I didn’t really want an Xbox 360 at first. Or at least, that’s the story I used to tell myself.

I’m one of the idiots who actually made a point of tuning in to MTV’s sophomoric unveiling of Microsoft’s sophomore console in the fall of 2004, and the embarrassing spectacle left a pretty sour taste in my mouth. And to be clear, at that point my Xbox was my primary gaming machine. I kept my Gamecube and PlayStation 2 at the ready for the few wonderful games that were still trickling in (GTA: San Andreas, Resident Evil 4 and Shadow of the Colossus…what a great period for gaming) but with Halo 2 burning up the University Housing intranet, nothing in my dorm room got more play than my Xbox.*

But with a weak launch lineup and a massive price tag, the Xbox 360 didn’t sway me right away. No surprises there. I held off until 2003 to get an original Xbox, after all. But the Xbox 360? No thanks – I’ll stick to my standard-def consoles for now.

That was my mandate, and it served me well. Then it was late 2006, and my buddy Dan invited me over to play Gears of War.

The next day, I bought an Xbox 360.

I think it’s easy to forget just how transformative Gears of War was for this console generation. So many of its core components – third-person cover-based combat, visceral camera effects, co-operative gameplay where positioning is paramount – are now seen in almost every major blockbuster game.

More than anything, the experience of playing felt genuine in a way no other game had. Characters moved with an uncanny sense of weight, guns sounded raw and real, and chainsaw kills delivered a disgusting-yet-intoxicating sense of victory that I’d never experienced before. It felt like I was playing a game from the future.

I played through Gears of War cooperatively more times than I can count. It was the ultimate buddy-game, with satisfying combat, tight pacing and brilliantly composed combat sequences. And the story was pitch-perfect, with a rag-tag group of gruff, oversized space marines bickering and talking shit while fighting against impossible odds. It’s summer blockbuster popcorn fare as translated deftly to the interactive space.

Gears of War 2 didn’t impress me like the first game did, although it did manage to deliver a solid experience start-to-finish. But for whatever reason I was beyond excited to finally play the third chapter in the series. And it really didn’t disappoint.

I played through it entirely in co-op, as Epic intended. And honestly? It was just fantastic. There’s not much more to be said. If you like Gears of War, this is the best game in the series.

I was surprised just how sad I was when I reached the end. Gears of War isn’t a game with a story to tug at the heartstrings or anything, but I felt a sense of loss I couldn’t really explain at the time. Since then, I think I’ve figured it out:

This was the first true next-generation game – the first game to make me a believer in the next major stage in game design – and seeing it come to a close is a little sobering. Sure, Epic is bound to make a new game in the Gears universe sooner or later, but I can’t help but feel like this is something of a swan song for the Xbox 360, even if the next console hasn’t yet been announced. I’m sure great things are on the horizon, but as far as games go, finishing Gears of War 3 felt very much like I was finishing a major chapter in gaming.

We don’t hand out review scores at Silicon Sasquatch, but given how brilliant a job Epic has done in concluding the Gears of War series, I’m going to skirt around tradition and award Gears of War 3 a record-breaking ten out of ten shitloads.

Well done, Epic. Thanks for pushing the status quo so far ahead and for building something truly great.

*Including me.

Welcome to the Japanese countryside! There are video games here, you just have to squint really hard to find them.

Whenever I’ve moved, one of the last things to get packed up has been my gaming console. Of course, my console has also often been the first thing unpacked once I’ve gotten moved in. Funny how that works. But this time, after moving to Japan in early August, all I’ve played since are iPhone games – until last weekend, I hadn’t picked up a real controller since arriving in the land of Nintendo and Sony.

What the hell happened? Well, a perfect storm of things for me, at least.

First: I didn’t want to bring my Xbox 360 with me to Japan. It’s old, is bound to break (again), and is region-locked. Most importantly, though, I would either have to pack it into my slim luggage allowance or ship it over separately, and neither are worth the trouble. Sometimes you have to be an adult and bring clothing, especially when there’s little chance to buy new threads. Okay, I did bring my Nintendo DS, but it’s now gathering Japanese dust instead of gathering American dust. I’ve got the itch to play games; what to do?

But I can wait. Maybe. I’ve gone two months without playing a game – and longer without playing anything new, frankly – and can afford to wait because real life and the gaming release schedule have allowed me to. I’m too busy getting out of the house and visiting my new friends to spend too much time playing games at the moment, which is good, because there haven’t been a ton of AAA titles coming out this summer. I bemoaned the lack of a year-round release schedule earlier in the year, but I’m quite glad for the break at the moment.

Soon the weather will turn nasty and, as a friend here in Japan said, people will begin to “hide under their kotatsu.” Unlike the U.S., most places in Japan aren’t centrally heated and have very poor insulation, which means you wear lots of sweaters indoors and a kotatsu, a table with a heated blanket. In short, people don’t want to head out and be social; perfect time to catch up on video games, then!

Postscript to the story? Last weekend was my birthday. With enough money and free time on the weekend to go buy a PS3, I broke down and picked one up — a 320 gb model, which now sits happily next to my TV and wireless router. It’s now set up to stream media from my computer, access my U.S. Netflix account, and make use of the Silicon Sasquatch staff PSN share. And I bought a pretty kick-ass game to go along with the system, too, one that I’m excited to write about soon.

After the long break, it’s good to be back.

I still don’t get Catherine. Even after a few solid hours spent learning the ropes of Atlus’ bizarre hodgepodge puzzle and dating-sim gameplay (think Q*Bert meets Tokimeki Memorial), I’m still unsure if this is a game I like. I’m compelled to keep playing, though, and that’s a success as far as I’m concerned.

But it’s not the puzzle-game aspects that have me hooked. The block-moving, tower-climbing action sequences that define the “game” part of Catherine are perfectly fine — controls are tight, difficulty ramps up at a good clip, pacing is appropriate — but to me, they’re just filler. The real fun of Catherine comes from the story that unfolds as you delve deeper into protagonist Vincent’s sordid love life. The choices you make through him are surprisingly revealing — not about Vincent, of course, but about you and everyone else who plays.

