Unstoppable Gorg Review

The orbital playing fields of Unstoppable Gorg put an exciting spin on traditional tower defense.

The Good

• Wonderfully evokes the sci-fi films of the 1950s  
• Ability to manipulate orbital rings keeps you occupied throughout levels  
• Constantly introduces new satellites, enemies, and other challenges.

The Bad

• A bit short  
• Lack of multiplayer feels like a missed opportunity.

In the 1950s, alien-invasion paranoia reached a fever pitch. Films like the 1953 version of War of the Worlds and 1956's Earth vs. the Flying Saucers pitted humankind against seemingly unstoppable alien onslaughts. The new tower defense game Unstoppable Gorg transports you back to this golden age of alien-related anxiety, putting you in control of orbital defenses as UFO armadas and other extraterrestrial attackers attempt to wipe humanity from existence. Unstoppable Gorg is both an entertaining tribute to the alien-invasion movies of days gone by and an enjoyable tower defense game that requires you to think on your feet to survive.

Never trust a sultry seductress from another world.

Somewhere beyond Neptune, an exploratory satellite discovers Planet X, the home of an advanced alien civilization known as the Gorg. Humanity's overtures of goodwill are spurned by the evil Gorg, and the people of Earth are suddenly fighting for survival against an overwhelming alien attack. The black-and-white newsreel-style cutscenes that advance the story make effective use of a combination of archival footage and deliberately chintzy special effects; rocket ships are visibly borne aloft by strings, and the costume worn by the actor portraying King Gorg looks like something out of an Ed Wood film. But it's not just the Gorg you fight. As you advance through the story's 21 missions, humanity runs afoul of an alien seductress and her hideous brain riders, as well as a clunky robot and his mechanical minions. These adversaries perfectly capture the charms of the sci-fi films and television shows of the '50s, and the care and reverence with which the whole thing is constructed make the B-movie story worth seeing through to the end. 

Like so many tower defense games, Unstoppable Gorg is conceptually simple but challenging in practice. In each mission, your primary goal is to protect something--whether it's an asteroid mine, a luxury hotel hovering near the moon, or the Earth itself--from destructive alien forces. This central object is surrounded by orbital rings, and there are a few points on each of these rings on which you can place satellites. Different satellites serve different purposes. Some attack enemies with bullets, lasers, rockets, or other weaponry; some generate money that you can use to build more satellites; and some support your other satellites by shielding them, repairing them, improving their range, or bestowing other benefits. Before each battle, you can see the types of enemies you're about to face, and you have to decide which satellite types you want at your disposal and which to leave behind. 

This is all typical tower defense stuff; weighing your options before battle is an engaging tactical decision, but it doesn't set Unstoppable Gorg apart from the glut of other games in the genre. What does set Unstoppable Gorg apart is the way that you can manipulate the orbital rings during battle. As rows of sleek saucers, flying brains, or other assailants make their circuitous way to the level's center, you can grab orbital rings with your cursor and wheel them around, which allows you to track nearby enemies with your attack satellites or move your more vulnerable satellites out of danger. 

Of course, moving one satellite into a better position often moves another satellite on that same ring into a more dangerous one, and it's this on-the-fly evaluation and decision making that make fending off the alien attackers an engaging and suspenseful pursuit. There's a bit of trial and error involved in triumphing over your enemies; sometimes you may find that your satellite selection or placement just isn't up to the task, and the destruction of the Earth (or whatever you're protecting) sends you back to the drawing board. Unstoppable Gorg eases you into things, but even on the easy difficulty option, it eventually gets quite tough. Defeat can be frustrating, but you can learn from your failures and use that knowledge to formulate a new approach, and those defeats only make your eventual, hard-earned victory all the sweeter. 

In addition to introducing new satellite types and new enemies as you advance, Unstoppable Gorg's campaign frequently puts you in situations that change up the gameplay. You might have to worry about asteroids as well as enemies, and quickly swing satellites into position to take out rocks that are on a speedy collision course with the vital object at the level's center. Or you might be surrounded by so much space dust that your money-generating satellites can't harness the sun's energy and do their work, which forces you to make do with the credits you start with and what little you earn from destroying enemies. Or enemies may use their psychic powers to lock most of your orbits in place, severely limiting your ability to respond to dangers on the fly. This variety of situations means you never know quite what to expect from the next mission, which keeps the campaign fresh from beginning to end. 

That campaign doesn't last terribly long, with its 21 missions typically taking about six or seven minutes to complete. But you'll likely need to attempt many of those missions multiple times just to survive, and you may want to repeat some missions to complete optional goals, like earning research tokens which give you the ability to spend money to upgrade certain satellites on later missions. There's also Arcade mode in which you try to last as long as possible against increasingly more powerful waves of enemies. And unlockable challenges introduce new conditions to the campaign levels that make them more difficult, like faster enemies or a central habitat that can be destroyed with one hit. 

It's unfortunate that Unstoppable Gorg doesn't find a way to turn its exciting variation on tower defense gameplay into a competitive or cooperative multiplayer mode, but you get a reasonable amount of game for your $9.99. This endearing tribute to the future of the past is a rewarding game that challenges your wits and your reflexes. Despite the game's title, you can stop the Gorg; and although it isn't easy, it's certainly worth doing.

Read More

Dustforce Review

A tricky and technical 2D platformer, Dustforce delights the senses with its harmonious score and sweeping sense of momentum.

The Good

• Challenging platforming for all skill levels  
• Entrancing soundtrack  
• Tons of stages to unlock  
• Leaderboards let you watch others' replays.

The Bad

• Some features lack basic explanation  
• A few performance issues.

Dust and grime surround us. Every day, they collect atop coffee tables and in forgotten kitchen corners, but no more. In Dustforce, it's time to fight back. Filth falls before four acrobatic janitors--each equal parts ninja and handyman. Their world is built on speed and has you building momentum while sweeping away patches of leaves and battling waste-covered foes. It's up to you to determine how these chores piece together to earn the best score, and when you do, it's immensely satisfying.

Slip and slide your way through these two early stages from Dustforce.

There is a unique economy of movement in Dustforce that must be mastered to succeed. Running and jumping are simple. It's when you start zipping around in midair that things get tricky. For instance, most characters can either double jump or dash while in the air. That is, unless you defeat an enemy while airborne. Then you can either dash again or make a third jump. And once you touch the ground, the whole system resets. If this sounds confusing, don't worry; the game eases you into this system through a comprehensive tutorial stage and several basic early stages.

At the end of each stage, you're graded on completion, finesse (a blanket term that factors in your combo meter, whether you defeated all enemies and the like), and speed. If you perform well enough, you earn keys that unlock doors leading to more challenging stages. Each stage also has two unique leaderboards: one for overall score and another for time. However, the best feature is the replay support for each entry on the leaderboards. These can offer insight into surmounting the tougher stages. They also offer plenty of "That doesn't look so hard" moments and feed into the game's already addictive nature.

Compared to other 2D platformers, such as the masterful Super Meat Boy, Dustforce feels slower and heavier. This weight stems from the extra layers of complexity afforded by the game's movement and combat. For combat, each character has a light and heavy attack. By chaining light attacks together you can propel your character through the air while striking an enemy. Hitting a foe with a single, heavy attack is faster; however, this leaves behind a patch of filth for you to clean up. Everything--from cleaning to combat--feeds into your combo meter. Once full, this meter can be used to unleash a screen-clearing attack. Using these elements together makes the stages feel like puzzles. You're constantly experimenting with different combinations of dashing, attacking, and jumping to find the fastest route.

