Transformers: The War for Cybertron

From what I understand, the overall story of the videogame differs from the canon of the Transformers origin story. As a fan of both Star Trek and Star Warsfranchises, I've run into many canonical issues time and time again (how does one explain Star Tours anyway?), so I can understand the frustration of Transformer purists out there. But if you decide to pass this game up because you can't get over the fact that Megatron turns into a tank instead of a gun, you're doing yourself a disservice -- War for Cybertron really is a lot of fun to play.

Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4

Lego Harry Potter is difficult. It's simultaneously the best and the buggiest Lego console game for various reasons. To the game's credit, Harry's magical world fits superbly with the series and grants the Lego formula some very welcome refreshment. But it's also a dishearteningly frequent perpetrator of bugs, glitches, and, shockingly, what seems like sloppiness; though expertly polished over all, in specific instances, the game just seems like a downright rush job.

LHP takes one of the best additions to Lego Indiana Jones 2 -- the seamless co-op splitscreen feature, which smoothly splits the screen into two parts when the players separate and joins the screen again when the players reunite -- and puts it to good use in terms of level design. But this is where things get sloppy: The game's camera angles don't always seem calibrated properly for co-op play, an arguably integral part of the Lego console games' appeal. Oftentimes, I found my co-op partner and myself either at opposite edges of the level, or at opposite edges of the screen, while still being close enough to one another that the splitscreen effect hasn't activated. And in those cases, I frequently encountered difficulty seeing my own character, or the in-game object my character was trying to manipulate. At times, key items can be obscured from view or, frustratingly, be put out of reach, depending on where both characters are standing at the time.

Singularity

Raven Software's newest first-person shooter, Singularity, absolutely overflows with that sort of atmospheric junk. And that's just one of the many, many ways Raven's game gives off a serious BioShock vibe. For starters, Singularity opens with a helicopter crash over the Pacific Ocean -- BioShock, a plane crash in the Atlantic. Both games drop their silent protagonists into strange and perilous ruined cities where mysterious, flesh-mutating substances have been unearthed. They also both allow you to collect and trade the aforementioned gene-altering materials to customize and upgrade your abilities. I could go on for days, honestly, but all that's really missing here are guys in retro-looking diving suits, a soundtrack loaded with Bing Crosby songs, and the ability to unleash swarms of bees from your hands.

Crackdown 2

To my knowledge, there's only one game in the world that lets you team up online with three friends playing as super-powered SWAT agents, make a rendezvous by leaping over skyscrapers, pile everyone into (and onto) one car, tear down the street at 100 mph (rendering a road-clogging zombie horde into a messy green spray), then crash that car into a terrorist hideout in an explosion that rips through most of the bad guys inside. That game is Crackdown 2, and for that reason Crackdown 2 is ridiculously fun.

The problem is, four-player co-op is really all the game brings to the table over its predecessor. Doubling the number of Agents capable of teaming up over the previous game was a great move and makes Live play exponentially more entertaining than before. But everything else about Crackdown 2 is a letdown: The best parts are those lifted straight from the first game, while all the new additions are annoying at best, infuriating at worst. Crackdown 2 is ridiculously fun, but it owes that success entirely to the first game.

Alpha Protocol

Sega melds espionage action and role playing elements into a spy game that's absolutely worth revisiting at least once after the credits roll.

Shadowy government agencies, mysterious paramilitary organizations, elaborate schemes that threaten to tip the world into Armageddon, and maybe some gunfights with sexy women with Eurotrash accents... yeah, I like me some spy stuff. More than that, though, I like the chance to really get into a character's shoes and stomp around a bit, almost as though I were "playing" a "role" or something like that. Weird that spy games don't often give us a chance to insert ourselves into the fantasy in the way Alpha Protocol does. In fact, I can't think of any that have even tried, outside of Deus Ex. Certainly not any that pull it off so well.

The Box

The Box is a 2009 American science fiction–thriller/horror based on the 1970 short story "Button, Button" by Richard Matheson, which was previously adapted into an episode of the 1980s incarnation of The Twilight Zone. The film is written and directed by Richard Kelly and stars Cameron Diaz and James Marsden as a couple who receive a box from a mysterious man who offers them one million dollars if they press the button sealed within the dome on top of the box. Production for the film began in November 2007 and concluded in February 2008.
Coming Soon on DVD.

Serious Sam HD:The First Encounter Xbox

Serious Sam caused something of a murmur when it burst upon the FPS scene back in the early 2000's. Even back then, the FPS genre had backed away, bit by bit, from the balls-to-the-wall insanity of early genre heavyweights like Doom and Duke Nukem 3D and was easing its way into the sophisticated world of Half-Life and System Shock 2. Serious Sam, with its brightly colored, mow-'em-down ethos unexpectedly evoked the zeitgeist of an era long past, and tapped into an undercurrent of adrenaline-fueled gameplay that had been lying dormant in gamers' twitchy index fingers.
So developer Croteam must hope it will go, again, with the series' latest release: Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter. This budget-priced update of the original Serious Sam title features revamped graphics, a new co-op online mode, and a whole lot of old-school ass-kickin' for the greater glory of mankind. And while the new visuals go a long way in toward moving the series into today's world of bells and whistles, at its core, Sam HD is very much from the "old school."

