2K and Firaxis Games are happy to announce that the award winning XCOM: Enemy Unknown will be coming to iOS devices this Thursday, June 20^th. The game will be available via the iTunes App Store for AU$20.99/NZ$24.99 for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch (complete list of supported devices is below). XCOM: Enemy Unknown for iOS takes the complete XCOM experience of the console and PC version of the game and optimizes it for the touch interface of iOS devices. XCOM: Enemy Unknown for iOS is a universal app that includes GameCenter support and utilizes iCloud functionality so players can save games across their iOS devices. While not included at launch on June 20^th, the popular head-to-head multiplayer mode in XCOM: Enemy Unknown will be added to iOS at a later date as a free update.

Complete list of supported iOS devices includes the iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad 4, iPad mini, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5 and iPod touch 5^th Generation.

These days ‘going on a cruise’ is not so much about dressing for dinner….

Dropping you into events set between Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5 this Nintendo 3DS port has you following the exploits of Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield and their recent creation of the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance, or BSAA. If, like me, you aren’t right up to speed on your Resident Evil canon, not to worry, you can still have a good time and not get lost within the Resident Evil universe.

Also the one thing I remember hating about previous Resident Evil games is fixed. You can move while aiming weapons this time round!

I’m on a boat! The SS Queen Zenobia to be exact. You spend the majority of the game as Chris Redfield or Jessica Sherawat within the confines of this beautiful luxury liner, mysteriously drifting near the destroyed island-like city of Terragrigia. Although you do get to venture elsewhere as other characters in some chapters to flesh out the story and let you know what is going on in the attempt to find Chris and Jessica. It’s a cool plot and does well as a stand alone story but with any Resident Evil knowledge you do have it will obviously be even better. That said, I won’t let too much of the plot line slip, wouldn’t want to ruin it for you now would I.

Now I have already mentioned that you can now move while aiming, which greatly reduces the level of frustration I use to experience when aiming would stick your feet in place. Another new tool to help make life a bit easier is the Genesis Scanner. This fancy piece of kit allows you to scan and analyse creatures for health benefits and also scans the area for any hidden objects that would be of use to you. And with ammo being a scarce commodity once again, it is so important to find every hidden cache. The Genesis Scanner really does help, especially with Resident Evil: Revelations making a return to its exploration and puzzle solving roots. I found myself constantly doing a quick scan of each area and room to ensure I hadn’t missed anything.

As Resident Evil: Revelations is a port of the Nintendo 3DS some of the areas look a bit sparse but the HD remake of the characters and creatures is great. I guess the sparseness of many of the ships corridors adds to the atmosphere in some ways but as someone who has served on many ships, I found it all a bit bland, even for a luxury cruise ship. It doesn’t help that you will see most corridors many times due to the exploration nature of the game. The sound is spot on though, many a creepy noise is to be heard coming from the air ducts or echoing through the empty hallways. Often you find yourself turning to investigate a sound and often it is nothing but every now and again your curiosity will be rewarded with you having the jump on a creature sneaking up on you.

To add a bit of extra meat to its bones, Resident Evil: Revelations also includes a co-op mode called ‘Raid’. Like many titles these days, ‘Raid’ mode has you and a friend beating off wave after wave of creatures. The nice touch is that the rewards are in the form of weapons and mods that can be used in your single player game. It’s a bit of a shame that there isn’t any real co-op mode for the main campaign considering that you are with a NPC 99% of the time. Perfect for a co-op mode.

I have to say, I do like Resident Evil: Revelations but still get the old ‘been there, done that’ feeling. Maybe because I’m not a Resident Evil devotee, and therefore don’t care as much as I should about the story. Take away the story and the game you are left with is ok, but would sink in the ocean of great 3rd person shooters we have these days. If you love your Resident Evil games then this is a no brainer, get it. For others, try the demo. It’s good, but there is better.

Released on 23rd May 2013 for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, and PC.

Turn based dungeon crawling, loot gathering excellence at the tip of your fingers.

Being from one of the first generations that enjoyed Games Workshop products as they found their feet and at the same time thriving on the home computer explosion along with turn based strategy. I was somewhat excited to discover Rodeo Games had combined the two things into a dungeon crawling loot hunting iOS time-sink.

Open up Warhammer Quest iOS and there’s no mistaking the style of the game, visually it reeks of Games Workshop and the Warhammer universe. There is a lot  of love poured into this game, the cutscenes, the animated towns that pop up and the glorious hi-def visuals in the dungeons themselves are quite beautiful.

