Yup, the Saints are back, bigger, badder and more famous than before but unfortunately their fame has pissed off a few gangs but more importantly The Syndicate, a group that has more fingers in more pies than Ron Jeremy in a gang bang!  After the Third Street Saint’s escapades in Stilwater has brought them more fame and fortune, the Syndicate are looking for a tickle of the profits and a little respect, something that the Saints in their new found fame are not prepared to give.  Cue some crazy opening sequences which end with you landing in Steelport, trying to get a foothold in the city and fighting back by any means necessary.

• Likes

  • Fluid control system
  • Outlandish gameplay
  • Enhanced customisation
  • Oh, the comedy!

• Dislikes

  • What’s not to like!

You see, the concept of Saints Row as a franchise is pretty much unchanged.  Winning territory over your rivals is as big a part of the game as ever and progressing through the storyline is as hilarious as it is immersive.  You start out by getting your car, grabbing some weapons from the local armoury as well as recruiting your Saints gang all over again breaking people out of trouble and stamping your authority all over the city.

As with any sandbox action game, after the initial tutorial missions are over you are pretty much free to explore wherever you want, within reason, and take on the multitude of side missions and crazy mini tasks that are available as well as proceed through the story itself.  Saints Row The Third is huge and almost every aspect of the title with the go anywhere, do anything moniker being taken to the next level.  The ability to now fly aeroplanes as well as helicopters and even base jump from buildings provides not only a horizontal playground to get your kicks in but also a vertical one now with plenty of rooftops and building to explore.

One thing that has always stood out in Saints games is the level of customisation in them and going on the theme of huge, Saints Row The Third again stands head and shoulder above the rest.  From costumes, to weapons, individual items, skin colour, tan lines, cars, characters even to the sex appeal slider that is new to the game, Saints Row The Third is never backwards in coming forwards and with the Initiation Station on the Saints Row website coupled with a whole suite of options in the game you can easily spend hours on end uploading and downloading outrageous characters.

Of course, a lot of the customisation options are unlockable and this comes in the form of earning respect points to level up your character and pay to unlock stuff along the way.  Everything you do in Steelport will earn you points and as you grow your character through the main missions as well as side missions like the new Professor Genki’s Super Ethical Reality Climax game show which runs like a cross between madcap Japanese game shows and Arnie’s 80′s, um, “classic” The Running Man.

Combat has always been a bit of a bugbear in sandbox games with it always feeling  little woolly and weapon selection not quite hitting the mark when you need it most.  Saints Row’s attempts in the past have been good but not great but Saints Row The Third shines with a responsive set of controls that will have you locking on, shooting, kicking, punching and cock slapping your way through the city, always in the knowledge that a flick of the thumbstick will give you the desired weapon selection to scroll through.  The button mapping has also been well designed, although you can change them, and helps you to deliver that knock out blow via combos more efficiently than before.  This aids in the game not feeling like a slog and allows you to feel comfortable in how your character will attack at any point.

A nice new addition to the control setup is the now nicknamed “Awesome” button.  This button, whilst being the run button as default will transform other moves into stunning set pieces that make you go “awesome!”.  Being able to jack a car is now made faster and simpler by utilising the awesome button, allowing your character to jump straight through the windscreen and kick the driver out rather than the standard opening the door, throwing the driver out, getting into said car, blah, blah, blah.  The “Awesome” button has a wealth of funny and wow moments and should be encouraged to be pressed wherever possible.

In typical sandbox fashion the playground is huge with plenty to do and plenty to see as well as having the freedom to do whatever you want wherever you want but Saints Row The Third has also added a handy co-op mode where you and a buddy can roam around the city of Steelport together creating carnage.  This is not limited to free play though as you can also follow your storylines and sub missions at will with a drop in, drop out mechanic that adds a little something, something to an already enjoyable game.

