Game: Puddle

Developer: Neko Entertainment

Publisher: Konami

Available On: Xbox LIVE Arcade and PlayStation Network (Reviewed on Xbox LIVE Arcade)

The last time I took a look at a Konami published download-only game, it was the unremarkable undead carve-up, Zombie Apocalypse, a loud, gung-ho shooter which left me feeling annoyed and disappointed. My latest experience with one of their offerings could not be further away from that twin-stick nonsense.

Go back a couple of years, and some of you may remember a lovely little sleeper of a title for WiiWare, the innovative water-based puzzler Fluidity. The premise was simple, using the horizontally-held Wiimote, you tilt left or right to guide your watery mass around a maze-like setting, avoiding obstacles along the way. I love these sort of games, despite my limited command of the subject and outright hostility toward my teacher of it at school, I am a sucker for physics-based titles. Grant me control over the awesome powers of gravity, momentum and all of these other things I barely understand, and put me in charge of negotiating a maze or obstacle-laden course, and I am your man; and I am in my element.

Created by a bunch of French students, and picked up by Neko Entertainment who helped craft it into the finished article, Puddle, despite a pretty mediocre sounding name, is another amazing liquid-based puzzle game, available for a few quid on XBLA and PSN, and fully deserving of your time.

Puddle is simple in premise, and begins in genius fashion. An unknown, shadowy figure walks past, and places a cup of coffee onto a table. With that, you are left to your own devices. I can’t think of any other game in living memory that has kicked things off with such an arbitrary scene. There are no pop up boxes explaining what you do with this cuppa; so what the hell do you do next? So you start messing around with the buttons, and soon discover that you can manipulate the world around the cup, by using the trigger buttons. Alternating between left and right, the coffee will start to move in the cup. Keep that back and forth motion going, and sooner or later the cup will fall, and the liquid will pour into the drain below – your goal.

Despite such humble beginnings, Puddle takes you on a journey which sees you attempting to guide various liquids through all manner of settings. You will find yourself rotating away in a number of locations, through elaborate mazes of pipework, through power stations and science labs, past hungry looking flytraps and even through the human body.

Different levels also bring different types of liquid to guide toward the finish, which bring their own pitfalls. Mercury-like liquid metal can slow down if you do not pass through furnaces at an opportune time, whereas nitro-glycerine is extremely volatile and liable to explode if you are not careful. There are other factors to consider too, a jaunt onboard a space rocket sees the associated issues with gravity, for example. And along the way you will encounter the games equivalent of boss battles, where you face a particularly taxing obstacle or situation that you will have to negotiate in a specific and calculated manner, often against the clock.

With gorgeous soft focus backdrops which perfectly compliment the bold, often silhouetted objects and scenery in the foreground, and pleasant ambient music and soothing splishy splashy sound effects, Puddle is a treat for the senses. It is also bloody hard at times. You are awarded a ranking after completing a level, which is awarded based upon how long you have taken to finish, and how much of your precious liquid remains. The game will also tell you how many attempts you have made on each stage, which adds an extra gnawing sense of frustration as you repeatedly fail to prevent your unstable liquid from exploding, or end up getting assaulted by a carnivourous plant for the 29th time. The defeatists amongst you will be pleased to hear that the game does let you “skip” a particularly tricky stage, however you can only do this twice, with the second time permitted only once you have returned to complete the original level you chickened out on.

There are a nice amount of levels to flow through, and a superb customisable laboratory mode which allows you to create your own crazy courses, with more items and obstacles becoming unlocked the further you progress through the game. Impressive stuff, this, when you consider there are full priced games out there that are screaming out for a level creation mode (Crush3d being a very recent example).

VERDICT: Puddle is one of the more enjoyable puzzle games I have played in recent years. Loco Roco, and even Soul Bubbles (how many times do I have to pimp Soul Bubbles before people listen?) are valid touchstones here, and there is no getting away from the obvious similarities it shares with the aforementioned Wiiware title, but the way this has been carried out is highly commendable. It looks great, sounds great and there are plenty of genuinely innovative surprises along the way that harness the almost limitless possibilities of liquids. This is a new high point for Neko, who previously held the dubious honour of bringing forth Crazy Frog Racer unto the masses. A superb effort all round.

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 Game: TraderPlay

Developer: TraderPeople

Publisher: Copperdime Ltd

Available on: PC/ Mac

In the past few years, the financial industry has had a pretty bad reputation, justifiably so, you might argue. Whatever your opinion, the online financial market is growing rapidly, with banks and other companies offering your Average Joe a platform to play with financial instruments. TraderPlay, a new online game, is one of many platforms for Joe to do this with virtual money; complete with the opportunity to win real money for good performance.

At first glance, TraderPlay is very ergonomic with a sleek, modern design. Cartoon figures of businesspeople add to the fun-factor and keep the game light and entertaining. Help for beginners, however, is hard to initially find. It is difficult to know where to begin if you’re starting out as a finance newbie. As this uses virtual money, this means that at least you won’t lose any of your hard-earned dosh due to these problems. TraderPeople’s “TraderVersity“, plugs this gap; but does take some rooting around to find.

There are three financial instruments that players can utilise:

1. Equities – prices of stocks, shares in companies
2. Foreign exchange – ratios of pairs of currencies, called “FX” or “Forex” in the financial industry
3. Commodities – prices of oil, gold etc.

Stocks and shares you may be more familiar with, essentially you are betting on the values of individual bits of companies. A company does well, stocks go up, and vice versa. Foreign exchange you may be less familiar with, this involves betting on the movement of pairs of currencies. For example, if I think that the UK’s economy will do well this month (unemployment will lower, say) and that the Japanese economy will do badly (high trade deficit, say) then I also concurrently think that the GBP/JPY pair will go up, so I execute a buy order on the GBP/JPY pair.

In the game itself, the platform focuses on you and your friends joining up, trading, and comparing your winnings with others. The social aspect is strong, as players can link the game with their Facebook accounts. There are many competitions too, the main one being the monthly “Trading Fun” competition, ranking players globally by winnings. These are a positive feature, an incentive for you to learn more about trading and show off on the leaderboards.

Trading itself is a simple action, you can easily pick and choose financial instruments and executive orders quickly. Since this is virtual money, there are no legal obligations for the platform to use brokers, so the speed is accentuated. One negative I have to draw from the platform is its emphasis on short-term trading. The charts used move very quickly, and are suited to those with a taste for instant gratification. The ‘daily trend’ for each instrument (up/down) is incredibly vague too as there is no explanation or time scale used. This is bad for beginners and meaning that only those experienced in finance or with advanced charting software will be able to understand the platform’s interpretations of trend easily.

One must remember that this game is still in its infancy, and the game offers a very open and clear way to give the developers feedback on game features they’d like to see. It’s definitely a positive to have open-minded developers. When playing, I strongly urge you to take advantage of this!

