Spec Ops: The Line Review

Nothing good ever happens to anyone in Spec Ops: The Line. It starts with a rescue, a rough situation destined to get worse, and unravels in a downward spiral where only bad things happen to good people. By the end, physical, mental, and moral disruption leave each character in a very different place than they started. You almost expect it to have been written by Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin.

This isn’t a good thing for Captain Martin Walker, our intrepid hero whose will weakens with every enemy encounter. He transforms from a cheesy cliché to someone you sympathize with, and then develops into something despicable. How he gets there isn’t up to you -- what it ultimately means, though, is entirely your call.

Story is Spec Ops’ strong suit, and while the inconsistent combat isn’t ideal, the gameplay does a great job of facilitating that narrative between intense encounters. In fact, The Line accomplishes something most shooters don’t bother with: It makes violence meaningful. Every firefight ends with Walker and his Delta Force squad regretting what they've done.

Yeah, that's pretty bleak.

The Line puts them in the precarious position of fighting their brethren. Rogue American soldiers who’ve abandoned their duty in Dubai attack on sight, and not without reason. The city is a wasteland, the environment is as hostile as the refugees, and surviving requires aggressive self-defense. Dubai hosts a civil war between multiple factions trying not to die. The Deltas are just one of these groups.

As Walker, you’ll discover dark and disturbing things about Dubai and the people stuck within it. In your mission to save civilians and make contact with a former commander, you’ll make tough decisions that aren’t like other video game choices.

Morality isn’t a feature or mechanic in Spec Ops: The Line -- each ethical quandary Walker deals with are subtle story beats dealt with by in-game action rather than a separate yes/no mechanism. You project their meaning and importance onto your character without seeing substantial in-game consequence. Deciding which of the bickering, increasingly angry teammates to side with, or who lives and dies, doesn’t affect the outcome of your rescue mission. In fact, the finale has a greater effect on the six hours leading up to it.

Choice changes what it means to be this man. He makes the inevitable bad call and deals with it, nothing more. On the other side of every door and dune are are conspiracies, betrayals, and mysteries waiting for Walker. The battles on the way to each one strengthens The Line's constant tension. Walker is just a man, and bullets rip him to pieces. He’s vulnerable and his enemies are aggressive, which encourages intelligent tactical combat.

Dubai's greatest deceit is its alluring beauty.

The Line introduces new variables in each fight. Sometimes sandstorms, sunshine, or objects obscure your vision. Fast-moving melee specialists, heavy gunners, and grenadiers force you to stay mobile and risk exposure. Destroying walls to drown enemies in sand is as viable a tactic as taking a turret, popping out of cover with a SCAR, or commanding squadmates.

Marking targets keeps you safe while slipping from one unreliable cover point to the next, and issuing commands to stun soldiers with flashbangs keeps them from suppressing you. Walker’s commands are simple and few because he doesn’t rely on them. When they’re not shooting at walls, Lugo and Adams -- Walker’s left- and right-hand men -- are capable of dealing with waves of attackers.

They saved me from dying multiple times when Spec Ops’ mechanics failed me. On multiple occasions, Walker didn’t slide into or sprint out of cover properly. Half the time I tried protecting myself, my character stopped dead before dropping dead.

Vaulting over objects is an issue as well because its input is the same as the melee attack, meaning Walker would sometimes punch the air instead of hop over a barrier. With no evasive roll to dodge effectively, control problems hung me out to dry.

Sandstorms will blind soldiers and tear down buildings.

Unpredictability and variety are the saviors of Spec Ops’ standard stop-and-pop formula, and neither exists in its online multiplayer. The adversarial side of The Line is an empty experience that relies on your lust for unlockables without presenting a reason to care.

Getting new guns, protective gear, perks to boost stats, and cosmetic apparel is fun, but playing eight-player deathmatches on large yet cluttered maps is hardly a thrilling method to earn them. The reward system itself is a letdown, too. The prizes for leveling up are similar weapons with minimal improvements and too-familiar ballistics.

The beacon of hope in multiplayer is the objective-based Buried mode, which tasks two teams of four to sabotage the enemy HQ while defending their own. It’s a tense tug-of-war full of panic and planning -- it’s a shame such a smart game type is trapped in the shell of an unremarkable online afterthought.

