So you’re a Real Time Strategy (RTS) fan. Starcraft 2 is looming in the distance and Warhammer 40K Dawn of War 2 is waiting to eat your free time up as well. But what about how you’ll get your fix on your console? With Halo Wars just a few months away, you still have to ask the question: how well can an RTS be adapted to your standard console controller.

Anyone who has played an RTS on a console before has seen firsthand the intuitiveness a controller is lacking over your standard mouse and keyboard configuration. Many would even argue that a mouse and keyboard are the preferred method of control for FPS games as well. RTS titles here and there have tried to overcome this limitation in the past, streamlining the controls and simplifying things. Still a better solution may have been found by Ubisoft in Tom Clancy’s Endwar title.

Tom Clancy’s Endwar takes the idea of how to control a RTS on a console to the next level. With voice commands using your Xbox 360 or any Bluetooth (PS3) headset you can control every aspect of the game including unit actions and camera controls. To be honest this control mechanism performs quite well. Now this isn’t really new or groundbreaking technology. You may remember that Rainbow Six 3 on Xbox and PC allowed for voice command albeit fairly limited commands. The technology has however been refined here.

This is obvious from the get go when you begin the surprisingly useful and necessary tutorial. Commands are pretty much based off of four categories which are strung together into command phrases. It’s impressive just how comprehensive the selections of commands are. Sometimes it is necessary to raise your voice or annunciate your words to get a command to go through clearly but most of the time things work without a hitch the first time. The only downsides I found to voice control were that it seems to limit the amount of units one could effectively control and you’ll understand that after trying to remember exactly what unit is where when they aren’t on screen and you’re losing soldiers left and right. The other downside is looking like a complete moron shouting at your headset and screaming when your units tell you they can’t obey you.

Other than the new control scheme Tom Clancy’s Endwar proves to be a fairly traditional but solid RTS. The visuals are adequate if at times a bit drab but if realism was the goal that can be understood a little. Units move fluidly especially infantry, and weapons of mass destruction show off some impressive effects. The sound effects are nice but unfortunately rarely noticed when you’re yelling at your units and jumping around the map checking in on various skirmishes.

This brings me to a frustrating aspect of Tom Clancy’s Endwar for me: the camera. I often found the only good way to view the battlefield was by attaching my camera view to air units. Although the global view available from the command unit is quite useful, the ability to zoom out and see the whole battlefield from a top down view would have been nice.

There aren’t a whole lot of unit types either but this does at least allow the game to be balanced. There are three main factions, each with their own specialties and weaknesses; your standard RTS formula. Each unit type is effective against another and vulnerable to another. Engineers will take down air units, but fall victim to rifleman. You get the idea. Knowing what unit does what is the key to the game.

Online this is imperative, however sometimes this may not matter due to opponents having upgraded units. You begin the multiplayer Theatre of War by choosing a faction and army specialty (i.e. mobility or armor). Then you’re presented with conflicts your faction is currently involved in to maintain its territory that you may participate in, think Chrome Hounds minus the mechs. Single player campaign will prepare you for theatre of war but a word to the wise, pick a specialty and upgrade those units until you can’t anymore.

What Tom Clancy’s Endwar lacks in depth and flash, it makes up for in solid competitive game play. Tom Clancy’s Endwar is one of those titles that after a few hours there is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to pose a challenge for someone with ten times the play time. Voice command is functional though not perfect, and the only thing that didn’t really live up to expectations in Tom Clancy’s Endwar for me was the story but let’s be honest here: Clancy probably has as much do with the stories for these newer titles as Gene Roddenberry does the new Star Trek. This one is a little bit tough to recommend during this holiday season with the plethora of new game releases. Definitely worth a look if you can put down Fallout 3.

Mortal Kombat makes a Next-Gen debut in Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe. While some fans may be worried that having a crossover title may water down the core of what makes Mortal Kombat what it is, they need not worry.

Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe pits the characters of Mortal Kombat and the DC Universe against each other in a tale of the two realms colliding. With characters on both sides having no idea of why the two realms are merging or who the ‘invaders’ from the other realm are, the table is set for a struggle to stop a catastrophic event that will lead to the destruction of both universes.

Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe has a story mode that is split into two halves. One half is the Mortal Kombat side and the other is the DC Universe side. Choosing either storyline will split up the game into multiple chapters. Each of these chapters will have you play as a different character as heroes and villains alike try to get to the bottom of what is going on with their realm and the threat posed by the merging of the universes.

As you play the story mode with each realm, you’ll only be able to see a small part of the role in which they play in the overall narrative. Only by completing the story mode with both universes, will you be able to learn the full extent of what’s going on.

The classic arcade mode is exactly as one would expect. The one slight deviation made here due to the crossover licenses is that after choosing which character you’d like to play as, you’ll need to choose whether you’d rather fight against Mortal Kombat characters, DC Universe characters or a mixture of both. Also, you’ll be able to perform fatalities in this mode as well (fatalities aren’t possible in story mode).