While there are certainly positives to this new game, there are still more ergonomic platforms out there, such as eToro which focuses on foreign exchange, and has a secondary platform for virtual money trading without the risk of losing your money. However, one unique advantage TraderPlay does offer is its exclusive focus on virtual money, this gives it more legitimacy as a game, drawing away from the money-making aspect of trading. Ironically, most traders I’ve met from investment banks view ‘real-life’ trading as a game itself.

VERDICT: Do try out this free game; with nothing to lose and potentially a lot of money to win, beginners to finance can learn about trading. Those more serious about finance would do better to try out the secondary virtual platforms of some brokers’ trading platforms.

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Game: Assassin’s Creed: Revelations – Mediterranean Traveler Map Pack

Developer: Ubisoft

Publisher: Ubisoft

Available On: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC (Reviewed on Xbox 360)

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations has been out for a few months now, but Ubisoft’s support for the game’s brilliant multiplayer mode, is unwavering. The second piece of downloadable content for the game has been released, this time around we have a collection of six old and new multiplayer locales for assassins to go wild in (well, as wild as stealthy cold-blooded killers can be).

For something that sounded odd when it was originally added to the Assassin’s Creed formula, the multiplayer modes for both Brotherhood and Revelations have been a fantastic added bonus, that turned out heaps better than originally expected. What could have been a tacked on set of Deathmatch modes, turned out to be a brilliant mix of stealth, tactics and murder. It’s the kind of multiplayer experience where even if you aren’t doing particularly well, you still end up having a good time and feel like your skills have improved with each round. The excellence of the multiplayer is further increased when team modes are added to the mix.

Ubisoft’s contributions in terms of DLC content for Revelations, have so far been a strictly multiplayer affair. The end of last year saw the release of the Ancestors Character Pack, a low-priced, yet ultimately unsatisfying collection of 4 multiplayer characters (with a few Achievements/Trophies thrown in for good measure). This time around, for the price of we have six map packs to play around with:

• Jerusalem
• Constantinople
• Dyer
• Firenze
• San Donato
• Siera

The first three maps are all new creations, inspired by the locales in the main single-player game; the others are three of the best maps from Brotherhood, with each map also having its own Achievement/Trophy for performing a particular feat within.

To be honest, for 800 of your Microsoft Points (or £7.99 on PlayStation 3 & PC), you would expect a little more content. Granted, there are map packs for other games that are just as expensive (or more), but the thing is with these maps is that they don’t terribly effect the actual multiplayer gameplay. These maps offer little more than a change in scenery, which could be unnecessary to most; although it was nice to see the Brotherhood maps make an appearance. While I understand that it costs money and resources to create these maps, there needs to be more content to justify the cost of this pack and Achievements/Trophies aren’t enough (800 Microsoft points could buy a decent Xbox Live Arcade title).

Maybe I am coming across a bit harsh, the design of the maps themselves are top-notch, as you would expect from a game containing such lavish architecture, with each map having its own sense of individuality. Something I must note, is that I have been playing the game on my Xbox 360 in 3D, using a pair of TriOviz glasses (as used by Enslaved: Odyssey To The West, Arkham City, Arkham Asylum and a few others). Assassin’s Creed lends itself well to the added dimension, with the extra depth really adding something to the environments, especially when navigating through streets and alleyways. Siera’s Carnival scene looks particularly gorgeous in the Third-Dimension, with the firework-lit streets and the hustle-and-bustle of the crowds serving as an incredible backdrop to an assassination spree.

In regards to the previously mentioned Achievements/Trophies, there is little to say about them. As specified earlier, each map has it’s own accolade to strive for, ranging from performing 3 stuns without dying in Jerusalem, to obtaining 2 variety bonuses in the Firenze map. These are all easily obtainable (I managed to earn all six in the space of an hour), so these awards do little to add any longevity to the experience.

VERDICT: To summarise, this is a content pack that offers little to anyone but dedicated assassins. 800 Microsoft Points/£7.99 is far too much to pay for content that offers little more than new scenery (which admittedly, is really nice scenery). To make things worse, Ubisoft offer a free trial for this content, allowing you three days to pretty much experience everything available (apart from the Achievements/Trophies), further making this content pointless. Ubisoft need to offer more substance to their DLC than characters and locations. Some new modes would be the icing on the cake for an already great multiplayer experience.

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Game: Metal Gear Solid HD Collection

Developer: Konami, Bluepoint Games, Genki, Aspect Co.

Publisher: Konami

Available on: PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 (Reviewed on PlayStation 3)

The Metal Gear series has been around for over 25 years now and is still being played all over the world. With its complex but enthralling story lines, combination of stealth and action gameplay and a series of unforgettable characters, it is fair to say that Metal Gear is something of an institution. Unfortunately in recent years gamers who want to relive these games (because the games have a notoriously long gap in between releases) have to rely on old consoles to enable them to get their fix of Snake and company. It is always great fun to go back to the original, but fans of any gaming series always want to see their favourite characters and stories thrust into modern times because they want to play their favourite games on the latest consoles. Over the last few months we have seen a resurgence of these games like Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary and Resident Evil 4 and they always seem to show up on a new console one way or another.

Well, now the fans prayers have finally been answered as we see the arrival of Metal Gear Solid HD Collection for the PlayStation 3 as well as the Xbox 360, allowing fans who have changed consoles, for whatever reason, to play the original titles whenever they choose. The collection consists of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (which includes the original titles from the MSX console, Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake) and also Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, which was originally a PlayStation Portable game.

Not only do you get to play all of these games on your consoles, but they have also had a nice polish up on the graphics as well as being rendered in glorious HD, allowing you to experience these titles on your big TV’s without any problems. But has Snake been given a new lease of life and will having the stories retold for a new generation draw in more fans of the series? Or is it time for him to gracefully bow out and let someone else take the reigns? Let us find out!

STORY:  All of the Metal Gear Solid games have deep and engaging story lines and the majority of people will know them already. But if you’re new to the series, or simply cannot remember them, here is a refresher for you, but because the games are set in different time lines, we will go through these in chronological order:

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - The story is set just after the Cuban Missile crisis in 1962, with the Cold War in full swing. The threat of an all out nuclear war is poking its doom laden head over the horizon, America and the Soviet Union undergo some intense negotiations and the Russians move their nuclear missiles out of Cuba, which seemingly has allowed humanity to survive a nuclear holocaust. However, there was a secret condition that really put an end to the crisis, and that was for America to return a Soviet Rocket Scientist called Nikolai Sokolov, who had only recently defected. America complied with this condition, only to then find out that Sokolov had been designing some nightmarish weapons. Now with Sokolov back in Soviet hands, he can continue to build this weapon and should it be completed, it will mark a new age of fear.

Realizing the urgency of the situation, the CIA hatch a plan to recapture Sokolov and dispatch the covert FOX unit to his research facility located south of the Soviet fortress of Groznyj Grad. Led by former SAS member Major Zero, the FOX unit specialize in covert intelligence and solo sneaking missions. Enter the man who is to roam this hostile land and re-secure Sokolov; the man with the code name of Naked Snake.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker - The year is 1974 and Big Boss (after his exploits from the Virtuous Mission and Operation Snake Eater) disappear out of America and has created his own “Army without a Nation” mercenary group named “Soldiers without Borders” and has set up camp in Colombia, South America. Haunted by his former mentor and sailing aimlessly in the breeze, he is approached by visitors from Costa Rica, which is known as a “Nation without a Military”.

