Game play:  I loved how the game is very similar to Prince of Persia. You have to climb pipes, walls, and perform acrobatic feats. The platforming is some of the most fluid I’ve ever seen. There have been times where I couldn’t tell  if  I was pressing the buttons or it was a cut scene. I was truly sold on the awesomeness when I unlocked the hover board cloud. I rarely have my jaw drop during a game, but I had one bad ass HELL YEAH moment.

Rent or buy, this is one game you should experience.

 Lets start with Activision. If you have any problems with anything Activision you can easily contact them in these three ways.

1. On Twitter
2. On Facebook
3. On the Activision site

 If you have any problems or just want to know why somthing on Xbox is the way it is, you can contact them in these ways.

1. On Twitter
2. On the phone (800) 4MY-XBOX
3. On their site

 The people at Activision Support and Xbox Support are great and will help you with your problems. And guess what! They are REAL gamers! But if you want them to take you seriously, do the following.

• Don’t yell at them!
• Don’t ignore their suggestions
• Be kind

 Follow all this and you will get your problem solved.

Developed by

The Breakdown

“Clean up” the mess you made and destroy the FLDSMDFR!

Breaking Points

In this wacky and fun family game, you play as Flint Lockwood as you try to save the planet from your invention; the FLDSMDFR. You go throughout town as you fight off mutated food enemies with your spiffy gadgets such as; the chopper, heat gun, the sucker, the fork-a-ma-jigger and punch gun. As you make your way through town, you have to avoid being hit by food falling from the sky and must solve little puzzles in order to advance in the game.

Tips & Tricks

• Don’t’ run too quickly on the butter, or you will slide into a hot puddle of chili
• Look at other locations first before going to your destination. You can always find hidden things.
• Can’t get all food items to unlock a puzzle piece? Not to worry- get back to them once you have upgraded to level three on your gadgets.

My Thoughts

This is a kid game, so I knew not to expect too much out of it- it’s no Batman: Arkham Asylum. The main reason I played this game is because it is an achievement game! If you are all about achievements like I am, this game gives you a total of 25 achievements equaling to 1000 GS. Another nice thing is, this game can be done in five hours or less- so you will have your achievements and be done with the game in no time.

Even though it was more of a kid’s game, I actually found it quite entertaining. It is nice to step away from “hardcore” games and just have fun. I am kind of ashamed to say this, but there were a couple times that I had to actually think about how to get to the next destination. Of course after I got used to the game, it became easier to solve these mini puzzles. I blame it on me being tired (that’s my story and I am sticking to it). �

Final Score: 7 out of 10

Here are the numbers from the highest selling  current generation consoles to the lowest selling.

PS3: 491,800

Wii: 462,800

Xbox 360: 352,600

A lot of PS3 fans are really taking this to heart, here’s what some PS3 fans think about The PS3 beating the Xbox 360 and Wii.

 “Well, it’s about time!” — said Ploogle.

“Happy I guess, good to know that more and more people are getting to play some of the great PS3 exclusives.” — said Cam Dog.

“I think that it’s awesome that the PS3 is finally getting the love it deserves.” — said Weclock

“It’s quite really really awesome” — said Mariano Alpha

As you can see, these PS3 fanboys are really loving it! I’m not really fond of the whole thing but whatever, it’s just one month I suppose, Xbox 360 will win next month.

Rated T for Teenage by the ESRB

The plot

The Beatles: Rock band is the brand new, highly anticipated spin off to the Rock band series. Following on from Rock band 2, the game follows the Beatles rise to fame, from The Cavern to their last public performance on the top of Apple Corp. Game play is identical to other games of this type a point, players use various fake plastic ‘instruments’ such as drums, guitars and mics to ‘play’ or sing along with the tracks by pressing the correct coloured notes, or singing in the right key as they scroll past your eyes.

A new addition to certain songs is up to three part vocal harmonies, which allow up to three different players to sing along.

Using original studio recordings, archive footage and photo’s The Beatles game is a one stop shop for the many Beatles fans.  Having over 40 tracks which can be added to by a dedicated music store in game [PS3 and Xbox 360 versions only] there are many hours of fun ahead.

The game

Using the standard Rock band / Guitar hero standard of game play – users select which instrument they want to play, or select to sing – after that you choose one of the many songs, and try and nail the performance.

You start the story mode at the world famous Cavern club in liverpool, which has been recreated in perfect detail, complete with hundreds of screaming teenage girls. You can play the story mode alone, or with friends, online or offline and once the Beatles take the stage the game kicks off.

