Aaron Klein: The more I heard about Borderlands the more I got excited to check the game out. The tone of the press had been mostly doubtful, touching on how Gearbox was almost desperately racing to distinguish itself from a saturated release season populated with established gaming titans like Rock Band, Halo, Uncharted, Mario, Call of Duty and other anticipated new intellectual properties like Dragon Age: Origins and Brutal Legend.

A relatively late switch of gears in artistic direction to use hand-drawn textures, a controversial portrayal of a stylized suicide as cover art and the inclusion of a catchy, popular tune from Cage the Elephant in advertising trailers combine to illustrate just how badly 2K Games and Gearbox want you to pick up Borderlands.

Arthur Kotsopoulos: Funny you should say that because before they changed the art style and serious tone of the game I also wasn’t interested. Sure, there were hundreds of thousands of variations in weaponry, but other than that the game offered nothing to really make me want to buy it

It wasn’t until they changed the graphical art style and started to post up viral videos with that comedic touch to them. From this point on I got interested in the game from reading previews, viewing screen shots to watching video walk through of game play, It was a marketing strategy that worked for me.

Aaron Klein: And none of this is bad. I agree the roll out has been a masterpiece of marketing and has been as successful as possible at carving out a niche for Borderlands to have success. The big question is whether or not the actual gameplay can capitalize off this attention.

Arthur Kotsopoulos: I wasn’t expecting much from this game other than it being unique. Having had time to dig into it, I have to say I am loving it! The chance that any weapon I find could be my new favorite weapon is great. You will never find the exact same weapon twice.

Sure the game starts off slow, but this just gets you comfortable with the basics to get you ready for the long journey ahead in the barren wasteland of Pandora in search of the Vault.

How are you in all finding the integration of game play, travel and missions within Pandora?

Aaron Klein: The weapons are awesome, and that is a great observation. Your character is never totally optimized. There is always a better weapon out there somewhere. That keeps it interesting for the exact reason you stated: The next weapon you find on your ground could end up being your favorite.

I get a little OCD about the weapons, though. When new guns are so plentiful I tend to spend a lot of time tweaking my arms and making tiny decisions between the rifle with more power but less accuracy and the one with an increased firing rate but low power.

This is both good and bad. A couple of times I wanted to set the controller down just because this micromanagement was overly taxing. But then I realized, “hey, you don’t have to do this. Just run out there and shoot.”

Arthur Kotsopoulos: Exactly. It’s has enough RPG elements to keep you swapping out the weapons in your backpack as you level up. Yet at the same time not overly taxing to the point where you have to organize which weapons have this scope, barrel, handle and ammo capacity.

It’s an FPS that’s challenging, yet easily accessible. Borderlands blends the genres in a way I haven’t seen done so well since Bioshock. You have an open, sandbox world, a light RPG skill tree for each of the four character classes and hundreds of thousands of weapons with various stats and augments such as fire, electricity, poison and so forth.

My main gripe with this is the driving. It follows the Halo-esque driving controls except it doesn’t do Halo justice. If you clip a tire on the road or small rock the car just lifts in the air funny like it weighs barely anything. I tried to avoid the driving as much as possible because even when you do master it, it still becomes annoying.

Aaron Klein: I was worried about the driving heading into this game, and my worries were warranted. The driving is not very intuitive. Having the car go in whatever direction the camera is pointing means you can’t look off to your peripheral without driving off the road. Plus the vehicle gets hung up really easily on the environment. And when it gets stuck, it’s stuck. There’s no rocking it out.

Driving just tends to be a pain. Gearbox was already trying to do so much with the role-playing shooter dynamic. The vehicle was the darkest cloud over this game.

The map itself is laid out with different “levels” connected by a common area. It’s open, sure, but it’s also constraining because the map is mostly the land between canyon walls and not a wide open plain, like Fallout 3. I say this type of map is not conducive to the driving.

Arthur Kotsopoulos: Sure the map isn’t open like Fallout 3, but it is still massive. I’m currently only on my first play through, taking my time, and I have still to enter a few sections of the game. At the moment I’m in awe at how many areas there are and exactly how big each of them is.

Aaron Klein: But you need to have some way to get around the world. And driving, as bad as it is, is still better than walking. And it is more interesting when you team up in co-op mode to have someone in the gunner’s nest.

Arthur Kotsopoulos: Yeah in co-op, especially four-player co-op, the game really shines. The game becomes much more fun. You receive better loot and acquire more experience points as enemies become harder.

Loot must be shared accordingly though, as any player can take any loot. That can make for frustrating times if you found an awesome weapon and someone nabs it from under your nose.

It is also very hard when you are levels apart from your co-op partners. The game can become quite brutal and unforgiving.

Aaron Klein: I agree, the game is pretty solid as a single player title. But it absolutely shines in the co-op. I’ve been trying to put my finger on why exactly that is… and I think it works so well because the challenge and number of enemies ramp up to coincide with the number of players and their levels. The fight for loot afterwards also contributes to the fun, as it gives everybody something to talk about. “Check out this sweet sniper rifle, does the Hunter want it?”

Plus sharing XP and gold means players level up at relatively the same level.

A testament to the different ways to play the game: while you planned and shared the loot, when playing split screen with a friend we were having fun rushing to beat each other to the glowing gun on the ground, and even waiting to revive each other until the other had picked the battlefield clean of ammo & mods.