Dustforce is supported by outstanding audio and visual design. The music feels especially fitting: a calming, trancelike soundtrack that is akin to inMomentum and Mirror's Edge. The music has the added psychological effect of calming you down when you hit attempt 50 on the same level, and its subtle nature prevents it from becoming grating after listening to it for long stretches. The visuals are just as rich. Each of the game's four settings has its own style and is rendered using a soft, pastel color palette that complements the soothing tone set by the score.

This harmony is interrupted by a lack of explanation of some basic features. The two most striking examples of this have to do with the differences among the four playable characters and the game's multiplayer. Of the four playable characters, the blue character with the broom appears to be the most well-rounded one, while the purple character with the feather dusters is quicker but can't jump as high. This lack of information only serves as a detriment to the game and adds unnecessary confusion.

The multiplayer mode is even more baffling. This local-only mode supports up to four players in a king-of-the-hill type of match. This is not explained, and when you first load it up, chances are you won't know what to do. Thus far, the game has taught you to clean up everything in sight as quickly as you can. In this mode, some players play as the four cleaners, while the others play as their messy counterparts: spreading dust, leaves, and the like across the map. Therefore, your first instinct is to clean and fight until one side dominates the screen (which is almost impossible). Gradually, it becomes obvious that cleaning and fighting are not the focus of this multiplayer mode--and unless you have a keen eye, chances are you won't know what to do next.

There are a handful of other, smaller issues that drag Dustforce down from greatness. On one computer, the game performed without issue, while on another similar setup, it suffered major performance dips when traversing the overworld and would infrequently crash on specific stages. There is also a mysterious video tab in the options menu that has been left completely blank. Being able to perform the basic functions of resizing the game or playing in a window would be a welcome addition. While these issues do reveal some rough edges, the game proper is left largely unaffected. Sliding through the world of Dustforce is a fun, free-flowing experience, and it's easy to get hooked on it.

Read More

Anno 2070 Review

The sci-fi city building of Anno 2070 is a fresh take on a familiar genre. Expect to get hooked, and stay hooked.

The Good

• Involving mix of city building, resource management, and mission completion  
• Metagame adds persistence in clever ways  
• Great visuals and soundtrack give the game a cool sci-fi style  
• Pollution control and underwater islands invigorate the formula.

The Bad

• Online copy protection makes for occasional technical trouble  
• Some interface quirks and other foibles can lead to confusion for beginners.

With Anno 2070, a well-regarded series of strategic city builders goes rushing headlong into the future. No longer do you produce spices and dates, or ivory and jade. Such notions seem almost quaint in Anno 2070, where fancy health drinks and microchips are in high demand, and submarines scan for anomalies near underwater islands. The game's appealing futuristic vibe is apparent from the main menu screen, where you view the rotating Earth as if through a satellite feed, scan lines and static occasionally disrupting your view. But the joy goes far beyond the superficial. Anno 2070 is a detailed and daunting game that lures you in with its attractive trappings, and then hooks you with its interwoven social and economic structures. Sandbox urban planning and structured missions are combined effortlessly. It's a one-two punch of game addictiveness: "Slowly expand and improve my growing civilization" and "I'll do just one more quest before I turn in." 

That addictiveness is further heightened by Anno 2070's persistent nature, in which a metagame of sorts keeps the rewards coming the more you play. Your main structure is the ark--a floating base from which your helpful AI companion intones advice and updates. You can upgrade the ark with various modules you earn, research, and purchase over time. Modules have a variety of effects: increase transport ships' cargo space, enable offshore windmills, and so forth, and once you find them, you get to keep them. Another metagame feature: when you log in to the game, you and other players might get an opportunity to vote for the faction leader of your choice, in an effort to reap the potential rewards he or she might offer. Note the "log in" part, however. To begin playing--and obviously, to participate in online features like voting--you must be connected to the Internet. You can continue playing a single-player game should you lose your connection, though that could cause you to lose your persistent ark upgrades. 

The need to be online to start playing isn't ideal on those uncommon but annoying occasions when Ubisoft's servers shut you out. Whether or not you see the online persistence as a clever "gamification" of the Anno series or a veiled method of justifying stringent digital rights management, however, there's no denying that the city builder underneath is fun and rewarding even without all the metagame embellishments. You begin with your ark, a modest cargo ship, some currency, and the basic necessities for founding your first city. From your little harbor grows a metropolis, new buildings becoming available to you as you meet your population's evolving needs. They might want only fish and tea at first, but give them time, and they'll be whining for communication centers and fancy pasta dishes. And delivering the goods means exploiting the map, setting up trade routes, and sometimes even fending off the rivals who stand in your way. 

It seems simple at first: place structures to get a supply of basic building materials flowing into your warehouses, keep everything connected with roads, and so forth. But before long, your list of considerations grows, and you must make crucial decisions on how to expand, what to purchase, and how to transfer the flow of goods. In Anno 2070, you don't need to manually set up transport routes between warehouses; once a resource makes its way into a warehouse, it's available in every warehouse on that island. Don't take that to mean this game feels dumbed down as a result. Once you expand to multiple islands, or even encounter other arks--whether they are controlled by the AI or by other players in online games--you can and should set up automated trade routes using any available vessels. If you're producing a superfluous amount of fish but constantly running low on tea, trading with others or redistributing these items across multiple islands can keep your income flowing. 

Speaking of tea, your citizens drink a lot of it, though eventually, their tastes become more refined. But watch out: they might demand health food, which means you must grow both rice and vegetables. And thus you might have a problem on your hands, since the soil may not support those veggies. Or coffee. Or another supply you need. Solving such problems gets your creative juices flowing, for without that health food, you can't attract the next level of citizen. And without those citizens, you aren't getting cooler structures to play with, and your little empire grinds to a premature halt. 

Not that everyone likes health food, though the game's Eco faction sure wolfs it down. The Tycoons, other playable faction, aren't so environmentally conscious, preferring champagne to biodrinks. There's an interesting dynamic here representing a very modern conflict: environmentalism versus industry. Depending on your own views, you might see the Ecos as green warriors or voodoo climatologists, but either way, Anno 2070 embraces the relationship between population, food supply, and pollution. The Tycoons aren't as concerned with protecting the ecology as are the Ecos, but both factions must monitor rising levels of environmental contamination, and each possesses a structure to purify the air. But these structures--like those that produce power--must be spaced out properly to maximize their effectiveness. 

There's a third faction too: the Techs. The Techs aren't a fully playable faction but more of a supplemental one; allying with them unlocks key buildings like oil refineries and algae farms. And so an involving game becomes even more intriguing, because these structures must be constructed not above the sea, but underneath it. Taking your first submarine and plunging into the depths for the first time in a scenario is always a joy. Marine life glides past, and muffled gurgles give each dive an otherworldly aura. In addition to keeping goods from underwater bases flowing to mainland warehouses, you must also then manage the citizens of two factions at once, each with particular needs. It isn't just the sea that's deep--it's the entire game. 

So it's involved, certainly, but is Anno 2070 fun? The answer is an emphatic yes, and not just due to the engrossing nature of the genre. Like in most such games, progress might be slow, though you can mitigate any lulls with the fast-forward key. But protracted downtime isn't that common thanks to occasional quests assigned to you. Missions involve rescuing stranded citizens, making special deliveries, and so forth, and the majority of them have a time limit. You'd do best to accomplish such tasks: not only might you earn a spiffy reward, but failure to achieve them could mean damaging your relationship with other ark captains. Not that Anno 2070's diplomacy system is particularly deep, but if you want to avoid war, you should try staying in everyone's good graces. 