Watching the group in the background , most of the screen is filled with the ‘highway’ of note.  Hitting the correct note or notes at the correct time, not only gives you points and works towards a 5 star rating, grants you ‘Beatle Mania’ – the new star power mode where score multipliers are doubled. Hitting the correct notes is not just about pints though, but it also makes sure the music sounds correct – miss a few notes and it can sound like a bull in a guitar shop and you may well fail the song, as the once loyal fans boo you.

You continue to play unlocking songs in the various game modes until you reach the famous final performance on the top of Apple Corp .

That’s the basic story mode gameplay in a nutshell but what a nutshell…

Right from the games Intro, your treated to some amazing animated visuals, using a unique style to bring the Beatles to the screen, in a way that drips of a game made by fans, for fans…  Even on the loading screens between each song, they have added in the odd recording from the studio out takes, which add further to feeling of the game, and even provide some funny moments.

The presentation on the game as a whole, is a testament to the loyal fan base that the Beatles had acquired over the decades.  Candid film footage and photo’s can be unlocked by playing their hits well, and this does add to the replay value.

There are a few different modes that you may like to check out, from Quick Play – which allows you to choose the songs and the order you play, to a full set of online modes.

Hints and tips.

• Remember if you are playing the Guitar – you can hold down a fret before the note hits the strum line, so it is handy to know.
• If a member of the band fails the song, use ‘Beatle Mania’ to bring them back into the game. Having a full band can help you gain a higher star rating.
• Practice a song, if your just missing a 5 start rating to unlock an item, remember practice makes perfect!
• Want more fun? – try singing and playing an instrument – grab a mic stand and get that real Beatles feeling!

The verdict

If your a Beatles fan – this is a must buy.

Right from the outset, the game is a fans dream come true, right from the Beatles models, all of which look like the real person to a point, to the sets and the backgrounds, it all just seems to ‘fit’ together into a real world of music.

While the set list may not contain all of your favorites, there are plenty of hits amongst the lesser known songs, but having said that all are great to play along to from ‘Here comes the sun’ to the lesser know ‘While My guitar gently weeps’ which has some great guitar solo parts.

Each song also has it’s own uniquely made background animation, which was developed with the help of the Beatles. From the more closed in setting of The Cavern complete with hundreds of screaming girls to the more ‘trippy’ acid trip visuals which accompany the later studio recordings, all will have you tempted to watch the background performance rather than the highway and notes your supposed to be playing!

If your a fan of the Rock band series, you may find the customisation options open to you in The Beatles game a little sparse. As you play as the Beatles, gone are any creation tools to make a rocker of your liking, as are any free style parts while playing since you play the songs note for note.

It’s also important to point out if you expect to be able to load your existing Rock band DLC into this game, as you can the others in the series, your also out of luck.

While there is a dedicated download section for the game, only Beatles tracks can be used within the game – so no rocking out to Marilyn Manson tunes as John Lennon, but fear not, they have said that content will be added to the store over time. Think of the game as a spin off, rather than a sequel.

At present the complete “Abby Road’ album is currently available for download [PS3&Xbox360] along with ‘All you need is love’ which also has a donation to ‘Doctors without Boarders’ in the purchase price, so as well as getting a cracking song, your helping real people too.

My only reservation with the game, is it’s a little on the easy side.. I am used to playing Hard on Rock band, and I don’t pretend to be a rock star, but I found myself getting 5 stars on most of the early tracks, and never once completely failed a song. While this may be a blessing for people new to the game or playing style, I did think it was a little disappointing not to offer a real challenge later in the game.

If your a fan of music games, this is a cracking title to add to your collection, one complete with an all round good feeling soundtrack and visuals, a great party game, but if your a Beatles fan – this should be top of your list as long as you don’t mind it being a little easy to begin with.

Oh and watch out for the trippy visuals on some of the tracks if you have epilepsy – this is a game where the warning should be took into consideration!

Final Score – 9 out of 10

Developed by:

Rated M for Mature by the ESRB

The plot

Dead Space Extraction is a prequel to the the scary as hell 3rd person shooter, Dead Space, available on PS3 and Xbox 360.

Set in a universe where the earths resources are exhausted mining companies are forced to go out into the stars and ‘crack’ open planets to mine them for valuable minerals.  This process is done via a large mining vessel, in this story it’s the USG Ishimura, and a small group of miners based on the planet who prepare by mining to the core and getting it ready for the USG Ishimura to pull the cork and this normally goes with out a hitch…  

But that wouldn’t make much of a game now would it?