But I can see how that could be annoying when playing with strangers.

Arthur Kotsopoulos: Whilst it does feature a form of dueling in co-op with fellow teammates it’s a shame the game doesn’t feature online multiplayer.

I supposed it wouldn’t work seeing as not 1 gun is ever the same so having the ability to take in your weapons from single player to multiplayer would be greatly unfair.

Aaron Klein: I have a co-op cautionary tale to share, too: Make sure any characters your friends build on your system are associated with a gamertag. My buddy was playing without signing in to one, and when we tried to continue the next day his level 11 Hunter was gone.

Luckily I had a level 20 Soldier, and we were able to power level his new character up pretty quickly, but not before he got tired of the game because he felt so underpowered against the enemies we were up against in the current missions.

Arthur Kotsopoulos: Still, I believe co-op is where Borderlands truly excels. Whilst other reviewers think it doesn’t work as well as It should, I believe it works flawlessly as the enemies become more tough and much better loot is dropped.

It’s a battle of who can find the better loot, that battle is always fun, time and time again. What’s even better is the fact you can duel each other at any time by a simple melee attack to see who is the better of the Vault hunters.

It’s great fun to have your team mate bragging about an awesome weapon he just found only to have dueled you then defeated by your awesome level 30 combat rifle with corrosive damage.

It’s satisfying and enjoyable all in the one package and I feel Borderlands is probably one of the most fun and unique games to have been released in the past year.

Aaron Klein: I agree. It captured the “one more level” draw of RPGs and has earned itself a place in my disc drive for quite a while.

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First person shooter gamers and role playing gamers do not really mix that often. The former enjoys the thrill of a headshot and multiplayer melees while the later is hooked by personalizing their character and looting new gear from dungeons.

Borderlands takes a little from each genre and adds enough cooperative elements to create an addictive game best played with others. Whereas Fallout 3 was a role playing game first and a shooter second, Borderlands is the opposite.

Earlier this year Gearbox announced a major change in artistic direction for Borderlands. It uses hand-drawn textures and black outlines to create a form of cel-shaded world that looks more like an illustration than a realistic rendering.

This change works well simply by being distinctive and light-minded. The art style minimizes the inherent dullness of a game set on a desolate dust bowl of a planet and adds a lighthearted sense of humor.

You start the game by picking your character class. Each of the four options has an upgradable special power. For example, the soldier deploys a turret that can be upgraded to heal allies or dispense ammunition while the Hunter unleashes his pet raptor to take out enemies from afar.

The player is given minimum information with no context when making this monumental decision, which is a problem if you are looking to spend a couple dozen hours or more leveling up a character. If you have not fired a weapon yet, how can you know if you prefer to fight with assault rifles as a soldier or rocket launchers as a berserker?

Borderlands is a pretty good single-player game, but playing cooperatively with friends is where the game really shines. Up to four players can play simultaneously over the Internet or via split screen. The intensity of the combat ramps up when playing with others, especially when using a mixture of character classes.

Players share money and experience points, but are on their own to fight for guns and ammunition. Whether you decide to cooperatively decide who gets what weapons, or its first-come-first-serve is up to how you play.

One cautionary tale on co-op, my friend lost his entire character because he was playing on a guest profile and it did not save. If you value your data, make sure it is associated with a profile.

The story in Borderlands is hardly worth mentioning. The focus is so strongly on cooperative play that narrative must have been seen as an action-slowing liability. Quest-givers do not have recorded dialogue, which makes them seem lifeless. Mission and story related information is related primarily through text boxes that are easily skipped over.

Without context, however, the story missions seem less urgent and less monumental. The benefit of that is that you might be less apt to speed through the game and more likely to help friends with their missions through the online co-op.

There are tons of missions in the game, nearly 200 including side missions. Moreover, when you finish you can keep your character and do it all over again against tougher enemies for better loot.

The missions are repetitive, mostly consisting of: Go somewhere, kill some stuff and return. While this can be monotonous because the missions are not driving the story, it does ensure that there is never a dull moment without some alien wildlife or bandits to exterminate.

One characteristic of role-playing games that did not make it into Borderlands is an attempt at a real and persistent world. The few non-playable characters that populate Pandora serve only to hand out missions. The planet feels unnaturally desolate, even for one that supposed to be on the frontier.

Borderlands boasts hundreds of thousands of weapons just waiting for you to find. The programmers developed a procedural system of generating new weapons.

Arms and ammunition are scattered in containers, eerily out-of-place toilets and on the corpses of fallen foes. The world is littered with them, which makes exploration and looting lucrative. The variety adds flavor; the next gun you come across could end up being your new favorite.

With so many weapons, it is surprising how different each one feels. It means that your character is never 100 percent optimized, even when you reach the level cap set at 50. It is impossible to find every weapon in the game.

Vehicular combat is a dark cloud in this game. The vehicles handle similarly to those in Halo with the left thumb stick controlling forward and reverse while the right thumb stick controls direction. This means that the driver has tunnel vision and is unable to rotate the camera around the vehicle to find out what enemies lurk in your peripherals.

This might have been a forgivable offense, but the vehicles also feel weightless and easily get hung up on the environment.

