Templars in the American Revolution?? The Assassins Creed 3 Trailer

The big trailer of the day has to go to Ubisoft's Assassins Creed 3. After details have been leaked out as well as its box art, at least Ubi is quick enough to put up the first trailer for the next entry of this successful franchise. This is a whole new ball game for the Templars as things take place during the American Revolution. Nothing drastic has been revealed in this clip other than the protagonist and the setting, but after three games dealing with's Ezio trilogy, it is refreshing to see Assassins Creed go on a new direction. Hopefully, there will enough new mechanics to make this sequel worth it besides the setting and I'm not sure if multiplayer is confirmed yet, but if I'm a betting man, it is gonna be in. Assassins Creed 3 is shaping up to be one of this fall's big releases and Ubisoft is betting big on this one to be their marquee title of the year too.

DOA x VF Getting Warmer Now...

Its GDC week in the world that is the video game industry and new trailers are rolling out like crazy. Here we got the clip for Dead or Alive 5 featuring Ayane and Kasumi duking it out, but that's not all. The big reveal is a special cameo appearance by Akira from Sega's Virtua Fighter franchise. It is not as weird as a crossover as you think because this one actually makes sense since DOA and VF have been reputable 3D fighting game franchises throughout the genre's lifespan. Akira makes the transition to DOA well with his signature VF moves and style intact. Team Ninja has teased some weeks back that a Dead or Alive vs. Virtua Fighter game is a possibility and this looks like a start towards making that a reality, but who knows if Sega is down as well to make it happen. Also in this clip, the fighters do take cosmetic damage, so you'll see parts of clothing wear off or get dirty as seen in Tekken Tag 2 and Mortal Kombat. Dead or Alive 5 is slated to come out this fall on PS3 and 360 as we'll see if Team Ninja has more surprises like this ahead in the coming months.

Owning the Planet One Mountain at a Time... The SSX Review

After a six year hiatus, SSX is finally back and rebooted for the current generation of consoles. It has been a long time coming for this franchise to debut on the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 and even before its announcement, I was wandering if we ever would see it again and now it has returned being better than ever. The extreme sports genre of gaming is also going through a drought of sorts even EA's Skate series kept things going until this release. It is actually great and refreshing to see a game like this back in the gaming world because it proves a lot of things. SSX takes snowboarding games into a whole different level on all aspects from the fast racing, the insane tricks, and in general capturing the feel of being a snowboarder in these treacherous mountains.

This new SSX is broken up into three main modes: World Tour, Explore, and Global Events. You first start up automatically in the World Tour, which is basically the "campaign" of this game. It is short, sweet, and even prepares you for the other two modes. In addition, there is actually a storyline in World Tour as you play as the various riders of team SSX to conquer the nine deadly descents spread throughout the planet before Griff, who betrayed the team for the sake of doing things his own way, gets them done. World Tour also does a good job of letting you play as all the characters so you can get accustomed to their personalities and styles. Their personalities though are summed up by comic book-y cut scenes explaining their hobby besides being in team SSX. Zoe is one of the co-founders of the team and also a motocross rider, Alex is a model and one of the new characters in this game, and so on as examples. Other franchise favorites such as Mac, Kaori, and Psymon also return in this new iteration. Difficulty wise, the World Tour is not that hard to beat, but it can get hairy near the end especially with the later deadly descents, which I will talk about more later.

The Explore mode is the main crux of SSX because it is filled with so many events (159 to be exact on the PS3 version that has Mt. Fuji exclusive). This is traditional SSX at its finest with set times and scores to get for the gold medal as well as surviving as long you can in the "Survive It" mode, which is mainly known for the deadly descents. Ghosts can also be saved for friends to beat as well if you think have a tough time or score to beat. Most events in Explore require credits to be unlocked along with gear requirements, which also be mentioned later on. Most of the goad medal scores and times are doable as long as you have the right line and maintaining your trick combo for the whole run, but one small mistake and you're just itching to restart even though there is a rewind mechanic. The rewind mechanic in SSX is nice to have, but it comes with a price as points are being subtracted from trick events, lose precious time in races, and you have a limited use of them in survival events. For trick events though, rewinding is still worth it to a certain extent to keep your long combo, but it was way better and satisfying to nail off a full pull.