The first feature that stood out to me was the inclusion of a “would you rather?” minigame at the pinnacle of each climbing sequence. You’ll enter what resembles a church confessional and be presented with a question related to relationships and ethics, such as “Is marriage where life begins or where life ends?” It’s a loaded question, and the game is intentionally ambiguous about who the player is supposed to answer for: Am I speaking for the Vincent I intend to play, or am I personally casting my vote? Once you’ve made your choice, you’ll be able to see a pie-chart breakdown of how all other players voted. It’s reminiscent of L.A. Noire’s inclusion of social support features for its tricky interview sequences, where you can narrow down your choices by seeing how other players chose to answer and make your decision based on that. In this case, it’s a fun way to see how people feel about some relevant and sometimes-controversial questions we all face in life. But thanks to the anonymity we’re given through Catherine and the assumption that, well, it’s only a game, I’ve already seen some pretty interesting statistics.

When not climbing tower after tower, you’ll spend a lot of time in Catherine at your favorite bar, The Stray Sheep. In perhaps the most accurate depiction of the dive-bar experience yet conceived in a game, you’ll divide your time up between your bored-looking friends, the various other regulars, the lone arcade machine and — of course — your cell phone.

There’s a clever mechanic in the game where you’ll receive a text from somebody and have to compose a response. You’ll be able to cycle through options for each sentence until you’ve got a message that best expresses what you want to say. Maybe this is the sort of malady that only affects neurotic writers, but I found this design mechanic simultaneously brilliant and unnervingly similar to my own life. I’ll agonize over a text before sending it: Is the phrasing okay? Too many words? Is “love” too strong a word to use when asked if I’d like to go get some pizza? Catherine brilliantly captures this unique problem of modern communication. That’s not to say the impact of your choices seems all that revolutionary; as far as I can tell, Vincent’s actions only affect a binary good-or-evil morality meter, which just seems outdated to me in an era when we have the resources and technology to build games where the player’s choices can stray into ethical gray areas.

So far, the majority of those texts have been coming from Katherine, Vincent’s doting, long-time girlfriend. She’s not-so-subtly pushing for Vincent to face up to his fleeting mortality — dude’s in his thirties, after all — and settle down with her. And why wouldn’t he want to? They seem to get along fine, and she’s pretty, and…y’know. She’s that archetypal desirable-yet-undesired female.

The object of Vincent’s desire — or maybe lust would be more accurate — is Catherine. Katherine with a C. Which is to say that she’s exactly like Katherine except for those ways that she’s a polar opposite. Catherine is a decade younger than Vincent, flirtatious, bubbly and fun-loving. I’m only maybe a quarter through the game at this point, but if I had to hazard a guess I’d say she represents the fleeting temptations of youth. Katherine is the stolid, career-oriented rock in Vincent’s world, and Catherine is a youthful, spirited force of change.

It’s a dichotomy anyone can relate to once they’ve hit a certain age. At least, I know it resonates pretty deeply with me. I picked up and moved far away from the life I’d always had a few months ago, and ever since then I’ve been considering the what-ifs of that life I could have kept living. I’m currently leaning more towards the “responsible adult” end of the spectrum, with an engaging full-time job and this notion of a career-focused life starting to bubble up. But when I think about the pseudo-bohemian lifestyle I could have had in Portland, I have to wonder: What would I be like if I’d stayed?

But one question that has never faced gamers before will be an issue when looking at upgrading from one console to the next this go-around: What is going to happen to all the content I have on my current system?

This is the digital era. I have 85 gb of content stored to my Xbox 360′s hard drive and, while much of that is game installs, the rest is made up of the “arcade” games available on Xbox Live Arcade and PSN, downloadable add-on content for games, and digital downloads of full retail games. Some of the downloaded games also have their own DLC, which strikes me as a real through-the-looking-glass sort of moment.

Full copies of games you'd otherwise purchase at retail are available both on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. What happens with the next generation of systems, though?

These are games I’ve bought and, in the case of the digital versions of games also sold at retail, are indistinguishable from hard copies. Yet I’m worried. I’m worried that these games could be completely worthless or, at the least, feature-handicapped in the future should Microsoft (or Sony for PSN) decide to flip a switch and shut off some servers. In the case of the Xbox 360, though the detachable hard drive means it’s possible to take your content on the go, you can only make use of DLC and full versions of games if they’re authenticated by Xbox Live; if I want to take my hard drive to a friend’s and make use of my Rock Band library, their 360 must be plugged in.

The authentication and access to games isn’t just a worry in cases like that, but for more practical reasons as well. The 360 has proven itself to be a bit fragile; my current 360 is my fifth, and I’m hardly an edge case. If you suffer a Red Ring of Death or any other kind of 360-killing malady, you have to migrate your account from the old console to the new one’s serial number. While it’s an annoyance during the 360′s life span, what happens in another five years? If your old NES or Genesis or even PlayStation 2 died, you just buy a new one; the games were kept within a physical medium and plug right in without a problem. But what happens in five or 10 years when my 360 inevitably dies again and I have to track down a replacement? Will Xbox Live still allow me to do what it does now in 2011?

While content on the current console is a question, what about taking content on to the next generation? Though few games had DLC on the original Xbox, you could previously download it on the 360; now, though, since the original Xbox’s Xbox Live servers have gone offline, it’s left you high and dry. While I doubt people will want to buy new content, even for Xbox 360 games in the far-flung future, what about retrieving what you’ve already purchased? Plus, as established, content delivery digitally is a much bigger deal this generation; that will be important to keep in mind, but it’s still Microsoft or Sony’s ball to take and go home with.

I’ll admit it’s all speculation and worry at this point, but admit it: a best-case scenario where everything still works, like in PC gaming, is probably a pipe dream. This is the point where I shake my fists at PC gamers sitting up in the cloud on Steam at this moment. But this is an issue that will be wider than gaming within the next 10 years; seeing the gaming industry’s reaction is going to be fascinating and, potentially, vital to digital rights beyond our favorite little corner of the entertainment world.

