Borderlands DLC

For those who have ventured into the fantastic world of Borderlands, new DLC is on the way!!

Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, will hit XBOXLive marketplace NOV 24th. It will have Zombies in it and probably more guns. More info when its available. There is no other information besides that. Stay posted.

MW2= $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

The title sums it all up. With midnight release party's all over the wazoo, Bobby Kotick will be swimming in cash tomorrow. Gamestop has a new record for pre-orders for MW2, out selling GTAIV. We will see how big a cash cow Activision made in the next week. Get ready to get PWNED and TBAGGED real soon!!! YAY!!!!

PS3 Owners make us mad!!

EA and Dice announced that Battle Field Bad Company 2 (BFBC2) will have an exclusive demo for PC and PS3 owners. That makes us angry, seeing how the strongest following for BFBC is on the 360, we have to ask why? WHY? Hopefully a demo makes its way to 360 sooner, rather than a week before launch.

Medal of Honor!!!

Finally!!! Today in EA's Q2 conference call, mention was made that a new MEDAL OF HONOR game is on the way!!! I for one thoroughly enjoyed Medal of Honor: Airborne. Although it was received with luke warm reviews, there was a very strong following for online play. Actually, to this day, EA's servers still see people playing it. Good news indeed. We'll let you know more about MOH when we dig up more. Until then...

Two Worlds 2: In Game Video

This morning over a bowl of cereal, I logged on and decided to check on some games. I popped on over to the Two Worlds 2 website: http://www.twoworlds2.com/en/ .

Now earlier on Friday, we reported that a brand new video would be up on Sunday, showcasing gameplay footage. Behold, there is still 8 hours left as of this writing. But, there is a cutscene video up, I have to be the first to admit......the horrendous sound effects look like they have returned. The character models looked a little "JAGGY", especially in combat. We'll keep you posted though on any new developments.  For those interested in seeing the developers showcase the game, please watch this.



I still have high hopes for Two Worlds 2. But for now, the best game in the UNIVERSE is tying me over.

URGENT: HUGO CHAVEZ = : (

Good morning comrades. Today marks the day we oppress the video game industry. Yes, it has been a long struggle my friends. But finally we can announce that if any "FREE" citizen, who purchases, imports, sells or develops and violent video game in our great country of Venezuela, we will throw you in our wonderful prison system. A max 3-5 years, you will then be one of us. Thank you comrades. Soon every free citizen and free willed person will be under our control mwuhahahahaha!!!

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

If you were anything like me growing up as a child, then many of your summer days were spent playing with action figures (don't you dare call them dolls!) or pretending that you were a supper hero with your friends.

  I believe that this is what Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (MAU2) is trying to capture.  While you don't really feel like you are a hero, you do feel like you are playing with little action figures.  Even at the ripe old age of 32 this is still a whole lot of fun.
    

The game's story is based at least partly on the wonderful Civil War story arc.  If you have not read this please do yourself a favor and go to your local comic book store and pick up the trade paper back now.  The rest of the story is based on what happens post Civil War (not nearly as strong).  The basic idea behind the Civil War is that after a explosion caused by a Super Hero/Super Villain fight the government decides that super humans should be registered to use their powers.  This would pretty much turn all of the capes into S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.  As you can imagine this doesn't go over well with a great many of the heroes.  With Cap on one side and Shell Head (Iron Man-post Robert Downey Jr.) on the other you must go toe to toe with a great many of your former friends.

    

This is really what this game does best.  In what other game can you use Spidey to beat down Cable?  The view is 3/4 top down perspective.  You can switch from not only any character in your team on the fly, but you can switch your entire team on the fly as well.  Each of your 4 character team has their own unique abilities they can use, just as in the first game.  This time, however there is more.  You can perform fusions with other heroes.  An example of this is when playing on a team that has both Gambit (one of my favorites!) and Storm. You can summon a tornado that whips around the screen causing damage, while there are charged playing cards being thrown into it creating even more destruction.  I had a blast going through all of the different hero combinations, just to see what kind of crazy fusions I could do. 

     

The other new addition is the heal/rez anywhere function.  During the course of your battles you will pick up little icons that allow you to heal any member of your team, or bring back a fallen comrade.  This is a huge improvement over MUA1 where you were forced to make it to another S.H.I.E.L.D. access point before doing this.  Other than the changes mentioned above the controls remain vastly unchanged from MUA1.  You access any of the 4 onscreen heroes by using the D-pad.  Use A and B to attack, Y to jump, and X to interact with the world.  Using any of your super powers is as simple as holding the right trigger and pressing a face button.  That's really all you need to know about how to play.  Find bad person, punch in face, find next bad person, kick to gut, find next bad person crush with car, etc., etc.  Don't worry though, all of that repeated violence is actually really fun.  Even if it is the 1,000th time you punch someone, it still feels great! 

