Review of Dissidia FF

"Dissidia: Final Fantasy, the battle between Chaos and Cosmos"

Dissidia: Final Fantasy is a game that acts as fan-service and celebrates over 20 years of Final Fantasy games by bringing together heroes and villains from each game from I to X, with an appearance from FFXI and FFXII added to the mix. Together the heroes and villains take sides and battle it out for the fate of the universe. With such a tall order to fill, can Dissidia really rise to the expectations of the fans and to non-fans alike? Short answer: maybe. Long answer: not really.

Game Play

Each character plays out very differently due to having different abilities, gear that can be worn by certain characters, accessories that everyone can use and summons anyone can equip. Though there is variation between each of the characters, essentially, you'll be using much of the same tactics over and over again with whatever character you use.

As mentioned before, each character gains a selection of abilities either through leveling or mastering abilities through ability points (AP). Each ability can be assigned to a analog stick position and button (either up/toward the opponent, down/away from the opponent, or stationary with the circle button or square button). However, you cannot equip as many abilities as you like. You're limited to the number of abilities (albeit battle abilities, extra abilities, etc.) by CP, which will increase as you level. Certain battle abilities can be combined together to chain attacks. However, the game doesn't do a good job of explaining how to execute these moves. You must first check the ability off in the customization menu, and to properly chain the attacks, press a certain button more so than usually, instead of just going from one attack to the other. Example: Terra's holy combo requires you to keep pressing circle so she fires off fire, then it chains to Ultima.

Summons are quite useful in battle, and can be triggered automatically or manually. Certain summons can hinder the opponent, boost your bravery or turn the tides of a battle. Summons keep things on edge, but can only be use once per battle, and have a certain amount of uses before they recharge.

In battle, you'll have a few things to keep track of. Your HP, bravery and EX bar are all on display as well as the enemy's. You have two basic types of attacks, HP attacks and Bravery attacks. HP attacks go straight for the opponents HP. Bravery attacks go for your opponents bravery, and if successfully damaged, adds to your bravery. Your bravery determines how much damage you can do to your opponents HP, so the more you build up your bravery, the more damage you can do. After every successful HP attack, your bravery resets to 0, allowing the opponent a brief window to break your Bravery. If your or your opponent's bravery is broken, a bonus amount of bravery will be awarded according to the number displayed between the opponents' and the players' status bars. If your EX gauge fills up, you can unleash EX mode and EX attacks. While in EX mode, your HP (or later you can have your bravery) regenerates slowly and, if you land a successful HP attack, you can opt to enter an EX attack. During this attack, your bravery resets and you begin damaging your opponents bravery. You'll also be able to participate in a mini-game, often resembling something from the character's game, like Squall's R trigger, and for the most part, are very appropriate. Also, at certain times, you may perform an attack that allows you to follow up by charging your opponent into a mini face-off in which both characters are locked in close quarters combat. Whoever initiates the face-off attacks first, using either an HP attack (which are slower) or Bravery attack (which are faster). The name of the game is which one you choose and how your opponent will dodge. The opponent can either dodge slowly, forcing your HP attack to miss, or vice versa. These little face offs are a nice break from the frantic combat and are often just as intense.

The AI in Dissidia has some quirks about it. The famous max difficulty, Exdeath AI is still as exploitable as ever, as well as some of the other enemies in the game. The harder enemy AI seem to be unrealistically difficult at times, often reacting to the very, split second you perform an action, and they'll always use the same action based on whatever action you choose. This leads to players thinking of ways to exploit the poor programming of the AI rather than getting caught up in moments of the battle. The later parts of the game also start to slant heavily towards the usage of dodging and counterattacking rather than just attacking.

The camera for the most part, captures the action well enough. However, if an enemy is below you or above you, it keeps pointing straight forward unless you start attacking, which can lead to some off-screen cheapness. The camera especially suffers on the battlegrounds that are indoors. Occasionally getting caught up on a wall or not following the action when too close to the ceiling.

Dissidia offers a decent amount of game play modes. The story mode lets you pick one hero and journey down there path. Each path is broken up into 5 chapters which plays out over a grid system. Each grid has many pieces; a represention you, an enemy encounter, treasure, healing items, etc. The way you move about this grid is through Destiny Points (DP). If you leave the grid with more DP than 0, it'll benefit the score after each chapter, and vice versa when you run over your limit. You can gain extra DP by fulfilling special conditions during battles like; breaking bravery in under 10 seconds, not taking any damage or triggering EX mode in under 10 seconds. Some of these conditions, however, seem to rely more on luck, like critical hits, but the grid allows for you to prepare your best chances through scanning mode. While scanning, you have examine each piece and plan your way through the grid. At the very end of the journey, the scores from all 5 chapters are tallied, and your performance is give a ranking using stars. These end rankings stack each time you complete the journey, and unlock new sections of the grid and new enemies. You'll need to replay each journey more than twice to get all of the treasure and DP items. This drags the game play on due to the lack of variation traveling from grid to grid.

There's also the standard arcade mode and a duel colosseum mode, the latter acting like a card game. You start out picking a character you want to play as and you're given a hand of 3 cards. Like the pieces on the grids in story mode, each card represents enemies or treasure. There are also cards that allow you to increase your hand capacity or some other effects. Each time you win or lose a battle, coins are exchanged. You can use these coins to buy the treasure on treasure cards, or convert them to PP at the end of the card game. This mode offers a little more room for fun than story mode and allows for a fair amount of strategy whether it be choosing which difficultly of battle you want to fight, or when to spend your coins.

Quick battles are the bare essentials of the game. You pick a hero, a place, the background music, an AI setting and an opponent to fight it out. Here you can just duel any opponent you like for however long you like while still receiving awards. There are a few nitpicks about this mode that can be discussed. After each battle, the option to do a rematch is 2nd while the option to go back to battle setup is 1st. It feels like these two options should have been reversed. The gear selection of the enemy also resets each time you go back to battle preparations, which can be annoying if you're hunting specific gear pieces.