When was the last time you played an older console game? If it’s been a while, you may have forgotten about some of the headaches brought on by old game designs or technology. While there’s a certain charm to the gameplay and graphics of many older games, there are also definite problems. It’s here that we catalog those changes and remind you why progress is often for the best.

Recently, I fired up the good ol’ Sega Dreamcast. I wanted to throw down with Nick on some Virtua Tennis, but before we could get our serve and backhand action on, I had to do some searching. Yep — I had to find which memory card my Virtua Tennis save was on.

With the implementation of hard drives first on the original Xbox and now on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, the need for memory cards is reduced. And now that Xbox 360 consoles can move files on USB thumb-drives (a capability PS3s already had), there’s zero need for proprietary memory cards — and we are all the better for it.

Having to search through a small stack of memory cards to find the right file is just a pain in the ass. Moreover, in the PlayStation era, memory was an incredibly limited resource; some games would take up entire memory cards with save data. Other games would only allow you to have one save on a memory card, necessitating having multiple cards and swapping them around. Plus, they’re a tiny nightmare: easy to lose, never right where you left them, prone to losing saves and (in the case of Dreamcast VMUs) always whining for batteries. Back when I still gamed on my Dreamcast most often, I would have three or four VMUs plugged in at one time; of course all the batteries were dead (because the VMU batteries lasted about five minutes and were expensive) so I’d be greeted to a chorus of beeps whenever I powered the system on.

A chorus of beeps is almost as annoying as trying to find where the save data is, for those wondering.

Having larger-capacity options built in provides greater options. With even as little as 20 gigabytes of storage, there’s never a need to worry about making space for game saves or patches; plus, with more space available all the time, there’s the possibility of downloading extra content to add on to games or demos to try games. With a hard drive in each PS3 and most Xbox 360s, this means developers have more room to play with — and whether that’s more songs for Rock Band, extra levels in games, or saving photos or other user-created in-game content, we benefit. And with USB thumb drive-based storage capability now in 360s along with PS3s, it’s a large enough chunk of memory to take those saves portably.

Sure, if your hard drive craps out you’re toast. Having more memory means more to lose. But the same has happened with memory cards over the years, and at least hard drives are a damn sight more useful.

I’m not a dedicated football man, but I’m able to put aside my indifference in times like these. Truly, I’m elated that my alma mater is getting the sports recognition it deserves, aside from the obsession with our track-and-field pedigree. Best of all, there’s a good chance that the Ducks’ excessively disgusting uniform changes over the past five years might be forgotten in light of their current top-dog status.

But all this sports talk has nothing to do with video games; unless, if things keep going well, quarterback Darron Thomas is put on the cover of NCAA 2012.

Doug can probably correct me on that presumption, or anything else I’ve written above. In fact, I welcome it. Like I mentioned: no hablo fútbol americano.

Doug:

This is what losing five hours of your life looks like.

Holy shit. We joke often about games being addictive, or compare them to addictive narcotics. Lord knows I’ve felt this way about a number of games, including PES 2010, Words with Friends, and others.

Nothing compares to recently released iPhone game Game Dev Story. The idea is simple: You run a game development studio, managing your employees and the direction of your games. Seems simple, right? It plays kind of like a Tycoon game or any other management simulation game, but with some serious RPG elements — you level up your staff, train them to increase stats, make adjustments to your company’s development direction and buy and use items (including advertising to increase your fan base).

Simple descriptions of the game don’t do it justice. I spent four hours straight Monday morning hooked to the game and tearing through my iPhone battery; I felt like I was in an opium den. Development of games goes so quickly, it can catch you with the “just-one-more-game” factor that all the most addictive video games maintain. Game Dev Story has simple yet catching graphics and music, plucked straight out of the 16-bit generation. Even better is the writing in the game; the 20-year campaign follows the arc of video game history, so you know not to invest in developing games for the Intendro Virtual Kid because it’s probably not going to sell terribly well.

And did I mention it’s addictive? Good lord it’s addictive. You can New Game+ to start with accumulated stats, too. It can become kind of rote, pumping out puzzle games or dating sims to fuel your company’s growth, but the freedom to choose your games and then, eventually, develop your own console creates an amazing little experience. I think this one will be wearing my iPhone battery down for a long while to come.

Nick:

DJ Hero 2 revitalizes the innovative formula from the first game with some much-needed freestyling sections that reward players for busting out fat beats at their own discretion

You’ll forgive me if I keep this short, right? I’m still recovering from a long day of driving, sitting, and yelling. I’m not a legitimate sports fan, but man, bearing witness to the Ducks’ first game as the #1 team in the nation — and getting to see UCLA go down in flames — was awesome.

I played a few great iPhone games this week, including current top-seller Cut the Rope and Trainyard, an independently developed puzzle game. All I’ll say is that they’re each a dollar and totally worth checking out if you own an iOS device. But I wanted to make sure I took the time to discuss another new game in depth in this week’s backlog because I don’t think I’ll end up reviewing it, but I still think it’s important to talk about.

The first DJ Hero did pretty well for an original title with its own plastic peripheral in a time when most people’s closets were already overflowing with discarded Guitar Hero controllers. Being the resident music-game aficionado at the Sasquatch, I picked up a copy soon after its release last fall, not knowing what to expect. But after a few minutes with the game, I was absolutely floored: DJ Hero somehow managed to be a fun and innovative experience in an already oversaturated market. But what was even more shocking to me was that it was published by Activision, the company perhaps most directly responsible for the nosedive into mediocrity and obsolescence that has plagued the Guitar Hero series since Harmonix and RedOctane split ways.

If DJ Hero was as innovative as Guitar Hero (and I’m tempted to say that’s a fair comparison, given that they both have roots in archaic Konami arcade games,) then DJ Hero 2 is the series’ Guitar Hero 2. It features a brilliant and diverse song list and a much-needed revamped user interface that make the experience even more inviting. And the mix-’n-scratch gameplay itself has been redesigned, giving the player more freedom with special freestyle crossfade and scratch sections that allow the player to improvise their own beats on the fly. It’s reminiscent of what Harmonix did with Frequency and Amplitude’s freestyle sections, but the effect is far more impressive when you’re manipulating tracks in a realistic way.