With the Cuban Missile crisis long gone but never forgotten, Latin America has become the key to maintaining the power balance between the East and the West. But now a mysterious armed force has emerged and threatened to disrupt this fragile balance. So to preserve peace and neutrality in Costa Rica and potentially prevent another crisis, the Soldiers without Borders, led by Big Boss, spring into action. In time they come to be known as the founders of “Outer Heaven”.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty - Set after the events of the Shadow Moses Incident, technological data of the Nuclear-armed all terrain battle tank known as “Metal Gear” has been leaked onto the Black Market. Solid Snake and his allies from anti-Metal Gear, Non-Government Organisation, “Philanthropy” set off in chase of a tanker that is said to be carrying a new Metal Gear prototype. Unfortunately Snake falls into a trap set by former FOXHOUND member Revolver Ocelot, and is believed to be lost at sea along with the tanker at the bottom of the Hudson River and the new Metal Gear prototype stolen.

Two years later the Big Shell, which is an oil spill clean up facility constructed in the wake of the tanker disaster, is taken over by terrorists and capture the U.S. President who was visiting the facility at the time. If that wasn’t bad enough, the terrorists claim to be led by the legendary soldier, Solid Snake. The government sends Raiden, a new recruit to the FOXHOUND unit to infiltrate the Big Shell and rescue the President. But everything is not as it seems…

As you can tell with all of these stories, they are very much in depth, intricate and all out entertaining. Some people may find that they take a while to get going and sometimes you will find yourself watching a lot of plot unfold before you actually get to play anything which may put you off. But if you fully engross yourself into the story and fully get into the game, the pay off will be outstanding. That said, you really must pay attention as well, as sometimes you may miss something and wonder what happened, but because of the way it is written, you can catch up quite easily and carry on.

Due to the nature of these titles, you will feel that you are playing an epic action movie and you will be thoroughly gripped by the events that take place. It may seem at times that it is clearly written with 80′s/90′s action movies as a clear inspiration, but they have stood the test of time and make you feel like a super spy and an ultimate soldier all at the same time.

GRAPHICS: The Metal Gear series have always used the best graphics available when releasing a new game, and you’ll be glad to hear that they are still in their original format, but now all nice and shiny due to it’s HD make over. Snake Eater looks amazing in HD and the detail that was in the game originally is magnified because of these. Sons of Liberty is still exactly the same as it was on the PlayStation 2 but because of the HD refit, everything looks smooth and crisp. It may not be as graphically impressive as some games out there but it still looks great.

The biggest surprise is Peace Walker, it looks very impressive indeed. It was obviously a PSP title originally and looked good when it was released, but to have it now available on your TV without any flaws and obviously in HD it is an outstanding achievement. Having said that you can at times tell that it is a PSP game as it is not as well developed. In order to make up for this, Peace Walker breaks away from the FMV cut-scenes and goes for a comic book style which looks fantastic and suits the game.

The facial animations are great in Snake Eater but only minimal in Sons of Liberty as when it was released, games were only beginning to use that sort of animation. The lip syncing isn’t great but then it originally never was. Even though Sons of Liberty was an early PlayStation 2 game, some of the textures are still a little odd. Apart from this, however, the game’s hold up well graphically and once again still look good for the majority of the titles in this day and age.

SOUND: All of the original sound tracks of the games are used in their entirety, with the full orchestra action movie feel for the dramatic bits and the cool spy-esque music for when you are sneaking around. The Metal Gear series has always been able to encapsulate the mood of the game perfectly which gives these games extra feeling and Oomph, whether it be the James Bond style of music in Snake Eater to the blockbuster action movie style music in Sons of Liberty.

The sound effects for each title are good as well with every gunshot, footstep, knock, bang and explosion sounding as you would expect them to. The voice acting is always spot on, with David Hayter doing his growling voice for Snake. Sometimes the scripts can be a little cheesy and make you cringe, but the voice acting is well portrayed and as believable as possible.

GAMEPLAY: The majority of you will know, the Metal Gear series is a stealth action game, but the way you play it will determine how much fun you can have with it. You can sneak around avoiding everyone and fighting only when you have to do so or you can stun/kill enemies without being detected, meaning that you have to hide the bodies. You can even just go around killing everyone without worrying about stealth if you so desire, but that may become difficult and sometimes you have to hide before you can progress. It is obviously not ideal to play like this but the option is there. To get around without being seen, you have to use cover appropriately and your surroundings to your advantage. In every area you enter, there is always more than one way to get by without being detected, and the fun part is finding these out.

To get around you can either run, crouch walk (this function is only available in Snake Eater and Peace Walker) or crawl (only in Snake Eater and Sons of Liberty). Each of these have their positives and negatives aspects. If you want to hide from the enemy, you’ll be better crawling under an object or crouching around the corner. If you want to sneak up behind an enemy, then crouching would be quieter than running and quicker than crawling. This once again would be how you decide to play the game. The enemies usually have set patrol patterns and only deviate from these when they see or hear something suspicious. So use this to your advantage. Vision wise the enemy’s field of vision is a set cone, and if you are spotted within that cone, he will sound the alarm. This can be odd because this cone only goes out a certain distance, so if you stand in front of his field of vision but at a distance, he won’t alert anyone which sometimes dampers the realism that these games usually strive to achieve.

As Snake progresses, he collects a vast array of weapons and items that he can use to either kill, stun or hide from the enemy. For example, you have pistols, machine guns and RPG’s to take people out, but you also have binoculars, radars and distraction items like a magazine to make the enemy do what you want, allowing you to sneak efficiently.

There are a lot of similarities in these games but there are differences as well. Snake Eater and Sons of Liberty have the option of shooting enemies in first person, whereas in Peace Walker you only have a third person Uncharted-esque style of shooting. In Sons of Liberty, you play in an almost top down style whereas in Peace Walker and Snake Eater, your view is behind Snake. Sons has an very descriptive radar, Snake Eater and Peace Walker radars only detects movement or sound depending on the equipment you choose. Snake Eater and Peace Walker have a camouflage system to assist you in hiding from the enemy but Sons doesn’t. The list can go on, but the enjoyment is finding all of these differences, no matter how big or small, and using them all to your advantage.

Package-wise you have a lot of extra stuff with each game. Snake Eater is the Subsistence version, which has the original MSX versions of Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake but unfortunately no Metal Gear Online and Sons of Liberty is the Substance version, which has loads of Virtual Reality and Alternative missions as well as Snake Tales. Peace Walker is the same as the PSP version, except that the second analogue stick is now mapped into the control system for easier use.

