In recent years two of video games’ longest standing arcade franchises have made attempts to completely reinvent themselves. While other games have tried with XBLA and PSN rereleases of slightly updated versions of games that have been around for 20 plus years, “Pac-Man” and “Space Invaders” have gone the extra mile to truly update their experience for an entirely different generation of gamers. Up until the release of “Space Invaders Extreme 2” I would have said that “Pac-Man C.E.” was at the head of this particular pack, but this little DS game packs such an astounding punch it edges out our little yellow friend by just a hair. On the surface, “Space Invaders Extreme 2” is a very close follow-up to the original DS, PSP, and XBLA release, but upon digging deeper, you notice that virtually every aspect of the game has been polished and then turned up to hyper speed in this release.

If you’ve somehow managed to never set your hands on a “Space Invaders” games (for shame) the basic gist of it is to stop the aliens, or “space invaders,” from attacking from the top of the screen. These tiny creatures slowly encroach on the bottom of the screen, and the player is in charge of putting an end to them by shooting from a ship stationed at the lowest point of the screen. It’s as basic of an action arcade game as you can get, and, it’s one of the few video games that can, unequivocally, be considered a Classic. Like the original “Space Invaders Extreme,” “Extreme 2,” turns the classic “Invaders” formula completely on its head, and creates an entirely new experience. It’s more than just a flashy new coat of paint; these games layer multiple new mechanics on top of the shoot-the-invaders concept to create all kinds of new challenges.

At its most basic level “Space Invaders Extreme 2” has you shooting and killing the invaders, which come in a whole variety of sizes, shapes, and colors, much like the original. While they don’t attack at you from every angle (it’s still pretty much still just from the top) they have a host of different attack and defense methods, which keep the game going at an impressive pace, and puts it almost on the same level of some of the less complicated shmups that are out there.

For the most part, “Extreme 2″ is really just an extension of the original “Extreme,” which isn’t by any means a bad thing (I think I already established that game was pretty amazing), but there’s only a few actual changes and additions to the game. One of the biggest additions is a Time Attack mode, which is a perfect fit, as “Extreme 2″’s hectic gameplay lends itself to speedy completions perfectly. And, if that’s still not enough for you, Ranking Mode allows you to blow your way through the levels then upload your scores to the network, and see how you rank against other players.

One of the other big changes in “S.I.E. 2″ is the integrated mini games that replace the cut away games from the original. If the player can clear the invaders in certain color patterns they’ll have the opportunity to shoot down a multicolored flashing ship as it crosses the top of the screen. If you can take it out, you’ll have the chance to go into “Fever Time” if you can clear out the mini game on the DS’ top screen, while you continue to take out the invaders on the lower screen. If you can complete the mini game you’ll be rewarded with “Fever Time” where you can score big points, both on the top and bottom screens. This is a big step away from the original where if you shot the multicolored ship you would be taken to a whole other screen for the duration for the mini game, and then thrown back into the gameplay when that was over. “Extreme 2″’s method works a lot better, since it’s a seamless experience, and actually makes the main screen’s action even more crazy. Add to that the inclusion of another bonus mode, called “Bingo,” (which is set off in virtually the same manner as the others – shooting the invaders in certain patterns) and you can tell that the developers really wanted to revamp the bonus experience in this game.

“Space Invaders Extreme” was one of the most creative takes on a classic game ever, and “Space Invaders Extreme 2″ follows suit perfectly. The developers didn’t try to fix anything that wasn’t broken, and that means this game is right about on par with the original. If you’re good enough to run through the score mode in about twenty minutes, you’re sure to find some other way to play (or simply replay) the game, and it’s because of that this game manages to retain its arcade roots, while layering on entirely new graphics and gameplay. The game’s amazing music, multiplayer, and hectic gameplay will all be very familiar to anyone that picked up the original, but for those who didn’t “Exteme 2″ is more than worth the $20 price tag.

Rating: 4/5
 
“Space Invaders Extreme 2″ was published by Square Enix for the Nintendo DS on October 19, 2009.