Multiplayer lacks the aesthetic spirit of the single-player campaign as well. What begins as a drab, brown desert shooter suddenly discovers a gorgeous, colorful personality. The purples, blues, greens, reds, and golds of the campaign's incredible interiors leave lasting impressions; you'll associate red and green with different but equally unsettling events. Color certainly exists in the multiplayer maps, but it isn't spotlighted or emphasized in a meaningful way. Meanwhile, the rock music of the early game gives way to somber acoustic melodies as the Delta crew deteriorates, further establishing the unforgiving tone in and out of combat.

When all's said and done and the dust has settled, Spec Ops puts players in an interesting position. The endings -- whichever one you get -- are open to interpretation while still offering closure. The new information shines new lights on various spots in the story that warrant a second run through the campaign. The depth of these convincing characters is clearer when you know the fate you're responsible for. You see Dubai and those left behind in a new way. Most importantly, you finally understand Walker, which could well change the way you act on his motivations. What you regretted the first time could eat you alive when it's done differently.

This is why Spec Ops is a daring experiment worth celebrating. For the first time, a game with guns doesn't want you to be the hero -- it's wants you to feel terrible about trying to be one.



Source : ign[dot]com

Max Payne 3 Review

After almost nine years, Max Payne, the pill-popping, bullet dodging, cop with nothing to lose and a penchant for horizontal gunplay has returned in Rockstar Studios’ Max Payne 3. When it was first revealed that MP3 was going to be the next title from Rockstar Games, there was a nearly audible reaction of, "Why?" from a good portion of gamers. After all, it had been nearly a decade since anyone had seen Max in action, and it seemed that it would stay that way, since he wasn’t exactly a character gamers were clamoring to see resurrected.

Thankfully, Rockstar ignored our collective abandonment of Max Payne, and decided to once again put Max at the forefront of the third-person action genre by delivering a bullet-adoring, genre-defining, shooter experience to rival this generation’s best, and the result is Max Payne 3.

When the original Max Payne burst onto the PC scene back in 2001, with its melodramatic, film noir-inspired presentation and Matrix-style bullet time-centric combat, it was definitely a breath of fresh air, and a large number of gamers no doubt still remember sinking countless hours into the game just because the bullet time turned standard shootouts into something completely unique. It also told a twisted and unforgiving tale of corruption, redemption, and desperation, presented in a comic book-panel style in between scenes of explosive violence.

Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne carried its predecessor’s torch admirably, maintaining the core mechanics, tone, and style fans loved while adding a still impressive layer of physics that took the slowed down action to a whole new level. Watching thugs get spun violently into the air in slow-mo never got old, and it helped make the sequel a worthy successor to one of the most groundbreaking shooters ever, even if it did feature plenty of similar scenarios (the least appealing of which involved navigating window ledges). In short, it felt like a natural, less game-changing next step.

With Max Payne 3, Rockstar once again hits all of the expected series beats, most of which players have come to expect from the genre in general, but it does so with such flair, polish, and focus of vision that what you end up with is a game that has an old-school heart in a next-gen body. You’ll still need to track down painkillers to heal yourself, but you’ll be doing it as a fully motion-captured James McCaffrey who moves at a noticeably slower pace than the much younger Max Payne from the previous games. Max narrates the story in his familiar pseudo-noir wordiness, but now it’s accented with a system that projects choice words and phrases into the scene and turns video into still images that are then used to pull off the comic book panel effect.

This artful balance of old and new is mirrored in the game’s story as well. The narrative jumps between flashback and present day, telling the painful tale of how Max was pulled out of his whiskey-soaked stupor by former policeman-turned-hired gun Raul Passos and thrown (bald) head first into the gang and corruption-fueled madness of the Brazilian criminal underworld via his political powerhouse of a client, the wealthy and supremely connected Branco family.

The story itself has more twists than a Twilight Zone-themed roller coaster (damn you crazy metaphor-laden narration!), some of which are rather obvious, but others that completely caught me off guard. I can already anticipate some players referencing the Mexico portion of Red Dead Redemption when discussing the closing chapters of MP3, but as was the case in RDR, I found myself being pleasantly surprised by the meatiness of the final act, pudge included.

