Alice: Madness Returns Review

The long awaited sequel to the dark twisted version of Alice in Wonderland -‘American McGee’s Alice’ was released in 2011, and Alice: Madness Returns was one that did not disappoint.  I was beyond excited when I found out that there was a sequel. Having first experienced the wonderful American McGee’s Alice on PC when I was at the tender age of 10 (And after I begged and pleaded with my Mother to buy it for me! I mean, Cheshire and Alice weren’t that bloody on the cover, were they?) I was hooked. The story, the environment, the characters, everything was so enthralling. And knowing that there was to be another game that showcased all of the sinfully demented inhabitants of this Wonderland was drool worthy.

The game follows Alice once again, who is now living in London. Alice is having horrible memories and deals with her broken mind as she tries to piece together her shattered memories of what happened that fateful night that led to her family’s demise, while also trying to stop the Infernal Train that is hell bent on destroying Alice’s Wonderland, and with that her mind and sanity.

One of the most positive features in the game is the fact that you can finally play as Alice outside of Wonderland. It allows the player to have a much better look into how Alice functions outside of her mind, and the effects her madness has had on the people around her and how others react to her with passing commentary by both parties, mostly ending with a witty and sharp comment by Alice. Cut scenes in this game where fun to watch, yet I wished some of them were longer, though the ones that were, were stunning in my eyes. The art style and voice over’s where such a nice addition to the game.

I thoroughly enjoyed the small sections where you walk around various locations in London; from the back alleys to the pub and wish the game had incorporated a lot more of those levels in to it. It really gives you a sense of closeness to Alice and allows you to see the real her, rather than her Wonderland vision of what she might wish to be or how she thinks she looks.  The attention and design on Alice was beautiful, and it was obvious they were aiming on making everything about Alice flow, but it just lacked and having Alice’s hair fly in and out of her face became annoying it cut scenes. In London, most of features on the towns people are highly exaggerated, one which I find humorous to the point where I have spent a shameless amount of time staring at them. An addition to the game is that on each new level, Alice’s dress will change to correspond to it. It is incredibly fun and interesting while allowing a much more atheistic appeal to the game than her normal blue dress. Of course, the dresses themselves have either positive (Dropping more teeth) or negative effects (Reduces health) that add a nice element and a new strategic approach to fighting enemies. Other than the dresses the game has a new feature that allows Alice to truly express her madness and it’s called – Hysteria. This allows the player – when low on health – to use the ability to deal out double the damage to enemies and leaving Alice free from being hurt while active.

Different areas of Alice’s Wonderland each express their own place in Alice’s damaged mind, whether it be the fine mechanics of the Mad Hatters Domain, the gorgeous watery sceneries of the Deluded Depth, or the twisted Dollhouse. Each level has there own real world connection to Alice, which has of course become corrupted like the rest of her mind. Twisting and contorting once nice inhabitants into fiends. If you enjoyed the characters in American McGee’s Alice, rejoice because they each make an appearance in this game!  McGee manages to incorporate and flawlessly transition beloved and well known characters from Lewis Carroll’s book into Madness returns with such ease, while also keeping their personalities while adding much more depth that Lewis left to be explored.  Cheshire cat is a favourite of mine in McGee’s version, but he seemed to lack the brilliant cryptic aura he had in the original game, a trait that seemed to be replaced with forced humour.

Weapons in this game come in many shapes and sizes, and give a new idea on how to use everyday objects. 

Alice has her choice of the Hobby horse, a heavy set melee weapon, the teapot cannon - a ranged weapon that shoots out hot balls of tea that can hit multiple targets when fired, the pepper grinder - a winded up ranged weapon that shoots peppercorn, the clockwork bob - an item that can be blown up or placed on objects, the Umbrella - acts as a shield while also deflecting ranged attacks, and of course, the one and only Vorpal Blade. The hobby horse, Vorpal Blade, Pepper Grinder and Teapot cannon can be upgraded in exchange for teeth, allowing a much more powerful attack rate while also changing the appearance of the weapons. Each weapon can be unlocked in certain areas of the game and help with overcoming obstacles. 

Alice also can see hidden pathways with her shrink sense.