Role playing fans may find Borderlands lacking in depth and options. However, shooter fans will find a pleasurable introduction to many tenants of role-playing games. Either way this hybrid game should generate enough good ideas to benefit both genres in the long run.

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In both the original and the 2009 remake, you are tasked with assisting your nebulous friend defeat a tyrant who has claimed the throne of his home world, Blobolonia. The journey is wrought with perils. To overcome the challenges the player can get his blob friend to transform into numerous helpful objects by feeding him different flavors of jellybeans. The blob can transform into an anvil, jack, hole, ladder and parachute to name a few.

The 1989 original.

The original game was frustratingly difficult. You had limited lives, limited jellybeans and many blind leaps of faith.

The remake takes what was good about the first, and removed every source of frustration to end up with a magnificent little game. Unlimited lives and frequent checkpoints encourage experimentation and allow for tougher puzzles.

A Boy and his Blob is a puzzle game first. While the original traversed only three large levels, this one is divided into four regions of 10 levels each. Another 40 levels can be unlocked by finding hidden treasure chests in each of the main levels.The remake is minimalistic and simplistic. The story is delivered simply, without dialogue or text, through a small movie that looks like a cheap Saturday morning cartoon on public television. There is not a real menu, nor is there a tutorial. The player is coaxed gently through the early levels, only to have the complexity and difficulty of the puzzles ramp up as you progress.

The artistic style is picturesque like illustrations in a storybook. And like an illustrated children’s book teaches reading and grammar, A Boy and his Blob teaches lateral thinking and problem solving.

This makes it a great game for children of any age. However, that does not mean nostalgic gamers will not be equally baffled by some of the puzzles and particularly tense boss battles.

Absolute Entertainment originally released a Boy and his Blob for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1989. It was designed by David Crane, who is perhaps most famous for creating Pitfall! for the Atari.

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“We start a revolution!”

Perhaps no greater tribute has ever been offered at the temple of an entire genre of music than Brütal Legend. This game idolizes the power and energy of heavy metal, creating an entire world with metal as its central mythology. The world of Brütal Legend is steeped heavy metal symbolism; with every scenic vista looking like it belongs on an album cover.

Brütal Legend is a game with a lot of star power. First, it bears the name of one of the most critically acclaimed video game developers: Tim Schafer. Schafer spent more than a decade at Lucas Arts working on games like Maniac Mansion, The Secret of Monkey Island and Grim Fandango before founding his own studio, Double Fine Entertainment, and creating games like Psychonauts. He has earned the reputation as being one of the funniest writers in the industry.

The game’s second big name is Jack Black, who voices Riggs, and whose enthusiasm for rock music evident in movies like School of Rock and Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny made him a perfect advocate. In addition, heavy metal icons like Ozzy Osborne, Lemmy Kilmister from Motörhead and Judas Priest’s Rob Halford lend their voices to some of the game’s main characters. In another stroke of genius, Schafer secured the diabolical voice of Tim Curry as the game’s main villain.

Brütal Legend is a third-person, open-world action game where you play as Roadie Eddie Riggs. Riggs laments what passes for music nowadays, asking a fellow roadie, “Do you ever feel like you were born in the wrong time, like you should have been born in a time when the music was better?”

Soon enough he finds himself magically transported via his cursed belt buckle to a land of Nordic fantasy where demons have enslaved humanity. Only the power of metal–and Eddie’s superior organizational roadie skills—can save them.

In this world, Eddie can melt his enemies’ faces with a scorching guitar riff and allies can be healed with the soothing vibrations of a bass note from a steel string made from a giant spider. Eddie’s guitar launches special attacks, and behaves in a way similar to Link’s ocarina in the Zelda franchise.

The story lampoons various aspects of music culture. Eddie’s first roadblock, General Lionwhyte gets around by using his massive hair to fly, and represents the glitz and glam of corporatized hair metal in the 1980s. Other enemies clearly mock the emo culture, as they don black clothing and mascara while saying things like, “you don’t understand my suffering.” These guys get their power by drinking from the “Sea of Black Tears.”

Eddie’s roadie skills particularly help in the massive “stage battles,” which are duplicated in multiplayer mode. Stage battles are a mix of third person action and real time strategy. Here Eddie sprouts wings and soars over the battlefield, setting rally points and commanding his troops. Two opposing stages vie over fan geysers, which supply resources needed to build more and more powerful troops to take out your opponent’s stage.

Some RPG elements are evident in that Eddie earns flame tributes by pleasing the gods, which he can give to the Guardian of Metal (Ozzy) in exchange for upgrades to his vehicle and weapons. Side quests are good ways to earn extra flame tributes. There are around a half dozen varieties, including ambush attacks, races, hunting wildlife and searching for collectibles.

If anything bad can be said about it is that it is too short. However, it could have just seemed that way because it was so much fun.

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Uncharted 2: Among Thieves follows in the footsteps of Tomb Raider as much as the films Indiana Jones and National Treasure. Moreover, while he is by far a better action hero than Nicholas Cage, he even borders on being as badass as Harrison Ford in his heyday. Even in the midst of innumerable odds and great danger Drake is light hearted and resourceful.

Drake is a witty, intelligent treasure hunter with a knack for getting into, and out of, trouble. This time he is racing a ruthless Russian warlord with a private army and eye for world domination to find the Cintamani Stone. The stone resides in Shambhala, perhaps better known as Shangri-La, and is described as the “Buddhist Holy Grail,” granting its owner unmatched power.

