Would you like a serious assault rifle with motion detector? Perhaps an awesome infrared vision with laser, wrist-blades, and invisible cloak.  Or do you prefer the sharp claws, spear tail, and the ability to walk on walls? Doesn’t matter because it’s all awesomeness. Humans, Aliens, and Predators all together, one big family reunion of gun shots and guttings.

I played as the Aliens, curious to see how they handled the wall crawling and tongue-mouth. Unfortunately there was no tongue-mouth but there was plenty of wall crawling which gives you the drop on the Predators to pull off a stealth kill. Stealth kills are fairly cool where you leap onto the poor bastards back and drive your tail through their torso. Running up the walls, crawling the ceiling and launching back to the ground was great fun and ran simple controls. The problem was the motion sickness and disorientation it caused.

Aliens Vs Predator was a great FPS multiplayer experience. Each species has it’s own set of controls so expect a learning curve to get a hang of maneuvering around, then take some time to learn how to make the best use of each species unique talents. The difference between the species and the tactics they employ will make this a great FPS next year.

The 6th, and latest offering in the Jak and Daxter series. Even though it’s the 6th game in the series, this game’s events carry-on the story from the ending of Jak 3. The world is running out of Eco, so Jak, Daxter, and Keira must go to the Brink to find some more. In their quest, they discover a mysterious orb that points to all Eco sources. This orb is then lost in a scuffle with Sky Pirates. Along the way they must first fend off, then later, team up with said Sky Pirates to recover the orb, and discover a new Eco source to save the now unstable planet. This installment allows for all the usual Eco powers, Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, and the unstable and mysterious Dark Eco. There is no Dark/Light Jak in this game, due to the unstable source of the Eco that is used.

The Lost Frontier is similar to other Jak and Daxter games in the series. Primarily, being a Platformer/Third Person Shooter, but also interspersed with several flying segments. The flying segments are great, with lots of action, enemies, and tons of upgrades possible for your aircraft. Destroying enemies nets you “scrap”, which you can trade for upgrades. I spent a solid 45 minutes on one of the flying segments, just motoring around, blowing people out of the sky, and collecting scrap. It’s great fun, and one of the highlights of the game. Also, the graphics are notably better than I expected, with great color and textures.

This game only takes a few minor hits from me. First, I’m new to the Jak and Daxter series, and this game did nothing to introduce me to the world, the characters, or the back-story. Right off the bat, I was thrust into a game I knew squat about. Considering it’s the 6th installment in the series, I found this to be a little disappointing. Second, the game camera can be awkward at times, clipping through objects and obstructing my view at a few critical moments. Third, and last, in the platforming segments, depth perception of distances you are jumping is a little skewed. I made a few jumps that looked like I would easily clear them, and immediately fell to my death. All-in-all, pretty minor stuff really.

Overall, I think this game is good. For mega-fans of the series, it’s a solid installment, and continues the story from Jak 3 very well, and I’d say buy it. The weapons, flight segments, aircraft upgrades, Eco powers, and good storyline make it a solid rental at least. For people considering their first Jak and Daxter adventure, you should start with the first 2 games, and work your way up to this one. Otherwise, the story seems paper-thin, and a little cliché without knowing any of the back-story.

[A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review purposes.]

Have a great weekend everyone.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Spore franchise continues to expand and grow. EA announced yesterday that Spore Islands is available on Facebook. Actually it’s been available for about a week, I’ve been playing it with a friend. You pick an island then build and color your creature utilizing DNA points. Friends can send a creature to your island and you can build one to send to their island. During observations, you can see the creatures eat, fight and lay eggs. The one with the highest points win.

During observation

You earn points when you or someone else observes your creatures. It’s a fun little game that is a nice break from Farmville and Mafia Wars. The only downside I have found is that you can only earn 12 DNA points at a time. To get more, you have to spend money. The incentive to spend the money is to buy hats and parts to add to your creature. I’ve not seen a need to spend money on it but it’s still fun.

What better way to start the morning off than with a bunch of shots from Mass Effect 2?  Kotaku has a gallery of nine brand spankin’ new shots from the game.  If that’s not enough, Bioware recently announced the Collector’s Edition, chock full of awesome stuff, such as:

The Collectors’ Edition of Mass Effect 2 comes in a premium, tin case and includes the full version of the game, a 48-page hardcover “Art of Mass Effect 2” book, Issue 1 of the Mass Effect Redemption comic book, and a bonus DVD with behind-the-scenes and making-of videos. In addition, the Mass Effect 2 Collectors’ Edition will include unique in-game weapons and armor that can only be obtained by purchasing this version.

