Not read part one yet? Scroll down – or if you’re lazy click here!

As mentioned before, off the edge of the map, there be SPOLIERS!

Number Five: The Katariah, Skyrim

As one of the later missions in the Dark Brotherhood story arc, the mission to the Katariah sees the Dragonborn infiltrating the stately vessel, which is anchored just off the citadel of Solitude – your mission? Kill the Emperor of Tamriel.

That’s no easy task…

Sneaking aboard from the lower decks, the gamer has to battle a legion of bodyguards, mages and lowly deckhands as you close on your quarry, forcing back the furious soldiers with magic and sword, while no doubt robbing every bit of shiny loot you can find (of which there is a lot…)

A while later, after breaking into the cabin occupied by the prey, the assassin comes to face-to-face with the Emperor himself – who’s been waiting for you. Instead of a huge, brutal fight, you instead find yourself standing in front of an old man who’s come to terms with his death and meets you as an equal, turning his back and allowing you to finish your mission.

A hell of a moment, which certainly stopped me in my tracks, even though it didn’t stop me killing him and looting his corpse.

Number Four: The Normandy, Mass Effect 2

Mass Effect was a brilliant game. It captured my attention right from the start, and I played through it ferociously, almost obsessively. Bioware did such a good job creating believable, understandable characters and a galaxy with such depth of intrigue that I just kept coming back for more, especially with my trusty starship, the Normandy.

So, for the developers to open Mass Effect 2 with the total and utter destruction of the Normandy, and the apparent death of lead character Commander Shepherd, was a massive shock to me, and a moment that seared itself on my memory.

Characters I’d come to enjoy listening to died in an instant, and the ship I’d come to think of as my own personal passport to the galaxy was gutted and left to crash.

A chilling level to play through, after all the battles the Normandy fought and survived, as well as a kick-ass opening sequence.

Number Three: The Sulon Star, Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight

Quite possibly the best Star Wars game ever made, Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight also featured one of the most atmospheric, intense levels of the 90s.

Wannabe Jedi Kyle Katarn has tracked his foe, Imperial Inquisitor Jerec, to the Valley of the Jedi, confronting him on the refueling dock of Jerec’s huge cargo ship, the Sulon Star. Pretty quickly Kyle finds himself Force-pushed on to the ship – which is hanging over a huge drop – trapped on board, and left to die as the vessel plunges towards the ground.

What follows is as crazy a level as I’ve every played, as the Star falls into the canyon, rolling over, turning the floor into the ceiling, seeing the artificial gravity failing – and leaving panicking Stormtroopers desperately trying to escape.

A breakneck sprint through the creaking, cracking ship follows, until Katarn manages to make it to his ship, the Mouldy Crow, and gets the hell off the Star before it’s consumed in a pillar of fire. Of course, that’s only the start off his problems… (incidentally, check out the live-action cutscenes – they don’t make ‘em like this anymore!)

Number Two: The Long Night of Solace, Halo Reach

Something of a nod to the first Halo’s ‘Truth and Reconciliation‘, the Halo: Reach mission involving the Covenant corvette Long Night of Solace was a bold step for the series, introducing enjoyable, colourful space combat in a pretty nippy little fighter, as well as battleships blowing the crap out of each other – and a zero-G boarding action.

Follow this with an intense, close-range firefight against a legion of pissed off Covenant creatures, a bomb strapped to a gunship and a sad (but not unexpected) sacrifice, and you’ve got a lengthy game level that leaves a strong impression on you. Naturally, having some friends along for the ride – from launchpad to interstellar combat to boarding action to HALO-jump escape (yes, we get the pun, Bungie) – makes it all the better.

For graphical beauty, brilliant sound effects and capturing the beauty of space warfare, this one is well worth a look. I especially enjoyed the low-gravity scrap in the corvette before Noble Five makes his arrival – the eerie lack of sound makes the battle all the more intense.

Number One: Discovery/Arsenal Gear, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

If, like me when I thought up the title of this quote, you immediately thought of this game being number one for levels set on ships, you’d be right – it’s not just got one, but two whole suites of levels devoted to battling on the high seas.

Starting off, we have Solid Snake’s infiltration of the tanker Discovery, which is slowly moving up the Hudson river with a very unusual cargo – Metal Gear Ray, a bipedal, amphibious mech with some terrifying offensive powers.

