After the success of Arkham Asylum, a game that proved that you could make a superhero based game good. Being true to the tone of the original comic book source it’s a surprise that people were surprised that it was be a hit. Now with the release of Arkham City everyone is expecting it to be a massive hit. So, does it deliver? Read on to find out.

After the success La Noire it seems like it’s about time an effort was made to make the facial expressions more realistic, or in some cases give facial expressions.

Since La Noires’ release people have been talking about it, trying to figure out if suspects are lying or not and reacting accordingly. Largely were they looking you in the eye, nervous twitch etc, which was possible with facial mapping and gave more of a feeling that you were trying to outwit a person not a pre-rendered robot. Playing this game was really a break from the norm, using actor’s facial expressions in that much detail. Sometimes you were lucky to get a moving mouth, eyes and eye brows. Seems obvious when you realise that they have been using people to get physical movements right for years.

People have commented that when you watch a movie in a couple hours people have laughed, cried, been scared or angry. In gaming mostly you get stoic main character, then gets annoyed and then goes on a killing spree for 30 hours or however long the game is. Certain types in the UK media like to use this two dimensional example to bad mouth gamers. These people also never heard of Heavy Rain, where you take several roles with different characters. As much depth as Heavy Rain has it really lacked in facial area as far as communicating tough personal decisions that each character went through. Read More  »

Recently T-Mobile arranged a Night In for me and some friends as part of their latest campaign. The T-Mobile Night In gives you a movie and a game, with some snacks for just £5. Entertainment for the night was Avatar on Blu-ray and Quantic Dream’s interactive thriller Heavy Rain.

Watching Avatar in 1080P was fantastic, with popcorn in one hand and pizza in the other. The experience was different in 2D in comparison to 3D, but none the less brilliant. Watching this for the second time, with added deleted scenes made me appreciate the film even more. It couldn’t get any better; I’ve got my mates around, a selection of snacks and no nuisance from kids in a cinema.

Soon after that it was time to game, none of my mates or I had played Heavy Rain before. We were all so intrigued by the fact that you could decide how the story plays out and who lives or dies. It was time to put it to the test and see how much choice the player is really given.

When the storyline got intense we were all shouting out the controls as they appeared on screen. We got aggravated when the wrong buttons got pressed in the heat of the moment. Everyone took it in turns to play a level, to keep things fresh.

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If you have a significant other, a job, or a need to eat, it's probably best to avoid Plants vs Zombies.
 
A relentlessly addictive game from Popcap Games, a developer who seem to specialize in this area, on the face of it, it's a simple tower defence game. Zombies shuffle towards your house and you have a variety of plants with which to fend them off.
 

 
 Once you start it though, Plants vs Zombies will take hold of you and not let go until you manage to box off absolutely everything. For me, this took a month. Adventure Mode actually only took four days of this, the rest was spent in the dizzying variety of other modes. 18 Puzzles, 20 Mini Games, 10 Co-op modes, a horribly unbalanced vs mode as well as 10 Survival games. Oh Survival.
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Naughty Bear is 505 Games new IP set to bring back fun, cartoon violence in games. Everyone’s seen the amusing parody trailers of Naughty Bear reenacting iconic scenes from films. What gamers don’t know is how the game plays out.

Not one trailer explains the backdrop or objective of the game, leaving gamers to ponder. Which begs the question is Naughty Bear worth another gander or should it be brushed under the carpet?

The inhabitants of the game are bears who live in the woods which is basically the theme of every level. In short Naughty Bear is the protagonist who doesn’t receive an invite to someone’s birthday party.

After trying to play nice by sending that person a gift anyway, he becomes the laughing stock of the party. Naughty Bear is now on a rampage to make everyone pay for their actions and guarantees there will be fluff. In terms of the story that’s about it, that’s as dense as it gets.

The objective of the game is to earn points as fast as you can in a level. Points couldn’t be earned any easier; all you’re required to do is kill/scare the bears and destroy objects in the environment. Read More  »

Another quality addition hits the PSN called Switchball, which is a 3D puzzle game with fantastic visual effects and great fun for the family. Later levels require a bit of skill but I can guarantee you this will get the family hooked. Every level begins with a gleaming ball arriving on a Da Vinci style flying machine and following through a maze.

On the path of the maze you’ll encounter varied challenges from turning off fans with a box moved onto a switch to rolling across planks with excellent use of physics. Switchball utilizes physics very well on objects such as a floating cloth and boxes used as paths.

In total there are 30 levels that can be played at your own leisure or timed and recorded onto a leaderboard. Gameplay is mixed up with different power ups for the ball such as magnetic, bouncing and steel abilities which keep levels feeling fresh.

Each power up has its own implications for example the steel ball power up makes the ball heavy and will tear through a floating cloth. There’s a lot of strategy involved in this game, you have to make sure you have to right ball to progress through certain stages of a level. Read More  »

The most anticipated Spider-Man game of 2010 is around the corner and will be available on Sony PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and DS on 10th September.

The plot is quite simple Amazing Spider-Man accidently, shatters the tablet of order and chaos during a scuffle with Mysterio. Now shattered into pieces the universe is in danger, any villain with the tablet is a threat.

Spider-Man must now obtain every single piece from 4 different dimensions, with the help of other Spider-Men. The dimensions that are featured in the game are the amazing universe, noire universe, 2099 universe and the ultimate universe.

The launch trailer focuses on each Spider-Man’s distinctive abilities which will help restore the tablet of order and chaos. You also get a glimpse at some of Spideys foes you will be facing next week such as Mysterio, Sandman, the Scorpion, Carnage, Deadpool, Hobgoblin, Kraven and the Vulture.