The game starts off with a training level reminiscent of Demon Souls, from then on it opens up a little and starts to build up your familiarity with the very easy controls. Outside the dungeons there is a world map where you control the travel of your party, deciding which quest or town to venture to next. At the towns, you can sell off your loot, buy items that will likely be made redundant within a quest or two, pray for some divine intervention or level up your character. Levelling is interesting, because it costs gold, fair enough if your adventures can provide enough gold to keep you busy, not so much if you give in to the gods of microtransactions and add to your pile.

Speaking of microtransactions, they’re not particularly micro, but there are extra characters to add to your roster, gold and new campaign sections that can be bought for real monies. It is optional and the game can be fully enjoyed trundling along without assistance, however, if like me you are holding onto a superb weapon of destruction fit only for the Battle Monk that has to be purchased it can be a late night debate.

The standard party comes with two warriors, a Berserker and a Dwarf, followed up by a Wizard and a Ranger, handy with bow and steel. Strategy in the dungeon depends on how you move the individuals and keep the team options open. Once encounters start getting random encounters slapped on top, it can be a little hairy to be suddenly surrounded. Each character gets to move and attack in a turn, if they are next to an enemy they are pinned and cannot move, although they can attack, cast and use items. For people that were brought back to turn based games by the mighty X-Com this form of combat should be familiar especially when it comes to picking off the right enemy in the right order. Also time to mention being wary of not keeping frontline characters supported, on the higher levels a character that is killed, is perma-killed, on the lower levels they come back after the dungeon without any of the experience they may have gained. Once out of combat its time to check on your loot and equip those shiny new boots, just flip your tablet to portrait and presto, there’s the inventory screen. Genius for lack of on screen buttons, can get in the way if you like to play lying down.

Overall a great iOS game, it does everything I want from a dungeon crawler and then some. If I had to pick one concern it would be the tiny text boxes that drive encounters and the general narrative, sometimes it is just too hard to read and I’ll skip it in favour of just following the objectives. Warhammer Quest might be slow to start, and some may find it repetitive, but I can safely say it’ll be on my iPad for the foreseeable future.

A third person team based co-op preferred shooter, does the world need another?

Take four special ops specialists with particular skill trees, spoon on some irreverent humour and throw them in a twisty plot of subterfuge. Add to that the mysterious alien substance known as Fuse and suddenly life is like a box of combos. The game is an interesting bag of tricks, there are things about it that are pretty exciting, well, at least lots of fun and there are things about it that just feel perhaps a little insulting considering it is 2013 and we’ve been playing games like this for a while now.

Fuse is shiny, the graphics are bold, colourful and remind me very much of the style of Timesplitters, the writing does its job and the voice acting is suitable. Initial stages take you deep into an underground base on a rescue, where you come across the Fuse weapons, all four of them that are tailor designed for each of your team. Handy coincidence? Check.

By this time you will have discovered that the environment is somewhat funnelled to be kind, batch upon batch of bad guys are presented and despatched, and there is one of three possible collectibles available every 2.37 minutes. The controls do feel like a poor man’s answer to the other mammoth third person shooter franchises, and being downed into a crawling heap just seems like a momentary rest rather than a dangerous, vulnerable state.

The game breaks up the action by throwing in a secondary action, plugging a MacGuffin into a Thermo Generator Coupler thingy while surviving a selection of enemy waves and the ticking clock of the Fuse MacGuffin you are carrying possibly self destructing. This is okay, but does not add to the experience particularly, the are also Boss and Mini-Boss fights which are beyond telegraphed. The AI can often be appalling, stealth killing an enemy while his partner stands two feet away, or even the whole team standing in full view of a blind guard just makes the action comical. Overall the game feels like a shooting gallery of goons who are purely there for you to score experience from and level up in the process, levelling will add some interesting skill additions. Although the skill tree if anything, has been thoughtfully put together.

Let’s talk about the team, given that the focus of the game is teamwork and the best use of the Fuse weapons is by combining skills between your crew an interesting Rock, Paper, Scissors dynamic starts to take shape. Team leader Dalton has a weapon that projects a protective shield, not only deflecting incoming fire, but also firing it back at the goons. Things get interesting when working together to back him up and shoot through the shield, gaining bonus damage and effects. Of course when playing solo or with limited co-op you get the chance to LEAPTM or in layman terms switch between them on the fly. This is encouraged as you will rack up points on all characters used, while it is possible to stick with a favourite character and concentrate on levelling them, you might find it pays better to spread the love and rack up score on some combos.