Items can be won throughout these modes, but they can also be dropped in battle. Battlegen items can be collected by performing certain actions against certain enemies. The battlegen items are rather difficult to get mainly because you have to check in a menu outside of battles on how to get them instead of there also being a quick hint somewhere closer to each battle. The same can be said of items you use for each battle that can be purchased in the PP catalog. The catalog is the only place you can buy these items and check how many you have left, which is a great inconvenience. Each enemy also has a very rare chance to drop one or more of their gear. These drop rates are very low and feel more like farming in older RPGs rather than something that belongs in a game released nowadays. Items can also be bought in the customization menu through a shop. The shop sells some items directly to you for gil, but the majority requires you to trade in materials found throughout the game, furthering the notion of farming.

A problem with the summation of these game mechanics, is the in-game tutorials only tell you so much. A lot has to be discovered by the player, and some of them are rather esoteric.

Story

The story is very poorly written, so much so that its often very hard to take seriously or get immersed. Usually fighting games' stories are not that great, but Dissidia throws so much of it at you with cutscenes and dialogs outside of battles, that it becomes a major focal point. Each character re-enacts their personal conflicts from other games, but without the context of their games, this comes off flat and cliche. The personal developments don't evolve naturally and the character's dialog are often silly or confusing. All in all, it fails to make the battles to end all battles scenario seem real, and more like feuding grade-schoolers on a playground.

Graphics

The graphics are very polished and battles flow very fluidly. Each character is represented faithfully to their older counterparts and are surrounded by a decent amount of special effects. Sometimes the screen flashing can be distracting, but all of it is very pleasing to the eye. The battlegrounds however only get the job done part of the way. Certain original areas like the Crater from Final Fantasy VII and the Moon from Final Fantasy IV succeed in capturing the feel they had in their games, while others like the Throne Room from Final Fantasy I and the Castle from Final Fantasy V only seem like shells of their older selves or just plain generic. Sometimes you have to read the descriptions of the battlefields to know what area they're supposed to represent.

The original soundtrack is well done, all the sounds are very listenable, even outside of the game. However, the remixed versions of some of the older songs don't get translated well, like Terra from Final Fantasy VI. These remixed, retro songs don't feel complete enough to really capture how they sounded on the other consoles.

Re-playability

Good news is, there's a lot of items and gear to collect in this game. The PP store allows you to collect icons, music, unlockable characters, etc. that ensures that you'll always have something new to strive for. Unfortunately, the game play isn't varied enough to justify the sheer amount of content there is to unlock. You'll usually be grinding out game play modes to death just to uncover everything there is.
Conclusion

The game has a lot to offer but the game play doesn't have enough variation to justify the amount of gear and items to collect and things to unlock. There's also a steep learning curve about the mechanics that may put some people off, and most of the mechanics themselves are not explained properly in-game to begin with. Dissidia does manage to offer some fast paced battles, but after the novelty of the experience wears off, the game tends to feel more like a grind than action-packed game. Fans will most likely enjoy playing as their favorite characters and beating up other characters from the Final Fantasy universe, and that's who will get the most out of this game. To everyone else, it might put some people off who aren't familiar with the characters, due to the story/characters not being substantial. All the setbacks mar the feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction.

FEAR 2: Project Origin - Reborn Review

F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin's creepy-little-telekinetic-girl story raised more questions than it answered, due to a shocking final image likely to leave your head spinning. Reborn, the latest downloadable scenario for this horror-themed first-person shooter, occurs alongside the events of the main game and adds a cliff-hanger of its own rather than shedding much light on the events of Project Origin. F.E.A.R. 2: Reborn's apparent purpose is to further set the stage for the inevitable sequel, and to this end, this new content succeeds. Nevertheless, 800 Microsoft points ($10) is a bit much to ask for 90 minutes of the same solid but unspectacular gunplay.

In Reborn, you play as Replicant soldier Foxtrot 813, fighting alongside your cloned squadmates--until a mental intrusion causes you to go rogue. It seems that the stringy-haired Alma isn't the only one with nefarious plans, though sharing too much about the source and purpose of this telepathic mutiny would risk spoiling important plot points. Suffice it to say that considering the DLC's short length, Reborn's storytelling is surprisingly effective; even the mission descriptions are eerily vague, which is a small but poignant way of furthering the creepy atmosphere for which the series is known. The plot itself is straightforward and doesn't provide any real creep-outs, but Reborn delivers a tense final battle and a true climax that will have you pining for a sequel, which is in pleasant contrast to F.E.A.R. 2's final "huh?" moment, which probably left you more confused than fulfilled.

The action itself is far from ambitious, relying on the same weapons and enemies as in the original release but stuffing them into a tight package that focuses on giving each foe a few minutes of face time. Facing off against most of the usual suspects makes for varied combat, but this kitchen-sink approach leads to a stilted pace that doesn't suit the slow-burn atmosphere draped around it. F.E.A.R. 2's best battles pitted you against multiple enemies, letting you use your slow-motion skills to fill the air with splatters of blood and flesh. Reborn offers a few such enjoyable sequences, along with a fun armored-suit opening scenario and some splendid encounters with lanky-limbed abominations. But by retreading so much ground in such a short time, there's too much emphasis on less thrilling aspects. Escaping a claustrophobic office maze while under assault from multiple armored units isn't much fun, and a moment when jumping down to a platform beneath may result in death one time and success another makes what should be a haunting jaunt through a topsy-turvy building unnecessarily frustrating.

In spite of its inconsistency, the action is held together by F.E.A.R. 2's competent arsenal of weapons; you'll certainly make good use of your missile launcher in this go-round. Yet while the story provides a more gratifying bridge to the all-but-certain sequel, Reborn fits comfortably into the franchise but doesn't reenergize it. F.E.A.R. 2: Reborn is a pleasant way to extend your Project Origin experience, but it's not a must-play, which makes the price tag a tough pill to swallow.