Speaking of fatalities, bringing DC Universe characters into the mix does change things a bit. While all the Mortal Kombat characters and DC Universe villains can perform fatalities, things are just a little bit different for DC Universe heroes. Instead of fatalities, they perform Heroic Brutalities. While they won’t kill their opponents with Heroic Brutalities, they will give them the beatdown of their lives. This had to be done to keep the DC heroes within the confines of their lore. You wouldn’t expect to see Superman kill someone after all.

The fatalities themselves have been watered down quite a bit. They’re much tamer than and not nearly as shocking as they used to be. While one could argue that we as a society have become accustomed to having a much higher tolerance for shock and gore, its simply a case of the fatalities being very mild to keep the ESRB rating as Walmart-friendly as possible.

Another worry some may have had about the game is that the DC Universe characters would play like already established Mortal Kombat characters. There is no need for Mortal Kombat veterans or DC fans to worry about that either. None of the DC Universe characters are mere palette swaps of Mortal Kombat characters. They all have their own styles and animations. While some may seem to share a similar basic stance, all of the moves are unique.

If the Mortal Kombat fighting experience has been your thing, you’ll find the gameplay to be solid. Even though the title is 3D, it takes place on a 2D plane. You can hold down a trigger button and move around freely, but the core mechanics are classic Mortal Kombat. The next-gen consoles have made the animations and attack transitions more fluid, but there are still the jerky and awkward movements if you’re not spot on with your combos. Nothing against this game so much as just a quirk inherent with the way the combos are handled in the franchise. Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe is definitely a tighter experience when compared to Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance.

Mortal Kombat has always had its own unique style and either people have loved it or hated it. If you didn’t like Mortal Kombat before, this is not the game that is going to make you change your mind. However, Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe does have enough going for it to satiate fans of the franchise.

If you’re of the DC faithful and want to play the latest videogame with your favorite characters, we recommend having a little taste of it first before wolfing down the whole meal. You just may find that the Mortal Kombat flavor is a delicacy that you can’t get accustomed to.

One of the most difficult challenges in gaming is the production of an annual title. Sports titles have the unenviable task of creating a new and fresh experience for gamers, even though they typically have the shortest development cycle. Wrestling games, because of their rabid fan base, are some of the most difficult games to iterate. THQ made the educated decision to listen to what fans were clamoring for: more modes, more wrestlers, and more customization.

WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2009 is a game that can be defined as redemption for THQ. In honor of the franchise’s 10th anniversary, THQ has done an amazing job in re-creating the look and more importantly the feel of WWE programming. From the all-new Road to Wrestlemania, (which chronicles seven different wrestlers on their quest for the ultimate pay-per-view), WWE Highlight Reel to the innovative Create-A-Finisher, and the copious amounts of unlockable content, there is almost too much to do in the game.

Play control has stayed faithful to WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2008, with some important changes. One of the things added to help make the game more accessible are cues for everything from reversing strikes and grapples to unleashing finishing moves.

Building up the momentum meter is achieved by mixing up attacks, grapples and strikes to gain the crowd’s favor. Once one of the meters has been filled up, you can unleash a signature move or store it. After storing a signature move, you’re free to use it at will, but you can also fill up the meter again to perform a finisher. This balancing act between unleashing signature moves now or saving it for finishing moves adds a little bit more strategy to the matches.

The overall AI is vastly improved over previous years’. The best example of this is evidenced during Tag-Team Matches. Previously, during a single player Tag-Team match, the User would control one player, while the computer would pretty much just stand around, clapping their hands and begging to be tagged in. Tag Team Matches are now high energy, referee distracting, tag-team move performing gems. That’s right folks: Tag-Team Matches are now one of the most entertaining matches to be found in the game.

Road to Wrestlemania is the featured single player mode; seven unique WWE Superstars follow storylines written by actual WWE writers, on their quest for glory at Wrestlemania. There is even a Co-op storyline, featuring Rey Mysterio and Batista, a wrestling game first. Looking at the crowds signs that reference previous matches, the absolutely decadent camera work, as well as the disturbingly accurate light and smoke shows represent a level of authenticity never before seen in a WWE videogame. The announce teams also contribute to the atmosphere; making comments about each storyline, and referring to various events leading up to each match.

Graphically, the Superstars have received the obligatory upgrade in almost every area; most notably in the texture of skin and musculature. No longer will the player models stretch and their arms end up looking strangely contorted; the animation and smoothness overall is quite good, and realistic. Take a look at Ken Kennedy, when he is moving throughout the ring during his entrance. You can clearly see muscles flexing as he moves; even Chris Jericho’s pecs flex as he enters the ring - cool stuff, indeed.

