2K Games announced today that Sid Meier's Civilization® V: Gods & Kings, the expansion pack for the award-winning Civilization V, is being developed for Windows-based PC. Developed by Firaxis Games, Sid Meier's Civilization V: Gods & Kings introduces new gameplay content, enhancing the Civilization V experience and providing even more ways for players to achieve world domination. The Gods & Kings expansion pack spans the breadth of human civilization, taking players from founding the first Pantheon of the Gods and spreading religion across the world, to deploying spies in enemy cities to steal information and technology. 
 
“Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword set a precedent in new content and game features in a Civilization expansion pack. 2K Games is continuing that tradition with Gods & Kings,” said Sarah Anderson, senior vice president of marketing for 2K. “The Gods & Kings expansion is the quintessential Civilization V addition, making Civilization more addictive than ever before.”
 
Sid Meier’s Civilization V: God & Kings takes players through time as they engage in new quests and global competitions, interact with new types of city-states, and master exciting new systems for land and naval combat. Nine new civilizations; nine new wonders; three original scenarios; and dozens of new units, buildings, technologies and resources have also been added, offering even more ways for players to expand their empire on their quest to rule the world.
 
“Our team has a strong vision for bringing religion and espionage to Civilization V and the incomparable Civ community has expressed their enthusiasm for these features as well,” said Sid Meier, director of creative development for Firaxis Games. “We’re excited to deliver this robust expansion pack that will give players countless hours of new gameplay experiences and more reasons to take just one more turn.”
 
Key features include:

• Expanded Epic Game: The core game experience has been greatly expanded with the addition of new technologies, 27 new units, 13 new buildings and nine new Wonders.

• New Civilizations and Leaders: The expansion features nine new civilizations including Carthage, the Netherlands, the Celts and the Mayans, each with unique traits, units and buildings. Gods & Kings also adds nine new leaders including William I, Prince of Orange, Boudicca and Pacal the Great.
• New Game Scenarios: Three new scenarios let gamers experience the medieval period, the fall of Rome, and embark on a new adventure in Empires of the Smoky Skies, a Victorian science-fiction scenario.

• The Return of Religion: A first for Civilization V, players seek out Faith, choosing a Pantheon of the Gods and creating Great Prophets to found and spread their customized religion across the world. 

• World Domination: The fight for world domination is more dynamic than ever. Gods & Kings features a reworked combat system and AI that places more emphasis on a balanced army composition. Additionally, the navy is now split into two different ship types, melee and ranged, making coastal cities vulnerable to a surprise naval attack.

• Enhanced Diplomacy and Espionage: Establish embassies at foreign courts for closer ties or clandestine operations. As the religions of the world start settling in and the world moves into the Renaissance, spies can be unlocked to establish surveillance of foreign cities, steal advanced technologies from your strongest competitors, or garner influence with City-States through election rigging, or even a coup.

• City-States: Two new city-state types have been added, Mercantile and Religious, adding new gameplay to a greatly expanded quest system to further the narrative of the game and making diplomatic victories more challenging.

As if we havent been creeped out enough by Alan Wake. Remedy Entertainment has given us more reasons to be afriad of the dark.

Alan Wake’s American Nightmare is available for 1200 Microsoft Points on Xbox Live.

This downloadable adventure is a featured title in the third-annual Xbox LIVE Arcade House Party program, delivering the season’s biggest and best digital games. Featuring a thrilling pulp action adventure story mode and an all new “Fight till Dawn” arcade mode, American Nightmare will shine a new light on the world of Wake while appealing to fans and newcomers alike.

The brand new “Fight till Dawn” arcade mode places Wake in the battle of his life. "Fight till Dawn" gives Wake new enemies to face along with new and old weapons to add to his arsenal: old stalwarts like the flare gun, wild new favorites like the nail gun and old school Remedy favorites like the Uzi. Thankfully, safe havens and unlockable weapons litter the landscape, allowing for a momentary respite from the darkness. Surviving until dawn is only the beginning though, as online leaderboards pit friends head-to-head to see who the real champion of light is.

Check out the Trailer for Alan Wake’s American Nightmare below.. 

For those fans who have been waiting for news regardig Guild Wars 2 Beta wait no longer. 

ArenaNet is accepting applications for the March Beta, but Gamers must act quick as the deadline to be considered is this Friday, February 24th at 1pm EDT.

Gamers who would like to be considered must submit their PC hardware specifications to ArenaNet when applying for a spot in the beta, an NDA will also need to be accepted if given access to the beta.

for anyone interested in signing up head on over to the Guild Wars 2 Beta site Guild Wars Beta

Microsoft's next Xbox system will be known can be found at your local car dealership, its name is "Durango."

I kid, kind of..