The only major problem is that one of its key features, Empire Mode, falls far short of expectations. Intended to serve as a new and creative approach to the typical music game campaign mode — essentially, to prevent the game from feeling like a linear setlist-crawl — Empire Mode simply takes the same sets of songs and lays them out in a two-dimensional array broken down by individual venues instead of the simple list from DJ Hero. It’s disappointing, especially when you compare it to the relative depth and openness of the Rock Band series’ World Tour mode.

But that said, there’s enough cool stuff happening here that it stands as an acceptable, significantly improved sequel to an already great game. For instance: The first time I plunged into a three-song set, I was shocked to see one mix seamlessly flow into the next with no loading screen and no break in the audio. It felt natural in a way I’d never experienced in a music game before. It’s those little details that FreeStyleGames bring to this series that make it special. This is definitely a series that’s worth a second look even if you passed over the first game.

Aaron:

Let's hope for the sake of our already obese nation that McDonald's doesn't invent an olfactory-hypnotizing fry suit like this one.

This is the lush fall bounty of games I tried, started or beat this week: Uncharted 1 and 2, Heavenly Sword, Costume Quest and Fallout: New Vegas.

The biggest surprise has been Costume Quest, the first attempt by Double Fine at crafting a downloadable console network title. It’s a clever RPG, razor-sharp with wit and charm, which comes as no surprise being from the studio that Tim Schafer built. What makes me love Costume Quest is how accurately it captures the feeling of being a kid on Halloween, when you were so excited to beg door to door for pounds of teeth-rotting, stomach-upsetting candy.

The characters even transform into realistic Godzilla-sized versions of their costumes during the battle sequences, which are a wink and a nod to classic turn-based RPGs. I can’t count how many times I imagined my Ghostbusters, Batman or Dracula costumes made me into the real deal, always ready to ignite, fight or bite the bad guys prowling about on All Hallows’ Eve.

Costume Quest isn’t a difficult game, but it’s an experience that will make almost anyone happy. Collecting candy to purchase ability-enhancing battle stamps, trading grotesque fake candy cards to complete the set, piecing together costume bits to become a unicorn, ninja or the Statue of Liberty — every aspect of this $15 game makes me laugh, smile or reminisce. Costume Quest is more proof that not all games need to be “AAA,” Unreal Engine-powered blockbusters to remind us why we like gaming in the first place. At its best, playing video games lets our imagination free, and can even make us happy while being entertained.

Now bear with me, but I need to make a parting comment or three on the Uncharted series before I close my contribution to this week’s Backlog.

Uncharted and its sequel are amazing games that compound Naughty Dog’s expertise for beautiful level design and tight platforming with savvy, humorous writing and Hollywood summer popcorn flick sensibilities. I beat Uncharted 2: Among Thieves this week. Afterward, I started Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.

I’ve been told that Uncharted 2 was a monumental improvement over the first. Unfortunately, I don’t see it. I’m hard-pressed to even call it evolutionary.

While I’ve enjoyed the hell out of both games, my perspective is unique: I’m playing the original after finishing the sequel — to me, the differences (or lack thereof) are much more noticeable.

The start menu graphics and music are the same — not a big deal, but I still noticed it. The gunplay is a bit more tight in Uncharted 2, and thankfully Sixaxis support was dropped after 1, but my least favorite part of the Uncharted series still feels unnautral. The shooting is too loose, and tells me that Naughty Dog’s attempts at making a satisfying shooting mechanic haven’t improved much since Jak II.

However, the graphics are much better in Uncharted 2, and are perhaps the most notable improvement over the first game. Additionally, both titles’ exploration and platforming elements are still the best reasons to play the Uncharted series.

While I accept that my pickiness regarding two of the most highly rated titles of the last console generation will rub some the wrong way, I’m at least being honest. The difference between Uncharted 1 and 2 is about as drastic, or interesting, as Police Academy and Police Academy 2: You know what you’re getting into, and will enjoy the experiences both have to offer (yes, I do like the Police Academy movies), but arguing that some sequels are unprecedented achievements over the originals is falling into a nostalgia pit.

I have incredibly mixed feelings about Formula 1 2010. On the one hand, this is the first Formula 1-based game on next-gen platforms since Sony’s F1 Championship Edition in 2006. As well, the game does an amazing job painting a portrait of the Formula 1 circus, from the glitz and glamor in the paddock to the thunder and thrills on the track. However, the game has a facade that is too easily broken; compounding the problem is that it feels unfinished in spots.

Reviewer’s Note: We will run an amendment article at a later date, once F1 2010 is patched to address the numerous issues with the game. As it stands right now, it feels unfinished and has numerous frustrating bugs, including one that corrupts save data; when, and how, these are addressed is a major issue surrounding the game right now.

F1 2010 uses interactive menus, placing various game mode options into the "real world" you would see as a Formula 1 driver.

Formula 1 racing is, much like soccer, a sport incredibly well known and followed outside of the United States; 400 million viewers tune in for each of the rounds of the championship, and the series has been run every year since 1950. I’ve watched almost every race since 1997, and know a ton about the history of F1. Considering my love of racing games too, I’m undoubtedly the game’s target audience. Each round in the championship is a carnival, as the racing series’ own video edits of races prove. Codemasters has thus provided a rich tapestry on which to build a virtual world and something of a storyline. Unlike a Forza Motorsport or a Gran Turismo game, each race acts as a piece in a greater narrative, instead of focusing solely on what happens on-track and what car you unlock.

Codemasters has tried to do something very different and innovative with the game’s structure. You’re launched directly into defining your career mode in the form of a press conference, including details like your driver’s name, nationality and how long a career you’re planning. Accessing the other menu options, like single-races, multiplayer modes and other options are done in the paddock next to your career teams’ transporters. If you played Codemasters’ DiRT games this may sound familiar — the large, popped-out text on screen is a style Codies has made their own, but it also helps to make the game feel more like a sports game instead of a Gran Turismo clone. Everything is laid out to make you become a Formula 1 driver, and immerse you in a virtual re-creation of something only 24 people on the planet each year get to experience.

