What’s great about Guitar Hero 5, is that it was developed for a four-person band experience, rather than the past versions that were geared more towards solo peices. Having lead and bass guitars, drums and vocals will enhance the games true value, while jamming out with your buddies.

Guitar Hero 5 is different from it’s previous versions because of it’s friendly usability. New additions like Party Mode allow for anyone new to the game to simply pick up the controller and get going. The menu selection is much easier, which you may not think is a big deal, but it’ll help newbies select their criteria more quickly and easily.

With this new tweak comes the Career Mode. Scrap the world tour and earning money, it’s all about the stars now. Instead of making cash, you’ll be completing objectives throughout on your career on all songs. Whether it be solo or in online play with a band, playing out the game is a lot more fun because of the multiplayer aspect. This is such a great unique feature because instead of beating every song, or playing the tracks that you despise to hear, by beating older songs with new objectives, you’ll collect more stars to progress to the next level. Players no longer have to waste their time on songs they don’t like, or can’t beat.

Other multiplayer changes include band members being able to boost up their band mates Star Power. If one player’s meter is full, the rest will split into the rest of the bands meters. The base of the game is still the same, but the user features are definitely well improved, and that was a big leap for the developers.

Not only can you create your own rockstar, but you can use your XBOX Avatar as the character. It’s nothing spectacular, but it’s fun, and a game like this should be both for the beginner and advanced. There is definitely a good balance in the gameplay.

For those of you that have a copy of World Tour, have no fear, most of the tracks will be compatible with Guitar Hero 5, minus the ones with strict licensing issues.

Featuring a 40+ soundtrack with Van Halen, Foo Fighters, Weezer, Foreigner and others, this installment of Guitar Hero definitely has some bands you could do without, including Third Eye Blind and Yellowcard. Don’t get me wrong, Third Eye Blind was a great 90s band, but considering that “Semi-Charmed Life” is around it’s 20th anniversary, they could have picked a better lineup. All you die hard Van Halen fans won’t be dissapointed as you’ll get to jam out to such hits as “Jump”, “Atomic Punk”, “Everybody Wants Some!!” and many many more, so fans will be able to drop their air guitar and bust out some real music on your console.

Many of the original Guitar Hero features are still here. You’ll be able to team up in a band of 4 to play online, and of course, be able to use the Guitar Hero mixer to create your own tracks. That’s pretty cool, but it’s nothing new and different. The game play itself is rather dominant. Rocking out to Van Halen is no easy task, as you’ll find out in attempts to solo “Eruption” on Expert as Eddie Van Halen.

As far as the interface goes, the game definitely has taken a step back as the stage and characters look mediocre. The game runs off the older Guitar Hero engine that Guitar Hero 5 has greatly improved on, but users and fans know they aren’t buying the game for the look, as much as they are to play their favorite Van Halen rock ballads. The crowds are still great to play for, and the noise levels are phenominal. Van Halen definitely sounds amazing in this game with a Dolby Digital Surround Sound, so if you’ve got killer speakers to play off of, you’ll definitely enjoy playing this throughout the night.

Overall, the band deserved a better game, and doesn’t come close to the magnitude that Guitar Hero: Metallica enjoys. Though the song selection is great, many gamers and fans may still be wanting more. It’s worth the rent, probably not the buy unless you’re a true Van Halen rocker.

Soldiers are the standard character from any other first person shooter with them being masters of firearms and turrets. Sirens have “phasewalk” power, which allows them to cloak for a few moments, adding a speed boost and extra power to melee attacks. Each class has it’s own “skills tree”, where abilities cannot be maxed out. These means spend your points wisely and add them to your classes strengths.



If you’re having trouble in the solo-mode, then just call some friends and have them join you in the multiplayer mode. Up to four of you can group together in tactical strategies to take down your enemies. This isn’t as challenging as playing by yourself, but it’s definitely more fun and doesn’t slow the game down at all.

The characters have a sense of humor and the animation and graphics are extremely unique and satisfying. You have the town doctor and even a guide who will lead you the vault in your search of treasure. Overall, it seems to be a promising game with plenty of action-packed explosions and shoot outs, while still allowing the RPG base of the game take form.



From the beginning of your first missions you’ll be threatened by a few doglike creatures, walking looking zombies, and then later some much larger zoo animals — just deformed. You’ll be equipped with an energy shield, which absorbs damage. This is extremely important to use because taking cover will become a necessity.



Borderlands is definitely a challenging game that allows you to go for the critical headshot, or simply mo down your opponent. Reloading is a little slow, and there are no crazy roll manuevers, so learning to strafe and protect yourself is a must. Like any other RPG, your experience bar will be shown so the player can track their level progress on the screen.

