Games Cheats and Reviews

Fresh on the heals of the critical and commercial success of God of War 3, Sony is happy to announce that they have another page to add to the ever-branching story of Kratos.  Everyone’s favorite brutalizing baldy will be slicing and dicing his way to the PSP, in the form of a completely new game entitled, God of War: Ghost of Sparta.

The game will be developed by Ready at Dawn Studios, in cooperation with the God of War 3 team over at SCEA Santa Monica.  The game is said to feature 25% more gameplay, unfortunately it never references what it is actually larger then.  Though, I think it would be a safe assumption to conclude that they were comparing the game to Kratos’ first outing on the PSP, the highest rated game in the history of the platform, God of War: Chains of Olympus.  With Ready at Dawn’s pedigree already including developing the first portable installment, one could only assume that they will once again prove that the PSP is truly the home of console games on the go.

So now the question becomes, with the trilogy concluded on PS3, what can we expect from our next malicious romp through mythology?

As for the storyline, this new adventure will serve as a prequel of sorts, picking up where God of War left off. Ghost of Sparta tells the story of Kratos’ ascension to power as the God of War. In his quest to rid the nightmares that haunt him, Kratos must face his dark past to prove his worthiness to the Gods — a journey that will reveal the origins of lost worlds and finally answer long-awaited questions about Kratos’ tattoo, scar, and family. — via Eric Levine of Sony’s PlayStation Blog

For those of you looking for a bit more proof of its beauty, check out the screenshots below.  It is bound to get you excited about raining down havoc on the masses!

Sharing: It’s Win/Win

StarCraft II has not even broken free from beta yet and we now get a look at how Blizzard will pillage your wallets.  StarCraft II will be getting a badass Collector’s Edition.  What makes this Collector’s Edition worth your hard earned money?  Take a look at all the awesome packed into one little package:

• The Art of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, a 176-page book featuring artwork from the game
• An exclusive 2GB USB flash drive replica of Jim Raynor’s dog tag, which comes preloaded with the original StarCraft and the StarCraft: Brood War(R) expansion set
• A behind-the-scenes DVD containing over an hour of developer interviews, cinematics with director’s commentary, and more
• The official StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty soundtrack CD, containing 14 epic tracks from the game along with exclusive bonus tracks
• StarCraft comic book issue #0, a prequel to the comic series
• A World of Warcraft(R) mini Thor in-game pet that can be applied to all World of Warcraft characters on a single Battle.net account
• Exclusive Battle.net downloadable content, including special portraits for your Battle.net profile, decals to customize your units in-game, and a visually unique version of the terran Thor unit

Not to shabby for $100.  In fact, this just might be one of the best Collector’s Editions we have saw to date.  Take note that the regular edition of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty will run you $60.  There is still no release date either.  Blizzard is so evil in their foreplay.

Sharing: It’s Win/Win

From the PlanetXbox360.com feature list:

"As the blockbuster prequel to the best-selling Xbox franchise of all time, developed exclusively for Xbox 360 by acclaimed developer Bungie, Halo: Reach puts you front and center in the fateful moments that forged the Halo legend. As recently as last week’s Microsoft X10 conference, there have been a slew of new details coming out about Halo: Reach. While this is in no way a bad thing, it definitely makes the days between now and the release of the game this fall seem all the more longer. But, in the meantime, we thankfully have the time to sit and wonder just what there is to be so excited about this new Halo game and why we’ll all eventually be a bit sad that this is supposedly Bungie’s last outing in the franchise. Check out our top 10 features Halo: Reach needs to be amazing."

Bungie’s next game, Halo: Reach, will likely be the last Bungie-developed Halo. This being the case, one might have expected the studio to make its last installment in the series a traditional sequel to Halo 3 — you know, a "Halo 4."

But Bungie had other plans.

Instead, the developer opted to go a different route, and what we’re getting — Halo: Reach — is a prequel to the original Halo.

Bungie’s reasoning explained inside.

Revealed on the latest episode of GT TV, Bungie revealed that Halo: Reach, thus far, doesn’t feature dual-wielding. The first Halo title didn’t have this feature either, but it was later introduced in Halo 2. Geoff Keighley joked that since the game was a prequel to the first game that the Spartans haven’t learned that technique yet.