During the run of the mill mining mission on the planet, Aegis VII, it appears that while digging they have uncovered something of alien design called a ‘marker’, this artifact also has something of a religious following, and as the story progresses more and more info starts to filter though.

There are plenty of scares ahead for those new to the series, and people already familiar with the Dead Space franchise should find the new style of play and the story interesting to say the least, and you may find it does  live up to the back cover quote ‘The most cinematic action horror experience on the Wii’.

The game

Time to let the first cat out of the bag, this game is no easy ‘on rails’ day glow shooter aimed at children, it’s a 18/R certified game and there are a few F bombs dropped, along with some pretty graphic violence from the outset 

Dead Space Extraction takes the on rail shooter game style leaving you to aim your weapons using an on screen crosshair, it has also embraced an all new shaky camera first person view which thankfully can be toned down in the options, should you, like me, find it too distracting.   This change in game style may disappoint a few people, but it does allow for some very intense moments simply due to the game having complete control of what you see.  

The game starts with the uncovering of this ‘marker’ and as if on cue all hell breaks lose as your fellow co-workers slip into madness and start to either kill themselves or the people around you.  To make matters even worse it appears that some strange ‘alien’ beings have also been awakened by the removal of the marker, this is however not strictly true, in fact not too far into in the story them being alien is disproved with the truth turning out to be even more shocking.  These things are called ‘necro morphs’ and while the name does kinda give the game away about just where these ‘aliens’ come from, seeing them lurching towards you with the sole intent of removing your head, or eating your face, you will have little thought about who they used to be…

Using the Wii mote to aim your gun and use the nunchuck to reload / swap weapons.  This does take a few minutes to get used to and if your using the Wii Zapper make sure you unclip the nunchuck from the back of it, since you need it free to do melee attacks…

Once you get used to shooting with your Wii mote and reloading and using other things with your other hand you will find that you’re removing the limbs of the oncoming hordes with ease, yes I did say ‘removing the limbs’ since the quickest way to kill the Nerco Morphs is to remove various limbs and body parts. 

Just shooting the necro morphs will stop them, but will also take a lot more ammo than if you selectively remove parts of them first.   The ‘strategic dismemberment’ from the first game is back and with the help of stasis which slows down any oncoming attacker to a snails pace, it has never been more fun to do.   To complement stasis you also have a kinesis power as well this allows for objects to be grabbed from a distance and held on to or thrown back – you will find kinesis is a very useful tool since it allows you to collect ammo and search the many lockers and crates for ammo and weapons.

You always start out with a rivet gun which comes with unlimited ammo although it’s low power it can still save you in a tight situation and like all the other guns it comes with a handy secondary fire activated by holding the Wii mote sideways to the screen, gangster style.   All weapons also come with an active reload style of reloading, press or shake for a reload and then press the fire button as the reload gauge hits a mark on the cross hair for a faster reload, mess it up and you have to wait a few extra seconds, so use it wisely!

During some very intense and long missions you will find yourself playing along with various other non playable people, who not only help fight the oncoming necro morphs but also from time to time have to protect them.  This really does add to the feeling of being ‘in’ a horror action film – the acting is done very well for the most part and some of the set pieces are also very well done.

The game features a ‘drop in, drop out’ co-op mode so at any point a friend can jump in and help out should the going get too tough.  This is a great feature, and one that you may find handy in the later levels.

Hints and tips

• Reload and reload often – never enter an area with an empty weapon…
• Search every locker and crate you see for ammo and weapon upgrades – you will need everything you can lay your hands on…
• Secondary fire uses more ammo on some guns, so use wisely – also remember the alt fire of the Rivet gun, needs to be charged…
• Use Stasis to slow down the more deadly enemies – some may look small but they can be deadly…

The verdict

Dead Space extraction is a great game even if you have played the first title, although you may find a little de ja vu popping up from time to time, as you progress on a path you may already know - from zero g sections, medical bays, tram lines and finally of course, the USG Isimura

Many of the first games locations are revisited again and on the Nintendo Wii I’m happy to tell you they all still look great.   The games main draw of scares and horror carries over to the new on rails shooter gameplay thats assuming you will be scared – some people seem immune to the normal horror movie tricks, but hopefully there is enough here to at least make you tingle. 

This game throws every horror film scare tactic at you from the get go, strobing lights, blaring alarms to jets of steam it’s like every sci-fi horror film condensed into a game.  You even get pitch black sections where you have to shake the Wii mote like a glow stick to be able to see clearly, also like a glow stick it slowly fades out so you have to spend many valuable seconds shaking the thing again just so you can see to shoot.