The MMORPG market is overcrowded; it’s almost as bad as folks who like to write game articles for a living. With the successes of past games such as “Ultima Online,” “Everquest,” and “World of Warcraft,” many companies, both big and small, are trying to capitalize on this crowd of literally millions of subscription paying players. However, all these games have one thing in common: They are based in stereotypical fantasy settings. “Fallen Earth: Welcome to Apocalypse” doesn’t follow the story of elves, orcs, goblins, or dwarves, but throws you into a world where a good portion of humanity is wiped out by a dire event. Instead of playing a hero, you take a role as a survivor in this dead world, but can “Fallen Earth” survive the competition?

As a tutorial, the game immediately starts you off in the Hoover Dam. You are awake from a Pod and this is where “Fallen Earth” explains small bits of the background story, as well as provides you with the knowledge you’ll need to play the game. It does a very good job explaining the basics, such as interacting with NPCs, looting, and its first-person combat. All of this is done via dialog and interactive scenes, in fact, you have to go through the tutorial to even get to the “real” game. As a taste of things to come, you start at max level and have some cool weapons to use during your brief stay in the Hoover Dam. It’s an introduction that works very well for those who may be new to the genre, but it’s also a great refresher for MMO veterans.

You will not only learn how to pillage and kill while in the Dam however, as you will also learn a bit about the storyline. I won’t give details, but with my experiences in MMO games, “Fallen Earth” is definitely one of the top games in terms of writing. It actually makes sense and collaborates with the MMO playstyle (e.g. you kill stuff and run around the place). This is a very welcome change in a genre well-known to have the writing take a backseat.

While writing and having a tutorial are necessities for any game, MMOs need to have an enjoyable combat system to be considered worthy of gamers, especially the ones that have to part with their cash on a monthly basis. “Fallen Earth” has a great combat system, and it’s not because of its littered with hundreds of skills but rather, there’s interaction involved. The entire game takes place in first person, so whenever you need to punch someone, or shoot something, you need to have your crosshairs over them and click. This alone makes the game much more enjoyable than most other MMOs, as you aren’t just selecting a target, auto attacking, and pressing different keys for flashy numbers to show up. Enemies are well aware of this mechanic, so they try their best to strafe around you, and move to make your life harder while they zap away your health.

Combat isn’t the only thing that keeps an MMO afloat, as you also need a good character customization system. “Fallen Earth” comes with a classless system: When you upgrade your character, you are given points to spend on their skills or attributes, consisting of the general attributes that you’ve heard before, like Dexterity, Endurance, and Strength. There is one catch though: There is no option to re-spec or change your skills once you apply them, and no matter what, they stay with your character. Fortunately, there are “templates” that give you recommended attributes and skills to upgrade, so there isn’t much worry about making mistakes if you have a clear idea on what you want to do in “Fallen Earth.”

Economy and crafting also play a vital role in “Fallen Earth,” as almost everything can be crafted, and you get parts from salvaging anything from the landscape. Need glass? Go find a car in the desert. Need a gun? Time to head to the auction house, and grab yourself a user created weapon. “Fallen Earth” really places an emphasis on combing through the landscape, and grabbing whatever you can just to make a few chips (”FE”’s currency). It definitely gives off a similar the vibe as the old “Star Wars Galaxies,” where player interaction was more than just creating parties. The crafting system is quite easy to understand, as it shows you what you need, and how much time is needed to craft the item. Yes, minutes, and sometimes hours are spent just to make one item, but fortunately this time is spent even when you’re offline, and you can still do quests while crafting.

While this all sounds like a good concept, “Fallen Earth” is not perfect. It suffers from multitudes of issues, mainly from a technical stand point. Whether this is due to poor testing or the common “launch bugs” experienced in other MMOs is up for debate, but “FE”’s current condition makes it hard to praise it across the board.

First and foremost, the framerate and lag is unbearable. Going into towns is a slide show experience, and considering this is where you need to buy, sell, and quest, this makes a crucial part of the game virtually unplayable. When outside of town, the game runs very smoothly, but can also lose framerate if loads of creatures are on the screen (e.g. half a dozen bandits).

The other issue is the grinding itself. This is by no means a fast paced game where you’re moving from one area to another. You will be spending lots of time in one concentrated area, and although there are plenty of quests in the starting towns, most of them require you to continuously go to a handful of areas over and over again. To make grinding even more noticeable, your inventory takes a bit of time to upgrade due to high requirements to use different equipment. It took me several hours before I was able to wear boots that gave me armor.