In the ring, the referees are noticeably more physical and animated. I laughed out loud when the ref asked me if I wanted to tap out while Jon Cena had me in a submission hold, just another subtle touch to add to the overall feeling of immersion.

The main addition to the Create-a-Wrestler mode is the ability to create finishing moves. The process is very straightforward. There are ten slots for you to choose and select one of over 500 animations. You can manually adjust the speed of each segment of the move. Once complete, you can then name your finisher, or use one of the pre-selected names to assign. Custom finishers can be assigned to both created wrestlers, as well as any WWE Superstar.

Career mode allows you to use either a created wrestler or WWE Superstar. The goal is simple: go for the gold and try to win every belt in the WWE. During your journey, you will win attribute points to distribute to your wrestler, and build them up to become the next wrestling legend.

The real draw of WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2009 is that it keeps a nice balance between being insanely fun and addictive in single player, while offering a multitude of depth in multiplayer and creation modes. Someone will always complain that this game doesn’t have this, or that. Well, we didn’t have much when Wrestlemania 2000 came out, and yet it’s still respected as the greatest wrestling game of it’s time. I hope there’s room at the top, because WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2009 is an instant classic - by paying homage to the Aki developed titles of yesteryear, while incorporating modern technology. WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2009 is highly recommended and a must buy for any wrestling fan.

Since Spiderman hit the big screen a few years ago, the franchise has been a very lucrative one in all entertainment industries. So much so, that even during years when there was no Spiderman film release, Activision still tried its best to release a game that year anyway to capitalize on the franchise. While writing off those titles that weren’t attached to films as rubbish (i.e. Spiderman: Friend or Foe) was understandable and even advisable, doing the same to Spider-Man: Web of Shadows would be a mistake.

The plot of Spider-Man: Web of Shadows starts off simply enough, with our Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman chasing his good buddy Venom. Where things start to go awry is when the symbiote in Venom’s suit starts to react and behave strangely once it’s in the presence of Peter Parker again. This encounter sets off a chain of events that include Spiderman being consumed by the symbiote again, other Superheroes and Supervillains merging and combining with symbiotes and even citizens of New York City being overcome and infected by the symbiote. With the Avengers and Iron Man nowhere to be found, it’s up to Spiderman and a motley cast of Heroes and Villains alike to save New York City and the rest of the world from the absolute mayhem that ensues.

What caught many people (myself included) by surprise about Spider-Man: Web of Shadows was the footage I saw of it back at E3. The slow motion effect when using your web-strike attacks, the combos and aerial attacks were unlike anything I’d seen in a Spiderman title. What at first looked to be tantalizing concept footage did indeed make it to the final version of the game and it sets Spider-Man: Web of Shadows miles apart from the Spiderman titles that came before it.

One of the aspects of Spiderman that hasn’t quite been captured correctly in a videogame is his movement style, especially combat. While there have been many advances in how he controls and animates while swinging with his webbing, especially since the Spiderman 3 videogame, it all goes down the toilet when the combat comes into play. That was until now.

In Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, the combat is broken down into three distinct types. Ground combat, aerial combat and wall combat are all accounted for here. What’s even better is that players can seamlessly blend together the three different types and put together combos that flow from one type to the other. Just having those various types of combat operating so fluidly is a large step in the right direction for the franchise.

One of the coolest additions to the combat system I think is the web-strike mechanic. Essentially, this is a simple button press that makes Spidey shoot a couple streams of webbing at his enemy that he then uses to pull himself towards them at high speed as a setup to a string of attack and combo opportunities. As the webbing shoots out and as Spidey propels towards his enemy, a slow motion effect begins. Not simply a gimmick for adding dramatic effect, it gives you time to react to the situation and decide in what manner you want to deal with your foe once you reach them. You start off with only being able to pounce on them once you make contact, but once you level up the maneuver, you’ll be able to all sorts of techniques to it such as wrapping them completely in webbing, slamming them into buildings, and all sorts of other attacks.

All of these attacks and combos are handled by pressing different buttons at the correct time during the web-strike. They’re not canned combos and can be strung together however you like. What’s even better is that after doing a full combo and tossing your enemy aside, if you have enough skill, you can bring them in for another web-strike and continue to do it until you’ve defeated them.

Another thing the web-strike mechanic allows you to do is to dispose of one foe however you wish, and after tossing them aside, initiate a web-strike on another nearby foe before even hitting the ground. This will let you take out multiple enemies in rapid succession and can even be used as a sort of platforming mechanic to help you reach enemies or areas much easier than you would have been able to otherwise in a sort of leap-frog type fashion.

Performing these different variations of the web-strike technique on enemies high above the skyscrapers of New York City adds a dynamic to the aerial combat that hasn’t been seen in a Spiderman game yet, while also feeling uniquely at home with the character.

The rest of the combat is your standard fare for action games. It’s all combo based, and you can upgrade the combos by spending experience points that you gain throughout the game. You’ll be able to spend the experience to level up combos and learn new moves for the ground based, aerial and wall based combat types.

