AWARDS SEASON: BEST GAME OF THE YEAR 2010

Overall winner

Mass Effect 2

Honourable mentions

Red Dead Redemption

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

ASSASSIN'S CREED: BROTHERHOOD

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CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS (2010) REVIEW

Great single player, average multiplayer.

PS3 version reviewed.

Call of Duty: Black Ops is a first person shooter published by Activision and developed by Treyarch for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS and PC.

GAMEPLAY

STORY

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The single-player campaign is probably the best the Call of Duty series has ever done, along with the continuation of the Zombies mode from World at War the game is probably worth a go. However I couldn't help but feel the multiplayer was below par compared to other entries in the series.

VANQUISH

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PC version reviewed.

Vanquish is a third person shooter published by SEGA and developed by PlatinumGames for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

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FALLOUT: NEW VEGAS (2010) REVIEW

PC and PS3 versions reviewed.

Fallout: New Vegas is an open world RPG published by Bethesda Softworks and developed by Obsidian Entertainment for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

GAMEPLAY

STORY
The branching story lines and potential outcomes are really well done. You can easily play through the game numerous times and experience vastly different outcomes.

GRAPHICS

SOUND

VALUE FOR MONEY

OVERALL
While New Vegas' story really shines, the performance issues really bog the game down. I'd go as far as avoiding the game on PS3, it really does crash that often, and while it's worth checking out on PC, beware that even mods don't seem to stop the game crashing a lot.

ENSLAVED: ODYSSEY TO THE WEST (2010) REVIEW

A hidden gem? Or just another rock in the pile?

PC version reviewed.

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is an action adventure platformer published by Namco and developed by Ninja Theory for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

GAMEPLAY

Combat is alright

Very hard to fall off in platforming segments

Cloud is a nice idea, but rarely utilised well

Need more reasons to replay the level and more ability to explore

STORY

Pigsy in the original tale

Unexpected ending

GRAPHICS

Quite nice, aesthetic gets a bit boring in the New York levels though

SOUND

Voice acting and SFX fine, soundtrack a bit boring

VALUE FOR MONEY

Short campaign, no real reason to replay

OVERALL

Enslaved is a decent but flawed game. However it is worth a glance if you're looking for a short action adventure platformer.

CIVILIZATION V

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AMNESIA: THE DARK DESCENT

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ARMA II: OPERATION ARROWHEAD

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PC exclusive.

ARMA II: Operation Arrowhead is game published by 505 Games and developed by Bohemia Interactive for PC.

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RED DEAD REDEMPTION

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GRAND THEFT AUTO: EPISODES FROM LIBERTY CITY

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PS3 version reviewed.

Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City is a game published and developed by Rockstar for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC.

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MOUNT & BLADE: WARBAND

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BATTLEFIELD: BAD COMPANY 2 (2010) REVIEW

The best multiplayer experience for the seventh generation.

PS3 version reviewed.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is a first person shooter published by EA Games and developed by DICE for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

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OVERALL
While the single-player isn't great, the multiplayer left me amazed at times.

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MASS EFFECT 2

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PC version reviewed.

GAMEPLAY
Combat is massively improved over the not so great combat of the first game.

Interrupts bring a fun new edge to conversations.

Dropping the open-worldish segments and replacing those mostly boring and terrible side-quests from the first game with much more tightly designed and detailed side missions does wonders for this game. The much more linear approach is so much more immersive, appealing and fun. It's like the first game has had all the rough edges removed and the real potential has been found.

STORY
The final mission is a wonderful combination of everything that Mass Effect strives to be. Everything you've done in preparation will be felt and everything you decide for your squad will have repercussions. You can succeed at your mission with flying colours or fail so badly that you can't continue the story into Mass Effect 3. The final mission is intense, satisfying and simply an incredible spectacle. There are few better levels than this one in gaming.

Most of the squad (10 characters, 12 with DLC) are fascinating characters who are really well written. You'll want to learn more about them and what makes them who they are and why they want to join you.

GRAPHICS

SOUND
A very good soundtrack that really enhances some parts of the game. "The End Run" and "The Normandy Reborn" are two of the real highlights. The voice acting is pretty great too, helping to create some of the really engaging characters.

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DARKSIDERS REVIEW

Unexpectedly like Zelda.

PC version reviewed.

Darksiders is an action adventure game published by THQ and developed by Nordic Games for the Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U and PC.

For clarification, I played through the Warmastered Edition and have not actually played the original.

GAMEPLAY
The combat is great for the most part, I originally had some doubts as it kind of felt like a game where you would just press X a lot at the start, but it builds into a different beast later on. Combos, blocking and ranged weapons all bring a new dynamic and the new weapons and equipment you gain throughout keep the game fresh and interesting for the most part. Being able to pick up cars and throw them around like tennis balls was pretty fun too. It's simple enough that you can get good at it without having to worry about going in depth to be a great player, whilst also having enough depth to keep it interesting with all the different combos you can learn.

The blend of combat, platforming and puzzles was a style reminiscent of Okami and Legend of Zelda, which is fantastic because we really need more games in that style. Even if I didn't feel the story, graphics or soundtrack were really up to much, this kind of game design is really nice for a plethora of reasons, one of which I would suggest is because it keeps things fresh and varied. Even if Darksiders doesn't catch that sense of wonder, charm or many of the other incredible aspects of those games I really hope to see more games release with this style, because there's so much fun to be had with it - and quite simply, I really enjoy it.