The journey takes Drake from Turkey to Borneo to Tibet as he tracks down the location of the mythic kingdom by following clues hidden in archeology. The set pieces are dynamic and action packed. In one Drake is bounding between vehicles in a caravan while ducking and returning enemy fire, while another has him fighting on the rooftops of a speeding train.

Scripted events add excitement and surprise, like when a tank comes bursting through a wall while Drake is trying to escape a Tibetan town, or when the rail he just grabbed while climbing a railcar suspended over a cliff breaks way. An epic orchestra soundtrack adds to the tenseness of these moments.

Gameplay consists of cover-based shooting and tomb-raiding puzzles and platforming. Drake is often forced to improvise with the weapons of downed foes, but usually has an option to stealthily dispatch enemies before being detected.

Combat generally works well, although the cover system can be a bit rough when it does not snap to the surface you intended. Drake can only carry two weapons at a time, but this encourages experimentation.

Uncharted 2 is one of the most beautiful games ever made. Its detailed environments range from lush tropics, dark temples, forgotten ruins and icy caverns. Each setting is visually distinct from the ones preceding it, ensuring constant visual stimulation and a sense of progress.

Realistic lighting and shadows work to enliven the environment. The tone of the sun’s light is different depending on the setting, harsh in the tropics while soft and muted in the overcast mountains.

If the environments are gorgeous, the character models are even better. Many games suffer from a condition known as the “uncanny valley.” This hypothesis holds that there is a point when a robot or 3D rendering of a human looks so much like the real thing that the little differences, like waxy stares and robotic movements, elicit revulsion instead of compassion.

Some great games have found themselves dangerously close to this “uncanny valley” despite their dedication to realism. Mass Effect and Fallout 3 might be counted among those offenders.

But Uncharted 2 never comes close to the dreaded valley. Nuanced facial animations in cinematic cut scenes accurately convey emotion through subtle movements in muscles under the skin.

Combine that with some of the best voice acting in video game history and you have believable, empathetic characters.

So many games have characters who sound like they are reading their lines off cards; even many with big-name actors voicing characters. Nolan North, veteran voice for dozens of video game characters, does a great job injecting humor and personality into hero Nathan Drake.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is finely polished, well-tuned action adventure game with a story that can compete with anything Hollywood has to offer in the genre. The story does include from some clichés that often plague this genre—including double crosses, deathbed confessions and being forced to help your nemesis toward his goals–but does not suffer for it.

Even though Uncharted 2 includes a robust co-op and competitive multiplayer mode, the single-player experience is the star of the show and reason enough to purchase this game.

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There is a big hub bub on the net right now over the use of Kurt Cobain’s likeness as an unlockable character in Guitar Hero 5. This means Cobain can be the front man of your band while you perform the hits of Flava Flav and Bon Jovi.

While that may not initially seem like a big deal- gamers love unlockable characters- anyone familiar with Cobain’s work will get a creepy vibe upon watching this video of Cobain’s doppleganger in action.

Now compare that to some real footage of Cobain performing:

And now Cobain’s widow is threatening via Twitter to sue. Activision says she signed off on it. She says she thought his avatar would be on screen only during Nirvana tracks. He said, she said…. blah, blah, blah. Let the courts figure that out.

But Activision could have easily avoided this mini controversy if it took a little bit of time and evaluated how it utilizes the likenesses of rock icons in Guitar Hero. What they have been doing for years is simply paying for the rights for a familiar skin on their 3D models. Like many record companies, they viewed the rock artist as something that can be replicated for profits.

And they were right for a long time. But when they tried to copy the unmimicable anti-rockstar, Kurt Cobain, it blew up in their faces. Nirvana was a revolutionary band, and they forgot that. In many fans’ eyes, Cobain was more than a rock star, his music sparked a culture and way of life.

Oh, and then there’s the fact that Cobain’s suicide note states that the pressure of performing and pretending to have a good time when he wasn’t was a driving factor in his decision to take his own life. That’s OK, Activision says, We’ll just create a digital Cobain to replace you when you’re gone who won’t have those issues and we can all still get rich.

Nirvana’s entrance into the national spotlight sounded the death knell of hair bands and power ballads and introduced the world to a new genre: Alternative Rock. Bands with flamboyant stage shows, finger-blistering guitar solos and crates of hairspray in the trailer, bands like Bon Jovi and Van Halen, lost prominence as the teens began dressing in flannel shirts and baggy pants and listening to “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”

Cobain’s music was darker, moodier. It was the antithesis of the excess and corporate feel of every pop and pop-rock band from the 1980s. His songs were about conformity, apathy, societal contradictions, love and codependency. Cobain was very much against the macho man image, and even wrote songs like “In Bloom” that point out the irony of a “macho guy” listening to Nirvana because they were popular yet not understanding the meaning of their music.

“He’s the one
Who likes all our pretty songs
And he likes to sing along
And he likes to shoot his gun
But he knows not what it means
Knows not what it means
when I say”
-In Bloom

Guitar Hero, Activision and Neversoft exemplify the irony in that song. This is where that little pit in your stomach comes from when you see Cobain’s image belting out “Shot through the heart, and you’re too blame, baby you give love a bad name,” while an adoring crowd sings along.