Spider-Man: Web of Shadows maintains somewhat the open world nature that was introduced to the franchise a few years ago. You’ll have main quests that you accept from different heroes (and villains), while also being able to do optional quests around New York City. All throughout, there will still be other crimes and capers being committed across the city that you’ll be able to participate in and foil at your leisure.

Unfortunately, these optional quests and crimes are all the exact same tasks as the missions you’re given for the main storyline, so it doesn’t do much in the form of giving you the type of variation and longevity that an open world environment typically lends to a game.

Spider-Man: Web of Shadows is a little bit on the short side, even for an action game. Still, for its few shortcomings, the title did succeed as far as providing new gameplay mechanics for the Spiderman videogame franchise that can be built upon in the future to make some fantastic games. Knowing Activision’s track record, we think it’s pretty safe to assume that we will be playing more Spiderman games in the years to come. Spiderman fans and those that have enjoyed playing the videogames previously should definitely check Spider-Man: Web of Shadows out. Action game fans in general should at least give it a look. You could do much, much worse.

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is a decent sized MMORPG with a lot of possibilities for fans in all categories. Whether it’s grinding solo quests, dungeon camping with friends, taking on opposing keeps in raids across four tiers, or just looking for some good old fashioned pvp, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning has something to offer.

Like many MMORPGs of its ilk, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is comprised of two factions. The Realm of Order and The Realm of Destruction each have three distinct races to choose from, whether it be mighty Dwarves on the Order side or feminine Dark Elves on the Destruction side, the choice is yours. Other races include Empire (human) and High Elf on the side of Order, leaving Greenskins (orcs and goblins) and Chaos (human) on the Destruction side.

Once you’ve chosen your race, you’ll have the option to select a career type. The standard types of careers are present here ranging from tank, melee DPS, ranged DPS, or the healer type. Like any other MMORPG, each career has a wide array of skills that allow for customization of different play styles for each, with mastery skill trees to further enhance a different style of play. These mastery skill trees will differ for each individual career type respectively. You can either stick to one mastery, or you have the option to mix it up and pick and choose between the three trees. The amount of points to put in however is limited so some thought and revision will be necessary in specializing your own build.

The world of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning has three distinct campaigns of war, all active at the same time. Your selection of a race will place your starting point in the world on one of the three campaigns. Each campaign has its own wide area of exploration which is broken down into four tiers. You are not limited to participating in the campaign in which you start in, however. For example if you start as a Dwarf and currently play in the campaign against the Greenskins, you have the option to travel to other campaign areas as well. This gives your character more of a choice when debating where to do personal quests and raids. Certain quests do, however, require that you travel to different areas in different campaigns which isn’t all that bad.

Getting out and exploring in the Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning world isn’t without its advantages. Players will receive experience points just the same and will be able to obtain items and equipment unique to the quests available in those campaigns.

Player vs. player or realm vs. realm content on Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is above par with some room for improvement. It may seem a bit slow when you first start however it does pick up when you have some experience on the books. Each tier has a set number of instanced realm vs. realm battles called scenarios that players can participate in. These battles sometimes have objectives such as ‘capture the flag’ or ‘first to 500 points’ to keep it more than just mindless killing on both factions. As with area tiers, scenarios have a level range which limits and balances the battle. This feature eliminates higher level people from “noob bashing” or “noob farming,” which can be a pain when having to deal with a player thats 20 levels higher than you.

Area tiers 2 - 4 offer keeps and battlefield objectives, often called skirmishes, which give players another way for realm vs. realm combat. Keeps can be found in open realm vs. realm areas on the corresponding tiers. Players have the option to defend keeps they already own, or raid an the keep of an opposing faction. Players that reach tier 4 can participate in city raids. City raids, in a nut shell, are when your faction goes to claim total dominance in the corresponding campaign, by taking over the major city belonging to the other faction. Looting and plundering someone else’s city, what more can you ask for?

Public quests are pretty cool. These are essentially quests that people can all participate in and contribute to even if they aren’t grouped together. Once you walk into the boundaries of one of these areas, you’ll be told what needs to be done to clear the current objective. The progress towards clearing this objective will take into account what everyone else is doing as well. These public quests are easy to get into, they all have phases that you wouldn’t be able to complete alone, yet you don’t need to wait to join a group just to jump in and start playing.

Speaking of groups, one of the main features that sets Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning apart from the competition is open groups. Open groups allow you to see all the groups in your area, see what they’re doing, see how far they are from you and join them. Regardless of if they’re doing PvE, public quests, RvR or raiding, you’ll be able to see where the action is and jump in with the click of a button.

With the first several weeks of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning up and active, it continues to hold a decent amount of audience attraction and enjoyment. While hardcore World of Warcraft players may or may not find enough different here to warrant abandoning all the years of work they’ve done there, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is definitely worth a look.

