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I could hardly concentrate at work today because I knew once I got off work, I would be driving to EBGames close to my home for a copy of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Ever since I tried out the demo. I could not get it off my mind. One reason because I have hardly played any Star Wars related games prior to the release of this game. Although I was really close to getting Lego Star Wars but I didn’t in the end. That’s why I love downloadable content so much because you can actually try out the games before you buy. And a lot of the games that I like happen to offer demos.

But did the game live up to my expectation?

 

Graphics & Audio

The graphics are amazing and I have mentioned that in my demo review already. But with the demo you could only see so much since it was only part of a level. The voice over and lip synching is much more life like compare to other games with dialogues. One thing I forgot to mention from my demo review is that, the environments really give you the impression that you are within something massive like when you are inside the hangar or deep inside the ship’s core. And since so many people asked, no this game does NOT support 1080p full HD output unfortunately. It would be nice if it was though obviously.

And as for audio, I’m no expert but I like the sound effects, specially the lasers and when you are killing enemies with your beam sabre. The sound effects are really movie-like. I have not encountered any missing audio yet as reported by Gametrailers.com. It did mention about missing audio in the ending though. That would be such a turn off!

 

Game play & Controls

With the EMM engine controlling what materials to use for creating each object, the Havok controlling the objects’ movements and finally the last engine, the Euphoria engine determining how enemies react to their environments. The combined affect of the three physics engines really created a realistic experience. For example, watch closely when you Force Grip an enemy, if he is close to some crates, he will actually try and hold on to it. I think little details like this really add to over gaming experience. I have not encountered any clipping problems so far reported by Gametrailers and I hope I do not. The game is also somewhat on the short side as well with only 9 missions.

Controls are pretty straight forward, if you have played other action games before it will take you no time to get used to the figure out which button is for what purpose. When fighting bosses, you will finish them off by following a set of buttons much like in Heavenly Sword. If you fail to excute perfectly, you will have to start over again. Overall you will go through each level killing enemies with a few different combo moves, and the hack and slash may bored some players after a while. It quickly turns into a level grinding fest like an RPG game when trying to level (power) up your three forces – Force Lightning, Force Grip and Force Push. The forces do provide hours of excitement but after that, they become just a bunch of weapons. And did I mention there’s no online game play?

 

Final verdict

After all the hype generated over the past few months, I can assume this game will be a must for hardcore Star Wars fans. Those that are into third person action like Devil May cry may also find this game entertaining. But for how long? That really depends on how fast you get bored of repetitive game play with no online component. In my opinion, its another game that didn’t quite live up to the hype generated unfortunately. At least its good for a rental game.

7.5/10

 

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The first Tomb Raider was released in 1996 and it was a big hit for the PC. Another chapter of Lara Croft is coming in a few months, November based on Gametrailers.com. This is one of those must get games. So far with two trailers, I can see the new game offers, as you can imagine, much better graphics, somewhat Uncharted-ish since both are rather similar type of game where you explore different places, but of course Tomb Raider being the more original. But I cannot comment anymore without seeing more actual game plays.

For now please drool over a more recent trailer or check out the HD version at Gametrailers.com.

I haven’t heard anything new about Fatal Frame 4 until recently when an E3 trailer was introduced on GameTrailers.com. Forn those who don’t know Fatal Frame, its a Japanese style survival horror game. Unlike Resident Evil, it does not try and scare players with blood and gore. Instead it uses dark atmosphere, freaky noise and ghosts (your enemies) to make players sweat (I used to have cold sweat when I played FF1 through 3). And by the way, the game is best played at night with no lights for maximum horror feeling. Players are not presented with guns but an old camera called the Camera Obscura to “capture” or “damage” the ghosts. There are different types of films and the camera is upgradable with points collected from taking pictures of ghosts, taking clear pictures yield more points!

Back to the topic, the question why the fourth installment comes out only for Wii troubles me.The series has always been with the Playstation and XBox, why abandon them now? My gut feeling tells me it will be out for the two consoles soon after, it just doesn’t make sense to not port the game over. I can imagine the fun factor in playing the game on a Wii but not everyone has a Wii and some people prefer to play the game using normal controllers.

And by the way, I think Fatal Frame 2 was the best out of the 3.

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