Cue the stealth action, contrasted with the tension of an invading group of Russian special forces soldiers, driving rain, helicopters strafing you, creaking metal – and cardboard boxes.

Later, the action moves to the form-fitting ‘skull suit’ of Raiden, a pretty boy-cum badass who finds himself trapped aboard a massive, submersible battleship called Arsenal Gear. The huge ship is full to the brim with supersoldiers, crazed artificial intelligences who keep insisting “It’s all a game! Turn off your computer!” and no less than 30 mass-produced Metal Gear Rays defending it.

Add in the fact that the ship’s innards have names like ‘rectum’ and ‘ascending colon’, and you get the feeling that you’re into something special.

I mean, who can honestly say they spent a good 20 minutes fighting off waves of enemies with a ninja’s katana… in a giant rectum.

Yep, for variety, great level design and sheer fun, MGS2′s ship-based levels deserve the top spot.

As for Raiden… yeah – he got awesome.

You really don't wanna mess with him.

After my top ten train levels article, I figured I’d return to the gaming world to list my favourite wet and wild game levels. So, here’s Andy’s Top Ten: Videogame ‘Ship’ Levels (part one). For clarity’s sake, I’m using ‘ship’ as a catch-all term for nautical vessels of any kind, be it on the sea or in space, and ‘level’ for games not entirely built around being on a ship. Enjoy!

AVAST YE MATEYS! Here be spoilers!

Number Ten: USS Nautilus, Crysis 2

Cruising through the waters off New York, the Nautilus makes a good impression of the might of the US armed forces – until it’s sunk in the opening moments of Crysis 2, leaving the US Marine strike force trapped belowdecks, scrambling to get out before the mighty sub is left at bottom of the Hudson.

 

Pretty atmospheric when played late at night with the sound up, I can tell you!

It may of only been a fleeting moment, but this opening set the tone for the rest of the game – brutal, intense, and with the odds stacked firmly against you. Plus, the fact that it looks great graphically – and the music is perfectly pitched – adds to the experience.

Number Nine: The cargo ship, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

Although the plot of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory was the kind of techno-drek that rattles around in Tom Clancy’s mind and is occasionally vomited onto a page and turned into a best-seller, the game itself turned out to be pretty good.

Peek-a-boo!

About half-way through the title, agent Sam Fisher finds himself infiltrating a cargo ship filled with terrorists, in order to have a nice chat with a bad guy up on the mess deck. Starting you off on the poop deck (no jokes, please, we’re British), the canny agent has to sneak his way through the superstructure of the aged lady.

Taking you through the noisy, hot engine room (which makes your thermal goggles useless) and along rainswept decks alike, sneaking around a ship at sea was never more fun – or more deadly.

Number Eight: U-4901, Medal of Honor

Although looking at it now you’d think you were fighting boxes of pixels in Nazi uniforms, at the time, Medal of Honor’s ‘Scuttle Das Boot U-4901′ mission was a thrilling battle.

Starting with the infiltration of the mighty, oversized Nazi U-boat, the mission saw OSS agent Jimmy Patterson storming through the metal guts of the boat, killing off its crew, stealing codebooks (for the real heroes of the Enigma tale, click here – that crap U-571 movie isn’t the true tale…) and finally forcing the ship to the surface.

"You're Jimmy Patterson!"

Sure, the level was linear as hell, but the close-range firefights left an impression on my 13-year-old mind, as did the angry Captain yelling “You’re Jimmy Patterson!” at me.

Exactly how he knew that remains a mystery… I had a hat on and everything!

Number Seven: The cargo ship, Final Fantasy 7

Another game which looks woefully awful when compared to today’s graphics, FF7 is nevertheless the best RPG of all time – and it has a pretty kickass level set on a ship as well.

Having snuck onto a Shin-Ra cargo ship, spiky-haired, psychologically deranged, cross-dressing hero Cloud Strife and his band of weirdos are on their way to Costa Del Sol for a much-needed break. Donning stolen uniforms, which don’t fit very well – leaving gun-armed Barret looking like a terrifying nightmare of a sailor, and talking wolf/lion/tiger Red XIII on his hind legs – with a tail sticking out – the team try to keep a low profile.

That is, until the calamity from the skies bursts in, and needs to be put back in her box in the cargo hold before she rips the ship to shreds.

