Josh Atkinson

Escape Plan Community Page
Between all the maiming and killing we generally need something to get away from that none stop action and for once place our pulsating brains on the pedestal when taking on a new game. […]

Sleeping Dogs Community Page
It has been quite a while since we were graced with a true open world sandbox game of the likes of Grand Theft Auto. Luckily for fans of the genre, developer United Front Games has […]

Darksiders 2 Community Page
After a 25+ hour binge this week on THQ’s newly released Darksiders 2, I am finally able to give my opinion. After the great beginnings of the Four Horsemen’s journey through the apo […]

It was only till last night that I noticed 24 Caret Game’s Retro/Grade sat upon the PSN Store. From first glance the game looked like a rather generic side scrolling shooter, but what came after when actually […]

Dark Sector’s Community Page
Dark Sector has been out for a couple of years now but it is surprising how well it has aged within the current generation of games. I felt it was justifiable to turn back the time […]

PS Vita users have probably being waiting for a new game to quench their gaming thirst with this summer. With an already strong launch list of games, can PS Vita’s Sound Shapes bring in a new experience for the handheld?

Sound Shapes shows what happens when you make genius minds collaborate on one project. Developed by up and coming developer Queasy games and designed by composing electronic powerhouses Jonathan Mak and Shaw-Han Liem, Sound Shapes proves that Sony’s handheld won’t go down with a fight.

The game plays like your everyday platformer but with a twist. While random observers may look at the game as a blob travelling through inspiring 2d worlds, you the player will see that the game is your canvas and you are the paint. The best way to explain it is if you imagine the 2D levels as a blank interactive music sheet. With this music sheet, you are given the opportunity to put all sorts of unusual objects onto it, each with their own unique sounds and properties. Through the placement of these platforms and objects you are ultimately creating your own electronic soundtrack that you can not only listen to but also interact with through your blob like persona as you bounce and roll over the many musical obstacles set in your way.

While Media Molecule’s Little Big Planet proved to gamers that it is easy to learn a level creator but hard to master it, Sound Shapes gives players an incredibly accessible set of tools that anyone can have fun with from the get go. This is all supported by an easy to use palette of motion controls that will have you tapping your screen and back panel like a crazy futuristic composer as you passionately attempt to create the perfect musical level.

To delve deeper into the level creator I will first like to tip my hat to the developer for bringing so much charm in its included objects and sequencers. The fact that within a matter of five minutes you could have a catchy beat through just tapping around a screen and hoping for the best is something that really suprised me. Each catagory of object or shape presents its own unique use and it is great to see that the such a simplisitic mode can be such a time sink.

Not only that but the game also consists of a large number of shipped levels all created by the team at Queasy Games that are not only excellently designed, but also shows to the gamer what is possible if they put their own mind into the level creator. These premade levels also come with a stream of supporting artists, all with their own levels based on a combination of music such as Deadmau5, Beck and many more. This is all selected through a side ways selection of different album covers which gives me hope that Queasy Games will eventually support the game with future DLC. This isn’t much of a problem though because of the massive amount of potential in its level creator.

Each album finds you “bopping” your way through in involves an individual theme and tone. The second album, and my personally favourite called ‘Corpereal’ consists of your gooey self traversing the pixellated exaggeration of everyday office life. In another you will be rolling and climbing for your dear life as ice-like platforms slowly begin to crack and shatter beneath your slimey feet.

The interesting thing about these levels is that all the happenings and perils are actually part of the level’s musical theme. While Corpereal will have its on-screen desk workers sipping hot coffee to the techno vibe, ‘Hello, World’ the games tutorial album will have you crawling up yawning clouds that each compliment to the current beat. To make things a little more interesting for the player, a number of circular orbs are placed around each area for you to collect. By collecting these orbs you are adding additional notes to the level’s tune. You can ignore these sometimes hard to get notes if you like, but where is the fun in that?

