So StarCraft II is finally here. If you didn’t get the Collectors Edition, here is what you missed out on.

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty Poster

The Unopened Box

The Seal Cracked

The Magic Disc

Cinematics and How the Magic Came to Be

The Music

The Tags of a Hero

The StarCraft Funny Pages

Big Bertha's Big Ass Art Book

Limbo, when viewed on the surface, seems like a very simplistic game. After all it is a platformer that is displayed in black and white, contains just three actions the protagonist can perform at the behest of the player and contains virtually no narrative. But if one were to only view Limbo on the surface they would be missing an awful lot.

What they would be missing is a beautiful game that takes players on a journey through a hellish, yet fantastical world that leaves nearly everything open to interpretation. Upon starting the game players are immediately thrust into action forcing the boy to begin his adventure in the unknown and haunting world. The world of Limbo is a dangerous place, filled with enormous spiders, murderous beings and enough demented machinery to make Jigsaw smile in admiration.

The game gives no context for why the boy is in this twisted reality and there is no reason for it as the game does a fantastic job of making you want to see what awaits him next. The goal is not the purpose in Limbo, it is the journey and while that may sound pretentious, its not. Limbo is presented in such a way that it has stripped away the narrative reasoning for the player to be in the world, all that matters is the gameplay.

Of course this artistic approach that Limbo has taken would not succeed if the game did not feature excellent gameplay. Once again by stripping away extraneous details and limiting the player to only movement, jumping and an interaction button, the game is able to refine and focus itself. The platforming is spot on and all the puzzles work and have logical solutions. The game does rely heavily on trial and error but it never stretches into the realm of frustrating because of it. On many levels if plays like a classic. But where it really feels like a gem from a bygone era is in its visual style.

Developer Playdead decided to craft the game in black and white and, much like it is with film, this will be a turn of for some, however the visual style is what carries the emotional weight of the game and Limbo, as simple as it seems on the surface, is a heavy game. The world displayed as it is, is quite ominous. It is a dangerous world portrayed even more so because of the lack of color. Limbo would not be anywhere near as successful at accomplishing what it does if it had been in color.

Accentuating the ominous feel of the game world is the lack of a soundtrack used in the traditional manner. There is no rousing score to accompany the amazing feats performed by the boy instead only the ambient noises of the world, which helps to create a purely creepy atmosphere.

While the look and sound of the game help to immerse the player into the world of Limbo the game presents itself in such a way that it is almost impossible to not be immersed in the gameplay. Limbo presents itself as a continuous experience. The game never takes a break, it is always pushing the player forward by not lending itself to a set stopping point. The approach had me on the edge of my seat.

Everything in Limbo comes together to deliver something special. It is a game that pushes the boundaries of games as art and that is the difference between Limbo and other recent game releases. But much like its art style, Limbo is going to be a polarizing game. On one hand the game is going to criticized by many for its short length (three to five hours) and for its price point of 1200 Microsoft Points. For me personally, after having played it, I would gladly have spent $60 on it. However I can see where people would be apprehensive about it because $15 for an independent release in an old school genre is somewhat daunting. For me I can’t recommend the title enough, its one of the best of the year, not just as a downloadable game but as a game in general.

5 out of 5.

Super Mario Galaxy was one of the most critically acclaimed titles to grace the Wii console, it was accepted by the fans having sold over eight million copies worldwide, and has won many awards and accolades since its release, including being called the Nintendo Game of the Decade by Nintendo Power. Following up such a title is an unenviable task but it was the challenge set before Nintendo and they have delivered Super Mario Galaxy 2.

On first glance, Galaxy 2 looks to be a rehash of the original Galaxy. Anyone who has ever played a core Mario title in the past twenty plus years knows the drill. Peach has been kidnapped by Bowser and it is left up to Mario to save the day. In Galaxy 2, Mario is tasked with traversing the heavens chasing after the evil Bowser, collecting stars along the way to help fuel his exploration.

Much like the first game, the premise of traversing the heavens opens up the ability to have a variety of different themed levels. Galaxy 2 takes this premise to the extreme becoming much more than just a simple rehash of the original by offering some of the most diverse and original levels for platforming ever created. In addition to the wondrous levels Galaxy 2 offers up some new features to help the game from feeling too much like its predecessor. Rock Suit Mario and Cloud Suit Mario join the standard suits in helping Mario to traverse the levels and battle his enemies but the biggest addition is the inclusion of Mario’s dinosaur pal, Yoshi.

