1 aPost of Upcoming Reviews

I recently completed Assassin's Creed II- a game whose ending has hurt me almost as much as the Blades of Hades pillars in the original God of War and The Twins in Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones. I plan to do aReview of this strange, strange mixed bag soon- and for the record, until the climax of the story, I loved the game.

I also completed a day after the campaign of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. This game had a guy drinking from a fountain of life and becoming an invincible monster- and still managed to be more believable than the story of AC II. Read my review of the game in full soon!

I am currently finishing Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time so that I can do a combined review of both this game and its

predecessor soon.

I hope you'll hit me up with a barrage of comments once I have posted up my reviews. Once I'm

done with all that, I can finally finish Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Burnout:

Paradise, and possibly Mirror's Edge (although that game has been giving me a headache with it's poorly planned levels, etc.) I hope to review them all in the near future.

I may review Unreal Tournament III at some point, too, but we'll have to see.

0 aRain. aHeavy Rain.

I have officially played through the demo of Heavy Rain- a game that is trying to change the very face of gaming as we know it.

Now, having said that, I did find that the extreme lengths Quantic Dream has gone to to secure its place as one of the weirdest developers has almost left them in the position that

many independent film makers find themselves in. When a game or film or book is attempting to be artsy, quirky, or just plain strange just to be different, you end up with something that may not exactly be on par with the current market. Feel free to try and change the current formula, but make sure your new approach meets the level of polish that games following the formula meet. Some games can really do that and strike a balance.

I'm not saying Heavy Rain doesn't make it, but it might be little off from what I can tell and have read. Thousands of pages of scripting to allow for hundreds of possible storyline outcomes were made- meaning lots of manhours put into the production of the game. And yet,

apparently, all the characters pronounce origami differently. You'd think they'd make sure they got that part right before being so ambitious?

I don't know. I'm not going to lie and say I wasn't intrigued by the different characters and abilities, interested in the unique gameplay, blown away by the graphics, or impressed with most of the dialogue. I'm just saying.

Don't look at me like that, Madison.

0 aGod of War Comic

Check it out- apparently D.C. Comics, the well-known comic book company famous for such icons as Batman and Superman (though my nerd friends already know that all to well), has decided to pick up the furious God Of War license and run with it. The new God of War comic series chronicles different periods of the fallen heroes' life. If you ever wanted to know what a child with a goatee looked like, this is the comic for you!

In all seriousness, these comics seem pretty interesting, and as a major fan, I'd like to check them out. If Firefly has taught us anything, it's that canonical comics can be very, very awesome.

Issue number 2 is supposedly going to delve into Kratos' life as a Spartan captain, while the first issue is interested in his childhood.

Head over to D.C. Comics to learn more.

0 aPoster Deal

Okay, not to give Gamestop any more business or anything (they kind of get on my nerves, but have a monopoly on the game market and hence are a necessary evil), but everyone should know...
Anyone who pre-ordered God of War III or who was planning on pre-ordering it from GS has just been given an additional prize- a concept art poster signed by the concept artist for the GOW series.

I hope we get one, even though we already pre-ordered. It shouldn't go to the benefit of those who wait- if you're going to promote purchase ahead of time, earliest adopters should get the same if not better than late adopters.

Anyway, here's a picture of the poster- looks pretty sick!

0 anUnofficial List of Best Console Game Graphics

Note: This is a list of the best console game graphics. Not PC. I see Crysis in any comments, until Crysis 2 comes out for the consoles, I'm deleting it. We get it- PC's have the best graphics.

Now, for the list:

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Killzone 2

Gears of War 2

Metal Gear Solid 4

Assassin's Creed I/II

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

Possible Candidates:

Heavy Rain- Looking strong with some great motion capture, animation, and detailed environments. Here's an early video that is understandably not up to the bar set by the final game, but was great for when it came out and still hits a note with me emotionally. Love it. Check out more recent clips of the game for a look at what the final product actually looks like (it's much better, but I don't want to ruin the plot).

God of War 3- A character model alone that could not fit by itself on the PS2. Sound good to me.

Gran Turismo 5- Screens of this game look like video from NASCAR or something. Amazing.

Final Fantasy XIII- Supposedly, those who have played it can find no noticeable difference between the CG cutscenes and the gameplay. The creators claimed to have reached pre-rendered quality, and it looks like that might be the case.

Final Fantasy Versus XIII- If FF XIII is any indication, these graphics will also dazzle. Also going for it are its PS3 exclusivity (better graphics, more time spent optimizing and using full BD capacity) and its trailers, all of which are a million times cooler than FF XIII's trailers.

Mafia 2- Screenshots look amazing, and when the original came out, it totally beasted GTA graphically, the contemporary open world game.

Alan Wake- Supposedly the tour-de-force of the 360. We'll see- 5+ years in development is certainly enough time to get it right.

So? Disagree? Have any to add? Let me know... Various games were left out for good reason- I did not include artistic games like Mirror's Edge (much to the dismay of my close friend Tyler) because that's more a matter of opinion. It doesn't mean they're not valid, but it's difficult to compare, say, Borderlands to Far Cry 2. And speaking of FC 2, the graphics engines not only had to function beautifully in these games, but they had to add to the gameplay experience and not run into slowdown and other problems, etc. AC I and II only made it on despite pop-in because the pop-in is understandable in an open world console game.