Still not enough Mass Effect awesome for you?  Bioware also released a developer documentary that showcases some of the enemies Sheppard will be up against in the new game.

I guess if you need even more Mass Effect, you can grab the original game on Steam for the low price of ten bones, it’s Steam’s weekend deal.  It looks like that with Dragon Age released, Bioware will be ramping up the hype behind Mass Effect 2.  Let’s hope there isn’t a Marilyn Manson trailer in the future.

We’re less than 10 days away! Our next Xbox 360 Community Playdate is coming up very soon on November 15th playing Modern Warfare 2. The game releases November 10th, so everyone will have plenty of opportunity to pick up a copy and get rolling. Microsoft has all the info live on the Xbox website, so check it out.

We’ll be officially playing from 8-11pm ET, but you can expect a few of us to be on beforehand and others will be staying late. Modern Warfare 2 looks be a strong contender for multiplayer game of the year, so we’re excited to be the first event for the game.

Clear your schedules and put us on your calendar. We’re calling in air strikes for that ass.

So I get an email from Matt asking me if I wanted to review a football trivia game. Since I live and breathe the sport, I said absolutely. The guys over RTL were nice enough to send us a code and like a kid on Christmas, I rushed to download it and test my trivia against my roommates, who all wanted in on the action. I believe dishes were the bet. The game is finished. I fire it up. The biggest soccer ball I have ever seen fills the screen. Umm.. what? As it turns out, it is not an American football trivia game, but soccer. Yeah, a little surprised and was in line to do the dishes for the next week. Despite the mix up, I played the game and it is a very good trivia game.

I want to stress again, this is a soccer trivia game. I know very little about soccer, let alone European soccer. Let alone enough to attempt a trivia game. The graphics on the game are not going to blow you away, but for a trivia game, they are more than adequate. There is some catchy music in the background. This is basically exactly what you would expect from a trivia game. The only issue here is that this is a hardcore trivia game for fans of soccer. If you lie outside this demographic, you should keep moving. Although, if you are big time football follower, this will be a good time. 10 bucks is a little steep, but again, you will either love it or been utterly lost.

[A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review purposes.]

Hey what up Loot Ninja!?  I just got an e-mail today to let me know that the Netflix PS3 disc will be hitting my snail mail box this Friday (November 6th).  Wait! That’s tomorrow!  Holy crap! For those of you out of the feed, the Netflix service (online streaming) will be making it’s way over to the PS3 this Friday.

I can’t wait to watch a few British TV shows before I get back into Uncharted 2!  I’ll have to just insert the Netflix disc in the PS3 to boot into the service like it was a game, but this will give Netflix subscribers access to an extensive library of movies and TV shows for online streaming.  It’s essentially the same service used for the Xbox 360, but mark this off the list of something that the SexBox can do that the PS3 can’t.

The only downside I see is having to swap out discs and get my lazy ass off of the couch.  Word is though that Netflix will come out next year with an embedded XMB application already built into the Playstation for access to Netflix, so right now we’ll just have to suffer changing game discs.

I do feel that it will be faster  for me than swapping all of my inputs over to the 360 to use Netflix that way.  I currently don’t have a Harmony remote or something similar to program multiple tasks to one remote button, so I would have to change my receiver input with one remote, pick up another remote to change the TV input, and then find the 360 controller somewhere in the couch cushions.  Yeah, I know.  I’m lazy.

I might be making a mountain out of an ant hill about changing inputs, but to me it is yet another device in my house that I can stream movies and TV shows.  That is a good thing.  I’ll keep you guys posted on my findings as I get my hands on with the service come Friday afternoon.

If you haven’t already requested your PS3 Netflix disc you can do so here and they will ship it out to you free of charge.  Make sure all of your account information is up to date and it should be an automated send out.  If you don’t have a lot of movie channels on your cable or satellite package, I highly recommend picking up the $8.99 Netflix deal.  It’s what I have and I’m really happy with it.  You’ll get unlimited streaming of content (both HD and standard definition) and 1 DVD movie sent out to you in the mail at one time with no late fees.  Look to hear from me on Friday.  Well, maybe.  Depends on how many Troma videos I end up watching on the PS3! WOOHOO!

As you can guess from the name of this site, we enjoy Loot. And as any hardcore gamers, we enjoy a good shooter. Put the two together with strong RPG elements and you get Borderlands, one of the most addicting games you’ll play this year. Gearbox slapped together a kick-ass cell-shaded art style, awesome shooter gameplay and more weapons your can count to make a killer app.