The Beatles: Rock Band

The most interesting part of the whole situation is the timing. This comes out at the same time when Guitar Hero’s rival, Rock Band, released an entire rhythm game based on The Beatles to critical acclaim.

Harmonix understood that they would be taking liberties with one of the world’s most cherished bands and went to deep lengths to make sure they paid sufficient reverence to the band. They ensured that the game was more than a quick money grabber by focusing on the Beatles, their music and their message. Harmonix didn’t try to force the Beatles into a Rock Band game… they tried to adapt Rock Band to accommodate The Beatles.

Neversoft and Activision, on the other hand, obviously didn’t put that much care into incorporating Cobain into Guitar Hero 5. It appears as if the Cobain avatar is just running through the same pre-programmed motions as the rest of the avatars in the game. There’s no consideration of his mannerisms, philosophy or his art. It’s cut and paste. There’s no context, and that’s a disservice to Cobain.

In the game he jumps around on stage like he is having the time of his life. In reality the pressure of performing and being the spokesperson for Generation X was too much for him to handle. Sure, Cobain wanted to be a rock star, but felt guilty when he realized that the greenness of the grass was highly overrated and he wasn’t enjoying his success as much as he should.

From his suicide note:
“I haven’t felt the excitement of listening to as well as creating music along with reading and writing for too many years now. I feel guilty beyond words about these things.

For example, when we’re backstage and the lights go out and the manic roar of the crowds begin, it doesn’t affect me the way in which it did for Freddie Mercury, who seemed to love, relish in the love and adoration from the crowd which is something I totally admire and envy. The fact is, I can’t fool you, any one of you. It simply isn’t fair to you or me. The worst crime I can think of would be to rip people off by faking it and pretending as if I’m having 100% fun.

Sometimes I feel as if I should have a punch-in time clock before I walk out on stage. I’ve tried everything within my power to appreciate it (and I do, God, believe me I do, but it’s not enough). I appreciate the fact that I and we have affected and entertained a lot of people. It must be one of those narcissists who only appreciate things when they’re gone. I’m too sensitive. I need to be slightly numb in order to regain the enthusiasms I once had as a child.”

Maybe this cut & paste tactic could have flown in earlier releases. But as more bands sign up for Guitar Hero and Rock Band as a new format to release their music the medium is becoming a more than just a game. As The Beatles: Rock Band shows, it’s about exposing people to music and art. It’s about interactively listening to music and paying more attention to the subtleties in the song.

But hell, maybe for Guitar Hero it is still only about making a buck. I guess this is the twelfth release within the franchise in four years, if that tells you something.

Activision, how about taking a couple years off and releasing DLC for existing games and spending more time in between titles? Do some soul searching. Figure out exactly where you want Guitar Hero’s place in our culture to be. Or is the franchise is going to end up being the next: “Now That’s What I Call Music #61.” A money maker, for sure, but void of any cultural relevance.

While I’ve been pretty harsh on Activision and Guitar Hero, surely Courtney Love has plenty of blame to share for this fiasco. I’m sure Activision was acting on good faith. Ignorant, maybe. But they didn’t wish to cause harm. Love signed some sort of agreement in the first place then obviously detached herself from the creative process if it took this long for her to make a fuss.

Why didn’t she catch this earlier in development and air her greivences then? On that note, why didn’t any of Activision’s employees pick up on this?

Let’s let surviving Nirvana band members Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl have the final word on this subject:

We want people to know that we are dismayed and very disappointed in the way a facsimile of Kurt is used in the Guitar Hero game. The name and likeness of Kurt Cobain are the sole property of his estate – we have no control whatsoever in that area.

While we were aware of Kurt’s image being used with two Nirvana songs, we didn’t know players have the ability to unlock the character. This feature allows the character to be used with any kind of song the player wants. We urge Activision to do the right thing in “re-locking” Kurt’s character so that this won’t continue in the future.

It’s hard to watch an image of Kurt pantomiming other artists’ music alongside cartoon characters. Kurt Cobain wrote songs that hold a lot of meaning to people all over the world. We feel he deserves better.

-Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl

RIP Kurt.

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WET is evocative of the work of Quentin Tarantino, specifically Kill Bill. The story, penned by 24 writer Duppy Demitrius, is thick with stylized violence, adrenaline-pumping action sequences and over-the-top characters. It is presented like a drive in b-movie, with a grainy, vintage film overlay and 70s-inspired soundtrack perfectly in tune with the game’s tone. Retro movie advertisements for refreshments break up scenes, and death screens consists of film melting in a projector.

The name suggests fluidity, and Rubi certainly delivers. She is able to shoot in any direction while jumping, sliding or running on walls. These acrobatic moves can be strung together, and are necessary if you wish to survive because they slow down time and allow Rubi to shoot at two different enemies simultaneously. They also rack up points that can be spent to upgrade Rubi’s weapons and skills.

WET is an exciting, fun game. A car chase scene that has Rubi jumping from car to car on a freeway is as exhilarating as anything put out by Hollywood. A second scene that has Rubi freefalling amidst the debris of a plane while shooting at enemies and trying to get to a parachute is simply thrilling. Other action movie cliché’s, such as never needing to reload weapons, are intact as well.