With Yoshi joining the fray it allows for a whole new approach to the established Galaxy formula. While I never have, and still don’t, enjoy Yoshi all that much his inclusion, while initially jarring, is a welcome pace changer. Yoshi, and any of the abilities actually, is never overused. It is all wonderfully positioned creating a great sense of pace to the game.

The platforming is the best the series has ever seen and while most of this is due to the imaginative level designs some of it can be attributed to the refined control system. The camera, one of the biggest issues with the original game, never feels out of place and as such more precise jumping is capable. But this doesn’t make the game any easier than Galaxy, if anything Galaxy 2 is more challenging. While I only struggled on a handful of levels there is a noticeable sense of difficulty to many of the levels and the final 10 stars needed to challenge Bowser were some of the most frustrating and rewarding moments I have ever had in gaming.

I do take issue with one aspect of the control though and fortunately it is not something that is recurring throughout many of the levels. A couple of the galaxies require the exclusive use of motion controls, be it to fly Mario through a level or drive him on a giant ball, but like many games that utilize motion control on the system, the control ends up being loose and not entirely intuitive. The levels I became frustrated the most with were the ones that required precise motion control and were timed, if it weren’t for these arguable errors in design judgment, Galaxy 2 would be very near a perfect game for me.

One of the biggest complaints leveled at Wii games is that they do not match up graphically to games featured on its high definition competition. Super Mario Galaxy 2 shoves that argument down its detractors throats as it is one of the best looking games of this generation, not just on the Wii but on any system. Galaxy 2 relies heavily on its cartoony art style but it is that art style that enables it to look so good. It truly is like a cartoon come to life. The music is equally phenomenal featuring a stellar mix of new themes and remixed classic ones. The music in Galaxy 2 perfectly compliments the whimsical nature of the title and is some of the best ever produced by Nintendo.

All of these praises though are hinged on technical aspects though and it is true that the game is a technical marvel but its true magnificence comes from its ability to take a simple game and have it accomplish the complex goal of being amazingly fun and appropriate for all ages. It is something more than what is generally offered up by gaming companies now a days, a sequel that does more than just revisit old ideas. Galaxy 2 refines old ideas, offers up plenty of new ones and delivers a magical ride unlike any other this year, or in recent years. Super Mario Galaxy 2 is something special, quite possibly the most special game delivered this generation, and most certainly one of the best games of this year.

5 out of 5

The new charity event deciding the fate of Clayton Carmine being run by Epic Games has the look and feel of an event from the dark past of DC Comics. In 1988 the home of Batman put to the fate of the current boy wonder, Jason Todd, in the hands of their readers by holding a telephone poll to determine if Todd would die at the hands of the Joker or not and as anybody who has read comics knows, Todd was killed off. History often repeats itself and I fully expect Clayton to join his brothers Benjamin and Anthony as fertilizer but if you had it in your mind that maybe you should vote to save Clayton I have some points you might want to take into consideration before you get yourself filled with false heroic pride for saving an tertiary character in a video game.

Point One. The Carmines are the public service announcements of the Gears universe. With so much of the infrastructure having been destroyed between the hammer blasts that left Jacinto as the only major human settlement left on the Sera to destruction of that settlement, things need to be spelled out through action in this world, it is the only way to learn. Everyone has a purpose and Benjamin and Anthony served theirs. Clayton needs to reiterate why Gears should not wear helmets. If he lives it undermines the lessons taught by Benjamin and Anthony and taints their legacy.

Point Two. The Carmines are tertiary characters. They are throw away characters that have a purpose and live only to serve it. Like Ensign Ricky in Star Trek, the Carmines fate is to die in some horrible fashion. They don’t have a purpose other than that. They will never actually belong in Delta and just get in the way. Without death their lives are meaningless. If Carmine lives through the events of Gears of War he will be lost, most likely become a Stranded and survive by eating malnourished cats. Ask yourself, would you rather go out serving your purpose in life or die a lesion riddled middle aged man who has survived on cats that eat poop?

