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.