     

There are two costumes for each character (there maybe one that only has one, either that or I just haven't figured out how to unlock it).  These are obtained by fulfilling the requirements of that character's "Heroic Deeds".  Each character has 3 heroic deeds, such as defeating a set number of enemies.  One deed unlocks the aforementioned costume and the other two unlock boosts.  Boosts effect your team as a whole.  These boosts range from greater exp earned to less damage taken from certain types of enemies.  

     

There are also some very light RPG elements to the game as well.  You gain exp for defeating characters, answering trivia questions, and generally progressing through the game.  For each level you gain you are awarded a point that can be used to upgrade your special powers.  The other exp that you pick up during the game is spent on things such as more damage, more health, regaining stamina quicker, etc.  I'm usually a pretty big RPG nerd, but I just let the computer auto level for me most of the time and I don't feel that I really lost out on anything. 
    

MUA2 has significantly less characters that it's predecessor does, but the graphics do look much better.  I feel that DLC will be a huge part of this games longevity going forward.  I expect that there will be much more for this one than the last.  There are just too many great characters out there to be ignored.  Comic book geeks of the world unite and buy this game.  The rest of you "normals" at least give it a rent.  Until next time, Make mine Marvel!!

Overall Grade:  B

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising

Codemasters finally released their patch and DLC for Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising on wednesday. Now, I have already finished the game but, I am playing through it again with said patch and DLC. For anyone following the game, it was released on 10-07-09, mass hysteria ensued. The game was a bloody mess from start to finish. So, I am giving it a second play through, as I feel the game deserves justice. The definitive review will follow shortly.

Tower Bloxx

For a measly 800 Microsoft points, you too can become a city planner!! The dreams of building inner city slums, mass transit debacles, trash collectors that constantly go on strike and the city police force that racks up too many over time hours are all in the power of your hands!!!

This is not that game. As a matter of fact, the fictional game I just described sounds pretty fun. Actually Tower Bloxx is a "CASUAL" game as they like to call them now a days. Yes, this game is for the "CASUAL" player's. To me, it means this game is for the mindless drones, who want to hit the A button to drop blocks on top of other blocks, without them falling over.

It really doesn't get anymore "CASUAL" than that. I really don't know how else to review this game. YOU DROP BLOCKS!!! ON TOP OF BLOCKS!!!! IF YOU MISS 3 TIMES....GAME OVER!!!

You can build city's of different colors, like Blue, Red etc. Thats about it. There's some multiplayer elements in there, up to 4 players can all, DROP BLOCKS ON TOP OF BLOCKS!!!

Its mindless "CASUAL" fun for the whole family of mind numbingly boring people who don't deserve to have a 360.

OVERALL GRADE-  C

Two Worlds 2

It was announced today that in exactly 2 days, which would be 11/08/09, actual gameplay footage will be released via the Two Worlds 2 website. They actually also updated their website for the first time in over a decade. Some new pics and annoying back round music is also present. I for one am excited to see actual footage. Once we see it we will let you know our thoughts and outlandish comments. For more info, please go here http://www.2-worlds.com/

We like Two Worlds 2, everyone will like it. 

Conan

There are a lot of overused ideas in Conan that should by all rights make me very angry, however, with this game it just seems to work.

  There are cheesy one-liners shouted by Conan:

                                                            "Ha!  You scratch like a child!"

That in any other game would make me groan in disgust. Used here they force me to grin from ear to ear. The story has a classic Conan feel.  Many of you probably just remember Conan as those movies with the "Governator" in them.

Those movies, while good, are a sad shadow of what Conan was in the books.  It is Conan from the books that shows up to the game and kicks all kinds of demon butt.  No Conan story is complete without the mention of beautiful, scantily clad maidens in distress.   This game would be remiss if it didn't include them, so it did...a lot.  It's a great time, just don't expect to think too much and learn to go with the flow.

 

With all of that being said, Conan is not perfect.  The platforming elements can be very, very frustrating.  You have no control over the camera and often times are not able to see where it is that you should be jumping to.  This resulted in many a taunting screen telling me that Cimerians should not die so easily.  The AI also appears to be very unbalanced as well.  Often times enemies will just wonder around while their friends shriek in pain and horror while Conan severs their arms.  Other times they will all gather around Conan and attack one after another making it impossible for Conan to do anything other than defend until they get bored and ease up.

The QTE's (QuickTimeEvents) are also strangely suited to most of the Boss fights that await you on your adventure. The combat is blissfully smooth and simple. This kind of hack-n-slash would get very boring if it wasn't for the light RPG elements of the game. You have five different attack sets (Sword, Dual Wield, Sword and Shield, Hand to Hand, and Two Handed-Weapons) each with there own moves that you pay exp to unlock and use to "master". Once you master a move it often rewards you each time you use it with some kind of small bonus such as extra health pickups.