Point Three. Gears is Marcus and Dom’s story and by relation Cole, Baird, Hoffman and Anya’s. While Gears has never been a plot heavy game, there are a lot of answers that need to be revealed. Throwing Clayton out there as some sort of Saving Private Ryan character is wrong in two manners. For starters such a premise would require everyone giving the writers of Gears more credit than they deserve. Secondly what are we saving Clayton from? His family is dead. Marcus has the love of the only woman left in the Gears universe worth pro-creating with and so Clayton has nothing to live for anyway. If he doesn’t die in Gears 3, he may very well just off himself anyway and why go to the trouble of “saving” him if he is only going to turn around and rain on your parade anyway. Save yourself the trouble and help him on his way.

Point Four. The Carmine brothers are an emotional lightning rod. Their deaths help to give Marcus purpose. Marcus needs the Carmine’s to die because it is the fuel that pushes him onwards. He takes their deaths, tosses them onto his back (running like a slouch because of it) and trundles on towards the inevitable defeat of all that is wrong with Sera. But why the Carmine’s you ask? Why do these boys deserve to suffer after suffering so much already? Benjamin Carmine was a professional bowler before taking up the helmet and becoming a martyr. Anthony Carmine was a flamenco dancer before taking up the helmet and fulfilling his destiny. Clayton Carmine once dreamed of breeding chocobos but that will never come to pass because Sera can no longer support chocobos. No matter how much Clayton dreams of breeding the golden chocobo it will never happen but if he dies as his astrological signs have foretold, maybe one day a little boy with no malice in his heart will be able to bring the chocobo population back to Sera. But without Clayton dying to give Marcus the fuel he needs, Sera will never be safe.

Point Five. Its always fun to do something evil but generally you have to live with the guilt of having done that evil thing. Epic is making it very easy for you to help Clayton to the afterlife by saying, “Go Ahead. Kill Him. You’ve already made a donation to a good cause anyway so go one have your fun.”

I don’t know Clayton Carmine. I’m sure he is a nice guy but his time on the planet of Sera has come to an end. To keep the world on its proper axis, to stop the world from spinning horribly out of control, to stop the locust and/or the lambent for taking over, Clayton Carmine needs to die. I trust you to make the right decision and vote for his death.

The World Cup has finished, Spain has declared supremacy for the next four years and if you are anything like me you are going through some serious international soccer withdrawal. Fortunately there is a cure for the twitches and it is in the form of EA Sports’ 2010 FIFA World Cup: South Africa.

Offering nearly everything that FIFA 10 did but instead of focusing on club soccer and the world’s best leagues, World Cup: South Africa shifts to the international qualification process and the grand tournament itself. This is the best soccer game available at the moment for those looking to play with their favorite international side.

The last few years have been very successful for EA Sports as they have transformed the FIFA series from a good soccer game into a great one. The primary reason for this is because of the realistic physics of the ball. In past FIFA games the ball always felt a little off but they really nailed the feel of the pitch with FIFA 10 and by relation World Cup: South Africa. Whereas in past titles the ball kind of felt like a fast moving rock, through balls have a zip to them, touch passes have actual touch to them and shots can be fine tuned to either float or drive towards the net.

With the ball being as good as it is the rest of the game flows right in line. Making runs is as easy as finding a lane and putting the ball where you want it. Of course actually doing so against the improved AI is another matter entirely. With nearly 200 international sides to play as or against there is a wealth of strategies that can be employed both by the player or against the player. Depending upon which country is chosen to be played the game can be ultra fast or deliberately paced. It will certainly keep players on their toes.

The primary game mode is the World Cup and players can jump right in guiding their side of choice to international glory or failure either through a rigorous qualifying process or jumping directly into the tournament itself. It is a deep mode that offers plenty of gameplay but for those looking for a more personalized take, the Captain Your Country mode offers up the chance to start as an entry level player on your international squad and guide him through the qualifying process to the World Cup.

Captain Your Country is a fantastically realized mode that offers a lengthy “career” for the created player. As great as it is though the seemingly arbitrary grading process seems mildly broken and in my experience rewarded AI players more generously for their efforts and graded my player far more harshly despite my player doing more both offensively and defensively. It also over-accentuates offensive contributions and playing as a midfielder or defender is somewhat less rewarding despite those positions being very vital to the framework of a match.