Taking the campaign online or playing some Echelon (Horde-ish) modes will add to the characters persistent experience and skill count, it also changes the dynamic of AI actions when your actual person buddies start playing around.

There is something about Fuse that hits the spot, for its weak level design and sideshow combat I struggle to commend it, but there is some mindless fun in the Fuse effects at least. It does also have a fair share of glitches, my first couple of hours had a couple of camera lock-ups post cutscene, where the view was fixed up and away from my character. Then after attempting to use a doorway for cover I was sent juddering all over the current area, before been knocked off the map and outside the complex. Both issues were fixed with a quick Leap to another team member, but surely it wasn’t just me experiencing these things.

Overall it’s a decent distraction at best, but I really don’t see it having legs.

If you really needed a reason to get back into Borderlands 2, this is it.

What goes on inside the mind of Krieg the Psycho? Why did he become a Vault Hunter in the first place? Do his pecs, in fact, have pecs? Find out the answers to all these questions in this original Gearbox short film.

Underground, overground, there’s no Wombling here, welcome to the harsh reality of the Metro.

So a year after dealing to the ‘Dark Ones’, Artyom is tired of kicking back in his home Metro. Seemingly plagued by the act of terrorism he committed against the ‘Dark Ones’, when he hears of a survivor he is compelled to hunt it down with the belief it is the key to saving not only himself but all of humanity. Unfortunately not everyone in the Metro system will share his beliefs.

So, Metro: Last Light finds you in a very linear, story-driven first person shooter. Typically I hate games that are this linear, but thanks to the great story and interesting characters it didn’t seem like a chore at all playing through the devastated city of Moscow. To mix it up and keep things interesting you are required to find a decent supply of filters for your gas mask which needs to be worn when above ground. Ammo and weapons also need to be acquired and with a variety of upgrades available for all weapons it is a constant decision on which setup to go forward with. Veterans of Metro 2033 will be glad to know that one year later ammo seems to be less of a problem in the city with massive amounts freely strewn through the Metro and above ground. Even the traders in the beautifully overpopulated Metro Stations seem to have access to plenty of stock.

Stealth also plays a big roll this time around with one achievement even being awarded for completing the game with only certain ‘required’ human deaths to your name. Don’t despair though, there are still plenty of mutants roaming around to mow down. Graphically, Metro: Last Light is a fantastic looking and atmospheric game, with a great variety of urban, rural, and underground locations to take in as you follow your compass, and your heart. The audio is equally impressive, with one sound really setting the mood; the sound of suffocation. This happens when you need to change the filter on your gas mask, heavy breathing moves to laboured , and then gagging and choking. So remember to have some spare filters, but please, do choke to death at least once, especially if you are playing with a good quality headset.

As is the norm with first person shooters these days, Metro: Last Light isn’t the longest game around, about 15 hours for me, with a heap of exploring done. You could probably chop it out in under 10 hours if you wanted. For more game time you have Ranger Mode which has you playing without any HUD and significantly less resources to find, which after playing through on normal might be a good thing. There are also a few defining moments which will have you wanting to do a second play through to see what the outcome is. And for real fans you can grab the novel Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky for a bit of light reading and find out more about the where the games come from.

Metro: Last Light is a great ride, and has improved on the also great Metro 2033. Play them in tandem  and you have some thoroughly excellent gaming ahead of you.

Released 16th May 2013 for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

As a self proclaimed hero of less favourable RPGs Barrie’s on a mission to a Sacred Citadel.

Anyone who knows me will attest to my love of Role Playing Games, even ones that don’t get much love from the general public. Now the Sacred series has been no different, I think I have owned all versions of the original Sacred right through to the ‘Gold’ release, and Sacred 2 on the Xbox 360 is one game I have been meaning to return to for a while. And now with the up coming Sacred 3 not too far away SouthEnd Interactive and Deep Silver have delivered us Sacred Citadel, a prequel of sorts for Sacred 3. But beware, this side scrolling action game is a far cry from the Sacred games you may have played in the past. Bad for RPG fans wanting a fix back in Ancaria, but good for anyone who is looking for a ‘Golden Axe’ style brawler.

 So as mentioned this is not even close to a fleshed out RPG, the closest you have to RPG elements are the distribution of skill points at the end of each level and the ability to pick up weapons,which immediately replace your existing ones, dropped by enemies. The use of health potions is also included. Right, so now we are clear that this isn’t a RPG in the proper sense, lets concentrate on the solid little side scrolling brawler we do have here. We are still located in the world of Ancaria and have characters from Ancaria to battle with and against. The story is pretty limp and quickly forgotten as is the case with most action arcade games and the lack of ability to remap the keys in the PC version make me think this was a quick port from console, so the controls take a bit of getting use to.