 

Combining comedy with utter terror as Jenova makes an appearance, this ship-based level was both tricky and fun in equal measure.

Number Six: Pirate ships, The Curse of Monkey Island

Everybody loves pirates – and Guybrush Threepwood wants to be one. A shame he can’t get the hang of the insult sword-fighting…

 

Yes, The Curse of Monkey Island takes a break from it’s nautical point-and-clickery to indulge in a little piracy two thirds through the game, as Threepwood and his crew of singing barber/sailors taking on other pirates for their booty, cannons and kudos.

Once the crew have subdued an enemy vessel (or the tourist boat that is also cruising the Caribbean – “Oooh! Pirates!”), Threepwood must board and beat the enemy captain in insult sword-fighting, which is a hell of a lot less bloody than the Master and Commander approach…

Hilarious and fun, this challenging section of a great game has stayed with me for a long time.

Thanks for reading, Part two coming soon!

So, after the thrilling conclusion of BBC 1′s excellent second series of ‘Sherlock’ (of which the final episode was a fantastic, enthralling drama worthy of the Baftas), I thought I’d list my personal favourite three adaptations of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s (ACD’s) deducing detective.

This list is taken from my lifetime (after 1986) and is of course open for debate, write a comment if you’d don’t agree, It’s elementary.

Number Three: Robert Downey Jr. (Sherlock Holmes, December 2009)

Less aloof genius and more arrogant show-off, Downey Jr’s interpretation of the great detective took an altogether more gritty outlook of the character – but what else would you expect from a Guy Richie film.

While still capable of the genius-level deductions for which the character is famous, instead using them mainly in fist-fights, Downey Jr’s more athletic, fist-fighting private eye is as quick to end an investigation with a fist to the crotch as he is to call in the ever-inept Inspector Lestrade.

 

Taking on the black magic of the dodgy-looking ‘Lord Blackwood’, Downey Jr’s Sherlock nevertheless relies on science and deduction to solve the mystery, while uncovering a deeper plot along the way.

More action movie than crime drama, Sherlock Holmes nevertheless manages to hit the mark.

Number Two: Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock, 2010–2011)

Steven Moffat, the writer of the later (and better) Doctor Who episodes, and his co-creator Mark Gatiss took ACD’s character and dragged him into the 21st century, replacing black cabs for horses and microscopes for magnifying glasses – and my goodness does it work.

Cumberbatch, an actor of some repute who was just waiting for his lead role, is amazing as Sherlock, drawing in ACD’s original observations and adding his own spin. Although he somewhat plays up Sherlock’s anti-social tendencies, describing himself as a ‘high-functioning sociopath’ at one point, he manages to bring a huge amount of character to the role.

 

Sherlock, as a genius, has a natural dislike for the ‘normals’ which inhabit London and simply do not see as he does. Despite his genius, however, he’s totally lacking in social skills, and puts his foot in his mouth almost every episode – and doesn’t notice.

Much like the original character, his passion for cases can drive him to excess – although, in keeping with the setting, this Sherlock craves cigarettes as opposed to opium (as far as the viewer knows…). He also makes great use of the modern technologies available to him in a series of cases modeled on ACD’s work. There are also a pleasing number of in-jokes for Sherlock fans like myself: “It’s a three-patch problem…”

The ensemble cast includes a great number of brilliant actors, and the series deserves the many awards it’s received – and is bound to receive in the future.

Number one: Jeremy Brett (The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, 1984-1994)

Described by many as ‘the’ Sherlock Holmes series, Jeremy Brett’s ‘The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ is the closest, most accurate and indeed the best adaptation of ACD’s work I’ve ever had the pleasure to enjoy.

I  discovered the series through my father, a big fan of the character – and of Brett’s work – and over the years my family and I have watched all of the long-running series, and have been enthralled by every one.

 

Looking at Sidney Paget’s original illustrations of Holmes, Brett’s portrayal is eerily similar to ACD’s original detective, true to both form and actions. He achieves what other Holmes’s have not – an intense arrogance, bordering on a superiority complex, and yet a depth of humanity which shows between the iron will that drives the character.

Dogged in his work, Brett’s Holmes faces down danger as if he doesn’t realise it’s even there, and his relationship with Dr Watson (played brilliantly by both David Burke and Edward Hardwicke) allows for an exploration of the pipe-smoking detective which other outlets have been sadly lacking.