The scope of the story is equally impressive, taking you from the snowy streets of New York City to the sun-baked back alleys of Sao Paulo to the over-the-top decadence of a multimillion dollar yacht under siege in the Panama Canal. Each setting brings with it a unique color pallet, and is crammed with a staggering amount of detail. Imagine all of the effort Rockstar puts into bringing its open worlds to life. Now imagine all of that effort concentrated down to individual set pieces (that are still quite substantial in their own right), and you’ll start to get a sense of how remarkable these place spaces truly are.

But for as slickly told as the story is, it’s the presentation--the stuttery video feed camera effects, the sans-loading screen transitions between gameplay and cutscenes, etc.--that bring MP3’s "cinematic" vision to life. You should know though that while there technically aren’t any load screens, the first half of every cutscene is an unskippable load time. Obviously, being forced to watch a brilliantly directed and well-acted cutscene instead of staring at a load screen is hardly a bad thing, but I figured you should know.

You should also know that those gameplay/cutscene transitions I mentioned before will have you screaming with girlish joy, because they flow so naturally that you honestly won’t even realize they are happening. One second you’re watching Max run at a dude to push him out of a nearby window overlooking a dance floor and the next you’re crashing through said window only now you are aiming at other enemies scattered around the club below, picking them off as you fall towards the ground surrounded by glass and the bracing against the body of the dude you just tackled out the window. There are numerous action-packed transitions like this, but even the standard move from cinematic to gameplay is slick as all hell.

Honestly though, the crowning jewel in Max Payne 3’s multi-jeweled crown is the combat. The animations systems driving Max’s movements are easily the best of any third-person action game I have ever played. The way he shifts his weight when changing directions to the way he is able to roll around while prone, enabling him to blast fools in a full 360 degrees to how he looks popping painkillers with one hand and popping caps with the other are nothing short of extraordinary. And that’s not even taking into account what happens to the poor bastards on the receiving end of Max’s remarkable actions. 

Building on the Euphoria-powered AI behaviors established in Grand Theft Auto IV, and then expanded in Red Dead Redemption, Max Payne 3 brings death to life in more moan-inducing ways than you can imagine. The way bullets impact bodies in the game is cringe worthy enough, but thanks to the new and improved final kill cam--another series staple--you get you watch in slow-mo and, if you hold down A/X, super slow-mo each individually rendered bullet rip through the flesh and bone of your enemies, before their bodies slump to the ground, filled with gaping, blood-spurting wounds. Action doesn’t get more joyously and bloodily balletic than this, and it all plays out without a single hiccup or slowdown even during the most chaotic of shootouts.

For as glorious as MP3’s action and presentation are, the game is not without its missteps, as small and few as they are. Similar to the oddly placed platforming sections in the previous two games, MP3 includes a couple of equally odd quick-time sequences at specific points during the story. Considering that you have to pull them off successfully to progress, these moments could have easily just been part of the cutscenes they appear in and nothing would have been lost.

The golden guns feature introduced in RDR makes its return in MP3, but it feels a bit out of place given the game’s linear design and more narrow narrative, because it means you’ll be spending time scouring every corner of every level to find the various gun pieces needed to unlock the golden weapons. While I do like that it pushes you to take in every inch of the gorgeously designed environments, it defuses the game’s otherwise fantastically frenetic pacing.

The same could be said for the television programs (despite the pertinent info provided by the newscasts detailing your actions) and the returning ability to play a little ditty on various pianos scattered throughout the game. You can also find clues (a picture, news clipping, a character hiding in a bathroom stall, etc.) that can give additional context to the story events, but this at least fits in with Max’s detective past, and therefore feels much more organic than tickling the ivories while someone you’re supposed to be rescuing is somewhere with a gun pressed against their head waiting for you to show up.

Once you’ve finished Max’s lengthy single-player campaign, you can then replay every chapter in the game in either Score Attack (new to the series) or New York Minute (a franchise staple), both of which will have leaderboard fanatics coming back on a daily basis to ensure their name remains at the top. You’ll want to play through the story mode again and again anyway because the combat is just that good, but having the option of doing so while racking up points and/or racing against the clock are welcomed additions.

As was the case with GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption, Max Payne 3 includes a robust, challenging, and super fun multiplayer component in addition to its substantial single-player offering. The standard deathmatch and team deathmatch are the perfect places to witness/cause massive amounts of fluid death, but Gang Wars mode is where I found myself having the most fun. Not only does this mode tie directly into Max’s story (you play as members of the gangs Max fights against in New York and Brazil), but it plays out over five chapters, each of which gets a specific voiceover narration setting up the story behind the showdown, and 10 game modes. So one round you might have to grab cash and bring it designated drop off points, and the next you’re trying to stop the other team from blowing up key points around the map. This sort of multiple game type setup is nothing new to multiplayer, but it works beautifully here.