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Early on in Battlefield: Bad Company 2, during a mission that the ESRB has somewhat spoiled, you hear an absolutely frightening and ominous sound. Its inspiration can easily be found in things like a foghorn or the tripod from Steven Spielberg's version of War of the Worlds, but even so, it's still a surprising and unsettling noise. The way it completely assaults your speakers and rattles your subwoofer serves as a perfect example of some of Bad Company 2's phenomenal sound design -- one of the many things that developer DICE has gotten right this time around.
Sure, there are a lot of improvements (and even a few missteps) within Bad Company 2, but the sound design is particularly noteworthy. It's not just that the guns sound realistic (as far as I can tell), but that DICE's sound gurus have tweaked, amplified, and reverbed them enough to sound terrifying. Sniper rounds carry an ominous thunderclap in passing. Assault rifle bullets alternate between cracking the air and forcibly puncturing whatever surface -- flesh, wood, stone, or metal -- they impact. The way a light machinegun erupts during gunfire indicates that it's designed expressly for the purpose of murdering your enemy. Other sounds, such as the crunch of footsteps in the snow, the creaks of collapsing buildings, or the chattering of jungle insects, contribute to what is one of the best soundscapes in a modern FPS (especially if you set your audio to the "war tapes" soundmix).

Shadow Complex

I'd imagine that just about everyone who gets into the games industry does so because they're inspired by a particular work, a favorite game that ignites a fire inside of them to proclaim, "I want to create something like that!" Some budding developers make it their mission to design something wholly different from that inspiration, yet which still possesses its intrinsic strengths: its addictive appeal, its balance, its intensity. Others, however, take a more literal approach and create a game just like the one they loved so dearly. Shadow Complex is definitely the latter.
To call Shadow Complex inspired by the Metroid series would be a terrible slander to the word "inspiration." It's not so much that the developer, Chair, looked to Super Metroid for ideas as it is that they took a sheet of wax paper and did a rubbing of Samus Aran's entire career. It's a clone, albeit one for these modern times -- which is to say, it uses polygons instead of sprites, and it's a reasonably-priced download game for Xbox Live. In practically every other way, though, it's completely identical to Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion, down to the powers you earn and the map structure. This is a game where you use missiles to blow up red doors, if that tells you anything. Not that the creators have been coy about what they've been striving for here. They've flatly stated, "We love Metroid, and we want to create something like that!"

Wolfenstien

Wolfenstein's not your typical Nazi-slaying, WWII shooter. Sure, it includes the typical unending army of irreconcilably evil soldiers who crumple underneath your overpowered assault. But this latest chapter in the adventures of American superspy B.J. Blazkowicz adds in a few magical superpowers, a little BioShock-meets-Call of Duty -- though you still have to rely on your weapons to shoot electricity and fire. Those new abilities feel a little gimmicky at times, but when considered together with the multiplayer, Wolfenstein provides enough firepower and over-the-top storytelling to satiate anyone's desire for occult, alternate history action. You did ask for occult, alternate history action, didn't you?
At the beginning of the game you find a stone filled with ancient powers that let you shift between the real world and an alternate dimension called the Veil. You start out with Veil Sight, which lets you walk through some walls, move faster, find items, and makes enemies glow for easy sniping from a distance -- but it also dyes your world a sickly, bluish-green. Wolfenstein is a good looking game, so it's a little disappointing that you're encouraged to play through most of it in a such and ugly, washed out view.

Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny PSP

"High divorce rate. Anime. Hipsters. Panty shots," says Soul Calibur's Zasalamel, the large scythe-wielding warrior. "I am busy searching the future." Nonsensical yet humorous, Zasalamel's dialogue exemplifies a shift in Soul Calibur's ambiguous and convoluted story -- a change that breaks the franchise's protracted, austere plotlines about the fight between good and evil, vendettas, mysterious powerful swords, and love triangles. Soul Calibur Broken Destiny's lighthearted and often entertaining dialogue is, honestly, just one of the many excellent changes brought to the series by Namco Bandai. Whether you're a fan or a newcomer, those changes will be refreshing.
A weapon-based fighter, Soul Calibur Broken Destiny's main strengths are its accessibility and, at the same time, its depth. The series' emphasis on close-range combat and high, mid, and low attacks empowers neophytes to overcome the game's learning curve. Even if you aren't fully aware of your actions, the combat basics provide immediate satisfaction. And for those willing to improve their skills, "The Gauntlet," a rewarding and helpful tutorial mode, is a highly enjoyable way to learn new skills and strategies.