The levels also come with their fair share of dangers and enemies too. By referencing Corperal again, those happy little desk jockeys will sometimes fire their hot coco with an insta killing beam of red. In others you will be hopping on sneezing bugs or learning the pattern of miniture lava shooting volcanoes. This adds to the ever growing challenge and while the game gladly holds your hand in the early stages of your adventure, it is all too happy to drop kick you into defeat at times.

Players who find themselves wanting more out of the short campaign can look forward to a batch of Super Meat Boy style challenges called ‘Death Mode’ levels that not only reward you with much deserved trophies but will also have you coming back again and again to shave off seconds in your favourite toe tapping levels. As I mentioned the game will get harder the further you get into it, so don’t be surprised if you find yourself spending a cluster of hours trying to figure out a certain level or just wanting to raise your time in the leaderboards.

This is all brought together by a manageable community system that will allow you to upload your completion times and levels to thousands of other Shapers and even download their own creations too.
The only question now is, will we one day see a potential expansion where we can add our own favourite songs from current bands and see them brought to life through the already impressive creation system?

Sound Shapes is available now for Playstation 3 and Playstation Vita.

For more information, click here.

Binary Domain’s Community Page
It is no secret that SEGA isn’t the great company it used to be heralded as like back in the days when Sonic the Hedgehog’s name actually meant something. Time after time SEGA hav […]

Darksiders Community Page
It is not every day that a comic book artist gets to see his creations come to life. Luckily for Joe Madureira, THQ gave him full reign on what is now seen as the visual bible of Joe’s i […]

Prototype 2’s Community Page
With superhero movies running rampant this year, it was no surprise that Activision wanted to take a piece of the pie with the sequel to their dark and brooding anti-hero series in […]

If you have ever bought a Grasshopper Manufacture game you will know what to expect from the legendary game developer Suda 51. Lollipop Chainsaw proves that Suda has not lost his touch when it comes to fun, tongue in cheek weekend gaming sessions.

Lollipop Chainsaw follows the short but sweet tale of Juliet Starling, a charismatic, modern age depiction of the American cheerleader stereotype. The thing about Juliet though is that she has a secret, a secret that runs down her entire family tree to this day. Juliet is a zombie hunter. Things get “totally” uncool for Juliet though when the zombie apocalypse suddenly breaks out at her quiet, Sunnydale-esque high school and only Juliet has the tools to fix it.

The first thing to put forward is that Lollipop Chainsaw is a very fun game. While many gamers love a game that they can sink their brain into, Lollipop wants you to put that large lump of meat on the couch next to you and just laugh away at what you’re experiencing. The game doesn’t want to be serious and it also doesn’t want you to be serious when playing it. These is presented best through the game’s unusual take on hack and slash gameplay that uses the standard tools of the trade formula of light and heavy attacks but with an interesting aesthetic difference.

See Juliet doesn’t use a cheap sword or gun, this blonde badass comes equipped with a fistful of pom pom brutality and a custom chainsaw to dish out the finishing blows. Like other games that have come before it Lollipop gives the player a fun, freestyle fighting system that allows them to mix up moves and look the part of the rather flexible cheerleader through light attacks that initially weaken your undead enemies and then allowing you to add the pre-mentioned finishing touch with her trusty chainsaw heavy attacks. If you feel you are getting your butt spanked a little too much you also have a dodge button on hand to get you out of the thick of things. The cool thing about this as well is that even dodging can be used as an offensive ability by using mid air attacks, which backs up my original statement about being able to freestyle in the way you fight your enemies.

To fans of that kind of formula it is incredibly easy to get into and rather pleasing to watch. The combat can be taken further too with the ability to allow more experienced gamers to purchase additional combo moves and abilities. The thing is that the game never forces you to buy these additional move sets and is more than happy to let the player go on their merry way with the already given move set. You may think to yourself that things could get a little boring after a while but seeing as Lollipop has such a short length, you never find much issue to it in the end.