Earlier today a report posted by Kotaku, citing "Multiple source close to the project" that the next name for the system has been codenamed "Durango."

I have a pretty good feeling that this codename will not be the same name when it hit's retail. Not to long ago Microsoft when making what is now "Microsoft Kinict" it was called "Project Natal" At least if Xbox Durango is the name lets hope its long lasting performance is better then the Xbox 360..

With that said what do you think the next Xbox name will be?

505 Games and Kung Fu Factory announce today that Supremacy MMA will feature female fighters Felice “Lil Bulldog” Herrig and Michele “Diablita” Gutierrez.
The announcement makes Supremacy MMA the first MMA game to feature woman fighters.

“Female fighters are not represented in MMA games and face a giant glass ceiling in the fighting world,” said Ricci Rukavina, CEO and Creative Director, Kung Fu Factory. “We’re proud to be a part of raising their profile and giving these tough-as-nails fighters their due in the virtual cage.””

“Joining the roster of fighters for Supremacy MMA is definitely awesome,” said Gutierrez. “The game takes a totally different approach to MMA so I think it’s perfect that this is the game that features women for the first time.”

Now MMA games are not just for men… Imagine, sitting down to pound the crap out of your friend in Supremacy MMA only to have your girlfriend jump and kick your ass with one of these two tough ladies? It’s going to happen, it’s only a matter of time…

Ubisoft has announced that RUSE will have some new DLC coming to X360, Steam and PS3 and the best part of this is it will be free!! 

The new DLC being called “The Manhattan Project Pack” will include three exclusive multiplayer maps along with two additional multiplayer modes. The multiplayer maps will face you off against armies in North African territories, in Italy and in Holland for 2vs2 and 3vs3 battles.

There will be 2 new Gameplay modes.

- “Nuclear war” will enable you to produce nuclear Long Tom cannons, with mutual nuclear threat involved. The destructive scope of R.U.S.E. just flew off the charts.
- In “Total War”, the battle starts in 1939 and History advances every ten minutes, unlocking new units and technologies.

The exact release date of The Manhattan Project Pack will be announced soon. Keep your ears to the ground!

Call of Duty Black Ops could possibly be the best Call of Duty game in the series and it wasn’t even made by Infinity Ward

When Call of Duty Black Ops was first announce last year and that the development studio handling the title was Treyarch a universal cringe took place while everyone had their doubts (including myself) that Treyarch could actually make a Call of Duty that could live up to the Modern Warfare series, but here we are a week after the games release and I will have to say I am pleasantly surprised.

Right from the main menu screen you will be able to control your characters head and hands and try and breakout of your captivity.  Once you get tired of trying to break free you will have the option to Jump into Single Player, Multiplayer, and Zombies.

Call of Duty Black Ops single player storyline is a little weak; which is really my only issue with this game. It doesn’t have the intense emotional feeling that Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 had where you actually cared for the outcome of the characters.  While there are some intense scenes in Black Ops, don’t get me wrong they just have a different feeling to them, especially when hearing  Ed Harris and Gary Oldman as a Russian bark orders at you from time to time.  It wouldn’t be a Call of Duty game unless there was a mission from inside the cockpit of a SR-71 Blackbird or Hind Helicopter, and in Black Ops you get to do both! In one of the missions you have to guide your friendly troops from a SR-71 Blackbird without being spotted. The single player campaign feels slightly shorter than most other Call of Duty games, but with everything else that’s included in the game right out of the box you will be busy for awhile.

Multiplayer brings back a lot of the stuff people loved from past Call of Duty games but also added so much more. Just about everything needs to be unlocked or paid for and what I mean by this is that in Black Ops besides earning EXP you now also earn COD money which is used to buy guns and all other attachments, Grenades, ect once you unlock them. Black Ops also brings some new game play modes, one which uses some of your hard earned COD money to play. This game type is called “Wager Match” where you have the ability to wager some of your COD money in a match to earn extra COD dollars. Some of the game types you can play under this new mode are “One in the Chamber” where you have 1 bullet, your knife, and three lives, each time you kill a player you are granted another bullet. Some of the another game types are “Sticks and Stones”, “Gun Game” and “Sharpshooter”. Some of the other additions to multiplayer are the ability to customize your guns reticle and create your own emblems from 100’s of different images, but of course it’s going to cost you to unlock different reticle colors, images, and layers for your emblems and guns. This time around you also have contracts that are available to you to complete they are broken up into three different class’s, they range from getting 2 long shot kills to getting 75 kills with a particular gun. Overall Multiplayer is very enjoyable and will have you playing for hours to unlock all the new emblems and guns.