Driving a Formula 1 car is hard enough; driving an F1 car in the rain? Exciting, to say the least.

As a driving game, F1 2010 is very solid. The game engine is an evolution of Codemasters’ previous racers, but with some serious tuning to suit the rigors of Formula 1 — like having 24 cars on the track at once. Driving an F1 car is incredibly difficult in real life, but similar to Forza Motorsport 3, the game tailors each difficulty level with a series of driving aids; these can also be adjusted individually. As a Formula 1 fan, the game manages to capture everything about F1 racing I’d expect — from your team engineer providing information updates and support, to the screaming V8 engines, to the incredible handling and stopping power. As I spend more and more time on the track, I find myself getting quicker because I’m able to push the limits of the car, and that is exactly how a Formula 1 game should behave. It may not be as one-to-one accurate as some PC racing simulators, but F1 2010′s on-track racing strikes an excellent balance — providing the right amount of fear and speed while remaining accessible but not punishing.

The worst of F1 2010's bugs corrupts your save data — and thus your single-player progress — if you advance through the menus wrong after certain circumstances. This has happened to me twice.

However, the game is far from flawless. It could have used another two or three months of development time before it was released; surely Codemasters must have been trying to meet a deadline to release the game in September, with a few rounds of the actual Formula 1 series left to run. I say this for two reasons: One, there are numerous bugs found when playing the game; and two, there is also a real issue of difficulty balance that could use tuning.

First, the bugs. The list of bugs both confirmed and unconfirmed in the game is lengthy. These range from the mildly annoying (AI cars not pitting or pitting too often in races) to the aggravating (the player’s car being unfairly held in the pit lane if you pit on the same lap as the AI) to the soul-crushing (corrupting save data, forcing the player to re-start their career; this has happened twice since I bought the game). While Codemasters is aware of the problems and working on a patch, there’s not a target release date, and many diehard racers I know are avoiding the career mode until the game is patched. While some bugs are only mildly annoying, their sheer abundance points to a title that looks undercooked.

The difficulty curve can be a bit off in the game; a Lotus shouldn't be leading the pack, regardless what's happened behind you.

More grating to me, personally, is the uneven difficulty curve. On the hardest two difficulty levels the AI is brutally fast, your starting car can feel terribly slow (especially the Lotus, Virgin and HRT, though this lack of speed is true to life) and the in-race penalties can feel overly punitive, especially if you’re trying to get to grips with the game’s physics. It’s hard not to be anything but a moving obstacle; moreover, it’s easy to ruin your race. This may be true to life — Formula 1 racing is far from easy — but it feels punishing and masochistic. Aaron and Nick can attest to the level of attention and focus completing a 17-lap race took from me…and that was in an effort where I finished 18th out of 24 cars. Punishment isn’t the only problem; by switching to the mid-pack Sauber-Ferrari and applying setups from this online forum, I can now routinely outpace the AI and win races by 30 seconds.

In short, Formula 1 2010 is long on ideas but falls short in the execution. As a diehard Formula 1 fan who remembers when Williams were good and Ferrari were lovable traditionalists who used V12s, I love the attention to detail that Codemasters has given the game, down to the grid girls in the paddock. However, it feels rushed. I have no doubt that F1 2011 will have solutions to many of the bugs and difficulty issues, but I’m not certain what a patch will be able to fix and when that will happen. When it works, it’s absolutely brilliant and is the Formula 1 game I always wanted, yet too often it stumbles into another bug or issue. I would love to be able to recommend this game to everyone, but without a demo and with so many issues, I can’t do that right now.

Recommended for:

• Console-centric racing game fans looking for a fix ahead of Gran Turismo 5
• Formula 1 fans yearning for a good, modern, accessible F1 game
• Graphics junkies — the in-game graphics are incredible, and the menus are very well done

Not Recommended for:

• Anyone who expects the game to be bug-free as of right now
• Hardcore racing simulator fans who are masters of iRacing or Grand Prix Legends — F1 2010 will not be enough of a simulator for the super-hardcore if you expect it to equate to those games

Formula 1 2010 was developed and published by Codemasters. It is available on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 for $59.99, and on Windows for $39.99 via retail and Steam. The reviewer played the game on multiple difficulty levels in career mode, single-race Grand Prix, Time Trial, and online for approximately 20 hours.

Extra special thanks to Something Awful goons for supplying PC screenshots of bugs and the F1 2010 menu system.

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Bungie and Halo: the story of a studio defined by its most popular product. Because of the series’ success, few could have guessed that another company would ever be in a position to make Halo games. But Bungie has formally stepped away from its massive franchise after a decade and billions of dollars in sales, finally realizing a 2007 announcement that it would become an independent company free of Microsoft’s yoke.

Halo: Reach is the studio’s magnum opus, and it unexpectedly recaptures the feeling of cleverness and ingenuity of Halo: Combat Evolved, when Master Chief was a fresh face in the crowd of first-person shooters.

Noble Six and Jun ponder for a moment in the darkness

The Halo series is seen as having a unique fan base – one that’s easy to joke about. The general perception of a Halo player is of a pimple-faced “he,” a male who’s no older than 13 and speaks with a racist and homophobic world view.

That’s how I’ve regarded Halo up until now: ironically defined by stereotyping a unnamed mass of tween and teenaged bigots. In finishing Reach I’ve had to face the realization that, for the past six years, – since Halo 2 and the original Xbox Live platform allowed gamers to go head-to-head online in anonymity – I’ve been judging the series by its largely made-up audience, a demographic that exists but certainly doesn’t define every player of Halo. The events of Halo 2 and 3 also contributed to my indifference toward the series, a pair of games that did little more than dilute Master Chief into fighting uglier aliens for duty’s sake, making friends with the Elites and saving Cortana from an ancient and psychic Flood-king. It’s all been absolute science fiction schlock.