One of the big questions for MP3 mulitplayer was how bullet time was going to work. The answer is remarkably well, because it’s based on line of sight. So when you dive and there’s no one around, you just dive. But if you have an enemy if your crosshairs, time slows for you and the targeted player. If the other player breaks your line of sight, time speeds up again. It’s an elegant solution, and one that rewards quick thinking and map awareness while also letting players enjoy the franchise’s signature gameplay features outside the main campaign.

The multiplayer also features a mega crap ton of challenges to complete and perks/weapons/gear/attachments/characters/outfits to unlock. The perks (Bursts/Sutures) system adds a great deal of strategy to multiplayer, as they offer all sorts of ways to counter opposing perk-based efforts. Having weight impact health regen and movement speed is another nice touch, since it discourages tanking in favor of lean, mean fighters.

Perhaps the most talked about multiplayer feature in MP3 is Crews. These are just clans--complete with fully customizable logos that can be crafted over at Rockstar’s Social Club site--but MP3 crews will eventually be transferable to GTA 5. Initiating vendettas against another player in multiplayer matches is one thing, but being able to start feuds with other crews is just good fun, and it adds an extra layer of camaraderie to the entire multiplayer experience.

Max Payne 3 is a technological tour de force that will have you screaming "Dear lord!" more times than midnight mass. The performances are top notch, the action plays out with unrivaled fluidity, and the multiplayer is deep and rewarding. Silly distractions aside, Max Payne 3 is an action lover’s wet dream that also happens to employ some of the slickest direction and transitional trickery this side of a David Fincher box set. Lock and load. It’s bullet time...time.

Source : http://www.g4tv.com/games/xbox-360/61622/max-payne-3/review/

Max Payne 3 Review

After almost nine years, Max Payne, the pill-popping, bullet dodging, cop with nothing to lose and a penchant for horizontal gunplay has returned in Rockstar Studios’ Max Payne 3. When it was first revealed that MP3 was going to be the next title from Rockstar Games, there was a nearly audible reaction of, "Why?" from a good portion of gamers. After all, it had been nearly a decade since anyone had seen Max in action, and it seemed that it would stay that way, since he wasn’t exactly a character gamers were clamoring to see resurrected.

Thankfully, Rockstar ignored our collective abandonment of Max Payne, and decided to once again put Max at the forefront of the third-person action genre by delivering a bullet-adoring, genre-defining, shooter experience to rival this generation’s best, and the result is Max Payne 3.


When the original Max Payne burst onto the PC scene back in 2001, with its melodramatic, film noir-inspired presentation and Matrix-style bullet time-centric combat, it was definitely a breath of fresh air, and a large number of gamers no doubt still remember sinking countless hours into the game just because the bullet time turned standard shootouts into something completely unique. It also told a twisted and unforgiving tale of corruption, redemption, and desperation, presented in a comic book-panel style in between scenes of explosive violence.

Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne carried its predecessor’s torch admirably, maintaining the core mechanics, tone, and style fans loved while adding a still impressive layer of physics that took the slowed down action to a whole new level. Watching thugs get spun violently into the air in slow-mo never got old, and it helped make the sequel a worthy successor to one of the most groundbreaking shooters ever, even if it did feature plenty of similar scenarios (the least appealing of which involved navigating window ledges). In short, it felt like a natural, less game-changing next step.

With Max Payne 3, Rockstar once again hits all of the expected series beats, most of which players have come to expect from the genre in general, but it does so with such flair, polish, and focus of vision that what you end up with is a game that has an old-school heart in a next-gen body. You’ll still need to track down painkillers to heal yourself, but you’ll be doing it as a fully motion-captured James McCaffrey who moves at a noticeably slower pace than the much younger Max Payne from the previous games. Max narrates the story in his familiar pseudo-noir wordiness, but now it’s accented with a system that projects choice words and phrases into the scene and turns video into still images that are then used to pull off the comic book panel effect.