This time around there are two Zombie maps already available to you right out of the box (Depending on game version) otherwise the second Zombie map can be unlock from beating the game or in the main menu screen if you are able to break out of your confinement and locate and hack the terminal that is located somewhere in the room in the main menu. (See cheat section for this game for help) The second Zombie map that you can unlock is called “Five” and is probably the best Zombie map that Call of Duty has offered. It takes place at the Pentagon and you are able to play as John F Kennedy, Nixon, Fidel Castro and (the other guy the Cubin missile crisis era) Robert McNamara all with their own funny little quips that will have you laughing as you’re blowing Zombie’s heads off. From the computer terminal you can also hack it to unlock the classic Zork text game and a top-down arcade-game version of Zombies called Dead Ops Arcade which seems to be a take on the classic arcade game called Smash TV.

In closing Call of Duty Black Ops is a solid game. If you are looking at getting Black Ops for it’s single player campaign you might be let down as the storyline is a little weak. If you are getting the game for the overall experience of Single Player, Multiplayer, and Zombie modes then you won’t be let down. Time for me to get back to slaying some Zombies and as the good John F. Kennedy puts it “Mankind must put an end to the undead before the undead put an end to mankind!”

Fallout New Vegas is the follow-up to Bethesda’s 2008 video game of the Year, Fallout 3, but does it live up to the success of its predecessor? 

Fallout New Vegas takes place in the harsh sands of the Mojave Desert. Taking on the role of courier, (Postman, anyone?) you set out to deliver a highly sensitive package to the Lucky 38 (rat/brat pack version of the Crazy 88?) on the Vegas strip, which has been relatively unscathed from the horrors of the bomb. Once there, you are ambushed and left for dead. But never fear, the story doesn’t end there.

From the very beginning of the game you won’t notice too much of a change in the mechanics or the graphics. Not until a few hours into the game will you really start to see how New Vegas stands apart from Fallout 3. Many of the differences aren’t so pretty, but let’s start with the Good, shall we.

The GOOD: 

It’s Fallout!! No matter how many issues the game may have (See the next section) the game is still one of the best open world RPG’s out there. Whether you want to make allies with the good guys and kill Super mutants and huge post apocalyptic monsters, or make friends with the Thugs and kill the good guys, there is no doubt you will have fun doing so! For those people who played Fallout 3, you will need no time picking up and learning Fallout New Vegas because it’s very simila

From the Vegas strip to the Hoover Damn, you will find yourself getting side tracked exploring all that the Mojave Desert has to offer. While you are on this journey, whether alone or with the company of your companions, you will always have Mr. New Vegas the prime DJ who is played by the one and only Wayne Newton, to keep you company on your Journey through the Mojave desert. The addition of Mr. Newton also lends an air of credibility to the game’s Vegas locale.

Simply put, Fallout New Vegas has a great storyline. While the main quest is relatively short, you will still find yourself having around 100 hours of gameplay, through the plethora of side missions that are available to you. 


For those of you (like myself) who have played all the Fallout games, you will have some pleasant surprises on your Journey through this post apocalyptic waste land known as New Vegas. One of those being an old friend from Fallout 2 Marcus who helps add some more closure to what happened on that Enclave Oil rig.

If the game is going to take place in Vegas you better believe you’re going to spend a lot of your hard earned Caps on some Blackjack, Craps, Slots or even some Roulette. That said, if you are going to have these games available, make sure they work correctly. Blackjack for starters could have been improved; because if you are not playing on a widescreen TV or even HD, your cards will be covered under HUD text (and nowhere on the screen does it tell you what you have) so you need to really look hard at your hand. The second issue is best describe by example: let’s say you have a pair of 2’s and you want to split.. You can do so. But now say you get another 2, it won’t let you split that pair of 2’s a second time. Thirdly no matter where you sit at the table or whether or not there is another person at the table, you will always be playing against the dealer and positioned at the same spot on the table with no ability to play multiple hands, which you can do in many casinos. 

Beyond this I found myself having to continuously save the game every couple of minutes, just in case the game glitched out, and lost me hours of game time. There were moments in the game where if you were walking along a ridge, or trying to jump over a rock, one could very easily fall through the rock and be stuck until one re-loads. But that was the least of the issues. Some critical storyline and mission glitches made me wonder even more about what Bethesda did to debug this installment. At times I found myself walking on egg shells, fearing a glitch, rather than enjoying the post apocalyptic horror of the game. 


The CONCLUSION:

I grew up playing the Fallout Series, and with that in mind, I was truly let down by Fallout New Vegas. Not just from a gameplay stand point, but from a game design stand point as well. Fallout New Vegas doesn’t bring anything new that couldn’t have been done in a DLC. If Obsidian and Bethesda took a little bit more time with the game, fixing the bugs, and making it run more smoothly, maybe then it would feel more like a standalone game. All we can do is enjoy the company of our companions, the bad AI, and the many glitches that will join you on your journey through the Mojave Desert. While the game may have many flaws the game still has a replay view and is enjoyable, and the good news is that most of the issues you will have with the game could and most likely be fixed with a patch. Beyond this Bethesda and Obsidian did a good job on capturing the look and feel of the Vegas strip right down to the bright neon lights.

