10 if not for the securom problem)

The game looks amazing, the console version (pang xbox mga chong) isn’t a far cry away from the PC version. Although if you want all the eye candy on, the PC version is the way to go. The character models are somewhat unique to the game. They are all bulky and seem like they can eat a flock of chicken in one meal. But they’re overall size and they way they move give the game that visceral feel. The textures and environment models in the game are of the post-apocalyptic kind (parang sinabugan lahat ng pinupuntahan mo ng bomba). One thing to note is the game’s near monochromatic look. The color pallete to the game is very limited, instead of being a step back, it actually promotes the game’s ‘may gierra dito’ setting.

I have to note the sound of the game though. Some guns, including the most basic rifle with the chainsaw (yum), have a very distant sound model, weak in fact. I find it hard to relate to a gun that doesn’t seem powerful when I fire it. The shotgun, the hammer of dawn and even the sniper rifle are pretty much ok in the sound department but the rapidfire guns, including the mounted ones, fail to deliver that umphf! we look for in sound when we fire them. The musical score is right on the money as a saving grace.

Gameplay of Gears of War is absolutely fun. Which is what we look for in a game when the lines are drawn. We have what we call sticky covers. Your character sticks to walls, ducks behind sandbags and tables and comes out only to fire while aiming or just fire while in cover (itataas niya baril lang niya at titirang bulag, minsan sinusuerte tumatama yokyokyok). Also, using the sticky cover system, you can jump from cover to cover. Gears has a great singleplayer story driven experience (wont give away the story here). Amazingly, Epic Games included a cooperative campaign which you and a friend can play through the story mode either on LAN or through the internet increasing the game’s replay value.

Gears multiplayer is its bread and butter though. It offers game mode after game mode and combat is visceral. You can compete by teams or just go melee. Team game modes is its selling point which can offer you hours of addictive gameplay when you sign up for your Microsoft Live ID (di mo malalaro multiplayer kung wala ito pero may hamachi multi mode rin na mod – search niyo lang po ‘Hamachi Gears of War’).

Overall the game itself is a must get. Especially since Epic Games decided to put a little icing on the cake. They included Physx support, making explosions, mutilations, bullet impact and crashes look real and feel real. Hurray for Physx.

Graphics – 9

Sound – 8

Gameplay – 9

Replayability – 9

Here’s a parody video of Gears of War as the A team from the 80′s where Mr. T became famous.