What game would be complete nowadays without a traditional helping of some kind of horde mode in the game.  Yup, Gears Of War 2 has a lot to answer for in that department and with zombies in Call Of Duty and a lot of games copying a very successful formula of fending off waves of enemies on a particular map.  Saints Row The Third has its very own take on this gametype called, wait for it! Whored Mode.  Yup, you’ve read that right and as comical as it sounds and also a superb play on words, Whored Mode delivers exactly what you would expect from a Saints take on the mode.  Fending off waves of enemies with singular weapons in either solo or co-op makes for some laugh a minute experiences and is a joyous experience that adds gravy to an already meaty package.

Visually, Volition have cranked up the volume to 11 with Saints Row The Third in terms of previous developments.  Steelport seems to have a lot more going on this time around and the city feels more alive for it.  Random acts of violence and the hustle and bustle of city life do not slow the engine down one bit here as they may have done in SR2 giving you a more fluid experience than before.  Add to that a stellar soundtrack with the right beats pumping at the right time makes for some real memorable moments.

Overall, Saints Row The Third is a welcome return to a sandbox franchise that has consistently tried to stand out from its competitors in the genre providing an outlandish storyline and over the top gameplay that is fun, never takes itself too seriously and to be quite honest, is probably the slickest title in its genre out there to date.  Refinement rather than massive moves forward are the order of the day but with some excellent additions in terms of content, a slick control scheme and an engine running a smoother game, Saints Row The Third IS the only sandbox action game you’ll require this year and probably the next!

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Either a game has great game play or it doesn’t, there is no middle ground. One flaw can bring everything else down with it and ruin the experience. The list of games on the current generation of consoles that suffer from this is……well….pretty much all the ones that I have wasted time on, time I can’t get back. How I wasted an hour of my life on the travesty called Dead Island I will never truly understand. The signs were bad from the opening few minutes but I gave it a chance only to be faced with a complete mess of a game. Red Dead Redemption? Everything was fine until I realised that half of the game was spent riding that fucking horse around bland landscapes (I don’t give a shit if they were authentic). Huge mistake and a total game breaker. What were they thinking?

I am old school, I happen to think that Trials HD is the best Xbox 360 game so far (a game so good that any flaw is down to the player not the game) but I was really looking forward to Bodycount, the spiritual successor to Black. Ten minutes in and I was moderately suicidal. How can something that bad, that broken be released to the public? What the fuck is going on? Pretty much every game that has been released on Wii has been beyond shit (Wii owners need to stop defending the console, it’s crap and you know it) and don’t get me started on the 3DS. The great Nintendo has well and truly jumped the shark. Small budgets increase creativity; or rather it forces creativity, from developers, much like films. This is no guarantee of success but chances are your favourite film is not a mega-budget blockbuster. If it is then please don’t breed. Creativity is alive and well on XBLA and PSN and you can try before you buy too.

EA, Activision, Rockstar and the like somehow seem to be perfectly happy with all this too: Development studios full of proper talent being wasted on yet another shit FPS or tedious driving game where you spend hours and hours going round the same tracks again and again and again…..until the end of time. These days it’s very easy to hate everything, the human race isn’t exactly doing very well, but I save my burning hatred only for that which deserves it. This point brings me nicely to one series of games that deserves nothing but pure hatred. I am of course talking about Call of Duty. No, I will not call it COD either, that’s a fucking fish. I’ll start by saying that I started with Call of Duty 3, which wasn’t very good but had an atmosphere that helped keep it interesting enough for about four hours, after that it lost it. Got on the Call of Duty 4 bandwagon a bit late but found the online experience fun with friends….for a while. The single player game had its moments too, and it wasn’t that tasteless either. Sure, it was all in pretty poor taste but it never felt realistic at all; like you were shooting silly caricatures of real-world possibilities. Reminded me of a big, loud, dumb Jerry Bruckheimer film: Fun but forgettable. Now, if you apply logic and reason to this it should only work once in the “that was fun, now what else have you got” kind of way. It’s done, move on.