EA did something different with SSX in terms of multiplayer. What I mean by different is that there is no actual head-to-head multiplayer meaning you're not seraching for matches to play against people as you would in most games out today. The best way I can describe SSX's online multiplayer is the Global Events mode. There are set events held at the various peaks with certain money and gear requirements and last for a limited time. If your time or score falls within a certain bracket (diamond, platinum, gold, silver, bronze) by the end of the event's timespan, the certain amount of money you can earn. Usually with events filled with hundreds of players, the pots get bigger to the millions and even billions. Despite the limited time these events have, they can be played as many times before they end. When it comes to the gameplay screen though, it does feel like you're playing online against others that are playing the same event with you, but you can't interact with them by knocking them down. Global Events in a nutshell have that Trackmania vibe and I believe it does work for a game like SSX, but I can see why no head-to-head multiplayer is a bummer for some people.

The big question in this SSX is does the gameplay still hold up and be as fun as its past iterations? The answer is an easy yes. Pulling off full runs of crazy uber tricks never felt so satisfying as well as barreling down a mountain with infinite boost for a short period of time. The sense of speed once you have your tricky meter at gold is amazing and feels very Burnout-ish too. You can still knock out your opposing AI competition during races, but not with your fists like in previous games. Races have become more of trying to find the best and fatest line down a course, which is a good thing adding more intensity even though you still have to pull of tricks to get that tricky meter up and running for boosting. Trick It runs are basically trying to do as many tricks as you can to rack up your combo also seen in past iterations with ubers, grinds, signature tricks, and so on. Then there are the "Survive It" events that are new to this SSX. As mentioned with the deadly descents earlier, the goal is to basically survive in a track as long as possible as your measured distance determines your medal placing. This mode is also where the gear and customization come into play as well as certain regions of the world require certain equipment to increase chances of survival. For example, an oxygen tank is required at Mount Everest, a wingsuit from most of Patagonia, etc. Speaking of the wingsuit, it is a neat addition to have in SSX where you're just temporarily flying around to go past big gaps. These survival events are also interesting that you have a health meter, so you can't bail or fall into bottomless pits, but you can equip armor to increase that, which is also useful in avalanche stages. There are control options that players are get accustomed to depending on their style. The default controls work fine as you can map tricks to the face buttons (my personal choice) or the right analog stick. For those that preferred the old school approach of past games, the classic controls are there to use as well with the tricks mapped on the triggers. I had a tough time however adjusting to spinning in the air being mapped to the d-pad, so that is why I went with the default controls. Even though most of the time you may feel like you're going on autopilot, SSX is still as fun at it was back in the last console generation. If you have that perfectionist mentality like me however, expect to press that restart button numerous of times, but it is more satisfying once you get the run that you wanted.

Graphically, SSX is a beauty to look at. The various regions throughout the world feel varied considering there are tons of mountains to transverse along with the various obstacles these locales obtain especially for the deadly descent events. Another beautiful thing is that the framerate never or rarely hitches down at any point, which is remarkable for a game like this. It is also telling that EA took their sweet time with the locales because of the topographical mapping they used to get the courses right. Sure, it is not filled with neon lights and fantasy-like environments as seen in past games, but the realistic approach to the levels here worked out well. The SSX franchise is also known for pumping out great licensed soundtracks and this new one is no exception. From rock, hip-hop, electronic, and dubstep, SSX's soundtrack is varied and of course there is the new "Its Tricky" remix that plays for a bit whenever you get your tricky meter gold, which is good too. The voice acting is also fine for the characters even though you're focused on the action at hand.