War may still come, though Anno 2070 is not a traditional real-time strategy game. You don't build elaborate armies, but rather create some air and naval units and click your way to triumph. Of course, even without big piles of intimidating war machines, this is a complex game, and newcomers need time to accustom themselves. The story campaign is a good place to start, because it gradually introduces new concepts and focuses on specific tasks until you're ready to manage your miniature empire on your own. Even then, learning Anno 2070 is not an effortless task. You may be asked to build a particular mine, but the structure won't appear on the build menu. As it turns out, it's organized as a substructure of another building, though the campaign might not spell out this information. Finding a certain building on an increasingly congested island can also be a chore when you desperately wish to manage a supply chain. Nevertheless, given the complexity of the game, interacting with Anno 2070 isn't overly bothersome, and once you get used to the way the build menu is organized, you may grow to appreciate how so many structures can be built with so few clicks. 

Even genre veterans should take a peek at the story campaign, if only to immerse themselves in Anno 2070's futuristic atmosphere. After all, nothing says "science fiction" more than a rogue AI out to destroy its former masters. The tale's a bit campy--as is some of the voice acting--but the campiness provides welcome levity in a politically conscious game. Other production elements are decidedly more serious. Anno's synthesized warbles and orchestral riffs are alternately serene and stimulating, evoking thoughts of hi-tech expansion and computer-automated lifestyles. The fantastic visuals tie everything together; Eco cities lend an art deco sheen to the natural beauty of their surroundings, and the Tycoon areas darken that beauty with factories and distilleries. 

The sci-fi ambience is a big part of Anno 2070's allure, and it goes a long way toward making the game feel fresh and surprising. An even bigger part of the allure is that Anno 2070 is what you make of it. If you want to chill out with some breezy city building without undue pressure, the easy difficulty setting is an inviting option. Once you get a number of ark upgrades, the hardest setting keeps your mental gears whirring and your clicking finger busy. No matter what your speed, Anno 2070 is addictive in the best way, by combining three brands of compelling design into one: intricate urban planning, time-sensitive questing, and persistent rewards for continued play. And that trifecta will keep you coming back for more.

Read More

Star Wars: The Old Republic Review

Star Wars: The Old Republic isn't the next step in online role-playing games. Instead, it's a highly entertaining refinement of what has come before it.

The Good

• Outstanding production values capture the vibe of the Star Wars universe  
• Companions add depth both to the story and to the gameplay  
• Combat is exciting to watch and hear  
• Eight fully voiced, branching stories give you a good reason to reach level 50  
• Crew skills keep things moving by automating gathering and selling.

The Bad

• Instancing can make open areas feel empty  
• Frequent, uninspired corridor levels  
• Shallow space combat is a missed opportunity.

As the opening crawl of each film reminds us, the spacefaring Star Wars tales we know and love don't occur in the far-flung future but, rather, in the distant past. It's appropriate, then, that Star Wars: The Old Republic does not represent the future of online role-playing games but a refinement of what has preceded it. Instead of opening a wormhole into an unknown dimension, BioWare has remained in the local galaxy, taking proven game mechanics and heightening them with the branching narrative and overall structure that have characterized the developer's output for many a year now. The result is an enjoyable massively multiplayer online game with knockout production values. The Old Republic's foundation is somewhat ordinary; what makes it great are the fine details that gild its edges. 

Many of those details should be familiar to anyone that's played a BioWare game in recent years, such as Mass Effect or Dragon Age II. However, The Old Republic owes less to past BioWare successes (including the related single-player role-playing game, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic) than it does to the MMOGs that have come before. In fact, the license and a few other elements aside, the first hours of the game might have you thinking: "I've already played this game." You select from a number of humanoid races, none of which seems particularly unusual, given the breadth of unusual creatures to be found in Star Wars lore. You then choose a faction (Sith Empire or Galactic Republic) and one of eight classes (and after the starting area, an advanced class). 

The familiarity continues as you make your way through your class's opening area. You take some missions and kill some creatures using the game's straightforward hotkey combat system, all while a bunch of other people do the same thing. Where Star Wars: The Old Republic tries to stand out in this early stage is with its fully voiced character interactions. Other MMOGs have featured plenty of voice acting (EverQuest II, for example), but not to this extent. In The Old Republic, your interactions play out much as they do in BioWare's single-player games: in oft-lengthy cutscenes in which you respond to others using a dialogue wheel. The three options for even the most minor of conversations are of the usual "kind," "neutral," and "mean" classifications.

Of course, such a description isn't exact, but it's the general gist--at least, as far as standard interactions are concerned. In many cases, these decisions are all smoke and mirrors: a way of playing your chosen moral role but ultimately leading to the same conclusion. Other times (far fewer times), you face decisions that have impact, and the "good" decision might bring you closer to the light side of the Force, while the "mean" might align you with the dark side. A previous ally has been exposed as a traitor; do you kill her or allow her to live? If you show mercy, you earn light side points, which affects your moral alignment. But if you sink your lightsaber into her flesh, you earn dark side points. Your light side/dark side level determines access to certain gear. When you reach a certain tier, you might then use a weapon previously unavailable to you. 

The downside to this morality system is that there's little mechanical benefit to staying neutral. If you stay morally ambiguous, your rewards are fewer and less diverse. You may find yourself choosing the light or dark option for the sake of that blaster you want, rather than following the code of your convictions. Yet, your choices don't just have practical implications; there are narrative ones as well. Some are relatively minor. That traitorous ally? If you kill her, your vengeance will be noted in conversation at a later date. If you overlook her transgressions, she might send you gifts to show her gratitude. Some have more dramatic repercussions. A Sith lord gone rogue needs to be put in line. You might send him a warning by killing his son or spare the offspring and kill his duplicitous dad. The implications aren't always major in the broad scheme of things. Even so, they make you feel as if you have power over your own adventure, though not over the world you inhabit.

How involved you feel with the plot depends in part on what class you choose. The Jedi knight tale is plain enough that some long conversations feel more like filler than necessary plot or character development. The terrorist conspiracy driving the Imperial agent story, on the other hand, is far more complex and compelling. Even then, some of the writing falls flat, with much of it coming across as what an author might write on a page, but not what a living being would say. But all of that voice acting goes a long way toward making the characters come alive onscreen. Almost all of it is high quality, with the actors making even the most stilted dialogue brim with character. Even the shortest line readings, such as your companions' battlefield quips, are loaded with personality. 

Ah, yes--companions. You've seen this structure in BioWare games already: You amass a crew on your spaceship, which functions as a central hub, and then take one into the fray when you reach planetside. But companions are more than combat pets, though they are certainly effective in that role. They also figure into the story, which makes you far more invested in whomever you summon to your side than you would expect. In fact, your teammates enrich almost every aspect of your virtual life in one manner or another. Equipping new gear is a treat in any RPG; maintaining your crew's equipment, as well as your own, enhances the joys of progression. Combat is better, too. Because you get to know your companions outside of battle, it's like having a real individual at your side rather than a disposable henchman. You can even send your crew members off on gathering missions, have them craft equipment for you, and sell your vendor trash. These conveniences keep the pace moving. BioWare clearly thinks your time is better spent swinging sabers and firing blasters--not mining crystals and scavenging for droid parts. You can still do these things, but they aren't likely to occupy much of your time. 

