Top 5 Game Recommendations of 2011

Hey there folks!

As you wait for games to be released and my other reviews to come, I decided to write a (kinda) short page about my personal Top 5 Game Recommendations of this year that absolutely cannot be missed out on!

Number 5: Deus Ex Human Revolution.

Why: Not only are the graphics a huge delight, the storyline is utterly, and literally, jawdropping. A game that brings stealth, solving puzzles and hacks, putting pieces of a global puzzle together, this game is a great buy and definately worth the time, money and the frustration at its harder points.

Average price: $88

Number 4: L.A. Noire

Why: With the highest amount of graphics known to gaming, the game not only comes with a great storyline, but a fantastic gameplay and even more interesting style of gameplay shoot-'em-up/clue hunting. If you can overlook its slightly repetitive gameplay, you'll definately enjoy the ride in Hollywoodland.

Average price: $88

Number 3: Portal 2

Why: With a continuation on the popular original game, Portal 2 not only have a fun gameplay, but great stratergy, fun and challenging puzzles, qwerky puns and jokes along the way and of course, CAKE! With the simplistic and short gameplay, any gamer will find their trip to Aperture Science an enjoyable ride!

Average price: $78

Number 2: Bastion

Why: Bringing a new outlook on gaming, Bastion will definately leave you wanting more and more from Supergiant Gaming. A game made only by SEVEN people, this simple game will challenge even the most veteran gamer. With a beautiful storyline that will suck in even the most hardened person and gameplay not

to turn away from, this game is a definate buy for those who enjoy not only nostalgia from the simple graphics, but to be engulfed by the gorgeous musical score and gameplay that is Bastion.

Price: 1200 Microsoft Points

Number 1: Gears of War 3

Why: Finishing what was started in 2006, Gears of War 3 is truly a game that will leave you on your seat begging Epic not to let the game die out. Stunning graphics, fantastic gameplay, heartwrenching storyline and acting, this is truly worthy to become 2011's Game Of The Year. With the faults of the previous titles' multiplayer all but fixed, new modes and ribbons, weapon skins and even "mutations" that allow certain perks in Arcade Mode (Such as the Goldeneye famous "Big Head Mode") Gears 3 is an absolute buy for any gamer; 360, PC or any other cannot resist the charms of Gears!
Brothers To The End!

Average Price: $68 (Will become $98 by end of month)

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy your gaming. No matter what your style is, what games you prefer or what console you use, you are a gamer and we shall all game on!

Al Fatman

Review: Gears of War 3

G'day ladies and gents!

Now being called "worthy of a Game of The Decade award" by the populace, Gears of War 3 has finally arrived with many excited fan finally being able to get their hands on a copy and play for the final time as Marcus Fenix and the rest of Delta Squad.

***WARNING: This review will have spoilers.....if you do not want to spoil the game for yourself, you will see "SPOILER ALERT!!!" right before and a "END OF SPOILER" after if you wish to continue reading. Thanks!***

With an immediate jump straight into action, any Gears fan will feel welcome back into the controls of Marcus, walking him with our eyes above his shoulder. A game that took three years to make and a five month push back for polishing, it was met to be the best game in the entire series, and though only been released for two days (For the majority of the world) it is already turning many heads.

Graphics are definately a start, for those obsessed with the best. Detail down to armour and even teeth, it is obvious straight from the get-go that Epic wished to produce one fantastic game, with every single character getting a complete overhaul on everything that makes them what they are.
Sound effects are also a beautiful and devastating effect on the player, from the burn of flesh, the steady drip of water and imultion, to the eeree sound of a dead city and the ashed bodies of people standing where they died, the sound of this game is undescribable. Musical score was also a great treat, to hear a new haul on the original music as well as new titles and even a nod in the direction of the past.
***SPOILER ALERT!!***
What really sets this game ahead is the now heavy storyline. The Gears series isn't known for heavy storyline, but the last in the series finally ties all questions neatly together. During Act 3, Chapter 5 "Brothers To The End", Dom decides his lonliness cannot continue and while about to be overrun by Lambent, he comes to the conclusion to sacrifice himself to save the others in Delta Squad. This is one example for a heartwrenching scene, Dom screaming to Maria, Marcus telling him not to do it as he finally realises what he's doing and with all the chaos in the background, "Mad World" begins to play. This, being a hint at the very first Gears trailer.
And in all honesty, this gamer began to get teary at this scene.
***END OF SPOILERS***
Multiplayer, as of yet, have been exceedingly stable, and no glitches have happened as of yet. Smoothly run, it seems the horror of multiplayer of Gears 2 is finally in the past of the game. Not much can be said as it is nearly the same as previous titles, the exceptions being Horde 2.0, Beast Mode and Team Deathmatch, which have been explained so much. Horde 2.0 runs off a money system, Beast allows you to move up the ranks the more equiptment or people you kill and Team Deathmatch is just that, with the change of point system to allow a eventual running out of lives.