Guitar Hero 5 Review

The Guitar Hero franchise took a big leap last year with World Tour, incorporating vocals and drums and making a bid for Rock Band's multiplayer music game crown. While World Tour was a great debut, Guitar Hero 5 is a more refined, more accessible game that better fulfills the promise of a full band experience with the Guitar Hero name. A number of enhancements make the game more enjoyable across the board, and the new Party Play mode sets the standard for relaxed, social gameplay in the genre. The freestyle jam mode provides a fun creative outlet, and folks interested in recording their creations will have a much easier time thanks to the significantly improved music studio interface. While none of Guitar Hero 5's improvements are groundbreaking, they all contribute to this very entertaining, very well put-together package that is sure to please both aspiring and established Guitar Heroes.

The most significant new feature in Guitar Hero 5 is Party Play mode. When you start up the game, you see a brief intro animation, and then the game starts up a random song and a video of Guitar Hero characters performing. You can press the start button to call up the main menu, or you can press the yellow button to jump right into the song being performed. Your note highway appears, and after selecting a few options, you're playing the Guitar Hero you know and love. Up to four players can join this way, using whatever combination of instruments they want. Two vocalists, a drummer, and a bass player? Yes. Four guitarists? By all means. You can't fail in this mode, and changing difficulty, skipping the song, and dropping out are all easily accomplished through a little menu that only obscures your own note highway. The result is a casual play environment that is accessible, welcoming, and delightfully low key. You can jump in and out as you like, rotating in other players or just taking a break. The music keeps playing, and you can tailor your experience on the fly without any abrupt pauses or song restarts. It's a great way to entice shy friends to join in the fun, and it makes firing up Guitar Hero 5 at a party a more informal prospect. A way to exclude certain songs from the random play rotation would have been welcome, but you can temporarily interrupt a song to create a set list and then jump right back into the music. Party Play strips away anything that might impede your enjoyment of the game, and as a result, Guitar Hero 5 shines as an example of how to make music games accessible and fun for a wide range of players.

If you prefer more deliberate and finite sets, then Quickplay is a great place to go. Here you can construct a set list and play with up to four players, again using whatever instrument combinations you see fit. Quickplay also makes accommodations for more casual players, allowing only those playing on hard or expert difficulty to fail out. Previously, you could save failed bandmates only by using the star power you earned by nailing glowing notes. You can still use this method, but Guitar Hero 5 gives you another option. When a bandmate fails, a crowd meter pops up. If the rest of the band plays well enough for long enough, the failed bandmate is revived and the band keeps on rocking. There is no limit to how many times you can revive a bandmate, though it does seem to get harder as the fails pile up. The crowd meter makes your band less dependent on star power opportunities that may or may not appear in time and also means you don't necessarily have to save your star power for a flagging fellow rocker. Quickplay is also a good place to make a bid for a spot on the extensive leaderboards. There are high-score categories for each song, each instrument, and each difficulty, so score-seekers of all levels can participate.

If earning rewards for your skills is your thing, Career mode once again provides a place where you progress through different venues, playing songs and unlocking new gigs. In Guitar Hero 5, you earn up to five stars for each performance, and the more stars you collect, the more gigs you unlock. This mode will feel very familiar to Guitar Hero veterans, but there's one new element that helps keep it from going stale. Each song has a bonus challenge associated with it that allows you to earn up to eight stars per song instead of the usual five. These three-tiered challenges (one extra star per tier) can be either instrument specific (whammy for a certain amount of time as the guitarist) or band-wide (maintain a 4x multiplier for a certain amount of time). This variety encourages you to mix up the instruments you use or to play with a few friends, and there's a handy onscreen meter that tracks your progress throughout the song. Some of these challenges will be easy for confident players, while others are so difficult that only experts will have a shot. Earning a few extra stars is nice, but completing challenges can also earn you bonus unlockables, including new outfits, sponsored equipment sets, cheats, and new playable characters.

In addition to franchise standbys like Axel Steel and Judy Nails, Guitar Hero 5 features the likenesses of a handful of real rock stars. You unlock many of these stars just by playing through their songs successfully in Career mode (no boss battles here), while other stars become available only after you complete one of the aforementioned bonus challenges. Once unlocked, these stars can join Guitar Hero characters, your user-created rockers, and your Xbox 360 avatar onstage. This gives rise to some truly bizarre band lineups. Seeing Kurt Cobain perform onstage with three avatars is like watching a bizarre segment from Sesame Street, while watching four Johnny Cashes sing a song by Public Enemy is just ridiculous. Regardless of whether you find these strange pairings hilarious or utterly stupid, Guitar Hero 5 delivers improved visuals that you'll easily notice when you get a chance to look away from your note highway. Character animations are more fluid, and lip synching looks good, even on the avatars that are just cycling between a few different mouth icons. The crowds still look like a patterned mass of clones, but the lively performance camera angles ensure that you'll notice them only at the beginning and end of your song.

One of the most improved aspects of Guitar Hero 5 is the music studio. The overhauled interface makes it much easier to lay down tracks, and you can learn more about the different options simply by holding down the fret button you would use to select them. It still requires patience and skill to make a decent song, but the barrier of entry has been significantly lowered. If you're not at the composition stage yet, you can flex your music muscle in the new jam session mode, which allows you to choose a background loop and play over it to your heart's content. This feature makes it much easier to experiment with playing music with your not-actually-musical instrument, and noodling around with some cooperative friends can be fun.

