The Expendables 2 Videogame Hands On

Just a few days before it debuts in the USA the film “The Expendables 2” starring Sylvester Stallone, Jet Li and Jason Statham along with most of the action heroes of the 90’s as Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren and the legendary Chuck Norris, as part of the marketing we have this action game called simply The Expendables 2 Videogame.

The game is available on the PSN and Xbox Live from July 31 and will cost $14.99

First of all I want to tell you that being a game based on a movie there have very low expectations, since most of these titles are of poor quality due to the short development time and with haste to be ready earlier or at least by the pair of the film and to prove that the statistics do not fail, The Expendables 2 is no exception, as it is far from being a quality game.

We begin by selecting the game mode that can be online/offline for up to 4 simultaneous players which gives an extra and there are not many titles that allow us to play with three of our friends on the same console, each with a different character and talking about characters I would point out something that surprised and disappointed me at the same time, the characters to choose from, which are Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone), Gunnar Jensen (Dolph Lundgren), Yin Yang (Jet Li) and Hale Caesar (Terry Crews). The first thing I said was where is Lee Christmas (Jason Statham)?? As one of the main characters I think is a big mistake  to leave him out of the game for whatever reason, but ok I can survive with the others, except with Ceaser or so I thought, but just starting the game and realize that all characters have 2 different weapons which gives a unique style to each one, Ceaser carries a grenade launcher, which in my opinion, is the best weapon of the 4.

Speaking a little more of the game style , which is action-shooter viewed from above, like Dead Nation or the latest game from The Ghostbusters, where you move your character with the left stick as point and shoot with the right stick, but this is where another of the flaws of the game as in the various games of the genre it has a “laser sight” which helps us know what we are aiming at, here unless we are using the snipergun, most of the time we will be shooting enemies without being certain of where we are aiming at, making it more difficult to hit our goals and more when you try to shoot one of the barrels or the snipers who are on top of the towers, we can make melee attacks, somersaults to avoid the shooting, throwing grenades and even covering up which is rare for the style of play but can save us on more than one occasion.

A highlight is the special move for each character which can be run collecting emblems of The Expendables and will let us attack an enemy while the camera zooms in to show us how our character in turn, shoots him point-blank, which to be honest is very satisfying.

During the game there are some times that we will be shooting from a helicopter, a technique used in games of old school but still working to get us out of the main style and give some variety to the game.

Turning to the graphics, the game is far from satisfactory, because to be a game from the current generation it looks like from the first Xbox or PS3, some texture looks really bad and what about the thousands of soldiers that we face which are all exactly alike.

Regarding the audio seemed decent, just with the extra to have the real voices of the actors giving a touch of personality to each one.

To conclude I would like to comment that The Expendables 2 Videogame is available for PS3, Xbox 360 or PC and just as  the film I think is nothing spectacular but it accomplishes the goal to entertain for a while, it’s up to you to decide if 3-4 hours of game are worth to buy it, as being very repetitive I do not think you spend more time.

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Heavy Rain PS3 Review

A serial killer, a police officer and a desperate father are the ingredients that give rise to the plot of Heavy Rain, a PS3 exclusive game developed by the team of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe in collaboration with Quantic Dream.

A perfect life ……
You wake up in your bedroom, the sun coming through the window, you look out into the garden, take a shower and remember that it is the birthday of your son Jason, the eldest, your wife took him shopping with his brother Shaun, when they return to home it is time for the food but you give yourself time to get out and play around with the boys.

This is how it all begins in Heavy Rain, a game with a style very different from others that it could be called interactive movie before considering it a videogame but that would be very little to describe what actually is, an unforgettable experience .

Trying to avoid spoilers I can tell you that the story revolves around a serial killer plaguing the city, all seen through 4 different characters that at some point their paths cross to give us different angles of this story so we can get to solve the case of “The Origami Killer.”

Why can’t I run?

The first thing you will notice right after taking control of one of the characters is that you can not run or jump, or hit, just simply walk, observe and interact with some objects, but here is where the primary detail of Heavy Rain comes in, that at all times you will be deciding whether or not to do various activities, which may have consequences for subsequent events trying to give you the feeling that you get real life when making decisions, these range from your character to bathe or get to work or both or neither and continue the story without a problem until you get to some more complex decisions where the life of the characters will be at risk.
Some times in the game we have the freedom to explore different areas, in these parts you have the possibility to hear the thoughts of our characters with the touch of a button in order to understand better and know what their reactions to different situations are.

You’ll need good reflexes

There are several action sequences where we will be pressing the buttons that appears on the screen or perform certain movements with the sticks to put your character to do different moves, some even used the forgotten Sixaxis and a few  time ago was added the compatibility with the PSmove to try to give a better experience when playing.