2K Sports announced today that they have named Philadelphia Phillies™ ace pitcher, Roy Halladay, as the cover athlete for their upcoming video game Major League Baseball® 2K11.


“I’m honored to be on the cover of Major League Baseball 2K11,” said Halladay, who also pitched a no-hitter in this year’s Major League Baseball postseason. “I’m not one for predictions, but should 2K Sports be right about tomorrow, well, that would be a great way to end the year.”

If Halladay wins the National League Cy Young Award tomorrow, he will also become the fifth pitcher to win the coveted award in both leagues, as he previously won it in 2003 while a member of the Toronto Blue Jays. Halladay was recently honored by his peers, when he was named the 2010 Players Choice Award winner for the National League Outstanding Pitcher. One of the most dominant and consistent pitchers of his era, Halladay is an especially appropriate representative for the Major League Baseball 2K series’ Total Control Pitching mechanic, which gives players an unprecedented level of control and accuracy on the mound.

Developed by 2K Sports’ Visual Concepts studio, Major League Baseball 2K11 is not yet rated by the ESRB and will be available this spring for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 (PS3™) and PlayStation®2 computer entertainment systems, PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system, Wii™ systemand Windows PC. For more information, please visit www.2ksports.com.

Kinect has only been out for 10 days in America and 4 days in Europe and already has sold 1.3 M units out selling Playstation Move at luanch, and coming close with the launch of the Wii console back in 2006.

Now if that doesnt say who has the best Nextgen Gaming system on the market then i dont know what does.

What are your thoughts?

The enemies have even been given a boost as you now have “boss” infected to deal with as you progress through the campaigns. You still have your standard boomers and smokers to contend with, however, you now also have a Spitter, a Jockey and a Charger. With the Spitter they spit acid at you and once you take them out a bunch of acid spills on to the floor. You want to avoid this as much as possible as it can take away a lot of your health. You then have the Jockey who will jump on your back and try to steer you towards the waves of infected to make it easier for them to take you out. The Charger is pretty self explanatory; he charges at you and will maul you if you aren’t careful or if your team doesn’t help you out once he has you. There are also some new weapons at your disposal including melee weapons. It was amazing for me to have the horde charging at me and I would just rev up my chainsaw and, quite literally, cut my way through the crowd. You also have bats, frying pans, axes and a variety of other weapons for you to experiment and have fun with.

As I mentioned above there are now five campaigns as opposed to the original four that were released in the original Left 4 Dead. The Left 4 Dead 2 campaigns seem to be longer, more difficult, more immersive and generally just designed better overall. The A.I. director is back and better than ever constantly throwing challenges at you depending on how well you are doing. Things happen much more dynamically this time around making it so that each run through of a campaign will vary from the last. Valve also did a much better job at creating an actual story. If you go through the five campaigns in order then you will hear conversations from your A.I. partners, such as Ellis apologizing to everyone at the beginning of the second campaign because the getaway method in the first campaign didn’t work out. Additionally, when you are in the safe houses you will hear banter back and forth between everyone. Ellis will be remembering how everything was before everyone was infected and be describing how things used to be for him. The rest of the team have to keep telling him to keep quiet and concentrate on the matter at hand. That type of interaction definitely helps as you get to know these characters more and more as you progress through the game. The variety in what you have to do is also quite impressive. At the end of each campaign when you have to get rescued it is always by a different method. In the first campaign you find an empty car and you need to find fuel to get it to run. In the second campaign you have to start a concert to get the attention of a helicopter. In another campaign you will escape by boat and it just keeps going on from there.

Most people who play this title will be playing with friends and the multiplayer, once again, really shines. You have the versus mode returning where you play as the survivors or the Infected and try to take down the other team. Teamwork is crucial here as you will get torn apart if you decide go solo. There was a match where I was able to assume control over one of the “boss” infected. I saw someone run away from their group to do their own thing so I followed him and once he was far enough away from his team I pounced on him and led him to where the other Infected were so we could take him out. There is even an achievement if you can not only stay on someone’s back for twelve consecutive seconds but also if you can do it twice in the same life. There is also Survival mode where you try to hold out as long as you can as well as the new Scavenge mode. Scavenge mode is where you are looking for all of the gas cans in the level if you are part of the Survivors so you can escape or trying to prevent that from happening if you are on the Infected team. Up to eight players can play at once with each team alternating being between a “Survivor” and an “Infected”. One of the things about this mode that some gamers will appreciate is how quick the games can be. Going through a whole versus round could take between 1-2 hours at times, however, with Scavenge the game goes much quicker, which is definitely appreciated. Another addition that was made to this title is the “Realism” mode. This mode features you going through the campaign missions online with friends, however, the game is more “realistic”. What that essentially means is that items won’t glow and neither will your teammates so it is harder to find them and things of that nature.