Brett, who sadly died before his time, has a firm place in my memories for his outstanding adventures in the gas lamp-lit streets of old London town – and an exploration of a a character that still stands as a beacon of literary genius even today.

Ahhh! Thatcher!

Now I’ve got that off my chest, here’s Katherine Afford’s excellent review of Meryl Streep’s ‘The Iron Lady’. Enjoy!

Featuring an array of famous stars, “The Iron Lady” is well worth a watch. The film, which features top actors such as Jim Broadbent as Denis Thatcher, Anthony Head as Geoffrey Howe, Alexandra Roach as a young Margaret Thatcher and Harry Lloyd as a young Denis Thatcher holds your attention well. Above all, of course, who could forget the impeccable Meryl Streep as Margaret in her older years.

Written by Michael Hirst and Abi Morgan, directed by Phyllida Lloyd, how could anyone want to miss this portrayal of an exceptionally influential woman.

The film is centred on Lady Thatcher and her rise to power as the first female Prime Minister. It emphasises the way in which she came to power in the face of adversity, breaking barriers to success such as gender and class. She still remains very highly regarded by many as one of the most influential and famous women of the twentieth century – the real question is whether that is shown well in the film.

Streep portrays the true character, formidable nature and presence of Margaret superbly at all times. I was never once left feeling disappointed in her performance, as she an outstanding actress. However, there was for me a slight level of predictability. It was in the main an excellent impersonation of Margaret, and I did not feel it deviated from any of my expectations of what the film would contain, in terms of the way in which she was depicted. Overall Streep gives a true-to-form performance, not leaving much to the imagination of the filmgoer.

The feature does show Margaret effectively as a daughter, wife and mother., additions I found very effective. As a moviegoer, I want to watch a film that shows me something I don’t know – more about the person and less about the persona, perhaps. However, overall this film was more about the persona of Margaret than the person, as far as I was concerned.

An uncanny likeness?

I was, however, very impressed – maybe most of all actually – by the acting of Alexandra Roach as the young Margaret Thatcher. Relatively unknown as an actress, I found her refreshing and very well matched with Harry Lloyd as the young Denis. Their relationship seemed very genuine and one could understand how Margaret developed into such an influential woman based upon that relationship.

Jim Broadbent also gave an excellent performance, but it seemed a little lost in the film. He was a main character, yet did not hold much of a presence. Perhaps, for so many, he will always be the dad of Bridget Jones…

Once an actor plays a certain type of character, it can be difficult to get away from that. I associate him with far less touching roles.

 

Now, in terms of  plot, much of The Iron Lady centres around tottering old Margaret in her apartment and shows her daughter Carol (Olivia Colman) stepping in at regular intervals to bring her back into the real world.

Margaret spends most the time looking through old memorabilia and hallucinating that her dead husband is with her. At the start of the film I found this exceptionally moving, but after an hour of it, it was beginning to feel overdone.

These flashbacks were what essentially told the story of her rise to power, as a result more of a focus on the younger Margaret and the way in which she overcame gender and class to reach her position would have been a better approach. It felt as if the flashbacks were included as a necessity, not as a worthy part of the film.

Overall, I left feeling as though The Iron lady was a less than glorious portrayal of the real Margaret Thatcher. I found myself saddened at her elderly state, and her loneliness was exceptionally poignant to see.

While the features does highlight most of the highs and lows of her career,  I would rather have seen less of that and more of the things we did not already know about her.

She was a truly influential woman, who sacrificed a lot for ambition. Perhaps, in Margaret’s own words, “what Britain needs is an Iron Lady”. I leave it for you to decide.

Katherine Afford

Afternoon! Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and are looking forward to the new year!

In the meantime, here’s a couple of reviews to keep your brains ticking over until you have to go back to work in the new year (sadly, I’m one of the unlucky few who have to work between Christmas and New Year )

So, here’s my Skyrim Review, which is now online at Megabits.

And my Assassin’s Creed: Revelations Review, which is now online at GameSlave.

And a New Year LolCat, because I can…

New YearLOL!

Those who know me will know I’m not a huge fan of MMOs, nor actually have the time to give them their due. So, I’m somewhat thankful one of my new guest writers, Brett Maddux, has put together his initial thoughts on Bioware and Lucasarts’ latest Star Wars title, Star Wars: The Old Republic. Enjoy, and may the Force be with you!