The game also has the requisite online modes and while it offers a quick play option for matches there is a fully realized online World Cup mode where opponents are determined by the online matchmaking system but standings are held locally on the users machine. This system eliminates the need to organize elaborate setups to hold a tournament and there is never a fear of having to make a match at a certain time because there is no schedule to uphold. The game also has the requisite penalty shot mode, which takes a little getting used to control wise but can offer some great fun once players get the hang of it.

Graphically World Cup: South Africa looks excellent and while a lot assets from the game are re-purposed from FIFA 10, there are just enough fresh touches, including all 10 South African soccer stadiums, that make this the best looking FIFA title to date. If there were to be a complaint about the presentation of the title though it would have to fall on the announcers and overall sound design. The team of Clive Tilsley and Andy Townsend are serviceable but like many sports games suffer from the same issues that every television style commentary system in a sports game runs into, that being they eventually get tiresome with their canned responses and horrid attempts at humor. The match itself sounds fine, with crowd noise appropriately filling the background but being as it was such a stalwart of the tournament, the angry swarm of bees sounding vuvuzela is noticeably absent or at least underused in the game. But as a criticism, that is truly picking at nits.

Yes, World Cup: South Africa came out before the tournament began but for those looking to stay in the World Cup mood a little longer and to impatient to wait until FIFA 11, now is the perfect time to jump in and play. On release the game retailed for the standard $60 but now that the tournament is over many retail outlets are discounting the game and it can be easily had for $40 or less at this point. Its a great sports title that will keep fans of the sport entertained for quite some time.

4 out of 5.

Racing games come explicitly in two forms, simulation racers and arcade racers. I myself enjoy both styles but my play type tends to make me more successful at arcade racers and thus I was anticipating Black Rock Studio’s latest effort, Split/Second. While demoing the game pre-release Black Rock explained the concept of the game to me as being Burnout but in reverse. Once I got the nightmarish idea of a slow moving Burnout game out of my head and actually got my hands on the game though I quickly understood what they were going for. Instead of focusing heavily on the player crashing, Split/Second gives players the control to make their opponents crash making the game about aggressive driving and strategic attacking.

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Welcome to My Music Mondays, the basic premise is that each week I will be delving into my music collection and looking at it somewhat randomly. This week I’m going to look at some of my favorite Summer related music.

Summer may not officially be here but after five straight days of over 90 degrees, I think most people in Philly will agree its summer time (as much as I hate to admit that, winter FTW). With that said I thought it time to look at some of my favorite summer related music, you know the kind you listen to when it is 100 degrees outside and you have to stand next to a flaming grill making barbeque chicken for all the assholes you call friends while drinking warm beer. Yeah, that music.

Favorite Summer Songs (in no particular order)

Summer Of ’69 – Bryan Adams
The Boys of Summer – Don Henley
The Heat Is On – Glenn Frey
You Make My Dreams – Hall & Oates
Back To Paradise – .38 Special
Two Tickets To Paradise – Eddie Money
Summer – Sum 41
Summer of ’69 – Bowling for Soup
The Boys Of Summer – The Ataris
Only Wanna Be With You – Hootie & The Blowfish
Come Around – Sister Hazel
Smile – Flickerstick
Saturday In The Park – Chicago
Endless Summer Nights – Richard Marx
American Pie – Don McLean
Kokomo – The Beach Boys
American Dream – The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Margaritaville – Jimmy Buffett
Sail Away – Sister Hazel
Beautiful Day – U2
Mexico – Sammy Hagar and the Wabos
Stone in Love – Journey
The Boys Are Back in Town – Thin Lizzy
Life Is a Highway – Tom Cochrane
Smooth – Santana Featuring Rob Thomas
Brown Eyed Girl = Van Morrison
Centerfield – John Fogerty
Glory Days – Bruce Springsteen
Dancing In The Moonlight – King Harvest
Cruel Summer – Bananarama
Walking On Sunshine – Katrina & The Waves
Vacation – The Go-Go’s
Banditos – The Refreshments
My Own Worst Enemy – Lit
Mas Tequila – Sammy Hagar
Life Is a Highway – Rascal Flatts
Feel It – Sister Hazel

What are some of your favorite summer music tracks?