Overall this is another incredibly polished game by Valve. I know there were a lot of people worried because of how quickly this sequel came out, however, Valve seems to have hit a home run with this one. The campaign levels are a bit longer, more difficult and overall designed better. They added some great new features to the multiplayer component of the game which should keep Left 4 Dead fans busy for a very long time. If you were a fan of the original title you will undoubtedly enjoy going through this title as well. The new cast of characters is fantastic and the dialogue between them often made me chuckle. The variety in the environments and in what you have to do is fantastic. There are a lot of titles out there right now for gamers to choose from but be sure to give this game a try. If you are a fan of the original you will want to play this one as well. If you are new to the series you are in for a treat.

The adage of the once-great star being overshadowed by a young up-and-comer is ever-present in sports. You'll find no better real world example of this phenomenon than what's happening with the current state of baseball games. The old and wise MLB 2K series has been totally usurped by Sony's MLB: The Show, which only recently broke onto the scene. Every year we wait and see if 2K is going to be able to keep pace with what Sony brings to the table, and every year we walk away disappointed. While MLB 2K10 takes small steps towards fixing the problems that made last year's game such a disappointment, it still doesn't come close to delivering the definitive baseball experience that we all want from the oldest baseball franchise around.

If you've been watching any of our coverage leading up to the launch of MLB 2K10, it should be clear that 2K Sports is putting a large focus on the hitter vs. pitcher duel that is inherent to the game of baseball. The authenticity that 2K Sports has been able to capture when you step to the plate or hurl the ball across it is probably the single best achievement in MLB 2K10. It's something that other games have gotten right in the past, but 2K10 finally seems to have mastered the AI that drives these conflicts. If you swing at everything thrown your way, you'll absolutely never get a hittable pitch. It's up to you to display discipline and patience in waiting for a pitch to hit, much like players do in reality. It seemed like neither the hitter nor the pitcher had an advantage with the newly refined mechanic, something that was a worry when I first played MLB 2K10.

Sadly, it's the hitter vs. batter interaction that's really the only shining achievement for this year's game. Everything else has one problem or another that keeps it from being great or, in some cases, good. Take the new My Player mode, for instance. It's 2K Sports' first effort at delivering a career mode in their baseball franchise and, at least at first, it seems like they might have nailed it. But the more time you sink into the mode, the more its design and technical failings become apparent.

Things begin with the requisite player creation. It's just as detailed as any in the sports genre and even brings new last names for Gary Thorne and company to say such as "Ahearn." From there, you're off to your first game which, regardless of your position, is a bottom-of-the-ninth clutch moment for you to be either the hero or the zero. After that, it's up to you to build up your player through good in-game play and training drills.

Your fun factor in My Player is largely dependent on which position you play as the experiences differ quite a bit. If you're playing as a pitcher you're going to obviously be confined to the rubber with few chances to hit the ball. You're inundated with pitching points that you'll be able to distribute as you see fit. Other stats fall by the wayside, but that's understandable if you're a closer or a middle-reliever. Playing as a pitcher provided the most fun for me in My Player. The hitter vs. pitcher altercations are strong; even when in the minors, striking guys out is as satisfying as ever. I would've appreciated the ability to develop a pitcher that can also hit, but that's so rare it almost doesn't make sense to include it.

Like any other game Dead Space has problems; like its unoriginal story and repetitive mission objective structure. Luckily the game makes up for those faults with fun gameplay, brilliant sound design, and gorgeous graphics. Any fan of either shooters or horror games should give it a try.

Vanquish is a futuristic action shooter made by the same people who made Bayonetta, and was written by the creator of Resident Evil. Players assume the role of Sam, a high tech soldier in a armored robo suit with kung-fu powers, who's charged with taking on space Russians who've declared war on America by blowing up San Fransisco, with a captured American built orbital solar power station... phew. Of course New York is next. While I have my concerns with the story and dialogue, the game play and graphics seem quite promising.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, VANQUISH:

“I think people will hopefully be impressed with the pictures and video we’ve included from throughout our career,” said Billie Joe Armstrong, vocalist and guitarist for Green Day. “The blackmail MTV has over Green Day is insane!”

“We thought we could have a lot of fun making a Rock Band game and highlight different times in our career, since we’re using so many songs,” said Mike Dirnt, bassist for Green Day. “We just thought it was a cool way to show people something different.”