Some may think it is a slow game but we must consider it is the way that the developers want for us to assimilate all that is happening in this complex story and to get the desired sense of drama.

Reality or Virtual Reality

A highlight is the graphic look, which not surprised cause it was developed by a specialist motion capture study, what they managed to do with the faces of the characters within the game was something to be considered among the best in the world to capture facial feelings into virtual models.

During the loading screens between the different scenes show us the faces of the character you control in a close up and this is where we can appreciate the amount of detail with which they were made.

Why play it?

As I said earlier, beyond a game is a life experience, you just need to go with the story of this fantastic psychological thriller that will keep you hooked and will not let you release the control, the game is made for you to be enjoyed like a movie only with the small detail that lasts between 8 to 10 hours depending on your actions, so I think that if you finish it in about 4 or 5 days you will have all the information still fresh in your memory.

Why NOT to play?

Just to begin, ¿am I playing?, There are several times when we will be mere spectators of a film in HD, along with several loose middle parts where the story progresses very slowly and in my case I played it in Spanish of Castile, and several animations are not in rhythm with the sound.

This is MY end

Actually I became a fan of the game since I finished it, but I encourage you to keep the story has you get it in the first try and stay with that version as your own Heavy Rain, talking with others who have played it I realized that all had a different ending and I think that’s what makes it special, the feeling that everyone has their own end.

Ihighly recommend that you play it and doesn’t matter if you just rent it for a weekend, what matters is not to miss the opportunity to enjoy it.

GAMERSCORE   9/10

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FEAR 3 Review

Alma is back in the third part of this series of FPS which despite not having received good reviews in its sequel, FEAR 3 comes from WB Games and developed by Day 1 Studios with several enhancements discussed in this review .

What a beautiful family

First of all for those unfamiliar with this series, I commented that the story is about a girl with paranormal powers, named Alma, who is used by a company named Armacham to form an army of replicants or clones, which will be controlled by one of his generals with psychic powers ……. not very original but the interesting thing is that in one of those many attempts to control Alma, they created two general prototypes with cells from Alma and the director of Armacham, Harlan Wade, who raised them, if you can call raise to put them in a room and do experiments with them every day, now we take control of these two prototypes as our main characters Point Man and Fettel.

The third part of this saga takes place shortly after the end of FEAR 2 but with the protagonist of the first game, Point Man, who along with his brother Fettel try to reach his mother, who is about to give light, but each with their own intentions.

Turning to gameplay, this is a First Person Shooter but with the touch of terror that characterizes the series, perhaps not much, but managed to make you jump out of your seat more than once.

Two protagonists, two styles

One of the innovative things in the series is cooperative mode that lets two people play the campaign controlling the 2 brothers, who have their own advantages / disadvantages for different styles of play, where we have Point Man, who has encourage the power of time in order to destroy their enemies with greater ease, and to use any of the weapons in its path, and Fettel who can take control of his enemies, make them float, throwing objects or shooting them with hands-rays of energy that maybe don’t do much damage, are infinite, but has the disadvantage of being unable to take any weapons unless you are controlling an enemy soldier.

Play online ….. but with whom

The co-op can be played with 2 people at home or online, although these days that I played did not find anyone who was online, which can be a sign that maybe soon the servers will be shut down. But what is the multiplayer if there were more connected, so I could check the “survive mode” in which you are in a house in the middle of the city and as its name says, you have no choice but to survive hordes of enemies that appear, from simple soldiers to creatures such as werewolves that appear during the game’s story mode.

Why play it?

One reason that I can give is that while there is a refined FPS like COD or BF 3the style of FEAR 3 is not bad and I think the horror things adds enough points to give it a chance, besides the co-op off line.

I also tell everyone who has played previous installments, playing this third part which follows the story of the past two games will be very satisfactory.

Another thing that fascinated me were the parts where everything is dark and you only see what your lamp light up and at times it begins to turn off  giving you the feeling of total darkness, all while you have several creatures behind you, that feeling is worth the game.

Why NOT to play?

I want to comment that the first fault of the game is from the cover which shows the 2 main characters with a different look than they do in the game, never really understood that because the better of the game is featured on the cover.

If you are someone looking for the best graphics in each of their games, you will be disappointed with this one, because it wasn’t the first priority and I almost assure that recycled a lot of FEAR 2, both on backgrounds and in the enemies that are the same as the previous game launched 3 years ago.

And at the end

After all that I just commented, I think that if you buy it at a good price it’s great for a few hours of action and tension in our PS3 or why not rent it and spend a weekend so that could be enough to finish the story mode alone or with a friend at home.

GAMERSCORE   8/10

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Get it on Amazon