Of course, this is an online game, so AI companions aren't the only individuals you have at your side. When playing with others, you participate in conversations as a group, earning a currency called social points as a reward for consistent responses. You need to be with guildmates or other players to conquer heroic quests, which might require a full party of four. Heroic areas offer a nice difficulty curve. You could steamroll through earlier ones, only to find your party must make good use of crowd-control skills and heals later on. You can also join others for four-person dungeons called flashpoints, which give you a chance to exercise the power of choice as a group. Do you overload power conduits, distracting enemy forces but risking innocent lives? Or do you disable them and keep losses to a minimum? Either way, flashpoints are a lot of fun, and they too offer a wonderful difficulty curve. Early skirmishes might be easy enough to handle. Facing a boss that leaps about the room while turrets pelt you with lasers is a greater challenge. It's also an enjoyable one, particularly if you've got a good tank to absorb all of that turret fire. Prefer something a little more epic? Then you should enjoy the eight-man and 16-man dungeons called Operations. 

Of course, you might be seeking conflict with other players, though The Old Republic is not the richest online game in this regard. Consensual player-versus-player conflicts come down to the usual one-on-one duels and the three PVP maps currently in rotation. The most unusual of these is Huttball, in which each team attempts to score by passing the ball from player to player until someone runs it across the opposing team's goal. All this time, you run about, bashing and shooting each other in an effort to maim and kill, which can get pleasantly hectic. All three maps require teamwork, but if you prefer one map to another, that's too bad because you can't queue up for the match type you prefer. There's no matchmaking either: Player levels are all evened out, so you face high-level players long before you reach their skill levels. But don't let this dissuade you from playing these maps; it's all beautiful madness, characterized by the flashes of lightsabers and frantic key tapping.  

MMOG veterans should note that Star Wars: The Old Republic isn't a sandbox in the way of Star Wars Galaxies; it's a more guided experience, featuring planets that feel more like large levels than vast continents waiting to be explored. The sense of linearity is most notable on planets like Coruscant and Nar Shaddaa, where you trot down corridor after corridor. To be fair, the sights of shiny towering structures in the distance and skyways busy with rushing vehicles convey the sense of a grand world beyond your understanding. Even planets that offer more breathing room, like Balmorra, funnel you down valleys and force you to kill time waiting for elevators. (And waiting for elevators is something you do far too often in The Old Republic.)

Open planets like Alderaan and Tatooine are refreshing treats because they feel more like lands of untold mysteries than big collections of hallways. The downside to the vaster areas is that they can feel remarkably empty. Even on the most heavily populated servers, it's possible to go for extended periods without seeing another player. Each planet might also be split into multiple instances, which thins out the population and exacerbates the loneliness. Fortunately, if you aren't with friends and want to jump into a heroic area, a call out for help in the general chat is all it takes to have a comrade at your side. 

Alone or with others, combat is snazzy enough for you to remain entertained. Short ability cooldowns and the absence of an auto-attack get your fingers busy, while spirited animations and stirring sound effects make combat a pleasure. Not that the action is mechanically unusual: it boils down to the traditional hotkey presses/hotbar clicks that have long characterized the genre. But it remains consistently exciting once your hotbars fill up with a variety of skills. The vivid glow of lightsabers flashes across the screen, Jedi knights leap about like robed acrobats, and combat droids fire bright lasers as they swoop and whir around you. 

In fact, Star Wars: The Old Republic deserves kudos for its excellent sound design. That is due in part to the evocative audio associated with the franchise; after all, the drone of a lightsaber is immediately recognizable. There are other iconic audio cues, too, such as the exhausted whine of a forcefield as it powers down. But The Old Republic does more than rely on the old standbys: it elevates them. The thwap of a bounty hunter firing his pistol and the electric buzz of lightning flowing from a sorcerer's fingertips are but a few of the many superb examples of effects that heighten the action. Even the hums of lightsabers retain their edge. The various attacks vary in musical pitch, and they are broken up by other sounds, like the violent crunch of the sentinel's pommel strike. The soundtrack follows suit, mixing new tracks with old and reimagined music from various Star Wars films and games. Tatooine's ambient soundtrack will have you recalling Luke's wistful gaze toward the twin suns. The tranquil tones that purr throughout Alderaan's grasslands aren't so familiar, but they are no less impressive for it. 

The visuals join the audio to make for a striking presentation that captures the Star Wars universe. That doesn't mean that The Old Republic sets new standards for graphics engines. Facial features are flat, hair looks more like glued-on plastic than actual hair, and textures are plain. So don't come to the game looking to show off the capabilities of your fancy new video card. But The Old Republic was built to look good on as many computers as possible--even those that aren't state of the art. 

And it does look good. The Galactic Senate on Coruscant looks stolid and imposing behind the soft blue lights that rise into the nearby sky. On Nar Shaddaa, you glimpse neon silhouettes of exotic dancers on the taxi ride to the red light sector, which is a great visual element that betrays the seediness of the neighborhood. The diverse locations look uniformly attractive, from the rolling sands of Tatooine to the craggy mountains of Balmorra. Attention to visual details goes a long way toward making these feel like lived-in places. Quest givers don't just stand around: they crouch behind boulders, bandage an injured soldier's arm, and bend over computer terminals. Enemies tinker with speeders and lean against walls as if relaxing for a spell. How disappointing that other details common to online RPGs, such as weather effects and a day/night cycle, didn't make the cut. 

The Star Wars-iness of the production carries over into The Old Republic's space battles. You access space missions from your ship's console, though these aren't massive PVP space battles or even cooperative missions for a small party. Instead, they are solo minigames: shallow affairs in which you don't get full control of your ship. Like in the Star Fox series, such battles are on rails; the game guides your ship through the levels, and you shoot lasers and missiles at fighters and turrets. Space missions are a good way to earn extra experience and credits, and the bright explosions and enthusiastic voice-overs make for some simple fun--at first. But the battles are so easy--and there are so few of them--that they lose their appeal. Considering what the previous Star Wars MMOG accomplished in regards to space combat (albeit, not at launch), this element is a missed opportunity. 

The disappointment of space combat, like most of Star Wars: The Old Republic's minor disappointments, is one of scope and originality, as opposed to its level of refinement. 2011's Rift proved once and for all that there is no reason a modern MMOG shouldn't be able to launch in a stable, feature-complete state. The Old Republic follows Rift's lead: It's lag free and delivers a smooth playing experience. It isn't free of the occasional bug or annoyance, however. Galactic market (read: auction house) sort options don't work as they should. A group of sand people may not behave properly or a quest may not complete as intended. You also can't customize the interface: Hotbars can't be moved around and macros aren't yet supported. But rarely does a technological or mechanical failure interfere with progress. There's always something to do, and it almost always works as intended. And most importantly, it's usually fun. 

And ultimately, that's what Star Wars: The Old Republic delivers to make it so compelling: a lot of fun. Don't come to it seeking the next online revolution. In fact, when you heard that the developers of Mass Effect were making an MMOG, this is the one you probably predicted: a prototypical online game with the standard BioWare trappings layered on top of them. The surprises are few, but The Old Republic is nonetheless an online RPG of uncommon quality. And with a broad, overarching story to guide you through, you might even reach maximum level with a smile on your face, even if you are one to abandon an MMOG before that point. Such is the power of a beloved universe with so many tales still left to tell.

Read More

Fractal: Make Blooms Not War Review

A flashy presentation and satisfying chaining mechanics make Fractal an addictive puzzler.

The Good

• Elegant soundtrack  
• Fast-paced chaining system  
• Cool aesthetic  
• Arcade and puzzle modes mix up the core gameplay.

The Bad

• Short campaign  
• Some emphasis on luck.

Fractal: Make Blooms Not War is a straightforward puzzle game in which you group like-colored hexagons together in order to clear each level. A high degree of complexity makes it challenging, however, and a fun chaining system adds an addictive thrill. Evocative music boosts the excitement, resulting in a stimulating puzzler that's rewarding despite a few faults.

