Army of Two: The 40th Day: Video Game Review

Army of Two: The 40th Day may be shallow and derivative but it is nevertheless a fun, full-throttle shooter

Formats: Xbox 360 (tested), PS3, PSP
Developer: EA Montreal
Publisher: EA
Released: 15 January 2010
Score: 7/10

Dark Void video game review

Dark Void has all the right ingredients for an engaging tale of high adventure, but it's let down by bad design and lousy presentation.

Format: Xbox 360 (version tested), PS3 and PC
Developer: Airtight Games
Publisher: Capcom
Released: 22 January 2010
Score: 5/10

Modern Warfare 2 exclusive DLC deal explained

Microsoft reconfirmed it had the exclusive on the first two Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 download packs due this spring. "This spring, the first Modern Warfare 2 content packs will be available exclusively first on Xbox Live.” alleged Major Nelson. Aaron Greenberg has explained at CES "I think about it like a sports team, when you sign a star athlete for your team... when you sign that free agent, I think it makes your team better. At the end of the day, we want to turn as many people as possible into Xbox 360 fans."

Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 2, Best Selling Game On Amazon

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the hugely popular video game which had sold 1.4 million copies within 24 hours of being released in Britain, has topped Amazon UK’s list of top selling items in 2009.

Amazon.co.uk has revealed that Modern Warfare 2, is one of the two video games, second being Fifa 10, that have gotten 2 slots in the list of top 5 best-selling items on Amazon this year.

Brian Mcbride, the managing director at Amazon.co.uk, said that "Clearly with the success of Nintendo's Wii console, many families have a games console somewhere in the house. It's no longer just for teenagers. Lots of the family sit around and play games."

Modern Warfare 2 which incidentally has received a 94 percent aggregate by Metacritic, edged out the DVD of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince to get the top spot on the list which placed the DVD of Michael McIntyre Live 2009 on the third position with SanDisk 8GB SDHC Secure Digital Card and Fifa 10 getting the 4th and 5th position respectively.

Sony's PlayStation 3 Got Sales Boost From Final Fantasy XIII

Sony's PlayStation 3 got a boost from last week's launch of "Final Fantasy XIII" as Japanese consumers snapped up special-edition consoles to give the PS3 its best week since a relaunch several months ago, according to data released on Friday.
Sales of the PS3 totaled 237,086 units in the week of Dec. 14 of which about 92,000 units were a "Final Fantasy XIII" special edition offered by Sony, said Media Create. "Final Fantasy XIII," the latest installment in the long-running Final Fantasy series, launched on Dec. 17 so the figures cover its first four days on sale.
The weekly sales easily outpace those of recent weeks and are higher than those of early September when Sony relaunched the PlayStation 3 in a slimmer case and with a lower price tag. The PS3 sold 152,000 units during its relaunch week, according to Media Create.
The relaunch helped breath new life into the PlayStation 3 platform and push sales higher in the last three months. The PlayStation business remains a money loser for Sony but the company has targeted 2010 as the year it will return its gaming operations to profitability. The launch of games like "Final Fantasy XIII" plays an important role in this plan.
The "Final Fantasy XIII" software scored a major success for Square Enix with sales of just over 1.5 million copies over its first four days, said Media Create.
Sony is also attempting to widen the console's appeal.
Services such as movie rentals are being added to the PlayStation 3 and will be expanded next year with the addition of TV shows and other content. Sony has also pledged to offer a software update that will bring the capability to play back 3D content on Blu-ray Disc.
Sony's chief rival in the Japanese market, Nintendo, scored second place for the week. In the software chart its "New Super Mario Bros. Wii" ranked with 567,890 copies sold while the Wii console chalked up sales of 191,915 units, said Media Create.
Media Create estimates game software and hardware sales from point-of-sales system data gathered from around 3,000 retailers across the country.