A problem I had was it didn’t rely heavily on the story or plot. It focused a lot more on the levels and how you would get from point A to point B. I would have loved to have seen more cut scenes in certain areas like The Rutridge Asylum. That level had a lot of potential as it was one of the most memorable levels in the game that had close to an inch the incredibly creepy feeling that the original game had.  Madness Returns also had glitches that were unavoidable and downright annoying. Nobody likes to have a game lag while performing a jump over a deadly ledge. There were also other reported glitches on console versions, and a friend of mine sent her’s back because she found the graphics and how the game worked overall to be atrocious. Tread lightly

SUMMARY:

Be daring and take a fall down the rabbit hole, whether it is to save Wonderland or experience the game for your own. Make sure you’re prepared though! Almost everyone is mad there

RATE:

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

7/10

I would like to formally wish one of the most fantastic female characters a big Happy Birthday.

There has never been a female that has shaped, moulded, and changed gaming as we know it as much as Chun-Li has.

I owe her alot in how I view video games, how I view strength and power, and how I view myself.
I think we can all agree that the First Lady of Fighting Games has a legacy that will go on forever; with characters trying to replicate her but not succeeding even an inch of her prowess.

Happy birthday Chun-Li! Keeping kicking ass, baby!

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Solider: Official Inside Recon 2 - Technology

This brand spanking new trailer for Ghost Recon depicts the awesome technology that Ghost's will be able to use and abuse on their missions.

Can you say, ultra mega excited? This game looks amazing and the new technology really amps it up. I'm a big fan of Tactical shooters, though I admit I have become a bit bored of any kind a military based shooter after their presence due to the onslaught of them these last couple of years.

Hopefully Ghost Recon: Future Solider blows them out of the water!

JAWS: Revenge Review

Are you still too afraid to go back into the water? Well, never fear! Now you can get back in the water safely without having to worry about what’s lurking in the deep, because now you are the predator!

Jaws: The revenge was a huge stepping stone for me in overcoming my fear of Sharks. Yes, a little game was hard for me to download! I’ll admit to that embarrassing fact. Anything with sharks in it, anything with sharks on it, or if anyone is talking about Sharks, I freak out, cover my ears and shut my eyes. Sadly, I’m not exaggerating. Even typing the word Shark is giving me the heebie jeebies.

The basis of this game is that you assume the roles of the one and only apex predator of the deep – The Great White Shark; set out to eat as many humans, fish, helicopters, seagulls and basically anything else you can digest or munch on. Missions or Objectives are given to you before each level and you must complete them before a set buoy or else you will have an objective failure. Missions can range from ‘Eat x amount of Surface Swimmers before buoy 3’ to something that sounds simple, but can be a hassle like ‘Reach buoy 7’ Completing levels will unlock new locations for you to swim and terrorize at and also new victims. Each time you play a specific level, the environment will change, adding a change of pace to the game while making sure you don’t get to comfortable with them if you have to repeat.

Coins are earned and tallied after a completed level, in which case you can then use them to upgrade things in the store such as bite and skin, to unlocking new locations early. A very unfortunate ability for anyone near or in the water that you are able to initiate is the ‘Frenzy’ ability. Frenzy allows you to jump higher, reaching new heights where you can eat more point worthy victims, swimming faster, and also have limited amount of damage done to you; Of course, this ability lasts for a short period of time, though you can upgrade it in the store to last longer. The controls of J:TR are something that are both easy and frustrating at the same time. Pressing down anywhere on the screen will cause the shark to swim deeper, while letting go will make it jump, or go back up. Make sure you watch out, you could be accidentally jumping out of the water with no intent of doing so.

Something I enjoyed about this game was the graphics and sound effects. Swimmers, whether they be on the surface or underwater will react if they see you; screaming and swimming for their lives in a desperate attempt to flee as you gain on them. Being the gore fiend that I am, I also enjoyed the small amount of carnage that you can make and inflict by chomping away at people. Flying body parts, anyone?

SUMMARY:

Take a dive with this game and exact your revenge on beach goers, you will have a bloody good time doing so!

RATE:

♥♥♥♥♥♥

6/10

Saints Row: The Third Review

Can somebody overdose on purple? I’m being serious! Okay, ignore the fact I have purple coloured hair and it’s my favourite colour, but Saint’s Row: The third takes the cake and eats it along with some rainbow sprinkled ice cream when it comes to incorporating purple into the whole theme of the game. Now I’m a firm believer that too much of something is never a bad thing.