The look and sound of Sacred Citadel is up to todays standard for this level of downloadable title, with some nicely realised enemies from the world of Ancaria. Sometimes you will find yourself attacking enemies at the wrong depth on the screen due to the size of them making it hard to gauge the exact location, but that is quickly resolved by moving up or down the screen. The Boss battles are particularly impressive and really ramp up the difficulty from the standard hack and slash you encounter through the normal levels. Using any power ups, or combos you may have learnt really pays off here, if you are lucky you may even have a mount or war machine to help you out when the going gets tough.

I have to admit to finding it hard to really get into Sacred Citadel, despite it being a pretty decent game. Maybe we are spoilt these days with so many reasonably priced downloadable games and Triple A titles that are now at bargain bin prices . A game really has to shine to get a decent amount of people interested. It seems this sentiment is all too common for so many games these days, I guess this is a good thing from a gamers point of view but the poor old game developer really has to up his game to get noticed. I think many RPG fans will pick this up solely as the prequel to Sacred 3, and many will bore of it just as quick. The market group which may appreciate Sacred Citadel the most is the old school games who grew up in the Golden Axe era. Because at its core there is a really decent side scrolling action game for up to three players.

Released 17th April for PC, Xbox 360, and PS3.

Dragon’s Dogma may be set in a world full of slightly overpowered mobs, fetch quests and cliche, but it is also a world where fortune favours the nosey.

I was sad to have missed out on Dragon’s Dogma the first time round, but it means I get to do this with fresh eyes and that’s a good thing. Dark Arisen comprises of all the first game and a whole new area of instant death called Bitterblack Isle. In the interests of experiencing the focal point of the release I ventured forth to Bitterblack way to early and lasted long enough  to see a few of the magnificent caverns before getting whipped. The lesson learnt is to enjoy the majority of the original game, get to a substantial level and then go wandering over the waves. So here we go.

Looking at Dragon’s Dogma as a whole is a fun thing, its a third person RPG that falls neatly between the Oblivion/Skyrim type world and the cartoony fun of Kingdoms of Amalur. The gameplay feels great, although it takes a little time to get used to the swing and energy of combat, this is no hack and slash adventure. Too much hacking will leave your character breathless and vulnerable to slashing.

The opening sequence offers much to like, the graphics are suitably splendid, especially when the HD pack has been installed and lighting the darkness via a swinging torch at your belt is certainly atmospheric.

You end up with a party of NPC’s otherwise known Pawns, warriors of legend that are ready to step up and assist you. This can certainly add to your repertoire and being able to mix up the class of Pawns allows you to field a squad of ass kicking adventurers fit for any occasion. The first real encounter I had with pawns in the training level presented us with a bus-sized Chimera to deal with, an oversized lion body with serpent heads and it was a tough scrap. However thanks to being able to scamper around the beast, climb onto it when the opportunity presented and support the Pawns when they got stuck in, it was fun, not like a boss fight at all. The Pawns, however badly named, are available for hire and this is where it gets interesting. You can pick some up for free in your game, which is fair enough, you can also recruit Pawns from your friends list and give them experience to take back to your friends or you can hire Pawns from Live or PSN users. the latter will cost you gold, but you get the pick of Pawns that are often way ahead of you in levels and able to deliver more impact in combat. They are also more lively than standard NPC support characters, I soon gave up collecting minor items from every container when I realised they were doing it for me and ransacking their inventory was as easy as my own.

Hmmm, inventory, often the breaking point for a loot game, in this case it can be a little unwieldy, too many button presses and often making an incorrect selection by rushing. It does its job, but it does not feel natural and quick to flick through, this is a problem for me when I have to delve into my bag for a potion or explosive arrow in a rush.

Although I do have shortcomings around the inventory system, the range of objects that can be utilised and interacted with is exhausting, there is rewarding depth once you start to plumb the alchemy of ingredients or weaponizing flasks of oil.

Dragon’s Dogma has also given me more than a few of those beautiful and serene moments that take me right back to Oblivion at the start of this generation. Moments where taking a second look at a sunset or panoramic vista can leave you seriously impressed. The game has a meaty campaign which will take seasoned adventurers on an extensive journey and my eventual trip back to Bitterblack Isle will just be the icing on the cake.

Wolfenstein has a special place in my heart, throw in mechs and robots and saving the free world, well – I’m in.