The only small flicks I have found so far are that arm movements in cutscenes can tend to overlap armour, specific spots in the movement acting looks slightly odd (Example, Dom hanging over an edge on the Sovereign looks as though he's standing, or kneeling on something) and weaponry on the back of your player does not move with you and only stays still, unlike previous titles.

The first Gears of War brought back the use of cover in third person shooters, delighting gamers worldwide. With the arrival of Gears 2, it drove us into the war between the two sides ,the stories of the characters beginning to entertwine and the plot thickening.
Gears of War 3 cannot be simply defined as I have just done for the series' previous titles.
To say that the last installment in the series is perfect beyond measure is an understatement and an outright insult to this game. Acting, sound effects, graphics, everything is on a high level and there are very little faults for this highly polished game.
Gears 3 have left on an extreme high note and wont be forgotten so easily, for Marcus, Delta Squad and the entire human race on Sera, this final fight, this really is Brothers To The End.

Out of 10, I gave Gears of War 3 a 10/10.
Gears of War 3 is out now. This is a highly recommended game to you the reader.

Good Points: Highly polished and utterly beautiful
                     Get your tissues....
                     Smooth multiplayer and gameplay.
                     Fantastic musical score

Bad Points:    AI movement slightly dodgy.
                     The end of Gears.....='(

Fatman's Gaming Tips - Upcoming Gears 3 Review

Hey there folks! Here's episode four and I hope you enjoy!
Thanks for watching
Al Fatman

A Long Wait Over!

Hey there gamers!

I just wanted to say, firstly, that I've hit over 1200 views. Once again, thank you so much. This site is really starting to take off and I've gotta give thanks to CRYPTICxPARADOX, EternalxWarfare and RIZZA SUPREME 95 for spreading the word about these reviews and this page. Thank you guys and gal, and thank you all for reading my words!

Secondly, as of last night, Gears of War 3 was released for Australia and I could not be more excited! I have to work today before I can get my copy (As I preordered mine from a store that wasn't doing a Midnight launch) so I can't wait to pick it up and watch the brother's to the end....
I'll be doing a review through Avatar Kinect, as I still haven't bought a camera yet (And I need an editing system for it too...) So please bare with me for a week.

Thank you so much again and game on!
Al Fatman

Review: Deus Ex Human Revolution

Hey there folks!

Meer moments after completing the campaign, I decided that this review could not wait any longer and must be written straight from the hands.

With the prequal in our hands, Deus Ex sees you as Jensen, an ex-SWAT Commander who refused to kill innocent civillians, was set to a position as an Private Security Officer in Sarif Industries, a company that involved around Augmentations; the combinations of metal, computer chips and flesh.

The game is set in 2027, twenty five years before the original game itself.

A great notification was the stunningly beautiful graphics, the large shades of yellow and dark greys added the needed darkness to the game, showing beautiful backdrops but also the dark that they held inside. Sound effects were also a large point into the game, every single sound in all four visitable sites (Detroit, Hengshai, Montreal and Singapore) added great homage to the towns, as people went by their business, cooked food in open restaurants, chatted away on phones ect.

The voice acting was quite sublime, each actor and character adding their own emotional depth and feeling through both voice and movement. The lead, Jensen (voiced by Elias Toufexis), was not only uncaring and rugged from his near death experience, but when emotional scenes were called for, he portrayed them excellently and can hook a gamer's interest and caring nature hook, line and sinker.

Gameplay, also, was a terrific experience. There are hardly any games in today's standard that allows people to use computers, hack items and interact with other people by the X button, seeing as A is more commonly used. A warning to gamers who switch inbetween games regulary, you will find yourself hitting X a bit more often as you more forward in the Deus Ex world.