For the first several hours it is nearly impossible to set the controller down. But at some point the signature action sequences become too chaotic and repetitive. Rubi’s moves are easy to master, but don’t offer much depth.

The developers must have noticed the repetitiveness and added “rage” scenes where Rubi goes beserk, the screen turns red and enemies appear as silhouettes. They break up the style a bit, but only aesthetically.

Occasional platforming sections that serve to demonstrate just how clunky and arbitrary the controls are, and break the game’s strived-for fluidity. Other recent third-person games–such as Prince of Persia and inFamous–do a better job of having a character fluidly moving about an environment.

WET is an exciting action title that doesn’t take itself to seriously. The slow motion, lead chucking action sequences against innumerable enemies are initially endearing, but the style and presentation are the showstoppers with this game.

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Phantom EFX CEO Aaron Schurman

Darkest of Days is the project Phantom EFX CEO Aaron Schurman wanted to make when he and a group of investors first started the company ten years ago. The concept was born after Schurman played through the early levels of Medal of Honor, where players reenact the D-Day invasion of Normandy. Despite the technical limitations of the time, the awe of experiencing a fragment of that historic battle in an interactive format was powerful, he said.

The idea of setting more games in history’s “darkest of days” with players facing overwhelming numbers was intriguing to Schurman, but the technology to make it possible was out of reach.

So the idea was put on the back burner and Iowa-based Phantom EFX decided to raise money other ways. It became a world leader in casino, card and slot games with its Reel Deal Casino and Reel Deal Slots series, selling around 600,000 PC games every year, Schurman said.

After building a successful business with these casual casino games, Schurman thought the base was strong enough to support the increased development costs of a more complex game. About three years ago, development on Darkest of Days began in earnest.

Making a game like Darkest of Days requires a sizeable investment and immense risk, Schurman said. And even if you can survive three years of development without seeing a profit, competing for shelf space as an independent publisher is another challenge. Large publishers that release multiple games a year have inroads with major retailers, who stock even their poor products so they have a chance to sell the popular ones too, Schurman said.

Even if you can get your game in the store, competing with the multimillion dollar marketing budgets of large publishers is another obstacle.

“There were times I was worried the game wouldn’t come out,” Schurman said.

As a privately owned company, Phantom EFX had a limited budget. Most first-person shooters cost $40 to $50 million to develop and market. Phantom EFX spent less than $10 million to develop Darkest of Days, Schurman said.

About half of the total production cost went to designing the game’s engine, Marmoset, which is capable of rendering hundreds of enemies on screen in vast, open environments, Schurman said. The technology was necessary to recreate the scope of battles Schurman wanted to have players experience.

The talent needed for a first-person shooter is different then that needed for casual games, so Phantom EFX created 8monnkey Labs to hire new producers and directors to work on Darkest of Days, Schurman said. Finding employees was one of the biggest challenges, Schurman said. Most of the talent is concentrated on the coasts. 8Monkey recruited about half of its team from these hotbeds, while the other half came from all over the Midwest, including Omaha, Schurman said.

“It’s hard to get someone from San Fransico, New York or L.A. to move out here, but once they do, they just love it,” Schurman said.

Many loved the laid back atmosphere and short commute times, he said.

Being located in the Midwest was a major help in reducing costs, Schurman said. The lower cost of business meant cheaper production costs relative to companies on the coast, he said.

Schurman is encouraged  by early interest in Darkest of Days. The game’s PC demo was downloaded 100,000 times in the first week, neck and neck with the critically acclaimed Batman: Arkham Asylum, Schurman said.

“If you do something unique and think outside the box as a developer, you can definitely be rewarded for it,” Schurman said.

Even Hollywood is interested in the premise of Darkest of Days. Schurman said he has been in contact with producers and screenwriters who see potential for Quantum Leap style television series.

There will be a future for the Darkest of Days franchise, Schurman said. The story for a sequel is already written, and develops further on the question of whether it is right or wrong to alter history, he said.

But one of the most rewarding aspects of completing Darkest of Days is the satisfaction that comes with doing the impossible. Naysayers told him it was impossible for a small studio to compete with the big boys like Activision and Electronic Arts, Schurman said. They said that the Xbox 360’s hardware wouldn’t allow hundreds of enemies at a time.

“We were told that this will not work, that we couldn’t have this many people running on screen,” Schurman said. “But with a small company and a small budget, we made it possible.”

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That is the question at the heart of Darkest of Days, a new game from Phantom EFX of Cedar Falls, Iowa. The game represents Phantom’s first entry in the first-person shooter genre and its first appearance on the Xbox 360.

In Darkest of Days you take the role of a soldier in General Custer’s last stand at the Battle of Little Bighorn. You suffer an arrow to the groinal region, but before you succumb to a scalping, a stranger in futuristic body armor appears out of a shimmering blue orb to rescue you. This is your recruitment. As it turns out, your transfer order to Custer’s army was lost and you are listed MIA, making you an ideal candidate as a temporal soldier.

So you are enlisted by a mysterious organization called KronoteK which has unlocked the secrets of time travel. The organization’s credo is that time travel must be used only for observation, and never to alter history.

But simply watching Stonehenge being built wouldn’t make a good game. No, we need some antagonists, provided via a second group of time travelers who are actively manipulating history to ensure the demise certain lineages. The identity of the second group is part of the game’s narrative twist, but you can figure it out if you think about it.