I’ve only scratched the surface of Star Wars: The Old Republic (TOR), so this will hardly be an all encompassing review. That said, what I’ve seen has been brilliant.

From the starting cinematic – played the first time you sign in – TOR has the feel of being a great Star Wars film. If you’ve followed the making of the game, chances are you’ve seen that opening sequence, with the four character types available on the Republic’s side, being witness to the first attack of the Sith Empire (thought long defeated) against Republic space. As well as featuring some great action scenes and showing off several abilities that characters will gain as they level up, it is this conflict – the Sith Empire versus the Republic – that players will chose a side to support when building their characters (How many Sith Empires have there been in the history of the SW galaxy, Jeez! – Andy).

After making this choice for your first character, there will be another short movie, before you even select which class to play. Each side has a different one, and it is designed to both show a little of each of that faction’s classes in action – but also gives a better idea of where the people of that side are coming from. Each is, again, wonderful to watch, and certainly gets one in the mood to slide into the Star Wars universe and be a part of the ongoing war.

So when you select which class, you should have at least a little idea of what each one can eventually do, even without researching all the spoilers and write-ups that occupy the web. Each side has four classes to chose from – two force users and two that rely on technology instead. While I have not explored all eight classes, there did appear to be similarities between the four of both sides. One force user is much more of a warrior and focused on the lightsabre, where the other has more Force powers. With the tech-focused classes, one usually makes use of cover to set up more powerful attacks, where the other is able to wear heavier armour. There are also different factors that limit (and so, one assumes, helps balance) the different classes as well.

A Kodak moment?

A bounty hunter’s attacks, for example, all generate heat which – in a long battle – may mean the character has to take a few seconds to dump off excess heat and cool down before the more powerful attacks can be used again. The Imperial Agent has to set himself up in cover (not too hard, usually) before he can access many attack powers, and another class has to use basic attacks to build up power to make the more damaging lightsabre attacks. So certainly, some classes may fit different players styles of gaming better than others. Each class can be one of a number of races, although some gamers may be slightly disappointed by the fact that all of the aliens are fairly close to human in appearance. (Aw! I wanted to play as a Sullustian – the mouse like thing that flies the Falcon into the Death Star! Would make a great Dark Jedi – Andy)

While there are plenty of selections to personalise whichever race you end up playing, if you were hoping to play a Wookiee Jedi or a Trandoshan bounty hunter, you will – as of the opening setup – be disappointed. Which is not to say that these more unusual looking races are not scattered through the setting – and sometimes are even available as companions. After character creation, the game itself still has the feel of immersing you in a movie. Each class has its own opening storyline, and each side has two opening planets that these shorelines begin on. These worlds are wonderfully designed, feeling like solid alien worlds. Even the classes sharing the same starting planet have individual encounters that the other storyline does not share, as well as plenty of encounters that are not class specific.

Class-specific, and occasionally other missions, sometimes have areas that only the individual with the quest can access. This is handled by green and red tinted screens that cover some entrances to buildings or parts of buildings. If you are on the quest that occurs in that area, the field will be green and you can pass into it to have a small, private instance generated to move through the encounter. This is a great way of preventing pileups at locations where thirty bounty hunters are parked in a room waiting for the next copy of “Smuggler Joe” to spawn. Talking with NPCs to get information, even in public areas, makes use of clear, well constructed cutscenes that only include the party or individual, maintaining the illusion that the game is very much focused on your character and the others he travels with.

Bounty hunters. We don’t need their scum.

Wipe them out. All of them.

You can waste time with your friends when your chores are done…

If there’s a bright centre to the universe….

You weak-minded fool. He’s using an old Jedi mind trick…

These aren’t the droids you’re looking for…

You’ll pay the price for your lack of vision!

You get that one, I’ll get these two!

In conversations where the whole party is involved, the game does a great job of selecting different individuals to give each response, rather than it always being the person who selected a response first. The voice acting is great and the personality that comes through with some of the lines is wonderful. While you can always pick the general direction your response takes, the words spoken by the character are usually more colourful. This makes it easier to pick the kind of response you want to make, but keeps your persona in character better through the scenes. Your smuggler is just always going to be a little sarcastic, I think. (She’ll make .5 past lightspeed…. – Andy).