However, the biggest offender is the graphics themselves. There is nothing wrong with games from indie developers that don’t have the graphics to compete with the big names, but some of the “Fallen Earth”’s animations are the worst I’ve ever seen in an MMO game. Some characters don’t have strafing animation, so when they move sideways the same way they are animated to walk forward. There are even some issues with clipping, as you see creatures go on top of objects by simply gliding over them. In short, this is a game that won’t be used for benchmarking powerful PCs anytime soon.

With all this being said, “Fallen Earth” is a decent game if you’re willing to accept its flaws. It definitely has the vibe of the early 2000 MMOs like “Everquest” and “Star Wars Galaxies,” although it contains the same problems as those games. The animation and frame rate issues detract from the one of the best combat systems in the genre, as well as an enjoyable player-run economy. Unfortunately, at its current buggy state, it’s hard to recommend this unless you’re a die-hard MMO fan who wants something more challenging than the silver spoon games like “WoW.” However, if the bugs are fixed and the issues are resolved, “Fallen Earth: Welcome to Apocalypse” might end being a game to look out for as it definitely has some good ideas behind it.

Rating: 3.5/5

 
“Fallen Earth” was developed and published by Fallen Earth, LLC for release on September 29, 2009 for the PC.

At this point, the “Katamari” formula is tried and true. However, not every console has had the honor of having The Prince and his royal ball rolling grace it with their presence. The PS3 stuck out like a sore thumb after having lost the game’s last console release, “Beautiful Katamari,” to the Xbox 360, and getting “Noby Noby Boy” instead. Well, Sony scored the Prince again with the release of “Katamari Forever,” and even though it looks like the Prince is rolling up a familiar tree for this release, he’s got a few new tricks up his sleeve for anyone who’s down to roll a katamari, whether they’re longtime fans, or completely new to the series.

Any game with the word “Katamari” in the title is bound to be a great game, and “Forever” follows suit, as expected. The thing about this particular release though, is that, if you’re a fan of the series, you’ve probably already played most of the game. It’s basically a collection of classic levels, from different games, put together on one disc, with some added original and additional content sprinkled in for variety. While it somehow manages to work its way perfectly into the game’s usually nonsensical story, some players who may be hoping for something new with this release may feel like they’ve already bought and paid for most of this content, and end up a little upset.

The story is a classic “Katamari” tale, except this time, the King of the Cosmos has nothing to do with destroying it – in fact, he isn’t even conscious for most of this game. At the very beginning of the story, The King gets clocked by a meteor from outer space, and ends up in some kind of weird coma. In order to keep harmony in the universe, The Prince constructs a replica of his father, The Roboking, to take his place while Pop is infirmed. Somehow, The Roboking manages to destroy the Cosmos, and, again it is up to The Prince to clean up the mess. And, at the same time, help his father collect his memories (that’s where the classic levels come in), and wake up. Mixed in are some side stories involving giant robots, and The Queen, and it all makes for an entirely insane “plot” that probably won’t make sense to 99% of the people that play the game anyway – after all the “Katamari” games biggest selling point is the unique gameplay.

Fortunately, the gameplay stays in tact, and is actually a bit more fine-tuned than the previous release. You still roll with the analog sticks, and navigate around collecting as much junk to make your katamari bigger to create planets. However, there’s two big changes in this game, the first of which is the ability to jump. Yes, The Prince can now leap to out of reach places, instead of having to build a big enough ball to make his way up there. While the developers could have taken this added mechanic and exploited it a bit more, by making levels where platforming is key, or even adding secret parts of the levels hidden above the ground, they don’t really take advantage of it. The other biggest, and possibly the most important change for “Katamari Forever” is the return to even analog sticks. The last three releases (“Beautiful,” “Me & My” and the iPhone version) have all had different, and unbalanced controller setups, creating for some potential confusion while playing. However, “Katamari Forever” is a return to form, and fans will be happy to know it feels just as good as the original.

The was one small addition to the game that I thought was long overdue, but it finally made its appearance – power-ups. As you roll around each level, you’ll occasionally see a pillar of purple light, which indicates that a power-up is waiting for you, the best of which acts like a vacuum and sucks up all the nearby items, increasing your katamari instantly. It’s kind of surprising how long its taken to get something like that added in, but their inclusion could rub the traditionalists the wrong way.