So certain people who were supposed to survive have suddenly found themselves on the front lines of some of history’s bloodiest battles, and you and your assault rifle have to ensure they survive to protect the timeline.

The game’s greatest hook is the possibility of bringing advanced weaponry back in time to unleash unprecedented destruction. It is undoubtedly fun to wield an assault rifle during the Civil War, although it never feels as if you get to use it enough. For a solid chunk of the game you use period weapons and that can be a drag when that means a single-shot black powder musket.

Every level takes place on a gigantic, outdoor map. There are no dark, metallic corridors in this game. These maps are recreations of historic battlefields. The ability to explore is hampered, however, by the inability to hop over wooden fences or climb steep hills.

Even though the game promises participation in various time periods, only four are represented and more than three quarters of the game takes place in either the Civil War or The Great War. WWII is represented only in a couple levels, and the finale amidst the exploding volcano at Pompeii is an excitingly fresh setting, yet woefully underutilized.

These historic locations provide a backdrop for new experiences to gaming and perhaps a more adult approach. Lining up with Union Soldiers in the battle for the cornfield at Antietam and staring down lines of Confederate muzzles is a visceral experience that captures the insanity of the fighting style. Likewise, being marched into a WWII prisoner camp in the rain with hundreds of other captured soldiers creates an emotionally charged atmosphere and a different approach in a genre saturated with WWII games.

Developer 8Monkey Labs developed a new physics engine dubbed Marmoset, which recreates the frantic pace of battles by rendering more enemies than any first-person shooter before. Hundreds of non-playable characters can be on screen at a time, each with its own AI. Modern weapons are needed at times just to even the odds.

Darkest of Days has an interesting premise with philosophical implications and a great hook. However, the implementation is not without problems and the technical necessities to render hundreds of enemies at a time means concessions are made in the graphics department.

Enemies largely look and act the same, and can be difficult to pick out against the background. The textures are dull. Enemy and ally AI can be confusing. During my play thru I encountered a hill where all the trees were floating three feet above the ground. More frantic moments are occasionally plagued by frame rate issues.

Segues between missions take place in a lifeless metallic room where you take orders from someone through a view screen. The pacing is not always frantic, and the slower parts can be tedious as you simply march from one objective to the next.

The major dysfunction to ease of playability is the map system. There is no mini map on the screen and pulling up the main map does not pause the game. The lack of a radar or mini map makes it even harder to identify nearby threats or navigate to the next objective.

Reloading weapons is also a chore, as a mini game determines whether your gun jams. The variety of weapons is also limited and you can only carry two at a time.

But for its faults, Darkest of Days never completely falls apart. It is rough around the edges, but everything that needs to work does work. It is a very bare-bones, raw experience. There is no multiplayer and no collectibles to search for. No flash or frills. The focus is on the delivery of frenzied battles and dedication to the theme.

If you judge a game based on graphics, frame rate and twitch shooting alone, you will not like Darkest of Days. But if you enjoy games that provide an immersive experience and makes you think, Darkest of Days will be a pleasant excursion from the run-of-the-mill shooter and might stay with you longer than you think.
Despite its flaws, Darkest of Days is a great accomplishment when you consider the odds stacked against the small Iowa publisher of casino PC games in this, their first console title. The premise is fresh in an industry too willing to copy competitors. The game represents a great first step for Phantom EFX, and the franchise has potential to be expanded and refined through sequels.

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The band’s original fans will get a kick out of seeing The Beatles perform in the Cavern Club or on the Ed Sullivan Show. Younger fans will love finally seeing Beatles songs released on the interactive Rock Band format. Parents can play with children to expose them to their favorite band, and children can play with parents to expose them to video games.

Even if the Rock Band guitar intimidates mom and dad, they know every word to every song and will not be shy about belting out “Can’t Buy Me Love.”

If you have never played Rock Band or Guitar Hero before, they are rhythm games where you try to match notes sliding down the screen by pressing the corresponding colored button on a guitar or drum shaped controller. They require attention, rhythm and finger dexterity.

Beatles fans who are not necessarily video game fans will relish in being able to pretend they are one of the Fab Four and picking up a microphone. Unlocking photographs and videos are the icing on the cake. The game is loaded with exclusive content, even the loading screens are filled with between-takes banter and jams captured in recording sessions at Abbey Road Studio Two.

Rock Band fans that are not necessarily Beatles fans may not be as enthusiastic about the game. Sadists will not find challenges beyond what is currently on the market, and 45 songs is half of what was included with Rock Band 2. Nevertheless, there is still find plenty to love. First, is the inclusion of three-part vocal harmonies providing a new challenge and allowing up to six people to play at once. Secondly, the visual style, cut scenes and general polish are amazing and unmatched in previous releases.

The development team watched a ton of reference footage and submerged itself in the Beatles and their history, said Josh Randall, creative director of The Beatles: Rock Band. Recreating four of the most famous faces in the world was a daunting task, and one that had to be performed perfectly to appease lofty fan expectation, he said.

The Beatles Rockband Intro from Stephane coedel on Vimeo.

Creating 3D representations of Paul, John, George and Ringo was one of the most challenging aspects of the game, Randall said. The team spent a lot of time trying to make them as evocative of the individuals they were based on as possible. But when early models looked a bit stale, Harmonix went back to the footage and discovered they were missing a critical element: joy.