Defense isn’t to difficult. There are plenty of steals on defense in the middle of the paint. Seemingly, everyone can play D in the NBA, especially in the paint. The only other complaint is, like past versions, the shooting doesn’t look as realistic as it could be. It reminds me of NBA Live 96 on Playstation, I beleive Mitch Richmond was on the cover. This becomes extremely obvious when the graphics becomes a bit choppy, and the ball starts getting passed through defenders hands.

A great addition, as well as subtraction to the game, is the Adidas mode which pretty much replaced the Be a Pro mode. In the Adidas 5 on 5 mode you and up to five friends can create your own team and play online. You can’t create your own players, but the idea of playing a pick up game with no fouls has it’s advantages, especially when you start running sick pick and roll plays.

Overall, it’s not that it’s a bad game, but the 2K series is just amazing. Sure there is the auto-updater so that players and teams stay up to date with the progress of the season, but it’d be a lot better if the Season Mode was more dynamic so you’d be able to compete online. Oh well, it’s definitely an improvement, but nothing to crazy over.

7/10

It beats out competitors because of the easy amount of accesibility it offers. The interface and gameplay simply is not cluttered with burried menu options where you spend more time figuring out how to play the game than actually playing. The on-screen surface control, racing and assist options are right there in front of you. You are never penalized for using the assist option, but you do lose some cash towards your final score. The gameplay itself is also revolutionary.



Unlimited rewind is a great option. It’s helpful to be able to replay the entire track with different angles and options. It’s not just rewind. A great implementation is that the developers have become one with the gamer.

No one likes to break. It’s true. Especially when so many games today have you punching the accelerator until your thumb goes numb. The adjustments made to the “Auto Break” really help the player. It’s a great stepping tool to learning how to play the game your best, and also how to handle difficult turns and scenarios.



What needs to be understood about the absolute amazingness behind this revolutionary option is that it does it for you. That’s right, Forza 3 adjusts to your style of play to help you. The Magic Hat will be drawn, and it’ll place you in a race and class to further your learning on how to pedal and break.



Of course you will still be presented with unique, unlockable cars that you will progress through your season to get. They all will still carry their own individual handling differences, which once you master one, you move onto the next. The progression of the game is great.

So wheres the drawback? It’s in the XBOX 360, literally. If you don’t have a HD, you’re definitely in some trouble. Forza 3 comes with 2 discs, with over 100 cars and over 20 races on the 2nd disc, but it takes up about 2GIGS. Even with the HD, you’ll be losing load time which can become frustrating…but get over it.

Forza 3 is the best racing game of all time. Clearly it offers a challenging, yet extremely rewarding gaming experience. It’s also fun!

10/10

While the game is more focused towards the 32-player online battle matches, the single player campaign mode is perfect practice for that. All of the maps are the same, and the designs are quite nice, so the player will quickly get used to their environment before they jump into the online matches. The only difference between the two are very slight variations, one of which is in the campaign mode some parts of the level are blocked off until you complete certain objectives. This is nice because it enables the player to explore the level before getting lost in the giant maps online.

Once you do get into the online game play, there is only one match type, Conquest, which is a mixture of death-match and capture the flag with a different feel. Teams register points by taking control of their opponents bases, giving them access to their turrets in the area. There are also objectives within the matches, all with time constraints, making for frantic action packed gameplay as you try to complete, or deter your opponents, objectives. Completing these objectives gives you victory points, which lead to achievements such as seeing your opponents across the entire map.

When in battle you only have a choice of six guns and seven gadgets, and you can only carry two of each. This is something to keep in mind because changing your weapon lineup mid-battle is very difficult, and there is no one weapon you can use to roll through the map. There are the standard automatics, shotguns and snipers, so nothing new there. One cool gadget is the sensor blocker, which allows you to block your opponents radar with ample time to run into their base.

When going around the levels, your character is rather loafy and slow. There is a sprint button, but you can only use it so much. What is cool, though, is the rocket pack which allows you to jump incredible distances, along with dropping in on your enemies in the siege of battle.

Overall, these generic type shooter game really isn’t that bad considering the online mode is so much fun. Even when you can’t fill up all the spots, users can always add bots to replace your human friends. Though the vehicles are lame and useless, jumping around from place to place using your rocket pack can be a good time.

7/10

The game will take you through 55 different levels and scenarios, all of which will be played between a junkyard or graveyard with different types of zombies and such thrown your way. Lighting effects will also differ where areas will be blacked out and your field of vision substantially changed.