In addition to the new jump, power-ups, and the old dual analog, there isn’t really a whole lot new here. In terms of unlockables, you can still roll up presents, and a whole bunch of your cousins, but there’s little else in each world that will give you incentive to explore. You can unlock new filters for each level after you beat them, and they basically skin the entire look of the level to look like a comic, wood, classic, in addition to the new default one which looks amazing in 1080P. One especially nice little touch in “Forever” was that they included some of the ending mini-games from the previous releases, so you can replay the endings from “Beautiful” and “We Love” all over again.

“Katamari Forever” did something for me that I never thought any game could do; it helped me understand “Madden” fans. Every year they buy essentially the same game, with a few tweaks, and an upgrade here or there, and usually a fresh coat of paint, and then they play it until the next one comes out. That’s basically what this version of “Katamari” is – they could even rename it “Katamari 10” and I don’t think anyone would question it. But, now I get it, because the game is exactly what I wanted it to be, more of the same. No one does rolling puzzle games quite like The Prince, and that’s how it should stay.

Even though it may feel like a journey that you’ve taken before, “Katamari Forever” is still a trip worth taking – whether it’s down memory lane, or a path less taken. If you already know the franchise, and haven’t had enough of it yet, you should absolutely pick it up because it’s the same gameplay, funny cutscenes and catchy (but now remixed) music that you’ve grown to love. If you’ve never played any of the previous ones then this is a must have for you as well. However, that’s not to say this game is for everybody. If you’re looking for something entirely new, then you may want to stay away from this game, and hold out for a full fledged follow up.

Rating: 3.75/5

 
“Katamari Forever” was developed and published by Namco Bandai games for the Playstation 3, and was released on September 22, 2009.

“A Boy and His Blob” was a beloved NES game from the mind of David Crane (“Pitfall,” “Night Trap”) where you got to feed a friendly blob jellybeans and he would change into helpful objects. That concept was recently revisited, almost 20 years after the original game’s release for a whole new generation of gamers. WayForward’s Sean Valesco was one of the creative minds behind that reimagining, and we recently had a chance to ask him a few questions about how he got started in the industry, who he is as a gamer, and where he sees things going in the future.

Name: Sean Velasco
Title: Director
Company: WayForward
Job Description: Designing and directing games from inception to completion. Pitching game concepts, giving feedback, creating mockups, doing level design, sketching ideas out, and generally bothering programmers and artists alike.
First title worked on: “Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas” (CELL)
Most recent title worked on: “Contra 4″ (DS), “A Boy and his Blob” (Wii)

What game has most influenced you, and why?
I’d have to say “Super Metroid” on SNES. It’s my favorite game of all time. The controls, the abilities Samus collects, and the shooting action… it’s all second to none! Perhaps the best part is the presentation. With no cut scenes or dialog, the game weaves an interesting tale and generates a palpable sense of isolation and tension. It’s all totally interactive.

What are you playing right now?
I am always in the middle of like twenty different games. “Fallout 3″ has been in my Xbox a ton lately. I am loving “Half-Minute Hero” for PSP; it’s a tongue-in-cheek RPG that you finish in 30 seconds. I am playing through “Cave Story” again, which is a fantastic little PC game that is the work of a single talented person. The new “Monkey Island” games by Telltale are also quite good. I’m interested in “Demon’s Souls” on PS3, which has some of the most intriguing multiplayer concepts in recent memory. Lastly, I am eagerly awaiting “Modern Warfare 2.”

What was your first break in the games industry?
Right out of college some buddies and I put together a cell phone game. It was a top-down puzzler like “Adventures of Lolo” (NES). It starred a cute demon and we called it “Heck Razor”. We managed to catch the attention of Disney mobile, which promptly has us re-skin the game to sell as “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”

What’s the best advice you’ve ever gotten?
It’s probably a common one, but I guess it’s “be yourself”. Don’t fake it! Everyone will know if you aren’t into what you do. Find out what you can be the best at, and what you can enjoy doing, and then just go for it. There are always ups and down, good and bad projects, but it’s tremendous to wake up every day excited about going to my job and being creative.

Where do you look for inspiration?
Everywhere! Past and current experience, films and games, and even dreams. Recently, I had a nightmare about this horrible charred little creature. I had to make a sculpture of it in order to get it out of my mind. Now it sits in my house and it’s no longer scary.