You can argue the merits of its review scores until the end of time but there is no arguing that Super Mario Galaxy 2 is a wonderfully polished gaming experience. Despite only being two hours in, I feel comfortable stating that it is an amazing title. It is a beautiful looking game and just watching it in motion brings a smile to my face. However playing it is where the game becomes even more amazing.

On one hand finishing a level and rescuing the star is one of the most satisfying feelings I’ve ever gotten from a game. Be it defeating a boss by using a drill and angling yourself to hit its underbelly to traversing a maze of deathtraps that can only be traversed with some tricky jumps and waggles, the game knows how to make the gamer feel good about themselves. One of the biggest complaints about Super Mario Galaxy was that it was too easy, Super Mario Galaxy 2 kicks up the difficulty and most of the levels can be quite challenging. This added level of challenge really helps to garner the player a sense of accomplishment when reaching the end of a level. In short it is gaming ecstasy.

However not everything is fine and dandy in the Mushroom Kingdom and as high as the game has been able to take me, there have been parts where I want to hurl my Wii remote, crawl into a ball under my table and shake in frustration. A lot of this I blame on the “new” addition to the galaxy, Yoshi. Personally I have never been a very big fan of the spastic green dinosaur and my short time with him in Super Mario Galaxy has not been a happy reunion. Some are going to argue with me but I feel that Yoshi handles like crap. He feels clunky and unresponsive when compared to Mario being controlled by himself. Last night for instance, in a very early level, I was trying to get Yoshi to pull out a platform with his tongue, eat a spiny and promptly jump onto the platform before it all resets and all I was met with was a dinosaur who seemingly kept hitting an invisible ceiling and a death grip on my Wii remote. Still despite my dislike of Yoshi and some aspects of the game that require me cry out in frustration, I feel the game is something quite special.

It is rare that a game can completely frustrate you, yet reward you in such a fulfilling manner. It is a trait that some of the best games ever have accomplished and one that many of today’s games don’t come anywhere close to fulfilling. Super Mario Galaxy 2, at least in the short amount of time I have spent with it, is shaping up to be one of those games that transcends to a higher plane of gaming existence.

Is it worth a 10? That’s not for me to decide unless I am writing a review but its score, be it a 10, or a six has no bearing on my enjoyment of the game. I am going to enjoy it for what it is, a lesson in ecstasy and frustration balanced out with an annoying green dinosaur.

I just got done watching the six episode web series, Bright Falls and all I can say is Wow. Bright Falls was designed to be the live action prequel to Microsoft’s newest gaming property Alan Wake and if you are a fan of creepy, psychological horror, like I am, then you need to give the six episodes a go over at its website or on XBOX Live. And then when you are done rush out and get yourself a copy Alan Wake because the story picks up shortly after the end of the series.

I hope that this is something that Microsoft continues to do for their game properties and honestly if they want to continue Bright Falls, maybe even expanding on it a bit, I would be all for it.

I have always found Pokemon to be beyond me. I have never quite understood the fascination behind the little game and being as I had never tried it I was sure it was going to remain one of life’s great mysteries for me. Recently though on our way to PAX East VirginWolf ran the entire thing down for me and I have to say I was pretty intrigued. Not enough to buy the game right then but enough to keep it in the back of my mind as a potential purchase.

That purchase came this past Wednesday when I ordered it off of Amazon. I ordered the HeartGold edition because Gold is better than Silver, right? So yesterday when I arrive home from work sitting at my door is the package from Amazon. I rip open the box only to find a white plastic bag with Nintendo branding on it. My special Pokemon game came complete with a little plastic figurine of the odd looking bird on the cover of the game. Yay me. Anyway I open up the packaging, find my metagame token (the Pokewalker) and crack open the actual DS case. Too my surprise Pokemon version 2600 comes complete with a 50+ page instruction manual. Who knew games with manuals that large even still existed. Having seen that monstrosity I decided to jump right into it and this is where the Adventures of Skank Ho really begin.

For those that haven’t played Pokemon HeartGold before (and I am going to assume all of the other 7200 other versions are the same way), the game asks you for a bit of information about yourself. Character Creation 101 if you will. Its nothing too fancy but it works. One of the first questions, if not the first, is are you a boy or a girl? Now I already had personal issues picking up this game based on the pedo factor and well the boy model made me feel a little too uncomfortable so I went with the girl model and what do I name my 12 year old amateur monster hunter? Why SkankHo of course (lack of space prevented it from being the proper Skank Ho). That’s right my Pokemon trainer is named Skank Ho. Everyone in town knows about Skank Ho and her mom is her pimp. No really. I can’t make this shit up.