Now, when it comes to gauging at these vicious zombies, like most other zombie games you’ll get your chainsaw, hand guns, flamethrowers and uzis, all dependent on the weapon drops throughout the game. When used accordingly and properly, you’ll be able to whipe out your zombie infestation with some ease. It’s also pretty cool that your infected foes can be tossed into wood chippers and other environmental hazards. Overall, the execution style of these zombies is pretty cool and enjoyable.

In the game you get unlimited lives and ammo, so when you die, you’re losing your spot on the leader board, not your actual progress. That’s great and all, but in the end, most people are playing for their leader board spot and bragging rights, so keeping close on your HP is still important.

A great Arcade Shooter at $10, it’s definitely worth purchasing the download if you’re into the whole “killing of the zombie hordes” type deal, otherwise, I’d leave it be. It’s great to be able to play 4 player online, or locally, with some buddies and give it a go, so socially, it’s definitely worth the $10 bucks.

8/10

So, the game hasn’t changed to much from the previous year. You get most of the same features with added graphics and tweaks, so overall there is a slight improvement to the game. The online-mode has been improved with you now being able to invite a friend to play even in the quick-match mode. This helps so it’s not to big of a pain to play with your buddies. The only problem is lag, which, as well all know, is entirely dependent on how many people you have playing.

Other then the online-mode improvements you still have the ability to run your franchise mode and go for the Cup, or indulge yourself in a quick-match to get the puck going. The options for 3 on 3 hockey are still there, which is a nice feature to play some simple pond hockey, along with the 4 on 4 option.

The game itself has become less demanding control-wise while still having the ease for a fun pass-and-shoot gameplay. Stick tricks are easy to come by without doing massive button combination’s. All you have to do is fiddle with the right joystick to deak and shoot. The speed-boost button also offers a great arcade game feel, which makes setting up one-timers skating down the wing a sinch. Defensemen, no matter how great, aren’t the most formidable opponents, so maneuvering around them isn’t a daunting task.

Overall, the graphics have been improved, but are still behind their times as the goalies seem to have a stranger look to them, and the audio commentary is still a pretty big mess of repeats and funny comments. Since it’s not challenging enough, and changing the difficulty only makes for a faster game, rather than a more intense strategic game, 2k10 won’t keep your attention for long. If you’re looking for a real hockey game, go for NHL 10, otherwise, NHL2k10 isn’t a bad option for a social-non-hockey-loving player.

6/10

As far as the game play, though, players will enjoy what may become the best single-player action shooter for the XBOX 360, and definitely as far as the Halo series goes in general. Although you will no longer be playing with characters like Master Chief or any of the Spartan Class you are all so familiar with, the ODST troops bring a little bit of new style to the Halo package, and also have much more humanistic resemblances.

So, immediately into the game something goes wrong, and your squad’s Carrier crashes and before you know it, you’re all by yourself in some building after waking up hours later. Oh, and surely enough, your crew is gone and will spend the rest of the game trying to meet up with them. Welcome to the new world Rookie!

Throughout the game you will encounter different rescue beacons that have been left by your squad. Each of them will give you a unique mission, which makes the gameplay of ODST so cool. It’s almost like a free-for-all Halo world where you, the gamer, design your own experience. Within these individual missions the gamer really gets to explore their strengths and weaknesses, whether it be close-quarter combat or vehicle driving escapades, Halo 3: ODST offers a variety of places for the gamer to reach pure satisfaction with the game.

So what’s new? Well, besides the type of troops you’ll be commanding and playing, really not to much. There are no new weapons, unless you want to call a couple tweaks to the SMGs a new weapon, and the vehicles haven’t changed at all either. This may be disappointing for some considering Bungie had originally promised some new stuff, but oh well, what are you going to do?

Ahah! There is at least one new addition to tell you all about, the all important visor! Now, not only is the visor really sweet and cool looking, it’s extremely useful. It helps you see in the dark, which comes in handy during your long overnight surge fighting enemies, but especially for identifying whats in front of you. Red are the bad guys, Green the good guys and Blue is for the weapons. When looking at a distance, the visor will help you decide which enemies are worth fighting or sneaking past.

The Multi-Player mode may not be anything to special, but something for gamers to really look forward to is the “Firefight” mode, which is very similar to Gears of Wars 2 Horde mode. In short, be prepared to kill or be killed. Against overwhelming odds, the Covenants will be coming at you in spurts of more and more trying to take you out. Emotions will run high, and you better be on top of your game if you’re going to survive this one. Graphically, Bungie is falling behind, but overall this game does not disappoint. Excellent gameplay, the music has changed to a more electronic feel and the story and narrative is very compelling.