Where do all our dreams go? Straight to a place called Little Big Planet?

The traditional platformer goes simple on the Playstation 3 Computer Entertainment System. At first glance, this really cute and basic game created from the minds of Media Molecule looks like many others in the platform genre before it’s time. Little Big Planet changes that entirely when you are introduced to the ever-loveable hero, Sack Boy.

In Little Big Planet, the player runs, jumps, swings and even skateboards through highly innovative and imaginative levels. Perils do lurk about and you and your Sack Boy are always a skip away from the dreaded “Game Over”. Spanning eight stages which are made up of 4-5 levels, our little Sack Boy is set to go on one big adventure. Media Molecule delivers a fantastic game with well thought out stages that are beautifully artistic and fun on the eyes as well as an uplifting soundtrack that plugs you into the game. Staying true to tradition with recent platforming games, up to 4 players can join in on the action allowing for truly fun gaming. Besides being cute and bouncy, mischief is in high spirits as Sack Boy catches rides on flying birds, uses giraffes like elevators, braves stampedes of buffalo for new accessories, and even swings from the tails of monkeys to reach his goals. The gameplay is clever and really amusing with stories uniquely disguised throughout the levels.

Adding to the cuteness factor, players are able to dress up and fully customize their Sack Boy with really awesome items and clothing. You can customize everything, from his hair, to his eyes and mouth and even his expressions. This is done through use of an in-game tool called the Pop-It. The Pop-It doesn’t just allow you to make fashion choices for Sack Boy, it’s also your main interface to the game and the community of Little Big Planet.

Utilizing the PlayStation Network, Little Big Planet puts players in touch with their very own planet through multiplayer gaming. You can challenge players from all over through levels and even compete for ranking in the game’s stages via the leaderboards. As an added bonus, PS3 owners that have a PlayStation Eye camera can take pictures of themselves and plug the photos into the game as well.

If you’ve never heard anything about this game, Little Big Planet really makes its mark on the gaming community by giving the player the power to design their own stages. After you’ve learned the ropes of how to play the game, head over to the MyMoon area, and get started creating. It is here where your imagination takes over. By selecting various templates or simply starting from scratch with a completely blank level, off you go on your own platforming journey. Preset limits govern how big your created stage can be and the game itself does a noteworthy job of keeping areas from becoming overcrowded with obstacles. For those who are extremely obsessive-compulsive, this game provides the challenge of making stages that are both well-balanced and fun. Whether you’re a casual gamer who wants to dabble a little bit or a hardcore gamer with the heart of a modder, who wants to spend 40 hours on a level, the choice is yours. Once finished, your created stages can be plugged onto the PlayStation Network and shared with everyone.

With all this gaming goodness, Little Big Planet has a few hindrances. The physics of the game can be slippery at times and jumping around can lead to more trouble than it’s worth in some cases. Also, pesky camera issues tend to foul up multiplayer games which can result in unanticipated deaths of teammates. Overall, the level design of the original game content that ships with the game makes for a really fun time and the replay value of the game will lead to hours of gameplay with our little hero Sack Boy. Play, create and share is the motto for the game, and it’s one the Little Big Planet does a fantastic job of for everyone from the hardcore to the uber-casual.

Buzz! Quiz TV makes a bold step into the next-gen era with stunning HD graphics and a lot of new tricks up its sleeve. Supporting multiplayer utilizing the newly designed Wi-Fi buzzers for 8-player action, Buzz! Quiz TV embraces its new home on PS3 by going completely wireless, bringing couch combat to a new level. Unlike previous games, players now have complete control over the topics for questioning with the new channel feature. Over 5,000 questions are now broken into different genres which include music, movies and television, sports, lifestyle and the ever-testing brainiac category. Also included is the MyBuzz! Channel which introduces a brand new mode to the series.

Players of the previous game on the PS2 have the basics down already, but the moment you get started with Buzz! Quiz TV, its a whole new ball of wax. The crew at Relentless Software have truly rebuilt the game and now online play brings entertainment buffs from around the world together for more trivia madness. Sofa vs. Sofa mode allows everyone to play from their living rooms and gives new fulfillment in humiliating strangers from around the world. If thats not enough to feed your competitive urges, the trophy system tracks your progress and lets you know just how many people you have bested around the globe.

Ever wanted to have a trivia game devoted to something you truly love? Relentless Software had you in mind with the introduction of the MyBuzz! Channel. By heading to www.mybuzzquiz.com, players can now create their own quizzes and share them online for everyone to play. Simply name your quiz and provide 8 questions and answers and you have yourself a quiz. Other players even get the opportunity to score your quizzes so that you may track how well you did.