This artful balance of old and new is mirrored in the game’s story as well. The narrative jumps between flashback and present day, telling the painful tale of how Max was pulled out of his whiskey-soaked stupor by former policeman-turned-hired gun Raul Passos and thrown (bald) head first into the gang and corruption-fueled madness of the Brazilian criminal underworld via his political powerhouse of a client, the wealthy and supremely connected Branco family.

The story itself has more twists than a Twilight Zone-themed roller coaster (damn you crazy metaphor-laden narration!), some of which are rather obvious, but others that completely caught me off guard. I can already anticipate some players referencing the Mexico portion of Red Dead Redemption when discussing the closing chapters of MP3, but as was the case in RDR, I found myself being pleasantly surprised by the meatiness of the final act, pudge included.

The scope of the story is equally impressive, taking you from the snowy streets of New York City to the sun-baked back alleys of Sao Paulo to the over-the-top decadence of a multimillion dollar yacht under siege in the Panama Canal. Each setting brings with it a unique color pallet, and is crammed with a staggering amount of detail. Imagine all of the effort Rockstar puts into bringing its open worlds to life. Now imagine all of that effort concentrated down to individual set pieces (that are still quite substantial in their own right), and you’ll start to get a sense of how remarkable these place spaces truly are.

But for as slickly told as the story is, it’s the presentation--the stuttery video feed camera effects, the sans-loading screen transitions between gameplay and cutscenes, etc.--that bring MP3’s "cinematic" vision to life. You should know though that while there technically aren’t any load screens, the first half of every cutscene is an unskippable load time. Obviously, being forced to watch a brilliantly directed and well-acted cutscene instead of staring at a load screen is hardly a bad thing, but I figured you should know.

You should also know that those gameplay/cutscene transitions I mentioned before will have you screaming with girlish joy, because they flow so naturally that you honestly won’t even realize they are happening. One second you’re watching Max run at a dude to push him out of a nearby window overlooking a dance floor and the next you’re crashing through said window only now you are aiming at other enemies scattered around the club below, picking them off as you fall towards the ground surrounded by glass and the bracing against the body of the dude you just tackled out the window. There are numerous action-packed transitions like this, but even the standard move from cinematic to gameplay is slick as all hell.

Honestly though, the crowning jewel in Max Payne 3’s multi-jeweled crown is the combat. The animations systems driving Max’s movements are easily the best of any third-person action game I have ever played. The way he shifts his weight when changing directions to the way he is able to roll around while prone, enabling him to blast fools in a full 360 degrees to how he looks popping painkillers with one hand and popping caps with the other are nothing short of extraordinary. And that’s not even taking into account what happens to the poor bastards on the receiving end of Max’s remarkable actions.

Building on the Euphoria-powered AI behaviors established in Grand Theft Auto IV, and then expanded in Red Dead Redemption, Max Payne 3 brings death to life in more moan-inducing ways than you can imagine. The way bullets impact bodies in the game is cringe worthy enough, but thanks to the new and improved final kill cam--another series staple--you get you watch in slow-mo and, if you hold down A/X, super slow-mo each individually rendered bullet rip through the flesh and bone of your enemies, before their bodies slump to the ground, filled with gaping, blood-spurting wounds. Action doesn’t get more joyously and bloodily balletic than this, and it all plays out without a single hiccup or slowdown even during the most chaotic of shootouts.

For as glorious as MP3’s action and presentation are, the game is not without its missteps, as small and few as they are. Similar to the oddly placed platforming sections in the previous two games, MP3 includes a couple of equally odd quick-time sequences at specific points during the story. Considering that you have to pull them off successfully to progress, these moments could have easily just been part of the cutscenes they appear in and nothing would have been lost.



The golden guns feature introduced in RDR makes its return in MP3, but it feels a bit out of place given the game’s linear design and more narrow narrative, because it means you’ll be spending time scouring every corner of every level to find the various gun pieces needed to unlock the golden weapons. While I do like that it pushes you to take in every inch of the gorgeously designed environments, it defuses the game’s otherwise fantastically frenetic pacing.

The same could be said for the television programs (despite the pertinent info provided by the newscasts detailing your actions) and the returning ability to play a little ditty on various pianos scattered throughout the game. You can also find clues (a picture, news clipping, a character hiding in a bathroom stall, etc.) that can give additional context to the story events, but this at least fits in with Max’s detective past, and therefore feels much more organic than tickling the ivories while someone you’re supposed to be rescuing is somewhere with a gun pressed against their head waiting for you to show up.