Fate/Unlimited Codes PSP

The engine of the game itself is very similar to Melty Blood, another series made by the makers of Fate/Stay Night. You have three standard attack buttons, Weak, Medium, and Heavy, along with a parry button. Just like in Melty Blood, a well timed parry will allow you plenty of time to counter attack your opponent, while a missed parry will drain 50% of your magic circuit. Magic Circuit, like Melty Blood, is your typical Super Meter. 100% equals to one gauge, and the max is 300%. You also have the Heat mode which was present in Melty Blood, where upon activation, your life will regenerate as your magic circuit slowly depletes itself. During this time you can freely cancel special moves out of any normal attacks and even super cancel into a super from a special.The fighting itself is like a mix of Melty Blood + Marvel vs Capcom. You got your Capcom-famous air combos, supers, and such. Many normal attacks can be canceled into crouching or forward version of itself for some characters, allowing longer chains than a standard 3 hit ground combo, while various follow-ups are available to you. The parry button can be used as a linker by sacrificing 50% of your magic circuit, which allows you to start a combo over again while your opponent is still stunned from your previous hit. Heat activation can also be used as a linker, by combining these two with enough magic circuit, you could create some pretty long chain combos before ending it with specials or supers. There is also a side step option by pressing Medium and Heavy together. This is really useful being in a 3D environment. It can be used to avoid keep-away projectile spammers with ease, while baiting jump-ins to have them strike air and counter attack before they recover.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2

The original Ninja Gaiden 2, while a solid game, could have been better: inconsistent pacing and brutally cheap moments weighed down an otherwise fantastic experience. With Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, despite the absence of former director Tomonobu Itagaki, Team Ninja has made a well-developed action game that surpasses its predecessor; Sigma 2 retains the developer's signature raw style while excising NG2's bloat and excess.
In the first game, incendiary Ninja enemies armed with explosive shurikens were a huge pain and almost insurmountable on harder difficulties. The huge explosion after beating the armadillo boss in the Daedalus level was an unexpected cheap shot, and an instant death if you didn't block in time. And the game's compulsory puzzles required boring backtracking and rote memorization. With Sigma 2, Team Ninja clearly listened to and implemented player feedback; they wisely omitted the instant death property on the armadillo explosion, and they edited several levels by taking out some of the duller puzzles. The result sharpens those pieces, and ultimately, the whole.

My Sims: Agents

Existing somewhere between Nancy Drew and James Bond, MySims: Agents takes the superdeformed MySims characters and adds a heaping amount of intrigue (or as much intrigue as an E-rated game is legally allowed to contain). But while casting adorable MySims in a kid-friendly, superspy adventure is an idea filled with potential, the game suffers from the one thing a superspy shouldn't have to endure -- boring and repetitive cases.
Like any Sims game, you start by creating, outfitting, and naming your character (detective Blaze, at your service), who is quickly recruited as a Special Agent after solving a couple neighborhood mysteries. The best things the game has going for it are the peppy characters, story (which involves a race to find the powerful "Crown of Nightmares" before the head of the evil MorcuCorp), and safe-for-all-ages humor (which relies more on witty writing and good comic timing than simple slapstick mayhem). It's a direction that respects the intelligence of the game's younger, target demographic, but unfortunately, I can't say the same about the puzzle-solving gameplay. Even though it is great to play.

Demon's Souls

It's been a stressful week at work. First I had to get suited up. Then I had to go to the watchtower and get re-acquainted with the tedium of plugging about 150 piddly arrows into a dragon. Finally I slayed the SOB, knocked off for a late lunch, and got back to business, running up the bridge and trying not to get stabbed by the black knights up ahead. I made the mistake of taking a detour to kill the bowmen, but accidentally slipped and fell off the stairs, which killed me for the eight millionth time. Long story short, I wasn't even close to clocking out, but I got up within inches of the giant silver boss' ankles -- its weak point -- only to be summarily smashed into a pile of inanimate ghostly nothingness for the... I don't even know how many-th time. It's enough to make you want to scream.
But that's Demon's Souls, another in a long line of RPGs that gives you a story and a goal, but oh yeah, it's going to be one of the hardest journeys of your life if you want to complete it. One misjudged situation, one step too far, and you'll end up with a torch in your face or several limbs broken. And yet, even though I certainly don't think of myself as a glutton for videogame punishment, Demon's Souls continues to be addictive. It's Stockholm Syndrome on a disc.

Brutal Legend

Brütal Legend, like its unnecessarily umlauted name implies, tosses you into an over-the-top heavy metal fairy tale. Tim Schafer's name is on the box, so you know that, just like Psychonauts and Grim Fandango, you're going to get a humorous, well-written narrative. But despite the terrific, superbly voice-acted story (featuring Jack Black, Tim Curry, and cameos from many other musicians and comedians), certain missing gameplay features, like the lack of a minimap, jump button, or warp feature make Brütal Legend feel unfinished.
The story centers on roadie Eddie Riggs as he drops into the living, breathing world of heavy metal. He operates behind the scenes to make sure the forces of good (heavy metal) triumph over the forces of evil (hair metal). The game is mostly action mixed with a little light RTS, but in addition to your main mission to save the world, you can undertake side missions to earn extra Fire Tributes (the in-game currency) for new abilities and other upgrades. The missions themselves aren't very original, ranging from basic "kill a group of enemies before they kill you" skirmishes to races in the Deuce, Eddie's custom metalmobile. But they're all surprisingly fast-paced and not too challenging -- in another game, they might feel like overdone, unnecessary wastes of time, but in Brütal Legend, they're quick one-offs with decent rewards.

Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack In Time

With its fantastic mix of platforming and shooting gameplay, the Ratchet & Clank series has always struck me as a sort of modern day Mega Man. I mean, there are obviously plenty of differences between the two series, but on a fundamental level the two share a perfection and balance of their core mechanics. What attracted us to one series two decades ago still enthralls us today -- though Ratchet & Clank has the benefit of several gameplay lessons developers have learned along the way, from the appeal of item collection to weapon upgrades.
But let's be honest, in the Ratchet & Clank series Insomniac found itself a fantastic formula that's remained consistently fun and entertaining, and has been easy to replicate -- we've seen nine Ratchet games in the past eight years (counting the PSP titles). Because of this, if you're burnt out on the series, I'll completely understand if you plan to skip out on this latest installment. I'll understand, sure, but I'll still try to convince you otherwise.

Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad Of Gay Tony Xbox 360

After playing through Grand Theft Auto IV, The Lost and Damned, and now The Ballad of Gay Tony, there isn't a whole lot more I can see or do in Liberty City on the Xbox 360. I'm spent, but at the same time I can't wait to see what the inevitable "Grand Theft Auto V" will bring. With The Ballad of Gay Tony complete and available for download over LIVE (or in the Episodes from Liberty City bundle pack that includes both The Lost and Gay Tony) GTA IV's final expansion sends itself off in style in some of the most ridiculous ways possible; I think that's why I like it so much.

Left 4 Dead seemed like a near perfect game to me, and the fact that I love it so damn much makes the comparatively sudden arrival of its sequel an extremely hard sell. Until recently I'd have been hard pressed to name specific ways in which I'd want to change the first game. I suppose if there were a gun held to my head I'd be able to rattle off a few requests, and maybe, after an extended torture session, I'd eventually manage to make out a list that'd resemble the changes that have gone into Left 4 Dead 2. Thankfully no such violence has been necessary. L4D2 delivers multiple improvements over its predecessor, and I get to keep all my fingers and toes.
There's nothing quite like a good old fashioned zombie apocalypse to force a disparate band of strangers to work together for their common survival, and between that premise and some really clever design, Left 4 Dead succeeded in coaxing that big bag of trash we call the internet into cooperating without it ever feeling forced. It wasn't without its occasional flaws, however. A short list of weapons and frequently available ammo piles meant we'd tend to pick out a favorite weapon and stick to it. Survivors that knew enough to bunch close together had a much greater chance at survival, and their infected antagonists would have a hard time breaking up the formation. Worse, choke points like long hallways became reliable safe havens for any well-coordinated team. It didn't offer too unfair an advantage, but it did tend to make things predictable.

The Saboteur

The first two hours of The Saboteur fly by in an exciting blur of focused action and solid voice acting. World War II may not be the most original setting for a game these days, but developer Pandemic has thrown together an open-world exploration of Paris that sounds very appealing. Unfortunately, as soon as you hit the city, the game's pace drops off, and the sub-par graphics and poor controls steadily bog down an otherwise terrific idea.
You waste plenty of time driving across the map to talk to a single character, and then making your way all they way back to the start for more than one mission. Not that the game itself ever drags -- nothing stops you from focusing solely on the story and quickly progressing through the narrative. The Nazi forces you meet on the road are easy to avoid, and the parts of the world you'll spend the most time in aren't intimidatingly large. Rather, the pacing isn't nearly as good as the beginning. Outside of the story, there's not much to do; each mission-giver only offers one or two additional missions, and the only extras left are to blow up Nazi towers, vehicles, and weapon emplacements.

Divinity 2: Ego Draconis

The sequel to 2002's sleeper Divine Divinity, Divinity II revisits the world of Rivellon; pretty much your standard maces-and-magic-missiles RPG venue. You play a fledgling Dragon Slayer, one of the elite warriors of Rivellon, tasked with hunting down and killing Dragon Knights -- humans who have gained the power to transform into dragons. And in the most obvious twist since "Chubby Checker Live in Concert," you yourself end up becoming what you originally sought to kill. That's right, you become? a Dragon! Clutch the pearls! Okay, I'm making light of it; in all fairness, flight and combat in dragon form are among Divinity II's biggest selling points, and add much to the game's fun factor. Of course, this cuts both ways: when you're flying around in the game's action-packed, dragon form sequences, combat is frenetic, multifaceted, and fun. When you're walking around in human form (which makes up a significant portion of the game), it's more: hit the attack button, hit the attack button, use a special move, hit the attack button, profit. Then rinse and repeat, until your hair has that shiny, Pantene glow.
But combat isn't the entire game: you'll spend plenty of time running around looking for hidden items, solving puzzles, bringing widget A to NPC B, and engaging in a buttload of dialogue. Surprisingly, Divinity II features damn good English voice acting (this is a game from Belgium), a competently written (if rather formulaic) story, and a really friggin' fantastic original score. Little things like these may seem insignificant when you read them in a review, but they help not only to draw you into Divinity II's game world, but also to get across a sense of quality craftsmanship that the game desperately needs for gamer cred.