Not until Reach have I ever respected a Halo title. Bungie has crafted an experience that fills in the gaping holes of all the non-ODST Halo titles up until now by writing a mature and subtle story depicting the fall of the planet Reach.

More games need to look like this — sweepingly epic, and colorful

The reason Reach is a mature Halo adventure is its use of undercurrents. I’m referring to the use of plot threads and scene-setting techniques that show rather than tell. Sweeping vistas fill the screen throughout the different regions of Reach; each one is unexpectedly gorgeous, distinct and painterly. The use of such complex skyboxes ingrains a sense of tension for Noble Team. When you witness the burning skyline of Reach’s capital city you will rightfully feel as though you’re fighting on an alien world against a well-organized invading force that’s winning the war, battle by battle in the manner of a film documentary. Halo: Reach is cinéma vérité with plasma cannons.

And while Bungie hasn’t penned a complex plot for Reach, what’s there is charming in its simplicity and affecting in its somber tone. After hidden Covenant invasion forces are discovered on Reach by Noble Team, an all-encompassing attempt to defend, then evacuate, humanity’s second home ensues. In the end the UNSC forces fail, which shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who’s played the other Halo games. Yet what makes Reach great is its expertly paced progression toward such a bleak outcome, and how Noble Team directly influences the outcome of the entire Halo universe.

By the end of the game I was convinced that Noble Team would succeed and save the day, despite knowing the opposite was true. Bungie presents its missions in a way that engenders slivers of optimism – that if I pulled off this last-ditch objective, Noble Team could rescue enough humans before Reach is blasted into a wasteland. Whether I was dog fighting with Banshees in space or piloting an attack helicopter high above the streets in the best sequence of the entire game, Halo: Reach almost always made me feel like I was having fun. In these moments the game transcends a typical Halo affair and offers glimpses into what Bungie is capable of creating in its future endeavors.

The faces of Noble Team: Dependable, but forgettable

For such a well-scripted experience, it’s unfortunate that the characters of Noble Team aren’t noteworthy. They’re presented as bland pastiches of other film and game heroes. There’s the silent sniper, the brooding brute, the reticent rookie and the consummate commander. Kat, the first prevalent female Spartan to my knowledge, is a mighty-tough member of Noble Team, and perhaps the best archetype introduced to the Halo universe since Cortana. She doesn’t say much but she loves taking control, which speaks volumes to her character. And that’s Reach, simply put: It doesn’t have to be vocal to say a lot about itself. A fantastic game in its own right and the best Halo game I’ve ever played, it never tries too hard to be anything more than an appropriate goodbye to millions of fans worldwide.

Despite its change in attitude, Reach is still Halo. Elites will still fly.

If comments from Microsoft are to be believed, new Halo titles will be on store shelves faster than ever. I’d be surprised if any Halo players unversed in the industry’s politics will notice a difference between a Bungie Halo and a Halo from 343 Industries, the development team exclusively formed to develop the future of the brand.

However, this game is not a melancholy passing-of-the-torch affair. Halo: Reach manages to, as the culmination of dedication to a single idea for so many years, surpass all the previous incarnations of Halo. I had the best Halo experience imaginable with Reach despite attempts to remain skeptical throughout the campaign.

How bittersweet is it for Bungie, a developer that has come a long way since Marathon and Myth, to create its greatest game ever at the end an important era for video games?

Recommended for:

• Halo fans, obviously
• Gamers who have shied away from previous Halo games; Reach has more in common with BioShock than Call of Duty
• More mature players who recognize the importance of atmosphere over trite plot and gameplay gimmicks

Not Recommended for:

• Those (very few but loud) 13-year-old bigots — go away, please

Halo: Reach was developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft. The game retails for $59.99, and is exclusive to the Xbox 360. The reviewer purchased the game himself, and played through the campaign in its entirety in co-op on normal difficulty, and also completed numerous missions on legendary difficulty. He played a lot of Firefight and didn’t do too bad in Matchmaking Multiplayer. His Spartan is colored turquoise and brown, which he thinks is an awesome (and overlooked) color combination.

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Another year is nearing its inevitable end, and we couldn’t be any happier about it. Although 2010 has already played host to a plethora of amazing and potentially award-winning video games, it’s not quite time to start hedging bets for the game of the year. Read on for our staff’s own list of noteworthy releases that you should be excited for.

Sid Meier’s Civilization V

September 21st — Windows

I’m a late bloomer when it comes to strategy games, and it pains me that it took me so long to understand what makes the Civilization series one of the most cherished in the history of video games. Even though I’ve had a variety of friends bursting to tell me all about their fantastic strategies and the hilarious anachronisms that have arisen in the matches they’ve played across the entire series, it took an iPhone port of Civilization Revolution to offer me a gentle enough learning curve to work up the confidence to take on the “real” series. A couple dozen hours later, and I think it’s safe to say that I’m a Civ 4 devotee.

But with some clever gameplay tweaks and some borrowed lessons from both Civ 4 and Revolution, Civ 5 looks like it’ll offer the best of both worlds: the depth and scale of classic Civ with the accessibility and streamlining of Revolution. Add in full Steam support and you’ve got a veritable crisis waiting to happen for law students, newlyweds, and anybody with the faintest hope of maintaining a regular sleep schedule. — Nick Cummings

Formula 1 2010

September 22nd — 360/PS3/Windows

This is a game that will probably not receive much hype in the United States. Developed by Codemasters and built on the engine that powers its other racing franchise, Dirt, this is the first Formula 1 game for Xbox 360 and the first for PS3 since 2007. Videos and preview coverage from Gamescom in Germany lead me to believe this will be a fast, fun and gorgeous title.