Microsoft managed to pack 90 minutes with some tasty looking games and the newly named Kinect motion control camera. The slimline 360 makes a late appearance too. Here’s the Game Hub summary of what looked good and a bit of what didn’t.

Call of Duty: Black Ops

The Treyarch team have been busy with this one, it looks incredible. The level we’re shown seems to be set in Vietnam, starting in a dark, atmospheric, claustrophobic underground tunnel with some great lighting effects. It then opens up into the stark contrast of a sunlit jungle clearing before seamlessly throwing you into a helicopter to storm a river side base with machine gun and missile fire. It wasn’t clear if the player has full flight control or just control of aiming, we suspect the later. Normal gunplay looks like business as usual (yay!), but the awful ‘jam effect’ returns when you’re getting shot. 360 fans can smug it up too as all COD DLC will be coming to them first each time until 2012. Black Ops looks like a title unafraid to take on Modern Warfare 2, Halo Reach and Killzone 3, good times for shooter fans. Read More  »

The game of billiards has never been simulated so realistically with the physics, lighting and graphics implementing its real life counterpart so brilliantly. Without a doubt Hustle Kings has definitely bought some class to the PSN library of games and annihilates every other game in its genre.

Each match can be played in a variety of stunningly detailed bars and settings. A rather intriguing setting is the sky lounge, which is set on the top floor of a building on looking the sky and city at night. It’s a great view when you’re in a match; it complements the pool table and the entire surrounding.

The controls couldn’t be any easier with the option to either control the pool cue with the left analogue stick or the D- pad. To take a shot you can flick the right analogue stick or use an accuracy meter which prompts you to press x for the perfect shot. The power of a shot is controlled with R2 and L2 conveyed on screen by a slider.

In every match you win you earn HKC, which is Hustle Kings in game currency. The more trick shots executed, the more HKC you can expect.

With this currency you can buy new avatars, a variety of pool cues/balls and bars to name a few. The price of all these items however are ridiculously overpriced and out of reach.

The only way you could possibly have any hope of purchasing this stuff is by making big wagers online.  Finding an opponent to hustle is easy, when standard pool modes supports up to 256 players in one lobby. Read More  »

Despite the DS outselling its Sony rival and even the big consoles on a regular basis, Nintendo are determined to get one into every gamer’s (and their relative’s) hands. With the children's market sorted they’re going for the grownups in force.

Handheld console manufacturers just can’t help but fiddle around. With both the DS and PSP getting numerous make-overs over the last few years getting bigger, smaller, slidier but rarely cheaper.

So it’s surprising to say that this is one upgrade that looks pretty good. Adding all the extra functions of the still recent DSi and supersizing the console to fit in adult hands and give them a screen big enough to make all the extra features worthwhile for once. While still not exactly cheap, the console will retail at £150 which is only £10 more than the smaller DSi.

So what does it do that we haven’t seen before on the DSi? Well not much to be honest. No Nintendo, new colours don’t count. There are only two colours available at launch, Wine Red and Dark Brown. It would seem Nintendo believe this the best strategy to attract the more ‘mature’ gamer, assuming they all like merlot and dirt. Read More  »

The ‘Day of Fury’ part of the title probably gave it away, but this isn’t part of the Wii Fit-style wave of games. So there’ll be no breathing games or dragging out the balance board, instead it’s good old-fashioned hit-things-with-a-stick gameplay.

Everything in the game seems to be enraging your guy, so in order to keep his stress levels (like a health bar) down you need to smash everything up and occasionally calm yourself down by finding money or a brew.

Playing from a first person perspective you guide your stressed psychopath through environments like your flat, a bridge traffic jam, your office and the airport. Using weapons varying from a slipper to a fire axe you must smash your way through doors, zombie cops, bugs, and hallucinations of traffic-signal men and other such demented ‘issues’.

Missions involve finding and destroying all your alarm clocks, breaking car windows, smashing phones and finding missing luggage at the airport. If you’ve ever seen the film Falling Down, just imagine that but with Michael Douglas on acid too. Read More  »

All your votes are in and counted. So who were the winners of the Game Hub Games of the Year Awards 2009? There are a few surprises amongst the obvious ones.  Fortunately for all the nominees, nobody got zero votes (somebody got one though). So here are the Top 3 for each of the 13 categories:

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Episode 1: Little Riddle’s Deadly Dilemma
Episode 2: The Mystery of Riddle Manor

It’s about time PSN got some murder mystery puzzles games going. Professor Layton on the DS has had his own way for much too long now. So the creators of the Buzz! quiz games whisk us off to the “Quintessentially quaint” countryside village of Little Riddle.

All the voice over work is done by one man. He’s done a cracking job too, with no two villagers sounding alike and each amusing in their own way. The way he dramatically pronounces ‘murder’ as the narrator raises a smile every time. His dithering barmaid and snooty hotel manager are worth a mention too. The script, music and characters all poke fun at the murder mystery genre and the game feels all the better for it.

You play as one of four detectives (another three people can play along too) from the Blue Toad Agency on holiday after finishing your latest case. It doesn’t matter who you pick as all the puzzles are the same and they’re all mute, but each with some amusing facial expressions. At first it seems the biggest concern of any of the villagers is that of the Station Master who desperately wants a tea shop built at the village’s solitary platform. Read More  »

Web-based games often get a bit of a bum rap from mainstream gamers. Either they’re seen as mere diversions from the real meat of the games industry, and often the games are designed as such, or they’re compared unflinchingly with retail games and obviously come off worse. However, as more and more non-gamers come into contact with these games through finding them on Facebook and other social networking sites, it seems they provide a valuable service. They act as a kind of ‘gateway’ game, leading the first-time player on to more complex and ultimately rewarding games. Read More  »