DC Universe Online (PC, PS3)

It's been almost 7 weeks since exobytes swooped down on Metropolis and Gotham and gave thousands of regular citizens the ability to shoot eye-beams, summon demons, create explosives out of nothing and generally reek havoc in DC Universe Online. Sounds  really fun, right? A lot of the time it is. At its core, DC Universe Online is an action game where you beat up villains, heroes and robots for experience and rewards. There are hundreds of other players doing the same around you, which is where the "massively multiplayer" part kicks in and the problems begin to show up.

The combat, for the most part, works well. On PC, melee and ranged attacks are controlled with clicks (Square and Triangle on the PS3), and combinations of taps and holds of the mouse can result in different moves once you've learned them. It's super-simple and easy to pick up, although it sometimes feels like the difference in damage between combos is negligible. You do get a sense of satisfaction when you manage to juggle an enemy long enough to kill them without taking any damage, and attacks are surprisingly responsive given usual MMO latencies.

As you level up, you gain Powers which vary in effect and depend wholly on what superpower you chose at the start of the game. Some powers work well together and some work well in combination with your attacks, but there are some powers that you only keep around because you needed them to unlock something better. The power trees could use some streamlining, and given that many of the classes have similar abilities, the classes could use some powers that define them. As it stands now, few skills feel truly unique to the classes, which makes your role in group combat feel disposable.

If you are new to the MMO genre, you may not be familiar with the "holy trinity" of the tank, healer and damage dealer that forms the core of most mainstream MMO group combat mechanics. Until an alternate mode is unlocked at level 10, regardless of what power set you've chosen, you are considered a damage dealer. For the most part, when you're playing solo, you'll want to stick to damage mode. In a group, you'll find everyone benefits if a few switch to their alternate mode. Unfortunately, DC Universe doesn't explain what purpose your other modes serve in groups very well. That's fine, I can't think of a game that does explain that well. Far worse, DCUO doesn't explain how to switch roles, and I found myself in groups with people who assumed that queuing themselves as a healer would automatically switch them to one (it doesn't).


The setting for these quests is typically either Metropolis or Gotham. Both cities are wonderfully fleshed out and rarely have repeated structures. There are a lot of recognizable locations, although as someone without a deep knowledge of DC, I'm sure I missed out on a lot of the references. With no day/night cycle, Metropolis is perpetually sunny while Gotham is forever shrouded in darkness. Despite both being urban settings, neither gets too tiresome thanks to the art design and the way the cities are almost divided up into segments within themselves.

The rare occasions that you actually enter the buildings are treats. Quest chains are broken up regularly by little dungeons designed to be completed on your own. These are usually just "fight to the end and defeat the boss" scenarios, but they're challenging and usually well designed, with the occasional event to change things up. Mini-dungeons are definitely one of DCUO's highlights. Their settings vary -- an early hero one has you in the sewers of Gotham, while villains will visit STAR Labs and the Daily Planet.

I wish I loved DC Universe Online, but instead I just like it. It's got a lot going for it -- a great license, some superb voice actors, a lot of well-crafted settings, fast action-based combat, and an entire market of people who, so far, have barely been exposed to the MMO genre. It's an important game for MMO developers who for years have been claiming that their title will be multiplatform, only to let that claim sink quietly into obscurity in the months after it is released on the PC. The fact that Sony Online Entertainment has launched an MMO on the PS3, especially in unison with the PC version, is impressive. DCUO is far from a bad game; there are indeed times when it shines fantastically with the potential for greatness, but its many faults, most minor but some quite large, ensure that it never reaches those heights.

Spec Ops: The Line (PC, PS3, XBOX 360)

Spec Ops: The Line

Once the playground for the world’s wealthiest elite, Dubai has fallen victim to a series of cataclysmic sandstorms. The city’s ultramodern architecture lies half-buried under millions of tons of sand. The very sand that blankets the city plays a marquee role in altering combat situations and serves as a powerful but unpredictable force that will both help and hinder players throughout the course of the game.

While most people have fled the now-barren wasteland before the sandstorms swept through, U.S. Army Colonel John Konrad and his loyal squad remained behind to protect those incapable of escape. Unable to reach anyone in Dubai after the storm hit, the U.S. Army feared Konrad and his team dead until they picked up a weak distress signal and launched a rescue operation. As U.S. Army Captain Martin Walker, you and your elite Delta Force team are sent to infiltrate the treacherous region to bring Konrad home. Players will experience “The Line”, that razor’s edge known only to men who deal in war. It is the line they cross when death and duty become one and the same. It is the end — of self and sanity — when their duty is done and only they remain.”

This is the newest game in the long-running budget series that originated on the PSOne and it is set for release sometime in 2011. And it apparently won’t be a budget title this time around, going by the high-quality graphics seen in the video below.

Looks pretty good to me.