More importantly for fans of racing games it promises to do something more interesting with its career structure. The off-track politics, rumor mills and movements in real Formula 1 are almost as interesting as the on-track racing; Codemasters has tried to reproduce that for F1 2010. You start at a lower team, trying to meet low team standards — you’re not expected to win with the worst car on the grid — and advance from there. If you make it into a top team, you’ll then be expected to challenge for race wins and the championship. If the handling engine lives up to the promise, this could be the best racer since Forza 3. — Doug Bonham

NBA Elite 11

October 5th — 360/PS3

The sarcastic answer to the question of “Why NBA Elite 11, Doug?” would be, “Because it’s how I can play NBA Jam on next-gen consoles.” And that’s partially true — NBA Jam promises to be an excellent remake of one of my favorite sports games of all time, with nice graphical and roster updates. I’m sure it will become a multiplayer favorite soon enough.

However, that doesn’t take away from what Elite can become. This is the third EA Sports franchise to undergo a hard reboot in recent years, and the other two (NHL and FIFA) have become the high-water mark for their respective sports. Elite also happens to be developed by EA Vancouver, who is responsible for those other two series, and also features the producer who led the NHL revamp. I know that I play the hell out of sports games with franchise modes, and in a fall heavy on games but light on budget, if NBA Elite turns out well, I’ll get my money’s value — even before Jam is factored in. — Doug Bonham

Comic Jumper: The Adventures of Captain Smiley

October 6th — Xbox Live Arcade

Having made a name for itself with popular downloadable games like The Maw and ‘Splosion Man, Twisted Pixel is set to release its third original game — “original” being the key word in that phrase. Perhaps better than any other small developer, Twisted Pixel has infused more character and humor into its ten-dollar downloadable games than can be found in most big blockbuster titles. With Comic Jumper, Twisted Pixel seems determined to raise its bar for absurd hilarity to dizzying new heights.

The game stars Captain Smiley and his sidekick, a star-shaped thing embedded in his chest (who happens to be named Star). They’re tasked with battling the good captain’s arch-nemesis, Brad, across several iconic comic book styles, including the Silver Age, manga, fantasy and modern. Based on the short time I had with it at PAX, it seems like the Twisted Pixel folks are still thoroughly out of their minds — and that can only mean good things for their games. — Nick Cummings

Fallout: New Vegas

October 19th — 360/PS3/Windows

Fallout 3 was a revelation. Bethesda absolutely nailed the classic series’ transition from isometric 2D to awe-inspiring 3D. A game I spent a combined 150 hours playing across multiple characters says something of the quality of development. New Vegas may have been handed over to Obsidian, a studio with a spotty track record of delivering stable and worthwhile software, but it has Bethesda peering over its shoulder to (hopefully) keep the best parts of Fallout 3 alive in this full-fledged follow up. Don’t get me wrong: I thought Obsidian’s work on Knights of the Old Republic II was fantastic — the arguably better storyline made its mark and showed the team’s writing chops — and I can’t deny the positive critical reception of Neverwinter Nights 2 and its bevy of expansions. I’m only worried for the next installment of one of the best titles to come out this generation.

However, New Vegas has a lot going for it; be it the vivid neon Nevada landscape, the improved companion AI and significant gameplay additions like iron sight aiming and political affiliations with three different area factions. Considering I would have kept opening my wallet for extra Fallout 3 DLC until Fallout 4, I’ll go ahead and place my bets and take a chance on Fallout: New Vegas.

Now say it with me: Big money, no whammies. — Aaron Thayer

Fable III

October 26th — 360/Windows

Peter Molyneux, the head of Lionhead Studios and the lead designer for the Fable series, is nothing if not enthusiastic about his games. While many gamers had reason to chide Molyneux’s over-optimism after the first Fable, 2008’s Fable II was a different story. It might not have been perfect, but Fable II had a solid story and combat, and provided players with many ways to engage the game’s world.

Most importantly, though, it was incredibly fun and had very well-designed emotional moments. Fable III’s concept of rising to power, overthrowing the government and then having to deliver on promises is incredibly novel, and it also looks to provide more of the challenging aspects that made Fable II memorable. It may not provide the emotional impact that Molyneux is promising, but I’m looking forward to seeing how close the final game is to Molyneux’s pie-in-the-sky vision. — Doug Bonham

I don’t understand why a vocal minority of gamers has been allowed to cast such a dark pall over the entire Fable series. Some people are just incapable of looking past Molyneux’s boasts to accept the core product for what it has always been: inventive, imaginative and interactive. Countless designers make overblown claims about their projects, but sitting at the top of this entitled-gamer negativity pile is the work of Peter Molyneux. Oh well: I don’t buy into it. Unfounded criticism won’t, for me at least, detract from the great likelihood that the third Fable title will be a substantial improvement over the last one — and you can quote me on that.

If the Lionhead team was capable of making me care about a virtual canine in 2008, I can only salivate at what they will do in 2010 with an entire royal hierarchy and political undercurrent at my fingertips. With additional polish seen in the improved graphics, tweaked combat, an upgraded dog companion and a less-cluttered menu interface, a throng of issues keeping Fable from becoming an even more exciting experience have been handled. Honestly, I’m so eager that common economic sense has failed; Fable III might just be the one special edition package I purchase this year. — Aaron Thayer

Rock Band 3 & Dance Central

October 26th (RB3), November 4th (Dance Central) — 360/DS/PS3/Wii (RB3), 360 with Kinect (Dance Central)

Harmonix is serving up a double-header of games this fall, beginning with what might be the closest a game can get to simulating a real-life band experience. Rock Band 3 is bringing a bajillion small tweaks to the formula I’m so intimately familiar with, but the biggest changes have to do with the new instrument lineup. For the first time, keyboards will be playable thanks to a new keytar-like peripheral. But that wouldn’t be exciting if it weren’t for the addition of the game’s pro modes. Essentially, the pro modes attempt to bring the game as close as possible to playing real instruments by differentiating between tom and cymbal hits on the drums, mapping out a full two octaves of playable notes on the keyboard, and even integrating support for a real Squier guitar as a controller. And with the option to plug in any MIDI-compatible instruments you might have on hand, the lines between game and actual music practice really begin to blur.