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle

I liked No More Heroes, but I didn't love it. I do love developer Grasshopper Manufacture, though, so I always expect something promising from them, even if it lets me down. Sure, NMH took something as simple as jerking the Wii remote in one direction and made a competent, if not entirely satisfying, action game, but there were lots of weaknesses too, causing me to wonder why Wii fans were so quick to put it on a pedestal. Regardless, it struck a nerve, and became a go-to recommendation. With time and love on their side, Grasshopper pushed ahead with the sequel, No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, and delivered a pleasantly surprising (and guiltily pleasuring) game that I, well, love.
The story involves returning hero Travis Touchdown, the slightly punkified otaku who, after two years of retirement from the assassin scene, finds out that his friend Bishop (owner of Beef Head Video) is murdered, seemingly without pretense. Travis goes into a blind rage and vows to find his friend's killer(s), all of this happening at the same time that Sylvia Christel, the sultry agent of the United Assassins Association, invites Travis back to the world of ranked assassin combat.

Tropico 3

There's something appealing about a good, old-fashioned dictatorship, so long as you're the dictator. It's a tempting kind of fantasy, whether you feel like being a despotic tyrant, the architect of a tropical utopia, or more likely, a fumbling idiot yanking ineffectually on the reins of power as the cart of society plunges into the ravine of tortured metaphor -- which is fun in its own way. Tropico 3 delivers on those fantasies better than any game in recent memory, but that's sort of an easy thing to say, given that city management sims have long since taken the trophy for World's Deadest Genre, and none of them ever bothered much with giving us banana republics to run into the ground. But I don't want to damn the thing with faint praise. Tropico 3 is a great distraction, if a bit dated and minimal-looking.
Tropico 3 isn't going to blow anyone's eyeballs off with its graphics. Not that graphics are usually why anyone plays a game like this -- there's enough detail, and you can zoom in close to admire the crumbling tenements or the graffiti on the high school walls, but far more time will be spent trying to figure out whether to make your money off tourism or tobacco exports, in between fending off assassination attempts from people who caught on that you were rigging the elections.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood

Edward and Alphonse Elric are two alchemist brothers searching for the legendary Philosopher's Stone, a powerful object which would allow them to recover their bodies (which were lost in an attempt to bring their mother back to life through alchemy). Born in the village of Resembool from the country of Amestris the two brothers lived there with their mother. Their father, Hohenheim, left home for unknown reasons and years later, their mother, Trisha Elric, died of a terminal illness leaving the Elric brothers alone. After their mother's death, Edward became determined to bring her back through the use of alchemy, an advanced science in which objects can be created from raw materials. They researched Human Transmutation, a forbidden art in which one attempts to create or modify a human being. However, this attempt failed, ultimately resulting in the loss of Edward's left leg and Alphonse's entire body. In a desperate effort to save his brother, Edward sacrificed his right arm to affix Alphonse's soul to a suit of armor. Some days later, an alchemist named Roy Mustang visited the Elric brothers, and he told Edward to become a member of the State Military of the country to find a way to recover their bodies. After that, Edward's left leg and right arm were replaced with automail, a type of advanced prosthetic limb, created for him by his close family friends Winry Rockbell and her grandmother Pinako.
Edward then became a State Alchemist an alchemist employed by the State Military of Amestris, which infamously annihilated most of the Ishbalan race (Ishbal) in the past decade. Becoming a State Alchemist enables Edward to use the extensive resources available to State Alchemists, but it also turns him into what they call a "dog of the military". His more friendly relationship with Mustang however, whom he reports to and who recruited him, allows the brothers freedom to search for the Philosopher's Stone as part of Edward's research, as each State Alchemist is expected to independently research new things which may be of a use to the State Military of Amestris. The brothers set off in search of the Philosopher's Stone as a means to restore their bodies. Throughout their journey, they meet many antagonists, including those who are willing to do anything to obtain the Philosopher's Stone; Scar, one of the few surviving Ishbalans, who seeks vengeance on the State Alchemists for the destruction of his race; and the homunculi, a group of human-like creatures who carry pieces of the Philosopher's Stone inside themselves, and from it derive the ability to survive almost any harm.
As the story progresses, Edward and Alphonse discover the vast expansion of Amestris was the result of the homunculi, who created and secretly control the State Military. The homunculi and much of the high-ranking military officers are commanded from behind the curtains by the creator of the homunculi, a man simply known as "Father" who gained immortality by creating the Philosopher's Stone by tricking Hohenheim centuries before the series' timeline. He plans to use Amestris as a gigantic transmutation circle in order to transmute the entire country for reasons unknown to the Elrics. When Edward and Alphonse discover Father's plans, they, along with other members of the State Military, set out to defeat him.[1]
Differences in the first anime adaptation
The first half of the anime's plot basically follows that of the manga, but the plots severely diverge from each other near the middle of the story; when Ed and Al reunite with their teacher. A former lover of Hohenheim, their teacher's teacher, Dante, acts as the series' main antagonist, appearing only in the anime. Centuries ago, the two perfected methods for making the Philosopher's Stone, achieving a sort of immortality by transferring their soul and intellect into others' bodies as they age. Hohenheim was eventually overcome by the guilt of sacrificing lives to make the Stone and left Dante. Although Dante is still able to jump from body to body with the last stone she and Hohenheim created, she does not possess the complete knowledge on how to make one. She uses the homunculi to spur Edward and Alphonse, along with other Alchemists equally desperate, into creating another complete Philosopher's Stone for her.