Wolfenstein: The New Order is an action-adventure shooter that reignites the franchise widely recognised for pioneering the genre. Wolfenstein: The New Order is scheduled for release in Q4 2013 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, and next generation consoles.

Sydney, Australia – May 8, 2013 – Bethesda Softworks®, a ZeniMax® Media company, has announced a new title, Wolfenstein®: The New Order^TM, an action-adventure shooter slated for release in Q4 2013.  The game is being developed by MachineGames^TM, a studio comprised of seasoned developers known for creating compelling, critically-acclaimed story-driven games. Wolfenstein has been widely credited for helping establish and popularize the first-person shooter genre, and Wolfenstein: The New Order is a reimagining of this franchise – offering players a gripping and dramatic experience.

Did we need it? Probably not, but it is good enough to be on the same shelf there’s no doubt about that.

Gears of War, a franchise that brought 360 gaming to life, it introduced many of today’s gamers to online fast and brutal online gaming. As a story it spanned three solid games and delivered an equally solid experience in narrative, production and engagement. It also ended well.

Now we have Judgement, not a reboot or extension, but a step back in time pre-Gears to a place in the canon that we have only heard about. It is a change of pace and style, it is not classic Gears in any way and this is how it plays out.

Focusing on Kilo Squad there are two more familiar faces onboard in Baird and Cole, this game delivers a retrospective of their actions in the run up to Emergence day. An interesting take on the narrative, but old ground nonetheless. The game is structured in an incredibly episodic manner, each squad member delivering their recollection of an event, which transcribes into even more segmented combat sections. This is not particularly jarring, it just doesn’t flow as well as the first three Gears games did, each cutscene or closed door clearly divides the levels as do the introduction of ‘declassified’ badges.

This is a new option for the game, which adds to the ‘arcade’ nature of the experience and detracts further from the player enjoying a smooth narrative. The declassified option is generally a set of parameters that change up the difficulty in a segment, making the task in hand harder and offering you more rewards in the process. Apart from the time limited sections, these declassified ventures can add some fun into the mix and certainly offer some replayability.

The approach here has definitely taken the franchise for a detour and created more of a ‘game’ than experience, if it is approached with an open mind and as a short burst of violence it can be fulfilling. If the player wants a rich and engaging storyline, then they should look elsewhere. One last gripe around the cutscenes is the age old Gears issue, where the models always carry Lancers regardless of the weapons you actually have equipped, its just one of those details that always sticks out. Not forgetting that as in every new iteration of a franchise we see developments, new enemies, new weapons, new history that we have never encountered before. If it doesn’t affect your suspension of disbelief then it reinforces that Marcus and Dom actually had it easy in the first Gears of War, having only a couple of Boomers and Raam to deal with that were out of the ordinary.

Online the game is as fun as ever, some of the fan favourites have been left behind in the last game, Horde and Beastmode, but replaced with some new variants. Overrun being the flagship mode, it is fun, fast and very Gears. It is also in my mind a nod to a Battlefield Rush game setup, only on a much smaller skirmish scale. Funnily enough this week the latest DLC is adding a Gun Master game type, all well and good, but where is the originality, have we really come up with all we can?

Judgement was originally described as a class based take on Gears, the imagination could spring to a multitude of loadouts with CoD style perks and larger scale games of teamwork. In reality the class support options are limited and do not reach those lofty heights, perhaps it would have been better to leave them out and keep it pure.

Speaking of lofty heights, the multiplayer maps do stand out in this offering, they have moved away from the previous Epic standard of ying/yang layouts. They also offer a lot of verticality, plenty of high level camping spots are available as is the ability to drop off heights and surprise the enemy.

Another minor issue (depending on your taste) is the control scheme, it has been overhauled to suit the CoD generation, swapping weapons with a single button rather than the D-Pad and grenades are instantly available via the left bumper. It works, but doesn’t ‘feel’ right to me, personally I didn’t think it was broke in the first place, so I wouldn’t have fixed it.

Judgement does offer a good Gears fix, the campaign is short, but the arcade approach offers plenty of opportunity for jumping in and having a quick blast, as does the ‘Smart Spawn’ system, which basically mixes up the enemies you will encounter and changes replays. Every characters personal slice of the story ends with a Horde style battle, which at higher levels can become quite epic. The online modes are entertaining and new DLC is already being added.

Its hard to say if it has the legs of the original series and more often than not I find myself itching to put Gears 3 back in for a blat instead. Did we need it? Probably not, but it is good enough to be on the same shelf there’s no doubt about that.