Plenty of comparisons can be made between Borderlands and Fallout 3, and rightly so. Both are RPG/shooter combos set in a wasteland with Vaults as the main plot point. Where Borderlands sets itself apart is the FPS controls, which are spot on, and the millions of procedurally generated weapons. You’ll take on various quests throughout the game collecting endless amounts of loot with each enemy kill. Borderlands was designed with four player co-op in mind, so grab a buddy for your Skag killing adventures; it’s just that much more fun. For me, the comedic stylings of the NPC’s and boss-type characters in the game kept a smile on my face during the majority of my play time. Each of the four character types offers differing types of gameplay and it’s well worth it to play with each of them (my personal preference is Mordecai, the Hunter, but also enjoy Roland, the Soldier, for his medic abilities).

Borderlands does have some issues keeping it from being the perfect game this Holiday season. Fast Travel comes a little too late, in my opinion. While I loved exploring the wasteland areas, running or driving from place to place constantly in quests becomes tedious. My main gripe with the game is the menu system. I would have liked to see a more streamlined way to manage your items and quicker upgrades to larger backpacks. With so many badass weapons, I wanted to carry more than I could on many an occasion. If you’re playing split-screen co-op, you’ll need to scroll left and right to even see half the menu. Lastly, Gearbox needs to add a weapon trading system for playing with friends. If a buddy and I want to swap loot, we both have to drop the item on the ground and pick up the other. It would be easier to just have a trading system in game.

While Borderlands does have issues, it doesn’t change the fact that this game is addictive. You’ll be playing for hours and not want to put the game down. I kept telling myself “just one more loot drop,” but I kept playing. Aside from the story being forgettable, Borderlands is exactly what I wanted from Fallout 3. You get an amazing shooter with terrific loot drops and RPG qualities with massive replay value. Pick this up right away for whatever system you prefer.

[A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review purposes.]

GOOD LUCK FIGURING OUT WHAT CHARACTER TO CHOOSE…

I have been playing Tekken since its first release in 1995. The series has made a lot of headway over the years while never losing what made it stand out. Now with Tekken 6, the story evolves – kind of. True to the Mishima bloodline the youngest, Jin, has gone from reluctant hero to megalomaniac trying to take over the world – I guess these guys are just meant to be assholes. Oh well. Anyways a new tournament is here and Namco Bandai asks you once again to join. For the first time however this entry comes out on a platform other than a PlayStation with a semi-controversial Xbox 360 debut. But let’s be honest, this has been coming for a while hasn’t it?

So what’s all the hubbub about? Click on this thing here.

I’ll get the graphics out of the way first. They’re beautiful. What would have been a par-for-the-course upgrade has become an achievement with the additions of a great lighting system, outstanding particle and fire effects and animations that border on spooky with their level of realism. You could easily lose a match while you admire this game’s looks. Customization options have increased substantially. The roster is by far the biggest yet with a total of 40 playable characters – previously Tekken Tag Tournament for the PS2 held the title for the series with 39. Bosses Azazel and NANCY-M1847J are massive and great to fight against. Multi-leveled areas are a welcome addition as well as the new ‘Rage’ system which increases damage dealt when your health is low. ‘Scenario Mode’ picks up where the Tekken Force and Devil Within modes left off – right now it’s single-player only but word around the campfire is that a co-op patch is in the works. This is all wrapped up in a blanket of tight-as-hell gameplay that brings the series to the forefront of the fighting genre. Overall the best Tekken to date.

And while this is all well and good, several things irritate me as I play through Tekken 6’s modes. The fact that the game plays so tight accentuates the slight-but-still-noticeable balance issues between faster and slower characters – especially against a wall. A timed escape system seems necessary at this level – one combo can become an inescapable death sentence far too easily. The Scenario Campaign is the best single-player action mode that the series has had so far – but it’s not good enough to replace the story that one gets with an Arcade Mode play-through. I still find the gameplay clunky and half-assed, certainly not good enough to shoulder the responsibility of the storyline. So if you just want to play the Arcade Mode, the final boss Azazel just shows up out of nowhere with no explanation. Nice. I know that all this is knit-picking but when you put this much effort into a game the flaws are made more apparent. The only major gameplay issue is the lag that plagues the online modes – which is increasingly unnecessary as these features become more mainstream. Namco is working on a patch for this at press time, so it should improve.

All complaints aside I can very much recommend Tekken 6 to any and all fighting fans. The fighting is fast and furious with enough fresh content to warrant a purchase for even the most grizzled veteran of the series. People have complained about long loading times but really, I haven’t seen any. Huh. It’s been said that Tekken has been getting stale, that 5 was getting it out of a hole. Now let it be said that Tekken 6 gets everything back on track – and then some. Now if only there was a way to play as Azazel and NANCY-M1847J in the Arcade Mode…

[A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review purposes]