Peace Walker has a few different gameplay aspects when compared with the other two. Instead of a continuous mission that is split by cut scenes, the game is split in to separate missions which you access on your Mother Base home screen. Mother base is where you can organise your Army without a Nation as, during the game, if you knock out an enemy you can capture him by the Fulton Recovery System and send him back to your base, where you then convince that enemy to join your side. From then on the majority of the missions can either be played as Big Boss or the people you have captured or recruited.

Also on the Mother Base you can task your army with other jobs such as R&D, Mess, Sickbay, Intel or just your fighting force. The more people you have doing these jobs will increase the effectiveness of your force. For example, increasing the amount of people in R&D will allow you to develop new weapons for use or adding them to the Mess will increase the amount of food you have which will determine how your force fights. Make sure that when you are tasking each person that you check their stats as some people are better at some jobs than others, and checking this will increase your force’s efficiency. Other features in the Mother Base are Trade, where you can trade your soldiers with other people online, Outer ops which is where you send your fighting force out (whether it be your soldiers or the vehicles you have picked up on the main missions) on tasks which will increase their overall life and psyche. There are plenty of other options that emerge as you progress through the game and are all explained via a tutorial as you enter each one.

In summary then, all of these titles are still outstanding to play and you will get great enjoyment from them. Sometimes you may find the controls a little awkward but once you train yourself up, you’ll be sneaking around and snapping necks in no time at all.

MULTIPLAYER: The only multiplayer options available on the disc is through Peace Walker. As previously mentioned you can trade soldiers with other players online. You can also conduct most of the main missions with others whether they be friends or random people in co-op. Another option of the game is to fight against them by selecting Versus Ops and up to six players can fight against each other via four different game types. These are Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture Missions and Base Missions. Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch are self explanatory and Capture Missions are essentially a mode to retrieve items and return it to your base, also defending it for a set time. The team with the most items at the end of the round are then the winners. Base Missions is where you capture territories and defend them, and the team to capture all these territories (or whoever has the most at the end of the round) are the winners. You can assist team mates during gameplay as well by the use of CPR. When you teammate is near death, press the action button and you will revive him.

In relation to the multiplayer maps, these all range from small to large, with some very open areas and some with loads of cover which can lead to some intense and fun battles.

Multiplayer can be quite fun to play and can potentially allow you to network with other players to improve your Army, but it does seem a shame that the other titles didn’t incorporate some aspect of multiplayer, especially Metal Gear Online for Snake Eater. Otherwise Peace Walker’s multiplayer is an enjoyable experience.

LONGEVITY: Metal Gear games are renowned for their epic lengths. Each of the main games can potentially take you anywhere between 15-25 hours to complete the first time you play it and with added extras when you do finish, depending on how you play gives all of these titles a massive replay factor. Also with the addition of the two MSX titles, the game time is increased even further. You could be playing the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection for the next few months and with the addition of trophies/achievements you will be playing these continuously if you are a major fan of the series.

But in total, if you want to finish each one only once you are looking at around 45-75 hours of game time and double that if you take into account the replay factor, then add more if you play the MSX titles. Basically if you are committed to fully completing this, you are definitely in for the long haul.

VERDICT: Metal Gear Solid HD Collection is a retro gamers dream, and fans of the series will be racing down to the shops to obtain their copy. It is the series of games that myself and hundreds of thousands of people have bought PlayStation consoles just to play. The fact that it is also on the Xbox 360 is a brilliant thing as well, as now everyone will get to experience these masterpieces.  For newcomers, don’t be deterred by the long intro’s and the fact you have to be patient when playing as with a lot of practise you can race through these games in next to no time.

Metal Gear Solid is definitely is an “easy to play” but “hard to master” type of affair and some people will probably be deterred that the graphics are from the PlayStation 2 era, but with its HD overhaul and fantastic gameplay it is fair to say that Metal Gear has stood the test of time and, just like Snake, you simply cannot keep them down. It is a shame that they didn’t add Metal Gear Solid to the collection by giving the Nintendo Gamecube version (the Twin Snakes) a HD polish, but with the original available on PlayStation Network and Metal Gear Solid 4 on the PlayStation 3 you can get your Metal Gear fix now whenever you want as long as you own a PlayStation 3 which lets face it, is the console these titles should be played on.

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Game: Dead Island: Ryder White DLC

Developer: Techland

Publisher: Deep Silver

Available on: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC (Reviewed on Xbox 360)

Make no bones about it, Dead Island was a very long game; reminiscent of First Person RPGs like the Fallout series, you would be hard pushed to have finished Dead Island within 30 hours. However, after the initial beauty of the first island area made way to the more dank, dark, claustrophobic areas of the other, less fun, areas, many players may have found themselves stopping and moving onto something else entirely.

With Ryder White, Techland have explored more of what happened on Banoi to take players back into the Dead Island canon. Does it do enough to call players back to the Zombie infested paradise?

If you’ve not finished Dead Island, then some things will seem a little confusing in the Ryder White story. You may realise right away that he’s the voice you hear very early in on the game, guiding you along the way to safety, but you may not realise he had a whole story of his own taking place the entire time you were playing the main game, with a few twists and turns along the way.

It all ties into the main story of Dead Island pretty well, explaining a lot of what was happening that the player couldn’t see before, but if you’ve finished the story of the game, you’ll already know how Ryder White ends. The story itself (despite the voice-acting) is enjoyable throughout, giving you enough to pull you through to the end and find out if what you think is going to happen, actually happens.

Colonel White starts the game at level 15, and the game itself is single player only (no co-op like the main game) with no real save system, merely checkpoints at regular intervals, meaning that if you die, you’ll start no more than a few minutes before you failed. You’ll have to start the DLC from the “New Game” section, selecting Colonel White as your character, which is slightly odd as there is a menu for “Extra Content”, which you’d think you’d be able to use to launch the add-on.

However, the biggest difference between Dead Island and this downloadable content, is that after the half-way point, Ryder White becomes heavily based on guns, with the melee action taking a distant back seat. The paucity of guns on offer doesn’t actually affect the gameplay in a negative way though, because it is almost a relief to go from struggling to survive with melee weapons, to gunning down waves of zombies with the shotgun, pistol and rifle.

Sadly, whilst you do return to the more luscious outdoors of Banoi for a little while, these outdoor sections are, for the most part, the more raggedy apocalyptic areas (cars on fire, scaffolding everywhere) and there’s none of the jungle exploration that you may have enjoyed before. After the half way point, you spend the entire rest of the campaign inside, retreading corridors, which is where the respawning hordes do tend to become an annoyance, as you barrel toward the finale of the Ryder White add-on; there’s only so many times you can run the same gauntlet (or one that looks the same anyway) before you want a new environment.

Veterans of Dead Island won’t find anything new here, which may or may not be a point of contention. Techland have rather skimped on the “new” part of the add-on, with the lack of new achievements being rather telling, there are also no new super-zombie variants either and you’ll spend the entirety of White’s time killing zombies, with the occasional human thrown in for good measure. This new content isn’t particularly long either, clocking in at roughly 4 hours, so the cheaper price point makes sense and feels fair.