Disney's A Christmas Carol video game review

This video game should be enshrined in some museum as a litmus test for just how far a release of this kind can coast on festive goodwill. Before one is able to dissect its value as a piece of entertainment, one has to take certain considerations on board. This is a game aimed primarily at children and it is designed to be consumed while the Disney animated feature it's based on is still fresh in their memories. It's not intended (hopefully) to be too challenging, nor is it meant to occupy a space in any avid gamer's collection. It's design and content seem to indicate that it's meant to be considered only as a marketing peripheral to the new Disney film. One could argue that, at the very least, it introduces its target audience to a story by Charles Dickens, and this is no bad thing. However, depending on your level of Christmas cheer this Nintendo DS game is either a disposable piece of festive fun or a poorly designed cash-grab.

While the game's level of appeal may be open to debate, the paucity of its content isn't. The game's story mode takes just under an hour to beat and once that's been done there's precious little here to keep anyone entertained. The game follows the events of Dickens' classic tale with the player occasionally being called on to solve the odd puzzle to move the plot along. This involves shifting items on the screen around in a certain order with the stylus. There is usually one solution, or one sequence of events required to unlock the next stage of the story, so once the story mode has been beaten, there's very little reason to play it again. The puzzles are a mixed bag. Most of them are insultingly easy, but there are a couple which have solutions that aren't immediately obvious. In these instances, however, this is sometimes a due to a fault in design; one example of this occurred when we had to tickle Scrooge's feet and while placing the stylus exactly on the right point produced the desired effect, moving it a fraction of an inch to either side produced a dialogue window.

As A Christmas Carol's main story mode unfolds, the player will come across a selection of mini games. These are based around arbitrary activities such as playing cards, flicking coins and making Christmas dinner. The design of the mini games is patchy. The card games are quite good and the cooking game isn't bad. However, some of the games are frustrating and badly designed – stand outs in this regard include the snowball fight and coin flicking games which involve zipping the stylus across the screen with varied results. Another example of a poorly designed game involved using the stylus to tap out notes on a fiddle which felt muddled and unresponsive. As hit and miss as these experiences are, however, at least they don't hold up the game because, unlike the other puzzle games, players don't even have to beat the mini games to move the story along.

Aside from the main story mode, there's very little on offer. Players can replay the story mode's mini games separately, either by themselves or in multiplayer (pass the DS) mode. There's a selection of spot the difference puzzles packaged as an advent calendar and finally, the game also contains a copy of the original story in its extras section (along with the game credits and the cheat code entry point). The game looks the part. The animated sequences are nicely rendered and the character art faithfully represents one's expectations; Scrooge is a hunched miser, the Cratchits drip with wholesomeness and piety and the ghosts of Christmases past, present and future look like a cherub, Brian Blessed and the Grim Reaper respectively. However, none of the actors from the Disney film supply their voice talents for the game. The main story mode, instead, is narrated by Charles Cecil (of Broken Sword fame) who does a very solid job.

As nice as it all looks and sounds, however, one can't help coming back to how lightweight this game is. Even for a title aimed at a younger audience, Disney's A Christmas Carol is an anorexic package which offers very little in the way of replay value. The puzzles and mini games aren't challenging enough to be entertaining the first time round and once all the solutions have been worked out there's no reason to play it again. Ironically, the content which offers the most reward is the story upon which the game and the movie are based, and you don't need to pay full price for this video game to get hold of that. Players with low expectations may enjoy playing through this game a couple of times, but it will probably test the Christmas spirit and patience of anyone else.