When Scar creates the Philosopher's Stone, he infuses the stone into Alphonse's metal body, making him the main focus of Dante's efforts leading to him being kidnapped.When Edward goes to rescue him, he is killed by the homunculus Envy. Alphonse uses the Philosopher's Stone to revive his brother but disappears in the process. Dante tries to escape, but she is killed when the homunculus Gluttony, whose mind Dante had earlier destroyed, fails to recognize his master and attempts to devour her. After being revived, Edward risks his life to bring back his brother in exchange. As a result, Edward ends up in a parallel world, while Alphonse recovers his original body. Determined to return to Alphonse, Edward becomes involved in rocketry research, with the intention to use that technology to try to get back to his home world.[5]
The story is followed in Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa situated two years after the end of the anime. While Edward is working in Germany to find a way to return to Amestris, Dietlinde Eckhart, a member from the Thule Society, discovers the existence of Ed's world and starts giving him hints to open a portal to Amestris. Alphonse, having been looking for his brother after two years, also discovers the portal and opens it at the same time as his father Hohenheim opens the one from Germany, allowing Dietlinde to enter Amestris and try to conquer it. Edward reunites with his brother and they join forces to defeat Dietlinde. Knowing the danger that both worlds are now connected through the portal, Edward returns to Germany to destroy that side of the portal, knowing that he would be trapped there forever. Alphonse secretly follows him, having decided to stay with Edward.

To tune in for more adventures of Ed and Al, watch Mon-Fri 7:00 to 7:30 only on Animax.

bleach

Young 15 year old boy, Ichigo Kurosaki lives in a quite ub-normal ability to see spirits. as he does so, he sees a soul reaper-Rukia Kuchiki. Surprised by his ability to see her, she just couldn't ignore him and told him what she was there for, defeating hollows who were vicious beasts that lingered around devouring other souls. And when Ichigo saw her fighting one he tried to help. But when he saw that she had been defeated, he ran to defend her.but as he couldn't she offered him her sword, and as he held it his body seperated from his soul and he fought the hollow and saved her. But what he did not know was that now agents would come to take Rukia to be executed because she broke the laws of the soul society by giving him her powers. And when the soul reapers came to take her(after a few months) a friend of Ichigo- Uryu Ishida,comes to save her, but he was no match even though he was a Quincee, who were similar to soul reapers and also killed hollows but just by destroying it and not purifying it. And so due to this was a war and the Quincees almost became extinct. but then Ichigo finally showed up and tried his best but failed to save her because his opponent was one of the 13 captains of the soul society. But he did not stop and trained hard and finally got an opportunity to go to the soul society and try and save Rukia.

Tune in to join Ichigo's further adventure only on Animax. 7:30/12:30 pm Mon-Fri

Repeat telecast Sat-Sun 1:00 to 3:30

Avatar The Last Airbender Movie

Air, Water, Earth, Fire. Four nations tied by destiny when the Fire Nation launches a brutal war against the others. A century has passed with no hope in sight to change the path of this destruction. Caught between combat and courage, Aang (Noah Ringer) discovers he is the lone Avatar with the power to manipulate all four elements. Aang teams with Katara (Nicola Peltz), a Waterbender, and her brother, Sokka (Jackson Rathbone), to restore balance to their war-torn world.Based on the hugely successful Nickelodeon animated TV series, the live-action feature film "The Last Airbender" is the opening chapter in Aang's struggle to survive.

Fable III

Based on what little combat we saw in Fable III today, it seems that it'll play out in much the same way as it did in Fable II, with buttons devoted to magic use, projectile weapons, and melee weapons. Molyneux hinted that there will be some improvements, but what he was most excited to talk about was the way that weapons will work. Molyneux's hope is that no two weapons in Fable III will be the same because--like your character--they'll morph based on your actions and even your gamerscore. The most obvious way that weapons will transform is that they'll grow bigger and more powerful the more you use them, but there's much more to it than that. The visual style of your weapon will change quite radically according to how you use it. So to give you the examples that we got to see for ourselves today, the head of a large axe that has presumably been used to kill a lot of skeletons or beasts appears to be made of bones, while a sword that has been used to commit evil acts, such as killing innocents, will forever appear to be covered in blood. And if you're still not excited, perhaps hearing that you'll be able to trade your unique (or at the very least, uniquely named) weapons with other players online might do the trick.

Bayonetta

Bayonetta is essentially a sequel masquerading as an original game. It's not a "nice first attempt." It's not short. It's not a foundation lacking features and variety and whatever else reviewers like to complain about. It has the kind of heft usually reserved for the second or third game in a franchise, and deserves to sit next to Assassin's Creed 2 and Uncharted 2 rather than their predecessors.
That may sound like I'm heaping praise on Bayonetta -- and to a degree, I am -- but the footnote here is that it was developed by some of the people that created the original Devil May Cry, including director Hideki Kamiya, so these guys weren't exactly starting from scratch. And it shows: Bayonetta feels much more like a sequel or a side story in the Devil May Cry universe than I expected it to when I started playing, even though the two officially have nothing to do with each other.