However, I’m afraid that where Call of Duty is concerned, logic and reason fell off the boat and drowned, along with the gaming public’s brains. Why do I hate the Call of Duty games that have come since the fourth outing? Because they’re shit. You couldn’t defend them even if you tried your best. Sub-standard software, turds with a couple of bells and whistles on and absolutely nothing more. Let’s not forget how shockingly tasteless and frequently racist they are and how they heavily promote patriotism and nationalism, two things that have only ever done the human race harm. No, let’s put that to one side (if only to avoid the usual pathetic “it’s only a game” argument) and stay focused on the real problem: Gamers. Are you not embarrassed that these digital dangleberries are going into our record books as all time best sellers? I am. When the PS3 has two of the best games ever made re-released in HD glory and they are ignored in favour of the same shitty FIFA game yet again, well……..I blush for you all.

Says a lot about the general apathy of gamers across the world when any old shit will do, here’s my money give me that fudge cake. One steaming mud otter is never exactly the same as the last; it may look a bit different, it may smell a bit different, it may contain bits that get your attention, but it’s still shit. Only the stupid would eat it. At this point I could have a go at the online culture that Call of Duty has spawned, but that’s a whole other article, a whole other problem. It saddens me that a game like Blur would be so undersold that it shut down one of the best development teams working at the time, only for the same fuckers who didn’t buy it to populate message boards stating how angry they were with the evil publishers for doing that. YOU did that! You refused to buy a good game that had good ideas and a bright future. You didn’t take the risk. You waited for the big game, the Game With A Name. You killed it. No talk about the economic climate and money can excuse being stupid and easily led either.

Remember that Black Ops broke records at a time that the world’s economy was on its knees. The iPad anyone? Strip away the bells and whistles and it’s a flashy laptop without a keyboard. Massive seller. Oh yeah, we’re being really careful with our money right now. There are revolutions happening around the world as you read this. In these countries the people have decided that enough is enough and they will no longer take shit from those who pull the strings and claim to know what is in the people’s best interests. They are tired of the zeitgeist and they are demanding change in their masses. But guess what? It mostly involves lots of people getting killed in the process. It’s a rather pathetic but sadly true fact of the consequences of breaking down invisible barriers in the real world. The idea is that the long term result will be worth it in the end and those who fought on the right side and died will have played their part in a better future. There could be a revolution involving a section of the human race, one that will not involve any loss of life. A revolution where this group of people band together and say “No, we will not take this anymore”. They’ll demand change, insist on something better and refuse to part with their hard earned cash until their demands are met. It could happen.

Like He-Man had the power of Greyskull you have the power of common sense. If enough of you use that power we can stop Call of Duty from breaking more records and subconsciously reminding us all of how dumb we are and how willing we are to accept the mundane in exchange for money. Money is tight for many people right now, including me. I’m saving mine for Trials Evolution and Guardian Heroes. I’m joining the revolution. What the fuck are you going to do? That’s right, you’re going to buy Modern Warfare 3 aren’t you? You bunch of submissive philistines. When Activision release Call of Duty: Fuck You in the Ass, where you play yourself (thanks to the wonders of Kinect, or ‘Kinshit as I like to call it) avoiding taking one in the cornhole from evil CEO’s, don’t say you didn’t ask for it.

I’m off to play Black, won’t be seeing you online.

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From the brilliantly twisted minds of Suda51 (No More Heroes, Shadows of the Damned, Killer7), James Gunn (Super, Slither, Dawn of the Dead, Tromeo & Juliet) and Grasshopper Manufacture,Lollipop Chainsaw tells the tale of zombie hunter/cheerleader Juliet Starling as she hacks her way through hoards of the undead with her trusty chainsaw to discover the mystery of the zombie outbreak.

Lollipop Chainsaw is the ‘un-deadly’ story of sweet and killer zombie hunter Juliet Starling and her quest to uncover the root of a colossal zombie outbreak. With her wickedly awesome chainsaw in hand, Juliet slices, dices and splits her way through hordes of the undead, but soon realizes the horde is only the opening act to a festival of zombie rock lords determined to kill the chainsaw wielding cheerleader.