“There will be some people who know every single song on the disc, which is awesome,” said Tré Cool, Green Day’s drummer. “But for those who don’t, it’s a great way to discover some of the older material.”

Day 3 ended earlier this night just as the neighboring Staples Center was filling up. Major updates will be posted to Gameflak over the next few days. E3 was giganticc and we probably missed a few games; but we definitely got our hands on a few hidden gems such as Scribblenauts for the DS or Global Agenda for the PC. Keep checking the site for updates on this years E3.

Bizarre Creations new racing game Blur will feature 20 online players on both the Xbox 360 and PS3. It will feature over 60 licensed vehicles and an assortment of powerups to compete against your opponents.



The game is slated for release this Fall and is also being released on Games for Windows.

Shogun has been a game that has always impressed me and filled me with historical wonder. Even now, many years after its release, it stands as a nearly perfect strategy/war game. Shogun sparked off a brilliant series of sequels, in different time periods around the world; The Total War series. Now after exploring the Rise of nations and the Napoleonic period, the brilliant folks at the Creative Assembly aregoing back to their roots, revealing that their next project will be Shogun 2. I for one am highly excited.

Shogun trailer

Alan Wake is a fantastic title and does a great job of making you want more once you have beat the game. The basic premise of Alan Wake is that he is a famous author however he is suffering from writer’s block and has been for the past couple of years. His wife Alice thinks a change of scenery will help the situation and so they pack and head up to Bright Falls.Once they get there and get settled in it doesn’t take long before things start going very, very wrong. All of a sudden a story that Alan doesn’t remember writing is starting to come true and he has to figure out what is happening while trying to stay alive in the process. One thing that you will immediately notice is how amazing this title looks, graphically speaking. The vistas can be breathtaking at times and the whole backdrop of the game is stunning. The game play is the perfect complement to this scenery as it completely immerses you into what is going on and you are always peeking around the next corner to see what you will encounter next.

As you have seen from the various trailers that have been released two of your main weapons in the game are your flashlight and a gun. The majority of this game takes place at night which helps with the eerie atmosphere that Remedy was trying to set up. Your flashlight is vital and without learning how to properly use it you won’t survive. The whole light vs. dark mechanic has been done in other games, however, it has never been done this well, in my opinion. To defeat your enemies (aptly named the Taken), you need to do more than just fire your weapon in their direction. You need to use your flashlight and your gun in tandem in order to take them down. You need to shine your flashlight on your enemy until they are weakened enough by the light where they become susceptible to bullets and then you need to quickly disperse of them. Your flashlight also functions as your reticule in the game so wherever you are pointing your flashlight is where Alan is going to shoot the gun. It was a fantastic concept by Remedy and one that helps heighten the tension.Of course you are rarely just fighting one enemy so you have to continuously scan the environment for others that are closing in on you. The enemy A.I. is fairly intelligent in this game and they will attempt to flank you if you give them the chance. There were times where I would end up spinning in a circle for a moment to try and see where the next Taken was coming from. There are no melee attacks in the game but you are able to dodge attacks and if you push the dodge button at just the right moment you will get a brief cinematic moment where the enemy is swinging at you and you just barely avoid the ax he is swinging at your head. If you have your flashlight positioned correctly during this brief cinematic it can help weaken them even when you are on the defensive.

There are different types of enemies in the game so you are going to need to quickly decide your strategy in how you will disperse with them. There are your standard Taken and then there are Taken that are more powerful and will take a lot more before they become susceptible to your bullets. You’ll have to decide whether you want to take out the weaker enemies first while trying to avoid the attacks of the powerful Taken or whether you want to try and take out the big guy first. It adds a layer of tension when you don’t immediately know the type of enemy that you are dealing with. Your flashlight also has two different settings, kind of a low beam and high beam, so to speak. The high setting will weaken the Taken quicker, however, it will also drain the batteries in your flashlight a lot quicker. You are then presented with the choice of whether you want to wait for your batteries to slowly recharge or swap them out for new batteries. You need to be careful how you balance this because you don’t want to run out of batteries but at the same time if your health is really low you need to take out your enemy before he can take you out. 