Would you kindly return to Rapture?

Bioshock 2 has some huge shoes to fill. The original game told the story of the final days of the underwater city of Rapture, and what a story it was! Without spoiling it for the 10 people who missed it, Bioshock showed the gaming world just how good a story driven game can be. Given its success, you would assume that the gaming community would be screaming for a sequel.

You would be wrong. Bioshock ended with everything pretty well wrapped up the game in its entirety. It would be like watching The Matrix, but with a minute long Epilogue that explained the rest of the trilogy. Do we really need to see a prequel to Bioshock? Well, in the gaming world you can be sure of one thing: If it makes money, its going to have a sequel. Still, I am a bit skeptical about it. Irrational Games (turned-2K Boston truned back to Irrational Games) created Rapture, but is not the team behind Bioshock 2. Instead five members of the team were moved over to 2K Marin.

My skepticism aside, 2K sure doesn’t have any doubts. 2K Marin is also handling the already announced Bioshock 3 (A trilogy? How cliche…) which will be released in 2012 to coincide with the Bioshock movie. While there isn’t a lot of buzz around this game at the moment, there are a lot of bones invested in the continuation of the series. There may still be a reason to revisit the depths of rapture and see what else happened in Andrew Ryan’s utopia. As an added bonus, this time around you will get to use plasmids in multiplayer (something no one really asked for).

Good news for PS3 owners! This time around the game will hit both systems at the same time, unlike the long wait for the original. While I am not sure Bioshock 2 will fill the shoes of the epic that came before it, it is definitely worth taking a look at. It may not be a day one buy for most gamers, but it will be a great game to turn to after you finish Mass Effect 2.

OXCGN reviews and shows the full Assassin’s Creed: Lineage movie:

"With Assassin’s Creed 2 being released this week worldwide, Ubisoft has released Parts 2 and 3 of their lead-up film Assassin’s Creed: Lineage, which chronicles events prior to the game.

Detailing a vast conspiracy in Renaissance Italy and featuring Giovanni, the father of the game’s protagonist Ezio, as the Assassin, the first of the films achieved more than 1.7 million hits on YouTube in 24 hours.

With the rest of the film now released and fully viewable here on OXCGN, what are we to make of the elaborate promotional prequel?"

GrE writes, "A new Dead Space game? Already? After a year that saw the publication of such outstanding original IPs as Spore, Mirrors Edge, and Dead Space, Electronic Arts looked to be moving in a positive direction towards new content, the polar opposite of rival publisher, Activision. Just when we thought the days of squatting out yearly sequels were behind them, EA showed their true colors once again. Upon the announcement of Dead Space making its way to the Nintendo Wii, fans became frothy with glee, envisioning a Wii port of what was easily the biggest surprise of last year. Resident Evil 4 fueled antics and a unique Wii control scheme were dancing through the heads of reviewers, like sugar plumbs through the dreams of kindergartners on Christmas Eve. Much to the dismay of the excited masses, the game was revealed to forgo the port treatment, instead favoring an on-rails shooter, acting as a prequel to the events that haunted the slumber of every man, woman, and child that played the original. The real question is: did EA’s risk pay off, or are we looking at another mature Wii title that is dead on arrival?…"

DualShockers writes,

"I’m one of those people that’s played enough games to make the lot of you cry. If I’m not pounding away on the keyboard on some code for the thousandth database application I work tirelessly on, I’m abusing my console ferociously with long hours of playtime. Gaming has become therapeutic, in some forms. I definitely enjoy going old-school and playing old RPG’s from the era of SNES and PSX – when RPG’s had stories that put movies and books to shame. As I sit there and play these relics, I am constantly baffled at how some games never received the attention they deserved.

Have you ever played a game that was so good, that you constantly regurgitate the thought of a sequel, or prequel, being made? Hell, I see people creating petitions online for games that have become cult classics. The shit that people would do to see their favorite game(s) spawn a new chapter in a game that has, in some way, touched them."

A prequel to the original Uncharted is set to be released! Click over for more info and quotes! It is set to be called Uncharted: Eye Of Indra.