SSX is definitely worth the long wait and it is nice in general to see this franchise back again with a genre that is on a drought as of late. Hours and hours of content await you from the World Tour "campaign" to get things started, cranking out the hundreds of Explore events, and taking your skills online with the Global Events. In addition, there is the addiction of RiderNet stacking up your times and scores against your friends to make yourself keep going too. The signature and stylish feel of SSX is still intact from past games pulling off insane tricks from big jumps. Races are fast and furious at all times with an amazing sense of speed. The new survival events are a great addition as well to spice things up if you need a break from the other stuff this game contains. These deadly descent runs alone are also very intense and you just know you can not mess up once at all. Despite the lack of actual competitive multiplayer, SSX is a must get for snowboarding fans and those who loved the past games.

Score = 9/10

Pros:

• Hours and hours of content to the point it can take you months to complete everything
• World Tour is a good campaign and warmup for what is come in Explore and Global Events
• Interesting take on multiplayer having that Trackmania vibe
• Great graphics with smooth/consistent framerate and soundtrack
• Importantly, it is still SSX at its finest

Cons:

• Lack of actual competitive multiplayer is a bummer for some
• Better have a friend list that play this game to take advantage fully of what RiderNet offers, because it can be addicting to try to beat your friends' times and scores

Dance Central 2 Brings All The Boys To The Yard...

Last week's DLC for Dance Central 2 was "Milkshake" by Kelis and it was a reminder why this song was crazy during my high school years. Mainly, I still remember it because it had an insane beat for the time. Anyway, enjoy the clip above and this week is finally shuffling with LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem" unless you already have the song because you bought a copy of DC2 this month at some stores.

A Taste of Snowboarding Heaven... Hands-On with the SSX Demo

Snowboarding heaven arrives next week with the new SSX and EA was able to release a demo on Xbox Live Marketplace and Playstation Network earlier this week. The demo contains two tracks with one being a race against CPU opponents at the Rockies and the other being trick-based at New Zealand. There is also a tutorial at the start to get players used to the controls as it defaults to standard, but can be changed to classic like the PS2 games were. However, the classic controls don't feel as classic as they should. Even though the tricks are mapped to the L and R buttons, spinning in the air is only on the d-pad and it can be tough to adjust to that with the left analog stick as regular movement. Sometimes, you will forget that you have to spin with the d-pad during big jumps missing big scoring opportunities. The standard controls, on the other hand, also took some time to get used to after so many years with the classic controls. Tricks can be done with the right stick or the face buttons as I went with the face buttons and they feel fine even though after a hour or two of hammering those buttons during jumps, my fingers were definitely taking a beating. Once you find a control style of preference after some runs, you'll be fine as you progress through the game.

The developers took the racing seriously this time around in this new SSX. Taking the right line really matters as it makes a big difference between being first and second place. The combat mechanics from the previous games are taken out, so you can punch people next to you to take them out for a short period of time, which is why I like the strong emphasis on the actual racing. It took me a while to find that perfect line through the Rockies course as I keep getting 2nd because sometimes following whoever is in first and trying to pass is a not the best idea. I also have to keep in mind that it is still a race and I can't be crazy high in air pulling off sick tricks, but you have still to nail enough of those to infinite boost going on your tricky meter. Speaking of boosting, SSX does a great sense of speed when you get a good stretch going really fast down the mountain. I would also compare it to the Burnout franchise once you go blazing. Then there is the RiderNet feature, this game's version of Need for Speed's autolog where you compare times and scores against your online friends and the leaderboards, but I won't get that much into that until my review of the final game.

The "Trick It" section of the demo is about getting a high score for the gold medal as most of those events go in the previous games. Just like the racing, a planned out line is definitely recommended to get that score, but at the end of the day, you're just going to find whatever ramp closest and try to get as many points as you can out of it. The tricky meter is similar to the uber meter with two levels of tricks. Once your tricky meter is golden, you can do the next level of tricks and even signature ones as well. Keeping that meter golden is the big key in doing well in these Trick It events because ending the combo will reset the multiplier. One of the exploitable tactics in past SSX games was to nose/tail press by any means necessary when you can't find a nearby jump and that still works to a certain extent in this new SSX. Another new mechanic in SSX is ability to rewind especially bailing during a big combo. I'm glad the developers decided that rewinding feels like a punishment as it subtracts points from your score and during races, opponents will just pass you. With that punishment mentality in mind, players like me won't use it that much and rather restart from the beginning of the course to get that perfect full run going.

