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Shank is one of the prettiest downloadable games on the horizon. It was love at first sight when we saw it at the Penny Arcade Expo last year. Today we played through a new level on a moving train and got to try out the shotgun.



As the train speeds along its track you move forward towards the engine, jumping over the gaps between cars and dispatching bad guys along the way. You have three weapons mapped to the square, triangle, and circle buttons (I was playing on a PlayStation 3 but Shank is also coming to Xbox 360 and PC). Square is your knife, triangle is your chainsaw, and circle fires your gun. You can cycle through your guns by pressing up and down on the D-pad.



Shank is all about mixing up these attacks in order to chain your moves together and create combos. You can fluidly stab a guy in the gut, lift him up in the air with your chainsaw, pull out your shotgun and shoot another guy behind your back, then slam your chainsawed friend into the ground and shank him until he’s definitely dead. A couple of my favorite moves are juggling an enemy in the air with your gun blasts and shoving a grenade in someone’s mouth and kicking them away from you. The animation is great and Shank looks like a very violent cartoon in action.

That shotgun is new to us, by the way. Previously we had only seen the dual pistols. The shotgun is great for blasting enemies that are a few feet away from you — and keeping them there. You have unlimited ammo but you do have to stop to reload.



You can grapple enemies with the R1 button Double Dragon-style and perform up-close-and-personal attacks until you’re ready to throw them over your shoulder. Larger enemies will break away from your grip, though. With R2 you can perform a Wolverine pounce.

When you make it to the engine the level boss approaches on a jeep. You’ll need to shoot the jeep and lob grenades at it while dodging rockets, dispatching incoming enemies, and avoiding falling off the train.

Shank should be here late summer. Hope you’re ready to kill some dudes.

If the original Battlefield: Bad Company wasn’t badass enough, take a look at the improvements made in Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Ok, so one of the biggest problems with the original was not only the physics and weights in the buildings all off, but you couldn’t even entirely level them to the ground. Good thing that’s been changed this time around. In the new installment users are able to fully take a building to the ground while setting up explosives all over the building. It looks great, and seems much more realistic then the original attempt. Along with the improved building physics and destruction, the characters are toned down a bit more in the new version.



Gamers will still be playing under Preston, the hot tongued soldier who’s platoon looks a lot more like something out of Three Kings then a disciplined unit. This time around, though, the company will have to take their job a little bit more seriously. Players begin on a frozen tundra level covered in snow and full of Russian bad guys. After stumbling across some loading products into a truck, a simply recon missions turns out into all out blood fare while exchanging fire with the Russians. You’ll be hiding behind burnt out vehicles and the normal positions, so there is nothing to new on the movement feel around the area.



A huge improvement to the game, which was notably an issue with the previous, is the movement of your friendly company and the AI that drives them. Situations where you’ve blown holes into walls and destroyed property will register with the computer-controlled adversaries, and on top of that, they’ll be following directions much better too. Preston is still the leader, and wherever you go the platoon will go, but now it’s done in a much more realistic fashion. They’ll get into position, cover you, and stay closer to the group while you prepare the plan that’s going to take your enemies out.



Tanks, tanks and more tanks! In BF: BC2, places, people and automobiles blow up left and right. While being chased by ATV gun running enemies, you’ll be ready with massive tanks and firepower that will surely put a theme of destruction in the companies ways. The single-player mode is great, but the real focus is on the multi-player options which have been greatly improved upon. Considering that most games today need to have a strong online showing, BF: BC2 does not disappoint. Gamers will be happy that setting up matches with friends will be easier, and [hopefully] a co-op mode.



There will be an incentive addition to the game, so that from the very beginning you don’t have all the available options. DICE is hoping to keep players more engaged and the longevity of the game raised. Developers are “actually challenging the player to go out and do something specific in order to get something”, which is similar to the earlier addition of players healing other players.

Overall, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 seems extremely promising with the improvements to the scenery, and to the multi-player mode. Definitely going to be worth purchasing upon it’s console-wide platform.