I Want To Play a Game: Jigsaw's newest series of traps in the SAW game just don't deliver the same feeling as those in the movie do. But don't be mistaken because, "There will be blood."

The incredibly successful SAW movie franchise is renowned for the ability to induce gut-wrenching reactions from vivid torture scenes and nail-biting suspense.  So, imagine my disappointment when I sat down to play the game and instead felt boredom along with frustration.

Live or Die: This new story entices gamers and SAW movie lovers with the prospect of new traps and more Jigsaw. As the good detective, it is your obligation to save the people trapped within the walls of Jigsaw's asylum

The game’s ridiculous story takes place between the first and second films.  While the plot of the game is separate from either of these movies, unanswered questions from the films are finally laid to rest.  As you move through the plot of the game, you will discover the origin of Jigsaw and why he devoted his life to games, while also finding out what happened to the characters from the first SAW movie.  After detective David Tapp is shot by one of Jigsaw’s henchmen, he is transported to the serial killer’s altered insane asylum, healed up, and forced to endure a gore-filled, puzzle infested series of tests.  From the very beginning, SAW’s plot is forgotten and game play takes control.

The game displays many of the deadly mechanical traps seen in the film, as well as terrifying new ones.  As detective Tapp, you will pit your wits against Jigsaw as you navigate the dark, booby-trapped rooms of the labyrinthine asylum.  Remember to be watchful of the ever-threatening environment because if you aren’t careful to disarm shotgun traps and avoid walking barefoot over broken glass, your time in the loony bin will be brief at best.  While it is startling the first time an expertly placed shotgun kills you before you have any time to react, your mistakes soon will teach you to become incredibly paranoid and cautious of your captor’s realm.

Being the accommodating host that he is, Jigsaw has not left you alone in your struggles.  Located throughout the asylum there are several other victims of the serial killer’s twisted reality.  Most of these desperate people are searching for a key that, unfortunately for you, has been surgically implanted into your chest.  These delusional victims are willing to do anything for the key to freedom and will rush at you with impromptu weapons like nail-bats in their fight for liberation.  I chose to drop the slow melee weapons after just a few fights into the game because the enemies’ artificial intelligence is so weak that your foes cannot react to the detective’s punches.  To be completely honest, SAW’s combat is a mess.  For example, aiming a gun with the left trigger and firing by pressing a face button.  Now that’s torture.

The few victims of the asylum that aren’t trying to kill you are your responsibility to save.  You are forced to make difficult moral choices deciding the fate of these people.  Who lives and who dies in the game is determined by your choices.  Saving your fellow inmates typically involves powering-down torture devices by arranging cog wheels in the correct sequence, rewiring circuit boxes, and aligning gas pipes up correctly.  In an attempt to make the difficult puzzles even more challenging, Jigsaw sets them up to things such as timers that set off bombs or poisonous gas.  These extra difficulty measures, however, lead only to frustrating checkpoint reloads again and again and again.

Overall, SAW fails to bring the suspenseful crescendos, surprising twists, and terrifying atmosphere of the films.  Instead, it’s filled with less-than-average amounts of gore, poor pacing and uninspired level design.  The game suffers from the same problem that the film franchise has suffered- it wears out its welcome too fast and asks too much for the price of admission.

Eddie Riggs as teh Brutal Legend

It all kicks off with a hilarious intro poking fun at the softer, more mainstream direction heavy metal has taken in the past couple decades. Brutal Legend is front heavy with the humor stuff, though. While the first half hour will have you shooting milk through your nose, the laughs eventually taper off leaving you with a story that is rich and bizarre but lacking in the bite of the opening scenes. Brutal Legend is a celebration of classic heavy metal and takes every cheap shot it can at hair metal, nu metal, and other diluted variations on the genre. While the ultimate evil and its minions are truly terrible monsters, the lesser bad guys are made up to resemble glam rockers or emo kids. It will appeal most to those that spent at least some of their formative years as angsty headbangers although it isn’t exclusionary.

The story takes plenty of twists and turns along the way and deals with some interesting themes of quiet heroism and personal sacrifice. Our hero, Eddie Riggs, is a roadie and knows his place is out of the spotlight. He’s not here for glory — he’s here to make someone else look good. Riggs keeps this same attitude even when he is warped back in time and has the chance to be a real hero and save the world. Brutal Legend doesn’t take itself too seriously, but at the same time the story has some substance.

When it comes time to play the game instead of watching you’ll find a mix of genres coming together to create a variety of gameplay opportunities. Most of the story missions are real-time strategy battles that find you commanding troops on a battlefield made up to look like an epic rock concert. But the ability to join the fight and deal out a little justice of your own adds some action to the strategy. Outside of story missions the game can be a beat ‘em up or a shooter or a racer. The pieces all come together well without any of these mechanics feeling tacked on or inadequate.