If this isn’t enough for you, you could always head over to the Playstation Store and download more. Question packs are available already which include themes from National Geographic, Sci-Fi Television and the wonderful world of Video Gaming. The Buzz! franchise has never looked this good and thanks to the use of both online multiplayer and the Playstation Network, Buzz! Quiz TV never seems dull. There are always new challenges for even the most seasoned of the trivia buffs out there.

If you love trivia games or just need something easy to play around with when you have a house full of people, Buzz! Quiz TV has enough laughs and entertainment to keep even the most casual gamer glued to the couch, buzzer in hand looking for the next good challenge.

Platforms: PS3, Xbox 360, Wii
Developer: Tiburon
Publisher: EA Sports
Release Date: August 12, 2008

20 years and counting, Madden NFL 09 has returned with an extreme makeover. Madden NFL has maintained its pop culture status over the last two decades. But with that success comes so much pressure on EA Sports on both sides to deliver innovation, while still not alienating the base. There are so many new and improved features this year, it seems that Tiburon may have finally broken their own Madden Curse and delivered upon a fresh experience.

Madden NFL 09 sports 85 new features, with the most surprising one being The Madden Test. The thing about this feature that will forever change the way that you view Madden NFL is that the game can now adapt to any player’s skill level. The Madden Test is essentially a series of skill based challenges to determine each player’s proficiency in passing, rushing, pass defense and run defense. The Madden IQ you’re given upon completion of this test corresponds with the four difficulty settings of the game.

To complement these new options, Tiburon has also created a new three tiered play call system, based upon player skill. Beginner mode being the easiest gives the three options of calling a play audible, coverage audible or player substitutions. The CPU selects plays for the player in this mode and it makes it really simple for those trying to cut their teeth on the Madden experience. Intermediate mode adds more audible options, as well as the option to choose plays based on type. The advanced mode will be the most familiar to hardcore Madden gamers.

Similar to this year’s NCAA ‘09, Madden NFL 09 also features a bluff mode. It’s very effective, and a great way to keep those cheaters from figuring out your selected play.

Madden NFL 09 is drop-dead gorgeous. From the player faces, stadium fly-bys to the introductions and pyro gamers will be treated to a visual tour-de-force. Amazingly, Tiburon has managed to complement the amazing visuals with fantastic animation, and a silky smooth frame rate. Player models have been revamped as well with details such as more offensive lineman wearing sleeveless jerseys, as well as a larger variety of facemasks. Even the weather effects have not been presented this well since ESPN NFL 2K5.

Rain, snow and wind have such a tangible effect on each game now. They can make tackling more difficult and thrown balls can be caught by strong gusts of wind.

Animation is solid overall. Gone are the days of the QB holding the football high in the air, with an unnatural motion for throwing. Veteran fans will also notice little things like lineman continuing to look downfield for blocks, and wide receivers throwing out cut blocks. Catching the ball has never been prettier; individual hand movements and well-animated diving catches are very natural.

Running backs and receivers also benefit from the all-new break tackle animations If a defender tries to tackle you, you can stiff-arm, then spin away from the tackler. Spending time learning various combinations to break tackles adds much needed depth and balance to the game, and will take some time to truly master.

For all the game’s improvements, there are still some legacy issues that plague the animation. Linemen still suction block on the line of scrimmage. When running backs catch passes out of the backfield, they will run out of bounds without attempting to head up the field. These are minor annoyances at best, but simple things that should be corrected nonetheless.

The only downside to the visual presentation that is really evident is the pixelated crowd. EA really needs to put in 3D animated crowds. This looks bad.

Artificial Intelligence has also been refined cutting out things such as the dreaded school of fish animation. Defensive backs heads turn towards tip balls, as well as to defend or intercept passes. Another nice tidbit to report is that in my 50 plus games played, I have yet to see a magic interception, or magnet catch by a receiver.

This year EA has brought in Tom Hammond, and ex-NFL receiver Chris Collinsworth to handle announcing duties. The concept here is simple; most of the time, the duo handle the play-by-play and color commentary admirably. The only real problem is that the two never really seem to be talking to each other. Even though they make pertinent comments about the action on the field, the banter and interaction between them is non-existent. While not a deal breaker, it is an area that can be continually improved upon.

Collinsworth explains the all-new EA Backtrack; a three screen breakdown of major plays during the game. As he breaks down the action, not only will he point out wide open receivers, misssed blocking assignments, or big hits but he will make suggestions for successfully executing the play. You are also given the opportunity to examine the success of rate of an offensive play, versus the defensive alignment. Post explanation, you can take advantage of another new feature. Dubbed EA Rewind, you can use the knowledge from the Backtrack and attempt the play again as though it never happened. Most experienced gamers probably won’t use the rewind feature; at least you have the option to toggle this on/off.

Madden NFL 09 represents the best of what Madden has always been about with great play control, fantastic graphics and non-stop competition with friends. The new options add depth to a game that was already insanely deep making it more fun to play than ever. Hat’s off to EA Sports and Tiburon for finally challenging themselves to bring out a truly quality product. An easy purchase for football fans and the best Madden experience of the last ten years.

Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit

Atari
Available for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
Rated: Teen

Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit is a real action game, with very little story and a lot of fighting. (The game uses a short exchange of insults as a trigger for the fights.) Not to worry if you’re a fan of the anime—the drama cards link the game directly to the cartoon and are a nice reminder of the story. These drama cards are introduced as the game progresses and enable rest, recharging the player’s Ki, and other fun stuff. The cards stop the game and switch it to a cut scene that seems to be taken directly from the cartoon. When the player is rested and his Ki is full, he opens for attacks again.

The tutorial and trial modes are all that you need to understand how the game works. The trial mode is not so easy, though, as you’ll have to beat 100 characters with only a little help from the health bar to restore your energy. If you finish the Z-Chronicles before entering the trial mode, you’ll have more unlocked characters and more drama cards to use.

The training mode is a great help in learning more complicated moves. Note that the attacks are not character-specific, so what goes for one character goes for them all, and speed counts for more than agility. That said, I still recommend that you take the time to play through the training mode, as you’ll have more strategies and moves to choose from. To unlock the extras and the higher levels of difficulties, you’ll need a second player. I like the option to play the “versus mode” that enables you to play against a second person (or the computer’) on- or offline.

While it’s always fun to beat players sitting next to you, playing online can be much more competitive. Your scores are saved and the ranked matches will enable you to find players of similar ability. There’s just one drawback: if you play against someone in another country, expect delays and breaks in the action unless you both have a really good internet connection.

For me, the best thing in the game is the graphics. The visuals are brilliant and it is really clear that the game is based on a Japanese animated series. You’re going to feel at times as if you are looking at the anime. Everything flows beautifully: the fast character movements, the drama cards, the scene changes.

The sound design isn’t quite as good as the visuals. The heavy metal soundtrack suits the game, but was a little too heavy on the ears for me. The English voices are not really natural, but if you’re used to seeing the dubbed anime, you might be immune. I even tried the Japanese mode with the English subtitles but returned to the English version soon enough.

There are more than 50 fights, but for the most part they are over in a couple of minutes due to the fast tempo of the game. You’ll find long dialogues only in few of them. If you want to play the game for longer periods of time, try going online or playing the harder difficulties levels as they would unlock more options that you’ll be able to use in the games.

If you’re a fan of the Dragon Ball Z anime or manga, you’re going to love the games. Little surprises make the game extra fun, but if you’re just in for the fights, it can be a little frustrating.

The official website:
http://www.atari.com/us/games/dragonballz_burst_limit/xbox_360

And I’m kind of one of them.

I’ve sort of lost my day job recently, you see, and not a week goes by that I’m not hurting for money in some way. But the night before last I found myself, again, leaning over the counter of VGNY (www.videogamesnewyork.com) in the East Village, trying to decide just what game to buy with the extra cash I somehow managed to scrape together this week. Man, it was a sad moment. I felt like a crack addict. Hell, video games are starting to reach crack prices. You’ve got to understand how long I stood there quizzing Dan and Jen of VGNY, on every new game, dozens of customers managing to come in, do their business, and leave the store again, in the time I spent grilling the back of every game box I could get my hands on. Did I mention my girlfriend was with me the whole time? Brilliant date-night – dinner, a walk around the city, and an hour of me complaining about not knowing which game to buy (with money I should be using to pay the electric bill). Thank god she’s a gamer herself, or I’m sure she’d have left me ages ago. I can only imaging how dealing with my vinyl addiction (records, not toys, although you better believe I sink some money into vinyl toys as well) already tests her patience, but throwing in video games too? There’s only so much geekery any woman can reasonable be expected to put up with.

Anyway, after spending the better part of an hour wallowing in indecisiveness in my favorite underground NYC game shop, I settled on Dark Sector. Dan, from VGNY, gave it his recommendation, and after so much Lost Odyssey last month, I guess my desire to kill monsters in brutal and increasingly inventive ways, was reignited. Maybe that’s why the video game industry weathers recessions so well – even when times are tough, or especially when they’re tough, people never loose the desire to vent their frustrations by, say, throwing a razor-blade boomerang through a renegade Soviet soldier’s head.

So I bought a full-priced game, a rarity for me (if any of you have seen my GamerTag – “Dylan Garret” – I’ll have you know any new games I’ve played have been generously donated by the aforementioned girlfriend). And it’s not bad, Dark Sector. It did the trick, giving me some shit to kill while not thinking about rent or how I really need new work.

Here’s where I tell you what Dark Sector plays like, although I’m going to keep it short, because I have the feeling you’ve heard this before. It’s an over-the-shoulder shooter, the kind where you hold the left trigger to zoom in and the right trigger to shoot, where you have to utilize cover to keep from getting killed, and develop some super-human powers to aid in your killing (and to differentiate the game from whatever other third-person, over-the-shoulder shooter you’ve been playing this month). Oh, and you can also buy and upgrade weapons at “black market” shops throughout the game to beef up your guns in addition to your naturally-developing sci-fi powers.