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Download the trailer and watch as voice over artists from the Clone Wars TV show grunt and squeak their way through the voice recordings of LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars.

This tongue in cheek video is introduced by Clone Wars Voice Director David Collins and features interviews with some of the game’s cast members, as well as behind the scenes footage and gameplay.

LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars is released on 25^th March 2011.

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UTV Ignition and developer, Hothead will launch the new comedy action game in early 2011.

Swarm lets players take control of 50 utterly fearless Swarmites and drive them through an intense, entertaining and often suicidal battle of survival. Run, bash, huddle, boost, stack, jump, push and throw your way through gauntlets of death and destruction in an attempt to collect valuable DNA and ensure that at least one Swarmite survives.

“Swarm is perfect for PlayStation Network and Xbox LIVE Arcade for Xbox 360 because of its unique art direction and gameplay,” said Nigel Fox, Head of Publishing for UTV Ignition.  “We’re thrilled to be partnered with Hothead because we share their passion for bringing unique experiences to gamers through these innovative digital platforms.”

“We’ve been working hard on Swarm for a while now and think it’s our most addictive game yet,” said Joel DeYoung, Director of Game Technology for Hothead Games.  “The Swarmites are both lovable and deliciously expendable at the same time—the game’s creation is proof positive of the dangers of excessive exposure to Saturday morning cartoons we were warned about so many years ago.  Swarm is exactly the genocidal romp your parents hoped you’d grow up and marry someday.”

Swarm is the first game to feature mass character control, where you move all 50 Swarmites at once.  Steer your swarm through the game and they naturally flock and flow around obstacles.  Creatively combine swarm moves to work your way through a relentlessly dangerous and hilariously brutal environment.  Compete against your friends to get the high score by deftly moving through the world and cleverly solving puzzles the game throws your way.

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Players who download Dead Rising 2: CASE ZERO will get their first glimpse into the world of Dead Rising 2 as they are introduced to the new protagonist in the series, Chuck Greene, along with new game play features of Dead Rising 2, ahead of its European release on September 24, 2010.

For 400 Microsoft Points, the prologue will give players a first taste of the zombie-slaughtering fun of combo weapons and ‘psycho’ boss fights. Character attributes collected in Dead Rising 2: CASE ZERO will also carry over into the main game such as Player Level, to a maximum of five, Prestige Points alongside skills, Combo Cards and a number of alternate outfits.

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In fact, it is very hard to find a PC gamer that has not yet played a Worms title!

With a reach that spans generations, and a gameplay style that is both classic and fresh in equal measures, Worms Reloaded sports over 60 single-player missions, full team and game style customization, landscape editing tools including the ability to import images, HD visuals and all the best weapons from Worms series past and present.

Being based on Steam, Worms Reloaded also has an intuitive and satisfying multiplayer interface, meaning that even the most inexperienced PC user can find friends and fresh opponents to be on the receiving end of a grenade or bazooka within minutes. The mutual respect between Valve and Team17 also means that Team Fortress 2 gamers who either pre-ordered Worms Reloaded, or who purchase it before September 2^nd 2010, can look forward to exclusive Holy Hand Grenades and a ‘Worms’ army hat for their soldier in-game!

“It’s with tremendous satisfaction that we can finally release a PC Worms title after what seems like an eternity, particularly as we’re self-publishing it. This means the connection between our passionate community and the development team itself has never been closer”, said Martyn Brown, Business Development Director at Team17.

“Because of that, we’ll see discussion, support and development of the game going forward, with further additional content and interaction with our community, given the wide customization opportunities in the game.”

You can find out what we thought of Worms: Reloaded when our review goes live very soon.  In the meantime, check out the launch trailer below.