There's an extensive set list on the disc, and players can once again download user-created tunes as well as official downloadable content tracks. However, if you're looking to import songs from your copy of Guitar Hero World Tour, you're in for some disappointment. After entering the 20-digit Unique Owner ID from the back of your World Tour manual, you have to pay 280 Microsoft points to download digital copies of the World Tour songs to your hard drive. Worse, you get only 35 of the 80-plus tracks from World Tour. Though the 35 tracks have been updated to include stuff like band moments (a bonus for playing in unison) and expert plus drumming (with adaptor-enabled double foot pedal action), it's disappointing that a higher percentage of tracks aren't available.

There are a number of other sundry tweaks in Guitar Hero 5, but the core gameplay remains largely the same as World Tour. The new Rockfest multiplayer mode eschews item-based battles for more natural challenges, like nailing the longest streak of notes. Oddly, vocal star power can no longer be activated by tapping the mic, so singers have to keep a controller on hand if they want to use star power. Other than this change, and the disappointing song import options, Guitar Hero 5 improves upon its predecessor in almost every category. It's an easy buy for folks who bought World Tour, and it is a great option for those looking to see what this plastic video game rock craze is all about. It won't blow the roof off, but Guitar Hero 5 will definitely get your party rockin'.

SoulCalibur: Broken Destiny Review

When you start playing SoulCalibur: Broken Destiny's single-player Gauntlet mode, a warning pops up on the screen to let you know that its bizarre story is "based on obscure fables and does not accurately represent SoulCalibur history." Fortunately, just about everything else in Broken Destiny feels very much like it belongs in the long-running fighting series. The weapon-based combat is as accessible and as deep as ever, the arenas are ripped right out of SoulCalibur IV, and the two new fighters introduced in this game are definitely a better fit than the Star Wars characters that graced the aforementioned Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game. There's not enough compelling single-player content here to make Broken Destiny a must-have if you're planning on going solo, but add a friend with a second copy of the game to the equation, and good times are guaranteed.

All 28 of the fighters on Broken Destiny's roster are available from the outset. You can also create your own fighters from scratch using limited customization tools to determine their physical appearance and then dress them up in gear chosen from a massive wardrobe, much of which has to be unlocked. There are no performance bonuses associated with clothing and weapons this time around, which is unfortunate if you really enjoyed that aspect of SoulCalibur IV, but great if you want to wear all of the matching pieces of the Santa costume without feeling like your fashion choices are compromising your effectiveness. Regardless of which fighter you choose to play as and what he or she is wearing, Broken Destiny, like previous SoulCalibur offerings, is easy to pick up and grasp the basics of. You can move in eight directions using the D pad or the analog nub, and face buttons are used to guard and to perform basic horizontal attacks, vertical attacks, and kicks. That's really all you need to know to get started, though you'll find that there are plenty of more advanced techniques to master if you check out the character-specific move lists in the useful Training mode.

Oddly, Broken Destiny doesn't feature an Arcade mode in which to pit your chosen combatant against a number of opponents en route to a matchup with a boss. In its place is Trials mode, which incorporates three distinct score-based challenges in Attack, Defense, and Endless flavors. In the Trial of Attack you're pitted against five opponents and earn score bonuses for playing aggressively and for landing combos. The Trial of Defense is a little longer and culminates in a boss battle against Algol from SoulCalibur IV, so in that respect it's a lot like that game's Arcade mode. The main difference here is that you score points and earn bonuses for guarding against your opponent's attacks and retaliating quickly. Endless Trial is a survival mode of sorts, except that your fighter regains all of his health between rounds. Seeing how many of the increasingly tough opponents you can make it past without ever losing is a lot of fun, but your score isn't based on that. Rather, every time you land a blow you earn points, and there's a score multiplier that goes up when you hit your opponent but falls back down when you get hit. The scoring system in the trials means there's some fun to be had replaying them to beat your best performances, but it's unfortunate that there's no way for you to compare your high scores with those of other players online.

Outside of quick one-on-one matches against the AI that you choose from a pseudo online lobby complete with win/loss records for different players, Broken Destiny's only other single-player content is the story-driven Gauntlet mode. Spanning more than 30 chapters each composed of multiple challenges, this mode is really just a lengthy tutorial that trains you to defend against every character in the game. Learning to effectively evade and guard against your opponent's attacks is important, and if you take the time to play through all of the 80-plus Gauntlet challenges, you'll almost certainly emerge a better player than you were when you went into it. You're not necessarily going to have much fun along the way though.

Save for a boss fight at the very end, Gauntlet mode is comprised almost entirely of challenges that last just a few seconds, and in that time you have to complete a number of very specific objectives to progress. For the most part, that means starting with very little health, avoiding an enemy's attacks, and then landing an attack of your own. You're set up to fail most of these the first time, because unless you're a seasoned SoulCalibur veteran, you're not going to know if the attacks coming at you in rapid succession are going to be high or low, vertical or horizontal, or even unblockable. Fail once, and you're given feedback from other characters that, more often than not, includes a breakdown of exactly what you need to do. That's good, because hearing the announcer say "mission failed" over and over again in a short space of time when you get stuck on a challenge can be infuriating.

As you progress through Gauntlet mode, you're introduced to throw escapes, stun recoveries, guard impacts, aerial controls, interrupts, and a number of other features that leave you in no doubt as to how deep the fighting system is. You're also exposed to facets of the fighters' personalities that you've never seen before and that, frankly, you probably won't want to see again. Yun-seong believes he's receiving messages from aliens, Zasalamel is an interdimensional peeping tom, Nightmare cries a lot, and moonwalking newcomer Dampierre has a penchant for young girls that's second only to his feelings about facial hair. In short, by the time you reach the end of the Gauntlet mode you're left in no doubt as to why the story isn't considered SoulCalibur canon. The only character who makes it through the mode with his reputation intact is Kratos, the antihero of Sony's God of War series.