VERDICT: Despite itself, Ryder White is actually enormous fun. Most players will probably finish it in one sitting, which isn’t a slur on its longevity, more a credit to its playability. Where some may have found Dead Island sprawling in its enormity, maybe even too daunting, Ryder White doesn’t outstay its welcome.

If you loved Dead Island, then, for the price of admission, the decision to return to Banoi for Ryder White’s adventure is a pretty easy one. That said, there’s nowhere near enough new content, aside from a different take on some story beats from the main game, and it is very gun-heavy, as opposed to the melee combat players may be used to. If you’re jonesing for more first person zombie killing, then Ryder White is Dead Island-lite; the RPG elements almost completely non-existent, this is just brainless fun, Dead Island style.

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Game: NeverDead

Developer: Rebellion Developments

Publisher: Konami

Available on: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 (Reviewed on Xbox 360)

In the age of sequels and “threequels”, it’s always good to see a brand new IP brought to the masses. Konami and Rebellion have done exactly that with NeverDead, a third person shooter with a difference. With the game’s interesting take on death, and Shinta Nojiri, a man who has had pivotal roles in the Metal Gear series, at the helm, NeverDead has a lot of pedigree behind it.

But, the third person shooter genre is one that is always growing, and has a lot of heavy-hitters as it is with the likes of Gears of War, Uncharted and Mass Effect. So, where does the undead, demon hunter adventure of NeverDead stack up against the big guns? Does it pass its predecessors and live on forever more, or does it just drop the first two syllables in its title and become straight up “Dead”?

STORY: You are the demon hunter, Bryce Boltzmann, who is a demon himself. However, 500 years ago, you were just a mere mortal in a battle with the demon king, Astaroth. Boltzmann was cursed with immortality after his wife was brutally murdered by the nasty Astaroth in said battle. So, fast forward to present day, and Bryce is a vengeful soul that wants retribution for his wife’s death…and money for booze and fags. Every demon hunter has to let his hair down I guess. In the modern day, you are accompanied by your NADA (National Anti-Demon Agency) partner, Arcadia Maximille who employs you to help with the slaying of demons. Bryce must try and stop the emerging demonic plague and save the Earth from being overrun by Astaroth and his merry band of snarling creatures. Mental.

GRAPHICS: Throughout NeverDead, there are a number of different environments with varying degrees of colour and atmosphere. In one of the areas, you battle demons in dark and dingy sewers where there is a cold and uneasy feeling to the proceedings. This is a stark contrast to some other places in NeverDead like an apartment you frequent on occasion. The amount of different locations is a nice touch and keeps the experience from getting stale. However, there is nothing special about any of them. It doesn’t look awful, but it isn’t mind-blowing. It’s just fine. Character models are quite good without being brilliant, in particular, the protagonist, Bryce Boltzmann, along with a few of the enemies you face off against.

Destruction is a also a major part of NeverDead. Pillars, walls, ceilings and so much more can be ripped from their foundations and fall on unsuspecting enemies to lend you a helping hand. Some objects look better than others when tumbling to the ground, but sadly there is an inconsistency. Some walls will crumble if you slash your blade toward it, but a wire fence or glass window may not even budge.

SOUND: One of the major failings in this entire game is sound, and from the word go too. Firstly, the music makes no real lasting impression on the whole, the score is terribly unfocused, jumping from overly ambient tracks that resemble a Múm b-side, to heavy metal tracks that a young Metallica would be embarrassed to play in their garage. The title track, which is actually performed by Megadeth, is ok, but that’s about it. Two particular metal offerings always appear in the heat of battle and begin to become laughable with their regularity, and their annoying four note riff being repeated over and over and over and over. They soon become the, “Ok, I’m about to fight some baddies now” songs.

The voice work is some of the worst I’ve heard in a while, with cheesy one-liners being the order of the day. From the prologue, this is evident, the first villain in the game is a mix between the campy delivery of Alan Carr and a character design based on Lou Ferrigno. The over-the-topness wouldn’t be so bad if it was done in an ironic sense, but it’s not, at all. The constant one-liners are meant to be hilarious and if they are, it’s a case of, “so bad, it’s good” syndrome. For example, the female lead in the game had one doosey that summed up the acting for me; “You know what bugs me, eggs over easy and bad jokes”, I guess she wasn’t the biggest fan of the VO work either.

From a technical standpoint, it’s also really poorly mixed down. There are a number of times where the music overpowers the dialogue and without subtitles turned on, you may miss some of that “comedy gold”. Seriously though, something as simple as levelling the audio should be done properly and the player should be able to hear every line of dialogue clearly and distinctly.

GAMEPLAY: Thankfully, the gameplay is quite fun and frantic. Basically, there are two ways to play NeverDead; as a shooter, or as a hack n’ slash. The gunplay in the game is flawed to a certain degree. Some weaponry is far more powerful than others, making some guns irrelevant, and the aiming isn’t up to its competitors standards either, with the camera being erratic at times and the aiming not as tight as it should be. However, one bonus with the guns is being able to dual wield any two of the 5 available in-game, at any time. So, you can have an SMG in one hand and a grenade launcher in the other. As I said though, the combat is frantic, which makes wielding a sword way more fun! The butterfly blade (the first sword you have in the game, which can be upgraded) turns this game into God of War rather than Gears of War and is all the better for it. Enemies come at you at an alarming rate and with the fluidity of blade’s movements, you control it with the right analogue stick, the swordplay is the way this game should be played for the most part. Using the right analogue makes more sense in this case than if the face buttons were used.

The game’s main selling point is the fact that you can’t die. There is no “failed mission” screen, other than a few occurrences such as your dismembered head being digested by an enemy called a Grandbaby, your partner dying, or falling off of certain areas, but that last one is rare. If an enemy attacks you, you may lose an arm, a leg, or you may be completely dismembered altogether. When you lose an arm, a leg or any of your limbs, you must roll over them to re-attach yourself, find a regeneration item or wait for a short time and you will be able to regenerate with the click of a button. I must say, the immortality aspect is cool. It is a nice original touch that, after a while can get irritating because it can happen a good few times, but for the majority of the adventure, it is something that makes this game stand out.

Like many shooters nowadays, you are facing your foes with someone by your side. In this case, Agent Arcadia Maximille is redundant. She fires her gun on occasion, may even kill an enemy or two, but you wouldn’t miss her. There is also a revive mechanic in NeverDead, as seen in other games like Gears and Saints Row, which is again rarely used as, in fairness to Arcadia, she tends to be able to dodge the snarling demons.

One of the greatest tricks that developers can play on the gamer is hiding the repetitiveness of video games. More often than not, some of our favourite video games are the same thing over and over for 10 or so hours. Shoot the bad guy, run to the next area, rinse and repeat. NeverDead does exactly that, it repeats. But sadly, whilst playing, it’s really noticeable and becomes boring. There are a number of reasons for this. There are only a handful of enemies in the game and then there are a few slight variants on those aforementioned enemies. Throughout the game there are also a few puzzles, but the word “puzzle” is used very lightly. Other than one or two occasions, they too, become repetitive.