The overall tone of Saint’s Row: The Third is fun, humours and something that you shouldn’t take too seriously. The introduction based Star War’s parody made light of that fact. If you have never played a Saints Row game before, it is similar in alot of ways to Grand Theft Auto in terms of controls/gameplay and settings. Beginning with the first half of the game you are thrown into the action as the Saints try to rob a bank and steal the vault inside, but of course, not everything goes according to plan and the Saints are left to fight their way out. Sadly, there is no tutorial in the beginning to teach anyone not familiar with the controls how to shoot/move around/etc, thankfully though the controls are simple to grasp and easy to manoeuvre. Everything is too the point, you aim and shoot or you melee the crap out of someone. Always make sure to shoot your enemies quite a bit as they take a while to go down. Unless you get a head shot, then you’re all set on killing them. You will even receive a little compliment from your homies and that’s always a good thing.

A feature that this game has that was thoroughly enjoyable to spend a whole bunch of time on was the Character Creation! There are tons of varieties to choose from which makes each character unique no matter how many times you play. After you choose your character’s base (Or how I see it - The outfit they will wear) you can then change and alter the basics from – gender and race to their weight and age. Hairstyles, hair and eye colour have a few odd choices added in that would definitely make sure your character stood out from the crowd. You also have the choice to add ‘items’ to their face or even whole face paint. Anyone feel like walking around the city with a beat up and bloody face? No? How about a small trickle of blood on their mouths? No one wants to mess with a famous gangster, wanna be vampire! Scary stuff right there. Keeping up with the silliness, you even have the choice of customizing your character’s voice and their taunts and compliment. One of the voice choices available can even be a zombie voice! Oi, stop it SR, your cheating in earning my love for you! Taunts and compliments have a wide range of different of options, from the basic ‘fuck you!’ to pulling the sophisticated ‘Dumper’ they are all humorous and entertaining to watch. Whatever choice you make with your characters voice, it will have an impact on the dialogue and/or accent your character will speak and have during the game, adding a spark to each creation you make.

If you feel like taking a break from the Main Campaign, you can have a change of pace by playing the ‘Whored’ mode. Now be prepared, this mode is beyond sense at this point. Whored mode is about surviving and completing the many different Waves while killing every single kill that is set for that level. Some of the waves are ridiculous and good for a laugh. I mean where else can you kill or be killed by prostitutes and men dressed in BDSM attire with a huge purple dildo? Nowhere that’s where! Unless you know where to find that side of town, then cool.

Also, if you’re a Dead Rising fan, be prepared for a little homage to our dear Mr. Frank West!

The ‘Whored’ modes is a fantastic feature and add in to the game, I enjoyed it a lot and now spend most of the time on it trying to beat my own personal time.

Saints Row doesn’t have ground breaking realism or a WOW factor. It is a gorgeous game to look at, don’t get me wrong. I would say they are mediocre in terms of other recent games, which is okay, because the superb voice acting and script more than make for that boo boo. Each character is brought to life by their dedication and talents, making you feel more connected to your bros and broettes (Shaundi, how can I forget you?) A stellar cast and a few celebrity voices really complete the game. Though I felt some of the player’s character’s voice actors/actresses lacked in emotion or belief when paired against minor and major character’s voice actors. The music used in the game is phenomenal, it really adds to the environment. I have to say, I felt incredibly epic when Kayne West’s POWER came on while my character jumped out of a helicopter, swooping down into the Morningstar Pent House.; I purposely killed my character over and over again to replay it.  The world is large and expansive, offering free time to go run around, steal cars, shoot up random gang members or whatever takes your fancy. Missions can be accessed via your cell phone, as well as a handy GPS system to help guide your way around.  Another good thing about the cell phone is that you can call your homies to come help you if you are ever in a pickle, and even ring to have your car delivered to you, saving you time in hijacking some poor person’s car. Though that is always fun.

SUMMARY

Saint’s Row: The Third is a fantastic game with simple gameplay, in your face hilarious characters and a storyline that makes you want to take on the streets as the boss of the whole City.

RATE

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
8/10