Just keep this in mind when you’re playing: Halo 3: ODST takes the greatnessof the original Halo game and propels it to a new, higher-octane level. If you loved the original game, you’re surely going to be investing your time and money into this one.
9/10

This game is meant to be the third movie in the franchise, and with that in mind, we have to talk about presentation right off the bat. The game opens detailing the ghostly explosion in a beautiful cutscene — all the computer-generated movies look great with lots of detail and animations — and we’re launched into the Ghostbusters theme just like when the Gray Lady scared the librarian in the first movie and when Dana caught up to Oscar’s carriage in the second film. These nifty scenes will continue along with the soundtrack from the original movie throughout the game and setup the tale. There are dips in this presentation value — which I’ll get to in a bit — but these touches are pulled right from the movie and drop you into this third-person shooter with a specific story to tell (i.e. don’t expect to choose your next job GTA-style).


To immerse you in the experience, your noob Ghostbuster character doesn’t speak and isn’t given a name other than “rookie.” In the game, it’s explained that this nameless move is to keep the core four from getting attached in case a device goes haywire and puts the whippersnapper out of commission, but in reality, it’s so you can just sit back and play your part as the real Ghostbusters banter with each other in the tech-heavy dialogue and comedic one-liners you’d expect.

For me, this works quite well. If you haven’t been paying attention, the four original Ghostbusters (Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson) are back to lend their voices along with the team’s receptionist (Annie Potts) and the dickless wonder known as Walter Peck (William Atherton) so you really don’t need some new guy getting in the way of the dialogue, which was penned in part by the films’ original writers Aykroyd and Ramis. I’m sure many would want to create their own character, but when you see some of the facial animations in the CG cutscenes and how the experience plays as a whole, I think you’ll forgive the omission.


OK. So, the game feels a lot like a movie — we’ve even got a new love interest for Venkman in Dr. Ilyssa Selwyn, who is voiced by Alyssa Milano — but you’re probably more concerned with how it plays. A third-person shooter, your Ghostbusters experience is told from the behind-the-back perspective. Rather than have the screen littered with health bars and HUDs (the screen will get red as you take damage and display a running damage total as you blast objects in an environment), your Proton Pack will serve as your hub of in-game information. By monitoring the meter on the right side of the device, you can see how close to overheating you are; yes, to give you some restraints, liberties were taken with the device so that you now have to vent the pack to keep it from overheating and taking you out of the game for an extended period of time.


The pack is also your visual representation for which weapon mode you are in. Rather than limit you to just a proton stream, Egon will have outfitted you pack with a total of four firing modes by the time all is said and done. The first mode is the classic Proton Pack from the movies but packs a Boson Dart (a ball of condensed energy that explodes on impact) as a secondary fire. By tapping left on your D-pad, you’ll switch to your dark matter functions, which causes some blue lights and gizmos to pop out of the pack. These dark blue attacks include the shotgun-like Shock Blast and Stasis Stream that slows enemies to a crawl. The Meson Collider is assigned to Right on the D-Pad — which causes an antenna crackling with electricity to come out of the pack — and tags a ghoul with a tracker and then rapidly fires particles at the enemy. Finally, the Slime Blower is down on the D-Pad and can be used to coat enemies and objects in positively charged goo or as a Slime Tether that draws two objects together. This beaut turns the four red lights green and causes a slime reservoir to rise out of the pack.

Now whats great about this game, other then most other Movie to Video Game attempts, is that it actually is fun to be a Ghostbuster. In between your missions you can run around the firehouse and do various thing that have nothing to do with the story line of the game. Play with slime, the firepole and listen to Janine’s phone callls, all in a hard days work as a Ghostbuster.

The only downside noticed to the game were the random issues with maps. Occassionally you’ll get stuck on metal spikes and other wall objects, but overall it’s not to big of an issue. The most annoying issue, though, is when you will have to wait for your other 3 Ghostbusters to catch up to you if you’ve run to far. This can become a problem when trying to run through a level, and your waiting for one Ghostbuster to get there so you can advance.

A huge upside to having the other 3 Ghostbusters with you is that you can be revived, as well as being able to revive them. Between the cool weapons and different upgrades, the gameplay really is fantastic for being based on such an amazing duo of movies.

Online gameplay is pretty cool as well. You can logon and play with 3 other online Ghostbusters and fight your spirits and beasts together. The online mode is based on 20 levels which you will advance through as you gain experience points (player cash) from catching ghouls and ghosts.

Overall, great game but has it’s flaws. In between cut scenes are lacking graphically but unless your a die-hard over-the-top fanboy most people don’t really pay attention to it. Also, the character graphics are a little sketchy, with obvious texture flaws and bad hair designs.