The RTS-style battles turn out to be great fun in multiplayer, too. Here players can choose to lead any of the game’s three factions, giving folks a chance to play the bad guys. Up to eight people can join the fight online with four on each side. There are seven maps, each with the simple goal of destroying your opponents’ base. The mode is great fun and happily extends the life of Brutal Legend after a shorter single-player campaign

Fire Tributes are the game’s currency, bestowed upon Eddie for pleasing the Titans. These can be earned in any number of ways: winning battles, completing secondary missions, unearthing long lost artifacts… An exhaustive stat tracking system keeps track of everything from the percentage of game completed to the songs unlocked to enemy minions defeated. Once you’ve saved up a few tributes you can spend them at the Motor Forge on Deuce/axe/guitar upgrades, new combat moves, or paint jobs. The Forge is run by the Guardian of Metal, appropriately (and impressively) voiced by Ozzy Osbourne.

Closing Comments:
Brutal Legend is a tour de force that wraps up humor, music, and clever gameplay into one highly polished package. You haven’t played a game quite like this before and won’t want to miss it. Tim Schafer is one of the funniest guys in games and Jack Black is one of the funniest guys in movies — together they’ll keep you ROFLing (although the laughs do taper off as you work your way through the game). Brutal Legend isn’t quite perfect and there is room for improvement (it’s a little short, side quests are repetitive…), but when the credits roll you’ll find yourself hoping for a sophomore release. Double Fine created a rich heavy metal universe and backstory full of great characters and creatures, with potential for an out-of-this-world sequel. Here’s hoping Schafer and company get a chance to take us there.

Cover art for the Video Game

 REVIEW: Batman Arkham Asylum. With Batman’s popularity at an all time high thanks to the major success of last year’s blockbuster film The Dark Knight expectations for a video game starring Batman himself have never been higher. “Batman Arkham Asylum” has been amongst all top 10 lists for video games since the day of its release. Aside from the fact that the Joker, the number one villain of all time is in the game many features have been introduced to make the gameplay go far beyond what anyone has ever seen.

                Story:  For people, who have the game or have heard news of it, you play as the The Dark Knight himself and you begin the story when Batman is returning Joker to Arkham after a violent episode at City Hall. While being escorted back to his cell, the Joker manages to break free, kill a few guards and staff members, kidnap the Warden of Arkham, and take over the entire island in a matter of minutes with help from, Harley Quinn. Now it’s up to Batman to not only stop Joker, but to save Gotham city from a horrid end.           

Gameplay: Many features have been introduced that have proven to be addicting, including Eye popping graphics and hours of gameplay. Included as a special for the fans are the original voices by Kevin Conroy as Batman and Mark Hamill as Joker from the animated series. The new free-flow combat system allows you to fight groups of villains with ease. With only a few presses of the button, Joker’s goons will get their bells hung before they even hit the ground. You can practice this by playing the challenge modes. Batman’s classic weapon, the Batarang, along with many other gadgets (you can earn them later on in the game) are always at your disposal for quick takedowns or clever distractions to get your enemy. Alongside the Joker and his goons are famous villains from the TV show which include: The sexy Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn, Ingenious Riddler, behemoth Killer Croc, the maniacal Scarecrow, and the steroid maniac, Bane. To end the gameplay features, there are also side missions to solve riddles and find artifacts set by the Riddler to unlock Character Bios (which include villains from the TV and the comic book series) and new challenges to not only master your stealth and combat skills, but to compare your high scores so you can show anyone else who’s constantly mocking you.

Closing Comments:
Batman Arkham Asylum is the greatest comic book videogame of all time. This is an adult Dark Knight story that is well-told, packs some truly fun gameplay elements, has top notch voice talent, and feel like its part of Batman canon. “Batman is an addicting action game and the graphics are amazing!” said Nicholas Tangsrud. To nitpick, the cut scenes could’ve looked better and that the AI was a bit more responsive, but those are just tiny flaws that shouldn’t distract you from the big picture.

Rocksteady nailed what Batman is supposed to feel like. Batman fans, rejoice!

The japanese game titles for Heart Gold (top) and Soul Silver (bottom).

Now, a decade later, the Poké fans are overjoyed to hear about the release of remakes for these games on the Nintedno DS: Pokémon Heart Gold and Pokémon Soul Silver. Last Saturday the games hit shelves in Japan, sales of the games totaling 1.4 million by Sunday. These numbers swept the previous release of Pokémon Platinum (the third version of games Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl), which took three weeks to sell 1.47 million copies.

These new games have promised a lot of aspects of the old versions, such as being able to battle a total of 16 gym leaders from both the Kanto and Johto regions, the PokéGear, and Apricorns, special berries used to make different types of Pokéballs. New features in the game include ambient sound effects, such as bubbling streams and grass movement as a player walks through, and the ability to have all 493 Pokémon follow behind the player as they explore the Johto and Kanto regions, even visibly using TM and HM moves.

The games are to hit American and European store shelves in Spring of 2010, and it is safe to say the millions of fans residing in these locations cannot wait. Happy gaming, and hope you catch ‘em all.