If you said, “Hey, that sounds like Gears Of War!” you’d probably be a bit right. If you thought it sounded a bit like Mass Effect’s battle system and biotic powers, minus the intense RPG elements and coherent storyline, you’d also be right. If you think it sounds like… you know what, whatever game you’re thinking of, I can tell you, you’re probably right. And if you already know the type of game, we can skip the boring exposition and get on to whether or not it’s worth spending any part of your upcoming governmental Economic Stimulus Check on.

There’s something I used to say in music reviews, about what I was looking for in a new album. I’d say that I think a musician should either try to do something original, or try to do something better than it’s been done before. I suppose the same could be said about video games. Dark Sector definitely falls into the latter category. There’s nothing strikingly original about its gameplay, but it does have the balls to think it’s doing the over-the-shoulder shooter genre better than its competitors.

Whether or not it does is up to you. Personally, I think it tries hard enough to count. After finishing the game tonight, I’m not sure if I’m dying to start up another play-through in “Brutal” mode, but I’ve certainly enjoyed the past 10 hours of slicing shit up nice. And let me say, while I’m sure the main comparison made to Dark Sector will be Gears Of War, the holy grail of 360 third-person shooters, I really preferred Dark Sector more.

I’ll give you a moment to collect your hate.

Hey, I’m not going to bullshit you. Gears was okay fun, but maybe because I didn’t pick it up myself until after Halo 3 and a price drop came out, it didn’t revolutionize my world or anything. To tell you the truth, I still haven’t beaten it. Not a bad game, but I just got kind of bored during it and decided to play Dead Rising again. So when I say I liked Dark Sector more than Gears, you’ve got to understand it’s coming from someone who was never that devoted to Gears in the first place.

I guess I just like the pacing in Dark Sector more. The story itself isn’t anything special. The short of it is, there’s some kind of terrible infection going around some fictional former Soviet state, and your bad-ass CIA operative character with a shady past gets infected in the first mission. Unlike the other poor saps who become completely infected and turn into crazed, boil-covered monsters, you were lucky enough to only be wounded in your right arm, granting one of your limbs crazy super powers and a razor-sharp boomerang, while saving your mind from indoctrination (though still leaving you with what appears to be a really bad hangover).

And that’s the gimmick. The infection develops over time, hardening the skin, and granting powers to the infected. This leads to some cool pacing, where early stages of the game feature your arm, boil-covered and fairly useless, battling against fleshy zombies that can be killed in one hit, and are much less of a liability than the renegade Soviet hazmat soldiers chasing you. As the game progresses, the skin on your arm hardens into something sleek and superhero-like in its power and visual appeal, while the infected enemies also develop from weak zombies into walking tanks with powers equal to your own. It keeps you playing. The game will start to get tough, then an evolution of your own powers gives you some skill that enables you to decimate a room full of enemies without so much as messing up a single strand of your indie-chic hair-do, then slowly gets harder again until reaching a point where you don’t know how you’re going to keep playing, when another power-up hits you and you’re back to badass. The timing is just right.

And the powers are nice too. They’re fun, simply put. The glaive, your razor-boomerang, is fairly useless to start, hard to aim, and weaker than two pistol shots to the head. You’re likely (no pun intended) to stick to your guns early on. Once you develop the ability to use After Touch (slowing down Matrix-like after throwing the glaive, and being able to control its flight with the right analog stick to navigate around corners and enemy cover for the picture-perfect decapitation), the glaive becomes more and more handy. Other powers include shields, invisibility, energy bursts, and increased damage. Soon you might fight entire levels without a bullet fired, preferring you take down your enemies with a little more style using only the glaive. There’s even an Achievement for it.

And yes, I’m well aware that it’s a gimmick. All these games have to have one. You know, something cool to put on the back of the box and make the game seem different from all the other games like it (and believe me, I looked at the backs of many boxes in that game store the other night). But this one works really well. I mean, it worked well enough to keep me playing, and finishing the game in a couple of days, while Marcus Fenix is still sitting in suspended animation somewhere on a middle-chapter save-file in Gears Of War.

I guess the final verdict is, if you’re as poor as me, you aren’t missing out on any new revelations in gaming by holding off until a price drop or some more expendable income. Dark Sector is one of those games where you’ll play through its 10 hour story, maybe rock a few online matches with your friends, then probably shelve for a while (until, one random day, you remember how fun it is to navigate the glaive through a tight hole in a fence and cut a bad guy standing beyond in half, and decide to put the game back in for another run). If you’re not like me, and don’t need to agonize over which game to pick-up for fear of how long it’ll be until you can afford a new one, definitely give Dark Sector a shot.