Once you’ve finished Max’s lengthy single-player campaign, you can then replay every chapter in the game in either Score Attack (new to the series) or New York Minute (a franchise staple), both of which will have leaderboard fanatics coming back on a daily basis to ensure their name remains at the top. You’ll want to play through the story mode again and again anyway because the combat is just that good, but having the option of doing so while racking up points and/or racing against the clock are welcomed additions.



As was the case with GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption, Max Payne 3 includes a robust, challenging, and super fun multiplayer component in addition to its substantial single-player offering. The standard deathmatch and team deathmatch are the perfect places to witness/cause massive amounts of fluid death, but Gang War mode is where I found myself having the most fun. Not only does this mode tie directly into Max’s story (you play as members of the gangs Max fights against in New York and Brazil), but it plays out over five chapters, each of which gets a specific voiceover narration setting up the story behind the showdown, and 10 game modes. So one round you might have to grab cash and bring it designated drop off points, and the next you’re trying to stop the other team from blowing up key points around the map. This sort of multiple game type setup is nothing new to multiplayer, but it works beautifully here.

One of the big questions for MP3 mulitplayer was how bullet time was going to work. The answer is remarkably well, because it’s based on line of sight. So when you dive and there’s no one around, you just dive. But if you have an enemy if your crosshairs, time slows for you and the targeted player. If the other player breaks your line of sight, time speeds up again. It’s an elegant solution, and one that rewards quick thinking and map awareness while also letting players enjoy the franchise’s signature gameplay features outside the main campaign.

The multiplayer also features a mega crap ton of challenges to complete and perks/weapons/gear/attachments/characters/outfits to unlock. The perks (Bursts/Sutures) system adds a great deal of strategy to multiplayer, as they offer all sorts of ways to counter opposing perk-based efforts. Having weight impact health regen and movement speed is another nice touch, since it discourages tanking in favor of lean, mean fighters.

Perhaps the most talked about multiplayer feature in MP3 is Crews. These are just clans--complete with fully customizable logos that can be crafted over at Rockstar’s Social Club site--but MP3 crews will eventually be transferable to GTA 5. Initiating vendettas against another player in multiplayer matches is one thing, but being able to start feuds with other crews is just good fun, and it adds an extra layer of camaraderie to the entire multiplayer experience.

Max Payne 3 is a technological tour de force that will have you screaming "Dear lord!" more times than midnight mass. The performances are top notch, the action plays out with unrivaled fluidity, and the multiplayer is deep and rewarding. Silly distractions aside, Max Payne 3 is an action lover’s wet dream that also happens to employ some of the slickest direction and transitional trickery this side of a David Fincher box set. Lock and load. It’s bullet time...time.


Source : http://www.g4tv.com/games/xbox-360/61622/max-payne-3/review/

Game of Thrones: "The Old Gods and the New" Review

Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow...

Whoa, now that was one powerfully wicked episode. No, nothing happened along the lines of a smoke demon birth or supernatural regicide, but "The Old Gods and the New" was filled some intensely heinous human events. Just some amazing, killer sequences. And it seems as though Vanessa Taylor, who also wrote the great and demented "Garden of Bones," might be this series' go-to scribe for big, intensely disturbing moments. From Theon raiding Winterfell and brutally hacking off Ser Rodrik's head, to Joffrey inciting a riot and nearly getting Sansa raped and murdered, this episode was an absolute stand-out that helped put this season into perspective; perhaps even finally giving it shape.

Having read the Martin books, I was surprised to see Theon arrive at Winterfell so soon. And I'm pretty sure that other book fans felt the same way since the season wound up skipping past a lot of Theon's actual journey to get there. But I see this as a good thing. For once, we book readers got to be surprised along with the non-readers. Surprised , sure, but still taken aback. And by leaping over some of Theon's story to get to Winterfell the producers and writers were able to turn the actual attack on Theon's former home into a bigger moment then it would have been if we had spent an extra episode or two with him plotting to take down Winterfell. Which would have ruined the surprise.