Often, thinking about the controller will give you an idea for how a new game should play. For instance, I was thinking about the PS3’s motion control wand, and the idea for a new game popped into my head. Oddly enough, it’s currently in prototyping stages for DSiware as opposed to that platform.

Many times I will see a new game’s feature and think to myself “we could implement this in a better way!” That sense of frustration at the NES game’s implementation was a large inspiration for making a new “A Boy and His Blob” game.

Lastly, when a game follows genre conventions, it’s also good to get immersed in the pop culture world of that concept. For “A Boy and His Blob,” it was animated films. For “Contra 4,” it was action flicks.

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned about game development?
Writing documentation and planning designs out is a big part of my job. However, in the long run, the only thing that matters is the final game itself. All the ideas and planning get thrown out the window if the game isn’t impressive. It may sound obvious, but the most important thing is to focus on the game! Everything else is secondary.

Who do you think will come out on top this console generation?
Tough to say! Wii has been hugely successful but I think it will be hard to keep that up. Many people have been buying it but not buying more games for it; low attach rate is a bummer. I love the Xbox 360; their online infrastructure is second to none. It has a bunch of amazing games both retail and downloadable. The PS3 is still a mystery, but it’s picking up steam. I don’t think it’s shown its full potential yet, which is a funny thing to say about a system that’s already been around for 3 years. So in short, I don’t know. They all have good points. My only hope is that motion waggle games die a horrible death the same way that FMV games did.

What do you think is the biggest problem current games suffer from?
Most big-budget single player games nowadays don’t feel much like games to me. They lead you on a journey that you know you are going to win. You press buttons for quick-time events and experience calculated “wow” moments at all the right places. It’s like applying a traditional 3-act structure to a movie. Whenever that “lowest of the low” point happens about 2/3 of a way through a film and the main character has a sad montage where he wistfully looks into his reflection in a puddle of water, I just tune out. It’s boring. Budgets are so big that nobody can take a risk with those types of games. So, that’s a problem.

I also think that peripheral fever is a big problem nowadays; not that they exist, but that developers are using them in bad ways. From balance boards to fake guitars, everyone is trying to shoehorn designs to work with these new technologies. The way I see it, if your game design is only possible with the new technology, then you should use it. Otherwise, stay away!

Lastly, I’d say that value is a big nebulous thing with games right now. The prices people are paying are way out of whack. For instance, a digital copy of a game is generally the same price as a retail copy. Why? A digital copy is usually a non-transferable piece of data. They didn’t have to print a disc or a box. It didn’t have to be shipped anywhere. I can’t sell it back to the store, or even loan it to a friend. It’s not worth anything close to a hard copy of a game that you physically own. Micro transactions seem to be skewed too. Paying additional costs for what used to be free (multiplayer modes, maps, cheats, unlockables skins for characters, etc. ) is a slippery slope. The problem is that games are getting more expensive to make, so we are nickel and diming players to cover the cost. The solution? Don’t make such expensive games!

What is the most important thing that has happened to gaming in the last 10 years?
Digital distribution. We haven’t even scratched the surface, but it’s huge. It’s now possible for small games and indie projects to come to fruition without a publisher. Games like “‘Splosion Man,” “World of Goo,” “Mighty Flip Champs!,” “Cave Story” on Wii… we’re going to see labors of love; inventive and original ideas coming from everywhere! This, combined with a new emphasis on user-generated content, is an enormous leap for innovation in games. It’s a very exciting time!

Where do you see gaming in 5 years?
I think the current crop of consoles is going to last much longer than the previous ones. We’re getting to a point of diminishing returns, so we can probably hold out. The exception might be handhelds, where we are seeing a lot of competition and evolution very quickly.

The landscape will probably be like a magnified version of what we have now; games with huge budgets that are major productions, all the way down to tiny indie games like you have on DSiware and iPhone. I expect this to become even more stratified as companies find their niche and flourish there.

I’m guessing that motion control and the other nonstandard interfaces currently en vogue will die out, leaving only the strongest. For example, IR control on the Wii allows for precision aiming; it’s like a mouse for your TV. That’s a great thing that should be iterated on.

Overall, I’d keep in mind that 5 years isn’t that long of a time. 5 years ago, weren’t we still playing “Half-Life,” “Halo,” and “Grand Theft Auto”?