DarkSiders

Let's get this out of the way right now: Darksiders could be the most derivative game I've played in years. There's a fine line between inspiration and grand theft game design, and developer Vigil Games' debut comes dangerously close to stepping over it. What starts off as a simple action romp in the vein of Devil May Cry quickly morphs into a sprawling, Zelda-style dungeon crawl, featuring gameplay nods to everything from Dark Sector to Prince of Persia -- there's even a fairly blatant homage to Portal.
I'm not going to put the developers on trial or anything, because a) that's not my job, b) this isn't the appropriate venue for that, and c) everyone in this industry borrows ideas from one another at some point. Besides, I actually enjoyed the game quite a bit. While Darksiders might tread familiar territory a little too often, it more than makes up for any lack of originality with a lengthy, well-paced adventure and fun combat

Dark Void

Then this prologue ends, and like the unfortunate fellow in the prologue, the overall game takes a significant plunge downward that it barely manages to recover from. It morphs from a refreshingly original (albeit with a bit of the obvious The Rocketeer influence) flier into a bland, cover-based third-person shooter. The story setup follows the, "give the player the full experience, then change circumstances and make the player re-earn the cool stuff from the beginning" formula; after playing the anonymous jetpack jockey, the game then puts you in Will Grey's perspective. Will is a snarky, fast-talking pilot (voiced by Nolan "Can't Say No" North) who flies through the Bermuda Triangle in 1938 and arrives at the alien/jetpack/butte-filled parallel world called, well, "the Void." Will's eight-hour journey through the Void starts with a mostly generic/occasionally painful sequence where he jetpacklessly jaunts around the mysterious jungle, all while shooting aliens and cracking wise.

Final Fantasy XIII

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Graph Measure

Percy Jackson: The Lightning Theif

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief is the story of a young high school kid, Percy Jackson, who lives with his mom, Jessie, and step dad in a low income neighborhood. Percy also has a good friend, Grover, who is his sidekick. It is during a trip at the museum that Percy discovers that he is a demi-god, half man and half god as his mother had an affair with a god, Poseidon. Percy also finds out that Zeus suspects him of having stolen the Lightning Bolt and has set a deadline for Percy to return it. Flanked with his pal Grover and a demi God, Annabeth, daughter of Athena, whom he meets at a special camp for Demi-Gods, Percy sets out on a quest to free his mother who has been kidnapped by Hades who also wants the lightning bolt and is holding her as a hostage in the Underworld.

Septimus Heap Syren

Book 5, Syren, picks up the very day after the end of Queste. While returning from their previous quest, Septimus, Jenna, and Beetle find themselves stranded on a mysterious island, an island inhabited by a Syren. They eventually cross paths with Septimus' old friend Wolf Boy, traveling unexpectedly with Lucy Gringe (girlfriend to Septimus' bad apple of an older brother), and have to fight off multiple terrifying enemies.

I liked Syren better than Queste - there's a bit more character development, and I preferred the island setting to the forest of the previous book. It's a nice combination of idyllic and menacing. I enjoyed Jenna's relationship with her usually absent father, as well as the baby steps taken by prior bad guy Simon towards rehabilitation.

Septimus Heap Queste

Book 4, Queste, begins as Septimus, Jenna, and Septimus' friend Beetle set out to rescue Septimus' brother Nicko andhis friend Snorri, who were lost in the past after an incident with a time-travel mirror. A time-traveling alchemist is able to give them a clue as to Nicko and Snorri's whereabouts, but a dangerous quest is required.

I found Queste to be a bit darker than the earlier books in the series. There's a long, bleak trek through a winter wood, for example. And Septimus' fate lies under a cloud for much of the book. However, there are also lighter elements, such as Beetle's growing crush on Jenna, and another character's addiction to licorice.

Septimus Heap Physik

Septimus may be an up-and-coming powerful wizard, but he's also just a kid who likes adventure and mystery. When his sister offers to show him a magical Looking Glass in her private Queens Room, Septimus jumps at the chance. Little does he know, he won't be coming back! When the two siblings arrive to look at the mirror, Septimus is pulled through by the infamous alchemist Marcellus Pye. Septimus finds himself taken back 500 years in time. Jenna tries to pull her brother back, but is left with nothing more than his boots!

Despite being dead for hundreds of years, the nasty Queen Etheldredda is back in the world of the living and she has a lot more powers than most ordinary ghosts. She is the one responsible for Septimus' mysterious disappearance and since her arrival, a Sicknesse has started to plague the Castle. Jenna needs to find a way through the Looking Glass so she can save her brother - if she doesn't, life as they all know it could be changed forever.

Along with all your beloved Septimus Heap characters, there are a few new faces in Physik. Snorri Snorrelson is a trader from the North who has the ability to see ghosts. She has come to the Castle in search of her dad, but quickly finds herself traveling back in time with Jenna and Nicko to battle the Queen and Marcellus Pye. Physik carries on all the page-turning adventure of the previous Septimus Heap books and is a must-read this summer for all fantasy fans! There's quite the cliff-hanger of an ending, so be prepared for at least one more book from Angie Sage in this series.