Juliet also has her wisecracking, care bear boyfriend with her, but not in the way you might think. You see Nick had been bitten during the opening segment of the game, which ultimately forced Juliet to save his life…or what was left to be saved. This resulted in Juliet cutting off his head and putting a magical spell on him to keep him in the world of the living. You may think that is a little excessive for a girlfriend to turn her boyfriend into a fashion accessory but I actually found that Juliet and Nick were a pretty well written team and it is great to see writer James Gunn not ignore the fact the Nick has to live with his new found “disability”. This leaves you having fun with their playful bubblegum banter but at the same time caring about if Juliet and her unlucky squeeze will make it to the end.

Luckily for the player and Juliet, Nick comes with a ton of useful abilities even though just looking like a talking paperweight. Later on in the game Juliet will unlock special abilities for Nick that serve as last stand moves that can be used on the fly. These range from instant stun abilities like swinging Nick like a whip to shaking his head like a bulging piggy bank and getting rare items and game currency for purchases. The currency in the game is also a major part of the game and how you upgrade Juliet and her abilities. As I mentioned new comers to the Japanese hack and slash genre won’t have to worry about buying more combos, but other affordable unlockables are also there for the player to work towards with the cash they make. These come in the forms of unlockable costumes, health and damage upgrades, etc.

All this cash can only be accumulated by killing zombies and this is something you will be doing a lot. The formula basically works like this: stun enemies with light attacks and then lop off their dizzy heads for coins. It is a simple thing to follow and it is always a joy to see the multi kill bonus rainbow pop over your victim’s headless corpses as you get a “Sparkle Hunting Combo”. If players want to take their coin collecting even further then they can also use Juliet’s “berserk” mode in the form of a gleeful one hit kill murder fest that is accompanied by the highly entertaining track ‘Lollipop’ that is performed by ‘The Chordettes’. As I mentioned the game doesn’t take itself seriously and everything you do in this game will be in some way making fun of itself, even down to its soundtrack.

This soundtrack is also supported by a stellar voice cast with the likes of Tara Strong from such fame as Harley Quinn from the Batman cartoons and Arkham games. The voice actors obviously had fun making this game and it is great to be able to feel that energy that the cast must have been omitting in the recording studio through the game.
Sadly those looking for an attractive game probably won’t find it here. Lollipop does look a little dated but this is all made up for with the great character designs of Juliet and her countless undead rivals. This doesn’t save the rather ugly environments though and you never feel like you are ever in a memorable location. To be honest you probably won’t even remember half the locations you visited after completing the game.

For more information, click here.

With the release of the highly anticipated Dark Knight Rises among us, it was not a surprise that the block buster movie would receive a video game adaptation. Does this game break the trend of horrible video game movie tie-ins?

The Dark Knight Rises iOS starts off about half way through the film with Batman investigating a lead on the cat burglar Selina Kyle. Developer Gameloft have tried their best here to keep additional plot devices out of the game and only focusing on key plot points for players to take part in. This is probably because of the overall lack of Batman throughout certain portions of the story and because of this, you may start out a little confused with what is going on in the story if you haven’t seen the movie.

For what it included though, it is a pretty good digital adaption for people wanting to get a little more out of the Nolan trilogy as you take on the open world environment of Gotham City. Players are cast as the brooding Dark Knight as he goes on a personal mission to defeat Bane and stop his plans to destroy Gotham city. As mentioned the plot can be a little confusing to new comers. You won’t know who a select number of the new characters are without taking a trip down to your local cinema but thankfully the game keeps the story skipping along with additional plot as to give your time as Batman a little more duration. For people who have seen the movie, you will find that half of the stuff you do while playing never actually happened in the film, such as an extended escape from a Mexican prison that was obviously designed to give the level more than just 4 minutes in length. Apart from that you could say that the story while dressed as the caped crusader was actually happening between the scenes that you never saw during the movie. This does bring a little bit of contradiction to the overall plot though as Batman was in a little bit of a hurry during the final moments of the film which I won’t spoil but in the game he is given all the time he needs to defeat Bane. This can make the story drag a little as you never feel the tension that the film portrayed when Batman take the fight to Bane at that final part in the movie.