The release of the “Lego Star Wars” games a few years ago somehow managed to usher in a new hybrid genre of games; cute, but complex. It may have almost been almost inevitable in today’s gaming market, since the original “gamers” are now well grown up, and starting to have families, if they haven’t already for years, and there’s only so much graphic violence you can introduce into a home with youngins. Which brings us to “Mini Ninjas,” a tale of the last ninja, on a quest to save his friends, and his village from an evil master. Sure, it could have been hyper violent, like some ninja games tend to be, but developer IO Interactive went a different way with the game, making it more cute and cuddly than bloody and gory. Fortunately, the game’s overall look and feel don’t detract from the quality of the game, so it isn’t so adorable that you can’t play it without hating yourself for enjoying it.

At first glance “Mini Ninjas” is a very simple two button game, that has you running around various environments hacking and slashing enemies as they attack. However, that’s just where the game starts, and it gets more complex from there. You get to jump between multiple characters with the click of a button, as well as use a host of magic spells and weapons. Simply put, it may look like a kids game, but it sure doesn’t play like one.

The game starts in the village of Ninja Mountain, where all of the most qualified ninjas have left, and not returned after investigating mysterious figures that were capturing woodland creatures. You play as the last ninja left in town, Hiro, who also appears to be the first member of the tribe in many years with the skills to harness Kuji magic. So, after a crash course in perfecting your skills you are sent out to save your friends, and take down the Evil Samurai Warlord, who has thrown off the balance of nature. It’s a large task for such a mini warrior.

The basic gameplay is extremely simple, with attack and stun on the X and Y buttons respectively, with X being your jump button. They’re your main course of attack, but they are far from your only options. Your right trigger allows you to use a secondary attack, weapon, or spell (as long as you’re playing as Hiro), which can be selected on the fly from a mini-menu using RB. The LB allows you to change your characters, as long as you have unlocked them. By the end of the game, there are six different playable characters, each with their own skills that you need to use to defeat enemies or solve certain puzzles. Each character also has their own special attack that can be activated by holding Y, which can usually help you take out large groups of enemies, and they range from exploding arrows to entrancing your attackers and making them dance. There’s something for everyone in this game no matter how you play, whether you like heavy hand-to-hand attacks, stealth, or long ranged attacks, there’s a character that will suit you, but you’ll always end up coming back to Hiro.

Hiro’s Kuji magic skills are what make him the standout character in the game. As you progress through the game, you’ll find shrines that unlock additional skills that only Hiro can take advantage of, making him the most powerful character. The attacks may be fairly standard – lightning, fireballs, wind, etc – but the “Mini Ninjas”’ inclusion and implementation are both smooth and fun.

The game’s graphics also keep with the “mini” style of the game; attractive, but kid-friendly. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the game’s art style, as it hits the exact audience that the game is targeted at, kids smart enough to know what’s going on, and adults that are really still kids on the inside. The environments tend to be a little repetitive early on in the game, where you spend most of your time wondering around forests, but as you progress, Hiro’s adventure will take him to a number of different locations.

There’s really only a handful of downsides to “Mini Ninjas,” and if you can get past what the game looks like, and the simplicity of its controls (both of which could actually be upsides for you) then you’re likely to find a game that virtually anyone can enjoy… as long as your mind is open enough to want to play a game staring tiny ninjas (and really who doesn’t).

Rating: 4/5

 
“Mini Ninjas” was developed by IO Interactive and published by Eidos for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Nintendo Wii, PC and DS on September 8, 2009. This review is based on the Xbox 360 version of the game.

Naughty Dog’s “Uncharted 2 Among Thieves” leaves you breathless. It’s tough to find a game that mixes well proven game development techniques and leaves a solid impression on you. This is something that you can’t really understand this until you play the game. With a much longer single player experience than the original, stronger visuals, tightened gameplay, on-line co-op and multiplayer, it’s near impossible not to like “Uncharted 2.”