The first thing I noticed upon getting into the Pokeworld is that this is a traditionally modeled JRPG circa the SNES era of games. Really folks? This is what has captivated you for years and yet you complain about traditional JRPGs on the home consoles? Now don’t get me wrong I have no problem with how the game plays but I do find it slightly hypocritical that many of these same people who love Pokemon and worship the ground it walks on are the same people who consistently bash JRPGs for their traditional approach to game design. But I am getting off track, you don’t want to know about my feelings of anger towards the hypocrisy in the game community towards JRPGs, you want to know how my cherry popping in the world of Pokemon is going.

Skank Ho wakes up and her mom tells her that she needs to go next door to the Pokelab and see Dr. Pokeyouharder or umm… Professor Elm. I venture over to Elm Street and Freddy gives me a quest to stay awake for the night or maybe it was to go see some creeper who lives in the woods because he has a packaged for old Prof. Elm. Elm sends you on your way but not before you get to choose your very first Pokemon. I looked over the three of them multiple times and had no idea what I was looking at so in the end I went with the one who looked like the biggest bad ass, the blue crocodile looking cartoon character (TOTODILE). I was also given the chance to name him so I did and he became Pansy my Blue Crocodile Creature. I then sent out for the creepers house only for him to drop an egg into my hands. Some other freak gave me some shoes that enable me to run. Seriously? I need special speedy shoes to run. I call bullshit on that.

By this point in time Pansy has been in a few fights and I am having no clue on how to catch another Pokemon. I thought this game was about catching them all? Oh right, just like Final Fantasy XIII, Pokemon holds your hand and slowly unveils things to you. To be fair I think the game does a better job of letting you get to the actual game much quicker than FF XIII and for those that have played it before I am sure you blew by the tutorial sections of this game. Eventually some kid who wants to get in Skank Ho’s pants gives me his special Pokeballs (that just sounds dirty). I can capture Pokecreatures. Yay!! And I set out to catch them all, or at least the ones I see. I catch a few, a Pigeon, a Rat, a Caterpillar, a tail bouncing squirrel thing and then it all comes crashing down. Trainers start to challenge me and well Pansy is such a bad ass that I am laying waste to anything and everything in my path. Skank Ho is battling a whiny little bitch on a set of steps and he has this bad ass looking bug thing with a spike on its head so Pansy gets him in the red and Skank Ho tosses a Pokeball. Whiny bitch kid swats it out of the air like I am playing beer pong with guarding as a house rule and the game admonishes me for trying to catch them all. Look fucker you have a Pokething. Skank Ho wants it. So either you are going to give it to her or she is going to, OH WHAT THE FUCK? Nobody dies in this game they just faint. Who thought this shit up? Ugh…

Anyway after I cam to grips with the fact that this game is made for six year olds and not bloodthirsty 32 year olds, I calmed down a bit. I played some more and found the game to have some interesting features like the fact that the system clock seems to dictate if it is day time or night time in the game? Is this true or have I just not played enough because if it is true that is pretty bad ass. If not then it isn’t really anything special. I captured an Owl and then a skidmark or something like that (it kind of looks like a spider) and currently Skidmark is in my pants because I figured out how to work the Pokewalker.

Ending notes for this week:

1) I can’t believe people are obsessive about this but then again I did play it for four hours yesterday.

2) Is there an actual story to this game because if there is I haven’t found it yet? (Rephrased as Can I beat this game or do i have to catch them all?)

3) The names in this game are terrible and make me feel dirtier than a Thai hooker. I feel like I should rename all my Pokemon but I think I would quickly run out of good names and I can see it quickly devolving into my naming them after people I know and those people getting pissed off because their characters will not be what they feel appropriate.

Questions of the Week:

1) I keep hearing about Pokemon teams. What is a good team and early on does it even matter?

2) Are HeartGold and SoulSilver basically the same game just with different creatures to collect?

Tune in next week for a complete chronicle of Skank Ho’s adventures in Pokeherass, err… I mean Pokeland.