If you search around the environment you will come across upgrades that can really help you out. You will start out with a standard flashlight and then later on you might find a heavy duty flashlight that has more power, for example. You will also find upgrades for your weaponry where you might have a normal shotgun but then you come across a hunting rifle that packs more of a punch. Exploring your environment is key and that is how you keep you keep your ammo supplies up. As I said earlier there is no melee attack in the game so you want to avoid running out of ammunition at all costs.Either that or become really good at dodging attacks until you can get to the next checkpoint. The checkpoint system in this game is pretty well done and is pretty frequent so you won’t be sent to far back if you get killed. The checkpoints are pretty visible too as they are usually a street lamp or something that is shining a nice bright light on the ground.Standing in this light is a “safe haven” where enemies won’t attack you and if your health is low it will quickly regenerate.Your health will regenerate no matter where you are, however, if you are in a dark forest it regenerates pretty slowly.These checkpoints will frequently offer ammo or other supplies as well so be sure to pay attention to your surroundings so you don’t leave without being properly equipped. With that being said the Taken are not your only enemies. The darkness itself has a tangible presence and is trying to take you out. There are times where you are walking through an area and all of a sudden a truck might come to life as if it was possessed and it will try to take you out. You will have trash barrels and wheelbarrows flying towards your head and coming out of nowhere. It helps to add a lot of tension to the game when you are walking through the environment and you don’t know where the next attack is coming from. Just because you don’t see any Taken in the area doesn’t mean you are safe.

The presentation of Alan Wake was done really well by Remedy and it goes a long way in setting the overall mood and tone of the game. Alan Wake is split up into episodes much like a television show. When you get to the end of an episode you usually have some type of revelation or there is some type of “hero” moment and then the Alan Wake logo appears on the screen and a song starts playing transitioning you between episodes. You can skip the song if you so choose, however, I would always listen to them because it helped keep the mood of the game where Remedy wanted it. Then once that is over, and at the beginning of the next episode, you get a brief recap of some of the key moments that have happened in previous episodes just like if you were watching a television show such as 24 or Heroes. It worked really well in the game and if you are someone that stopped playing after you beat an episode it would help you immediately jump back into things when you returned. There are also televisions that you will find as you progress through the game and if you turn them on you will get to watch an episode of “Night Springs” which is kind of like the Twilight Zone. As I mentioned above you are experiencing a story that Alan doesn’t remember writing so from that aspect the game is also presented as a book as well. As you go through the game you will find manuscript pages strewn around the environment that you will want to collect. By picking these up and reading them it will give you insight into what the story is actually about and it will also have a bit of foreshadowing about what you might encounter in the future. It’s a fascinating idea that Remedy had and the way that they interwove the story that you wrote with the story that you are experiencing was brilliant. As I have continually mentioned your flashlight is basically your lifeline in the game and it can also help you find hidden items. There are parts of the environment that have things written on them that are only visible if you have the light shone directly on them. It might be something as simple as an arrow pointing you in the direction of a hidden chest or it might be some message warning you about an impending danger.

Alan Wake is an absolutely fantastic title and it was definitely worth the long wait. The way that Remedy has woven the story together is fantastic. The environment is stunning both in terms of visuals as well as sounds. The soundtrack is amazing and the overall presentation of the world itself helps keep you immersed in what is happening. You never know what is going to happen next as you explore a dark forest or an abandoned building. There is also the option of watching cinematics again once you have initially viewed them as well as listening to the soundtrack whenever that you want. Personally speaking I always love it when a studio goes the extra mile like that. You will want to go through this title at least a couple of times so that you can get the full story and truly understand everything that is taking place.Remedy has a fantastic new series on their hands and I can’t wait for Alan Wake’s next novel.

The presentation for this game is amazing, with each season being broken down into twelve “episodes”. Each episode will contain six different events. These events will range from a standard race to an elimination mode, air attack and more. Not every event is open to you initially, so you will have to meet the requirements to advance.The requirements can vary from you simply winning a race to making sure you are the last man standing. The number of credits that you receive for an event will be dependent on what place you come in. You will need these credits to unlock new cars and advance in the season. You will also need to wreck as many as your rivals as you can. There will be events where the requirement to unlock it is to wreck a set number of your opponents. The number is cumulative, so you don’t have to wreck them all in the same event. Once you complete an episode, you will then get a choice of which episode you want to do next. You will be presented with two choices here on which path you want to follow. Keep in mind that certain episodes will contain different challenges as well. One episode might feature mainly races while the other one will have more of a variety. It is completely up to you the order in which to choose to complete the episodes.

Split Second features six different game modes which should keep you busy for quite a while: “Race,” “Eliminator,” “Air Attack,” “Revenge Air Attack,” “Survival” and “Detonator”. “Race” is your standard mode where you have to race against seven opponents and the first one across the finish line wins. During the race, you will try to use any power plays you possibly can to take out your opponents, and they will try and return the favor.As for “Eliminator”, the last man driving wins the contest. At the beginning, you have an initial sixty seconds to jockey for position. Once that time limit expires, a car is eliminated every twenty seconds until only one car remains. You will be eliminated if you are in last place when the timer hits zero. The race can become pretty intense as fewer and fewer cars are left on the track, eventually leaving you one on one with another car. That is if you make it that far. The next mode is “Air Attack” where you have a helicopter firing missiles at you. Your job is to try and dodge these missiles, racking up a huge score in the process. You will slowly build a combo if you can pass multiple waves of missiles without getting taken out, with the overall objective of accumulating the high score. You are given some indication where the missiles are going to land, so you can quickly prepare before the dust starts flying. You get three chances in this mode, but after that, game over.