Top 10 most anticipated video games of 2010

10. All the games that were scheduled for 2009

While 2009 was a fantastic year for games, we were rather shocked to see so many of the titles that were ear-marked for release this year get shuffled into next year's schedule. Chief among these were four titles which featured in our list of the most anticipated games from 2009 , God Of War III, BioShock 2, Heavy Rain and Alan Wake. Despite the delay in their release, all of them still look very promising. The games starring Kratos and Mr Wake were unveiled at E3, with the former looking satisfyingly brutal and bloody, and the latter showcasing a lot of crushing atmosphere filled with nerve-wracking thrills. Heavy Rain, for its part, is still garnering handfuls of praise for its mature approach to emotive video game storytelling, with, thankfully, not all of its plot details becoming common knowledge. The real surprise, however, is BioShock 2. When news of a sequel to 2K's highly acclaimed steam punk shooter emerged, it caused many to wonder out loud how it could possibly live up to the impossibly high storytelling standards of its predecessor. We can confirm, having been allowed some hands-on time with it, that fans of the original should start getting excited. BioShock 2 combines improved gameplay with even loftier literary ambitions than BioShck and, if our experience is anything to go by, it's set to be one of this year's best games.

9. Splinter Cell: Conviction

For a while there, it was beginning to look like gamers had seen the last of Sam Fisher. The latest instalment of Ubisoft's premier stealth title had endured a dispiritingly lengthy development period. The only results of this as shown to the public were a couple of previews in which the game's protagonist could be seen wandering around an inner city park covered in grubby clothes and shaggy facial hair. However, after yet another re-think, Splinter Cell: Conviction seems back on track. At E3, we were treated to a lengthy preview and Ubisoft's new game didn't disappoint. The emphasis on stealth is still present but the addition of the 'mark and kill' feature, low-tech equipment and Sam's overall darker demeanour makes Conviction feel like a far more brutal vision than previous Splinter Cell titles. We can't wait to get our hands on Conviction, but in the meantime, the memories of one of video game's most enduring heroes emerging from the shadows at E3, filled with fresh promise, will hopefully tide us over until the game's day of release.

8. Rage

id Software's new shooter has been in the pipeline for about two years now and news has begun to emerge that the game will finally see the light of day next year. The game's development and its march towards release has apparently been unaffected by the fact that its publishing rights have changed hands; ZeniMax Media, who own Bethesda Softworks and who recently bought id, picked them up off EA, who is now completely out of the picture. This will be music to the ears of shooter fans as Rage is id's first original game in over a decade and it's also the first to make use of the company's new Tech 5 engine. The game is set in the not too distant future in which the impact of a gigantic meteor has turned the earth into a post-apocalyptic hellhole. Rage is pitched as what a video game would look like if you crossed Mad Max with Fallout 3. Gameplay looks set to involve driving as well as shooting and the trailers currently making the rounds depict an exciting world filled with eccentric characters, vicious gangs and insane mutants. Rage's pedigree makes it look promising; after all this is a shooter produced by the people who brought us Doom and Quake, so what could possibly go wrong?

7. Halo Reach

Halo: Reach has the potential to be the defining moment in the franchise that established Microsoft's position in the console wars. When it was announced earlier this year at E3, details were scarce, but as 2009 draws to a close, the rumour mill has been working overtime. Set before the events of the original Halo titles, Reach follows the adventures of a team of six SPARTAN II soldiers during an epic battle in the war against the Covenant alien alliance. Seeing at it's a Halo title, we're going to go ahead and assume that the FPS action will be present and correct, that the multiplayer will be fantastic and that the story will be in keeping with the hokey space opera that has run throughout all the Halo titles. We already know it looks great, and really, we expect the best from Reach. After all, Halo was the game that established Bungie, and if the rumours that it's the developer's last outing with the Halo franchise are true, we can be sure they'll want to go out with a bang.

6. The Last Guardian

When The Last Guardian was finally revealed at E3, the beautiful footage of a young boy and his gryphon-like companion left nary a dry eye in the house. The soaring soundtrack tugged at the heart strings, and the burgeoning friendship between boy and creature captured the imagination of all in attendance. Who are they? Where are they going? And are those arrows protruding from the gryphon's back? Style, emotion and magic. Three things you can rely upon from a Team Ico title. Agonisingly little is known beyond that trailer, but given the developer's pedigree with Ico and the magnificent Shadow of the Colossus, we're expecting another wonderful ride.