The actual single player campaign is a linear affair – move from point A to B, take out bad-guys, and collect treasures. If you have the patience, searching for all the treasures in “Uncharted” will extend your single player experience even further, as some of the treasures are well hidden and are in places that you would least expect. As you start the game, you will spend the majority of your time trying to figure out how Drake ended up on a train that’s about to fall into a crevice that makes the Grand Canyon look like a sand box. After you go globe trotting, you will be confronted with the main antagonist in a climatic battle in the lost city of Shangri-la. You will travel to museums, the jungle, on top of trains, under forgotten sewers, through temples, and jump from one moving jeep to the next.

With hardly a dull moment, “Uncharted” continues to borrow a lot from the Hollywood style blockbuster movies we know and love. It is the one game that your girlfriend, or mom, may actually sit and watch you play without getting bored. The story is always engaging and you build a fondness for all the characters; even the villains. The banter between Drake and the other denizens of the “Uncharted” world is always fun to hear. You can’t help but wonder if this was the movie style presentation that Kojima was aiming for in his “Metal Gear Solid 4″ game. The Borneo stage where you fight the Hind-D helicopter will be engraved in your mind as long as you have the brain cells to retain the action sequence. What really drives your eye balls crazy is how well Naughty Dog was able to handle the transitions between gameplay, cutscenes, and back to gameplay in this 720P title. Everything happens so smoothly that it catches you off guard, shocks you, engages you, and then gives you control again without making you feel too disconnected from the on-going chaos. Another example of this is when you have to escape from a building that just had it’s guts blown away. It begins to crash into another building and you are expected to kill off baddies and get out at the same time.

Kudos to the level designers as the stages bring a level of detail that you just don’t see in other titles. Even though “Uncharted 2″ is not presented in 1080i/p, it still leaves you amazed when you consider some of the approaches taken for visual appeal. The water looks amazing still, and while it was the main killer feature of the first game, snow takes on a whole new life in “Uncharted 2,” as there are several tons of it encasing amazing vista style locations. Even the NPCs admire the view. There are too many scenes to mention here, but trust me when I say that this game is breathtaking from beginning to end. That’s a great part of this game, you are never sure when “Uncharted 2″ is going to end. When it finally does, you’re half disappointed.

New to “Uncharted” is the online multiplayer and co-operative gameplay modes that can help extend the life of the game. It seems like it was the missing element from the first game. On the same token, you’re a little amazed that multiplayer and co-operative game play modes are done so well. All the standard modes that you would expect in an online multiplayer exist, but Naughty Dog was still able to put a unique twist on each mode. Plunder is like capture the flag but you have to capture a large chunk of gold and drop it off in a safe box to gain points. In online co-operative games you can play with partners and take on the AI in waves, as the game throws progressively harder enemies at you. While multiplayer and co-operative gameplay doesn’t do anything that new, you will still spend a lot of time playing and enjoying it.

The online multiplayer and co-operative modes do not sacrifice any of the environmental interactions from the single player game. You can also perform all the sneak attacks, cover fire moves, and just about anything you can do offline. However, to what end? It makes for very interesting online gameplay as you monkey across walls to get to the perfect sniping position. As you win games online you will earn money and level up. Leveling up gives you cash and access better boosters. Boosters are necessary because they give you enhancements so you can have an extra edge during online multiplayer battles. You can liken it to the perk system from Modern Warfare.

It’s been said time and time again, that “Uncharted” takes everything we know and love about games and does it even better. Presented across beautiful locales, new multiplayer modes, and wrapped with solid gameplay and presentation, it becomes clear why this title has been marked for Game of the Year nominations already. “Uncharted 2″ proves that you don’t always have to build the next “Fl0w” to be innovative. There are some forward thinking developers out there who realize that re-inventing the wheel is not necessary to move forward in the over-crowded gaming genre of action adventures.

Rating: 5/5

 
“Uncharted 2: Among Thieves” was developed by Naughty Dog and published by SCEA for the Playstation 3 on October 13, 2009.

Another year, another “Halo” game. At least this time around “Halo 3: ODST” tried to mix things up a little bit. Check out the almost 25 minutes of gameplay in the video below if you’re still curious about what the game has to offer, and whether or not you should take another trip to New Mombasa… just this time, without Master Chief.

At the recent “NBA 2K10″ launch party here in NYC, Grey managed to grab some interviews with some of the NBA’s biggest names, but he also managed to grab some time with the game’s gameplay producer, Rob Jones. Check out the video and find out what you might expect to get when you throw down against your friends in “NBA 2K10″ when it comes out later this week.