Spec Ops: The Line

    Spec Ops: The Line was developed by Yager Development and publish by 2K Games. Spec Ops is a third-person shooter the takes place in Dubai, a city located in the United Arab Emirates, during a series of catastrophic dust storms.

    Colonel John Konrad, commander of the 33rd Battalion of the United States Army, volunteered the 33rd for relief efforts for the people of Dubai. After Konrad and the 33rd become missing in action, they are considered deserters for disregarding the orders to return home. The United States pick up a distress beacon stating: This is John Konrad, United States Army. Attempted evacuation of Dubai ended in complete failure. Death toll: Too many. The States then deploy a three man team to locate any survivors of the tragedy at Dubai. 

    You assume the role of Martin Walker (Nolan North) leading Lieutenant Alphonse Adams, and Staff Sergeant John Lugo through the sand consumed city. Fight your way through enemy forces and hellish sand storms to dig up the truth. The controls are very easy to adapt to as they are familiar to Gears of War's, especially on the Xbox 360. The PS3 version of course always swaps the right and left trigger to the right and left one buttons. 

    Being on the Unreal Engine 3, the lighting is realistic and troublesome which is a good thing. Looking directly in the light source will most indefinitely blind you as expected. Also, since it is on the Unreal Engine, there is a lot of texture loading issues. You will notice this everywhere from the title screen to the cinematics. 

     Spec Ops: The Line is a great game and story that everyone should experience. Play by yourself in the campaign or play with or against friends in multiplayer.

Clash of Clans

Clash of Clans is a free to play iOS game developed by Supercell. Clash of Clans is compatible on the iPhone, iTouch, and iPad platforms. The premise of the game is to establish a base and protect it by building up defenses. Erect walls, build cannons, and various types of towers. After you feel secure or after your shield burns out, you can attack other players and steal their loot. This game is very fun and very addicting. Please make sure you keep your charger around. While you are online you cannot be attacked, but if the screen falls asleep and you don't have a shield you will be. This could easily be rated a five star game, but I have a few points to knock off. First, it is an iOS game only. I do have an iTouch and an iPad, but they are only Wi-Fi and not 3G. 3G users get to manage their villages at anytime. If this game were available on the Android devices, I would get much play time logged into it. Second, gems are a valuable asset to have when you can find them. Being a free to play game, the option to buy more with real world money is available. This allows for the players that hav the means to purchase will always have an edge over the non-paying players. The ability to purchase gems with in the games economy should have been considered in the game design. Personally, I would have done something along the lines of making the players buy gems with gold AND elixir. For instance, 100,000 gold and 100,000 elixir would buy 10 gems. Finally, finding friends should be a little easier. They only way to find friends are by searching for the clans name or sifting through the leader boards. This game is perfect to have for your iPad and is the best experience over the iTouch and iPhones.

Lollipop Chainsaw

Lollipop Chainsaw was released on June 12, 2012 for the Xbox 360 and the PS3 consoles. This game was published by Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment and developed by Grasshopper Manufacture. As this being only the second game I have played from Grasshopper and Suda 51 Studios, I was very skeptical about trying another one. Despite what the popular and professional reviewers say, Lollipop Chainsaw is not a horrible game. The story wasn't anything special as it sounds it was made up while creating the levels, which is why I think that so many professionals are hating on it. The game starts with the player meeting Juliet in her room waking up and talking about herself and her family. As she gets caught up in talking about herself, she realizes she is late for school and meeting her boyfriend for her birth day. The controls are unusual, but not difficult to get used to. The typical light and heavy attack scheme applies here, with an awkwardly placed evade button that seems to double as a jump.  There is plenty of licensed music that everyone will recognize as the music that their grandmother listened to as a kid.  Needless to say it got a bit annoying, but that is just a matter of preference. In terms of graphics, Lollipop Chainsaw has a pretty good art style that kind of feels a bit anime in the Unreal Engine, but with the infamous pop-in texture that happens when it loads to slow. Overall this game deserves a C for a grade.

God of War

The Spartan warlord, Kratos, once was under the command of Aries, the God of War. Now, Kratos is on a mission from the Goddess of wisdom, Athena, to rid him of the sins from his past. God of War was developed by Santa Monica Studios and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. God of War was originally released on March 22, 2005 for the PlayStation 2 and was re-released as a HD collection bundled with God of War 2 on November 17, 2009 and available through the PlayStation Network or Blue Ray disc. This third-person action adventure game that takes you on a new mythological epic story. The controls for God of War are a typical beat-em up scheme in which you have a block, evade, light attack, heavy attacks, grabs, and any combo in between. The epic orchestral music keeps you in the moment with seamless transitions in between traveling and battle music. The color palettes used for each level gives the feeling of authenticity to the time period portrayed. A few issues I have come across are things like grabbing on the edges and evading. When falling off a ledge, you will find times to where you know you should have grabbed on a ledge and don't. I suggest getting prepared to be very frustrated. As while evading, you will find yourself being hit while evading even against the lightest of attacks. Overall, God of War is a very fun game to play and can be a proud addition to your platinum collection. God of War gets an -A.

Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition

The Xbox 360 version of Minecraft was released on May 9, 2012. It was originally developed by Mojang for the PC and co-developed for the Xbox 360 by 4J Studios. This is a game that will keep you busy for hours at end for what seems to be for no reason at all besides to build what ever you can conceive. When you are first are introduced to your world, you may think to yourself "Why am I here?". You start off in a 8-bit block world with no items, tools, equipment, weapons, or armor. Everything you must create on your own. In this version of Minecraft, everything available to create is already visible to you when you have the appropriate ingredients, versus trying to figure out what goes where on your own like on the PC version. Just remember, make sure you make shelter as soon as possible so Creepers don't spawn on top of you and blow the area up. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like everything in the full game is available to the Xbox version just yet. Minecraft does support four player online play and is recommended to play with others, especially while trying to make giant projects like a to scale Deathstar.

Mass Effect 3

     Mass Effect 3 was released March 6, 2012 on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. It was developed by BioWare and published by EA. If you haven't picked up the game yet then you are missing out on a lot of fun. You can expect the deep story, as in the first two games, and plenty of conversation. When you think of the first two games and the transition between the two, some would say that a lot of the RPG elements of the first were not carried over. If you agree, then you will be very pleased with Mass Effect 3.
    One element I am talking about was the ability to customize weapons. From the first to the second game, weapons and other options were less customizable than the previous game. Mass Effect 3 brings that back, bigger and better. Skill trees open up at the max level and allow you to choose between two options. Don't like the skill you just picked? Take some credits to the Med Bay and redistribute you skills. Weapons are now upgradable without having to search entire planets for the upgrades. Go to the arsenal and upgrade the weapons you have, add attachments, and purchase new equipment, armor, weapons.
    The Co-op Multiplayer is some of the most fun I have had in a game like this. Essentially a horde mode, your team gets dropped into an area that they have to recapture from the Reaper forces. What make this fun is the fact that instead of just making you survive wave after wave, objectives are implemented to keep things moving. One example is during a later wave of enemies, you will have to hold down a specific area, like a capture the hill game. This forces the squad to pick and move from their comfort zone. There are also multiple classes like Soldier, Sentinel, and Vanguards with multiple character models including the drell, krogan, and quarian. Each class and race has its own benefits and consequences regarding the biotics and technology that they each have.
     Kinect has been incorporated into the storyline of the game. This would be a great feature because it allows you to throw grenades by yelling "grenade", tell your party members to use biotics, abilities, or cover, and even other interactions like doors, pickups, and dialogue selections. Problem is that the Kinect still has the annoying response lag to your commands (maybe half a second). It will be a while until the Kinect works the way we want it to.

This is a great game and a must have.

    
  

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier

     Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier was released on May 22, 2012 for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. A PC version will be released on June 12, 2012. It was developed and published by Ubisoft. This is a co-op game that we have all been waiting for since Rainbow Six: Vegas. Ghost Recon: Future Soldier features a solo campaign, co-op campaign, multiplayer, and Guerrilla mode. Future Soldier offers a rich co-op experience between the Guerrilla mode and the co-op campaign. Guerrilla mode tests your skills and abilities to communicate with your teammates through fifty waves of enemy infantry and vehicles, including helicopters.
     Campaign offers just as much intensity especially during co-op. Four-player co-op gives you and three teammates a complete experience using team work. Future Soldier makes you believe you are surviving as an elite squad and as one elite cohesive unit. One great example is when the squad forms up in a diamond formation and covers all sectors of the group, ultimately covering each others peripherals. You may find yourselves calling out each enemy to your squad mates, even though you might be playing offline and in single player.
    Just a few complaints: The controls and the graphics seem a little dated. The controls could be a little more fluid but the game play makes up for it. For instance, instead of holding the left trigger button, you have to toggle the right stick to aim down your sight. Graphics seem like we have seen them in the last Ghost Recon game but once again, the game play is more than worth the sixty dollars.
     There are quite a few bugs I've found a bit annoying. Checkpoints really seem to be the culprit, especially after dying and restarting the checkpoint. In one mission, I had to restart the entire mission because enemies that spawned inside a vehicle couldn't get out or be killed. Which, in turn, prevented the next check point and the progression to the next objective. In guerrilla mode I died a few times and bled out. Problem was I could still move about crawling around or I would bleed out and stay dead and died revive in the next wave.
    Gamestop offered the Signature Edition at the same retail price that gave codes for exclusive content including two exclusive weapons and weapon skins, an exclusive Guerrilla mode map, and forty-eight additional headgear. A friend from Gamestop said that they have plenty of copies and suggested that I drop in and ask for the Signature Edition. I did and am very glad I got to pick up all the goodies before settling for the regular copy.