The Beatles had joy pouring out of them every time they played, Randall said. Therefore, relatively late in the development cycle, Harmonix developed new technology to “turn up the joy filter” by making their eyes more expressive and increasing reactions to the camera and each other, he said.The team focused not only on their faces, but also on each Beatles’ mannerisms. From the way their mouths move when they sing, to the way their hair bounces and how wide they open their eyes, Randall said.

About once a month Randall and other members of the development team had a meeting with the shareholders: Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Olivia Harrison and Yoko Ono. Even Giles Martin, son of producer George Martin, was an instrumental collaborator. Their feedback helped drive the look and feel of the game, Randall said.

For example, Olivia Harrison invited some of the team members to her home to see private photos of George Harrison to help capture his essence in the game, he said. After watching game footage of the rooftop concert, Yoko Ono mentioned how it was a windy day. So Harmonix went back and simulated a brisk wind whipping the Beatles’ hair around to make the experience more realistic, he said.

Paul and Ringo’s help really came through in designing the Cavern Club set, as there were only a few black and white photographs and one old film to go off, Randall said. Much of the work in the game is based off their memories, he said.

“It was really incredible, to sit with those guys and hear their stories,” Randall said.

Early on they understood the game and how it could expose a whole new generation to their music, Randall said. They appreciated it as a new way for people to experience their work and as a challenge to be creative in a new medium, he said.

The Beatles were arguably the best songwriters in the history of Rock. Selecting songs to include in the game from such a deep library was a challenge in itself, Randall said. Primarily the team considered whether a song would be fun as a Rock Band track, he said. Secondly, they wanted to ensure the tracks covered the evolution of The Beatles’ sound and included favorites and deep cuts.

Story mode roughly follows The Beatles career, from the Cavern Club to the Ed Sullivan Show to Abbey Road Studios and the rooftop concert. Trippy dreamscapes accompany the music from the band’s studio years. These animations perfectly capture and modernize the visual style of The Beatles.

“If we were going to go psychedelic, we were going to go modern psychedelic with a riff off the stuff from the 60s,” Randall said.

Research consisted of watching and rewatching Yellow Submarine, he said.

“We wanted to capture the spirit and vibe of the music and come up with fantastic locations and abstract visuals that matched the feel of the songs,” Randall said.

The Beatles: Rock Band is not a game you can review alone. This is a party game, best experienced with two or more people. So we enlisted the help of Omaha-based Beatles tribute band Yesterday and Today to give us their impressions of the game.

Drummer Tomm Roland said it nearly perfectly simulates Ringo’s style.

“As far as what you’re playing, it’s on the record,” Roland said.

Even the details are perfect, he said. All of the drum fills in the game are programmed the way Ringo would do it left-handed, Roland said. In Ticket to Ride, there is a presumed mistake where the beat changes in the middle of the song, and even that is represented in the game, he said.

Matt McGuigan, bassist & vocalist for Yesterday & Today, said the bass lines were also well portrayed in the game.

“They have all the rhythms in there,” McGuigan said.

Ryan McGuigan and Matt McGuigan from Yesterday and Today.

More importantly, the game will have the same timeless quality that The Beatles’ music enjoys, McGuigan said. The Beatles’ have never spoiled, they continually find ways to be creative in hot new mediums and genres, he said. The visual aspect of the game just elevates the audio aspect to a new level, he said.

Working with The Beatles has bee a dream come true for the Harmonix team, Randall said.

“We spent a lot of nights here making sure we did right by these guys,” Randall said.

Being incorporated into Beatles history is flooring, he said. Paul McCartney has been so impressed with the project that he is using footage from the game in his concerts right now, he said.

If you are not satisfied with only 45 Beatles tracks, more will be available for download soon. In October, the remaining songs from Abbey Road will be released as downloadable content, followed by Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band and Rubber Soul in November and December. Depending on those sales, it’s a safe bet that more albums will be released in 2010.

Or if the simultaneous release of the game and The Beatles’ remastered albums has you reliving Beatlemania, check out Yesterday and Today at the Omaha Community Playhouse where they will be performing all of December.

Track List:

Cavern Club

• I Saw Her Standing There
• Twist and Shout
• Do You Want to Know a Secret
• Boys

Ed Sullivan Theater:

• I Want To Hold Your Hand
• Can’t Buy Me Love
• A Hard Day’s Night
• I Wanna Be Your Man

Shea Stadium:

• I Feel Fine
• I’m Looking Through You
• Eight Days a Week
• If I Needed Someone
• Ticket to Ride

Budokan:

• Drive My Car
• Day Tripper
• Paperback Writer
• Taxman
• And Your Bird Can Sing

Abbey Road Dreamscapes:

• Yellow Submarine
• Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band/With a Little Help from My Friends
• Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
• Getting Better
• Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows
• Good Morning
• I Am The Walrus
• Hello, Goodbye
• Hey Bulldog
• Back in the USSR
• Dear Prudence
• While My Guitar Gently Weeps
• Helter Skelter
• Revolution
• Birthday
• Octopus’s Garden
• Something
• Come Together
• Here Comes the Sun

Rooftop Concert

• Dig a Pony
• Get Back
• Don’t Let Me Down
• I’ve Got a Feeling
• I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
• I Me Mine

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