In fact, Kratos makes it through all of Broken Destiny's modes without losing face. Not only does he have a formidable arsenal of moves that make him feel quite different from anyone else on the roster, but in Creation mode, the only option you have for customizing him is to equip him with very slightly different chain-blade weapons. Leather loafers, short slops, goddess gauntlets, and elf ears are available elsewhere on the roster, but the only options available to Kratos are the same outfit he wears in the God of War games and the suit of armor he can be seen wearing at the start of God of War II. Regardless, he's a good addition to the roster, and with unusual abilities that include launching himself into the air using Icarus wings and swinging from the chains attached to his blades, he poses a challenge whether you're going up against him or attempting to master his moves yourself. The same can be said of Dampierre, who employs concealed weapons and an unorthodox fighting style that frequently causes him to lose his balance.


The best way to put your skills with either of the SoulCalibur newcomers to the test, of course, is to use them not against the admittedly impressive AI but against another player in Versus mode. Unfortunately, there's no online play, but the option to play against friends locally in an ad hoc party is well implemented at least. Connecting is quick and easy, the gameplay is lag-free, and your win/loss records with different opponents are remembered across multiple sessions. Also deserving of a mention is an option to install a portion of the game data to your memory stick, which almost completely cuts out any load times between matchups, not just in Versus mode, but across the entire game.

SoulCalibur: Broken Destiny's presentation is impressive in almost every regard. Fighters are detailed and animate smoothly, the varied arenas they do battle in are nicely lit, and the accompanying sound effects make attacks feel even more powerful than they look. The orchestral soundtrack is a great fit and, in conjunction with the over-the-top fight announcer and some ostentatious one-liners from the characters themselves, it makes every battle feel like an epic encounter.

Because the bulk of its single-player content is best suited to players who already have some SoulCalibur experience, Broken Destiny isn't quite as easy to recommend to newcomers as other games in the series. However, if you're already comfortable with SoulCalibur or with similar 3D fighting systems and can live with the lack of online play, there's really no reason you shouldn't pick this one up posthaste.

Need for Speed: Shift Updated Hands-On

The centerpiece of the Shift experience is your driver profile, and practically everything you do in the game feeds into that profile. The profile measures what kind of driver you are--more on that in a bit--and also keeps track of your driver level, which you can improve by earning points in race events. You can reach up to level 50 in the game, and each new level you earn will unlock cool stuff like new vinyls and accessories for your car, cash rewards, new cars, and additional garage slots for your ever-growing collection of sweet rides. In a nice touch, you can earn points for your driver level anywhere in the game--whether you're grinding away in the five tiers of Career mode events or simply playing a quick match, any points or cash you earn will feed directly into your driver profile.

Shift's car roster is impressive, with authentic rides from manufacturers such as Audi, Nissan, Honda, Ford, and many more. Still, thanks to the persistent driver profile, how you drive is just as important as what you drive. Practically anything you do on the track will earn you points, and these different maneuvers are split up between "precision" racing and "aggressive" racing. Precision driving moves include things like making clean passes of opponent cars or following the correct driving line, while aggressive moves include hitting opponent cars, drafting closely behind cars, and even spinning an opponent off the track completely.

It's worth noting that the game doesn't punish you for "aggressive" driving; instead, it's merely classifying the way you drive and noting it on your profile. When you decide to race online, your profile will be visible to other folks online and is used for matchmaking purposes. If you prefer to race cleanly, for instance, you'll likely want to avoid racers noted as "aggressive" in their profile, and vice verse.

You earn stars in racing events that can be used to unlock new events throughout your career. Stars are earned for finishing on the podium, but that's not the only way to earn them. In some races, for instance, you might gain an extra star for racing a clean lap. Also, during most races, you'll have objectives you can complete that will earn you additional stars--examples include earning a certain number of driver profile points in a race or beating a set lap time before the race ends. There are also a bunch of badges available in the game, which you can earn over the course of your career. They act as milestones of sorts, such as badges for mastering all the tracks in the game or badges for simply racking up a certain number of miles on the different cars in your garage.

You'll be working your way through a ton of race events in Career mode--including traditional circuit races, point-to-point sprints, time trials, and specialized racing events like drifting and make-specific races. The way Career mode is set up, if you earn enough stars in one series, you'll be able to skip events you might not be fond of and still make your way to the next tier of events. Of course, you can always go back and replay a race to get the maximum number of stars from every event.

From a gameplay standpoint, Shift's driving model feels quite a bit different from previous NFS incarnations. The cockpit view alone improves the experience--every bump and jostle on the track is felt as your driver's vision goes temporarily blurry or, for harder shunts, as the screen turns black and white. In terms of handling, there's a decent variety in handling style, from the gripper front-wheel-drive cars to the rear-wheel models that feel like you're skating on ice when running in the game's many drift races. Overall the driving model seems to be tuned to allow a lot of sliding around the course no matter which car you're driving and even with handling assists like stability control and traction control engaged.

The game has a pretty decent damage model in place, which can be toggled between "full" and "visual only" depending on your preference. There are also three AI settings (easy, medium, and hard) as well as four general handling settings (casual, normal, experienced, and pro). You'll also be able to individually customize your handling tuning--on the pro level, for instance, you can choose toggle assists like ABS, traction control, and stability management.

LOTRO: Mines of Moria Review

When you first enter Moria, the famous dwarven depths, an imposing stairway of 1,001 rocky steps greets you. It's an indelible moment for Tolkien fans, but more importantly, it sets the stage for this curiously murky, moody expansion pack to last year's massively multiplayer The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar. With Mines of Moria, developer Turbine pulls off quite a feat: they make the tight labyrinths and cavernous halls of the mithril mines even more compelling to explore than the rolling hills of Middle-earth. Aside from a couple of new character classes, there's very little incentive for newcomers to join in, particularly given the thin population of the original environs. But for veterans, this is a treasure trove of rewarding questing and clever storytelling, and a must-buy for anyone with a character approaching level 50.