And now Theon has officially moved beyond being a pompous letch to being a full-fledged horrible human being. Yes, I can officially shout "F*** you!" at him, as he foolishly tried his best to lead a bloodless raid; wanting somehow to be both respected by his ship's crew the Winterfellians. It's funny to see someone who's turned his back on the Starks essentially wanting Ned Stark. Or, at least, be loved and respected like him. It actually kind of reveals the way Theon felt about Ned. But then everything turns massively ugly when Ser Rodrik refuses to yield and, well, Theon does his damnedest to give Joffrey a run for his money; competing for the ultimate "wretched prick" prize of Season 2. But even though Theon has now done the unthinkable (and to some, the unexpected), he's still given actual layers. For what it's worth, you can see how torn and conflicted he is. You see him not to hurt anyone. But, of course, when he has to make a bottom line decision, he makes the monstrous one. "Gods help you, Theon Greyjoy. Now you are truly lost."

- HBO

Royal Guard Photobomb!

And while Theon's clumsy sack of Winterfell got him a thousand douchebag points, there's simply no beating Joffrey. In the exact same episode, not only does Joffrey out-do Theon, but he out-does himself. Again. He's a marvel. He was so horrifyingly idiotic in this one that he actually caused the usually calm and collected
Tyrion to snap and give him an epic slap right in his kingly mouth (again!). "We've had vicious kings and we've had idiot kings, but I don't know that we've ever been cursed with a vicious idiot." So damn good. And a shot to the mouth so gratifying that the internet is sure to have a field day. Loop it. Gif it. Go nuts!

Man, what a scene. And can we now that Sansa has more than paid for her Season 1 sins? The riot scene was even tweaked enough from the books that I got pretty damn nervous watching the Sansa attack; not quite sure where they were going with it. But then, before I knew it, Tyrion wasn't the only one getting a great hero's moment this week. Yes, it was The Hound to the rescue. But now what? That crowd, that Joffrey vocally wanted to have killed, has crossed that line of no return. Because some of Joffrey's rich folk retinue sure as hell didn't make it out of that mob scene alive and . "Set up"-wise, there may have only been a few lines here and there about how the people in King's Landing were starving, but I'd like to think that Joffrey, being the way he is, would be enough to cause even a sane and well-fed crowd to lose it and start ripping royals to ribbons.

We got to see a little more of Robb and Lady Talisa out on the war trail, with Cat returning and reminding Robb of his promise to wed one of the ugly Frey daughters. Again, we have to shift time around in our heads here since Theon's attack on Winterfell took place... a few weeks after the last episode? And that's being very generous. A month is probably fairer, but again that would also mean that a month had passed for everyone else. Especially since, in the same episode, Cat and Robb get Luwin's raven about the raid - tethering them, at least to those events and that timeline. Of course, Robb wants to head back North, but much in the same way he can't give up the Kingslayer for his sisters, he can't abandon his battles. So Lord Bolton, who we don't know all that much about, tells Robb that he'll send word to his bastard, who we haven't met, to retake Winterfell. I won't say much more about this other than... I hope we soon get this story filled in a bit more.

Jon Snow meeting Ygritte, the fire-haired wildling lass, really helped juice up his storyline. For the first time, after he and Ygritte got separated from Quorin, I felt like Jon was experiencing his own story. And not just tagging along with a bunch of grizzled Night's Watch superiors who were exposition-ing him all about how the Night's Watch sucks as a career path ("We're not fighting an enemy, we're fighting the North"). Not that it was bad to watch. I did like Quorin's speech about how, really, you're to resent being the Night's Watch. But now that Jon is off on his own, with a feisty temptress, his trek has become a more lively and exciting. Downton Abbey's Rose Leslie is perfect at Ygritte; stubborn, brave and yet also instantly attracted to Jon. And yes, even though you can tell that the two of them have a certain "meet-cute" spark, Ygritte is definitely toying and teasing Jon with her hip gyrations; not really expecting it to go anywhere except to frustrate and torment him.

- HBO

Maniacal laugh. Maniacal laugh....

It's interesting watching Daenerys this season as she always feels the need to come off as strong and confident. And that's understandable, for sure. But it's a far cry from her Season 1 arc and since Jorah was off trying to find her a ship in this episode (and the only time she lets her guard down is with him) Dany tried to boast and "I am Daenerys Stormborn!" her way around Qarth with Xaro. Meeting up, once again, with the somewhat-contemptuous Spice King - who also stood as proof that Stannis Baratheon isn't the only "Grammar Nazi" in town. Dany is still trying to get Qarth sponsorship, which seems to mean that she's not fully listening to Jorah's advice about "making her own way." And at this point on the show, I think the audience trusts Jorah's wisdom more than hers.