But as much as Rock Band 3 is about refining an established concept, Dance Central appears to be all about introducing a brand-new one. By accurately tracking a player’s movements and limb positions, Dance Central is designed to get anybody dancing — provided they have the guts to step up and give it a shot. A highly intuitive interface helps the player to visualize dance moves quickly, and by highlighting body parts that aren’t matching the current step, it also allows for fast and easy self-correction in my experience. It seems like a surefire hit for parties, but whether it’ll be enough to sell Kinect to the skeptics remains to be seen. — Nick Cummings

LittleBigPlanet 2

November 16th — PS3

To be honest, the first LittleBigPlanet bored me. I didn’t have a great time because I was thrown into the hectic four-person multiplayer with no previous training, and I had to cope with what I still feel is an awkward use of physics-based jumping. A platformer that can’t jump well isn’t much of a platformer at all.

But I’m no curmudgeon: Charm exudes from Media Molecule’s brainchild — it’s cute and cuddly, but it also encourages cunning and cutthroat co-operative play. This is what I’d call a “smart” game. If players use their brains and imagination, an entirely new world will open up to them. The “Play, Create, Share” tagline is a marketing tool, sure, but it’s also a real concept, and LittleBigPlanet 2 is evolving the already impressive design tools present in the first to embolden the control available to creative types.

As a new PlayStation 3 owner, it behooves me to support exclusive titles that go beyond the requisite elements of more blood, more violence and more banality. Looks like I’ll have to shell-out some cash for more controllers. — Aaron Thayer

Developers have come a long way since the abysmal, early dark ages of downloadable content. What started with overpriced horse armor has evolved into a product that can defy typical classification.

Is Case Zero a demo for Dead Rising 2? Yes. Is it a prelude DLC package that adds to the full game with character development and carry-over bonuses for the final retail product? Certainly. To the great chagrin of forum-goers and blog posters, Dead Rising 2: Case Zero is but the tip of the iceberg for the industry, and I couldn’t be more pleased with the idea.

Welcome to the future of videogame demos. I hope the critics have developed adequate coping mechanisms.

From the looks of it, Chuck doesn't slow his truck down in school zones

Let me slow the hype train down a little bit now that you’re paying attention. Case Zero was a significant risk for Capcom and Blue Castle Games, the developer of Dead Rising 2. Gamers can act like an entitled bunch, and time after time the community’s bratty attitude coalesces when companies test the waters for the sake of higher profits. Even I was skeptical after the news broke that Dead Rising 2 wasn’t receiving a traditional demo; instead, the Xbox Live marketplace was going to play host to an exclusive campaign prior to the events of Dead Rising 2, and it would cost 400 Microsoft Points ($5).

It had finally happened: Some suit in a boardroom mustered the gall to charge console owners for a demo of an unproven product. I sympathized with the initial disdain, and it wouldn’t be until I played the trial of a so-called demo that my mind was changed.

Case Zero manages to succeed under an enormous amount of scrutiny. Every second the game is working to prove Capcom’s experiment on several levels: it persuades gamers to buy Dead Rising 2; it demonstrates that $5 is a legitimate price for downloadable content that many will consider superfluous; and it serves as a well-funded study that developers can analyze to decide if paid demos might become a viable business strategy. Despite its limited scope, Case Zero does an admirable job of converting skepticism into belief.

Chuck Greene fights for his life to keep the last remaining Justin Bieber concert ticket from rabid fans

The three-hour plot is extremely basic. A stripped-down small town on the outskirts of Las Vegas serves as the focal point for players’ introduction to Chuck Greene, a badass motocross racer with an infected daughter and little patience for the undead. The game is still Dead Rising, but it plays better than before. Melee hits connect the way you expect them to, and firing guns isn’t something to avoid in the sequel — it’s actually fun.

I was surprised to find that I don’t miss the original game’s photography element. Frank West, as fantastic as he was, won’t be missed (although he has covered wars [y'know]). Combining weapons in ways that would make Tim “The Tool-Man” Taylor blush is a better gimmick for the series than picture-taking. A handful of combo cards — playing card parodies that show which items are required to make a weapon — are available to collect, and the amount of demented weaponry in Case Zero alone makes me eager to see the full game’s arsenal.

However, there are still survivors to rescue and countdown timers to obsess over. I hoped the developers would alter or remove these aspects from the sequel, but it doesn’t appear that way. At least the survivors display a modicum of intelligence this time: during three playthroughs of the game, I rarely had a survivor get stopped and chewed on by a zombie — they will actually weave in-and-out of crowds and kill with their weapons.

How progressive of you, Capcom!

Everything people love or hate about the Dead Rising series is present in Case Zero; the zombie bees, the bowling ball kills, the day-to-day survival, the painful dialogue, the leveling system and the lack of a run button. Once again this is a game that will be as fun as people make it, an interesting concept that encourages players to craft a unique experience from numerous separate ingredients. I won’t say that Case Zero signifies a drastic change to the series that some will have wanted, but for me it proves Blue Castle Games has done an acceptable job of maintaining the spirit of Dead Rising while gussying up a few of its most glaring blemishes.

But I’m not really reviewing the game, am I? I’m reviewing the concept Case Zero is trailblazing.

So, this is my case for Dead Rising 2: Case Zero. Buy it. We gamers should encourage these types of projects, even if we have to pay for them. Where’s the harm in funding the development community to craft worthwhile demonstrations of upcoming games? I’d rather fork over $5 than waste $60.

Recommended for:

• Hesitant gamers not sure what to make of Dead Rising 2
• Series fans salivating for more wacky zombie mayhem
• Anyone with 400 Microsoft Points stagnating in their account: Even if you don’t want to get Dead Rising 2, Case Zero will provide hours of cheap entertainment

Not Recommended for:

• Dead Rising nay-sayers
• Those who prefer their action titles to have fluid controls — Case Zero is reminiscent of early Resident Evil titles’ blocky movements
• If micromanaging survivors, medicine for your daughter, weapon crafting, door-unlocking and item hunting in a limited time frame makes you anxious

Dead Rising 2: Case Zero is available for a suggested retail price of 400  ($5) exclusively in the Xbox Live Arcade marketplace. The reviewer purchased the game himself and beat its story mode thrice before writing this review. He never put Chuck in a dress, if it matters.

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