One of the games few annoyances is weaponry. Another warning to Run and Gun gamers, this tactic will not let you last long in this game. A rare componant in this game, DEHR forces you not to be a Run and Gun Gamer, but to use your mind more logically. Using stealth will be your greatest ally, as well as keeping your eyes open for other paths; vents, high places and locked doors will soon become a close friend. If you wish to play as a Run and Gun Gamer, be sure that you have enough ammunition, as it comes in small amounts during the mission and those who cannot find a weaponry store will be the many, many deaths of you all. This tactic will often leave you dying on a multiple basis but will open your eyes to different routes, avoiding guards and even larger weapon stashes to go back and fight your way through your enemies.

Boss battles are impressive with their dynamic, campaign is highly focused on storyline and for the achievement hunters, watch all the credits until the very end. Deus Ex Human Revolution will leave you to rethink how you play games, how you move forward through and utterly jaw dropped until the very end.

Out of 10, I gave Deus Ex Human Revolution an 9/10

Good Points: Effective storyline

                     DLC on the way

                     Smooth gameplay

Bad Points:   Run and Gunners beware....

                    Confusing waypoints

                    No more Deus Ex.....?

Zero Gs 22 Review

Hey there folks!
As some of you may know, I held a competition a while back and promised in third place, someone would be able to choose a topic for a review.
Well, this person chose to write the review too. While it is short, these words come from the average gamer.
What you are about to read was not written by me; the text has been left unedited, misspelt words and all.
Enjoy!

Hey this Zero Gs 22, the 3^rd place winner of Fatman’s contest, so I get to write a review about Warhammer 40k Space Marine.

So first up is campaign it is a good fun experience with challenge. There are hordes of enemas that come at you and unless you use a mixture of both melee weapon, exactions for health, long ranged weapons and grenades you will die really fast and as you play throw the difficulty will rise higher. The bad is that the last boss fight is not that satisfying it’s too short and has little or no challenge at all depending on your skill and the fact that the only way to gain health is exactions is bad if you are versing hard to kill people like chaos marines or the Ork nobs so a mini-med kit would be nice and now on to glitches. When you do exactions they can go throw walls and some time you can’t even exact them.

Now on to multiplayer which is a fun fast paced game play but only two game mods capture the point and team death match which are fun but get old fast and there is no exp gained if your team wins the round and you can’t chose what team you are on it is random all the time so it’s hard to get the armour sets because sometimes you may go one team multiple times. There is very little lag most of the time but there will be servers were you will get lots of lag or bad connection to host but I think the edition of a 4 player co-op mod will be a good addition.

I give the 8.5/10

Good points

Fun fast paced game play

Good multiplayer

Good story

Bad points

Glitches

No med packs (even if they only restored a little health)

Not a lot of multiplayer modes

 Normal reviews from me shall return next week, as I hope to have complete Gears of War 3 by next Friday.

Thanks for reading, and congratulations to Simon Zhara (AKA Zero Gs 22) for winning.

Al Fatman

Australia's R18+ Rating

G'day folks!

As many of you may know, Australia has lacked an R18+ rating for video games for quite some time now (link to my thoughts http://fatmanxviii.blogspot.com/2011/06/australian-video-game-r18-rating.html) and the time has finally come.
Australia now has an R18+ rating system.
This is extremely good news for the gaming community, but there are a few drawbacks on this.
While many of our games that are soon to be released may come in R18+ (Such as Saints Row The Third and possibly MW3), games that have already been released and refused publication will not be able to be sold in the country for a further two years, due to publication laws in Australia. That means games such as Manhunt 2 and Mortal Kombat 9 wont enter the country until 2013.

With this some people have been asking if some presold games shall be upgraded to R18. The answer, simply, is no. With the amount of games sold and the amount of consumers, it would be way too expensive for the companies as well as distribution of the upgrades. This meaning that only Xbox Live subscribers would be able to get the upgrades, and nearly 20% of gamers are offline.

There is also another drawback. While Australians are gaining an R18 rating, we are loosing MA15+ for both games and movies. So our rating system shall change to G, PG, M and R. This means under 15 year olds will no longer be able to openly purchase games, and will need parents to do so. But as previously stated, even before the R18 rating, kids were still getting the games, either through the parents or the internet.

I'm extremely glad to hear our country is finally allowing us to be treated as human beings with rights and I hope this positive outlook on the world outside our boarders will continue.

