I’m a huge fan of Aliens and Predators. So, what was the day like after I saw the first AvP? Constant crying. Luckily, the second one turned out to be badass. In the gaming world, Rebellion and Monolith put out a couple games on the PC that were a ton of fun and scary. To be honest, I’m actually looking forward to Gearbox’s Colonial Marines. I just like the idea of shooting at swarms of Aliens! But punching them? Hmmmm….

This new AvP uses a pretty nice melee mechanic allowing blocks and counters. This is great for the Aliens and Predators. But allowing a human to block and counter an Alien? What the fuck? Maybe I missed this part in the movies, but I figured if you were that close to an Alien you are either already dead or about to have a baby. Basically, if an Alien gets close, the game will alert you to block. If you block, the Alien attacks and steps back, which allows you to then punch it in the fucking dome. That’s actually pretty awesome, but then it would be more of a cheesy action flick than a suspenseful horror movie. I mean…what if you break exo-skeleton? You’ll get acid on your hands!

I played the game trying to avoid having to do this. Unfortunately I’m either not that good or the game is just designed to be played this way. I mean, it makes sense with the Alien and Predator, and it’s flawless design too! But as a human…no. But that didn’t stop it from being fun, as it was certainly a suspenseful ride that felt true to the source material. To me, it seemed like a re-written Alien vs. Predator (first movie) which I’ll certainly welcome.

I haven’t done multi-player, but this will ruin the human class for me if it’s still major part of combat.

I finished Arkham Asylum (we could just call it AA, but I’ll stick with Batman as I don’t want people to get confused with Anti-aircraft or alcoholics anonymous) last night and really enjoyed the experience it gave me. The reason this will be a ‘Just Beat’ segment rather than review is because everyone knows how this game is, and everyone is throwing out awesome reviews, so I’ll just type out my thoughts for your reading pleasure.

I’ve loved batman since I was a kid. But the Batman & Robin movie, as well as the two Bale movies really just got me bored and disappointed with the caped crusader. I’ll just tell you that this Batman game put the hero back in my heart. It’s really like playing a great Batman movie or reading a great story. The game is linear despite the claims of many (Yes, you can explore a bit but it doesn’t directly affect the flow of gameplay/story), but that purpose is for moving the story along. It works. It reminds me of last year’s Bourne game which I found to be very fun, yet short.

Batman has his plethora of gadgets and crime scene investigating (again, very linear, just use your vision and follow) and has great close-combat moves. This is probably not only the best Batman game ever, but also a great game as a whole. While replay value may not exactly be there, production, art, story, and voice-acting puts this above most games. I only have one complaint with the game and it may be a spoiler, so avoid the next paragraph for your own safety:

The last boss with the Joker. Joker has to use the Titan chemical to make him a large, monstrous opponent which you don’t even really fight, and three different times he turns around to look at a helicopter, allowing Batman to yank him down with the batclaw and kick him in the face. Three times. You just do that three times, fighting thugs in-between. Very anti-climatic.

Play the game. Rent, buy, borrow . . . whatever. It’s worth the price if bought.

Last night I beat Shadow Complex, which came about a lot quicker than I thought. I guess I accidentally ran into the last boss early on, and defeated him. I planned to collect all items first, but that didn’t happen. Overall, the game is pretty easy and I started on hardcore. I’m only missing a couple things which i’ll be grabbing tonight, and I’m at 99% map completion. While it was on the easy side, it’s still easily one of the best games I’ve played this year.

Improvements for sequels (or if other devs jump on this gametype): Remove the questions marks. It makes it about traveling instead of exploring. Bigger map. It seemed big, but if you start traveling you realize it’s not hard to get to where you want quickly. More areas need to be added, and possibly unlockable teleporting to balance the scale.