As mentioned, the game adds its own extra bits of plot to add length to the game and to not spoil anything for unaware gamers. This will consist of grapple gunning, driving and punching your way through the entirety of Gotham City in missions and side quests that allow Batman to disrupt Bane and his lackies plans. I would probably say thought that this is one story you won’t be sitting on the edge of your seat on sadly.
Not only that but the game looks great too with a sharply modelled Batman that looks like a spitting image of his original movie version. The detail on the bat suit itself is textured wonderfully and when the game places rain into the environment, you won’t be able to help drooling over the addition of seeing the rainfall run down the kevlar vest. Gotham looks great too but doesn’t add much variety in terms of buildings additional environments. Everything fits well enough together and is pretty close to what you might expect from a preview era PS2 game like Max Payne2: Fall of Max Payne with the added shine. Sadly other characters including the villainous Bane are given less love with their visual rendering as all attention seems to have been put on Batman himself.

The gameplay is actually the star of the show here. Taking many inspirations from Rocksteady’s Arkham franchise, Dark Knight Rises gives you full control of Batman in the palm of your hand. Controlling the caped crusader is done with the usual use of virtual analog sticks and they actually work really well. Additional actions are provided with buttons mapped on the right side of the screen that allow you to punch, jump counter and use your grapple gun and batarangs. Surprisingly all these buttons don’t get in the way of the action or your thumbs you so will be bringing justice to baddies as soon as you pick up the IPhone/ iPad with the really accessible controls.

To traverse around the city Batman can use two different abilities to journey between the connecting rooftops with the use of a grapple gun and cape. The grapple gun works a lot like the Arkham’s grapple gun or Team Ninja’s Tenchu as you freely aim your reticule at the corners of ledges and fire away freely to make it to the tops of platforms. When you need to travel a great distance you simply just press jump button and Batman will open his cape and soar gracefully across the city. All this is controllable too which means you will be able to duck and weave between the many buildings as your make your way to the next objective. Not only this but during other missions you will be given control of the popular Bat-pod motorcycle or the film’s newly introduced aerial Bat vehicle. These all work great within the games tiny interface with simple controls like turning, accelerating and reverse. I will say though that it was a shame that when turning in the Bat-pod that you don’t get to experience the cool aesthetic of the films on Bat cycle in which the wheels roll sideways when turning corners. It is only a nit-pick though and is probably just based on the limitations of the game and its hardware.

Taking on thugs is easy to do too with continuous button presses on the screen. To mix things up the enemies will occasionally fight back from behind to which forces you to mix up the fighting with well-timed counter attacks or block breaking somersaults over enemy heads. It all feels fantastically fluid and each fight looks and feels great as well. Combat goes that one step further with additional gadgets to use too such as flashbangs, batarangs, and the already mentioned grappling hook which allows you to pull unsuspecting enemies towards you for a quick knockout. These gadgets can be improved on through the course of the game too by using earned credits and XP from defeating enemies to upgrade and unlock other gadgets. Some of these gadgets include softening your footsteps so that you can perform stealthy take downs and making your cape become a nano enhanced cloak so that you can hunt your enemies by air without being detected. This is all greatly welcomed and brings in a lot of replay value as you battle to unlock more and more gadgets and content. Puzzle fans can get some fun out of the game too which the in-game hacking feature which allows you to unlock hidden areas and gadget boxes through the use of a pipe mania type mini game. Tapping the little icons to line up the lights to the goal is all easy to do and just as tense as the combat as you battle against time to gain entry to hidden hostages or mystery prizes.

While the gameplay is great, the sound design can be a little bit of a mixed bag. Sadly none of the movie’s cast members return to portray their respective roles and are instead replaced with voice actors that try their best with the talents they possess. While Bruce Wayne may sound a little different, their lead VA for Batman is a great interpretation of the gruff, sore throated super hero. Alfred also gets a nice little bit of attention with a solid voice actor; while Bane leaves with a ultimately disappointing portrayal with no deep, threatening evil touches to his accent like the super talented Tom Hardy gave us in the movie.