The mines aren't the only new area; you'll spend some time (perhaps a little too much during the slow-starting introductory story quest) in Eregion, and later in Lothlorien. Yet even in light of Lothlorien's glowing green spaces, Khazad-Dum is the most incredible region to behold, far surpassing what you would expect from what amounts to a gigantic underground dungeon. The environmental design is absolutely meticulous, and the corridors and hidden alcoves are at once ominous and inviting. You don't know what monster, what goblin encampment, what magnificent statue may be waiting around the bend, and it's this sense of unsettled wonder that will keep you peering around corners. However, the bleak sights don't just unfold in front of you, but also above and beneath you. One misstep may mean a heartrending plunge into a dark abyss or an inadvertent descent into an undiscovered area. Glance above for a look at impressive formations (natural and dwarven alike) that make for vistas that are at once spacious and eerily claustrophobic. The effective soundtrack ranges from the dramatic to the melancholy, dutifully enhancing the atmosphere.


You never know what dangers are lurking within Khazad-Dum.


These environs aren't just for show. The complex design of these areas also means you need to give thought to how you travel and how you fight. With the threat of a 300-foot plunge lingering a few footsteps away, root and fear abilities are as important as ever. And though there is a smattering of dwarven guides to help point you to nearby areas of interest, one of the greatest challenges is to figure out how to get from point A to point B alive. You may see your destination hovering above, but getting there might require fighting through glass spiders with your party or fending off orcs and their flaming arrows. Ensuing encounters are simply a lot of fun, even with just another player or two, thanks to thoughtful enemy placement and varied attack types. Even differing AI behaviors mix up the pace, with some creatures giving you a warning grunt before attacking you outright.

It's a wonderful marriage of content and art design that further strengthens the developer's knack for storytelling, a floundering art in most MMOGs, yet a triumph in Mines of Moria. Although some of the story chapters lack cleverness (gredbyg killing is better left to the nonessential questing), many of them shed light not only on the dwarves' attempt to reclaim their rightful territory, but also the origins of their plight. For example, in an early quest, you teleport to the past and watch the dwarves inadvertently release the fiery Balrog, and destroy a tenuous pact between themselves and the elves in the process. Its cinematic presentation and sense of real danger is a treat, and though much of the questing boils down to the usual fare, these special moments, and fantastic quest writing, will keep you emotionally involved.

Although there are some solo-focused quests like the one noted above, you'll want to grab a buddy or three and drag them along. The shadowed crevasses don't just look dangerous--they are dangerous, and general exploration has been clearly geared toward small fellowships. This was a smart choice; the small-party camaraderie fits well thematically, conjuring images of humans and hobbits huddled together for warmth as they eke their way to glory. But this focus on small groups also wisely pays heed to the diminished population of the game in general. Experienced adventurers looking to reach the new level cap of 60 will find plenty of questing partners during peak hours, but the original areas of the game are sparsely populated; if you're new to the game, or decide to roll a new character, you could play three or four hours before you run into other players, depending on your chosen race and profession.

Though Mines of Moria is not generally a solo-friendly experience, there are opportunities for you to keep yourself occupied when you're not in the socializing mood. There are numerous solo quests, some pitting you against fun bosses and requiring a good command of your abilities. However, the most intriguing way to spend your time outside a group is by creating and tweaking your own legendary weapons. The introductory quest to this feature is a bit tedious, but once you wade your way through, you will be grabbing legendary items off of fallen monsters. Then you can dismantle them, rejigger them, level them up, and even rename them. This flexibility is a welcome adjunct to the already-elastic traits and deeds system, but more importantly, you're not just forging a new sword, but an actual relationship with it. No longer is your weapon a disposable commodity; it's an extension of your virtual self. So powerful is this connection that you'll wish you could create legendary armor and accessories as well. Sadly, you can't dual-wield legendary melee weapons (though you can simultaneously equip, for example, a legendary bow and a legendary sword), but even in its current form, the customization possibilities will keep you constantly rethinking your character.


If you tire of dark corridors, don't worry: you'll find visual respite.


More flexibility is on tap within the two new character classes, the rune-keeper and the warden. Rune-keepers are essentially wizards, and they're a potentially troublesome addition for Lord of the Rings purists who would rather not see magic proliferate in this universe. Nevertheless, rune-keepers fill a spell-flinging need and are an absolutely proper compromise that favors fun gameplay over the strict tenets of Tolkien's prose--perfectly acceptable in a world where even the smallest details highlight the developer's reverence for the subject matter. Both new classes offer a wide range of gameplay possibilities. Wardens act as light tanks, stringing attacks together to create powerful finishing attacks called gambits; rune-keepers attune themselves to their chosen role as healer or offensive powerhouse. They are excellent classes, but without much in the way of new-player content and considering the low starting-area populations, they feel geared more toward existing players looking to try something new.

The unique player-versus-player component has seen some tweaks as well, such as new traits for monster players and a ten-llevel upgrade. Better support for smaller groups is also a wise change that is consistent with the other tweaks mentioned earlier, but clearly, Mines of Moria is focused more on storytelling than player battles. There aren't any major additions to PVP play, which is a shame, considering Wrath of the Lich King's newfound focus in this area and Warhammer Online's major inroads. The addition of the two new classes should make for some interesting battles in any case, though it remains to be seen whether that will be enough to breathe life back into the generally fun and exciting monster play.

The bowels of Middle-earth have no right to be this interesting to investigate, yet Moria's dim passages are a dungeon crawler's delight, surpassing even Shadows of Angmar's charming landscapes for sheer exploratory value. There isn't much for new players, though if you've avoided The Lord of the Rings Online until now, consider this: The expansion pack includes the original game, a value rare in MMOG expansions. Nevertheless, LOTRO veterans have the most to gain, thanks to awesome new areas, new story chapters to probe, and the giddy trepidation that comes with not knowing what ghoulish ogres might be lurking around the corner.