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There are few games out there that can match it strategies, pick up and play fun and downright comedic moments but the single player experience is normally left a little in the dark.  Well, Worms: Reloaded has taken this gameplay and expanded it into the most solid single player experience for a Worms title to date as the trailer below will show.

From 60+ missions spanning two whole campaigns, Worms: Reloaded sets to deliver the most definitive Worms experience yet!

Worms fans can pre-order Worms Reloaded via Steam now, with bonuses including a 10% discount, 24 hours early access to the game and exclusive in-game items to enhance your chosen team. To pre-order Worms Reloaded, go to http://store.steampowered.com/app/22600.

Worms Reloaded is released for PC through Steam on Thursday 26^th August 2010.

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It all sounds a bit grim but that is how the game has been designed and nothing shows this better than Visceral’s depiction of hell as described in the famous story.  Every element of each circle of hell’s visual style has been given a mature depiction of the sins derived from the book.  From Limbo to Lust to Guttony, the look for each sin gives a creepy, edgy and dirty feel.  From gratuitous sexual imagery to blood lust and severe violence, it is all here in droves and the game is definitely worthy of the 18 certification afforded to it.

Remember this is not meant to be a game for children, it is not even a game that has been created to provoke a reaction from the media.  To do that would be to damn the very classic poem that has spawned this game in the first place and it lays out its stall almost immediately to brutal effect.

All good hack and slash adventures need to have a solid foundation to build from in terms of control and Dante’s Inferno delivers it pretty well.  Based on the standard moves of most games in this genre you have your power attacks, your normal attacks which you can attach combo moves to.  The face buttons feel responsive when pressed and the battles appear fluid.  There are also certain points when a pre determined button combination appears for special moves and actions which when pressed at the correct time will unleash a slow motion action scene.  You can also upgrade your attacks and magic via a nice little character enhancer where the souls you have collected will go towards more abilities.  Pretty standard fare but it does work quite well.  When in the middle of a fight there are chances to grab your foe to absolve them or to punish them for your sins by pressing the R trigger.  If you are in a fiendish mood the punishment option will open up a horrific death move where absolution for all you saintly people will allow you to collect their souls.  This element works well but does have a flaw in that the other demons and monsters will back away while you decide what to do.  In a world so chaotic I feel it would have been wiser to let them attack whilst this is going on.

As you are aware, any game in this genre bases itself around running through areas, killing enemies in the most brutal way possible, solving a few puzzles and playing a few mini games.  Dante’s Inferno is no difference at all and breaks these components down in nice bite size chunks that differentiate enough that you won’t get bored with the dynamics of the game immediately.  Move crates around to get to other areas, time your moves and jumps at certain points to stop yourself falling off of crashing floor and kill as many enemies as you can as brutally as you can.  There are also certain famous people from history where you get to decide their fate.  People like Pontius Pilot and Orpheaus make their back stories heard and you decide their fate.  Punish them will enter into your standard death moves but to absolve them enters you into a mini game.  It feels like a rhythm game without the music to collect bonus souls, tap the right face buttons as the souls come in over a given period of time and you will gain extra souls for use to power up.  Although fun for the first few occasions you do tire from this quickly so I personally opted for death moves after a while for the fun factor.

Overall, Dante’s Inferno is a solid game, built on the foundations of a classic poem that depicts its environment in the brutal and hellish way that you would imagine.  The howling, crying of babies and lost souls adds an eerie atmosphere to the game but where perhaps the game shines in visual style and mechanic it slightly falls short on originality.  It is standard hack and slash fare that has been seen before and although there is replay value there, I think after completion the game will really shine again when the first scheduled piece of DLC arrives in April.

Don’t get me wrong, I have had a lot of fun with the game and will continue to do so.  It has done nothing wrong where Dante’s Inferno is concerned but feel that PS3 owners will wait to see what the next big game in this genre delivers.  If you are 360 though and want something that will deliver a similar experience to its Sony counterpart and love this genre then I would recommend it to you.

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