The next mode is “Revenge Air Attack”, and it features one important twist on the “Air Attack” formula. In this mode, you now have the ability to deflect the missiles back at the helicopter. The objective here is to take out that helicopter in the shortest time possible. The next mode is “Survival”, and this one will test how quickly you can react to hazardous objects landing in front of your car. The main objective is to safely pass big trucks without getting hit by the barrels falling out of the back. If you hit a blue barrel, it will briefly slow you down, and if you hit a red barrel, it will take you out completely. The more trucks you pass, the tougher it is to dodge the barrels, so you have to be able think quick and react even quicker. Much like the “Air Attack” mode, you have three chances before it is game over. The final mode is “Detonator”. This is a beat the clock mode where you have to race around a track and try to beat the best time. In this mode, you are alone on the track with power plays automatically going off all around you. You need to survive whatever is thrown at you and make it across the finish line before the target time. In my opinion, these modes help to change the gameplay dynamics enough so you won’t get too bored with any one mode or event.

As fun as Split Second is to play solo, I think this title has amazing potential to be a great party game as well.As you progress in your season mode, you will unlock tracks and events that you can play at your leisure in the “quick play” menu. For gamers that want to play with family and friends, a split screen option is available where you can choose whether you want a vertical or horizontal slice on your screen. I wish all games that offered split screen support would give that option. Online multiplayer is also featured here, and, the entire time I raced online, it ran perfect with no lag at all. Please keep in mind that before you venture online, you will want to make some progress in your season, due to the fact that you can take cars you have unlocked in your season and race with them online. Once you jump online you will immediately be able to distinguish the higher ranked drivers from the people who might not have played the game much. The way that Black Rock Studios handled this is with the number that appears on your race car. Your number is a symbol to the world about where you are at in the online rankings. Everyone starts with number “99” on their car, and, as you begin to win races and accomplish other feats, your number will eventually go up. In my time online, I raced against a couple of people that had “75” on their car, while the majority of people were still in the 90’s. There are even achievements that you can earn by hitting certain numbers online.

As I mentioned above, you need to cause as much havoc as you can in this game and hope the computer doesn’t return the favor. The way that you would do this is by utilizing Power Plays. There is a meter beneath your car that is broken up into three sections, along with two different levels of Power Plays at your disposal.The first two sections are blue, and if you activate them, they will trigger a small event to try and take out your opposition. This could range from a car exploding on the side of the street to a gas station coming down on top of your opponent and much more. If you manage to be patient and get all three sections completely full, then your meter will turn red, and you will then gain access to a level two power play. This is where you can really cause some damage as you can take down whole buildings or change the track itself. There was one race in particular where each lap was different, because either the A.I. or I kept destroying the track and changing the route. The power plays themselves are static, so if you play the game long enough you will know what to expect in terms of where the explosions might take place and things of that nature. I can see where some people might find this repetitive after a little while, but just because you know something is coming doesn’t mean you can avoid it. This is especially true if you are in first place, because the A.I. will try to take you out with their Power Plays, and you don’t know when it is going to happen.

Unfortunately, one of the few negatives about Split Second seems to be the rubber band A.I. You could have a pretty good lead on someone, and then, all of a sudden, it is a close race to the finish. That didn’t happen to me all the time, but there were a few instances where I was surprised that a car was following so close behind me. In fact, there is even an achievement for winning a race by less than a second. The achievements themselves tend to flow very nicely, as I was able to unlock them at a steady pace that would keep me trying to go for the next one. There are also a decent amount of extras in the game where you can check your leaderboard position, the decals you have unlocked, your statistics and more. The leaderboards work really well because it will rank you amongst your friends, and tell you what percentile you are in overall. An example of this would be that, at the time I am writing this review, I was in the top 20% on a particular track from all of the people who have played that track so far.

After sitting down with this game for awhile, it is clear that Black Rock Studios has another hit on their hands. Split Second is an adrenaline fueled racer, where you never quite know what is going to happen next or where the track is going to take you. The premise of this title is based around some of the best car chase scenes that you will find in a blockbuster action film. It’s a visually stunning title and the audio further helps to immerse you in the chaos that is taking place all around you. If you are a fan of arcade racers, then make sure you don’t miss out on this title. If you aren’t a fan of that type of racer, be sure to try out this title anyways as this might be the one that turns you into that fan.