So until Jorah comes back, Dany's apt to make mistake after mistake. As proven with the theft of her dragons. And the killing of Irri. Awww. At least she got to get in one final "It is known" back in last week's episode. So now Daenerys has nothing to brag about. The three things that were keeping looming scoundrels from savaging her are gone. Off to, what I assume was, the House of the Undying. Which maybe should have warned Dany about (*narrows eyes at Xaro*). You know, that Warlocks might also kill everyone in your house and steal your most prized possessions.

I mentioned last week how much I loved watching Arya and Tywin together and, man, that still stands. This week the two of them had a great scene together where it seemed like they actually connected as people. Especially Tywin, who talks more candidly to Arya than he does to any of the men on his war council. And even though Arya stealing the note (which actually lets us know that Tywin gets more satisfaction out of their chats than she does) meant that she had to a kill-name with Jaqen, it was still a very fun sequence; with Amory Lorch opening the door and falling flat on his face. Of course now, since Lorch's death can't be considered an accident, everyone has to know that there's an assassin hiding somewhere in Harrenhal. It's even fun watching Littlefinger "out in the field" working hard to pull the strings; coming to Tywin on behalf of the Tyrells.

Book purists will certainly have their gripes, but I found "The Old Gods and the New" to be nothing short of an intense triumph; filled with tons of cruelty and shock. Plus, there was some fun to be had with Jon Snow and some suspense to be found with Arya. It also, I must say, provided genuine surprises for those who of us who have read the source material.


Source : http://tv.ign.com/articles/122/1223767p1.html

Awesomenauts Review

There's nothing quite like a monkey with a laser mounted to its jetpack fighting a ninja lizard, space sheriff, and robot Incredible Hulk. Awesomenauts is absurd and hilarious. For the most part, it's entertaining to play, too. It distills a complicated, largely PC-only genre down to its essence, and it does so mostly successfully. Awesomenauts is one of the first instances of a multiplayer online battle arena on consoles, and when it isn't stumbling over its own simplicity, it does a great job of bringing something exciting to a new audience.

Think of the MOBA genre like inverse tug-of-war – two teams with distinct hero characters push against waves of human players and their AI companions; whichever group breaks through the other side first takes home the win. Turret placements block routes, summon spots spawn additional help, and hidden paths allow players to flank their foes. Awesomenauts builds a complex layer of strategy around a bare-bones 2D core, and this is where thoughtful players will discover smart tactics.

They're the folks who'll realize retreating is smarter than sacrifice, and that the on-the-fly character upgrades they'll earn because of it are more important than another kill. Staying alive means not contributing to the other team's resources, too, as you'll drop plenty of currency for them when killed. Letting them clean up and buy upgrade their dynamite, rocket, or knife abilities will end you.

Awesomenauts is a lot of work, and the more you put into each match the more you'll get out of it, both short- and long-term.

You can hide behind your robots to take on turrets.

This is the biggest issue with Awesomenauts. As you're starting out and discovering the strengths and weaknesses of each vastly different hero, higher-ranking players will slaughter you. Not because their level means they're stronger – everyone starts out even and without upgrades – but because the unlockable characters are
considerably better than the limited starting selection.

They're more capable, have better weaponry, and are just more capable of killing your team. There's a stark, immediately noticeable imbalance that adds a stacked rock-paper-scissors sense to the roster.

I hated Awesomenauts for a few hours. The wacky Saturday morning cartoon theme, western music, and simple destructive gameplay was fun, sure, but the grind drove me mad. Eventually, I learned, adapted, and improved. Awesomenauts is unforgiving for newcomers, even though it's structurally simple, and the growing pains are awful if you're not enduring it with someone else.

Don't forget to spend the money you earn. Your team relies on it.

Even if you're a vetted MOBA nerd, this separate spin on the same idea makes you look at the genre in a new light -- dimmer, perhaps softer, rather than plugging in a new bulb altogether. That Awesomenauts is a multiplayer game first and foremost – don't bother with bot matches alone – means you're likely to play it in the company of others.

Without friends, the battlefield is lonely and frustrating, so make sure you're bringing friends in from the get-go. It turns an amusing game into a strong and strategic one.


Source : http://ps3.ign.com/articles/122/1224122p1.html