Septimus Heap Flyte

Book Two of the Septimus Heap series lives up to all of my expectations. As I predicted with Book One, I believe this series has the ability to be as popular as the Harry Potter series.

In this story Septimus is the apprentice to the Extraordinary Wizard Marcia Overstrand. Jenna, the Princess is one of his best friends. Marcia is having problems with a Darke Shadow that follows her around everywhere. She has to build a special cabinet in order to capture the shadow so she can be rid of it. She recruits the help of Professor Van Klampff but he can only build a piece at a time very slowly. Marcia is very frustrated by this but what can she do.

Then Jenna is kidnapped by none other than Septimus' older brother Simon. Jenna can't believe that Simon kidnapped her and all because of jealousy because he felt he should be the apprentice. How can Septimus get Jenna back and how can Jenna get away from Simon? The problem is nobody believes that Simon has kidnapped Jenna so Septimus feels he has to go after her himself.

Septimus Heap Magyk

The series tells the story of two babies that are switched at birth: one, a boy who discovers his birthright as the seventh son of a seventh son, and ultimately, a powerful wizard; the other, a girl who is destined to become Princess. Their stories are set in a weird and wonderful fairy-tale England and their journeys of self-discovery are filled with hilarious characters and clever charms, potions and spells.

Dante's Inferno

When people refer to a game like Conan or Heavenly as a "God of War clone," they typically mean it's in the third-person hack-n-slash genre and shares a few features like the button-pressing minigames or camerawork or giant bosses. So for the sake of clarity, it's probably best not to call Dante's Inferno a "clone" and lump it in with those descriptions, because Dante's is as complete a forgery as games come, taking approximately 90% of its key features directly from Sony Santa Monica's game.

But because it copies those features with a lot more technical precision than most others that have tried, it's also pretty fun; the game just comes up a bit short at making them all gel together. God of War uses its tools to make you feel like you're on an adventure, constantly seeing new things and playing a key role in the story. Dante's Inferno feels like a bunch of well-designed combat rooms that happens to have a loose story wrapped around it.

Star Ocean The Last Hope

As a franchise prequel, Star Ocean 4 charts mankind's tentative first steps into space as they seek to colonize a new planet. Much like the rest of the series, it's an unapologetically Japanese-style RPG, the main differences here being terrible pacing and refined combat.

Being a JRPG, you can assume the following: you use swords and magic, you lead a band of plucky androgynous teenagers and "old" battle-hardened thirty-somethings against an "ultimate evil," the main protagonist has a ridiculous name (Edge Maverick), and you possess mysterious powers that you don't yet fully fathom. And although you try to blend in on the planets you visit, none of your characters can be bothered to change out of their gaudy space suits, put on different clothes, or hide their fancy space swords. But clichés and gaping plot holes aside, the story's twists and turns are engaging -- especially with the extensive in-game dictionary to help sort out the details. And if things get too convoluted (which they frequently will), you can always check the synopsis, which highlights everything you've experienced up to that point.

Just Cause preview

We covered Just Cause 2 before, both as quick impressions and as hands-on within isolated demo areas; for this session, Eidos personnel simply handed me the controller and hit "new game." There's a brief intro cut-scene detailing series protagonist Rico Rodriguez going to Panau (a fictional analogue of Malaysia, because I guess it's not okay to have a game about overthrowing the actual country) to take down his former boss from the first Just Cause, Tom Sheldon.

Another grappling hook mechanic that I love is tethering, which takes some getting used to (you basically keep holding down the Left Bumper after firing the grappling hook at your target, then move your reticule to where you want your target tethered to, and finally let go), but once I finally get the hang of it, I use it in lots of zany ways. Sometimes I tether a guy onto an overhanging structure, and wait for the cable to snap and watch the poor fool plummet. Sometimes, I pull off a slick "tether a dude onto a moving vehicle" move. But most of all, I make a lot of what I immaturely call "midair manwiches," where I tether two enemy soldiers to each other and watch as the retracting cable yanks them towards each other into a massive body slam. It takes a while to be able to do this with any regularity, but man alive, is it fun.

Batman Arkham Asylum

Score 95%

Pros

Batman: Arkham Asylum is an action video game which puts you in play as the character Batman. Hundreds of secret items and locations can be found in the game, and you will have hours of enjoyment playing this game title. The graphics and detail you will find in the game environment will delight and astound you, and the spooky and creepy atmosphere is hard to miss. The storyline is original and very well written, and there is plenty of action for even the most ambitious player. You will also get to use your stealth ability, and remember that as Batman your moral code prevents you from killing even the worst bad guy. This can make your playing a little tricky, but it can be stimulating at the same time. .

Cons

You may find yourself quite disappointed with the boss fights you encounter, because these are not even as good as some of the usual fights you may have seen. This leaves the boss battles feeling stale and falling flat. Another downer with this game is that a lot of your time will be spent working on grates and moving through the vents, and this seems like a distraction with all the baddies waiting around to be taught a bat lesson in justice.