Boss fights in the game are really disappointing too. Other than one, maybe two, in particular that are really cleverly done, the bulk of these are mundane, regular old boss fights. That’s a shame because so many interesting things could’ve been done with the combat because of Bryce’s separating limbs. You can perform certain melee moves without your arms and perform a Sonic The Hedgehog style spindash when you are sporting just your cranium, but when you’re missing any body part, the main aim is to put yourself back together really.

LONGEVITY: The single player portion doesn’t have anything major to keep you coming back for more once it’s completed. There are certain little collectibles that are scattered around each mission, but they feel like they’ve been put into the game because, that’s what games do now, have silly and pointless collectibles. Something that’s more useful is the XP system. Whenever you kill an enemy, or collect XP icons in the world, you gain more XP points which you can then use to upgrade your demon slayer. Whether it is an improved range in blade swiping, better manoeuvrability when decapitated or something as simple as sprinting.

The online multiplayer portion of the game comes in the form of challenges. There are 13 challenges in total, spread across many areas you encounter in the campaign. Within the challenges are four subcategories; Onslaught (where you fight wave after wave of demons), Search and Rescue (evacuate civilians from an area), Egg Hunt (Hunt for eggs..duh) and Fragile Alliance (race against others through a number of checkpoints). There’s a good bit of divergence in here with a mix of co-op and competitive action for you to sink your teeth into once you’ve finished the main game.

VERDICT: Sadly, this could’ve been so much more. A brand new game with new characters and an innovative take on death doesn’t save NeverDead from the predictable and formulaic combat. It tries so many things, for which it is commendable, but falls short on so much more. With the awful acting, the volatile camera and sub-par gunplay, NeverDead doesn’t stack up well against its peers in the third person shooter world. But, it isn’t all doom and gloom, as I’ve said, the dismemberment, even though that can tend to get annoying at times, is really creative and the swordplay does improve the enjoyable nature of the combat. All in all, even though there are some interesting elements to NeverDead, it falls short on more than it excels in.

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Game: Soul Calibur V

Developer: Project Soul

Publisher: Namco Bandai

Available on: Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (Reviewed on Xbox 360)

Namco are set to make a big splash in the fighting game market in 2012, whether teaming up with one-time rivals Capcom for the highly anticipated Street Fighter X Tekken inter-universe dust up, or striking out on their own with a new handheld version of Tekken, or the forthcoming (and very promising, if you check our look at the mouth-wateringly frustrating Hybrid) sequel to long standing favourite Tekken Tag Tournament. But while Kazuya and Jin are all set to shine once again, people forget that Namco Bandai have another brawling franchise that, after a couple of horrible misfiring sequels, is definitely due for a makeover and relaunch.

Namco Bandai have had nearly four years to work on a sequel to the last Soul Calibur game and developers now have the clout to really squeeze some juice out of the consoles at their disposal. Old school fighting favourites have had some stunning reboots in the last few years, and the genre is riding as high as it has ever been. The question is, can Soul Calibur once again take a seat at the top table with the big boys? Or is this a disappointment as huge as Voldo’s codpiece?

STORY: Unlike previous games in the series, which have focused primarily on the Siegfried and Nightmare characters, and the ongoing saga of the cursed Soul Edge blade, this instalment centres on two new characters, the brother and sister combo of Patroklos and Pyrrha, who happen to be the offspring of Soul Calibur mainstay Sophitia, and her old man Rothion. To begin with, the siblings are separated, and entering the sizeable Story mode you take the reigns of the pair at different intervals as they attempt a reunion, and to seek out the reasons behind their mother’s untimely demise at the hands of the creepy Malfested, people who have been altered to a demonic state by the damned Soul Edge weapon. The lengthy story introduces several new characters on either side of the Malfested fence, and features a number of surprising twists and turns along the way, told by a plethora of beautiful hand-drawn static illustrations and excellent cut-scenes. The historical, weapons based drama that has become the series’ trademark is in full effect here, and while at times the script is a bit of a clunker, you don’t enter into “The Stage of History” expecting Oscar winning scriptwriting. This is stirring stuff indeed.

GRAPHICS: Soul Calibur IV was no slouch in the graphical stakes, and the sequel builds upon the excellent visuals of its predecessor and looks drop-dead gorgeous, a treat for the eyes. The characters are huge and incredibly detailed. The well-rounded new additions to the roster, including Assassins Creed latin stealth-smith Ezio Auditore, fit right in to the mix, alongside the best representations yet seen of old favourites. There are a huge array of new arenas, some of which feature different fighting layers (a la Dead or Alive), as you crash through the floor between rounds and drop down to a different area below to carry on the brawl. Some of the backdrops need to be seen to be believed, I was particularly enamoured with the pirate ship stage, where you battle on the high seas surrounded by a veritable armada of ships, all firing cannons and whatnot as the waves jostle your floating platform all over the place.

SOUND: Grand, sweeping orchestral fare is the order of the day once again in the soundtrack stakes. Even when Soul Calibur hit its Yoda-starring canonical nadir, you could always expect Namco Bandai to deliver with their musical compositions, and they have done it again, with a suitably bracing selection of dramatic tunes. The sound effects are as sword-clinkingly excellent as ever, and all of the characters and cut-scenes are fully voice-acted. It is in this department that I will deliver perhaps my only criticism of an otherwise sterling, rock-solid game. The voice acting and characterisation is, at times, downright awful. Maybe it is just me, but I found that the protagonists that you start out with are among the most irritating creations committed to fighting folklore. Patroklos, with his feathery blond hair-do and holy crusader chic, looks like a suitably heroic dude, but when he opens his mouth, you feel the urge to punch it shut. He is an unlikeable, cocky, emo-tinged creation, who bangs on about “justice” all the time, in a whining American accent. Pyrrha is even worse. In the story, she is fighting for her life, against her will, against everything she believes in. Fair enough, the poor lass has got a lot on her plate, I understand that. But this reluctance to fight manifests itself with a grating, screeching vocal performance that lets us know how unhappy she is with virtually every strike of her sword. “I can’t…please, stop!” she wails, as you batter someone with her Critical Edge mega-attack.

GAMEPLAY: Your fighting games live or die by their combat system, those are the rules, and why we are playing Soul Calibur V and not Battle Arena Toshinden 8. Soul Calibur, as a result of the unique 8-way trickery and considered, balanced weapon-based attack, has always been reliably sound in this department. With a number of new tweaks and additions, this sixth version is as playable a fighter you can get your hands on, easy to learn, and difficult, but rewarding, to master.