At certain times there will be choices that have will affect which side of the Force you will fall on, Light or Dark. Before you start assuming that all Republic characters will be Light side heroes and all the Empire Dark side villains, this does not seem to be the case. The rewards for developing towards one side or the other are that certain items will become available only to those with a certain ranking of Light or Dark. As far as I can tell – again, i’m only level ten or so and only just barely off the first planet – there’s no harm in being a Light–Side Sith or a Dark Side Jedi (Heretic! – Andy). It could be that there are later quests that take different paths, but I don’t know.

As you get around level eight, your quests should include you getting your first companion. These are basically sidekick characters that – if you are playing solo or in a small group – will join your adventures and support you. The first one you get will be determined by your class, and the three I am aware of make nice supplements to the classes, shoring up weaknesses. As you get out into the galaxy, you can evidently get more companions and they can be sent out to do side adventures that seem to involve the crafting system. I only just got the quest to learn about the skills that one could teach a companion and to pick a few. It looked like an interesting system, but I have yet to see how it works properly.

The storyline I battled through was interesting and helped create and sustain the feel of not only being in the universe of Sith and Jedi, but also of being in the galaxy as it went to war.

If the later quests are as good as the early ones, then the game is going to be devouring players attention for quite some time.

Brett Maddux

I’ll let this quote from my Saints Row: The Third Review, which is now online at Gameslave, speak for itself:

“Within the first 30 minutes of Saints Row 3, I’d skydived through an exploding jet airliner, thrown an old woman off a skyscraper, punched 15 or so pedestrians in the crotch, clothes-lined a hooker and beaten off a crowd of sword-armed gang members… with a giant dildo. Yeah, if you were looking for realism, forget it.”

You know how much I love Deus Ex – and how much I was looking forward to playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution? Well… having played through it again, I felt compelled to answer my earlier post with a top ten, as writing the word ‘Awesome’ ten times isn’t really very enjoyable for the reader – despite its accuracy.

With that in mind, here’s Andy’s Top Ten: Things I love about Deus Ex: Human Revolution!

SPOILER ALERT!

Number Ten: Sunglasses/HUD

JC Denton looked cool, with his augmented blue eyes hidden behind dark shades (even though he looked a berk wandering around at night with them on), and Adam Jensen – Human Revolution’s protagonist – follows this trend – but while Denton can slip off his specs, Jensen has them bonded to his pointy-bearded face…

As well as looking damn cool, the glasses also allow Jensen’s augmented body to display health and armament information, a funky map and other assorted trivia.

I’d quite like one in my day-to-day life… although it would need a ‘tea’ bar, rather than a ‘hit points’ bar…

Number Nine: Arm blades

Though impractical for opening a can of tuna, Jensen’s retractable arm blades looks cool – and are as deadly as you’d expect. Capable of extending forwards or backwards  from his mid-forearm, the oddly square lengths of the blades can slice through enemies or doorways with ease, as well as looking pretty damn cool to boot. Shame it takes up one whole energy cell to use them!

Number Eight: Icarus Landing System

Icarus being a central theme of this game – flying too close to the sun and getting burned – the inclusion of the Icarus Landing System is rightfully sitting in my top ten.

As both a useful life-saving device and aggressive method of stunning your enemies, the Icarus augment is a fantastically cool way to get around, sheathing Jensen in a ball of electricity as he plummets to the ground, before bringing him to a safe landing – and making him look badass at the same time.

I find combining Icarus with the ‘Typhoon’ explosive system to be a great way to make an entrance…

Number Seven: Side missions

Aside from the main storyline, Human Revolution includes a huge number of side missions, which vary from criminal investigations to breaking-and-entering, assassinations and ‘gopher’ tasks.

Of course, this being Deus Ex, each of the tasks can be tackled any number of ways – do you charm your way through the security gate, sneak in round the back, or kill everyone in the room? The choice is yours. My personal favourite was a murder investigation carried out in the bowels of Hengsha – a megacity off the coast of China. Atmospheric and exciting in equal measure…

Number Six: ‘GlassShield’ cloaking system

Who wouldn’t want to be able to turn invisible at the drop of an augmented hat?

Now you see me...