All the weapons and having to specifically equip and then swap them can be a bit overwhelming at times, especially later in the game, where the game decides to throw in puzzles requiring almost all of them. It leaves you having to juggle all these new and old weapons across your tiny quick select menu or even at times having to go into the actual menus to get another weapon out - It just didn't feel like it completely worked. Perhaps you should have had a bigger quick select, or even like the game allows you to do with melee weapons, double tab a button to swap it out for another, rather than having to constantly be switching weapons in your menu.

The fast travel system is really odd. Instead of just clicking and being taken somewhere, you have to find a merchant and use his tunnel network which takes you into this strange staircase dimension thing where you have to run along a path it draws up for you. I can understand putting this little walking segment in the first time you do it because it establishes what happens every time you do, that's cool, but having to do it any time you want to fast travel is a bit boring.

I didn't really enjoy the big boss fights, in fact I thought I'd ruined the first big boss fight because the boss had a very repetitive move that it kept spamming, which forced the player into a short quick time event, however because it kept doing this so much I thought I was messing something up or the game had bugged. To my surprise it really was what was supposed to be happening and I was astonished that such a poorly designed part made it into the game. Perhaps putting in something as simple as a boss health bar could have helped with this.

The horse combat however was really fun and the bosses that required you to use it were much better than the rest. The Stygian worm boss fight reminded me of Shadow of the Colossus, where you had to make space between yourself and the worm whilst firing at it trailing behind you. The other boss fight that used the horse had you going at each other as if you were jousting, they were both great and fun. It's just a shame that after the level where you get the horse you hardly get to use it again, instead the next two levels had no room at all for the horse, which lead to what was possibly the most fun part of the game being severely underutilised.

There was a moment where the game made me feel really clever after finishing part of a puzzle, even though it turned out I did exactly what you were supposed to do. You had to use some explosive things on to break away a barricade, but you had no fire to light them with, so instead you had to line up the explosives until one was close enough for some fire to reach and cause a chain reaction to get rid of the barricade. At first I thought I'd come up with my own idea and there was another way the game wanted you to dispose of the obstacle, but it was indeed the way and I was impressed with how the game had you think in an outside of the box kind of way. I think it's fair to say most of the puzzles throughout the game were well designed, even if the ones towards the end could get a bit tiresome.

Occasionally there seemed to be some input delay between my controller and the game, most specifically when trying to jump. Having to redo a few segments was frustrating, just because the game hadn't recognised that I'd pressed the button. There were also a few parts where War decided to just ignore a ledge, or jump at the wrong angle and miss what should have been a simple place to get to. Again, this led to having to do some parts more than I really should have had to and became annoying. Regarding movement, some way to move faster aside from the few times you're allowed to use your horse would have been nice too.

The spider level wasn't much fun after getting a horse and riding through a massive wasteland, the game forgets about one of its best additions and forces you through a small, tight, linear level that you even have to go through twice. The level afterwards also has no horse and goes on way too long, it really was pretty exhausting and I just kept hoping it would end. Then after that marathon of a level it asks you to go back round almost the whole game world to collect some things, it really felt unnecessarily drawn out.

STORY
Sadly, despite the interesting introduction to the world, Darksiders story felt like it was mostly just there to put the game together. There aren't any memorable characters, no intriguing quest or anything like that. Some of the cutscenes came off pretty awkwardly and some of them had strange camera angels or just strange ways of conveying what was going on that left me a bit confused at times.

GRAPHICS

The game looks alright, although I do wish you didn't have to go through so many sewers to get between levels, the subway level always looked visually dull. My real problem with the graphics though was how cutscenes were done, it was as if whoever was put in charge of them thought they were directing a movie, but they just kept shooting from strange angles because it looked "artistic" I mean the amount of odd and annoying angles just made it harder to understand what was going on at times. It was really terrible at some points.

SOUND
Soundtrack isn't offensive, but isn't really anything special and is pretty forgettable. It wasn't really helped by the fact it seemed a bit too quiet at times too.

Some of voice acting, most especially War's just didn't quite seem right at times. I think it was usually down to how quickly characters spoke to one another, but at times War just sounded bored or monotonous, as if it took him great effort just to say things. There were also some awkward exchanges that just didn't seem to really make sense, such as when War got angry with his Watcher, smacked him, and then despite doing something that he should have got punished for they both acted as if nothing had actually happened and returned to getting their job done. Perhaps it was the direction, because things just didn't always seem to quite work.

VALUE FOR MONEY

Including collectables the game will probably take around 20 hours to beat on normal difficulty.

OVERALL
Compile the bizarre camera work with War's bad voice acting and the somewhat messy story and the game got confusing at times. All of these things problems lay in their direction. It sounds like I really didn't like the game, looking at all the criticisms I have for it but I did actually really enjoy it.

Darksiders takes some queues from some fantastic games and you can tell from it's largely brilliant gameplay. However at times the game lacks polish, style, the flawless design or many other things some of its inspirations have. It's a solid experience but certainly has some room for improvement. Iron out some of the gameplay kinks, make the game more cohesive. sort out the story, make the soundtrack more effective and memorable. Get some of those flaws sorted out and then this game could be sitting with the truly outstanding.