Fractal's objectives may be simple, but mastering the game's mechanics should prove tough. You're given a board full of colored hexes that you manipulate on a grid. You move a block by clicking on the empty space near it, which spawns a new block that pushes the line forward. Forming large hexagons out of seven like-colored blocks triggers a bloom, which dissipates in a fancy flash of light that awards you points. Your goal is to meet the stage's point requirement before you run out of pushes. This may sound easy, but the game soon bolsters the difficulty by tossing new variables at you, such as adding a wider variety of colors or walls that block your maneuvers.To combat these impediments, Fractal offers a variety of power-ups that add layers of depth to the hex-exterminating fun. A strike from a lightning block clears all same-colored hexes in a pinch, racking up a plethora of points or saving you from imminent doom, depending on when you activate it. Another item extends your limited push meter, giving you a chance to drive your score ever higher. These abilities and restrictions keep you on your toes, and the game introduces color-changing blocks and severe push limits as you progress.

Although Fractal's stages quickly ratchet up the difficulty, a fun chaining system mitigates the challenge by boosting your score. You chain by triggering multiple blooms simultaneously, which garners even more points if you include power-ups in the blooms. It takes some skill to carefully plan out a chain, and performing a cluster--triggering a bloom that shares blocks with another bloom--adds significant points to your total. Chaining also enhances the excitement by flashing a bevy of light particles and words of approval, like "smoking" or "dastardly," across the screen. These displays match Fractal's minimalist look, pairing well with its vivid hexagons and pretty pastel backdrops that feature geometric graffiti. The background music adds a final modern touch by responding to your actions. It slows to subtle drum beats and cymbals when you're having trouble, but bursts into violins when you're chaining, which intensifies the moment.

The campaign mode is the game's main highlight, though additional modes offer new tasks and strategies. An exhilarating arcade mode allows you unlimited pushes but severely restricts the clock, forcing you to trigger blooms from blocks containing time slots. This intense survival mode implements three difficulty options to remain just as tough as the campaign mode, so it requires strategy as well as speed. If you need to slow down, however, the puzzle mode offers tactical brainteasers for those who prefer more relaxed play. This mode challenges you to complete an objective, such as "trigger five blooms," within a set number of pushes. Completing the puzzle mode is no easy task. Most of its objectives require a thorough understanding of the game's nuances, and they often implement other factors, like strange grid shapes, to keep you thinking. This mode also operates as a handy tutorial, helping you master advanced blooming techniques.

Fractal's challenging gameplay is alluring, but some of that difficulty comes from the sheer luck of the draw, rather than than a true test of skill. There are only 30 stages in the Campaign mode, but the rapidly advancing difficulty prevents you from breezing through them. It's very difficult to predict chains past two or three blooms, which makes it even harder to foresee how their results affect the board. This means that while mastering Fractal takes a good deal of skill, your best scores will likely stem from guesswork, which can get frustrating in later levels. Fortunately, the game's addictive nature makes up for it by pushing you to give a stage "just one more try."

Fractal: Make Blooms Not War is a refreshing puzzler. Its cool aesthetic and subtle complexities intrigue you, while the thrill of chaining massive blooms in a dazzling array of light keeps you coming back for more. The result is a satisfying puzzler despite its occasional emphasis on luck. Though the campaign mode is somewhat short, Fractal grips you from start to finish.

Read More

FlatOut 3: Chaos & Destruction Review

The Good

• Intense, high-speed demolition racing  
• Numerous play modes  
• Large selection of crazy vehicles to unlock.   

The Bad

• Steep difficulty and aggressive AI hampers early races  
• Main racing mode gets off to a rough start  
• Cars are too easily sent out of control during collision. 

Larger races breed chaos and pileups.

There's something infinitely satisfying about causing a 15-car pileup at 80mph that produces fiery explosions, sends twisted scrap metal rocketing in all directions, and flings drivers through the air like rag dolls. The FlatOut series has never been much for realism and instead has favored physics-heavy vehicular carnage at high speeds. And that's exactly what you find in FlatOut 3: Chaos & Destruction--only it's amped up to the third degree. True to its name, this arcade-style demolition racer is over the top in every way. Slamming into rival cars and smashing through the scenery en route to the finish line is packed with adrenaline-pumping thrills, yet all the chaotic fun unravels when it starts to get in the way of achieving the staunch precision that's needed to win races and progress. 

Without any kind of campaign or story to speak of, FlatOut 3's main racing mode seems the most obvious choice for diving into the gameplay. What's mind boggling is it's the least accessible place to start. Here, you're meant to work your way through small groupings of tracks, unlocking new courses and cars as you progress from one location to the next. It's all very straightforward. But the meager selection of cars available from the get-go is wildly unbalanced, and none of them are a good fit for the surprisingly demanding first few courses available. You're either able to steer well but are prone to exploding at the slightest touch or built like a tank but about as maneuverable as an aircraft carrier.

Tuning up the cars doesn't help much either. There's nothing in between "flimsy toy car" and "clunky tank" at first, and it makes muscling through the early stretches of the main racing mode an exercise in sheer aggravation. It can take an awfully long period of teeth-clenching frustration to make it through the first small track only to discover you have to start over because you didn't rank in first place out of the 15 psychotic drivers. After spending time in the game's other play modes--which range in difficulty from being equally unforgiving to downright easy--unlocking new vehicles with better handling makes returning to the main game a lot more reasonable, but that's not the end of FlatOut 3's woes.

A big issue is the large number of racers on the track at a given time and their asinine level of aggressiveness. FlatOut 3's demolition aspect is great fun when you're in the mood to smash things up. It's not so hot when you're trying to win a race. Even the better rides have a floaty feel to them, and the slightest bump from a nearby car at any speed can send you spinning out of control or flying end over end into the scenery. If you don't explode outright and get forced to restart the course, recovery is still slow enough that it botches your chances of getting back into the race most of the time. On their least-aggressive setting, AI opponents seem more interested in slamming into you or one another than actually racing. On their highest setting, it's nearly impossible to stay on the road. This produces spectacular wipeouts and ridiculous pileups that are awesome to watch unfold but are frustrating because they tend to ruin the race.

The tracks are nicely varied, elaborately designed, and beautifully depicted at times, yet they too seem custom crafted for maximum frustration. You can plow through explosive barrels, debris, fences, and many other obstacles with destructive ease, but tiny saplings will stop you like a brick wall. Some courses throw other impassible hazards at you as well, placing them in the worst, most unavoidable spots to spur maximum vehicular annihilation. Adding that to the questionable driving skills and apparent road rage of your opponents yields a combination that makes it tough to enjoy the fast-paced racing action because you spend more time stuck on the scenery or upside down on fire than burning rubber the normal way. The unavoidable, constant crashing and restarting gets old quick. 

If you dial back the number of racers to a more manageable number, trim down the number of laps, and adjust the aggressiveness to a lighter setting, FlatOut 3 becomes more playable. Beyond the main racing gameplay, there are numerous other modes to explore, though they vary in quality. Some options, like a linear Challenge mode, a tougher night-racing mode featuring limited visibility and inclement weather, and a fun-but-short series of open off-road maps, aren't that entertaining beyond the first few tries. Other modes, like new monster truck courses and the returning Stuntman mode that has you smashing your car to rag doll your driver through the air at a target, have more staying power. And when you can find a match, playing multiplayer against other folks online in arena battles and demolition derbies is a great way to blow off steam.