Yes, Jensen’s ‘GlassShield’ cloaking device is the infiltrating agent’s best tool, combining complete invisibility with the ability to pass through the game’s many laser grids, dodge probing robots and – of course – look awesome as you punch enemies to the floor, their shocked expressions a sure sign of their fear.

Number five: Malik/The HeliJet

Deus Ex had the Black Helicopter and it’s New Yoiker pilot, Jock, Human Revolution has the Helijet, and it’s wisecracking, soulful pilot Farida Malik.

I want one.

Damn, I want one of those. Just to tootle around in. Imagine showing up at your friend’s house in a helijet, crushing the flowerbeds as you set down. Of course, provided it had as interesting a character as Farida Malik in the flight deck, I’d probably never land.

It also reminds me of Thunderbirds’ helijets as well

Number four: Soundtrack/Nods to Deus Ex

Deus Ex was known for its atmospheric music, which added character and depth to the myriad locations JC Denton travelled to, from bars in New York to chateaus in France. Human Revolution continues this trend, offering a wide selection of musical themes for Jensen’s travels, most of which match the mood of the map perfectly.

For me, though – as a long-time Deus Ex fan – I was overjoyed at Square-Enix’s stellar fan-service, after I discovered than in-game radios occasionally play tracks from the original Deus Ex, and NPCs sometimes whistle the Deus Ex theme – and at one point, right at the start, the game’s soundtrack jumps back to the opening of the previous game, just for a moment.

Made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up….

Number three: Plot

Human Revolution’s plot, which covers the nature of humanity, evolution and civil unrest alike, was a well-written exciting affair, which kept me hooked for hours.

Although too little was made of the ‘hand behind the throne’ which underpins the story, and the twist was let down by pretty poor characterisation, I still loved the game’s cyberpunk, murder-mystery chase through the underbelly of a world on the brink of a new age.

Number two: Locations

As the plot is so fantastic, it’s no surprise that the locations the game takes you to are also brilliant.

Welcome to Hengsha

Starting out in the former motor-city of Detroit, Human Revolution’s sweeping story takes you to China, Canada and several other places I’ll keep secret for now. Each location has its own feel, be it the dirty, decrepit city of Detroit – where beggars search the bins in the shadow of industry skyscrapers – or the vertical city of Hengsha.

Hengsha is by far my favourite location – a sprawling city atop a city, where the rich and powerful sit amid an endless sky – and the downtrodden poor are conveniently forgotten in the warrens of the lower city.

Number one: Characters

As with any good story, the heart of Human Revolution revolves – first and foremost – around its characters.

In a world of grey, where right and wrong are blended into one whole, these people offer Adam Jensen (who is himself something of a mysterious character, being as dark as the world around him) advice and guidance – or misdirection and misuse, if you prefer.

From David Sarif, the brilliant – if misguided – visionary of augmented evolution, to the strident voices of the terrorists (or ‘freedom fighters’) fighting for or against the evolution of humanity, each of Human Revolutions’ characters is dripping in personality, and a fantastic addition to the world of 2027.

Of course, Jensen is also a fine dancer…

Happy Friday to all!

For your lunchtime amusement, here’s my Battlefield 3 Review, which is now online at GameSlave.

Hell of a game, this one. Love it more every time I play it…

And because it’s Friday, here’s a LOL squirrel, because we all need a smile, right?

Lolsquirrel

Happy Friday!

Hope your week wasn’t as stressful and difficult as mine…

How about a little Friday reading for your long lunchtime, this week featuring a man who dresses up as a bat, unusually huge muscles, zombies, exploding cars and inconceivable loop-the-loops.

Sounds like a weekend in Soho…

Review: House of the Dead: Overkill (Megabits)

Who doesn’t like zombie games?

While this one is a bit of an oddball look at the genre, it is – nevertheless – a hell of a lot of fun.

(WARNING – Strong language ahead)

Review: Trackmania 2: Canyon (Gameslave)

Damn this is addictive! I’m almost tempted to go play this right now, instead of sitting here and writing this blog post…

Review: Batman: Arkham City (Megabits)

“I’m Batman, and you can be too.” – ’nuff said.

Review: Gears of War 3 (Megabits)

This needs no introduction.

Well, maybe *Marcus Fenix voice* “Sweet”.

And finally, if you boil my 9-5 job – sub editor – down to it’s base elements, it can occasionally feel a little like this…