My only concern is that a few people may think the game is a simple on rails shooter which it has to be said could not be further from the truth.  Yes it is on rails but you do get to choose routes on certain sections, repair consoles and in all of them you will have to find ammo and weapons hidden in crates and lockers as you go.   Ammo is in short supply and if you do not take out the different types of necro morphs in the correct way you will find yourself running out of it for the larger guns, and therefore it can make certain levels very hard indeed.

Weapon upgrades and hidden video/ voice logs are also scattered about the different levels, so make sure you check every locker with your kinesis power, there’s a lot more to do and find than on other games of it’s type.  It’s interesting hearing the voice logs coming out of the Wii motes speaker, and can add to the atmosphere as you place it to your ear to hear the crackly voices of people long since dead… 

Once you have completed the story mode, you unlock a few challenge modes which see you facing wave after wave of necro morphs in the various different maps used in the story mode.  This coupled with the different routes and collectables can extended the games life span past the 7 or 8 hours it will take you to complete the story mode.

Special mention must to the sound, the music and sound effects blend into a perfect horror movie atmosphere that added to your heavy breathing in some sections of the game adds perfectly to the overall feeling of being trapped in the situation on screen.

If you have played Dead Space, you will know where this story will end, but that shouldn’t stop you from picking this up, since it does add a lot to the back story and if your new to the series and like the idea of a space horror this is the game for you.

Final Score – 8.5 out of 10

Oh!  Don’t forget to follow Active_Girl on Twitter for up to date info!  Tell her kiki kat sent you… she probably won’t know who the hell I am, but it will sound cool!

Active For Life

Posted on Oct 6, 2009

Pros:

• My most favorite children’s book EVAH.
• October 13th is my mom’s b-day and she is my most favorite mom EVAH.
• The screenshots, and trailer look really, really nice.
• RAWWWRRR

Cons:

• Every time you turn around they are making a movie out of a videogame or a videogame out of a movie.

What do you think?  Check it out at http://www.wherethewildthingsarethevideogame.com/

Threepwuss is back in Telltale Games’ newest edition of Tales of Monkey Island.  The Lair of the Leviathan is chock full of the answers that left you frothing at the mouth when the Siege of Spinner Cay wrapped up.  It marks the return of a familiar face…err…skull and introduces some new puzzle types.  Join Guybrush in the belly of the manatee on his quest to become a real boy and find La Esponja Grande.

the Story

Telltale Games is writing the book on episodic games and the Lair of the Leviathan is no exception. Picking up right where chapter 2 left off, you see a giant manatee come to the surface of the ocean and swallow the Narwhal and her crew. The crew of course is Guybrush, Winslow and Morgan Le Flay the Pirate Hunter, who happens to pick the wrong time to capture Guybrush. They find themselves in the belly of the manatee alive and well. They quickly discover that sabotage to the manatee’s navigation system has them off course for reaching the manatee mating grounds and the home of La Esponja Grande. They find De Cava who is working tirelessly on a plan to fix the manatee that will take a lifetime to complete. It turns out that De Cava’s lost crew is behind the sabotage and are hiding in the stomach of the beast. They formed a democratic brotherhood and vowed to never serve another person again. De Cava is unaware of his crew’s mutiny and thinks they were lost when they were swallowed. It’s up to the crew of the Narwhal to earn the trust of the rebellious crew and expose them to De Cava. They’ll have to set aside their differences and work together to get the manatee back on track and find La Esponja Grande before the Pox takes over the Caribbean.

the Rest

This was one of the tougher ones I’ve played and it took me two days to run through it, including a little help from the telltale games forums. I really enjoyed the story.  Just when you think you’ve got it figured out, something changes and you go back to speculating.  I’m calling it now….Le Chuck is not as nice as he seems to be in his human form and we’ll find that out in the later chapters. I may be wrong but that’s my guess. The return of Murray is done quite well and TOMI fans will be pleasantly surprised to see him in his next gen form. The character development is good and the story is starting to take shape. The story is filled with many subplots that were seemingly unrelated and now they are starting to come together.

There are a few new puzzle types that mix up the gameplay a little and set it apart from the previous games. The puzzle I enjoyed the most was talking to the leviathan and picking the right answers in order to make it happy. The other one involved finding different faces that Guybrush can mimic in order to concoct the meanest pirate face. While it was a little tougher at times it was a welcome change. You’ll also start out with some of your old equipment again so keep that in mind when searching around for clues.