FlatOut 3's attention to destructive detail is commendable, but it overshadows the racing aspect to the point that it threatens to derail the gameplay altogether. Loose and explosive wins out over tight and controlled throughout many facets of the game design, and the chaos it creates doesn't always make for an enjoyable experience. It's not that the game doesn't have nuggets of fun hidden in its debris-strewn tracks; you just have to work way too hard to find them.

Read More

Trine 2 Review

Trine 2 is a charming fantasy platformer with dazzling good looks and fun physics puzzles.

The Good

• Gorgeous visuals  
• Fun, open-ended physics puzzles  
• Smooth, accessible platforming  
• Fun co-op, online and off. 

The Bad

• Unremarkable story. 

 With the wholesome appeal of a fairy tale, Trine 2 is unapologetically packed with comfortable tropes. Like the first game, it stars a trio of classic fantasy heroes: a merry knight, a sly thief, and a nervy wizard. Their adventure bustles them through ye olde tale of rescue the princess--via enchanted forest and murky cavern, wherein they thrash goblins and giant spiders. But out of that conventional premise, the game conjures a gorgeous and gratifying platform puzzler. 

Trine 2's environments could have been lifted off the screen of a latter-day Fantasia or from the pages of a particularly lovely storybook. Deep, richly detailed levels pop with lively, luminous color. The forest is home to luscious glowing foliage and glistening colossal snails. Gloomier levels house oversized spiders, animated with skin-crawling authenticity. One level, taking in sunset on a tropical beach, is stop-and-stare beautiful.

Each hero has a simple, distinct set of powers. The knight has a sword and shield for fighting, as well as a warhammer for smashing obstacles; the thief has a grappling hook, along with a bow and arrow; and the wizard can levitate items and summon boxes or planks from thin air. In single-player mode, only one hero appears onscreen, but you can instantly flip between them to access the powers demanded by the task at hand.

The wizard's conjuring powers make him the best suited for solving a puzzle on your own. Though the basic platforming is smooth and accessible, with combat that is brisk and straightforward, the heart of the action is physics-based puzzling. At its simplest, this means constructing a ramp from crates, while more complex challenges have you reroute steam jets by hovering segments of pipe into place. In others, you channel water onto the roots of plants that shoot up, magic beanstalk-like, to create leafy new platforms on which to hop. New elements such as movable portals, waterwheels, and lava streams come thick and fast, in addition to memorable one-offs, such as a house-sized frog that lassoes giant fruit with its tongue

Though many of the puzzles suggest single, efficient solutions right off the bat, some of the best fun is to be had experimenting with the physics and looking for less-obvious solutions. Trine 2's physics engine is robust and fine tuned, and noodling about with it is engrossing in its own right. The game is generously rigged to allow for the guilty pleasure of fudging a solution when the elegant answer is out of reach; teetering structures of magic planks can be used to bypass clever gate mechanisms altogether or the same planks can be jammed gracelessly into the gears.

Trine 2 prefers to keep you moving briskly along to holding you up with a real brainteaser. There's even an optional hint system that kicks in after a few minutes of head scratching. It amounts to a friendly game but not an overly easy one; there are much trickier secrets to be found and collectable experience orbs in hard-to-reach spots, with the latter feeding into a simple set of talent trees. For instance, as you level up, the thief can upgrade to fire or ice arrows, the knight can upgrade to a charging shield bash, and the wizard can learn to materialize more boxes at once.

In local multiplayer, or in the online multiplayer that's new to this sequel, your two co-op companions play the other two characters. This lets you combine powers rather than flit between them, although hero swapping on the fly is also permitted. Combining powers opens up new avenues of sandbox tinkering; the wizard can float other party members on a conjured plank platform or hang a goblin harmlessly in midair for the thief to skewer with arrows. For maximum sandbox tomfoolery, there's also an unlimited mode, in which any combination of hero characters is allowed. 

The storybook-style narration is genteel, and the heroes are amiably voiced. The music is rousing, too. Here, as with story and setting, Trine 2 cleaves comfortably to the genre, with all of the cheery piping of a high-class Renaissance fair. If you bypass secrets and ignore experience orbs, you can breeze through a single-player campaign in six hours or so. Although Trine 2 wouldn't outstay its welcome at twice that length, it's no raw deal, given the modest pricing ($15 or £12). This Trine follow-up is a more complete, refined work than its predecessor, and those who didn't catch the original are in for a real treat.

Read More

L.A. Noire: The Complete Edition Review

L.A. Noire's absorbing investigations and intoxicating sense of style make it an unforgettable journey through the seamy side of the City of Angels.

The Good

• Authentic and outstanding 1940's style and atmosphere  
• Solid performances and good use of motion capture  
• Compelling investigation and interrogation mechanics  
• Memorable noir story  
• Some great shoot-outs and action sequences that make use of real LA locations.

The Bad

• Early investigations are very limited  
• Disconnection between cases leads to jarring moments  
• Some restrictions during pursuits and shoot-outs feel artificial. 

What awaits Cole Phelps at the next crime scene? Will it be a couple of hopheads who overdosed on morphine and are now on the midnight train to nowhere? Or maybe a young lady whose dreams of Hollywood stardom were chewed up and spit out by the studios and who now lies naked in a park, the victim of a brutal murder? L.A. Noire confronts you with these sad situations and many more. Inspired by film noir classics and hardboiled crime fiction, this tale of a complicated and troubled cop in postwar Los Angeles makes the business of detective work absorbing and rewarding, and it's drenched in so much authentic late-'40s style that you'll practically be able to smell the acrid mix of glamour and corruption in the air. This PC release comes complete with the five cases that were released as downloadable content on consoles, making it the best version of L.A. Noire you can buy. 

The City of Angels is one of the stars of L.A. Noire, and it gets the red-carpet treatment here. The game re-creates a vast swath of the city circa 1947; though it's by no means accurate down to the tiniest detail, those who know Los Angeles will appreciate the tremendous amount of research that clearly went into designing this version of it. (You expect to see the historic Egyptian Theatre in its proper place on Hollywood Boulevard, for instance, but seeing the Pig 'N Whistle right next to it, which has been there since 1927, is impressive.) Your journey takes you from filthy flophouses and hobo camps to elegant mansions and the sleek, modern offices of a company that's shaping the development of postwar Los Angeles. The architecture, which includes cookie-cutter housing developments that are springing up in droves to capitalize on the return of soldiers from the war, as well as jazz clubs where cops and gangsters alike relax after night falls, is authentic and makes this Los Angeles an absorbing and immersive place.

And it's not just these big things that the game gets right. As a detective, your work investigating crime scenes is often about the smallest details, and the richness of these details in L.A. Noire makes rummaging around grisly crime scenes and perusing the personal effects of victims a compelling process. The homes of murder victims feel lived in as a result of pictures on the walls, notes pinned on refrigerators, and clothing tossed on the floor and forgotten. Pick up an official document while rummaging through some files and you'll see that it looks genuine right down to the fine print. This attention to detail makes the often unsavory business of being a detective deeply absorbing. On top of this, the period fashions, actual automobiles, and music of the era--along with a score that evokes the style of some of the great composers of film noir--weave an intoxicating spell that's sure to stir the heart of anyone with a fondness for 1940's style. The art direction that pervades every aspect of L.A. Noire is simply outstanding, and it's a huge part of what makes this game such a memorable experience. And if you want the game to look more like Out of the Past than Chinatown, there's an option to play in crystal-clear black and white. 

