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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From left, Zach Stewert, Travis Holtz, Tawny Ambriz, Juan Ayala, Jamel LeBranch and Chris Kuhn show off their killer poses.

Having to choose between participating in what may have been an occult ritual, and getting out of line to be the first to have a copy of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Max Sexson, 21, Andrew Bleich, 17, Spencer Sexson, 19 and Charles Vitols, 22, chose to stay in line.

They arrived with lawn chairs in tow to the GameStop at 168^th and Dodge streets at 6:00 p.m. Monday evening. Prepped with snacks, they were ready to wait six hours for the privilege of being among the first to get their hands on Infinity Ward’s sequel to its 2007 hit, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

Then this wild-haired woman approached them, Vitols said. She said she needed a group for a ritual to channel her dead husband, he said. She lit a candle and begun conjuring the spirits of the dead.

Nevertheless, as weird as it was, the foursome was not about to exit line for anything, even though they were the only people there at the time. They just silently watched as she poured her heart out and went on her way. What kind of game demands this sort of dedication?

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is one of the most anticipated games in history, and may be one of the largest entertainment launches as well. Michael Pachter, who analyzes the electronic entertainment industry for Wedbush Morgan Securities, predicted sales would reach $500 million this week.

That’s half a billion dollars! The Dark Knight made less than $240 million its first week in the box office. Make no jokes about it; video games are big business.

Attention to detail and multiplayer action are what separate the Call of Duty franchise from other first person shooters, Max Sexson said.

“Multiplayer just grabs a hold of you and keeps dragging you back in,” Sexson said. “You’ll throw your controller at the wall one day, and the next day you’ll pick it back up and hope it’s not broken.”

By midnight, the line at one of the two GameStops at 72^nd and Dodge streets had grown to at least 200 people.

Among those was Brad Smith, 23, said Modern Warfare has some of the best multiplayer gaming he has ever seen. He had been waiting in line since 9:00.

“Plus it’s kind of fun to make 13-year-olds feel bad about themselves,” Smith said.

Smith took the bus from his Dundee home to 72^nd and Dodge, knowing he would be left hanging for a ride home.

“There’s not a lot of things that’ll make me walk 24 blocks at midnight,” he said.

Tony Stover, 29, was

Like many popular video games, controversy has surrounded this franchise. The first game had scenes where the player assumed the point of view of a leader being executed in a coup. Another powerful moment was when the player saw through the eyes of a soldier slowly dying after being unable to escape a nuclear blast.

A leaked video of Modern Warfare 2 caused some minor outrage because it showed civilians being gunned down in an airport from a first person point of view.

Micah Conner, 21, defended the game he was waiting for, saying the sequence was designed to show the atrocities of terrorists, and it was taken out of context. Besides, the entire section can be skipped with no penalties, he said.

Citing research from the book “Grand Theft Childhood,” Conner said there is not a positive correlation between violence in real life and violence in video games.

“The game is rated Mature for a reason, don’t let your kid play it,” Conner said.

Chris Kuhn, 25, and Jamel LeBranch, 20, agreed.

“These games are actually made for adults,” Kuhn said. “I wouldn’t even want my kid in the same room while I’m playing.”

You cannot say that games are just for kids anymore, because there are plenty of games that kids cannot even buy, Kuhn said. It might even be right to call social services if you see a young kid playing a violent game like Modern Warfare 2, he said.

Juan Ayala, 25, said age does not matter; video games are for everyone.

“Me, I will not give up my controller for anything,” Ayala said.

Kuhn and LeBranch were looking forward to an extended night of playing “killing” each other in multiplayer.

“There’s nothing better than playing with friends and family,” LeBranch said.

The buzz about the game has been tremendous, Kuhn said. Waiting in line with dozens of equally psyched fans puts a face to potential online opponents. While waiting in line, he received several text messages from friends on the East Coast about how badass the game is, making the wait seem all the more worthwhile, he Kuhn said.

Kuhn was one of the few in the line who was not planning to skip work Wednesday, although he admitted he might take an extended lunch.

From left, Shaun Bergmann, Corey Conz and Nate Williams.

Video games as a medium is in its infancy and are just starting to infiltrate the mainstream, said Nick Jones, 27. Comparable to silent movies in the late 20^th Century. He predicted that by 2010s and 2020s video games would be just as big in the cultural conscious as movies are now.

“It took a while to take off, games are just now starting to infiltrate the mainstream,” Jones said.

A large majority of those in line for the game had already arranged to shed their responsibilities Tuesday. Tony Stover, 29, said he took the day off from his job as a financial assistant. Vitols said he had the next four days off from work, and Bleich said he was skipping school.