The score is kept epic throughout though with some borrowing of the great DKR soundtrack. This helps the combat segments a lot in adding that instrumental touch to the overall feel of continuous battle. I felt though that the free roaming segments in between could have used with some louder music though as gliding through the air as Batman feels a little empty at times without something closer to DKR’s main theme music that is used in the film. All in all it can feel like the background music is a little too quiet at times or just missing in places.

For more information, click here.

With iPhone and Android games dominating the portable gaming market at the moment, it forces indie developers into a grudge match of supreme proportions in which games will become the next big hit. Developer NeonFive is giving it a shot with their modern take the never ageing classic ‘4 in a 3D Row’.

4 in a 3D Row boasts an unusual visual style that will have your eyes seduced by its initial beauty. The game takes the retro 4 in a row formula and takes it up a notch or two with an all new cube grid interface.

It is a simple, yet attractive design with a shining gleam of neon green focused colour palette which I will admit had me saying “wow” at first sight. I am a sucker for futuristic looking interfaces especially those that give you a ‘Tron’ vibe. NeonFive’s 4 in a 3D Row presents a new aspect to the competitive coin dropping past time in which the grid is given multiple sides and layers to it so that a player can take an alternate route to victory. The game’s visuals allow for a simple understanding of this layout and the learning curve to getting used to the new layout is easy to catch on with. Your eyes won’t be intimidated by the proclaimed 3D feature either as it basically is just stating that the game is played on a cube grid as I mentioned.

4 in a Row 3D is also very easy to interact with too, even on an iPhone or iPad. To place a token on the grid, the player just simply taps the screen and then their coloured piece is placed. It is a simple as that. Not only that but because the grid is multi layered, it will also require the player to turn the cube and place more pieces on different parts. This is taken care of by just pressing your finger down on the screen and dragging your finger in whatever direction you would like the cube to turn. Easy, no?

The game sports two modes for players to have a go with which consist of single player AI battles or provoking multiplayer contests. If you are simply looking for a quick 1 player match against the games CPU then you can with a selection of different difficulty modes. I found a problem with the AI though especially on easy in which the sneaky CPU will curve in difficulty from time to time. Sometimes it will go on an all-out onslaught to make sure you are defeated while other times it will just place randomly scattered pieces on the board while you make a 4 in a row without much effort. This makes the AI a little unpredictable and not in a fun way. While initially trying to get used to the game, the easy mode AI would destroy me over and over again until suddenly it just became a blind drunk and started playing completely recklessly.

This can be put to one side though with the ability to play with actually intelligent human opponents. The multiplayer is a great addition to the overall package and is supported with a lag free experience that will have you determined to conquer the leaderboards for weeks to come. While the game does require registering to its servers, the process is effortless and doesn’t want you to give away your email address either which makes a great change from being spammed by the general streams of emails from acts of registration.

4 in a 3D Row is available now on the ITunes store.

For more information, click here.

Starhawk’s Community Page
Being a fan of the original Warhawk for Playstation 3 gave me a lot of anticipation for the recent sequel Starhawk. I was one of the first to lay down my wad of £30 on the counter at […]

Thoughts VS Opinions on Could Dead Space 3 Be The End For Isaac Clarke?

Being a Dead Space fan is like being an unusual breed of gamer. On the one hand you have two amazing games to currently experience in the […]

Krater’s Community Page
Welcome to the world of Krater, or as we used to call it ‘Sweden’.

This role playing game starts off with your transparent-self waking up in the aftermath of what probably was the par […]

Blacklight Retribution’s Community Page
A few days ago I watched the trailer for Blacklight Retribution via Steam and boy was I surprised. Developed by Zombie Studios, Blacklight: Retribution once again puts […]

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Future Soldier’s Community Page
As you know games trailers are made to excite us for some kind of upcoming gaming spectacle and Ghost Recon Future Soldier was for me on of those potential […]