 

But all that attention to detail wouldn't amount to much if it weren't in the service of a game that was worthy of it. Thankfully, L.A. Noire is worthy. You play as Cole Phelps, a young veteran of World War II who enlists in the L.A.P.D. in 1947. Phelps is played by Aaron Staton, best known for his role on Mad Men, and thanks to L.A. Noire's use of an impressive motion capture technology, his performance goes far beyond voice acting. Phelps' face is Staton's face, and while motion scanning doesn't quite capture all the soul of an actor's performance, it nonetheless allows for a great deal of the subtlety of that performance to come through. It may take a bit of adjustment, seeing almost-but-not-quite-real faces on these characters, and there's sometimes a bit of a blurriness around the lips that can be distracting. But for the most part, it's very effective, allowing for rich and nuanced performances that seem to fully inhabit the world of the game. And this isn't just for show. The story of L.A. Noire hits harder because its characters look and sound so believable. Phelps' commanding officer Captain Donnelly has a passion for swift, merciless justice and a preacher's gift for oratory, while the weathered face of Herschel Biggs, one of many partners you have throughout the game, speaks volumes about his years on the force. The performances have a concrete impact on gameplay, too. When you're interrogating a suspect or questioning a witness, it's the facial expressions of a real person that you're reading when determining what approach to take.

You start out playing Phelps as a newly recruited uniformed officer. When a call comes in over the radio that a few homicide detectives need some assistance, you make your way to the crime scene and get your first crack at investigation. While investigating, you move Phelps around the environment and look for clues. Of course, not everything in any given location is going to be relevant to your investigation, and at first, the process can feel a bit silly. You might pick up empty beer bottles, hairbrushes, rolling pins, and other meaningless stuff, making Phelps move them around in his hand as if they might conceal vast significance while he mutters to himself (and to you) that these particular items have no bearing on the case. But as you progress, you develop a sharper eye for what things in an environment might be relevant. By default, the game indicates that you're near something you can examine with chimes (and controller vibration, if you're using a gamepad), but with this option turned on, investigations often boil down to just walking Phelps over every inch of an area, waiting for those indicators to go off. Turning these off makes investigation far more involving and encourages you to carefully study the environment looking for anything that might give you insight into the case. You still know when you've found everything important in a given location because the investigation music fades out, though if you like, you can also turn this indicator off.

Phelps goes above and beyond the call of duty to close this first case himself, but it's not out of a selfless wish to protect and serve. He has a cold ambition to rise up the ranks in the department, and it's not long before his drive pays off politically. This determination also isolates him from his fellow cops and makes him a bit hard to root for initially, but this only makes him a better noir protagonist. He's a deeply flawed hero, and as the game progresses, you learn more about the experiences that turned him into the man he is today, and he develops in some fascinating ways as the narrative approaches its powerful conclusion. It takes quite a while for the story to build up steam, but the excitement of the later chapters makes the more deliberate pace of what came before well worth it. And you don't need to be a fan of film noir and hardboiled crime fiction to appreciate this tale, but if you are, you may take particular pleasure in the inspiration L.A. Noire takes from many terrific sources. (James Ellroy's bloody epic L.A. Confidential is a particularly clear influence.) 

As Phelps makes a name for himself in the department, he's called upon to start heading investigations himself, and that means questioning witnesses and interrogating suspects. During interrogations, you select something to question the witness or suspect about from a list in your notebook. (This is partly why thorough investigation of a crime scene is important; if you miss an important clue, you won't be able to ask people about it, which may prevent you from getting vital information.) Once the person responds to your question, you have three choices. If you believe the person is being honest and forthright with you, you can select Truth, which results in Phelps responding positively to the witness or suspect and coaxing more information out of him or her. If you think a person is being less than entirely honest, you can select Doubt, which often translates into "press the witness or suspect harder," and if your instincts are correct, this generally results in the suspect giving up something useful. But if your instincts are wrong and the person was cooperating, this approach results in him or her reacting negatively, which gives you nothing. Finally, if you think the person is lying to you and you have a piece of evidence that proves it, you can select Lie. In this case, you have to back up what you're saying with evidence. For instance, if you ask a suspect what shoe size he wears and he tells you he wears a size 9, you can use the size 8 work boots you found in his home to prove that he's lying. 

In the early cases, the game holds your hand through these processes, and as a result, they can feel narrow and artificial. For instance, at one point, you need to get a confession from a suspect. If you botch the interrogation, the suspect will dismiss you, at which point your commanding officer will tell you to get back in there and get a confession out of the suspect, starting the whole thing over. It's also typically very obvious early on when a suspect or witness is not being entirely honest, as he or she makes an exaggerated show of looking nervous or shifty eyed. But once the training wheels come off, the process gets a lot more interesting. It becomes entirely possible to miss vital clues at crime scenes or fail to get important information from a witness and to progress through a case, and suspects behave more naturally, which makes them tougher to read. 

When you're stumped about the right approach to take, you can spend a point of intuition, which bears unmistakable similarities to the lifelines on the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Intuition can be used either to remove one of the incorrect approaches--eliminating Lie, for instance, and leaving you to choose between Truth and Doubt--or to see what approach other players took at that particular moment in the interrogation. Intuition can also be used to highlight the location of every important piece of evidence while investigating a crime scene. You don't earn intuition points very quickly so they must be spent sparingly, and they serve as a bit of help without taking all the detective work out of your hands. There's only one save file that the game updates automatically, so you can't just restart when an interrogation goes badly, but this is for the best. It's far more interesting to just rely on your instincts and finish the case to see how things play out, at which point you can restart the case and try for a better outcome if you like. Cases can definitely take some very different turns depending on your actions, which makes replaying them worthwhile. In one case, for instance, you might end up shooting a potentially innocent man and earning the scorn of Captain Donnelly, or you might put away a social menace, at which point Donnelly takes you and your partner out for a celebratory drink. 

Regardless of whom you put away, you may come away from some cases with the troubling feeling that you didn't get the right man. That may sound unsatisfying, and in a way it is, but it's a good kind of unsatisfying. Noir isn't about tidy resolutions and happy endings. It's often about the cases where the truth is elusive--the cases that keep cops up at night. And L.A. Noire rewards your patience. A story strand left unresolved in one case may come up again a few cases later, and something you thought would be left unclear may finally come into focus. Less satisfying is the way that the resolution of one story case doesn't have any bearing on the next. For instance, even if you completely botch the aforementioned case and Donnelly rains fire and brimstone down on you and your partner, the next case begins with him showering you with praise. L.A. Noire has an overarching story to tell, and it's a good one, but the inelegant way in which it keeps that story on track can be jarring. 

L.A. still had streetcars in 1947, but it was a city quickly becoming dominated by the automobile, and that's the only way to travel in L.A. Noire. Thankfully, driving is fun. Whether you steer them with a gamepad or the keyboard, cars are responsive and swift, which is particularly important during the game's many car chases. Still, it's not so enjoyable that you'll always relish the thought of driving from one end of the game's large map to the other; thankfully, you can usually opt to have your partner drive, which functions as a fast-travel option for getting to your selected destination. The cars are also nicely detailed, and you can admire any vehicle you've driven in the game's vehicle showroom. 

The gunplay is very easy to pick up. You can hide behind cover, and pop out to squeeze off shots. Aim assist options are available, and if you're playing with a gamepad, you may want them on, but the precision afforded by mouse control makes them unnecessary. The shooting itself feels fine, but it's the context and the atmosphere that make some firefights stand out. A pursuit through catacombs, a gunfight in a historic movie theater, and the tumultuous climactic shoot-out are just a few of the moments throughout L.A. Noire that have a cinematic sense of place and style. Although the objectives often describe your goal as subduing suspects, once the bullets start flying, the only way out for the criminals is in the coroner's wagon. Shooting suspects in the legs a few times proves to be as fatal as popping them in the head once. The grim brand of justice that Phelps doles out in these situations is certainly in keeping with the game's somber tone, but it's disappointing that you can't try to keep these criminals alive so that they can face a trial. 