1000 Marker

Hey there guys and girls!
I just wanted to make a quick note to how much I really appreciate you all checking out my reviews. I've finally hit the 1000 marker! Thank you all so very, very much!
I have to give alot of thanks to all my friends for giving out my site URL to their friends and spreading the word of my reviews, it makes it much easier to contact a new audience and hopefully, get some new followers. And for that, all I can say is thank you!

I may hold another competition in the future, so please keep an eye out for that.
Another episode of Fatman's Gaming Tips is definately on the way, and once again, its all gonna be about Gears of War 3! I'm splitting my review in two parts; one in the written review and the second a commentary discussion with a few people.

So thank you all for the support and here's to the next 1000!
Al Fatman

Review: DAH! Path Of The Furon

G'day there folks!

Probably one of my favourite game series as a kid, Destroy all Humans last game in the series, Path Of The Furon follows our protagonist, the lovable, destructable alien, Crypto and his aid in killing all of humanity, Pox.

But enough about storyline, lets dive right in!

What's really special about this game isn't the smooth gameplay, or even the great sound effects and musical scores, its the audio and the witty banter between the characters in the game. POTF sees you travel across the world, starting in Paradiso (Las Vegas), moving on to Sunnywood (Hollywood), Shen Long (Hong Kong), BelleVille (Paris) and finally, The 4th Ring of Furon. Within all of this, jokes and smart banter is said not only by Crypto and Pox talking about game ideas (Such as a "Plumber who kills his enemies by jumping on them" or "A really fast hedgehog" or even "A space marine fighting on a ring...") or even just the silly thoughts inside the minds of the people in each town ("I got pulled over for leaving my left blinker on. This is Shen Long! Everybody doing it!")

Not only is the voice acting just brilliant, but the fun and simplestic gameplay is also a hassle free fun! Lettin' rip a Venus Human Trap while shooting Anal Probes at your enemies has never been so much fun! Being in the roaming world is also a great asset to this game.
The storyline also follows the previous two games and the same voice actors come back to make the game just as enjoyable as it was before.
And while there are a few bugs to be kinked out, these are just the small stepping stone to bring the game down ever so slightly. Graphics too, aren't that much to look at and character movements are often repeated so these interrupt gameplay flow and become annoying ever so slightly.

However, I suggest this game to any gamer looking for a laugh and a good ol' fun time. Its a shame to see this game be completed, but when the ride's over, its over.

Out of 10, I gave DAH! The Path of The Furon an 8.5/10

Good points: Ridiculously fun
                    Great voice acting
                    Energic and unpredictable

Bad Points:  Gamplay jolts
                   Graphics are a letdown....
                   Much too short....

Review: Call Of Juarez The Cartel

Hey there folks!

From the change to a gun slingin' west to the modern day world, Call of Juarez is taken in a brand new area with the decendant of the original character.
The Cartel takes a leap from the previous title (COJ Bound for Blood), a prequel to the first game, but playing as the two McCall Brothers. This time, you are only set as one McCall this time around, as well as two other playable characters. Ben McCall (Who looks alot like his great grandfather Ray McCall, despite not being biologically decendant from the two), Kim Evans, the first female playable character and Eddie Guerra, all having their different abilities to help you work through the campaign.

In the eyes of alot of people, the Call of Juarez (before Red Dead Redemption) was one of the best western shooters in the gaming community, and sadly, with this step into the modern world, this has left many gamers not coming back for seconds. While the gameplay is simular to the previous titles, the use of cover systems and modern weapons have made the game alot more challenging. Audio is also a great asset to the game, as well as musical scores, but what reall lets the game down is the acting. COJ has never been known for its Over-The-Top-Melodrama voice acting, but in The Cartel, it seems that it is letting it down slighty, most sentences sounding bland or forced, not natural at all.

Another small let-down is the graphics: while as you play from a First Person stance, the weaponry and arms tend to dislocate, fade in colour and look blockish in a way. This ruins the flow of the gameplay and makes it awkward and sadly dissapointing.

Not much more can be said about the game that has already been mentioned; credit where its due, the game does has its natural feel to the series and at least continues the storyline, but it shall be only a matter of time before we find out if Call of Juarez will follow Red Faction Armeggeddon down the Shame of Discontinument.

Out of 10, I gave The Cartel an 7/10

Good Points: Gameplay runs well
                     Continued (But slightly confusing method) storyline
                    
Bad Points:   Acting could have been slightly better
                    Checkpoints may fail at responding.
                    Glitches = Non-dying enemies