“I’ve got wrestling practice, but I might not even go to that,” Bleich said.

Here’s hoping his coach is not reading this.

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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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Wolfenstein 3D blazed the trail for id Software’s 1993 release of Doom, which took the gaming world by storm and cemented the genre’s place as a pillar of video game design. While the latest reimagining of the franchise is nowhere near as revolutionary as the original, it sticks close to the proven formula and delivers a fun, adrenaline-filled Nazi extermination experience.

Wolfenstein carries the franchise banner well. The player fills the shoes of OSA agent BJ Blazkowicz as he investigates Nazi occult research activity in the besieged town of Isenstadt during the height of World War II. But the first time you encounter an invisible blade-wielding Nazi assassin you will realize this is not your typical WWII shooter.

Along the way, he finds allies in the Kreisau Circle resistance movement and the secret Golden Dawn society as he battles Nazis in the streets and sewers of Isenstadt. The Kreisau Circle is fighting to liberate Isenstadt from Nazi control. The Nazis are investigating a mysterious energy called the Black Sun through occult archeological sites. The Golden Dawn is a secret society tasked with protecting humanity from the corrupting influence of the Black Sun. The story is uninspired, and the characters are forgettable. However, the marriage of Nazism and the occult provides a dramatic contrast to typical World War II shooters, which makes Wolfenstein, stand out in a saturated market.

Wolfenstein is not a strategic shooter, requiring the player to duck excessively behind cover and conserve ammunition, but is more in the “run and gun” school where you charge most enemies without much fear. There is also no need to search for health packs, as Blazkowicz regenerates health after taking cover for a moment.

Early in the game Blazkowicz attains a Thule medallion that grants him the ability to enter the “Veil.” The Veil is an overlay that casts the screen in a greenish tint that allows you to find hidden doors and ladders, and makes enemies, hazards and collectibles easier to see.

While in the Veil, Blazkowicz has access to super powers, including the ability to slow time, increased speed, a protective shield and increased attack power to the point where he can snipe enemies behind concrete walls. You initiate these powers with the directional pad, which seamlessly enhances combat.

Instead of a linear mission structure, the developers divided Isenstadt into three common areas from where the player can access the missions and even go back and replay missions to sniff out hidden items. The levels are still relatively linear, although the player has some choice in whether to tackle a Golden Dawn or Kreisau Circle mission first, or to take on a side mission.

Between levels, Blazkowicz has to shoot his way through the streets of Isenstadt to an allies’ safe house where he can accept another mission, or to the Black Market to purchase weapon upgrades. As you complete more missions, the enemies that populate Isenstadt become more advanced and aggressive, reminiscent of last year’s Prince of Persia.

A compass at the top of the screen that points to the next objective guides the player through the game. A map of the common area is accessible from the objectives menu, but it is impractical and of marginal utility because the path finding with the compass works so well.

Wolfenstein borrows heavily from some aspects of two-year old Bioshock. The story is somewhat narrated through collectibles dispersed throughout every level much like Bioshock. These pieces of “Intel” can communicate tactics on taking out Nazi defenses, unlock weapon upgrades or simply add flavor.

Additionally, Blazkowicz’s Veil powers are reminiscent of Bioshock’s genetic plasmid enhancements. However, where Bioshock waxed philosophical on economics and free will in a setting with personality, Wolfenstein simply tasks the player with killing Nazis in a drab, war-torn eastern European city.

Cut scenes are the other primary narrative device used in Wolfenstein. While the opening cinematic is jaw dropping, the quality of subsequent cut scenes never manages to top it.

Enhancing your favorite weapons at the black market is a necessity. Upgraded weapons are substantially more powerful than originals. In between headshots, Blazkowicz loots the occupied city for Nazi gold to trade to trade for upgrades. There is a limited amount of money in the game, and it is not enough to purchase every improvement, meaning players could have vastly different characters as they play through depending on their style and favorite weapon.

In addition to the single-player game, Wolfenstein offers a robust multiplayer mode. The multiplayer is class-based, meaning you will have to select between an engineer, medic or soldier, each adding to the team dynamic in a different way. Soldiers, of course, are combat specialists, while engineers handle explosives and medics can disperse first-aid pack to teammates.

Borrowing from the Call of Duty model, every action in multiplayer earns money, which you can spend on upgrading your weapons and abilities in multiplayer. While Call of Duty does not stand a chance at being knocked off its multiplayer throne by Wolfenstein, upgrading and tailoring your character is addicting while the extra dimension of Veil powers creates a distinct multiplayer experience.

The developers at id Software, Raven Software and Endrant Studios, who all collaborated on the project, successfully blended old-school shooter action with several more recent conventions in the genre to create a modern game that remembers its roots.

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