Not everyone you pursue ends up dead, though. You regularly find yourself pursuing suspects on foot, and these chases don't always end with someone headed to the morgue. Pursuing suspects is easy. You just try to keep Phelps headed straight for his target; he handles all the climbing over fences and leaping between rooftops automatically. In some cases, you have the option of trying to bring the suspect to a halt by firing a warning shot. To do this, you must keep your reticle fixed on the fleeing suspect for a few seconds as a meter fills up. But strangely, there are many chases in which you're not given this option. (When you can attempt it, you'll know because Phelps will have his gun in his hand.) It's clear that the game doesn't want you to stop suspects before you've experienced the thrilling chase through a crumbling movie set that awaits you or whatever else it may have in store, but this restriction nonetheless feels artificial and limiting. 

Gunfights, foot chases, car chases, and the occasional simple brawl don't just spring up during cases. They're also a regular part of the street crimes that are reported over the radio, which you can choose to respond to or ignore. There are 40 street crimes in all, spread across each of the desks that Cole occupies--traffic, homicide and so on. They're typically brief; you report to the scene of the crime and a car chase, shoot-out, or other action sequence ensues. These aren't as interesting as the action sequences that occur during cases, where you have a deeper personal investment in the action and the stakes are higher. But they make this Los Angeles feel more alive and troubled, and they're a good way to earn experience, which scores you intuition points and occasionally a spiffy new suit. 

For all of its attention to detail, L.A. Noire hits the occasional false note. For instance, the way people you pass on the street constantly comment loudly to nobody in particular about having seen you in the papers or indicate that you could use a bath is awkward, and it sticks out like a sore thumb in a world that tries so hard to be believable. But this is a minor nitpick with a game that gets under your skin the way few games do. L.A. Noire's length can vary significantly, depending on how many street crimes you respond to and how much of your own driving you do, but in any case, the 26 story cases (up from 21 in the original console release) make for a complete and satisfying experience. You come into contact with the seamy side of the movie industry and with major players in the gambling racket; you meet working stiffs and powerful businessmen; you encounter low-ranking mob thugs and Mickey Cohen, one of the most powerful gangsters in Los Angeles at the time. L.A. Noire is a unique game with a terrific sense of period atmosphere, absorbing investigation mechanics, and a haunting tale with plenty of moments that would be right at home in a classic film noir. Those smoky nights spent listening to jazz at the Blue Room, and the price you paid for them, will stay with you long after you've retired your badge and gun.

Read More

The Sims 3: Pets Review

Horses and controllable cats and dogs give The Sims 3: Pets a good deal of heart.

The Good

• Extensive customization options for cats, dogs, and horses  
• Horses can enter races or contests for profit  
• New town with new facilities  
• Pets are fully controllable  
• Allows for many low-maintenance pets.

The Bad

• Pets have a limited impact on the world around them  
• Expansion likely to appeal more to existing players than newcomers. 
•  

The ownership of pets, we're often told, is one of the secrets to a long life, and that's a secret that Electronic Arts has taken full advantage of in extending the life span of each of its Sims games for the last 11 years. The Sims 3: Pets marks the third pet-based expansion for the franchise, and like the others, it makes its appearance just as the parent title shows signs of losing momentum after the release of multiple expansions. While The Sims 3: Pets doesn't change much of the core gameplay aside from extending many of the properties of human sims to their animal companions, its wealth of customization options and its welcome focus on horses make this expansion a treat for any animal lover. 

While the console version takes place in a cramped suburban community and requires enduring loading screens every time you want to move behind the immediate cluster of houses, its PC counterpart centers on the spacious expanses of the Appaloosa Plains. It's a nice place to hang around, particularly if you're in the mood to try out the horse content. Not only are there a decent number of ranch-style country homes available to move into, but facilities specifically aimed at improving the lives of your equine friends dot the landscape. Horses can learn how to jump at the equestrian training grounds, for instance, and they can match their skills in racing and jumping against other horses at the equestrian center. 

Unsurprisingly, dogs and cats make up a lot of the pet-related content beyond horses, although you can also own low-maintenance pets such as chinchillas, birds, fish, and snakes. Players seeking an overdose of cuteness might balk at the realization that you can't create puppies and kittens--that's an option exclusive to console players--but you can use the extensive customization options to create almost any type of pet imaginable, provided it's at least somewhat based on pets that real people would have in their homes. More than 100 core breeds are available for cats and dogs alone, for instance, and you can customize these according to fur length, traits, and the color and texture of their coats. Later on, if you're of a mind to breed your pets, the physical attributes you chose at the create-a-pet screen sometimes appear in their offspring.

Pets also have skills such as digging and hunting, but they're more grounded in reality than the oddball pet careers that featured prominently in The Sims 2: Pets. That's not to say that they can't bring in money. Dogs, for instance, can occasionally dig up valuable chunks of meteorite worth several thousand simoleans. Meanwhile, cats can exercise their predatory skills on rodents and beetles and even the occasional low-maintenance pet. Best of all, dogs, cats, and horses are all individually controllable, which means that you can focus a lot of your attention on the pets at the expense of your human sims if you're so inclined. This goes a long way toward filling the waiting periods that occur when the pets' owners are at work. 

But nothing distinguishes the PC version from its console counterparts quite like the inclusion of horses. Not only can you customize horses with an array of options approaching those allowed for cats and dogs, but you can also train them to run in races or take part in jumping competitions. And since your human sim can learn how to ride as well, it's possible for horse and rider to train together and start raking in masses of simoleans that would have been unheard of in previous expansions. You don't even have to wait to take advantage of this system since The Sims 3: Pets lets you adopt a horse much as you would a dog or a cat. If you don't mind waiting, however, you can also search for stray horses in the wild (not to mention unicorns), many of which reward you with certain skills already prepared. The only drawback is that they take a bit longer to train.

If rewards are what you're after, though, you might be better served by breeding your beloved cats, dogs, or horses and selling them for a profit. Skills play heavily into their worth, so your sims need to teach them how to hunt or race effectively if you expect to benefit from your experiments in genetics. But you shouldn't expect the operation to turn into a digital puppy mill. Pets require a lot of love and attention to their wishes, and horses in particular require specialty chores, such as hoof maintenance and stall cleanup. It's hard work, but it's worth it. If you fulfill enough of your horse's wishes, you gain access to a special lifetime reward that increases the chances of wild animals visiting your home. 

Beyond that, The Sims 3: Pets does an excellent job of making the pets feel like pets. The animations are masterful, and they provide enough spirit that you could watch a cat hunt or play with his toys for minutes at a time. In addition, pets can grow old and die, which inevitably throws your sims into fits of grief once they discover the tragedy. And most of the time, you won't even have to worry about technical issues marring the presentation. Over a month has passed since the game's initial release, and EA has taken the time to clean up virtually all of the few glitches that appeared at launch. 

The Sims 3: Pets is a worthy addition to the franchise's contemporary generation, and it walks a comfortable middle line between the wacky pet careers of The Sims 2: Pets and the disappointing animals found in The Sims: Unleashed. Here, almost everything works as it should, and the pets themselves add a dose of realism that probably should have shipped with the first game in 2009. But it's important to understand that this expansion is primarily aimed at enhancing the experience of your existing sims. Much as with the console versions, the impact the pets have on the world at large is negligible. Take the time to get to know them, however, and you'll find yourself in one of the better expansions for the game. Pets enrich our daily lives, so it's only fitting that they should enrich the lives of our sims as well.

Read More