First up, the omissions and their replacements. The finishing moves from the last instalment have been removed, as has armour destruction meter (although you can still smash your opponent into an un-armoured state). The Soul Gauge has been replaced with a meter more akin to those seen in other contemporary fighters, and you can charge it up during combat. The meter stocks are then used, much like Street Fighter IV, to execute the more powerful Brave Edge or devastatingly powerful Critical Edge strikes, which mimic the Super and Ultra combo attacks from Capcom’s classic. A segment of meter can also be used to perform a Guard Impact manoeuvre, which can repel even the meatiest of attacks, leaving your foe wide open for a beatdown. A simplified parrying system, called Just Guard, is similar to the one seen in SNK’s gold-standard Garou: Mark Of The Wolves and requires a perfectly timed use of the block button to coincide with your opponents’ attack. The good thing here is that unlike the Guard Impact, failure to perfectly time a Just Guard will not put you at any disadvantage, so long as you still manage to execute the block before a huge sword or suchlike finds itself in your face.

All of these wondrous techniques are accessed using a four-button system, with each of the face buttons on your control pad (or buttons on your stick, Hori fans) representing either vertical slash, horizontal slash, kick, and block.

Consideration needs to be given this time around to the stages themselves. As mentioned, some are multi-layered. Others are claustrophobic and enclosed, suiting brutal wall-slamming manoeuvres. There are Ring Outs, with arenas like the aforementioned pirate flotilla lending themselves well to a Virtua Fighter-style ejection from proceedings.

LONGEVITY: With plenty of modes to play around with, the sixth Soul instalment is going to keep you interested for a long while. There are your standard Arcade, VS and Training modes, as well as a lengthy story mode which, like Mortal Kombat, puts you in control of a number of different characters as the tale unfolds, with different fighting conditions applied for each battle. If you can stomach listening to Pyrrha bang on about her fighting issues, and don’t mind some of the worst acting in video game history, then Story Mode will keep you enthralled to the Soul Calibur bonkers-verse. There is a substantial character creation mode, with new bits and pieces unlockable throughout other parts of the game. We have seen a decent edit mode before in the series, but never before with this much depth.

Quick Battle allows you to take on an array of crazy customised characters of varying difficulty, with AI designed to mimic actual real life players. In this mode you can unlock player titles and icons to customise your in-game gamercard. There is also an unlockable boss rush mode, called Legendary Souls, and the option to simply watch two CPU controlled fighters get it on in Theatre Mode.

Factor into the equation that there are over 20 arenas and 25+ characters, some of which will require meeting conditions to unlock, a wide array of achievements to get your hands on, and Namco Bandai promising a wealth of downloadable content and an update to implement online battles upon release, and chances are you will still be playing Soul Calibur V long into 2012.

VERDICT: This is as good as it gets for Soul groupies, the best realisation of Project Soul’s 16 year old creation, and something Director Daishi Odashima can be truly proud of. This is going to be a huge year for fighting games, with the aforementioned Capcom/Namco crossover, Skullgirls, a new Blazblue, and some promising looking Vita and 3DS renditions of existing games on the horizon. As it stands this is the best one on one release of the year so far, and something that stands Namco Bandai in good stead for their other pending efforts due to surface over the course of the year. Packed with features, this will hold your interest for many moons to come, and I personally cannot wait to see what we have in store in terms of online play, something I anticipate with baited breath, such is my desire to tan someone’s hide across my WiFi connection, preferably Pyrrha, using my character of choice Cervantes, who manages to combine some of my favourite things (piracy, red-blooded Iberian machismo, guns and swords) for an epic win. Welcome to the stage of history? Welcome back, Soul Calibur.

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Is it Monday again already? Well, it certainly seems like it is so here’s another four mobile games for you to take a look at as you head out on your working week. The first game today is a mobile version of a popular Codemasters console title; F1 2011 puts you in the drivers seat of your very own Formula 1 car and tasks you with getting around the circuit in the fastest time you can manage. Order Up! is a game which takes the best parts of Cake Mania, mixes it with a little bit of Cooking Mama and serves it up nice and hot. Next we’ve got The Glowing Void 2, a difficult game to describe in only a few words so you’re just going to have to check out the full review below; beware though, it’s addictive. Last, but certainly not least, is Hero Academy, a game from Robot Entertainment (one of the studios that was born out of the ashes of Ensemble Entertainment) and takes everything you thought you knew about strategy games and turns them on their head.

That should see you through the week, check out the full reviews below and go and download some games. Then come back and tell us what you thought!

Titles are available on iPhone and iPad unless specifically stated otherwise. If you like what you read, click the small black “App Store” button to load iTunes up and purchase the title!

F1 2011:

A few months ago we were treated to the console versions of F1 2011, the breakneck speed and precision that’s required of an F1 game was all present and correct and overall it was a very nicely packaged product. Then again, we’ve come to expect no less from the Birmingham team of Codemasters who always seem to churn out quality products, with a few notable exceptions of course. So, how does the iPad version of F1 2011 hold up considering it’s developed by a different set of people altogether in the form of Jump Games? Is it as good as we hoped or is it already a little dated; it is 2012 after all.

From the moment you start F1 2011 you’ll be able to see just how much thought went in to designing every aspect of the game. Even the main menu is designed to look like the innards of a Formula 1 racing car, so you’re almost guaranteed to be in the mood for some high speed cornering, dodging and weaving. There are three game modes for players to sink their teeth into, World Championship, Grand Prix and Time Trial, and all of them are pretty self explanatory. Most people who download this game will at least have a passing interest in Formula 1 anyway. Time Trial is the mode that people should jump into first, get a feel for how the controls work, how the cars handle as well as learning some of the tracks before you jump into one of the other, more demanding, areas of the game.

The visuals in F1 2011 are excellent, they’re not on the level of something such as Infinity Blade but considering the devices that it’s playable on it’s certainly impressive enough. I was even able to play the game on my old iPhone 3G (after a fair few “Low Memory” warnings anyway), that’s impressive enough for me, considering how many games actually play on the ageing device. If you’re looking for the best looking game on the iDevices then you should keep looking, if you’re just looking for a game that looks as good as it possibly can while still being playable on a wide range of devices, then you may have found what you’re looking for in the form of F1 2011.

The controls are easy enough to pick up, even for people that don’t play games. The primary control method is tilt and players will be required to rotate their device as if it was a steering wheel in order to move their car left and right. The accelerator is an on screen button on the right hand side of the screen with the brake on the left. On-screen buttons are normally the bane of my mobile gaming life but they don’t feel too bad here. The player doesn’t have to stretch in order to press them and they’re nice and responsive. If we’ve got to have on-screen buttons at all then I’m at least glad they work as intended.

If you’re a fan of the console version of F1 2011, or even just a fan of the sport in general, then this mobile version of the game is going to be right up your alley. Plenty of game modes, tracks and teams will keep you entertained for hours on end and the graphics and control schemes are some of the finest examples of racing games on the iDevices. If you’re starting to think that you’ll be interested then you should probably have already started downloading. Anyone with even a passing interest in Formula 1 will love this game.