Another small complaint is the utter lack of any multiplayer modes.  I understand that a co-op play through would really break the game, but there should be something there even if it is just a battle arena mode such as in the classic Golden Axe. Replaibility appears to be more for complitionist and gamerscore whores.  If these two categories leave you out then this game is a weekend rental at best.  While by no means a collet-a-thon game, if you plan on getting everything this game offers you will have to put in a bit more time.  Many of the achievements are tied to finding all power ups, mastering all attacks, and defeating a certain number of enemies on certain levels.  None of these appear to be "impossible" just rather time consuming.  For fans of the old books, however, this is a must buy.  All others I encourage a rental first (unless you are able to get it used on the cheap).

OVERALL GRADE:  B

A Game of Thrones + HBO = : )

This has absolutely nothing to do with video games at all, but, we here at Co-Op 360 have a way with words, so we will tie it in somehow.

Filming has started on, A Game of Thrones, for HBO. If you have not read the critically acclaimed series, A Song of Ice & Fire, by George R.R. Martin, then stop playing video games and go buy the series. Best fantasy series ever, besides A Sword of Truth (Terry Goodkind).

You have about 1 full day to read them all, then buy Dragon Age: Origins.

By the time your done with Dragon Age, the series will be on your tele for your enjoyment.

For more info on the HBO series, redirect your computer to:  http://winter-is-coming.blogspot.com/

Sacred 3 in Development

Sacred 2 is in my Top 10 list for Game of the Year. It was one of the best Action RPG's I have played, this console generation. Being a fan of Diablo 1 & 2, I felt right at home in the world of Ancaria. As soon as we finish Sacred 2 (its really long), we will post that review. But, if you have played it and you are interested in giving the developer's your two cents, head on over here:

 http://forum.deepsilver.com/forum/showthread.php?t=45297

You can take part in adding your ideas to the recently announced Sacred 3. Awesome.

Two Worlds

The best way to describe Two Worlds is this, Epic.

I will be the first to admit that, I was not all that excited to play this game. Previously I had downloaded the demo to get a feel for it, before making the sacrifice of actually buying it. Two Worlds is a classic RPG, meaning you have complete control of how your character looks, how you spend your skill points, how you tackle your quests etc.

I would like to take this opportunity to officially say that a lot of sacrifices have to be made to fully enjoy this game. First thing you must do is go to the OPTIONS screen and turn VOICES off. The voice acting is absolutely the worst I have ever heard in my life. Then, you must turn HDR 3 bars from the bottom. This will help with loading and overall jitters in the game.

So instead of having dialogue spoken and some effects in the game we are presented with a classic early 90's RPG. This isn't a bad thing at all, it actually brings some nostalgia back, for me.

Lets get to the game play. You can fully customize your character (male-human only) any way you wish. The options for this particular feature are akin to Oblivion. After you have created your character you are presented with a little cut scene (No spoilers in this article). This gets you started in the main story and a general direction of what is actually happening in the game world.

Now, lets gets to the sweet stuff, gameplay. Two Worlds combat is unique. Very unique. You can equip bows, pole arms, swords, two handed swords, magic etc. When attacking with bows and magic, you can lock on specific targets. Other than that its straight up skill and a little luck on defeating enemies. The first thing you must master is parrying. Hitting the B button will move your character backwards and away from those annoying fatal blows. So combat is very realistic in the sense that you must watch your enemies and learn how they attack. Its actually quite fun once you get the hang of it.

There really is a great game here. Sadly most will never get to enjoy it. You really have to give Two Worlds a lot of time to fully enjoy the experience. The world is massive, quests are bountiful and vary from town to town. I never really felt like I was doing the same thing over and over again.

For those wondering about Multiplayer, it is included but be warned, its terrible. Its really a great idea, up to 8 people can quest together and level up their characters. The one thing I have to gripe about is that you cant use your single player character. I feel like this was a missed opportunity. Instead you have to make another character just for online play. So the 50+ hours I put into single player is wasted and I have to put the same amount of time into multiplayer to get the same items same stats etc?

The other gripe I have about multiplayer is lag and jaggies. Its really horrendous. At one point white boxes showed up in multiplayer as NPC's. This really takes you out of the experience and bogs down the fun factor. Another gripe is quests, no matter what zone you travel to, the quests are all the same. BORING.

Overall, I enjoyed Two Worlds attempt at defeating the grand daddy of them all: Oblivion. There are some great ideas at work here, and for the patient crowd this really is a good game. Don't waste your time playing multiplayer, this game will keep you busy and the higher you level up your character the better and easier it will become for you.


OVERALL GRADE: C