Section 8: Prejudice preview

There’s a lot to like about a game that warns you to take cover to replenish your shields, then sends jetpacking enemies over the top of the jeep you’re hiding behind. Sure I threatened the developer’s family and whined about how unfair it was, but this is the sort of moment I want from an FPS.

Section 8’s fights always had a fascinating fluidity. The maps are big and open, the enemies capable of approaching from any angle, the loadouts entirely customisable – and the game drops dynamically generated missions into the bigger multiplayer games at will. This standalone expansion has a five-hour campaign, bolstered by 32-map multiplayer and a new four-player co-op game. All three modes take the same open-battlefield format, with bots filling in the holes when needed. There’s plenty of room for fun tactics and emergent silliness.

You’re a powersuited solider, boosted by a jetpack and a mech-o-sprint. By itself that’s enough to produce joyous moments of running, leaping and blasting: such as when I found a turret one of the bots had placed. Every player has the ability to call in support, from turrets to supplies and vehicles. Positioned on the edge of a large rock, the turret was firing missiles into one of our bases, while a repair beam snaked back to an enemy using the rock as cover. I fired missiles at the turret so the guy would focus on it, sprinted around the rock, jetpacked to the top and forced him to flee by peppering him with rifle fire. Then swapped to a rocket launcher to take down the turret. Divide and conquer!!!

All around, gnarly little fights were taking place. An enemy mech was struggling to keep a bunch of my team’s bots from his VIP. The mission itself was dynamically generated, dropped into the bigger battle for control points.

Control points have to be ‘hacked’ then protected from enemy reacquisition, so it’s here that the larger tactical situations form. It’s impossible to protect them from every angle, especially when the game is tempting you to leave them unguarded and hunt for cash-boosting wreckage. But two or three people holding off invaders, deploying turrets, repairing and healing, jetpacking away when things get hairy, delivers exciting, intense firefights.

Moment to moment is where Prejudice shines. If there’s a flaw, it’s trying to figure out the larger plan. With continual distractions and a busy HUD there’s usually too much going on. The control points on the map I played were structurally similar, which doesn’t help.

Prejudice has fun filling its niche: another tech-heavy Battlefield-style game. It’s looking like a fun shooter, and one with plenty of potential to entertain.

My Gaming Thoughts

Firstly I would like to talk about game reviews and why they dont matter to you individualy. Like everyone the reviewer has an opinion and thats not to say hes wrong but not everyone will agree with him. Just because one person doesn't like a story in a game doesn't mean you won't. Its the same principal with films, you should always try it for yourself. I do understand though that some people rely on reviews for there gaming purchases because they may not have the funds to buy games just on a hunch or a reviewers recomendation. My advice is to read a few reviews but also maybe wait for a few reviews off actual gamers not journalists, you should then be able to get a feel of what the game will be like and if you will enjoy it. It might come as a shock to people but "killzone 3" may not be to everyones taste and taking offence to reviews is a waste of valuable gaming time of which I don't get alot of these days.

In November like most people I bought Black Ops, after a few games I was thinking what the hell have I bought. I've been playing Cod games since number one and for me the series peaked with the amazing Modern Warfare, that game was perfection. It had an amazing single player with some truly memeroble moments, but it was the multi player that made the game great. So whats happened to the Cod series then, they have messed up big time thats what. Instead of making a polished game that works they have decided to cram in as much as they could and forgotten to actually make the game playablem, but most importantly enjoyable. After about a month I traded Blops in and re purchased Cod4 and I would love to say that I havn't looked back but I have. When the new maps were released I bought it again, so i've now spent nearly a hundred pounds on a game that I am not really enjoying even with the inclusion of the new maps. For me the main problem is the players, its just a campfest. Every corner there is someone with a claymore waiting for some unfortunat person to walk past and boom your dead. I'm not saying camping is such a bad thing but with every new Cod theres even more campers due to the fact that theres more and more new gamers buying consoles just for cod and thats the tactic of choice. ITS DAMN ANNOYING.

Lastly I would like to talk about exclusives on the PS3 and why they look better than 360 games. The simple fact is that the PS3 and 360 are very close interms of power no matter what the fanboys think. Sony are spending alot of money on there exclusives, Look at the biggest microsoft exclusive "halo", Reach is basicaly running on an engine that was used on the original xbox that has been updated over the years. Another xbox exclusive Alan Wake was origianly desighned for the PC then microsost bought the publishing rights and made it a 360 exclusive. It looked fantastic but wasn't up there with the best the PS3 could offer. The ps3 is has a slight advantage but its miniscule, if micrososft paid a developer to desighn a game from the ground up for the 360 we would see a different outcome which brings me to kingdoms. Now i'm not saying this is going to destroy the PS3 interms of graphics but I do think your going to see what the 360 can actually do. Untill then I hope killzone 3 will keep me occupied because Blops is a huge dissapointment for the second time.