ORDER UP!:

If you’ve ever played one of the hugely popular Cooking Mama games then you’ve probably enjoyed preparing meals, playing the little mini-games that require a slight amount of skill and attention in order to create your culinary masterpiece in such a way as to please the game, and ensure you get the highest possible score. Have you ever wondered what would happen if Mama lost her job and had to start from scratch, beginning her famous career in a fast food joint, flipping burgers? No, I hadn’t either, but after playing SuperVillain Studios’ Order Up! that’s all I can think about.

The aim of the game in Order Up! is to collect orders from the customers coming through the doors of your selected establishment, cook whatever they want and serve it to them; preferably while it’s still hot. The cooking part of the process is the main crux of the game, creating different meals tasks the player with performing different mini games. Burgers and bacon will require flipping half way through cooking, fries will need to be cooked to perfection and then taken out of the fryer, tomatoes need to be sliced thinly, etc. These mini games are what make Order Up! a rather addictive game to play as players will often strive to create perfect meals in order to get the biggest tips possible.

The other aspect of the game that players must be aware of is the money management side of things. Not only does the player have to make the food when it’s requested but they also have to buy the ingredients (in the form of plates) that they think will be used during the course of the day. If you order 10 sets of ingredients for burgers and only one person orders it then you’ve just wasted money. Not something you want to so unless you’re attempting to run your little business into the ground. This aspect of the game is the least fun, most players will want to just get on with the cooking, but it’s still a little fun; there really isn’t a part of Order Up! that isn’t at least a little bit fun to play.

The controls are easy to use and for the most part require the player to perform the action in the way that they would expect to. For example, to flip a burger, the player has to tap the burger to slide the spatula underneath, then slide their finger up and to the side in order to perform the flip. Lowering the basket of fries requires a simple swipe down, then back up to remove them from the oil. All in all, every single one of the actions that a player will be performing on a regular basis while playing Order Up! is extremely intuitive and easy to pick up; even for inexperienced gamers.

You might think that a game that tasks you with cooking the same meals over and over again would be boring, and that you’d put it down without a second thought, never to pick it up again. That’s where you’d be wrong. Order Up! is a great game that’s surrounded by gorgeous graphics. This game would feel right at home on the Nintendo 3DS and plenty of people would pay full price for it, as it stands you’re getting it in high definition and you’re getting it for free. There really isn’t much I can say bad about this game so go out and get it, before they realise what they’ve got on their hands and start charging for it!

THE GLOWING VOID 2:

At first glance it seems that The Glowing Void 2 is one of those titles that isn’t very representative of the game that you’re about to play, as if it’s just a cool name that the developers thought up when they were naming the project they were working on. Two seconds into the game however, and you’ll see exactly why the game has this title and that everything you do within it literally involves glowing voids. Touché Daily App Dream, touché.

The gameplay in The Glowing Void 2 challenges the player to place voids within as much of the screen as possible, moving on the the next stage as soon as you manage to take control of 70% of the viewing area. To make things much harder there are red balls bouncing around the screen which, if they touch your void before you’ve finished creating it, will destroy the void and take a life away from you. Lose all three lives and it’s ‘Game Over’. The further you get into the game, the more of the red bouncing balls appear, one on stage one, two on stage two, etc. This starts to make things very hard, very quickly.

There are two game modes on offer to the player when they first download the game, Classic and Survival. The first mode (Classic) is the one I described where as the stages advance, the player has to contend with more and more red balls. The second available mode (Survival) is a different game altogether, although the basic mechanics are the same. In this mode players have to just gain as many points as they can by creating voids. The voids disappear as soon as they’re created this time (the aim of the game is to get a high score, not take up screen space) and there are no stages, more and more red balls just appear and your only goal is to survive as long as possible, creating as many voids as you can before you’re caught out. This mode is entertaining, and a nice change from the main game, but it isn’t as fun and without the stages to break up the gameplay it gets quite repetitive.

The controls in The Glowing Void 2 are as simple as can be, all the player has to do is touch the screen. The longer their finger is held down, the larger the void they create. Players can also drag their finger around the screen while they’re creating the void and it will follow them. This is a necessary tactic especially in later stages, in order to avoid the red bouncing balls. The barrier for entry for casual gamers will be the difficulty of the game itself, nothing in the control scheme will pose a problem for people.

The Glowing Void 2 is a good way to waste away a couple of hours, the gameplay gets quite repetitive but a lot of players will keep coming back due to the challenging aspect of the game. The graphical quality of the title isn’t high, and there’s even the annoying fact that the menu is in portrait view and the game is in landscape view, causing the player to keep rotating their device, certainly not the end of the world but a strange design choice nonetheless. If you’re in need of a challenging yet fundamentally good downloadable game then you should give The Glowing Void 2 a go, it’s nothing particularly special but there are many games out there which are much, much worse.

HERO ACADEMY:

Hero Academy. The name itself conjures up images of Hogwarts-esque school built specifically for the likes of Superman and Spider-man and while the game isn’t exactly that, the feel of the experience isn’t any less epic. Hero Academy is developed by Robot Entertainment, the same guys the brought us the addictive console title Orcs Must Die! (which is playable from GodisaGeek’s Play Now page), and takes the basic concepts of chess, along with some other strategic games, turns them on their head, adds swords and magic and presents it to us as Hero Academy. If you’re not already downloading at this point then you’re probably already dead inside.

The gameplay is similar to chess in the sense that you need to make extremely strategic moves in order to win a game of Hero Academy. The bottom bar is where all your pieces are, all your units that can be placed on the battlefield as well as all the buffs that can be placed on them once they’re in the thick of it and the main objective of the game is to destroy the enemies crystal that’s sitting pretty at the other side of the board. Each unit can only move a certain amount of squares as well as only being able to attack opposing units from a specific distance too. This means that players need to try and strategise where they’re going to move their pieces to in order to not only attack their enemy but also try and make sure that they don’t get killed themselves; there’s no point advancing up the board only to get slaughtered in a single move.

The combat in Hero Academy is turn based so it doesn’t have to be a game that you sit in front of for hours, you can make a move and then go do something else until the notification appears telling you that your opponent has made a move. The fact that you don’t have to be sat at the game the whole time will undoubtedly make it a lot more interesting to the casual audience. Every time it’s your turn you get five moves to make before you have to relinquish control back to the opposing player. These moves may consist of moving a unit, placing a unit, buffing them up with the multitude of potions, scrolls and attack bonuses that appear on the bottom bar, or simply attacking. Either way, while having five moves to make per turn may sound like a lot, once you’re playing the game, you’ll soon find yourself wishing you had just one or two more. This again adds to the strategic element of Hero Academy, forcing the player to think hard about their moves before they’re made.

Hero Academy is a game that everyone should be downloading, it’s developed by an excellent developer in the form of Robot Entertainment, it looks amazing and plays even better. A lot of people will lose many matches before they start to see the tactics they can employ in order to beat their opponent but once you settle into those tactics the sheer amount of enjoyment you can have playing this game comes into full view. If you’re a fan of chess, or any other strategy game, then you’d be missing out by not giving Hero Academy a try. I can almost guarantee though, if you have even the smallest notion that you might enjoy this game, you’ll end up loving it.