I’m finding that as the series goes on I’m enjoying it more and more. This one has by far the best credits of any game I’ve played in recent memory. Whoever came up with that idea should be promoted, of course you’ll have to beat it to see that. I’d really recommend the series if you’re a PC gamer or try it out on the Nintendo Wii. (I may have to try them on the Wii) You can pick up the series and all the details on Telltale Games website and find all the hints and help you could ask for in their forums.

Hope you enjoy this as much as I did and be sure to let us know if you check it out.  Write to us at feedback at breakingthegame dot com. 

~Scratch

the Story

I’m going to clearly separate the story from the rest of the review. While I won’t spoil any main plot twists or give away any identities, I’m going to give a brief overview of the story. The main content in these episodic games by Telltale is the storyline, so if your new to the series or don’t want anything spoiled skip down to the the rest of the review.

The story picks up right from the same spot you left off in Chapter one. Guybrush is immediately turned away from his spyglass and faced with a nemesis who is mentioned a few times in the first Chapter, but I’m going to keep them nameless. Guybrush must battle his way off the ship in a puzzle more akin to the final battles in Telltale games. Once that is out of the way, Guybrush is left feeling like a little less of a man, but he must continue his search for Elaine and LeChuck. Your First Mate Winslow is manning the helm and it’s up to you to direct him where to go. You set sail for the Jerkbait Islands and find yourself at the gateway known as Spinner Cay. You’ll meet the Vacaylian people as you explore this small part of the Jerkbait islands. They’ll help you find DeCava, whom the VooDoo Lady sent you to seek out, in order to find La Esponja Grande. However, he has come up missing and it appears you’re not the only one in search of the magical pox curing sponge. The Pox stricken Pirates are after the secrets to finding the sponge as well. Elaine has come with LeChuck to the Jerkbait Islands to help him release the monkeys he had captured back into their natural habitat. They are also unwittingly caught up in the dispute between the Vacaylians and the Pirates. That’s right, LeChuck is no longer infected with the pox and has been transformed into a charming, caring and determined Pirate eager to do good things and save the day. Enough to make Guybrush a little uneasy with his own self esteem. You’ll have to work with Elaine and LeChuck to save the Vacaylian People and protect La Esponja Grande from the pirates’ Siege of Spinner Cay.

the Rest

Gameplay is largely the same as the first chapter with a few key differences. You’ll start with some items that you finished with in chapter one, so you’ll have a decent inventory from the beginning. You also have the option to sail your ship around to different small islands or rent a raft and sail to the islands within the Jerkbait Islands. You can’t go back to Flotsam though. The Marquis is still after you so I suspect we’ll be seeing it again, besides we still don’t know what’s in the VooDoo Lady’s treasure chest. I think the formula for the “levels” is also a little different. With Wallace and Gromit you had a short intro, a longer second set of puzzles, a shorter third set and a final single longer puzzle. That was loosely the formula for those games. With Tales of Monkey Island, Telltale has gotten away from that and mixed things up a bit. I prefer this because it’s not as easy to tell how far you are in the game and keeps you on your toes wondering when it’ll end. The character dialogue in this game is pretty funny and keeps with the witty humor you’ve come to expect from the series. I might even say it’s funnier than the first. To be fair there’s a little more content to go on since the characters and story have developed a little more.

The puzzle solving in this game had me over thinking what I was trying to do. A few times, I found myself reading into the puzzle too much when the answer was right in front of me. As with the other games this will take a few hours to complete depending on your critical thinking skills. I’m not real sure the hint system difficulty made much of a difference. I changed it to give me hints often but it still seemed like I wasn’t being pointed in the right direction. I would know what to do, just not how to do it.  The hints seemed to only to give very generalized suggestions and usually gave me a hint to a part of the puzzle I had already completed. This doesn’t even come close to ruining the game experience and doesn’t really take anything away, I just didn’t think it added much. I think I’d prefer a system that required you to figure it out on your own, but it would give a hint or subtle dialogue cue when you did something right to indicate you are on the right track.

Overall, this was a great game and I enjoyed every minute of it. I’m looking forward to Lair of the Leviathan to see what Telltale has in store for Guybrush as the secrets of Monkey Island unfold. I’d also recommend going over to Telltale’s Website and purchase the entire series to play them from start to finish for maximum experience of the series. Since this is an episodic series each game is a small part of a singular story. If you decide to join the adventure let us know what you think. We’d love to hear from you.

~Scratch

Tales of Monkey Island website