The Sims 3

If you're new to the series, here's a quick primer. The Sims 3 is a virtual life simulator. In it, you take control of a character called a sim, or an entire household of them. Sims have needs; they need to empty their bladders, to eat, to sleep, to bathe, to have fun, to socialize. It's real life boiled down to simple mechanics, but within these mechanics lies an entire universe of possibilities. Your sims can have babies who will cry in the middle of the night, needing their diapers changed. You can manage their personal development by sending them to the gym to work out, or by telling them to fix a broken television, or by having them play chess, or by sending them to the park to play the guitar. Sims go to work to earn simoleans (money, of course) so they can buy better things for their homes and redecorate--or just buy a brand-new home. They make friends and enemies, they go swimming, and they clog up the toilet. In other words, they act a whole lot like real people, except that they yammer in a delightful gibberish called simlish and communicate via speech bubbles that appear over their heads. It all sounds terribly mundane, but balancing the needs of your sims and tending to your digital playmates can keep you happily glued to your monitor for hours at a time.

For experienced Sims players, the laundry list of new features in The Sims 3 is extensive, but the one overhaul that has the biggest impact on the game is how seamlessly you can now move around your virtual town. In previous games, the presence of various neighborhoods led to a disjointed experience, so you rarely felt like you were in a living world. Now, your burb is freely explorable, so traveling to the gym, the art gallery, or your place of work means walking, biking, driving, or taxiing to the location in question without any loading times to break things up. Want your sim to head to the library and read up on the latest mystery? Just zoom out to the city map and select your destination, and your sim will travel there automatically, using the most efficient means of transportation. You might even get the option to invite someone along with you, so you won't have to head to the diner alone if you've got a friend or acquaintance nearby who's available to tag along.

The effect of the open town has a profound influence on the community aspects of The Sims 3. You can call other sims and invite them over using your handy cell phone, but if you're feeling adventurous, just head directly to another sim's house and introduce yourself. Or travel to one of the many public venues: the beach, the park, even the graveyard. In these places, you will have a chance to interact with other sims, and there may even be surprises in store if you happen to be in the right place at the right time. For example, you might be able to join a picnic in progress, or a midnight visit to the cemetery may introduce you to some new see-through pals. The game also provides spontaneous opportunities for your sims to socialize. Other sims will call you on the phone; if you're growing a garden, they may ask you to bring some veggies over in exchange for a few simoleans; or perhaps they'll ask you to repair a broken appliance for them. Either way, these tasks send you out on the town where you'll run into other sims, which gives you a sense of being part of a society that exists outside of your realm of influence.

Those social opportunities often result from the traits that you assign your sims during creation. These social traits are another new feature, and they influence how your sims will behave in certain situations, the careers that they will most likely excel in, the conversation options available, and many other aspects of daily sim life. You can select up to five traits for your sim, and there are a lot to choose from. So if you'd like to re-create your insane, neurotic, kleptomaniac aunt within the game, then you can do that, and those traits in turn will influence various aspects of her virtual life. For example, a sim with the neurotic trait can increase his or her happiness level by compulsively checking the sink and stove, but will also be prone to random freak-outs during moments of stress. Not only will a sim with the neat trait automatically clean almost everything, but his or her fun levels will actually rise in the process.
Of course, when you create a sim, you're choosing more than just personality traits. The physical customization options are far more extensive than before. Sliders let you determine skin color and tweak various facial features, color wheels let you settle on exact clothing hues, and there are a number of accessories, hair styles, and so on to choose from. Although it would be nice to have had even more options in some cases (for example, men's available hair styles seem limited), there's a good chance that you can still create a sim that resembles your kleptomaniac aunt. There's also a good chance that you can outfit her in that crazy polka-dot dress she wears, thanks to the Create a Style feature, which lets you choose from a huge number of patterns (even those used for nonclothing items such as masonry and linoleum) and tweak their colors as you see fit. If you want to put your klepto sim in a beautiful, subtle ball gown, then by all means, go for it. On the other hand, if she prefers swimsuits made of bricks, well, no one's going to judge (except maybe the aunt she's based on).

Getting sims together is usually a guaranteed laugh. As before, you can just sit back and let things happen if you prefer, and the AI does a good job with automated behavior; sims will act in ways remarkably true to the personality that you've established for them. But directing social encounters often yields even more hysterical results, and your sims' traits allow you to direct conversations more easily than before. There's a wider array of conversation topics when meeting up with others, and you'll want to play around with all of them just to see how your friends react. Try jumping into a romantic interest's arms--he may not catch you! Take your weakling sim to the gym and watch what happens on the treadmill; kiss another sim in front of your husband and watch the slaps ensue. Or generate your own masochistic amusement by denying your sims the use of a toilet, or putting them in a room without doors. Watching the expressive animations and listening to the dramatic vocal inflections is always a delight, whether it's your toddler sim chewing on her xylophone mallets or the man of the house throwing a tantrum because there are rotting leftovers in the fridge.