5. Super Mario Galaxy 2

This was one of the two get-out-of-jail-free cards that Nintrndo played at its press briefing at E3 2009. Until one of the company's American head honchos announced that Super Mario Galaxy 2 (and a new Metroid title) were on their way, the presser was being chalked up as a damp squibb. Once the applause died down, expectations began to soar and they haven't come down since. The original Super Mario Galaxy is widely recognised as one of the best video games ever made for this generation of consoles and the prospect of its sequel is enticing to say the least. This could obviously work against Nintendo, because Super Mario Galaxy 2 will have to live up to such impossibly high standards. However, with the inventive minds of Nintendo's best developers hard at work, we fully expect the sense of wonder we had playing the original to be faithfully rekindled.

4. Starcraft II: The Wings Of Liberty/World Of Warcraft: Cataclysm

Blizzard is famous for taking ages to churn out its video games; Every IP that it releases into circulation is the result of years of developing, testing and tweaking to make sure it will satisfy the exacting standards of the Blizzard faithful - who are very used to waiting. This year, their patience will be rewarded because if BlizzCon 2009 was anything to go by, 2010 is going to be a busy year for Blizzard. The Anaheim Convention Centre which played host to Blizzard's annual party this year was filled with mad whoops and thunderous applause when company executives announced that not only would Starcraft II ship in the new year, but a new World Of Warcraft expansion pack was on the horizon. Fans have been waiting for over a decade for the second installment in the groundbreaking RTS sci fi game, and WoW players will line up in droves for Cataclysm - which is scheduled to tear apart the world of Azeroth later this year. Now, if Blizzard can get just Diablo III out the gate before 2011, they'll have accomplished an incredible trifecta.

3. Bayonetta

Bayonetta is a bespectacled witch who looks like a cross between Sarah Palin and a dominatrix from a high-end leather club. She carries a gun in each hand and firearms are attached to each of her stilleto clad heels. Her body is covered with a catsuit made from hair , which can transform into a dragon and attack foes. Every single thing about her is madder than a bag full of spanners, and if you can believe it, she is the least insane aspect of the game she inhabits. Bayonetta is a Japanese-made fighting game which boast an utterly insane, yet self-aware plot, amazing animation, a cheesy soundtrack and arguably the best control system for a game of this type. We have to recommend it because is so over the top, it's down the other side, through the earth's crust, straight through its core and out the other end. Then it blasts into space.

2. Red Dead Redemption

No one knows whether Rockstar Games has drawn a line under its Grand Theft Auto franchise, but we do know that its next open world adventure isn't set in Liberty City. For its first big release of 2010, the British developer has applied its extraordinary world-building talents to the Wild West in Red Dead Redemption.Rockstar has gone all out in its latest release; the game turns players loose in the great American wilderness, in which they’ll encounter wildlife, bandits, ghost towns, isolated farmlands, mountain ranges, rivers and frontier towns populated by settlers. In short, the living, breathing Wild West. There is, of course a plot, which tips its hat to classic Western conventions, and from what we've seen so far the the writing is as strong as in the best of Rockstar's titles. What ultimately blows us away, however, is how breathtaking it all looks. The pain-staking attention to detail in the look and feel of Red Dead Redemption makes the world it presents utterly believable and completely immersive. The year hasn't even started yet, but we're confident that based on what we've seen, and Rockstar's unimpeachable track record, Red Dead Redemption is going to be one of the best games we play in 2010.

1. Mass Effect 2

The finale of Mass Effect left the galaxy in turmoil. As Commander Shepard, it's up to you to stave off the ongoing threat of the 'Reavers', an AI lifeform hell-bent on destroying the species of the Citadel. BioWare's space-opera enthralled millions of gamers with its exquistely detailed galaxy and gripping tale. It wasn't without its technical quirks though, and BioWare have spent the last two years polishing the engine to within an inch of its life. Visually, it glistens, while the third-person gunplay has undergone a much-needed overhaul. But at the heart of it all is that bewitching space yarn, crammed with politik and intrigue, action and romance. This next chapter of the saga can't come soon enough.