I should not be talking more about this demo because most of this is gonna transfer over to my review of the final game, but damn I'm totally in love with the new SSX. If the demo is any indication how next week will turn out, this is gonna be arguably my most played game of the year. Plus, its nice to have a trick-based game out again because it seemed like the extreme sports genre of gaming of dying because of the Tony Hawk franchise's downfall and EA's Skate series did well enough, but not enough for that mainstream success. The strive for perfect full runs and trying to dominate RiderNet against online friends is gonna keep players like me going for a long time. I can already tell just by resetting multiple times during races and trick runs to try again (shoutouts to Siglemic). The graphics and soundtrack are also amazing just by the demo alone and I believe they will hold up in the final game. Man I can't wait for Tuesday which is when SSX is coming out on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

First Gameplay Footage of Sonic 4: Episode II

Sega finally shows off gameplay in their new trailer for Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode II. After the disappointment that was Episode I, hopefully Dimps can turn it around here. Will the physics be changed for the better? It seems early to tell from all the quick cuts of the clip. At least the levels seem different and not unoriginal versions of past stages which Episode I had. One of the zones might be another version of Sonic 2's Aquatic Ruin Zone, but I'm not exactly sure. Tails seems to have a bigger role than people thought of in the first place as there are team mechanics to transverse through the acts, so at least he is not an useless sidekick. This is coming out in the Spring and after playing through Sonic CD again (which I didn't review, but get it since its still five bucks), I hope Episode II can make this whole Sonic 4 thing something legit than a desperate attempt of a comeback.

Taking Gangstas Back Into Space with Saints Row: The Third's New DLC

Even though Genkibowl VII was a disappointment to many last month, THQ and Volition are back with another set of DLC missions with Gangstas in Space. The big difference this time that this pack is actual story missions than activities seen in Genkibowl. The length of beating them is still the same as you'll be done with Gangstas in Space in a hour or two. This does not have any relation to the main campaign, but you star in a new movie directed by Andy Zhen. Your sidekick is a girl named Jenny playing as Kwilanna as the director gives her a tough time as if she is just an extra throughout the DLC. The missions themselves are scenes from the movie being shot and they are only three of them, hence why this DLC is over right away. Most of the scenes do take in Steelport as you blast away the army, alien intruders, and even alien spaceships to save Jenny. Like Genkibowl, Gangstas in Space does come in its own trophies and the unfortunate thing about them compared to Genkibowl is that you can't replay the missions with the same character over again if you missed a trophy or two (a patch will come out that will resolve that soon) . For trophy whores, better have a second character ready just in case you skipped getting one of them even though most of them are simple and can be beaten normally. The one achievement/trophy you'll likely miss the first time around is the collectable one as there are collectables spread throughout the movie set to get.

There is some other nice touches about Gangstas in Space. A film grain is used for the most of the missions giving it that feeling that you're actually shooting a movie. Also, the trademark humor the game has been known for is still intact from the cutscenes and even the trophies such as the "Do A Barrel Roll!" one. Additionally, I loved the usage of music in this DLC as it is the generic movie type of soundtrack you would hear when watching a summer blockbuster and it works in a game like this. The unlockables are not that bad and probably not gonna be used again when roaming around, but you get a spaceship, a new homie, and new laser weapons. Despite all of that, Gangstas in Space is seven bucks and for one hour or two of content, seven bucks is still too much for some, but this is better than Genkibowl because of the fact these are actual missions with a storyline. Hopefully next month's DLC (I think this is the last one planned) is even better than the two out now.