If You're not inclined toward such cruelty, you're better off making your sims happy by being aware of their needs and desires. You'll set a long-term goal as the final step when creating your sim, choosing from five that are generated based on the traits that you assigned. You may want to be surrounded by family, or be a famous musician, or become an international superspy, or be superpopular. Consequently, you'll need to make choices to bring these aspirations to fruition. If your sim wants to be a famous chef, take the right career track when browsing the paper; go to the bookstore and buy cookbooks to increase your cooking skills; and, of course, cook as often as you can to keep the skill bar moving ever upward. You can even take cooking classes to speed up the process, though it will cost you simoleans. But not every goal must be for the long haul; you can elevate a sim's mood and earn happiness points by accomplishing smaller tasks that pop up. Some of these are relatively simple: make the bed! Others are a little more time-consuming: upgrade five appliances! With the points you earn, you can then purchase permanent goodies such as a steel bladder (never need to pee again!), or always throwing the perfect party, or discovering the traits of other sims much more quickly. The system is more rewarding than The Sims 2's aspirations/fears system because it focuses on rewards and eliminates the sometimes-frustrating business of therapists and insanity. Actually, you can turn aging off entirely if you wish, or adjust the length of a sim's lifetime directly in the game options. In any case, the new aspiration mechanics are more about positive reinforcement than avoiding negative consequences, and the game is better for it.
The Sims 3 balances its rewards well, not just within aspirations, but within career and financial progression as well. Like real people, your sims will always want better stuff, a nicer house, and a prettier yard. You'll start with meager means, but as you progress down your chosen career track, you'll earn more money and work less, giving you more time for the fun stuff. Like before, you won't actually guide your sim through the workday, but you will be able to select something to focus on during the day, such as getting to know your coworkers or pursuing independent research. Doing so earns extra benefits; for example, studying music theory will increase your logic skill, letting you kill two birds (a paycheck and an improved skill) with one stone. You'll also be presented with all sorts of choices along the way. Read a particular book or deliver some documents to city hall to improve your standing with the boss, and you might earn a raise. You might even get an opportunity to change career tracks completely (perhaps the military has had an eye on your scientist). As it happens, these kinds of possibilities aren't just related to your job. Perhaps the local school is having a bake sale; you might be invited to whip up some cookies. Thankfully, managing your basic needs--hunger, bladder, and so on--takes less effort than before, giving you more chances to take advantage of these occasions.

Your coffers will grow, at which point you'll be spending time in Buy and Build modes. The Create a Style concept is at work here too, so you'll be able to customize furniture, appliances, and even window panes if you so desire. For example, you can go so far as to paint almost every brick in the wall pattern if you want to get that in-depth. Better stuff makes for a more automated and happier life, and it also lets aspiring architects and landscapers showcase their creativity. The tools work much the same as before, though the terrain and terrain-painting tools are easier to use than ever, and the most enthusiastic designers can still use cheat codes to manipulate things further (some of which are handily included in the game's readme file). And if you really take pride in your handiwork, The Sims 3's online features are much better integrated than before, though there is still room for growth in this area. From the game launcher, you can upload and download shared content such as sims, outfits, household objects, and so on. This kind of social exchange has always been an important aspect of The Sims, though in light of the tight online integration seen in games such as Spore, there are some missed opportunities here. For example, placing the browser directly in the game client would have made for a more seamless experience. And though the ability to upload movies to The Sims 3 Web site and edit them is a great new feature, you still have to access this feature through your Web browser. The good news is that there are some great items ready to download the moment you register an account online, including an entire town (which is, thankfully, free). However, most official content requires you to spend SimPoints, which cost real money.

That nickel-and-diming points to what is probably The Sims 3's main drawback: Although the game includes a whole lot of content, it still has noticeable holes that the expansions to previous Sims games have already filled. Previous add-ons offered pets to play with, seasonal weather, magical items, and other fun content. None of that is featured in The Sims 3, and certain aspects of the series, such as the events of the standard workday, have gone curiously unexplored. The established pattern of Sims expansion packs make these areas of opportunity all the more apparent, especially when you'd expect a sequel to include most of the popular features of the games that led up to it.


One of the reasons for the franchise's success is how easy the games are to run on a variety of computers, and The Sims 3 is no exception; it's very scalable, so chances are that if you have a relatively modern PC, you'll probably be able to run the game. The visuals are colorful and crisp, and a noticeable step up from The Sims 2. Sim movements continue to be the highlight of the presentation, and zooming in close is always a fun treat, especially when your sims are engaging in a particularly animated exchange, such as telling a joke. Buildings like the theater and city hall look attractive, and the soft sway of trees and bushes makes the town look pleasantly suburban. Nevertheless, the game's performance does continue some unfortunate trends of Sims games past. Performance is a bit sluggish when you scroll across the town or follow your sim as he or she travels. And though the pathfinding has improved, sims sometimes still have difficulties getting from point A to point B without going through some odd animations or complaining that there's someone in the way. Unsurprisingly, the game sounds absolutely charming. The jaunty tunes that accompany the Build and Buy modes and the tunes that play when you turn on the radio are terrific, perhaps the best in the series. Some sound effects are recycled, but The Sims 3 doesn't feel cheapened as a result; it strikes a chord of familiarity that works to the game's benefit.

So what is it that makes The Sims 3 even more addictive than its predecessors? It's partially due to the deft handling of rewards; it doles out new social options, new aspirations, and the possibility of better furniture and wood flooring at a slow but even pace, which keeps you tied to your computer for hours at a time. It offers the element of surprise, showing off its abundant charms through funny social interactions that make you want to be part of the improved virtual community. Although it could have offered even more right out of the box, there's still an awful lot of content here, and it's bound to put a smile on almost anyone's face.

The Sims 3

The Good
Free-to-explore town leads to a sense of community
-Robust, intuitive creation tools
-Charming visuals and audio
-Good balance of sandbox play and specific goals
-Loads of content to keep you busy for months.
The Bad
-Most Additional official content costs real money.
- Some pathfinding issues.

If you're reading this, there's a very good chance that you've heard about The Sims. It's been difficult to escape the popular franchise's web, what with two full games and a seemingly endless stream of expansions. The first thing you may be asking, then, is whether The Sims 3 is worth playing, or if it's just more of the same. Well, it most certainly is worth it, and yes, in some ways it is more of the same. But in this case, that's a very good thing. For anyone who's played The Sims or its first sequel, this familiarity will let them ease into it, feeling like a welcomed guest rather than an outsider. But this doesn't make The Sims 3 a simple rehash of what's come before. Instead, returning elements have been energized and extended by a number of terrific improvements, such as expanded customization tools, additional tools for interaction with other sims (and other players), and more tangible goals and rewards. Most importantly, the free-to-explore town makes you feel like part of an entire virtual society--a feature approximated but never fully realized in the previous games. By blending together the old and the new, developer Maxis has created the best, most charming game yet in the series.